Diary - St. Louis

Friday 12/18 

St. Louis, Missouri

Busking

Since it's Friday, lots of people shopping, things get hectic so I wanted to be considerate. And last time asking had good results, so I talked to the store managers before playing flute in their parking lot.

Tennessee people were real, and talking to them was safe without contraceptive. But St. Louis people 'round here seem pretty fake.

Costco

Costco store manager and vice-manager go: we would like to let you play, but then we'd have to let everyone else too. Hey buddy, I am everyone else. Just say you don't want me to play, don't act like oh it would be alright if we let you play, but we want to prevent everyone else from playing.

That's not even an actual reason for not letting me play. Because the subsequent question they don't answer is, OK, so why can't everyone else play either? They'd have some additional bullshit answer, without telling me any actual rule the company has against playing music.

Shopping mall

Talked to a Mall manager out of curiosity. He said I'd have to get approval from marketing, and asked when did I want to play. I said now. He said they'd have to go through that in advance and approve it. I was like okay that's fine, it doesn't sound practical so I won't play music today, and I was getting ready to go. 

But before I could break the conversation this guy gave me some bullshit about mall has to pay anytime someone plays music inside. I was like, wait a minute... I was about to walk away then you talked down to me like I would cost the mall money if I played my flute and that's why I can't play... I'm fine with you saying no. But don't give me a phony ass excuse.

He's like this isn't new, it's been going on for years it's the way it works. Copyrighted music, yes of course, I'm not a fucking idiot. So I ask what about music that's public domain? I'm fine with you telling me there's a process to go through to get that approved and marketing division red tape has to do that. But don't say stupid shit to me like, hey son, don't you realize the mall would have to pay money to let you play?

I was like, classical music the composer has been dead for 300 years, who do you pay for that? Traditional music with no composer, who do you pay for that? He insisted someone would need to be paid. So I asked him what if I play my own music, who do you pay? And he said, well you didn't say it was your original music, you just said music. Yeah no shit, you didn't ask. Why would I tell you which songs I'm playing without you asking? You just looked at me, assumed some shit about me, and felt like taking a jab at me before I left, fucking douche.

Traffic

This mall has no public WiFi, so I'm just stealing electricity at the food court. I can't leave this place because traffic outside is horrendous. From 2:45 to 4:45, I been trapped in the area because of traffic. It's 5:30 and I don't expect traffic to get any better for several hours.

Goodwill

The wind was strong today. My fingers froze while I played flute out at the park. It was 33 degrees, so I needed a pair of gloves for next time I play.

I got a pair of gloves with a ten finger discount from Goodwill, because the gloves were unpriced, detached, and only survived the toss bin because they got velcroed onto another pair of gloves. They were soft black cotton made in china with no realistic value. I just put them on and walked out of the store instead of waiting the slow cashier line, making the staff figure out a bogus price, and possibly get charged some stupid price for a pair of 5 cent gloves.

Gateway to the West

I drove up to the Arch in downtown around 9pm. I didn't get out and walk under it, because I had a bad experience driving around there. Don't ever drive into this landing area at the bottom of a hill. There are cobblestone paths the entire way that have been so warped, it's like driving across stone bubble wrap. Google maps wasn't helping with its directions either.

Google Maps, how I do this?
Drive on a road toward itself?
What means?

My car barely went 1 mph, and my wheels were bouncing up, down, left, right like a popcorn maker. It would almost be cool, if there were signs warning you before you got at the bottom of the hill and the driving experience wasn't so terrible.

Also, how do you build a stone cobble street so damn poorly that it can't stay straight, fuck. The Russians and Chinese can build cobble paths that stay straight after a hundred years, St. Louisians are just fail.

Billboard signs

There were billboard signs for Chuck's Boots everywhere around St. Louis. They had these beautiful leggy model babes pose in ugly boring boots. After seeing the fifth one, I was sold on checking out the ladies - I mean store... but none of the billboards told me where the store was located.

Stolen image courtesy of DuckDuckGo search

It can't be that common that I should know where it is, right? I mean, even McDonald's billboards tell you where to exit. I think this guy named Chuck just bought a lot of billboards without thinking about where they would be placed and how to post directions.

I actually did glimpse a Chuck's Boots across the highway, as I pulled out of a parking lot and thought, that dumb sumofabitch Chuck was right, I did find his store somehow, even without directions!