out and about
This was originally written on 12.01.2002
A late night of Mariokart and sober onlooking of drunken antics left me pretty tired and I slept in until 10. I worked on entering some class notes into the computer and then went to fix some breakfast. When I entered the common room, Iain was there. He mentioned that he was headed for the local skate shop and asked if I wanted to go along. Of course I did, so after watching “The Family Guy” and playing a few more games of Mariokart, we went out. It was pretty cool to see some other parts of the center city that I wasn’t familiar with. As we passed Bristo square, the throngs of skate kids made me think that it would be a good day for a skate. Iain agreed, and we headed on to the skate shop, stopping first at Avalanche, one of a chain of
independent record stores in Edinburgh. There are like 5 of these stores in a very small geographic area. The Edinburgh kids are quite lucky. Though some American staples are un-represented, there was still a really decent selection of independent, punk, emo, and hardcore records. We went to the board shop which had a ton of snowboard and skateboard gear and apparel. Unfortunately, I’m flat broke so I couldn’t partake. After that, Iain took me to a street which he dubbed “Nu-metal Alley”. The moniker was pretty appropriate with young kids decked out in baggy jeans with stripes, piercing, and backwards red caps everywhere. In some ways, it’s sad, but in other ways, it’s cool. Edinburgh seems to have tons of places where kids can just hang out, unaccosted. That’s rad. I wish I could have just run around the city when I was younger rather than roaming surreptitiously from skate spot to skate spot or chilling outside of the Uni Mart or Taco Bell. “Nu-metal Alley” had a bunch of shops including a cheesy skate shop, a metal/goth apparel store, a slightly more mainstream record store, and a really cool and pretty inexpensive poster store. Edinburgh doesn’t have the best live music scene but the shopping can’t be beat. Why am I cooler than Tim and Peter? Well, I have a Weezer poster drawn by none other than Adrian Tomine (of Optic Nerve fame). It was growing late, and the light was fading, as is common around 3:30 in these northern parts of the hemisphere. I convinced Iain to come for a skate, despite his protests about an essay due on Monday. When we got there, it was packed with kids. A couple of really talented kids, and a ton of lurkers. It was like a crowded skate park-completely impossible to get a line. It was too much for Iain to deal with all the kids, but I took a few runs. On the way home from the square, I ran into Timothy, the kid I met at the orientation a week ago. He gave me his new phone number and I told him I’d give him a call about going to see Cave-In in Glasgow on Monday. I love running into kids on the street! There’s no better way to feel like you actually live somewhere. The day was made complete when Iain offered to give me his spare mobile phone for the duration of my stay here. All I had to do was pay for the phone cards (evidently pay-as-you-go, or pre-pay as it’s called in the states is pretty common here). Awesome! What a guy! So, I’m starting, albeit slowly, to ascend from luddite hell.