Object of My Distraction

A friend of mine recently commented on my penchant or should I say tendency to review the pop culture forum. Sadly I am a sucker for this and probably commit way to much brain usage to this, but it also allows me to be quite observant regarding the world around me.

I've used this to get me around a new city by recalling buildings or businesses that are there. Over time I do know the street names, but I always begin with the lay of the land if you will.

Yesterday my parents and I decided to go downtown. The destination was originally to take them to Marshall Fields on state Street as it is soon to become obsolete. Macy's acquired Fields and has plans to convert the department store into Macy's. On a side note, they have purchased Kaufmanns on the East Coast where my parents live.

As I recall we learned about monopolies in history class and from what I can see many a business seems to be heading in that direction.

Regardless, we parked their car quite some distance from this destination. They are used to being able to park on the street without meters or permits and finding this in Chicago is not an easy task. So Fields on State wasn't going to happen.

We did however go to the Fields store on Michigan Avenue. This indoor mall reminded me of a mall I had been to with my parents when they first took me to Washington DC as a teenager. My dad was working for a company called National Chemsearch that provided local businesses with a line of maintenance and chemical cleaning agents. We had our very own Love Canal full of these areosol cans in a tan colored locker in the basement that my mother was forever wanting to get rid of.

Anyhow, one of the retailers at Water Tower is Abecrombie and Fitch. At one time in my life I was employed by them. I have a black and white of three shirtless guys wrestling a basketball on one of the walls in my apartment which I refer to as "my boys". I equated working there as being one of the pretty people. Sad I know, but they were new to the Buffalo market and as a young gay man, who doesn't want to be working for the Abercrombie machine?

At the entrance of the Water Tower store was a nubile young man positioned in front of an enormous black and white photograph of two giant buffed man-chests. I wanted to laugh. I mean this guy was standing there shirtless with a pair of shorts that sat low enough on his hips to mimic their "branding". I also felt as though I was leering a bit seeing this.

But such is the way of the world. I explained to my father that I felt their success was connected to the psyche of being popular. Whether gay or straight, we see marketing and portrayals on a daily basis that dull our senses and tell us that we need to be, do, have to keep up with the Joneses.

I remember meeting their CEO Mike Jeffries when we opened the Galleria Store. I was later told it was one of his least favorite, as he made no bones about the odd layout of the store or if someone was not what he considered to be "All-American".

It wasn't until I was 28 and the district manager told the store manager that he could essentially hire additional leadership candidates providing they weren't as old as me. I couldn't believe he said that. It was however, the wake up call that I needed. I didn't need them to validate me. I gave my notice shortly thereafter. Crazy bitches.