the stage furniture of fascism

-x men 3 was definitely enjoyable to watch, but i agree with kevin that the political subtext has changed for the worse. all the ambiguity of outright resistance v. tentative cooperation that made the first two so interesting in a political sense was gone. now we have explicitly evil mutants and explicitly good mutants. what this movie had to say about the proper fate of subcultures was disconcerting; the phrases 'collaboration of local elites' and 'native informants' kept popping up for me.

the signifiers for 'good mutants' and 'bad mutants' really bothered me. on one hand, we have the brotherhood of 'bad' mutants, who are dressed up like punks and goths. magneto's team is pierced, tattooed, androgynous, over-sexualised, 'bad-ass'. name an 'alternative' 90's subculture, and their touchstones were gathered to destroy the human race. on the other hand, our heroes are predominantly clean-cut, well-dressed, from middle class suburban backgrounds. the film ended with an extended riff on the jocks beating up the geeks.

-when i was a teenager, there were all sorts of viable pizza delivery options. the big ones that i recall were little caesar's, domino's, pizza hut, and panagopolous. when i was much younger, godfather's pizza was a viable option, but more so for eating out. i remember the restaurants as very dark, ominous, tinted glass, dark booths, low hanging tiffany lamps with low-wattage bulbs. pizza only came with mushrooms, green peppers, and pepperoni. i remember the gimmicks in the mid-1990's. pizza hut put cheese in the crust: the 'stuffed crust'. domino's made square pizzas, just because. did little caesar's come with 'crazy bread? crazy bread meant twisted breadsticks with garlic and parmesan cheese. it might have been domino's. in toronto, i knew things were different because of pizza pizza, which i had never seen before. panagopolous had a cartoon rock band, called 'the panaplettes', loosely modeled after the california raisins. my parents still have a 'panaplettes world tour '92' button up in the kitchen. at some point in the last five/ten years, panagopolous shortened their name to panago and became the automatic pizza delivery option in vancouver. in every context in which i have ordered pizza in the past four years, i have either had local independent pizza or panago. panago is canadian, and is based in abbotsford; i do not know how far across the country they extend now, but i do not believe they have crossed the prairies. i wonder how they gained total market saturation in such a short time. i get domino's flyers on occasion, but it would never occur to me to order from them. i have not seen a little caesar's in years. the godfather's concept seems utterly anachronistic now, but my memories are very vivid.

-white spot has over 60 locations, almost entirely in BC. several outlets have opened in alberta, and several have opened in hong kong. there is a second cup franchise in dubai. there is a tim horton's franchise in kandahar. i don't even know what kandahar is. maybe if canada wins the war, the new afghanistan will give us a square mile of their country to call our own, like the french did after world war II. one square mile of vimy ridge is officially canadian territory. i believe that it is our only exclave.

-in related news, i recently found out that my 16 year old cousin plays drums in a punk/jam band called vimy ridge.

-i'd like a job that would send me to dubai on business, but i think that i would end up dizzy from the sheer post-modernity of it all.