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In December 2010, CITY LIMITS DVD windows had been redone as ABBYTOWN courtesy a local artist, Terri Swier. During that time frame I received a brief phone call at my place of business nearly seven years, at 216 Westlake Ave N in Seattle, WA. The nature of this discussion began the process by which the 60-year old building has now been demised. Today it stands GRID IRON READY to become the newest jewel in the South Lake Union redux that marks the downtown Westlake corridor that brought so much joy into the Calandra household. So it can finally be revealed that in late DEC 2010 I knew my business would be closing. We knew we had somehow ‘outlasted’ the landlord and that it had somewhat been determined:

I would not have to suffer any of the ignominy foisted upon the shoulders of those businessmen unable to put their affairs in order. So I began. It was a commencement.

You know, the beginning of the end.

SIDEBAR YOUR HONOR

I struggled with this fer a minit… or 53 years. I have no reason or motive to embarrass the woman to whom I was born. But it is germane. Every TUESDAY (designated movie release day) for the seven years I operated the store I made difficult balancing acts happen, whereby dropshipped MOVIES at near zero net after gross expenses SEX IN THE CITY box sets at 15% markup + delivery in a critical time window became in later years ENTOURAGE more like a 22-25% — people need and want to be

That Jones Guy You’re All Supposed To Keep Up With

It’s Called The Walmart Mentality.
You’re a Member Of Sam’s Club.
Knock Yerself Out.

Businessmen such as myself, struggling in a rigged game, engaged in a 70% mix of pornography and 30% mainstream, with 15% hard-fought achievment of front-end legit actual movie TV rentals sales candy and ice cream bodega style, we try to get by with few exposures, it’s all relationships based in trust and confidence, that on that day at opening I have something for them they can stick in their pants like its the biggest in the room. Girls like that stuff. Men who preen. (NOT) Women themselves sometimes put a dick in their pants while raising three children but that’s another story. Keeping more to a different story here

WIDE ANGLE
FREEWAY TRAFFIC
conditions clear
sound of ringing phone
(interrupted by man’s voice)

OH, HI MOM.

audio of other end of line
KEITH DO YOU HAVE THAT redacted

THAT CAME OUT TODAY

OH GOOD MORNING MOM
four seconds DEAD AIR

DEAD AIR

man’s voice repeating
perspective of freeway continues
GOOD MORNING MOM

audio in phone female voice
I CAN’T HEAR YOU
HELLO

I CAN HEAR YOU MOM

audio in phone female voice
OH THERE YOU ARE
DO YOU HAVE THAT redacted

YOU KNOW
THE TOM CRUISE

GOOD MORNING MOM
I’M NOT GOING TO SPEAK
UNTIL YOU SAY GOOD MORNING
I’M DRIVING
I’M GOOD
THANKS FOR ASKING

two seconds dead air

SO MOM I HAVE SEVEN COPIES
FOUR PREPAID
THREE FOR MY PEEPS
WHY YOU ONLY CALL ME NOW

ITS TWENTY
THAT’S BUCKS MOM

audio in phone
DOES IT HAVE THAT T SHIRT THE THING

man’s voice freeway perspective
MOM MOM MOM
WHATS UP DO YA NEED SOMETHING
YOU SOUND LIKE A JUNKIE
WHY YOU CALLING ME?
OF ALL PEOPLE…

DON’T YOU HAVE, LIKE,
A PHARMACIST FOR WHEN
YOU GET LIKE THIS?

audio in phone
KEITH LOOK

EXT CLOSEUP
profile of man driving
face accompanies voice
NO HERE’S THE DEAL MOM
THEY ALL HAVE T-SHIRTS. I SEPARATE AND SELL THE SHIRTS FOR GREAT VALUE IN A MONTH OR WHATEVER BUT MY BEST PEEPS PRE-PAYS SOLIDS AND MEN I’M AFRAID OF OR WOMEN I WANNA GET NEAR — SURE –

THEY GET THE PROMO ITEM –

BUT I HAVE A COUPLE UNSPOKEN…

DID YA SEE A COMMERCIAL MOM?

audio in phone female voice (dejected)
OH YOU CAN’T DO IT?

MOM ARE YOU LISTENING? YES DESPITE YOUR LACK OF DECORUM HERE I’LL GIVE YOU ONE OF THE T-SHIRTS. YOU’RE COSTING ME ABOUT TWENTY BUCKS ON TOP OF THE MOVIE THOUGH MOM. ALSO IT’S TWENTY BUCKS. THE MOVIE. THIS IS WHERE YOU SAY BUT ITS 1499 AT WALMART. I’LL BRING IT BY THE HOUSE BY ABOUT 5pm ABBY HAS BALLET AND DADDY NEEDS WORK ON HIS PIRHOUETTES… uhhh, MOMMY SAYS SO

audio in phone
BUT IT IS 1499 AT SAM’S CLUB…

FREEWAY PERSPECTIVE
tone of frustration rising in man’s voice
MOM I GOTTA GO SORRY YOU WEREN’T ABLE TO ACCEPT MY OFFER. THE PROMO ITEMS ARE GONE BY 11am OR SO AT PRETTY MUCH EVERYWHERE AND ITS NEAR NOON. GOOD LUCK. I HAVE A COUPLE OPPORTUNITIES TO BOUNCE YOU A T-SHIRT BUT…

YOU KNOW ORDINARILY IF ANYONE MENTIONED WALMART OR ANYTHING I WOULD HANG UP ABRUPTLY AND CLAIM THE PHONE DID IT. OR IT HE WAS AN ACTUAL PEEP AND RECOGNIZED THE ERROR OF HIS REASONING AND LACK OF LOVING COMPASSION, EVEN IF I DID TALK TO HIM, THE MOVIE WOULD BE THIRTY. IN TWO DAYS NO ONE HAS A COPY. BUY A JUNKED USED COPY. DOESNT LOOK LIKE AS BIG IN YER PANTS BUT——

LOOK MOM I GOTTA GO
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Tantamount to any blog post I write here is some sense of honest alignment of those things we profess and what we do. As I announced to Abby the other day, now on the cusp of nine years aged, adults sometimes have small windows by which a process known as reconciliation can occur. I told her reconciliation doesn’t necessarily mean agreement…

It means whatever adults say it means. At that point.

Well, we’re there. people.
Off the train.
Watch your step.
I do. Carefully.

My affairs are in order.
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original post 12/23/10

Up early this AM with junior partner Abby in tow; we traipsed down 167 to Jovita Blvd, then up the hill to Edgewood, where Milton Way meets the Enchanted Parkway. Quarter-mile south of the county line, I noted. They call it Surprise Lake up there

…you could look it up.

I explained to Abby this nice lady, a gray-haired matron of the supposed film arts, had encountered my store in the middle of summer, months earlier. Although she didn’t live here, she thought the store something worth remembering at the holidays, and after a few days of back and forth on the telephone, her and daddy had brokered a deal whereby daddy acquired a small collection of items. She had already mailed a check (truly old school!) and we were bringing these items to her. We had a tight window, logistically, being so close to the holiday. She lived in Redwood City, CA and outside Anchorage, AL most of the year, and she comes through in the summer to see her son and grandchildren and again at Christmas, but it would be a rare day indeed if she ventured into the Big City.

“Abbytown was coming to her,” daddy told her.

“Yup.” Ahh, the sweet sound of assent from a child.

brandy alexandre a notorious gateway

In our discussions, my client admitted not being close to her son, but fond enough despite vast distance and differences that she had aggressively acquired this film she recalled enjoying, our solution being this rip from VHS of Who’s Killing the Great Chefs of Europe; these Jack Lemmon items were films she knew he could also enjoy. Bases covered.

The Apartment and Days of Wine and Roses.

“Oh, he’ll enjoy them.” I laughed with Abby.

When I dialed the number, they had been up late, she said, and it would be about half an hour ’til she could meet us. So Abby and I sat talking quietly, she eating her apples, cheese and Goldfish brand snack crackers by the Pepperidge Farm division of Campbell’s Soup and playing with her puzzle book. Stickers, I think. We stood outside just a brief moment, greeted her and gave her the package, and we were off.

“See how she didn’t have to pay daddy,” I told her.

No answer. The junior partner was already fast back at the sticker book, matching up the color of each of the world famous Disney Buena Vista all rights reserved characters to the corresponding circle.

“So, yeah, she doesn’t have to pay.” My voice trailed off.

“She doesn’t have to pay, sweetie,” I repeatedly, more earnestly than before. “She doesn’t have to pay; why is that, sweetie?” I queried.

She had already begun to tell me. “She already paid, daddy, you told me already!” She was emphatic.

“So the money wasn’t the only thing here going on, was it sweetie. She needed something and daddy sure needs something, customers! Huh, sweetie? Know what I mean, darlin’?”

“Uhh-huh. “Whoa, without customers daddy wouldn’t even have a store, sweetie.”

“Gotta eat. Gotta make that money. Gonna get me that money. Just enough!”

She wasn’t really with me on this. I had to take it further.

“Because in the end, darlin’, commerce? When the lady buys something and daddy sells it to her? that’s commerce, sweetie. So she needs something and see, I go get it, sometimes I even have to figure out how to even get it, or what a fair price is for it, and how she and i can get together and get her this stuff she wants, huh sweetie?”

I GUESS AT SOME POINT I stopped talking about business. But commerce is a personal exchange. Sure, Chinamen put merchants at the bottom of the chaste but we’re not discusssssing my inherent racism here, we are engaging in dialogue. Oh NEVERMIND. Suffice it to say it means a lot to daddy that the nice, gray-haired matron realizes she has a source such as myself, no not such as myself
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…actually me, someone willing to engage in commerce and more than willing to go the extra mile to see that someone’s wants and concerns are satisfied.

“All it takes is a phone call. But…” Daddy builds in big drama.

“Here it comes sweetie, get ready…” Daddy made volcano noises.

Big Booming Voice
“It’s not about PRICE, it’s about NICE!” Daddy is adamant.

“Yup.”

Sweet.