A Brew but not Brew (Brew2)

(Above: Corporate prize toy in the vending machine in the bowling alley of consumerism.)

I am Brews counterpart, equally as Brew-y but not identically Brew-y, and AD said I could do a guest blog.

Here it is.

The topic is the congolmarate known as HOT TOPIC.

WHAT THE FUCK. THIS STORE IS IN EVERY MALL, FILLED WITH TEENS AND CRAPPY MUSIC, AND THE WALLS ARE PAINTED BLACK. How does one shop properly when the environment makes you feel like a shopper to your left or right might slip you the date rape drug? The same goes out for those meccas of teen consumerism known as "HOLLISTERS." How the hell do I know if I want this tank top, which says "Hollister" on it, if it is too dark to even tell what color the fucking thing is?

Oh, you think, HOLLISTER and HOT TOPIC are very different, you think, I would never step into a Hollister, you say. Well, maybe you should. Maybe then you would understand the overwhelming influence of advertising and marketing. See, it dosn't matter if you can see the tank top: what matters is that you're hanging out in a teen mecca, that others might see you there looking cool, and when you get back to your pointless high school class on Monday wearing your new tank, others will know where you've been. If you want to barf now, wait: SHOPPING AT HOT TOPIC IS EXACTLY THE SAME! Only you can kind of tell if you've shopped at Hot Topic, since you're probably wearing a Slipknot tee shirt and a collar with some spikes in it. Then you get sent to the principal because you've got a "weapon" on your person.

What I am trying to say is that you can't win, wherever you shop. UNLESS YOU SHOP somewhere where consumerism has no reach: thrift stores! Ebay! Nobody knows you're shopping there. The government dosn't know. Advertising gurus and marketing blitzers aren't crunching your "dollars spent" and trying to figure out how to make you want to spend MORE there.

Remain less than a blip on the corporate radar! Keep the money in your pockets and experience the adventure of digging through crap to find treasures of fashion! Stick it to the man and let the fakers and the fucking ugly wannabe rich people shop their hearts out, prep or punk or both. You are truly the free people, the shoppers with no shame in their hearts. You make no trek to the Hot Topic or other "branding," "labeling" store that others use to define you when you enter your local shopping mecca!

AD says "DIY or DIE!" Listen and obey.

Brew 2 out.