A 17-year-old mimicking Brad Pitt's "Fight Club" character, who plans attacks on corporate America, masterminded a blast outside a Starbucks Coffee shop on Memorial Day, police said Wednesday.
Let us count the ways this was a ridiculous act: For starters, it's a movie. Yeah, it seems cool to blow stuff up with the Pixies jamming in the background, but they aren't going to be following you around in prison. Second, it's a ten-year-old movie. Shouldn't you be inspired to do something stupid by a slightly more current picture? This would be like me blowing up a Dell outlet in the late 90s because of Terminator.
Lastly, after living in a nation whose idea of a cup of regular coffee is a burnt espresso mixed with hot water, I will brook no illegitimate slams of Starbucks. The day Starbucks opened a store here in Torreón (November 30, 2007--yes, I remember the exact date), I was walking around in a state of elation not unlike that of the liberated Eindhoven denizens from Band of Brothers. It's not that I don't understand the anti-Starbucks sentiment. The manufactured atmosphere in Starbucks is a bit revolting, the sizes are pretentious, and there are too many of them. While I lived in Chicago, I always made an effort to drive an extra couple blocks to buy my java at the local shop Beans and Bagels on Montrose, where everything was delicious and un-corporate. But when I was stuck in the land of burnt espresso for three years, it wasn't the mildly unfriendly hipsters who saved me, it was Starbucks.
2 comments:
I am sure that there is a trace on the Internet somewhere of me complaining about Mexican coffee. All I would add is that if you indeed got burnt espresso, the strength of that concoction would imply an improvement over the pre-Starbucks swill that I remember.
With the exception of the occasional weekend morning at La Selva in the Condesa (now closed), I think I started popping Cafeaspirina in lieu of my morning coffee sometime around '98. It was that bad.
It was such a shock when I got here too, because Mexico has really good coffee beans, and there are coffee shops everywhere, especially in Mexico City, but only one out of 100 or so can give you a decent cup. It was miserable before Starbucks arrived, just awful. {Shudder]
Post a Comment