Lama- palooza

Or of Mitzvah and Booming Bass

It was after a long morning and afternoon. My guts felt jumbled from the blast of bass as I walked by walls of subs. There I stood waiting for a bus near the Space Needle but I had better things to do than stare at the retro future landmark of Seattle. Mostly I watched a crowded bus that rolled down from the U District. Full save an old woman and the driver, then completely empty as it left. Most of the students taking pictures in front of the bus, or the stop sign or the Key Arena itself, I don't think the old lady got to be part of their myspace (or facebook) fun, maybe next concert Granny, this one is to live on in cyber form. A few got excited that Kiss and Movin' were there and had to race over, if they were girls balanced perilously on really high heels, or while holding up really large pants in the case of guys. Though I think the guys were racing (read: Sauntering as casually and speedily as possible) to watch the girls. Not that I can blame them as I watched a pair of bottle blondes take pictures first of whatever was written on their tank tops and then on their booty shorts.

Something about if you like these how about these or something.
I forget.

Sure I could blame exhaustion or I could go with the 'Beavis and Butthead' stand by "When you talk I can't see the panties right," that was said during Blues Traveler's Run Around. Perhaps the oddest 90s take on 'Wizard of Oz'. No 'Dark Side of the Moon' but funny in a 4 minute Mtv video. But in someways it reminded me of a shirt on tshirt hell.

Then walking in the opposite direction I saw a couple dressed to the nines and heading toward the ballet… I think. Maybe they were just getting something to eat and then back to watch Kanye. What was odd was just how pregnant she was and how quickly they tried to distance themselves from the growing crowd.

My bus came and I could put some time and space between me and where I would be until 4 in the morning.

For nearly a week before hand I had been knee deep in setting events for the Dalai Lama visit to Seattle. Maybe the blatant capitalism was better than the hidden kind I had witnessed in the previous days. After all does playing 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' as walk music really send the best message when emptying a stadium after a spiritual leader speaks?

And I realize they weren't hocking Lama tour shirts or anything like that but I wonder who was getting a cut of the increase in Prayer Flag, bumper sticker and Buddha sales.

Or did I miss the irony they were trying for and only got the irony I wanted to see?

But there also could have been no irony.

I can't be sure I wasn't on the committee that decided that was a good idea. I was only on the group being paid to schlep cases off the field and to the trucks.

It might not have been the best mitzvah on earth, hell it might not even be a mitzvah but I look at it that way. It's the only way I can look at getting paid half the wage I normally get and have to deal with people grumbling about it the whole time. Call it for the greater good (the greater good) but I'll just convince myself it's a mitzvah. While I doubt the same thing would have been done for other religious leaders I may never found that out. But it was something to consider while waiting for the Ballard Bridge to lower so I could get home, catch a few hours rest, wake up and have to pack all the shit on to trucks.