Sunday, October 25, 2009

Whatever is one of my favorite words

I love the word whatever. It's a dismissive word. You can use it when you don't want to answer or someone corrects you and you aren't interested in arguing about it. There are other ways to use it, too -- being a flexible word makes it even better.

Here's what Yahoo Answers says it means: "Don't know, Don't care, not interested, now can you keep quiet because I want to get on with the rest of my life." Yeah, that about sums it up. Whatever. Or, if you want to act cool, whatevah.

The other day, I drove my car south from Poplar Avenue onto Highland Street. Just past the railroad tracks, I saw this on the left side of the road:


I happened to have my P&S camera, and this deserved a stop (Jacob would be proud of me). I hopped out of my car and took the photo you see above. I was in a hurry, snapped the one shot, and took off.

When I got home and looked at in on my monitor, I really liked it, so, Friday, I went back to see if it was another tatoo parlor or exactly what. On the other side of this concrete building is The Whatever Store.




I went inside, and it's what we used to call a head shop. There were posters, tee shirts, incense, doodads, gizmos, and, um, well, whatever.

I talked to a lady and asked if they have a web site. She let slip they had a blog, then quickly said: "We don't much go for the Internet. It's not good for stores like this." Yeah, whatever.

There was a sign inside that mentioned their blog, however, and I memorized the address, and looked it up when I got to a computer. From what I read on the blog, they sure hate the police -- no doubt they get hasseled a lot.

There was another sign inside that said: "If you mention any illegal drugs, we will ask you to leave."

I browsed for a while, but didn't buy anything. I wanted to get some patchouli incense, but they were out! They had 47 zillion other kinds of incense, but no patchouli -- rats. I like how that stuff smells.

The place was gritty, but felt safe and was interesting. It's near the University of Memphis campus. My guess is that students are their main customers.

Wolynski said she heard Tennessee was a beautiful state, and challenged me to show her. This may not be exactly what she was talking about. Whatever.

You can see the Whatever Store's blog here.

For the Google map (610 S. Highland) of the Whatever Store click here.

Photos processed in Picasa and have a Geo-tag. I hope TenMile is happy.

Images by MOJO - taken with my P&S.

15 comments:

  1. For shame, picking on me like that.

    You do have some strange interests, however.

    However is kin to Whatever. Without the flexibility.

    ::))

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  2. Great pics! Memphis definetly has a lot of character. But there is a reason it is #2 on the most dangerous city list...be careful out there!

    But whatever, glad you dared to get these shots. :)

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  3. Patchouli? TKE or no, next thing we know, you'll be following the Phish tour.

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  4. Yes, MOJO. You don't seem like the patchouli type. bastin, on the other hand, probably has a permanent fragrance. We have a place like that in Mpls, The Electric Fetus. By itself, it is safe, but there are gang murders nearby.

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  5. MM-Thanks for mentioning Picasa. They have finally gone live with the Mac version, not just the web uploader. I just downloaded it [free, of course.] It does a ton more than iPhoto. I have a lot of work to do with it. Maybe won't need PS Elements. Thanks again.

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  6. @TenMile: haha, not picking on you. I added the geotag, but not sure what one does now. I'll have to dig into it more.

    @Jusdealem: I hear ya

    @bastin: The company I work for drug tests, so don't read too much into it.

    @Crash: All those freebies have their strengths and weaknesses. Let me know how you like picasa.

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  7. I'm proud of you, Memphis! You done good! Carpe Diem!

    Great shots, funny post. We've got a head shop in the old downtown...they sell all that junk, too. And, well, whatever!

    But it's not nearly as colorful as this one.

    I didn't go in...had the distinct impression I would not be very welcome.

    Whatever.

    Have a great week!

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  8. One time, I went into the Electric Fetus mentioned above. I wanted a small, highly accurate scale to weigh precise amounts of loose-leaf tea. When I told the clerk the one I wanted, he winked at me and said, "Dude!" I said it was for tea, and he just winked again.

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  9. MM-RE: Picasa. I think it does a much better job of tweaking a bad photo than iPhoto does. I have brought some extremely underexposed ones back to almost normal. However, the file structure is very confusing, possibly because I imported thousands of photos from iPhoto. Has more features and super coordination with other google products such as gmail.

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  10. I loved the art work on those buildings! The only time I'm ever in a head shop is when I visit Crash.

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  11. @Crash: See what Suzi said? You gonna put up with that?

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  12. Here is the place MY BELOVED SISTER-IN-LAW, SUZI is referring to:
    "http://media.decider.com/assets/images/venues/venue/50497/ElectricFetus_EXT01_jpg_595x325_crop_upscale_q85.jpg"
    Actually, I love all 5 of DW's sisters equally. Interpret that as you will.
    This storefront is not even close to the quality of yours, MOJO, and I didn't bother to drive there for a photo. I took Suzi there because they had a great selection of new and used music as well as odd items for her costume business: Pimp hats, etc.

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  13. Guess I don't know how to do live links. Try to copy this:
    http://media.decider.com/assets/images/venues/venue/50497/ElectricFetus_EXT01_jpg_595x325_crop_upscale_q85.jpg

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  14. @Crash: Oh, that head shop (interesting name). I thought she was referring to your follicles (or lack).

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  15. Dearest Crash,
    You know we go to that head shop for all kinds of things we wont mention...whatever.....

    Suze-a-rino

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