and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

I'm sad that I didn't jump straight to the color laser here at the office and print out my very own official hipster bingo card because I was downtown this last evening enjoying some music by Moe. More specifically, though, I was enjoying what was probably the largest crowd in Monument Sq. in little ptown in a very long time. New Years even. There were people crammed up to and around the stage and people spilling into the street. The cops were tromping around on their horses looking somber (cause that's what they get paid for - overtime drops to comp time if they catch you smiling) and the hippies were out in force. They were back against the monument shakin' their thangs. They were across the street up against the buildings bouncing up and down and ashing all over the place. They were deep in the middle of the crowd jumping up and down with arms raised. They were smiling too, fuck overtime. I imagine I could have got a black out bingo with the number of hipsters downtown last night.

There is one guy in downtown ptown who took to standing on one of the cement posts along Congress Street, the main thoroughfare. He started standing up there back when the whole gulf war (II) thing came about. He started standing up there and holding up his hand in a peace sign for hours on end, looking directly into the eyes of the passers by in cars and on bikes and on foot. It's quite a few months later and he is still up there. Maybe not every day, but he at least hits the big events like this fine concert we had the other day. Now I wouldn't necessarily call him a hippy, but he has been raising the peace sign to all passers by like he's trying to tell them something. I imagine if his little V-hand could talk it would say something like "Bush is evil I hate him we should let the Iraqi's be Free FREE FREE".. and there would be little bits of spittle in the corner of it's mouth and you might even get spit on if you get too close. Regardless, a lot of people have very mixed feelings about this guy.. At least everyone I have talked to. The general concensus is that he could really be doing something more useful with his time but I dunno, maybe not. Some people were put on this earth not to do too much and heck, raising a peace sign for days on end isn't all that much.

Yesterday was different though. He was up on the round cement post as usual, same place he always is, but he had both hands raised this time. The normal V shape was up there, his right hand flashing peace to all. But his other hand held up a picture. I saw him first from behind so I had to go check it out and when I got around to the front of him I saw it was just a small card, 8x5 maybe, with the American flag on it. The only thing is that the American flag was upside down.

So the dude stood up there and flashed the peace sign and held the flag upside down. I'm not sure what he intends from it: awareness? I thought at first I might be a little offended about the whole flag thing but then I remembered I don't really care too much.. But it did make me a little sad. It made me sad to think of Lance, our superhero, over in France maybe riding around with an American flag held high while this shmoe stood over here on a piece of cement flashing our flag upside down. See, I'm a patriot as much as I hate Bush - which is a whole heck of a lot. I thought maybe it would work out better for him if he had a picture of Bush instead, and held that upside down. It would get to the heart of the matter quicker and maybe make what he was trying to say more clear and obvious. Sometimes people need to be more obvious. Not everyone gets the subtle jokes. And if you're up there on a cement post every day all day then you probably aren't catering to the subtle joke people - you're probably targeting the masses.

I figure about every single American who doesn't have their TeeVee stuck on Nick@Night must hate Bush by now. I figure there isn't a single dude out there who is warming his pen up for another checkmark next to George W. Bush. I figure that and then I remember the people at work. Then I remember the people on the street and the dudes in the restuarants and the people on the highway. I remember there are some crrrraaazzzy people out there - people who vote Bush - and I start to get pretty damn worried and then I usually black out from pure fear.

I bet the peace dude has a pretty strong arm, though.