Maverick a Strike
Korea and Record Shops
There was a record shop in Notting Hill that I used to frequent. Not to purchase anything. I’m a ‘buy a CD and listen to the same two tracks repeatedly kind of girl’. Vinyl doesn’t really meet my complex needs.
I used to go this shop purely for the atmosphere. The thick and simmering tension. The two men who owned it used to run it together, but due to ‘difficult circumstances’ i.e. a spectacular fallout, decided to split it down the middle and each run his half as a separate business. In the right corner was Stand Out, owned and closely guarded by Bill Allerton. In the left was Minus Zero, which belonged to Bill Forsyth. The Bills used to stand behind their directly opposite, individual counters and glare at or ignore each other all the live long day. It was difficult not to march into the middle of the room and screech ‘oh just GROW UP CAN’T YOU?’ at them both. But it was also difficult not to enjoy watching.
Anyway, when I heard on the news that Hilary Clinton has had to drop in on North Korea and try to stop tensions there from escalating entirely out of control, I was reminded of that shop. Maybe because something like that has happened there – a spectacular fall-out followed by a split and a big red dividing line. I keep picturing Kim Jong-il and Lee Myung-bak standing on their respective sides of it and behaving in a similar fashion to the Bills. Basically revelling in winding each other right up.
‘You sunk my warship!’.
‘Well, you sunk mine first! Anyway, we are only allegedly responsible, so, yeah, suck on that MOFO!’
Given that last year, North Korea described Hilary Clinton as ‘vulgar and stupid’ and looking like ‘an old biddy with a shopping trolley’ I doubt she’s feeling all that sympathetic. I wonder if she’s tempted to straddle the dividing line and screech.
Both Minus Zero and Stand Out closed down on 1st May this year. The Bills blame the growth of internet shopping, the recession, blah blah. But the playground atmosphere can’t have done them all that much good. They really could have done with some diplomatic input. Whether it would have worked we will sadly never know, and so now we must look to Korea for the answers, as they seem determined to go the same way as the Bills. The question is, are we going to let them?
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