This is Boston, not L.A.
First blog post in a while, for me, so I'll open with a rare snippet of personal information: I have found and an apartment in North Miami, so the blog will be diversifying geographically once again here, shortly. Of course, once Mike goes to China, if he actually blogs, will trump my Miami card, but we take our small victories where we may.
In North Miami, I found myself using the phrase "This is Boston, not L.A." to encapsulate the utter difference between Miami and everywhere else that I've ever lived. That add thoughts like "I should have just stayed in Berlin." The phrase "This is Boston, not L.A." has existed in my repetoire since, believe it or not, the time that I lived in Boston. It has its origins in the hardcore punk scene in Boston, back in the '80s. It was introduced to me by a co-worker at the grocery store where I used to work, who was a punk, and from Boston.
Hardcore punk in America has its origins in Los Angelos, so the Boston scene was trying to establish its own unique sound, and differentiate themselves from West Coast punk. I don't know a whole lot about the punk rock music, but I don't think there was ever any animosity between the coasts, punk-wise, since there are so few punks to begin with, but its about local pride, or whatever, I guess.
Working at a grocery store that was founded and still operated out of Los Angelos, this phrase immediately became quite useful. For example:
Customer A: "The tortillas at the stores in California are much better than the tortillas here, and why don't you have the Jalapeno & Cilantro ones?"
Me: "This is Boston, not L.A."
Customer B: "The employees at my store on the West Coast seem to have more fun at their store."
Me: "This is Boston, not L.A."
The phrase then began to gain metaphorical meaning, and infiltrate my everyday, non-working vocabulary. Any time that Boston, or anything was noticably different from some norm, I would use the phrase to point out this difference.
Which is to say, North Miami is Boston, not L.A.
In North Miami, I found myself using the phrase "This is Boston, not L.A." to encapsulate the utter difference between Miami and everywhere else that I've ever lived. That add thoughts like "I should have just stayed in Berlin." The phrase "This is Boston, not L.A." has existed in my repetoire since, believe it or not, the time that I lived in Boston. It has its origins in the hardcore punk scene in Boston, back in the '80s. It was introduced to me by a co-worker at the grocery store where I used to work, who was a punk, and from Boston.
Hardcore punk in America has its origins in Los Angelos, so the Boston scene was trying to establish its own unique sound, and differentiate themselves from West Coast punk. I don't know a whole lot about the punk rock music, but I don't think there was ever any animosity between the coasts, punk-wise, since there are so few punks to begin with, but its about local pride, or whatever, I guess.
Working at a grocery store that was founded and still operated out of Los Angelos, this phrase immediately became quite useful. For example:
Customer A: "The tortillas at the stores in California are much better than the tortillas here, and why don't you have the Jalapeno & Cilantro ones?"
Me: "This is Boston, not L.A."
Customer B: "The employees at my store on the West Coast seem to have more fun at their store."
Me: "This is Boston, not L.A."
The phrase then began to gain metaphorical meaning, and infiltrate my everyday, non-working vocabulary. Any time that Boston, or anything was noticably different from some norm, I would use the phrase to point out this difference.
Which is to say, North Miami is Boston, not L.A.
4 Comments:
I have nothing to add except "The West Coast is the better of the two coasts." Which saying I believe you also use from time to time.
I'm glad you found an apartment.
This doesn't really merit its own post, so I'll just dump it here: the NY Times did a surprisingly large feature on Pittsburgh's inclines this weekend. (And the one in Johnstown.) Gorgeous picture at the front of the article.
Did I ever mention the fact the Dresden also has an incline that was made by the same engineer? I didn't ride it, but I did look at it. Looks pretty similar.
I think it's Los Angeles, not Angelos.
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