Hopskotch Road Rage Remedy (everything reminds me of something else)

Came out of the studio to find a hopskotch design leading to my car. Initially, I saw it as some sort of Jessica Stockholder installation (she used to have a studio down the hall from me). And then I saw this scrawled nearby.



Usually you see Tommy + Jane or some other 2 names. It seemed hard to believe that these names were spelled correctly. Jovonny (Giovanni?) and Xyomara. But there was Eva, clear as day, leaving one to ponder whether Eva was the matchmaker or, who knows, maybe it was a love triangle.

After abiding by the rules of hopskotch to get back in the buick, I was driving on the post road and passed a car lot with a plastic sign that said "bob's quality used cars." The sign had partly melted from past Summers and it looked like a tree had fallen on it.

There was a big gash from top to bottom that had split part of the car symbol on the sign.

This reminded me of the sign for the Star Diner, down the street from the studio. The place is a dive, but not without it's charm. There are a couple of bullet holes in the windows I like to sit next to, and it has 70's styling with little 50's juke boxes at each table.

The culture is very different than it was when those jukeboxes were popular. What brought this to my attention was salsa music pulsating from a table across the diner. Back in the day, the jukeboxes probably gave you a range from pop to motown. Historically an Italian neighborhood, it's now predominately Puerto Rican and African American with a few old school Italians. The range of song choices on the jukebox reflect the neighborhood and the incompatibility of the cultures. A device that was initially intended to bring people together, now was an amplifier for individual claim on the neighborhood. When you pop a quarter in and it starts playing your tune, you have a volume button you can push to make sure everybody else hears it too. With tunes from Nas, Dirty Old Bastard, Menudo, Ricky Martin, BeeGees, Willie Nelson, Neil Sedaka, and ACDC, there is atleast one song for everybody, and a guarantee of 50 that will annoy you. It would be great to get as many different music enthusiasts in there at different tables all pushing the volume button fighting for the status their musical tastes rightly deserve. I imagined in my head something like the Warriors.

This little diner scenario reminded me of an invention my brother came up with. He's a pretty smart guy to begin with, but there was something about that invention that was a bolt of wicked lightning genius. Here's a pic of my brother in 4th grade. Doesn't he have that crazy bad ass inventor look to him? exactly. Well anyway, his invention had to do with road rage.
Most of us have experienced this to some degree. (how many times have I fantasized about plowing into some jerk [cop] repeatedly?) Well, obviously you never want it to get to the level of serious violence. So my brother asked the question where can it go after you've flipped the guy off, and he's returned the favor?
The answer, my friend, is a plastic finger extension you could slip on your middle finger to make it just a little taller than your fellow driver. Imagine the astonishment when he realizes he's been one upped and starts laughing.