Charles Bukowski

AppId is over the quota

In Factotum, the 2005 movie based on Charles Bukowski’s novel of the same name, Henry Chinaski, played by Matt Dillon, says in a moment of revelation at the horse races, “The racetrack crowd is the world come down to size. Life grinding against death and losing. Nobody wins finally. We’re only seeking a reprieve, a moment out of the glare.”

If you ever shop at the Whole Foods in San Rafael, then those narrow aisles laden with pricey foodstuffs are the focal point of that “glare” invoked by Chinaski. For there, amidst the plenteous shelves, the clan of Marin race their shopping carts through the aisles as if Hurricane Katrina were about to hit or, to choose a more likely catastrophe, as if the Big Quake had finally sundered the Golden State.

After five years of frequent to occasional shopping at the Whole Foods in San Rafael, I have been deprived of the luxury to overlook the aggression with which conspicuous consumers dart through the aisles.

Willowy women, young or old, donning high heels and slacks or lululemon stretch pants and jogging shoes commandeer the store. So do the suburban dads who wax domestic.

Both genders will cut you off, bump into you, climb up your heels. Apparently, there is not enough food for everyone frequenting this well-stocked store. It is a veritable state of nature, a Hobbesian “war of all against all.”

“She who grabs first, grabs the most” seems to be the logic of this market. After all, the “glare” of fear, of death, of not having enough to fill those customized cupboards is unbearable. “I shop wholly, therefore I am whole,” they chant sub rosa, while vertical.

It is indeed weird that, in five years, I have never heard anyone say “excuse me” to the one nearly smashed by a reckless cart. At the Whole Foods in San Rafael, “stand your ground” takes on new meaning:

“There is simply not enough to go around, dear. 

Beneath the stuff in this ambulatory basket is our fear.”

Such is the justification for the precipitous rush to each neatly arranged commodity. Yet, none of this behavior should come as a surprise, given what Whole Foods in Marin represents. It represents an eco-friendly space to indulge in tribal plunder. Wives with wet pedicures and sparkling South African fruit on their digitus annularis can save the environment at the same time that they raid the surfeit.

In sum, they display the ritual of shopping instead of working--or, if they work at all, they show how to hunt for expensive victuals in conditioned air, while remaining oblivious to those around them.

The men are no better. Like their trophy women, they arrive in foreign go-carts and joust with one another to be the first to poach the produce, the first to gorge on the free-range flitch, the first to hoard the gluten-free goods in bio-degradable stacks.

Corey Olds graduated from Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio) in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French literature. From there, he matriculated to Stanford University, where he pursued a joint Ph.D. in History and Humanities. Upon receiving a graduate degree from Stanford, Mr. Olds became an assistant professor of history at Portland State University (Portland, Oregon) in 2001. Prior to accepting his professorship, Olds worked as a full-time history teacher at The Branson School in Ross, California. In 2005, Olds accepted the position of director of curriculum development at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada. Besides writing curriculum for the middle and high schools, he taught U.S. history and Latin. In 2006, Olds became a certified TAP (Teacher Advancement Program) mentor teacher. He is also the recipient of educational grants from the Las Vegas Rotary Club and the Target Corporation. As an educational entrepreneur, Mr. Olds has been delivering supplemental education services (ranging from English grammar and composition to verbal preparation for standardized tests to foreign languages and African-American history) to middle and secondary schoolers through Futurum, which he founded in June of 2006. His clients have included families in Nevada and in California, where he has also contracted with independent schools such as Head-Royce School, The Urban School, St. Paul’s Episcopal School, and San Francisco Day School, offering individual tutoring and presenting workshops and lectures on diversity and supporting students of color, particularly African-American boys in grades K-12. Since May of 2009, Olds has worked as the co-founder of the Excelsus Foundation, an educational trust actively engaged in narrowing the achievement gap between so-called privileged and less-privileged students, as well as providing extensive academic support and mentoring to African-American boys and girls. Olds and fellow co-founder Willie Adams launched the Excelsus August Institute for African-American Boys in 2009 and conducted the Excelsus Saturday Institute for African-American Boys from January through June 2010. For both, Olds designed curriculum and served as lead instructor. Most recently, Mr. Olds was the history coach for Team MAJITU, a group of eighth-graders sponsored by the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, Inc. for competition in the national “African American History Challenge” at the 24th Annual Conference of the 100 Black Men of America, Inc. in Hollywood, Florida. Olds also presented a workshop for African-American boys in grades 6-12, “What They Think about You; or Becoming Media Literate” at the 2nd Annual Man Up Conference in Oakland, California, on July 24, 2010. In July of 1992, Olds received the Helping Hands Award for Outstanding Young Adult Achievement from A Better Community Development, Inc. of Canton, Ohio, for his work in the ?eld of education. www.excelsusfoundation.com excelsusfoundation@me.com