Survival Of The Fittest

Violet nodded. Radiohead was always a good choice, if a safe one. The fact that their records almost never, in her own experience, were moved over to the sale bin did not discourage her from checking to see just in case. Though she came up empty handed, she did not come up discouraged; she knew that there was likely to be at least one or two albums in her price range waiting in the band's dedicated section a few aisles away. She moved wordlessly over to where she remembered they usually were, her memory rewarded by their sustained presence right where they belonged. Rigid with suspense, she flipped through to check if there was something she could buy for Sean.

What she wanted, more than anything, was a recent issue. Something with a download code for MP3s, just in case Sean didn't have a record player at all. The ten-inch versions of Kid A and Amnesiac, while cheap, wouldn't do for just that reason. She'd prefer to start him off with OK Computer anyways, but the new remaster of that album had driven the price up a good ten dollars. Pablo Honey? Skip. Then, the last one they had was...

She looked at the album for a few moments. It fell within her price range, but was she really going to start him off with this one? It was probably, like, her third least favorite Radiohead album, all things considered. Granted, there was a huuuge power gap between Pablo Honey and her second least favorite, but, still. Not for beginners, but, Sean had asked. Plus, it rocked pretty hard at times. Maybe that'd be a bit further up Sean's alley than any of the other ones?

There wasn't any way to figure that out other than to just show it to him. She held up the album and showed him the cover.

"Hail To The Thief," she said, holding the album out gingerly for him to take and look at and faun over and, shucks, she hoped he liked it, she really did.

Sean followed silently as Violet made her way to radiohead dedicated section and started looking. He didn't know what to do as he stood there and waited behind, but admit it was creating an anticipation within him. The way she was looking and thinking of which to take as an example for him. Made it feel a bit special.

He felt a bit bad about it though, gifts usually did that for him. He knew in a way it was silly to think like that as it was a gift, but in an other way, he felt he owed them. Once he got enough money, he wil pay her back. Hopefully soon too.

It was then she found it and held it up infont of him. Hail to the Thief she said as he looked over the jumbled mess the cover was. A whole bunch of words in spaces, probably with some deep meaning behind it above it was a small caption with the album name surrounded by blue. It was eyecatching for sure.

His right hand made way to it as he gingerly felt the cover. "It looks unique." His finger moved and stopped over the caption of it's name before moving to the side and taking a hold of it. "What's the meaning behind the name?" He's heard it before. Something political maybe?

"A lot of people seem to think that it was their reaction against Bush being elected the first time," Violet said, "but Thom Yorke, the lead singer, was a bit cagey about it in interviews and the like."

She let him take it and hold it in his hands for a little while, noticing how his eyes were drawn to the artwork. "Those are individual words from billboards around L.A., if I remember correctly. The cover artist, Stanley Donwood, did the art for, like, all of their albums. Except the first one, but we don't really talk about the first one."

His expression was a little hard to read. Was he confused? Had anyone bought him a gift like this before? Or was the artwork unappealing? Offensive? Maybe he actually liked Bush? All sorts of questions danced around inside her head, but she knew that thinking too hard on any of them wouldn't be too productive. Miscommunication was a no-no. It'd be best to just ask if he liked it.

So, she did.

"Do you like it?"

Just like that. No extra trivia necessary.

"Ah, I see." He said quietly to himself as he looked back at it. So he was right, it was political and of course, if it was around that time it would be about the Bush administration. It gave musicians so much ammo regarding politics, it was crazy. Hell, one could say the same about today...

She said the cover was of several signs as well from around L.A? Could that mean themes about commercials and advertisements. Making a big point about that as well as the political themes? Sean would admit he's not someone who's particularly invested in politics or knowledgeable about it, but it was always interesting fodder for musicians play off of if they didn't get overbearing with it.

That was a common thing with these kinds of bands and probably a part of the reason people liked them. As far as he knew anyway.

He heard her ask him something as he looked up from the cover and at her. A simple question with a yes or no answer, did he like it? Well, the cover was intriguing, there was apparent interesting themes on it, if he was to judge by name and cover and they had the vouching from someone who seemed to know their shit.

So yeah, in a way he could say that he did.

"Yeah, I do! I look forward to hearing it."

That was all Violet needed to hear. She smiled again, and started to walk over to the front counter. Sean trailed behind her a few paces, but managed to catch up with her by the time she had reached the front counter. The cashier rang it up and made some small talk about the album that went something like

"Oh hey have you seen that alternate track-list Thom Yorke made for this album after its release where he cut four of the songs off and changed things around a lot?"

to which Violet replied something to the tune of

"Yes but putting 2+2=5 as anything other than the first song slot is a criminal offense so his opinion is discarded."

The cashier smiled, and faintly nodded, knowing that he had been bested on the battlefield of music trivia. A new bond, formed. Hipster street cred, attained. Confusion in the ears of literally everyone else in the store, spread. Maybe if Violet ever decided to get a job, she'd look for one at the record store, but she doubted that they'd be hiring any time soon. The cashier asked if she wanted a bag for the album, and Violet agreed. Sudden downpours had caught her off-guard before, and she wasn't in the mood to let that happen ever again. She also asked for a receipt, in case it turned out that the album had some kind of defect. The cashier put the receipt in the bag next to the record and handed her all of the items dutifully, and in turn Violet handed them over delicately to Sean.

"Here you go," she said excitedly, "It's all yours."

Violet gave him a smile before making her way to front counter. He assumed it wasn't every day you could get someone to listen to your type of music, lord knows Sean had to fight that battle a few times at school. At home he never bothered, it was just noise there. Too many times people don't respect the musicianship that goes into making these albums, if it doesn't sound like pop farted out by a record company then it ain't worth it to them.

Sean stood behind her as she paid and made small talk with the cashier regarding the album which flew over his head. He mulled over this, apparantly there was a different version of this album? He would have to look into this. It could be important for the message or concept they were running for it. He was used to those kinds of albums, but not with politics in mind. That was more of a punk thing really.

His mulling was over once Violet turned with a bag in her hands, outstretched to Sean. He looked down on the bag and then came the full realisation that it was his. He now owned an album. An actual physical album. He took hold of it and looked back at Violet with a huge smile.

"Thanks! I'll pay you back for this, I promise."

Violet shook her head and grinned like an idiot.

"You don't owe me anything," she said calmly, "other than finding me at lunch after you listen to it and telling me what you think, okay?"

With that, Violet turned to exit the store. In an ideal world, she'd have some kind of superhero cape billowing in the wind behind her, casting a formidable shadow; the shadow of justice. Pretentiousness, too, but a world where people didn't know Radiohead could hardly be considered a just world at all in her eyes. When she got home, she'd have to throw on her own copy of the record and get a little refresher. Maybe causality would play in her favor and sync up her listen of the album with Sean's. Gosh, that would be a treat.

She opened the store door, and looked back at Sean.

"Seeya 'round," she said, with one last smile and wave.

Then, she stepped out into the warm sunlight and floated home.

[Violet Schmidt continued elsewhere.]

It was weird to think that a day he went out on a whim to avoid his mother had somehow ended up with him getting something out of it and it was thanks to the wonderful person standing in front of him. He knew Violet was cool from conversation and stuff, Being pretty chill and all. Hell, this was the first time he'd seen her get that excited so that was nice.

She told him he didn't owe her anything, but he knew that he did. Thanks to her, he's got the first taste in his life for a record in a physical format and trying out a band he wouldn't normally have, but she had convinced him and she bought it for him, so regardless of what was said. It was owed.

"Cya!" He said to the retreating form of Violet as she ventured out the store before returning his attention to his record. Now he just needed to know what to do when he got home with it outside of letting it be on his shelf forever.

At least one spin before that.

[[Sean Leibowitz continued in The Plan Unfolds]]