Yearlong Song Challenge, Day 164: Sunny

Prompt: "The least appropriate song to play at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade"

Selected by Sunny

"Black Balloon"

Goo Goo Dolls

Dizzy Up the Girl, 1998

I'm still tickled by Nate imagining Marge from The Simpsons shopping at Burlington (formerly Coat Factory). 

Hard to believe Macy's is a 150+ yr old company still around. And by "hard to believe," I mean "of course these old dinosaurs are still stomping around hosting PARADES." Macy's even owns the Wanamaker building in Philly—one old department store eaten by another. It's like that marine mammal educational video game from elementary school on the computer, where you take the role of a fish and eat other fish (or avoid getting eaten)—that's what business is like in modern America... self: earmark this sentence clause for a future writing bit about video games.

What the fuck am I talking about? It's "hard to believe" because in a country where it's so obvious that so many people are struggling for so much that a clothier who sells generally overpriced goods still has a customer base big enough to host parades. 150 years ago, things probably were "tough," but economic insecurity didn't exist quite like today, and in the boom of the 20th century a clothier could get so fat to host massive parades. But of course the castle is crumbling. Look at Macy's quarterly performance versus, say, an off-price retailer like TJ Maxx or the Burlington Co. America is a people, a place, a capital most of all. We reflect our internal state via our commercial architecture. We don't know any other way to self-express.

Still, I like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and will enjoy Hoda getting wasted talking about it Thursday. It'll be sad when Macy's finally kicks it.

P.S. I vividly remember every humiliation of my life. In high school, I once confused Jon Bon Jovi for John Rzeznik and I was appropriately disciplined. Know, world, I won't make such a mistake again.

P.P.S. Shoutout to that comment discussion a few weeks back on I Think You Should Leave skits. The "sewed into the Charlie Brown float," if not the best skit, is a good chuckle.