Phenomena (doo-doo-da-doo-da)
Dec. 29th, 2003 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perzephone
So, in a vain search for the Lovecraft Tarot here in town, Rob & I ended up at Eastern & Serene, in the Wal-Mart shopping center. Just the fact that the shop is in a Wal-Mart shopping center (in Henderson, of course) should have clued us in to the evil that awaited us beyond that smoked-glass door... No incense-fumes greeted us in the parking lot as we opened our car doors. No grungily clad Goths were slouching about. The shop is called Phenomena (doo-doo-de-doo), and it's a happy, shiny kind of place. I immediately started getting nasty flashbacks to some of the New Age shops in California. All glass display stands, angels every-fucking-where... one little collection of Llewellyn insta-witch books... some incense, bath sets, and parakeets busily chirping away, blending melodically with the incessant noises of the fountains... (as if I didn't already have to pee from being out in the cold). It was very well lit. Needless to say, I was terrified.
One vote in favor - el libros en espanol, including one about Santeria. Very multi-culti of them. And they had some hard-to-find stuff, like War Water & Dragonsblood bubble bath (which smelled more like baby shampoo than Dragonsblood). It would have been more in their favor if they'd taken all the "AzureGreen" stickers off everything.
Phenomena (doo-doo-da-doo-da) just really doesn't fit in w/all the other failed & somewhat thriving occult shops here in Vegas. I mean, even when a new Psychic Guy opens they already have that incense-ash-ground-into-the carpet smell, someone managed to dump a bottle of patchouli or sandalwood oil on the floor on opening day, everything was set up w/the dust already on it, none of the lights are working & you can't tell if that pendant is a mood-pendant or a lapis kinda atmosphere. Hell, they didn't even redecorate Bell, Book & Candle when Robin C. took it over - the shelves are all in the same exact places. I think it's even the same 14 or 15 books that never sold when BB&C was run by Lucky.
The Galleria mall (where all fruitless trips to Henderson somehow wind up at) was packed. Why were all those people there, and why couldn't any of them drive?
One vote in favor - el libros en espanol, including one about Santeria. Very multi-culti of them. And they had some hard-to-find stuff, like War Water & Dragonsblood bubble bath (which smelled more like baby shampoo than Dragonsblood). It would have been more in their favor if they'd taken all the "AzureGreen" stickers off everything.
Phenomena (doo-doo-da-doo-da) just really doesn't fit in w/all the other failed & somewhat thriving occult shops here in Vegas. I mean, even when a new Psychic Guy opens they already have that incense-ash-ground-into-the carpet smell, someone managed to dump a bottle of patchouli or sandalwood oil on the floor on opening day, everything was set up w/the dust already on it, none of the lights are working & you can't tell if that pendant is a mood-pendant or a lapis kinda atmosphere. Hell, they didn't even redecorate Bell, Book & Candle when Robin C. took it over - the shelves are all in the same exact places. I think it's even the same 14 or 15 books that never sold when BB&C was run by Lucky.
The Galleria mall (where all fruitless trips to Henderson somehow wind up at) was packed. Why were all those people there, and why couldn't any of them drive?
