AISLE TWENTY SEVEN
by Tony Gervino
Much of my life exists in sub-text. How so? Well, I’m not the kind of person that comes out and declares my true intentions initially, nor have I ever been particularly proficient at communicating what I think or how I feel, if I know that other party won’t be receptive. I used to reason that it was because I didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, but I guess, when you get right down to it I didn’t want to hurt my own feelings or become embarrassed by the rejection of a thought or an idea or whatever. And so I find my way in through the side door and usually get my point across without saying it directly.
(Are we having fun with this blog yet?)
Sneaker Envy
by Alvin Blanco
I’ve always been a Nike man. Whether it was envying my grade-school best friend Terrence’s Nike Air Max (“Oh, snap, you can see the bubble!”) or the glee administered when I finally convinced my mom that springing for a pair of Nike Air Delta Force for her son would exponentially improve his status amongst the fourth-grade set. From that day there was no looking back, whether it was a pair of Doctor K’s Nike baseball cleats for little league, borrowing my friend Bill Woo’s Nike Air Huaraches for a JV game or the near impossible task of keeping my low-top, white-and-red Air Trainers in pristine condition while traipsing around my concrete playground called the Bronx.
Blame the marketability of Michael Jordan. Basketball was my sport, but Air Jordans weren’t in the budget, so the Force collection received the most play on my feet, up until my athletic peak as captain of Horace Mann High School’s boys’ varsity team.
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