Upfront (Ottawa's independent news, music, art, culture magazine)

   The holidays are here! Exciting stuff if you're not a full time curmudgeon. This year nobody is getting shit from me. It's not that I can't afford it, in fact I can probably better afford it now than at any other time in my existence. No, the truth is nobody is getting shit because everyone has disappointed me this year.
   Twelve months of too few smiles and too many headaches has your stockings coming up coal laden. Sure some nice things have happened but they've been routinely followed by a breath obliterating sock to the gut. Raising hopes strictly to dash them has been the mantra of all those snivelling, conspiring ghouls which I seem to attract like locusts.
   Looking over my New Year's resolutions from last year I have had one success and the rest have been devastating failures. I quit smoking, which in turn made my resolution to be nicer to others impossible. It's amazing just how disappointing others can be when your not looking through nicotine coloured goggles. Even my new found taste buds have done nothing but disappoint. Everything, it seems, tastes like shit.
   This year my resolutions all involve starting from scratch. This shouldn't be difficult for someone who owns this computer and a mattress. I could move across the country on a train and not have to give up any of my life's luxuries. I'm also judge others with the same harshness that I usually reserve for myself. Sure I'm a loser but so too are you. I'm purging my life of disappointing people, heartbreaking sports teams, hollow sexual encounters (this one may not be self inflicted) and polyester. It's been eight months or so since I quit smoking so I can't use that as a crutch and excuse for loathing anymore. It's time to cut ties with everyone and everything and see what a clean slate brings.
   I encourage all of you to give up on things you used to love this year. Sure my life is a hollow vacuous capsule without cigarettes but I've embraced this emptiness and I've allowed my cup of hatred to boil over. And over all it feels great to sit and judge, arms crossed like a giant disapproval genie knowing that nothing you do or say can make me smile. And absolutely no action you undertake will result in a material token of my gratitude. No this year you all disappointed me as much as I usually disappoint you.

Screw You,

Derrick Ruston

 

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