My Trip to the Left Bank
Santana Row is a funny place. Walking through it, you get only a small glimpse at the type of people that flock there on the weekends, and really every other day of the week too. Walking through it you can see some funny people trying really hard to impress people-but like you, you just assume they are walking from one place to another, and with purpose. But if you actually seat yourself, and remain a stationary observer, you get to see things that are not only hilarious, but borderline crazy.
On Sunday, July 10th, I gathered with some coworker friends of mine for drinks and dinner at the Left Bank-a somewhat snooty, though not nearly as snooty as other places on the Row, restaurant. We were seated outside right next to the main road through Santana Row. As far as San Jose people watching, there is hardly a better place to position yourself. First, let's talk about the people. People walking through Santana Row, when viewed while walking, seem purpose driven. But when you are stationary, you can see that the only purpose walking serves them, is to be seen. They will stop for no reason-and if you actually look at them, if you're me anyway, will give you a look that says-"Even though I want people to look at me, why in the fuck are you looking at me?" Could it be that you have gigantic fake breasts falling out of your not so gigantic shirt? Or is that you happened to stop in my eyeline? Who knows. I do know that the kind of people they want looking at them, are not me. Another interesting thing that Santana Row has going for it is the joggers. Though really just a mall, the fact that Santana Row is outside gives it the unique ability to entertain people who like to jog in insanely crowded places. I saw the same guy, in the shortest shorts, twice in about 15 minutes, indicating to me that he was making pretty good time. But the main thing to realize when people watching in Santana Row is that everything is a trophy to these people-be it there dogs, their children, or their breasts-they are all being carted around to get attention and hope that the right kind of people glance at you and wish, if even for just a moment, that their lives were half as good as theirs. But if you're me-they really just want you to stop staring at their cleavage.
But perhaps the greates thing about Santana Row are the cars. My assumption of cars was that they were used for getting from point A to point B as effortlessly as possible. But I was wrong. The point of your car at The Row, is to have people look at your car, and again, hope to lead the kind of life that can get you one of those cars. But the kind of cars that get paraded around there are not super cars, or cars that are out of reach to the common man. They are new Mustangs, Corvettes, H2's, etc. The same red Corvette passed our table 5 times in 10 minutes. He was just doing circles around Santana Row-and I know he wasn't having trouble finding parking-because to do that, he would have had to have been out of sight in the parking garage. No-he was just driving around in circles trying to impress the bystanders of Santana Row. But these kinds of cars, while not cheap, are not expensive, in the sense of being cars. 85,000 dollars might be a lot-but there are cars that are way more expensive than that. And it is these cars that feel they have to show off the most-the cars that need to take the laps. The super cars, now these guys know how to show off. The nicest car I saw on Sunday, was a brand new, silver Lamborghini Murcielago. And all this guy had to do, was drive past once, at a reasonable speed-and without loud music, or having to look around to make sure people are watching, or without revving an engine-and his car was burned into the memories of all that saw it. The guy who dropped 250,000 on his car, has nothing to prove to anyone-the guy who dropped 65,000 on his car, really needs that constant reassurance that the money he spent was worth it.
Santana Row cracks me up, and if you get the chance to go and sit there and watch the constant parade of people out to prove their with to humanity, then for the love of God, go! We sat and had drinks for 3 hours, and while the conversation was entertaining-it was the people that we saw that made this evening hilarious. I hope it made you smile.
On Sunday, July 10th, I gathered with some coworker friends of mine for drinks and dinner at the Left Bank-a somewhat snooty, though not nearly as snooty as other places on the Row, restaurant. We were seated outside right next to the main road through Santana Row. As far as San Jose people watching, there is hardly a better place to position yourself. First, let's talk about the people. People walking through Santana Row, when viewed while walking, seem purpose driven. But when you are stationary, you can see that the only purpose walking serves them, is to be seen. They will stop for no reason-and if you actually look at them, if you're me anyway, will give you a look that says-"Even though I want people to look at me, why in the fuck are you looking at me?" Could it be that you have gigantic fake breasts falling out of your not so gigantic shirt? Or is that you happened to stop in my eyeline? Who knows. I do know that the kind of people they want looking at them, are not me. Another interesting thing that Santana Row has going for it is the joggers. Though really just a mall, the fact that Santana Row is outside gives it the unique ability to entertain people who like to jog in insanely crowded places. I saw the same guy, in the shortest shorts, twice in about 15 minutes, indicating to me that he was making pretty good time. But the main thing to realize when people watching in Santana Row is that everything is a trophy to these people-be it there dogs, their children, or their breasts-they are all being carted around to get attention and hope that the right kind of people glance at you and wish, if even for just a moment, that their lives were half as good as theirs. But if you're me-they really just want you to stop staring at their cleavage.
But perhaps the greates thing about Santana Row are the cars. My assumption of cars was that they were used for getting from point A to point B as effortlessly as possible. But I was wrong. The point of your car at The Row, is to have people look at your car, and again, hope to lead the kind of life that can get you one of those cars. But the kind of cars that get paraded around there are not super cars, or cars that are out of reach to the common man. They are new Mustangs, Corvettes, H2's, etc. The same red Corvette passed our table 5 times in 10 minutes. He was just doing circles around Santana Row-and I know he wasn't having trouble finding parking-because to do that, he would have had to have been out of sight in the parking garage. No-he was just driving around in circles trying to impress the bystanders of Santana Row. But these kinds of cars, while not cheap, are not expensive, in the sense of being cars. 85,000 dollars might be a lot-but there are cars that are way more expensive than that. And it is these cars that feel they have to show off the most-the cars that need to take the laps. The super cars, now these guys know how to show off. The nicest car I saw on Sunday, was a brand new, silver Lamborghini Murcielago. And all this guy had to do, was drive past once, at a reasonable speed-and without loud music, or having to look around to make sure people are watching, or without revving an engine-and his car was burned into the memories of all that saw it. The guy who dropped 250,000 on his car, has nothing to prove to anyone-the guy who dropped 65,000 on his car, really needs that constant reassurance that the money he spent was worth it.
Santana Row cracks me up, and if you get the chance to go and sit there and watch the constant parade of people out to prove their with to humanity, then for the love of God, go! We sat and had drinks for 3 hours, and while the conversation was entertaining-it was the people that we saw that made this evening hilarious. I hope it made you smile.
posted by Matt Lemos @ 10:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home