Let me just paraphrase a few scenes, not necessarily taken from the 1991 film, Scenes From A Mall, directed by Paul Mazursky. Remember that movie wherein a Los Angeles psychotherapist (Bette Midler) and a sports lawyer (Woody Allen) reveal the innards, dirty linen and all, of their shallow, inconvenient marriage at a trendy mall?

Here are some random thoughts brewing in my mind as I sit idly, legs-crossed, like, ehem, Woody Allen would, waiting for the family to finish shopping, trying to fight afternoon drowsiness at this university mall in Quezon City:

People have yet to overcome their fear of watching movies in the cinema. I hear that in many cases, screenings are shown to as little as 3 to 5 people in the audience only. If only one ticket is sold, management cancels the screening.

Nine out of 10 people walking around, men and women alike, are wearing rubber shoes.

Just as many people wear denim pants (maong). Most of the men, if not all of them, including myself, wear shorts.

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Shoe stores are booming. There’s just too many of them sprouting everywhere.

Practically every one still wears masks, removing them only when they eat. The majority are not convinced they should be without masks in public.

There are fewer bottles of alcohol at the entrances of shops that allow customers free sanitation. At the height of the pandemic, they used to be everywhere.

A good number of mall goers, especially women and young girls, are either obese, overweight, or on the verge.

Young girls like to display their bodies wearing sexy clothes, next to nothing.

There are now shops that specialize in fixing, trimming, thickening your eyebrows. Will they design pubic hair next?

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Dogs will soon take over malls from humans. A dog bark rises above the cacophony of voices, the noise, clutter, and clatter of daily scenes at the mall. Watch out for potential rabies carriers, just as scary as the dreaded Covid-19.

Stray cats are welcome at Ayala malls. But, don’t feed them, goes a warning.

Book stores have downsized, if they haven’t closed down altogether. The biggest and oldest one has retained just one tiny shelf for text books, sells only office supplies.

Coffee shops no longer carry newspapers and periodicals. What a shame!

It’s so much more practical to buy a cup of coffee at any fast food restaurant, where the price of a cup is, but a fraction of those sold in any of those “designer” coffee houses. The taste of coffee is the taste of coffee.

Young people crowd coffee shops, where iced coffee or so-called artisan coffee is their drink of choice. Hot coffee is for the oldies.

The same young people delay family dining for a few hungry minutes while they take pictures of food before they are consumed. The world needs to see what they’re eating, drinking, wearing, buying, selling, outing, anything and everything.

Children as young as 3 years old can navigate through cell phones and tablets, and are more technologically savvy than this 100-year-old passerby who thinks he’s been there, done that.

(nescuar@yahoo.com)

Source: Manila Bulletin (https://mb.com.ph/2022/10/20/moviegoer-scenes-from-a-mall/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=moviegoer-scenes-from-a-mall)