A friend of Maria's wanted us to purchase and ship her a stylish bag... or a fine-but-cheap approximation of such stylish bag. So it was off to Downtown's Santee Alley on Saturday.
It had been a while since our last trek to the fashion district -- in that case, to purchase fake Kate Spade bags, natch. Apparently Santee Alley's pretty up on the trends, because nary a "Fake Spade" was in sight this go-round. Replacing it were plenty of updated knock-offs (and take-offs of Louis Vuitton bags, which I'm sure are perennial favorites).
Other popular items right now on Santee Alley: Generic batteries designed to look like Duracells; knock-off "Yu-Gi-Oh" action figures; bags with letters of the alphabet sown on the side; and purses featuring an Elvis Presley TV Guide cover on the side. Of course, as Maria noted, vendors are still hawking colored contact lenses. Apparently fake eyes never go out of style.
Walking to grab a coffee as Maria haggled the right price for her bag, I spied several vendors hawking bootleg DVDs on the sidewalk.
But apparently I look like enough of a narc that the vendors quickly covered their ware and scampered away as I approached.
This happened several times. Do I really come off as a spy from the MPAA? Or... "The Man"? (Psst... Jack: I did manage to glimpse a few copies of "Cold Mountain," among other recent releases for sale. Go get 'em.)
Hell, with Billy Tauzin out of the running, maybe I ought to let the MPAA know I'm available. Apparently the perks aren't bad (among the things Tauzin negotiated, then passed on: An apartment in New York, country club membership and fees for the lawyers who negotiated for him).
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