Sunday, December 30, 2007

Caption This 51


Please caption this image
London, ON, January 2007 [Click to embiggen]

Here in the Great White North, gullible consumers increasingly buy their electronics at big box stores staffed by undertrained folks who know as much about computers as I know about llama breeding. Future Shop is quite likely the worst of the bunch.

This outlet closed barely seven years after it opened because it was so successful at ripping off the populace that they built a new, much larger one just down the road. The storefront that remained struck me as a stark reminder of the forgettable landscape we seem to have created for ourselves.

Your turn: How would you caption this image? Suggest as many captions as you wish: I encourage this sort of behavior. I'll announce the winner next week - which, incidentally, marks a year since this whole Caption This madness began. Yay!

About last week's image of a simple door lock: Too many great suggestions to count, but in the end I had to pick one. That would be SPWriter's gem: "No more sleepwalking outside in the nude, Louise."
Many honorable mentions to bestow this week:
  • BreadBox: "The barn door after the horse has bolted (it)."
  • Rashbre: "Bolt your door, but not your mind."
  • Kenju: "Lock of Ages."
  • Omykiss: "Latched on."
  • Joan: "I need a little peace."
  • Robin: "Temptation."
  • Sister AE: "Safe." and "A false sense of security."
  • SPWriter: "Slide. Home safe."
  • JC: "One way."
A special thanks to Robin and Steve (SPWriter) for their regular and frequent submissions. Their active participation represents, in my view, the best spirit of Caption This. It's what I had in mind when I started this thing at the beginning of 2007, and I'm so glad to see the caption bug catching on. Thanks to you both - and for everyone who jumps in - for keeping this thing fun.

41 comments:

Sai Hijara - Ferraris said...

Happy new year to you and your loved ones!

Cheers to a wonderful 2008!

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

hey carmi, its been a long time...hope all's well with you and your family......i intend to catch up with the old posts after i 'm done commenting on this post.....my caption ......."Spend (today) and God will send (in future)!"

here's wishing you and yours a beautiful new year ahead :)

Anonymous said...

Carmi,

Why, thanks for your kind words!

What I appreciate most about your "Caption This" is the ability to offer several thoughts...it makes it more fun for your readers IF they can't decide...and they're the type whose mind unravels into a thousand threads...

apparently like Steve's ;).

(and mind to a less-brilliant degree...'nother wink).

I'll get back with ya when my mind's on full coffee and wide awake for this week's.

spwriter said...

Carmi - thanks for the nod and the nice words. I needed a silver lining in what has been one of the darkest weeks of my 48 years. And on that note, I'll leave you with a caption suggestion for the new pic (rife with multiple meanings):

Future imperfect.

Anne said...

There's no future in the past.

craziequeen said...

The Future Will One Day be Past

Just pulled that out of my head.

Hope you like it, my fiend.

cq

Dak-Ind said...

happy New Year Carmi!

without reading your words, my first thoughts were:

"the Future is closed... it wasnt worth buying"

"the future has moved... no forwarding address"

of course after i read your explaination, neither of those captions are fitting.

WE Speak said...

The Future has come and gone

Chris Holt said...

Hey Carmi - we deal with this kind of crap over at my blog all the time. Greyfields are littering Windsor, with 2 Walmarts, 1 Canadian Tire, 1 Future Shop and a Home Depot to top things off all closing up their doors and moving out to the middle of some farm field in the boondocks.

"They Shopped 'Till They Dropped"

Hope you like you cars, folks, 'cause you're going to be spending a ton of time in them. And that McCrap that we're all buying at these McStores? We could cover our eyes and walk into each other's houses and not be able to tell where the heck we are. We're getting more monotonous by the minute.

Just found your blog and will be checking it out a little more in depth. I like what I see so far...

Chris
www.scaledown.ca

Linda said...

Future Shop - out of business, no future to be seen....

Anonymous said...

"An example of why Written Inc. has been nominated in the 'Best Photo/Art Blog' category of the Canadian Blog Awards."

see: http://cdnba.wordpress.com/nominate/best-photoart-blog/

kenju said...

I'll have to give that one some more thought, Carmi. Happy New Year to you and Morah Mommy, and thanks for the mention.

sister AE said...

I'll have to think about this one, and thanks again for the honorable mention, but I want to make sure that Robin gets credit for "a false sense of security" because it wasn't me.

sister AE
at
Having Writ

Anna said...

Or NOT! :)

Hi Carmi! Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Internet killed the Future Shop star!

Hey Carmi! I'm back and I'm blogging! I've been peeking in on you and your shinanigans despite my absence. I hope you and yours have the happiest and most prosperous New Year! Come visit if you get a sec!

rashbre said...

We can always make a better future. Happy 2008.
Regards, rashbre

sage said...

Happy New Year Carmi! Love that pic--maybe a caption: "nothing that's new remain's that way"

Oh, I've been meaning to ask you about Llama breeding...

Lee Ann said...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Have a wonderful 2008!
~xo
Lee Ann

Anonymous said...

The Once and Future Store

Did I blink?

Is this the reverse of "everything old is new again?"

They should have seen that coming, no?

Unknown said...

"The Future's bright...



The staff arent"


We have the same in PC World in the UK sales staff trained to be as moronic as possibly its a skill I tell ya

Happy New Year to you and your family sir

I hope 2008 is your most succesful and brightest to date

L

Chad Oneil Myers said...

Hey Carmi! Happy New Year to you and your family, bro.

Lori said...

Blessings to you and your family in 2008, Carmi! Your blog was a wonderful find in 2007...

Caption: "Forgotten Future"

or..."Future No More"

P.S. (I like anne's!)

Carolyn said...

"Future Shop. We Specialize in Antiques."

Happy '08 to you and your family, Carmi!

Omykiss said...

Coming to your street soon ....

Anonymous said...

Future Tense

Little shop of horrors

So THIS is where they sell flux capacitors!

Obsolescence in waiting

Smoke and Mirrors

HAL's favorite place to shop

(thanks Sister AE ;) )

awareness said...

The Future's Gone Fishing....


The Future's Not so Bright After All.....

Who Turned off the Lights of Future?

And as the sun set over the Mcstore horizon, the last dimwit tripped over the switch and darkened the future.

Happy New Year Carmi to you and your beautiful family.

Unknown said...

Ghost of the Future.

I've been lurking for a while :), and finally have thought of a suitable caption! I love reading your blog!

Bobkat said...

Just dropping by to wish you and your family a very Happy New Year!

As for a comment...hmmm... how about "The shape of things to come?"

Anonymous said...

There's another caption floating around my brain, one I can't quite seem to nail down. The first thought I had when I saw your picture was of Disney World's "Tomorrowland". The futuristic ideas Walt had 40 years ago, as fleshed out in Tomorrowland, have the same feel as this photo--kind of kitschy, at one time innovative, but in the end, obsolete...in so many ways not measuring up to reality.

If I figure out how to brevitize THAT, I'll be back with another caption...:).

(btw, I finished my "100 Things" and again, hat tipped you with thanks for providing the motivation to write such a list.)

Tiel Aisha Ansari said...

It's New Year: good time for my first contribution to Caption This!

"Where the Future is always for sale"

"Future Shop: No Presents"

"Future Shop: For those who don't have one"

"You can't buy anything here yet"

"Coming Soon"

Rainbow dreams said...

my heads blank... maybe that says it all about those kind of stores - to me they lack soul... but thats no excuse I just haven't got a caption in my brain right now...
Happy New Year to you and your family, Katie, x

Anonymous said...

Trading Spaces

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys

Today's treasures, tomorrow's trash

Dude...because PCs are, so, WAAAAYYY better than Macs...

The Emperor's New Clothes

Blinded by the might

Toys R Us

We're expecting a shipment...tomorrow...

Maura said...

The shadow of future past.

I'm sorry I've missed this, but I'll be looking forward to participating now! :)

spwriter said...

[Slow down Robin...I can't keep up! Here are a few more...]

"Here tomorrow, gone today"

"Everything Must Go!"

"Sign of the times"

"A mere shadow of its former self"

"The un-forseeable future"

"The future is unwritten"

"Future schlock"

"The future ain't what it used to be"

"A bleak future"

Nestor Family said...

Oooh... this type of thing irks me!!! I hate it when a chain store opens a new, bigger one down the road and leaves an empty shell behind to waste away!!! (i.e. Wal-Mart in Iowa City, IA... I'm pissed at that one in particular!!!)

Pretty soon there will be such a thing as SUB-urban renewal. How sad!

(Sorry... no caption idea... but good photo to start the conversation!)

utenzi said...

"The Future is now closed. Please leave in single file. No pushing, no shoving."

Happy New Year, Carmi!

BreadBox said...

Past Imperfect

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year, my friend.

I've just discovered the w00t-y goodness that is Google Reader. where is your rss feed thingy so that I can add you?

and why am I not in your blogroll? ;)

Snaggle Tooth said...

Future Shopping is closed until further notice. You couldn't afford it anyway!

Happy Year!
Good luck picking one, so many good ones in here!
Oracle make me laugh first-

Anonymous said...

It was suppose to be a Posh Future!

Sara said...

The Future is so Passe