Sure, you're probably thinking that I'm the type of urban sophisto who writes reviews on Yelp, and…read moreyou're probably also thinking about how cool I am and possibly wondering was I always this cool, or did it take me lots of practice?
Alas, no, I was not always this cool. If you could only have seen me circa 2000/2001, when I used to go around in my Slipknot hoodie, no doubt listening to a Korn CD on my new-fangled discman. O, halcyon days.
My relationship with thrash metal did not last terribly long (I just couldn't relate to all of the angst, for then as I now I was possessed of a sunny dispostion), but for the duration of that particular affectation, you could be sure to find me most Saturdays in Asha in Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.
Asha is the only shop in Dublin dedicated exclusively to moper nonsense (and I'm not forgetting about St George's St arcade; that is for when the goths graduate to emo-dom).
Asha is full of t-shirts, posters, stickers, badges, bracelets and teenagers going through their 'awkward' phase, essentially everything that you need to be cock-of-the-walk when you're hanging around outside the Central Bank, giving out about how awful your parents are because they won't let you get a Jim Morrison tattoo.
Going into Asha was always an insructive experience, because apart from selling goth accessories, they also sell cannabis paraphernalia. And pot, beloved not only of mopers, is also enjoyed by scobes, so Asha is the only place in Dublin where these two disparate cultures are likely to interact on a regular basis. Go to Asha one day, sidle up to one of the stripy-jumper-sovereign ring-kids and tell him "I just heard that hippy over there slagging Bob Marley".
Oh, what fun.