Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Friday, April 29, 2005
I go mostly for the A/C and coming attractions anyway
Hey, MickeyZ -
I wanted to revisit your (brilliant) closing remark from yesterday’s front page:
“Another day in the coast-to-coast mall we call “the land of the free.”I’ve driven across the US many times, but one trip, in particular, was most memorable. In 1976, I drove from Schenectady, New York, to Berkeley, Calif., alone. It was a strange, wonderful and sometimes frightening experience.
Being alone, I had only the road and environs to pay attention to. It was like passing through various alternate realities. I’m not talking only about environment / terrain, but about the people and weird structures and odd, isolated little towns, and truck stops and cafes and shops and gas stations. Everything changing, everything new and wonderfully weird, every few hundred miles. I often had to stop and take a deep breath before getting out of the car, I felt so much an alien. Generally, people and situations were welcoming and generous and exhilarating. Sometimes, however, they were very hostile, very scary. In any case, the trip was rich and vibrant and consistently astounding…
Well, in Sept. of 2003, my wife and I drove to Grants Pass, Oregon, from Schenectady, New York. Similar routes, at times. Similar distance traveled. However, aside from the environment / terrain, which remains awesome --- it was just ALL one, endless, bland, “every shopping district in America,” journey. The same fast food outlets sat alongside the same warehouse stores alongside the same gas station mini marts alongside the same eyewear shops in the same strip malls which sat behind Barnes and Noble or Borders which usually housed a Starbucks, which was down the block from Wal Mart, a block south of Home Depot, north of Staples.
Even amidst the most alien landscapes or populations, the old, familiar Corporate Insipid smiled out at us - inoffensively, of course - from every corner. The people, too, had become bleached and bland and homogenized, somehow, as if body-snatched by millions of WonderBread commercials. There were, virtually, no surprises. No surprises - what a dreadful surprise! It was like witnessing a sort of continental post-mortem on an inconceivably large scale.
Of course - for now, at least, there are still surprises left in other countries.
For now.Posted by joe on from grants pass 04/29 at 02:32 PMThanks, Joe. My friend Rich has been hosting a discussion on this topic here: http://xsorbit26.com/users5/transcend/index.php?PHPSESSID=3472e213dd54db1cf0dbeedca7bfe750&board=12.0
You might wanna join in…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/29 at 05:49 PM
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