In case anyone was currently lacking, here are some doses of heavy irony.
This project reminds me that if I am ever going to be a hip contemporary artist I need to work on my "high concept" and clever pranks. At least they seem like they are having fun:
Ministry of Reshelving puts 1984 in its proper place
Growing up in the Reagan/Bush Sr. presidential block, my earliest political interests were awakened with such shady end of the cold war antics as when ketchup became the only vegetable in my school lunch to help pay for the Star-Wars-Soviet-Zapping-Lasers, and Panama was suddenly invaded with little explanation. Putting things through the perspective of the current White House outlook a history lesson in Bush Sr. CIA trained pragmatism while attempting world domination sure seems like a breath of fresh air. That this article is being pulled from the archives gives the previous link a certain poignancy:
Reasons Not to Invade Iraq, by George Bush Sr.
Here is the latest long winded rant by my favourite angry editorialist. This is a topic artists (particularly with photography) have been documenting in places like Los Angeles and Chicago for decades. I will see if I can find some good images:
One Happy Big-Box Wasteland
7 comments:
Wow, that Mark Morford article rocks!
Also, I remember this happening while we were in Chicago. I could think of at least five family restraints with real character in the Loop and North Side that closed down during our time at The School. It's sad to think that art students can't go to The Farris Wheel for lunch anymore and have to settle for Panda Express instead. How inspiring!
But car culture has given us great things like roadside attractions, drive-ins, theme parks and pre-fab diners!
I have a pet theory that Wal-mart exists because of our gasoline subsidies. And if the gasoline price reflected its real value, they couldn't pull off all of this distribution on demand bullshit.
That said, I think the social structures and goals of pre-strip mall America are completely outmoded. Of course everyone is going to pine for some long lost sense of community.
I'm not saying a strip mall society is sustainable or beneficial. It's just the latest in a long line of exploitative structures. After it's gone, there'll be another, and it will probably be worse.
Remember the scary dungeon under the Ferris Wheel? To go to the bathroom you had to descend a long, narrow stair behind the lunch counter. Then you had to go past the dimly lit, but loud, kitchen and another 50 feet.
The bathroom at Pete's Diner, at Fullerton & Halsted, was nested between a video slot machine and a pile of raw meat.
I think the best food in the Loop, cheap food that is, was Harrison's Snack Shop down by Columbia. It seems to me they had weird hours though.
Do you remember the Ronnie's on State & Randolph that had life-size plastic palm trees and safari animals painted on the walls?
That's character!
I disagree with you that the social structures of pre strip-mall America are outmoded or that the search for another model is simply romanticism for a lost era. From speaking to a variety of people from all walks of life I have found that this phenomenon is quite often ill received, though in many places of the US we are forced to participate for lack of alternatives. People flee before this onslaught on the psyche to the last hidden corners of the country and protests arise in urban centers when the mega-franchise closes down the local diner or cafe. People with a bit of criteria make decisions about where they will drink a cup of coffee or have a sandwich the world over based on this sense of quality in spite of the spectre of shiny mass-marketing. What appears to be lacking is exactly the criteria to make these decisions. If a preference for food that does not give me indigestion for three days or architecture that is more inspiring than that available at the local thematic shopping center is outmoded than I better look more seriously into moving to a hidden island republic or getting out past Jupiter.
No, no, I wasn't saying that trying to live outside the strip-mall society is innane Romanticism. I was just saying that lots of grown-ups try to fight sprawl by trying to model the alternatives off of the Norman Rockwell world of their youths. That small town model isn't viable, nor was it ever completely true. Also, the old lynch-pins like parishes and the 4H can't really help with community building anymore. They especially don't apply to me, I'm an atheistic non-farmer.
As for urban areas, I think a lot of the strip-mall type development is people importing suburban tastes.
What I think's going to happen is that the sprawls will only stop growing after gasoline reaches some obscene price.
Good articles, by the way, it's just that the one on sprawl brings up such a complicated issue. One that encompases the entirety of the US's material culture.
"I'm an atheistic non-farmer."
That should be your campaign slogan when you run for county commissioner.
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