Truesday: It Is Useless To Resist

I'm nostalgic for when I was nostalgic about places that weren't businesses.

I want to fuck your rationality. In the face.

Never stepped foot in the Armadillo, and I readily admit to that. But Electric Lounge, LL, and (dear lord) Proteus/Mirage/Icon/Ohms/Abratto's/Atomic Cafe/Faces/Planet Austin... I wouldn't go so far as to label any of that last group worthy of any pedestals, but they are certainly pieces of Austin nightlife history.

Money tends to gravitate toward 'safe'. If no one's paying attention, 'safe' tends to be characterized solely as 'predictable'. Which is the cornerstone of... whoa... homogeny. But it doesn't have to be predictable to be safe. Lots of interesting and experimental shit is just as 'safe' as the homogenous version. Which is, I think, the different-ness many of these 'homogenous' examples are trying to portray. Perhaps even sincerely so (with sharks, rhino horns, off-street parking, and... convenient location near the Convention Center, I guess).

But it ends up being 'experimental' in the same way that TGI Fridays was 'experimental' with their Jack Daniels-tainted menu items. Most would simply call it gimmicks, and leave it at that. Which is fine I suppose, but it's still homogeny.

I'm open to being wrong here. And in many ways, I hope I am. Maybe all the money'd efforts of these developments and the businesses designed specifically to serve them will magically produce something different from what's been produced in every other city where it's occured. I cannot imagine how that would happen, but hey, one never knows.

But if no one in the community had paid attention to what was happening with Maria's Tacos (not really a victim in that whole matter, but it still serves this example), that corner of the CVS parking lot would be... more parking lot, because that's what the economics of that development called for.

The problem with voting with your wallet is that the people that vote for Roy's and Starbucks and Neiman Marcus have a lot more money than the people that vote for Longbranch and Quackenbushes and Savers. Plus, the people with the most votes are paying the people with the least votes so they can make sure that the people with the least votes keep having smaller pockets of economic power.

"I get the feeling that you’re just out to get my goat and fuck it in the face."

rofflecopter.

Uh, I don't think people who only remember Vicci as Polyester's should be commenting on change. Unless you actually stepped foot in Armadillo, LL, Area 51 and places like Mirage and Proteus, please don't talk about change in Austin.

True Craig, we've never met, but it's quite obvious that Scooby has touched a nerve: you're still distraught over losing Polly Esther's. And understandably so. Where else would you be able to live among your contemporaries-- those dust-farting old coots who value... well, value. Don't you know that new is the new... everything? Content is irrelevant. The question is, is it new? I mean REALLY new. Like, 'barely legal'. I want un-stepped-on newness.

And, since every girl I could possibly get to talk to me is either so vapid or so coked up she can't tell her asshole from my elbow (a problem that will repeat itself later), I should at least be able to look at sharks while I'm pretending to be interested in her tits-- er, I mean her-- ah, shit I forgot what I was going to say. But look at that shark!

Fuckin' A, Brah... Fuckin A.

Oh, and Edie, I think it's the ham or whatever on the other plate that is bothering the cat so.

Scooby, I’d try rationally explain all the things you brought up, but I get the feeling that you’re just out to get my goat and fuck it in the face. Makes it hard to take you seriously. You’ve been a reader here for some time, and even though you’ve expressed distaste for my writing before, I feel like we’ve never had quite this level of sexual tension actually make it into the comments section. I feel like we’re growing. Together.

Oddly enough, I only take offense at one thing you blasted out: I’m glad you got the internet cat joke, but you seem to have mistakenly attributed it to yourself. In a way, the humor of your error almost makes up for the egregious theft. Either way, I’ll let that slide. That’s what lovers do for one another; they forgive.

Amongst the rest of your playground taunts and gentrification cries (I never mentioned gentrifcation, as it has nothing to do with my homogeny argument), you actually brought up a single good point: wondering how it is that the ADDITION of these places (not displacement) will/has somehow limit/ed overall choice? That’s a completely legitimate question, and not at all simple to explain. Like trying to explain why a virus seems to want to kill the very host it depends on for its own survival. It’s a Masters Thesis involving game theory, theories of shared consciousness, economies of scale in terms of price elasticity (for production and consumption), modern cultural anthropology (especially in terms of cultural drift), philosophy of moral governance (policies of FDR and Keynesian Economics), and whatever other disciplines might be helpful in explaining how unchecked mass-consumption models tend to co-opt cultural movements and then inadvertantly vacuum them out, thus destroying them (the creation of homogeny).

Based on your previous comment, you’re like, “Roy’s isn’t threatening any sort of culture because there was nothing in that warehouse before, you pouty fuck.” And yeah, I’m pouting like a little bitch, just how you like it. But if you can’t understand how the movements of wealth affect the health and development of culture, then we have no basis to have any discussion about how to solve this problem. Because I can’t explain to the virus why it should stop trying to kill its host.

But in my two-sentence post I was merely recommending awareness, not some weird-ass call-to-arms against you or any other buyer-of-bleach, my love.

It's simple because the places you listed, for the most part, didn't displace anything that wasn't just as bad (Unless you want to blame McCormick and Schmick's for the loss of Ted's Greek Corner, which was displaced by the Frost Bank building- a pretty big stretch). All of them ADDED choices (cheezy as they may be). I just don't see "homogeny" in the group of links you have in your first post, except in the three nightclubs (and I think the other 15 posts on the subject of those places has established that their primary purpose is money laundering).

How, exactly, is the addition of the places to which you linked removing any choice? Are you still weeping that Vicci replaced Polly Esther's? Are you upset because you can't dance to 70s, 80s, and 90s music after paying just one cover charge? (If so, just go to Graham Central Station). Is the Triangle more offensive than the strip mall and supermarket that was originally planned for that space (remember the uproar over that 10 years ago?)? Is having a good seafood house (inappropriate as that is for an inland city) unbearable?

Anyway, which is it? Is it "useless to resist", or must we all be pouty little fucks because things just aren't the same since they closed the Armadillo? If it's useless to resist, then shut your stinkin' piehole. If resistance isn't futile, then resist with a rational fucking argument, instead of just whining and putting up LOLcatz.

Talk about homogeny- are LOLcatz supposed to be an appropriate substitution for original thought? Is your book full of the same kind of crap as this? If so, don't quit the day job just yet, 'cause we can get that crap for free online.

Personally, I think the bar with the sharks in the floor has provided sufficient entertainment value to justify its existence. I mean, it's got fuckin' sharks under the dance floor!!! Vicci, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have any redeeming value (to me). BTW, I could say the same about the Beauty Bar (talk about homogeny, it's a freakin' chain- might as well be Coyote Ugly).

Simple? I think it's more complicated than simply voting with our feet, and it's much more broad than just whether or not someone likes a particular business establishment.

It's more about being "awake" when participating in shit. Have an opinion about it, and then state it. Then change it. Discuss it with others. Wrestle with it. Call it names and get it pregnant out of wedlock. Whatever. Just HAVE AN OPINION. And if everyone honestly considers their options, and CHOOSES homogeny over individuality (I submit that there are many legitimate reasons to do so), then cool, I can respect that.

But I have trouble believing that homogeny happens by active, individual choice. I believe it happens by incremental dismissal/removal of choice until the only truly viable option left is homogeny. Suddenly it's the "best" option available! Which is bullshit.

DO NOT WANT.

Don't like? Don't go. That fucking simple. kthxbye.

I want those tangerines, or tomatoes, or whatever those are.

Keep that cat indoors.

Oooooh, mine will have a live BAR trapped under the glass floor panels for all the "exceptional people" to ogle in wonder while they drink and look at each other. No one will be allowed to dance inside and the tables will start at $20,000 an hour (with purchase of $500 bottle of Dobra vodka). Cocaine and whores will go for market rate, just like everywhere else.

I won't be allowed in my bar either.

I'm starting a club called "feli" that will have live cats under a glass panel in the dance floor. The club will have a velvet rope, and you can't come.