tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post7074341422760523523..comments2024-03-27T23:28:20.274-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Foodie supermarkets as the last hang-out place in a cocooning climate?agnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-52398114215696096652015-11-06T09:48:33.916-05:002015-11-06T09:48:33.916-05:00My neighborhood YMCA is great.
Packed with peop...My neighborhood YMCA is great. <br /><br />Packed with people who come regularly. <br /><br />asnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-51284320279548821842015-11-04T05:53:37.510-05:002015-11-04T05:53:37.510-05:00In support of the "mere gay eunuch" idea...In support of the "mere gay eunuch" idea, when they divorced in 2004, she married a blond white Englishman named Ben George, who has long hair (no gays wear their hair long), no gayface, only job I could find for him was as a businessman in industrial machinery sales. Therefore, not gay.<br /><br />She was just waiting to find someone and didn't want high-pressure popstar dating, let alone as her star was beginning to fade in the '90s. She needed to quietly retreat from the public eye, and not have any nagging questions about why she wasn't getting married.<br /><br />It's disgraceful that she sham-married a gay Aztec makeup artist, but eventually she saw the light and for-real-married a hetero Englishman (there are still some left, evidently).agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-12569708428360773862015-11-04T05:42:06.289-05:002015-11-04T05:42:06.289-05:00Born in California, so thankfully not added to Uta...Born in California, so thankfully not added to Utah.<br /><br />But you missed the big story here -- she married her gay makeup artist. He's been a makeup artist for over 20 years and has gayface. And there's no pictures of them together (nor of their son). Smells like a sham marriage -- involving a Californian singer who's supported gay rights for over a decade, I know, sounds crazy.<br /><br />The twist is that he was just starting out in his makeup career when they married, and he isn't rich or good-looking, so he brought nothing to the marriage. She was cute, famous, wealthy (enough), charming.<br /><br />So it sounds more like he was covering for her. Either she didn't want to date, and he was her gay eunuch to ward off questions about why a beloved pop star wasn't getting married. Or she's lesbian herself and he's her beard. I shudder to think she's a rug-muncher -- lesbians aren't that cute and vulnerable. I'm going with her wanting to retreat from the high-pressure dating world of pop stardom, and picked the first convenient gay eunuch -- a makeup artist who she worked with on one shoot and had no history with.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-27833470214621606472015-11-03T21:50:55.136-05:002015-11-03T21:50:55.136-05:00"In most of the world the market is the commo..."In most of the world the market is the common gathering area and it’s outside."<br /><br />In most of the world, there isn't that much rain, snow, humidity, strong winds, and extremes of hot and cold. Yay indoor malls.<br /><br />"Malls, coffee shops, bookstores, grocery stores - none of these things is public space, they are all privately owned businesses."<br /><br />Unlike the open-air market where all the vendors represent the government, the church, etc.<br /><br />The mall was the Western version of the Middle Eastern bazaar -- lots of small shops operating under a single over-arching climate-controlled structure. Walkable corridors, storefronts close to pedestrians rather than set back 50 feet, no vehicular traffic of any kind, skylights, fountains, plants, places to relax. Public restrooms (more available at a mall than any government-operated public place, or individual private stores).<br /><br />Most importantly, no expectation or requirement to buy anything just to hang out there all day long -- the opposite of a privately owned business where if you don't buy something soon, they kick you out. Super-shoppers subsidized the suburban flaneurs who rarely bought anything -- as long as the stores and the mall as a whole did good business, they didn't mind those who showed up for hang-out purposes only (unless they started trouble).agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-22001483198833238382015-11-03T21:18:59.583-05:002015-11-03T21:18:59.583-05:00Interesting post. By the way, are there any trend...Interesting post. By the way, are there any trends you have noticed with regard to traveling to visit family/friends or hosting visitors from out of town, and the signature approaches cocooners bring to these roles? I am planning holiday travel and wish to avoid any bad habits I might've picked up from cocoon exposure. Thank-you for any insight you can muster.Petrochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02217119917847445017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-39416983295021254812015-11-03T21:15:45.832-05:002015-11-03T21:15:45.832-05:00In most of the world the market is the common gath...In most of the world the market is the common gathering area and it’s outside. But in this country the market is a store with a parking lot. Yay America.<br /><br />In the planning and development of the civic architecture, something went wrong. I guess that when things got built up, over the last 50 years or so, there wasn’t such a need for public space, because there were social bonds intact at the family and neighborhood level, and so things such as stores and markets were not built with that in mind - a need for public space, and what it provides.<br /><br />Malls, coffee shops, bookstores, grocery stores - none of these things is public space, they are all privately owned businesses. But their appeal is that they substitute for public space. And they try and pretend to fulfill that role.<br /><br />***********<br /><br />People love to go and buy food. It is a quick and easy way to get something, and seem to accomplish something. It is probably more fun to go and buy the food than it is to eat it.<br /><br />The number one thing that “we” could do, in order to form a more perfect union (or something), is to establish open air public markets.Suburban_elknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-75012858312632500552015-11-03T16:20:49.391-05:002015-11-03T16:20:49.391-05:00Emblematic of the rapid abandonment of malls is Og...Emblematic of the rapid abandonment of malls is Ogden City Mall in Ogden, Utah. In 1987 it was the setting of the video for "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany, a #1 hit that was in constant rotation on radio and MTV. There must have been over a thousand people in the crowd for the shoot:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Q3mHyzn78<br /><br />According to DeadMalls.com, it began fairing poorly already by the first half of the '90s, was bought out in the mid-'90s, and then closed in 2002:<br /><br />http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/ogden_city_mall.html<br /><br />Old VHS footage of the demolition, being cheered on by spectators, with triumphant music playing over a loudspeaker:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmGntFTNx_k<br /><br />As of 1990, Hispanics were only 4% of the Salt Lake City -- Ogden metro area, and most of their growth was during the 21st century. (Both cities are 20-25% Hispanic as of 2010.) So, the mall was abandoned well before there were sizable non-white populations in the area, which was still not only heavily white but heavily Mormon.<br /><br />Just 15 years between Tiffany packing the place for her music video, and its complete demolition. That's how fast people fled public places once cocooning began.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-35152942524817534022015-11-03T16:01:41.688-05:002015-11-03T16:01:41.688-05:00"When i go to the mall now it is filled with ..."When i go to the mall now it is filled with minorities, asians, blacks, mexicans, Indians etc."<br /><br />White people are more likely to be helicopter parents, no matter if the climate is outgoing or cocooning. Black kids were more unsupervised than white kids in the '80s, as well as today. All groups are less outgoing than they used to, but this means whites hardly go out at all, while blacks and Mexicans will go out now and then, giving them a larger share of the mall-going population.<br /><br />Also important to remember that malls went into decline across the nation during the '90s, not just in southern California or Texas where the Mexican population was shooting through the roof. Midwest, Appalachia, you name it -- white people in white communities started abandoning malls 20-25 years ago.<br /><br />The handful of minorities who may be found there today are settlers of abandoned ruins, not a victorious army that crowded out an unwilling white population that still wanted to hang out at the mall.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-38738959703764006052015-11-03T14:29:34.663-05:002015-11-03T14:29:34.663-05:00The biggest demographic in the mall tends to be mi...The biggest demographic in the mall tends to be middle-aged women and women with small children. Kids may stay away because not a lot of them have disposable income these days, and prices have become exorbitant.<br />Curtisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-40330190362494460562015-11-03T09:40:05.565-05:002015-11-03T09:40:05.565-05:00It is astounding to me how the malls have cratered...It is astounding to me how the malls have cratered as a place for white kids to hang out. Something happened in the early 2000's to kill that concept. When i go to the mall now it is filled with minorities, asians, blacks, mexicans, Indians etc. Very few whites and the ones you do see are actually shopping in the big stores like Macy's and not hanging out in the mall section. My own anecdotal explanation for this is 1. Millennial whites are not as "open minded" and multicultural as we are led to believe and hence avoid the mall like the plague. 2. Much fewer white kids compared with the explosion of immigrants/non whites reproducing. 3. On line shopping and Facebook virtual reality has replaced the brick and mortar hang out. 4. Revival of main street and more "hip" destinations. But this leads back to anecdote #1 on my list. Still makes me sad these kids do not have good memories that I have of hanging out in the mall, great times.Linden Ardenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10027901166377417550noreply@blogger.com