Your ideal town

[JayB]

Whenever I hear someone talking about "culture," as it pertains to where they've chosen to live, and actually have the chance to discuss their personal habits with them, it normally turns out that they don't actually read anything terribly complex or profound on a regular basis and may have never done so, haven't developed the capacity to appreciate whatever art form it is that they purport to be a patron of, etc - and generally think that the mere presence of institutions harboring, catering to, or displaying the works of great artists or thinkers somehow grants them admission into a higher cultural echelon by means of a process of spatial osmosis. There is a kind of transparently desperate aspirational quality to this kind of pretense that is almost touching, though.

 

Yes, the mere fact that you drive past "The Museum of X" on your way to work automatically elevates you above the guy who drives past Home Depot while doing the same. Most of them also have an astonishingly poor understanding of the physical and biological world. All pretense, no substance. Sorry, but wallowing in the latest lurid kitch-o-thon that Andrew Lloyd Weber cranks out and forking over $100 a plate for dinner afterwards doesn't confer membership in any kind of artistic, intellectual, or cultural strata above the guy who takes the family to Applebees on the way to Cineplex.

 

Any town where the average person is unlikely to be displaying this ghoulash of multiple pretenses at every opportunity, which is typically at least as hollow and shallow as it is nauseating, is much more likely to have the kind of culture that actually matters.

 

 

[mattp]

Damn if you don't make a great troll! You'd do better if you weren't so transparent, though.

[JayB]

You are aware of the fact that - right now - somewhere in the city, there is a vegan poetry SLAM(!) that you are missing out on. Right now. You can't put a price on that.

[Off_White]

You can't put a price on that.

 

So, a failure of the marketplace?

 

When people say "culture" they mean an Olive Garden next to a Multiplex theater.

[cj001f]

I would highly recommend anywhere in the Austrian, German, or Swiss Alps, the people there are far more friendly. Chamonix will always be there for the long weekends.

 

:hellno:

 

The german language portions of the alps are the most stale, exclusionary, xenophobic places on earth. Try living their sometime. There's a reason the Brits have been able to by land in the french alps, but not the eastern alps.

 

You are aware of the fact that - right now - somewhere in the city, there is a vegan poetry SLAM(!) that you are missing out on. Right now. You can't put a price on that.

 

try shopping for your trolls at somewhere other than WalMart. You might find one made in the last 10 years.

[G-spotter]

Culture is like oxygen, you only notice when you don't have it.

[JayB]

Is there anything at Walmart that's as generic and stale as reciting shopworn, derisory little articles of faith about Walmart or their customers in order to establish one's hip-urban-lefto-trendo-cred? Economics is another topic that I find the proximito-elite tend to excel at. Lots of gems like "I just think that, like, we're in some serious trouble unless the workers can afford to buy the product they're making." Pearls, pearls I tell you. It's almost as though the act of passing a trite fallacy back and forth without any logical analysis is roughly analagous to the actions of those rotary rock-polisher thingies, and their infinite succession of collisions with equally dull objects eventually lends them a polish and an appeal that their substance wouldn't otherwise warrant.

 

I live less than a block from one of the leading non-profit grocery collectives to be found anywhere in the city. It said so in the local art-zine. Less than a block. In the whole city. Seriously. Right next to where I live. Not too far from the neighbor who I overheard describing one of the rolls at the local Sushi-joint as "Mesmerizing." It's amazing. Right here.

 

I'll see if I can find one between the free-range soy and the bulk lentils, though.

 

 

[JayB]

You can't put a price on that.

 

So, a failure of the marketplace?

 

When people say "culture" they mean an Olive Garden next to a Multiplex theater.

 

Pfft. As a denizen of this fair city I hardly need to acknowledge the commments issuing forth from a resident of...."Te-ni-no".

[ashw_justin]

"The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country? It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 Train to the ballpark, looking like you're riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids."

 

 

Now that's culcha.

[catbirdseat]

That quote is destined to be a classic. It's damn funny. Of course I remember how that ball player was demonized for what he said, but you know there isn't a single racial slur in that quote.

[ashw_justin]

Perhaps that's why it was especially important to demonize him, in order to pretend that they didn't agree.

 

Sounds like you can get all the culture you want and more in NYC. 8D

[Dechristo]

It's almost as though the act of passing a trite fallacy back and forth without any logical analysis is roughly analagous to the actions of those rotary rock-polisher thingies, and their infinite succession of collisions with equally dull objects eventually lends them a polish and an appeal that their substance wouldn't otherwise warrant.

 

[cj001f]

Is there anything at Walmart that's as generic and stale as reciting shopworn, derisory little articles of faith about Walmart or their customers in order to establish one's hip-urban-lefto-trendo-cred?

 

Yes - railing against the hip-urban-insertadjectivehere.

[mccallboater]

What ever happened to the question?

 

I've narrowed down my long previous list to 3:

 

McCall: Good arts scene, plenty of work (mostly seasonal) and lots of places to rent, though buying is getting difficult. The PERFECT climate. Nice lake too.

Invermere: Canada's McCall, though colder and darker in the winter. Bigger mtns

Stanley: The Rod and Gun Club gives me all the culture I need. Really cold in the winter though.

[cj001f]

It got lost among people claiming to find great culture in E. Buttfuck.

[JayB]

Is there anything at Walmart that's as generic and stale as reciting shopworn, derisory little articles of faith about Walmart or their customers in order to establish one's hip-urban-lefto-trendo-cred?

 

Yes - railing against the hip-urban-insertadjectivehere.

 

 

When I see Hilton Kramer, Roger Kimball et sporting sandwich boards and bullhorns while leading their legions of Brooks-Brothers-and-Wingtip-clad followers in protest outside the local SoyMart then I'll be perfectly happy to concede this point.

 

[olyclimber]

JayB: Its just that you do such a good job reprezenting the Brooks-Brothers-and-Wingtip-clad crowd that they don't have to bother. Luck them.

[JayB]

It got lost among people claiming to find great culture in E. Buttfuck.

 

I think what scares people the most is the stark reality that if they dropped the vain pretense concerning their own level of achievement and cultivation they'd actually be just as comfortable living a long, long way from the institutions of high culture that they are neither a part of nor frequent with any more regularity than the average cargo-short-and-waist-pouch-thingy sporting tourists that roll into town for a visit every couple of years.

[cj001f]

When I see Hilton Kramer, Roger Kimball et sporting sandwich boards and bullhorns while leading their legions of Brooks-Brothers-and-Wingtip-clad followers in protest outside the local SoyMart then I'll be perfectly happy to concede this point.

 

Check for the local PGA appearance in town. It's a pride festival for the potbellied cigar smoking cognac afficinados.

 

vain pretense

 

does mocking the left fit into "vain pretense"?

 

The proles at WalMart are just as pretense filled (see Christian values vs. behavior) as your REI shopper.

[ashw_justin]

What ever happened to the question?

OMG, I can't believe you're responding with such earnest obendience to this blatant attempt at guerrilla market research! Someone get this person an Adbusters and a yerba mate immediately.

[Dechristo]

I'd be happy to have the Jackson, Wyoming of the mid to late '70's.

[archenemy]

So I've lived in Twisp (well, part time) and as cool as it is you either need to be indepedently wealthy or retired (i.e: don't work), earn minimum wage in the service industry, work for the state, or be a doctor/nurse/vet. Since those don't apply to me, it's not sustainable in my book (driving 7 hours each weekend, which I've been doing for almost a year)

 

Which is why I'm moving to Nederland CO! 25 minutes to Boulder, 10 minutes to a ski resort (and an hour from Winter Park I think) great climbing, hiking and running trails, 8300 feet, and a frozen dead guy festival...And if you want to go out at night and want see a band, go to an art exhibit or eat in a nice restaurant you can go to Boulder or Denver. :tup:

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the 300 days of sun per year.

Ned head!!

I loved living there, it was my favorite place I have lived. Don't forget to visit Wondervu. If you you through there and down the road on the other side of the mountain you'll see an antique store on the left. Every Tues night a bunch of really old fossils get together and play folk music (banjos, mouth harps, washboards, the whole shabang!). They will let you come sit in the group and listen--they are amazing!

[Skeezix]

I liked Bellingham, but I got burned out on it. Port Angeles is geographically gifted: 17 miles from my back door to lift-served skiing, good fly fishing for steelhead, good hiking, good sailing in the harbor. No mall.

[i_like_sun]

Port Angeles is nice, but I personally prefer Port Townsend. I grew up (part time) on the Olympic Peninsula and I actually think that most parts of it have a lot to offer. I find that Port Angeles gets almost too slow for me, whereas PT has more culture (summer months only comment).

 

Agreed on the Bellingham comment however. I've lived up here for that past two years, and not that I don't like it, I'm just getting burned on it! I seem to miss Seattle these days quite a bit....

[ken4ord]

I'd be happy to have the Jackson, Wyoming of the mid to late '70's.

 

:tup: Way more expensive than it used to be, but still a great town.