#28: End of the Line, Welcome Wagon, Cardboard Ceramics, Digital Skies, Hollywood Hillbilly.
Throw these into the conversation.
1. Pier Head
Thanks to the ever insightful Barb Jungr for turning me on to the brilliant photography of Rob Bremner, who captured the denizens of Liverpool’s run down Pier Head bus stop and cafe in 1989. More than just a transit hub, Pier Head was an essential social outpost for many of the city’s elderly working-class, who would spend hours nursing cups of tea and catching up with familiar faces.
“Liverpool’s Pier Head, at that time, was just a dilapidated bus station where people went to catch the ferries across the Mersey. It was the last stop for most buses, and older people with their free bus passes would alight there. There was a café, and the staff were friendly; you could sit there all day sipping the same cup of tea without being asked to leave. It was cheaper than heating a home.” – Rob Bremner.
Apparently sustained loneliness is a serious cause of death today and not just among seniors. Let’s work to preserve these informal social spaces and fight the tide of corporate retail / private spaces that discourage harmless loitering.
Oh… and is there anyone cooler than an old person smoking? I think not.
2. Welcome in!
Something I’ve noticed since moving back to the US after 23 years away, is the disturbing ubiquity of ‘Welcome in!’ as a greeting. A friend pointed it out and now I can’t stop hearing it everywhere. At my gym, as I enter retail spaces, or chirpily announced by greeters at my bank. ‘Welcome in!’ they proclaim, with the glazed look of HR-pilled drones. ‘Into what?’ I can’t help thinking.
What’s wrong with ‘Welcome’, the all purpose greeting that for centuries has served as the gold standard greeting to strangers entering any new space? ‘Welcome in’ feels eerily close to ‘Join us.’ It screams creepy, cult kookiness.
No doubt all these workers have specifically been trained to say ‘welcome in’ because it’s different from the more open-ended ‘welcome.’ Where ‘welcome’ feels ‘come-as-you are’ friendly and accepting, ‘welcome in’ implies you’ve been accepted into a specific fraternity with its own rules of behaviour and mores.
Did I even ask to be ‘welcomed in’ to your corporate cult? I’m just here to do 20 minutes on the treadmill. I have no interest in joining your ‘community’. No, I’m not downloading your app and participating in its social features. No, I’m not signing up for your ‘customer care’ emails or taking your survey. No, I don’t want to be kept abreast of your ‘news’.
You are welcome to take your weird ‘welcome in’ and fuck right off.
3. Cardboard Ceramics
I’m loving this collection of ceramics that appear to be made of cardboard and tape by French ceramicist, Jacques Monneraud. The collection, called Carton, consists of vases, pitchers and teapots, and was inspired by the disposable nature and materiality of cardboard. Monneraud’s objective was to create a collection that serves as "a mockery of our world of overproduction and overconsumption."
A cool concept for sure but also pretty ugly. It’s frustrating that so much craft and ingenuity was used to create something that ultimately looks cheap and knocked up but of course, this is a major trend in contemporary craft.
Also, I wonder if I’d get bored with Monneraud’s fairly obvious ‘statement’. The estimable and much-missed art critic Sister Wendy Beckett, often talked about ‘one-look art’ - art that requires only one look to digest its meaning and significance. Wendy suggested that most of Warhol could be easily understood in one look whereas the great painters such as Titian, Caravaggio, or even impressionists such as Van Gogh, created work that only grew richer upon multiple viewings.
Are Monnreaud’s ceramics ‘one-look’ ceramics? I suspect so.
4. Video Game Skies
While I try to stay current when it comes to contemporary culture, no one can follow everything. I try to follow film, TV, music, a bit of theatre and books, but that doesn’t leave much time for a close reading of geo-politics, fashion, and art. There’s only so many hours in the day and we all have to make choices. I, for one, have chosen not to follow video games for example, even if ‘gaming’ is the world’s dominant entertainment industry.
With an industry-wide annual revenue of $200+ billion globally - larger than all of film, television and music combined - there are more than 3 billion active gamers. Their average age: 32. Among Gen Z, 90% identify as gamers. Among Generation Alpha, our newest generation, it’s 94%. Note, I also don’t follow professional sports, leaving me with literally nothing to say to straight guys under the ages of 35.
Nonetheless, I came across this Video Games Skies Tumblr and now I’m obsessed. (More ‘one-look’ art?) Maybe video games are more interesting than I thought. Although I expect most of these colourful panels serve simply as backdrops for hours of digital gun violence. Uggh.
5. The Hillbilly Universe that Wasn’t
Here’s what I can’t figure out about hillbilly poster boy and vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance. Why didn’t he just stay in Hollywood?
Sure the film version of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy (2017) was a bit of a flop, even if stars Glenn Close and Amy Adams were nominated for several high profile awards, but one big flop rarely ends Hollywood careers today. The point is, for an extended moment, Vance was celebrated as the relatable voice of working-class America and embraced by many in the media class. If he had just stayed the course, we’d likely be on series four or five of some Vance-penned TV streaming hit set in the Hillbilly universe.
Remember Ozark, a gritty depiction of life in the economically depressed Ozark Mountains, ran for four seasons on Netflix (2017 - 2022) and won countless industry awards. Meanwhile, Yellowstone, Kevin Costner’s ongoing drama about a family of ranchers premieres its fifth season in November and has spawned several spin-offs. While, it may not focus on the working class, it most definitely celebrates a rural, non-cosmopolitan segment of society we rarely see on our screens. Vance was there first and for a moment was embraced by both the left and the right as the authentic champion of a forgotten population.
If he really wanted to raise the profile of Appalachia and its people, wouldn’t a sustained, sympathetic Hollywood drama have done more than his chosen path of political bomb throwing and right wing podcast ranting? How does tearing down childless women and LGBT people raise up the people he claims to support? How does slavishly supporting Trump facilitate bringing union jobs to his depressed ‘homeland’ of Ohio / Kentucky? It almost makes you question his motivation. Is he really interested in helping a community that’s been ignored and neglected for generations or is he simply using them as a prop to build a political brand while misrepresenting their struggles? This is why Vance feels so inauthentic.
One final note - I’m surprised I haven’t read anyone comparing tone deaf Vance to hapless Bush Sr.-era VP, Dan Quayle. Remember, when this Christian son of the midwest, famously lashed out at unwed mothers by criticising TV sitcom character Murphy Brown?
How’d that turn out?
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Final word from Ambrosia
parting shot
Re #2, maybe they're saying "willkommen!"