tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40864562011-11-26T00:10:23.534-08:00SHOPOPOLISconsumer culture: past, present and especially the future...by the author of THE MALLING OF AMERICA.Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.comBlogger781100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-23961185019559093292011-11-26T00:07:00.000-08:002011-11-26T00:10:23.548-08:00As Black Friday Goes...
Well, this looks like the annual Black Friday post. The blog's look has changed, and not for the last time probably.
This year's Black Friday has been characterized by that great new product: pepper spray. Justifiably famous for its use against Occupy protestors, especially at U.C. Davis (inspiring the Pepper Spraying Cop site and the image above, which is no longer Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-51976599944858050292010-11-26T23:12:00.000-08:002010-11-26T23:14:05.384-08:00Santa Claus' sleigh these days takes the form of this huge ship, commissioned by Wal-Mart and built in Denmark specifically and only to haul goodies from China to the U.S. It takes just 13 people to run it, even though it's longer than a U.S. aircraft carrier. This ship is so big that it had to be built in five separate sections that were welded together. The command bridge alone is higher than aCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-28763032846552242762010-08-26T22:56:00.000-07:002011-11-25T23:42:20.814-08:00
Cathedrals of ConsumptionThe apparent enemies may change, but this is the real religion that is so persistently and vociferously defended in America: the one true Church of Buying and Selling.
Through lofty times and fearful times, from the 50s onward, people have looked to the mall for excitement and solace, adventure and surcease, novelty and reassurance--and they found it all.
By the 1980sCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-59730314561187126422009-10-05T01:12:00.000-07:002010-04-24T02:42:10.836-07:00 The much beleaguered Bayshore Mall in Eureka was humming on Saturday, so what does that say?--see post below. Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-53820257708739148072009-10-05T00:51:00.001-07:002009-10-05T01:19:23.133-07:00A Sunny Saturday at Bayshore MallAutumn is the sunniest time of year here on the California North Coast, and this Saturday was very sunny--but the warmth of the sun was cut by the occasional cold breeze, so clearly this was one of the last summery days of the year.So people were out, everywhere we went on our errands--including at Bayshore Mall in Eureka. As chronicled in a local cover story, Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-49378962357151399472009-04-02T00:47:00.000-07:002009-04-02T00:48:22.098-07:00This is a model of Xanadu, the mega-mall under construction in New Jersey during what seems to be doom time for the shopping mall. Is it? See the post below.Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-12449566770782177432009-04-02T00:05:00.000-07:002009-04-02T03:33:29.801-07:00Sustainable DoomOnce again, the shopping mall is doomed. The death knell has been sounded periodically since the 1980s, even before The Malling of America was first published. Now the sudden and still continuing destruction/reinvention of the financial system and the severe downturn in the American and world economy--the Great Recession--seems to make it certain.Time Magazine hangs its obituary Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-2364266050451435902008-12-24T23:55:00.000-08:002008-12-25T01:00:36.042-08:00 Christmas at Ye Olde Shopping Mall: New traditions and even nostalgia now locate Christmas memories where, for better or worse, families have been going to celebrate as well as shop... for forty or fifty years. Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-47857518440711126642008-12-24T23:03:00.000-08:002008-12-25T01:06:27.989-08:00Mall Nostalgia: Recalling Christmas at Ye Olde Shopping MallIn what’s shaping up to be a bleak Christmas, thoughts may naturally turn to better days gone by. Holidays often look happier in memory anyway, and since Christmas is so associated with childhood (your own or your children’s or grandchildren’s), the season inspires recollections of magical lights and displays, exciting street scenes and Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1971527987248455812008-12-24T21:47:00.000-08:002008-12-25T05:02:55.890-08:00 Photos I took of Greengate Mall in 1999, when it was nearly abandoned: (top) outside the old Hornes (later Lazarus) department store; inside at center court, the famous fountain; and in the floor near the fountain, the time capsule, buried in 1985 and scheduled to be opened in 2005, but which apparently "disappeared" during demolition. In it, among other things, was a signed copy of my book, TheCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-12347383191864215052008-12-24T20:54:00.000-08:002009-01-04T03:04:36.302-08:00Greengate was built on land that had been part of a farm and summer home owned by the appropriately named John S. Sell family. (The place even had a name: Sellcroft.) This was an era when a lot of the fresh milk sold in Greensburg came from local dairies and dairy farms. The farm was just west of the town of Greensburg, along the two-lane Lincoln Highway, adjacent to the Mount Odin drive-in Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-33046181106660302992008-12-24T20:09:00.000-08:002008-12-25T00:23:34.350-08:00 Greengate Mall, center court Christmas display. Click photo to enlarge. BK photo.Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-20210514135690649692008-12-24T19:57:00.000-08:002008-12-25T05:06:16.238-08:00Local news coverage about Greengate’s demise inevitably mentioned its Christmas events and elaborate decorations. (I’d written about the overnight process of setting up the center court tree and Nutcracker theme exhibit, surrounded by a child-sized train ride.) Christmas season at Greengate was popular with the surrounding communities for at least 30 years—long enough for some who experienced Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-51829110381161186222008-12-24T19:06:00.000-08:002011-11-25T23:48:53.572-08:00
“I remember it was where I first told Santa what I wanted for Christmas,” said one. “I always loved going to Greengate Mall with my parents. It seemed like the holidays weren't the holidays unless we had our usual trip to the mall to sit on Santa’s lap.” Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-61959978948067586032008-12-24T18:30:00.000-08:002008-12-25T00:32:06.348-08:00 “I remember lights in the food court that would change colors (yellow, blue, green, etc) during Christmas as Charlie Brown music would play.” “There was a puppet show that kids would huddle around and watch.” Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-63863522057551509262008-12-24T17:34:00.000-08:002008-12-25T00:36:46.626-08:00 Many recalled riding the train through the snow-covered Christmas village. “I remember the animated deer with the jerky movements that built toys as kids rode through the display.” Another recalled a young adult perspective, of accompanying nieces and nephews, and watching “how big their eyes would be when they first walked into the center courtyard... Nothing made my parents more happy then Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-54946378577186469832008-12-24T16:41:00.000-08:002008-12-25T00:44:06.656-08:00 The element of nostalgia is particularly evident in the frequency of comments such as: “Wow, nothing compares to it today.” A department store employee who met her husband there wrote, “We all have very fond memories of Greengate Mall. We especially miss the beautiful holiday decorations!” An ex-employee of another store who remembers “singing on the steps in center court in 1980 for Christmas” Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-26920701029795003102008-12-24T16:07:00.000-08:002008-12-25T00:48:39.550-08:00When I was first writing about Greengate in the late 70s and early 80s, I often heard similar sentiments expressed about downtown Greensburg in the 50s and before: memories of shopping in the department stores and shops on Main Street, going from store to store in the falling snow, seeing friends and ducking into the Chat and Chew. But Greengate and other malls drew the department stores away Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-29618157533606155192008-12-24T15:50:00.000-08:002008-12-25T00:54:07.789-08:00 Then they simply lasted, and thanks partly to years of shared experiences, the local shopping mall often became a real place. And so they became part of memories, and now, of nostalgia. A woman who remembers Greengate as a child (“at Christmas especially. It was wonderful”) has since moved away but visits family in the area every Christmas. She writes: “I'm sad the mall is gone. I would have Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-81677620431910902422008-12-24T14:51:00.000-08:002008-12-25T00:53:26.112-08:00Christmas is still being experienced at hundreds of malls, and thousands of photos taken with Santa. But even before the latest economic blows, malls were under serious assault by Big Box developments, chiefly Wal-Marts. After decades when not a single regional mall failed, many began to fade, and some (like Greengate) were demolished. Now retail sales so far in this Christmas shopping season Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-11479926727951047032008-12-11T01:26:00.000-08:002008-12-11T02:01:53.462-08:00Big Box Reuse: an inspiring, important book about transforming abandoned retail spaces for crucial public uses (or at least public fun.)Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-43011490715766709302008-12-11T00:55:00.000-08:002008-12-11T01:27:49.945-08:00Big Box Reuseby Julia ChristensenThe MIT PressThis is a wonderful, inspiring book--all the more so because it is meticulously reported and cogently written. But it's also wonderful and inspiring because of the people who made all these projects happen.The book is about 10 projects in various parts of America that took abandoned Big Box buildings (usually Wal-Marts and some K-Marts) and Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-40531295528991715682008-11-30T02:14:00.001-08:002008-11-30T03:06:04.581-08:00When Black Friday ComesWhen Black Friday comes, I stand down near the doorand catch the great men when they dive from the 14th floor.When Black Friday comes, I call in everything I'm owedand before my friends find out, I'll be on the road....--Black Friday by Steeley DanBlack Friday--the day after Thanksgiving-- got its ironic title in recent years because as one of the biggest shopping days of Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-39496895284465422612008-11-12T19:21:00.000-08:002009-03-05T19:22:36.136-08:00Abandoned Greengate Mall in western PA, a few years before it was torn down. BK photo.Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-27823107262891700052008-11-12T00:34:00.000-08:002008-12-11T02:07:12.586-08:00The Wasting of AmericaIn sites all over the Internet, the shopping mall has become an item of nostalgia. I understand how malls can inspire these feelings, but when so many of these cherished malls are no more, this devotion is a sign of the shopping mall's decline.There are lots of abandoned malls that aren't necessarily cherished, but there is still lots of fascination--at Dead Malls and other Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-59011795690934641352008-08-22T00:55:00.000-07:002008-11-12T00:34:37.458-08:00As products get crappier, malls get gaudier, especiallyfor upscale buyers, and especially overseas. This isone section of several theme areas in a mall in Dubai.Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-49444465759925625422008-08-22T00:23:00.001-07:002008-08-22T04:04:41.385-07:00JunkThis summer required our household to consider some major purchases, and it was an eye-opener. It began modestly, but with portent: the old microwave gave out. The next one lasted about a week--among its defects, the light stopped working. We took that one back, exchanged it for a different brand. That one took several weeks for the light to go out. We don't much like it, it's pretty shoddy Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1867925045846530212008-04-12T01:02:00.000-07:002008-04-12T01:06:57.881-07:00Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-87270179596422925602008-04-11T23:36:00.000-07:002008-04-12T01:06:57.882-07:00Chosen!When I published a new paperback edition/revision of my book, THE MALLING OF AMERICA, I became part of a new publishing phenomenon: print-on-demand. Several outfits, including Xlibris (where I published) offer books through primarily online booksellers, and when the orders come in, the books are printed and sent. It's digital age publishing, and for certain books and authors, it's Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-6234229010611431582008-03-23T17:35:00.000-07:002008-04-12T01:06:57.882-07:00Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-86541572320799883692008-03-23T17:30:00.000-07:002008-04-13T03:28:04.472-07:00Predictably Irrational:The Hidden Forces That Shape Our DecisionsBy Dan ArielyHarpercollins; 304 pages; $25.95.Call me crazy, but I’ve always thought the axiom of academic economics that says our decisions, especially buying decisions, are based on rational choice is itself irrational. Counter-examples are rife in most of world literature, movies and TV shows, as well as psychology since 1890 andCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-51980638689114984082007-06-09T01:43:00.000-07:002007-06-09T01:43:58.113-07:00 I don't know the name of this mall, but it is (or was)in Ogden, Utah. Photo by the Hahn Company inthe early 1980s.Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-46154098882619071542007-06-09T01:14:00.000-07:002008-04-12T01:06:57.883-07:00The Silent Threat of e-WasteHardly anyone talks about it, but the threat is astounding. According to Giles Slade in his book, Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America (published by Harvard University Press.) e-waste may become "the greatest biohazard facing the entire continent."E-waste is comprised not only of discarded computers but the very hottest consumer electronics, like ipodsCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-75565360530962242152007-03-21T02:23:00.000-07:002008-04-12T01:06:57.884-07:00 HARRY POTTER, ENVIRO WIZARD? Why not? With more than 12 million copies of the final book in JK Rowling's series expected to be sold in the U.S. alone, the publisher's decision to go green is going to have impact.Scholastic Press has promised that no less than 30% of each book will be post-consumer recycled paper, and 65% of the virgin paper used will be from Forest Stewardship Council approved Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-44662537231146910802007-02-19T00:23:00.000-08:002007-02-19T00:25:43.874-08:00Long Beach Plaza, publicity shot, early 1980s. Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-86106565587438043352007-02-19T00:10:00.000-08:002008-04-12T01:06:57.885-07:00Unintelligible DesignAwhile ago I perused a book called The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda of MIT's Media Lab, which is a designer's response to new devices that are too complex, like DVDs with multiple menus and nifty little electronics that come accompanied by manuals way bigger than they are. It's not a bad book--I especially liked the chapter on Emotion (you can see the Laws for yourself atCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-5608778512403148512007-02-03T03:20:00.000-08:002007-02-09T02:49:25.397-08:00Harborplace in Baltimore, 1980s. Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-4232595557345193612007-02-03T02:44:00.000-08:002007-02-09T02:51:17.915-08:00RebirthI've been neglecting this blog for awhile, but I'm going to be posting more regularly now, with a new template, some new features and a new focus.I've noticed that a lot of visitors here have linked from the Malls of America and Livemalls sites, and so I've started my new links menu with them. Since those nostalgic photos from shopping mall history seem to be of interest, I plan to add Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1155798672717790572006-08-17T00:11:00.000-07:002007-02-03T03:36:48.065-08:00Lance Jackson for SF Chronicle Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1155798154757316252006-08-17T00:03:00.000-07:002006-08-17T13:06:53.300-07:00Is Wal-Mart a Potent Political Issue?As the campaign heats up for Congressional seats in this November's election, the New York Times claims that "Democratic leaders have found a new rallying cry that many of them say could prove powerful in the midterm elections and into 2008: denouncing Wal-Mart for what they say are substandard wages and health care benefits."The erstwhile popular shopping Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1149908874894329132006-06-09T20:07:00.000-07:002009-01-04T03:29:47.128-08:00Would you rather click than shop? Photo: Kowinski at Mall of America. Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1149908462061985542006-06-09T19:46:00.000-07:002006-06-09T20:03:56.716-07:00The Coming Triumph of Click-and-Shop?Is the warning I first heard in the early 1980s--that those investing in "bricks and mortar" venues for shopping, i.e. stores, shops and shopping malls--were going to lose their proverbial shirts, finally coming true? The Boston Globe seems to think so.:Barbra Streisand notwithstanding, people who need people seem to be a dwindling population. Online sales areCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1138344424971616512006-06-08T22:25:00.000-07:002006-06-09T20:16:07.320-07:00Site Map(if links don't work, click on the date in the archives in the left column)The Store That Ate the World (Wal-Mart book reviews) 1/22/2006The Great Malls of China: Take Two (LA Times oped) 1/08/2006Wal-Mart in the Red 10/30/2005The Mall is a Place 4/03/2005Spend the Children 2/27/2005Mall Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Victor Gruen) 2/20/2005The Empire Stumbles 11/28/2004The Heart of Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1146550361036840912006-05-01T23:12:00.000-07:002006-05-01T23:12:41.040-07:00John Kenneth Galbraith Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1146550100359106962006-05-01T23:03:00.000-07:002006-05-01T23:08:20.370-07:00Prophet of the Consumer SocietySo soon after Jane Jacobs, another great influence on how we can conceptualized Shopopolis passed away Sunday: John Kenneth Galbraith. He was 97. It was my good fortune that the first book on economics I read was his The Affluent Society. It became central to my first college paper, and had no small influence on my book, The Malling of America. Galbraith was not Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1146130350413866492006-04-27T02:32:00.000-07:002006-04-27T02:32:30.420-07:00Jane Jacobs Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1146130086366044392006-04-27T02:14:00.000-07:002006-05-02T22:28:46.476-07:00R.I.P. Jane JacobsJane Jacobs died at the age of 89. With one book, the Death and Life of American Cities, in 1961, she brought a new point of view to how professional planners and others conceived of cities, by analyzing and expressing what many people felt from their own experience made cities work. Lewis Mumford once advised planners to "make cities for lovers and friends." Jane Jacobs told Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1137925099467489652006-01-22T02:18:00.000-08:002006-01-22T02:18:19.473-08:00AP photo. Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1137922862967982912006-01-22T01:31:00.000-08:002008-04-12T01:08:20.196-07:00The Store That Ate The WorldThis is a longer version of the review appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle.by William S. KowinskiThe Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works---and How It’s Transforming the American EconomyBy Charles FishmanPenguin PressWal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First Century CapitalismEdited by Nelson LichtensteinThe New PressBusiness journalist Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1138342884245648292006-01-12T22:15:00.000-08:002006-01-26T22:21:24.256-08:00The Great Malls of China: Take TwoThe earlier entry on this blog led to writing an oped piece that was published in the Los Angeles Times. The following entry uses material from that oped before editing at the Times, plus other pertinent material. So this will be the definitive "free" Internet version. The news that China is now more popular around the world than the U.S., according to a Pew Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1133512006209807302005-12-02T00:23:00.000-08:002007-02-09T03:01:39.239-08:00'Tis The Season To Be Brokeby Robert B. Reichfrom Commondreams.org'Tis the season for retailers to be jolly if American consumers empty their wallets over the next three weeks. But how can we empty our wallets if our wallets are already empty?Consumer confidence appears to have bounced back from the low brought on by the hurricanes and subsequently high gas prices. But it’s still below what it Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1133326555732815922005-11-29T20:53:00.000-08:002007-02-09T03:02:55.822-08:00Shopping for a Movie? How About A Movie About Shopping?from the San Francisco ChronicleShopping is better than sex, according to one buying-spree specialist. At least after leaving the store you have something to show for it. Feeling suicidal? The right pair of shoes can save your life. You can become anything you want when you shop: a slut, a glamour queen, a rock star. You can even be Grace Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1130914878397979402005-11-01T23:01:00.000-08:002005-11-01T23:01:18.400-08:00Raging Grannies demonstrate against military recruiting at Wal-Mart. Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1130909185653701182005-11-01T21:19:00.000-08:002005-11-01T21:26:25.666-08:00Wal-Mart in the Red Today's New York Times highlights the latest evidence of political favoritism to Wal-Mart, a major corporate contributor to the Republicans and the Bush administration.The Bush Labor Department entered into an agreement with Wal-Mart to give them 15 days notice before they conduct inspections for child labor law violations--- after Wal-Mart was caught violating those laws Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1117327790911295842005-05-28T17:49:00.000-07:002005-05-28T17:49:50.916-07:00Grand Gateway Mall, China Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1117327432371070012005-05-28T17:42:00.000-07:002005-05-28T17:43:52.376-07:00The Great Mall of ChinaThey do things really big there. And why not? They've got a major portion of American wealth, they control American consumer business and they own America's financial destiny.You've guessed I'm not talking about Texas. Or California. Everybody has known for a long time that China, with its immensely vast and humungous population spread over a huge chunk of the earth's Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1112996896365474932005-04-08T14:48:00.000-07:002009-01-04T03:29:47.129-08:00Mall of America: Kowinski photo Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1112991537364421362005-04-08T13:16:00.000-07:002007-02-09T03:04:38.769-08:00The Mall is a PlaceIn his provocative and often insightful new book, In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, John Thackara advocates for more attention to the behavior and feelings and states of mind prompted by the spaces we are so blithely building, like shopping malls and airports (which, as he brilliantly describes, are themselves mostly shopping malls, especially since the airport's Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1108722623121703442005-04-07T02:18:00.000-07:002005-05-06T14:15:16.870-07:00SITE MAP(click on your selection) Spend the ChildrenMall Captain and the World of TomorrowBuying BlueIs the Wal-Mart Empire Ready to Fall?The Heart of Mallness part 1--the Mall of AmericaMall of America part 2--ShopopolisMall of America part 3- This Must Be the PlaceConsuming the FutureMall of America part 4-Main Street in a Space ShipCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1109838495342444932005-03-03T00:28:00.000-08:002005-03-03T01:03:10.683-08:00happy Easter from me and Gino Severini (who painted this of and for his daughter.) Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1109838019628896632005-03-03T00:13:00.000-08:002007-02-09T03:07:03.789-08:00Spend the ChildrenI like to keep a weather eye on the consumption patterns of America. So I look around, I read the press, absorb the stats, and if I don't exactly bathe in the advertising, I do let it rain on me a little.And merely because I'm hanging around this century, I've become dimly aware of how commercialized holidays of every kind are becoming. Christmas has been a longstanding Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1109297217425546182005-02-24T18:06:00.000-08:002007-02-09T03:07:45.533-08:00The Westinghouse Building at the 1939 World's Fair World of Tomorrow Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1109296118047748712005-02-24T17:40:00.000-08:002007-02-09T03:00:32.630-08:00Mall Captain and the World of TomorrowThe first biography of Victor Gruen, the architect generally credited with inventing the modern shopping mall, contains some fascinating details about his life that confirm a lot of what I wrote about in THE MALLING OF AMERICA.The book is called Mall Maker, by M. Jeffrey Hardwick, an expansion of his PhD thesis published by the University of Pennsylvania Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1107079808711751112005-01-30T02:10:00.000-08:002008-04-12T01:06:57.886-07:00Happy 20th birthday to THE MALLING OF AMERICA, shown here in updated 2002 edition, available now from your online bookseller Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1102384093985979252004-12-06T17:48:00.000-08:002009-01-04T03:30:30.102-08:00Kowinski photo. A red, green--and Blue---Christmas Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1102372988941276092004-12-06T14:21:00.000-08:002004-12-08T05:47:08.130-08:00Dreaming of a Blue Christmas
What do you get if you buy your Christmas treats and decorations at Costco, shop for gift books at Barnes & Noble, get your fashion-conscious sister her gift from Anne Klein and the kids clothes from Ralph Lauren Childrenwear, send your Christmas cards from Blue Mountain Arts, toast the season with Cuervo at the Hard Rock Café, get your tickets on Expedia to fly homeCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1101904676215733172004-12-01T04:37:00.000-08:002009-01-04T03:30:30.103-08:00photo by Kowinski. origins of the shopping mall were European: the Galleria of Milan Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1101903570730402282004-12-01T04:17:00.000-08:002004-12-01T04:29:17.223-08:00The Wal-Mart Empire Stumbles---is it ready to fall?
The Wal-Mart Empire stumbled at the start of the 2004 Christmas season, failing to meet even its reduced sales expectations for November. This titan of the retail universe saw other trouble-spots in its imperial dominion that could threaten its future.
Having prospered in the past decade with low prices dependent on very low-wage manufacturingCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1100597973580984922004-02-28T13:39:00.000-08:002010-04-24T02:41:06.890-07:00Kowinski photo: Mall of America Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1077965722597073252004-02-28T02:49:00.000-08:002004-02-28T02:58:11.560-08:00
THE HEART OF MALLNESS
The Malling of America goes to the Mall of America
By William Severini Kowinski
Consider this a symphony, done in the old way---3 movements, then an intermission before the final movement. In order from here down are three long sections written shortly after my visit to Mall of America in 2001. Then the intermission---the "Consuming the Future" speech---before the Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1138349482740169812004-02-28T02:48:00.000-08:002009-01-04T03:30:30.105-08:00Kowinski photo: Mall of America Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1077965267303329272004-02-28T02:44:00.000-08:002004-02-28T02:50:36.356-08:002. Shopopolis
exploring the city of now
The size of it doesn't hit you immediately. Just inside the East entrance is a self-contained and nondescript area with a plain help desk and a city-style newsstand store next to it, some sturdy benches in the center and rows of lockers on the opposite side. It's a cross between high school (complete with clots of teenagers) and a subway station, except Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1138349641496390462004-02-28T02:41:00.000-08:002009-01-04T03:30:30.105-08:00 Mall of America Kowinski photoCaptain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1077965033693374052004-02-28T02:40:00.000-08:002004-02-28T02:46:42.793-08:003. Virtuality in Concrete
mall as symbol and as place
For the next several hours I explored this mega-mall, from East Broadway to West Market, from South Avenue to North Garden. For those who regard malls as non-places, this would seem silly, or perhaps an affront, but certainly futile. They aren't real places, but living symbols of sameness.
Especially in the journalism of the past decade,Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1138349675722920502004-02-28T00:50:00.000-08:002009-01-04T03:30:30.106-08:00Mall of America Kowinski photo Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1138351219093059372004-02-28T00:25:00.000-08:002007-02-09T03:10:34.363-08:004.Main Street in a SpaceshipCarol Kennicott's RevengeThis was my fifth visit to Minnesota. Two others were also to look at malls; once I was traveling on a story with the Billy Joel tour, but the first, a long time ago, was to visit a girl. She was in the spring of her senior year at Hamline University, and living in St. Paul with several other young women. We shared a romance with literature, Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-1138352224928507282003-01-07T23:49:00.000-08:002009-01-04T03:30:30.107-08:00Mall of America 2002 Kowinski photo Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086456.post-871000612003-01-07T22:20:00.000-08:002003-01-07T22:20:03.173-08:00
CONSUMING THE FUTURE
by William Severini Kowinski
as presented to the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship,December 1, 2002. An excerpt was published as "The Last Best Christmas" on page 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Insight section on December 15, 2002. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/15/IN241202.DTL
The tension mounts, the stakes Captain Futurenoreply@blogger.com0