Ok, time for a rant.
There've been many threads on the dire state of capitalism, at the present time and forseeable future. Probably forever, unless we get up en masse and get rid of it for good and all.
But this particular thread is about merchandise, and the unadulterated rubbish most of it today constitutes, if we're out of the upper echelons who do rather well out of having and/or selling it. If capitalism is to survive, one simple think it should do is address the drabness of what's left of the high street, and what's taken over in the shopping mall.
Take this very morning. 3 days to Xmas and you'd think the retailers of easily disposable stuff would be doing their utmost to attract families. But what does one find on offer?
I went into Video Blockbuster just now, out of desperation at finding anything worth buying elsewhere for a very dear friend of mine of many years' standing. I've been looking for 3 weeks now in an escalating state of disillusionment. And what did I find? A shop full of punters eager to get hold of the latest boxed set of Frozen Planet or Rev? That's the sort of thing one might be expected to find? After all, we're told, the economy is in recession. For decades the "working masses" have been a vital component of a country's good economic state of being, or so we're told. Were'nt the Japanese responsible for the long recession of the 1990s because they had purchased all they needed, and weren't going out and buying anything more? And so, "Export", they were being exhorted, one minute - and the next, get more efficient, rationalise your productive industries, become more competititive with... wherever. To what end? - one might have asked. So as we can compete ourselves out of a job when the product line exhausts? So then - what did I find? Well, the place was near-empty. Shelves abrim with trashy Hollywood Blockbusters and "games shows", so-called. Eventually I discovered a DVD of Tom & Jerry cartoons, 3 hours' worth of same. Something to give a few hours of belly laughs, a bit of much-needed therapy. There was another DVD of "Made in Dagenham", the slightly dipsy movie about the Dagenham women's strike over equal pay in the 60s. Well it brings back promising times. Go to pay for them. £3 for the Dagenham DVD - it's a remaindered copy so my friend will have to receive an unsellophane-wrapped copy, ahem - and I can't have the Tom & Jerry as it's only for hire.
Two years ago I went looking for a sports jacket, to replace the several sports jackets that I have been holding together for 10 years at least with nowadays virtually unobtainable leather elbow patches, the wearing of which puts me into the absent-minded professor category appearancewise - probably not far off the truth, as if, huh! Two years previous, Sainsbury's had offered washable cotton jackets in three shades of brown, from fawn to dark brown, for £30 apiece. probably made in Taiwan; green would have been nice, but buggars can't be choosers when you want to maintain some sort of appearance congruent stylewise with the way you've always seen yourself. I should have had one of each, given I could have afforded them. Anyone else ever had that sinking feeling of having been in on the end of something good, and not realised it at the crucial time? A year later? Twenty aisles of ladies' clothing items, every shape, size, pattern, colour you could ogle for. Two aisles, combining men's and children's. And for suits and jackets, nothing, puffa and thin nylon jerkas apart, but I would guess 30 identical rows of what were effectively undertakers' suits - black, featureless, depressing. And they're still there: not the same suits, that's for sure, because look around: they're everywhere: boring, boring and boring men looking like our dads in the 1950s in their specs and matching near-black two-piece suits. Or men... well, I peered over the balustrade down at passing crowds at the South Bank during those warm October days, remembering London in the 1960s when all was colour. And variety. And sartorial fun. Now what was on visual offer was baseball hats, black nylon jackets, grey or white T-shirts, some with some crappy irrelevant logo, yep, trainers trainers trainers, and blue jeans. This was the alternative to Mao suits capitalism was offering to the the Chinese, and today the N Koreans. Why bother any more: I might just as well wear my boiler suit all the time. It's maoneovrable in, and doesn't perplex me with the daily problem of what should I wear?
Would anybody notice? is this what the illusion of freedom of choice brought us to - monochrome?
All I can say in conclusion is: thank god I lived (I accidentally typed "loved") through an era when we could buy worthwhile stuff, from jackets in orange to purple if we really wanted to, from Stockhausen to Balinese Gamelan in, yes, our regular local retailers, or hear or watch what we wanted to enrich our spirits on radio and telly 7/7. "You'll have to go up HMV in Tottenham Court Road to get that Tom & Jerry", said the other customer in Blockbuster, helpfully, "...and that's rather a long way, innit!"
What do others feel about today's DRABness? Anyone old enough to remember when it was all different?
S-A
There've been many threads on the dire state of capitalism, at the present time and forseeable future. Probably forever, unless we get up en masse and get rid of it for good and all.
But this particular thread is about merchandise, and the unadulterated rubbish most of it today constitutes, if we're out of the upper echelons who do rather well out of having and/or selling it. If capitalism is to survive, one simple think it should do is address the drabness of what's left of the high street, and what's taken over in the shopping mall.
Take this very morning. 3 days to Xmas and you'd think the retailers of easily disposable stuff would be doing their utmost to attract families. But what does one find on offer?
I went into Video Blockbuster just now, out of desperation at finding anything worth buying elsewhere for a very dear friend of mine of many years' standing. I've been looking for 3 weeks now in an escalating state of disillusionment. And what did I find? A shop full of punters eager to get hold of the latest boxed set of Frozen Planet or Rev? That's the sort of thing one might be expected to find? After all, we're told, the economy is in recession. For decades the "working masses" have been a vital component of a country's good economic state of being, or so we're told. Were'nt the Japanese responsible for the long recession of the 1990s because they had purchased all they needed, and weren't going out and buying anything more? And so, "Export", they were being exhorted, one minute - and the next, get more efficient, rationalise your productive industries, become more competititive with... wherever. To what end? - one might have asked. So as we can compete ourselves out of a job when the product line exhausts? So then - what did I find? Well, the place was near-empty. Shelves abrim with trashy Hollywood Blockbusters and "games shows", so-called. Eventually I discovered a DVD of Tom & Jerry cartoons, 3 hours' worth of same. Something to give a few hours of belly laughs, a bit of much-needed therapy. There was another DVD of "Made in Dagenham", the slightly dipsy movie about the Dagenham women's strike over equal pay in the 60s. Well it brings back promising times. Go to pay for them. £3 for the Dagenham DVD - it's a remaindered copy so my friend will have to receive an unsellophane-wrapped copy, ahem - and I can't have the Tom & Jerry as it's only for hire.
Two years ago I went looking for a sports jacket, to replace the several sports jackets that I have been holding together for 10 years at least with nowadays virtually unobtainable leather elbow patches, the wearing of which puts me into the absent-minded professor category appearancewise - probably not far off the truth, as if, huh! Two years previous, Sainsbury's had offered washable cotton jackets in three shades of brown, from fawn to dark brown, for £30 apiece. probably made in Taiwan; green would have been nice, but buggars can't be choosers when you want to maintain some sort of appearance congruent stylewise with the way you've always seen yourself. I should have had one of each, given I could have afforded them. Anyone else ever had that sinking feeling of having been in on the end of something good, and not realised it at the crucial time? A year later? Twenty aisles of ladies' clothing items, every shape, size, pattern, colour you could ogle for. Two aisles, combining men's and children's. And for suits and jackets, nothing, puffa and thin nylon jerkas apart, but I would guess 30 identical rows of what were effectively undertakers' suits - black, featureless, depressing. And they're still there: not the same suits, that's for sure, because look around: they're everywhere: boring, boring and boring men looking like our dads in the 1950s in their specs and matching near-black two-piece suits. Or men... well, I peered over the balustrade down at passing crowds at the South Bank during those warm October days, remembering London in the 1960s when all was colour. And variety. And sartorial fun. Now what was on visual offer was baseball hats, black nylon jackets, grey or white T-shirts, some with some crappy irrelevant logo, yep, trainers trainers trainers, and blue jeans. This was the alternative to Mao suits capitalism was offering to the the Chinese, and today the N Koreans. Why bother any more: I might just as well wear my boiler suit all the time. It's maoneovrable in, and doesn't perplex me with the daily problem of what should I wear?
Would anybody notice? is this what the illusion of freedom of choice brought us to - monochrome?
All I can say in conclusion is: thank god I lived (I accidentally typed "loved") through an era when we could buy worthwhile stuff, from jackets in orange to purple if we really wanted to, from Stockhausen to Balinese Gamelan in, yes, our regular local retailers, or hear or watch what we wanted to enrich our spirits on radio and telly 7/7. "You'll have to go up HMV in Tottenham Court Road to get that Tom & Jerry", said the other customer in Blockbuster, helpfully, "...and that's rather a long way, innit!"
What do others feel about today's DRABness? Anyone old enough to remember when it was all different?
S-A
they do them in pmark in a fleecy material, with owls, reindeers, and other motifs....they look really snug, but probably wash badly....something the high street seems to excell at, in terms of *least amount of value over time*. pmark convinces al its female customers that 'it's good to look like an enormous baby' and there's increasingly less and less difference between adult women/childrens' wear imo. 
Comment