Milwaukee Small Businesses

Another post from elsewhere that I decided beared re-printing.

I think one of the defining characteristics of Milwaukee is that it has such a small town feel. People tend to be more loyal to small companies. When places like Starbucks came in, a lot of people were worried that they would drive other places out of business, but so many people were fiercely anti-big business that Starbucks was able to co-exist next to places like Fuel and Stonecreek. (My two favorite places for coffee although Anodyne has some good brews) And even though I like the small businesses, I have no moral qualms about stopping in at Starbucks for a fancy coffee every once in a while (or as I like to call them, a meal in a cup)

For myself, this kind of fiercely loyal attitude to the small business has had repercussions. I can't enjoy myself in any gaming shop because I compare every single one to Napoleon's. I am forever wrecked for game stores because of them. I like the Barrister, it's a good store and he seems to care about games and I like Cudahy News and Hobby, although that moved and now it's Somewhere Else News and Hobby. But I find myself going to Half-Price Books just to see Franz and Jason working in a store. Some of my favorite times were just going into Napoleon's and sitting there for hours listening to nerds argue about the things that nerds argue about. Every year my birthday present to myself usually came from there. Napoleon's is an excellent example (at least for myself) of how a local business can inspire loyalty that is ultimately detrimental.

I shop at Target. Where else am I going to buy the things I get at Target like jeans or t-shirts? Target serves a purpose. It fills a role. I wouldn't go there to buy books or coffee. But that's not the role it fills for me. I do think it's important to choose a place like Target as opposed to Walmart. Sure, both are chains and both employ people that need jobs. (I think that's an important thing to think about, they might be national faceless chains, but they employ people from our neighborhoods that are just trying to make a living) But people need to send a message to places like Walmart that their employee practices are wrong and the only effective way to do that is with money. And as far as Best Buy, after what happened to my friend recently, I don't want to shop there, but they kind of monopolize the home electronics market. There aren't a lot of options. I'll go to Target instead if I can though.

Supporting local businesses is important. But it needs to be done rationally. I remember when htey wanted to build a Jewel-Osco in Riverwest and a massive protest movement was started to stop it from being built. It was being built on land that was not being used for anything except a place for dog-owners to take their animals somewhere where they didn't have to clean up after them. (No offense to the dog owners here, unless you don't think you need to clean up after your dogs, then you need to step in dog poo every day for the rest of your life but I know the dog owners here are responsible and good pet owners) But the people making the biggest stink were the rich owners of Beans and Barley. (I know because I was working there then) Here was a place that was going to provide jobs for a community that needed jobs that they could get to and provide food at affordable prices and the place with the food at prices that no one could afford were fighting them. These rich people were trying to eliminate competition by saying it was the socially concious thing to do when the reality was that it was rich people looking out for themselves rather than the community.

I hate to see Schwarz's go, but Atomic is representative of another problem with a lot of local businesses. In order to be the definitive experts on music they had to hire the local experts on music and experts of any kind, but particularly music tend to be pompous nobs that make looking for your favorite music feel like you're really bothering them. Then their friends come in and you really feel like you're the turd in the punchbowl. I shopped at Atomic a few times over the years, but I was very happy when Exclusive opened a store in Milwaukee because I was able to shop there instead and they would order anything I wanted. I think places like Atomic go out of business because they're jerks so waa-fuckin-waa. East side institution maybe, I'll just go drown my sorrows in a gyro.

Local businesses that deserve support will always get it. That's how Milwaukee rolls.

Technology or Man's Desire to Kick Himself in the Ass

Technology is an amazing thing. Scientists and inventors are constantly coming up with new ideas and new things to make our lives better. Some of the time these things are luxury items that just make existence a little nicer, sometimes they're things that make life easier to live, and sometimes they are amazing breakthroughs that we don't know how we ever lived without.

The problem arises when society changes in such a way that there is no way for us to go back to the way we lived before. When our amazing new technology fails us and we find ourselves scrambling to make do. Some times this isn't that drastic. If our fancy new television breaks we usually still have the old one to fall back on, unless of course we have already given it to a friend who doesn't even have a crappy one. But, as far as it goes, we can live without a television.

Last year when I was in Jamaica for my wedding, I remember sitting out on the balcony where we were staying with a laptop every morning trying to pick up the wireless internet connection that would fade in and out. After two weeks in one of the most beautiful places on earth, I was ready to come back to Wisconsin's frozen tundra where I had a decent internet connection. (And a television for that matter)

But all that's really small beans when compared to the pox that cell phones have become. When was the last time you tried to use a pay phone? When was the last time you even saw a pay phone? May the heavens have mercy on those that can't afford a cell phone and need to make a call. Even worse, you have a cell phone and something happens to it. If you happen to break the video screen, like I did to mine, suddenly you have all kinds of problems. Relatively minor is not knowing who's calling you. Which can be handy if your playing sick from work or accidentally gave your number to someone you don't really want to talk to. Far worse, however, is losing all your phone numbers. The convenience of a cell phone has been replaced with the archaic practice of numbers on little scraps of paper. Little scraps of paper that are easily lost. And if you want to get the damn thing fixed, you have to mail it in and wait for it to be sent back.

Hopefully you won't need it in those couple of weeks because I heard pay phones are pretty hard to find.

Revolver (My First Film Review)

I posted this on the forum board Instantcool.com and I liked it so I decided to repost it here.

This film by Guy Ritchie is utterly amazing. One of the other people in my Film Theory class was using this as part of his final project and showed a small part of it during his Final Presentation.

This movie is a total mindfuck. But even me telling you that isn't going to prepare you for it. I watched it knowing the same thing and I still wasn't prepared.

Jason Statham plays a small time hustler that's getting out of prison. The first person he goes after is the casino owner that sent him to prison. The casino owner doesn't take kindly to this and Mr. Greene (Statham) ends up getting help from a strange duo.

In terms of straight-up cinematography, the visuals are beautiful. The dialogue is tight and crisp and the story is multi-layered and well put together. This film fits nicely in the sub-genre of Guy Ritchie gangster/heist films and if you like his other work, you'll like this one.

Also worthy of note, the most bad-ass assassin you have ever seen. Well, top 5 at least.

Worth watching if you're into these kinds of films, especially if you want a film that makes you think and begs a second viewing.