Observations (as recorded on personal recording device)
It is Sept 22nd, around 5 O'clock or so. I've just arrived at the Starbucks Coffee on Devonshire by the abandoned Blockbuster, soon to be Wachovia. Let's see what's going on.Apparently, the establishment has changed very much since I worked at the Blockbuster over a year ago. There are less chairs and tables now, for which to observe people. There are about three people outside, with a dog. Two older-looking men and a young man, the dog is older. One of the men is heavily bearded. Heavily bearded. They seem to be discussing something about entertainment. I heard something about Jack Nicholson's vocal coach, it seemed like one man associated with him at some point perhaps. Inside the Starbucks there were approximately seven people with three employees on top of that. One older blonde woman had her laptop with her cell phone plugged into it, apparently charging it. When the blenders turned on, it was a little loud for her to hear who she was talking to on the phone, so she walked outside, where she is now. One man was on his laptop as was another man. There was a group of three: an older man and two boys going over math problems of some sort. There were two men in the back who I couldn't see clearly, one was dressed formally the other casual-formal. Not too much going on here. Now I have to pay attention because I am aimlessly driving around Chatsworth or Chatsworth-Northridge, something like that. Maybe I'll take some time to go over to the Northridge Borders and see if it's a little better over there. See if I can avoid getting into a car crash. Okay.
The Borders Bookstore in Northridge was much more as expected, compared to the Starbucks. For a Monday afternoon, it was adequately filled with people, not overly full like a weekend. I was able to glean a few instances from the experience. The first notable instance was by the door, as I was walking by the magazine stands, a couple came in. A younger couple, perhaps in their teens, maybe their early twenties, probably early teens though. They walked in the turned toward the magazine stand and he remarked "Baby, baby, baby, look!" He wanted her to look at the World War II magazines. Another instance, I walked by the religion area of the store and found one couple looking at religious books. The young woman seemed interested in looking at book from different religions, or religion in general. She mentioned that her grandfather used to talk to her about religion or different religions as a child, she seemed like she was on her own journey to see what it was all about. An interesting thing happened, they asked for help from one of the employees who seemed to be very helpful. He showed them Judaism, Catholicism, alternative ones against them, and also I believe they went over a few Eastern religion books. He gave his story for a bit, his mother was Catholic and his father a born-again Christian minister and he converted to Judaism. He also mentioned that he had done several projects on Eastern religion because he was directed to pursue learning about a religion that he had not been influenced by throughout the course of his life. So he seemed to be a very knowledgeable young man.Thoughts
At the Starbucks, I was struck by how prevalent technology has become in our daily lives. The use of computers appeared much more pronounced in the coffee chain, but it made me think of how this technology has changed our communication habits. What could have been a somewhat social meeting place was actually devoid of much sound at all, save for the coffee blender's interferrence. It seems that, with the ubiquity of iPods and laptops and other mobile forms of technology, we use these technologies to avoid personal interaction, or at least trade the human interaction of strangers with the digital communication with those we already know.
The objectiveness of my observations were betrayed momentarily as I noted the bearded man outside the Starbucks. Reflecting back, I wonder if I was merely suprised by seeing a person whose cultural influences and experiences seemed likely to be much different than my own. Perhaps a bit assuming, it was not hard to imagine him as part of the anti-establishment or "hippie" group of the 1960s. That assumption does bring up an interesting issue, though. That would mean he was an active participant in the changing paradigm of masculinity in that era. The Barker text refers to this as the "betrayal of the modern man," where the ideal of masculinity spawned disillusionment as the "dutiful and useful" men returned from the Second World War only to soon discover "downsizing, unemployment, the Vietnam and Korean Wars, feminism, and a decline in public concern with space travel." Just a thought.The Second World War came up more overtly in the Borders Bookstore. When the young man attempted to draw his campanion's attention to the WWII inspired magazines, I initially wrote off the interaction as merely marginally sexist and somewhat obnoxious. I believed on some level he was drawing attention to her feminism, as a person who could not relate to the experience or would find it distasteful. Upon further reflection, though, I realized that this young man has no stake in that experience either. That knowledge completely re-imforms the situation, as a man attempts to reinforce his failing sense of gender identity through association with men of a more defined and perhaps nobler time. This idea emphasizes the slightly desperate tone of a man trying to grasp his partner's attention and finding his effort without any gain.
As I encountered the couple in the religious section of the store, some ideas of feminism came up. It is very possible that this woman was searching for some sense of identity in learning about different religions. She seemed to have been greatly affected by the influence of her grandfather and his talks with her about the subject. Though not necessarily the case, the situation harkens to the patriarchial structure. Religious institutions (as a generality) often contribute to that same theme of saturated power relations. The store employee reminded me a bit of our conversation about culture and anti-culture, as he was drawn to a belief system that was not the same as his parents but the similarities did not seem to go further.
Picture Credits -
Starbucks Cup: http://bigmarketing.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/the-starbucks-experience-wins-over-coffee-everytime/
Borders: http://decaturmetro.com/2008/03/25/borders-books-ponders-selling-out/
ZZ Top: http://levrock.com/?p=Gallery&gid=7
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