A family of tomatoes were crossing the street. The baby tomato lags behind and gets hit by a truck. The mother turns to the accident and yells "KETCHUP!"
...which is precisely what I'm doing.
This past week I ventured to the west coast of San Diego to visit family. My experience there felt like an alternate reality, bizarro New York. I stayed down town, which feels like a set on a western film. Clean, sterile, and untouched...the litter is taken care of by the large number of homeless holding signs of how the C.I.A. ruined their life...human swiffers? the city has been surrendered to commercial businesses and tourism, while the dominant space of living are the amazing beaches, which seems to be the point which San Diego fashion aesthetic revolves around. (Maybe all the business men and women are like super heros with their swimming costume always ready to go under their mild-mannered corporate facade...)
The style that I did recognize was very categorized; neo-pierced punk, new wave, thrift, surfer... looks that come in a box.
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| me in my Californiacation attire. |
But it isn't all the west coast. Fashion for non-fashion people (as in those whose interests do not lie in anticipating the release of a magazine) has been watered down to a degree where messiness and often stupidity can be worn to any venue. This look is also embraced by American royalty (celebrities), who for some reason have been put in a position to have an opinion.
More than once I've been complimented with the line "you don't look American"... for being well dressed and that is a true shame...
My theory of this blithe movement is the emergence of the (once) subculture into the forefront of social values. Fashion works off the many mediums of art, therefore there will always be a correlation between music, art and fashion. I have seen a dominance of Rap and graffiti culture within the art world. San Diego's museum of contemporary (both downtown SD and La Jolla) feature an exhibition about The urban dialogue . Showcased artists are collaging ideas of waste, war, trash, irony and graffiti culture.
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| Shrine to the modern gods. |
The more interactive art pieces made music with trash and found objects. American artist David Ellis in his piece "trash talk" rigged a garbage can with percussion components that would make the litter come alive with music. A similar approach seen in la Jolla's branch where the artist used garage sale lamps as the vessel for a musical performance. In many ways we are a generation of waste, but it is the artist who finds beauty at the bottom of the can.
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