There is a movement going on
One of the best things about summer is that as a family we do a lot of hanging. People laugh when I say we don’t leave our beach house but it is basically the truth. The house becomes an endless vacation to unwind and talk. The kids bring their friends, we have big dinners, drink lots of wine, read a lot of books and many discussions around culture, politics, books, business and more.
This weekend someone brought up what is happening in the Los Angeles art world. The art world in Los Angeles is burgeoning. It is a combination of things. Cost of space, growth of the downtown area, new opportunities and with that a community of young artists is built. There is also the ability for many to pursue their dreams without coming from a family with deep pockets. You can figure out how to make it work through the shared economy. You can get funded through Kickstarter, you can rent out your place on Airbnb for a few nights to make your monthly nut work, you can become a part-time driver for multiple companies and then there is always the classic waiter/waitress/bartender job but that isn’t the only thing anymore.
That conversation turned into that we all see that there is a movement afoot. It isn’t only with the arts. It is with food. It is with music. It is with new companies. It is with non-profits. It is with everything. People are ready for change. It could be the long tail of the banking industry disaster, it could be the advent of technology, it could be the knee jerk reaction to hovering helicopter parents who pushed their kids to be something that did not necessarily fit with who they are. Whatever it is we are definitely living in a time where change is happening.
You can see it in the political arena too. Gay marriage has been legalized. Weed is slowly becoming legal in every state. The confederate flag came down. People are calling out police for behavior once swept under the carpet. Women are calling out sexual assaults on campus and pointing directly to the ones that did it without fear. Going to college is changing based on the overwhelming debt that people have to take on. We saw the MFA’s at USC protest, walk out and perhaps the closing of the program. GW just announced no more SAT or ACT’s needed to apply and other schools have come before them. We are seeing people of all ages come out and support Bernie Sanders on one side and Donald Trump on the other. That is a reaction from nasty politics where money has taken over our system. It isn’t so much about the people but about politicans staying in power and the people with the deepest pockets making that happen to benefit their own agendas. People have had enough and with that comes a change in behavior.
You can’t have a movement without history. We discussed what is happening with McDonalds. For the first time in the history they are closing more stores than opening them. How J. Crew is losing market share and profits. How this generation would rather buy from Amazon Prime than walk in the store for a pair of sneakers. How everyone in our house under 30 is reading from paperbacks vs kindles.
Bottom line…there is a movement and I am looking forward to see where this all goes. Let’s hope gun control is leading this movement towards change.
Comments (Archived):
About Time The future looks much better. Hope things continue towards the right direction.
Amen on gun control
Spot on.
In addition to the above list, I’d love to see the real estate pendulum swing back from banks and Starbucks and the like. When Union Square Cafe has to move, it’s a sign things are out of whack.
Good news is that USC found a new spotThe real estate owners have been following the money without any interest on building a neighborhood for ever. Look at Columbus Ave in the 80s
So good, Joanne! So much evident lately that speaking up is starting to yield results, culturally and politically and momentum is building – an exciting moment!
Many SF Bay Area artists and arts organizations have moved to LA because SF rents rose 30% last year.”According to a recent Curbed SF article, a single renter has to make seven times the minimum wage, or $79 an hour, to afford a median-rate apartment in SF. Los Angeles isn’t a renter’s paradise by any means—single earners need to make $49 an hour to afford an average rental here—but a difference of $30 an hour ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at.”http://la.curbed.com/archiv…
woah.
this threw me: “How everyone in our house under 30 is reading from paperbacks vs kindles.” Really? Back to paper? New books or used?
Yep. New and used
How very hipster of them! But my 17 year old too. Will read a Kindle book if I’ve already bought it and it’s sitting on our shared account but otherwise, he’d prefer to either get it out of the library or buy it used. My 21 year old is I think more, “whatever” but definitely trends away from me and towards the physical product.
kindles are a punishment on the senses. If you have to look up a quote and you’re not good with spatial dynamics, you appreciate all the spatial cues that a physical book can provide to help your memory retrace its steps. A person can get really disoriented in an e-book where every page looks the same whether it’s at the “front” or the “back” of the book, there’s no corresponding shifting of weight from the right hand to the left, no sound of pages turning, and no highlighting to jog your memory of reading a particular page. It’s like floating in a gravity-less chamber. Eventually you want to get back on solid ground.
Hi Erin! I find it very hard to get back into reading physical books, unless pictures or graphics are an important part of the text. I love floating in the gravity-less chamber that is a Kindle. I’m able to get much more lost in the text in a Kindle. Everything else just drops away. Less on a phone or tablet because there are other distractions hidden just below the surface of the reading app.
Well hello! Fancy meeting you here. Well carry on with your floating, although I do have one thing to say to that. https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Exactly right.
What would you consider to be gun control success? And if those measures were enacted how many lives would have been saved over a given period of time?
i’d like to see zero access to guns but that isn’t going to happen.