Wolcott considers the rumblings of withdral from Iraq.
Not pretty....
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Random Thoughts on Costco
Generally, I'm not a fan of unchecked large-scale capitalism.
It always ends up the same way- one Wal*Mart analog rolling downhill, growing exponentially like an avalanche, crushing everything in its market sector, leaving a smooth, white plain in its wake unbroken save for small bits of Wal*Mart broken off from the main body.
temperamentally, I'm more inclined to the European model which was still a lingering scent in the American air of my youth- many smaller businesses providing the same range of services at slightly higher prices and a loss of centralized convenience. I'm like a negative image of a typical Republican- where they despise the Government and ascribe all goodness to the corporate wing of the private sector, I despise big business and put my trust in the fallible but human hands of my fellow voters.
Given all that, it may come as a surprise that I'm a fan of Costco, the very definition of 'big box' retailer.
What!
How? Why?
Firstly, unlike others of their ilk they pay their employees well. They subvert the usual big box model where all profit siphons up to the corporate level and everyone else is paid slave wages.
Secondly, it is a store utterly without pretense.
You walk in and you're faced with an immense space piled high with palettes of....stuff. They're there to sell you shit, and their only weapon is price. No artfulness, no craft, no misdirection, just a vast field of crap swarming with humanity, like ants crawling over a mammoth picnic table.
It's capitalism stripped to its naked, throbbing core, but a strain of capitalism that doesn't begrudge its workers the basics of a sustainable living. It's refreshing, the kind of retail honesty I can appreciate.
It always ends up the same way- one Wal*Mart analog rolling downhill, growing exponentially like an avalanche, crushing everything in its market sector, leaving a smooth, white plain in its wake unbroken save for small bits of Wal*Mart broken off from the main body.
temperamentally, I'm more inclined to the European model which was still a lingering scent in the American air of my youth- many smaller businesses providing the same range of services at slightly higher prices and a loss of centralized convenience. I'm like a negative image of a typical Republican- where they despise the Government and ascribe all goodness to the corporate wing of the private sector, I despise big business and put my trust in the fallible but human hands of my fellow voters.
Given all that, it may come as a surprise that I'm a fan of Costco, the very definition of 'big box' retailer.
What!
How? Why?
Firstly, unlike others of their ilk they pay their employees well. They subvert the usual big box model where all profit siphons up to the corporate level and everyone else is paid slave wages.
Secondly, it is a store utterly without pretense.
You walk in and you're faced with an immense space piled high with palettes of....stuff. They're there to sell you shit, and their only weapon is price. No artfulness, no craft, no misdirection, just a vast field of crap swarming with humanity, like ants crawling over a mammoth picnic table.
It's capitalism stripped to its naked, throbbing core, but a strain of capitalism that doesn't begrudge its workers the basics of a sustainable living. It's refreshing, the kind of retail honesty I can appreciate.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Film: M
I LOVE THE INTERNET!!!!111111
pant
pant
pant
one of the greatest films ever made....free download.....aaaaaagk!
and a synchronistic HAH! for this line:
Given that Hitchcock wasn't really Hitchcock until 1934 or so, the appelation is even less welcome and accurate than usual.
The only film I've ever seen that can be accurately described as 'Hitchcockian' is Clouzot's incomperable Diabolique, which also answers Peter Bogdanovich's question to Hitchcock "what film do you wish you'd directed?"
It's turning out to be quite the movie day around here.
pant
pant
pant
one of the greatest films ever made....free download.....aaaaaagk!
and a synchronistic HAH! for this line:
Highly recommended for those in the mood for a Hitchcockian-style thriller...
Given that Hitchcock wasn't really Hitchcock until 1934 or so, the appelation is even less welcome and accurate than usual.
The only film I've ever seen that can be accurately described as 'Hitchcockian' is Clouzot's incomperable Diabolique, which also answers Peter Bogdanovich's question to Hitchcock "what film do you wish you'd directed?"
It's turning out to be quite the movie day around here.
my readers are l337, y'all
The comment thing had me poking around behind the Baxblog scenes and doublechecking my settings and whatnot today, and I was happy to discover via Blogcounter that among my discerning, savvy, attractive and well-groomed readership users of Firefox outnumber users of Explorer.
It does my heart proud....
It does my heart proud....
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