Additionally, there are no "open mic" nights at local coffee shops in Houston, TX because there are no local coffee shops. In high school, I got over some of my bashfulness by playing every Sunday at Zebo's coffee. This coffee shop went out of business when good ol' Starbucks opened down the street. Yet, Starbucks doesn't allow the same dark, acoustic music and late night discussions that Zebo's or coffee shops of New Orleans practice. Starbucks plays certain CDs on a speaker that they sell within the store, and their late night discussions are cut pretty short at 9 or 10pm. They also use automatic espresso shot machines, sell Starbucks everything instead of local vendors, and their decor makes all of the Starbucks look about the same. How does this affect our country's creative development? With the industrialization and cookie cutter molding of the coffee shops that helped to breed some of the most brilliant creative minds, where will our future poets, musicians and writers go talk late at night, start playing music in front of others, scribble stream of consciousness ideas or scattered thoughts?
Some people may answer this dilemma of a lack of creative space in coffee shops with the use of youtube musicians and blogs of creative writing. How will these tools affect the next generation of creative thinkers?
our blog post has reminded me of the richness of culture in New Orleans, and why it is such an indispensable American city.
ReplyDeleteYoutube and blogs seem to be bearable as substitutes for a legitimate artistic atmosphere, and as far as communication goes, the internet affords people the ability to communicate across seas and countries, which is definitely helpful for artists communicating ideas.
Still, what I find is that the internet is too sedentary to completely replace the atmosphere of a coffee shop or any "real-life" (what does 'real' mean anyway?) setting. Geography is important; mobility is important. That our entire bodies move around and environment and move from one place to another, from night to day, from midnight coffee to morning conversation, is much different than to click away from a blog to youtube, while in the background you hear an iTunes shuffle playlist. Your senses, mostly eyesight and hearing, are clearly entertained, but the body itself misses out on a lot, and consequently, I think, the value of lived experience is diminished.
While the digital world is a good substitute, it cannot replace the actual experience of... well, life.
So, thinking about your questions, my first thoughts are: yes, youtube and blogging is good--but there still need to be good coffee shops around.
The sun and the moon haven't failed us, nor has the natural world stopped being beautiful; but we insist on retreating form it into our iWorlds and our digital spheres.