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Summertime and the 'living' is easy

Image by jaseanton
Back on the (frequently disturbing) catwalk that is Weavers Wharf. Soon, with the (probably equally conservative and limiting) female workers coming here for lunch, the desperado-regulars will probably be out in force, looking for something they think is some sort of 'love', but which is really a thinly disguised attempt to avoid a simple fact: too many of them need to get real, wise up and get a fucking life.

I spotted a few signs of almost certain drag, sitting outside Nero's when I was some distance fron the place, but I honed in, instead, on the saxophonist here, banging out 'Summertime, and the living is easy'. Yeah, nice.

I'm thinking form and content, signifiers and signified, truth and reality, levels of meaning, semantic density and all the rest of the stuff that points to the utter bullshit that's goes on in this town and, especially at, what I think is the centre of it all: Caffe-Fucking-Nero.

(I dunno why I'm even about to bother writing this, but...) As I was taking this snap, one of the workers from Clinton Cards, who, beneath it all, can't stand me drinking coffee while she's working away all day, came up to me with more smiles than a cheesy chat show host, trying to get to the celebrity-type, tabloid juicy stuff. If you didn't know better - and up to this moment, maybe she didn't know that I know better - you'd have thought we were bezzy mates and the local tourist board should get on to the local rag sharpish for a mid-page spread on Weavers Wharf.

Enough's enough. Like I say, at 42 - increasingly mortal and with a sense that the bullshit's a massive waste of energy and life - I'm just not playing. Why the fuck should I? So, there I was, being hassled for the locally derisory behavior of using a smartphone in public to take pictures of whatever I fucking like, only to find myself being 'interviewed' in a way that became increasingly creepy (as did her laughter, revealing her ages-old attitude) as I refused to put my head in the noose and play, instead giving her the 'blank' look (within reasonable limits).

Of course, it doesn't matter that I didn't play or say anything 'incriminating' about using a smartphone publicly in Kidderminster in the year 2012. And, of course, if ever confronted, she'd deny everything and, like verbal abusers, use some bogus technique to try to turn the tables and further embed much a vibe. And there is a vibe and a momentum here that was established a long time ago, now, that was almost certainly always going to take place in this environment. The conditions were in place, probably have been in place since time began and are pretty much irreversible once they take hold.

That shit used to get to me, partly because I thought I just wanted a fucking coffee, a chill and a laugh. Partly, also, I internalized it, thinking it must have all been down to me (an often well-obscured and, so, convincing delusion that, compounded, can tragically push many people into the hands of psychiatric services), in a world that often convinces us, against our own long-term interests, that the social environment of so many places is beyond fucked and has been for a long time.

The danger, that I often fall for, is that I can react and complain about this, because I'm pretty sure I can see it for what it is. But that's likely to compound the vibe and momentum that maintains this particular vibe and momentum in places like many parts of Kidderminster. Again, though, once there's such a vibe and momentum about such a place, it's no easy feat to even begin to address it, so most people leave it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why nothing ever seems to get done about it.

There will, of course, probably be consequences from today's events triggered by using a smartphone in public in Kidderminster in the year 2012 and this may hint at one of the reasons why there may be no such thing as a 'third place'.

I spoke to a regular, from out-of-town, who doesn't sink in the office politics here, but who, I think, is vulnerable to the other effects of the gossip and bogus hierarchy, here. Well, maybe that's enough. She said what I've been thinking, that it can matter nothing, where you go. There will always be certain people with certain vibes, and certain people vulnerable to going along with and compounding it, suggesting a psychological, social and cultural link as well as the economic one, so many people seem to focus on and cling on to.

But what do we know, me and this chick? We think we're here to escape it all and just have coffee in the way the 'third place' theorists believe we do. There's a Starbucks opening across the way. They've put up the frames and the glass is being put in place as I write this. Places like Starbucks and Nero's will probably have done their stuff, tapping into research that, based on what I currently know about it, doesn't get to the heart of the matter of what really makes places in general, and this idea of 'third places', in particular, tick. This might be important for why this coffee shop has such a detrimental culture for people's quality of life, even, and perhaps especially, for those most engrossed in the office politics of it all.

Anyone from here with any sense and knowledge of the area knows that different parts of Kidderminster are linked by the unofficial 'news' network that's here. Like official news, there's a set of interests and agendas to it that many of its hacks don't even begin to understand, above and beyond what they can even refuse to question. It all has potential implications and consequences they may not even care about in the end, anyway, they can be so lost and embedded in the culture behind it.

The negative, conservative, limiting attitudes here are too widespread to suggest that it's just a problem with this particular area, I think. It must go beyond here, especially at those times when were not able to stand back and look at it with any developed perception or consciousness.

I dunno, but there's this woman who's another one of those people who think they're opting for the quiet life by not asserting her right to have her own opinion, even in a chat at a silly little coffee shop in a small English town. I tried to tell her to read a book on assertiveness, but she won't listen and is more likely to link up with the neg-regs, because she shares that underlying, insecure vibe. Right now, I don't really care about asking such people what their long-term definition of 'quiet' is when after, submitting to that passive lifestyle for so long, it all gets on top and they end up kicking off internally (by going 'crazy') or externally (by expressing a reaction physically or verbally). If that's really what 'quiet' means, maybe we need a new dictionary of psychosocial and cultural phenomena that obscures context and glosses over the long-term implications of a collective lack of insight and awareness. Maybe we've even already got those.

A bloke, with tragically-strong links to the neg-regs, sat by me a bit ago. I said 'You look tired and stressed', thinking the two are linked to all this. 'No, I'm all right', he said. I left it. Maybe if that came from someone, like a doctor, who would tap into the wannabe-middle-class vibe that's here, he'd think about it. Maybe he will, anyway. But it's more likely that, on his return later today, to improve his short-term 'health' or sense of psychological 'security', he'll sort of go with the vibe and the momentum of this place, suggesting to the neg-regs that he doesn't know what the fuck I'm on about. What, do you want a fucking list of all his many, many, many, many hang ups?!? Fuck off, really can be bothered.

By the way, the saxophonist, here, is from Birmingham. I know stuff about this place. I know stuff about Brum. I know stuff about people from Brum who come here. For all that, when I shook his hand, I asked him to remember that it's a different world, here. Maybe I'm wrong. Dunno. It is a pretty crazy thing to say to a stranger in the street, when you think about it. His look suggested that vibe and not the vibe I think more people need, to really question such things, rather than dismiss them out of hand. You never know what people know, eh.

Anyway, I need another coffee. The sun's out and I'm going to try to buck the trend of the environment, here, and do some easy living for a bit.