Strange Days Have Found Us
Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 11:42 AM by jiveturkeysuckafool
Updated Feb 17th, 2010 at 06:17 AM by jiveturkeysuckafool
Updated Feb 17th, 2010 at 06:17 AM by jiveturkeysuckafool
So I'm blissfully done with the poker on my trip - good god am I sick of cards. At this very moment, I'm sitting in a bar in downtown Champaign, Illinois, drinking:
I haven't lived here in almost 5 years, and the degree to which some things have changed (both predictably and unfathomably) juxtaposed with certain static elements is pretty fucking surreal.
There are new businesses and buildings everywhere in both downtown and campustown, but the periphery of the town conveys a stagnation that's all too familiar in the midwest. The new condos just being completed downtown on the hippest corner in the county will run you $150,000-350,000, but the well-kept, 60+ yo, 4+ bedroom home across the street from my buddy's place 3 miles away will barely squeeze 6 figures from its next buyer.
Walk into a bar downtown on a mid-Saturday and you'll find well-dressed, moderately-educated folks talking about a wide variety of engaging topics, while at any dive bar 2 miles away the third shifters at the pungent Kraft plant are creating a scene that makes Moe's look like Studio 54 in its heyday. It kind of reminds me of the movie Gummo. And let's not even talk about the obligatory black ghetto; it's called the North End here. It's really a microcosm for most American cities, I suppose, but it's so condensed and proximate here that it really slaps you in the face.
Most people that I used to know down here have undergone a sort of excommunication of the soul. They are still largely puerile, despite being on the jumping off point of their 20s, but lack whatever it was that made them engaging 5 years ago - this might be as much about my own changes as their lack thereof, but I'm thinking it's more about the cocoon of false security and worldview-stasis of small-to-mid-town mid-America to which they've decided to subject themselves. They all work dead-end jobs or no job at all, some live at home, a few have married (and are accordingly miserable and lacking fidelity), many have directionlessly spawned a time or two, some have had complete breakdowns.
I guess what's grating on me is the same as always - the big picture is predictable and the details are mundane. 5 years ago I could have (and in many cases did) predicted which of my friends would move to NY, which would go to law school, which would go to non-vocational grad school, which would fester in this cesspool, which would immediately move on to a career track, etc. Where they are in their lives was utterly foreseeable at that point, and filling in the white noise with "content" was as meaningless as it should have been. For those of my friends that chose the path of remaining here, it really hits home on how placidly unexciting it all really is.
, 
, etc., etc., etc.
On a side note, I am flatulent beyond all things reasonable, and I see no reason for this to change in the near future.
I haven't lived here in almost 5 years, and the degree to which some things have changed (both predictably and unfathomably) juxtaposed with certain static elements is pretty fucking surreal.
There are new businesses and buildings everywhere in both downtown and campustown, but the periphery of the town conveys a stagnation that's all too familiar in the midwest. The new condos just being completed downtown on the hippest corner in the county will run you $150,000-350,000, but the well-kept, 60+ yo, 4+ bedroom home across the street from my buddy's place 3 miles away will barely squeeze 6 figures from its next buyer.
Walk into a bar downtown on a mid-Saturday and you'll find well-dressed, moderately-educated folks talking about a wide variety of engaging topics, while at any dive bar 2 miles away the third shifters at the pungent Kraft plant are creating a scene that makes Moe's look like Studio 54 in its heyday. It kind of reminds me of the movie Gummo. And let's not even talk about the obligatory black ghetto; it's called the North End here. It's really a microcosm for most American cities, I suppose, but it's so condensed and proximate here that it really slaps you in the face.
Most people that I used to know down here have undergone a sort of excommunication of the soul. They are still largely puerile, despite being on the jumping off point of their 20s, but lack whatever it was that made them engaging 5 years ago - this might be as much about my own changes as their lack thereof, but I'm thinking it's more about the cocoon of false security and worldview-stasis of small-to-mid-town mid-America to which they've decided to subject themselves. They all work dead-end jobs or no job at all, some live at home, a few have married (and are accordingly miserable and lacking fidelity), many have directionlessly spawned a time or two, some have had complete breakdowns.
I guess what's grating on me is the same as always - the big picture is predictable and the details are mundane. 5 years ago I could have (and in many cases did) predicted which of my friends would move to NY, which would go to law school, which would go to non-vocational grad school, which would fester in this cesspool, which would immediately move on to a career track, etc. Where they are in their lives was utterly foreseeable at that point, and filling in the white noise with "content" was as meaningless as it should have been. For those of my friends that chose the path of remaining here, it really hits home on how placidly unexciting it all really is.
, , etc., etc., etc.On a side note, I am flatulent beyond all things reasonable, and I see no reason for this to change in the near future.
Total Comments 13
Comments
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i am a failurePosted Feb 6th, 2010 at 01:20 PM by neverstop
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i am the guy with the excommunicated soulPosted Feb 6th, 2010 at 01:20 PM by neverstop
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this is a good blog but it seriously depressed me
tyPosted Feb 6th, 2010 at 01:41 PM by neverstop
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good readPosted Feb 6th, 2010 at 04:10 PM by donk_tilt3.0beta
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This place i'm in smells like death even more than chi-town. Everyone depressed with no light at the end of the tunnel. North End is a trip. Why they put public housing at the very end of the miracle mile is so fucking beyond me.
Detroit can be like that too though. Lights and glitter on one street and then 5 city blocks where the city doesn't even bother replacing street lights so it's solid black (pun?).
Goes to show you, things are tough all over..
Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 04:57 PM by Quattro Draconas 
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Good writing, dawg.Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 05:59 PM by cth
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A good read, it made me think of this:
A Birthday Poem
Just past dawn, the sun stands
with its heavy red head
in a black stanchion of trees,
waiting for someone to come
with his bucket
for the foamy white light,
and then a long day in the pasture.
I too spend my days grazing,
feasting on every green moment
till darkness calls,
and with the others
I walk away into the night,
swinging the little tin bell
of my name.
-Ted KooserPosted Feb 6th, 2010 at 08:26 PM by Steerpike
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Sounds like a nice town.Posted Feb 8th, 2010 at 08:50 AM by ToasterOven
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Wonderful blog. Youre a talented writer.Posted Feb 11th, 2010 at 03:08 PM by s-inator
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It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. — Hunter S. ThompsonPosted Feb 11th, 2010 at 03:09 PM by s-inator
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toot tootPosted Feb 11th, 2010 at 11:15 PM by lexicon
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Posted Feb 12th, 2010 at 12:07 AM by SoiledLinens
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i hear yaPosted Feb 15th, 2010 at 09:31 PM by JACKDANIELS
