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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

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.
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  1. Old Comment
    neverstop's Avatar
    i am a failure
    permalink
    Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 01:20 PM by neverstop neverstop is online now
  2. Old Comment
    neverstop's Avatar
    i am the guy with the excommunicated soul
    permalink
    Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 01:20 PM by neverstop neverstop is online now
  3. Old Comment
    neverstop's Avatar
    this is a good blog but it seriously depressed me

    ty
    permalink
    Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 01:41 PM by neverstop neverstop is online now
  4. Old Comment
    donk_tilt3.0beta's Avatar
    good read
    permalink
    Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 04:10 PM by donk_tilt3.0beta donk_tilt3.0beta is online now
  5. Old Comment
    Quattro Draconas's Avatar
    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..

    permalink
    Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 04:57 PM by Quattro Draconas Quattro Draconas is offline
  6. Old Comment
    cth's Avatar
    Good writing, dawg.
    permalink
    Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 05:59 PM by cth cth is offline
  7. Old Comment
    Steerpike's Avatar
    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 Kooser
    permalink
    Posted Feb 6th, 2010 at 08:26 PM by Steerpike Steerpike is online now
  8. Old Comment
    ToasterOven's Avatar
    Sounds like a nice town.
    permalink
    Posted Feb 8th, 2010 at 08:50 AM by ToasterOven ToasterOven is offline
  9. Old Comment
    s-inator's Avatar
    Wonderful blog. Youre a talented writer.
    permalink
    Posted Feb 11th, 2010 at 03:08 PM by s-inator s-inator is offline
  10. Old Comment
    s-inator's Avatar
    It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. — Hunter S. Thompson
    permalink
    Posted Feb 11th, 2010 at 03:09 PM by s-inator s-inator is offline
  11. Old Comment
    lexicon's Avatar
    toot toot
    permalink
    Posted Feb 11th, 2010 at 11:15 PM by lexicon lexicon is offline
  12. Old Comment
    SoiledLinens's Avatar
    permalink
    Posted Feb 12th, 2010 at 12:07 AM by SoiledLinens SoiledLinens is offline
  13. Old Comment
    JACKDANIELS's Avatar
    i hear ya
    permalink
    Posted Feb 15th, 2010 at 09:31 PM by JACKDANIELS JACKDANIELS is offline
 
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