Which Depeche Mode album am I? By an ace, it’s “Music for the Masses” over “Violator” (via writerpunk)Guardian UK’s “Outrage at guns for sterilisation policy” (via Agonist), Strobe Talbott’s “Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb” (via Amit…

But for matters of comparison, WalMart is I think rarely considered a part of the cultural fabric by rural people themselves. It’s more akin to a necessary evil, a tradeoff in exchange for… basically less development, and by that I mean fewer people, fewer stores, and all that comes with.

Whereas Starbucks–or, let’s say specialized, niche stores–are actually one of the benefits to urban living. More choices commercially, more choices culturally. The comparison between rural and urban cultures through these two brands isn’t quite valid (though interesting, for sure) because they are never valued in the same way. A cappuccino drinker would never say, “Thank God for traffic,” when she returns to the city, just as a cowboy would never say “Alright! WalMart!” when he gets back home.

At the same time, the whole issue of comparison creates Other, as Korby points out. I do believe that the division between rural and urban seems to be growing more drastic, but I think the attitudes that perpetuate that perception are a form of primitivism, from both sides.

And speaking of cappuccino and cowboys: The tensions between rural and urban seem to be a favorite for Tim Holt.

Redmond,Washington: it’s halfway between Seattle and God, a place where you can find sidewalks on both sides of the street, a red house, a blue house, a coffee house boheme, a Safeway, and a Home Depot (but no Wallmart yet). We’ve got safe schools, budget problems, small time drug busts, corporations, underpaid professionals, too many police but not enough police, and more than enough stuff to complain about.

Redmond is a good dream and a bad dream. It is the communal manifestation of that Talking Heads song: “This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife.” Redmond is a dream that sticks in your craw like a stern teacher’s double-edged praise…”you’re a good dreamer.”

Is Redmond the un-American dream?

Americans appear to measure day-to-day success by how long it takes to drive to work at Wallmart and how much it costs to buy a quadruple two percent extra hot vanilla fairshare venti latte at the airport.

The StarbucksWallmart divide is very real. It is also an illusion. As such, it is as easy to identify as it is simple to dismiss.

Red vs. Blue is manufactured. The Wallmart horde versus the Starbucks legion is as painfully, illogically real as was Blue versus Gray. The divide that separates Seattle from Walla Walla or San Francisco from Truckee is not slavery, or brand identity, or even geography; it is imagined community.

The thing that really sticks in my craw is the sense that the WallmartStarbucks divide is less imagined by us than manufactured by “them”.

I think Starbucks does a LOT more social damage in the big cities than it does in my hometown and the suburbs around it, where there really was no cafe culture before Starbucks and Borders (with its in-store cafes) came to town.

Mike – i’ve not done any formal data collection, no. This is my blog, not a journal. It is for me to reflect on personal observations and to throw them out there. Biases are written all over the place here and this isn’t even my topic of study.

I’m reflecting on what i’ve seen not trying to prove a theory. I’m making broad sweeps and i’m fully aware of it.

As for familiar strangers and the Safeways… i think that familiar stranger culture used to happen at those zones but most of them support too many people to actually be helpful even in that regard. This certainly happens at more local regions, but as Walmart Super Centers replace even the Safeways of the country, this gets harder and harder. When i was staying with my ex’s family, we would drive 45 minutes to get groceries at the Walmart Super Center – the only place for groceries between his place and Walmart were the gas stations. This is fairly normal. But even being 45 minutes away, that’s where people went. [The last grocery store had been removed only a few years earlier.]

When i drove cross country the last time, the only places we could park were at Walmarts. I actually had a map of all of the Walmarts within 20 miles of 70, 80, 90. Those are the hubs of most of those regions. It is where everyone comes, but because there are people coming from so far, it’s not a community gathering place. It’s an anonymous zone.

Those of us associated with the University–and I eventually became a graduate student there–felt ourselves to have urban attitudes, but we also liked the small-town friendliness of the area. Most of us were able to live within walking distance of the University and downtown and frequented the shops and restaurants there. Many of us also shopped at Walmart.

I love the advantages of the urban area we now live in. The Walmart is far, far away (I do miss the low prices sometimes). There’s a Starbucks around the corner. There are hundreds of good restaurants–though I’ve yet to find a Thai restaurant as good as the one in Fayetteville. And I love the museums and shopping at unique stores.

What I miss, though, is that sense of community that I had in Fayetteville–and which is probably disappearing now with the building of a Target and a Kohl’s and a strip mall to surround them. There’s probably even a Starbucks there now. Here, no one walks anywhere (in the city proper, there’s a little more walking, but of the urban kind). Because there are so many options, you don’t run into people at the coffee shop or in the Thai restaurant. That said, our whole neighborhood does turn out at the bus stop every morning. But then we rush off in our SUVs and minivans with our urban attitudes (me included).