Shopping Malls

What America’s shopping mall decline means for social space. A Vox video. by Carlos Waters.

“Our lives are lived in 1 of 3 places, the home, the workplace and the ‘third place,’ which is anywhere outside of those two.

Toward the end of the 20th century, the regional shopping mall had become that third place, the hang-out spot in suburban America. This was largely by design — an immigrant architect created the first mall in the vision that it would be a community gathering place.

The plan didn’t work out as he intended. While malls did take off, they more often than not couldn’t quite catch on as ideal ‘third places.’ But with an estimated 25% of shopping malls expected to close in the next five years, there’s an opportunity to re-examine where Americans spend their time and what could be the next iteration of the third place.”

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Movie Night in America

“For towns across America, theaters — both the stage and screen variety — have long been places to congregate. During summer months, they offer sweltering citizens a cool place to collectively relax.

‘The movie theater is one of the last places where we can still gather and experience something together,’ German film director Wolfgang Petersen once said. ‘I don’t think the desire for that magic will ever go away.”

— “The theater: No longer a magical refuge from reality,” Michael E. Miller, Washington Post

“Going to a summer movie is a celebration of the American creative spirit and one of our nation’s most beloved pastimes. Let us stand together in these times of tragedy and embrace what is precious to us — churches, schools and places where the arts can send our spirits soaring. As a national community of artists and audiences, AFI offers our heartfelt sympathies to the victims in Louisiana and their families.”

— Bob Gazzale, American Film Institute

More:

“What we lose when movie theaters aren’t safe,” Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post

“A Brief History of Violence in American Movie Theaters,” Jason Bailey, Flavorwire

Update:

“Largest U.S. movie chain searching bags after recent theater attacks,” Justin Wm. Moyer, Washington Post

Video: “Saturday Night at the Movies,” written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, recorded by The Drifters in 1964.

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Chutes & Ladders

“A meritocracy requires more than simply making it possible for people at the bottom to climb the ladder of opportunity. It also involves chutes of accountability for those at the top. These are two sides of the same coin: the skilled must be able to rise, but grandees caught with their snouts in the trough must also come tumbling down. ‘We cannot have a just society that applies the principle of accountability to the powerless and the principle of the forgiveness to the powerful,’ writes Chris Hayes in his sweeping meditation on meritocracy, ‘Twilight of the Elites.‘ And yet: ‘This is the America in which we currently reside.’”

— “There is no meritocracy: It’s just the 1 percent, and the game is rigged,” Thomas Frank, Salon

Related: See the fascinating Wikipedia entry on Snakes and Ladders.

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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American Inequality

“Inequality is real, personal, expensive, created, fixable.”  Inequality.is, an initative of the Economic Policy Institute.

Animation of Robert Reich by Periscopic.

Related:

“Yes, Virginia, the Rich Continue to Get Richer: the Top 1% Got 121% of Income Gains Since 2009,” Yves Smith, Naked Capalism

“Wealth of most Americans down 55% since recession,” Constantine van Hoffman, CBS Money Watch

“Fixing a Hole: How the Tax Code for Executive Pay Distorts Economic Incentives and Burdens Taxpayers”, Susan R. Holmberg and Lydia Austin, Roosevelt Institute White Paper

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The iPod Society

Psychologist Dr Ana Tajadura-Jimenez and her University of London colleagues confirm what you commuters already know: a personal music player protects you in the a crowded bus or subway car.

Sociologist’s Totems

“The lyrics of contemporary popular song, of rock and rap and country, are the ones which reflect the immediacy of our world, much as theater songs did in the first half of the twentieth century. They are the sociologist’s totems.”

Who wrote that?

Robert Christgau? Simon Frith? Todd Gitlin? Peter Wicke? Robert Palmer? Lester Bangs? Paul Friedlander? R. Serge Denisoff? Greil Marcus?