Tuesday, November 1, 2011
In opening!
The Bike Rack
In this photo you see a bicycle rack made up of screws, wrenches, and other tools, with a fourth avenue patron in the background. The bike rack is an example of what the street is like. Homemade, home grown. But that mentality isn't just on fourth, the homemade feeling carries through most of Tucson. The streets are wide and there are few conventional stop lights. Many resturants are small and family owned, thrift stores are everywhere! Being from Phoenix I wasn't used to seeing much of this. Everything by my house is a chain, and if anything new opens it is a developer expanding for boring old commercial properties nothing is original.This bike rack symbolizes the originality or uniqueness of Tucson and the need to create and grow in your own way, something Tucson prevails at.
The Bus
In this photo you see and VW bus out side a bar on first street. This bus goes along with the theme of the bar which is a beach hut feel reminding the patrons of old beach movies with surfer studs and beach babes. With it's pleasing sky blue color it gives of the look of a sunny cloudless day, and the word pacifico brings imagery of the pacific ocean. But placement of the bus says more.... Across the street is Hippie Gypsie a bohemian shop for the "peace and love" crowd the bus is placed just so, so that those hipsters walking out of hg can see the " love bus" as it was reffered to in the 60's and feel at home in the cool laid back bar imediatly drawing in more hip coustomers. The bus also serves the opposite purpose by convincing the bars patrons of their ability to join the loving masses at Hippie Gypsy. All in all the bus serves a confidence builder reminding them that they have enough street cred to chill at either place.
The Hippie Gypsie
Look at it. It's awesome isn't it? And just by looking at the highly decorated building you feel just a bit cooler don't you? That is the goal. This photo is of a store called Hippie Gypsie the meca of the peace loving college student.The outside has images of 60's music icons with the coexist sign to show how tolerant they are. The store is decorated in true 1960's fashion, old mismatched rugs, insences everywhere, dim lighting, not to mention the music setting the mood, The Greatful Dead, the Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix all giving off the feeling that you are an individual with your heart stuck in the past. But why is it so important to have a place that emphasizes the hippie culture? Because in this day and age with war running rampant, poverty and hunger spreading, national debt at an all time high, it seems people are trying to go back in time to an era of extreme activism due to the extreme issues. Many people feel the need to get involved to help change the world. The only issue with returning to that time is that many of the people attempting the transition do not understand exactly what the free love movement was about. Most hippies were about freedom from material possesions and the constraints of society. Many didn't have jobs, or expendible income because those things were what they were trying to put an end to. It is unrealistic to believe that we could return to that time when material gain is what our world is about. Everyone has a cell phone, or a car, they have a laptop, or a television even if someone tried to live a life similar to that of the free spirited hippies of the 1960's they would fail, to ever escape all the materialistic expectations of our world would be impossible.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The hippie gypsie
Look at it. It's awesome isn't it? And just by looking at the highly decorated building you feel just a bit cooler don't you? That is the goal. This photo is of a store called Hippie Gypsie the meca of the peace loving college student.The outside has images of 60's music icons with the coexist sign to show how tolerant they are. The store is decorated in true 1960's fashion, old mismatched rugs, insences everywhere, dim lighting, not to mention the music setting the mood, The Greatful Dead, the Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix all giving off the feeling that you are an individual with your heart stuck in the past. But why is it so important to have a place that emphasizes the hippie culture? Because in this day and age with war running rampant, poverty and hunger spreading, national debt at an all time high, it seems people are trying to go back in time to an era of extreme activism due to the extreme issues. Many people feel the need to get involved to help change the world. The only issue with returning to that time is that many of the people attempting the transition do not understand exactly what the free love movement was about. Most hippies were about freedom from material possessions and the constraints of society. Many didn't have jobs, or expendable income because those things were what they were trying to put an end to. It is unrealistic to believe that we could return to that time when material gain is what our world is about. Everyone has a cell phone, or a car, they have a laptop, or a television even if someone tried to live a life similar to that of the free spirited hippies of the 1960's they would fail, to ever escape all the materialistic expectations of our world would be impossible.
the bike rack
In this photo you see a bicycle rack made up of screws, wrenches, and other tools, with a fourth avenue patron in the background. The bike rack is an example of what the street is like. Homemade, home grown. But that mentality isn't just on fourth, the homemade feeling carries through most of Tucson. The streets are wide and there are few conventional stop lights. Many resturants are small and family owned, thrift stores are everywhere! Being from Phoenix I wasn't used to seeing much of this. Everything by my house is a chain, and if anything new opens it is a developer expanding for boring old commercial properties nothing is original.This bike rack symbolizes the originality or uniqueness of Tucson and the need to create and grow in your own way, something Tucson prevails at.