Nov/090
Sad Robot Bureau
You want thoughts and experiences to intrigue and entertain you after a long day? Well, here at the Sad Robot Bureau, we have you covered. The Sad Robot Bureau blog brings together the greatest thinkers and philosophers of our time to reflect on the hip and interesting things in the world around us. Day or night we are on the case. We hope you enjoy the fun thoughts that the SRB has to offer.
Dec/093
Sad Robot Bureau: What Detroit Can Learn From Amsterdam
My first job out of school had me spending one week out of every month in Detroit, Michigan. And that is one of the major reasons I don’t have that job anymore. The decline of one of America’s great cities is hard to make funny, but if you’ve ever spent time there, as I have, you can’t be blamed if the shock of it makes you laugh as the blight of the city is so incongruent with the rest of America.
Here’s some trivia to help you get the idea. Can you guess the number of chain grocery stores within the city limits of Detroit? The answer is zero. Not one. Don’t believe me? Look it up, you’re already on the internet. This has made it nearly impossible for residents to find fresh produce and made artery clogging fast food one of the only thriving industries in the state. To counter this, communities have begun turning Detroit’s all too many vacant lots into urban vegetable gardens. Adding insult is the fact that the soil in the city is so toxic after years of industrial pollution, they have to import top soil from Illinois to make the food safe to eat.
I left that job feeling the problems in Detroit were unsolvable. That we should just wall it off and force Canada to annex the whole state. That is, until I visited another city that you have to see to believe, Amsterdam. A city where the party never stops and where red lights mean 50 euro will buy you 15 minutes of pretty much whatever you want. Where you can’t smoke a cigarette in a bar, that is, unless there’s weed in it. Before I got there I thought I knew, but I had no idea. With all the craziness and excess around me, I could not believe how any work could possibly get done here!
Dec/0914
Sad Robot Bureau: If the Shoe Fits
I seldom have an occasion where I need to wear a suit. It’s not because I don’t like how I look in a jacket and tie, I think I clean up rather well. But as a yet another under-employed twenty something in America, you’re more likely to see me in a t-shirt that’s twice as old as I am trying to tape booze to my hands than in any kind of formal wear.
Recently though, in an exception that proves the rule, I was invited to an event that required a suit. As I put it on I was filled with an overwhelming urge to pair it with my Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars. A moment later I found myself asking why? Why do I so fervently feel the need to put on shoes that are a staple in the closets of 14 year old girls across the country?
Aug/092
Sad Robot Bureau: Life in the Fast Lane
Some people just piss me off.
After a ballgame last night in which my favorite misery of a team (the Chicago Cubs) left my record at 0-5 on the season for all 5 Cubs games I’ve gone to this year, I headed to my car, parked in a nearby parking lot. Now when pulling into this lot before the game, each car chooses EZ-out parking for $40, or regular parking, where they squish all the cars together as close as possible, for $25. I chose patience over premium parking and opted to save the 15 extra bucks for a couple beers… as did everyone else whose cars were squished around mine.
So upon getting in my car after the game, it was obvious that no car was going anywhere fast, which is fine with me because I knew that’s what I was getting myself into when I parked. After a few minutes, the cars ahead of me start inching forward, and I am on my way… very slowly… which is fine… because that’s what I signed up for. Cars were slowly rolling forward from all angles towards the narrow one lane exit. And as happens in crowded parking lots where every car is inching up to maintain its position, the car in one lane filters to the exit, then a car in another lane moves forward toward the exit, then a car in a third lane takes their turn in moving up, then back to the next car in the first lane. It’s back to the basics of sharing and taking turns.
