Comments on: Venice in Texas http://www.inkmuse.com/blog/etc/2004/08/13/venice-in-texas.php Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:53:31 +0000 hourly 1 By: Lorianne http://www.inkmuse.com/blog/etc/2004/08/13/venice-in-texas.php/comment-page-1#comment-151 Lorianne Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:01:04 +0000 http://www.inkmuse.com/blog/?p=91#comment-151 Thought 1: if you want a cooler-than-cool view of Venice, go rent *The Italian Job.* Damn, it made me want to trade my earthy-crunchy Subaru for a zippy little Mini. :-) Thought 2: Texas like my home state of Ohio defines progress in horizontal terms. Since there's always horizontal space for another strip mall, parking lot, etc, that's what folks get. (In Ohio, at least, there's an unwritten law that everyone needs a gas station, oversized supermarket, & the usual assortment of fast food joints all within 5 blocks of one's house, which means a homogenized repetition of the same big-name businesses over & over.) Here in New England, the land is more hilly/rocky and thus less inviting: we tend to build new things atop of old things for lack of huge empty spaces. This trend is changing, though, as old farms become Wal-Mart-ized. Open spaces--even "tamed" open spaces--are becoming an increasingly rarer commodity. Thought 3: guess what all those books at Borders are printed on...yep, we're all tree-killers. Even Thoreau himself made his living surveying woods for firewood & helping his family make *wooden* pencils. You can't get out of life sin-free, apparently. Thought 4: thanks for the link-love. The last thing I was expecting to find here was a link back to *moi*... ;-) Thought 1: if you want a cooler-than-cool view of Venice, go rent *The Italian Job.* Damn, it made me want to trade my earthy-crunchy Subaru for a zippy little Mini. :-)

Thought 2: Texas like my home state of Ohio defines progress in horizontal terms. Since there’s always horizontal space for another strip mall, parking lot, etc, that’s what folks get. (In Ohio, at least, there’s an unwritten law that everyone needs a gas station, oversized supermarket, & the usual assortment of fast food joints all within 5 blocks of one’s house, which means a homogenized repetition of the same big-name businesses over & over.) Here in New England, the land is more hilly/rocky and thus less inviting: we tend to build new things atop of old things for lack of huge empty spaces. This trend is changing, though, as old farms become Wal-Mart-ized. Open spaces–even “tamed” open spaces–are becoming an increasingly rarer commodity.

Thought 3: guess what all those books at Borders are printed on…yep, we’re all tree-killers. Even Thoreau himself made his living surveying woods for firewood & helping his family make *wooden* pencils. You can’t get out of life sin-free, apparently.

Thought 4: thanks for the link-love. The last thing I was expecting to find here was a link back to *moi*… ;-)

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