Man there are a lot of bikes there! That is one thing I do know, cycling can save the world. It makes you feel great and changes the way you percieve things. I think that if you can appreciate something such as a bicycle over a car, where the least technological solution works best then maybe you can spread that to our whole society in all areas and solve much of the problems we have today.

from cycleliciousness.blo posted with vodpod

“Can I have a water please?”

“Bottled or Tap?”

“Tap”

“What size would you like?”

“Venti”

“Ice with that?”

“Yes please”

“Lid and straw?”

“Yes please”

“Flat lid or dome lid?”

“Flat lid”

We live in an age where all across the globe we are richer than ever and our planet has been shrunk to the size of a snowglobe, where the majority of the world’s citizens live in democracies, supposedly giving us control over our lives. We have an endless array of choices in front of us, 60,000 or so drinks combinations at my lovely Starbucks. We can converse with anyone, anywhere, anytime. We can eat whatever, wherever, whenever. Shopping, travel, food, music, literature, language, education, knowledge is available on tap. Culture is available on tap. 30 years ago they couldn’t have ever dreamt of the internet or cellphones or ipods or our 24/7 everything everywhere culture. Do we not have everything already?

I get shouted at because the wireless internet isn’t working. Only 2 years ago wireless internet was very rare now its expected. 8 years ago broadband internet started, now the wrath of god will be brought down on an Indian call centre worker when someones youtube video is playing slowly.

Our political system is based on choice. Our economic system is based on choice. Choice is meant to free us.

Yet as I serve up Lattes to the masses all I hear is grunt/whine/shout/complain/scream/moan.

They are angry. The world is angry, it’s frustrated, people are frustrated, i think because they seek some control over their lives. Each individual is powerless in a system driven by Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand of the market’. That very hand that fed us, sheltered us and clothed us in the 20th century is now slapping us in the face in the 21st.

Cultura Ignoralius Americana – A subspecies of the Cultura Ignoralius, the American variety is found rather fittingly in America.

This variety asks for pouring cream/demands pouring cream, can’t seem to understand why Kiwis don’t put pouring cream in their cawffee, don’t seem to make a connection between the cream and their ever-expanding waistlines. Yesterday I had a new request.

Customer: “Do you have honey”

Barista (me): “No I’m afraid we don’t, sorry”

“What! Starbucks without honey?” as he displays a flabbergasted face as if I have just said we don’t sell coffee or something.

Here we go

“Yeah I know, do you put that in your coffee or something?” I say trying to sound somewhat interested.

“Uh-huh its much smoother than sugar…”

Like I really care

“…and in the States they have it on the condiment bar over there…”

no really do you think I give a crap? just have an ‘equal’ like all the other Americans and get a brain tumor from the aspartame

“…well I guess I have just have to have normal sugar then”.

Finally that ones over but whey-hey he dropped NZ$4 change in the tip jar. At least this type of customer pays to receive my faux-interested service.

Sometimes if I decide to watch ‘24′ upstairs because the downstairs Plasma is occupied I think to myself ‘gosh I can’t even see Jack Bauer frowning because the TV is so small!’ Five minutes later I have completely adjusted and can now seem him torturing people in crystal clear clarity. You adjust and ‘oh look’ why on earth did anybody spend [insert $ here] on the stupid thing.

Walk into any electronics store and go to the back wall and you will see a beautiful array of plasma screens playing the same pictures of flowers with vivid colour. Buy one and bring it home and you will see ugly people on reality shows screaming at one another.

As the saying goes, ‘its all relative’…

Unfortunately buying a Plasma won’t make my building spontaneously burst out in colour.

Christmas lights have no been strung around the outside of my house and I ask myself why? Living in the southern hemisphere (NZ) it gets dark between 9 and 10.

The lights get switched just to be turned off half and hour later to go to bed. Another oddity about Christmas here is how Starbucks have lovely sticky snowflakes stuck to their windows. It just smacks of craziness.

But the oddest thing of all is that the locals don’t seem to mind or find it particularly strange. Its not a talking point as such, I think there has been enough Christmases go by for it to get old. My Uncle also informs me that the whole Barbecue thing only started becoming popular recently. Throughout the 20th century they suffered through a big roast dinner in the stuffy heat of summer.

About 3 months ago a friend of a friend gave me his bike. I had recently moved to Christchurch, NZ and had so far been walking around the city, I lived close enough but it was still a lot of walking. I was up for something new so I started cycling and WOW I felt so alive! It was as if my whole life had been building up to this point, this was my reason for living! From then onwards every time I ever wanted to go anywhere I plugged my headphones in my ear, set myself some great uplifting music and cruised off on my new trusty companion. I then noticed all these cycle lanes everywhere and other cyclists who I had never noticed as a pedestrian (only as my brief stint as a driver after passing my test).

The next stage of my obsession was to go online and find out more about cycling. I shunned the sites clearly written by lycra-clad sports cyclists. I was more interested in ones about street design like Streetsblog. My whole political views had suddenly changed. I would be riding along and realise just how much space is given to cars and how it is total insanity. This Streetsblog video in my last post illustrates this perfectly.

In a city such as New York where most people walk places, most the street space is still given to cars and car parking.

I now dream of a world where people of all ages cycle everywhere and all the time. It’s definitely possible and the revolution has already begun…

Transportation Ethics Who knew that Randy Cohen, a guy who spends most of his day analyzing right and wrong as the New York Times Magazine’s acclaimed “Ethicist,” turns out to be one of New York City’s most captivating and articulate voices for Livable Streets.The Open Planning Project’s Executive Director Mark Gorton recently interviewed Mr. Cohen on the […]

from www.streetfilms.org posted with vodpod

Kath and Kims – Typically late 40s or 50s, kids left home, found predominantly in the nations of Australia and New Zealand however regional variations exist. Stand at the counter and say to one another “shall I have a Keppacheeno? Or maybe I’ll go for a Laa-tay?”. They think they are being flash by drinking either of those drinks. They watched Sex and the City and think they are just like Carrie Bradshaw. As much as their Barista wants to, he/she will not tell them bluntly ‘You are not in Manhattan and you aren’t living the single life, you are in the same marriage you have been in years. Oh and you’re not getting any so that rules out the Sex and the City.’

As if Wine, Coffee and Chocolate weren’t enough. Premiumization, one of consumer site Trendwatching’s 8 important consumer trends for 2008, is occurring to every product under the sun including of course the most indispensable product of them all. Water.

Now anything that makes ludicrously rich people spend some of their cash, hard-earned or otherwise is usually a good thing but what gets me is how they can be so status-conscious as to spend up to US$480 on a bottle of water!

From Trendwatching.com:

“Bling H20 is bottled water that comes in limited edition, corked, 750 ml frosted glass bottles, embellished with Swarovski crystals. Established in 2005 by a Hollywood writer-producer who noticed that “you could tell a lot about a person by the bottled water that they carried,” Bling H20 is designed to be as much a fashion accessory as a drink of water. Aiming to be the Cristal of bottled water, it’s been spotted at everything from the MTV Awards to the Emmys. The bottles cost from USD 17–480. “

or how about:

“Tasmanian Rain is captured “on the pristine north west coast of the island of Tasmania, Australia.” The water is collected “just minutes from where the World Meteorological Organization records the world’s purest air.” As this rain has traveled eastward via air currents over Antarctica and 10,000 miles of ocean, it contains 17 parts per million of dissolved solids. Tasmanian Rain is collected by a custom-designed catchment facility and never touches the ground. And so on. “

Who makes this stuff up? Someone must actually have the job of coming up with this stuff. I could serve up a bowl of sand and call it freshly ground Gaia seeds. The world is, as always, going loony.