i've lived in jacksonville all my life except the 10 months i lived in long beach, california. the vibe in jacksonville is depressing and the way it is, we will never be a cool big city. the reason behind this is a theory a friend pointed out called "crabs in a bucket". basically it has to do with what happens if you were to put a bunch of crabs in a bucket and one tries to crawl out - the rest grab that one and pull him back in.
i believe that this exists in jacksonville. it's like the band scene. i think the band scene here could be better but bands don't support each other. i feel this is cause they are trying to save money to promote or make their band big, or make an album. then when they go out to play there is no scene and only five people show up to see them. on some chance they make it big people talk crap about them. i have heard local bands say that when they go on tour jacksonville has the least amount of people to come see them. but this goes with anything. an artist, a deejay, the second they get recognition they get bashed, gossip starts. it's so bad i tell my friends that if they want to get a job in jacksonville tell everyone you're leaving. you will get three to five job offers. people will tell you anything to keep you here, even tell you that you can live with them, or on there couch, free.
anyway, to finish my point i think we should change. replace the crab attitude with the thing i saw in los angeles and hollywood - hype. out there people aren't scared to say, "yeah i love that band, this is how they make me feel". so many times i heard people say, "that guy can skate", "that girl can draw", "i had so much fun hanging out there", or "the food at that restaurant is awesome". i would like to see this city stop talking about people and start praising those who are trying to make it or accomplish something. i want to see as many people leave jacksonville as possible and when they do, they tell everyone about how much they love this city.
with that i want to leave a good little song from a band from toronto, canada.
the k-os -"crabbuckit"
1 comments:
so far I've found that the environmentalist scene (if that even counts as a scene) has been extremely supportive of the new kid on the block with the crazy idea and too much time on her hands. NEVER expected that, coming back here.
Maybe that's a model: everyone cares so much about the "scene" (or the issue, or the art form) that any new influx of energy is obviously something to be praised and supported. When it's more about ego that ecstatic support doesn't seem to happen.
Folks are jealous of successes when they should be joyous. Maybe this is a product of scarcity. If the good people had more money, or if the good people had an easier time getting awesome jobs, or if there were more good scenesters to go to the shows...ties back in to money, of course.
That said, I don't mind Jacksonville being kinda quiet. I don't miss New York. Our river kicks their river's ass any day. I did always love holidays in New York, when you could bike up and down the streets and pretend it was all yours. All those millions of people were someplace else.
To me, Jacksonville feels like that all the time, and perhaps that's the same kind of ego-centric pessimism I was just declaiming...but I feel it, nonetheless.
Post a Comment