Asheville, Smashville

i headed to the liberal capital of the south this weekend. i had never been before, and whenever mentioned, this seemed to bring out shock and awe to the receiver of this fact. i decided to change that, so i went. it had a cool little downtown with almost no chains, which is a welcome change for me. having lived in strip-mall central, i yearn for their absence. it was nice going to local coffee shops and boutiques and restaurants and the like.

asheville is sort of where the hippies and artsy people flock if they're not interested in moving far west. i'm not sure what it is about the mountains that attracts these sorts, but nonetheless, they do. anyway, when i think artist or hippie, i do not think rich or superficial -- in fact, they go out of their way to negate such adjectives. yet this town was completely unaffordable to me, and i like to think i make more than a starving artist. coffee and food and things were normal-priced. but everything else -- just a souvenir to say, "i support you" -- was no less than $40, and that's being generous. there was a little sidewalk crafts fair with no more than 6 tables -- nothing was under $50.

money and expenses aside -- this grouping of people also tends to preach hatred of elitism. these now-adults were probably at one point complete outcasts and gravitated toward an inclusive group. no matter where i went, i felt like i was being looked up and down and judged. if i didn't look a certain way or bring my sketchpad to the local vegan coffee shop or my mac laptop or reading the latest "in" author, i was a misfit. when did hippies and artists become so pretentious? when did they become the exact thing they hate?



as a side note that is completely disconnected to my previous rant, i stopped in a books-a-million this morning before heading back home to pick up a grad school book. i was looking in the "college prep" section. stuck amongst all the "how to survive your freshmen year" and "the top 10 colleges to change your life" books, was a sex book with a very, shall we say, showy picture on the cover. if this wasn't meant to be filed there, it sure as hell should've been.