Shopping Mall Polytheism

[luka]

in the mid-west

 

[0bleak]

I went there once, decades ago, and don't even remember why I was in town.... don't remember a thing about it, really, besides it's VASTNESS

 

[version]

Some of the 80s shopping centres the vaporwave lot are so fond of are really great to look at. All angles and pools and plants.

 

[yyaldrin]

View attachment 21446

Giant. Theme park inside.

looks so much like rollercoaster tycoon with all the generic plant containers and bins carefully placed on a virtual grid

 

[shakahislop]

the mall was a huge theme for years and years a kind of symbol of a desiccated soulless america, douglas coupland was always on about them, naiomi klein, night of the living dead. now they look like a thing of the past like an archeological site or those big stretches of abandoned detroit. you walk around them and they've had the shit kicked out of them. massive construction projects for an outmoded way of life

 

[yyaldrin]

what is the smell inside? that's usually what makes me disgusted. the smell of plastics mixed with textiles and food and toilets.

 

[0bleak]

gotta admit, i used to be quite a mallrat in the 80s... often a lonesome mallratt, but a mallrat none the less

 

[0bleak]

that's one of the reasons i could and never get into later generations fetishizing things i experienced like vaporwave and uh, what's one of those other genres... it wasn't near as cool as their ideal

 

[sus]

what is the smell inside? that's usually what makes me disgusted. the smell of plastics mixed with textiles and food and toilets.

Chlorine because of all the water rides like Log Chute.

And like cinnabon. Sugar and butter

 

[yyaldrin]

Chlorine because of all the water rides like Log Chute.

And like cinnabon. Sugar and butter

are you going to ride the log chute with mvuent?

 

[version]

gotta admit, i used to be quite a mallrat in the 80s... often a lonesome mallratt, but a mallrat none the less

I was about to say it's bizarre now to imagine just hanging out at a mall, but then I remembered one of my mates used to sit around in a launderette all night selling weed and we'd just go and sit around with him - even less exciting than a mall.

 

[version]

We had the internet and games consoles and stuff at that point too. It was like 2007, 2008. It wasn't as though there was nothing better to do.

 

[0bleak]

some people like my brother would go for a more specific reason - the arcade
he was running things there
any new game - especially anything that was the most advanced for its time - he quickly took control and would have the whole arcade watching him in awe
it's no coincidence that after moving to japan, he ended up working for all sorts of differing game companies

 

[sus]

remembered one of my mates used to sit around in a launderette all night selling weed and we'd just go and sit around with him

Ian says "real Grim Britannia core"

 

[luka]

we used to loiter in the mini cab office to play streetfighter

 

[version]

One of the things they nailed in La Haine's the wandering around you do with your mates when you're younger. There's a bit where they just go and sit on the floor in the shopping centre.

 

[sus]

We are going to the Sea Life aquarium now. 1.3 million gallons of fun

 

[sus]

Ian in the hurricane simulator

 

[0bleak]

mom dropping us off at the mall: here's a few dollars so you can get yourself some tokens for the arcade and something to eat

five minutes later - already lost all my money to some game - I guess I'll wonder around the mall for a bit.
return to the arcade like an hour later and my brother is STILL playing on just his first token and has a crowd gathered around him - FUCK HIM! guess i'll wonder around the mall a few more hours...

 

[line b]

This is great