the announced closure of a number of starbuck’s “stores” prompted one portland channel to do a news brief on the event, from the perspective of an elderly woman recently moved to portland from west virginia.  in the piece the oft cited starbucks-corporate-wish was dredged up:  that the plastic place exists as the third world - the place between work and home.

she lamented near tears that the place was like family to her… that it was like Cheers, where everybody knew her name.

A little historical perspective, though sadly, as testimony to a fleeting memory, devoid of footnotes:  a nice essay exists somewhere out there by a source forgotten naming the pub as a kind of third world, precisely the reference mentioned in the news article and the mantra of starbuck’s corporate.  a place extant between the worlds of home and work.  a place, particularly in the british pubs, where people of all classes meet on a randomly regular basis to rub elbows and exchange stories and laughter and sometimes tears…. with tongues loosened a bit by a few pints served dutifully by the employees (who may also on occasion remind Bob that he might mind  his Ps and Qs lest the troubleandstrife put him in the dog house again).  the pub, in short, is truly a land unto itself, cultivated by the regulars and kept from the dangers of inbreeding by frequent visitors who are embraced and encouraged to share.

compare this dynamic and creative Other to the plastic isolating homogeneity offered thru the endless replication of starbucks where your day is fucking “made” by the recognition that the hired help remembers your name and how much cinnamon you like in your latte.  where you sit alone at a table sufficient to hold a laptop and a newspaper, and safely emerge grasping a corporate brand in a paper cup having bared your pathetic soul to absolutely nobody, and ready to face the world.

i contend that some independent coffee houses afford their patrons the experience of the “Other,” and recognize that the experience, whether pub or coffee house is largely dependent on the clientele.  I would sadly go so far as to admit that the very concept of the “Other” is relegated largely to memory, and further to drinking establishments distant from our shores.  that being said, at least the Potential exists for something more than a company mantra and logo.  if a clerk at starbucks calls me by name it holds as much meaning to me as the “have a nice day” at the bottom of a super-market receipt…. barring some deeper relationship:)  and the very fact that starbucks exists as portable pods littering the landscape, as examples of anti-humanity structures that serve the most superficial need of interaction, denies them any goddam right to proclaim themselves as the “other”…. and relegates those who find fulfillment there to the realm of the lemures (and lemurs) - the realm of the walking dead clutching a cup of severely over-priced joe to their starving breast.