Defending your small town from sprawl: Your friendly neighborhood outlaw MC.

The average Walmart covers 102,000 square feet.  Costcos cover an average of 141,000 square feet. That's store floor area - the parking lot and any road widened to accommodate increased traffic is extra. 

Why do we need these places?  What does a Costco have that my neighborhood supermarket (which still covers an immoral amount of fertile topsoil) doesn't?  A giant jar of pickles? Value packs of Nutella with two - count 'em, two - giant jars?  Why do I need two giant jars of Nutella?  Sure, it's sweet; It constitutes the happy union of milky, creamy, gooey, scrumptiously yummy chocolate and richly sinfull hazelnut.  But do I NEED it?  No.  I certainly do not - the fact that I still haven't lost the last five to ten pounds of pregnancy weight is a testament to that.

Where am I going with this, you ask?  What, you ask, has this to do with Sons of Anarchy?

If you've seen the deleted scenes from Season 1, then you'll know of an interchange between Floyd (the barber) and his employee.  The employee asks Floyd why he always gives Piney a free haircut.  Floyd responds:  "Do you see any Fantastic Sam's? Any Supercuts?" (or something to that effect...I need to check my references).

Now, I'm not expounding on the evils of franchises.  And I'm not necessarily beating a "big box stores are evil" drum.  I'm an active participant in the capitalist structure, and a card-carrying member of Costco.  The issue here is, what good does having all of these conveniences really do?  Are we healthier because of convenience?  Are we more connected to each other?  Is it a good thing that we have access to giant jars of pickles and spreadable chocolate?

I don't know.

One "theme" of Sons of Anarchy is that the MC keeps Charming "charming."  There are no big box stores, no franchises - just lots of mom and pop shops, a quaint main street, kids on bicycles, and a locally-owned and operated auto shop (perhaps even a cigar shop). And, at any given moment there's an illegal store of automatic weapons somewhere within Chief Unser's jurisdiction (or maybe Trammel's).


What do we trade for convenience?  How do we define it, and what does it cost?  Do we define convenience by our access to couture fashion, stores that carry everything you need to survive the day - from Froot Loops to wide-screen televisions?  Or do we define it by non-consumables?  Does it  mean living somewhere we can walk safely from our front doors to our schools, restaurants, and jobs?

Would you speak up at town hall meetings to keep fertile farm land from being sold to developers?  Would you choose to get your oil changed by the local mechanic?  Or would you go for the convenience of the Jiffy Lube?  Would you make the extra effort to stop at the Farmers' Market for your fruit and veggies, or do you prefer the one-stop convenience of Vons?

The fact is, one voice isn't very powerful when it comes to issues like sprawl.  One consumer making the choice to buy local doesn't make much of a difference.  Like Wal-mart, activism deals in volume.  And, when it comes to acting out against sprawl, volume is critical.  Unfortunately, many of the decisions we make about our own communities are made through inaction, or passive acceptance that growth, and all its side-effects (insert drug, crime, or other viral-like transgression here) are inevitable.

Who knows what the populace in Charming would choose if Sam Crow wasn't around?

Maybe we deserve social structures like Sam Crow when we're too passive to make the right choices about our communities.

Sex, Violence, and Motorcycles

Tonight's show - Season 2 Premiere "Albification" - began with the violence of a makeshift target shoot and the wail of automatic weapons. Shells flew through the air like mosquitoes as the Men of Mayhem aimed their guns (I have no knowledge of the subtle differences between one form of murderous weapon and the next) at paper targets. All the while, Anvil's version of The Who's "Slip Kid" raged above the din of the weapons' report. It ends with the brutal rape of my favorite Lady Macbeth/Gertrude, the wonderfully, seductively protective and ambitious Gemma. The image of three men in Michael Myers masks (one of whom is undoubtedly the wicked Henry Rollins, who gives me the shivers when he isn't playing a an Aryan asshole) attacking Gemma while offhandedly apologizing to her "for the trouble" has remained with me all evening. I'm kind of worried I'll have nightmares. I want Gemma to be okay, but I want her to get her revenge even more. Please, Mr. Sutter, let Gemma have her own revenge.  

I love it when television shows - often lambasted by the high-minded "I don't watch television" crew - make me reflect about how morality is a question of shades and hues, and not primary colors. The evil of white supremacy, or any group that operates under the premise that one race is better than another and that races should not mix, and the efforts undertaken by that particular form of evil to dominate others and control societies overshadows any other form of skulduggery that tends to preoccupy the legal system. White hate scares me because of the zealotry behind it. Fundamentalism in any form frightens me, but white hate is absolutely terrifying.  Is it the white robes and dunce caps? Is it the swastika (a much maligned symbol originating in eastern philosophy)? I don't know...I guess that needless rage and anger that makes the world that much more difficult to live in makes me wonder what purpose hate serves.

Perhaps it serves to put in perspective the kind of crime Sam Crow decides to engage in - supplying guns to Oakland gangs, using somewhat illegal means to protect Charming from sprawl - and makes them comparable to the tragic heroes who act out of love but still cause pain. Make no mistake - the SoA are a ruthless crew who use criminal tactics to protect what they hold dear, tactics that result in death and deadly anarchy. No matter how you package it, the SoA does some shit that will eventually require atonement. But Kurt Sutter has made clear that the motives behind the SoA's actions are rooted in love - love of family, love of brotherhood.

I have trouble seeing past the hate that emanates from the Aryan crew to the humans underneath - if they're even there. I have no trouble at all on that front with Sam Crow. The love is there, and that makes their humanity as clear as crystal.

Sons of Anarchy - My New Obsession

I've never been drawn to the mystique of motorcycle culture. The growl of a Harley or Harley imitator has never appealed to my inner bad girl. I don't like bullet bikes because they attract idiots who like to weave around traffic, hang out in blind spots, and compensate for whatever they're lacking by speeding through school zones. This can be traced mainly to the noise. I'm not a fan of the noise. I don't like it when my teeth rattle a little when a guy on a Hog pulls up beside me at a red light. I guess I'm also a little intimidated by the culture drawn to the bike. The black leather, rivets, skid-lid beanie helmets, long beards, tattoos of skulls and naked women....what can I say...they tend to put me on guard. Now I'm generalizing to an entire population...something I'm not a fan of.

Maybe this is also being fed by my new television obsession: The Sons of Anarchy. Everything about this show has me...the violence, the sex, the complex social structure, the use of a leisure activity to cover a subversive subculture, the code of honor among thieves, the loyalty to family, friends, the moral code, the Shakespearean relationship between Jax, his mom, and his step-dad. Can we say Hamlet? Macbeth? I try to imagine myself living in such a community (the version of me not totally averse to the sound of mufflers) and can't quite wrap my head around it. Would I be one of the nameless "innocents" who live a relatively vanilla life while a violent subculture keeps the cogs, nuts, and bolts of my community turning? Or, would I be a member, in the know about secret meetings, black markets, and clashes with other subcultures that sometimes result in death and dismemberment? I'd like to think I'd have some tie-in to the club, but never be privy to any information that could make me a target of a federal probe or professional hit.

All I know is that I can't stop thinking about it. The lives of Jax Teller, Gemma Morrow, and Tara Knowles are as real to me as I let most of my fictional obsessions get. I carry on imaginary conversations with them. Since Tara lived outside of Charming for ten years, does she long for the kind of luxuries she no longer has easy access to? Does she think to herself - "if only there was a Bed, Bath, and Beyond"? or "I would kill for some Stilton cheese right now"? What kind of music does Jax listen to? Are White Snake and Metallica required listening for the two-wheeled? Or is there a relative diversity to the playlists of the SOA members? Would Bobby listen to Andrew Bird, for example? Does Gemma like to dabble in gourmet cooking when she isn't threatening people? Does she have other hobbies, like jewelry making or competitive knife throwing? Does she want to go on vacation to Paris? Hawaii? Timbuktu?

These are tidbits of information I'd like to get my hands on. Too bad this kind of stuff isn't covered in a forty-five minute television drama.