sister_luck (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sister_luck) wrote2005-10-11 06:54 pm
sister_luck) wrote2005-10-11 06:54 pm
Entry tags:
Life Imitates Art?
I live in a rather colourful part of the city. Or you could call it multi-cultural, but this adjective has become so loaded with preconceptions and political implications that I don't want to use it anymore. Basically it once was a traditional workers' neighbourhood but when living standards rose and the Germans could afford to move to the suburbs, the relatively cheap housing attracted many immigrants - and later the students. A lot of the buildings were badly hit by bombs in the war and so we have a mix of early 20th century houses with lots of ornaments (some still with obvious war scars) combined with the more sober but often ugly architecture of the second half of the century. The parts of my city with more surviving examples of pre-WWI architecture have already become gentrified and there are first signs that it is happening here as well.
It will take time though and I guess I prefer my neighbourhood as it is.
There's the Turkish supermarket for example with the freshest vegetable and meat, the health-food shop run by a collective (its members can be seen and heard with their drums in the park in summer), the Catholic community walk-in centre, the slightly dodgy garages and shops selling car parts, the various ethnic fast food places, the Turkish barbers, the semi-legal betting shops and the cafés frequented by men hailing from the same country, the same village possibly.
Especially the Italian cafés are fascinating. Their visitors look like they've just stepped off the set of The Sopranos: There are the guys in shiny tracksuits standing guard outside the door with a mobile phone glued to their ear, smoking and ogling the passing girls. Then there are the middle-aged men, well-groomed, but slightly seedy, wearing elegant suits and parking their expensive and ostentatious cars on the sidewalk for everyone to admire. If the weather permits one or two of the older generation will abandon their card games, take their chairs and sit outside making jokes with the lads and discussing the football or Ferrari. You don't see women among them - there might be one behind the bar, but it's a very male club.
Are they aware of the stereotype they're presenting? Or am I responding to the stereotype? Do they behave and dress this way because they've seen it in the movies? Or is the other way around?
I guess it's a bit of both.
There's a new betting shop across the street; it's called The Italian Job.
It will take time though and I guess I prefer my neighbourhood as it is.
There's the Turkish supermarket for example with the freshest vegetable and meat, the health-food shop run by a collective (its members can be seen and heard with their drums in the park in summer), the Catholic community walk-in centre, the slightly dodgy garages and shops selling car parts, the various ethnic fast food places, the Turkish barbers, the semi-legal betting shops and the cafés frequented by men hailing from the same country, the same village possibly.
Especially the Italian cafés are fascinating. Their visitors look like they've just stepped off the set of The Sopranos: There are the guys in shiny tracksuits standing guard outside the door with a mobile phone glued to their ear, smoking and ogling the passing girls. Then there are the middle-aged men, well-groomed, but slightly seedy, wearing elegant suits and parking their expensive and ostentatious cars on the sidewalk for everyone to admire. If the weather permits one or two of the older generation will abandon their card games, take their chairs and sit outside making jokes with the lads and discussing the football or Ferrari. You don't see women among them - there might be one behind the bar, but it's a very male club.
Are they aware of the stereotype they're presenting? Or am I responding to the stereotype? Do they behave and dress this way because they've seen it in the movies? Or is the other way around?
I guess it's a bit of both.
There's a new betting shop across the street; it's called The Italian Job.