So I woke up Wednesday morning from a late night (why did you have to start that set so damn late) Ryan Bingham concert at George’s. I thought about sleeping for a bit longer, but I decided to crack open my new May issues of CitiScapes and Celebrate. And then I came to a realization.
Before I go any further with this nice opinion, let me say that I own about five years worth of CitiScapes magazines and have often looked to them for some of the best photography and profiles in the area. I am a huge fan of the publication and its editorial staff. I also know that since I freelance for the Fayetteville Flyer and the Free Weekly, it could seem like a huge slap to say what I am about to say. But alas, that’s not my intention at all.
I have been unemployed for about two months now. It has given me a great amount of time to get things done around my house (and for myself) that I never felt I had the time to do before. It has been a real blessing compared to the time that I spent in a cubical. However, at the end of the day, I do worry about finding a job when I am fully ready, my next move in life, and above all, supporting my home and our family of two (plus dog).
CitiScapes
Something has changed within me. My affection for these two publications as well as the profiles and lifestyles section of the Northwest Arkansas Times. I fear that they have lost sight of what is really going on in the area, particularly in Fayetteville. Each month we are introduced to some of the same magazine sections that have been there for years. We get a profile of a local celebrity or person of importance, we get pages and pages promoting tons of black-tie dinners that raise money for charity after charity, and we get home tours of massive houses in Northwest Arkansas.
Never before have I felt that publications are so deeply in need of a reality check. Northwest Arkansas is not vendor island anymore. Sure, they may still be there, but the truth is, the vendors are supplying companies that have had to let hundreds of people go. The growth has slowed, the Northwest Arkansas Mall has more vacancies than ever, and even the Promenade has as many disasters (Harold’s) as successes (Pottery Barn). Upscale restaurants are folding in favor of more specialized and economical fare like Hammontree’s and Little Bread. Places like Orange Mango, Trailside, and Bliss are doing well because they are essentially a fairly cheap date. Major luxury hotel brands are pulling product or are going into bank foreclosure.
CitiScapes and Celebrate, however, continue to regularly feature lavish Dickson condo after lavish Dickson condo. A simple Zillow search showcases tons of apartments that are still for sale at prices that don’t seem to catch on. Furthermore, good luck finding a bank that’ll finance a condo in a society where every other one is either vacant or unsellable. Not to mention the problems of the investors who own these buildings.
Celebrate Arkansas
It seems almost cruel to continually feature events and functions where people are dressed up and spending money left and right when the reality is, that’s a TINY portion of Northwest Arkansas’ people.
This is not just a problem around here. Many national magazines have had to reevaluate their scope in light of the economy. Some have folded, others have scaled back, and others have changed their missions. Vogue is now featuring economy items (for Vogue) and House Beautiful is featuring stuff from Ikea and Target.
I suppose my wish is that these magazines would do a nice demographic study and use their publications to address what’s really going on in Northwest Arkansas. It’s not simply okay to gloss over the issues when people are worried about paying for their homes, businesses are closing, and growth has stalled. If anything, the recent popularity of Fayetteville Flyer, the Free Weekly, and Arkansas Times in Northwest Arkansas have proven that people want and need something different. Something accessible and protective in a harsh world.
With the dwindling society section in the Northwest Arkansas Times, the folding of national magazines, and the shift in perspective, it truly does raise the question “Is High Society Dead?” I would argue that it may not be dead, but people better step up and address the fact that its EKG is slowing down to a grueling pace. Do you agree or disagree? Do you even read these publications? If so, how would you improve them? Or would you?
Wayne Bell is a regular contributor for the Fayetteville Flyer. He moved to Fayetteville in 2003 for his Master’s Degree and you can almost always catch him at Little Bread Co. or Hammontree’s. For more of Wayne’s contributions, visit his author page.
Wayne, interesting take. For a few months after 9/11, it seemed like we changed a little for the better: we were a little gentler with one another, more of an American community. Unfortunately it didn’t take long for that to wear off and now I think we as a society are worse than ever… obsessed with things that have little real relevance to the vast majority’s everyday lives. Stupid, small things like “high society,” train-wreck celebs (Lindsay, Britney, Paris, Amy, etc, etc.), sports (Go Hogs!)… it’s sad. I understand it on an escapist level… we want either someone we can look down on or we want something to distract us from the bleakness that is our present world (Thanks W., Rush, Nancy et al!).
You’re guilty of it with your covering awards shows. I’m guilty of it for loving to read your articles and watching too much TV. We all share some complicity in spending more time dicking around with inane entertainment rather than really living.
Not to say that we each *don’t* really live, it’s just that… we as a society have really let things slide. We’ve let this erosion happen, if not be actively promoting it, at least by semi-passively allowing it.
Tonight I’ll watch some sports and SNL, tomorrow, I’ll maybe catch Iron Man 2. Life is OK. Fixing this community of its messed-up priorities? Well, I voted for Obama to do that. Then he dithered for most of a year while the Repugs played obstructionist. Then he got a little bit done, started to build momentum, then said “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Then someone doing just that ruined a part of the earth I kinda liked.
I hope Betty White is great on SNL tonight.
Yeah, we’re all a little schizo. How do we get Dr. Jekyll to get control of Mr. Hyde?
Nope. True high society isn’t dead. I think probably a very small portion of the metro actually reads either of those magazines. Mostly I see one of those while I’m waiting for my take out at Penguin Ed’s or at the dentist office. The audience they’re intended for is still alive and kicking. Sure, some of them have had to downsize and declare bankruptcy, but it ain’t like any of them are starving.
Maybe the 30k millionaire is dead or dying.
Although I bet you couldn’t tell it if you walked into Stir tonight.
Betty White should be fun on SNL dudes!
“Something has changed within me.” I heard this in the voice of Elphaba from Wicked. Not sure if that was deliberate.
When I was a kid and we’d grab magazines/old newspapers for kindling, Citiscapes was ‘that rich people magazine’ because of the lavish ads and features on things we couldn’t and didn’t care about. Luckily, our wood stove was the great equalizer.
FekketCantenel–
Lovely.
Hasn’t “high society” always been a small portion of the population? Would CitiScapes and Celebrate get the same readers and advertisers if they started featuring no-name “commoners” like myself and nondescript tract housing? Of course not – in fact they’d have NO readership or advertisers. These are lifestyle magazines – they choose that content for a reason. Some people like the escape it provides. Others, like me, simply think it’s fun to see the names and faces of people I know (and want to know). It also makes me proud to see the numerous charity events in our region month after month and to know that (despite the economy) there are still charitable people in NWA. I can’t say I’ve ever picked up more than one issue of Celebrate because it’s almost entirely advertisement, but I look forward to CitiScapes every month. Although they probably have made or will be forced to make some changes due to the economy, I hope they continue to put out the area’s only quality monthly.
I flip through such magazines in order to find out whom to avoid– which is not difficult, since they’re already avoiding me.
Wayne, I agree with you! There are a lot of REAL people out here in NWA doing great things that don’t look like barbies or drive 30thousand dollar vehicles….a man garagesaling in Centerton today was a hero outing out a fire in copper oaks potentially saving the life of two families…THAT is high society!
D
Do any of you even read Cityscapes? (I think many thousands do.) If you did, you would find that they cover a lot (A LOT!) more than just the most upper of the upper crust…they present a great cross-section of community every month. Well put togehter too. And since the writer mentioned it, didn’t they just feature Trailside Cafe, Hammontree’s and Bliss? I know they did, because I discovered all three from reading about them. I’ve only lived here about a year and a half, but I’ve come to really enjoy Cityscapes (it covers all the arts, and actually a lot of the profiles are of very much “real” and down to earth people leading interesting lives), and other papers like the free weekly and the what’s up section. I have to admit I’ve only encountered Celebrate maybe twice, but I even like the social pages of the newspaper and Cityscapes…such a caring and engaged community we live in. And I’m certainly no “socialite.” I get the point of view of the writer’s musing, but it might be a little misplaced. What’s so high class high falootin’ about art, culture, community, architecture, great restaurants, town festivals, etc? It’s for everyone. It’s what makes this area so great. And heck, what’s wrong with the occasional gala or ice cream social anyway, especially if it’s for a good cause? Peace.
ALso I love the Flyer!
Rags for the pretentious…literal bathroom material. Don’t believe me, visit the can at city hall. I doubt however you would find them in a truck stop john.
Rewording the article:
“Has being a rich snob with nothing to do but go to garden lunches and formal dinners become a little more unpopular in this era of a widening class gap, skyrocketing unemployment and a wave of poverty that is lapping higher at the foundations than ever before?”
Take a wild guess at the answer.
Matt Z, I’m not sure I understand what you were trying to say…
Due to the troubling economic times, the pomp of high society has been, temporarily at least, replaced by more affordable forms of condescending self-importance. A random sample of recent comments here on the Flyer illustrates this point. These include “over-educated/under-employed know-it-alls”, “too cool to appreciate popular art snobs”, and the ever growing “I can’t believe you eat at McDonald’s food snobs”…..just to name a few.
Believe me, I’m as guilty as anyone. Here’s to frugal pretense!
They both come across as base provincialism and babbitry.
Babbitry? Great, now I gotta get a dictionary.
Sometimes I come to fayetteville flyer and there is always ONE constant and that is this Burger Boy bully. I like Fayetteville Flyer but can’t stand how this person has no life and feels the need to comment on things he obviously knows nothing about. Come on..I can’t be the first to complain?!!? There are a couple of others and I’m sure their comments are coming soon!
Personally I have no problem w/ bb. It’s hard to tell tone with a written medium, but he seems to come across as knowledgeable and respectful, well, as respectful as me at least. Now there are a few others…..
@IO – Maybe @ryan meant Bobbitry, which is the act of being so annoying that people want to cut off your wang.
@CK- Who has no life? The person who posted a well thought-out comment that was positive about the subject matter or the person that came on here just to take a cheap shot?
Wait, but now I’ve commented on your comment.
Meta-comment.
I gotta lie down.
Thanks @Boggy – now I’m dizzy.
The whole concept of a meta-comment made me piss my pants and forget my name for a minute.
George–
Pissing your pants, and you with a urinal conveniently located in your avatar. Tsk, I say.
Stumbled across this by accident…
Thank god Fayetteville slowed down! I come into town now and don’t even recognize it any more. Greedy developers have turned the place into a class A example of urban sprawl. Fayetteville no longer has the small town appeal that made it appealing…it is now just a typical liberal college town with no character at all. If my parents did not still live there I would never come back.
Too many yuppies, too many people from out of town who showed up for cheap housing and then made the housing unaffordable for natives, too many fru-fru bars and clubs and pseudo-hippie wannabe politicians.
May Roger’s Rec always remain a fixture on Dickson Street, if only to remind all of the rich party-folk what Fayetteville used to be.