tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12243869.post3339386640481152266..comments2023-10-31T03:35:59.876-07:00Comments on once i wanted to be the greatest: VMU in Rogers, Arkansas??ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12371313291486703652noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12243869.post-11693306797572075902008-10-27T10:33:00.000-07:002008-10-27T10:33:00.000-07:00wow. that anonymous letter pretty much sums up ev...wow. that anonymous letter pretty much sums up everything I feel about this cultural vaccuum I live in while my husband works at WM. we like to say all there is to do up here is do drugs & go to church. Of course you can mix it all up & go to church & do drugs..thank God the morality police make sure I can't buy alcohol, but every gas station I see sells pipes & salvia.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12243869.post-91155758591788845072008-03-06T09:55:00.000-08:002008-03-06T09:55:00.000-08:00Hello Ryan. I grew up in Rogers and feel much the ...Hello Ryan. I grew up in Rogers and feel much the same way you do. You and I actually had some mutual friends in high school. My younger brothers are itching to leave asap and I can't blame them. I do get tired of the people moving here and deriding the lack of culture and the backwards mentality of the area. I'd like to see some of the new folks getting involved and helping to bring about changes like public art and independent theater to the area instead of counting the days until they leave. <BR/> Then again, that's pretty much what i'm doing, so...Daniel Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13268229407483367489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12243869.post-78518721865930084652008-01-23T21:50:00.000-08:002008-01-23T21:50:00.000-08:00i can tell you why im considering movimg there.1. ...i can tell you why im considering movimg there.<BR/><BR/>1. proximity to wonderful parks, rivers<BR/><BR/>2. high medium income<BR/><BR/>3. not too big<BR/><BR/>4. few minoritiesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12243869.post-11019244673947174292007-12-28T22:14:00.000-08:002007-12-28T22:14:00.000-08:00Huh. That's an interesting letter there, but bein...Huh. That's an interesting letter there, but being a local, and putting in my time (19 years, thank you very much), and having most of my family still left in Rogers, I feel the need to defend it, at least a little bit.<BR/><BR/>I don't know what it's like now, but when I lived there, there was a very vibrant and interesting youth culture. It wasn't created for us, so we created it ourselves. We formed bands, opened our own clubs, booked our own gigs, created our very own rave culture, hosted our own parties. Boys kissed each other in the cafeteria in the high school just to piss off the jocks (who half the time came to our parties anyway), and overall we had a great time. We created our own culture, but the school also offered us a pretty fair share.<BR/><BR/>The drama department put on huge, lavish productions that all the kids were really proud of. The orchestra departments grew by leaps and bounds in the 80's and 90's, and the band took trips to DC and New York. All of my teachers in junior high and high school (okay, well, most of them) were supportive, intelligent, open-minded, and kind.<BR/><BR/>Fayetteville is also a whole other story. It's quite gay for one thing. At one point in the 90's, there were something like 6 or 7 exclusively gay bars in Fayetteville. The university provides a progressive and vibrant culture of its own (and has an excellent theater department if you ever care to look into it and go see some shows). The Walton Arts Center hosts national touring companies of Broadway and musical acts, and the whole city is fairly progressive for small-town midwestern standards (at least it used to be).<BR/><BR/>For the most part, I enjoyed growing up there. My parents exposed me to a lot of different things, took me traveling to lots of different places, and fostered a true appreciation and respect for nature and outdoor activity (which you'll also find a plethora of in NW Ark). Parts of growing up there were extremely difficult (like being gay, for instance) but we made do, I found my accepting crowd, and when I could, yes, I got the hell out.<BR/><BR/>I guess what I'm saying is don't write the place off completely. I wouldn't move back there for anything, personally, and I don't know what your story is, but there are pockets of progress, liberalism, culture, and really wonderful, open-minded and interesting people. I will say, it's a hell of a lot better than it used to be (at least it seems that way to me, despite the sprawl and grossness of the way it's growing).<BR/><BR/>So I guess within that post and this comment I've completely contradicted myself a million times. But that's my right, I suppose, seeing as how I have true Arkansas blood in me, and even though I hate it, I'm proud to have come from there. I still have really incredible and close friends from there, and I don't think it's all bad.<BR/><BR/>But I can absolutely see how someone not from there, with no roots and no history, would find it an insufferable nightmare.<BR/><BR/>I hope you get out of there okay and in the meantime find something there that makes you happy.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for reading. Whoever you are.ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371313291486703652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12243869.post-91401969392329305292007-12-28T08:27:00.000-08:002007-12-28T08:27:00.000-08:00I moved to Rogers, Arkansas last year from Los Ang...I moved to Rogers, Arkansas last year from Los Angeles, where I grew up (after being born in New York City), to take a job with a Wal-mart vendor. I thought I’d share a letter I wrote to my brother that sums up my experience living in Rogers:<BR/><BR/>Bob,<BR/><BR/>All I can say is Northwest Arkansas sucks if you're looking for anything other than mediocre architecture, last year’s fashion, over-rated college sports, and retailing that is finally coming to Arkansas a decade (or more) after it was cool on either coast. Top it off with the bigoted social values veiled in a my-Christian-faith-is better-than-your-Christian-faith-and-everyone-else-is-going-to-hell attitude covered in a smirk that reminds me of the wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing. <BR/><BR/>Toss in the near-paranoia sub-culture of Wal-Mart (the non-locals call them Wal-Martians) and you have the makings of the most boorish-place I’ve ever spent any time experiencing. I was made to feel embarrassed every time I pulled my new German sports car into the Wal-Mart parking lot so many times that I finally parked it in the garage at home and bought a second-hand four wheel drive Jeep for work.<BR/><BR/>Maybe I’m spoiled because our parents took us to dozens of first-run Broadway plays, went to P.F.Chang’s a decade before it came to Rogers, lived in San Francisco where we enjoyed live music, theater, and art that will never find its way to NWA. Maybe I’m cursed because we graduated from a well-known private college on the west coast, lived in Chicago, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Denver and Boulder, Colorado in the 1980s and New York City in the 1990s, where we hung-out with celebrities, artists, entrepreneurs, and just plain cool people. Mom and Dad dragged us to the local museums and live entertainment at the legendary places in those cities and towns so many times I could have been a docent.<BR/><BR/>Sure, Wal-Mart, Tyson, and Hunt Trucking has made many local-breds multi-millionaires, and I’ve even met a few billionaires. But the Nouveau riche locals dress like Minnie Pearl, lack the worldly-culture and refined good taste to such a degree I laugh to myself when they crowd in line to experience fine Italian food at the new Olive Garden or chatter about Target opening a store down the street from Wal-Mart headquarters. <BR/><BR/>Wal-Mart rewards its executives and middle managers with offices that look like third-world countries with broken desks, wobbly-chairs, and dirty floors. I wonder if I should wear one of those masks surgeons wear just to keep from getting some weird disease or inhaling the mold growing on the walls. I’m shocked anyone would want to work there, but don’t say anything bad, because the Wal-Mart Gestapo have ears and are paranoid about strangers and anything that isn’t blindly loyal to Sam Walton and his fleet of private jets that travel the globe looking for ways to make and sell things cheaper and cheaper and crappie and creepier.<BR/><BR/>New is always nice. The locals are so excited about the new Pinnacle Hills Promenade, but it looks like one of dozens of identical shopping centers operated by the center’s owners, a Chicago-based shopping mall developer called GGP. Ask the merchants at the any of the Pinnacle Hills stores and they’ll tell you they are doing just O.K. The new shops are cool by Rogers-standards but oh-so boring compared to the cool stores you’ll find packed in towns from Austin to New York. The locals are proud of the new stores, but unless the goods are offered at Wal-Mart low prices, the only ones spending are the Wal-Mart vendor-employees who are trapped living here by their own career aspirations and promises of combat-pay from their bosses.<BR/><BR/>Forget Northwest Arkansas if you're gay, black, Jewish, like cutting edge theater, something other than cover bands at the local clubs, are creative, or have a taste for originality and leading-edge thinking.<BR/><BR/>The area lacks public art entirely, unless you consider the old Civil War cannon in front of the Rogers Library as such. The city is spending millions on new roads, and banking on sales-tax revenues to pay for it all. Yet not one dime was spent on anything related to art and being first at anything global except how to package lead-paint-tainted toys from China as a legitimate after-school distraction for children from culturally-isolated homes.<BR/><BR/>Racism is rampant, especially if you’re non-English speaking. The illegals are easy prey, making them fodder for the more outspoken bigots and local cops who forget who’s washing the dishes at the all-you-can-eat buffet, cleaning the rooms at the local motels, and mowing the lawns because no one else will do it.<BR/><BR/>Even the Wal-Mart vendors from out of town are subject to a contemptuous attitude from the locals. We come from out of town trying to do good things for the community, but we’re treated like ignorant tourists that are fair game for locals and their swindles, cons, and over-charging. It took me about a year to figure that one out! <BR/><BR/>I’m looking forward to 2008 when my stint in Northwest Arkansas is over and I can move back to civilization. I can’t help but thinking I’m in an episode of the old TV Show, Green Acres.<BR/><BR/>With Love,<BR/><BR/>Your BrotherAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com