Mall Time
In which I walk the halls between a lot of shops, plus finish one piece of writing, and get back to another.
I can’t recall the last time I hung out at a mall. When our girls were growing up the mall was a regular destination, and often was also somewhere we headed whenever we felt in need of a little retail therapy. When we first moved to the States 28 years ago, the mall visit was a quintessential part of the American experience, and part of our initiation into adopting our new nation and culture.
But over the last decade, they have become a shadow of their former selves, often half empty, filled with ghosts of stores long gone (Waldenbooks anyone?). I was a little sad, but not surprised, to find out that our ‘local’ mall from when we first arrived in the US had been demolished and the site is now home to an apartment complex.
So knowing that I would be spending four days over last weekend at a business-related conference held in a hotel connected to the biggest mall of all, the Mall of America, just outside Minneapolis, I was interested to see if the general mall-decline had any impact since my last visit there in 2012.
No sign of decline here. It was humming with every one of its 520 stores occupied, at least as far as I could tell from my various preambulations along four floors of shopping overload. There was no shortage of places to eat with a wide variety of both fast food joints and casual dining restaurants from a wide variety of cultures and styles. It was possible to eat a different sort of cuisine for each meal, as my credit card will attest to.
My standout places to stop and browse were the excellent Barnes & Noble branch, (right by the mall's stage so I got a different musical show each time I walked by), the M&Ms store, the giant open walkthrough Lego store (with a three-story tall Gundham on top of it!), and a nice surprise was a branch of the revitalized Toys-R-Us. One store that intrigued me was something called Ridemakerz, which appeared to sell bits and pieces of customized die-cast cars. But then I realized it was a sort of a ‘Build-a-Bear’ for gearheads and it all made sense. (No, I didn’t buy one.)
Of course, the centerpiece of the Mall was the Nickeloden-themed amusement park complete with multiple rollercoasters, a Ferris wheel, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ride that looked like some sort of medieval torture device to me, but seemed very popular for those with a better head for heights and stronger stomachs.
I was surprised just how much I enjoyed strolling the mall over the four days, people-watching, and just generally soaking up that mall ambiance. It brought back a lot of good memories. It was great to be in a place that was both thriving and providing entertainment and enjoyment for a lot of families.
Alan
Other Stuff
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Brabazon Bits
I’m now back on the Brabazon project with a vengeance. Work has started on revising and updating the manuscript, as well as doing some general tidying up to ensure that things match the publisher's style guide.
Talking of the publishers, a nice surprise this week was the unexpected arrival of an initial cover design for the book. I wasn’t expecting that this early, but I will say it looks good.
I’m not sure when I can share the cover, but as soon as I get the OK I will so watch out for that in the coming weeks.
Word Slinging
Well, the short story I’ve been talking about over the last few weeks is off and with the publishers for their review and feedback. So fingers crossed that they like it.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2024 - “Star Trek: Mind Meld” by John Vornholt.
On the surface, this was a quick romp of a plot with Spock and his niece, who we hadn’t heard of before, running around the planet of Rigel V getting into all sorts of trouble.
But think about it too much and it gets disturbing very quickly. The idea of the Rigelian culture based on numerology was well conceived and played out well - but the other underlying aspect of their culture came down to tacit acceptance of the kidnapping of children to sell them on as “spouses.” - Ick - And aside from a “you shouldn’t do that or you’ll get kicked out of the federation,” “OK, we’ll do better in the future” moment it’s not seriously addressed to any great degree.
This could have been a great opportunity to address a serious issue through the Trek lens and it’s brushed aside.
The underlying inciting plot of setting up Spock’s niece to marry a Romulan as the first step to Unification also seems to be pushed to the background, until the “21-years later” last chapter.
A strange mish-mash of a Trek tale that had potential but didn’t hit the mark for me.
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Bond Briefings
In the latest edition of our bi-weekly James Bond Lexicon newsletter, we discuss recent encounters with the numbers, 0, 0 and 7.
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Before They Were Beatles Updates
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Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week we continue with February 1969 and books published in France, Germany, Italy, and Lebanon
My favorite this week has to be Superman #62 from Lebanon featuring Batman wielding what appears to be some sort of solar shield for some reason. I have no idea which story this locally drawn cover relates to, but it sure looks like it was fun.
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See you next time
Alan J. Porter
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