How To Support Local Business - For Real
Hint: Vulture Signaling About It Isn't The Same
Hi, you know me, it’s Dave from Neoteric Wood Art, and this is my logo: Made with 100% Authentic Intelligence.
Why this image? Because I’m nostalgic for the old film noir movies dating from about 1940 through, say, the end of the Eisenhower administration. This was America 1.0 when women dressed with distinction and men looked as if they were all die-cast from the same mold and wore short-brimmed hats. Everyone was post-war, meaning all the men were tough as an over-done top sirloin at Olive Garden. But the women, oh my, the women in the movies had legs that would stop a city bus just so the men could watch her cross the street.
(ง'̀-'́)ง
Back in those days, Hollywood depicted the life of a private eye like Sam Spade or Richard Diamond as a highly individualistic man who worked the dimly lit streets of a gritty metropolis where danger lurked under every staircase. His life depended upon sarcastic wit, an under-appreciated secretary, and occasionally roughing up the local informer, also known as a “rat” or “stoolie,” in order to find the crook as the police were always portrayed as inept.
Shadows On the Wall
Oh yeah, the logo. Well, it may seem weird, but I see patterns out of chaos and got the idea of the logo after my fevered imagination saw a shadow against the wall. We have this lace curtain made of wild patterns, but when light filters through it, an outline of a face that only I could see appears. I’m just glad it doesn’t speak! It reminds me of a shamus standing below a lamp post in the murky darkness - (Paging Humphrey Bogart!)
(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿)
You: (Sigh)… He’s rambling again…
Me: Now just hold on there buckeroo, I’m getting to the local business part!
The logo is a reflection of my inner curmudgeon, the one who’s grumpy on the inside but not openly hostile on the outside. Much like those good men of the past, I too work independently as I eke out a living in my tiny, sawdust-filled wood shop relying on raw inspiration, brute force dedication, and I have gained a modicum of respect in the ferociously peaceful town of St. Helens, Oregon.
The Madman of the Wood
I’m just a local man who buys local things such as eggs and meat, I shop at the independent grocer, and I do my darndest to support local entrepreneurs. Of course not everything can be purchased nearby, sometimes I must actually buy a part from the Ford Motor Company if I want to keep my Pony on the road, but I refuse to sign up for an Amazon or Ebay account because of… reasons.
Enter:
Kent kept posting on Substack “Notes” about his work. To be sure, this dude is really Old School. For some reason he loves the old typewriters and bangs out everything he writes on a 1938 Underwood Jr. typewriter, he then takes a digital picture of it and uploads it to Substack. I find that sincerely independent, if a bit odd, but it works - he has over 2,000 subscribers!
He’s an avid bicyclist, but not all bad (it’s a joke everyone) as Kent is also an artist who, among other things, makes rubber stamps. I had been looking for someone to make a rubber stamp of my logo and could have had one made by some business with a giant marketing footprint on the interwebs, but for some reason I never followed through with it.
So, when I read that he makes them just for shiggles, I thought that I would ask if he would create one for me. This isn’t the same as asking for something cranked out by machine, these are hand carved! He’s a local Wisconsin bicycle repairman and tinkerer as well. His reply was to ask if I wanted it affixed to a block of wood. I declined that offer because, I mean, geesh, where am I going to find wood in my wood shop, right? It’s not like I’m tripping over the stuff… oh wait, yes I am.
Kent made it with the quickness and shot that thing into the postal service the next day!
With a personal hand written note and results of his Quality Assurance test;
That is some nice work and hand carved! I know the stamp is funny looking, but…
The results when glued to a piece of mahogany.
One person asked if the logo was Japanese art!
Okay, I’ll admit that I’ve always believed that in another life, I lived in a more temperate climate than the harsh, rainy, and dour weather of northwest Oregon - BBBRRRRR. How else to explain my love for the Bossa Nova, mangoes, and preference for dressing in shorts, sandals, and Hawaiian shirts? I belong on an island where the pineapple is always ripe, I can eat loads of ginger infused cashews, and a hammock with my name on it!
(っ˘ڡ˘ς)
Anyway, this post is supposed to be about keeping it local, but “local” doesn’t necessarily mean next door, or even in one’s home town, it can be anywhere so long as you are supporting an independent person who makes a living with his or her hands or makes use of their creative output of the mind such as writers, poets, and musicians.
♫(･‿･)♫
The true artisan isn’t a shill for a soul-crushing, artless global cartel that, albeit cheap and efficient, helps dry up demand for people such as Kent, not to mention myself, your Loco-Yokel. I love to busy myself getting my hands dirty while working on something, anything just to keep creating, but I always keep it real.
People are starting to wake up as more folks are shopping local and eating less processed food. There is a nation-wide grass-roots and grass-fed effort to keep the mechanized, technocratic overlords from grinding the last generation into extinction and our history erased with it. They are slowly becoming aware of the danger, but will it be enough to defeat the panopticon?
In order to prevent a dystopian future, it is essential that we not allow the loss of our crafting arts and sciences, or our knowhow on how things work on the fundamental level. By supporting a local business or craft, you deny fealty to their freakish gods and their poisonous fruit of depravity by power-mad tycoons. Stay positive and continue to look for your independent entrepreneur, the little-known artist, and budding entertainer. Show them some love, it will pay huge dividends in the future.
\(´‿｀)/ YEAH!
Tip-o-the hat to Kent for walking the talk!
Thank you for reading, please help spread the word and share.
You could also buy me a cup of moral support here;
Reminds me of my dad’s signature on notes: 你. Chinese for wo meaning myself!
Nice article Dave. Keeping’ it loco-local! Lol