WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION: TAPAS!

Just got back from Summer Sojourn #1 (two more to follow), up the Federal Road to the nation's capital(ish) and back. Here's the first in a volley of observations and recollections. The night before I left, ye olde Sis took me to the local tapas/wine bar in McLean. Let's just say these fellas got themselves quite the racket going. Sixty bucks for six ounces of wine and a few (admittedly tasty) morsels. Had to chase it later on with a turkey club and some Ben-and-Jerry's. But the place is packed every night. Early on, it's mainly women trying on their Sex and the City. (Don't even get me started on the catfight Sis and I got into re: who got to be Charlotte and who got to be Miranda.) Then the dating crowd infiltrates later in the evening. Pretty typical of your basic tapas place, I suspect.

So, naturally, this causes me to think about the downfall of civilizations. Where, I wonder, does the proliferation of tapas bars fit into that whole process? Most likely somewhere amidst the widening gap between haves and have nots (check!) and the expansive spread of costly far-flung wars (checkmate!)...

EMERGENCE AND THE HYPERLOCAL

Lately enamored of Steven Johnson's cultural musings. Read Emergence (all about bottom-up systems like sponge molds, ant colonies, Obamabots) last month. Small, relatively simple things thinking local and acting local, but influencing things on a much larger scale. Not that Obamabots are simpletons -- in fact you could make an argument that his success in caucuses (as opposed to the more impersonal, larger-scale primaries) is one of the biggest reasons he's the Democratic nominee. Anyway, Johnson's also involved in this thing called outside.in, which is all about melding the internets with a concept he calls "hyperlocal." Geo-mapping cyberspace, so it's more connected to the bricks-and-mortar of everyday life. Color me intrigued. Dude's, like, smart or something.

ROAD TRIPPIN' - BACK SOON

Currently engaged in a whirlwind tour of the seminal places and faces of my early adulthood: that means Old Virginia, largely -- Blacksburg and "NoVa" specifically, with a little Richmond thrown in for good measure. Musings upon my return on or about 6/30.