EP 43: Performative Novel Gestures
Humanizing hardware with the Daylight Computer! The Carte Blanche approach to coffee feat. Rudy Giuliani! The ensuing whitewashing of Boba tea thx to Starbucks! Gas station brands of America!
On this week’s episode we get somewhat spiritualized. Feels a bit like our 2021-2022 left-field tangential talk is back, haha! Seatbelts 🫡 !!
Daylight Computer: hardware made more human? or just another device™?
Like mosquitoes on a hot summer’s night, we get sucked into the ambient fuzzy warm beams emanating from the Daylight Computer, whose claim is “the computer, de-invented.” It arrives hot off the heels of other companies throwing darts at the next Smartphone 2.0 (i.e. rabbit’s r1, the Humane AI pin). But as any mosquito steps away from the light a bit, we start to question whether the Daylight Computer really delivers on what it promises. Does it make sense to create restrictive hardware solutions to aid our efforts in decreasing screen time? Are we really better served using the Daylight Computer on our camping trips instead of using a journal? Do we need to say “no” more in the face of ceaseless algorithmic content streams being shoved down our throats? Or do we throw in the towel and sign up for Neuralink?
Have $$$, Have “Fame”, Be Coffee
Justin wonders why everyone and their grandma suddenly has a coffee brand. The Weeknd, Emma Chamberlain, Seth Rogen, Green Day, and now, America’s mayor, Rudy. Has white-labelling gotten out of hand? We lament over how no one gives a crap about brand relevance. Everyone has gone the way of Kim Kardashian and it’s now just about “famous person affiliated with varying degrees of notoriety and/or celebrity” as brand. Perhaps this is the actual American dream: your self as logo.
In a related channel of thought, Justin brings up Starbucks’s latest pander to Gen Z: a new boba tea drink just in time for summer. Again, another example of complete disregard for the provenance or cultural relevance of a product.
Helen points out that this is another example of “white people trying to do non-white people things.” And yes I stand by that statement ha ha! Boba tea originated from Taiwan in the 1980s, from which it spread across South East Asia with rapid popularity. As someone who’s Chinese-American/New Zealander, I can attest to our affinity for sugary-milky concoctions with fun chewy textures. It’s plain disheartening to see a distinctly American franchise present a drink devoid of any context for its origins, and instead present it as a drink of their own invention. Unsurprisingly, Starbucks isn’t necessarily the first coffee chain to delve into “bobafication.” Bay Area friends may faintly remember the uproar Peet’s Coffee created when they added boba drinks to their menu. Food critic Soleil Ho aptly described the gesture akin to “…trying to convince a mouse to give up a wheel of Parmesan for a Kraft single.” Because yes, boba drinks, at least in my memory, are a wondrous space of various textures, flavours, and endless permutations of high sugar intake. Not, a one-dimensional mixed-berry watery drink to which you can add coconut milk to, with “raspberry-flavoured pearls.” OK rant over.
Waxing poetic about the branding behind one of America’s favorite pastimes: gassing up
Inspired by a failed attempt to see the Aurora Borealis, Helen ended up at a Love’s gas station somewhere outside of Portland, which then inspired an extended Google search into various gas station identities across America. Some gas stations have loyal followings which extend economically into large merch offerings (see Buc-ee’s and Kum & Go as extensive examples).
Of course, after clicking on almost every link listed under the Wikipedia page, Gas stations in the United States, Helen discovered a weird one: Helios House.
Nestled in sunny Los Angeles (obviously), Helios House is touted as a “station of the future.” It’s comprised of recycled steel, and has solar panels which help to offset the station’s energy consumption. The roof also collects water for irrigation purposes. It was designed by two fancy architecture firms, Office dA and Johnston Marklee Architects. The project overall was led by Ogilvy & Mather, led by Brian Collins (that COLLINS??).
Helios House is less of a standalone brand as it is a conceptual representation of what a gas station could be (which only seems to be reinforced by the fact that it started out first as a BP, then an ARCO, and is now a Speedway Express). However, we feel there’s totally a missed opportunity here. Why not provide a robo-cup o’ joe machine that’s powered by one of the solar panels above? At the end of the day, as sustainable as Helios House is, it’s still feeding America’s passion for fossil fuels.