Cafe Bucky

From my daughter:

“I wonder if illiterate people get the full meaning of alphabet soup”

At some point, I want to take a trip away from a lot of tech. Just a
week.

Notice that I don’t say “all”.

I want a trip where I don’t pack a computer. Where my cell phone
stays home. Where I take an ultra simple camera (like my Holga),
instead the others in my family’s optical menagerie. No Palm Pilot.

And I will be wanting a microwave oven, That’s for two of my culinary
favorites: baked potatoes and popcorn.

I’d take a guitar. Maybe even an electric. I’m not in the all-out,
“cut off electricity” mode. That would extremist, right? :-)

I wouldn’t take my MIDI keyboard though. Maybe because my tech
cut-off point would be sometime in the 60’s, my childhood. The
microwave oven is an exception (and it lobbied hard in my mind to get
included - illustrative of a passion for popcorn).

Ok, maybe I would have a VCR too. Ya know, I could easily make the
jump to DVD and TiVO, but somehow that turns into a slippery slope.
Next thing you know, you’re taking computers, setting up a networked
video server, hanging plasma screens on the wall, wrestling with
remote controls, and just generally laying waste to the whole thought
of “simplicity”.

Ever get this? The constant immersion of tech in everyday life, to
the point where you want to say “enough already!”, and just get away
from it for a week?

Perhaps that’s the point of wanting to do this: I realize I am on the
Internet every day (and can trace my online roots back to 1980 or so).
I’ve gone through generations of gadgets (remember the “Pocketmail”
modem? I still have one). I want to know that I can hit the “off”
switch for a week and have a great time.

I don’t like the idea of getting so thoroughly dependent on tech, that
I wouldn’t know what to do without it. The idea should be a scary one
to most, right?

And perhaps some of this comes from being immersed in New York City
all Winter, as opposed to the more natural feel of the SF Bay Area.
I’m thinking of my daughters line: “You know you’re in San Francisco
because the hills are taller than the buildings!” NYC is the American
version of Tokyo, surrounded by gadgets, glitter, grime, and gumption.
Volume knob up high. Video scrub pace.

So it’s no wonder I want a tech break. Maybe at the end of June.
Someone tell me of a wonderful place. Somewhere good for walking,
hanging out and watching movies, doing a lot of reading, some guitar
playing, and a good game of frisbee. Somewhere where other people’s
cell phones don’t work so well. Not something primitive, but rather,
something that could pass for the 50’s, 60’s, or 70’s.