"It's the edge of the world in all of western civilization. The sun may rise in the east at least it settled on a final location."

Living in WeHo I developed a love hate relationship with the Bean. Ultimate Blended Mochas are quite possibly the best thing ever, but overall quality is not so good. Of course, the fact that I frequented the BIG GAY COFFEE BEAN on Santa Monica Blvd. lent enough personality to keep me coming back. Now that I'm living here in Starbucks country, where alternatives are few and far between, I miss my relatively ubiquitous substitute. This was brought to mind messaging with Bryce this morning, and hearing that he was at a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Kuwait. A bit astounded, I looked this up on their website. Is there a reason why I can't get a purple straw on the east coast, but all of Israel and Singapore are able to partake of this Los Angeles institution?! Seriously, you can't even get the Bean in NorCal, but Bryce is sitting in their Kuwaiti location? What's next, Fat Burgers in Taiwan?

Now, what this brings up is the theory of the spread of culture from east to west. There have been plenty of people writing about the inversion of this tendency as California has taken over the popular culture of the US spreading its influence from west to east, but I'm still not sure that I buy into Californication as opposed to Americanization. The expansion of the Bean into Asia and the Middle East will serve for me more as cultural expansion coming full circle. We look ever westward toward the edge of civilization, and have over the past century or so managed to come back to where it started, cycles increasing in speed until this sort of discussion seems outdated.

I sometimes wonder whether it is the east or west coast that is out of touch. Which culture will prevail on the world stage? Or will it even matter? It seems rather inevitable that Americanization will end and our dominance will pass to another player, as has happened to every hegemon before us. When this happens, what portion of the US will have left the most lasting mark on world society? Will it be the ideal of rugged individualism that is today so much in conflict with more traditional communalistic societies world wide? Will it be the driving energy of the east coast, the madness, chaos, and tension? Or will it be the laid-back sunshine of the Golden State and the progressive idealism of its rainier neighbors? And where in all of this mess do we find the roots of consumerism and conformity? Oh well, this brings me onto the contradiction of individualism as conformity, rebelliousness for the sake of fitting in, and these are not topics that fit here. I'll just leave the discussion with the statement that I almost wish I'd studied more in the way of urban development and the spread of cultures rather than political dominance. However, liberal as I am, I'm just not that lefty.