Woke around 9am and finished transferring things from Louisiana while Will rose. Toured downtown Fayetteville for an hour and found random graffitis and razorback pigs roaming the murals around town. A pretty thing Fayetteville is with UA, historical buildings, pigs, book stores and bars = a lovely college town. I knew I was moving north because I needed to be in Missouri tonight for the True False festival tomorrow and Will decided to join me on my northern trail up to Bentonville (home of Walmart) and the new 1.2 billion dollar museum known as Crystal Bridges. We took the 30 min cruise up and went straight to the museum. Wow, I have to say a very impressive collection and beautiful architectural design. I didn’t really follow the whole middle crystal water area but who knows maybe it with good environmental design.? After the museum we went to center of Bentonville to try to find someone to interview and learn more of the history of Walmart. I still dont’ know how to process how I feel about the mogul of Walmart and what it is doing to the American landscape and small towns but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I wanted to know more about Sam Walton and what he had set up and how things got to being the number 1, 405 billion dollar annual business that it is now. I found an amazing artist that had a gallery next to the Walmart welcome center. Wow, talking to T.Crowe of the Majesty Republic gallery really made me happy that someone out there felt like I did and then made me so sad because he was so emotional about it too. T.Crowe had just started his gallery last year and had a solid backer that had just pulled out a month prior and he was a very good person who just cared about people and was very poignant in what he felt. The conversation got very emotional and ended in tears and hugs as we both questioned why people just don’t treat people like they should. Odd feelings because it seems that the commercial system (aka with Walmart at the top) used to be so different. The model of business that Sam Walton started was something for the people in its infancy and in less than 50 years had turned into a numbers crunching greed machine. It’s sad how things have escalated in the corporate world and just happy to know there are others like me out there. At one point T. Crowe looked at me and asked if he thought he was crazy for caring. I don’t think anyone should be crazy for caring about other people. Will and I got lost getting out of Bentonville and it of course made us turn around in the numerous walmart stores and corporate office parking lot. For a company that makes so much money, there is nothing flashy about anything in Bentonville and it’s offices. I felt torn as I drove late into to Missouri and arrived at Columbia, MO see my friend Amanda and get ready for the True False film festival. Maybe a round of good documentaries will pep me up. sigh. Thanks Will simmons for everything!
