Don't buy it. God, I love the irony. Thanks to Megan Barney from UW Tacoma for the tip.

Barney, who is either an unnaturally curious and enterprising young woman or the girlfriend of one these cart mongers, sent the Weekly Volcano web monkeys some pictures of images that have been appearing regularly on random flat surfaces around Tacoma. Most of them have a hand-rendered shopping cart icon and a slogan: Don't Buy It.

I saw one of these things - just the cart - by the old Elks building on Stadium.  I didn't pay it much mind until I received an e-mail with some pictures and a nice explanation from Barney:

"A few weeks ago I noticed an interesting sticker affixed to a post in front of the University of Washington-Tacoma campus," she writes. "The more I saw, the more curious I became. And I was not alone. No one that I talked to had a clue what the message was behind the carts. Did it have something to do with the ever-present rumors about a downtown grocery? Was it related to recent talk about food carts? .... It turns out that the carts have nothing to do with being anti-grocery or anti-food cart. They are the product of Don't Buy It Clothing, a few locals who are anti-commercial and selling t-shirts to prove it. "

Following the well-lain trail, I checked out the Web link she included, and found this message:

"Walk down any city street and you're bombarded with massive advertisements and catchy slogans: clever ways of telling you how to dress, what to eat, who you should vote for, and what you should smell like.  Even music and movies are loaded with cheap plugs for the hottest new products.  Well, we think there is something wrong with that.  So we make clothing for people who do what they do because they love it, not because they saw it in a commercial. Our stuff is for hip-hop heads, hardcore kids, rude boys, indie rockers, and anyone else out there who is about what they do. We are Don't Buy It Clothing.  We are not the next big thing."

Here's the gist: Don't Buy It Clothing is selling T-shirts. And promoting some of the worst backpack rap I've ever heard. And a good idea.  Sort of.

It's true that we're inundated with commercials and ads. And it's equally true there are legions of people still trying to buy their happiness. We're still trying to assemble personas by adorning a bunch of trendy bric-a-brac. What the "Don't Buy It" folks don't seem to recognize, however, is that they've fallen prey to the latest commercial con - individualism as commodity fetish.

Before it's too late, folks who are running around trying to "wake people up" need to realize the solution to commodity fetishism isn't a different kind of commodity fetishism. It's not about being indie - which stopped being truly independent about 10 years ago. It's not about being the next big thing. It is, as "Don't Buy It" says, about doing what you do.

Drop the next big thing, and get ‘bout it ‘bout it. I'll buy that.

Joe Malik is a jaded, ornery, "power to the people type" that can't help but comment on all the stupid and or questionable stuff he sees within the arts community. The Volcano doesn't always agree with what he says, they just like to stir the pot.