Some Mystic Shopping...

Half Moon Music is another meaningful site to me - though I didn't visit here very often, I distinctly recall coming with a very close high school friend of mine to do mostly window shopping. As we were young and without jobs, all that either of us usually could afford were a few sticks of incense and maybe a piece of jewelry. Usually somewhere in the middle of a beach way, we would meander over to this shop to browse, looking through its collection of used records, the great majority of which neither of us were familiar with (though we would never admit to it).

This little shop, located on 16th street and rather close to the water, has been around since 1988. It was [o]riginally a music shop focused on tape swapping and hard to find imports" until the owners (huge Grateful Dead fans) "slowly branched out into more clothing and gifts." Now, it has a "much larger location just a block away from the origial, where [the owners] can host open mic nights, smart art festivals, and stay involved with [the] local community." Also noted is how the store sells "hundreds of twirling skirts, flowing tie dye dresses, bohemian tops, and festival gear" and exclusively has the murals on its building painted by local Virginia Beach artists, presumably to ensure the authentic Virginia Beach-ness and community oriented-ness of the shop. Again, a particular construction of community authenticity surfaces here.

Thinking of the relationship between this space and Indigenous peoples, realities, histories, etc., what sticks out is the general aesthetic of the shop - and a few of the products it sells. The shop is meant to be spiritual, mystic, supernatural, and free in some ways - evoking a "woke" and "third eye open-ness." This is evidenced in some of the products sold here - brightly patterned "bohemian" clothing, crystals/crystal jewelry, beaded jewelry, candles, and so on. Many of these products actually have roots in non-white Indigenous cultures; for instance, sold here are sarongs, dream catchers, and ponchos, each of which have distinct roots in non-white Indigenous cultures. This leads me to think about how Indigenous people are often conceived of as those who are tapped into a natural sprituality or mysticism and who are in tune with the Earth in a way that others typically are not. As the shop is attempting to portray itself as a mystic, spiritual, and "earthy" site, I would argue that it draws on Indigenous tools to help materialize and, in some ways, legitimate, that atmosphere and aesthetic even as actual Indigenous peoples, histories, meanings, etc. remain invisible.

To go even further, I typed the word "Native" on the site's product search bar out of sheer curiosity. What popped up was a series of products drawing on very stereotypical images of Indigenous people, mostly male chiefs. Many of these products utilize images of Native peoples as spiritually awake and warriors. One particularly interesting product is a tapestry depicting a Native person over an America flag with the description "Native American USA We Were Here First." The description seems to beckon toward some recognition of the violence of settler colonialism and the ongoing survival and resistance of Indigenous peoples; nonetheless, the U.S. flag - which covers most of the image - feels violent nonetheless. Also interesting is an image of a sticker of a stereoyptical Native American chief with a description including the phrase "Born Free." Again, this invokes the sense that Indigenous people are inherently freer beings, in terms of how they navigate space, engage with one another/the Earth, and exist spiritually. This seems to disallow, or at least render invisible, the very real violence, surveillance, and confinement Indigenous peoples have faced.

Sound(s): Grateful Dead SoundCloud Page

Image(s): Half Moon building facade; "We Were Here First" tapestry, "Born Free" sticker