Everything

A Web formed around a lifestyle center, Festival Market Town is typical of the breed. The children shop at the same overpriced doll and teddy bear customization shops. The parents shop at the same size 0-12 fashion outlets. They all eat at the same not-so-cleverly themed fusion restaurants with the same colorful kitsch candy cocktails and the same “imported” draft beers. They watch the same big budget Hollywood movies. They eat the same overpriced pretzels. And the workers? They’re controlled by the same pattern spiders. They go to work every day, talking about how they’re going to find some­ thing better tomorrow. They feel rebellious when they give their friends their 10% employee discounts under

the table. They stop by the same buffalo wing sports bar — in the lifestyle center, of course — on their way home, where they play quiz games and root for their local foot­ ball team. One of them roots for the rival team, because he’s an individual. Festival Market does have one minor difference from other Webs of its kind. In the center, the architects built a fountain for children to play in. It uses a natural water supply running from the nearby rivers. This tiny bastion of the Wyld stands in stark defiance of the technical monstrosity around it.