Signs Abound

Music

Blog Post #1: I went to my old school, Carlsbad high to watch the Carlsbad High School band that i was in when i was in high scool. As i watched the symphony play their music, i notice features that related to our culture that i have not considered thinking about until i started taking this class. I noticed that even in symphonies it appears to have gender roles through what instrument he or she was playing. Devour said that cross-gender behaviors "are labeled as inappropriate gender role behaviors. Although these behaviors are closely linked to sexual status in the minds and experiences" (568). Thus, when i watched the symphony, i saw no men playing the Flutes or French horns. In addition, there were no women playing the Percussion instruments. It showed that our culture believes that certain instruments should be played by certain genders because, our culture has manufactured thoughts that playing an instrument also shows how feminine or masculine you are towards people.

Desert Awakenings

    Over the weekend of February 20^th, I went to Joshua Treeto rock climb and observe the semiotic relationship between the park and American values. The first thing that struck me while entering the park was how vast it is, a seemingly infinite stretch of desert peppered with the struggling form of the plant after which it’s named and looming rock monoliths. While climbing said monoliths, I experienced two contrary values inherent in the activity: "the one communally egalitarian and the other competitively elitist" (Solomon 525). “Dappled Mare” is a three-pitch climb, which means that it is climbed in three different segments, with the lead climber stopping at certain points to belay the follower from above, and the following climber stopping at the same points to belay from below. Climber and belayer must totally depend on one another, for they are locked into a system which requires both people to be completely alert of the other’s needs. Without a strong sense of community and equality, safe rock climbing would not be possible. Yet climbing is still an individualistic sport, competitive by nature. Early on, three climbers joined us on the route to our left. Before the two of us could complete our first pitch, these three had scaled their entire route, climbing like baboons up the face and topping off within an hour. Just watching the smooth, quick movements of these climbers awoke the competitive side in me; I automatically tried to pick up the pace. In the same way that rock climbing uses individuality and community to function, Americans apply this double-think to numerous aspects of everyday life.

For Those Who Drop in Often

 

  Home may be where most people hang their hat, but for downtown Carlsbad Vinaka locals, home is where you hang your mug. The shop has a place on the wall for “those who drop in often” to keep their mugs and that, amongst other details, makes Vinaka café feel like a second home and a place where the community can gather. From the senior citizens who come in weekly to play a game of chess to the teenagers hanging out with their friends, this place appeals to everyone. The value having a local place where people can come and spend time with each other is one that reflects how many Americans feel. We want to have a place we can go and see people we know and have a community place where we gather. The café’s display of art directly connects to our desire to have freedom of expression. They put artist’s work up on the wall that has great range of interpretation. With many of the pieces being local, artist’s can join their community by having their work shown and sometimes purchased. Customers value something they can always count on and Vinaka provides great service. Their products and prices range from one dollar cup of coffee to four dollar lattes and they make something for everyone. Vinaka has the ability to connect to Carlsbad’s needs for a local place to chill and express ourselves, and for a good cost too. However, being a part of this “communally egalitarian” environment also gives the customer a sense of privileges (Solomon 524). Regulars in the shop are offered the chance to be a Vinaka member. This gets their mug on the wall and also a card where every tenth coffee is free. Anyone can come and enjoy Vinaka’s laid back environment, but are some locals more “elite” than others? (Solomon 524).

Anywhere But Here

Teens at the children’s shelter where I volunteer enjoy some of the luxuries that many of us adults only dream we could have for free and yet it’s not merely enough. They are provided with all the necessities of an American life - 3 meals a day, shelter, clothing, comfort, and safety. Their long lists of Christmas wishes are happily filled by members of the community. They have “outings” every day, where their own personal chauffer shuttles them around town for shopping and site-seeing. And they receive all of these fine amenities for the low low price of their freedom. One teen girl proclaimed to me, “I wake up every day feeling trapped. I want to get away to anywhere but here.”

Where would a 15 year old high school student be able to go with no income, no formal education beyond the 10^th grade, no experience in the real world, and no family for support? For the kids who have gone AWOL from the shelter the answer is: it doesn’t matter, “the faith in “more” feeds on the challenge of less” (Goewey, 147). The teenage years provide a chance to explore the world and have a balloon to fall back on. With everything given to these teens, maybe the dangerous act of running away into the unknown is the only way they can really make these mistakes. Maybe their freedom lies “anywhere but here.”

"Live the Adventure, Honor the Legend"

  

Looking to understand the nation myth of “American Triumphant”, I heard about the San Diego Aircraft Floating Museum Midway (Solomon 528). The USS Midway is the US Navy’s longest serving aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier was a floating city where thousands of Americans began their life’s experiences. Most sailors boarded as boys and left as men. Like a military veteran being recalled to service, the retired aircraft carrier Midway was set in 2004 to begin the San Diego Aircraft Carrier floating Museum to honor naval aviation. The way the aircraft was restored and prepared is a monument to every American. The museum perpetuates, at the same time, the American eager for individual spotlight as well as the need of social belong. Different than most Museums at USS Midway Museum visitors can have a lively experience touching many parts of the aircraft, talking with veterans who have previous served on the aircraft, and listening to the audio tour and sailors’ anecdotes. To complement the museum exhibits are full of posters with crew members’ pictures and their quotations. Every new step on the Midway is a new perspective about how those people and their work are the soul of that aircraft and the representation of American ideals of strength and freedom. The museum undermines Signs of heroism, hero-worship, and communal victory. It exploits American patriotic society behavior as well as American desire of individual recognition.

Rossana Larronda

I "Have to" Take My Daughter's Job

Grocery stores are a promotion of egalitarianism (Solomon) because when people shop for food they are all doing it for one reason they can all relate to: provide food for themselves or their families. Social class does not interfere with the experience. Even so, it is interesting what I discovered this past week during Stater Bros. huge sale. I often do my grocery shopping at Stater Bros., a store with affordable prices-at least compared to Vons or Henrys prices. During my trip, I observed the variety of individuals and concluded that Stater Bros. was a grocery store for lower-middle -class people, especially the one located near downtown Oceanside along Mission Ave. As I was looking for the advertised 45 cent tuna in the canned meats aisle, a woman in her 30s was explaining to her teen daughter, who looked very busy texting on her cell phone, how she and her father could no longer support her financially with their insignificant level of income. The mother told the daughter she would need to start looking for a job and advised her to start looking at Stater Bros. She continued on with the mini-economics lecture explaining to her, “I am a 34 years old and I wasn’t embarrassed to go into CinemaStar for a job.”

Her statement startled me at first because I remember suggesting to my father to get a “regular job” like a movie theatre employee, jokingly of course. I soon realized what I thought of as a joke is becoming a growing reality for most of the lower-middle class. My father, my sole provider, is a retired used car salesman and is not receiving the same amount of income he used to be getting when he was young and vivacious enough to perform such an energy-based and time-consuming job. He has also expressed to me the anxiety he faces of helping me pay for my college tuition and simply providing food for us to eat every week. The issues we are faced with lead me to acknowledge how the younger generation is competing with the older ones for the same low-wage jobs, vice versa. What does this observation tell us about the workforce of America? 

It could be that older generations competing for the same jobs are not educated enough to build their own little imitation empires the elites have modeled for them, but maybe it is actually because of the consequences the elites’ actions had on our society as a whole. Apparently, the economic crises that elites have helped to elevate (not alleviate) are not hurting their financial stability, but that of middle-class Americans. Ultimately, elitism in America holds “consequences for the individual wallet,” (Shames 89) and the evolving workforce that even Stater Bros. "communal" sales cannot resolve.

Shames, Laurence. The More factor. Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. Sonia Maasik, Jack Solomon. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 86-92. Print.
 
Solomon, Jack. Masters of Desire: the Culture of American Advertising. Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. Sonia Maasik, Jack Solomon. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 524- 534. Print.

See ya!!

While at the Mottino YMCA pool watching swim practice, I noticed that even at a young age, we have a competitive instinct to be on top (Soloman 525). The young swimmers were swimming on top of one another and spinning their arms as fast as they could in order be in the front of the line during practice. They are not even supposed to be racing, and they are exhausting themselves during warm ups in order to claim first. I watched two particular boys battling each other in the water. When they approached the wall, I heard one shout, “See ya!” to the other, leaving the poor boy in his bubbles. The competitiveness became so out of hand, that the coaches had to intervene. They attempted putting the swimmers in a permanent order for every practice. That did not work because the swimmers did not accept their numbers and continued striving for first. We all want to be the best and rise above the crowd. Perhaps this competitive behavior has not been shaped by culture but by human nature, unless every swimmer’s parents preached the importance of success to their child between the ages of eight and twelve. These kids were vicious, and they were willing to swim on top of anyone to get ahead.

dylan

i love engl 202

Paper #2 Invention Activity: Due Tuesday March 2

PLEASE NOTE: Jim will not be available for online chat, tonight, Monday March 1. Please email with any questions, and I will answer them as soon as I can.

For our invention activity due Tuesday, please complete the following.

1) Finish the two articles assigned for Tuesday's class.

2) After you have read those two articles about masculinity, find an article that we have read that you wish to analyze in more detail. Any article from the gender chapter is fine--but you may not use the introductory chapter itself.

3) Then complete the invention activities from that we practiced with in class on Thursday. You should do this electronically--working from this word document so that you can add or change your ideas as you develop them over the next few weeks: Download Paper2_invention

4) This activity will become the foundation for your next paper, the purpose and format of which we will be going over in class next Tuesday.

Thanks,

Blog Post Resources

Here is a quick reminder of the criteria for blog posts along with links to some strong ones from last semester:

Criteria

1) posts are 180-220 word paragraphs answering the question what does _____________ (insert popular space, performance, or service learning experience) and __________________ (insert value or belief) in America? This answer appears in a concise focus sentence prominently positioned within the post.

2) posts make a connection to one or more of our class readings

3) posts analyze and interpret striking details about the place / event / experience described and feature dynamic prose: concision, active verbs, and varied sentence structures

4) posts make the most of the multimedia and/or hypertextual resources of the webs by including images, videos, music, links etc. that contribute to the impact of the post.

Samples: Remember these are often draft versions that were significantly revised later for portfolios--so style and other issues may not be where they need to be. But these posts give you a sense of the kinds of questions you can explore and the kinds of connections you can make to the readings and the web as you put together your posts.

• The Last Standing Man Cave
• Party Like a Rock Star
  
• Shop Til You Drop
• Middle School Masculinity
• White Men Can't Jump or Dance
• The Proud Americans
• Class vs Ass