Urbanism is So Last Season...

My good friend once started giving me music clips from this band, The Avett Brothers. Since then, I have come to really love this band. Recently they have begun to take off, being recognized at the Grammys for their live performance there. While following them the last few years, I have really come to enjoy their music. I loved this song the first time I heard it and thought, why not see if I can watch it on Youtube? So here is how I found this extremely correlating music video to help out our discussion.

I chose this music video to share because, when you watch the video, it shows much of Jameson's ideas of Deterritorialization and Urbanism. It starts our with an open field, being bought and turned into a suburban neighborhood. Then it is bought out agin by large corporation and they build tall skyscrapers and buildings of business. It has a very New York/downtown Manhattan feeling to it. As time continues on, so do the people move on. The buildings soon become deserted and the town becomes desolate and crumbles down. Once the buildings are crumbling, they begin to disappear and are removed, taking us back to the open, empty field.

This songs use of Jameson's Urbanism shows the initial shift of rural to manufacture to business and office space, a use of social and political development. It's continual trasformation show stages of deterritorialization and land speculation. It is attempting to undo what has already been done.

It's Everywhere...

Well, as this blog continues to grow, the idea that popular culture can be found almost anywhere continues to resonate with me. This course has opened my eyes to many different facets of culture and how it directly influences my (our) life. As I was posting the earlier sections, it really hit me how surrounded we are by culture, however subconsciously or not. The impact that culture has on our lives is dominating, from the clothes we wear, to the music and movies that we enjoy. Also, from the type of house and community that we will live in. There is a connection to culture EVERYWHERE!

Don't Talk While My Stories Are On...

Have any of you ever spent some time with your mother, aunt, or grandmother, and there is a certain time of day that they have to be home, exactly at that time, to watch "their stories"? I have grown up with some of these women in my life and heaven forbid if we are not home by 2 pm to watch the newest General Hospital, it was at least recorded. What can drive women (and some men) to these lengths for a television show? Soap Operas.

The reason that these come to mind was recently I was home visiting my mother and there on the television at 2 pm exactly was General Hospital. The next day while visiting my grandmother, at exactly 1 pm she had to have the television on to watch As the World Turns, and her 2 o'clock One Life to Live. I had never really thought much about this phenomenon growing up, until recently, when the woman that I work for watches everyday religiously her Soaps (Young and the Restless is her favorite), and if we had to go about town that day, you bet your life they were being TiVo'd. 

The influences that these Soap Operas have on our lives is binding. My mother still brings up Luke & Laura's wedding day from the 1980s (30 years ago!) as conversation topics from General Hospital.

However, I have found that with watching Soap Operas, I could have watched any episode exactly a year ago, then start watching one today, and know what was happening in the plot. It is a continuous cycle of repetitions in the story line. Why would the writers of these shows continue to repeat themselves with the same stories of love, betrayal, family, resurrection of the dead, comas, and evil twins? A great explanation comes from Theodor Adorno, a Marxist cultural theorist. He blames it on our consumer society, that we have allowed the creativity to be taken out of our lives and dominated by the "producers". "Not only are the hit songs, stars, and soap operas cyclically recurrent and rigidly invariable types, but the specific content of the entertainment itself is derived from them and only appears to change. The details are interchangeable... they are ready made cliches to be slotted in anywhere." (The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception)

These formulas are what keep the writers writing and the viewers watching. Formulas seem to work, so why fix what isn't broken? Well, it's been lovely chatting, but my Stories are on... I mean, the news...

Little Boxes Will be the Death of Me...

I am now coming up on 4 years living in the city. At times there are still many aspects of the city that I do not care for, or even think of, like what do I do with my garbage and where can I go shooting (I'm pretty country redneck, let's be honest)? But another aspect of city living that I have come to learn is that of Suburbia. It is a world unto itself, creating its own community and distinctions.

This point was driven home more deeply when I begun watching the Showtime series, WEEDS. It follows a suburban house wife, who once she becomes widowed, begins selling pot in a "safe & wholesome" community. It attempts to break down the boundaries of a typical suburban community all while trying to keep up its facade.

Please follow the link for "Little Boxes" (The link to post it on the blog wasn't working...):

Little Boxes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8StRAJCork&feature=related

This concept of suburban life and architecture is found in use by Fredrick Jameson. The term used to describe most of this phenomenon is called Urban Sprawl, or Suburban Sprawl. Suburbanization takes on the role of a new depthlessness and the effects are that of a loss of history within those communities. When I think of living in a "suburban heaven", it makes my skin crawl and my body shudder. When I think of a suburban community, I think of loss of originality, loss of individuality, and accepting a common rule and arbitrary "acceptedness" to a life of boringness. I don't want to live in one, and I don't plan on it. Don't take away my open spaces!

Am I a Duck? Or a Shed? Venturi, I need your opinion for this Strip tease...

Fabulous Las Vegas!

While during my Spring Break, I had the opportunity to hit the Boulevard for work that week. Conveniently in this course, we were studying Robert Venturi's Learning From Las Vegas. So while I was there, I got to experience Vegas as Venturi did.

Two concepts which we were discussing was the use of the "Duck' and the "Decorative Shed". Here are two of my favorite examples from Las Vegas demonstrating them:

The DUCK:

"Where the architectural systems of space, structure, and program are submerged and distorted by an overall symbolic form." -Venturi, Learning from Las Vegas

The Luxor is a fabulous example of "the duck" type of structure, showing that casino itself is built like a pyramid, where the signification represents that if you stay there, you will be as a pharaoh, wealthy and prosperous.

The DECORATED SHED:

"Where systems of space and structure are directly at the service of program, and ornament is applied independently of them." -Venturi, Learning from Las Vegas

The Cosmopolitan is a new casino/hotel on the Vegas strip, which is an excellent example of "the decorated shed", where the signs and ornamentation on the building do the talking for it. It creates a very posh environment, where the clientele are those who want to be on the forward edge of trend-setting and that is exactly what Cosmopolitan means. It is advertising it's own ornamentation.

Imma Be, Imma Be, Imma Imma Imma Be...

While eating breakfast at my local hide-away spot on a regular occasion, I look around me and notice that one of these things is not like the other (me!). The way that my local Parkers are dressed (I never knew a man could wear that many scarves...), and the movies and music that they're talking about - the more obscure the better, all clues  to the outsider in the midst of skinny jeans, scarves, and Urban Outfitters propaganda.


While sitting there eating my "Voted SLC's Best Morning After" Michigan Hash breakfast, I was contemplating which of these many subcultures that I myself could belong into. I was always a Jock and a Nerd combo, and still find myself there. I was the letterman sporting jockette who was proud of the State Champion badges on my arm. I was also very proud of the Valedictorian cords worn on my graduation gown. But where did I fit in? And how was I viewed for living in those roles?


Found in the dictionary is the definition of subculture: a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture. Also, it involves types of clothing, music, and other visbal affectations which also are some of the same symbols which are interpreted by the dominant culture. Dick Hebidge, a cultural theorist, also includes that members of a subculture often signal their membership through distinctive symbols and styles, including fashion, mannerisms, and jargon. 


Another symptom  of subcultures is judgement. We all have judged someone by the clothes they were wearing and the mannerisms which they exhibit. I have been guilty of it, as I am every morning that I eat in the Park, watching the people around me.

Where do you belong?

It's Alive...

What do you get when you combine a hybrid of High culture and mass/popular culture? A damn good show! This past week I had the opportunity to attend the theater. The ballet, opera, and theater have always had the association of High Culture. However, comedy is often used as a site of resistance, to celebrate the culture of the people creating authenticity and realism, according to Stuart Hall, cultural theorist. The show which I attended was famous comedian and writer Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein".

I would label this a hybrid of the two "cultures" because of its involvement with the theater, but it uses comedy and resistance to mainstream and conservatism in its repartee. Mel Brooks' draws from the canonical novel Frankenstein to build his characters, including one of the most iconic monsters found in todays horror and comedy. His innovations created the hybrid which is now often found on Broadway.