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.

Have You Ever Stepped On a LEGO? Now Imagine Sitting On One...

       Fergie in a dress made of Legos at the 2011 Kids' Choice Awards.

            

This dress and the use of Legos in its creation has been on my mind ever since I watched the 2011 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. In class we discussed while studying Barthes' Toy essay the difference in toys and some fo their uses in present day and in the past. One of the modern toys which we discussed was the Lego. According to the essay, toys are created as socialization tools, to create consumers out of us. Is this true? At times I believe that it is, though not in every circumstance. I love to cook and would have loved as a child to own an Easy Back Oven. I am now a consumer of cookware, cookbooks, and cooking blogs - I can't get enough of them! Would this have been the same affect had I actually owned an Easy Bake Oven as a child? I could not say, but I don't think it would have hurt.

Growing up on a farm, my brothers and I were heavily involved in farm machinery and agriculture. As toys for my brothers, they were given miniature models of the tractors to play with. We would spend hours creating our own farms in the carpets with plastic fences and animals, as well as with the toy tractors. The community which we were raised is a very rural community and heavily influenced by farming. It's what our father does, it's what his father does, and his father did, so on and so forth. Barthes discusses this idea stating that, "All the toys one commonly sees are essentially a microcosm of the adult world... the fact that toys literally prefigure the world of adult functions obviously cannot but prepare the child to accept them all... the child can only identify himself as owner, as user, never as creator..." That's kind of a scary concept...

Now, getting back to the Legos. In the essay, the toy which Barthes is discussing is wooden building blocks, which offer more opportunity for creativity than plastic toys and offer a more natural feeling and touch of humanity. "Wood makes essential objects, objects for all time... plastic toys are chemical in substance and colour, their very material introduces one to a coenaesthesis of use, not pleasure. These toys die in fact very quickly, and once dead, they have no posthumous life for a child." I find this very ironic to the fact that plastic legos was the choice for Fergies dress, (however much a part of the Speactacle [see Slimed post for further explanation]). While attempting to be iconic and memorable, she will soon be forgotten, not an essential quality or part of society. 

"The bourgeois status of toys can be recognized not only in their forms, which are all functional, but also in their substances. Current toys are made of a graceless material, the product of chemistry, not of nature."

You've Been Slimed...

Jack Black 2011 KAC

Every year Nickelodeon puts on a large, spectacular show called the Kids Choice Awards (KCA). It honors the year's biggest television, movie, and music acts, as voted by Nickelodeon viewers. Winners receive a hollow blimp figurine for their award, which is the logo for the network; it also functions as a kaleidoscope. Another tradition and spectacle of Nickelodeon is the green slime. That is another large part of the show's production, often sliming the celebrities at different intervals throughout the show.

When the 2011 KCA aired, we were studying Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle. Also, it was when many film, music, and entertainment awards shows were occurring as well. From Debord's aphorism #60, "The celebrity, the spectacular representation of a living human being, embodies this banality by embodying the image of a possible role... Celebrities exist to act out various styles of living and viewing society - unfettered, free to express themselves globally.

Katy Perry - 2011 KCA

#62 "...Wherever there is abundant consumption, a major spectacular opposition between youth and adults comes to the fore among the false roles - false because the adult, master of his life, does not exist and because youth, the transformation of what exists, is in no way the property of those who are now young, but of the economic system, of the dynamism of capitalism. Things rule and are young; things confront and replace one another." 

Host Jack Black & Fergie

This observation rules in favor of the "things", the commodity. It also follows the concept that things are perishable and ready to change at any moment. The concept of "so last season" and need for "the next best thing" drive this spectacle, especially the celebrities, to find and exude new concepts and have those feelings of wanting to be the biggest spectacle, the most remembered. The reason that these people are even considered celebrities is because of our own consumption as a society. We allow these celebrities to dictate many of the choices that we have in the things which we are consuming. 

The SPECTACLE of this particular awards show is shown in costumes, acts, performances, the award it self, and even from the host and the slime. This display is driven by Debord's concept of pseudo-cyclical time, that is a time transformed by the industry. #151 "A product which already exists in a form which makes it suitable for consumption can nevertheless in its turn become a raw material for another product." This industry transformations that the celebrities are competing with create their lively hoods. 

The Things that "Mad Men" Can Teach You...

Over this course, I have started watching the television series "Mad Men". It is a show about advertising agents in New York City during the ever changing social and civil rights movements in gender and race of the 1960s (amazing historical accuracy). On the DVD set for the series, as well as seen around online, is an advertisement for Clorox with special emphasis on Mad Men and the type of men who they were. Portrayed in the show, they were Men's men, they were wealthy, philandering, and had a family in the suburbs, with no consequences for their actions, as shown here by Clorox - everything can be "taken care of".

The tag line used on this ad is, "Getting ad guys out of hot water for generations"

So how does this connect to this course? My first thoughts went to Roland Barthes and his essay titled "Soap-powders and Detergents". One, for the obvious reason that it is an ad for Clorox, a very powerful and harsh cleaning detergent. This ad is obviously stating that bleach is the way to get your whites, white. Second, it plays very heavily on the concept of what exactly they are cleaning, or hiding. The lipstick on the collar implies that Ad men are cheating on their wives, and what better way to hide that than to destroy the evidence with Clorox bleach.

The essay discusses the psychology and psycho-analysis of the detergents. "The product 'kills' the dirt... their function is keeping public order not making war." I believe this applies to relationships in context of the advertisement. The bleach is "killing" the evidence of the "dirt" - the indiscretion. The function of keeping peace, not war, is hiding the evidence from the wife. Another area that the ad plays into is that the detergent "bases its prestige on the evidence of a result; it calls into play vanity, a social concern with appearances..." Keeping up appearances is very important within our society, especially among married couples, not wanting others thinking that your relationship is failing or that you can't keep your man in line.

(Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Hill and Wang, 1972. Print.)

The Kinks - Dandy

Although this song doesn't have a ton of lyrics and is quite short, ever since we read about Walter Benjamin's writings about Charles Baudelaire's ideas of the flaneur and the dandy, this song pops up into my head all of the time.
 

As more discussion about the flaneur/dandy arises, please check out the link to Taylor Davidson's blog page about the now Modern Flaneur...

http://taylordavidson.com/writing/2009/08/15/flaneur/

"The term flaneur may date back to another era, but it’s an idea and an action more relevant today than ever."

Just "Dandy"

Walter Benjamin introduces in his writings about a particular type of man called a dandy. To learn about the dandy, we must first understand the flaneur...

"Walter Benjamin adopted the concept of the urban observer both as an analytical tool and as a lifestyle. From his Marxist standpoint, Benjamin describes the flâneur as a product of modern life and the Industrial Revolution without precedent, a parallel to the advent of the tourist. His flâneur is an uninvolved but highly perceptive bourgeois dilettante. Benjamin became his own prime example, making social and aesthetic observations during long walks through Paris."

http://taylordavidson.com/writing/2009/08/15/flaneur/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Mii2GOwMA

It's Only Just Begun...

This is my first attempts in blogging, and I am choosing to do so for my Final in the ENGL 5960 Theories of Popular Culture course. So without further adieu, here we go...

This blog will be following many of the theorists and theories they have of pop culture in their correlations of our modern arena considered pop culture though video, photos, and music. These first few might be a little rusty, but we will learn together.