By: DeWalt Russ
[2001-05-09]
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Amateur Performers, Bums, and the Fuzz
Roommate and manip-chick Vivian from conveniently-across-the-hall are hustling to get out the door on some Saturday evening. I stare at them both, perplexed. Cue Fernando, who pokes his amiable head through my door and implores me to come along.
It is "Theater Rice," the Asian theater company on campus. They are putting on a free monthly "sampler" show, in which sundry Asian-affiliated performance groups strut their stuff (in Dwinelle 155, I might add--not ideally configured for dramatic-type doings). In the seats, sweltering and fidgeting as I eat my Mongolian Beef, I notice the organizers have set up a computer-slide show full of geeky, self-referential quizes to run while the audience files in. Interspersed among the quizes are sensationalistic video files, gleaned from sleazy websites--a chimp drinking his own urine, a cat pouncing on a toddler, a redneck with his head stuck in an alligator's jaws--to which the entire audience squeals in delight. The slide show is on a loop. Audience enthusiasm does not appear to wane.
Finally underway, the first act is a choreographed bit. Two female dancers run a routine set to Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet." It's not bad, but their energy is not up to snuff for the spirit of the song. Upon the conclusion of their playful shoving match, a standup comic takes the stage. He's middling and derivative, finally ending with a joke about the penis size of Asian men. The audience goes wild. I stare blankly. Next up is a play...a play based on "Street Fighter 2"...a "Street Fighter 2"-based play set at UC Berkeley. It lasts for an hour, mostly due to about twenty unnecessary scene changes and the director's somnambulent sense of pacing. The comic relief is hackneyed at best, chunderous at worst. It is only partially evident until the very end that the neuron-dissolving storyline is simply an excuse to showcase martial arts choreography. They get extra points for using an early Smashing Pumpkins song in the finale. Having heroically withstood the urge to claw out my eyes, I leave at intermission. The audience has been laughing faithfully through the entire thing. I briefly flirt with the notion that they see it as a brilliant parody, but realize that complex reactions to theater are seldom that uniform.
It's dark now. I walk back to my room, through Sproul Plaza. In front of the steps of Sproul Hall is the nightly congregation of eccentric vagabonds. They have organized a regular informal jam session, in which they bring old plastic chemical barrels, milk crates, buckets, and all sorts of drumsticks, and lay them out in the middle of a circle. Anybody who wants to is free to join in the percussion. A friend of mine has deemed the phenomenon "Homeless Stomp." It is a small but hard core crowd tonight, and they're jumping around in all their ragged glory.
Paying them little attention (their initial novelty wore off after the first month) and continuing towards Telegraph Ave, I see a UCPD car pull onto the campus. This has to be for our shaggy musicians, I think. Turning to watch, the cop car does indeed drive up to the crowd of drummers. They pay him exactly no heed, and there is not even a hitch in the rhythm (no more than usual) as the officer climbs out of the Crown Victoria. The officer walks up to the leftmost drummer and his 40 gallon plastic drum, and knocks it over. This is the cue, and all hell breaks loose. Milk crates are hurled straight up into the air, barrels are kicked and tossed, sticks bounce and clatter. Every single drummer destroys his or her kit in gleeful defiance. Without a word, the cop walks back to his car and drives off before they're halfway done. The chaos continues for another minute, like a backroads Who tribute band. Or maybe just Keith Moon.
This, I think, is better than that whole evening of performing arts.
The chimp-drinking-urine loop would be better than a good many of the movies I've seen lately.
You've just reminded me: Spring is the weather for hippies to drag out their bongos and African drums and play outside my window late at night. I ought to load my peashooter.
In a side note, new David Byrne album = swell. And winky.
I'd have figured you for a wrist-mounted stainless slingshot or potato gun, myself, but whatever gets the job done.
In the off chance some politically correct Cal student runs across this and starts crying in his/her soy milk, I would like to point out for the record that the nonspecifically-Asian theater groups have fared no better. "Shrew You" made me retch, and it was three times longer than "Where Have All the Street Fighters Gone?". So there you have it. No hunger striking, OK?
Come to think of it, nearly all of the real entertainment in this town is nowhere near the theater. Isolated activists are like sealed bottles of grape juice--check in on them after twenty years and they're a lot more fun.
For the most part, I like street performers. Once, in front of Sproul Hall, I saw a guy juggling a running chainsaw, a 16lb bowling, and an egg, which impressed me because they were objects of dissimilar size and weight, and it was loud and funny, he'd gun the chainsaw as he caught it and tossed it smoking into the air. My Pop had a big medal in a velvet-lined wooden box that the Berkeley Physics Dept. gave him,
it had a Greek woman holding a big lens with rays focusing through it.
Also, I found KHUM streaming radio!
http://www.khum.com/
One time in high school the multi cultural club put on this assembly thing. it really sucked and most of it was talking about racism, which really didn't have other than the tension cause by violent hick kids who had basically dropped out but hadn't been kicked out because the school board was trying to lower its drop out rate.
the assemble sort of sucked and had some short skits about prejudges that were kind of insulting to the ol' noggin and then some choir flunkies sung imagine and tapestry. the only really cultural thing they did (unless poorly preforming trite songs and bad short plays is a culture unto its self) was some from a Mexican dancing stuff. the weird thing was to make a point about how much insults hurt they had somebody get on a microphone and insult the dancers all through out the performance. but they didn't tell us before hand so it just sounded like somebody grabbed a microphone and started making fun of them. it was pretty funny at the time. it kind of reminds me of this article too
The choir sang "Imagine?" Isn't there something in that song about there being no heaven? Can't imagine that went over well at South Medford High School.
(Ooh, goodie, just imagine who the search engines are going to bring in now that I've mentioned that fine institution by name.)
Was the Mexican dancing thing "Latin Reflection"? I remember they used to put on shows and we'd have to go see them during Spanish class.
I like the Japanese Kabuki Theater, but it's pretty much an acquired taste because the music, costuming, and choreography are mostly alien to my ethnocentric self. One of my sister's kids is playing "Joe" in a school production of Lil' Abner, and great art it ain't. I find the efforts at intercultural multiethnic events a bit comical. It's like opening an Organic Cajun Sushi Carry-Out To-Go. I figure that the fallout from the World Genome Project will result in genetic identities that are lot more specific than race. Perhaps future cultual forms will follow technology as it evolves; for example, the effect of the electric guitar on pop culture. As conglomerates like AOL/Time-Warner get geared up, the effect of massive diffusion of information and entertainment/propaganda will further alter cultures
causing some to flourish, some to fade, and give rise to fusions, hybrids, and, with a little luck, something new. But this here county,
home to AOL, UUNET, et al, half the internet traffic in the world goes through here. About a quarter+ of the school kids are not native English speakers. One local high school, they got 50 languages represented amongst the students. But so, part of the problem is the dynamic tension between ethnic, cultural and nation pride, and the tendency toward universal fusion; between competition and co-operation. As the Mexicans say, "Viva la Lucha" Anyways, Sacred Chao-tipping sure is fun!
If there's one I HATE (and believe me, there isn't) it's the music used (usually in commercials) to reinforce ideas of multiculturalism/multiethnicity/globalization. You know the kind I mean. Those faux-African children's choirs melodies against all-too-Western drums and cymbals. Very uplifting. Very gag-reflex-inducing.
I especially love the way globalization's depicted in ads such as those of Microsoft's -- American businessmen, Korean schoolchildren enjoying the freedom of the Internet. Irish farmers taking a break on the fields to surf on their laptops. !Kung tribesmen sending e-mails to each other.
If multiculturalism is all about the sharing of cultures, why does it only seem to work one way?
I know I'm probably preaching to the converted here, cos these semi-alluded-to rhetorical ideas all seem pretty basic and self-evident, right? (Unless there are any econ or neo-conservative polisci students reading thingsihate -- damn you!!) But nonetheless, I feel it necessary to vent, in the irrational hope that maybe some old suit in a position of power will maybe stumble across this site, read this, and say, "Wait a minute... Now I see the error of my ways! Somebody get John Ralston Saul on the phone!" But of course, that won't happen, and even if it did, his credibility would then be immediately reduced to the level of, well, mine. And who am I? Just a citizen.
May 16 is the provincial election, where our failed pseudo-left (actually centre) government will be unanimously replaced with a pseudo-centre (actually right) government. Thankfully tho, my riding just got a Green candidate, so I won't have to spoil my ballot after all. And after getting lost in Vancouver last week, we found the riding of Green candidate Joey "Shithead" Keithley of legendary punk rockers D.O.A.
Are your universities funded by Coca-cola too? My high school was funded by Pepsi, so I've had a conflict of interests ever since then.
Y'all know what I'm sayin'?
Anyway, this was much more lucid than yesterday's replies.
"if you have two Pepsis, and you drink one, how much refreshment do you have left?"
"Pepsi?"
"Partial credit!"
one of the doctors my mom works with/for told her if you eat a huge bowl of cottage cheese and drink a glass of cola, the acid in the cola eats all the calcium you just had. eerie stuff. the only cola drink I even remotely find palatable (try not drinking it for a few weeks, it's really harsh and biting when you're not used to it) is the kind they sell at the Acme supermarket chain. it's cinnamony!
I fear we're on our way to a global culture... appreciating other cultures is great, but integrating them into one big faceless mess is not, and that's what would be most convenient. not global, actually, though, because there always has to be a villain. it'll probably be the Islamic countries of Arabia, since they seem the weirdest to Euros. sigh.
did you know they have software that WRITES movies now?
Appreciating other cultures would be great if it actually happened. But then, if everyone in the world is drinking pop and shopping on eBay, we are kind of appreciating those other cultures then, right? (might have a point, but who cares? Nobody who counts -- no offense guys, but we're just consumers. (
Don't use HTML comment tags for arrows...
Appreciating other cultures would be great if it actually happened. But then, if everyone in the world is drinking pop and shopping on eBay, we are kind of appreciating those other cultures then, right? (sarcasm, bordering on sophomoric cynicism)
Doesn't "global village" seem like the most ludicrous idea to anyone else? And is it possible for me to say these things without sounding like a ranting liberal arts student? I might have a point, but who cares? Nobody who counts -- no offense guys, but we're just consumers. (cynicism, but real cynicism, not "I'm so jaded cos I read the newspaper in my middle class home"-imposter "cynicism")
Isn't "human resources" a really insulting term? Somebody pass me some Chomsky! Somebody pass me a bowl of sassafras!
What seems MultoBizarro about the global village perspective is that at six billion+ people, the parade is getting so long that it's getting to be light years between the first and the last. There are bonobo zones and zones for free-trading Hong Kong silk-suited pirhana.
Research parks and parks where female joggers get gangbanged and have their brains beat out with surplus zinc plated steel pipes. But to take exception to the regular PCboozhwa is to threaten the United Bennelton Schlockholders, so none dast call it reason. If this be treason, let us make the most of it! Pete Barret was a good ole boy of a socialist from British Col, his method of settling labour strikes was, solve it within three weeks, or we nationalize the whole damned sector. The multinational corps dint like that a damned bit.
Woodsman! Woodsman!
Spare that tree!
A global village is a dumb idea. culture is americas strength. I mean croon all you want about building regan an airport or what ever but really blue jeans won the cold war. basically we just made our selves so fucking cool that other people wanted to be americans. and so the world moves on and you get those katmandu cowboys and those japanese kids that dress up like elvis. its the investment in entertainment that impresses. it the amusment parks and hamburger resturants that gives us power not the technology or the millitary. the tip of today is to invest so much in your self that anything else seems insane. Like when people would defeat china and then a generation or so latter they'd have to do it again cause who ever they left in charge just became like the chinese. the power to creat stability is infustucure. think about the last time palistine made a quaility movie or any baltic state. If you make everybody lust to be like you they'll never try to whipe you out
Power and infrastructure are kind of like the chicken and the egg, it's hard to say which begets which. In sociology they tell us that man is both product of and carrier of his culture; and also that there is a dominant prevailing culture with various ethnic subcultures, which makes equality look good on paper and allows for free and equal right to public access but acknowledges a de facto hierarchy. I agree about Palestinian and Baltic film making; also, the Hindu film industry in "Bollywood" produces movies that seem peculiar to me. Who are the global cultural icons? Drew Barrymore, Robert Downey, Jr., Paulie Shore, and Pamela Anderson? Global village is more like a global 7-11
But an important thing to remember about sociologists is that they tend to perpetuate Dumb American Ideals (Durkheim, et al).
I agree with König completely: a global mall. So it's cultural imperialism, that's a given; and where have we seen that before? Mao's Red Book or People magazine? Statues of Lenin or Tom Cruise movies? Heck, Stalingrad or Vulcan, Alberta, quite frankly. I mean, I was only a kid when the Russian coup happened -- I learned about the Cold War in history class; but those people who were adults then seem to have no memory of it. Or a different memory.
In either case, I can only see the American Empire following, within the next few decades, the exact same path as the Soviet Empire, so I take heart in that.
I spend the intermediate time role-playing -- except yesterday, where a friend of mine and I charged into the woods, and beat each other senseless with stick swords, because the weather was really nice.
Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!
There are various models in sociology and anthropology. One anthro model of development is that of cultural evolution. In international development, there are several models; U. S. Agency for International Development is often prescriptive, but the InterAmerican Foundation often uses the "They Know How" model, letting the clients write their own ticket. One idea is to have tech expos all over the place while trying to meet the "basic human needs." The downside of that is that indigenous cultures are often overwhelmed, languages and customs die out. The Canadian International Development Agengy has usually been a bit less prescriptive than USAID. But there seems to be less budgeted now than in the past for development, leaving it more to the global marketplace by default, look at the current flap over the WTO and the World Bank, for example.
http://w3.acdi-cida.gc.ca/
Oh, sidebar--there is a legislative bill in Louisiana against racism, but it turns out that it's the Creationists backdoor attack on teaching evolution. This harkens back to the Scopes Monkey Trial!
much as I hated the writing in The Illuminatus! Trilogy, I like playful mischief, secrecy, obfuscation, etc. I guess Discordianism isn't so bad. my friend Jen had a Pepsi tab (or is it coke?) from when they came out with the widemouths and they didn't look like they Eye of Eris anymore, and was quite annoyed until closer investigation revealed that the number 23 was stamped on it...
When I was a child I recall an American singing a song in which the line 'Hey Woodsman Spare That' occured. I bady need the words to send to my neighbour to try an stop him cutting down trees. Can you help?
Regards,
John
