“You’ve been changing so much lately I don’t even know who you are anymore”

My brother told me this today, and it almost killed me. In his eyes, I knew this change was positive, but I am a person prone to inertia so this really bothered me. Why change when everything was fine before?

This made me reflect on all the changes I made in the short period of my existence. In middle school I went straight from the punk phase with the pink hair to the gothic phase with black lipstick (I still regret having both). One thing that hasn’t changed though is my taste in music.

During this rebellious phase I saw a movie that I found so striking (although not as much now). It is entitled SLC Punk! and it is about two punk fans in Salt Lake City, Utah. While the movie gives insight into the lives of two friends, Stevo and Bob, it also is a perfect example of different cultures in Utah in the 1980s. The film was based on the writer/director’s experience growing up in Salt Lake City, and introduces different groups present at the time (although I think there as a bit of exaggeration): there are the punks, Nazis (skinheads), rednecks, heavy metal guys, and other cliques. I think the clothing of the movie is also a way the movie preserves a culture, because it distinguishes between each group. Attitudes were reflected in clothing, and I could easily tell each group apart. The movie appealed to me at the time because it was edgy and it focused mainly on the punk clique. Now I am more interested in the way the characters change as the movie progressed.

The character Stevo is based on the director’s life, and this movie is an attempt to highlight his experience growing up. He says of the film, “…during this period there was the constant threat of nuclear war…parents were always talking about how the world could be destroyed. There was no hope, no future.” This hopelessness is reflected in the attitude of the punks, and how they put no thought into their future.

Also in the movie were landmark sites in Salt Lake City. Although I only discovered this when researching the movie I found it interesting because by using such well-known sites the director is showing that punk culture was not just an underground trend during this time. Using landmarks also introduces a New Yorker like me into the culture of a place I normally wouldn’t care about.

The movie narrates the story of two friends, but it does so in a manner that encapsulates the ideology of the punk culture, and its tensions between other groups. It is quite intriguing. The punks fought with the Nazis and they in turn fought with the metal heads. Punks were the rebellious ones and treated the corporate world with disdain.

The protagonist, Stevo is accepted to Harvard Law School but rejects the offer because he does not want to become a sell out like his father. At a party, his best friend Bob has a headache and is given medicine, which he consumes with alcohol. It was so sad how this ends up killing him. It is ironic because he is the one character in the movie that avoids drugs. When Bob dies, Stevo has a complete breakdown. He then pulls his life together and goes to Harvard, admitting in the end that he was just another poser.

The ending was by far the best part of the movie. The film depicts a time many people have forgotten and an area many are not too familiar with and thus immortalizes this area in time. The hopeful attitude towards the end left me feeling optimistic for the future, and it made me wonder if I was also a mere poser. Like Stevo, my old self would totally want to kick my ass right now, but that’s ok because things are getting better. We can document the past, but after that there is no point to remaining in it.

Citation:

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/slcpunk/production.html

I’m not ready to make nice

I’m not ready to back down

I’m still mad as hell and

I don’t have time to go round and round and round

It’s too late to make it right

I probably wouldn’t if I could

‘Cause I’m mad as hell

Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

These are the famous lyrics to the Dixie Chicks’ song, “Not Ready to Make Nice”.  I first heard this song a few years ago, when the Dixie Chicks swept the Grammy Awards of 2007.  When I heard this song, I didn’t realize that there was such a meaningful story behind it.  The song’s story was only revealed to me last year when I watched a documentary about the Dixie Chicks called “Shut Up and Sing”.

“Shut Up and Sing” reveals the furious backlash that the Dixie Chicks faced when it’s lead singer Natalie Maines, openly criticized President Bush.  She was performing at a concert in London when she said, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all.  We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the Untied States is from Texas”.  Maines’ comment came after President Bush’s decision to send troops to Iraq.  People were angry, patriotism was high, and so were President Bush’s approval ratings.  It was not the best time to exercise your right of free speech against the President.

The Dixie Chicks learned this lesson the hard way.  As the documentary reveals, after Maines’ comments in London, the American media and people exploded with anger at what she had said.  Some deemed her comments inappropriate because they were made overseas, and support for President Bush’s decision was already low enough in foreign countries.  Some people held rallies where they denounced the Dixie Chicks.  They trashed and bulldozed copies of the band’s CDs.  The documentary even shows a woman at a rally holding her baby in her arms and telling her to curse the Dixie Chicks.  Despite all this hatred, the worst was yet to come.

As the documentary reveals, one of the scariest reactions against the Dixie Chicks was a death threat.  Before performing at a concert in Texas, Maines was sent a note which read that if she performed that night, she would be shot dead.  People even showed up outside the concert building to protest the Dixie Chicks and proclaim their hatred for the band.   Clearly many Americans were not in the mood to have the President’s actions criticized.

“Shut Up and Sing” shows how angry and sensitive Americans were after 9/11.  It had been two years since 9/11, but the wounds of the entire nation had not yet healed.  Many  Americans were still angry and willing to stand behind almost any action that the President took.  When President Bush declared an invasion of Iraq, it wasn’t a matter of morals.  It was a matter of America was hurt, so now the enemy needed to pay the price (although Fahrenheit 9/11 questions who this enemy was).  This was all in 2003, however.  “Shut Up and Sing” was released in 2006: five years after 9/11.  The end of this documentary shows how the patriotism faded and people lost their enthusiasm about the war.  President Bush’s approval ratings declined during this time.  More people began to openly criticize President Bush.

“Shut Up and Sing” perfectly preserves this transition of a riled up nation going from angry and defiant to upset and just plain tired.

Citation:

Eby, R.T. “R.T. Eby: Not Ready To Make Nice, Redux.” Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. 26 May 2008. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rt-eby/not-ready-to-make-nice-re_b_103553.html>.

“DIXIE CHICKS LYRICS – Not Ready To Make Nice.” A-Z Lyrics Universe. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dixiechicks/notreadytomakenice.html>.

Are there really families who own brownstones in Manhattan? Do their kids really attend private schools and wear uniforms everyday? Is their idea of an afternoon outing to spend hundreds of dollars at Bloomingdales? You will receive answers to all of these questions and more if you watch Gossip Girl.

Cecily Von Ziegesar (the writer of the novels) and the producer and director of the TV show are curators of society. They depict the lives of the elite of Manhattan, revealing their secrets. Cecily von Ziegesar attended Nightingale Bamford, a private school for girls on the Upper East Side. Much of the novels are based on her experiences growing up in Manhattan.

Many Manhattan parents are intense when it comes to their children’s education and future. I remember distinctly, Nate and his father running in Central Park in one of the early episodes of the first season. As they are running, Nate’s father reminds Nate of his future – he will continue the family tradition of attending Dartmouth. Nate questions his father asserts that he has other plans for his own future. In later episodes of the season, Nate’s father is forced to flee the country after facing criminal charges related to drugs and other issues. Although their lives appear to be perfect, Gossip Girl clearly shows the viewer that “everyone has a story.”

When I was in high school, I decided to go to Bloomingdale’s one afternoon during my President’s break in February. Many of the private schools in Manhattan are in session during this week. While walking around Bloomingdale’s, I noticed a few girls wearing their school uniforms and concluded that they were shopping after a long day at school. Shopping after school was not part of the culture of the suburban neighborhood in which I grew up. Upon dismissal from my high school, most students had sports practice, remained in school for club meetings, or went home to do homework and study. It was from Gossip Girl that I was introduced to a group of kids who went shopping and walked around the city after school.

The lives of the teenagers on the TV show Gossip Girl are filled with lavish parties and backstabbing friends. On almost every episode, Blair, Serena, and other members of their posse are ready to use each other to their advantage. They fight over boys and are always jealous of one another. Regardless of what happens, their parents are ready to come to their rescue, so they have very few worries other than looking pretty and winning boys over. This lifestyle really does exist in Manhattan – although Gossip Girl might be a slight exaggeration – and the creators of the book and TV show expose this reality to the readers and viewers.

Personally, I would have no inclination to be friends with these types of people and to lead lives similar to those of the characters on the TV show; however, many teenagers aspire to live like Blair and Serena. They are able to walk into Bloomingdale’s and Barney’s and purchase anything on the rack with their own American Express cards, but they have no morals and values. They don’t view school as a place of learning, but rather a social arena. Blair is always scheming and using Chuck and Nate to get ahead in life. As crazy as this might seem, I actually get nervous watching the show, imagining all of the horrible things Blair might do over the course of the next hour.

On the TV show, many of the kids, including Dan and Serena, have parents who are divorced, which is very common nowadays. The TV show also represents the small nature of the world we live in. Dan’s dad, Rufus, and Serena’s mom, Lily, knew each other from their past and are reunited by chance, as are their kids.

Gossip Girl is definitely a reflection of a specific society and group of people. The attitudes and personalities of people living on the Upper East Side might change in the upcoming years; however, the current views on the teenagers currently living there will be archived by this TV show. For this reason, Cecily Von Ziegesar and the members of the CW TV network are most definitely preserving the culture of a group of people at a specific time.

9/11, an event that will always be dear to Americans’ hearts. An event that we will never forget and tell others for years to come.  It is an event that I still question myself about.  I question why did this have to happen? I wonder why did people have to go through this? So many of us are puzzled and still wonder these things.  We try to figure out ourselves why could things like this happen in this world? 9/11 brings these questions together for people to wonder.  It is an event that may have past but will not be forgotten.  It is an even that the artist would certainly want to preserve as a critical cultural moment.  Although the event was grim, I believe that it was necessary for artists to capture this moment in history for others to see.  That is why I believe Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11 not only criticizes our government’s society during this time but he preserves the culture of this time period by documenting one of America’s saddest events in the decade.

I was in fourth grade at the time of 9/11.  You may think that nine years was way to long to remember anything that happened but it is clear.I remember being fearful and afraid like most Americans of what was to come. Worried about what happened to those who were in the burning towers. However, I had one main thought that ran through my mind. I may have been nine but I wanted to know why this was happening.  Why would someone want to destroy so many innocent lives for no purpose. People who had families and children were in those towers. I stood there with no answers to my questions. I wondered if we knew at all what the real answer was.

As an artist, Michael Moore wanted to answer these questions. He wanted to reveal to audiences what was going on and things that we did not know. He  was criticizing some aspects of government during this time but I think he was mainly preserving a moment of our culture.  By directing and documenting this film, he kept this moment of culture to remind us of what has happened in the past.

There are several examples that Moore uses to show his preserving of culture.  Although it is sad to see, one scene is when he shows the burning of the towers.  Capturing this moment allows us as an audience to remember the disaster itself. We remember and our brought to the reality of the event by facing it face to face in film. It is not the burning towers that the audience sees, we are exposed to the victim’s family members.  Wives that are in grief and sadness, claiming that they do not know what to do with their lives anymore.  They wanted answers and felt that they did not get them.  As an audience we see this and we realize that this has been a moment of our culture.  We were part of this moment and it is captured for us to see. For me, at times it was unclear because of my age but watching the film made me see the catastrophe face to face.  I saw the towers burning, I heard the statistics of missing bodies. I was faced with reality because Michael Moore preserved this moment of culture.

The burning towers was not the only example of preserving culture. Michael Moore shows examples of the United States government during this time as well.  Examples to show the audience that this was a government that we lived under during this time.  I was speechless when I saw how much vacation time President Bush took a month before the attack.  I did not know there was a warning beforehand that there would be an attack around September. This is what shocked me, that President Bush knew about this but vacationed. I did not know what to think and I am sure others  felt this way too. Especially those who suffered losses during this time. How could they gather any words after seeing that possible knowledge was known about this event? How could they gather words after seeing that the president heard about the attack and did not take office? After seeing it face to face I was shocked. I did not know what to think about the government at that time because it was reality.  It was not a TV station sugarcoating stories up for the audience to see.It was an artist acting as a curator of culture.