It appears the young'ens of the U.S.A. came out to vote on Tuesday. Enough that MTV may have finally "rocked the vote" this time. Or maybe it is due to the message oozing over from past election vote rocking (newly turned voter over in last 4-8 years). It did seem that any band that was cool was rocking a Barack festival somewhere. I like art with politics mixed in with it anyway. I wonder if Barack t-shirts will ever be as fashionable as Che t-shirts.
A signal of a creative class is coming into power, I'm all for more art and less oil. The problem being that we live in an infrastructure that for the past 70+ years has been dominantly designed around the consumption of oil. While creative's get around these design flaws, most will need help in adjusting our right to a lifestyle that we learned and think we want. I definitely support more and more options for our mobility.
The internet and technology has definitely changed what we are, but is anyone more or less significant to the world with all the thingamabobs connected? Does it make us feel more involved? The kids will be happy to know that they can check Change.gov to stay current with all things presidential on their cell phone.
Not that I haven't ever been called a socialist for my views, but I think the real victory for us is that the new president knows how to send an email.
1. theme music and game play sounds from RBI Baseball 2. The Hold Steady - Take Me Out To the Twins Game 3. Casey Stengel talking jibberish about baseball to congress 4. La Grecia - You Like Baseball I Like Ghosts 5. There Is No Crying in Baseball from A League of Their Own 6. Ozma - Baseball 7. Large Professor - Another Friendly Game of Baseball 8. Dan Bern - Year By Year Homerun Totals of The Great Barry Bonds 9. Vince Guaraldi Trio - Baseball Theme from Peanuts 10. Baseball Poetry - Going Home 11. Sister Wynona Carr - The Ball Game 12. Imaginary Baseball League - Another Sunken Anchor 13. bleacher banging 14. Pavement - Major Leagues
Once I was made fun of for listening to the Talking Heads, and I didn't care. I just turned it up, and without having to say anything I told that person to shut up.
I remember some years before that, sitting on the bench seat of my Dad's 80-something Silver Chevy Truck, and looking through a cassette tape insert, the Talking Heads were one of the first bands that I personally realized as being an active group of creators, creating something through experiments. It was much later that I realized that only some people want to enjoy great creations, and even fewer will love any one specific creation, and/or get marketed correctly. But none of that matters from the standpoint of a creator. Hooray for art. Hooray for artists!
I edited a bunch of songs and sound samples into one long mp3 file, does that make it a podcast??, I guess, but I don't like the word pod, it is a very confining and controlling word. I think I prefer to call it an internet broadcast, or maybe netcast, but then that sounds like I'm fishing. I might make another one if I ever feel like it.
1. Nortec Collective - Autobanda 2. Shorebirds - DOA 3. Shorebirds - Tinctures are 90% Alcohol 4. POS - Paul Kersey to Jack Kimball 5. Gob - We're All dying 6. Giants - Steps In Static Progression 7. Possum Dixon - Go West 8. Sleepercar - Wednesday Nights 9. Defiance, Ohio - The List 10. The Gaslight Anthem - I Coulda Been a Contender 11. Tom Petty - Runnin' Down a Dream
Living in South Salt Lake carries its connotations, I've come to like using the term Sugarhood to describe my west of Sugarhouse location. But now I'm feeling uber-hip because my neighborhood (or borough as the new name might suggest) has been dubbed SoSaLa. I'm like a surfer without a beach.
No, but really, I like the looks of plans for the Market Station development, mostly because SoSaLa is kind of lacking in the new development department. If not only for better Ch'iflow in the city, it just seems like a new building or two would be good for the area. (Dnews article here) My only complaint would be the presence of 3 tennis courts in a few of the renderings. There are plenty of run down tennis courts around here already!
Coming home from Hawaii tomorrow, kind of dreading that. As well as the flight across the ocean in the middle of the night. I've gotten used to the weather always being perfect, not too hot or too cold, but just right. Did I mention I like the beach? See my pictures, and please enjoy the song I made and looped a few times on my souvenir ukulele, Thats my breakfast sizzling in the background.
I've been meaning to post this up here for a while, it was a final presentation for one of my classes last semester. The assignment was basically to create a few different maps and use them to tell a story. I picked the topic because it is one that interests me. For a larger view the link is here
During the year 2007 I seemed to constantly discover and listen to a good deal of music from the 90's, but that is not what this post is about. It is also not a declaration of any absolute best albums of the year, because it seems that I won't be discovering the best music of 2007 until around 2017.
This is simply 10 albums that were released in 2007 that I actually listened to in the year they were released, and thoroughly enjoyed them in their entirety. Included with each pick is a selected mp3 from each album, for whatever it is worth, enjoy.
I decided it would be interesting to look at language used by fans of the Utah Jazz while they were watching their team play games. I took my data from tipoff to final buzzer for 3 complete games. I recorded and then later reviewed the conversations that happened. I was also a participant in some of the dialog. We gathered at sports bar/restaurant type venues to watch the games, so we were often surrounded by other sports fans (if not Jazz fans) there to watch the games as well. There were a great many other topics discussed during the games, however I have tried to focus on conversation that specifically addressed the Utah Jazz organization and/or the National Basketball Association league. What I have found is a distinguished language style that create the behaviors that amount to the identity of a "True Blue" Utah Jazz fanatic. The identity of the Jazz fanatic is formed through interaction and language used with other fans, as well as the language, opinions and actions of the other groups within the team organization. Together they (the fans) feel unified in a partnership.
There exists a structure in the Utah Jazz community that I can organize into four groups; performers, fanatics, management, and personalities. The performers are the players that put on the show to entertain the fanatics. The management organize and promote the games, but the fan gets to know the team primarily through the personalities group. The personalities are mostly the media reporters; television/radio announcers, commentators, players, and ex-players. They work with the management group to provide dialog about the team to the fanatics through the various medias. The management group consists of owners, coaches, other team personnel, and officials of the National Basketball Association. Certain individuals (mostly players) can move in-between groups, or can even be in two groups at once. For instance when a player does an interview after a game, in addition to his role as a performer, he is filling a personality and management role that is conversing with the fans. Similarly, if he promotes products or services, he puts himself into more of a personality role.
It seems that in a group of people watching a game, everyone hoping for the same outcome, there exists an on going form of open public debate. They will debate anything from how certain players are currently performing, to what players do and say off the court, or even the products that players endorse.
Amongst fanatics there seems to be an amount of common (Sports Center type) knowledge about popular players and specific incidents, though sometimes this knowledge can be based on gossip generated from members of the personality and fanatic groups. It was apparent that these Jazz fans were aware of the other teams, players and events in the league.
There are even a lot of allied fan attitudes about individual players. For instance most of the fans didn't favor Jaron Collins and Greg Ostertag, while most everyone thought highly of Deron Williams and John Stockton. Everyone takes a turn to chime in about their opinions of players and/or strategies. I know from being a longtime member of this group of fanatics myself, that popular opinions spread and die. The guy that bought a number 47 jersey last night was probably screaming "trade him" a few months ago. But, what is important is that the fans exchange thoughts about the team and players with other fans, as a way to establish and gain a social identity within the group of fanatics.
In a group of Jazz fans, words like; they, us, them, and we, all seem to automatically refer to either the Utah Jazz organization or is sometimes meant to include the entire NBA organization. "They" was used when discussing various bad/disagreeable decisions or actions made by one of the other team groups, as if to separate themselves from the team organization. But, when the discussion was focused on a great team accomplishment, then the wording switched to "we", or another adverb that includes the fan as a part of the organization. It is a "they" lost and "we" won kind of tradition.
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Examples of "they":
M: ...and then they bring Ostertag back, after they already got rid of him once before.
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M: They're going to blow this one. P: Yeah, if they keep missing their shots like that.
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Examples of "we": J: ...and we have a 4 point game! D: Yeah, we're in this.
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L: Nice, I think we are going to win this one
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Nicknames are used as a tool to broadcast a belonging to the community. Usually one of the personalities invent them, and then fans, players, and even Larry H. Miller refer to players by nicknames when talking about the team. The nicknames for players that were universally used and understood were; A.K. (Andrei Kirilenko), D-Will (Deron Williams), Booz (Carlos Boozer), Memo (Mehmet Okur). Even the announcers; Hot Rod (Rod Hundley), Boler (Craig Bolerjack) and Booner (Ron Boone) were all used very frequently, and most of these nicknames were used more than their respective real names. They are used in sort of a slang fashion. The use of a nickname is a major indication that the speaker is a part of the Jazz community. To someone outside the group, someone that doesn't pay any attention to the team, these nicknames might not be very easily understood.
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Nicknames in use:
M: I wish Memo's outside shot would come back.
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C: "In order to win this game the Jazz need to score more points" is the best Booner line of all time.
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L: These halftime guys are so sorry! P: I don't like Boler either. M: Yeah, I like Hot Rod better, he's more colorful.
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L: D-Will with a dunk!
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The relationship between a basketball fan and the team is a fascinating one. It doesn't seem possible to be a fanatic and not engage in some fashion of a conversation with the team as one object. This may be seen by some, just yelling at a television, but I think it is an actual conversation that goes on between the team as whole and the fan, inside the fanatics head. For the fan, this develops relationships with the players and their performance. And when the game ends, the conversation is over until the next game.
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Countless shout-outs directed at the players:
P: Harpring, what are you doing?
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L: Brewer! I love you!
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C: Get in there Giricek, come on!
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Both the use of nicknames, and the fan to team exchanges, demonstrate language causing the fan to feel closer to the team and players for whom he roots for. The players that are generally liked and accepted are referred to by fanatics as if they were good friends, while the disliked players are shunned from being included into the fanatic group through the language.
The personality group sometimes provides a voice for the team to the fan. It is how the fan knows the details of what is going on during the game. It is how fans hear about injuries, trades or just what went on at practice. Though the personalities can evoke these conversations, they are not at all necessary for the in-game conversations between the fan and his team to exist. In one of these games, there was so many other noises and other sporting events going on simultaneously that there was absolutely no sound for that game, only the picture. It made no difference in the amount of conversation (or yelling at the T.V.) between the fan and the team.
The half time hosts were verbally detested in every game observed by many of the fans participating. For whatever reasons the fans do not think very highly of the half-time presentation.
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One thought on the half-time hosts:
P: Pace and Thurl are like an old married couple, always naggin' at each other.
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Even in the a case where there was no audio to the game, they still get made fun of:
D: Look at Pace in that lighting, he looks like Jesus coming out of the sun.
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The feeling the fans hold for the half-time personalities is similar to the collective rejection to other players and/or teams by the fanatics. These particular Jazz fans asserted in several instances, dislikes for Kobe Bryant, and the Los Angeles Lakers. They didn't play the Lakers in any of the games I was observing, but they always talked about them. Also a few mentions of Tracy McGrady and the Houston Rockets.
These observations manifest that similar attitudes are formed within the fanatic social group towards personalities, players/teams, and probably the management group too. The attitudes that the fanatics take on are decided in the open debate type discussion, so they are ever changing. Some of these attitudes are influenced by opinions and information from the media personalities.
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Frequently their dislikes include the Lakers:
D: The Lakers aren't as despicable as they used to be. J: Uh, I don't know they still have Kobe Bryant. M: And that is all they have. C: That is where Fisher went [Los Angeles] .... (sarcasm) to be closer to New York. D: I can't believe that Fisher went back to the Lakers! C: I know, stab us in the back. M: How could you do that? ... But, Karl Malone did it [played for the Lakers] too. D: Yeah, and I've never cheered so hard for the Pistons, when they swept them [the Lakers] in The Finals that year. M: Yup, and Malone never got his ring.
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Various stats are commonly thrown into any conversation to justify, prove or defend any claim or accusation, and rarely were the stats questioned for accuracy by the group. Stats are sometimes spoken of similar to how a devout Christian might quote something from The Bible, as if the stat suggested a supreme being behind it. Various stats about the coach Jerry Sloan seem to get tossed out the most, but that may be because he has compiled so many of them.
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A stat is used to enforce the bad boy attitude and image of a Detroit Pistons player:
C: What has happened to Rasheed Wallace, he used to get thrown out of every game whenever possible. D: Is he even playing? I haven't seen him. D: I think he holds the all time record for getting thrown out of games, he is very passionate.
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Stats are used to compare a few new guys in the NBA to some all time greats:
L: Brewer is 2nd in steals per game, tied with Iverson. M: but, behind Chris Paul. L: Doesn't matter we know who the all-time leading steal leader is. (John Stockton)
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And, to justify a players worth:
L: I think Booz is going to lead the league in double-doubles this year.
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The language of the stats used among fans and personalities is as kind of value assessment tool for either individual players, or the team they play for. When 4 different Jazz players score around 20 points each, fans think that they have a well rounded team. When a player consistently produces good stats, such as points or steals, then that player should be easily accepted into the fanatic community as a favorite. But, when a player commits many turnovers, or only makes 10% of his shots, then he is more susceptible to rejection by the fan group. Through stats being used as a currency in exchange for respect (or dis-respect), players and teams become loved or hated by the fanatics.
A popular topic was the comparing of stats and visible differences between the teams of this year and last year, along with much analytic thoughts about how the teams strategy might have shifted. Everyone seemed to feel a need to state some of their own positions and thoughts about the team's progression . I could sense that many of the fans were unsure about some of the new players. Like everyone was in mid-process of determining together through their discussions, who they who would accept and embrace, and maybe even be worthy enough to be yelled at through the T.V. someday.
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A few impressions of the new guard rotation:
D: I'm not real pleased with him[Jason Hart], but he might just be getting used to the rotation, but Price impresses me more.
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M: Price is starting to fit in better. P: Yeah he had some points last game.
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M: Now it seems like a good thing that Fisher left, Brewer is better in that 2 spot than he was anyway.
P: Unless Williams gets hurt, we'd be screwed with only Hart and Price.
M: Brewer is 2nd or 3rd in steals per game so far this year.
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comparing last year to this year happens a lot:
C: Well like I said he's [Mehmet Okur] taking it more inside now. J: Who Memo? C: More than he was last year.
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Especially entertaining is that there is definitely an idea held by the fans that the Jazz are naturally the superior team, and never do anything dirty themselves. Had this been a Jazz player (in the example below) getting tossed out of a game for a similar action, the reactions would have been exact opposites.
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D: Oh they kicked him out. J: They kicked him out, NICE! C: woohoo! justice!
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And comments about the refs being in on a conspiracy theory were quite frequent, but only in calls against the team. It seems to be a natural thought that if a call is made against their team, that the officiating is taking sides with the other team. But, the opposite idea is not expressed when a call is made in favor of their team, rather it is seen as highly skilled basketball by the team or a player.
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Officials are against the Jazz:
J: Harpring's been pretty on with his shooting lately. D: He's the Energizer bunny man. C: If he didn't have knee problems. D: And if he didn't get beat to crap and have the refs not calling it.
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C: Well the Knicks were at home with a lot of that home cooking.
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Jazz fans also carry certain beliefs and expectations of coach Jerry Sloan, or what could be defined as "Sloandeologies" where the fans seem to know how Coach Sloan will react to any given situation. They seem to think that they know what it is like to be player in the Sloan system. They know he's going to run the pick and roll, because they have been watching him do it over and over for years.
These ideas that include, but are not limited to; rookies having to pay there dues and sit on the bench under Jerry, players that speak out publicly against Jerry will pay for it on the bench. I notice in a couple remarks, a small uprising of opinion in some Jazz fans that preaches the idea that Sloan's approach is old-fashioned and not fit for the new highly developed style of the game.
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Sloandeologies:
L: Where is Morris Almond? I thought he was supposed to be our new ace shooter. P: Aww, you know he's gotta do his time on the bench under Sloan.
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M: I don't know why they keep Collins. C: That is the greatest mystery. D: Because he's loyal, Sloan likes that.
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I notice that it seems to be an identity feature of Jazz fans in particular, that fans perceive themselves as being looked down upon by other NBA fans as having less of a basketball culture for being a small market team. They don't feel like their team is equally portrayed in the national spotlight as other teams in bigger markets. Though Jazz teams have consistently contended with many larger market teams.
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examples of how the fans view the way their team is viewed:
P: The national media doesn't care about the Jazz.
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L: You know the whole debate, about Deron Williams and Chris Paul, well I think that Deron Williams is way better than Chris Paul, but Chris Paul gets all the national attention. B: You think? Deron gets some recognition. L: Not as much as Chris Paul. you know, just because Chris Paul is a good looking man. B: What Deron isn't good looking? ... He has a flaming Texas tattooed on his arm, that isn't hot? L: There was just something that said Chris Paul was the sexiest man of the NBA. B: So the Jazz should have taken him [Chris Paul] in the draft that year? [instead of Deron Williams] L: No, thats what I am saying, that I like Deron better. B: He[Chris Paul] is on a bigger market team.
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B: Why can't we have descent half-time guys, these egos make me uncomfortable. L: It is because we are a one sport city, so we get all the second-hand sports guys.
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I think it is part of the Jazz fan make-up to feel like they have a great, and somewhat unknown history that lurked in the shadows of being defeated (twice) by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Possibly that feeling resonates still, and it translates into the fans not feeling their team receives the recognition that they deserve. And, maybe they get exactly what they deserve. I mean Jazz fans are certainly biased when making this observation, and the Jazz team has never won it all.
There were women present during these games I observed, but could not really be considered members of the fanatics that I have described, because they did not engage in very much dialog specifically about the Utah Jazz or the N.B.A. Yet, they were very much apart of any conversation about other topics discussed throughout. They were still enjoying the party very much as a part of a larger social group of friends. They were just less focused than the men on the games going on. I know that there are women Jazz fanatics out there, I just didn't get any in this sample. I think it would be safe to assume however, though it is just my guess, that the majority of N.B.A. and Utah Jazz fans are male.
What ever it is about the game, the team, or the drama of the league, that gets the many thousands of fanatics to say to themselves "I can't wait" to tune in to watch the next game, or buy tickets to actually attend the game. "It's Electrifying" that acceptance into this fanatics group is just a couple of apparent key feelings, sentiments and attitudes expressed within the language of the group. Their own unique language configuration that is brewed from the "Pure Adrenaline Rush" that they experience with (almost) every game. The identity of the Jazz fanatic is created in the interaction with other fans, they use language that separates the fanatic group from the other team groups. Together the fanatics are unified as one entity.
Not only is the Nokia N95 a phone, it is also a descent picture and video camera, an mp3 player, an internet cruiser, a GPS device, but it can also do this!
I used the "Linguistic Profiling Quiz" to administer a slightly altered version of the test. I played all the voices to six different people, and asked them to pick 5 out of 20 different descriptors for each of the voices. All of the people I asked to take the test were themselves predominantly white/Caucasian, and from the working/middle class. There were 4 female and 2 male participants. The terms I chose to use were; 01. angry, 02. cheerful, 03. harsh, 04. soft, 05. friendly, 06. arrogant, 07. confident, 08. insecure, 09. young, 10. old, 11. upper class, 12. middle class, 13. working class, 14. lower class, 15. White/Caucasian, 16. Black/African, 17. Middle-Eastern/Arab, 18. Indian/Native American, 19. Oriental/Asian, 20. Hispanic/Latino. After this, I entered the data into a spreadsheet to analyze it that way.
Based on the clues of background noises in the recordings and background surroundings in the pictures of their faces, I feel safe assuming that all of the speakers in this test don't come from a wide range of class difference. I suspect that all of the speakers were taken from one general geographic area and time. Something similar to a busy street plaza during lunchtime, where there were many different people around. All with similar types of jobs and pay. This was possibly detected in that all the speakers were predominantly marked as either middle class or working class, the two terms are really just different names for one large class of people.
Speaker 1 was determined by all of my participants to be a black/African person, with half of the entries calling the voice young and harsh. Everyone could hear that it was a black woman speaking, simply by listening to her words. I suspect that young was chosen because of what might be called a hip-hop accent, and that could have persuaded the unanimous black/African decision made as well. It was perceived as harsh because she seems to overly exaggerate her pronunciation of certain sounds.
I don't know what to make to make of the results, it seems they are accurate about half the time, and of course there is no way of knowing the answers to some of the questions asked.
While with Speaker 2, white/Caucasian was chosen without fail. Interesting again, the race was nailed through only the sounds of speech. I am surprised because, I picked this voice to be black/African when I took the test, and it still doesn't sound like a white/Caucasian to me. I am finding that I tend to associate deeper voices as being black/African more often than others seem to do. (Blame it on James Earl Jones?) Young and arrogant were chosen half the time because of the way he rolls through the sentences. He carries a little bit of bored tone throughout, which translates into the arrogance being heard in his voice.
Like speakers 1 & 2, speaker 9's race was identified accurately by all six of the participants. None of the other speakers were pinned by everyone to one race. The white/Caucasian sound in Speaker 9 can clearly be heard through some qualities of "The Queens English" being used, to which I attribute the 2 marks she received for upper class. It is actually hard to try to picture this voice coming from a black/African lady, it just does not fit. She was more often marked as friendly, cheerful and confident, which can definitely be taken from the playful way she recites the poem.
Another something obvious is that everyone marked insecure for Speaker 8. He speaks the poem with somewhat of a musical beat, but I think the insecure feeling comes from his intense concentration, as if not wanting to mess up the words, or leave a word out. Half assumed him correctly to be young and black/African. He got 4 votes for working class and then 3 votes for lower class, which was the most lower class tallies received of any of the speakers. It makes me wonder if the insecurity sense by everyone, then had an influence on the other terms; black/African and/or lower class. Or, which of the assumptions was made first?
I did notice that young and old were used with the most accuracy. And, if those two terms were not voted for at all on a voice, that it was always (from what I would guess from their picture) a 30-60 year old person speaking. In hind sight I guess it would have been interesting to have included middle-aged as an option.
Of Speakers; 3,4,5,6,7,10, none of them had any overwhelming dominance in how they were perceived. All of them had a couple of marks for almost all of the descriptors, pretty evenly spread. Speaker 3 and Speaker 10 were both called middle-eastern/Arab, and soft a majority of the time, and only Speaker 3 was actually middle-eastern/Arab. It is boggling however, that speaker 10 gets called confident 3 times and then insecure by the other 3. It illustrates beautifully the accuracy of assuming anything.
It doesn't take much for us to feel alienated through a different language being used, especially in groups. Language is one of the many tools we like to use to categorize and stereotype people we meet. Language is always a reflection of a person's background, so language differences can sometimes mean a great many other differences in beliefs.
I work as a designer for a sign company, where we have many customers that are immigrants from a number of different parts of the world. I have to constantly deal with language effecting the way I handle my job. It can be frustrating trying to produce a logo or graphic for someone that can only express themselves with a limited vocabulary of what I can understand. Once a guy brought in his 10 year old son, who had been learning English in public school for only a few months, to translate what he needed to say to me. It can also be fun to teach a little bit of English, and also learn something about another language. It is hard sometimes when a co-worker expresses his belief that everyone should speak English, because I don't agree.
I think it is interesting that Canada has a portion of people that speak French, and that it once almost divided the country into two. I wonder why the French language did not remain as popular in the French settlements along the Mississippi river in the United States? The northern/mid-western accent must have some amount of French influence, though I can't hear it at all.
I do enjoy listening to accents from all over the world, especially the different variations of U.S. English. I also think it can be fun to visit a place where you are the one with the weird accent. It makes it more obvious that people do treat you differently based on the way you talk. It is not only in the pronunciation that I notice geographic differences, but also in the words and wordings that are used. What "sounds right" to one person doesn't always to another, so I think that correctness is (and should be) relative to the people that use it.
I don't really like the idea that there are organizations prescribing the way that a language should be used by a certain group, especially if the group doing the prescribing doesn't really relate to the group that it is being prescribed to. These types of organizations serve us better when the focus is more on defining the different ways that language is naturally used, rather than how it should or shouldn't be used. But, maybe without all the assigned rules handed out through history, we would have mutilated English (and maybe even French) into even more divisions than it currently has, and someone from California would not be able to understand someone from New York?
I don't think that language is something that can be controlled very drastically by the rules that a government or official language association tells us to follow. It seems more likely that a common usage would easily override any rule.
The name of any group of people tells us something about them. It matters because any one individual interpretation of the name cause assumptions and expectations of how meetings with other groups should work and how each fits into the social community. A tipping in the scales of power. It works along with any socioeconomic group; rich vs. poor, male vs. female, old vs. young, etc.
I think that in earlier times of human history skin color could more accurately define to others the differences among two groups of people. But, not in today's world, where there is great deal of ethnically mixed individuals, especially in the United States. Someone's general geographic look doesn't have to mean anything at all about their social status and/or background, and that is not becoming any less prevalent.
So, as classification by an outward appearance slowly becomes less reliable for us to make the assumptions that we srtive to make, the next point of judgment is in the language used by any individual or a group. I often find myself trying to guess where a person is from by listening to accents. I think we gauge people on many levels when we interact with language. Things like; how much money someone might make, their profession, religious leanings and many other simple assumptions.
Language is definitely intertwined with ethnicity. Being from a mix of European ancestry, I have learned to associate myself with the term "white". Somewhere along the way, I started feeling that the label carried a weight that I didn't feel that I should have to carry. For whatever reason when the question is asked, I like to check the "other" box and write in "European American". Though some can argue that the two have the same meaning, I don' think they do.
I also think that there is the possibility that the "white" ethnicity dominance in the United States is slightly exaggerated by way of the term "white" being one of the most broad options available (except for maybe "American Indian"). This map didn't exactly match up to my own personal definitions of the races. I think if I were to create my own version of this map I would want to add 10 more naming of races to the list. Is that a good or a bad thing?
Construction has just begun on a tall building (by Salt Lake standards) notice in the picture, the building to the right is Hotel Monaco/Bambara. Well, basically this story got me to thinking about the city's future, and so I typed some of it down.
I was also reading a bit about the buildings and buisnesses that have been demolished on Main Street in Salt Lake City over the years at utahstories.com. (They also have some pretty good bits about the taco cart situation.)
I was aware of the City Creek project (which has nothing to do with 222 South building) that is being funded by "The Church", but what I didn't know was that Main Street has repeatedly failed as a location for a trendy mall, yet currently the plan is to tear down the old mall and build a new mall...why?
Ever since hearing about these plans, I have thought a mall is not exactly what is lacking from downtown Salt Lake, those consumer types have plenty to choose from just a few blocks away at The Gateway, as well as in whatever suburb they live in. I don't think that this new City Creek mall will "revitalize" the city.
I would prefer to see Main Street become more of an arts and entertainment center, with more of a public space type feel. With the Trax stations and Gallivan center it already almost feels that way. I personally need draws like; theaters, clubs, restaurants, coffee shops, museums and galleries. It was revealed to me through the enormous turn out of people at the Gallivan Center summer concerts that people here want more of this going on here. Not more Apple Stores or Abercombie & Fitch's......BLAH!
I think that Salt Lake desperately needs more residents living in the downtown area, which residential development can be seen happening in numerous places, so hopefully some of the other things will follow. We need more people living in downtown, not only to support the two corporate mega malls, but to also provide the arts and entertainment scene that I desire. But most importantly, more people to support the small local shops and restaurants that I fear will not be around in a few years.
On June 26, I had the privilege of watching Barry Bonds break the all time intentionally walked player four times in one night. Though it wasn't exactly the record I was hoping to see get broken when I bought the tickets in the early season, as a fan of baseball I enjoyed the extremely expensive experience none the less.
Dinger 754 went over the wall for Bary Bonds last night, and now for the moment we have all been waiting for. First will come the tying home run, and then next we'll have the video footage of Barry breaking the all the time home run record that will be replayed until it makes permanent copies into our mental imagery. Oh, and the value of that ball!
I like the excitement of seeing a milestone being set that has never been set before. Though there are some that would ban the Barry Bonds name from history books, if they could.
I see a double standard. American society in general is responsible for the dark cloud of steroids and baseball, not any one person. Most Americans trust that drugs can improve themselves for the better, for whatever reason. It has become part of our culture. We are told to ask our doctors about different drugs 50 times a day, and most of us take prescription drugs for one thing or another. We keep the pharmaceutical companies in business (putting it lightly) They provide development and distribution a wide variety of drugs for us to take. I don't see how it is Barry Bonds, or any other player's fault for practicing this (relatively new) American value.
Most of the accused were following the rules (or lack of) that Major League Baseball asked them to follow at the time, and if they continue to follow the new and improved rules, then what have they done wrong? The American media are just doing what it is they do best and blowing something out of proportion to generate public interest to generate advertising dollars.
Like it or not, Barry's achievement is a piece of American history pie.
On the 4th July, in the middle of a 2 week road trip, I found myself in the town of Trinidad in Humboldt County, California. I started off with some early morning tide pooling on the shores of the Pacific Ocean,
after that I ate some oyster and eggs breakfast at the pier cafe, all-American style. I then enjoyed an easy hike, even for having a full stomach. It looped around the peninsula in Trinidad to somewhat of a view of an old lighthouse. The ocean rocks were much more impressive the lighthouse. Here is the GPS track of that hike with some pictures that I took.
Later that day we wandered down to and around Arcata. Quite a bit going on, I couldn't tell the bums from the city officials. Did you know that Arcata was the first city in the U.S. to elect a majority of its city council members from the green party? Yeah, hippies. It was a bit of culture shock for someone born and raised and living in Conservativeville. And, how could I not love a place that prides itself on their minor league baseball team, The Humboldt Crabs? They play in a 1,500 seat stadium, and their hats are classy, so I bought one.
But, it wasn't the baseball that made me feel like an American, and it wasn't standing on an edge of America herself, it wasn't even the pizza I ate for lunch. The thing that sparked my pride in old glory was this-
I am selling a bunch of stuff through craig's list classified ads. Descriptions and pictures of each item are included in each of the links, so check it all out.
SOLD Digital Camera - Canon A510 -$80
SOLD Apple - ipod 15GB -$80
SOLD GPS receiver - Magellan Explorist 400 (needs new battery) -$65
A 200 ft. waterfall at the top this narrow canyon. It is kind of steep, but short and quick. The round trip is roughly 3 miles of hiking. I've been up there a few different times, and the waterfall is not all too powerful. The most admiring thing is the distance the water falls. On a hot day you'll want to stand underneath it. I parked in a designated lot at the end of 29th street in Ogden, Utah. I believe you can get to the waterfall from 36th street as well, though I have never been through that way.
