The Stand

[alex4p34-blog]

First of all, this is a great song.

Secondly, the video is made up of characters from extraneous texts. It uses symbols that only the literate will appreciate (and isn't the only video of theirs to do so - if you're interested, check out this other song and this one too).

Goldfish uses bricolage of pop culture explicitly to communicate commonalities within their listener base. From explicit references to The Hangover, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Donkey Kong, Hello Kitty, Rocky, Back To The Future and various memes from popular viral videos of recent years like the sneezing panda, Charlie bit my finger, and Tom Cruise's infamous appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Goldfish pays close attention to vastly popular cultural signals and uses multiple extracts to create a microcosm of pop culture for their audience to recognize. By recognizing the popular symbols in the music videos, viewers might feel like they share common ground with Goldfish, and establish a stronger sense of producer-consumer rapport. 

It is a wise move on Goldfish's part and a nice example of intangible, cultural bricolage.

[teawithtish-deactivated20140716]

With the rise of Instagram came along the wanna-be foodie. Ever go to dinner with your friends and everyone is snapping pictures of their meals? Yes, I am guilty of this as well! These ongoing food postings lead individuals to consider themselves a foodie. What exactly is a foodie? Just a person…

[meldixon199-blog]

I have to agree with Tish. The emergence of Instagram has led to a majority of the posts on instagrams being posts of people’s meals. I admit I snap a pic after I cook a damn good meal. Does this make me a foodie? Probably not but it is something that a foodie might do. I think what would make me more of a foodie is that fact that the pictures I am posting are meals I have made. Therefore I took the time to cook and experiment with different recipes and flavours.

[cassiesculture-blog]

Could not agree more. Why do I feel the need to share my meals with other people? I know I hate when other people post their food but when I sit down to a great plate of food that has an aesthetic appeal too my first instinct is to document a picture of it and share it with all my friends. I guess as we learnt a major part of being a foodie is talking about it so that would mean we are all somewhat foodies.

[questioningtaste-deactivated201]

Furthering this discussion, I also think it’s interesting to consider the types of food we value as worthy of being on Instagram. I eat Kraft Dinner all the time and don’t find myself posting pictures of that all over my feed. Rather the criteria we deem as valuable for display are revealed. When it comes to food in our society, we value the following things: healthiness, freshness, fusion dishes, taste, complexity of preparation, who we are sharing it with. It becomes more about what the dish says about the individual more than the individual dish in itself.

[alex4p34-blog]

What is a foodie? I like food, I think about food, I make food and I enjoy food that is made for me. But what is a foodie? How can the fundamental sustenance of human life become a hobby? Are there “sleepies” or “breathies”? Are there “warmies” or “securies”? Ideally, a foodie is identified by a deep preoccupation with a food’s origins, preparation, presentation, etc. But I can’t help be bothered by the idea that food - something so basic and necessary - has become a way for a subculture to identify themselves and become superior. 

[alex4p34-blog]

I watche Robin Hood: Men In Tights recently and decided it was a great example of camp - though perhaps a little complicated.

The film is indeed campy, but since it is by its self-professed nature a parody, does this remove its ability to be true camp? The idea of camp is that it performed as such with sincerity, so can a parodic film be camp at the same time? Indeed, the original Robin Hood films (especially the Errol Flynn version) could be considered camp on their own, with the attention to aesthetic in sincerity.

[spaceoftaste]

The Young, Tattooed, Obsessive Fans Roaming Disneyland | VICE Canada

Disneyland’s social clubs are made up of young people so in love with the amusement park that they’ve tattooed themselves with its logos. They’ve been accused of smoking weed and starting fights, but

This is quite the unexpected spin on the punk subculture. 

[tastecrackerjack]

It’s definitely a form of incorporations by punks: taking corporate iconography into their own subculture.

[alex4p34-blog]

I notice a lot of these signals appropriated into tattoos.

From Disney characters to pin-up dolls and even brand logos, or symbols from popular fiction (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, etc). It is a characteristic of punks apparently to construct their own ever evolving subculture by means of bricolage. Perhaps as mainstream culture evolves, the "rose coloured glasses" of new generation punks use formerly corporate symbols as signs of their corrupted(?) childhoods or innocence lost?

[alex4p34-blog]

Why Country Music Was Awful in 2013: Fox's article about country music tells us that George Bush officiated "Country Music Month" because of the genre's role as a "reflection of cultural diversity as well as the aspirations and ideas that define us." As a listener of mainstream country (and rarely anything beyond the mainstream), I find this suggestion problematic when juxtaposed to my perception of America national identity. Now, I know that this video was made from a barrow scope of country music output, but much of what is pointed out here involves the very things that Bush eschewed in his acknowledgement Of the genre. He claims that country music reflects the ideals of the nation, and yet he intentionally rejects "songs about getting drunk, killing people and having sex." This video highlights the consistent elements of mainstream country music: trucks, drinking (and driving), and the depersonification of women and sex. Furthermore, Fox makes major note of the "whiteness" of country music which seems to me to invalidate Bush's claim that the genre reflects the American nation. I have often thought about the recent mainstream celebration of American country music and wondered what it is about the culture promoted in the genre's discourse that resonates with its select listener group.

[alex4p34-blog]

The Dandy - encapsulated.

Brummell taught us that the best way to elevate your status by looks is to look like you haven't. He (and the rest of the dandies) is sure to never be dirty nor calloused, eschewing any kind of hard labour that might physically scuff his appearance. Meanwhile he refuses any non-laborious effort to elevate his appearance by jewels or elaborate costume. He insists that his high class and cultural distinction is natural and granted, so that he never has to work to elevate or maintain his status.

[fabulousfool-deactivated2021011]

[alex4p34-blog]

Saw this and thought of our punks. Refusal to eat mainstream food, and refusal to shop at a commercial whole foods. Interesting how this attitude became a target for comedy, in a light that significantly reduces its veracity and conviction into something weird and invalid. I'd like to consider this is the framework of corporate hegemony - an ideology I can say with confidence I have come to accept. This use of comedy places outlying culture (specifically punk/hipster) into a social margin, making it a seemingly ridiculous ideology to adopt. It is in the commercial world's best interests to make people who are susceptible to suggestive thinking and desire to fit into a mainstream social space to create a scoffing attitude toward a culture that rejects commercialism. Corporate hegemony strikes again, and uses a comedy as a platform to validate its attitude and appease the audience.

[rob4p34]

Personalized News and Facebook - The 'Trash' of Modern Journalism

The well-known Liberal pundit and news entertainment host Bill Maher thinks Facebook and personalized news is making you stupider. 

As he displays old pictures of a previous generation riding the subway, he notes how they are all reading newspapers; an important time when mainstream journalism platforms like The Washington Post uncovered Watergate and challenged society with groundbreaking news. 

Nowadays ‘everyone is playing Angry Birds and no one is getting news, and if they are, they are getting it from Facebook where 1/3 of adults now get their news…Paper [the new app from Facebook] tracks the news you are interested in and gives you more of that news and less of everything else, never burdening you with contradictory information or telling you anything new. That’s what makes it news!” Maher rants to the his viewers about the detriments of the personalized news system.

"Newspapers may be old fashioned but here is what we are losing if never see them, they are trying to tell you what is important, not what is important to you. You may not read the whole newspaper, but you at least see headlines making you aware that something is going on outside of your micro-targeted world of fashion or music or wickens or zombies or whatever you are interested in".

This new system of news and information consumption has us living in a vacuum, where we are only faced with cultural information surrounding the sports teams, TV shows, and hottest bands we are into.

Now that I think about it…my feed is looking pretty good right now. No depressing news about global warming, Ukraine or Syria. Just updates on my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs and information on the Coachella concert coming up. I love my feed. It knows what I’m into.

Is that really a good thing?

[alex4p34-blog]

I struggle every single day with the lack of critical thinking on the Internet, and unfounded, uneducated notions that are "fact." And then I go to parties or bars and people sit around discussing "major news" and "hot button issues" with opinions that are completely unfounded and uncritical. Everything I hear mainstream groups talk about is a simple regurgitation of common thought displayed on the Internet, and to be honest all of it can be fond here on Tumblr. Tumblr is the worst for cookie-cutter underdeveloped opinions on feminism and gay rights, militant advocacy with underwhelming critical opinion. What's worse, the age restriction on Tumblr and Facebook is wide open, Tumblr requires a minimum age of 13 - clearly not an appropriate age for critical discussion of these issue that have massive bodies of academic work behind them. Internet positions of cultural criticism are so thin to me, and so many users take online discourse to be as valuable as academic understanding. It isn't. It's just a bunch of idealistic fourteen year olds screaming about issues they don't fully understand - and their information obviously comes from a narrow scope of "news" that is easily catered to their opinions, so that they never have to feel wrong.

[thedistinctionoftaste-blog]

There is no doubt that her habit is disgusting… but why can’t I change the channel? I don’t know why. Once you get a few minutes into the episode, you always want to watch more… I supposed they play off the fact that we as an audience generally want to see some sort of resolution before we change the channel. 

I found a list of “Healthy Reasons” to watch Reality TV shows….(heres a few)

They take us out of our comfort zone (Fear Factor)

We observe advice that is often from a professional (What Not to Wear, Hoarders)

They teach us lessons in socialization (Big Brother)

Get inspired to work out (The Biggest Loser)

Are these actually legit reasons? Care to add any others?

[alex4p34-blog]

A lot of these "reasons" come from a desire to reinforce a hegemonic ideology in the viewers. We can't have people dressing however they want, so we have to tell them how to dress to be acceptable. We can't have people being addicted to mothballs, so we must trot them out on a global stage to be analysed and criticized. I find most of these "trash" TV shows (which, by the way, I love) are in many ways akin to circus-sideshow freak-gawking entertainment made convenient and private in one's own home. Whether someone watches Honey Boo Boo because they are horrified by the family or because they relate to them is irrelevant (in this discussion) because either way, they serve the sole purpose of being a spectacle in a voyeuristic society.

[alex4p34-blog]

It's been a couple of years since I heard this segment on Jian Ghomeshi's CBC show Q, but it has stayed with me since it first aired. Author Clay Johnson is a guest on the show promoting the idea of an "information diet" to cleanse our minds and brains of the junk "food" we get from reality TV and BuzzFeed-style brain fodder. We are encouraged to feed our brains clean, healthy, beneficial information so as to avoid becoming unclean ourselves. As we read today, watching dirty TV makes the viewer dirty themselves.

If the link I posted isn't working, you can watch/listen to the broadcast here.

[alex4p34-blog]

"Foodie"

What is a foodie? I like food, I think about food, I make food and I enjoy food that is made for me. But what is a foodie? How can the fundamental sustenance of human life become a hobby? Are there "sleepies" or "breathies"? Are there "warmies" or "securies"? Ideally, a foodie is identified by a deep preoccupation with a food's origins, preparation, presentation, etc. But I can't help be bothered by the idea that food - something so basic and necessary - has become a way for a subculture to identify themselves and become superior. 

[amyfishy]

Subcultures: Dick Hebdige

I think it is very interesting what we learned today in class about subcultures and their relation to conspicuous consumption. For example when we looked at the punk subculture, which stands for fighting conformity, consumerism and the government. But on the flip side they all dress the same way and spend a lot of money on piercings, tattoos, leather items of clothing etc. which in fact is buying into the whole consumerism, and having to dress a certain way to fit in with a group. If we think about most subcultures that are existent in our society today we see the same conspicuous consumption. Each subculture may be different from other subcultures and different from societal norms, however usually most of the people in that subculture are dressed the same way, and enjoy the same things as the rest of the people in the subculture. To me subcultures are a form of conformity, rather then a way of showing individualism.

[alex4p34-blog]

I drew a lot of comparisons of the punks we read about and the subversive culture we exist with, and on the topic of tattoos I thought about the ideology surrounding “legitimate tattoos” as opposed to generic or conventional tattoos like a butterfly, anchor, birds etc. Tattoos became popular enough to break the mainstream, and now there are different schools of tattoo-havers that separate themselves from the mainstream. It just goes to show how splintered cultures can become, subgroups withihn subgroups for ever.

[alex4p34-blog]

Greasers and Hippies and Punks, Oh My!

Reading the articles about punk culture I made an amusing observation... each generation has a culturally subversive group. From flappers to greasers to rockabillies to hippies to punks to our now-familiar "hipster" group (which I would argue actually is mainstream nowadays), each group attempts to subvert the dominant ideologies in largely the same ways. A lot of these groups somehow decided to use food consumption to subvert normal eating culture and make their own. Perhaps with the exception of the 1950's "greasers" who rejected mom's pot roast and potatoes in favour of a cheeseburger and milkshake, most of these groups went away from commercial foods toward raw and healthful foods. Hippies and their granola, punks and their dumpster diving, and now hipster celebration of local-only-gluten-chemical-pesticides-free-organics (read an interesting article in the Daily Beast on the pseudo-science of Whole Foods, if you've got a minute or two). I wondered about food becoming such a major way for people to express their ideologies, and what a sad state we are in that the subverted food discourse is that of a healthy lifestyle.

[alex4p34-blog]

Since reading our articles about kirsch I've been struggling with my own criteria of distinction.

I used to work at an art gallery that sold paintings as well as many functional or decorative items like carvings, sculptures, blown glass and ceramics. Now, since this was an "art gallery" I always appreciated our items as unique, handcrafted pieces of work. However the shop was in the heart of cottage country and a mainly attracted summertime cottagers souvenir shopping. Much of the stock we had were themed in Muskoka-esque patterns, such as a wood carving of a moose or glass dishes decorated with coniferous trees or loons. Do these souvenirs classify as kitsch because of their appeal to the most common customer, or would you consider them high art because they are Canadian, handcrafted works of art at a fairly high price? 

The website is being revamped and isn't complete right now, but have a look and tell me what your opinion of the kinds of wares here are. I am caught somewhere in the middle.

[navarrocomm]

Bourdieu’s theory of taste, arguing taste is a representation of education and social origin. In the end, good taste is simply a reflection of the taste of the ruling class

[teawithtish-deactivated20140716]

I thought about this as well: How can someone’s taste accurately represent their social class if a person’s taste isn’t align to their actual spending habits. i.e liking a particular item but not having the money to acquire that particular item. 

[alex4p34-blog]

I think that contrasts or highlights the idea of "nouveau riche" (inverted)... So maybe you have the cultural capital to understand the value of high class consumption, but the very fact that you can't participate slashes your status, making it impossible. "Snob" comes from without nobility. Without the class-prescribed right to partake in this taste practice, you can't participate legitimately - you become a snob.

[evrythingsucks]

Visit Original Link

Descendents - Silly Girl

Started on a summer Sunday Your pink dress on the setting sun You were going to Grandma’s house, I was too scared to come

My silly girl, I’m beggin you Tell me all the things that I want to hear My silly girl, I’m in love with you

I had to run to catch you, You always moved so fast With your cute little smile and your silly laugh, God gave me love at last

[spaceoftaste]

I wonder where punk rock music would be categorized under the low/middle/highbrow hierarchy. Most likely, middlebrow since it was a genre that grew out of the middle class for the most part,  this band sure did. I’m pretty sure the singer for the Descendants has a bio-chem PHD or something.. The guy’s a freaking scientist and a punk rock God.

[alex4p34-blog]

It was a genre that grew out of the middle class, but acts like it comes from lower classes. At the same time, both producers and consumers of punk rock tend to grant themselves and each other credit towards an upper level of capital - almost a secret handshake that has to do with understanding similar texts. That being said, high-brow consumers (traditionally) have a difficult time accepting punk rock as high art, even though the members of the culture engage with it as though it were.

[alex4p34-blog]

St. Kitsch

Clifton Hill in the Falls is a prime example of kitsch capital. From shot glasses to snow globes to mugs and funny hats, it somehow becomes very important for tourists to prove their expedition to Niagara by buying a redundant souvenir, that will probably collect dust until it finds a place in the graveyard of kitsch - Goodwill.

This has always been my feeling about cheap, junky souvenirs as a token of remembrance for a trip. Having recently returned from my semester abroad, I got a ton of experience with kitsch in souvenir shops in several different countries. Each city I visited was full of shops who carried literally the exact same stock of wares. It became almost an in-joke of my fellow travellers to end up with a red beret from Paris, or a "Pog Mo Thoin" keychain from Dublin, or singing Loch Ness plush toy from the highlands. None of these items were useful or valuable, nor did they even evoke a great amount of sentimentality except amongst our small group.

When I returned home, I unpacked my bags to find that I had collected several articles of kitsch myself without even realizing I had done so. These things mean something to me. They serve as a material leftover from the time I spent away from home. I have a Scotland-flag ashtray that I bought only to hold jewelry in while I was away that has become one of my favourite possessions. The ashtray wasn't bought as a gag or even as a souvenir, but it has become a token of fond memories from my four-month throwback to dorm life where I used anything that was cheap for whatever I could.

The Scotland ashtray has changed my mind about kitsch. A former kitsch-hater, I somehow have been able to engage with this ashtray in a different way than with any Niagara Falls snowglobe. I can understand the sentimentality, the appeal of "sweet" kitsch - even if I didn't get there the way I had assumed everyone else did...