Los Angeles Culture: Not An Oxymoron.
I haven't been to any bicycle rides or drum circles this weekend, but I definitely will continue to do these regularly to remain sane over the next two years.
Friday I went to the design department to try and work on my website. It was futile, but I ended up bringing Leslie and Lilly home to the Co-op with me, and we ate dinner with a huge group of folks here. Lilly and I asked around if anyone was interested in going to Hollywood for an art opening, found that Laura was able to drive - and so we headed out, picked up Evelina, spent thirty minutes trying to park; and then, finding that the art opening was bogus, took a couple shots of free tequila and walked out to go to the Karma Coffeehouse. We watched people waiting in line for clubs with a thousand dollar cover charge, and waxed ecstatic about how ridiculous that was. Dustin, Lilly, and Evelina left suddenly
and Laura and I ended up at a karaoke bar in a strip mall called Gower Gulch. I had been once before to the bar on a Critical Mass post-ride bar hop, and I recognized many of the faces of the folks singing; they were clearly regulars, they knew the songs through and through, and they hugged and congratulated each other after each piece. We sat and enjoyed the music for a while, including a rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying," which was featured in the Jesper Just films that we both saw at the beginning of the summer.
Two things strike me about the karaoke bar. 1. Karaoke seems a technological manifestation of folk culture - people make their own renditions of songs that have worked their way into popular memory. 2. As a space centered around the consumption of alcohol (or at least facilitating that end), the karaoke bar is a very community building atmosphere. It does not support the bonds of friendship that are based on how many times I have pulled your hair back while your face has been in the toilet bowl; the space requires that the majority of the people give something of themselves in a creative way to create the space. It does not facilitate the alienation portrayed by the actors in the Just film, their shared pain with the lack of connection to one another. It is a socially expansive space.
The counterpart to the karaoke bar is a sushi restaurant that has Salsa and Latin Jazz music and dancing in the evenings. The dance floor is teeming with middle-aged and elderly Asian folks dancing salsa to a bass and percussion band that accompanies a recorded soundtrack of the brass section. One agile couple clearly practices twice a week, their ponytails swinging with the rhythm; another elderly man who could have been a WWII vet slowly leads his wife across the dance floor, leading her into a turn only occasionally.
These folks are so cool and so genuine. They don't have to pay a thousand dollars a table to have fun and to feel alive. They go to a sushi bar in a strip mall in adjacent Hollywood. Like all worthwhile Los Angeles culture, this scene is completely hidden from view - difficult to find amidst a sea of falsity, menagerie, and empty artistic spectacle.
--
Today I drove out to Santa Barbara with some folks from the CSSC for a workshop and discussion with Tom Hayden, one of the Chicago Eight and the founder of the Students for Democratic Society in the 60's. He is writing a new book on the struggle between social movements and Machiavellian power structures, and he gives a fascinating, straightforward talk that puts a lot of the current events in a large historical perspective. I would go into it, I think, but it would take another essay to describe what was said.
While back in school, I will surely need to make an effort to blog things that I learn from different frameworks and lines of study. Or just document my responses to stuff as a regular practice, whether it is asked of the class or not - it seems useful for keeping track of ideas such as Hayden's.
Further, as per Hayden's advice, writing and poetry is the only way to inspire people around radical ideas on a sustained timeline: "If you're desirous of militant action, go take an English Literature class... the 60's started with the Beat movement."
Friday I went to the design department to try and work on my website. It was futile, but I ended up bringing Leslie and Lilly home to the Co-op with me, and we ate dinner with a huge group of folks here. Lilly and I asked around if anyone was interested in going to Hollywood for an art opening, found that Laura was able to drive - and so we headed out, picked up Evelina, spent thirty minutes trying to park; and then, finding that the art opening was bogus, took a couple shots of free tequila and walked out to go to the Karma Coffeehouse. We watched people waiting in line for clubs with a thousand dollar cover charge, and waxed ecstatic about how ridiculous that was. Dustin, Lilly, and Evelina left suddenly
and Laura and I ended up at a karaoke bar in a strip mall called Gower Gulch. I had been once before to the bar on a Critical Mass post-ride bar hop, and I recognized many of the faces of the folks singing; they were clearly regulars, they knew the songs through and through, and they hugged and congratulated each other after each piece. We sat and enjoyed the music for a while, including a rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying," which was featured in the Jesper Just films that we both saw at the beginning of the summer.
Two things strike me about the karaoke bar. 1. Karaoke seems a technological manifestation of folk culture - people make their own renditions of songs that have worked their way into popular memory. 2. As a space centered around the consumption of alcohol (or at least facilitating that end), the karaoke bar is a very community building atmosphere. It does not support the bonds of friendship that are based on how many times I have pulled your hair back while your face has been in the toilet bowl; the space requires that the majority of the people give something of themselves in a creative way to create the space. It does not facilitate the alienation portrayed by the actors in the Just film, their shared pain with the lack of connection to one another. It is a socially expansive space.
The counterpart to the karaoke bar is a sushi restaurant that has Salsa and Latin Jazz music and dancing in the evenings. The dance floor is teeming with middle-aged and elderly Asian folks dancing salsa to a bass and percussion band that accompanies a recorded soundtrack of the brass section. One agile couple clearly practices twice a week, their ponytails swinging with the rhythm; another elderly man who could have been a WWII vet slowly leads his wife across the dance floor, leading her into a turn only occasionally.
These folks are so cool and so genuine. They don't have to pay a thousand dollars a table to have fun and to feel alive. They go to a sushi bar in a strip mall in adjacent Hollywood. Like all worthwhile Los Angeles culture, this scene is completely hidden from view - difficult to find amidst a sea of falsity, menagerie, and empty artistic spectacle.
--
Today I drove out to Santa Barbara with some folks from the CSSC for a workshop and discussion with Tom Hayden, one of the Chicago Eight and the founder of the Students for Democratic Society in the 60's. He is writing a new book on the struggle between social movements and Machiavellian power structures, and he gives a fascinating, straightforward talk that puts a lot of the current events in a large historical perspective. I would go into it, I think, but it would take another essay to describe what was said.
While back in school, I will surely need to make an effort to blog things that I learn from different frameworks and lines of study. Or just document my responses to stuff as a regular practice, whether it is asked of the class or not - it seems useful for keeping track of ideas such as Hayden's.
Further, as per Hayden's advice, writing and poetry is the only way to inspire people around radical ideas on a sustained timeline: "If you're desirous of militant action, go take an English Literature class... the 60's started with the Beat movement."
posted by tank at 6:39 PM
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