Once upon a gloomy Thursday afternoon, I decided to brighten up my day. After calling my boyfriend to join me for a Mexican cuisine lunch, we stumbled upon an interesting exotic scene whilst walking by a community park holding a small festival for Thai New Year. Although the skies were gray, the loud jingles and melodies that complimented each other perfectly brightened the mood. Excited by this unusual sound combination, I convinced my boyfriend to dine at the nearby park rather than the planned Mexican cuisine. The park was a grassy, leaf-filled entertainment area assorted with various types of stands. I felt the elegant cultural vibes of the area which led to a compelling feeling to further explore and embrace whatever cultures we may stumble across.
As we stopped by one of the food booths, I heard the rhythmic tune again. At first, I was curious as to what this noise was; I followed the sound while my boyfriend got rice plates for us to eat until I saw a stage with two men in front of me with a strange, boat-shaped xylophone-like instrument. The men were beating at a pair of wooden instruments with a tool I could only compare to a maillot. Behind the two men, I noticed another man sitting behind them playing bongos to the rhythm of traditional xylophone. The men wore regular white t-shirts and a red and blue plaid wrap around their bottom half while sitting in a lotus position. In front of these men, I noticed to myself a strangely intriguing woman dancing to the beat created. She swayed left and right holding an array of yellow-colored flowers in a pot wrapped in bronze paper while using precise hand movements with one hand. The more we examined the performance, the more other women became to surround the area with similar...
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...oy ourselves, never once did I expect to be playing such close attention to the story being told through this elegant art form. This unexpected live art piece reminded me that war is a universal pain that everyone feels regardless of where they come from. From witnessing the graceful dancing and how it was quickly saddened by the story, I could only wonder how something so elegantly beautiful can bring about such meaning. I realized that this is a message life brings overall. Life is filled with beautiful moments each and every day which can in turn give valuable lessons to the human race. Often we are so caught up in our own goals and ventures that we do not notice the world around us, now more evident to me after the impact of the dance I saw. I realized that even if the United States isn’t at war, war will always exists and the world will never truly know peace.
Throughout our history, both recorded and unrecorded, there have been countless violent battles fought. From small skirmishes to full on declarations of war, humans have been involved with battling on another for all the reasons that they have. The only thing alarming is that, as time and technology progresses, the number of casualties and collateral damage have been increasing as well. In addition, the implications to the human mind, brought upon by the excessive violence, can be equally damaging. With that being said, the psychological implications brought upon by war can be reflected in several art forms, such as poetry.
On the inside of the club door a large notice is pinned up. The notice
...irected, I take a drink from the drinking fountain while some others who were also observing the site hesitated or even refused to drink from it. I could taste the metallic tinge of the fountain water, but the heat of the sun made it nonetheless a refreshing drink. This can be connected to taste because I found the drinking fountain to be remarkable based on my cultural background and identities, which is my culturally specific taste. Others who visited the fountain that do not share this “experiences relating to one’s class, cultural background, education, and other aspects of identity.” (Cartwright 56) might find it hard to appreciate the drinking fountain in the manner I did. Nonetheless, viewers do have the right to experience, interpret, and use this cultural representation differently by being situated in a set of actual and relational social practices.
For a long time, the popular belief about anthropology was that it was the study of “far away” or “exotic” cultures. After my 10 weeks in Professor Michael Perez’s Anthropology 101 class, I now know this to be anything but the truth. My immediate thought’s for a cultural event to observe were reflective of these misconceptions – I considered an Indian wedding, a winter festival, a family friend’s Quinceanera. Nothing stood out to me.
...t of people around you. The images are really helped clarify what the singer really wants to talk about. Without the images in the video some many things could have been interpreted from the song itself. Before I watched the video I just thought the author was talking about war, and specially the wars America was fighting at the time of the song’s release. The music in combination with the instrumentals and video create a piece of art that enlightens the soul.
War has always been inevitable throughout the history of the world. The outcomes can differ greatly; it’s usually either a win or a loss. Wins or losses are just definite statements, but photos can represent these statements. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square” shows an American sailor kissing a young woman right in the middle of Times Square, despite their surroundings. This iconic photo was taken after the U.S. declared victory over Japan in World War II, and was published in Life magazine a week later. John Gap’s (III) photo shows a young girl being consoled at a soldier’s funeral in a local high school gymnasium, later to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This humble photo was taken during the war still raging in Afghanistan, showing that these types of losses happen quite often, as there are no iconic photos for Afghanistan compared to the photo shot after the win over World War II. Unlike its counterpart, this photo was published only at a local level on a website. Both these photos show a soldier being dismissed to go home from war. Although the two photos share that common factor, the scenario in which the soldier comes home differs greatly. Through these photos, Albert Eisenstaedt and John Gaps III help evoke pathos and give the observer a sense of the pride and the devastation felt of a home coming from war using photographic elements such as framing, focus, and angles.
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.
"Music is a common experience and a large part of societies. In fact, anthropologists note that all human communities at all times and in all places, have engaged in musical behaviours. Music as a mode of human activity is a cultural phenomenon constituting a fundamental social entity as humans create music and create their relationship to music. As cultural phenomeno...
“ We are going to see the Acrobats of China”. said my parents to my sibling and I. At first this did not sound interesting to me, but I went along with it. When I entered the theatre, the smell of the complimentary popcorn overwhelmed me, I heard people muttering rumours about the show. Scattered families filled the room trying to find the best seat. My mind filled with curiosity as the lights dimmed, signaling the beginning of the show. The acrobatics performed short stories of ancient China that stood out unique to me. Out of all the performances, the White Snake Act caught my attention.The act started with suspenseful music filling the silence of the theater. A female acrobat stood in the center of the stage, grasping onto a large wooden pole, accompanied by other smaller wooden sticks. The woman who represented the “snake” placed a small feather on the tip of the wooden stick. The
From the moment I entered the church, I was taken by surprise. A loud, energetic piece was heard, but no instruments or performers were to be seen, that is until I turned around and looked up. I found it shocking to learn that those performers.
The simple definition of war is a state of armed competition, conflict, or hostility between different nations or groups; however war differs drastically in the eyes of naive children or experienced soldiers. Whether one is a young boy or a soldier, war is never as easy to understand as the definition. comprehend. There will inevitably be an event or circumstance where one is befuddled by the horror of war. For a young boy, it may occur when war first breaks out in his country, such as in “Song of Becoming.” Yet, in “Dulce et Decorum Est” it took a man dying in front of a soldier's face for the soldier to realize how awful war truly is. Both “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” are poems about people experiencing the monstrosity of war for the first time. One is told from the perspective of young boys who were stripped of their joyful innocence and forced to experience war first hand. The other is from the perspective of a soldier, reflecting on the death of one of his fellow soldiers and realizing that there is nothing he can do to save him. While “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” both focus on the theme of the loss of innocence, “Song of Becoming” illustrates how war affects the lives of young boys, whereas “Dulce et Decorum Est” depicts the affect on an experienced soldier.
It opens a physical space—on the dancefloor— to facilitate kinesthetic dialogue regarding “important material for the reconstruction of histories for subalterns [in this case, Black and Latino drag queens] coming to grips with their pace in their new nation” (89). Furthermore, it exposes a dichotomy between Madonna’s plead for the ‘freedom of movement’ as she sings, “‘Just let your body free’” (94) and the ‘framed,’ “stylized movements in fashion shows” (95).
As Jackie Joyner Kersee once said, “The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing” (“Sports Quotes,” 2013). Sports play a major role in entertainment all across the world. Sports can range from driving in NASCAR to playing in the NBA (Careers in Pro Sports, 1999). Sports usually involve teamwork and is fun for everyone. Although sports are supposed to be fun, there is natural competition. Being a feminine art, dance is considered to be just about anything other than a sport. Dancers are trained to the height of their ability, just like other athletes in other sports. Even though the dancer might not perform with their whole dance studio on stage at the same time, the dancers are all apart of the same team. Dancing is not an easy sport to participate in, so if you are looking for a sport that does not require practice then you might want to look into a different sport. There are hour-long practices, healthy diets, and several routines to remember. Normally, if someone is convinced that dance is not a sport, they have not fully engaged or experienced dance. In order to better understand dance, it is important to understand the history of dance, the competition of dance, and the comparison of dance to other sports.
...atin American popular idioms. Sonia Possetti is a leading contemporary tango artist that has formed a sextet including the unusual addition of a trombone. POssetti is receptive to the possibility of assimilating outside influences, as she is fully aware of the political implications of creating and performing tango in a country controlled by globalized economic and cultural interests. She uses the standard percussion with djembe, cymbals, bongo, and wood block. Possetti’s “Bullanguera” is based on a milonga rhythm that first sounded in the djembe, a large African hand drum. She layers a salsa clave pattern in the percussion over the milonga foundation. Jazz techniques, improvised solos and sixteen bar progressions add new dimensions to the piece. Her conception remains true to the roots of the tango, yet engages with a sophisticated range of current popular musics.
... War ended. The protesters wanted it to happen, but by amplifying the protesters' voices, the music made it happen. Works Consulted