…who loves aviation and whom I love (and am trying to tempt to come to New York). A take-off clip from LaGuardia, taken illicitly during the time when “all electronics must be in an off position.”
That’s right Bryson, I broke aviation laws for you!
Also: everyone check out this little lady’s very own blog, which spouts wisdom about her excellent experiences in Berlin for the last year and is quite hilarious. Go. Read. Comment.
Well, as always, the thoughts of other cool things I could be thinking about/exploring/blogging about are piling up. So I shall wrap up my Tennessee findings with these things that I learned and experienced.
1. That Dolly Parton is a businesswoman/media mogul extraordinaire who deserves great respect and discussion for more than just her physical standout qualities. New York magazine agreed the other week when they wrote this article, which I highly recommend if you get a minute. Dolly is the snap! She has written 75 albums, risen from the daughter of a sharecropper who couldn’t read to a multimillionaire off of talent, savvy business skills, and character. If that isn’t the American Dream, I don’t know what is. One of the many projects she has in Tennessee (other than Dollywood) is called the Dixie Stampede, a dinner show, much like Midevil Times, but with horse trickery. By all means, check out the flip clip (and please enjoy Melanie talking like Strong Bad in the background, it was kind if a phase of the trip/our lives):
Another installment in the Tennessee findings. Though I have been in San Diego for days I am still not done expounding on the slice of American culture I experienced there with my family. So these posts continue, making a little collage of my findings, a decoupage, if you will.
Next up to bat, the Sevier County Flea Market. Enter the flip clip:
Kevin and I exploring some flea market finds…
And Jesse Williams, who pulled us over to talk about his newest record deal. Please pause to appreciate the moment when he asks us about our country music knowledge. (more…)
Via text message:
Me: “See you tonight!”
Kevin: “Yeah I am excited for it! I can’t wait to drive tractors and shoot rifles!”
Me: “Dude, I don’t think they have those things anymore”
Clearly, I was incorrect.
Cultural spelunking, of course. Although today I did see a sign to go cave exploring under the Smoky Mountains, so theoretically I could have actually gone spelunking. Physically.
Since arriving in Kodak, TN a very small town about an hour outside of Knoxville, I have been overwhelmed by a new appreciation for American culture. But for the first time in a while, I am in awe not in the melting pot, tossed salad, multi-culturalism kind of way that blows my mind in New York. No, instead I am soaking up Tennessee in the iced tea drinking, tractor driving, “setting” not sitting, family comes first, hot meal three times a day, rolling green pastures, a card game and a long story around the kitchen table kinda way.
After a few days of visiting with my Grandparents and spending time with my family in TN, I feel compelled by the sheer American-ness of it. In a colloquialized way, of course, but also in a very real way. Today we went to their church and watched a blue grass band play, and all of their friends and neighbors introduced themselves to us. Yesterday, we rode on the tractor that our grandpa used to use to run the farm that my dad and aunts grew up on and shot BB guns. I have been reintroduced to actual ingredients, with which meals are made and sat down for. The option of a nap is always on the table, and today I read my dad’s high school valedictorian speech and looked through old pictures. It seems like something out of a storybook, but in fact it is just what’s done and what’s good. The only reason I am now finding time to write this all dawn is because I am waiting for it to get dark so we can all go outside and set off fireworks (yeah all you Californian readers, legal fireworks).
I think that this is the first of my many visits to the interior US which I have been able to really appreciate the uniqueness of it. Likely, this is the most self assured I have been in my own skin to realize that a culture which many caricature and mock, which we all are tied to and branded by as “Americans” to the outside world, which is considered by the pretentious as “uncultured” culture, is truly one to be respected and valued. It is also one to which I am inextricably linked, and I feel truly happy about it. I have been steeped in American values which have been distilled for generations, and here I feel really at home in a way I was embarrassed to admit to myself before.
There is TONS more I have to say on this topic (and obviously, will) once I get back to San Diego where I can upload more rich media like a billion pictures and flip clips, but I had to write this down so I don’t forget it. And those of you who have made it this far reading unencouraged by links, clips, pictures, shout-outs, embeds, and all of the other visual candy I usually fete my posts with, thanks, and way to overthrow the growing stereotype that internet readers have visual ADD.
Speaking of which, I have some fireworks to go set off.
Alas, foiled again by that oh-so-characteristic New York spontaneity of circumstance. Much like the girl who I heard on the street today say something along the lines of:
“Ya I left on time, caught the train on time, did everything on time to get into the city this morning, but now I am walking around aimlessly because I fell asleep on the train and missed my stop.”
Classic overheard moment. One of the many reasons I love eavesdropping.
I digress. I am supposed to be on a plane to Tennessee this moment to visit my family there and then travel on for 10 glorious days of respite in San Diego, eating home cooked food, driving motor vehicles, sleeping in a bed with sheets, etc. Basically, everything I want to be doing after a brutal finals/moving regimen for the last two weeks. Then BAM, our flight was canceled due to (and this is a direct quote from the woman at the LaGuardia Delta counter, which clearly my sister Melanie and I went to before learning our flight was canceled) circumstances considered by Delta to be “acts of god,” meaning, weather delays. Well played, universe.
So Melanie and I are posted out at her apartment, and making the most of it. And naturally, all I have to post about is how much I want to kick it in sunny San Diego, my original city allegiance.
I want to be doing this.
(more…)
Through the many trials of moving, I have managed to affirm to myself something that my roommates are painfully aware of and my Alternative Breakers have only heard about:
I horde things.
Jars, to be specific.
And this isn’t even the least of it. There are also ones on my desk I neglected to round up for the photoshoot. And in my backpack. And possibly in the dishwasher. (Clearly something else evident from this exercise in how bad I am at packing/organizing).
“There is magic in that little word, home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits.” – Robert Southey
A new hood, a new roommate, and a whole new world of spelunking adventures I am sure…
Filed under: city happenings, observations, world saving | Tags: City places, Flip Clip, Social Work, University Settlement, world saving
To atone for “being extremely insensitive” and “making light of a grave health threat” in my previous, I have decided to share with the world an exceptional bit of selfless social work which will blow your mind occurring on the Lower East Side called University Settlement.
I am so blown away by this place. University Settlement on the LES was the first settlement house in the country. It has been serving the LES for 123 years, offering everything from prenatal care and parenting workshops for moms to day care and after school programs to elderly social support. The institution has been a model for hundreds of others like it all over the world and has been making life better for people in New York every day it has been an institution. I interviewed Melissa Aase after taking a tour with my social work class, check out the Flip Clip:
