Y2K What is going on? The end of the world, that’s what! At least an apocalyptic ending is what I thought at 13 years old listening to the mass media, in addition to my friends in high school. A simple computer date change glitch caused thousands of people to flock to supermarkets to stock their homes, register for survival classes, and purchase more firearms. I, a very gullible and impressionable teenager, thought the very worst was coming. Because my mother and I were very poor, I started selling whatever I could of my things, board and video games, clothes, and even a gold cross I received as a First Communion gift; along with doing odd jobs to buy extra water and canned food, just in case this really was the end. Many times during this semester we have broached, as a class, the topic of what we would do in a time of crisis, and how we would handle it. In the case of 13 year old me, and several of my friends, full blown panic ensued. Relating this back to course concepts like waste, care, memory, forgetting, and performance every one of these was present in 1999. Continue reading “Y2K? What’s that?”
The Awkwardness of The HurryCane
During this course I have noticed more the use of Hurricane language to sell things in our capitalist market. Enter in the wonderfully awkward HurryCane commercial. (The link provided is the commercial, however, it is recorded on a phone from a television.)The commercial is an advertisement for a tool used to help, in the case of the commercial, old men walk (hurry) to catch up to gorgeous women they are missing out on. This commercial is a performance of freedom using language that has a deep juxtaposition of its actual meaning.
Shakespaw, A Wishbone Tale – The Tempest
One of the first thing Beth told us when we started The Tempest by William Shakespeare was, contrary to fellow academics, Shakespeare is difficult for her, and for many others. I put myself in that category, and was very grateful to hear that from a professor. The Tempest is not simple for me, however, I have prior knowledge that I definitely utilized from the children’s show, Wishbone. Wishbone, was probably the most influential television show of my childhood. It was all about books, and not just any books, the classics or “the cannon.” Books educated people assume you have read if you are also “properly educated.” Continue reading “Shakespaw, A Wishbone Tale – The Tempest”