Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 6

     I am responding to Teresa Pilon's post about Dia de los Muertos:
http://findlostangeles.blogspot.com/2012/11/blogging-social-difference-in-la-week-5.html?showComment=1352349171358#c1258480471649740577

Hi there,

I found this post about your uniting experience at the Dia de los Muertos celebration to be very interesting.  Despite all the differences between people there remain a few fundamental things that cut across all boundaries.  As human beings, matters of life, love, and death are deeply relatable no matter one’s background.  Differences in religion may lead people to practice different actions regarding these matters, but these differences are not enough to extinguish the empathy that exists among all.  

Strangely though, the death of Trayvon  Martin did not receive universal empathy.  One reading we had this week, “Fear of a Black President” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, discusses this tragedy.  After this tragedy President Obama responded.  The reaction to Obama was, as Coates states, “Before President Obama spoke, the death of Trayvon Martin was generally regarded as a national tragedy. After Obama spoke, Martin became material for an Internet vendor flogging paper gun-range targets that mimicked his hoodie and his bag of Skittles.”  
  

That is to say, that among some people, due to the color of our president’s skin, and likewise the color of Trayvon Martin’s skin, Obama’s comments where turned into racist’s ammunition.  In my opinion this just makes this an even greater tragedy.  It is truly a wonderful thing how celebrations like Dia de los Muertos are such a uniting emotional experience.  That is how it simply should be.     

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 5

image from http://talesofamagpie.typepad.com/tales_of_a_magpie/food_and_drink/

     This past week I decided to explore South Pasadena.  I had never been there before so I made the 30 mile trek, which of course because it's LA, takes over and hour.  My destination was Buster's Coffee Shop, a wonderfully charming and unique place recommended to me as the ideal location to sit and study, read, or just observe.  As I was driving though South Pasadena to my destination, I caught myself needing to be extra careful driving because I was so mesmerized by the beautiful lanes of houses.  I should have been walking in order to enjoy it more-- and not cause an accident.  Nonetheless, I eventually arrived at my destination off of Mission St. which just oosed old town main street.  There is a train running perpendicular to it and actually creates a unique architectural element to the buildings which have grown up around these track.  These old brick buildings, instead of being traditional efficient squares, had walls at 45 degree angels from the other walls in order to make room for the train tracks to pass right by to them.  As a result, inside Buster's Coffee Shop were these unique niches one could be lost in for hours nestled in with a good book.  The atmosphere was very cheery and friendly.  Small things, like using proper dishware as opposed to disposable, gave the environment a more settled feeling that said we're not a massive-corporate-money-hungry entity.  Instead, we are a home, we welcome all, stay for a while and lets have a chat.  It was the embodiment of Gemeinschaft.  This was further exemplified in there prohibition of computer use on weekends and the unique array of visitors to this shop-- including a young vagabond with a beard of a true traveler and with adventures to share.  Social differences do not matter here.  Come one, come all!
Visiting this little niche makes me nostalgic for Gemeinschaft where bumless benches would never be an understood concept.
        

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 4

HOLLYWOOD BOWL

     This past Saturday I went to the Hollywood Bowl to enjoy a country concert with my sister and mom (for my mom's birthday!) and little did I know, I was walking right into my next blog post.  It was a Brad Paisley concert, opened by Scotty McCreery and The Band Perry.

     The Hollywood Bowl is this fantastic niche in Los Angeles that removes you from Los Angeles as it transforms for its audiences; whether the LA Philharmonic is preforming or Coldplay.  On the particular evening I went to the Hollywood Bowl, it was transformed into a flannel wearing, cowboy hats and boots stomping drenched environment.  The best part about the environment were the blurred lines between social differences; everyone was there to have a good time! 

     The LA Times actually wrote about the social differences present at this concert and how Paisley acknowledged them.  There were gender differences, racial differences, political differences, age differences,  and class differences (perhaps more but this is what I noticed).  The LA Times criticized Paisley for having flip-flop perspectives regarding some of these topics.  His song, "I'm Still a Guy" embodies masculinity, yet the LA Times points out Paisley is know to do the very things he teases about in his song for his beloved wife, like hold her purse while shopping at the mall.  His song, "Welcome to the Future," inspired in part by President Obama's elections in 2008, addresses racial differences in a positive light because we have come so far in improving equality in America.  He had a great line after a small tangent/rant, "I'm Brad Paisley and I approve this message" bringing all political parties together in this moment.  In another great moment, when Paisley was preforming "Letter to Me," he crossed all age differences because of the nature of the song, and even crossed class differences.  He disappeared as this song was about to start and reappeared in the Promenade 3 seating area which is towards the far back.  He preformed this song here because he stated, going to concerts growing up in West Virginia, he had never gotten any closer than these seats.


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-review-brad-paisley-hollywood-bowl-20121021,0,6855400.story

     The concert was wrapped up with the irony of his song, "Celebrity," bringing everyone back to Los Angeles-- in particular, Hollywood, where appearances are everything and being famous is as deep as you get, leaving it with "Adios Reality!" where differences don't matter as long as you're on TV! 

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 3

UCLA CAMPUS

Image from http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/courses/statgene/

WESTWOOD BLVD.  

  Image from http://www.experiencingla.com/2010/05/westwood-blvd-los-angeles-part-ii.html

WESTFIELD CENTURY CITY MALL

Image from http://centurycitymall.mallsite.us/

     This past Saturday I took an afternoon drive with a destination just two and a half miles away from UCLA, down Westwood Blvd. and over on Santa Monica Blvd.  Westfield Century City mall was my destination.  This region is generally affluent, but driving down Westwood Blvd, the strip between Wilshire Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd, reminded me exactly of the thoroughfares Friedrich Englels describes of early Manchester.  This is a large boulevard which is used to get from point A to point B, a transitioning road,   and possibly even commuting as the thoroughfares were used in Manchester.  All assortments of shops line the street fronts and completely hide what ever lies behind them leaving the mind to imagine or disregard-- out of sight out of mind...

     I personally think, and I am sure many other people would agree, that UCLA is a beautiful place.  It could be argued as a sort of elite's utopia.  And likewise, the Westfield Century City mall could be argued as the same.  Both are aesthetically appealing and impeccably clean (with a staff to ensure this).  Both are wholes into which immense amounts of money are pored!  And I transversed between these two locations connected by this shop-lined thoroughfare masking what really lies behind, just as in-numerous business elites and their families made in early Manchester to get from their luxurious home to the business center.

     Though at first glance, Los Angeles appears to be an unpredictably arranged city, moments like this hint at its organization.  The fragments that make up Los Angeles resemble mini cities, such as this example described above which in a microcosm represents the layout of early Manchester.     

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 2

     I am responding to Boo’s post about The Grove:

http://thecityofangeles.blogspot.com/2012/10/blogging-social-difference-in-l.html

     Hi Boo, my name is Sasha, and like you, I have grown up around Los Angeles all my life.  Your point you made about not really seeing the city when you live in it for so long, is so true. 

     After reading your post about The Grove, I am very curious to explore it more attentively.  I have been there casually before and not paid attention to the things you noted due to this project.  I’d be curious how all the micro communities you listed interact with each other in this center, especially because it is such a tourist hot spot as well.  The micro communities you listed all seem to be cultural agglomerations, i.e. Little Ethiopia and Korea Town.  I’d be curious if the different cultures here have trends towards certain types of jobs in this center.  However, you pointed out that these clusters were in the surrounding areas of The Grove, which leads me to the question I should have first posed: do they even interact or are they more isolated despite their proximity to each other. 

     Los Angeles is somewhat of a city and somewhat of a suburbia, creating this post-suburban phenomena.  This is similar to Orange Country which was discussed in our reading this week in “The Emergence of Postsuburbia” by Rob Kling, Spencer Olin, and Mark Poster.  One idea to which this reading drew attention, was that in post-suburbias there tends to be less of an obvious transition between places.  Transitioning between one city and the next may be only clear by a sign on the highway, and if you blink, you’ll have no idea of the transition. 

     Here though, are sub-communities that are all within the city of Los Angeles.  It is fascinating then, that the transition between the micro communities is so clear, as you described the distinct billboards, food, and population of each micro community.  This just adds more to the tangle that is Los Angeles.  Hopefully as our projects progress we’ll be able to untangle Los Angele a little bit more to understand clearly how the social differences manifest here.              

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 1

LOS ANGELES
image from greenderella.com

     Los Angeles does not follow the traditional Chicago School's understanding of a city with one core and a surrounding periphery-- which is the pattern most larger cities around the world match.  Instead, Los Angeles is more in line with Robert E. Park's statement, "The City is a mosaic of little worlds which touch but do not interpenetrate."  This may be true in other large cities around the world where clusters exist in the periphery, but for Los Angels, where multiple cores and peripheries exist, I would hypothesize that this statement has an even stronger resonance of truth.  

     Through field research (walking, busing, experiencing, traveling, watching. sitting, etc.) and theoretical analysis I will test this statement's truth in metropolitan Los Angeles.  I will travel to the dominant cores throughout metropolitan Los Angeles and focus on discovering if the relationship between the multiple mosaic pieces here stop at their borders or if they interpenetrate.  As stated, I hypothesize that they stop at their boundaries, and I would anticipate tension at the development of interpenetration.  I expect that the difference, difference make, in Los Angeles, is continued fragmentation.