Monthly Archives: April 2015

Virtual Scrapbook Reflective Tag

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Virtual Scrapbook Reflective Tag

Through the process of creating my virtual scrapbook, I have come to appreciate San Francisco’s place in Beat culture.  Prior to this scrapbook, class discussion and sections from On the Road painted a picture of San Francisco as a the Mecca of the Beats on the West Coast.  Sal Paradise is right at home in Frisco, where his affinity for the city, the sea, poetry and wine combine in harmony.  The lights at night combined with the fog gives Kerouac a mystical impression of the city, where creates a home on the West Coast.

Through my research and accumulation of photographs and music for this virtual scrapbook, I first became roughly acquainted with the history of San Francisco and its rise to prominence during the Gold Rush in 1849.  Then I listened to a variety of music I knew was associated with the Beats (from class discussion), and settled on the cool sound of West Coast jazz musician Charlie Parker.  Parker was an influence to the Beats through his spontaneous style and open defiance of musical conventions.  He was to jazz what Kerouac and Ginsberg were to literature and poetry.  I also chose the music of the Flamingos because of their slow and dreamlike doo-wop sound, which I thought paired well with my opening photos and descriptions of San Francisco.  I was surprised by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s role in Beat culture, via the City Lights bookstore, as a safehouse for their work.  As is the case with Naked Lunch, Howl, and even On the Road, society often is not ready to accept the prominent works of the Beat authors and poets.  Ferlinghetti and his bookstore helped to encourage the writers, as well as give them public exposure.

During this course, especially while we covered On the Road, I was compelled by Kerouac’s descriptions of San Francisco to gain a greater appreciation for this magical city.  Even though it is impossible for us today to experience the Frisco Kerouac knew, hopefully this scrapbook gives the faintest taste of the sights and sound of The City by the Bay.

 

Under the Dome

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In this thorough investigation, Chai Jing answers almost any questions about China’s struggle with industrial pollution.  The sheer amount of fascinating points raised by Jing could be enough material for a paper, or potentially a book for that matter.  She discusses the personal threat smog is to her infant daughter; whom she attempts to protect from a lifetime of lung disease by carefully monitoring air quality reports and limiting her time outside.  Jing goes into depth about the danger pollution presents, which I found surprising, fascinating and above all terrifying.  The very real threat of lung cancer is part of daily life of those who live in very urban areas with heavy vehicle traffic or steel-producing towns that burn billions of tons of coal.  It’s astonishing that lung cancer rates have risen over 400% since the Mao Zedong took power.  I had previously figured that smog inhalation would result in a bad cough or shortness of breath in old age, rather than the reality of entire households (especially in rural areas) being cleared out by lung cancer.  One of the more significant points Jing brought to light was the economic obstacles to environmental reform.  In short, blue-collar workers of China rely on steel mills and power plants for employment and China’s developing status makes enforcing regulations difficult (or simply unimportant).  For example, Jing joined inspectors at a vehicle checkpoint in the Yanqing district of Beijing, at which officials inspected for emission control devices.  Most trucks were sold as being in compliance with an emissions standard, yet most lacked control devices completely or were far above the allowed limit.  This goes to show the negligence for environmental policy and maximization of profits that characterizes Chinese industrialism.  Ironically, after hearing about the filters and masks to protect against poor air quality, one of the truck drivers was smoking a cigarette.  I’ll admit at this point I opened my room’s windows and took a deep breath of American mountain air and couldn’t be more appreciative.

A lesson in Chinese Opera from Dr. Xu

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Prior to Dr. Xu’s lecture on Chinese opera, my exposure to this art form was only in glimpses from movies.  I was familiar with the general sound of these performances, which I now know is not just a coincidence from movies, but an actual constant in Chinese opera.  The pattern and formula used when singing seems to me like it would get repetitive and tiresome, however the impression I got from Dr. Xu was that this was a staple of Chinese opera dating back over a thousand years.  To the Chinese, not using the formula of rising, falling, flat or mixed tones might be like a musical sung in only one note: very strange sounding.  Hearing the ideal Chinese opera voice, from the early recordings up until Dr. Xu singing herself, was very interesting because of how different my westernized ears heard the songs, versus how some of the Chinese members of the audience heard them.  It sounded strange and different to me, almost like a song played backwards; to them it might have sounded perfectly normal and beautiful.  Often what is the most strange and different is also what is most interesting.