Music Culture

If you took away school, work, and sleep, music would be my life. Literally. I've spent the past 15 years teaching myself instruments: starting with piano at 2 1/2 years old, then keyboard (totally different from piano), organ, bass guitar, electric/acoustic guitars (yes - I play them differently, too), ukulele, banjo, and violin.  Not only do I love playing music and performing, but I listen to music almost constantly.  From Beethoven to Wiz Khalifa, I have almost every genre on my iPod - and over 8000 songs.

Music is a sacred culture - it isn't based on where you live or what language you speak or what you look like.  Anyone who has taken Spanish has heard Juanes at least 5 billion times.  You might not know that "Tengo La Camisa Negra" is really about Juanes losing his love, not a black shirt, but that doesn't matter: its still a catchy song that nearly everyone loves. Juanes is Colombian, but that doesn't stop Americans, and other people around the world, from listening to his music.  Music has a subculture that spans beyond the normal cultural limits: it goes beyond language, location, population, etc.  This expansion makes it sacred, and shouldn't be a basis for judgement.

So now where do I fit when people judge music? Everyone can look at someone else and assume what music he or she listens to based on what they look like, what they're wearing, and even how they talk.  This might be true sometimes, but where do the people who don't actually have a favorite genre fall? They're still judged to fit into a certain type, and when they not only listen to this music but many others, why is the one judging so flabberghasted?

There's even an eHow as to how to dress based on the music you like

Why are music listeners stereotyped? Are people so desperate to judge each other that they must resort to music type?

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Coffee Addict Problems

I literally spend too much time at Starbucks.  The baristas all know my name and what I get, I have a "usual" parking spot, I have a "usual" table, and I only have a few more drinks before I reach Gold Level on my Starbucks Rewards account. And I know the other "usuals" too - the 30 year old sunglass guy, the senior citizen who brings his own coffee and gets a venti water, and the Republican poet who got in a fist fight with Bo Biden.

I can't go to Starbucks without someone talking to me. Literally.  I'm usually there for anywhere between 3 and 6 hours, and at least one person will start talking to me.  The first time it happened was because of what I was wearing - the Republican poet asked me why I'm "grunge" and I said it was the first clean thing I found this morning.  He then talked for an hour about his poetry and that he doesn't like slam poetry but "all the kids today" do, and he got in a fist fight with Bo Biden when Biden tried to campaign on his lawn, and I should read all his poetry because its written for people like me.

Normally, strangers don't talk to or trust each other. You don't just walk up to someone at the mall and start talking about your life and asking them questions about theirs, and you wouldn't leave your belongings sitting out in the middle of the food court. But Starbucks is different: something about the atmosphere makes it okay to ask about other people's lives, to get life advice, and to leave your Mac on the table.  I would never go into Barnes and Noble and ask people if they're having a good day.  That'd be creepy. But at Starbucks its okay.

I don't know what makes Starbucks so different, but I love being a part of something so odd. Our little group of "Starbucks regulars" is probably the weirdest sub-community ever, but its still great.

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Gym Culture

Nearly everyone has heard of Abby Lee Miller, the head dance instructor of Abby Lee Dance Company, where the show Dance Moms is filmed.  The moms on this show are known for going crazy.  Whether protecting their daughters, defending themselves, or attacking each other, the mothers of the show are willing to do anything to help their daughter(s) succeed in the next audition, become a professional dancer, or win the weekend's competition.  And America eats up their fiery tempers.  Not only does the show consistently contribute to a Trending Topic on Twitter, its talked about in the media on channels other than Lifetime. 

The gym where I work has 2 locations: our main gym in Newport, and our satellite gym in Peoples Plaza.  Our Newport gym is over 3 times the floor size of our tiny Peoples Plaza gym, and has a lobby with viewing windows, offices, a birthday party room, a team room, and a dance room. Our Peoples Plaza gym is one big room with chain corals keeping parents off the floor: there's no division between parents and the class, putting so much more pressure on teachers by the parents.  Knowing that parents will readily criticize you if things aren't done as they seem fit, will try to instruct their child during the class, or will distract their child is one of the most stressful parts of being a gymnastics teacher, especially to younger children who are still developing their skills and who are still completely attached to their parents.

Take the mothers on Dance Moms, multiply the five of them by 15, multiply their "Tiger Mom" instincts by 3, and that's our Gymnastics Moms.  There are at least 75 competitive gymnasts training in our gym as I write this, but no moms. It had to be written into their contracts that the competitive team moms can't stay during their child's practices, due to their distractive nature and apparent lack of self-restraint.  We've had parents run into the gym when their child falls off a beam, perfectly fine; but the mother seems to think that every fall will hurt her child.  In the gymnastics culture, these moms are oh-so-common and oh-so-burdensome. How do these moms expect their children to succeed when every fall is "dangerous"? This behavior discourages children from being willing to try something new that may seem scary at first - their self-confidence is diminished in a sport where physical skill counts for only 25% of the battle and mental skill counts for 75%?

My work makes my life like Dance Moms: crazy mothers and crazy ideas in a crazy culture.

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"Cultural sensitivity key to U.S. role in Afghanistan" - what cultural sensitivity?

Honestly, CNN, what are you doing? What is this cultural sensitivity you speak of? Everyone knows that foreign soldiers hardly ever care about the people of the country they're invading, with hardly any exceptions, including the current war in Afghanistan. The current war is hardly the beginning of cultural insensitivity.

And then I read the article.

The title is completely misleading. The article isn't about the current (or past) cultural sensitivity, but the need for future cultural sensitivity. But it seems that teaching this is an impossible task. How can you educate soldiers about the complex culture of any of the countries they're "defending their country from"? The respect that will be required for this will give them a connection with the people; and this will create a connection with the people that will quite possibly hinder their mental training in other areas. Soldiers are taught to do as their told, not questioning it or using their own morals to judge the actions. When a connection is created with the people, the soldier will bring their own morals in and will not be willing to mistreat the people.

According to the article, the current cultural advisors to the military have hardly even experienced the culture - they were educated in the US. Even if these advisors spent some time immersed in another culture, it would still not know all there is to know.  If the US government were to employ people born and raised in the culture in question, the expertise would be so much greater and more accurate. The idea that having US born-and-raised citizens advising our country about the cultures of other countries, in order to help us and our interactions with foreign countries, is a little scary.

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