Pac Man turns 30!

Pac Man turned 30n May 22nd. Orginally called Puck Man, the game was developed in Japan by Toru Iwatani, for the Namco game company to compete against Space Invaders and Asteroid. The maze genre of game was meant to appeal to a wider audience then these 'fighting' games and it is acknowledged to have a 95% brand recognition in the United States.

There have been a wide array of spin offs and alternative media products, this is a classic example of Popular Culture.

Traditions and Rituals in Popular Culture

Popular Culture is all about rituals and traditions, that are accepted by society in general. We all may have personal rituals and traditions, these are an important part of our own folk culture though. There are also local rituals and traditions, that become more a part of the main stream of society. When a ritual or traditon is generally accepted across society, it becomes a part of popular culture.

OMG, it is changing all the time! Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and Elvis really is alive but I can't tell you where just yet. Popular culture is changing all the time because society is changing all the time, building on the foundations of yesterday's dreams.

a walk in brooklyn

I am in New York for a quick visit. I love the damp grittiness of the city right now. I was walking by the park in Brooklyn where I am staying, groups of people out doing Tai Chi in the cool early morning, a older man in warm-up pants and undershirt practicing raquetball by himself, a mom having a cigarette talking on the phone and pushing her stroller to the playground, the city comes to life...

What is Popular Culture

Popular Culture today is wider then the heavens and used to be as deep as the deep blue sea, before a floating oil platform exploded and now the sea is... not as blue as it once was in places.

There are three different levels of "taste culture" that are discussed, folk, elite and popular. All three are important to to cultures in general. I would suggest that all three have been impacted by technology. Once of the key distinguishing characteristics of popular culture is it's mass appeal (this is a great topic for more in depth discussion). It's relationship to a mass audiance makes popular culture particularly sensitive to technology, but that has historically been true, not just today.

Folk and elite culture are different from popular primarily in terms of their not being the focus of a mass audiance, like popular culture is. There are other important characteristics as well, but they are related to the quality of mass appeal. We all make each different type of taste culture a part of our lives to various degrees. Access to each level is a personal choice each individual makes according to their tastes, it is not a function of ones social level in society.

None of this address the question of quality! Good and bad quality of artifacts exists at all three levels. Try to think of examples of good and bad folk, elite and popular culture?

It is spring again....

It is overcast and rainy but it is spring, my garden is looking better, the bicycle is getting tuned up and I am thinking about getting a pool pass. Of course, last year I got one but it was so cold and rainy most of the summer I hardly used it. Maybe some other outdoor activity would be good.

March Madness

In like a lion and out like a lamb, this is how the month of March is often described. A month of transitions; from winter to spring. It is also the month the covers the astrological sign of Pieces, two fish swimming in opposite directions. This year has certainly lived up to expectations.

Very cold weather, an unusual snow storm extending from the Atlantic Deep South to New England opened the month. I expect that this might lead us to believe that we will have a very mild and possibly early spring despite what some small town rodent in Pennsylvania leads us to believe.

March Madness isn’t about the weather, but it is about transitions. The end of the college basketball season and hints of opening play at the ‘ball park’. The month has just started bracket bantering has already begun. The final buzzer that ends the season hasn’t been heard and already the talk is about whom will toss out the first pitch at the new Shea Stadium.

The market went down faster than the thermometer this winter but it is March now and who knows what will happen, did the market also come in like a lion and will it too go out like a lamb?

Meltdown, the Life of Britney Spears comes to Ballet

Meltdown, is a new ballet opening in London about Britney Spears Friday February 1, 2008, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7218522.stm). It was created by Choreographer Hubert Essakow and Richard Thomas who wrote the music for the opera “Jerry Springer: the Opera”. The ballet follows the sad twisted decline of an American Pop star.
This is a wonderful example of how popular culture develops, an opera about an American television show known for it’s trashy topics about people exposing their worst experiences in public, becoming a first rate opera. A ballet now has been created about the disintegrating life of an out of control spoiled popular musical celebrity go from Mickey Mouse television star to tragic out of control train wreck mother losing children in front page divorce, who may not make it 30.
The Jerry Springer opera has had a success run in London and had a critically acclaimed two day run at Carnegie Hall, the ballet should be very good though we will see how successful it turns out to be!