Culture in the Middle East is very diverse. The Middle East is home to a multitude of religions and cultures that allows for a melting pot of culture. A positive of the melting pot is the mix of cultures. From this many different things arise, one of which being music. Born in Lebanon, artist Marcel Khalife has released many songs describing his lifestyle and the lifestyles of people from Lebanon.
Lebanon is home to a diverse interesting culture, although it is also home to much violence, similar to much of the Middle East. During the 1970s Lebanon was experiencing a Civil War. The war, a religious war, was between a unified Christian groups and the Palestine Liberation Organization unified with muslim militias. The war started due to controversies between religions and religious persecution, which is what affected Marcel Khalife. Much of Khalife’s inspiration is from this war and the different persecution against people in his home country of Lebanon. One which he said is truly based off the persecution is Walking Tall. Granted the song is in arabic so I could not get the full message, based on the title and an interview I was able to figure out that the song is about fighting through problems that may strike you and to never give up. (more…)
Disney Pixar’s Coco, directed by Adrian Molina and Lee Unkrich, follows the story of a young boy named Miguel who seeks to find out information on his family’s history. Miguel, who is voiced by Anthony Gonzalez, has a passion for playing music and becoming the next icon musician. However, his family has passed down a ban on playing music due to his great-grandfather running off to pursue his dreams as a musician leaving his family behind. This movie is set in a rural part of Mexico, portraying traditional mexican housing and everyday life. Even though this a Disney Pixar movie, the producers of the movie went very far into researching and using actual people from that area in Mexico to create this movie. It was not just another Disney movie with an “exotic background” where the movie is created off assumptions made by the United States for that region.
From United States perspective we would expect to see in Mexico low-class income, sombreros, and a variety of colorful traditions. This movie really felt like the producers took the time to get to know the country and everyday struggles faced by the people that lived there. The director of this film, Adrian Molina is a mexican american with family ties back in Mexico. The extra effort that went into this movie really gained appeal by the Mexican audience due to the accurate representation of their culture. After reading many reviews from viewers that come from a mexican background, they each expressed a sense of pride. In that their true culture was being brought to the spotlight and not just glamified for the American audience to watch. (more…)
I decided to research was the history of music genres in South Africa.
First off, I chose Kwaito music in South Africa. This began in the 1990s. Kwaito is a mix of various rhythms from marabi, kwela, bubblegum music, and others. It has been influenced by several different music artists and genres. The word comes from the Afrikaans word “kwaai”. This word means angry in English. It was popular in the townships and is now played on the radio, in clubs, and other places. It actually originally grew from the U.S house music. There is an African edge to kwaito dance music, and they chant or rap the lyrics. Some kwaito groups are known as Boom Shaka, Bongo Maffin, and Abashante.
This is a video of Kwaito music, showing their dance rhythms with the music.
Another type of South African music I researched was South African Jazz. It began from the black heritage population and also from the U.S. It was influenced by marabi which was also in the townships of South Africa in a time earlier than Kwaito. Marabi used three cords of the keyboard and had a pattern of ragtime and blues in America.
Lastly, I researched Reggae music in South Africa. Reggae came from the Caribbean, around the 1970s. A popular band was the Dread Warriors. They were brothers who played reggae hits together in the 1980s. They were influenced by the Jamaican originators of Reggae music. South Africans took reggae music as a foreign genre but made it their own. Reggae is still a popular genre for South Africa. (more…)
The Gate Way to the West
Austin Edge
Movie: The Gateway Arch
Miano, B. Huegerich, S. (Director). (2007). The Gateway Arch [Video file]. Janson Media. Retrieved April 30, 2018, from Kanopy.
Setting the Stage
At the age of just 27 Thomas Jefferson, the third president of a nation in its infancy made a decision that would forever change the face of the United States of America. This decision was to purchase the Louisiana territory from France in the greatest trade deal in the history of trade deals, possibly ever. The Louisiana Purchase allowed for the expansion of the United States west of the Mississippi.
During this time St. Louis Missouri sat on the western edge of the known world. In 1804 Thomas Jefferson sent his personal assistant Meriwether Lewis on an expedition to explore the river system of the newly acquired territory. Lewis recruited the help of his good friend William Clark and together they led the Corp of Discovery west. They departed St. Louis in 1804 covering an estimated 6,000 miles before retuning to St. Louis two and a half year later. What they would report would bring hoards flocking to St. Louis.
Moving West
After news of Lewis and Clarks finding spread throughout the nation Americans and immigrants hastened to head west to the land of milk and honey Lewis and Clark had reported. St. Lewis being on the Mississippi River and being the farthest western city made it the ideal home base for the push westward. Seemingly overnight St. Louis flourished, and steamboats could be seen lining the banks of the Mississippi dropping off wave after wave of pioneers beginning their journey westward. This of course brought big business to St. Louis which prospered in the outfitting business. St. Louis had become the point in which all pioneers began their journey westward, this is how it earned the name “The Gateway to the West”. (more…)
Jazz is a genre of music that originated in the United States, specifically in New Orleans. It began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was heavily influence by blues and ragtime genres of music. Jazz has been known to be deeply rooted within black culture, but other cultures have contributed to it as well. Jazz in New Orleans began in the early 1920s and is now a symbol of the city itself. Jazz has morphed into different forms over the years such as: cool jazz, free jazz, and modal jazz. All are variations of the original, but have surfaced due to other cultures changing it to make it more their own style.
For my project, I chose to specifically focus on free jazz. It is a form that was “first developed in the 1950s and 60s as musicians attempted to alter, extend, or break down jazz convention, often by discarding fixed cord changes or tempos.” (Wikipedia) Ornette Coleman was seen as “one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement”. (Wikipedia) He is an American musician and composer born in Fort Worth, Texas. During his career, he was always known for his unorthodox style of playing and singing. In 1960, Coleman recored his first free jazz album, which lasted about 40 minutes and was by far his most controversial piece of writing. It was very different from works seen in the past due to the interesting playing techniques used. At one point during the song, the drummers were playing at two different tempos while their were also random solos from each member throughout the piece. Coleman on this album plays along with a drummer, Billy Higgins, a trumpeter, Freddie Hubbard, a bassist, Scott LaFaro, and others such as Eric Dolphin, Gunther Schuller, and Charlie Haden. (more…)
On every Saturday, from August until January, almost twenty-six million people watch college football. At Penn State University, all 98,000 students show up to Beaver Stadium to cheer on their D1 football team. In the film,Happy Valley, it shows you how important Penn State football is and what people will do to keep up the reputation that the school had. It takes us through Jerry Sandusky trial and how many things were hidden during his time as the Assistant Coach at Penn State. During this time, Jerry Sandusky was working under the legendary Penn State Coach, Joe Paterno. The film Happy Valley takes you through how Penn State football changed forever.
Penn State loves their college football, especially when the team was led by Joe Paterno. Joe Paterno started coaching at Penn State in 1966, becoming one of the most successful coaches in college football. Paterno led Penn State to many undefeated seasons, getting his team to 37 bowl games, winning 24 of them. Joe was considered a hero, he wanted to make his team not just better on the field, but better in life. He made it his mission to make sure that all of his players had the best chance at having a better future. Joe made it about the team and not the players, which is why his career was so successful. Joe did not put names on the back of his players jerseys because it wasn’t about what name was on the back of the jersey, but on the front. He also made sure that his team knew that education was the most important thing. During the period that Paterno was coaching his team had a graduation rate of about 84 percent. This was another reason why everybody loved Paterno and why he was the best. Joe Paterno was Penn State football. But, all of Joe Paterno’s success and fame ended when Jerry Sandusky was accused of sexually assaulting young boys. (more…)
I decided to watch Machuca, a Chilean film released in 2004 from director Andres Wood. The movie was set in 1973 in the city of Santiago during Salvador Allende’s socialist government reign all the way until General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup, which I’ll explore later. The film follows the story of 11 year old protagonist, Gonzalo Infante, and his eventual friend Pedro Machuca. Gonzalo was an upper middle-class Chilean boy during a rough time period in Chile where the lower classes demanded more rights and fundamental change. While confusing for an outsider and particularly for me not knowing too much about Chilean political history, the story is relatively easy to follow due to the fact that it’s told in the eyes of a child who doesn’t necessarily understand all that is going on around him.
Gonzalo attends a prestigious private school where the principal has recently developed a social integration project that admits five underprivileged students to attend the school. One of those kids, Pedro Machuca, stands up for Gonzalo as he’s being bullied which results in the two boys becoming friends. After school that day Gonzalo follows Pedro and his neighbor Silvana as they go with their uncle to sell various propaganda at different demonstrations. They first visit a right-wing nationalist demonstration and right after they attend a leftist rally that is in support of the socialist government. Silvana teases Gonzalo at first but they eventually befriend one another and later kiss for the first time. It is around this point in the movie that the viewer realizes the major differences in the lives of Machuca and Infante seeing as one lives in an extremely small, humble home where children have to share rooms and the other has his own room to where he can keep his toys and a walk in closet for his clothes. Gonzalo is dismayed, almost in shock at the conditions of Pedros home whereas Pedro is astounded at the way Gonzalo is living, but at the same time notes the tension and difference of Gonzalo’s family life. (more…)
This feature film representing Polynesian life opens with traditional Hawaiian music. We get an immediate taste for the culture as a mythical story is told to children on the island sitting in a room made of wood and decorated with tapestries.The audience is then introduced to the beautiful landscape of the island that is not only breathtaking for an animation but is also geographically correct.
As the characters are introduced and Princess Moana begins to grow up, the general theme of self-sufficiency through the island becomes apparent. Even though the songs and aesthetic scenes early in the movie don’t develop the plot, they provide a lot of information about how Moana’s people live on the island of Motunui. Besides the belief in many rare gods and stories that contradict science, the way the people of Motunui live in Moana is very historically accurate. Since the island is completely surrounded by water, the people have to use what is on the island.
As the plot progresses, we see that the people of Motunui have sort of isolated themselves on the island since they will not voyage beyond the reef to look for more resources. Characters like Moana’s grandma, Tala, believe the fear of going beyond the reef is irrational. The fictional side of the film reveals that Moana was chosen by the ocean to be a voyager and save the island from a demon named Te Ka who is poisoning the island’s natural resources. Moana’s Father, the chief of the island, is probably the most adamant about not leaving the island. In a flashback, the audience learns that many years ago Moana’s Father tried to go beyond the reef with his friend. The trip was disastrous and his friend died. Moana is stuck between listening to the sound advice of her Father and the risky, far-fetched ideas of her Grandma. When the natural resources on the island become diseased and her Grandmother begins to pass away, Moana is driven to leave the island on her own. (more…)
“When Two Worlds Collide” is a documentary chronicling the opposition between the Peruvian government and the indigenous people over the Amazonian rainforest. Peruvian president, Alan Garcia, pushed for the development of the Peruvian Amazon. He called for the extraction of its natural resources while taking the land of the indigenous people. Alberto Pizango organized people from different indigenous tribes to protest this unconstitutional taking of land. After failed attempts at a compromise, the indigenous tribes organized a strike. This opposition between Garcia and Pizango, led to an over fifty-day strike which turned into mass violence. There was a loss of more than 100 native civilians and 14 policemen were killed.
Overview of Development in the Amazon
The Peruvian Amazon is the area of the Amazon rainforest that is included within the country of Peru. Peru has the second-largest portion of the Amazon rainforest after the Brazilian Amazon and is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. This region comprises sixty percent of the country, yet only five percent of Peruvians live in the Peruvian Amazon. However, the Peruvian Amazon is home to many indigenous tribes, including the Aguaruna, Cocama-Cocamilla and the Urarina. These people have lived in isolated in the Peruvian Amazon for countless generations and they depend on the natural resources that the rainforest provides them. (more…)
