5-1 Journal

The popular culture topic that I chose to write about this week is motorcycle gangs and how they are a part of American popular culture. Motorcycle gangs have been around for many years and are pictured in a lot of movies and even music videos. There are different types of motorcycle gangs such as the Harley Davidson riders which their bikes can sometimes be referred to as hogs. There are also young riders that ride street bikes which are sporty, modern and can really set off at high-speeds.
Motorcycles are a part of American culture because they represent the open road, freedom, and a bit of rowdy rebelliousness. Perhaps not so much rebelliousness as in past years but it still portrays a sense of freedom and the desire to be on the open road
call to many.
Motorcycle gangs are often portrayed in movies such as “Wild Hogs” staring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Marten Lawrence and William Macy which is a comedy about average American guys wanting to feel that sense of freedom on the open road on their hogs. According to http://video.movies.go.com the movie is, “A” “hysterically funny comedy about four weekend-warrior friends who decide to rev up their ho-hum suburban lives with a cross-country motorcycle adventure.” Everyone recognizes the call to freedom and it even has movies written about it.
On the roads recently you’ll notice a lot more female drivers instead of just riders these days. Perhaps it’s due to fuel cost but also perhaps the call to the open road is calling to the female genre. There are also such things as bike nights where anyone riding any type of bike goes to a certain restaurant on a certain night, such as the bike night at Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant. There are also poker rides where riders make several different stops playing different hands of poker.
Motorcycles will always be a part of American popular culture as they represent a lot of what Americans love, freedom, the open road and a carefree lifestyle.

1-2 Article analysis

Reference: Stuckey, Mike. MSNBC. Senior News Editor. “When Father’s Day is a double celebration” Retrieved September 2008 from website, www.MSNBC.com

4-1, Weekly Written Analysis- The Dollar Menu

The popular culture topic I chose to write about this week is the fascination of the dollar menu in our fast food restaurants. It’s not an unusual statement to hear that American is the fast food nation of the world. Obesity has run rapid in our culture and society since the fast food chains have been popping up. Recently the fast foods chains have been adding more food for less money, making it much easier and inexpensive to eat unhealthy. Pretty much any type of fast food chain you can think of has a dollar menu, such as McDonalds where they have eight items you can buy for a buck such. Their items include: “A double cheeseburger, McChicken sandwich, small fries, small drink, hot fudge sundae, fruit ‘n yogurt parfait, two apple pies, and a side salad. Eating everything on the Dollar Menu may not seem that bad, but consuming 2,455 calories, 107 grams of fat, 175 milligrams of cholesterol, 3,115 milligrams of sodium, 309 grams of carbs, and 152 grams of sugar can’t be a good thing according to Marvo at www.theimpulsivebuy.com .” Not only is it easy for Americans to stop and order off the dollar menu because it’s cheap but it’s so bad for you! When many Americans eat on the run traveling from work to school sports or functions and dragging their kids from one place to another it’s an easy habit to fall into. Not only is it bad for you but American’s are teaching our children to drive thru for dinner instead of cooking and sitting down at the dinner table as a family and having a conversation. We instead eat cheap, fattening food on the run and don’t put anytime into the family dinner conversation any longer. It’s a bad habit all the way around. We’re creating obese, unhealthy kids that eat in front of the television, in the car, or on their way to somewhere instead of creating an environment where the family cooks together, sits down at the table together and enjoys each others company and says, “How was your day, or What did you learn in school today?” We should all know better, what it is going to take us to stop doing this? Probably not knowing that I can get a double cheeseburger and a fry for $2.00 and it takes me about 5 minutes or less to do so.

3-2, Ritual Development

A ritual is something that is observed and done many times over because the act of the ritual means something important to the person doing it. Most often it is something done in a religious sense. For example, the ritual of Communion in a Christian Catholic church is something that is observed and done daily.

Other than the rituals of going to Church every Sunday; some of the rituals I observe are the masses of people going to work every day. That’s how the term “rat race” came about because all the people trying to get to work in the morning before 0800, calls for rush hour. Another ritual that has become more popular lately is the ritual of working out or exercising. We are a fast food nation; obesity has risen like never before. With the weight and health problems facing us, exercise has become more like a ritual in our society. The need to look good and stay healthy is very prevalent. So the rituals I see are people running or walking on the street, or going to the gym to work out on a cardio machine or lift weights is becoming an everyday ritual in our society.

My mother and brother live in NC, while my father lives in Texas. My husband’s family is in Florida. So some of the rituals we observe are sending packages back and forth by mail at Christmas time. I have to work holidays so at Christmas time, mostly in the evening, we get on the phone and open up the gifts that we got for one another. One of my husband’s and my ritual is having coffee together in the living room on Sunday morning while it’s still very early. Another one is we enjoy cooking together. When both of us are home we take joy in standing along side the other and cooking dinner.

The ritual of looking good is prevalent today. Working out, buying nice clothes and perhaps a few cosmetic procedures are becoming very popular and ritualistic in United States Popular Culture today. Wanting to keep up with your neighbors such as buying nice cars, having the nice deck with the grill and the nice manicured lawn has always been important to a lot of Americans but lately it’s becoming more of a ritual to have something better than everyone else.

One ritual I would like to see implemented is the lowering of the wasting of food that occurs in the United States. We’re such a sue happy country that most people and corporations will not allow the left over food to be given to food pantries or homeless shelters because of the scare of being sued. I used to work at major grocery store deli; every night if the rotisserie chickens were not bought they were thrown in the trash. This made me very upset and I asked if we could instead start giving them to the local homeless shelters. I was told no because if someone got sick and sued then the company would have to pay. It was too much of a liability. I’d like to see that corporations come together such as grocery stores or any other company that could help and start giving their left over food to homeless shelters and food banks. There are too many starving people in the world for such senseless things to happen like the throwing away of good, edible food. Perhaps if a law was implemented that would make it difficult for someone to sue a grocery store for food that was given away it would be easier for companies to comply. Of course this would have to be mandated and monitored we couldn’t have companies giving away food that wasn’t good to eat.
Another ritual I would like to see imposed is making it a law to recycle. If it were a law or if everyone had to pay for each bag of trash they put on the street the waste that we produced would be far less than it is today. Another thing I would like to see happen is that the waste companies that are retrieving our trash must comply with recycling themselves. So in the event someone doesn’t recycle it’s that company’s responsibility to go through the trash and pull out any recyclable material prior to burying it in the waste dump.

3-1, Weekly Written Analysis, Plasma vs. LCD TVs

The popular culture topic I chose to write about this week is plasma televisions verses LCD televisions. My husband and I are in the market for a new television and there are so many different brands with different abbreviations and numbers and how many pixels are good to get that it can become quite confusing. Especially if you’re not technology minded like me.

We’ve heard good qualities about both but weren’t sure which one would suit our purpose. My husband did research prior to our shopping around and as he and the sales clerk rattled off letters and numbers, to me it sounded as if they were speaking Greek. I did feel a bit uninformed and guilty that I let my husband do all of the fun research and I went a long for the enjoyment of picking the style and size. However I trust his judgment and decided why must two of us go through the painstaking agony of research?

The sales clerk at one particular store said that Plasma and LCD televisions are pretty much the same. You can Google the differences between plasma and LCD televisions and find pretty much any type of information you are looking for. However in a generic sense this is what I found out. Plasma’s can be a bit cheaper because they’ve been out a lot longer than LCD’s which are relatively newer. If your television will be in a brightly lit room than you would rather have an LCD TV as plasma’s have a lot of glare to them. One website that I found that was particularly helpful was, www.crutchfield.com where it gives a list of pros and cons for the plasma and LCD televisions. “Plasma Pros have screen’s phosphor coating creates lifelike color that is closest to conventional tube TVS, it’s cons are that they’re vulnerable to burn-in, and the screens are prone to reflections from room lights than LCD. The LCD pros are the panels weigh les than plasma and use less energy; burn-in not an issue, it’s cons are that the picture is slightly less natural than top plasmas.”

Icon analysis 2-2

The three contemporary icons that I chose are, Rosie the Riveter, the Bald Eagle and Neil Armstrong. Rosie the Riveter is an American icon from back in the 1940’s during World War II. She was actually based on a real person according to Wikipedia and she was a symbol to the women at the time to help their country and government by going to work in the factories while the men were fighting for the war. She is shown as a strong American woman choosing to leave the home to work and keep the economy going and supplying manufacturing products needed for the war. I chose her because she is an image that started the working women revolution. Many products featuring Rosie can be bought from briefcases to clocks to apparel on www.rosietheriveter.com .
The bald Eagle is an American icon because it represents freedom. Its image of strength, freedom and perseverance shows what America stands for. According to www.baldeagleinfo.com , this bird is our national bird and is the only bird unique to North America. This website also states, the bald eagle is no longer on the Endangered Species List and it is illegal to transport, sale, barter, trade, import and export, and possession of eagles, making it illegal for anyone to collect eagles and eagle parts, nests, or eggs without a permit. However “Native Americans are able to possess these emblems which are traditional in their culture.” I chose the American eagle as an icon because anyone that looks on the eagle can see its strength and valor and that is why it is our national bird.
The third icon I chose was Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon and is revered as hero in our culture. I chose him because he signifies that America is always looking toward the future and striving to accomplish our goals. He made the statement, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” when he landed on the moon. He is from Wapakoneta, Ohio and has a degree from Purdue University according to http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov .

Lottery : 2-1

The popular culture topic that I chose to write about this week is the lottery. There are many different types of lotteries that different states offer. You can play scratch off tickets; cash explosions, keno or get into the mega millions that some states offer. Winning the lottery is the hope of getting the American dream in a fast, non-patient, immediate satisfaction generation. The American dream of having a beautiful home with money in the bank can automatically be achieved just by buying a lottery ticket in the hopes of winning. To think of no longer working, buying that mansion and pulling up in a red Ferrari can be bought for only a dollar at a time, it’s easy to see why people buy the tickets. It is a price that many Americans are willing to gamble on and I too fall into that trap. There are some people that play the scratch off lottery tickets for fun and the thrill of gambling but for something like the mega millions it’s played on a hope and a prayer.

The lottery is run by the government of each state. According to www.ohiolottery.com “The Ohio Lottery Commission was created in May 1973 by a voter-approved constitutional amendment. The first tickets went on sale in August 1974. Today, the Ohio Lottery Commission offers customers a wide variety of instant games and on-line games to play at about 8,500 licensed retailer locations across the state. Since 1974, the Lottery has provided more than $15 billion to public education. Annually, we provide about 4.5 percent of the funding needed for public education -- an effort shared by local, state and federal governments.” Knowing this is helping public education and could POSSIBLY win me millions I choose to play the lottery. Because, you have to play to win and hey I’m helping the school system, it’s a win win.

Currently at my job, we have a lottery pool where bi-weekly people put in $1.00 for the lottery. The hope is that if everyone puts in money our chances of winning will be greater as we’re buying $40.00 worth of tickets for the personal price of just $1.00. I’ve heard many people at my work say that even though chances are slim of winning, they couldn’t imagine their regret if they are the only ones left in the office to work while their co-workers get to split millions and retire. I too, fall under this category. It’s a slimy, intelligent beast that the Ohio Lottery Commission has created, however it was approved by the voters. With the popular culture of American society of being rich and beautiful it is easy to see why this was voter approved and why so many of us fall into its snare.

Paparazzi, 1-3

One of the current pop culture topics that interest me is paparazzi. It’s amazing to me the lengths these journalists will go to; to get their story.

The paparazzi are mainly known as nuisances that prey on the rich and famous and try to get pictures of them doing the most normal, mundane tasks. Every time you enter the line at the grocery store you see tons of magazines with pictures taken of the Hollywood stars that they didn’t know about. A lot of times, the paparazzi want to get scandalous pictures of the stars without makeup, dressed up as bag men or women, or in their swimsuits—this one especially if they don’t have the perfect body that’s so highly valued in Hollywood. You always see that magazine in line at the store that has the bodies of people in their bathing suits showing imperfections with the dark black line crossed out over their eyes while reading, “Guess who?”

My personal opinion is that the paparazzi are just too intrusive and use aggressive tactics especially if it’s just their job, I mean, do they really have a right to do what they do? I know that people that get into show biz and become big stars lose their anonymity but the tactics that these paparazzi go to can be incredible! They hide in bushes, they stand in front of a cars when people are trying to drive off, they follow the stars around shopping, or while they are eating at restaurants; or even at a park or beach with their kids. I can come to the agreement that the stars going into this business to be famous and they’ve lost a lot of their privacy, but the way the paparazzi handles the taking of their pictures and practically stalking them is goes way overboard.

Popular Culture Artifact

Popular culture is the culture that people live and experience in their everyday lives and what is trendy, in-style or simply what is known as what’s going on.

Popular culture is important and relevant now in any career and in any business environment because you need to be aware of the happenings around you.

An example of a popular culture artifact is Guitar Hero. It’s a popular video game where it allows the person playing to tap into being a rock star without having the ability to know how to play a guitar.