Tag Archives: americana

pizza

The American Pizza Trade Deficit.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

The news media has been covering the American election process 24×7, with way more attention to Donald Trump than is necessary. In particular, they talk a lot about how Trump is going to ruin the world. He isn’t, but that’s another blog article. Quietly buried in the side stories is something with the potential to be far more ruinous than any politician: An American pizza chain wants to expand into Italy.

I absolutely do not comprehend other nations’ fascination with American chain restaurant food. Even my friends from other countries can’t get enough of it. My buddy from the Philippines begs me to take him to…Olive Garden? My other friend who came here from India thinks Red Lobster is America’s greatest contribution to culinary culture. I’m not kidding.

The rest of the world may not believe it, but we actually do have “real” food in the United States. So why would someone come all the way over here and ask for Pizza Hut? It’s a real WTF? moment. My Filipino friend was not dissuaded when I explained to him that in the United States, Olive Garden is more famous as the punchline of a joke than it is as a place for authentic Italian food.

So I was not surprised to hear that Domino’s Pizza is entering the Italian market. And by “Italian” I mean the adjective referring to the geographical country, not the food genre. Anyone who has ever eaten Domino’s Pizza will understand why I need to make that distinction.

All indicators say that the Italians will fall for the pizza scam. American chain restaurant food is a big deal in Europe, so I’m told. When Dunkin’ Donuts opened its first franchise in Sweden, the locals went nuts over it and even waited in long lines for their 400 calories (give or take) of sugary, grease-fried, carbohydrated American goodness. They give us IKEA, we give them diabetes.

A Domino’s Pizza in Italy is a whole different level of crass. Yes, it bothers me that they think it’s authentic “American food.” Uncle Pete’s Pizza in Naperville, Illinois, was one of my regular stops when I was a teenager and is still there to this day. It’s been in the same location for over thirty years, and they have never gotten any greedy ideas about expanding or selling out. It is a chain with one single link. You cannot get anything like it, anywhere else.

Originality is the hallmark of any culture, and Uncle Pete’s is just one original in a huge gallery of masterpieces. Every American neighborhood used to have its own version of Uncle Pete’s until corporate pizza drove them to extinction. Now the world is being overrun with low end industrial grade grub being passed off as down home American fare.

If you want to see the Mona Lisa, then you have to go to the Louvre in Paris. No one considers a print of the Mona Lisa to be the real deal, nor would anyone travel a great distance and wait in line to see one. Yet with food it seems everyone is willing to accept a much lower standard. Bad counterfeits are not only tolerated, they are celebrated. In a way I can’t blame the restaurant chains as they are only giving the customers what they want, or more accurately, what they are willing to settle for.

It’s puzzling, but if Italians want Domino’s Pizza, then who am I to tell them what to like? I must point out that it’s not authentically American any more than freakin’ Olive Garden is authentically Italian. I just don’t understand why the nation that gave us the Mona Lisa and real pizza would settle for a cheap knockoff when they already know what it means to be an original.

hedy lamarr

The Odd Tale Of How World War II Era Actress Hedy Lamarr Gave Us Wireless Connectivity.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

History often takes unusual, sometimes bizarre paths back to an origin, and the farther back something happened, the less known the strange details are. For example: Ask 100 people on the street who Hedy Lamarr was and it would be surprising if even one gives a correct answer. Here’s the kicker: Hedy Lamarr invented something in 1942 that the average person today uses all the time and carries with them everywhere they go.

Hedy Lamarr was about as far from the image of a technical innovator and inventor as one could expect. As a hugely popular actress in the 1930’s and 40’s, she graced movie screens with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Clark Gabel. With such a busy filming schedule, it’s amazing that she had time to dabble in science. Yet dabble she did, and in what might have been one of those Hollywood-esque eureka! moments, Hedy Lamar invented what is now known as spread spectrum frequency transmission.

I know…I can sense my readers’ eyes glazing over. Stay with me a little longer and don’t click away from this page. Lamarr’s invention and personality is relevant to your modern life in ways you may not realize. Much more than someone who both starred in movies and changed the world with her invention, Hedy Lamarr tells a personal story that goes deeper than art and science.

It is very easy to interfere with a transmitter that sits on the same frequency all the time. In World War II this had serious implications for radio communications. All the enemy had to do was find the frequency the Allies were on was on and jam it, or they could quietly eavesdrop and collect intelligence data.

But if the transmitter constantly changes frequencies, and the receiver changes with it, then the transmission is much more secure because it never stays on any one channel for very long. It would be impossible for the enemy to follow the constant changes.

That’s basically how spread spectrum frequency transmission works. Hedy Lamarr, along with a musician neighbor, came up with a device that used something similar to paper piano rolls to change the frequencies. As long as both the transmitter and receiver had copies of the same roll, and the rolls were running exactly in sync, the system would work. The paper rolls were a 1940’s version of “software.” Lamarr was granted a patent on August 11, 1942.

hedy-lamarr

As things went, the US Navy took a pass on Hedy Lamarr’s invention until 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis forced the American military to up their technological game. By then the patent had expired but Lamarr’s legacy was secure. Today, cellphones, wifi, Bluetooth, remote controlled devices, security alarms, public safety communications systems…almost everything wireless uses some form of spread spectrum. The frequency hopping is controlled by computers instead of paper rolls and occurs thousands of times per second. The net result is less interference and more security.

Great discoveries often come from unusual origins. There are other examples out there, but a World War II era movie queen with no formal engineering credentials coming up with an invention that touches every moment of our modern lives is possibly the most profound.

Hedy Lamarr died in obscurity in 2000, just about when cellphones became an everyday item and well before Bluetooth or wifi. She did not live to see her invention come into common use, but I’ll bet a thoughtful mind like hers sensed she was on to something that was valuable for more than just avoiding the Nazis. Lamarr was posthumously inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2014.

And that my friends is the offbeat story behind one of the most important technological developments of the modern age. Perhaps unintentionally, Hedy Lamarr also taught us something about weaknesses in human nature such as doubting others’ abilities based on stereotypes and not being open to ideas from unexpected sources. Hedy Lamarr is living proof that greatness often comes from the direction we are not looking.

music

When Music Mattered.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

I am a huge consumer of music. My iPod is nearly full and I’ve been a subscriber to SiriusXM radio for over ten years. I listen to jazz standards and screaming thrash metal and classic rock and country and everything. A lot of what I’m into is just for entertainment, but some of it says something meaningful to me. What has become apparent is that new music does not seem to say anything at all.

Rewind back to the 1960s-1970s Vietnam era. The war was in the headlines every day. We The People, particularly the young people, were getting sick of it and the music of the time reflected the sentiment. It was a Golden Age when music was not just about making a profit. It was a vote, an editorial, and a prayer all rolled into one. You may not have agreed with what they were saying, but they deserved respect for the effort they put into saying it.

Today, not only does music have little to say (unless killing cops and having sex is “saying something”), it does not take a whole lot of talent to say it. Carefully crafting chords and downbeats, you know, actually singing and playing an instrument, has been dispensed with. Now they just slap some junk together and let a computer sort out the details. All bow down to Auto-Tune.

There is an episode of the animated TV show South Park where father Randy Marsh, disgusted by the kids’ idea of “talent” as hitting high score on the video game Guitar Hero, tries to show them the artistry of Kansas’ classic Carry On My Wayward Son as performed on a real guitar. Predictably, the kids are appalled. Satire and comically horrible vocals notwithstanding, that one short scene encapsulates the generational disconnect about music. It’s not about musicianship or artistry, it’s about memorizing what button to push or having a good marketing agent.

The computerization of music is not necessarily bad. Times change, technology moves forward, and I love my iPod and SiriusXM. I’m not old enough to have ever owned an 8-track tape, but I know I don’t want them back! What is bad is the complete lack of effort and thought put into modern music. Led Zepplin, Styx, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel…not a single one of them could get a recording contract as a new act today. Their music is nowhere near shallow and superficial enough for what sells now.

music

The social commentary and protest songs of the 60’s and 70’s are still relevant and still have a large following, not just because the music is well composed and performed, but also because decades later it still isn’t done telling its story. Anyone want to bet if Justin Bieber or Nicki Manaj will be considered artistic treasures forty-plus years from now?

The political climate probably has a lot to do with the lack of dissent in modern music. In politics, there are very few fence sitters. Music is a commodity and bands are run like corporations. As such, they go only for what sells. The few that drift out of the center lane accept that by embracing one side they are volunteering to be outcasts to everyone else. Socially conscious music may be virtuous and philosophically pure, but it seldom pays the bills.

Justin Bieber will never have to worry about one of his songs being hijacked for a political or social cause.

We have an election year coming up, and as sure as the weeds grow every spring there is no shortage of aging hippy rock stars whining that they don’t want their music used in a particular party’s or candidate’s campaign. Never mind that the campaigns paid licensing fees for the legal right to use the music (although the law does give the artists some say in the matter). And never mind that a lot of these old bands get a badly needed career boost from the publicity that comes from their songs being used by a political campaign, even if it’s for a candidate they disagree with.

The 60s and 70s antiestablishment spirit still burns bright in the hearts of the old rock legends who are still around. Their objections today seem rather petty compared to the statements they were originally trying to make with their art, yet I admire them for sticking to their principles. For sure, Justin Bieber will never have to worry about one of his songs being hijacked for a political or social cause.

 

 

radical islamic terrorists

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! All Good Citizens To Arms!

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

During the early history on the United States, the everyday person existed in a lifestyle of survival. There was no such thing as running to the store for a forgotten item. There was no organized public safety. There were no weekends off. Food, water, shelter, heat, clothing, everything, came out of one’s own hard effort. The settlers had to tap into their confidence, independence, and sense of inner strength, or die. Recent world events perpetrated by radical Islamic terrorists remind us why now is the time for all Americans to reclaim their independent Colonial spirit and personally stand up to the threats that seek to destroy the freedom the United States has sacrificed for over the two-plus centuries of our history.

Much has been said by world leaders about what can, should, or will be done about radical Islamic terrorists (note: unlike Barak Obama and the entire Democratic party, I will use this exact term throughout this article). The radical Islamic terrorists are not “contained.” They are on the move and expanding beyond the Middle East. Next stop: The United States. What are you, good citizen, going to do about it?

That was not a rhetorical question. I’m being totally serious: What are you, good citizen, personally going to do about radical Islamic terrorists? If the answer is some variation of “I can’t personally do anything,” or “Let the government deal with it,” then you are are unwittingly complicit in helping the radical Islamic terrorists achieve their goal and sadly disconnected from the spirit of the Colonial freedom fighters who birthed this great nation.

You are either armed or you are a soft target. It really is that black and white.

The most important and meaningful personal response to radical Islamic terrorists is having a way to defend yourself and by extension your country. You can’t (and shouldn’t) totally avoid “soft targets” such as shopping malls and sporting events. And there is no real defense against a suicide bomber or a maniac who takes over an airliner. But that is a weak reason to do nothing. There are measures anyone can take to have an advantage over most threats and not be a soft target yourself.

Being a hardened target involves carrying a gun at all times and knowing how to use it. The anti-gun American left is entitled to their old tropes and I’ll gladly shut up and permit them to prattle uninterrupted on the condition that they openly admit they are ok with being a walking soft target and they are ok with the thought of having absolutely zero options except luck if radical Islamic terrorists (or gang bangers, or any other form of social excrement) come to kill them and their families. I fully respect the anti-gun liberals’ decision to call 911 and sit quietly in their “gun free zone” piousness while they wait their turn to have their brains splattered on the wall. I will be busy shooting back. You are either armed or you are a soft target. It really is that black and white.

In Colonial times everyone was armed because there was a legitimate need to be. The frontier was a place were the perils were numerous and unpredictable; being caught without a means of defense was often fatal. Imminent mortal danger may seem far removed from modern life in the USA, and that’s exactly what the radical Islamic terrorists want you to think. The need to carry a gun is still as real as it was over two centuries ago. Political and military solutions are beyond the practical control of the average citizen, but there is quite a bit that we can do as individuals. The Second Amendment is the great equalizer.

All good Americans need to embrace the spirit of the Minuteman: Prepare yourselves and answer the urgent call to arms in defense of your own liberty. Do not wait until the radical Islamic terrorists are at your door and then hope others will save you. Protecting freedom is not the sole domain of the police, the military, or the government. It is your heritage. It is your personal duty.

Editor’s note: If you enjoyed this article, then you may also like my other Second Amendment related post, We Walk Quietly Among You. 

 

medical supplements

Medical Supplements Are Heirs To An Ageless Schtick.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

The traveling patent medicine peddler who would go from town to town selling “miracle cure” potions and pills that presumably would work on just about any malady was a stock character in old western movies. Today, there is a modern version of the patent medicine scam known as the herbal and medical supplements industry.

In the movies, the sales pitch would be boosted by a paid shill in the crowd who would testify that he used the product and it cured everything that was wrong with him, from baldness to ingrown toenails. The end of the movie subplot was always the same: The concoctions were medically worthless if not outright dangerous, but by time anyone figured it out the quack doctor had long folded up his show and skipped town with everyone’s money.

These dramas have a basis in truth. In times past there really were salesmen tramping from town to town hawking fake medicine and draining wallets as they went. Today’s version of the patent medicine flimflam does not involve a smooth talking transient in a horse drawn wagon. Thanks to modern communications, they don’t have to leave the house or even be in the USA to rip people off with their medical supplements.

It’s impossible to avoid the hustlers of medical supplements because they are all over cable television and the internet. Pills that “melt fat”. Pills that bulk up muscle. Pills that make you more mentally alert. Pills that unclog your arteries. Pills to soothe your aching joints. And of course, for the gentlemen, pills that make your guy parts much more useful. Whatever your problem is, someone has a remedy for it. There are even pills for problems you don’t know you have. And we can’t overlook creams and ointments to melt fat (again!), remove wrinkles, and keep your joints from hurting (again!).

In addition to medical supplements is an equally robust industry selling devices that can help you with…do we really need to run down the list again? Perhaps the most ubiquitous device on TV in the USA is the Willow Curve. The cheesy gizmo looks like a prop from a science fiction movie and the manufacturer makes a lot of far-out claims about what this product will do; independent research shows thats it’s basically a $599 heating pad with some pretty blinking lights on it.

medical supplements

The whole point of this monologue is to observe that in a contemporary age when everyone is supposed to be sophisticated enough to know better, the quack medicine shows are alive and more popular than any 19th century roadside barker could possibly conceive. The bogus goods have been rebranded as “medical supplements” and come with the small print caveat “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” But the basic schtick is the same: Make amazing promises, collect the cash. And millions of people spend billions of dollars falling for it.

As much as I disrespect the scammers and their medical supplements, I do not think they should be run out of business. As long as the product is not obviously toxic, leave them alone and let them keep raking in the cash. If consumers give in to their vanity, or lack of due diligence, or sincerely held faith that any of that crap actually works in spite of an ocean of legitimate science that indicates otherwise, then they are complicit in the draining of their wallets and should accept whatever happens afterward.

Maybe the uncomplicated folk portrayed in the the old movies are not as fictional as we’d like to think. Like so many other things in this world, sensible judgement has difficulty standing firm against the allure of fast and easy solutions. Going by the number of medical supplements being pushed in the media, the descendants of the patent medicine swindlers of yesteryear are proudly carrying on their forefathers’ profession and have no trouble at all finding dupes willing to open their wallets.

buffet

The Food Buffet Serves Up What Is Wrong In America.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

Regular readers know that Twenty First Summer is a libertarian, heavily pro-American platform. That doesn’t mean I don’t think the USA has any problems, but I typically keep my criticisms about the United States out of this blog. This time I just can’t let it slide. I’ve concluded that the food buffet of all places is a microcosm of what is wrong in the United States, and it embarrasses me not only as an American, but also as someone who believes in basic human decency.

As we entered the buffet, the wealth of food stretched before us gave us that “oh, wow!” breathless moment. This was not like the pre made frozen-then-reheated vats of soulless generic grub found on steam tables at inexpensive chain establishments and truck stops. This was an upscale experience of fresh seafood, cooked to order steaks, fresh soups, and beautifully made desserts from an in-house pastry chef. We were going high class that night.

The problem with this otherwise elegant buffet became immediately apparent. It wasn’t the food or the service. It was the other customers. We sat and politely ate our modest portions like civilized human beings while most, not all, but most, of the other buffet patrons proceeded to act like gluttonous slobs.

Buffet diners, many with a plate in each hand, lined up at the seafood station and piled on enough fish to nourish a pregnant sea lion for a week. Others were sitting at tables with three or four plates of mounded food in front of them. Another table had two large stacks of dirty dishes waiting to be carried away. The unfortunate buffet wait staff literally could not clear the table as fast as those two overstuffed pigs shoveled food in their mouths. By the way, I did not see anyone besides us leave a tip.

So what does a food buffet have to do with patriotism and being critical of Americans? Quite a bit. For beginners, the friend I was with is not originally from the United States. Even though he is a now a US citizen and fully acclimated into American culture, I was still embarrassed for him to see the spectacle. The frenzy of overindulgence and hedonism was unsettling. This is not the United States I want others to see.

The buffet customers, who are my fellow Americans, completely disgusted me. I’m confident that these are the same types who travel to other countries, act like they do here, and then wonder why Americans are resented. The pathos of the buffet slobs carries over to the attitudes of society in general:

  • People will take advantage of the system and grab up everything they can, even if it’s more than they need, or something they don’t need at all. They believe one of the goals of going to a buffet is to eat (or waste) more food than you paid for. They apply this ethic to every facet of their lives
  • There is no concern for those perceived as being of a lower social standing (in this case, wait staff). Servants’ needs and feelings are not relevant to those they serve.
  • Related to the last point, people will think that because they are paying for something (and even if they are not), they have the right to act superior and create gratuitous burdens on others. They believe their status as a client or customer absolves them of nearly any sociopathic behavior.
  • The attitude of entitlement is not more prevalent in any particular demographic. It occurs across all income, gender, and racial/ethnic groups.

How the citizens of a nation treat each other and humble themselves before the bounty they have been blessed with says something about that nation’s collective values, and the way I see it, the food buffet is a merely a symptom of the disrespect and lack of gratitude that exists everywhere.  For a guy who thinks the United States is the greatest place that has ever been or will be, it’s a difficult admission for me to make. But blind devotion is a false emotion; this one went far beyond mere table manners and must be called out for what it is. We The People can’t become better as a country if we think we are already superior as individuals.

culture

Lessons From A Dixie Trip, Part II

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren

In an article last February I talked about traveling to the southern United States and returning with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the area and its people. The United States is hardly a homogenous nation. Every region is different in culture and thinking, sometimes vastly different, but still united by the red, white, and blue. Now I find myself traversing a different area of the South and, unsurprisingly, I’ve learned even more about the culture of the only country I’ve ever known and presumed I had completely understood.

This time I took a road trip to Arkansas in the Ozark Mountain (which technically is a plateau, not a mountain) and lesser known Boston Mountain area. As the aircraft taxied up to the gate at tiny Fort Smith airport, I was already getting warm, welcoming feeling that you don’t get at, say huge O’hare Airport. A culture of cordiality is universal in the South.

Fort Smith, Arkansas was the last stop on the Trail of Tears for American Indians as they were “relocated” from the eastern USA to what is now present day Oklahoma. The injustices the American Indians endured, their loss of land and language and culture, cannot be overstated. The displays at Fort Smith National Historic Site respectfully acknowledge this. It is one of the few instances I’ve personally seen where the U.S. Government didn’t make excuses for itself. There was no political correctness or painting over that the Indians were treated like complete crap.

There is barely a place in northwest Arkansas where you cannot see a towering mountain or lush, wide valley. In the deep South of New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida, the locals would tend to talk in more personal terms about their families, regional foods, and churches. In Arkansas, they make a lot of references to geographical features and history. When I would mention to a store clerk or waiter that I was a visitor, they would always suggest a historic landmark or natural area to go see.

On a whim, we went to scout out some rural investment property. Drifting out of cellphone territory into an area where you can drive for miles and see more livestock than people, we found the address we were looking for, I think. It’s hard to guess boundaries and there were NO TRESPASSING signs everywhere; we had no way to be sure if what we were looking at was what we were looking for. We never actually saw anyone, but we had a sense that we were being watched. People in these parts are heavily armed and live a culture of independence. Random outsiders are treated with suspicion, so we stayed on the main road and made it clear that we were respecting private property.

The big takeaway from this Dixie trip is that Arkansans are proud of their land and mindful of their Southern culture. The place is absolutely breathtaking, and history is everywhere. The crest of every hill reveals a view grander than the last. As we motored through the countryside I felt a bit envious that what was a travel adventure for me was an everyday experience for them. They got a real nice thing going on down there. I had a terrific time! When I go back, which will be soon, I’ll bring a greater understanding of a culture and people that are rightly proud of what they have.

cb-radio

CB Radio Still Transmits Good Vibes.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren

I was twelve years old and the Citizen’s Band (CB) radio craze in the United States had already been going for a while. After successfully nagging my parents into letting me get a CB, which included mounting a large antenna on their house, I had a hot signal all over town. All my friends were doing CB, too. It was like the Twitter of its time. I did not know that the ghost of CB radio would still be sending out good vibes so many decades later.

The fad took off around 1975. It had its own quirky vocabulary. There were magazines and organized clubs devoted solely to CB radio. CB radio became a major theme in contemporary movies, TV shows, and gave birth to an entire genre of amazingly lame songs. No one used their real name on the air. Colorful “handles” (a made up name) were used instead. In our area we had The Lamplighter, Dream Weaver, Handy Andy, The Bookkeeper, Pizza Man, Old Grey Mare, Four String, Beholder, and dozens of others.

These people were not just voices in a box. They were friends and neighbors.

Most towns had an unofficial CB radio “home channel” where the locals would hang out and chatter away, often late into the night. In Naperville, it was channel 15. It was a cheerful place; even us kids were welcomed. CB has a practical range of about five miles (8.04 km); it was the perfect medium for an electronic town square where everyone can gather.

Every Saturday morning CBers would flock to Grandma Sally’s Pancake House for an “eyeball” (that’s CB lingo for a face to face meeting). On some weekends over twenty people would show up. If any of the regulars were not heard on the radio in a while, someone would go check up on them. These people were not just voices in a box. They were friends and neighbors.

As with all fads, CB radio fever quickly flamed out. Pop culture jumped to the next big thing and by 1980, the airwaves went dead as we kids got older and found other things to do while the adults likewise lost interest and fell away. No one even thinks about CB radio anymore: Smart phones and all the goodies that come with them have eliminated the advantages of analog CB radio, albeit with less personality and camaraderie. My run on CB lasted less than three years. But wow, what a great run it was!

Today, the CB channels are now mostly a wasteland of static and pirate operators running illegal amplifiers. About all that’s left of any significance is long haul truckers exchanging travel information and scattered hotspots of legitimate users such as farmers and outdoorsmen. No one uses CB radio just for socializing. High end CB radio sets that used to cost hundreds of dollars (in 1978 money!) can now be found at flea markets in working condition for about twenty five bucks or less.

At the time I didn’t know my Realistic Navaho TR-431 CB would turn into an obsession with amateur (ham) radio, which to this day I am still deeply involved with, and ultimately into a fulfilling career as an electronic technician keeping transmission equipment on line for a large telecomm company. Not many people do as adults what they dreamed of doing as kids, but I’m one of the lucky ones. The pedigree of my entire professional life can be traced back to that one CB radio.

The short lived glory days of the citizens’ band are indeed never coming back, yet CB radio has earned immortality in American culture and in many individuals’ lives. As anyone who has ever heard the Red Sovine song Teddy Bear can attest, CB had a lowbrow, tacky aura to it, kind of like a circus sideshow. Beneath the cheesy sentimentality, it also had a genuine homespun touch of class. The CB radio signals have faded forever but the happy vibe is still being received loud & clear.

 

american indians

American Indians: Many Participants, No Bystanders.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

As I described in this article from February 2014, a majority of my closest friends are of a different race, ethnicity, or religion as me. I never consciously singled out dissimilar folks to be friends with, it just sort of happened that way. When I had an opportunity to go to an American Indian festival & powwow last weekend, I was just as naturally drawn to it. What began as a fun afternoon outing ended as new insight about American Indians that had somehow slipped past me in all my multicultural experiences.

The first thing I noticed was that American Indians are devoted to their culture more than any other group I’ve ever been exposed to. We modern day caucasians think of “culture” as movies and art and music and whatever is trending on Twitter. There is nothing particularly wrong with this, but they are things made or done by others while an audience watches (for example, a symphony performance). We have no personal connection. There are many witnesses and very few participants.

American Indians are the exact opposite. Their cultural identity is based almost exclusively on the idea of personal contributions. As we walked around the festival, there were craftsmen making blankets, jewelry, clothes, carvings, and tools. All of the items had a special meaning beyond their practical purpose and nearly all were made from natural, straight-from-the-earth materials such as stone and animal skins. No Indian was sitting around watching. Everyone was doing something according to their unique skills.

Ask an American Indian about their culture and and they will likely show you something they made themselves that you can touch. It is not for entertainment or art for art’s sake. American Indians do not build famous buildings or erect great monuments. They make statements with small, everyday objects and consider rivers and mountains their “monuments”. When a culture reveres the Earth, it only follows that they do not believe they can build anything greater.american indians

 

I also noticed another unusual trait of American Indian culture: While everyone makes individual contributions, no one person calls attention to themselves or tries to elevate himself above the others. There are no “celebrity Indians”. Their humility is stunning. It’s almost as if no one wants to take too much credit for what they do out of a concern for appearing ostentatious. Each person is proud of the skills they bring to the tribe, but they see themselves as merely an equal among many. One piece of a jigsaw puzzle is no more meaningful than any other…yet if even one piece is missing, the entire puzzle fails. It is a community that is greater than the sum of its parts.

At one point of the event, they had a dance that everyone was expected to participate in. The Chief started things off and little by little the crowd joined in. By the end, it was just a big group moving in a continuous circle. No one person was in “front”. Even in dance, American Indians embrace community.

The most memorable insight I gained from my afternoon with the American Indians is that they have a very strong sense of who they are. The young kids understand that the stories their elders tell are not just stories. They are an oral, living history of times past that has something to offer the present and give a vision for the future. The elders understand that the young kids are the key to keeping the culture alive.

American Indians are very much aware of time. They feel a deep continuity between generations and go to great efforts to maintain it. I’m very confident that a hundred or more years from now, there will still be American Indian craftspeople hand making articles of their culture and telling real life stories of a people who would not let themselves forget who they are.

 

architecture

The Lego School of Architecture.

COMMENTARY, , , , , , , , , ,

By: Chris Warren.

Last summer during a vacation trip to Chicago, I accepted an invitation to go on an architecture bus tour. For those who don’t know, Chicago is where the skyscraper was born and more than any other locale in the world is the earliest example of the modern city. Our tour lasted two hours, but that was barely an introduction. There are people who spend their entire careers studying the architecture of Chicago and still do not get through it all.

On the long drive home, my brief education in architecture opened my eyes to something that I had not noticed before: Out in the suburbs, the buildings along the highway, almost all of which were built since the 1980s, were boring boxes of recycled design.architecture

There were very few structures that looked like some thought was put into them. The rest were pre-formed concrete, glass hanging on steel, or some combination of the two. Like a little kid sticking toy Lego blocks together, the designers of these buildings did not select construction materials to fulfill a vision, they altered their vision to fit the construction material.

Nearly all the architecture on the Chicago tour was at least thirty years old; many were eighty or more years old. And there were dozens of them. Block after city block of creativity and visual art. It was amazing and beautiful. The suburbs were mile after boring mile of thoughtless edifices that looked as if sometime in the 1980s they just quit designing buildings and lazily resorted to stacking giant Legos together under the guise of “architecture”.

I’m confidant that every American male who was born in the last fifty years, including me, played with Legos as a kid. The low-tech, simple, snap together plastic blocks are a timeless classic that never loses its appeal even in the age of iPads and high definition video games. They are a lot of fun but do not allow for much originality. Give ten kids ten matching sets of Legos and let them each make something. The results will be very similar across the group: Boxy things with a lot of right angles that do not vary much from one example to another. The physical and geometric limitations of Legos controls the creativity, not the other way around.

I bet I could drive through the suburbs of New York or Seattle or Phoenix and it would not seem much different from the Chicago suburbs. I’m not the only one who notices a glaring dearth of creativity. People who know a lot more about this stuff than me are publicly grumbling. When you see the Empire State Building or the John Hancock Center, or even ancient Greek and Roman structures, you’re looking at architecture that does not look like anything else, any where.

architecture
Chicago, Illinois: The unmistakeable black tapering John Hancock Center with historic Navy Pier on Lake Michigan in the foreground.

If they could do such beautiful architecture in the past without the benefit of computer aided design, why can’t or won’t they do it now? Why does every building built in the last thirty years look like it came from the same box of Legos? Part of the answer may be economic or time considerations. Architects and designers are spending other peoples’ money, and those other people are (somewhat understandably) more concerned with budgets and deadlines than making an artistic statement.

I can’t envision anyone going on an architecture bus tour seven decades from now and marveling at pre-formed concrete buildings, assuming any of these buildings are still around. How did we go from gorgeous iconic edifices that will be admired for generations to assemblies of indistinguishable, glorified Lego blocks? If a civilization is remembered by the buildings it builds, then then we are living in a time that will be forgotten.