Part 1:
1. The course catalog student learning outcome #1 for this class states:
"At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
Articulate the ways in which the study of Humanities provides diverse ways of understanding human thought, creativity, and aesthetics in a global and/or historical context."
How did you accomplish this as a student in this class?
Throughout this humanity course I have learned about many diverse cultures and ideas. Everyone has their own interpretation of the world and can make their own decisions if they chose to. But I have also learned that actions differ in cultures. Some cultures decide to stay closer to their culture and even though they interact with other cultures they are much closer to their native culture. Sometimes cultures have to articulate and be creative to better themselves. The deaf culture came up with sing language and that's one way of creativity. Many people show their creativity in different ways. I learned that we can never learn too much and from Paulo Freire that we need to be aware of our incompleteness and strive to be more fully human. I agree with his ideas and think that we can be always learn more from one another. It is a mutual process where we cant afford to dehumanize others in an attempt to enhance our humanity.
2. The course catalog student learning outcome #2 for this class states:
"Demonstrate an increased ability to critically interpret and evaluate art forms and ideas from diverse cultures and historical periods (i.e. visual art, architecture, literature, philosophy, film, music, dance and theater)."
How did you accomplish this as a student in this class?
I accomplished this by visiting online and on person museums. I looked at many forms of art, architecture, literature, philosophy, film, music, dance and theater. I learned that some of the most famous paintings are in the Louvere Museum in Paris, France. I had no idea that the Monalisa was one of those paintings and now I know. What came to my attention too was that most of the museums I have seen have a really interesting and good architecture which demonstrates that what you see in the outside is only the beginning and that in the museum's interior it will be even better and you can appreciate many different kinds of art which our humanity has created. Art is just a form of expression that allows our humanity to communicate in many different kinds and forms of art. What I did notice too was that this forms of art we study have been around since their invention many years ago. We have known art, music, architecture, literature, philosophy and film for the longest time now and they are still around us and are forms of ways in which we can communicate and understand diverse cultures. No matter what culture people belong to we can always see that every culture seeks these forms of arts in their everyday life.
3. The course catalog student learning outcome #3 for this class states:
"Demonstrate how understanding the humanities can enhance our own creativity and our appreciation of our own and other cultures."
How did you accomplish this as a student in this class?
I have always been intrigued by other cultures other than the ones I have been introduced to. I was born and raced by the Mexican culture and later on by the age of ten introduced to the American culture. I now have been sharing two cultures and go from one to the other one in seconds. It is very interesting to realize that I have more than one culture in my life and that sometimes I am able to shift from one to another or even combine both of them. But i don't think those two are all I want to be familiar with I want to learn from many others and through this class I learned about many different ones. I had always been mysteriously interested in the Egyptian culture and that is why I decided to go to the Young Museum in San Francisco and see the King Tut exhibition they were having. I was able to see their culture and understand the symbols they used to communicate with each other. They used to make things out of pure gold and seemed to not now what the value of it was or if they did they didn't care much about it at the time. They had intricate symbols and beautiful artifacts that are now considered art because of their historical value. Museums are great doorways to our humanity's past and history which we can go to to re-live a piece of. It is important to understand not only the times in which we live now , but also the past and how our humanity has been living for since our creation.
Part 2:
1)Antonio- Sam Cohen's situation touched him deeply.
2)Judy- People use to think deafs' were hopeless and couldn't learn the way hearing people can but this is not true.
3)Raquel- One has to consider that due to the social and cultural component of the non-hearing world, not always a deaf person may be willing to accept a “cure” to their condition since they will not be able to “pass” for a hearing person and their peers may consider them a “traitor” to the deaf culture and thus not being accepted in neither of the two “world” and forced to an endless loneliness.
4)Mario- For hundreds of years, hearing professionals did not value the strengths of deaf culture.
5)Michael- Never poke or snap at any deaf person to get their attention.
6)Danielle- Being deaf is not a disability, it is a difference.
7)Alex- The Deaf community somehow considers themselves as a minority group.
8)Alexa- There is a different sign language in Mexico than the United States.
9)kyle- Another fact is that, like African, Irish, Italian, Japanese, German, and Gay Americans, the Deaf or hearing impaired have been discriminated as well.
10)Catherine- It was in that year that a French teacher named Laurent Clerc, brought to the United States by Thomas Gallaudet, founded the first school for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Week 14
Part 1:
Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen
"I am a hearing student assigned the book Train Go Sorry in my Introduction to Humanities Class. Other readings assigned in this class include several essays from the book My California. In both books and film, we examined the cultures of California that form a microcosm of the U.S.; and the U.S. forms a microcosm of the world. In this essay, I will incorporate 4 required questions."
1. What does Train Go Sorry mean (who in the book is this referring to; there is a specific person, include his name and his outcome. Remember that good college writing assumes no one has read the information and you must present it or 'teach' it by giving us details.)?
In American Sign Language, the term "Train Go Sorry" means "Missing the boat." What this means, is that there are many connections that are missed between the deaf and the hearing, and a failure to recognize that deaf people are members of a unique culture. The person in the story that the term "Train Go Sorry is referring to is a young man named James Taylor. A young deaf man who came from a poverty stricken neighborhood and family, Taylor had found himself at Lexington School for the Deaf where he was truant a lot in his first year. He was invited to live in the dorm at Lexington in his second and continuing years to encourage better attendance and slowly began to excel until finally passing all of his tests and earning his way into Camden County College. There were several references in the story of how James Taylor had "Missed the boat," or the connection with the hearing society-including his brother Joseph. In Chapter 7, James becomes frustrated as he is sent back and forward between the hospital and the audiologist when being tested for his hearing devices, because of his struggle to communicate his needs with his hearing counterparts. Upon leaving the audiologists office, he encounters a man on the street who asks him if he'd like to buy a token for a dollar. It was raining; water was dripping off the man’s lips and he could not read them, so he shook his head and walked on. Another man approached him on the subway steps of the train station, and asks James about the train. He says, "Uptown number one?" James stares hard at this man’s lips with his eyes; trying to understand them, but found himself staring at the man with his lips moving; trying to form the words. The man thinks James is mocking him, and walks away disgusted. In chapter 12 titled "Train Go Sorry,” James makes two unsuccessful attempts to visit his brother, Joseph, in prison. Unable to make a call to the prison, he goes there and gets through the visiting process just to learn that his brother was in court. On his third trip though, he is able to visit Joseph. He recognizes that prison has made his brother an ugly person. He realizes the distance that is between them and their lives. He knows that he'll never go back to visit Joseph again. James believes that if he were not deaf and hadn't gone to Lexington, he may have been with his brother on that fateful day that he and a group of boys pulled a gun on a woman in an apartment building. He believes he might have been in prison too if it had not been for being deaf. When James gets ready to end his visit, Joseph says to him, "You stay here and I'll go home." James replies "No." Joseph tells him, "It is better at home than in jail." At that moment, James feels it is Joseph that has "Missed the boat" this time.
2. What pair of 'shoes' do you think the main person in the book is walking in and what did she learn? In other words, who or what culture does she want to belong to and why?
The main person in the story, Leah Hager Cohen is walking in a deaf person shoes. She is walking in the shoes of her grandfather Sam, who was deaf, and also attended Lexington School for the dead; she was walking in James and Sofia's shoes. Leah's father, Oscar, was the principal and later the superintendent of Lexington School for the deaf where Leah grew up and attended school. Leah, and hearing person, felt left out and an outcast from her deaf peers during activities at school. She wished that she had been deaf like the other students. She felt at the time that the privilege of being able to hear was nothing compared to the closeness and the bonds that the other deaf children at the school shared because of what they had in common. The fact that she spoke the "Teachers language," she felt set her apart the most from the other students. She wanted so much to belong to this bonded culture that she put pebbles in her ears in protest, and she longed to take speech classes. It wasn't until later that Cohen thoroughly realized that her status as a hearing person would forever restrict her from belonging to the deaf community.
3. What is one image you won't ever forget? Draw us a picture in words to explain this. What chapter is it in?
One image in this story that I will not forget, can be found in chapter6, when Sofia (A young deaf girl from Russia who attended Lexington,) wakes up to her period the day before her scheduled Bat Mitzvah. Her mother, who didn't agree with her Bat Mitzvah, is the first place was quick to tell her that she could not proceed with her ceremony during her period because it was considered to be impure. Sofia had been denied to practice her religion of choice in Russia and had worked hard here in America to prepare for this ceremony. She was already older than most that choose to have this ceremony, she went against her parents beliefs, and learned the language of Hebrew. She wasn't about to forget about her ceremony and consulted with her Rabbi, who informed her that it was okay to be on her period for her Bar Mitzvah. Sofia had decided that to many connections have been missed for her. It was time for her to start recovering the pieces that she had lost; it was time to filling in the holes (Pg. 91.) It turns out that her mother was more embarrassed of others hearing her deaf daughter speech during the ceremony, than the actual ceremony itself. Sofia worked hard to overcome her adversities, fill the empty holes in her heart, and to prevail and this is why I was drawn to the image of Sofia and her Bat Mitzvah in the story.
4. What are 5 facts about ASL or Deaf culture you think everyone should know after your reading of this book?
I learned that although there were early attempt to teach sign language to students, most hearing people considered sigh language to be primitive.
Another important fact that I learned was that even though deaf people can accomplish anything a hearing person can, most deaf people feel they belong to their own specific culture.
There were many references in the book that stressed that mainstreaming the deaf into the hearing society was more harmful to the overall health and feelings of self-worth of the deaf than beneficial.
Many of the bi-cultural kids that came to Lexington from other countries came with no language system at all, signed, spoken, or written because many of them had been schooled with mentally retarded children and had never seen another blind person at all.
One of the most important things I learned from reading this story, is that a hearing person like Oscar or Leah Cohen can not only learn to communicate with the deaf by learning their language, but also by opening up their minds and hearts to them, and respecting their unique culture.
Part 2:
1) Antonio- He said that Waiting for the World to Change was a very good video and it had one of his favorite songs by John Mayer.
2) Alexa- I learned that ASL counts as a foreign language credit in 35 states in the U.S. and California is one of them.
3) Alex- He thinks that more people should be open minded with ASL and they should require ASL is schools just like Spanish and French.
4) Judy- I learned that ASL is a dominant language for the deaf in USA, english speaking parts of Canada and Mexico, but is different in other countries such as Britain.
5) Mario- I learned that ASL is a natural language as proved to the satisfaction of the linguistic community by William Stokoe, and contains phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics just like spoke languages.
6) Michael- I learned that there are between 100-500 Thousand Primary users of ASL in the U.S.
7) Catherine- She said that it was a strange sensation not hearing the music, only seeing the worlds. She used her imagination and had a sense of connection with the faces on the stage.
8) Danielle- I learned that only 10% of Deaf population acquires their deafness from their family.
9) Raquel- I learned that the deaf are accepted into employment more readily in Ohio than elsewhere.
10) Tamika- I learned that it is estimated that 9 out of 10 members of the American Deaf community marry other members of their cultural group and wish for a deaf child so that they may pass on their culture.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Week 13
Part 1A:
Deaf West Theater Clip
In this short clip They show the Big River. The first musical to use deaf and hearing actors on the same stage. It looked like they where performing the song " Waiting for the light to Shine". The actors are performing/singing in American Sign Language and English. I think this is a great way to encourage people that there can be good communication and understanding amongst everyone even if they have a disability.
Merlee Matlin Dancing With The Stars
In this clip Marlee Matlin and her partner Fabien Sanchez from Dancing With The Stars were being interviewed. Maelee had an interpreter who would interpret what everyone was saying, so that Marlee could be part of the communication. I really liked to see this clip because it shows how well people with hearing disabilities can communicate now a days. And how understanding the rest of the people are towards them.
Indiana Visual Arts Day
This was an informative video clip of a Visual Arts day hosted in Indiana for the Deaf School. VSAI and ISD presented bi-lingual, bi-cultural themed arts activities through a community based celebration of the arts. Also nationally known Rathskellar-a group of Deaf performance Artists from Gallaudet University. They had many activities amongst them were: Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre, Percussion, and ASL story learning Lessons. I enjoyed this video, it showed how much communities do for hearing impaired kids. They looked happy and were enjoying all the different activities they had for them.
Waiting For the World To Change
This video is a song called "Waiting For the World to Change"by John Mayer. In this video there are people performing the song in ASL.There are quotes and information rewarding Deaf Culture trough out the video. There have been accidents and shootings involving deaf people who had nothing to do with crime and they couldn't express their innocence. I really like this video because This is a song that has a massage and gives hope and inspiration to those who keep waiting for the world to change. I think they should have more videos of different songs that could be performed in ASL so that that culture can have more entertainment as well.
Deafnews.com
In this website you can find many links and they lead you to videos and news that deaf people can watch. It has also a interpret in English. What i found interesting was that as she was doing the signs the narrator would stop to give her time to finish with all the signs. Then he would interpret what she meant. I think that is obvious that it takes longer to communicate in sign language than in English or any other language. Because the movements of the mouth are just faster than the hands, but with practice they can get just as fast.
Sign Language Singers
In this video there are three kids performing the song, "Change A Heart, Change The World" by Jump5. I thought it was a really good song. They danced very synchronized. I don't know it they were deaf or not but if they were they had everything right. That is a beautiful song to begin with and those kids could really show what they felt.
A 1 Year Old Hearing Baby Signing
In this video there is a mother and her baby girl. The mother is demonstrating that signingreally works for babies. The baby is just one year old and she knows over 50 words and knows them in sign language as well as English. I think this is great and more mothers should encourage this because this is a language that can be used more in the future. Babies also develop their vocabulary faster if they are taught with complex sentences.
MSSD
At the Model Secondary School for the deaf they have many interesting curricular activities. Everyone knows sign Language and those who get there without knowing learn and get fluent in it. Students also create a portfolio and join inter ships that could be beneficiary for their future careers. They can also communicate with their loved ones through a web cam. At that school they are well equipped with everything specially the world wide web. They also have many sports and cooking classes. I didn't know that such schools existed but now I see that this culture is not left behind and that there is help for them. This helps them to be social and prepares them for the outside world and their future career.
Gallaudet University
This was a clip of a tour of Gallaudet University. It didn't seem to big, but i liked the style. It showed the dining area, the Ballard North and Ballard West Dorms ( formally Krug and Krogswell), Carline, Clere, and Benson Halls, there was also a gate house, an American flag on top of a building with a clock on it, and a conference center. I think this building might be old but it looked nice!
The Forest - A Story in ASL with captions
This is a video of a virtual guy telling a story of a big man who was in the forest and he found what he had been searching for many years. He dreamed of catching the bird and buying a new car and being rich. He dint know how to catch the bird and he remembered that as a child he came across some rotten fruit. He searched the forest for some smelly rotten fruit and he found some he then when to the bird and the bird smelled the fruit and went down to the man. The man then caught the bird and was rich and smelly!
EXTRA CREDIT
ASLPro.com was created to be a free resource for the classroom teacher. Teachers can create accounts and personalize a quiz for their students' use, then take them into a lab and let them practice seeing models other than their own teacher. Because their signs are designed to be used in student quizzes, Non-Manual Signals are purposefully omitted. They welcome the general public to view their site, but it should be noted that this site is not designed to be a stand alone learning tool. A user's best course of action is to enroll in an ASL class with a qualified teacher who can guide them in such variations as regional differences and facial expressions that are not addressed in their video database.
The words I chose were: Love, Happy, Soul, Accomplish, Life, and Sky.
B) ASL Facts
1. ASL shares no grammatical similarities to English and should not be considered in any way to be a broken, mimed, or gestural form of English
2. The first 6 moths are researched to be the most essential stage where a child develops his language skills.
C) Deaf Culture
1. Statistics prove that deaf people live longer than hearing people.
2. The man who invented shorthand, John Gregg, was deaf.
Part 2:
1) Antonio- He said that the way Steinbeck described the Big Sur made him imagine it as a very beautiful place that he wish to visit someday.
2) Catherine- She chose Playland at the Beach because of the history and dreamlike reality the thought of such a place conveys. I chose this one too it was really interesting!
3) Alex- I learned that Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
4) Mario- I learned that in 1905 city development increased when Pacific Electric Railroad established a southern terminus in Newport connecting the beach with downtown Los Angeles.
5) Judy- Was born in Los Angeles there for she chose Seal Beach for that reason.
6) Raquel- I learned that Geographically speaking, Big Sur is said to start from the Carmel River to the San Carpoforo Creek, encompassing between 90 to 99 miles of breathtaking vistas, cliffs, enormous waves, rocks, blue sea and marvelous vegetation.
7) Michael- He found out that it was originally called Bay City, but there was already a Bay City in Northern California, so they decided to rename it, and named it Seal Beach.
8) Dinlaka- I learned that Big Sur was first inhabited by Esselen, Salinan, and Ohlone native Americans way before the Spanish colonization era.
9) Danielle- I learned that Beverly Hills is located in the western part of Los Angeles county and is part of the "Plantinum Triangle" which includes itself, Bel Aire and Holmby Hills.
10) Tamika- I learned that There are only 14 miles from Disneyland, 20 miles south of Long Beach, 50 miles south of Los Angeles, and 64 miles west of Palm Springs.
Deaf West Theater Clip
In this short clip They show the Big River. The first musical to use deaf and hearing actors on the same stage. It looked like they where performing the song " Waiting for the light to Shine". The actors are performing/singing in American Sign Language and English. I think this is a great way to encourage people that there can be good communication and understanding amongst everyone even if they have a disability.
Merlee Matlin Dancing With The Stars
In this clip Marlee Matlin and her partner Fabien Sanchez from Dancing With The Stars were being interviewed. Maelee had an interpreter who would interpret what everyone was saying, so that Marlee could be part of the communication. I really liked to see this clip because it shows how well people with hearing disabilities can communicate now a days. And how understanding the rest of the people are towards them.
Indiana Visual Arts Day
This was an informative video clip of a Visual Arts day hosted in Indiana for the Deaf School. VSAI and ISD presented bi-lingual, bi-cultural themed arts activities through a community based celebration of the arts. Also nationally known Rathskellar-a group of Deaf performance Artists from Gallaudet University. They had many activities amongst them were: Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre, Percussion, and ASL story learning Lessons. I enjoyed this video, it showed how much communities do for hearing impaired kids. They looked happy and were enjoying all the different activities they had for them.
Waiting For the World To Change
This video is a song called "Waiting For the World to Change"by John Mayer. In this video there are people performing the song in ASL.There are quotes and information rewarding Deaf Culture trough out the video. There have been accidents and shootings involving deaf people who had nothing to do with crime and they couldn't express their innocence. I really like this video because This is a song that has a massage and gives hope and inspiration to those who keep waiting for the world to change. I think they should have more videos of different songs that could be performed in ASL so that that culture can have more entertainment as well.
Deafnews.com
In this website you can find many links and they lead you to videos and news that deaf people can watch. It has also a interpret in English. What i found interesting was that as she was doing the signs the narrator would stop to give her time to finish with all the signs. Then he would interpret what she meant. I think that is obvious that it takes longer to communicate in sign language than in English or any other language. Because the movements of the mouth are just faster than the hands, but with practice they can get just as fast.
Sign Language Singers
In this video there are three kids performing the song, "Change A Heart, Change The World" by Jump5. I thought it was a really good song. They danced very synchronized. I don't know it they were deaf or not but if they were they had everything right. That is a beautiful song to begin with and those kids could really show what they felt.
A 1 Year Old Hearing Baby Signing
In this video there is a mother and her baby girl. The mother is demonstrating that signingreally works for babies. The baby is just one year old and she knows over 50 words and knows them in sign language as well as English. I think this is great and more mothers should encourage this because this is a language that can be used more in the future. Babies also develop their vocabulary faster if they are taught with complex sentences.
MSSD
At the Model Secondary School for the deaf they have many interesting curricular activities. Everyone knows sign Language and those who get there without knowing learn and get fluent in it. Students also create a portfolio and join inter ships that could be beneficiary for their future careers. They can also communicate with their loved ones through a web cam. At that school they are well equipped with everything specially the world wide web. They also have many sports and cooking classes. I didn't know that such schools existed but now I see that this culture is not left behind and that there is help for them. This helps them to be social and prepares them for the outside world and their future career.
Gallaudet University
This was a clip of a tour of Gallaudet University. It didn't seem to big, but i liked the style. It showed the dining area, the Ballard North and Ballard West Dorms ( formally Krug and Krogswell), Carline, Clere, and Benson Halls, there was also a gate house, an American flag on top of a building with a clock on it, and a conference center. I think this building might be old but it looked nice!
The Forest - A Story in ASL with captions
This is a video of a virtual guy telling a story of a big man who was in the forest and he found what he had been searching for many years. He dreamed of catching the bird and buying a new car and being rich. He dint know how to catch the bird and he remembered that as a child he came across some rotten fruit. He searched the forest for some smelly rotten fruit and he found some he then when to the bird and the bird smelled the fruit and went down to the man. The man then caught the bird and was rich and smelly!
EXTRA CREDIT
ASLPro.com was created to be a free resource for the classroom teacher. Teachers can create accounts and personalize a quiz for their students' use, then take them into a lab and let them practice seeing models other than their own teacher. Because their signs are designed to be used in student quizzes, Non-Manual Signals are purposefully omitted. They welcome the general public to view their site, but it should be noted that this site is not designed to be a stand alone learning tool. A user's best course of action is to enroll in an ASL class with a qualified teacher who can guide them in such variations as regional differences and facial expressions that are not addressed in their video database.
The words I chose were: Love, Happy, Soul, Accomplish, Life, and Sky.
B) ASL Facts
1. ASL shares no grammatical similarities to English and should not be considered in any way to be a broken, mimed, or gestural form of English
2. The first 6 moths are researched to be the most essential stage where a child develops his language skills.
C) Deaf Culture
1. Statistics prove that deaf people live longer than hearing people.
2. The man who invented shorthand, John Gregg, was deaf.
Part 2:
1) Antonio- He said that the way Steinbeck described the Big Sur made him imagine it as a very beautiful place that he wish to visit someday.
2) Catherine- She chose Playland at the Beach because of the history and dreamlike reality the thought of such a place conveys. I chose this one too it was really interesting!
3) Alex- I learned that Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
4) Mario- I learned that in 1905 city development increased when Pacific Electric Railroad established a southern terminus in Newport connecting the beach with downtown Los Angeles.
5) Judy- Was born in Los Angeles there for she chose Seal Beach for that reason.
6) Raquel- I learned that Geographically speaking, Big Sur is said to start from the Carmel River to the San Carpoforo Creek, encompassing between 90 to 99 miles of breathtaking vistas, cliffs, enormous waves, rocks, blue sea and marvelous vegetation.
7) Michael- He found out that it was originally called Bay City, but there was already a Bay City in Northern California, so they decided to rename it, and named it Seal Beach.
8) Dinlaka- I learned that Big Sur was first inhabited by Esselen, Salinan, and Ohlone native Americans way before the Spanish colonization era.
9) Danielle- I learned that Beverly Hills is located in the western part of Los Angeles county and is part of the "Plantinum Triangle" which includes itself, Bel Aire and Holmby Hills.
10) Tamika- I learned that There are only 14 miles from Disneyland, 20 miles south of Long Beach, 50 miles south of Los Angeles, and 64 miles west of Palm Springs.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Week 12
Part 1:
Playland at The Beach San Francisco
I really liked Cotton Candy Mirrors by Devorah Major which is why I chose Playland at The Beach in San Francisco. Playland at the Beach was also known as Whitney's Playland beginning in 1928, was a 10-acre (40,000 m2) seaside amusement park located next to Ocean Beach at the western edge of San Francisco, California along the Great Highway where Cabrillo and Balboa streets are now. It began as a collection of amusement parks and concessions in the late 1800s, and was known as Chutes At The Beach as early as 1913. It closed Labor Day weekend in 1972.
At various times the rides at Playland included: Skyliner, Rocketship, Big Dipper, Big Slide, Dodgem (bumper cars) Limbo (dark house), Kookie Kube, Dark Mystery (which started as an African-themed dark ride but was redone in the 1950s with a Dali-esque surrealistic facade), the Mad Mine (a dark ride that literally covered over Dark Mystery), Scrambler, Twister, Kiddie Bulgy. Another favorite was the Diving Bell, a metal chamber that took guests under water and then returned them to the surface with a big splash. This ride originated at the 1939-40 Golden Gate Exposition on Treasure Island. George Whitney commissioned the inventor to build another one at Playland on the southeast block of the park. After a decade the attraction was rebuilt on the northwest block where it remained until Playland's closing in 1972.
Among the more popular concessions was the Fun House originally called the Bug House, erected in 1923-24. Laffing Sal was the laughing automated character whose cackle echoed throughout the park. After Playland was closed, one of the original animatrons was relocated to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and another Sal is located in the Musée Mécanique in San Francisco. The last remaining Walking Charley figure is located at Playland-Not-At-The-Beach.
Patrons entered by first passing through a mirror maze which had originally been a separate attraction on the opposite side of the midway. Next patrons squeezed through the spin-dryers and entered the main area of the Fun House which contained a Joy Wheel (flat wooden disc that spun quickly and forced kids to slide off), the Barrel of Laughs (rotating walk-through wooden barrel), the Moving Bridges (connected gang planks that went up and down), and the Rocking Horses (attached by strong strings to a moving platform creating quite a galloping sensation).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playland_%28San_Francisco%29
http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/playland.html
http://www.outsidelands.org/playland.php
http://www.sanfrancisciana.com/listman/listings/l0008.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xtJwj9596A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7rBMRNc3nI
I also found out there is a museum of Playland you can visit the website at the next source:
http://www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org/
http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/news/onlineexhibits/amusing/playland.htm
http://laughingsquid.com/playland-not-at-the-beach-grand-opening/
Part 2:
1) Antonio- He never knew that one of the reasons why Berkeley expanded was because of the 1906 earthquake.
2) Tamika- She did not know there was a tune called, “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw”.
3) Judy- She learned about the Association Neighborhoods and their rules, and she said she liked it.
4) Michael- He wasn’t aware the Newport Beach street names were mostly spanish based names.
5) Danielle- From Cotton Candy Mirrors she learned that Playland at the Beach actually existed. She has seen many pictures in the past of ferris wheels on the beach in San Francisco but she always thought they were just dreams she never knew that it was actually real.
6) Mario- His favorite sentence was [an] "image reflected would somehow be closer to the truth. not that mirrors were entirely deceptive, it was after all myself that i saw or at least a form of myself" (pg. 102)
7) Alex- His favorite sentence was, “ Where passion is married to intelligence, you may find genius, neurosis, madness or rapture” (105).
8) Raquel- She wasn't aware of all the rules and regulations people living on "planned communities" have to follow in order to remain complaint. Not sure she could live being told which color her house has to be painted or which flowers she is allowed to plant in her property.
9) Jared- He didn't know California Honky-Tonk by Kathi Kamen Goldmark
10) Kyle- He learned from California Honky-Tonk that sometimes when things don’t go as planned or you get hurt that it can make a good story. I think that if everything went according to plan it would take the adventure out of life and make it dull. I agree with this statement.
Playland at The Beach San Francisco
I really liked Cotton Candy Mirrors by Devorah Major which is why I chose Playland at The Beach in San Francisco. Playland at the Beach was also known as Whitney's Playland beginning in 1928, was a 10-acre (40,000 m2) seaside amusement park located next to Ocean Beach at the western edge of San Francisco, California along the Great Highway where Cabrillo and Balboa streets are now. It began as a collection of amusement parks and concessions in the late 1800s, and was known as Chutes At The Beach as early as 1913. It closed Labor Day weekend in 1972.
At various times the rides at Playland included: Skyliner, Rocketship, Big Dipper, Big Slide, Dodgem (bumper cars) Limbo (dark house), Kookie Kube, Dark Mystery (which started as an African-themed dark ride but was redone in the 1950s with a Dali-esque surrealistic facade), the Mad Mine (a dark ride that literally covered over Dark Mystery), Scrambler, Twister, Kiddie Bulgy. Another favorite was the Diving Bell, a metal chamber that took guests under water and then returned them to the surface with a big splash. This ride originated at the 1939-40 Golden Gate Exposition on Treasure Island. George Whitney commissioned the inventor to build another one at Playland on the southeast block of the park. After a decade the attraction was rebuilt on the northwest block where it remained until Playland's closing in 1972.
Among the more popular concessions was the Fun House originally called the Bug House, erected in 1923-24. Laffing Sal was the laughing automated character whose cackle echoed throughout the park. After Playland was closed, one of the original animatrons was relocated to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and another Sal is located in the Musée Mécanique in San Francisco. The last remaining Walking Charley figure is located at Playland-Not-At-The-Beach.
Patrons entered by first passing through a mirror maze which had originally been a separate attraction on the opposite side of the midway. Next patrons squeezed through the spin-dryers and entered the main area of the Fun House which contained a Joy Wheel (flat wooden disc that spun quickly and forced kids to slide off), the Barrel of Laughs (rotating walk-through wooden barrel), the Moving Bridges (connected gang planks that went up and down), and the Rocking Horses (attached by strong strings to a moving platform creating quite a galloping sensation).
More sources are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playland_%28San_Francisco%29
http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/playland.html
http://www.outsidelands.org/playland.php
http://www.sanfrancisciana.com/listman/listings/l0008.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xtJwj9596A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7rBMRNc3nI
I also found out there is a museum of Playland you can visit the website at the next source:
http://www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org/
http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/news/onlineexhibits/amusing/playland.htm
http://laughingsquid.com/playland-not-at-the-beach-grand-opening/
Part 2:
1) Antonio- He never knew that one of the reasons why Berkeley expanded was because of the 1906 earthquake.
2) Tamika- She did not know there was a tune called, “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw”.
3) Judy- She learned about the Association Neighborhoods and their rules, and she said she liked it.
4) Michael- He wasn’t aware the Newport Beach street names were mostly spanish based names.
5) Danielle- From Cotton Candy Mirrors she learned that Playland at the Beach actually existed. She has seen many pictures in the past of ferris wheels on the beach in San Francisco but she always thought they were just dreams she never knew that it was actually real.
6) Mario- His favorite sentence was [an] "image reflected would somehow be closer to the truth. not that mirrors were entirely deceptive, it was after all myself that i saw or at least a form of myself" (pg. 102)
7) Alex- His favorite sentence was, “ Where passion is married to intelligence, you may find genius, neurosis, madness or rapture” (105).
8) Raquel- She wasn't aware of all the rules and regulations people living on "planned communities" have to follow in order to remain complaint. Not sure she could live being told which color her house has to be painted or which flowers she is allowed to plant in her property.
9) Jared- He didn't know California Honky-Tonk by Kathi Kamen Goldmark
10) Kyle- He learned from California Honky-Tonk that sometimes when things don’t go as planned or you get hurt that it can make a good story. I think that if everything went according to plan it would take the adventure out of life and make it dull. I agree with this statement.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Week 11
Part 1:
•Bienvenidos a Newport Beach by Firoozeh Dumas
In this essay Dumas talks about how is like living in Newport Beach. He said that when he told the kids at school that he was going to be moving to Newport Beach they told him that he must be rich. He described his life in Whittier. From their living room window, they could see the big Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket that was always lit up at night. Along with the Taco Bell and Wienerschnitzel signs. They have moved eight times. He said that for six blissful years he had lived in Abadan, Iran and that that was the last time he lived in one place for that long. Dumas was sick of moving and always being the new kid but he didn’t really like his home at Whittier. The neighbors had two dogs that always pooped on their front lawn. Their other neighbors had a couple of junk cars on their front lawn that were really ugly. Their new community at Newport Beach was maintained by an “Association”. He talked about all you could do and couldn’t do at Newport Beach. He said there were no junkers in Newport Beach, only Cadillacs and other expensive-looking cars. They felt like they had landed in heaven. And every day when his dad came home, he would say he felt like he was on vacation. He mentioned that Iranians don’t have pool parties, they have indoor parties. He said that all the streets there had Spanish named but there weren’t any Spanish speaking people. His parents still live in the same house they bought when he was in seventh grade.
My favorite sentence was, “My father said this is what happens when a person has never been hungry. I had never been hungry but I had never wanted to throw patio furniture into the pool” (92). I think people just behave the way they want to behave and it also depends on the education they have acquired and the morality they have been taught.
The story made me think of some really expensive communities, where only rich people can live in and all the houses look almost the same from the outside. And you don’t even see the cars because they are really expensive cars and they have them in the garage because they don’t want to live them in the street.
What I didn’t know that I know now is that there were such things as an “Association” where they decide when to do some changes. And how they will be doing those changes.
•Cotton Candy Mirrors by Devorah Major
In this essay Major talks about adolescent summer days when they would cross town to spend the day in their summer school of wonder at Playland at the Beach. She said that education was cheaper back in the day. There was the inevitable Ferris wheel that took you up higher than the windmills without sails, so that you could see the blue of the Pacific Ocean, the green of Golden Gate Park, and the pale stucco houses of Richmond district, all laid out all around you. The best ride was definitely bumper cars. But they would really like the Fun House. They would begin their journey with the trek through the hall of mirrors. They crashed, looked, laughed, and turned a corner, bounced again corner-to-corner, until at last they emerged. She described the distorting mirrors and how in these mirrors they became monsters, they became clowns, they lengthened, flattened, rounded. Their eyes grew as they made faces, pushed out their lips and pulled on their ears, distorting the image more completely, turning themselves into alien beings, into insects, into comedians. She would try to correct the image in the mirror so that somehow it would be closer to the truth. She said that it was after all, herself that she saw, or at least a form of herself, in those mirrors. And those quiet times in the mirrors showed a lot. She said that in fact, she doesn’t even look at regular mirrors too often these days, knowing that the right lightning can hide any number of sins, or reveal every detail of abuse. Major learned many things that summer and she said that that was the official educational institutions of their childhood.
My favorite sentence was, “I’ve learned to use the eyes of others as my mirrors. But only those people whose eyes are clear and shine with laughter and love” (102). I really like this sentence because that is something I’ve learned too. It makes me happy when I do this.
This story makes me think of when I was younger and used to go to the Santa Rosa Fair Grounds. There I would go into the house of mirrors and it was really cool, or so I thought. Because the mirrors did make you look like alien sometimes and many other things. Mirrors are very interesting if you think about it.
What I didn’t know before that I know now is all about the silver disk that looked like a flying saucer. I have never gone in that ride before but I heard about it and some people say they like it. I don’t know if I want to spin round and round for a while.
•Berkeley by Michael Chabon
In this essay Chabon talks about the greatness of Berkeley. He said that where passion is married to intelligence, you may find geniuses, neurosis, madness or rapture. None of these is really an unfamiliar presence in the tree-lined streets of Berkeley, California. Also that among the many sad and homeless people who haunt Berkeley one finds an unusually high number of poets, sages, secret Napoleons and old-fashioned prophets of doom. He said that that town drove him crazy. That nowhere else in America are so many people obliged to suffer more inconvenience for the common good. Berkeley’s streets, though a rational nineteenth-century grid underlies them, are a speed-busting tangle of artificial dead ends, obligatory left turns and deliberately tortuous obstacle-course barriers known as chicanes, put up in place to protect children who are never sent to play outside. But he said that so much for boosterism, and yet he declared, unreservedly and with all his heart, that he loved Berkeley, California. He can’t imagine living somewhere else. And all the things that drive him crazy are the very things that make that town worth knowing, worth putting up with, worth loving and working to preserve. Berkeley is richer than any place he has ever lived.
My favorite sentence is, “in a city that lives and dies on the passion and intelligence, the madness and rapture, of its citizens” (112). Maybe the citizens are after all what make a place so great or so not so great.
What this story made me think, of was the University of Berkeley. I have never been there but I can imagine it when he talks about the intelligent people and the poets and the Napoleons. This would definitely be an interesting place to live in.
What I didn’t know that I now know is that the town, though laid out in the 1880s, boomed in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire, when it was settled by refugees from San Francisco, fleeing hitcher under the mistaken impression that the jutting rock rids of Berkeley’s hills would be proof against temblors.
•California Honky-tonk by Kathi Kamen Goldmark
In this essay Goldmark talks about how they got into singing. The thing was, they weren’t exactly a band. The first place they performed at was a California honky-tonk. At that time they started practicing a bunch of songs. One of them was “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw?” by Jimmy Buffett. They didn’t even had a name for the so called band and one day they passed a motel called El Rancho Motel and they decided that was going to be their name. The night they first performed Goldmark singed the song by Jimmy Buffett and a four hundred pound biker called Lobo carried her and started walking toward the door. But she’s been in many bands since Sinbad’s Saloon. She has been in the Soundtrack in San Francisco, the Sundowner in Benicia, the Hopland Brewery, and DeMarco’s 23 Club in Brisbane. She became friends with owner Lil DeMarco who died later on and the club went through some renovations.
My favorite sentence is, “But bruises heal, and sometimes even turn into good stories” (120). I think these can be very true. Sometimes you get bruises but you had fun and the bruises heal while the good stories remain in your memory forever.
This story made me think of a movie I watched of how a band started playing, but the main character wasn’t as fortunate as Goldmark. They didn’t get too far because of drugs and alcohol.
What I didn’t know that I know now is that there is or was a Hotel called El Rancho Hotel in California. And it was a random name for this band.
The similarities of the four stories are of course that it takes place in California. But I think that these four stories have many differences this time. The only similarity I see is between Newport Beach and Berkeley where they both describe the place and the neighbors…But the other stories are more about something they learn or about good stories. But they are all good stories that take place in California.
Part 2:
2) Megan - She learned from Steinbeck’s essay that many people thought of California in a mythical sense, because of its notion as Paradise, and also wealth in resources.
3) Alexa)- Her favorite sentence from Ode to CalTrans was, "The Hollywood Freeway becomes the newer highway I remember from my youth , curves sculpted around hillside neighborhoods of bungalows and apartments on stilts , a roadway starting to show signs of its age but not yet bursting at the seams."
4) Mario- He didn't know in 1510 the revolution of novels took off.
5) Raquel- She had no idea that the name California could be traced as far away as Spain.
6) Stephen- He did not know that Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay is also known as "Maverick's."
7) Michael- his favorite sentence was, "My mother and father were car-less for the first year or so after their arrival from Guatemala.”
8) Danielle- She knows pretty much everything this story told me because I took history in younger grades.
9) Alex- The reading made him think of all of the untouched landscapes in California.
10) Judy- She learned that surfers look for storms and when big waves arrive to go out and surf.
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