Part 1:
• Ode to Caltrans by Hector Tobar
In this essay Tobar begins with a dream he has about the Hollywood Freeway which he writes about. He talks about Freeways in other parts of the world or places he’s visited that have a totally different system. He also said that the law of evolution has dictated our adaptation into homo californius mobilius, and clever tool-making─the hands-free cellular phone, the multi-CD player, and the radar detection device─has saved our breed from extinction. When his two babies were going to be born he decided not to drive in the freeway. His stepfather committed suicide on the green lawns of Rose Hills, overlooking the 605 Freeway. His stepfather had shot himself during one of those windswept Thanksgiving weekends. He talked about when he was learning to drive and then about when he was eight years old and was in an ecology class. There he saw the Freeway as a place of pollution and peril for the first time. He talks about his father and how his palms would begin to sweat every time he did this, because he was just a couple of years removed from Guatemala and didn’t have a driver’s license yet. When his mother was going to have him she and his father didn’t have a car and her neighbor gave them a ride to the hospital. He wonders if, maybe the anxiety her mom was feeling at birth was passed on to him.
My favorite sentence was, “When you live far away from California, as I have for the past three years, you begin to appreciate the freeway for the essential idea behind its construction─that automobiles should inhabit their own universe, segregated from the slower forms of locomotion”(52).
This story makes me think of the Freeway here in Healdsburg. I leave right next to Freeway 101 and if I look outside my window I’ll see it. Every time I’m in my room I can hear it even though I have adapted to it and can’t even hear it anymore only if I stop and listen to it. Sometimes at night I look outside my window and hear and see many cars. It looks like a bunch of light speeding at about 60-75 miles per hour. Then in the mornings I look outside and see it again but its time I see the different types of cars. I have become so used to it that if I don’t hear any noise from the cars I get scare and feel the difference.
Something I know now that I didn’t know before is that in Iraq, the super highways Saddan built are a kind of Middle Eastern tribute to CalTrans. The undulating zinc center dividers of the Baghdad freeways are the same as those running through Santa Monica and the functional, gravity-defying concrete overpasses are engineering cousins to those designed on drafting tables in Sacramento.
• Montalva, Myths and Dreams of Home by Thomas Steinbeck
In this essay Steinbeck starts out explaining what he will be writing about. He then starts with the early fifteen hundred which were remarkably shallow years for the game in Spain. The Dutch were already publishing seventy percent of all the books in Europe, and they found the Spanish market a perfect place to unload all their seconds and returns. He mentioned Miguel de Cervantes and his masterpiece, Don Quixote. But I 1510 the literary picking were bone slim, so obviously the arena was open to all sorts of hacks and literary footpads. He talks about the best sellers and how the church was becoming an authority because the books were too unmoral. He then says that few know or care about the original story, everyone knows the name of Montalvo’s “Atlantian” cousin, for he christened his paradise California. He talks about Cortez and the conquistadores’ whom named California and where mistaken. Indeed, the very notion that California was, and is, a veritable paradise on Earth, has had many proponents throughout our national history. He said that for most people, the heady delights of even a mythical seduction fade with the realities of a new day. But the California Myth has a slippery custom of reinventing itself every time you turn around. He also said that the Big Sur is the only place in California, besides the high Sierras and the Northwest, where stories of strange and unexplained humanoids abound. He mentioned Sasquatch and The Dark Watchers. He talks about all this myths and at the end he said he believed every word. But that’s what happens when you’re in love.
My favorite sentences were, “It can be a jarring experience to watch one’s environment change with such rapidity that the recognizable becomes foreign in the blink of an eye. Sic transit Gloria mundi. (Thus passes the glory of the world.)” (66). And also, “If it can truly be said that one’s spirit may be stimulated to accept the sublime by one location as opposed to another, then for me that lace exists high on the crests and along the rugged cliffs of The Big Sur” (67).
This story made me think of the conquistadores and Cortez confusing this land. It also made me think of all the myths about California and the myths about those humanoids and unexplained things like Sasquatch and The Dark Watchers along with others that are said to live here in California. I thought about California as a mythical place in the world.
What I didn’t now before that I know now is that there was a myth about California and that started a long time ago when the romance novels were starting to be written. And then when Cortez came across Baja California. I also didn’t know anything about The Dark Watchers myth. They sound interesting but I had never heard about them.
• The Last Little Beach Town by Edward Humes
In this story Himes writes about Seal Beach. He said Seal Beach’s red-tile roofed, hacienda-style City Hall was built in 1929, but lately part of the lower floor has been rented out to a beauty salon to bring the town a bit of extra revenue. He had gone to buy a little book called A Story of Seal Beach. But he forgot his wallet and Joanne Yeo; the City Clerk told him he could take it and pay her back whenever he could. He said that Seal Beach was a very special place where people do appreciate you and trust you. He said that this does not happen in this century in any part of the world─except, in Seal Beach. And he said that people actually walk to go to places there. Confusion about Seal Beach’s identity and location is key to its survival─people who live twenty minutes away aren’t quite sure where or what it is. He talked about arriving there when the pollution was at its worst and then he saw the beach. And said that seeing that, seeing his mythic California hadn’t been paved over entirely, he knew he could move there after all. He said that today Crystal Cove is a strip mall and a golf course and stack of carefully coiffed and color-coordinated mansions overlooking the non-native vegetation and palms imported to replace the uprooted native landscape. He mentioned that the council member can’t afford the Seal Beach’s way anymore. He doesn’t want Seal Beach to become a suburban area.
My favorite sentence was, “I can’t help but remember Crystal Cove and its vanished paradise, and just how fragile our dreams and myths truly are, at least the ones that count” (78). In this world there are many mythical places that are very natural and are being abused by humans. This needs to stop we cannot abuse the world anymore. We are too selfish and just want the best for ourselves.
What this story made me about was some of the many Beaches that I have been to. Some in Bodega Bay and some in Mendocino County. My favorite where definitely the ones that haven’t been visited by humans too much because they just look very natural and untouched. There is nothing there but green all around, nice sand, unpolluted water and great views. A very good Beach was in Mendocino County close to a small place called Philo up in the mountains. The population close by is very low there for not a lot of people know about that Beach.
What I didn’t know that I now know is that this Beach existed along with Crystal Cove, and that Crystal Cove has changed. And that Seal Beach was in danger of being urbanize and maybe it is right now. This has to stop happening.
• Surfacing by Matt Warshaw
In this story Warshaw writes about Sixteen-year-old Jay Moriarity from Santa Cruz. At about 9 p.m., halfway through his evening shift in the kitchen at Pleasure Point Pizza in Santa Cruz, Moriarity phoned the National Weather Service for the updated buoy and weather report. He discovered that the surf was going to be bigger than he’d thought, and it was due to arrive in just a few hours. Next morning Moriarity steered his mother’s Datsun pickup north on Highway 1. He went to Maverick’s and caught the wave. The first time he didn't quite make it and was pulled to the bottom for about twenty seconds. And then he made all of them perfectly. But when the fist one came and wiped him out Jay Moriarity, a week later, couldn’t do much more than sketch out in the most obvious terms the big-wave vignette─generally described at the point as the worst wipeout, or at least the worst looking wipeout, in surfing history─that soon appeared on the cover of Surfer and the front section of the New York Times Magazine. Moriarity’s banal reaction may have had less to do with a deficient imagination than with the general inarticulateness of sixteen-year-olds. Or perhaps he was just following the form of biog-wave protocol that says, play it down, play it cool.
My favorite sentence was, “And as the untroubled imagination reduces fear and anxiety beforehand, it may also smooth out afterward” (87). I think this is true.
This story made me think of San Francisco. When I went one day and I was at the Golden Bridge looking down at the water. There really were some big waves one day; and another day when I went to the San Francisco zoo and was passing by the edge of the sea. The waves were really strong that day. It makes me think about the waves they would surf on
What I did not know that I know now is that so many people go catch big waves and from all over, Surfers from San Francisco, Santa Cruz, half Moon Bay, and Pacifica. Also a few surf photographers and spectators.
The similarities of these essays are that they all write about something from California. The first one has to do with the Freeways. The second one about the myths in California and he is saying that it’s a magical place. The third one is about a Beach that not a lot of people know about and that was intact and magical as well. The Last one was a story about surfing and big waves. I think two stories had a lot in common the one about the myths in California and the one about the Beach because they both give important messages.
Part 2:
1) Antonio- He learned that there is a Japanese ceremony in the American River that commemorates those that died in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2) Tamika- She learned that the American River Parkway runs through the heart of the city from Folsom Lake to the point where the American River joins the Sacramento.
3) Mario- He said that, " All this glamor that the city puts and ignores the shadow people such poor people and others. We shouldn't be blind."
4) Raquel- She wasn't aware that Kings river irrigates more farmland that any other river in the world second from The Nile and Indus river.
5) Michael- One thing he learned was what bait was used to catch the Lower Owens Trout, that was really interesting how that was figured out.
6) Megan- She learned that Tulare County is the dairy capital of the world.
7) Alexa- When she was reading The Big Valley it made her realize how much our world has changed from the 1950s.
8) Alex- He learned that at the time period they lived in the dirtiest air basin in the nation, eight hour smog readings worse than Los Angeles.
9) Stephen- What he didn't know before reading was that figs were booming in Fresno in the early and mid-20th century.
10) Daniel- His favorite sentence was,"And there you have the essential current between desire and fear. Desire is merely the version that says, I want and am taking mine - and better me or us than them and you. While the inverse, better him or her or them than us, is simple code for fear. "(Liu, p.33)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Week 9
Part 1:
• The Big Valley by Mark Arax
Mark Arax lived in lived in an old fig orchard in northwest Fresno just off Forkner Avenue, a street named after the King of Figs. One afternoon he ventured too far in his bike and got lost. His grandpa bought his first vineyard in San Joaquin valley. His father grew up on the farm, left in 1950 to pursue a football scholarship at USC, and then came back. He said he was a backyard farmer with too little land for his dreams. He thought that even surrounded by all those figs, they lived a decidedly suburban life and it seemed they were neither rural nor urban but some fraudulent variant of the two. The bigness of valley agriculture only compounded the distance that separated suburbia from the farm. He talks a lot about agriculture in California. He talks about the dairy capital of the world which he refers as being in Tulare County. Arax also talks about the 2004 World Ag Expo that boat 2.5 million square feet of sold space. He also said that he likes to believe his father grew disillusioned with suburbia in the early 1970s. His dad turned his bar into a nightclub and brought in Chuck Berry and other big acts from the city, but it never seemed enough. When the first frost came and the green leaves withered and his father went to work one Sunday night, he was shot and killed by two men. He said that it would take the police more than thirty years to find one of them. His mother didn’t live to see that day. The trial left so many questions. And every year he plants something else in his backyard.
My favorite sentence was, “No such future awaits this field next to a Super K in the town of Kingsburg, which used to be quite content being known as “the little Swedish village.” The farmer has sold out to a development─hallelujah, say the wife and kids─so another big box might rise (22).” I think this is true and this has happen too much in the United States already.
This story made me think of California and more specifically the Napa Valley when he is talking about the vineyards. I imagine thousands of acres of grapes. Whenever I go to a mountain in the surrounding areas I can see many acres of grapes all around.
One thing that I did not know that I know now was that Tulare was the dairy capital of the world. And that decades ago, Portuguese farmers from the Azores turned Merle Haggard country into a milk-producing, alfalfa-growing marvel. And that Now they’ve been joined by the Dutch families from chino who sold out their dairies to South California builders.
• Transients in Paradise by Aimee Liu
In this essay Liu analyzes Beverly Hills and how there are rich and poor and that makes Beverly Hills the place it is. He lives in that city and the quote; “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears…” troubles him as he through the city. Liu said that Desire sated reinvents itself up and down the food chain, transforming hunger into ambition, envy, lust and greed. Hummers and Porsche Cayennes now dwarf Mercedes as the vehicles du jour. Multimillion-dollar deals became measure of lunch at Spago. He said that the current between desire and fear runs hard through Beverly Hills. He talks about orthodox Jews, a husband and wife screaming bloody courses at each other, Persian fathers, and the antique ladies on Crescent Drive. He said that Beverly Hills was as variable as the traffic passing down Wilshire Boulevard. Then he goes on to talk about the hobos that wonder among the millionaires shopping at Prada, Armani, and Barneys who respond with selective blindness. They curl up to sleep in the doorways of day spas where society wives get dyed and waxed. They beg for change in front of restaurants where the average tab for two at lunch is more than a hundred dollars. He also said that, “We are all transients of one kind or another. On our way into or out of wealth, into or out of sanity, beauty, love, health, or death. And he closes with that thought.
My favorite paragraph was the last one which was: “The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what we already have, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many; accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space (35).” This was an interesting paragraph and it talks the truth.
When he talks about the expensive stores and restaurants in Beverly Hills he makes me think of a lot of celebrities that live in that place. I can see that many if not all chose to ignore the other side of Beverly Hills. They just want to see what they want and want to enjoy what they can.
One thing I know now that I didn’t know is some things about Richard’s life. And the kind of human being he was. Richard had a degenerative disease that was shrinking him inside that camouflage. When he stopped showing up outside Nate ‘n’ Al’s Liu wasn’t the only one who missed him. Within weeks an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Once, it seemed, Richard had been an aspiring screenwriter, actually had a script optioned. This sci-fi political thriller had made him a number of Hollywood connections, but lack of family and the progression of his disease disabled and distorted his fate.
• Showing off the Owens by T. Jefferson Parker
In his essay Parker writes about the chance he had of showing off California’s Lower Owens River to savvy New York angler and Novelist Brian Wiprud. They drove in Hayway 395. And he had to explain to Brian what an In-N-Out burger was. He explains briefly the topic of fly-fishing and how to this day fly-fishers bemoan a River Runs Through It for all the people it drew into the sport. Then Brian notices he has a rash in his hand and they didn’t know how it happened but they decided to think it was something in his food. Parker thought of something director Robert Alman recently said: “I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don’t know what’s on the other end. Your imagination is under there.” Which he said it was more than imagination, he said that the poetry of the actual, for starters. Then they went to the supermarket to get some remedy for the rash that had already spread to his shoulder. The clerk said to them that it didn’t look good. Then they met their guide, Tom Loe, next morning. He said that Tom is an affable but intense young man who has been a commercial fisherman all his adult life. He was fishing the Atlantic when the Perfect Storm hit, and lost one of his crew members in the fury of the storm. He has caught everything from huge sharks for restaurants that want them for wall-mounted decorations, to the swordfish they serve for dinner. And by the time they made Whiskey Creek Restaurant for martinis and dinner, Brian’s rash had stopped dead in its tracks.
My favorite sentence was, “The Owens was once a mighty river that held mighty fish. Now it is not. However, DWP does keep parts of the reduced Owens open for anglers, so I choose to be an optimist and tell myself that the river is half full (38).” I just thought this was something lots of people do. They just see what they want to see.
This story makes me think of a River I saw in television. It was a river down south where they were doing some fly-fishing. It seemed kind of crazy, and I see why some people see it as a sport. The fishes seem strong and at times they can be dangerous if they are too big and they can hit you in the face. They really know how to do some damage.
One thing I didn’t know was all about the Owens. I dint know anything about this River and I now know many things about it. What I thought was interesting was definitely the fly-fishing. I think that sounds like fun, even though it can be a dangerous activity.
• The Distant Cataract about Which We Do Not Speak by Mary Mackey
In this story Mackey writes about bird watching. She sneaks up on the ducks disguised as one of their own. She slips into the river with a baseball cap and sun glasses. The water from the river comes from Sierra snowmelt that has been held behind Folsom dam like a cache of liquid ice. Even in mid-July, it is still so cold, it would take her breath away, but over the years she has learned that, if she grits her teeth and keep swimming, her body will gradually acclimatize. After a while she has been seen by a mother duck with six tiny ducklings. She then gets out of the water when she finds herself alone only with a few feathers. And she talks about the herons that are too smart to be taken in; but once a green heron actually perched on her cap for a moment, perhaps mistaking her for a small, blue island. She said she has only seen a rattle snake one time in the seventeen-some years she’s been going to the river, but that was more than enough for her. She then went on to talk about the beaver that she was sharing the lagoon with. She said that beavers don’t usually come out during the day and that this one was out early. She also said that she has never heard of anyone getting attacked by a beaver but beaver teeth when seen up close are formidable. Then she is joined by her husband. They hear the sound of the Distant Cataract about Which We Do Not Speak. But of course, it is not really the sound of a cataract. It is the roar of rush-hour traffic, half of it crossing the Howe Avenue Bridge, half of them crossing the bridge at Watt. They sit on an island in the American river, right in the middle of Sacramento, the state capital. Her and her husband like to imagine that they are not a five-minute drive away from their house, and a twenty-minute walk from the university where they both teach at, but instead in some remote part of California where just out of sight a magnificent waterfall foams down into a green pool. Then she goes on to talk about the American River and all the different cultures they have come across there.
My favorite sentence was, “We sit, chatting, drinking tea, eating cold melons, and waiting for the sun to set; and in the distance, as always, we hear the sound of The Distant Cataract About Which We Do Not Speak (48).” I liked this sentence because that is why they go there because they imagine that they are in a remote place and they sit peacefully and relaxed with the sound they want to imagine is a cataract.
This story made me think of some really beautiful cataracts I‘ve seen in television. They are just so beautiful to look at and hear. I know that this cataracts where from all over the world but the best ones were in some really remote places away from the suburbs. And it would definitely be much better if there really was a cataract in that place rather than the traffic from the city.
What I know now is that there is this River in Sacramento just a few minutes away from the university and I also learned many things about the cultures that they encountered at that River. There were some congregations and different activities happening at that River.
The similarities of the stories are that they all, of course write about a place in California. Two of them write about Rivers in California. They have positive experiences with the rivers. The other two write about places. But there are more differences in terms of the context. One writes about agriculture. The second one writes about Beverly Hills and the people who make that place. The third one writes about fishing in the Owens. And the fourth one writes about the River in Sacramento which they want to imagine is in a remote place in California.
1) Antonio- He quoted that "The Beatles had gone beyond comprehension. We were smoking marijuana for breakfast. We were well into marijuana and nobody could communicate with us, because we were just glazed eyes, giggling all the time," all with a little help from their friend Bob.
2) Valerie- I learned that the Pomos did not use money, but instead used beads as currency that were made out of clam shells from Bodega Bay
3) Tamika- I learned that the single most influential and representative of the French writers was Voltaire.
4) Stephen- I definetelly learned alot anout General Mariano Vallejo.
5) Sophia- I learned that ccording to the Gregorian calendar, the 20th century began on January 1, 1901 and ended December 31st of the year 2000. The 21st century began January 1, 2001 and will end December 31st of the year 2100. The 21st century is our current century
6) Raquel- I learned about Captain Jack (whose native name was Kintpuash) was the chief of the Modoc tribe and leader of the Modoc War; he was a great war tactician and is credited for the success of the Modoc over the U.S. Army in the battle of Lost River, where he utilized the many caves and trenches in the lava beds on what today is known as Captain Jack's Stronghold at the Lava Beds National Monumentum. He was eventually captured and hanged.
7) Michael- I learned that the Mexican congress created a law of expulsion for any one who was born in spain, would be declared an immigrant, and would be forced to leave the country. I also learned that Michael is very opiniated.
8) Megan- I learned that Obama has admitted to experimental drug use during his teenage years. And that social standards are more accepting and personal freedom is at an all time high.
9) Mario- I learned that Russian attempts at colonization in 1800's, to take advantage during the chaos between Mexican - Spanish war...
10) Laurel- I learned that she lives where the Miwoks used to live and she was facinated by them ever since she was little.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Week 8
Part 1:The Wappo are a group of Native American who traditionally lived in Northern California in the areas of Napa Valley, the South sore of Clear Lake, Alexandre Valley, and Russian River. Common in this area was the semi-subterranean roundhouse where elaborate Kuksu dances were held in the past and continue to this day. These rituals assure the renewal of the world's natural foods both plant and animal. Despite differences, between tribes, these rituals share similar purposes. The discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada at a sawmill construction site developed by Indian Agent Johann Sutter, ushered in one of the darkest episodes of dispossession widespread sexual assault and mass murder against the native people of California. Sutter immediately negotiated a treaty with the chief of the Coloma Nisenan Tribe which would have given a three year lease to lands surrounding the gold discovery site. During those negotiations, the chief prophetically warned Sutter that the yellow metal he so eagerly sought was, "very bad medicine. It belonged to a demon who devoured all who searched for it". Eventually the military governor refused to endorse Sutter's self-serving actions.Within a year a hoard of 100,000 adventurers from all over the world descended upon the native peoples of California with catastrophic results. The entire state was scoured by gold seekers. Thinly spread government officials were overwhelmed by this unprecedented deluge of immigrants and all effective authority collapsed. Military authorities could not prevent widespread desertion of soldiers and chaos reigned.
I chose this tribe because I had heard the name before but didn't really know anything about them. My other choice where the Pomos, but i know many things about them already and I think other students have the opportunity to research them. I wanted to do some research on a tribe that i didn't know anything about.
The Wappos were known for their baskets. The baskets were made by weaving parts of plants that were growing in the valley. They used the gray willow, redbud, and sedge plants. The baskets were so tightly woven that they could hold water or be used in cooking foods such as nuts. Beads and feathers were sometimes woven into the baskets. The beads were made from shells brought back from the coast.The naturally black root of the bulrush was used for the black design in Wappo baskets. Wappo Weavers discovered that they could enhance the blackness of the root by soaking them in a metal can. Redbud bark was woven into baskets to create red designs. The tan background, is from the sedge root. A newly woven basket might appear to be almost white because of the light color of new growth roots split for weaving. The sedge root, however will darken with age, becoming first a nice beige color and later tan. Over time this tan color may darken to light brown.The Wappos also used their weaving skills to make nets for catching fish and carrying boards that mothers used to carry their babies as they worked.
The name ‘Napa’ was given to the valley by the Wappo Indians who first inhabited the area. To them, Napa meant a land of plenty. We think this name aptly describes the wonderful bounty of food and wine in this beautiful countryside.
The Wappos ate the foods that were around them. They hunted deer, bears, and squirrels. They collected and crushed acorns to make a mush. They caught fish with their hands.This chart lists the names of the animals, insects, birds, and fishes that were eaten by the Wappos along with the wappo word.
Sources:
http://www.corpuschristischool.com/4thca_native_websites_04/Wappo/wappo_home.html#intersting
http://store.merryvale.com/assets/client/File/Profiles-May09-Flemings.pdf
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/wappo/pages/wappoanimals.html
1) Antonio- He really loved the fact that a museum can be really interactive!
2) Kimmie- She said that to overcome the depression blues, women turned to quilting as a creative outlet with the quilts being cheerful, optimistic and colorful, in addition to a practical necessity to keep their families warm.
3) Judy- Report from Rockport was one of Davis’ most important canvases because it was the first in which he utilized his color-space theory.
4) Megan- I learned that the Corning Museum holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of glass in the World.
5) Erin- I learned that Andre Breton was interested in psychiatry and Freud's theories of psychoanalysis. Breton wanted artists to free themselves from the limitations of the conscious by using automatism to enter into a trance and apply paint on canvas.
6) Dinlaka- I learned that Jim Crow laws were sets of anti- Black rules, passed in the late 19Th century in several Southern states to legalized a racial caste system in the US.
7) Danielle- I learned that Van Gogh's brother said that the irises, "are a beautiful study full of air and life."And his painting became the most expensive ever sold in 1987.
8) Daniel- I learned that the museum does tend to speak for itself given that it has well over 100 million different items to display in the museum and spans twenty-five buildings!
9) Catherine- I learned that the Botanic Garden is also very involved in various outreach programs, trying to initiate sustainable practices and worldwide plant conservation programs. The gardens are committed to furthering an understanding of the importance that plants have to humankind and the entire biosphere.
10) Kyle- I learned that the Battleship Oregon was constructed in San Francisco and was one of the most well built ships in the navy of that time.
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