Author Archives: Rock on Fire

Fast and Furious article

It is hard for me to wrap my head around the article I just read entitled “Fast, Furious, and Out of Control: The Erasure of the Natural Landscapes in Car Culture Films” by Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heuman. I believe I understand what they are saying as the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, follows and aids in the car culture ideology of going against the system and having freedom through the outlet of speed. I also understand how Car Culture and therefore the “Fast and Furious” films do not acknowledge the issue of the effect automobiles have on the environment. However, I personally feel that by attacking a film for utilizing and conveying car culture, and in a way criminalizing the films as aiding in the degradation of the environment is a little bit far fetched. I say this because there are hundreds of films out their that though they may not be centered around the car culture, and racing worlds, still do not shine light on the issues of the environment and also depict images that go against the “natural” landscape and highlight the power of man’s creation.

As I have learned through this course I know that media and in this case a film can make a huge impact on the spread of pop culture, and therefore I’m sure there were thousands of viewers of the “Fast and Furious” films who were inspired and became interested in car culture following a screening of one of the films. But to me I wish the authors wouldn’t have only listed over and over again this link to how car culture and the “Fast and the Furious” films have furthered the old belief that Earths natural rescources aren’t running dry, or that the vehicles in which are on display are not impacting the environment. Instead I wish they would have followed up their argument with information on how car culture and the films could become (if there are any further sequals in the franchise) more “green” friendly.

The other issue I had with the article that didn’t set well with me due to the fact that it hits close to home, is the incrimination of Jimmie Johnson and bootleggers. I agree that some were lawless men just looking for a thrill when they took jobs running illegal moonshine throughout the country. However I have family members and ancestors who made and ran moonshine. Therefore I know their intentions were not to chase some sort of freedom by breaking the law but in reality was a tool for survival, and a way to feed hungry mouths. I feel the article could therefore have directed its words towards those that are actually exploiting our natural rescourses and harming the environment. Why not go after the the automobile industry who until recently did not care about making cars that were environmentally friendly. The same industry who along with the oil industry were responsible for “killing the electric car” in the last decade of the 20th century. The documentary that explains the history and the reasoning behind the death of the electric car is stated in the article in question, however their is zero elaboration on the documentary itself.

I do not completely disagree with the entire idea of the article however just something about it rubbed me the wrong way.

Car Culture (Rodriguez and Gonzalez)

I stand next to my father with an ice cold beer positioned in my greasy and grimy hands. I smell of oil, dirt, with a hint of gasoline. We peer into the engine of my 1996 Ford Bronco, and admire our handy work. Neither of us are expert mechanics, but being able to make small fixes and repairs, to a machine makes us feel accomplished, and a sense of pride in our handiwork wells up inside me. With every new mechanical skill I learn, from changing oil, to switching out break pads, I feel that I am becoming more and more of a man…

Some of the ideas displayed in the article titled, “Asian American Auto/Biographies: The Gendered Limits of Consumer Citizenship in Import Subcultures,” by Robyn Magalit Rodriguez and Vernadette Vicuna Gonzalez, made me realize for the first time how much masculinity is associated with the automobile. Furthermore from the article I realized how a car can really give insight into who or what group a person identifies themselves with. I found this information fascinating because I realized that I myself am guilty of associating a persons “ride” with what cultural group they identify with. When I see a big ”jacked up truck,” or a small ”rice rocket,” I immediately associate the driver with a specific group in car culture. Also as from the short story above I am now aware of the distinct association of the automobile with male masculinity and ego.

On that note I feel guilty to admit it, but I never realized how much the female body is utilized in car culture, and the exploitation of women, as a sort of prize and piece of property that is associated with the masculinity of car culture. Looking back to the “Fast and the Furious” film franchise I realize how many of the females are displayed as almost prizes and objects that the man who proves himself to be the most manly and powerful are able to obtain. This thought is pretty disgusting since it takes woman and puts them in the role as a trophy of some sort to further prove an individual males masculinity.

Overall this was a very eye opening article and thoroughly enjoyable.

kānaka maoli flag

Hawaii Kanaka flag

The flag you may of noticed on the background of my blog site is not the state flag of Hawai′i. However this flag is the  ”ke hae o ka mana o nā kānaka maoli, the “flag of the native Hawaiians’ power,’” or in a short version it is called kānaka maoli flag. I remember my Hawaiian buddies had one of these flags hanging up in the living room of the house therefore I thought it was fitting to make this flag and not the one we all know as the background to my site. The flag also coincides with an earlier post I did on the Hawaiian sovereignty movement because it symbolizes the fight for Hawaiian independence.

Below is a link to where I got my information.

http://www.kanakamaolipower.org/

Parting words

I wanted to briefly thank everyone for following my blog the past quarter. Sadly all good things come to the end but my obsession with the islands of Hawai′i lives on, and I hope that I have sparked some interest in you all to the great history and culture of the islands. I do wish, that I would be able to continue my blog in order to provide more information on the islands, and their role in pop culture, and furthermore their connection with Asian American pop culture. However for me its Pau Hana time, so to all my readers shoots, bumbye, catch ya later.

sticker,375x360_u7

Ozeki Communication

Throughout Ruth Ozeki’s book, A Tale for the Time Being, one of the reacurring themes can be seen in the form of communication. Their are so many ways in which the characters communicate with each other an oddly enough with their individual selves. We see basic everyday communication used such as e-mail and texting to letters and of course Nao’s diary. The latter is one of the most interesting because it allows for communication to occur throughout time. The way in which Nao wrote her diary allows her to communicate with the reader without time really mattering. It has locked the sixteen year old girl in a place in time and provided a root of communication for the reader of the diary Ruth.

However, on that note during the last portion of the book I was intrigued by the scenes invlolving Ruth’s dreams. I feel like these dreams culminating with her last dream where she meets Haruki number two and warns him that Nao needs him and to not go through with his planned suicide but to go find her (352). This dream correlates with what Nao described in her diary of how her father catches up with her while at a bus stop waiting to board a bus to Jiko’s death bed. Though it has an appearance of a supernatural mystery taking place between two differnet places in time, what intrigued me was the concept of the dream Ruth had as being a form of providing answers for herself. It may be as far fetched as the literal notion in the book of this supernatural anomaly accuring but when I think about what a dream can offer a person who is experiences some type of mental crisis, which could be seen in Ruth’s obsessive relationship with Nao and her diary, or her years of writers block, a dream can offer clarity and a way for the mind to sort itself out in an unconscious sort of way. I myself have gone to bed dwelling on an issue or trying to find an answer to something and have woken up with clarity on the issue. So when I was reading about this particular dream of Ruths I thought that possibly the dream Ruth had experienced could be a way for Ruths unconscious self communicating with her conscious self.

It kind of weird to think about but the whole business of pages just disappearing out of Nao’s diary and all the other supernatural connections, seems to do more with Ruth’s creative way of trying to unravel the secrets of the diary.

Ozeki Reading Place

While doing the reading for Ozeki I thought about another reacurring theme running throughout the novel. I realized the importance of place and how in the novel the characters are connected by not only  their geographical location but also their personal feeling towards where they live.

Both Ruth (the character) and Nao, have this connection with the way they feel towards where they live and where they have lived. Nao who lived in Sunnyvale, California for most of her life associates this place with home. The move to Japan was a shock not only geographicaly but emotionally and culturally as she was taken from the American lifestyle she knew and loved and implanted into an entirely different culture, and lifestyle(which can be associated with her families loss of income). Ruth too feels this way as she had come from the hustle and bustle of New York City and now is located, like Nao in a different world that she is not accustomed too, and most likely would not have chose for herself without being pushed into her island residence by her husband Oliver. Both characters had to sacrifice and change the scenery and lifestyles they were comfortable in, for a place and culture which they felt they did not belong.

I also thought it was interesting how both characters reside on Islands. Ruth on a remote island in British Columbia, Canada, and Nao on the island nation of Japan. I feel that both characters also suffered this feeling of being trapped in this place. With water all around them, with no place to escape. Nao could not escape and return to Sunnyvale, and Ruth couldn’t just pick up and leave her beloved husband Oliver, so they were both stuck to their island, with not many options.

I found this connection between the characters fascinating and thought it was a creative way that Ruth Ozeki(the author) linked these characters even with there separation in place and time.

Ozeki Reading- Identity

While reading Ozeki earlier today I was trying to make connection between the characters and how they identify themselves, and to observe similarities, in particular, between Nao, and Ruth(the character).

We see in both characters that they identify themselves as Americans. Nao who was born in Japan but moved to Sunnyvale, California at the young age of three, know’s nothing but the American lifestyle and Identifies herself more with the American culture and way of life. I’m sure that it was hard for her to make the adjustement back to her native country of Japan, with the hardships she faced from her peers at school with the amount of ijime she was subjected too. However I feel with her loss of contact with her friend Kayla who abandoned their friendship later on the story, must of also made Nao in someway feel that she doesn’t fit with either culture. This identity issue can be compounded even further as she grows older too, because I personally feel that when you are a teenager and are maturing, you begin to try and find your identity and are in a constant search of discovering who you are.

Ruth too has a similar identity issue. She is also part Japanese with her mother being from Japan and raised in Hilo, Hawaii. However as Oliver indicates towards the end of the book that Ruths mother was never very Japanese, and neither is she. So I feel that even with this connection Ruth has with Japan and the Japanese language she also identifies herself as an American with a sense of another part of her being connected to Japan.

I also noticed as the book went on Ruth was dealing with an aging or a maturing problem which is also  seen in Nao’s character and is associated with identity. Ruth as a novelist has been able in her past to create a world in her head and display its image on paper, hence putting her imagination in physical form. However she has found that as she has grown and moved to her small remote island in British Columbia, she is suffering from writers block. Whats even crazier is the story that she is trying to write and is having troubles finding the inspiration to turn those images into written word is a memoir, and thus is attatched to life and not a world that she has created in her head. However we see in Nao’s character her ability to express in her diary her feelings, emotions, and story of her life with fluidity.

These connections were interesting to absurve because of how both Nao and Ruth are connected in where and how they identify themselves, but also how their identity has become threatened throughout the story.

Surfs Up

surf

I was scanning through you tube the other day and came across a surfing video, and was intrigued to learn some of the origins of the sport. I knew their was a huge connection between surfing and my obsession of Hawai′i and thought I would look into the sport a bit more. Here’s some of what I found to be interesting.

Surfing is believed to have originated in the Polynesian Islands, and has deep roots in Ancient Hawaiian culture. To Ancient Hawaiians surfing was like in todays sports world a way to distinguish oneself. A person who was a commoner could become, “famous or infamous” by their skills of riding waves. Also the Chiefs utilized their skills in surfing in a way to show their dominance. I found this interesting because it seems to connect somewhat with todays sports where a person who is particularly good at a sport can set himself/herself apart from the rest of society due to his or her skills in the athletic arena.

Furthermore as European and Hawaiian cultures met there was a dismantling of the Kapu (taboo) code of living which before the 19th century ran the Hawaiian peoples everyday life. This change can be associated greatly to the Calvinist missionaries who first arrived in the 1820′s and began converting the Hawaiian population to Christianity and by the turn of the century surfing was scarcely seen on the island.

However with the Haole’s (white person) intrusion on the island and its link to the demise of surfing, white people also played a key role in its revival. The big turning point was seen when George Freeth who is believed to be born on Oahu Hawai’i came to California to demonstrate the art of riding the waves. Also Duke  Kahanamoku was an ambassador to the sport and helped it spread and grow in popularity as he brought the sport to Australia in 1915. These early ambassadors to the sport were essential for surfings growth and its spread to different cultures and nations. But the biggest spread of the sport had yet to come

This would be seen in the mid 1950′s to early 60′s. As we know from this quarter, media plays a large role in the spread of popular culture and we see this in the case of surfing. In the mid 1950′s a filmmaker by the name of Bud Browne would “pioneer the surf movie.” From this more cinematographers, musicians, and photographers aided in spreading surfing culture and made surfing into not just a hobby, but into a ”full fledged industry.” Now we see surfing to have grown to an international sport with a pro surfing circuit which hold events from Hawai’i, South Africa, Australia, and Tahiti.

Though this is just a brief bit of History of surfing and how it came to be associated with popular culture, if anyone is interested to look further into surfing, I have been able to see a few documentaries that are quite interesting and give great backround and detail of the sport. One of which is titled, Riding Giants, and the other is Odyssey or also titled Billibong Odyseey.

Also here is a  link to where I got my information on the surfing’s history-  http://www.surfingforlife.com/history3.html

Mississippi Masala

The film Missippi Masala was for me personally an enjoyable film that gave a different perspective of racially conflict in interacial relationships.  It was the education I received from watching the love story between Ugandan born South Asian Indian, with an African American male, taking place in Mississippi that really made it interesting and enjoyable to watch (for me personally).

It is not often that a film, in particular one with the deep south as being one of the main settings for the film, to have two non-white characters of different races depicted in a love story.  Especially in not a “forbidden love story.” In most cases Hollywood depicts the interracial relationship struggle between a black character and a white character. It was kind of eye opening in a way to depict the complications these two lovers faced due to both of their families not supporting the relationship. I felt that it offered a completely new perspective that isn’t usually seen in movies.

I also was intrigued by the film because it gave me insight to a piece of history I was previously unaware of. Before this film I had never heard of Idi Amin’s Ugandan regime kicking out the Indian population, and saying Uganda is for black Africans only. To be honest I didn’t have a clue that their was a substantial number of people of Indian decent living in Uganda. However while watching the film I compared this racist ideology to that of our own countries history, where immigrant populations were treated poorly due to their race. Our country too has a history of believing our borders are for white people only. I guess when you think about it their will be racism wherever you go in the world, and by taking the issue of race outside of  America, it opened up my eyes about some of the other racial issues in history that has no association with the United States.

Overall the film was great and worth watching.

Kato and Dragons

The movie ¨Enter the Dragon” starring Bruce Lee had many striking scenes that are connected and displayed in Chapter four of the Kato reading this week. However I found one seen and quote very profound and would like to focus this blog post on the connections I have made between the book and this scene.

At the very end of the film during the climatic fight to the death between Lee and Han in the room full of glass mirrors Lee hears the voice of his Shaolin teacher reminding him “The enemy has only images and illusions, behind which he hides his true motives.” I found this scene very meaningful when it comes to the relationship between Hollywood and Kung Fu. Hollywood has a long history of masking the “real” and twisting and distorting it until it is invisible to the audience. We have seen this throughout prior Kato readings such as in the case of the one dimensional camera angles used while filming Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, or through the show Kung Fu in which a white man plays the role of a Shaolin Monk and they only consulted a few experts in the art of Kung Fu and Philosophy. They hide there motives of concealment and containment of authentic Gung Fu and its philosophy behind images they select to convey to an audience. That’s what makes this scene so great because it shows Lee breaking these mirrors and images put up by Hollywood.Kato states early on in the chapter, “… the script writer was skilled in translating the kung fu plot into a narrative format accessible to a Hollywood audience.(119)” Furthermore Kato discusses on page 155 how Han can be seen as the image or the illusion created by Hollywood and by the breaking of the mirrors Lee is able to remove the power of images from Han (Hollywood). In effect countering Hollywoods goal of seeing the “real as taboo” and its attempts to comodify and process the real therefore tearing down the “Orientalist” villain image creating throughout Hollywood Kung Fu films(155).

From reading this chapter I found that perhaps I should start being more observant of the images Hollywood in conveying in films, and in so doing, will be able to distinguish between the real image of a film and the processed image Hollywood is trying to display.