So classes started today…

Heh. Two classes Tuesday/Thursday. They seem pretty cool, but tomorrow is going to kill me. And will keep killing me.

We had to send an e-mail to our Honors Comp (Rhetoric of Pop Culture) teacher. It's okay to call her Dr. Kate. She's blonde, as is eeeeveryone else. (The honors program here has seven guys I think. That class has 17 girls and two guys, me being one of them.. wheee!)

The e-mail!

“Who am I? What am I? Where am I?”
-Or- How I've become a victim of pop culture.

Dear Dr. Kate,
My journey to Duluth this fall is a result of good circumstances, as are
many things in my life. We had a college fair in Brookings, SD where I am
from, and from talking to the different reps, UMD simply had the most
programs that I was interested in: theatre, English, journalism, graphic
design, etc. Also a huge plus was it's six hour distance from home. Roughly
47% of my class of 220 decided to attend SDSU, the local college. It's
probably become even more as many realize they don't want to leave home.
This was not for me. (90% of my class has used at least one illegal
substance as well, also not for me.) My desire to run from the midwest and
home has thus brought me to… Minnesota. Hey, whatever works.
If someone were to ask me to define most aspects of myself in two words I'd
choose shy and witty. They can both be modified by “painfully”, by me on the
first and friends on the latter. My friends from back home and I had a
system, I'd say some terrible pun or something similar and they'd hit me. I
look forward to gaining that relationship with people at UMD. Things are
moving slowly however, due to a self-diagnosed case of agoraphobia. On
Saturday night I chose not to attend the “Bulldog Scramble”, opting instead
to put together a bookcase. During the assembly it fell on my head, causing
me to bleed. To quote Augusten Burrough's “Dry” that I read recently, “head
wounds are so dramatic.” I've got a nice scab on my head to remind me why
anti-social behavior can bring.
To relate another story of what crippling shyness can bring, I would like to
explain dinner on Sunday night. After filling my tray I froze as my heart
began to race. Fearing any sort of confrontation I sat at a table alone.
Some girls soon sat at the table next to me, taking most of my chairs. It
was great motivation to work up the courage to sit with other people.
Moving along, I feel as if I'm still trapped within the limits of high
school, using it to define my life and other people. I still feel like I'm
some kid who was in debate, oral interp, theatre, and journalism–not a
college freshmen. I also fear that the summer has assaulted my grasp of
punctuation, and have I mentioned I'm paranoid? I'm surprised I'm not
spell-checking this and editing for content. That is something I can save
for a later day.
This is a poorly disguised transition into the discussion of pop culture
which would have looked better with a comma. Imagine that it began with a
phrase like “nextly,” or “finally,” or whichever transition you prefer. I
chose this class because I define myself as a, pardon my French,
“pop-culture whore.” I love it. I define pop culture as the sum total of
what's currently in the media and on the minds of people. Popular culture is
simply what's currently “hip” or “trendy” or “fashionable” or “cool” or
maybe even “deck” or “new wave.” Culture, on the other hand, is the more
sophisticated some of modern thinking. It's the classical art, music,
theatre and etc. I'd define something orchestral as “culture” whereas
Britney Spears (sadly) is “pop culture.” It's “A Streetcar Named Desire” vs.
“Survivor Part XXII: Getting Naked in Space!” Though, it's a thin line. “A
Streetcar” could very well have been considered pop culture in its own time,
and only a few decades have refined the distinction into “Culture”. As
another overbroad generalization, you could say art is Culture and tv is pop
culture, but then again you have people like Andy Warhol who go and screw
everything up.
The phrase “screw everything up” could very well be pop culture.
American pop culture has become the world's pop culture, which as debate
taught me via globalization this past year, is a very bad thing.
Quintissentially (a word I was planning on learning to spell the other day)
“American pop culture” items currently would be reality tv, McDonalds, and
patriotism; in my opinion at least. These are the signs of our culture that
we see whereve we go. We can proudly drive our SUV with flag bumper sticker
through the McDonalds' drive-through and then go home to watch the latest
incarnation of the death of true-culture.
I hate reality tv, but love the general idea of pop culture… odd to be
sure.
As far as any time traveler being popped into modern day America would go,
it'd be a scary experience to be sure. They'd be assaulted by all of the
technology, something deeply ingrained in our pop-cultural psyche. Pop
culture has become a culture of excess which wouldn't really mesh well with
someone from the past. I'm sure even the Greeks might draw the line at Anna
Nicole. They might see our connectedness as a positive thing, but the cynic
in me says they'd disapprove of many things. Pop culture can tend to
represent the worst parts of a society. There is more depth to America than
Fear Factor, Burger King, and Howard Stern, but it's way above the pop
culture level. Pop culture is the things we love right now in the
ultra-present. Furbies were pop-culture, now they are not. They've passed
from the spotlights of pop-culture to maybe even “retro” or “kitsch.” It's a
process. A very quick process.

Sincerely yours,
Chris “Topher McCulloch.

(Pop Culture has made me dislike the commonness of the name Chris. Thus, in
Christopher I've cut out the Chris leaving… topher! Heh)

“I've learned the worst nightmare is the one of reality.”

Yep, I'm sure I've already earned a special spot in her… blacklist. I sound like a lunatic.

And my 2-D design class is taught by a very cool lady named Dr. Rock or something. I think she might be blonde as well. And post/pre neo-Ty from academic registration is in that class…

As well as the epitomy of the abercrombie graphic design student.

Uh.. lotsa cool looking people.

Wheeoo. More later.

-ToPHeR

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