| Learning from tragedy
The past week has been filled with stories, videos and commentary surrounding the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho, who later committed suicide.
Its a story that certainly deserved coverage, as do the stories of the victims as their families struggle to begin the healing process.
Theres been a lot of talk of the video and still photos mailed by Cho to NBC News and their subsequent use on television and in newspapers around the country. We agree that enough is enough. But we disagree with the reason why we dont need to see the video anymore, and we certainly disagree with a statement by Mark McGuire, a pop culture newspaper columnist. If you let your kids watch stuff like this, youre committing child abuse, McGuire said in a story written by the Associated Press.
Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US
PETER Carey and the Who's Pete Townshend make curious fellow travellers. Keen to fathom the siren call of Japanese popular culture to their respective teenage sons, they take different routes to the answer. Carey's ill-planned journey to unmask the real Japan was prematurely doomed to confirm, as his travel memoir avers, that he was wrong about Japan. He'd have been better advised to borrow Townshend's copy of Japanamerica, which the guitarist praises on the book jacket. Japanamerica is a stimulating guide to how Japanese pop culture has invaded the US. As a Japanese-American who divides his time between Tokyo and New York, author Roland Kelts is well positioned to explore the roots and ramifications of a steadfast and, to many, mystifying trend. Although artistic interchange between Japan and the West is centuries old, Kelts sees America's recent embrace of manga (comics), anime (animation) and video games as signifying and strengthening deeper connections between the two nations.
Trivia Night at Haggin Museum
STOCKTON - The Haggin Museum has teamed up with members of the Pacific Historical Society of University of the Pacific to host an entertaining and educational Trivia Night from 7 to 9 p.m. today. With inspiration from the mid-'90s Nickelodeon game show "Legends of the Hidden Temple," the evening event will challenge teams of players with questions about pre-Columbian culture, pop culture and more. The winning team and other participants will receive prizes. Admission is $5 per person at the door, and free snacks will be provided. Soda, mixed drinks and beer will be available for purchase. For more information, contact Eddie Hargreaves at (209) 940-6312 or info@hagginmuseum.org. .
Being black and beautiful against stereotypes
How have African-American women maintained their femininity and sense of beauty after centuries of dehumanization? They survived the inhumanity of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the indignity of being separated from their families on slave auction blocks. They endured abuse and rape by slave masters and overcame the injustice of being bred and worked like animals. During segregation and after desegregation, they suffered doubly for being black and female in a culture that esteemed neither. More recently, the physical attributes historically possessed by black women were deemed undesirable by America's wider society - until women of other ethnic groups began to exhibit them. Cornrows weren't chic until Bo Derek got them, curvaceous derrieres weren't sexy until Jennifer Lopez came along, and full lips were unattractive until Angelina Jolie's kissers showed up and sparked a cottage industry of lip-plumping potions.
Eurythmics co-founder teams with Greenpeace
EXACTLY how Dave Stewart, co-founder of the '80s pop supergroup the Eurythmics, came to launch a new multimedia venture with the environmental crusaders of Greenpeace is a story of Information Age synergy. It is a story of rock star entrepreneurship, MySpace-era interconnectivity and the ecological crisis mind-set that has seized almost every segment of culture since the release of Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
But also, it's the story of how Stewart's birthday wish turned into an Earth Day offering — a nonprofit Greenpeace "anthem" called "Go Green" that will become available for download on iTunes just in time for the observance of the global environmental appreciation holiday Sunday.
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