Booted and Confused

My birthday was this (and every) St. Patrick's Day. To celebrate, my friends and I went out in Philadelphia. After jumping from bar to bar, we eventually ended up at The Dark Horse. As it was getting late, we were all getting a bit hungry. The bartender had been very hospitable and had given me a few drinks on the house. We asked if they served food and he told us that the kitchen was closed. A few of my friends ran over to the nearby Wawa and brought back some food which we began to eat in the bar. This is when the trouble happened. Once we began to nosh, the bartender yelled at us across the bar that we were not allowed to bring outside food into an establishment that already served food. We had not known about this legality, but complied with his request to get rid of the food. We stayed in the bar and continued to drink, but five minutes after the bartender had told us to get rid of the food, he approached our table and said, very sternly, "Okay. Here's the deal. You take one last sip and then you get out!" None of us really understood why we were being kicked out. We had unknowingly broken rules, but we had done as we were asked once we realized our mistake. One of my friends was visiting from Australia and didn't move from the table. I asked Tom to wait until I left before he said something and I exited the bar hearing Tom tell the bartender, "This isn't how we do things in Australia." and the bartender replying, "Get out NOW! AND WALK QUICK!"

We were all upset over this event, but also amused. This was a collective event as we had all been in the same bar and had all experienced it together. There had been a few other patrons there, but for the most part, the bar was dead. We really felt we had did nothing wrong. This, combined with our varying levels of intoxication and the rude tone the bartender seemed to use out of nowhere affected our perception of the event. I'm sure to the other people in the bar we seemed like irresponsible kids who got what we deserved. No one tried to fight with the bartender (save Tom) and we didn't realize we had done anything wrong. We all concluded the bartender had been a jerk. The way I experienced this event directly related to my perceptions about it. We were not rude, but we were treated rudely. I feel the bartender's Irish temper got the better of him as he kicked us out after stewing over the incident for a few moments. My perceptions of him being Irish (indicated by his brogue) also affected the way I perceived his actions. I'm sure if I had read about this in a newspaper, I would have sided with the bar. I'm sure we would have been painted as defiant and careless. However, since I was there, and I know we were treated unfairly, I'm on my side. 

Constructing History

During spring break, I went to an art magazine release party for the very first time in Brooklyn. The reason I went to this event is because my brother was featured in the magazine. Throughout the past, my bother would tell me stories about the fun and excitement that he usually had when attending these magazine release parties. He described it so vivid, as seeing lines of people outside of the revenue, and the place was always filled with people. Nonetheless, some of friends were attending the magazine release party. My expectations about this particular event were very high because they were featuring some great hip-hop artists, and well-known producers. I did my research on the past events, and from looking at the photos, I could already tell that I was going to like it. The photos on the website showed well-known artists and musicians from around the world.

As we drove up to the location, I first noticed that there was not a line of people. Which was an indication that this was not a very popular nightclub. As I went inside the place, I suddenly became very disappointed. The place was nearly empty, and I was told no one was performing throughout the night. Overall, hearing the stories, and viewing photos from past events was the result of having high expectations about the art magazine release party. In many ways this was considered collective memory from my bother’s point of view. The photos shown on the Internet of the past events were simply incredible. In class we spoke about certain interviews and evidence such as photos construct our perception of history in many ways.

My experience of the event relates to the public sphere. The reason I say this is because many people know my brother as a well-known artist, and the after the event, I was getting numerous phone calls asking me about my experience at the highly publicized art magazine release party. In other words, “ I am the brother of a well- known artist.” Overall, this event can be historicized to the many artists who attended. The art magazine release party was a celebration of art from the past.

During Spring Break, I witnessed a car going up in flames. Around one o clock in the morning I woke up to the sound of an intense booming noise and thought, for some reason that some part of my house had exploded, still half asleep. So I ran to the window (why I was running to the window when clearly our house had just exploded, I have no idea) and looked out to see flames just down the street. With my mind starting to shrug off the laziness of sleep, I realized that it was not, in fact, coming from the other side of my house but down the street. So, I went to my parents room to get a closer look. Almost directly under their window, there was a car going up in flames and all we could do was stare. There was a cop car sitting outside blocking off the street, so we figured the fire trucks were on the way. I guess what I found most interesting about the situation is how fascinated people are by 'out of the ordinary' events. If you really put it into simple terms, the situation would go as follows: "there was a loud noise, a car was on fire, the firemen put it out". The End. I always wonder what type of meaning we get out of having experienced events such as these that are 'out of the ordinary'. I wonder if we saw cars being set on fire every day if it would slowly turn into 'the ordinary'. It seems that we as people reserve our amazement for things that do not happen everyday and I wonder why that is. It's interesting that we don't hear on the news everyday about doctors saving lives, which they do - everyday. All around the world. Although, sometimes, when the saving of these lives are connected with some amazing story of survival, this is news. I guess to answer some of the questions, this event will remain in a relatively private sphere. I did not hear any news of the incident on television, and except for the slightly burnt patch of grass, you never would have expected that anything was amiss the night before. The way in which I experienced this event effected my knowledge of it because I don't think it would have had as major an impact if I were to see it on television; "oh, another car on fire", versus experiencing it first hand.

High Speed Chase, Falsification

On Thursday, March 12, right after my last class of the week and therefore at the very beginning of my spring break, I decided to visit a friend of mine on Richardson Street.  I walked out of my house on Hamilton Street and proceeded to walk down Louis Street, towards Easton Avenue.  All was normal until I reached the intersection of Louis Street and Guilden Street, where I was greeted by a throng of students, families, and onlookers.  The section of Guilden Street located behind St. Peter's Hospital was roped off with police tape, and there was a generally frenzied atmosphere.  A friend of mine happened to be there, and he informed me that a bank in Franklin had just been robbed and that the robbers had just led the police on a high speed chase down Route 27, ending at the dead end of Guilden Street.  He had heard gun shots, and told me that shots were exchanged between the criminals and the police.  

Later, when I read about the incident in the newspaper, I discovered that my friends report was not far from the truth.  The high speed chase ended in New Brunswick, where shots were first fired by some of the 4 criminals, to which police responded with shots of their own.  Three of the suspects were shot, but all survived and will no doubt see significant jail time.  

Yesterday, I bumped into a fellow classmate of mine (we'll call him Matt) from high school.  We asked the usual questions ("What have you been up to?") and then got on the topic of this bank robbery and high speed chase.  According to Matt, the Bank of America in New Brunswick was robbed, the criminals were chased behind St. Peters, and three of the criminals were shot dead.

I didn't have the heart to correct him, since his story was told with such enthusiasm and awe.  After the exchange, we went our separate ways.

This anecdote is a great example of how information can be lost, changed, and completely mutated over time and across space.  My friend who experienced the event firsthand (at least the tail-end of the event) had more accurate information than Matt, and he probably got a cursory story from a police officer.  Matt, who had the benefit of seeing newspaper reports and general news coverage for 2 weeks after the incident, couldn't have gotten the details more wrong.  I assumed that rumors start from directly after an incident and then explode as time goes on.  Obviously, this is how Matt heard his fanciful and highly inaccurate tale.  However, my friend who was there for the action got the information all right.  Could a falsity such as Matt's have its beginnings in an account as accurate as the firsthand witness's?  It's hard to answer this, but one thing is sure: information has a tendency to become exaggerated and warped over time, as more and more people add their ridiculous views to simple events.

Storytelling with the help of an i-phone

During my break, I drove to Philadelphia and watched the Philadelphia Orchestra perform Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. After the performance, I had lunch with my friend and a member of the orchestra who I studied with the past two years, and occasionally still see. I had no intention of writing about this event, and it was not until a few days later that I noticed some interesting things about it.
He told us about the orchestra's recent tour - which took them to the Canary Islands and throughout Europe. Usually when I hear about or read about orchestra tours, the information is general, the speech is 'flowery', and the orchestra's amazing performances are thoroughly praised. However, in this experience, I heard little about these things. Instead, my teacher talked about a scuba diving excursion that he and other members took off the coast of the islands. With extreme enthusiasm, he told me about all the different fish he saw, chasing a baby octupus, and swimming with a massive school of fish. This was all very interesting, but to add to it, he showed me about 50 pictures on his i-phone, that added a picture to his words. While reading through First Time for class, I noticed that while Price uses archival documents and engravings to support the first time stories. In a parallel modern day way, I felt my teacher's story was supported and made more exciting by his i-phone pictures. Though this is nothing ground-breakingly-incredible, I just found it interesting to see how we support our experiences with modern technology.

Witness

During my spring break, instead of watching the pretty girls on the beaches of the carribean, I went with my church to Waveland, Mississippi to help the victims of Katrina. Hurricane Katrina raged a long time ago. I witnessed when I arrived at the site how devastated the location still is. We worked for four days but the work that needed desperately to be done will be far from over. From what the missionaries at the site were telling us, the workers were few. This weekend I volunteered to go up to the congregation and testify to what I had seen and experienced. Some of the memories were amazing, I never had so much fun. Some of the memories were troubling, people were desperate for relief, and the missionaries were scrambling to find replacements. I struggle to find the words to say this Sunday when I go to church. From the time limitations, will I be a witness to how wonderful the trip was or how devastated the people were there? It really brings into discussion how I want others to precieve the event, and how I want to remember the event. Both roles are important to me, the great bonding I had with my team members will be unforgettable but so would the face of suffering finally receiving some relief. I found it interesting how closely the subject at hand related to the discussions we have about the witnesses of the holocaust and the hidden gypsy suffering.

Spring Break

This spring break I visited my boyfriend in South Jersey. I really did not do too much that week except work on some projects and relax. The whole week I meant to go out with him somewhere, but we kept putting it off. Finally on Thursday, we decided to go out. After going to a few stores and eating at a Chinese restaurant, we tried going to the mall. The malls down there close early, so we decided to go to a Borders.

As we pulled up to the Borders and tried to find a parking space, we were surprised at how many people were inside and parked outside. As we walked into the Borders, we saw a sign about the Twilight release party at 10 pm. I turned to my boyfriend to ask what time and day it was, but the answer was apparent as we entered the Borders. As I looked down at my watch, it was 9:38 pm, and when I looked up, I was greeted by a long line of pre-teen girls and their mothers. I turned to my boyfriend with a look of utter horror and pleading in my eyes. Even though my boyfriend was feeling the same way, he was undeterred in his search for the book he *needed* to find.

As I wandered the aisles while my boyfriend went off in search of his book, I felt tension rising in myself and the crowd. A cheery employee of the store would make the announcement every 5 minutes of what time it was and when the Twilight party would begin. at around 9:55 my boyfriend came back empty handed without finding the book we came in search for. We promptly left the store and heard on the way out several frantic parents complaining that they ran out of wristbands for buying the DVD. We got into his car and drove back to his house, having a good laugh.

No doubt that other people in that store probably have a different memory of that night than my own. Although I had seen the movie, I was not interested in buying the DVD. The people in the store were fans, who were probably waiting for this moment all week and were very excited to be there. I, on the other hand, felt a sense of urgency and that I had to rush myself out of the store. The DVD release of Twilight can mostly be described in the public sphere as hate, love, or apathy. My experience in Borders was mostly personal and not the public opinion held by the majority there. If I had not gone to the Borders at that time, I probably would not of remembered it was the DVD release of Twilight and that moment would not be apart of my memory.

Over Break

Well, over break I didn't really experience anything interesting or anything that was life changing or that people would have different views about.... I guess one thing that was on my mind was what was the right thing to do in a situation. 

I am a nanny for the woman across the street from my house in Freehold, I watch her two kids about 2 to 3 times a week. Well the week before spring break her kids came down with the stomach flu and i did not work at all the week before spring break. Now Monday, her kids were still sick but with something else, one had a cold and a cough another had an ear infection and the runs from antibiotics. The hardest decision for me to make was whether or not I should baby-sit that week or say no.... Of course, because I am a softy, i baby sat and now i have their colds. So in my mind i thought that it was the wrong decision to go over because the house was just getting over the stomach flu and now there is a new illness that entered their home... Being a college student, you do not have time to get sick or even think about getting sick. 

Well, the event of the children's illnesses, to me was personal, i have a phobia about the Stomach virus, so hearing that information set me off the wall just thinking that i had to step foot into their house.  And because i did baby sit, i experienced it all with panic attacks haha... it was not fun.  I guess this event can relate to the public sphere by the way of looking out for ones safety and health. We sanitize our hands every day before we eat, touch our face, after we blow our nose, if we step off the bus. So the thought of being sick and having a phobia can affect anyone. This event can be opposed by people who don't have a care in the world, where getting sick to them is nothing and they live their life not being paranoid about things like getting sick. Can this event be historicized? No....

over break

Over break I went to the new gym in my town. It is the talk of our town because its huge, new and open 24/7! To see how it looks inside:
http://www.lifetimefitness.com/clubs/index.cfm?strWebAction=virtual_tour
honestly, this gym is nicer than some five star hotels I have been too! Everything is big, open and new. All over is stone or wood. I got there and we went to the lockers, where they provide you locks. There are a lot of treadmills and ellipticals, I didn't have to wait for one. There are two indoor pools that I swam in, two jacuzzis, sauna, and steam room, which we went to. The showers are lovely and they provide you with towels and shampoo and soap. We even went rock climbing. I experienced the gym first hand, and it changed the way I viewed the gym. At first, I just heard about it from friends, and I didn't think it was so special. But once I actually went there and saw it, I understood why everyone was so wrapped up about it. This experience can be considered collective for my town. This relates to the public sphere because I will be one of those people talking about how amazing the gym is, and without knowing it, I am giving a free advertisment. For the most part view on the gym is similar to the public view, however I know a couple of people how refuse to check it out and will stay at the other gym in our town. The gym wont be written down in history books and studyed in classes. However, for real estate, it is a postivie thing to write down and can make property go up.