House Hunting responce

                  After listening to "House Hunting" by Todd Hido, it gave me a different outlook on what the suburbs are. When comparing Todd Hido's perspective on the suburbs to Bill Owens and Patricia Lahrmer's work, I found that they are very different from Hidos. Owens photography and Lahrmer's article to me shows that the suburbs is a boring place to be, but yet a great place to raise a family. Hido on the other hand has a very different view of the suburbs. One of the pictures described that Hido took was of a house with two lights on, one up stairs and one down stairs. Hido also explained a picture he once took of a house but this time with two T.V. lights on, one upstairs and one downstairs. Hido explained that two people that live in the same house watch T.V. in two separate rooms, he exclaimed that he saw this a lot. People just want their own space when they are home. A women in the broadcasting said that Todd Hido's photography of the suburbs scares her. The women said that he takes pictures of homes with people living in them, but the homes come across as "emotionally vacant". From what I have learn about Todd Hido, is he thinks that the suburbs is a lonely place. A place where people live there but that is it. A place where people aren't friendly and want to be left alone in their own space. Todd Hido shows the other side of the suburbs, the gloomy side. 

Lahrmer vs. Owens, suburbs responce

After reading Patricia Lahrmer's article, "Slowly calling the burbs home," and then looking at Bill Ownes photos of what he thought the suburbs was. I found that both of these authors views on the suburban life is very similar. First reading Lahrmer article, she talks about how living in the suburbs is boring, but at the same time it is nice to have neighbors close to you who care for you and what is going on around the neighborhood. Lahrmer talks about how nice it is to have a neighbor go out of their way to bring in your newspaper, knowing you forgot to cancel the service when you were out of town. Lahrmer also tells a story about when a dog was hurt in her court and the entire neighborhood was outside concerned and trying to help, to her that is what the suburbs was all about. Then, when I studied Bill Ownes photos of the suburban life. I found that Owens photos were exactly what Lahrmer was describing in her article. Ownes has many pictures of families together eating dinner, siting in the living room together and pictures of neighborhood block parties. I also noticed that in Owens photos he was trying to express that the suburbs was a boring place to live. In most of Owens photos you can tell he was trying to exhaust that fact that the suburbs is a family oriented place to live. Owens showed that with the many pictures of parents outside with their children, playing and eating dinner together, similar to what Patricia Lahrmer had said about the suburbs. I do think that Owens and Lahrmer have the same views to what the suburbs is.

The Golden Apple response

The Golden Apple

               From the broadcast produced by This America Life, taught me that people really do shape the public space. Personally, I always thought that it was the place that shaped the people. I used to think that different restaurants presented a different atmosphere that attracted a curtain crowd, then I listened to this broadcast. At The Golden Apple, the people really do shape the restaurant. For example, the morning crowd is a very mellow group that comes strictly to eat. With tables that only have one person dinning the restaurant is silent, all you can hear are the forks clinging on the plates. The dinner crowd is usually filled with couples. The restaurant is filled with conversations about "couple stuff". Conversations about their future or the drama about their unresolved pasts. Then there is the late night crowds, usually consist of the drinks or people that are looking for a good time. The noise level in the restaurant grows and is full of more laughter. Each crowd that was interviewed was very different from the previous and brought in a new atmosphere.

              One specific example of how the people shaped the restaurant was the dinner crowds. There was a couple interviewed that had dated each other 3 years prier but were now seeing other people. In fact, the women at the table is engaged and the man can't stand the thought of it. Even though these two people are no longer a couple, they were still having the same "couple conversations" as every other couple in the restaurant. The only difference was, was their conversations had a hidden meanings to them. For example, a women walked past the window of the restaurant and the man at the table followed her every step with his eyes. The women at the table shrieked and told the interviewer that he does that all the time and i used to bother her when they were dating. The women explained to the man that when he stares at other women it shows her that she is not interesting enough to keep his attention, but the women is. Every conversation they had was secretly about their past.

             If I was to compare The Golden Apple to a chain restaurant like In-n-out, the two restaurants have some similarities. Although In-n-out is not open 24 hours a day like The Golden Apple is, they still have similar crowds that come in and make In-n-out what it is. The first crowd of the day is the early 11:00 lunch crowd, which is most all elderly customers. Most of the tables are parties of two and the mood is very quiet just like The Golden Apple. The dinner crowd at In-n-out is more of a family crowd, and the atmosphere is full of a consistent chatter. Families talk to each other about their day, as other parents are trying to control their screaming kids. The difference here is The Golden Apple is not a kid friendly place, actually very rarely a parent will bring their child in. The late night dinner crowd at In-n-out is more of the party crowd like at The Golden Apple. At In-n-out you will see all the people coming home from bars to get a bit to eat. The conversations are louder and full of laugher just like at The Golden Apple. You may even find people at In-n-out sitting there eating only because they have nothing else to do, or they are hoping to find people they know. At The Golden Apple the late night diners are almost identical to those at In-n-out. Although Inn-n-out is a fast food resturant, the people eat there change to feeling of the place just as those do at The Golden Apple.

"Criteria for a Healthy Landscape" response

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            One of my favorite places to go is a hiking trail off Willowcreek road in Occidental. I feel that this is a "healthy landscape" for reasons that it brings so many different people together. People of different social class, race, gender, age, heritage and even sexual preference all come to enjoy their similar love for the trail. This trail takes people away from their busy lives and gives them a chance to only focus on the path and forget about their stresses. It gives people the chance to read its beauty, growth and unfound mysteries it holds. Once you reach this clearing at the top of the trail you can see the miles of rolling hills, the cold ocean and even a few homes if you look hard enough. This peek was named the sound of music, in my opinion it was named this because you can almost hear the music of the hills and the ocean. You can hear what nature is trying to sing to you if let it. This Willowcreek trail brings all different parts of nature into one area. What I mean about that is it brings people with their bikes, strollers, animals, people who are suffering from cancer, people who have survived from cancer, people who have lost a loved one and even those who have found love.

               Paul Groth's first criteria says, "A healthy landscape connects its participants to themselves as individuals" this statement really explains Kmart. What Groth means is by that statement is, landscape supports survival of basic life responsibilities such as making a living for yourself, food and shelter. The people that work at Kmart are trying to keep the dysfunctional store going in fear of losing their own jobs. Many Kmart stores have declared bankruptcy and if all Kmarts were to disappear nobody would even flinch, or would they? The people who work for Kmart would all be unemployed, not only the coworkers but their families would suffer too. When you walk into a store it is more then just a building, it's a persons life. What I mean by that is, many don't ecknowledge the employees stocking the shelves, taking inventory, filing paperwork and even ringing up your items. Each person who works in Kmart is there trying to make a living for themselves, and if each Kmart slowly went out of buisness it may not effect you, but others are effected.

"Kmart has a lovable disorder" responce

          The essay, "Kmart has a lovable disorder" by Hank Stuever, was an essay none like any I have read before. The way Stuever creatively described Kmart was unusual, but yet he described it to a tea. In the sentence "a true Kmart is unashamed to be a Kmart. It has lipstick on its teeth..." Stuever creatively represented what Kmart was all about. I liked the way Stuever lists all the bad qualities to Kmart and makes it sound like a dump. At the same time Stuever's cruel statements make you almost feel sorry for the dysfunctional store and makes you love to hate it.

         So how does this essay qualify as a cultural landscape study? Stuever stands back and read the chaotic building for what it was. Stuever read the build as it was a bipolar person, he took all the stores flaws and transformed them into flaws of a person. The only problem I found, was judgment may have been involved in the way the author perceived the building. Stuever briefly talks about how 2,114 Kmart stores are declaring bankruptcy. That brief comment showed me that a little judgment may have been used when he was observing the building. Even though the statistics were true, that bit of information can change the way you see something. In my opinion that information could promote someone to see only the negative and not be able to see some good it has to offer.