Monthly Archives: May 2011

‘Potato Slop’ – North Carolina

Nationality: American - Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student - Theatre
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 20 April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Conversational Spanish

“This is a recipe that I learned from my mother. Ah, and we call it ‘potato slop’ even though outside of our family it would probably be called shepard’s pie. But basically what you do is you take a sauce pan and you brown up some ground beef and drain out the oil. And then you dice some onions and add them in. And then once you have the onions and the meat you fill the pan with water – almost to the very brim. And then you put really really thinly sliced potatoes in it – and they have to be thinly sliced so they cook quickly. And then you just put a lid on it and simmer it until the potatoes are kinda squooshy and then you take the lid off and let the water boil off. And then you have this kind of uh, potato, onion, ground beef mush. It sounds really unappetizing but then you stir in this taco seasoning and sometimes peas or corn if you feel like you need vegetables.”

The informant is a 20-year-old Theatre student at the University of Southern California. She grew up in North Carolina.

It was a dish the informant would eat on a day when her mother didn’t have a lot of work as it takes some time to make it. She thinks this recipe is delicious and she is fairly good at making it. If she’s cooking with friends or is trying to impress someone with her cooking this is her go-to recipe, unless they’ve already had it.

I think the Mexican influence is interesting, as North Carolina is not all that close to Mexico and yet this recipe has taco seasoning. This seems to evidence that the Mexican culinary traditions are becoming a standard part of American cooking. I would note that this is contrary to what assimilation theory would predict as this evidences Americans – as natives of the host country – incorporating Mexican traditions into their own. I would not say that this necessarily evidences a holistic acceptance of Mexican immigrants, certainly this shows that Mexican food is becoming increasingly thought of as American.

Animation Christmas Tradition/Pinata/Effigy – American

Nationality: American - Caucasian
Age: 25
Occupation: Story Board Artist/Animator
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 22 April 2011
Primary Language: English

“We in, at my animation school every year we decide to – we make a piñata based on a recent…so Polar Express made it one year. We made a piñata of Tom Hanks in Polar Express and uh, we were gonna beat the crap out of it but unfortunately they made it out of duct tape so…boy it was a long, everybody got a swing. I thought they – then ended up having to tear it down and stomp on it and then it – ah, why duct tape! It’s like that’s not even fun! Actually no, it was fun. But I’ll tell you what it took us an hour then we were like something’s wrong. [Laughs.] This is, this is a – and we had a metal bat. We’re like, okay, something is up about this piñata. This piñata is really resilient! Okay. So finally we tore enough away that we realized, I was like, “Who made it out of duct tape!? What the heck!?” “Well, I don’t know we wanted to make sure that everybody – ” because the previous year, you know it was like bam bam done. [Makes grumbling noises.]”

The informant is a 25-year-old Story Board Artist and animator who works in television. She is originally from Denver, Colorado and moved to Los Angeles for college and work.

This particular incident took place during the California Institute of the Art’s (CalArts) Character Animation department Christmas party. Before describing this installment of the beating-of-the-animation-pinata tradition she told me she was unhappy when Polar Express came out because “It was gross, because the people didn’t move and animators are starving thanks to motion capture.” The informant, is an animator, though “not a starving one” but she does “have starving friends thanks to motion capture.”  She also was opposed to motion capture on a technical level:

“The effect is similar to mascots walking around Disneyland with giant hats. They move natural but it doesn’t make any sense with the character shape because you have to – if the character has a giant head and is a penguin or something they should not move like a human being! But they do and motion capture looks really gross.”

She then repeated that “animators are starving” because of motion capture.

The year before the pinata was “the bee from Bee Movie,” though it was not motion capture it was just a bad silly movie. “Besides everyone likes killing bees. They’re an endangered species.” “You cannot hit bees in real life so we make piñata bees,” the informant told me.

I think this is pretty clearly a cathartic tradition. The animators are frustrated that they are getting put out of the job by this, as they consider it, second rate technology. They cannot take any direct action against the inventor and users of motion capture, but they can make a pinata that represents all of that and beat it with a metal bat.

I would argue that this example of a holiday tradition is an interesting twist on the practice of beating or burning effigies of political figures in order to protest their policies or actions. The same day the informant was telling me about her Polar Express pinata, protesters in Pakistan were burning an effigy of American President Barack Obama as well as the American flag to express their anger regarding the recent US attacks on tribal Pakistani areas (Rodriguez). The anger toward the figure-in-effigy in both cases is clearly there. The bitterness in the informant’s voice as she talked about her friends that couldn’t get a job because of the widespread use of motion capture tells us that her mental state in beating the Polar Express pinata was more akin to that of the Pakistani protesters than a child having fun at a birthday party. Seen in this light, this tradition is surprisingly political.

Works Cited:

Rodriguez, Alex. “U.S. drone attack kills 25 in Pakistan.” Los Angeles Times 23 April 2011. Accessed online: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-drone-attack-20110423,0,5711991.story?track=rss.

South African Belief #3

Tammy: Lastly, its also, its like a fact growing up that you know that you will, at some point, get robbed. And you know to just deal with it. You just know this. Its like, its like, you just know that it’s a fact of life and living in South Africa and you just, you just deal with it.

Isabel: And these are all things you grew up just knowing?

Tammy: Yes, we all just knew. I don’t remember being taught them really it was just, just something we knew as members in society I suppose.

Isabel: Did you believe theses “facts”? Or question their legitimacy ever?

Tammy: I don’t think I really paid any attention to be honest. I just knew them, ohh is that bad? I probably should have questioned or asked questions or found out where the information came from I suppose. I don’t know. It was never thought of as a thing. It was like, like just apart of our vocabulary or something. Just stuff we knew not to do or knew about life I guess.

Isabel: And what do you think this is saying about the culture in which you grew up?

Tammy: I mean, it clearly relates to the race issues still prevalent in South Africa today. You know the sad history of our country’s racism and apartheid. Like I suppose it has all affected the culture down to the small things like these. I have never thought of it like this, it was just stuff we knew growing up. But now when you ask me, I suppose I would say that that is probably the meaning behind it, I don’t know.

The beliefs Tammy described growing up “just knowing” do clearly represent the political and social climate of South Africa. Additionally, the way the meaning or suggestion behind these beliefs was overlooked by Tammy, her peers, and others within her culture, proves how saturated the South African culture is with such views. The sense of fear associated with interacting with the black population is engrained within their culture. Tammy describes these beliefs as second nature; not something they spent time analyzing or inquiring about, but rather sort of common sense of South African life. The underlying racism evident in their unwillingness to be at the beach with the black South Africans along with the fear within these beliefs notably depicts the social issues plaguing South Africa. Tammy was not flippant in her reference to these beliefs. She clearly understood the negative connotation attached to her performance yet she was blatant in her delivery, indicating the how matter of fact and prevalent they were in South African culture. These cultural “givens” all encompass a sense of anxiety, specifically in reference to black South African citizens. Tammy’s description of the known expectation for violence (getting “mugged”) reveals the culture’s instability and acceptance of their uneasy way of life.

South African Belief #2

Nationality: South African
Age: 22
Occupation: Student at USC
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 20, 2011
Primary Language: English

Tammy: Well, alsooo, it’s known that at night you don’t stop at red lights, traffic lights, the robots because ummm, it’s too dangerous and so umm, it is believed people will come out of the bush and mug you.

The beliefs Tammy described growing up “just knowing” do clearly represent the political and social climate of South Africa. Additionally, the way the meaning or suggestion behind these beliefs was overlooked by Tammy, her peers, and others within her culture, proves how saturated the South African culture is with such views. The sense of fear associated with interacting with the black population is engrained within their culture. Tammy describes these beliefs as second nature; not something they spent time analyzing or inquiring about, but rather sort of common sense of South African life. The underlying racism evident in their unwillingness to be at the beach with the black South Africans along with the fear within these beliefs notably depicts the social issues plaguing South Africa. Tammy was not flippant in her reference to these beliefs. She clearly understood the negative connotation attached to her performance yet she was blatant in her delivery, indicating the how matter of fact and prevalent they were in South African culture. These cultural “givens” all encompass a sense of anxiety, specifically in reference to black South African citizens. Tammy’s description of the known expectation for violence (getting “mugged”) reveals the culture’s instability and acceptance of their uneasy way of life.

Proverb – Finnish

Nationality: Finnish American
Age: 25
Occupation: Insurance Broker
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 23 April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Finnish

“Hetkinen sano Putkinen.”

“Wait says Putkinen.”

“Pukinen says, let’s wait a little bit.”

The informant is a 25-year-old insurance broker who grew up in Ohio and the Los Angeles region. His father is Finnish and his mother is a third generation Swedish American.

Putkinen was a politician “who was always slowing down the process”. It’s a saying to “just tell someone to wait” it’s like Putkinen says that we just need to keep waiting and not doing anything. He said it’s, “light-heartedly poking fun at this past governor guy”. One would use this proverb when a couple people were going to go somewhere and one of them wa like, “I’m not ready to go yet” they would say “Hetkinen sano Putkinen.” Like relax. The informant says he rarely ever says that it’s mainly his dad who says that, who moved to the United States from Finland when he was in college. The informant was born in the United States.

I think it makes sense that a Finnish American man who was born in the states wouldn’t have as much connection to this saying as his father would, who lived in Finland and has more of a personal connection to Finnish politics. It also makes sense that the informant wouldn’t want to allude to a politician that people in the United States likely wouldn’t know anything about, Americans would likely wonder why we should care that Putkinen says wait.

Putkinen