My Blog

November 13-15, 2009, New York City

Two weeks ago…       

 

            It all started on a cold, November night, a Wednesday I believe. Some of my friends and I were watching a flag football game and cheering all of our friends who were on the team on, when all of a sudden I interjected, “What if we went to New York?” It would become one of the best ideas I’ve ever had, but let’s go back to the beginning to see where this whole thing actually started…

 

            CNU Women’s Volleyball dominated their conference this year, going an undefeated 16-0 and breezing through the USA South conference tournament to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The craziest part about this was that the team was so young with so many freshman and sophomores contributing, while also having no seniors at all. We were supposed to be good, as usual, but this good? And so soon? Almost no one saw that coming.

 

            The conference championship game was against North Carolina Wesleyan, and that’s probably where this whole idea truly came from. One of the dad’s from Wesleyan was probably the most obnoxious fan I have ever, and will ever, encounter, professional sporting event or not. As soon as he started chirping about our team, that’s when my friends Ben, Brendan, and I starting going off on him. It was so much fun; we mocked his every move to a tee. It got so bad that he moved to the other side of the court, and even talked to one of the officials on the court to ask us to stop because “he was a parent.” What a load of crap; he was mocking our players just as much as we were mocking him. Just because he was “old” he got to get away with it. Let’s just say, the fire was just starting to burn, and it wouldn’t stop until this became a reality…

 

            I had always been a fan of CNU Volleyball, ever since my freshman year when my friend Meghan, who lived on my hall, played for the team. It was so much fun to go to their games with all my hall mates to support her and the rest of the team. Now, four years later, we had another reason to cheer for volleyball once again. Our friend Abby was the starting libero, as a freshman, something not usually seen in college volleyball since the libero is may be the most important position on the court. They didn’t have many home games this year since there were no senior on the team, but whenever we got a chance to see her play, we saw how good she really was. Abby is so humble about it too, making it that much impressive.

 

            After we won the game, Meghan, who’s now an assistant coach on the team, told me that they would know where they were playing the following Monday in the NCAA’s. I remember joking with her about how we would road trip to wherever they were playing, even if it was in Texas, where they were for last year’s NCAA tournament. I never thought in my wildest dreams it would actually become a reality. When she told me they were playing at NYU starting on Thursday, it started to creep into my mind that this might become even more of a possibility…

 

            Anyway, back to the beginning…

 

            After the flag football game, my friends and I all thought it was an amazing idea. Go up to New York City, support Abby and the rest of the team, and hopefully come out with a birth into the Elite Eight. What we didn’t take under consideration was what impact the weather would have on our trip if we decided to go; that was the farthest thing from our minds. We had heard that the Mid-Atlantic was in for one of the worst nor’easters in awhile, as the remnants of what was Hurricane Ida came up along the Eastern Seaboard and sat on top of us for two or three days. Again we thought, what’s the worst it can do? Rain? Wind? It wasn’t an actual hurricane, so we put little stock into it; but we definitely should have. Leaving for Thursday’s game would become an impossibility in many different ways…

 

            We didn’t plan enough the night before; people had classes to worry about; we didn’t know what Mother Nature would bring us the next day. All great reasons for not leaving Thursday, even though it would have been awesome nonetheless. It started raining Wednesday evening, and only got worse through the night and into Thursday morning. I got up to go the gym in the morning, drove over to campus and walked through the driving rainstorm, to find that my friend Chris and I were the only one’s at the gym, and would be for a long while; this was just the beginning. I got some great news as I was walking back to my car coming back from the gym…

 

            Finally, at about 11:00 AM, CNU was finally shut down completely, when it should have never opened for the day in the first place. The flooding was tremendous, and it was only supposed to get worse, even though we had probably already experienced the worst of it. All along Prince Drew Road adjacent to campus, my friends’ yards were no longer yards, but literally small lakes. Some of those friends even decided it would be cool to skim board in these “lakes,” not the brightest idea anyone’s ever had; it was fun to watch nonetheless. That day came and went like it was nothing, and we had a surprise party for my friend John’s birthday that night.

 

            This is where the trip finally came together…

 

            How long would it take? Who would drive? Where would we stay? These were all important questions going into the final plan. Since Brendan is from New Jersey, about an hour outside of NYC, he gave us the okay to stay at his house. We decided that he and either my friend Michael or I would drive up there too. Brendan wanted to leave rather early so we could beat traffic and any other mishaps along the way. It normally takes him about 7 hours to get home, but he thought with 2 cars full of people, plus Friday traffic and that lovely nor’easter we had to deal with, that it might be more like 8-10 hours. Boy, did he ever turn out to be prophetic, in more ways than one…

 

            Planning this Thursday night and going into Friday morning, we all thought school would be cancelled again, just like it was on Thursday. I go to bed thinking that I’m about to go to New York City this weekend, and wake up to find that it may not be possible. Brendan told us the night before that he wanted to leave no later than 8:15 AM, after our friend Sally was done registering for her classes for next semester. The thing is, I get up at 7:30 and still see on the local TV stations that CNU is only delayed two hours, and not cancelled completely as we thought it was last night. If this turned out to be true, than neither Michael or I would be able to go because I had two classes that I had something due in, nor Michael because of his work in the President’s Office.

 

            I texted Brendan to let him know what the deal was, not knowing who else would drive because no one else had a well-functioning car, or a car at all. After that, I go upstairs to see if Michael’s awake; he is, and let’s me know that school is closed for the day. Eureka! I go from an absolute letdown of historic proportions to once again being stoked out of my mind in about 5 minutes. I run downstairs to find that my phone has been blown up by Brendan telling me that I’m coming because school was closed now; he was excited to say the least, now that he had his other two possible drivers back.

 

            The group was set. Me, Brendan, Michael, Ben, and our friends Justin, Jenna, Katie, Sally, and Kevin. Others really wanted to come, but they either had some obligation with school or family that didn’t allow them to. That left us with a grand total of 9, not too many, not too few, but just right. We got on the road by 8:45 since Michael and I were late because we just found out that we could go; not bad for college kids early on a Friday morning. Michael would drive Ben, Katie, and I, while Brendan would take Justin, Jenna, Sally, and Kevin.

 

            After all that, we were finally off…

 

            We drove through the nor’easter, dumb as it may have been, and made it all the way to Maryland before we had to stop for lunch at about 1:30 PM. Unbeknownst to me, Brendan’s check engine light had come on about 30 minutes before as we were crossing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. So while we were getting lunch at Wendy’s, he went to go try and figure out what was wrong with his car before we did another 4 hours or so of driving to NYC. Good thing too; turns out his catalytic converter had misfired, and the guy at the Shell station in Glendale, MD told us that he could fix it, but it would take 1 ½ to 2 hours to do. We didn’t know exactly where we were, but we got acquainted with it rather quickly…

 

            We decided it was best to switch the cars around and let Michael’s car go on ahead while some of us waited for Brendan’s car to be fixed. Ben, Katie, Sally and Kevin would go with Michael, while Justin, Jenna, and I would stay with Brendan. We just decided to hang out at a Subway for however long it would take, killing time by playing quarter football and soccer. Believe me, anything was entertaining when there was nothing else to do in nowhere-ville Maryland. After messing around for a couple hours, we decided to go check on the car’s progress. It turned out that the two hour estimation was right on the money, and we got back on the road at 3:30 to make up time as best we could now that we were a couple hours behind the pace.

 

            Brendan’s car did fine after that, and the only rough spot on our trek to New York City was rush hour traffic outside Baltimore, but even that wasn’t that bad in the great scheme of things. We made it up the New Jersey Turnpike with no problems, only to hear from Michael’s car that they were at a dead stop going into the city through the Lincoln Tunnel. Their game was supposed to start at 7:00, but with another game before it, the time was pushed back to 7:40. This was just another miracle along the way, one that was much needed and much appreciated.

 

            Michael’s car being stuck in traffic allowed us to catch up with them, and by the time we both got through the tunnel and into the city, we went from about two hours behind them to only about 30 minutes. They finally got to NYU and the athletic center literally at 7:40, just as they were announcing the teams and starting line-ups; their timing could not have been any better. We got into the city, parked, and started our walk through the city and ride on the subway on our quest to find NYU. We were somewhat successful, eventually finding it after walking through Washington Square.

 

            WE WERE FINALLY HERE, and with not a moment to spare…

 

            Brendan, Justin, Jenna, and I got to the NYU athletic center around 8:10, when it was about halfway through the second game of the match. We heard from the others who were already there that we already had won the first game, putting a little more pep in our step to try and get there as quickly as possible. The best part about it? We were playing NYU, at their home court, and we had already taken the first game from them. We ran through the center, finally finding the CNU section of parents and fans, along with our other crazed, road trip fanatics. It may have taken us 11 hours to finally get there, but we made the most of it once we did. The game was over; we knew it, our team knew, it was just time to make NYU know it…

 

            The best part about walking, or running, in there was the look on everyone’s faces on the team, especially Meghan and Abby. It was that of sheer shock and absolute disbelief, and it couldn’t have been better. I had joked with both of them that we were going to come up, but I knew they didn’t believe me. When it finally became a reality, it may have been what gave me the most motivation to actually go: to see their faces when we walked in there and started going crazy. The best part about it was that Meghan texted me as we were driving up that morning, saying that she wished we could be there, but understood that it was a long trip. I responded back to her that I wish we could’ve been there too, but with the weather being what it was, we just didn’t think it was a good idea. That text sealed our fate as this being a complete surprise.

 

            We cheered harder and longer than those NYU fans could have ever imagined, if you could even call them fans. Even though all three games were close, we swept them without ever getting too nervous. CNU WAS IN THE SWEET SIXTEEN! Even if we didn’t win the next night, I feel like the road trip would have been a success anyway, since we beat the team hosting the regional championship on their own court. We not only beat them, but swept them; it could not have gone any better. We cheered when they were up, we cheered when they were down, with Katie acting as our lead cheerleader, telling us when to start and stop; our group of fans willed them to victory.

 

            It was an amazing day and night, only to get better…

 

            After the game, we met Abby, Meghan, and the rest of the team on the court and congratulated them on their win. They thanked us profusely for coming, and were still freaking out that we actually came. We headed back uptown to Times Square to check it out because Sally had never been there before. She was impressed to say the least, and since we hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, we all stopped to get a New York City hot dog from a vendor; nothing better. We found our cars, and then started the hour-long drive to Brendan’s house in Long Valley, NJ around 11:00. When we got there around midnight, we just hung out and prepared ourselves for what would be just as long of a day on Saturday. Hopefully, it would be just as good, if not better, than Friday…

 

            We ate lunch at Brendan’s house before heading off to the city once again around 2:00 PM. We learned from yesterday not to drive into the city directly, so instead we drove to Newark, NJ and took “The Path” over, or actually under, the Hudson River into NYC. Once we got there, we looked around the site of Ground Zero until taking the subway up to midtown to see the grand opening of the new Apple store on 67^th Street and Broadway. It was just as epic as we thought it would be, and even more awesome that we got to be there the day that it opened. After looking around the Rockefeller Center and seeing the “famous” Christmas tree, it was finally time to go back to NYU to see if we could make this trip complete with a win and a trip to the Elite Eight…

           

            We all got to the game on time, thank goodness. We sat in the same place in the bleachers, right behind all the CNU parents and family who were there cheering just as hard as us. However, there was one big difference from the NYU game a night before. Since we were playing Salisbury (MD) and they actually had real fans, Ben, Brendan, and I all noticed at the same time that there was a Salisbury dad sitting directly behind us instead of over with his section. We all looked at each other and knew it was game on! We were going to try and make life as miserable as possible for this poor guy, but it turned out that he was nothing like the Wesleyan dad of the conference championship. No banter exchanged, just cheering for our own teams, like there was no tomorrow…

           

            CNU had split their two games with Salisbury during the regular season, each winning on the others’ home court, so we knew it would be a tough game any way you look at it. The first game was close, but we ended up losing 25-23. Not the best start, but we could still bounce back in the second game since it was the best out of five. The second game, however, was even worse. We lost 25-20, but in reality in wasn’t even that close; we were losing by 10 or 12 most of the game, and only a late run made it that close. We’re down two games to none, staring home right in the face. All of started to think, we drove all the way up here for this?

 

            No way, this was not how it was going to end…

 

            The nine of us, with the parents’ accompaniment, cheered just as hard as ever, hoping to light a fire under our team who needed it in the worst way. Probably my favorite moment of the trip, and there were a plethora to choose from, happened in between the second and third games. As the cheers from the Salisbury fans got louder, Abby was in the huddle and saw us still cheering and raised her arms up over and over, telling us to get even louder, all with a smile on her face. This let all of us know that even if they did lose, it would be alright because they were still having fun, the most important part of playing any sport. From that point on, I knew everything would be alright even if we did end up losing, knowing we’d need another miracle to pull out the win…

 

            The third game was close the whole way, making us hold our breaths the entire way, but we pulled it out 25-22. At least we could now say, even if we didn’t win the match that we didn’t get swept, like we did to NYU on their home court. Our fans got into it once again, just as we were in the beginning of the game, and knew we had to come out and play well at the start of the fourth game. We played better than well, we dominated, the whole game. From start to finish, we could do no wrong, just like Salisbury in the second game. We won 25-13, absolutely annihilating them and taking them to a fifth game to see who gets to move onto Ohio to play for the national championship. We were right where we wanted be, even trying to come back from being down two games to none…

 

            You could just feel the tension in the athletic center; it was like a dense fog that once rested on us, but now had moved over to the Salisbury team and fans. We had no pressure, we weren’t supposed to win being down two games; they had all the pressure in the world, now especially going into the fifth and deciding game. Plus, we had all the momentum on our side because we had won the last two games, absolutely mauling them in the fourth game. The parents and I talked about this openly, and our girls came out and played like it in the deciding game. Since the game was only to 15, we knew that once we got up by seven that the game was over. It was just hard to fathom that after we played so poorly in that second game, we were still able to come back and win.

 

            It truly was a Miracle on Mercer Street…

 

            Once we got up 14-6, the nine of us knew it was all but in the bag, so we rushed down to the court to cheer them on from the sidelines. They got the final point on the next play, and we just started going nuts. WE WERE IN THE ELITE EIGHT! All of us could not believe how amazing that match truly was, and that we actually won after being dead in the water after the second game. After the team enjoyed the win with each other, they all came over and gave us high-fives and thanked us all again for coming. It was something small, but it truly meant a great deal coming from all of them. To see how excited Abby and Meghan were made the whole trip for me at least, and I’m sure everyone else felt the same way.

 

            After the victory, I saw that my friend Casey, another assistant coach on the team, was holding the NCAA Regional Championship trophy. I went over to ask if I could hold it, not knowing what she would say. I was so excited when she said yes that I picked it up, raised it over my head, and yelled for all my friends to come over so we could enjoy it together. I couldn’t help but feel like part of the team at that moment; not as a fan thinks they are a part of the team, but an actual part of the team. It was “that” moment, the moment that the trip will be defined by; the win was amazing, but there is nothing like the feeling of raising the trophy over your head and calling yourself a champion. We were all so excited that we didn’t want to leave…

 

            We did finally leave after about 30 minutes of celebrating on the court, and tried to look for our Starbucks to celebrate our victory since we had been talking about getting the new holiday flavors all weekend. To our dismay, the one closest to the athletic center was closed since it was 10:30 at this point; I guess something in New York City does sleep. We entertained the idea of going to one that was open 24/7 downtown, but that idea was quickly shot down by most of us who were dead after a crazy hectic couple of days. I decided to call Meghan to see if the team was doing anything after they left or if they were just going back to their hotel. She told me that they were at a Qdoba a couple blocks down the street, so that motion was quickly passed by the majority, and we headed that way for another awesome time with our new “teammates.”

 

            Most of us got something to eat, finally a real meal after lunch at Brendan’s house had been the only substantial thing we had eaten all day. It was a good time, and the nine of us left right after the team to head back to Brendan’s about midnight to sleep before our long trip back in the morning.

 

            However, it wasn’t as easy as we might have hoped…

 

            We got back on the subway, only to find out that the line we needed to connect back to The Path was shut down for construction. We would literally go running through the station to find which new trains we needed to get on to get back to the World Trade Center site. After waiting and connecting for what was about an hour, we finally made it back to Ground Zero, only to find out we needed to wait another 30 minutes for The Path’s train to make its rounds back here. It stopped running every 10 minutes at 1:00 AM, just our luck. After we got on, we got back to Newark about 2:00, while not getting back to Brendan’s house until around 3:00. It was a chaotic, but fitting, end to an even more chaotic, but so worthwhile, last couple of days.

 

            We all only slept for four or five hours that night, getting up around 8:00 AM to start getting ready for our quest back to good ole’ Newport News. None of us wanted to leave; it was an amazing weekend, filled with friends who became even better friends along the way. We didn’t want to go home because we knew the responsibilities that came with it; it was so nice to escape them, if only for one weekend. We left Brendan’s around 9:30 to head back to Virginia, and we made great time as opposed to the drive up, with minimal stops and no car trouble along the way. When we got back to CNU around 5:30 PM, we were all so drained, mentally and physically, that we should have just gone back to our rooms and relaxed; but what fun would that have been…

 

            We knew that the CNU Men’s Soccer team had a game that night at 6:00, so most of us went to that to keep the road trip’s spirit alive as long as we possibly could. Even though Katie had no voice at all, and Sally had the swine flu (or just a cold, same thing), most of were there to cheer on our team who was playing to go to the Sweet Sixteen in their NCAA Tournament. Lynchburg College, who we were playing, was leading most of the game 1-0, but we tied the score with about 2:30 minutes left to send the game into overtime. Through two overtimes, no goals had been scored, so the game was sent into penalty kicks. We ended up winning in penalty kicks, 4-2, and the entire CNU section of fans rushed the field to congratulate the team. It was my first experience of this in college, and it could not have come at a more perfect time on the perfect weekend…

 

            I don’t know about everyone else, but it literally took me a week to recover from that one weekend, sleep-wise and all the ups and downs that came with it. What I do know is that I made memories that will stick with me the rest of my life. As you can see from this tale, you can see that I remember every moment vividly as if it all just happened yesterday. It will probably be that way for the rest of my life, and I have no complaints about that whatsoever. There were so many inside jokes along the way that will stick with me forever that I could write another blog just on those, but this one’s probably long enough already. CNU Volleyball was awe-inspiring with their play in both games that we were able to see, and now they were on their way to Ohio…

 

            But would we go?

 

Prologue:

 

            Although there was so much motivation for everyone to take another road trip to Ohio, it wasn’t able to come together and we were forced to watch it online at home. All of us, and more, gathered around a small laptop at Brendan’s house, this time at CNU, to see if we could advance to the Final Four. We won the first game, but were swept the next three by the #2 team in the nation for Division III, Wisconsin-Oshkosh. It was disheartening to say the least, as all of in the back of our minds wondered, if we were there, could we have made a difference like we did at NYU? Although you could never prove that we had an impact in their wins to get to the Elite Eight, we all believed that we did, as we needed to feel that way in order for them to get those wins.

 

            CNU Volleyball had its best season in 2009, ever. They had never gotten to the Elite Eight before this year, so it made it that much more awesome to be part of school history. They finished #16 in the nation, a great accomplishment for a team littered with freshman and sophomores, with no seniors to speak of. Although Abby got left out of the All-USA South Conference Team, she was named Honorable Mention to the ALL-AMERICAN TEAM after the NCAA Tournament. What does our little conference know anyway? Meghan said she may have had her best game in the loss to Oshkosh, against one of the best teams in the country; that says something about the future.

           

            Get ready, this team is going to get even better…

In the postmodern world, one focuses on the concept of simulacrum and how it relates, as well as the rejection of metanarratives, or stories that are about other stories. Simulacrum is defined as an identical copy without an original in Jean Baudrillard’s article “The Precession of Simulacra.” What Baudrillard is trying to form is the concept that these identical copies simulacrum create cover up and mask reality until it is no longer clear where they came from originally or their true reality. Elizabeth Wilson uses these same ideas in her article “Fashion and Postmodernism,” noting the how comparable the two ideas are with each other. Wilson acknowledges that fashion today is basically just a rehashing of past styles with some emphasis on modern appeal to not make an identical copy of previous eras. This is a consummate example of simulacra, since most of the fashion ideas are not original to today, and reliant on past concepts for their ultimate success.

Going back to high school, I remember two things most prominently: how much easier it was than college, and how fashion changed from freshman to senior year. Going from middle school to high school is probably one of the hardest transitions a person has to go through in their entire life, let alone being 14 or 15 years old. It’s at a very impressionistic stage where peers and those older than you have a great influence on how you mature throughout high school and into the college years. With this, at least in my experience, I remember how almost everyone including guys, would try to impress fellow classmates with the way that they dressed. Even if they said it was unintentional, deep down they were trying to impress those around them by unveiling their true character, whether it be preppy or goth or anything in between. Once they latched on to a group of friends, the pressure was off of them for trying to prove themselves, and they could grow into their newly found comfort zone.

In high school, you could almost know for a fact whether or not someone was a freshman or senior just by looking at their clothes. By the time senior year rolled around, everyone had already done enough “impressing” and found their niche and main group of friends. I remember my senior year I wore sweat pants almost everyday since I woke up 10 minutes before school and didn’t care what I looked like because of this same thing. I don’t remember ever dressing up intentionally as a freshman, since I didn’t have many nice clothes that long ago anyway, but I probably did it subconsciously nonetheless. Just as described in postmodernism, fashion changes throughout the years, but is still dependent on past styles for its ability to have staying power. Whether it is in high school or college, fashion will always be dependent on what peers and people who we look up to think is in style, even if it may have first originated 5, 10, or 20 years ago.

In his article, “The Politics of Representation of Network Television,” Herman Gray suggests that contemporary images of African-Americans are anchored by three kinds of discursive practices: assimilationist (invisibility), pluralist (separate but equal), and multiculturalist (diversity). He notes the dominance and primacy of a particular set of images and representations from each of these television constructions and representations of blackness are contingent on the social, technological, and institutional conditions in which they are situated. Assimilationist television discourses treat the social and political issues of black presence in particular with racism in general as individual problems. At their best, these shows acknowledge but nevertheless framed cultural distinctions and conflicts backed on race in ways that ultimately appealed to visions of color blindness, similarity, and universal harmony.

            Pluralist discourses situate black characters in domestically-centered black worlds and circumstances that essentially parallel those of whites. In this televisual black world, African-Americans face the same experiences, situations, and conflicts as whites except for the fact that they remain separate but equal. Naturally, these shows construct a view of American race relations that breeds conflict, tension, and struggles over power. Television programs operating within the multiculturalist discourse position viewers, regardless of race, class, or gender locations, to participate in black experiences from multiple subject positions. It offers a view of what it means to be American from the vantage point of African-Americans. In these shows, differences that originate within African-American social and cultural experiences have not just been acknowledged, but interrogated, even parodies as subjects of television.

            Growing up, my family and I would have dinner together regularly to spend quality time as a family and catch up on each of our days. Other than the food itself for dinner, there was always another certainty with each family meal: television. I know it’s sad to say now, but it was a big part of my everyday life, and I don’t regret any moment of watching it if that’s what it took to spend family time together. It was so intense that my dad implemented a rule that my sister and I would alternate nights getting to pick which show we watched for that given dinner. It worked on most days, but there were also some normal sibling flare-ups to cause my dad to implement total control over the television; his reasoning was he bought it, faulty logic if you ask me. Once we did settle down, there was always one show that we enjoyed most of all.

            “Family Matters” came on around dinner time every night, and whenever it was on, my sister and I could agree on what we watched; we didn’t have to jostle back and forth between ESPN and Nickelodeon. It was a show about a middle-class, African-American family and their everyday trials and tribulations with their three children and all too meddlesome next-door neighbor. My family and I enjoyed the show so much because even though they were a different race than us, they still went through the same good times and bad times that the average, everyday family does today. We stepped into their world, if only for 30 minutes, and saw things how they saw things, just to escape from the “real world” for a short amount of time. Even though I haven’t watched it in a very long time, I still remember lessons it taught me as a kid growing up, and hopefully I will be able to pass those on to my kids someday.

            I believe that “Family Matters” falls under the pluralist discourse, in that it puts a black family in a domestically-centered black world, although essentially paralleling them with that of white family and white world. They faced the same situations, experiences, and conflicts as the average white family would, however still being considered separate but equal being the minority race. There is also, naturally, struggles over power in the show, especially the father being a policeman, and his son Eddie always being looked down upon because he his African-American by white cops. “Family Matters” did change a great deal for television though; it allowed a black family to be shown just as they were, instead of a parody of themselves, to show that they dealt with all the same ups-and-downs that every family does.

In “Dallas and the Ideology of Mass Culture,” Ien Ang analyzes the popular soap opera Dallas under the context of how female pleasure relates to popular culture and its enjoyment. The definition of the “ideology of mass culture” as Ang states is an ideology that comes from the professionally created theory on American television, which provides scientific reasoning for hating American television in general. These soap operas, along with other forms of popular culture, are considered “bad pop culture” in that they are productions of capitalism only used to net a profit, while also aiming to establish ideological subjection. With this, she does not agree with the economic value outweighing the cultural value, thus shifting the balance of power to what she deems is the “dark side.” Ang then argues that the one category left out of the ideology of mass culture is pleasure, or the ability to enjoy oneself, thus concluding that the ideology gets lost in its own theory because it is too consumed with how important conviction and coherence are. She notes the potential practice of women’s displaying this pleasure that they desire, as well as feelings of romance they can relate back to it.  Without these two concepts, we cannot see a critical process in how popular culture forms come to be, the significance of the popular aesthetic. People, women specifically, can make reality out to whatever they want it to be in these ideologies, enabling images of romance and pleasure to be however they choose to see them.

In “Soap Opera and Utopia,” Christine Geraghty analyzes popular soap operas and their “utopian possibilities” within the framework of Richard Dyer’s work. By breaking them down into three divisions, the public/private spheres, male/female spaces, as well as the privileging of women’s emotional intelligence, Geraghty can acknowledge the vast range of utopian possibilities that are targeted toward women. The three genres she defines and compares to each other are that of romance, the woman’s film, and prime time some operas, stating that all of these genres focus on the female, not the male, protagonist that the audience is appealed to almost all of the time. Dyer argues that genres are meant a means of escape for the audience, thus explaining why genres have remained to pervasive and not simply “entertainment.” With soap operas, we can see how functions of intensity, transparency, community, abundance, and energy all go into how someone would define what “true love” is today. The ideas posed in this article, as well as in Ang’s, relate well to the movie “Hitch.” I’m not a huge fan of romantic comedies, or one at all, so it was a hard for me to choose a movie to discuss these concepts about, but Hitch is one of the few I enjoyed, so I’ll see where that takes us. I believe the movie to be utopian in nature, have a therapeutic nature of the characters and the plot, as well as portray the “ideological perfect love,” and here’s why.

Alex “Hitch” Hitchens (Will Smith) is a professional “date doctor”, or consultant as Hitch terms himself, who coaches other men in the art of having the perfect date with the woman of their dreams.  While coaching one of his clients, Albert Brennaman (Kevin James), who is smitten with celebrity Allegra Cole, Hitch finds himself falling for Sara Melas (Eva Mendes) at the same time. Sara is a gossip columnist who is determined to unmask and ruin the so-called date doctor after one of his “clients,” whom Hitch refused to work with unknown to Sara, had a one night stand with her best friend. However, when Albert and Allegra’s relationship continues to progress, Hitch finds that despite his being a master of the art, none of his tried and tested methods work for Albert. In this process, he makes the startling discovery that he doesn’t really do anything significant. While Hitch is able to give these men the confidence boost to go after what they want, most of his customers, particularly Albert, were successful by just being themselves. In the end, Albert and Allegra get married and celebrate their marriage with Hitch and Sara, who are also get together in the end. Hitch, reflecting on love’s unpredictability, addresses the audience in the last line: “Basic principles… There are none.” This movie has a great deal of underlying themes that relate to both Ang’s discussion of women’s relationship to pleasure, as well as Geraghty’s thoughts on the vast number of utopian possibilities present.

First off, the most simple definition of utopia is your own “dream world,” that in which you would find the most pleasure in, as Geraghty describes. That is one of the centerpieces to the film, that you can dream as high as you want for the girl of your dreams, and Hitch can try to help and make it possible as best as he can. Everyone gets pleasure out of this, and as Ang would say, it is not left of of this specific ideology of mass culture. Albert and Allegra fall in love, and Hitch realizes that he really did nothing at all to help their relationship, giving him what seems like more pleasure than if he were to have been instrumental in their getting together. This would be considered the therapeutic nature of the characters, since Albert helped Hitch realize, albeit unknowingly, that more can be done for a relationship between the two people in it rather than a “helping” third party. All the while, he also ends up with the girl at the end, making this just like most romantic comedies out there: the struggle for love and pleasure ultimately ending how the audience wants it to end, happily ever after. Sara was also therapeutic for Hitch, but in a completely different way: she made him realize how to fall in love himself, instead of helping other people do the same. She also helps him find the “ideological perfect love,” one where no advice can be given, but only that pleasurable connection that women, as well as men, desire to have, whether it be in a romantic comedy or in real life.

In her article on feminist approaches to popular culture, Lana F. Rakow first discusses the images and representations approach by citing many different feminist theorists to support her idea. She notes that since Betty Friedan (1963) pointed out the disparity between the messages of popular culture and the experiences and growing despair of real women, feminists within and outside of academia have devoted considerable attention to the characteristics of women’s images in popular culture. Rakow also acknowledges what Fishburn (1982) said, that women’s most significant relationship to popular culture has been in providing its major images, so the amount of attention devoted by feminists to images should not be surprising. Four questions arose from this field of study, and reveal how this approach should be dealt with: 1) what kind of images are present and what do those images reveal about women’s position in the culture? 2) whose images are they and whom do they serve? 3) what are the consequences of those images and 4) how so such images have meaning? This approach is crucial to analyzing what ha been one of the most popular shows on television for the last 35 years, and how the role of images and representations in feminism has shifted the balance of power on the show today.

Saturday Night Live, or SNL, is a weekly late-night sketch comedy and variety show filmed in New York City. It made its debut on October 11, 1975 featuring a regular cast of comedy actors, joined by a guest host and musical act. The show is broadcast live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, with a time delay in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones, from Studio 8H at the GE Building in New York’s Rockefeller Center. It was created by Lorne Michaels, who has been with the show throughout except seasons 6-10, first as producer and writer and later its executive producer. The first episode of the 35th season just aired September 26, making it one of the longest-running network programs in American television history. It is best identified with its introduction directly after the local news, as the show begin with a cold open that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” Many famous actors have gotten theirs start on SNL and went on to have extremely successful careers throughout the decades: Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, and Bill Murray in the 70′s, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, and Ben Stiller in the 80′s, and Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock in the 90′s. However, there was a shift in this decade that made it much different then previous ones in which not many could have seen coming.

In the 2000′s, the rise of female comedian was taking place. In the past, and still today, comedy is still a male-driven media outlet, but more and more women are getting seen and heard to be able to come into their own just as their male counterparts have. No more is this as well-documented as it is on SNL, where most of this decade has been dominated by two WOMEN on the show, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. In the past, there has been Gilda Radner, Joan Cusack, and Molly Shannon that have made successful careers out of their time on SNL, but they were never the star of the show as Fey and Poehler were throughout their time on the show. Scenes were always dominated by men before this time, and now are once again after both women have left the show to move onto bigger and better things. Fey created her own show “30 Rock,” which is in its fourth season on NBC, and Poehler is the star of a show on NBC as well, “Parks and Recreation,” which is in its second season. They both also starred in a major motion picture, “Baby Mama,” as well as making guest appearances back on SNL on special occasions, such as Fey portraying Sarah Palin and Poehler mimicking Hilary Clinton during the 2008 Election. All in all, these two women have garnered a great deal of success in an industry that has otherwise not been so kind to the female point of view.

With this, we can analyze these four questions of the images and representations approach in feminism against the backdrop of Saturday Night Live to see what effect Fey and Poehler’s success has done for not only women in the comedy industry, but women looking to be successful in any industry. It is important to note that while these two women are extremely funny, they did not ultimately get to where they are today by laughs alone. They had to be smart as well, not book smart per say, but smart as in which act to portray on SNL and which not to; to keep up with current events and politics to have a better sense of what’s funny to people and what isn’t; and finally and most importantly, to understand the point of view of the average person tuning in that night to be entertained. These images and representations of Fey and Poehler go a long way into helping women everywhere that they can make it too in what ever they want to accomplish, as long as they have the right frame of mind about them. The representation you get of Fey and Poehler on SNL is one of happy and carefree, but it is important to remember that all these images have meaning, as well as consequences if looked at wrong, to better help understand women’s position in culture today and how to strive for more.

Ferdinand de Saussure coins his term “structuralism” through chess as an example of its meaning. Through this first idea of de Saussure’s structuralism, he states that there are the main rules of the game, but also the rules that lie within the game itself. The main idea, or langue, is playing chess as it’s meant to be played, while the content, parole, is physically moving the pieces wherever you want them to be. His theory of relationships being intertwined based on the language of symbols and signs are de Saussure’s second main idea to explain his concept of structuralism.

The example de Saussure uses to explain this second main idea is a cat, as we naturally think of a small, hairy, four-legged animal that purrs when we see this word. That is why the cat is the signifier, and whatever we pictured would be the signified. De Saussure explains that whenever we see a symbol or character that our first instinct is to associate it with whatever we think its meaning is. In order to complete the sign’s true meaning, he interjects, the signifier and signified have to be related. He next coins the term of convention, which is what keeps us from thinking of the complete opposite, such as a dog, when we see the word cat. Our culture, or language communities, allow us the ability to determine what a sign means depending on the signifier and signified.

According to Roland Barthes, we use myths both to communicate as well as to maintain the status quo through semiology. Using an example of an African-American soldier saluting the French flag, Barthes shows French imperialism in a positive light, while showing defeat in Vietnam in a negative light. He notes that myths are ways of “turning history and culture into norms,” and example being why someone is considered “famous for being famous,” rather than just being famous for being attractive and in the media spotlight on a consistent basis, such as Paris Hilton.

In his article, Pop Culture and the ‘turn to Gramsci,’ Tony Bennett discusses the theories that Antonio Gramsci popularized on hegemony. He defines hegemony as the moral, cultural, intellectual, and thereby, political leadership over the whole of society. Knowing this, he says, the upper, or “bourgeois” class, must have consent over the lower, or working class, to become dominant. This can only happen by the bourgeois class accepting the values of the working class through the process of hegemony. With this, the “ruling via consent” concept can be explained best as the culture and values of both classes coming together willingly, not simply forced upon by the upper class.

I believe that a contemporary product that best describes this notion of “ruling via consent” is the Plasma/LCD TV revolution. About 10 years ago when these screens first came out, they were the talk of everyone around. There was only one problem: they were so expensive that only the wealthy, bourgeois class could afford them at first. I always told my parents when we got one, we would hang it on our wall right in the center of our family room. Of course, they would always retort by asking if I wanted to have a TV, or wanted to keep eating. The answer to that is pretty self-explanatory, so don’t think to hard about it. However, there would come a time when my dream finally came true.

As the years past by, my dad finally got tired of our “ancient,” boxy TV’s and got not just one, but two LCD screens for our house; talk about a mid-life crisis. I was so excited that we could finally stop calling the room over the garage the “playroom,” but now call in the entertainment center it truly is; if only it hadn’t taken so long. The process of “ruling via consent” is at display here because what once was just a bourgeois product became a working class product over time as each class’ values mixed together. As the technological revolution continues at its exponential, the world will continue to see products once considered bourgeois, to now be for the workers as well.

Music is a big part of my life, and most of you all would probably say the same thing. We may not like the same types, but whichever genres we do prefer, we like them because we get something out of it on a higher level then just simply listening to be listening. I can say for myself that when I was younger, I used to just like what everyone else around me in school liked, a kind of peer influence or pressure that I didn’t realize until college. When thinking back on those artists I favored, I’m just in shock that I would ever listen to that garbage that the mainstream feeds to us, basically beginning in our youth. Thank goodness I grew up and moved past that phase.

The Whannel and Hall article stating that popular music was exclusive property of the teenager may have fit the bill back then, but it definitely doesn’t hold any water today. There are so many different genres geared towards so many different age groups that its impossible now to declare that one generation has “exclusive rights” to listen to popular music. Back when this article was written in the 1960’s, Elvis and Jonny Cash had already made there mark and left the groundwork for the Beatles and Rolling Stones to follow. Parents back in this time were almost unanimously opposed to popular music, because they found it “rebelling” against society. What would so those same parents think now if they heard the type of music played in the mainstream?

Parents and grandparents alike in the 1960’s came from generations where just having a radio was a big deal, and whatever music they played on it was considered the “end all, be all” by them. When the television and rock n’ roll began to be popularized in the 1950’s, all that changed because it was a totally different sound that the older generations had never heard, so they disapproved of it because they didn’t know how else to respond. Teenagers loved it because it was at a time that called for a change, if not a rebellion, against their parents, after World War II and before Vietnam. The music of today is said to be influenced by this time; but in reality, it’s a whole different world.

If Whannel and Hall had written this same article today, they would have an almost opposite viewpoint has they had back then. Rock n’ roll has become so many different genres, from heavy metal to indie, from alternative to grunge, and so on, that Whannel and Hall couldn’t even lay a finger on who gets the rights to popular music because there are so many people who enjoy it now. Country has also become very mainstream in our generation, as well as Christian and gospel music, and it could only be a matter of time until techno is as big a success here as it is in Europe. However, hip/hop and rap may mean to our generation what rock n’ roll meant to the “baby-boomers” of the 1960’s, since it is seen as another way to rebel against our parents “old people” music.

Since high school, I have always favored alternative groups such as Taking Back Sunday, Anberlin, and The Academy Is…, but more recently I have gotten into country and lighter rock and pop music like Brad Paisley and Jason Aldean, Jack Johnson and John Mayer just to name a few. I was so big into rap in high school, but now I can’t stand it anymore; probably just overexposure. The values these artists reflect today are much different than those of the 1960’s in that they just want you to have a good time, rather than try to change the musical landscape by rebelling against older music. Music is, and always will be, that outlet everyone needs to escape for just that one moment in time.

There has always been that special place in my heart for movies. Up until high school, my family and I would always make it a special occasion to go to a movie every Saturday afternoon. It was very special to me in that I knew I had a set time every week to hang out with my family, when most of my other friends might only get to see them for a couple hours at night, and sometimes on the weekend if they weren’t too busy. Making this even more enjoyable for me was the fact that I love films in general.  No matter what kind of movie we went to see, whether it was a comedic cartoon for my little sister or a romanticized comedy for my mom, it was always fascinating.

            As I grew older, I began to like different types of movies, moving from slapstick comedies to powerful dramas. This transition was weird for me, as well as for parents, and as college progressed, I realized I didn’t even like movies that I once loved and couldn’t get enough of. As our family moved out of the stage of going to the movies every weekend, my dad and I would rent movies every once in while from this video store down the road, whose name escapes me since it’s been so long. After that store went out of business, a new store came to monopolize the rental business that opened up just down the road, and would serve my movie needs for a long while.

            Blockbuster had every movie I could ever possibly imagine and more. Plus, it was very accessible since it was only about 5 minutes from my house. Before I started to drive, I went with my dad to pick up a certain movie that we wanted to see, but didn’t get a chance to while in was in the theaters. We could just hang out in there, shop around for whatever movies we wanted to see, and make fun of the one’s that we thought looked stupid. There was just one problem though: price. I always wanted to get at least two or three different movies, but my dad always said that I had to stick to one, because the five dollars that one cost to rent would begin to add up eventually.

            As soon as I could drive, and my friends were bored on a given night, we would just run by Blockbuster, pick out a movie, and bam, our night was solved. At the time, we thought there couldn’t be a more cost-effective way to get a certain movie that you really wanted to see. Get in your car, drive five minutes to Blockbuster, spend however long shopping around for the one you finally like the most, and then buy it for 5 dollars and feel like you made a good investment. It never really crossed my mind that there may be a better way to accomplish this goal until I graduated and went off to college, and my life was changed by three products in a way I never thought it could.

            Redbox came into popularity at a perfect time for me. A quick and easy way to get almost any newer movie you want for only a dollar, and the only catch is you have to bring it back the next day; sounds like a plan to me. The premise behind it all was to make it much more consumer-friendly, and they definitely succeeded on their main goal. Since there is one directly across the street from campus at Harris Teeter, and one closer than the Blockbuster when I go home, I have found that rental stores such as Blockbuster and others have become obsolete for me, as well as for numerous others. A giant red box that dispensed almost any movie you wanted, what could be better than that?

            Just this last year, I discovered the newest craze in obtaining any movie you could possibly imagine, Netflix. This online company sends any movie you want directly to you in about a day, and you have the ability to be able to receive eight at once! Are you kidding me? This is what I’ve been talking about all along, the ability to get any movie you want in a very short period of time. While its not as quick as Blockbuster or Redbox, Netflix makes it much easier to shop for movies, as it is online, as well as it enables you to get a fixed amount of movies every shipment at a much lower cost than Blockbuster, and even Redbox, could ever imagine.

            However, the movie-enjoying technology that I get the most use out of, and by far the easiest accessibility, is the DVR, or Digital Video Recorder. It allows me to record any movie I want to that is on any cable or movie channel, no matter what time it’s on, and watch it whenever I please. I used this feature frequently this past summer, as my job had me working various hours every week, so I had more free time some weeks than others, so I could be able to watch a movie I recorded whenever I was off instead of not knowing what to do with my time. Movies were always on TV when I wasn’t able to watch them, and now that isn’t a problem anymore.

            Movies have always been a big part of my life and the ability to see them whenever I want made it that much more important. The progression from the movie theaters, to Blockbuster, to Redbox, to Netlfix, to the DVR has made the process of watching movies that much easier, and thanks to the technological age we live in, there will probably be a new faster and easier way to watch movies in the next year or two, who knows. What I do know is that movies, and the ability to rent/watch them, have made the greatest impact in my life in terms of pop culture, and as they continue to get better and better, they will mean that much more.