First Listen: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (famous for this song) have a new album coming out on Tuesday. I like this band, but mostly because they always seem to be having the most fun possible and I wish I was in on it. But, I have listened to...most....of their upcoming album, and overall I think I like it more than their first one. I am particularly enchanted by the song "I Don't Want to Pray," the lyrics to which I find somewhat fascinating. "That's What's Up" is also really cute and fun. Anyway, if you're looking for some gospel revival-esque type fun by a band you'd love to party with, I'd check out "Here" here. ;-)

This is NPR

With the world full of sensationalist news corporations, with their gory details, 24 hour cycles, and endless bickering, it's nice to know that we still have NPR. I know that it's bad to be have a single source of news, but mine is NPR and I couldn't be happier about it. I wake up almost every morning to their fabulous radio voices calming reporting the news of the world. At work, I listen to Radio West or This American Life and hear the most fascinating stories and ideas. During the day, I often scroll through their website, catching first listens of Regina Spektor, Sigur Ros, or Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, or book reviews. No stressful scroll bar touting the days disasters there, no long lists of disastrous news. Just good, high quality journalism that informs and educates.

Storytelling

Storytelling is a wonderful, wonderful art form. Storytelling is at the heart of most of our media...TV shows, movies, music, blogs, etc. The most interesting unique feature of human beings is our need to self-express and get outside of ourselves. Our earliest ancestors made cave paintings. We do not know what story they were trying to tell, but for whatever reason they felt compelled to create something.

I try to think of what the reason could be for this need. Lately, I have been writing obsessively in my journal. Who am I writing to? Why am I writing? I don't especially want anyone to read it. But it seems important to me to get things down, to make them tangible somewhere.

Almost every month, I go to Provo's live storytelling show The Porch (Come! It's so great!), to hear my fellow community members tell stories. The purpose of the porch is for us to realize the different types of stories that can be found in our community. And I love it, and it's fascinating. But why? Why am I interested in other people's experiences?

Maybe it's because all of us only have one life, and though we will all experience many things, there are invariably some things we will miss out on. Furthermore, we can only understand our own lives, so hearing about the lives of others increases our understanding of the world that we live in. I wish I had better answers. I'll keep thinking about it.

What are we letting into our homes?

In the It Gets Better at BYU video, some LGBT students voiced their conviction that their fellow students are not hateful. One mentions that when he comes out to people, those people often become their strongest advocates. I've heard this said over and over, it seems to be a well-documented truth that once someone knows a gay person, their views change dramatically.

So, I found this article (NPR: How television brought gay people into our homes) really interesting, as it relates to the fact that Americans have grown increasingly accepting of the idea of same-sex marriage. In 1996, only 27% were in support, while current polls show the approval rate at around or slightly above 50%. I certainly don't think that TV is responsible alone for this, but it's interesting to examine this idea.

Cultivation theory says that TV has a long term cumulative effect on attitudes, so if acceptance of homosexuality or support for same-sex marriage is depicted more on TV, there could be some effect on the attitudes of viewers. There is also the personal relationships theory, which says that people often watch certain TV shows because they relate to the characters, and feel that they have a relationship with them. So, could it be that when one watches a show and finds themselves relating to a gay character, their feelings towards real gay people change? Could a loveable gay television character have something of a similar effect on someone's views as making a gay friend? 

 

Now, please don't misunderstand- I am not at all saying that liking a gay TV character is the same as knowing a gay person, or that someone could understand all gay people through a TV show. You can't. Media characters will never be a 3-dimensional as a real person. But I am saying that TV characters have the potential to challenge preconceived notions of what gay people are like by showing alternatives to one's mental schema.

And if this is true, what are people letting in to their homes when they connect with a gay character on TV? I think it's possible that they're exposing themselves and their children to increased understanding.

 

The Iron Lady

Lat night I watched the film for which Meryl Streep won the Oscar for best actress this year, The Iron Lady. It centers on a aging Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain, as she descends into old age and flashes back to her time as Prime Minister.

The film is very beautiful, and was rightfully also awarded an Oscar for best makeup, as Meryl Streep plays Margaret from middle to old age. 

It's an interesting exploration of the life of a female leader. Margaret makes her way up by refusing to compromise, which is both her strength and her weakness. At times, her political ambitions cause discord within her family. But right or wrong, Margaret is an admirable and inspiring woman. I loved the exploration of gender roles. Did Margaret truly neglect her family, or did her family resent her circumvention of traditional gender roles? Is the fact that she was a woman in a man's world force her to be uncompromising in order to survive? Also, why has Britain had a female prime minister, but America has had no female president?

The play that all of happy valley should see

Robbie Pierce's play, Wings of Wax, has been performed approximately 5 times. I feel very lucky to be one of the few people who has had the opportunity to see it because I want everyone to see this play.

It is based on the Greek myth of Icarus, who flies too close to the sun on wings of wax, which melt and send him plunging into the sea to drown. It centers on the life of October "Toby" Glantz, a young man who finds himself both Mormon and gay. The play follows him as he tries to exist while these two opposing identities pull him in different directions.

"I’m being stretched. Being pulled to somewhere beautiful, and at the same time stuck right where I am. Bound. The word “bound.” Do you ever think about it? It’s an antagonym. An auto-antonym, or a Janus word, after the two-faced Roman God. It’s a word that’s the opposite of itself. Just like me, which I suppose is the appeal. I collect this sort of word. You can be bound for something, which means you’re headed there, fast. Or you can be bound to something, which means that you’re stuck. Fast. And somehow I’m both. We’re all both. A self-contradiction of who we are and who we would be."

I really can't say enough about this play- if I say everything that I think about it, I will just be gushing, which would be obnoxious. I will suffice to say that the actors do an incredibly good job, and that the emotional intensity is at times incredibly high, but never overwrought.

The desire of this play is not to be directly activist or political; it simply tells a very honest, personal story. Every character is sincerely well-intentioned, but those intentions translate into very different actions. Depending on who you are, you will interpret those actions and characters in different ways. But no matter what, you will feel something. And if you refuse to think about what you feel, you will hate this play.

Hopefully, this play will be picked up and performed in Provo this summer. If it is, you can rest assured that I will let you know.