most updated
TRANSCRIPT
Is there a Silver-Lining Beyond the
Silver Screen?:
The Effects of Nomadicity on Small Town America
By: Josh AndersonVisual Culture and Language 357
“Sorry, No Shows Playing”
“A culture of speed rubs up against a
culture of slowness and conquers what
it can.”
Abandoned drive-ins are just one
sign of the cultural shift towards nomadicity.
Life After “The Last Picture Show”
Americanus-
RexNew roles have been
assigned…
Leaving old
haunts long
behind
“….And All the Men and Women Merely
Players”
And quickly we learn “All the
World’s A Stage….”
There’s No Place Like Home…
In the new
nomadic
culture…
“People must mask
themselves in their roles”
Serenity and Uniformity… A Mythistory
But….
“The mask never melts utterly into the face”
“Some part of
us is
always backsta
ge”
Trapped in the Time Capsule
Sometimes I Wonder If I
Too
Am Just Another Actor
Fleshing Out His Role
Or…. another blurry face in
thecommun
ity oil painting?
Zen and the Art of “Nomadic Lifestyle” Maintenance
It seems the
audience has
exited and
decided to each
take their own
stage.
Field of Dreamers
-+To Be or Not to Be, What’s My Role?
“We really
have to protect people from
wrong choices
.”
How long have we
been seeking roles
instead of goals?
Blazing Trails or Following Footsteps?
How long will I be waiting in the on deck Circle?
Gu
tter
Ball
Could “Casey at the Bat” swing some sense into my
confusion
Casey Get Your Bat
“Casey at the Bat”By: Ernest Thayer
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The restClung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that -We'd put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat.
All crowds need a hero, just as the hero needs a crowd……
But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.
1st …… 2nd......
3rd……. And all the players need a Role
to make their mothers proud….
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out.
A Familiar Summer Home
For even the hometown hero,
who crushed our hope in the breathless clutch;only failed in hitting the
goalwhile playing his role just
as much
Under a Blue Moon Halo
They’ve been broadcast into my world…
The crisp spring air pours through me…I dig my steel toes into the batters
box and try to see beyond the centerfield fence line…I daydream about crushing
curveballs into the stratosphere like Roger Maris I daydream that
there’s two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Nolan Ryan’s on the mound…
And I realize that most of my heroes are people I’ve never even met….
North Dakota Blue Skies
“There's nothing we can
do. It's always been this
way. Before
me, before you,
before the ones who
came before you.
Back and back and
back.”
The Setting Sun Closes the Curtain on the Good Ole’ Days, Ushering in the Era of the New Nomad
What happened to the residents of Mudville after the hometown
hero’s infamous failure?
Dark Days for the Hometown Hero
Could Casey’s strikeout represent the end of an era?
Was this the end of the small town
community as we know it?
Will those of Us Trapped in the Painting Learn to Accept New
Individualized Roles?
Can We Stay Golden in the Midst of Change?
Can Legend’s be Born Again, Even Without an Audience?
Maybe it’s not that the
Casey-like characters ever left but that the crowd stopped watching.
Maybe Casey’s still at the bat.
Casey, Can You Thaw The Frost Covered Field?
If we are going to seek roles we could use some role
models……
…..If we are going to continue to use more “extensions of self” we could
use a little direction.
Or are We Too Far Gone to Get back Home?
“Things do not
change; we
change”
A Clear Sign of Spring
With the signs of spring all around us, I wonder what changes- if any- the new
season will bring to the cultural landscape
End CreditsAll Photos were Taken By Josh Anderson Between 4/01 and 4/07 of 2009.
Gitlin, Todd. Media Unlimited. First Holt paperbacks ed. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2007.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1993
Shakespeare, William. As You Like it. Arden ed. of works by William Shakespeare. London; New York: Routledge, 1989.
Thayer, Ernest. “Casey at the Bat.” Baseball Almanac. 3 April 2009. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_case.shtml
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden.150th anniversary illustrated ed. of the American Classics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Slides with Quotes
Todd Gitlin is quoted on slides 2, 5, 6, and 7
Lois Lowry is quoted on slides 11 and 18
William Shakespeare is quoted on slide 4
Ernest Thayer is quoted on slides 14, 15, and 16
Henry David Thoreau is quoted on slide 25