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The Commencement address at Stamford University, given by Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, on June 17, 2007. He speaks about the decline of the arts in our culture and the possible repercussions down the line.
The whole speech is worth reading, but here is my favorite part.
I have a reccurring nightmare. I am in Rome visiting the Sistine Chapel. I look up at Michelangelo’s incomparable fresco of the “Creation of Man.” I see God stretching out his arm to touch the reclining Adam’s finger. And then I notice in the other hand Adam is holding a Diet Pepsi.
When was the last time you have seen a featured guest on David Letterman or Jay Leno who isn’t trying to sell you something? A new movie, a new TV show, a new book, or a new vote?
And here is the part I would like to put forward to the group as a conversation topic:
In a time of social progress and economic prosperity, why have we experienced this colossal cultural and political decline? There are several reasons, but I must risk offending many friends and colleagues by saying that surely artists and intellectuals are partly to blame. Most American artists, intellectuals, and academics have lost their ability to converse with the rest of society. We have become wonderfully expert in talking to one another, but we have become almost invisible and inaudible in the general culture.
This mutual estrangement has had enormous cultural, social, and political consequences. America needs its artists and intellectuals, and they need to reestablish their rightful place in the general culture. If we could reopen the conversation between our best minds and the broader public, the results would not only transform society but also artistic and intellectual life.
Responses?
I’m back! If anyone didn’t know that officially, well, now you do. I started school the day after Memorial Day, and it’s crazy. I haven’t even unpacked yet, and I desperately need to do laundry. Oh well. BTW, anyone know anyone who’s looking to share an apartment? I still have an extra bedroom.
So, my colleagues over at Agnes Scott seem pretty cool. We have a decent variety, for only seven people, though, as expected, we’re all women. We have a 52 year old black married mother of three grown children who worked in secretary type jobs her whole career. The rest of us are all white (not so much diversity there). There’s a 35 year old married mother of one toddler, who did Teach for Georgia working with special needs children. Theres a 25 year old who already has a Masters in English, and intends to marry her English boyfriend and teach over there. We have a 23 year old who did a year teaching scripted classes to underprivileged second graders. We have a 23 year old who did a year teaching ecology on an island in South Carolina. We have a 21 year old who is a former UGA (I think?) track star and art major. And we have me. Five of the students are planning to teach English. The ecology girl and myself will be doing Biology. This program is usually much larger, but apparently there was a disaster in admissions this year. It will be interesting…
I have been working on a theory for the past year or so, in which all of America can be divided into an easy to distinguish dichotomy; those people who have worked in food service, and those that have not. A recent NY Times article talks about how those who work in food service are regularly regarded by those who don’t, their hardships and the pride a waitress should take in her work.
I strongly believe that you can distinguish these two groups of people readily and reliably, based on a few criteria.
People who have worked in food service tend to:
1. Tip better, regardless of service
2. Be more patient with a server who is overworked, new or having a bad day.
3. Be less patient with a server who just doesn’t give a crap about their job.
4. Notices things like the type of fabric in a uniform and potential for discomfort
5. Says hello, looks the server in the eye and retains their name for later use
6. Never snaps, holds plates in the air or makes gestures other than eye contact or a brief raise of the hand to get the server’s attention.
7. Will more readily accept small mistakes in their order and limit special requests
8. Says “thank you” when plates are placed in front of them, or removed.
9. Have a tendency to stack plates prior to clearing for ease of pickup by the server
People who have not worked in food service are more likely to:
1. Withhold tip if service was not perfect, especially if the server was too busy to pay them a lot of attention
2. Has very little patience, regardless of the situation or the server
3. Does not greet the server, just launches into their order or demands to know the specials. Generally, smiles are forced, or not present
4. Uses any and all means to get the server’s attention, including waving, snapping, pointing at their plate, or lifting a plate to hand off as the server passes by.
5. Rival Meg Ryan’s character in When Harry Met Sally when it comes to special orders
6. Do not acknowledge a server when they place a plate or pick one up, except for a subtle lean away from their arm.
However, after one uncomfortable business/lunch meeting, I have decided that it may be necessary to add a sub-division to this binary; the former waiter/waitress who was so badly abused by their customers that they have decided to return this treatment in kind to the next generation of servers. This division of the human population regularly meets the criteria of the non-food service person, but will talk up their time in the “service industry” as a way of degrading the current service staff.
On a side note: there is nothing more uncomfortable then sitting at a table with three former waitresses and one’s boss, who though they once waited tables, feels the need to abuse every server in the restaurant, then leave a virtually non-existent tip.
I’m home again and after two weeks abroad, I realized that I have not cooked for myself in what feels like forever. So, with joy and abandon, I pulled out my cookbooks and decided to whip up some very non-German style food. From the latest issue of Eating Well, I selected a number of dishes for consumption over the next week, including tacos, thai chicken pizza and stuffed chicken breasts.
The stuffed chicken breast, served with rice and a steamed artichoke boasts a stuffing of prunes, Gorgonzola cheese and fresh thyme. I recently had a lovely sandwich of prunes and pulled pork, so I was game. During my trip to my local grocery store, I was unable to locate prunes anywhere. I was, however, able to locate numerous displays of “dried, pitted plums” with packages that screamed in red and yellow letters, “anti-oxidant rich plums,” “delicious taste, low in calories,” and “aids digestion.”
Is the average American fooled by this simple name change. Everyone knows (right?) that dried plums = prunes. The jokes about prunes are numerous but clearly people are eating them, so why try to dress up prunes as something they aren’t. Is this a misrepresentation or just a harmless euphemism? What will they think of next? Has anyone else found any food euphemisms that make them scratch their head?
Hey there kids- I am out of the country for the next two weeks, on a Faculty Study Trip in Germany. I will have limited internet access, so I will likely be unable to read or write for you all here.
However, if you are interested, we are hoping to be able to keep this blog:
http://hallestudygermany07.blogspot.com/
updated while overseas.
See you all when I get back!
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