The second event that I attended this year was the second annual Mr. Zeta Phi Beta pageant, run by Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., a historically black sorority and my fraternity’s sister sorority. The pageant is run just like any other, there were a total of three contestants who were to be judged based on three categories; talent, formal dress and how they answered questions given to them. There were also additional acts in-between each of the competition rounds. I worked the backstage of the show, and in the back there was panic, distress and pure chaos. However, on stage the audience witnessed a beautiful showing, where all of the contestants competed gracefully.

(I wasn’t able to get any performance pictures since I was backstage, but I did get a picture of one of the contestants and my frat brother while he was preforming during the talent category.)

different custom about New year.

                                                   The different custom about New year

                As far as I am concerned, new year is the happiest holiday in the world. All people will take a break during this time, people gathered together with their families, they celebrated the new years and pray to have a new life in the next year. In different countries, people celebrate the new year in different type. For example, Chinese people always set off firecrackers to celebrate. For the United States, people always go to the plaza or church. People all feel eudemonic in that day. Now, I want to talk about some examples about the different custom about New year in different counties.

                Firstly, I want to talk about the United Kingdom. There are three interesting customs that I want to mention. On the one hand, most of the people in the United Kingdom choose to eat the meat and drink the wine in that day when the family gathered. Also, this is a traditional, because the people in the United Kingdom think if the people do that, that means they have the good living conditions or have enough food to live in the next year. Drinking wine or eating meat is representing to have a good year. On the other hand, the people in the United Kingdom are scrambling to fetch a pair of water, because there is saying in there, the first people who get the water can get happiness in the next whole year. As far as I am concerned, it is so interesting. The last point I want to mention in the United Kingdom is that the people always do not knock the door, and just go into the relatives and friend’s home directly with food. According to the custom, after the eve of the New year, the first people enter the owner’s house has a black hair, that means happiness to the owner; if the people go with a light color hair, that means sadness. The different people come represent different meanings to the owners.

                Another example is about Scotland. In the eve of the New year’s day, people always put some cash and some jewelry in front of their door way. When they open the door on the New year’s day, they will see the money or jewelry, that means they will be rich in the next year.  I think this custom is funny, so I searched the internet if the thief or a bad person will steal the money in that day? The internet said no. I think it is so novelty. If I have the opportunity in the future, maybe I will go there to spend the New year.

                For the event for me to promote awareness about the topic, I will introduce the event first.  I think my topic it is very easy to promote, I will gather the different countries’ people together, and then, let them to talking about how they spend and celebrate the New year. It is better for them to talk about the experience, the happiest thing happened during the New year, to let the other people have a deeper impression. For example, in our class, the students are from different countries, like the native speaker, Korean, Chinese, Mexican, the people must have the different type of the custom. If we hold this activity, it will be funny and also can help people have the awareness about the custom in other countries.

                For the last two event I have gone this before, first is the Opera Gala, second is the event which named the history of Iowa located in downtown. Actually, I do not think it is beneficial or have the influence to my event. Because for the first event, Opera Gala, it is about the classical music, although I really enjoy listening to music, even I listen the music everywhere, I do not think it is beneficial to my event.  My topic is about New year’s custom; my event is let people gathered together to talk about the experiences about New year. There is no more relation between each other. For the second event, it is the history of the Iowa city, the purpose is to let the people have more awareness about the history of Iowa, there was a women introduced. As far as I am concerned, I think there is a little common between that event and my event. Although they are different topic, but both of their topic are going to introduce something to the people.  That event I have gone wants to introduce the history of Iowa city, I want to introduce the different country’s New year to the other people. Maybe it is better for me to learn some skills or some good methods of introduce from the women who presided over the second event for us.

                In conclusion, the reason why I choose this topic is because I want to broaden my horizons through find the materials, also, the topic is very funny. I think it is very necessary for each one to know some knowledge about the different customs. If you have the opportunities to go other countries, knowing more custom it is helpful a lot to you, like do not make so many mistakes and so on. Also, less than 20 days is the Christmas day, I think if we think about the happiness thing, it can make us relax during the final weeks. 

Many people that suffer from the side effects from prescription medicine are not aware of alternative treatment methods that are available. A lot of holistic treatments offer equal relief to many modern treatments with significantly less side effects. People need to know about healthier treatments options and something should be done about it. An idea that I had in mind would be an informational seminar with demonstrations of different treatments like massage therapy or acupuncture. Being able to see the treatments while being explained the benefits of each one would draw more people to the event and provide the audience with an insightful platform. The event would be open to the general public because everyone needs healthcare.

Drawing an audience is difficult for any type of event. We have to ask ourselves, why would people come to this event? People wouldn’t come to a medical clinic run by a bunch of no name student, so I would need to build some credibility in my marketing campaign. In order for the clinic to be credible and draw in and audience, I would need a renowned doctor or physician to be the speaker and/or demonstrator. This would be similar to the first event that I attended this year, the opera, in that it displays information to a large group of people.

           For the event that could promote awareness of my topic, I’d like to introduce my own event which will help people learn more about the drink culture and how the way of drinking in-fluent people. This event is pretty interesting and real, and use real experience to make people feel about the differences between two cultures. In general, we set up two types of party, one is American party and another one is traditional Chinese party (there will be some rules which people need to follow to make sure the party going well). Then two types of group will be invited to the party, one group is American and another one is all Chinese (notice all people need to speak English), hold two parties together but each party include half Chinese and half America, in American party America will teach Chinese how to make the party going well, and in Chinese party, the roles exchange. I will get people join by providing free drink and meal, it’s also a chance to help people to communicate. People who wish to attach different culture will have interested at this topic.

          The last two event which I have gone before, first one is the music concert which hold in the music building, this is a very amazing music show, I have never been the opera since I come here, the fantastic show of the people in the university of Iowa make me happy and relax. This event helps me learn more about music culture and type of performances in American music form. But it has no relationship with the events that I want to make, there is nothing or rarely things about drink culture, mostly it’s just about music. So this event has no influences to my own event.

          The second event which I arrived named the history of downtown Iowa city, this event is a historical event, aimed to help people learn more about the history in Iowa city. The woman who give the speech is a really nice people. She spends his life learning the history of Iowa city, she visits most of the old people, talk with them for getting information. I’m glad to listen her speech and appreciate her hard-working to make sure the continuation of the history of Iowa city. I am a man who love music since I was very young, I read a lot of history book include many foreign histories. She uses her speech to teach me how to step to contribute the history. Even though, honestly, my own event has nothing related to this event, this event is not about cultures, it is about history.

          First of all, I think the people who join my event will have more understanding to the drink culture and how it influences people’s behaviors.

Political Prints (Caroline McCrady)

Political Prints 

Caroline McCrady

I really enjoyed visiting the Political Prints exhibit at the UI Museum of Art. I found this exhibit to be pretty relevant to major issues of todays culture, such as the black lives matter movement. Many of the pieces of art were in response to the 1960's civil rights movement, specifically the efforts of influential African Americans of that time such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Not only was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 of significance for African Americans and other ethnicities, it does have an impact on me because it prohibits discrimination based on sex therefore, expanding the rights of women nation-wide. 

Birmingham Race Riot (Warhol)

While at the museum I took notice of several photographs taken by Andy Warhol. It was stated that Warhol took a series of photographs of the gruesome reality of minorities during the 1960's. The image to the left is a photo that was was taken during the Birmingham Race Riot where police dogs violently attacked an unarmed African-American while a crowd of people stood around and watched unbothered by the brutality of the event. I believe that Warhol's photos were pivotal when it comes to the success of the civil rights movement because people around the nation were then able to see the brutality that they may not have been able to see otherwise. I think it is pretty cool that art is able to show people what is happening in other places of the world. Seeing pictures of the event rather than reading about it has a more significant impact on an audience. The photo to the below is another Andy Warhol classic that shows the chair that two Soviet spies were killed in during the 1950's. In the 60's capital punishment was outlawed after killing two more prisoners bringing this photo to a great significance. 

Electric Chair (Warhol) 

Picture of me at exhibit

Clay Revisited: Tradition in Shards (Caroline McCrady)

Clay Revisited: Traditions in Shards

Caroline McCrady

Me at the Exhibit

On December 6^th, I visited the exhibit Clay Revisited: Traditions in Shards and learned a lot more about sculptures and ceramics than I ever have. When thinking of an art exhibit, I usually just think of the art as something to look at rather than read more into the meaning of the art. I was thoroughly impressed by the ceramics that were on display at this exhibit.

Minuteman Sculpture

One sculpture that really stuck out to me was named Minuteman and was created in 1982 by Robert Arneson. This piece was unlike anything that I have ever seen with a bloody, deformed head of a man on what appears to be an iron cross. When making my own assumptions of Arneson’s work, I first thought it was making a biblical reference because the cross was the biggest part of the sculpture which could signify its importance. The head really made me start to think about the meaning behind this sculpture. First, there are large and deep wrinkles on the mans head which could represent wisdom because of his old age or deep thought about something of a serious matter. Next, there is blood all over his face and what appears to me to be three bullet holes in his head. I believe that this symbolizes some type of war or altercation because of all of the blood and bullet holes. On his forehead there appears to be a target which really led me to believe that this sculpture represented some type of war because he was being targeted in the head with the intent of killing.

Picture of the Arlington National Cemet

After reading the description behind the piece of work, I was even more interested in the sculpture. It stated that Arneson is considered one of the most prominent ceramic sculptures in his field of work and blends his comedic side and political views into a style of his own. Minuteman was specifically created to bring attention to the problems associated with President Ronald Reagan’s time in office. While the cross did have some biblical meaning behind it, the cross was primarily meant to represent the grave markers in Arlington National Cemetery. While all of the markers in Arlington National Cemetery are white, Arenson used black materials to make the grave markers to look burned to signify the consequences of using nuclear weapons.

Caroline McCrady Culture

 Minnesota Culture

          

           Eagan Experience

Football game at my high school 

Meme of Minnesotan accent

Growing up in Eagan, MN I wasn’t exposed to a lot of diversity. Many of my neighbors were white collar families with high expectations for their children. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Eagan is a city of 64,206 residents with 81.5% of those residents being white. With a graduation rate of 94%, receiving a top notch education and continuing on to some secondary form of education is a primary part of our culture. On the last day of school, all of the seniors wear t-shirts of the colleges that they will be attending in the upcoming year and it was unusual for one of my classmates to not be continuing on to college. When continuing on to college, the culture that I had grown up in was more apparent then ever before. The way I talked was different than others, the manners that I was accustomed too and always taught to use suddenly weren’t always being used by others, and I was exposed to a more diverse group of people. Firstly, I never really thought I had an accent until I came to Iowa and had it pointed out to me by many people. Minnesotan’s tend to over emphasize their “O’s” and pronounce the world bag as beg. While living in Minnesota, none of these things were apparent to me because that was the way Minnesotan’s truly talk, but going back to Minnesota after my first semester, the accents stuck out like a sore thumb. 

Family Culture                                                     

                          

My family and I (dogs: Ollie & Owen)

Family is one of the most important things to me and I believe that my family has a sub-culture of our own. For example, sports are a big part of my family. I was a division I gymnast here at Iowa for 3 years until suffering a career ending injury, my sister was a division I diver at the University of Minnesota where she continued on her career training for the Olympics. I also have two first cousins who are currently division I gymnasts at Nebraska. As big as sports are in our family I would say that my immediate family values hard work, dedication, and receiving a good education over any athletic award. My parents have always told my sisters and I that while sports are wonderful, the power of knowledge will take you further than anything else is this world. 

Traveling the World

Mountain side of Spain

The summer going into my junior year of college I was presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity. I was offered a position to do an internship in Spain. I had never been to Europe before and was pretty nervous traveling there on my own because the way that their culture was negatively portrayed in films such as Taken. It really was a concern of mine that if I went there I could be taken. After a few days living in Barcelona this concern of mine turned out to be pretty silly. Barcelona was the most beautiful city I had ever been too and was filled with families, professionals, and all-around wonderful people. However, the culture is way different there then it is in America, especially in a professional setting. In Barcelona, people don’t wake up very early and don’t go to bed until very late hours so our work day didn’t start until 9 a.m. everyday. On Fridays our days would be cut two hours short, and they constantly encouraged us to take breaks at least one every hour. On one of my first days at the office, I was going to take home some work to get ahead and my boss said, “we don’t do work outside the office home here”.

Barcelona Fútbol Stadium

Sagrada Familia