I Get It

When I travel, I try to incorporate visits to local museums. During my latest trip I was able to see an exhibit at the Museo de las Americas featuring some of the cultural histories of Puerto Rico. One of the rooms displayed this:

The artist used a photograph take in the 1920s that was originally used for documentary purposes to inform the world of the poverty and oppression in Puerto Rico. The artist painted a background and added color to the black and white photo. Adding color or changing the medium did not enhance or alter the meaning for me. Meaning making is within the individual. Each person will walk away taking something different with them whether they know the history or not.

I saw the Matrix movies, but have never played the video game. I thought the movies were an interesting view on the issues of the digital world and how far the world has been changing. That is the meaning I walked away with. On the other hand, my boys became obsessed with the link between the game and the movie and were constantly searching for answers within the two. Rather than investing that much energy into it, I decided "it is what it is" and that's how I "got it."

Food for Thought

My grandmother made the best potato salad on Earth! When I was a kid, she would let me help peel the potatoes. As my grandmother carefully put each ingredient into her huge mixing bowl I would ask, “Nana is that what makes your potato salad so good?” Her reply was always the same, “Now Tracy Lynn, you know I can’t tell you until you are grown. It’s a family secret and when you have a family, you can know the secret.” Eventually, my mother took over the job of making the potato salad at family gatherings. I continued to help. In time, I knew the recipe just from watching the process.

A few years ago, my brother had a party at his home and asked for my grandmother’s famous potato salad so mom and I went to work! At the party, one of my sister-in-law’s friends asked my mother for the recipe. I told her that it was my Nana’s recipe and couldn’t be shared outside the family. My mother gave me the craziest look. She took me aside and said, “Nana got the recipe from the Hellmann’s Mayonnaise jar.” I was shocked! My mother could not help herself and continued, “Her oatmeal cookies came off the Quaker Oats lid!”

The moral of this is that I don’t think recipes should be authored (or in this case trademarked?). Maybe they can’t be authored. It was very easy for a wide eyed little girl to name them her grandmother’s.

COUNTRY POTATO SALAD

2 lbs. all-purpose potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (about 6 cups)
1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish or chopped dill pickles (optional)

1. In 4-quart saucepot, cover potatoes with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender; drain and cool slightly.

2. In large bowl, combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, vinegar and pepper.

3. Add remaining ingredients; toss well.

http://www.hellmanns.com/recipes.aspx

Hip-Hop

I loved the McLeod piece! I think I was about eight-years-old when my grandparents took me to my first block party. They lived in Queens and we stayed with them on weekends. I remember how cool it was to ride my Big Wheel in the middle of the street. I must have been about seventeen when I started “clubbing.” In those days (as if that were forever ago), the place was not as important as who the DJ was. That was about the time when Hip-Hop was going mainstream and some DJs had a huge following.

Hip-Hop always seemed to be original to me. My parents were “flower children,” my grandfather was a Jazz enthusiast, and my other grandfather was a violinist. I was exposed to an array of genres and did recognize that there were glimmers of these genres in Hip-Hop, but it was still a completely different sound. I can see the shady area of gray when McLeod discusses issues of copyrights and sampling. I also saw that the more popular Hip-Hop became and the more money Hip-Hop artists made, the more pressing the issue of ownership became. I agree with the cultural aspects of McLeod’s argument, but I also feel that Hip-Hop was not taken seriously in the beginning; at the very least not by the record industry. I think the fans pushed the importance of Hip-Hop making it clearly evident that it was profitable. The clubs were always packed!

I continued to have a steady diet of block parties while growing up in Brooklyn. I never imagined that history was being made right in front of my eyes (and ears). Like neighborhood Pizzerias and Bodegas on every corner, the smells of family owned Bakeries, and the even blend of Menorahs and Christmas Trees during the holidays; Hip-Hop was part of growing up in the city.

Copy-write?

When I began reading about the laws, the first thing I thought of was pharmaceutical companies. A friend of mine worked for a generic pharmaceutical company. At the time, a high profile drug was coming up to the end of its patent (11.7 years). First, the company filed a bunch of frivolous lawsuits to hold the patent for the drug. Then, they paid the generic company not to make the generic form. Finally, they reformatted the drug and patented the newer version of the drug. My question was, “How can they get away with that?” Well, they didn’t. They had to pay lawyers and heavy fines in order to try to protect their investment. It turns out that the profit from the drug was so enormous that the fines and lawyers were a drop in the bucket compared to what the drug was worth financially to the company.

At face value, laws are in place to protect the common folk otherwise only the rich would be able to afford medications such as the one discussed. But, to find that type of control over culture is creepy. Then, isn’t it a bit contradictory that the “American Dream” is based on the idea that if one works hard they will benefit from it. Yes, the drug company gained financially from their invention, but then the law dictates as to how long they can profit from it.

I find that the author gets lost in the mass production of their “product.” Mickey Mouse, Barbie, Harry Potter become the face of the author/inventor. The bigger the characters become, the less important the person behind them is. It is as if they disappear. I then have to ask, “Does the creativity disappear as well?” Does the profit of the creation take priority over the creativity and become a formula that the creator then becomes.

From the beginning, I felt that authorship and ownership went hand-in-hand. When a person invests time and energy doing something, whether it is art, writing, inventing, etc, they want to protect that investment. We protect our homes, vehicles, and even our bodies by purchasing insurance. Our culture has been conditioned that way.