Action Hero

25 Jul, 2012

Stranger in a Strange Land

2016-04-07T01:32:33-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero, CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , |

When James was 9 he wrote a song about his 57 Chevy, cruisin’ down the freeway. I’m not sure exactly how this is relevant to our upcoming workshop residency at CounterPULSE, but somehow it gets right to the heart of it. A child, living in England and never having travelled outside of the UK, decides to write a song. What comes out is a first person description of an experience that is alien to the culture that he lives in,

30 Jul, 2012

Thoughts on Strangerhood: with help from Bruce, Bacon and Baudrillard

2016-04-07T01:32:25-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero, CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Reading Gemma's post about a European's impression of the US, I immediately thought of Jean Baudrillard’s book “America." Here are some gems from my well-underlined, college copy: “This (The United States) is the only country which gives you the opportunity to be so brutally naïve: things, faces, skies, and deserts are expected to be simply what they are. This is the land of the ‘just as it is’.” “America is neither dream nor reality. It is a hyperreality. It is

8 Aug, 2012

Gentle Ben

2016-04-07T01:32:18-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero, CounterPULSE|

The first time I came to California I told my best friend where I was going and he said “careful Stenhouse, it’s a different country”. I’d always thought of America as a lie I had been told as a child that I’d since disbelieved. Like Santa Claus. As a kid I loved the TV Show Gentle Ben. I also loved those strange 70’s and 80’s movies where cars and/or trucks and/or motorbikes drive fast and run each other off the

10 Aug, 2012

We Heart Cars

2016-04-07T01:32:10-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero, CounterPULSE|Tags: , , |

Something I know, but don't think about until reading/watching something like this, is our ridiculous obsession with cars in this country. We love our cars. We name our cars. We sweet talk our cars. My mom would pat the dashboard of our ailing Dodge van as it struggled up a hill and say "Come on Bessy. You can do it." And who could forget our favorite carmance: between Kitt and David Hasselhoff in "Knight Rider." http://youtu.be/6ImbzstQdAo (Gosh. I almost got

12 Aug, 2012

Notes from day 1 and 2

2016-04-07T01:32:04-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero, CounterPULSE|

So we've done 2 days together. 10 hours in total. On day one we talked, a lot. We spoke about America, how we felt about it, what it was, where it was, what other people thought it was. Here's some notes we made:   Then we made a list of tasks we might do over the coming days- ideas for actions, places to visit, things to write, conversations to have   We talked about bringing daily gifts to the group;

12 Aug, 2012

An American Experience.

2016-04-07T01:31:57-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero|

As a child there were many experiences that followed traditional American norms that I participated in without question. On occasions I was taken to fast food restaurants for dinner, and bargain stores for school supplies. Spending and consuming is an American experience for many, and often people value bargains and illusions over the actually quality of the thing itself. Task: Enter into a fast food restaurant, ask as many questions as I could about how to acquire the biggest thing

12 Aug, 2012

Voice artifact from Estate sale

2016-04-07T01:31:51-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero|

Sometimes people die unexpectedly and the leave behind a house full of things from their past.  Estate sales are public markets. and many people can override ethical questions about reclaiming the property of the dead by the incredible cheap deals they can get from their personal objects. Estate sales are rampant throughout America, because America as a nation has a tendency to accumulate an incredible amount of  things, without any necessary obligation to realize a material future past a singular

13 Aug, 2012

Task

2016-04-07T01:31:42-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero, CounterPULSE|

Since I'd been putting off washing my truck for about 4 years and had it with me yesterday, I decided my American activity would be to go get it washed. The car wash ended up being in one of those "one-stop-shopping" sorta places, so I figured the most American thing I could do is spend as much money in one place on as much crap as possible. Incidentally, the car wash was called "Winner's Finish" and the wash I got,

13 Aug, 2012

Oakland Raiders 0 Dallas Cowboys 3

2016-04-07T01:31:34-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero|

Today we tailgated at an NFL football game. For those of you reading this in England, tailgating is hanging out in the carpark (parking lot) of the football stadium before the game and eating food next to your car/truck. This is us tailgating out the back of Andrea's truck:     Before we left we made some American food at Elizabeth's house. Including potato salad, hash browns and a cake with a U.S flag on it. I'll post up some

14 Aug, 2012

Strangeness, cultural exchange and cultural identity

2016-04-07T01:31:27-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero|

Today is our fourth day together as 8 collaborators and after yesterday's NFL experience it feels like we're really starting to unpick and unravel the complexities of our notion of 'Stranger in a Strange Land'. The notion of America as a story and Americans as storytellers keeps returning and ownership over that story is what seems to be niggling us most. Constructing fictions and conducting life through role-play is perhaps not unnatural, perhaps its even a necessity and the U.S.A's

14 Aug, 2012

Chants and Taunts at the Football game.

2016-04-07T01:31:20-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero|

Raiders and cowboys, Young boys chanting and taunting the other team: TAPE sample: sports chants and taunts 30sec The Raiders are represented in silver and black, symbolizing pirates who invade and overtake with their steel and their destruction The Cowboys are represented in blue and white, colors extracted from the American flag, for rugged heroes who claim their territory Like many sports, American football is a game of  reclaiming territory on a field, conquering space, and passing into guarded zones.

14 Aug, 2012

2016-04-07T01:31:13-07:00By |Categories: Action Hero|

Yesterday’s practice of being a stranger in a strange land at the Dallas Cowboy/Oakland Raider’s tailgate party was a failure. Not because it was bad (I had a great time), but because I didn’t feel like a stranger in a U.S. parking lot with Black and Latino Oakland Raider/Dallas Cowboy fans. I didn’t feel uncomfortable with people gawking at me hanging out with a group of mostly white people wearing blue sparkly lipstick, my tiny shorts, and tube top. In

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