colleges cater to changing appetities...how bout changing demographics?

According to The New York Times, universities and colleges are making changes to their dining menus. Lobster, prime steak, white spinach lasagna are all making an appearance in college dinning halls...

gosh, when I was in college, all I looked forward to was leaving the dining hall without a queasy stomach...

The article states,

"But as palates grow more sophisticated and admissions become more competitive, many top colleges are paying attention to dining rooms as well as classrooms."

One college director of housing and dining adds,

"And [students] don't just want that product in name only, but they want it to be authentic, because they've eaten at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant and they want to smell that hickory wood burning."

I don't know but this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Are palates growing more sophisticated? Or are more students from affluent backgrounds who are accustomed to this style of eating being accepted to these colleges?

One student says,

"I didn't apply to Bates, because, well, I ate there, the meal was not very good," Lucas Braun, a 17-year-old senior at Westtown School, outside of Philadelphia, who has been accepted at several colleges in the Northeast. "There's something subliminal from the food you see in the dining hall and the meal they give you that influences your decision."

Really, now. When I was applying to colleges, it was the cost of the school and the financial aid package that was the influencing factor in my decision. Well, I did think about food, but more in the would I even get to eat considering the cost of tuition kind of way.

As a Latina from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Los Angeles county, I was fortunate enough to even get the chance to apply to colleges, and that was only because many of those annoying application fees were waived based on the plain fact that my high school was both poor and underachieving. I was lucky enough to be on the campus of a small, private, liberal-arts school. And during my time there, I was much too busy fighting the system to care whether my food was cooked to order. I only demanded an occasional tortilla here and there to calm my homesickness.

With this in mind, I can't help but think that rich kids are the motivating force behind wood-fired pizza, grilled sesame crusted tuna with wasabi mayo, and lobster.
Lobster, yeah,
lobster…

Thinking Gender

Thinking Gender Conference
UCLA Faculty Center
Friday, February 1, 2008
7:30am-6:00pm

Yours truly is presenting. WOuld love to have some love and support in the audience.
Check out more information here.

Happy ThanksTAKING

Instead of giving thanks this year, as people from all walks of life, lets TAKE thanks by using our political power as residents/citizens/tax payers, etc. to make a stand against the inhumane treatment of Native American people that still continues to this day.

Because history is always written by the winner, click here for a comprehensive view of the institutionalization of this holiday, the background, and the people involved. There's more to it than eating turkey.

Click here for a list of non-profits that cater to the Native American community. Find one in your area and get involved--It's as easy as picking up the phone and asking what you can do to help.

Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?

Last weekend, 12 Seven-11 stores across the nation were converted into Kwik-E-Marts--a double-threat marketing campaign that simultaneously promotes the upcoming Simpson's movie (out 7.27.2007) and boosts those convenient store sales. I have to admit, it is pretty brilliant. On a weekend that also saw the public release of the iphone, shoppers and reporters alike were making brief comparisons between the two releases, the differences between the crazes, and the ingenuity of The Simpson's campaign. If you ask me, these real-life Kwik-E-Marts act as the peas to technology's carrots (or some other complimentary pair metaphor). What I mean to say is that the two campaigns are undoubtedly linked. I'm not sure about the corporate connections between Fox and Apple (though Apple.com does run the trailers and teasers for The Simpson's Movie, complete with downloadable ipod versions), but I'm more interested in the concepts.

Behold the new iphone: mobile camera phone, digital audio player, and Internet browser, all in one. It's the product that brings your virtual world together, to be accessed with the touch of one compact little screen.

The Kwik-E-Mart campaign seems like just the opposite, like "advertising outside the box." You know that virtual convenience store? The 2-D animation you've watched for almost two decades? Well, it's just become a temporary reality! For the first time, you can actually walk through the isles, touch those not-so-essential items and buy the products, as seen on TV.

Wait. Hold up. Is that the connection?? Do both products/campaigns play with conceptions of lived technology for the sake of consumerism???? I'm thinking yes.

The bustle of the Apple Store in Old Town Pasadena this past Sunday seemed akin to the rush for Kwik-E-products in news reports nation wide. I was trying to help my friend find a power cord for his ibook, but couldn't get much more than an uninterested nod from sales reps sporting "say hello to the iphone" t-shirts. They couldn't help unless we were ready to buy, buy, buy. Meanwhile sales and the Kwik-E-Marts doubled as customers bought boxes of Krusty-Os (I believe Bart choked on razor blades from that cereal in one episode) and 3 for the price of 3 hot dogs (which definitely gave Homer salmonella). Seeing the connection?

So I'd say the campaign is brilliant. Get people to buy things they don't need under the guise of bringing television to life...allowing the public to live out its wildest consumerist fantasy. And as long as the capitalist tenet of needless consumption drives the economy, we all need the Kwik-E-Mart. I just wish they carried iphones.

Senate Opposes Immigration Reform(?)

Today Bush saw his prized immigration bill labeld "reform" die at the feet of Congress when the Senate voted to reject the bill. The final tally was 46 to 53, a scary 16 votes shy of passing. There's lots of talk of Congress failing to act and Bush specifically stating his disappointment in Congress.

"Legal immigation is one of the top concerns of the American people and Congress's failure to act on it is a disappointment. The American people understand the staus quo is unacceptable when it comes to our immigration laws. A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn't find a common ground—it didn't work."

I'm sorry but voting against something is activism. More than that, it is a way of telling the president that this bill is not the appropriate approach to immigration nor is it "reform." Instead this bill appeared to be composed of a series of stringent measures repackaged with a pretty little bow and labeled "reform." Check out the five objectives Bush hoped to accomplish in this bill here.

Welcome to the Playground, ya'll.

No rules. Leave your inhibitions at the door.

Jay's Playground is about music. Debate. Insights. Discussion. All that good shit that I don't feel like writing about right now.

For the time being, I'll try to import some of older blogs and work on creating and imbedding my imeem playlist on her.

Peace,
J