lizistwentythree:

I hate Baton Rouge for a number of reasons, but one of the largest ones is our lack of any sort of real culture. Sure, they try to create some with little festivals here and there and other “fun” things, but we all know the truth. This town is stationed between two huge cultural draws, and therefore, gets nothing. (Although, we did get David Sedaris last week and the Hold Steady is coming in August)

Shreveport was godawful in my youth, but is completely thriving now. (Oliver Stone! in my hometown!) Example: The Robinson Film Center. There is an INDEPENDENT MOVIE THEATER in Shreveport, but the capitol doesn’t have one?! I know, Siegan was totally gross, but I loved it and they got some great movies. I’m sorry, but the Happening and other craptastic movies don’t look appealing to me. Neither does seeing a movie with approximately 1000848 teenagers.

All I want is an independent movie theater. Or at least show some of those movies at obscure times on the weekend… but please don’t show them at Rave (the worst named movie theater chain in the universe).

Funny you mention that.  Baton Rouge has a culture, it’s just a very, very strange one.  When our dads were at LSU, Baton Rouge was the place that bands stopped and played, not New Orleans and certainly not Lafayette.  If you leaf through old Gumbos from the mid-late 70s, you’ll see that Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen (HA!), Cat Stevens, Elton John, the Who, and many others played at the PMAC.  The Rolling Stones opened their 1977 World Tour at the PMAC.  These bands would routinely play BR and skip New Orleans, for whatever reason.

I think that things are shifting.  Fact of the matter is, Baton Rouge is ginormous now, thanks to Katrina.  BR also gets far more bands than New Orleans, at least in terms of the types of shows that we go to.  (THS aren’t playing New Orleans, for instance, and neither did Band of Horses.  There are more but I can’t think of them off the top of my head).  Spanish Moon is becoming a bigger draw because there are so many kids at LSU willing to go to a show than there are in New Orleans, which has sorta always been the case but people are finally starting to admit it and book accordingly.

In terms of film, the Union Theatre used to book indie films.  I seem to remember that, at least, from when I was a kid.  Obviously that’s not happening any more, but it was there.

I think Baton Rouge is in the middle of a change.  I think it’s realizing the potential that it has to become some place like Colombus, OH, which is a college town (home to the team that LOST the National Championship last year).  Colombus is also the biggest city in Ohio (bigger than Cleveland, shockingly) and gets far more shows than Cleveland or Cincinatti.  Obviously it’s no cultural mecca (like New Orleans or Lafayette, which by virtue of their respective cultures are so unique that people will come from across the world to visit; true, people actually travel to Lafayette), but  Baton Rouge can very easily become a hip college town in the vein of Colombus, Lawrence, KS, etc.  All it takes is people willing to take the action, to find the people doing weird things around the city, to bring in films, to start up journals, etc.

Don’t worry, Liz.

The reason that I share the below is because I feel that I’m guilty of it more often than not.  Maybe I’m not guilty of doing it against, you know, Iranians or anything like that (though probably only because I encouter them less often), but…I think I am guilty of it when it comes to people from other parts of America.  I know that sounds funny, but I’m being absolutely serious.

I don’t know what’s caused it — the fact that I love love love Louisiana with all of my heart, the simple effects of being a football fan at the level that I am, or what — but I know that it’s true.  I feel superior to many people simply because of where I’m from.  I don’t let on, usually; I typically am polite and do my best to love them anyway.  But in my heart, I will always give preference to people from Louisiana.  Certainly this isn’t entirely bad (and it’s a good thing to be proud of where you’re from), but you can’t really count someone as better than yourself if you automatically think less of them when you hear that they’re from anywhere but Louisiana. Additionally, you can’t really claim to love justice (or Louisiana, for that matter) if you refuse to see the bad things that are done in your home.  I am guilty of both of those things, too.

Fact of the matter is, Louisiana is a great place among many great places, filled with great people among many great people.  It is my home and the place that I love more than any other, and I hope to one day die there (uh, way in the future).  But my love of home should never, ever supercede my ability to love people of all cultures.

In the scriptures, I’m commanded to love a lot of things: my God, my neighbor, my wife, my enemy… I’m never commanded to love my country. In fact, if “loving my country” means that I demonstrate preference to someone based on their ethnicity, their nationality or, for instance, their loyalty to America’s foreign policies, I think I’ve pretty much undermined a very important aspect of Jesus’ mission on this earth—to make his temple a “house of prayer for all nations” and ours, to “make disciples of all nations.” And when I’m willing to value American lives over, say, Iranian lives or when I’m willing to promote America’s economic interests over the interests of the world’s poor simply because I’m American I may actually demonstrate my infidelity to the only Kingdom worthy of my allegiance.
To Love One’s Country – Opus

lizistwentythree:

Dudes, I am fucking obsessed with this band.

Yup.  Just got my copy from iTunes.  Looking forward to spending the weekend in Finnland.  (Har har)

I’m becoming self-conscious of my y’alling.  The moment someone tells me that it’s cute is the moment that I move back to the South.  Luckily, it hasn’t happened yet.

lizistwentythree:

toomuchawesome:

“The anguish that most of us have observed for some time now has been caused not by the fact that the South is alienated from the rest of the country, but by the fact that it is not alienated from the rest of the country, but by the fact that it is not alienated enough, that every day we are getting more and more like the rest of the country, that we are being forced out, not only of our many sins but of our few virtues. This may be unholy anguish but it is anguish nevertheless.”

-Flannery O’Connor, “The Fiction Writer and His Country”

Serious anguish.

Amen.  Though I have to wonder if the rest of the country feels the same way.  Are Washingtonians upset because they’re shifting more towards a global American culture?  Californians?  (Well, maybe not Californians…btw, how is it that they’ve been able to keep doing things their own way?).

At the risk of sounding like a Civil War apologist (I’m not I’m not I’m not), does this play down to an issue of states’ rights?  Or are we just giving in to some sort of unspoken outside pressure to homogenize our culture as Southerners?  Or are we embarassed by the way the rest of the country looks at us?  I think that one of the most unfortunate side effects of being Southern is the ingrained inferiority complex.  It’s the assumption that everyone thinks we’re backwards that makes us go crazy down here (down there?  oh no…)