What's cool? Que es cool?

My understanding of what being cool really means.

The Axe Effect


Even though cultural thing are different from each other, as I talked before of the Venezuelan cool and the cool from USA. Sexualization is something that is in every single country, even in Venezuela. I remember this commercial from a bodyspray called Axe. It has a lot of commercial, but all the commercials are about the same thing: “use Axe and you’ll have control over the women” kinda like they’ll do whatever you want. we see sexualization everywhere, commercials and ads. It is sad to see how much sexualization we see these days for different things in order to get money. Because we live in a monetized and sexualized world, and one sad thing is that axe is very popular and I know a lot of people that buy axe. I always ask to my friends, does that work and they always say “do you always believe in what commercials say?” and I always respond, then why do you buy it? and after that they always avoid talking about that. 

Parkour is a very cool physical discipline which focuses on efficient movement around obstacles. Parkour is not meant for everyone, people that practice parkour must be always willing to accept the consequences of such a dangerous discipline. The only way to learn is through hard work and mistakes, and a mistake in this discipline could even mean death. But people that do parkour don’t care about this, they keep his cool and don’t show any fear when doing parkour. However, we see this video and even in real life people doing parkour and jumping from buildings landing on their back and the first thing we think is “ouch didn’t that hurt?” but when the guys just stand up and keep going is just phenomenal, a very good example of sprezzatura. Parkour shows something very difficult and hard to accomplish, but this people make it look so easy and effortless that makes me want to learn parkour, however, as I said before. It requires a Cool aptitude to accept death and that we don’t care about it. 

Venezuelan Cool?

It has been an amazing journey in the “What’s Cool” English section. Throughout the year, I’ve been able to see how cultures differ in a lot of stuff and how they perceive different thing. In Venezuela, the word cool is almost never used. People in Venezuela don’t know what the word cool means, where it came from and what it represents. Because of this lack of knowledge, we tend to say other words that would fit perfectly instead of cool. “Relajado” or “Relaxed” is the main word we use in Venezuela for cool. As we discussed the first couple of weeks, cool people is always relaxed, cool people always keep their cool by being relaxed and not showing emotions. However, in Venezuela, we just say the word relaxed instead of cool because of our lack of knowledge. Moreover, we tend to change cool for other words like “bien”, “genial”, “sadico” (good, sweet and a slang for nice). 

The Classic cool that first appeared since Lester Young, has changed into a new cool that everyone in the US use for entertaining stuff and popularity. However, in Venezuela, the other cool we use, is always stable and have always being stable. It has never changed, and it might not change for a while, Because we are still trying to understand the real meaning of cool. 

When I first came to the US, I realized that people here now, uses the word cool for everything (that was before taking English 106). And I always wondered, why do they say cool to everything? and just as US people say cool to everything, Venezuelans say different words for everything. Because we are still trying to understand the cool culture. 

Hooters: “A first step to prostitution”


As we have discussed in class several times, everything is sexualized: Advertisements, comercials, and restaurants? Since I came from Venezuela, I’ve had the opportunity just once to go to the “restaurant” called Hooters. I went with some friend to celebrate, they told me that I would love hooter, and I didn’t know why they had that confidence that I would love that. At first I was expecting like a restaurant whose food would be tasteful and very varied. However, when I first got there I put a face like this—> O.O and said:  ”What the heck is this place?”

I didn’t see anything special in hooters regarding the food, they don’t have anything special that other places don’t have and the food is okay. But holly cow, that “restaurant” is run by ‘hot big breast girls’ that wear a tiny shirt so people can notice their big breast, and tiny tight short. I have to be honest, everyone I know and everything I see is that hooter is well-known for the sexy waiters, not for the food or anything else. I must say, it is a very clever business strategy, I definitively think that using big breast girls with tiny shirt and shorts can increase the costumers so they can get money. However, I think that hooters is a preview of a brothel. 

Every single advertisement (as shown in the pictures from above) you see a hot girl carrying beer (which every guy likes) and chicken wings. Isn’t that delicious? not the food, the girl. For me, hooters feels like a first step to what could be prostitution. I say that because you pay for sexual activities in prostitution, and in hooters, you are paying not for the food, but to see the girls wearing their tiny tight uniforms. Even though there is not sexual activities in hooters, the girls letting other people pay to see them is almost like the same.

Restaurants are now sexualized, what could be expecting us in the future? other thing is that the hooters logo is an owl with two big eye in the oo of hooters. Owl are recognize for their shine big eyes. and what about the hOOters? that clearly represents the big breast of the girls, that means that the owl is represented by the people that goes to hooters and stare at the big breast of the girls. This is way I called hooters the “hidden brothel” it is just a first step to prostitution that covers themselves with food like normal restaurants. 

It is cool to be young! It is cool when we are not married! It is cool when we don’t have to work! It is cool to party like there’s no tomorrow! However, who said that cool is never bad for us? Everything has its consequences! 

It is cool to be young! It is cool when we are not married! It is cool when we don’t have to work! It is cool to party like there’s no tomorrow! However, who said that cool is never bad for us? Everything has its consequences! 

Is entertainment taking us in the wrong direction?

I think that entertainment is very important in our life, without it, it would be very negative. Negative because we need entertainment to get out of stress, to enjoy a moment, to distract our minds from everything. However, I feel that we are taking entertainment to a very high different level that kills the classic entertainment. In ultra, there was a girl that was dancing, fighting and making out with a tree. It could be considered very entertained because we don’t see that everyday, however, is it really entertained to watch a drunk-high girl doing that kind of stuff to a tree? this girls became one of the main new from ultra and it is traveling through the whole world. I think the girls is not gonna be very pleased with it, what about her parents and family? what if she were my friend? What happened to our principles? 

We are humans, the moment we stop helping each other, is when we lose our humanity. I don’t really see any entertainment from watching a girl dancing to a tree. I think about her family and what the video that cough her on tape in gonna do to her. But people doesn’t seem o care about her, in fact, the people around her just kept video taping her. Everything crazy is entertainment for us, but when it doesn’t happen to us. Because if it happened to us, we wouldn’t be pleased with it. Something similar that I’ve seen is with Nascar. Nascar is well-known for driving in kinda like circular shape tracks. but besides that, because of the high amount of accidents. In every single nascar race, there’s always a bunch of people waiting to see a huge accident. There are 43 cars in a race, and an accident in Daytona for example at least would involved a ten cars crash. This accidents are very attractive because they happen at 200 miles per hour, but, what about the drivers? do the enjoy entertaining people by crashing? Is that what entertainment is taking us? to be entertained by the expenses of other people even if it means they have to be hurt? 

One think that started it all was the old WCW now called WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) which involves a fake wrestling routine as a show or “entertainment” as the name says for people. the entire routine can be fake, but the movements and hazards are real. And even though they are real and they can kill the wrestlers, people just doesn’t care. It is always entertainment as long as it doesn’t happen to us, and if it happens to us.

Not-Entertaining videos:

girl and the tree: http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=/watch%3Fv%3D2CTQESW40tA

WWE - ECW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1EG-rhNDm8

Nascar crash “the big one” daytona: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Oq2PL_IUk

isn’t it cool when we take two separate things and turn it into one but even better? in this picture we can see “Danielle” from the movie the girl next door and “the zen master” from the game where some group of people play crazy games in the library without making noise. Danielle says: “Master, why is a guy that has sex with a lot of girls called a champion and a girl that has sex with so many boys a b****? this is interesting because Danielle is a porn star in the movie, so it is understandable that she is asking that question, having slept with a lot of guys. Now the Zen Master says: ” My darling, a key that can open a lot of locks is called a master key, however, a lock that can be opened with a lot of keys doesn’t work” It is very interesting and a funny this picture. I think this picture makes totally sense because it is a porn star from a movie, asking a zen master from a TV show about sex. As I said before, if we take two different things, and combine them into one, we can create something new very interesting for the people. In fact, this type of “pictures” are used all the time everywhere, we see them in internet, the street, for marketing, facebook, tweeter, etc. 

isn’t it cool when we take two separate things and turn it into one but even better? in this picture we can see “Danielle” from the movie the girl next door and “the zen master” from the game where some group of people play crazy games in the library without making noise. Danielle says: “Master, why is a guy that has sex with a lot of girls called a champion and a girl that has sex with so many boys a b****? this is interesting because Danielle is a porn star in the movie, so it is understandable that she is asking that question, having slept with a lot of guys. Now the Zen Master says: ” My darling, a key that can open a lot of locks is called a master key, however, a lock that can be opened with a lot of keys doesn’t work”

It is very interesting and a funny this picture. I think this picture makes totally sense because it is a porn star from a movie, asking a zen master from a TV show about sex. As I said before, if we take two different things, and combine them into one, we can create something new very interesting for the people. In fact, this type of “pictures” are used all the time everywhere, we see them in internet, the street, for marketing, facebook, tweeter, etc. 

In my first trip to america, I was introduced into a new world of kinky perversion- The board game “Dirty Minds.” It is actually a really funny game to play. For those of you that are not acquainted to the game, it is simple a box full of suggestive, and dirty puns whose answers, leave even the cleanest of people feeling guilty. Here is an example: What fits neatly between your breasts, works best when tugged, and inserts neatly into a whole? If you have a dirty mind then you would say penis. However, the answer is a seat belt!!. How close were you to the real answer?? I wasn’t even close. As we  discussed in class, this game is clearly sexualized, all the questions are related to sex-kinky stuff. Even though the answers are not related to any of the sex suggestions, the first answer that comes to our mind will always be the dirty one. Usually, we think of the dirty one, but we never say it just to hide that we have dirty mind. However, there is no way to really find the real non-sex answer. All the questions we’ll lead to visualize the dirty answer. The game says that it’s not related to sex stuff and that the game is just to verify if we have dirty mind, but how can we not have dirty mind with the ridiculously specific “sextions” that this brilliant game asks? 

In my first trip to america, I was introduced into a new world of kinky perversion- The board game “Dirty Minds.” It is actually a really funny game to play. For those of you that are not acquainted to the game, it is simple a box full of suggestive, and dirty puns whose answers, leave even the cleanest of people feeling guilty. Here is an example: What fits neatly between your breasts, works best when tugged, and inserts neatly into a whole? If you have a dirty mind then you would say penis. However, the answer is a seat belt!!. How close were you to the real answer?? I wasn’t even close.

As we  discussed in class, this game is clearly sexualized, all the questions are related to sex-kinky stuff. Even though the answers are not related to any of the sex suggestions, the first answer that comes to our mind will always be the dirty one. Usually, we think of the dirty one, but we never say it just to hide that we have dirty mind. However, there is no way to really find the real non-sex answer. All the questions we’ll lead to visualize the dirty answer. The game says that it’s not related to sex stuff and that the game is just to verify if we have dirty mind, but how can we not have dirty mind with the ridiculously specific “sextions” that this brilliant game asks? 

Cool History: “Locking vs Disco style” 

Here is something very interesting about these two type of dances that make me think, aren’t they the same? I mean, dancers would do kick move of arms and point them to any direction. In this picture, we can see how one of the arms is going up and the other arms are going to the left. However, the quick move of arms are not the only move that relate between locking and disco dance, there are a lot more. I made my research and I was able to notice the difference between both types of dances. However, if I hadn’t done my research, I would have said that disco style and locking are exactly the same, and they are not. That wouldn’t have been cool.

First off, disco dance was born from gay new yorkers in the 1960s. Maybe that’s why gay people can dance disco style better than anyone. Disco dance created the club culture that we know today. However, gay people were perceived as a threat to society, and police officers would go to the disco clubs to get guys that were dancing with the same genre. After that, gay people started demanding for the same rights as straight people. It was a transition period. John Travolta was known for being a very good disco dancer. 

Locking, instead, was originated by “mistake” a funk dancer named Campbell forgot a move while dancing to an audience and he stopped. However, that stopped motion with the arms created a ‘lock’ effect in his body that the audience liked and asked for more, so campbell started improvising with it. Locking was created in the 1960s (same as disco style). Locking is about ‘locks’ body effects that disco does not have. Locking uses some moves from the disco, but the main locking is about the locks of the body. Moreover, Locking was not created from gay people, so locking dancers where not seeing as a threat even thought they were dancing something similar to disco style. Other thing I have to emphasize is that disco dance was sexual, locking is just for fun, to entertain people. 

A brief introduction of my second essay

Before I start talking about what I’m going to resurrect, I would like to whoever is reading this post, to think about this questions: Do you know what breakdancing is? what about hip-hip? Have you ever heard about “Popping” or “Waving”? very easy, isn’t it? Breakdancing is about moves in the floor, crazy stuff. Popping is about creating “waves” in your body and hip-hop is just normal dancing of this type. 

All of these dancing styles were born between the 60s and 70s and they are all related (moves, rhythm, music) but not the same. However, have you heard about “locking”? Locking is a type of dance that was created together with hip-hop, breakdancing and popping. Locking is also related breakdancing, hip-hop and popping, nevertheless, this type of dance was more for a “show” rather than a street dance like the other three. Breakdancing, hip-hop and popping are “Cool”, however, locking is not real “Cool”. It is not real Cool because locking was originally a dance show for an audience, and, during the show, the dancers had to be smiling all the time.

B-boys (breakdancers) and hip-hop dancer are characterized for having “street battles” against other teams for respect and obviously to be the best. Right now, in this moment, if we go to any dance institution and ask for the types of dances that they teach, they would obviously have breakdance, hip-hop and popping, but never locking. Almost no one teaches locking in this time because locking has been lost in time. But wait, what if we bring back the locking style and make it a Cool type of dance by changing the clown clothes for Cool people clothes and, stop smiling while dancing? What if we instead of dancing for an audience make it to show “who the boss is” in locking, to show that we are unique. Because of the fact that locking is related to breakdancing and hip-hop, why don’t we add battles for locking? This would definitively make locking “Cool” and famous. I think it would be a terrific resurrection. (to be continued in the paper)