Response to Class today

And now, belatedly, my response to class today.

Ghosts and monuments of Seattle

---The Underground Tour. I haven't been on it yet, surprisingly - in fact, the only memory I have of it is walking somewhere in town with my mother, and asking her why there was purple glass in the ground. I was quite disturbed to hear the answer. The underground is a piece of Seattle history, as short as Seattle history may be. I only hear about it infrequently, as one of those things one is supposed to do at some point while living here. The story (from wikipedia...then again, this isn't a blog, it's a paper) was that there was a major fire in early Seattle, and the city officials decided that the city should not only be built out of flame-proof materials, but also higher. Apparently, toliets ran backwards during certain tides. This just doesn't seem as epic as other city features. Maybe that isn't the right word, but you know what I mean, don't you. "Tour Guides regale you with humorous stories our pioneers didn’t want you to hear. It’s history with a twist!" This is just not serious like Berlin history.
---The Space Needle is what makes Seattle recognizably Seattle, especially to non-Seattelites. It's a monument to the Space Age. Hence the "space" part. It was built for the 1962 World's Fair, I believe. While I very rarely see it, it's just there. All the time. And because I seem to be in a dark mood right now,* I'd like to paraphrase part of a Chuck Palahniuk book, Invisible Monsters, on the topic of the Space Needle. It was abandoned by the Jetsons, and taken over by the Flintstones. The fairgoers went there in the 60s, dreaming of flying cars and walking on the moon, and now it's visited by hippies who make their own sandals out of (sometimes vegan) leather. We gave up our dreams and looking to the sky and went back to the dirt. In a way, it's sort of true.

*In this class, divided Berlin and the DDR. In one history class, the Holocaust and eugenics. In my other history class, we just covered the extreme racism towards immigrants, what exactly was in the meat products, and the tenements of New York City before workers really had rights. I blame you, UW. I blame you for my bad mood.

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One other research topic I was wondering about:
I was thinking about how advertising might be different in Germany than in the US. I really liked this bulletin board, and besides the definite scandel that would happen here if it was put up. (My sister took a picture of an even more explicit one while she was in Berlin. It was two bananas, one wearing a condom, one not. The one not was all black and rotten. She thought it was hilarious.) What other differences might I see if I was there, in values, technique, maybe even color schemes?

And remember, Damen und Herren, Berlin is poor, but sexy.