Reply to Becoming a cultured person, “just like NYC intellectuals”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is gonna be long.  Please bear with me. I'm in my late 50s and grew up on a farm in Indiana - if you want to talk about limited opportunities and lack of diversity.  My family may not have been 'cultured' but were well educated even though most of that education was not in any formal setting.  We were/are able to make connections between others and ourselves, recognize mastery of profession, innovative/resourceful and read extensively.  &lt;Shout out to the Texan extolling the value of public libraries!&gt; It was an excellent foundation.

I've got an MBA and my undergraduate is in the Classics (Latin/Classical Greek).  I spent the first 15 years after college living all over the world and I speak 5 languages other than English. I've never lived in NY but could hold my own in just about any 'cultured' setting.  What I said in my first paragraph about making connections and recognizing mastery I think is key.  Culture is always changing. Being able to understand it and the effort/skill it took to create something (even if you don't like it) is important as is [i]being able to talk about it[/i].

I didn't used to like hip hop until 2008 - that's when I saw America's Best Dance Crew on TV.  Wow!  I'd seen So You Think You Can Dance but it wasn't until I saw ABDC that I really got hip hop and all that is part of that 'culture'.  I started watching it with the kids which led to all sorts of conversations about style, influences, etc. - all on TV, all at no cost.  Then, the kids and I started making playlists for each other as part of our 'musical education'.  We'd talk about why we liked something, why we didn't and what influences we could hear in the music.  Hearing a song in a different genre than the one it was originally performed in also led to some awesome discussions. We're having 'cultural' conversations like intellectuals do in our low-brow, lower middle class home because we think, understand and articulate our thoughts.

Finally, we've done a 'classic movie' night with the kids since they were little.  We focused on movies that had a lot of cultural references and that were engaging.  Let me tell you, watching the original Bad News Bears led to a lot of discussions.  We also attend a lot of high school theater.  You don't have to have fabulous actors and amazing sets to get the benefit of 'culture'.  When I was in the hinterlands of the former Soviet Union, sets, costumes and performers were much reduced.  The dancer/singers were of much higher quality than a high school production but you don't need to ride in a Rolls Royce to know how great transportation by car can be. [/quote]
Bad News Bears?  LMAO.  What did your family think of Caddyshack?
You slay me.[/quote]

PP here.  To my great disappointment, the kids didn't like Caddyshack!  I have to say that it wasn't as good as I remembered it.  But!  They did like Birdcage and Casablanca.  The Full Monty is next on the list!  You CAN watch classic, engaging movies and relate them to current events.[/quote]

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