Question about "cake mix" leads to some thinking...

Ramz:

i am so pleased at how much thought you are offering. others (involved with the play) are doing the same, and i totally welcome that.

Carlos--the dj--just spent about 3 hours going over the video with me, focusing on just the music and sound cues. then he helped me through some thought about the ending, the Mama-Esa relationship, whether or not Mama should ever
ride a bike, and more.

as far as the Cake Mix thing: mama is problematic. she is of the generation that equates "quick and easy" with wealth and power, as many folks raised in the post-war (ww2) years ended up doing. this gets heightened with "late-arriving" people of color who aren't that educated but who, like my own mother, have come to have some bit of material wealth, but aren't "educated" about how that wealth can be depleting, diminishing.

a big concept that hasn't received alot of play in contemporary theater, film, etc.

boiling it down: what do we stand to gain (or lose) if we are so caught up with "keeping up with the joneses" that we don't do a critical eval. of WHO the jones' are and WHY we came to value their values.

Mama is one of those confused upwardly-mobile Latina/Hispanics. she can now afford the conveniences of modern life, circa 1970s, 1980s, even as the more educated "elites" know that those conveniences are detrimental to our health, and more
importantly, our planet's health.

in my recent experience, i'm finding that there are younger generations and subcultural communities of people who are embracing "old world" ancient wisdom, lifestyle choices, and cultural traditions that are more sustainable--and similar to
indigenous ways. Oddly enough, alot of our parents scoff at those ways.

anyway, MAMA is caught up in the convenience food, spray-for-everything, way of life she was duped-- in her
educational process/socialization--into thinking was upper-class appropriate.

she WOULD have the mac/cheese box, the boxed cake mix, the processed-chemicalized life, cuz she thinks a woman of her means is supposed to have such things.

it is ESA who is more real. that is why there is such a schism betwn. her and MAMA.

keep thinking, questioning, suggesting. thank you.


T

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Ramz / The Shortest Distance / King BAGEL, via myspace
Date: Aug 10, 2007 5:54 PM


Hey Tammy,

I was thinking, maybe Mama shouldn't be holding instant cake mix - isn't she supposed to eat 'real food'? I don't know what else she'd get in a box from SHOP MART that would be 'real food' but just a thought.

Maybe organic wild rice or something?

ramz