GORP – Ben and Jerrys

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Lori Lombardo

For GORP the last day of class I shared the new Ben and Jerry’s commercial, found here

It was exciting to see our conversation end positively, agreeing that it was important for private organizations and companies to be joining in the environmental movement. Ben and Jerry’s is probably one of the most well known for being very involved in the current environmental movements, and their stance is entirely apparent the second you visit their website or YouTube station.

You can buy their SOS flavor, Save Our Swirled in many stores across the country that is acting as a call to action. SOS leads buyers to the climate page on the Ben and Jerry’s website, asking citizens to sign petitions and ways to have an impact within the Climate Movement.

Its great to know they do more than make good ice cream!

Consuming the Have-Been and Will-Be Consumed

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Maggie Noonan

I was looking on the internet for photos of The Kittery Trading Post, near where I live, when I came across this article (http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2013/03/the-inside-out-museum-cabelas.html) comparing KTP (the affectionate moniker for the store used by us locals) with Cabela’s. The man who wrote it took a moderately condescending stance, making allusions to the “rednecks” who frequent stores like Cabela’s but I agreed with the main point of this piece which focused on the prevalence and display of taxidermized animals at each location. Ocker (the writer) cites the difference in scale of the animals represented at KTP and Cabela’s and also the variety.

At KTP, the animals are positioned (mostly) tastefully, and are accessories to the merchandise as opposed to mascots in the shape of centerpieces. They are moose, mountain lions, otters, beavers, pheasants, and other critters who lived and died in Maine or other nearby parts of New England/Canada. Despite being someone who loves animals and is easily made sad at the thought of their death, I have never felt uncomfortable with the way these animals are presented (except for the babies, there’s a baby black bear on the way to the camping section that’s always broken my heart). Having read the post that the Cabela’s post is a response to (http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2012/11/dead-animals-and-christmas-shopping.html) I took this man’s reaction to be similar- one of amusement and amazement and an understanding of the store’s intention. It is a spectacle, to be sure, and it’s grown monumentally from it’s original roots as a fur trading post in the 1800s, but it retains a sense of authenticity and appreciation for that which it displays and sells in the name of nature.

At Cabela’s, walking through the front door feels like an assault of some sort. The way the animals were posed and mounted just made me imagine them all stacked in a massive pile with a Cabela’s manager plotting where they would go in the absurdly enormous warehouse-style store. This again seemed to accord with this man’s thoughts upon his encounter with the outdoor-retail superstore. The big game animals feel out of place and museum-like, but not in a way that one is intended to appreciate them so much as one is supposed to browse them on their way through the gift shop while they entertain more important matters, like guns and meat processors. Amusingly, Ocker was confused about the living fish surrounded by dead animals, just as we were when we analyzed “The Mountain”.

I don’t think Ocker felt as disconcerted by the experience as we did, and I find it entirely likely that many classmates would be just as disturbed by KTP as they were by Cabela’s. Perhaps it is my proximity to and history with KTP that allows me to view it as a nature-respecting, outdoors-promoting establishment. Perhaps it is my ties to Maine and my understanding of the states’ residents’ appreciation for moose and woodland critters that allows me to justify their displays as tasteful. But I found it really interesting to stumble upon this man’s investigation of both stores and wonder what comparisons and differences others might draw between the two.

Brutus The Grizzly Bear

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Owen McCann

I saw this video for the first time approximately three years ago. When I had first watched it I thought how awesome it would be to have a pet grizzly bear. I honestly still think it’d be one hell of an experience to ride on the back of a grizzly bear as the man in the video does, but now my thoughts on the video are different. Watching the clips from The Grizzly Man, especially the man talking about how Timothy Treadwell was wrong for his interactions with the bears, caused me to wonder if the interaction with this domesticated bear is something to be envious of, or to be happy about.

I was curious what you all thought about it.

Saving Ducklings

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Tessa Broholm

I recently came across a video on Facebook of a man helping save baby ducklings that had fallen through a storm grate and returning them to their mother. I tried to find to video again and although I didn’t find it, I came across many other videos showing the same phenomena ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNROmaug1O8 for example).

My question is at what point do we play concerned citizen versus letting Nature take its course? We are the reason that the storm grates are there but should let evolution take its roll in weeding out the mama ducks who were’t intuitive enough to avoid the storm grate?

Johnson Pond vs. Walden Pond (&house vs. cabin)

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Julie Cantor

Yesterday I took the Metro North train to New Canaan with my aunt to see Philip Johnson’s Glass House that he built in 1949. I first heard about this piece of architecture from a class taught by Professor Mattison in my freshman here at Lafayette, and the house has always stuck with me because of its modernity and interaction with the environment around it. The Glass House is a ~1,400 square foot home that is completely surrounded by glass.

Johnson used this house as a weekend getaway from NYC, so his work and free time were meant to interact with the nature of the property he owned. He can see out just as well as he can see in, but at night he would look in every which way and couldn’t escape his own reflection, so he illuminated the house’s surrounding trees to draw the eye outwards. I wonder how Thoreau would feel about this house?

On his property he built his own pond. I’m not completely sure why he had built this pond, but he became an architect later in life after a previous comfortable life financially. This pond was probably the size of Anderson Courtyard and reflected the glass house beautifully while seated on the concrete pavilion along the inside of the pond. So, what would Thoreau think about the pond?

Gorp at Sullivan Park

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Emily Lindahl

When Professor Brandes told us we would have the first 15 minutes of class to just sit in silence I was thrilled. With all of the homework that I have and extracurricular activities that I balance, I never can find the time to just sit and not think about everything that I have to do. I picked a small spot right on the edge of the park that was the last piece of manicured grass before the tree line.

First I focused on touch. The grass tickled my bare legs and I could feel the small bugs itching my skin in a way that it felt they were crawling all over me. I normally would get up and shake off that feeling but I was dedicated to take advantage of my alone time at the Park.

Next, I focused on sound. I close my eyes and I felt that all I could hear was the whirring of cars and the clicking of bugs. I was disappointed that I could hear the footprint of man when all I was trying to do was breakaway from reality. I spent some time thinking about this frustration but I told myself that I shouldn’t be frustrated by this and that I had to refocus my attention. I had to accept that I was not very secluded and that it is so rare to not find the presence of humans. So I started to think about how the bugs were just as loud as the cars. They seemed to be competing for the attention of my ears and I shocked that the bugs were capable of fighting off the sound of cars.

As I opened my eyes I focused on sight. When I was sitting I saw the bushes in front of me shake. I watched the tree tops and focused in on the squirrels and birds that carried along with their tasks without even realizing I was there. I sat and looked for a while thinking that I could see it all from my seated position. Despite this thought I eventually I rose up and walked even closer to the edge of the woods. As I did this a deer scurried away, unlike the birds and squirrels it realized that there was an intruder. I saw the bed of a seemingly dried up creek but as I leaned in I saw a subtle trickle of water in it, something that I would not have noticed had I stayed in the grass. I wanted so badly to climb through the brush to get a closer look but growing up on the beaches of Long Island I know that ticks are always lurking nearby and that lymes disease is no joke. A tiny voice told me I could not explore more and I knew that I was not living up to the expectations of this class by stopping due to a redeveloped fear. However, I could not shake this fear that I have had since I was a child and so I never made it to explore the creek in Sullivan Park.

Instead I looked up to the sky and found a bird circling over head. At first I thought it was a vulture but before I could get a better look I heard Professor Brandes calling for us to return to home base. When I looked back up to find the bird it seemed to have disappeared- if only I could have followed that bird like I wanted to follow the creek that was hidden in the brush.

Cultures of Nature Fall 2015

Category Archives: GORP