Indy Perro

Rock and Roll, Mass Media, and American Self-Absorption

Between 1954 and 1958, Rock and Roll ignited the American psyche. Born of a combination of rockabilly, blues, jazz, country, and doowop, Rock and Roll responded to a need deeply rooted in a cultural unconscious that had been sold ideas of traditional values and normative behavior.  Identity: Being Special Like Everyone Popular culture grew out …

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The Outlaw Myth

The myth of the outlaw stretches back to ancient times, Odysseus travelled beyond the boundaries of society. He defied various gods, and descended into the underworld. Bound to the mast of his ship, he heard the sirens’ call, struggled against his bondage, and gave a glimpse of a modern man bound to society’s regulations and …

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Barry Lopez and a Sense of Place

Barry Lopez—A Sense of Place Barry Lopez, the brilliant humanitarian, environmentalist, and writer who passed in 2020, wrote most often about the web of relationships found in particular environments. Lopez worked to cultivate in himself and others an openness to relationships, relationships to place, space, wilderness, and other animals. He argued that the loss of …

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A Shattering System

We live in the most systematized society in the history of the world. Everything we do processes us: how we move through space (streets, hallways, sidewalks, trails), how we spend our time (traffic, entrance lines, checkout lines, waiting rooms), and how we interact (apps, devices, emails, forms). We interface, touch base, connect, check-in, and reach-out. …

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Indy Perro Speaking of Non-Sequiturs

Central City as Metaphor

Metaphor, arguably, is the basic ingredient of culture. Metaphor rationalizes reality by defining it through abstraction, and through abstraction deepens experience and shapes understanding. Abstraction requires engaged perception. Hearing a metaphor is like breathing through your nose: you can’t help but smell the air. To have a living culture, we must actively negotiate the differences …

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