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Perceptions and Interpretations
Guess what? Billy Dayfo IS culture! He is known the world over as Willem Dafoe, but when we were in high school together, he was Billy Dayfo. Just like the Menendez brothers ARE culture. One was my student. He expressed himself well in writing. Context and perspective are important to the ways we perceive history.
From my nearly 40 year-old son’s perspective, the above are examples he provided me from my own life of my deep involvement with culture. For him, Billy and the Menendez brothers have always existed, widely known of by the memories of their products. Billy has greatly influenced film and, I daresay, the film and theatre industries. He is global. Murders are the legacy of the brothers, that, and a significant number of ‘fans’. For me, I met Billy when I was 15; like a fish, I swam in the fishbowl of his development, not recognizing him as the cultural icon he is today. My son is completely outside the fishbowl.
I think of myself as tangentially connected to the culture as I am at home all of the time. I hang out on youtube for the Sumo, and linger reading on various venues, Medium for one, before gathering up my knitting or crochet and checking for a basho or well-read story for company as I work. My interaction with social media and its ‘influencers’ is…
