Reading Response #3

Both Casassa and Dudley use a lot of the things that I've learned about the ethnography from reading Chapter 10 in The Curious Writer. The writers of these stories both go along with what Ballenger talked about concerning the features of an ethnography. They both focus on a certain group of people that are a part of a group, they observe this group over time, they gather information and research from the natural setting of the group, they focus on a few groups for an idea of the group as a whole, and they are openly subjective. Casassa focuses on the people that come into the coffee shop where she works and Dudley looks at some of the head shops in Boston. In the essay by Casassa, she talks about all of the different groups that come in over the course of several hours. She talks about one man named Dennis. She describes him as "a grand marshal leading the parade." He tells her, "Fill it right to the rim... with just a little bit of milk. Just a little bit, dear"(B33). She describes other times when baby carriages and soccer moms come in and "disrupt the ebb and flow of a more demure clientele" (B34). Describing the man in this way and talking about the moms cleaning up spilled coffee and toys covered with cream cheese help me understand the different types of people that come in different waves throughout the day. With different people having different lives and many different routines and jobs, a wide range of people are going to come into the coffee shop at various times when its available to them. Dudley does an excellent job of showing how these head shops just blend in with other stores and have an appealing look to them. He tells about one store The Hempest that "stands amid such stores as Chanel and Armani in the most exclusive shopping district on Boston" (B40). What could be so bad about that store if its in a very popular shopping area? This shows just how well the stores can hide their actual intentions and stay under the radar when it comes to the real reason behind what the store is based on. Dudley also said that the main people that shop there were high school age and college age students. In order for me to do some specific research on my topic, Scene kids, it would probably be best for me to go to a local hardcore show and see what all goes down and what happens when the kids listen to the music and watch the bands play. In going to the shows, it shows me what kind of kids actually go there, how they dress, how they talk and act around each other, how they act before, during, and after a how, and it helps me understand why they might actually want to go to a show in the first place. I could also use the internet to learn more about scene kids and how they look because a lot of them have myspaces. They even have websites devoted to their own look.