Lecture 9 of Culture study

MONGOL ULAANBAATAR UNIVERSITY

BRITISH & AMERICAN CULTURE STUDY

LECTURE 9

Lecturer : Ts.DAGIIMAA, Ph.D, Prof

Sport in the US

Sports play an important part in American life. Professional baseball and football games attract large crowds, and many people watch games on television. Although many parents complain about their children being couch potatoes (= people who spend a lot of time watching television), there are sports sessions at school for all ages. College students are usually also required to take physical education classes to complete their studies.

Many popular keep-fit activities began in the US. Charles Atlas, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others inspired people to take up body-building (= strengthening and shaping the muscles).Many women joined the ‘fitness craze’ as a result of video workouts produced by stars such as Jane Fonda and Cindy Crawford which they could watch and part in at home. New fitness books are continually being published and these create fashions for new types of exercise, such as wave aerobics, which is done in a swimming pool, and cardio kick-boxing, a form of aerobics which involves punching and kicking a punch-bag.

Many richer people employ their own personal trainer, either at home or at a fitness centre, to direct their exercise programme.

Local YMCAs offer programmes which include aerobics, gym, running, weights, treadmills and rowing machines, as well as steam rooms and swimming.

But many people just walk or jog in the local park or play informal games of baseball or football.

American football

Football is one of the major sports in the US. American football developed from the games of football and Rugby.There is a lot of dangerous play, so helmets and thick pads must be worm. Each game has cheerleaders and bands of musicians that march on the field between the halves of the game. Game is played by two teams of 11 players each, with different players used for defense, offense and kicks.

A team scores when its players send the ball down the field and across the opponent’s goal line for a touch-down of seven points. They can then add a point after touchdown if they kick the ball through the goal posts. A team can get three points if the ball is kicked between the goal posts without a touchdown, and two points if their defense stops the opponents in their own end zone. Points can be scored by carrying the ball over the opponent's goal line or catching a pass thrown over that goal line, kicking the ball through the opponent's goal posts, or tackling an opposing ball carrier in his own end zone.

Points can be scored by carrying the ball over the opponent's goal line or catching a pass thrown over that goal line, kicking the ball through the opponent's goal posts, or tackling an opposing ball carrier in his own end zone.

BaseballAmerica’s national sport, played mainly by men, which developed in the 19th century from the British games - cricket. It is a popular sport to play and watch, with many families going to watch baseball games on Sunday afternoon. Baseball has become an important part of US culture with many baseball terms becoming part of the language and it is the subject of songs, novels and films. Baseball shirts and caps have also become fashionable in many countries.

Baseball played with long wooden bats and a small, hard ball, by two teams of nine players each. The infield has three bases (= bags filled with sand) and a home plate arranged in a diamond. The pitcher, who throws the ball to the batter, stands in the centre of the diamond. Each game lasts nine innings and in each inning the visiting team is first to bat (= hit the ball) while the home team plays defense. Players bat in turn but when a team has three outs it must let the other side bat.

Music and Dance in the US

Country music – is a type of popular American music that combines the traditional music of the US West and the South.These two types included cowboy songs and hillbilly music. There are more US radio stations playing country music than for any other type of music. The home of country music is Nashville, Tennessee, with its Grand Ole Opry. Bluegrass – a type of country music of the southern US. It has fast strong rhythms and is played on instruments with strings, especially guitars, violins and banjos.

Ralph Stanley on April 20, 2008 at The Granada Theater in Dallas

Typical Banjo. Sweet By and By, all-female bluegrass band – July 4, 2004

Rockabilly - a type of US popular music. It combines rock and roll with country music, which was originally called ‘hillbilly music’. Rockabilly was especially popular in the mid 1950s, and was sung by Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Carl Perkins, Brenda Lee and other early rock and roll stars.

Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill Carl Perkins Gene Vincentand His Blue Caps

Folk music and songsAmerican folk music was created by the

combination of many folk styles brought to America by immigrants. Music helped keep alive the traditions and memories of people’s former homes. From the late 19th century many songs and tunes that had been passed down orally were collected together and written down. In America more than 10 000 old songs were collected by John and Alan Lomax, and in Britain Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) collected both songs and folk dances.

Such collections influenced major works by composers such as Vaughan Williams and Britten.

In the US the Carter Family helped make folk music popular again in the 1920s.

By the 1950s the recording industry had make folk music commercially successful. This interest in folk music also led to folk clubs being established all over the US.

In the 1960s folk music was being used to encourage social change and it became the music of hippies and the civil rights movement. Folk festivals were popular.

Transportation in the United States

In the US large cities have good public transportation systems.

The El railroad in Chicago and the underground systems of New York, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC are heavily used.

Elsewhere, most Americans prefer to use their cars. In 2000 half of New Yorkers used public transport to get to work.

In Los Angeles it was less than 10%. Families often have two cars and, outside major cities, have to drive fairly long distances to schools, offices, shops, banks, etc. many college and even high-school students have their own cars.In the US most long-distance travel is by air. America had two main long-distance bus companies, Greyhound and Trailways which merged in the early 1990s. There are many smaller private companies that operate commuter railways for the cities.

30th Street Station, Philadelphi METRORail on Main Street Train

Local taxi Water bus

Museums and Art Galleries in the US

In the US public art collections are displayed in art museums, and a gallery is a place where people go to buy works of art. Visiting an art gallery is a popular leisure activity. Galleries and museums are friendlier places. Many try to encourage children’s interest in art by arranging school visits and many people make their first trip to an art museum with their school class.

The first public museum in the US was the Charlestown Museum in South Carolina, founded in 1773.

The largest is the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, a group of 14 museums.

Become acquainted with Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry at the Museum, then step back into the 18th century at The Heyward-Washington House or into the 19th century at The Joseph Manigault House. The most popular of these is the National Air and Space Museum. Some US museums are art museums. Many describe a period of history. In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for example, a museum explains the Civil War and gives details of the battle of Gettysburg. Halls of Fame are museums that honour people who have been outstanding in a certain field, e.g. baseball or rock music.

National museums receive money from the government but not enough to cover their costs. Museums usually have a shop selling books, postcards and gifts, and often a cafe. Their profits help to fund the museum. Some museums have the support of a commercial sponsor. In small museums only a few people have paid jobs, and the rest are volunteers, called docents in the US, who lead tours and answer visitor’s questions.In the US public art collections are displayed in art museums, and a gallery is a place where people go to buy works of art.

Important art museums in the US include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, all in New York, and most US cities and many smaller towns have art museums.Galleries sometimes mount exhibitions of the paintings of one artist, e.g. Turner, that are brought together from all over the world. People are prepared to queue for a long time to see them. Many people admire old masters. Famous works by great artists of the past, but have little interest in modern art.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Washington, D.C.'s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is the Smithsonian's showcase for one of the best modern and contemporary artworks collections in the United States, as well as the world. The Hirschhorn museum opened in 1974 on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall, and is named for famed art collector, Joseph H. Hirshhorn, who donated more than 6,000 pieces of art, including paintings and sculptures, to the Smithsonian in 1966. Today, the Hirshhorn Museum boasts a collection of more than 12,000 pieces of modern art from the late nineteenth century to the mid 20th century and contemporary artworks from the 1970s to the present.

National Museum of the American Indian

Visitors to the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) will enjoy a spectacular array of special exhibits and permanent installments.Exhibits range from retrospectives of native lives in the past to the art and work of contemporary American Indians.

All visitors are offered a well rounded presentation of the history of native peoples in the Americas. Special exhibits highlight interesting facets of the American Indian experience and introduce visitors to little known stories and facts. Native history, handicraft and culture come together.

National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art was originally based on the gift of Andrew Mellon who left his collection or paintings and sculptures to the U.S. government when he died in 1937. Today, the collections of the National Gallery of Art are so extensive and wide-ranging, visitors can easily find themselves experiencing culture shock.The gallery contains the best of America’s artists as well as artists from around the world.

Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington,D.C. is the number one most visited museum in America, with 5.8 million visitors a year. The museum's collections total over 125 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts. It is also home to about 185 professional natural history scientists - the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of the natural and cultural history in the world.

The museum was established in 1910, with its building designed by Hornblower & Marshall. The building, designed in the neoclassical architectural style, was the first constructed on the north side of the National Mall, along Constitution Avenue, as part of the 1901 McMillan Commission plan.