Near Deaf Experience

All Greek food is not created equal. While most contains fresh staples that combine to create a classic Mediterranean flavor, each dish has its own style and which one you choose says a lot about your personality.

I recently ate at Pita Jungle with a group of friends with personalities varying from analytical intellectual to outgoing comedian. I noticed their food spoke volumes of their individual character.

Morgane is a breath of fresh air. Originally from France, she brings a unique and refreshing perspective to anything she does. She cherishes every moment and never misses an opportunity to let people know she cares. Her dish: Pita Pizza, a crispy pita bread topped with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, feta cheese, thyme, oregano and mozzarella. Irresistible, just like Morgane’s caring personality.

Kelly is someone who appreciates tradition and gets things done right. He has respect for rules and appreciates the classics. He knows if something isn’t broken you shouldn’t fix it. That’s why Kelly goes for an American classic, the California Club: sliced turkey breast, Swiss cheese, mushrooms, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, avocado, mixed greens and alfalfa sprouts, wrapped in a pita with a side of tsatziki. Just like Kelly, it’s a comfortable and classic choice.

Jessica will always make you smile, even if the jokes on her. Selfless and silly, she knows how to brighten any day. What else makes most people smile?— The simple goodness of meat and cheese. That’s why Jessica picks the Philly Chicken Pita with grilled marinated chicken breast, roasted bell peppers, sautéed onions, topped with Swiss cheese, and wood-fired in a Greek pita. The timeless goodness of this pita makes her as happy as she makes the people around her.

Robbie is quite the character. Known for doing outlandish things “just because,” Robbie makes sure everyone is having a good time. He has a magnetic personality that makes people want to be around him. Spontaneous and comedic, I’m always wondering what he’ll do next. It seems fitting that Robbie would pick the funniest sounding item on the menu: Mediterranean Roasted Chicken Shawarma with grilled marinated chicken breast in a pita, with mixed greens, tomatoes, onions, pickels, garlic sauce and tahini. Fun to say, even more fun to eat.

As for me, I will be the first to admit I have no idea what I want. I take joy in most things in life and find it difficult to pin point exactly where my passions lie. That is why I get the hummus and chicken with both cilantro jalapeno hummus and original hummus. It pleases my love for all things hummus.

What’s your Pita Jungle personality?

I was recently researching my blog topic, seeing if any other Web sites or blogs were devoted to random concert experiences. I was beyond excited when I found People Dancing at Concerts, a blog completely devoted to videos of audience members at concerts dancing. The videos range from entertaining to comical to slightly disturbing.

Here is one of my favorite examples:

Sandra Jovanovic, an ASU alumnus, said of the video, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t focus on the dancing because I was too distracted by the long beard braid!”

I have to admit I find sick enjoyment in people’s eccentric concert dancing. I’d like to say it’s because I find joy in their surrender to the power of music, but quite honestly it’s because if I can’t see the band, I might as well watch someone put on a show.

I decided to poll ASU students on their opinions of concert dancers. Each were shown the above video and asked to decide, in general, whether they were entertained or annoyed by such dancing, or if they were the crazy dancing person at concerts. The results are below. Click to enlarge.

It seems the sick enjoyment of concert dancing is more rampant than I thought.

Special education sophomore Callie Rezzonico remembers seeing an elderly woman in “short shorts and a cut off top” dancing scandalously at a concert last year. “I loved it,” she said. “I’m a big people watcher.”

Jordan Frost, a CIS junior, disagrees. “I get mad when [dancers] bump into me,” he said. “They mess up my groove.”

Caitlin Nothwehr, a finance junior, says she has no time for wild dancing. “Save it for in front of your mirror,” she said. “I came to see a concert, not your ‘dancing,’ if you can even call it that.”

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I recently attended a Kings of Leon concert and noticed something rare: there were a ton of “cool parents” who brought their kids with them. Sure it reeked of marijuana and the lead singer cursed excessively, but what a great first concert experience.

This got me thinking: I want to be a cool parent who brings my kids to a rock concert!

That is, until I talked to Caitie Quick, a fellow journalism student. Caitie’s first concert at the age of 13 was the Family Values Tour. I’m guessing by the name of the tour, Caitie’s dad thought it was a safe bet for her and her 10-year-old brother Ian. He was in for a surprise.

“We had actual seats, but Ian and I somehow got down into the [mosh] pit,” Caitie remembers. “Linkin Park, my favorite band at the time, was playing and [lead singer] Chester Bennington decided to run through the crowd… It became my life mission to touch his shirt.”

When Caitie and Ian got close to Chester’s shirt, they were grabbed by “some guy with about 15 piercings” (who I am hoping was a crowd control attendant and not some random guy who liked to pick up children at concerts,) and carried them to the edge of the crowd.

Would you trust him with your kids? He looks cuddly enough...

“[The attendant] said there was some huge guy coming straight for us and he didn’t want us to get hurt,” Caitie said.

I am not sure how I would feel about my children getting mauled by a large rabid fan and may have to reevaluate my future children’s first concert plans. It might be something a little less intense, but I promise it won’t be any girly boy band or any other flavor-of-the-week musician.

Note to self: Attend concert with Caitie Quick—she knows how to rock.

I love music.

My life is set to a soundtrack of Pandora.com and iTunes. Music I don’t particularly enjoy, I can usually appreciate for the musicianship. Although my iPod is filled with acoustic rock, it is also peppered with 80s power ballads, rap classics and even mainstream “music” that sounds a lot like a robot dance party.

There is one type of music I have no time for: hokey country.  If my ears could throw up, they would listening to this particularly awful subset of country.

The only time I get back to my podunk roots is Halloween...

The genre I refer to includes songs about kids running around with no shoes on, sticking boots in other countries’ a–es just because we’re American and eating hot wings like they’ve replaced grains on the food pyramid. Growing up in a rural farming town where these things plagued my everyday life, I have no idea why someone would write songs to honor them.

While this musical prejudice is deep-rooted, it was not always the case. The first concert I ever attended was Country Thunder, the Mecca of artists performing the music I just described. Yes, I am admitting right now, I used to enjoy this music that has now become something I loathe.

This got me thinking: if my musical story is so dynamic, others’ could be as well. In this blog, I set out to find these stories. Someone’s first concert is something one never forgets, even if one is not proud of it (as in my case.) This blog will investigate the nostalgic and often comical world of first concerts and the mark they leave on every one of us.