Event 2: "The Saint of Fucked Up Karma" Musical

The second event that I attended this quarter was a musical called "The Saint of Fucked Up Karma" presented by professor Abramson at UCLA.

 
Professor Abramson worked in Psychology Department at UCLA, meanwhile, he was also a vocalist in his own rock band. He has dedicated his research on sexual abuse and this musical was also written based on a real sexual abuse happened in 20 years ago. The boy named Porter was only 13 years old, and he got a single mother who worked as a prostitute. Porter's father died of heroin abuse when he was very young.  A local policeman named Tully was asked to help this poor family but the story ends up as Porter was sexually abused by Tully. Professor Abramson has participated in this true story and he was trying to help out Porter using his Psychology knowledge.

Actually I can see the "two cultures" effect on professor Abramson himself. During weekdays, he was a professor who gave lecture to students and talked seriously about academic materials of Psychology. But during weekends, he was a musician, a singer, and a owner of rock band. This two jobs seemed very different and unrelated, however, professor Abramson used his creativity to write a musical to demonstrate a psychological story. Actually, as professor Vesna said during the lecture, neuroscience is a very important part in science, because everyone has the psychological urge to sexuality but our mind can control ourself to have sex in a right way, and "two cultures" brings music and psychology together to tell this poor story and draw people's attention to little boy Porter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDD6iwKoZFM
Here is a link of this musical.

I believe after people have watched this video, many experts in art, science, and psychology will pay more attention to human sexual abuse and to help out those victims. I highly recommend my peers to watch this and understand how art can tell a different story and how public can all help to stop doing this wrongful abuse.












Citations:
Donelan, Charles. "Review: The Saint of the Fucked Up Karma." Independent. Web. 10 September 2013. 22 November 2013. http://www.independent.com/news/2013/sep/10/review-saint-fucked-karma/
 Lee, Amy. "Punk Rock Musical Addresses Sexual Abuse." Daily Bruin. Web. 23 October 2013. 22 November 2013. http://dailybruin.com/2013/10/23/punk-rock-musical-addresses-sexual-abuse/
Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.
 Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web. 22 November 2013. 
Vesna, Victoria. Unit 7: Neuroscience+Art. UCLA, 2013. Film.