During my weekly study session in one of the Downtown Davis coffee shops that I frequent and love so dearly, I realized that I was people-watching with much more intensity and focus than I could ever grant my homework. I found myself really digging into this curiosity. Sometimes someone’s individuality is so apparent that you just want to know what their interests are. I often find myself wondering:
“What drink did they order?”
“What are they consuming on their device that they are so captivated by?”
“What is their favorite song?”
“Is this assignment due today?”
And so, I decided to find out (100% not due to procrastination). I asked five Downtown Davis goers what the top two most influential media they had ever consumed were and why they considered them to be so special …. Here are their answers:
- Tithi Patel (Age 19)
“I am currently a UC Davis undergrad. Bridge to Terabithia was a really defining piece of media for me because it was the first time I had ever gotten attached to a fictional character and had my heart broken for the first time on the carpeted floor of my fifth-grade classroom. Uh… I think that Mess by Noah Kahan was also a huge influence on me because it felt like that song was written for me.”
- Holly Snyder Thompson (Age 42)
“I am a manager at The Avid Reader Bookstore and um… two of the pieces of media that I think of that has influenced me the most are the Harry Potter series… super formative for me, um… also, the album American Idiot by Green Day was out and fresh and new when I was like in my early twenties and living in Washington DC and I listened to it every day when I was commuting to my work at a Human Rights Organization and it just really got me going.”
- Kaikey Sakata (Age 21)
“I am at Davis as an undergrad student, and I would say the two most influential media pieces would be like, as an artist, the works of Yung Lean, especially like pre-2017 era. The reason why is because a lot of my fashion friends and I bonded first over music, like Yung Lean. My second media would probably be Studio Ghibli movies because I’m Japanese and I grew up watching them. They were my first exposure to my culture, per say.”
- Evelyn Ramos (Age 18)
“I am a first-year student at Davis. I am here right now for college. My first choice would have to be older R&B music, mainly Beyonce and Mary J. Blige. This is because my mother is pretty young. She’s only 33 years old right now, so in the time period when I was growing up, she was still in her older R&B phase, listening to any and every R&B artist, so I just grew up with that and it influenced my music taste and my perception of romance in general because R&B is very romantic music. Um, the second choice for me is One Piece, an anime, um… It was the first anime I watched when I got into anime. I was about 12 years old, my tia introduced it to me and that was like my gateway anime. From there I just like, kinda like, fell in love with the content and the whole genre of anime and it now influences my perception of life just because of the main ideas and main morals they instill in shows like that.”
- Erik Gaumer
“I have been a resident of the city of Davis since 1966. I have lived here, well I missed the first two weeks of my life, so, I’ve been here ever since. I have been asked to share the two media formats that had the biggest impact on me… number one would have to be movies, specifically the movie Star Wars: Episode IV — The New Hope. Saw that when it came out… It was HUGE. Uh… love it to this day. It’s still a great piece and it tells a great story, and yes there are other movies that do other things and I like a lot of that stuff too but that’s the one that really stands out. Second, I would have to say… listening to the radio as a kid. My favorite station and I built my own AM radio to receive it, was AM 610 FARC out of San Francisco. Now, I live here in Davis, so I made the antennae long enough to receive this AM station, all the way out here, which is really cool, but it was a, at the time, Rock and roll station, and music is and always has been a great thing for me. I am currently working in the Armadillo music store as a beerista, serving beer at our bar here. I get to pick and listen to new music and old music and play it on and on, and that’s me! Thank you!”
Taking the time to chase my interest and learn about those around me was incredibly fulfilling and encouraging. The next time I spot someone I find interesting, I can genuinely say that I will be more inclined to speak to them because of these encounters. There are so many great people to meet and learn from, not only in Davis but the whole world. Reach out! You never know what an incredible story is just waiting to be told.