Christmas and Finals

I think that it is extremely odd to be sitting here listening to the glorious songs of Christmas, while cramming as much information as my brain can fit at the current time.
Why does the best part of the year have to occur along with Finals, which can easily be argued as the worst part of the school year? What's worse, we have two sets of finals and only one Christmas. Someone somewhere hates college students.

This may seem like blog overload, but I don't really care right now.
Have you ever watched a commercial and liked it simply because you knew the song in the background? I memorized the Chase Freedom commercial because the song by the Rolling Stones in the background is awesome. Also, I remember these two commercials from years long past that had cool songs and were about cars. One was about the VW Jetta and had a guy singing Mr. Roboto in his car. The other I don't remember as well, but it was about 8 years ago and was about some sort of car thing and had the song I can see clearly now as its theme.
Commercials really need to use great songs, so even if I don't like the product, I will listen just for the song.

This has very little to do with class and is more some of those nonsensical ramblings I promised.
I was watching School of Rock(good movie, if you haven't seen it, I recommend it. Jack Black's character is definitely a bit more mature than some of his previous characters. If you don't like Jack Black, the movie is still good) and I heard this song near the beginning by the lead singer of the band that kicked out Jack Black and I thought that I recognized the voice. Then, at the Battle of the Bands, I heard the guy sing again and I thought, that really sounds like Adam Pascal(Roger, from RENT) and it was.
I know the ending of that story is kind of lame, but ask around and you'll see that most of my stories have great build-up and are a complete letdown.
Oh well
That's life.

...And then I couldn't finish my Chinese food.

Christmas Music

Have you ever noticed that people who sing Christmas music(now anyways) are either not very good and just starting a career or they sing a Christmas song and disappears forever, only to be mentioned in those terribly, wonderful late-night infomercials where they try to sell you twenty c.d.s for 49.95 plus s&h?
I think that this trend is depressing for Christmas music is my favorite kind of music and I could listen to it all year long, but I don't want to listen to only the bad artists.
Maybe I should just listen to Adam Sandler's Hanakuh Song. That's quality stuff.

Discussion Summary

I see that many people have summarized discussions lately, but I am actually scheduled to do so and therefore, there will be some overlap.
During the last week, we have talked a lot about Jamboree. Basically, an accurate summary of the discussion could be as follows:
Emily: Jamboree sucks
Nic: Okay, why do you think that?
The rest of the class and Emily: silence
Nic: Does anyone else agree?
The class: nods, blank stares, more silence.
As one can see, the class was not very productive on that Tuesday, but Thursday was much better. There was class discussion, once again about Jamboree, but this time about alternatives to Jamboree. The other class thought up a rather in-depth proposal about alternatives that involves courses about current events. Our class took that proposal and debated the pros and cons. I think about half the class thinks that the new current events based-course would be better, while the other half admits that Jamboree is not great, but think that a total new course is not necessary.
One good thing about the current events course is that there could be a more shared experience for freshmen, but with the various aspects of current events, I think that people would have the same differences as they do now. Also, with the system the way it is, there are bound to be at least a few different FYS's that a person is interested, but with current events, there could be many people who are only interested in one or two areas, which could fill quickly and cause problems. Personally, I think that neither way is great, but with a few changes, the current system could be improved immensely and that throwing away a whole course is how we got onto the current FYS system.

December

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already December. These last few weeks have flown by. I was sitting here and just realized that there are only 21 shopping days left til Christmas. I must find Christmas Music.

Jamboree

Overall, I think that our booth went over fairly well. Many people stopped and watched the movie, because of the size of the screen and the fact that it was loud enough to actually hear. Also the signs in front of the booths gave info so that people could feel like they were interactive without having to ask the people manning the booth questions.
The best thing that we had at our booth was probably the lemonade because other than that and tea, there were no drinks. The tea was good, but very hot, and the lemonade was not.
People didn't really want to actually have to interact for enough time to do the lyrics thing, but me and the person I manned the booth with had fun trying to figure out what he was saying when the flow of people slowed.

Gospel

The very first song reminded more of a Native American chant than anything. It was good, but without the driving beat behind most Native American stuff. Prayer for the Doomed by Chosen Gospel Singers was great. It was easy to see this as a predecessor to blues and then slower rock. Between Get Away Jordan and Prayer for the Doomed, one gets the feel for what most people stereotypically call gospel. Blind Baranbus also has the jazzish and blueish feel that most associate with gospel, but is a little more jazz like than most people think gospel is.
The newer song Church by Lyle Lovett, lacks the layering that most of the other gospel songs have. It sounds much more like something that could be played on the radio. It's not altogether bad, but doesn't seem to have the same feeling or truth as some of the other songs have. It also has many more instruments in the background, compared to the others.
Most the songs are a cappella with people singing the beats and background noise.
Moaner Let's Go Down in the Valley by the Delta Big Four sounds like a combination of two songs, one being let's go down in the valley recognizable from O Brother Where Art Thou.
Many of the older songs have singers with voices so high, or grating that they are almost painful to listen to.
Move on Up a Little Higher by Mahalia Jackson is definitely what one thinks of when they think of gospel. It has the strong singer who has a tremendous range and religious lyrics to boot.
The sermons remind me of what I have read about revivals during the early 20Th century with amening in the background and even singing over the sermon.
Overall, the gospel stuff was pretty cool, but I wish there was a way to get rid of the bad quality recordings from the early days.

Blog Summary

Most of the recent blogs seem very pointed. They are mostly about the Folkways podcasts or answering Nic's latest post. The little rabbit gave some interesting background into Harry Smith's life. In fact, most post about the folkways either give information about Harry Smith or simply reactions about the Harry Smith podcasts and they are mostly summaries of what happened in the podcasts. Mary Beth and Yeah pointed out that there was a segment in episode five about paper airplanes. I might have to listen again, just for that. Yeah also pointed out how music is influential, even if one does not like it. That's an important point to make since many people will stop listening to music if they don't like it, but music is far more important than simple like or dislike. Music is culture and ideas, rolled into a melody. Megan pointed out that Harry Smith changed the course of music(essentially). He discovered tons of people and put theri music out so that others were influenced. How many people can say that? Steph's blog included Cajun recipes, they sound good. We should try them.
I am cool dooner posted a variety of blogs, one that proposed the idea of teaching tuba as part of his performance, but he does not have a tuba. I would like to see how that idea pans out and he also posts of the key E Dorian. I have no idea what he means by that, but E Dorian sounds cool to me, way better than E Minor or something like that.
I posted some quite short poems. I like to write poetry and mostly they are decent. People should tell me what they think.
Greenstar posted a post(imagine that, someone posts a post) asking for roommate help. I already put my two cents in, but she sounds like she could really use some more help. We should post.
That's a lot of the new stuff. If you wrote something really cool that wasn't included, add a comment and I'll put it in. Or people could just read the comments. Whatever's cool with you.
There was a very brief post this morning by Destroy about Halloween. Personally I prefer All Hallow's Eve, but that is just me. Halloween is one of the greatest holidays of the year.

Heart looking
Optimistically for something more
Praying that the best will come
Even in the face of despair

Peace
Tranquil, Content
Planted in Hearts
Pure souls’ sadnesses eased
Hope

Death comes Suddenly
Overwhelming all
Darkness envelopes
My Soul
But Sun Always Comes Back
Good Once Again
Prevails

Do you ever notice how when all you have to do is homework, you will do almost anything to put off that homework? It's insane. If you can't find anything to do, one will almost drift towards playing mindless games on the internet. This fast-speed internet is both a blessing and more deeply, a curse.

I was listening to the podcast things and one of them had this really awesome song by Bob Dylan(i think that it was the first episode that we listened to, or the third episode total). It was an anti-war song. Anyway, Bob was under a contract to another record company so he recorded the song under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt. I just thought that was cool.

Cool Site

So for my project in class, I decided that Muddy Waters was a cool guy and I wanted to learn more about his influence. So I did just that. In doing so, I found this really cool website where you can find out about artists and their songs that have been covered.
http://www.secondhandsongs.com/home/

More Music

I was listening to this song on Pandora called Digging my Potatoes by Snooky Pryor. The title first caught my eye, but then the music with its really driven blues pulled me in. It’s like a rock song, with a country guitar, and blues lyrics. I love it! Then, not too long afterward, I was listening and I heard “You Shook Me All Night Long”. Everyone probably can recoginize the AC/DC version, but this one was by a country band. Needless to say, it sucked.

Pandora's Box

I've been using Pandora, but I have found that once I've started looking for stuff I actually like(as opposed to the class list) that I never listen to our class's material. It's strange, but it is just the way it happened.
I don't like how you can hear a song that you like, but then it may never come up again. Or just the opposite, a song you hate is played over and over, like a broken record.

i was just wondering and thought that by putting my pen to paper(metaphorically speaking, of course)I might be able to let this question into someone else's head and out of mine: When we are talking about pure musical voices, are they the ones that are raw and unfinished or the ones that are smooth and polished? In science, a pure substance is the rawest and most original sample, but pure water is water that has the impurities removed. Which do we use?

Possible Performances

I am supposed to perform something music related for my class, but as I am utterly lacking in musical capacities and can't even play the kazoo, I am frantically trying to recall every piece of musical talent that I possess and thus far, the answer is none. I will probably have to create some sort of presentation that is related to music but does not involve me harming others and their ability to hear.

So today, I was looking at the list of music that I am supposed to listen to for my Roots music class and I was just amazed at the creativity of the blues names. I mean, how could someone seriously name their song "Jump the Boogie" and have people take them seriously. It's amazing. But I guess it's not any different than songs names from my era like Shoulda or No Scrubs(not that these are really my kind of music, but they do have horrible names). Just for laughs and for those interested in blues, here's the list that I am going to listen to:
"Got my mojo working" by Muddy Waters
"Death letter blues" by Son House
"Lord, I just can't keep from crying" by Blind Willie Johnson
"Wreck of the Old 97" by Pink Anderson
"Death cell blues" by Blind Willie McTell
"Sitting on top of the world" by Mississippi Shieks
"My Oklahoma blowed away" by Pete Seeger
"Stand by me" by Sister Matthews
"Jesus is a mighty good leader" by Skip James
"Feather bed" by Memphis Jug Band
"Worried man blues" by The Original Carter Family
"Midnight special" by Leadbelly
"Parchman Farm blues" by Bukka White
"Jump the boogie" by Boozoo Chavis
"Wabash cannonball" by Roy Acuff
"A spoonful blues" by Charlie Patton
"This land is your land" by Woody Guthrie
"Oh happy day" by The Edwin Hawkins Singers
"Move on up a little higher" by Mahalia Jackson
"Cross road blues" by Robert Johnson
"Cold, cold heart" by Hank Williams
"Uncle Pen" by Bill Monroe
"Wildwood flower" by The Carter Family
"Waiting for a train" by Jimmie Rodgers

Governor Blanco

Last night, I had the privilege of sitting in on an address by Governor Blanco at my college. It was definitely an unique experience. I had never seen a national political figure talk before. It surprised me how down-to-earth she was. She was not at all stuck up or arrogant, but instead was simply a real person. She talked to us for about an hour and a half. While most of the talk centered on New Orleans and their rebuilding efforts as well as the disasters of Hurricane Rita and Katrina, she touched briefly on her career and her background.
To me, it was amazing that a teacher turned stay-at-home mom could become the first governor of a state that is normally very conservative(other than around Bourbon Street).
Lindsey

Why did you sign up for a roots music FYS section? (It's totally OK if the answer is something like "I didn't really want to, but everything else was full.".):
Well, I signed up for the class because 1, I love music(though not necessarily country) and 2, it fit in my schedule.
If you could take 5 pieces of music with you to a desert isle, what would they be? (The definition of "piece of music" here is always tricky. Think "song", but I'll let you get away with a more extended piece like a symphony. A 4 CD compilation of 70's punk just isn't going to count as a single piece of music, though, no matter how cool it might be.):
If ever stranded on a desert island, I would bring along John Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane", The Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road", Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", Warren Zevon's "Werewolves in London", and the really whimsical "Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
What's a piece of music you associate with a parent, grandparent, or someone you know well that's at least a generation older than you. (I'm particularly interested in people like grandparents that are two or more generations older than you, but I realize that not everyone is going to have an association for that.) :
I don't really associate a single piece of music with my Grandma Izzy but a genre. Izzy loves polka music and if I had to pick one, I would choose "The Beer-Barrel Polka", which is not completely about drinking, but about having fun.
If we all decided to replace the national anthem with a new song, and everyone agreed that you got to choose, what would you recommend? :
I would recommend "Imagine" by John Lennon(Am I on a Beatles kick or what?) which would be ironic, but I love it for the peace message that is completely unlike "The Star-Spangled Banner".
What kinds of music related performance stuff (if any) do you do? I interpret this pretty broadly so it can be playing one or more instruments, singing, dance, DJing (dance or radio), etc. (It's totally OK if the answer is "None".)
I sing(only in the shower), or when no else minds. I could be a hit in a group of tone-deaf people, because I am one as well. I dance at dances, but not for competition. I like listening to almost all types of music, other than completely instrumental.
Given the readings and what (little) you know about Governor Blanco, if you had a chance to ask her one question, what would it be?:
I would ask Gov. Blanco: What she would do differently if she could reenact Hurricane Katrina all over again?