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.