Kitty Wells and more

So, I decided to write that extra credit paper. I knew I was going to, it just took me forever to start it. Yep, I decided to write about Kitty Wells and her song called "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." I was not looking forward to writing this paper and looking up the information. I somehow actually sort of enjoyed it. Yeah, crazy. I really enjoyed finding out how much her song actually made an impact. That was cool. There weren't really any famous female country artist before Kitty Wells and her song. Now, because of that song, there are a lot. That is really cool to think about how much one song can have an affect on society. Yeah. Then you start to think about some of the songs that are out there today and worry.. yeah, I don't really like thinking about the little middle schoolers and even elementary schoolers listening to some of these songs. It can't be good. I don't know. I am glad that a lot of them do not really understand what they are singing about and just listen to it because of the catchy tune or beat. There are some that have to be smart enough to actually understand what they are listening too. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have any younger brothers or sisters butif I did I wouldn't want them listening to my music. Yep. Just a random thought.

the jamboree

So the jamboree is now done. I actually think it went a lot better that I had expected. Sittting at the table was interesting. We didn't know what the fod was called that the other section made was called so we didn't know what to say when people asked us what it was. Besides that, everything went well, we got some people to try the lyrics thing but they had no idea what was being said. The swing dancing went better than I expected. We actually got a fair number of people to come down and try dancing by the end of our session. Most people participated when we were showing how to do the Charleston. I think that was because you can learn how to do it with out a partner. Yep, I think the jamboree went well and now we have the radio show tonight. I hope everyone shows up so it will go smoothly. Yep. I liked the video that the other section made except throught the whole thing they looked really bored... I think it would have went better if they actually looked like they were having fun and enjoying themselves... Just a thought.

finally another blog

Yeah, so just like everyone else, I realized that I haven't posted in a long time because everything has been crazy. Yeah, so the jamboree is tomorrow.. I'm not that excited for it because basically I can't dance. (At least I can admit it), yeah, I don't really remember all the stuff and I have no idea how I am supposed to try and teach someone else how to swing dance when I don't really get it myself? Yeah, I also thought that it was crazy that we completely switched ideas after that one performance in class.. Everyone had so much fun that one day in class and just decided that we would teach other people to swing dance when we are just learning how to ourselves. Yeah, plus we don't really practice much when we go to Louie's, maybe 5-10 minutes a time? Plus we are short guys so not everyone gets a partner. So, we will see how this works out tomorrow, I'm not sure, plus there is the simple question, will we actually get people to come downstairs? I don't know, I have mixed feelings for this jamboree thing. Yep, but then we are also doing the radio show on sunday night and that is exciting. I want to be in the room for a while just to see what it is like but I don't really know yet if I actually would want to be on air.. Yeah, but that will be cool, plus some pizza...

So, basically everyone on my floor was excited for thanksgiving break. It was just like every other weekend for me though.. actually no as fun.. I normally go home every other weekend to see my boyfriend and my friends from high school. Well, my boyfriend got grounded wednesday night (I saw him for one day) and one of my best friends just left to join the navy. Yeah, so she will be doing that for 6 years and not sure when she will be able to come back and visit. Yeah, so she misses Christmas and her birthday (beginning of January). Yeah, that sucks. Yep, so my thanksgiving break was not that exciting, plus I had to sit in the car all day a few times to visit relatives and I didn't get to sleep in at all.

It's really cold out today.. I don't really like the cold weather.. not fun. I think that if it is going to be cold, we should at least have snow to make the cold worthwhile. Yeah, snow can be really pretty, except when it gets dirty..

discussion summary

This is my discussion summary.

Tues. October 31 (Halloweeen!!)
We actually didn't have and perfomances because Kelsey had joined Jesh earlier and Dooner was not ready. Instead we talked about the jamboree and readings and podcasts. We decided that swing dancing in Louie's Lower Level should work. Kat mentioned that it would be better if we dressed up for it because then the people would get a better idea of swing dancing. We also discussed trying to have a small band play a song, so on Tues. they will bring their instruments and try it out. Also, class on Tues. will just meet down in Louie's so we have more time. Some people like Kat, Machelle, and others decided to meet in the library to find some music for the band. That was a success and they had picked out a song called "Haunted Ballroom". Then we discussed work conditions for Kat at caribou and caribou vs. starbucks. After that we got into small groups and discussed things in the readings and podcasts that we found interesting and important. We found out that Kat's grandmother went to high school with Patsy Cline and she thought Patsy Cline was really nice. Brady mentioned that the third episode said they wanted to keep everything in print even if it wasn't popular. He really thought that was cool and enjoyed it.

Thurs. November 2.
We had two performances today, by Jennifer and Dooner. Jennifer talked about Janis Joplin and then sang along to one of her songs. Janis was in three different bands, the first one called Big Brother and the Holding Company. Janis was involved with drugs and eventually died from heroin. She did have a long clean break though. Janis was born in 1943 and died in 1970. Jennie then sang along to Bobby Mcgee. She got really into the song and tried to show the passion that Janis puts into her music. We then discussed the meaning of "hard to fill in her shoes" and Nic compared Elvis Preseley to Eminem. We got into a big discussion about Eminem and how he is a really good songwriter but not normally good lyrics. We also talked about random shows on TV like How to capture a rapist, My sweet 16, and South Park. Kat mentioned that she thinks Justin Timberlake is turning into Michael Jackson with the hat and one glove... Dooner did his presentation on Jazz parades and marching band. He talked about Dixieland Jazz. He mentioned that marching band comes from the military bands that would go with the military into battle. Modern marching band is highy competitive and Dooner would call it a sport. Then Dooner exlained some of the different commands. His presentation was cool because it was obvious that he is passionate for marching band. It made it so you paid more attention because the presentor actually cared about what they were presenting.

Yep, that is basically it. So just remember to meet in Louie's on Tuesday and everything is good.

roommate advice??

Ok, so I have a major problem with my roommate. The thing is, we have been friends since eigth grade, so I really don't want to hurt her feelings. She is really messy and loses things all the time. Since we were already friends, we share some stuff, well she didn't bring up scissors or dishes. She has already lost most of my spoons and forks and scissors. Also, our room gets really messy and I'm a clean person, I don't want to clean up her stuff though. No, that is not my major problem, don't worry, I could deal with that. Well, her boyfriend is also going to this school (he only lives one floor up from us and one room over), yeah, I've known him since eighth grade too. So my boyfriend is back in our hometown (three hours away) and I only see him every other weekend. My roommate and her boyfriend know this is really hard from me (I'm also away from my two best friends), yeah, not good at changes. Well, they only really care about themselves. Seriously, it's true. My roommate seems to always either need her boyfriend sleep in our dorm room or she sleeps in his every night!! I seriously don't know why you would need to do that.. Yeah, it got really bad one time, she had him sleep here every night the whole week, so I told her on Friday, that I prefer he doesn't, then she said a stupid snotty comment (I think, "you could have said it nicer" I really did say it pretty nice, since I was screaming at her in my head..) and it was stupid. Yeah, now she is having him spend the night here every other night. See, she doesn't ask me if he can, she just assumes that since I know him, it's fine.. She also goes about it completely the wrong way. Like I said she doen't ask me first, also I go to sleep first those nights (cause I have an 8:00 class), so I'm already sleeping and she just decides to have him spend the night. Wake up suprise for me! Yeah, since I have the first class, I have to get ready first and that is completely akward.. Yeah, I get soo mad at her and him because they never think about me. I seriously feel invisible sometimes in my dorm room. He will come in and they will lay on her bed and kiss, makeout, giggle, and touching is going on too. I mean seriously, how inconsiderate is that?
Yeah, I don't want her to get mad at me though, I feel like she will if I say something and then she will ruin the rest of this year for me (she can get evil sometimes when she is holding a gruge). Yeah, I'm completely a non-confrontational person... So, I really don't know what I should do that I actually am able to do.. Does anyone have any advice?? I would seriously appreciate it. Thanks for listening to my problems.

Episode 5

I enjoyed listening to some of their favorite tracks from the Anthology. I thought it was a little weird that all the songs before the Fox Trot, they would just play a little portion of the song, then they played the whole Fox Trot. Anyways, this episode focused a lot on Harry Smith's life again. They think that since Harry Smith had such a common name, people didn't realize that it was the same guy that did all of that stuff. He was a film maker, painter, writer, producer, and a huge collector. Michael Asche said, "he drove himself in ways that you and I would not even consider." That would help show why he was able to accomplish so much in his life. Blind Willie Johnson had a harder scratchy voice to listen to in the song that he sang with his wife. Harry Smith collected string figures and paper airplanes, which he marked the date and the place when he got them.
".. and when these records came out, it was the first time, that these were like the roots and a conduit to a totally new music, and unlike music they heard before and really it broke all rules, it broke the barrier.. could explore this music on their own.. and put them out with their own unique style." said Ronny Sing. She was talking about how roots music is really the 'roots' to music. Future artists would listen to these songs and then learn them and they would change the music to a different unique style even though they originally got it from these songs. Roots music has helped form all types of music in one way or another. That is really cool when you think about it, it shows how creative people can get, because they started by changing the same songs and now there are completely different styles of music.

I thought it was a little annoying that every 10 minutes, she had to introduce the program again and how shwe had to say that this was the fifth episode about the folkways collection... and on to saying her name Cathy (don't know how to spell her last name)..

episodes three and four

So, my internet just kicked me off, I had already written everything about episode three and I lost it. Yeah, sorry because I don't remember what I wrote but I will try..

episode 3
I really like that they talked about the artists and played their music. I enjoyed that. One thing that I don't enjoy about reading the books is that you don't get to hear what the artist's songs sound like. I am always curious and want to know, but at the same time, to lazy to try to get them to come up on pandora... So yeah, I enjoyed hearing the songs and the speeches. I liked how there was a variety of music, something there for everyone. I thought that it was really cool that Asche was not doing it for the money, but trying to bring back and save some music that people do and would enjoy listening to. I don't remember what else I wrote, sorry about that..
episode 4
The introduction with Harry Smith was really cool. I really liked his saying, "My dreams came true. I saw America change through music." I actually didn't like the song called Judgement. His voice was too scratchy for me and the kid was kind of yelling the words. Sorry, if you liked it, I just didn't, but that's ok, because I liked a lot of the other stuff. I actually really enjoyed listening to the song that had words somewhat like this (I missed the name of the song) "king kong kissy kissy cry me oh" because it was really random. I like randomness. I talked more about the song selections because this computer was acting weird and I ended up missing part of the episode, where they did a lot of talking. Sorry, I didn't have the time or patience to find where I was at, so yeah, that's why.. I liked that he didn't put what race the artists were, so the listeners would listen to songs that they normally wouldn't listen too. I thought that was really cool because you shouldn't decide not to listen to a song because of the race of the artist. The author said that these were all artists that were "saying listen to me, pay attention to me, I have something to tell you.. attempting to stand out in their communties." I liked that because it's true. The artists are telling stories and they do want you to listen to them because they are trying to tell you something, it could be advice or something in the human nature that is wrong, but people do it anyway (back when he was talking about racism).
I hope that it wasn't too similar to everyone else's blogs. I didn't try to do that or anything.