FYS REVIEW

I had a lot of fun in FYS even though it may have not seemed like it. i am very shy and i normally do not like to share my opinion with others because i have a hard time of stating my opinion they way i want it to be heard. FYS was a big change for me because i am used to taking a piece of music and breaking it down into pieces and discussing what he music is made of and who composed it and other things like that. I have never had to state my opinion about a piece of music or say what i thought about it. I enjoyed having to the presentation because it made me learn more about a musician that i probably would never have learned about other wise. I enjoyed all the jamboree stuff as well. The books that we had to read were very interesting. I especially found it interesting about the African American murdering the white family and i still cannot figure out why he killed them and why it was put in the book. I don't see how it relates to the music. i did enjoy reading the books and i learned a lot about music and musicians from reading both books. I would have to say that the three women part was my favorite in the country book. I also enjoyed the country book better than the blues book because for me it was a faster read. I also learned that i like older kind of music as much as i like newer music. I enjoyed listening to all the different kinds of music and i would have to say that my favorite performer to listen to was Muddy Waters and then when i researched on his son i thought that he was just as good as his dad and i have now downloaded some of Big Bill Morganfield's music because i really liked it. I thought that the best part of the class was the kazoos because it was something different and fun!!! If i had to pick FYS again i would pick Music Roots again because it was a lot of fun and a class that i learned a lot from!

Jamboree!!!

I enjoyed Jamboree a lot because i was able to find out what others had learned and how they related it to something they could show or entertain people with. I however did not understand why jamboree was helping us relate everything to Human Diversity. i think that instead of just trying to entertain people everyone should have a poster or something that showed how the course related to human diversity. Our class could have done the same for example human diversity would relate to music becaue there are many different kinds of music and different people like different music. I don't if that would work but i think that is something that could added to make the experience more of a learing experience. I also thought that Jamboree was a good way to see what all of my friends had been learing and what they had worked on. i know my friends enjoyed watching me in the movie and thought that it was cool that we had the guts to tape ourselves line dancing even though we didn't look so enthused. i thought that there were lots of cool booths in the jamboree. one of my favorites was the bug booth where the cookies had bugs in them. i didn't try any but i thought it was cool how they made them with the bugs in them. I also thought that the imperialism booth was cool too but i thought by the end they had over done it a bit. I also thought that the genocide survey was cool because they wanted our opinion about the genocide and i just thought that was cool. I also liked the family drama table and i also heard that their play was quite cool. All the booths were cool and looked like they had put a lot of work and effort. I enjoyed preparing for the jamboree as well. We had a blast cooking the food and filming it i know and i also enjoyed line dancing and playing in the junk band even though i don't look that enthused. I think i may have looked happier if there was no camera or if the camera would have been hidden and i would not have known it was there. I am very camera shy. If you had to ask me if i would do the jamboree all over again i would say yeah i would like to do it again because i had fun. Also i think that jamboree should stay but just be changed a little bit because it does give us the freedom to choose our own course and it also still gives the faculty some choice in the matter also.

Blog Post

I am sorry that this is late. I looked over all the blogs that were posted during my week of the blog summary and i found some very interesting blogs that were posted. I noticed that a lot of people blogged about the three folkways episodes. Some of the comments on the episodes were things like Megan found it inetersting that singers would not be the same if Harry had not defined American music in episode 5.Mary Beth thought that the fourth episode was not as interesting as the thrid and fifth episodes. LS thought there were a few important quotes from the fifth episode for example he thought "I was looking for exotic records" said by Harry Smith was important in the fifth episode. Most of the blogs however i noticed were summaries of the episodes. I thought that LZ had cool poem posted on October 29th. Someone else from the 3pm section posted about the line dancing group that performed. Actually one of the girls thanked everyone for participating and was glad that her presentation was done. Then someone else from the noon section wrote about how much they enjoyed the swing dance lesson and that they would love to do it for jamboree. Then later on they wrote that they thought that the louie's lower level would work perfectly to have the swing dancing lessons in. There were a lot of blogs this week but they were they pretty much all the same because they mostly were about the episode 5 podcast. I again would like to apologize that this is late. I enjoyed reading all the blogs though and finding out what everyone else thought.

Discussion from Last Week

Here is what we discussed last week!!!
On Tuesday September 19th we started out class by watching a video about where the blues began. It was a film by Alan Lomax that talked about the blues in the beginning and talked about how the blues began in the Delta. The movie showed many artists playing the blues in different forms. After we stopped watching the video we began to discuss the movie. Some people enjoyed the film because they were able to hear the meaning and feeling of the songs. They also liked it because they were able to figure out why the songs have many repeats. After the movie was finished we began to discuss the second chapter of the Deep Blues. Someone brought up that they could not understand why the author added the story of James Coyner and how he killed a white man, his pregnant wife, their young son, and cut the baby out of the mother's womb. One person thought maybe the author was trying to get across the contreversy between whites and blacks. We did not get to finish the conversation so we said we were going to finish the conversation on Thursday!
Thursday we got to class and Nic had a ton of annoucements to give us. First Nic told us that we would be meeting in the library on Tuesday the 25th to learn how to get/ search books etc. in the library. He told us we were to meet in the lab on the third floor. Then Nic told us that instead of doing a biography on a musician he wants us to do a biography on a song (roots music song). He would like us to try and choose a song by Tuesday next week. Then someone asked when it was actually due and it is due in November. Then Nic annouced that Open Mic night was thursday night at 9:00PM and that he would be performing. After all the annoucements we had a choice of continuing our conversation about the James Coyner Story and why it is there or about Jamboree. We decided to discuss Jamboree. First we went over all the details about Jamboree. We discussed the times and how we each need to work a half an hour at the booth plus we need to do something as a class. So someone asked Nic what other groups had done in the past. He listed some ideas and we actually got an idea from the list of ideas. We decided to do junk band. Then someone brought up that we could do a battle of the bands with the other section of the FYS. We decided that we would do a junk band from 2:00 - 3:00 in Edison Hall. Then someone brought up that maybe we could make our own instruments or have people make instruments during the jamboree. Then time ran out and we decided to continue our discussion on thursday after the library session on Tuesday!

First Assignment

Why did you sign up for a roots music fys?
I chose the music roots fys because i have always enjoyed listening to different kinds of music and i also because i thought it would be interesting to discuss different types of music with other people and see what they thought instead of just knowing what i thought. i also thought it would be an opportunity to hear new music from different states and cultures.
If you could take five pieces of music with you to a desert island what would they be?
The first piece that i would take is "Don't worry about a thing," by SHEdaisy because this song would make me not worry so much about anything and this song also seems to calm me down when i am worried about something. I also would choose this song because it is one of my favorite songs because of the nice words in the song and because it is such mellow song.
The second song i would bring is "The Promise," by Plus One because of my christian background and i think that this song describes how i feel as christian best and on a desert island i would have a reminder of my christian background.
The third piece i would chose is " Respect," by Aretha Franklin because she is my hero i just love her music and it would help me from going bored on a desert island because i love to sing to that song.
The fourth piece of music i would bring is "Dancing in the Moonlight" because i love the jazzy part of this song. I also would choose this song because it would give me something to do because i love dancing to this song because it has such an awesome rhythm and because it has such a catchy tune.
The last piece of music i would bring is "Just Because" by brenda lee. i would bring this song because it would remind me of home. On a desert island i would definitely need a reminder of home so i would not get homesick. I also would bring it because this song makes me laugh so hard when i listen to it.
What's a piece of music you associate with a parent or grandparent?
A song that i associate with my grandmother is "Just because," by Brenda Lee. I associate this song with my grandmother because when i was younger i went to this concert in the park with my grandmother in her home town. When we went to the concert me and cousin didn't really want to go to the concert because we knew it was oldies. My grandma went up to the band guy and asked him to play this song and me and my cousin laughed because the words were so funny and my grandma sang the song in this most annoying voice and i remember that after the concert we sang that song for hours and hours doing different voices and changing the words. We still to this day when me and cousin get together to see my grandma we walk into her house singing "Just Because," and she just laughs.
If we all decided to change the national anthem with a new song, and everyone agreed that you got to choose, what would reccommend?
If i got to choose i would reccommend the song, America the Beautiful because it describes America, and because it let's people know about how beautiful our country is. I would also chosose this song because to me it describes how our people feel about America now instead of how someone felt after a explosion thousands of years ago.
What kind of music related stuff do you do?
I have sung in many choirs in the course of my lifetime. I used to play the piano but i was never very good so i quit. I also played the clarinet in band during elementary school but i quit because i started up the piano.
Given the readings and what you know about govenor Blanco, if you had a chance to ask her any questions what would one of them be?
i would ask her if throughout her life in politics, teaching and being a mom if she ever used something special from her cajun background and what in particular?