Extra Credit

For my extra credit project in my F-121 World Arts and Cultures class, I chose to do a documentary film review. From the website www.folkstreams.com, I watched a documentary called Living Texas Blues. This is a three part series, but because it was so interesting I decided to watch all three. All three parts take place in were filmed by Alan Govenar and deals with the effects that music, especially the Blues, has on people’s lives. The first part of the series is called Battle of the Guitars. Battle of the Guitars is about a Blues band that plays music inspired by the great T-Bone Walker. I especially found this interesting because we studied T-Bone Walker in my History of Rock and Roll class that I took in the Fall Semester. Part one focuses on the Blues band of Pete Mayes and Joe Hughes. Their band has two Blues guitars, one bass, one saxophone, drums, and a keyboard. There are an all black band and the film focuses on their performance for an all black audience. They are somewhat of a tribute band to T-Bone Walker, even though they play mostly their own music. The whole band dresses in nice tuxedos as another way to honor their hero, who would come out onto stage in an all white tuxedo with flashy jewelry. T-Bone Walker’s most famous song is titled “Call It Stormy Monday”. This song tells of the struggles that he goes through, along with many others in the black community. It goes on to say “Call it stormy Monday, and Tuesday’s just as bad. Wednesday is worse, and Thursday’s oh so sad.” He concludes by saying that the weekends they go out and play, and on Sundays they go pray. Being from a different era entirely, I can’t express what this song means to those who heard it then, but it is obvious it carries some weight.
The second part of the series is called Cigarette Blues. It opens with a black artist in Texas saying “Cigarettes…they’re killers.” Then the documentary talks about a sculpture of a huge mountain of cigarettes that the sculpture made with cigarettes that he single-handedly smoked himself. He died from lung cancer, and his dying wish was to send that sculpture to the American Cancer Society in order to display it and teach people what cigarettes do to people. The artist from the beginning is then shown performing his song “Cigarette Blues” about a woman he loved who was addicted to cigarettes. The song concludes with the woman dying and the man saying he will never love another woman who pulls out a cigarette on him. This section of the film ends with a very powerful image of someone filling the cartridges of a gun with cigarettes, showing how they are as lethal as bullets.
Part three of the series is called Deep Ellum Blues. This is the story of a place in Dallas, Texas called Deep Ellum. There are two men in the film, one white and one black, who discuss their lives living on Deep Ellum. Deep Ellum is strip of train track with stores on each side where all the thugs and thieves go to hang out and cause havoc. Both men discuss how people like Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde were always at Deep Ellum, so it seemed likely that the Blues were always there as well. They go on to discuss how this part of Dallas was different than other parts of the nation because the whites and blacks were closer there than anywhere else. The reason for this was the Blues. In the 1930’s, they said that everyone was playing the same music…and that music was seen as an outcast. Music serves as a device of unity here. The men discuss how whites would play at one place and blacks at another, but once they were finished, they all came out and joined together to hang out and party with each other for the night. But when the daylight broke, they all scurried away from each other and went back to the way things were. But for that brief moment, they were all equal. Color did not matter, only music.
Music can be a powerful tool. This documentary has successfully showed how much something like music can affect people’s lives. It can pay tribute to a legend, show others the truth, or join different people as one. I think that many people only see music as a talent, but it has not always been like that. In order to truly understand music, you have to actually hear what is going on. The Blues is arguably the most expressive and deepest form of musical expression, and this music does justice to its greatness. This has been my response to the Extra Credit opportunity.

Chapter 7 Reflection Question

After reading chapter seven in our book Living Folklore, I have been motivated and actually get out and experience a culture rather than discuss it out of a book. Page 202 of our book states that Ethnography is the process of studying and learning about groups of people, as well as the written description and analysis of those observations. If I had the resources necessary, I think that I would go to Europe to study art that I have enjoy over the past years. I would go to The Louvre first and study all the amazing works that they possess there. But then I would travel to Figueras, Spain so I could study my favorite artist, Salvador Dalí, in his hometown. I have always had an interest in his work, and I figure that there is no place better to study his life’s work than in the place where he created most of it. Before I left, I would figure out where exactly I should go to learn more about him. If there were any museums dedicated to him, I would find them and try to schedule a tour of it. Then I would try to find his birthplace, houses he lived in, and finally his grave. I figure that all of these places would have valuable information about him. Truly understand his art does not come from just starring at his paintings for hours, you have to figure out where he was coming from and what he may be trying to portray. This work would definitely be worth doing. In college, my goal is to study things that most interest me. I have the rest of my life to worry about money and bills, now is the time to discover what is central to me. I figure that if I were lucky enough to take this trip I could find out if art like Salvador Dalí’s is enough to persuade me to go to art school or something of that sort. If you never try, you will never know. I suppose that this goes for any other culture or tradition that I may want to understand better. You have to go and experience it for yourself in order to have any sort of inside knowledge about the subject matter.

Peer Response #2

For my second Peer Response post, I have decided to respond to Ian’s encounter with the Tibetan monks’ performance at the Unitarian Universalist Church. I found this very interesting because I have never heard of a live performance by Tibetan monks, especially at a church. He did a great job breaking down everything that occurred in this performance. Through the use of very descriptive adjectives, a clear picture was painted in my mind as to what exactly they sounded like. I especially liked the part where he took to time to explain to origins of the chanting using multiple tones at the same time. This technique came in a dream to the Tibetan lama Je Tzong Sherab Senge. He also discussed how they used trumpets call dung chen to give a solid tone and drums, gongs and cymbals to give a stronger rhythm to the chanting. I had no idea that Tibetan monks used trumpets in chanting, especially ones up to twenty feet long. My favorite part of the post was how at the end he distinguished this performance from a concert. He described how the monks’ outfits helped put the chants into the context of their lives, which I thought was very cool. Finally, to wrap up the response, he posted a video of a Tibetan monk performance to give the reader an idea of what exactly was going on which was very helpful. All in all, it was a nicely done analysis of an exotic performance. He was thorough and has peaked my interest in witnessing one of these events. This is my response to our second peer response for my Folklore F-121 World Arts and Cultures class.

Chapter 6 Reflection Question

Upon reading the text in chapter 6, I have decided which of the approaches to interpreting folklore is best for me. When I started this class, I had a brief understand of what folklore was and how it affected my everyday life. Now I have no trouble discussing folklore because I think the easiest way to interpret and understand it is through the Structuralism approach. I live a very structured life, so obviously it is easiest for me to recognize structure in folklore when I am trying to understand it. On page 179 of Living Folklore, it states that structure is more than the plot; it includes the characters and actions they perform, places, names, repeated words and phrases—any basic elements that make the story more recognizable. Although this is just talking about the fairy tale stories discussed previously in the section, it can easily be seen how structure can help understanding folklore universally. No matter where you are in the world, what language you speak, or festivals you celebrate; there is always a structure that makes it recognizable. F.A. de Caro says that a structural analysis reveals a basic, underlying patter which accounts for the whole. This is easy for me to understand, because I feel that if you can characterize certain aspects of something and see similarities and differences between separate events or groups, than you truly understand that subject. In my schoolwork, I go about studying and understanding through looking at similarities and differences, so naturally the structuralist approach comes to me easily. The book goes on to use the example of a knock-knock joke to show how words can be used as “markers” in order to indicate that the joke is about to start. If someone says “Knock-knock,” you automatically know what is coming. Just as if someone says “Once upon a time,” you are most likely going to hear a fairy tale. Structure is the most compelling to me because it connects all types of folklore. Whether it is ritual, performance, tradition, or anything else worldwide, it is easy to strip it down to its core and see how the structure can relate to a concept more essential to you. If I witness a religious event in some foreign country, there is a good chance I would be completely lost. But if I can look at it from a structuralist point of view, I will definitely be able to see something I can relate to. This has been a response to the Chapter 6 Reflection Question for my blog in F-121 World Arts and Culture