Grad School Projects, Work, Cello, Personal Update
For those of you still following this blog, here are a few updates:
1.) I'm writing my first ethnography paper. Some of you (like myself) may not be familiar with the terminology. Basically an ethnography paper is a primarily social study of a culture. It can be simply a study of the culture of your work place, the culture of your family, etc. My paper can only be 10 pages, so it's going to have to be a micro study.
My research question is, "What is the role of the creative band for young people in a struggling economy?"
I was drawn to pursue this question when I became involved in my first band this summer. I replied to a Craigslist posting in July, met the leaders, and was accepted into the band as improvisational cellist and vocalist. We practiced steadily through the summer and even had a gig in August. Four of the six of us are visual artists with sobering levels of music training, while the other two actually have been playing an instrument for much longer. We're all about the same age and are in it to have fun. However, I noticed that absolutely none of us holds a full time job. I wondered, why are young people drawn to be in a band, despite a somewhat steady era of economic hardships?
I have chosen to do my research by interviewing and observing practice sessions and live gigs of my friend Randy's band, Medicant Downline. Medicant Downline is classified as industrial and has been around for about 8 years, although for the last two they had ceased to perform as Randy was going through a lot of personal trials. But they're back! And they had a lot to say! At this point I am almost done collecting data, and I'm not going to tell you everything just yet, but I have realized that the state of the economy does nothing to keep people from making music together. I daresay it practically feeds the urge to create music, and that the music industry is certainly changing in ways that allow the artist to directly connect to their the fans.
2.) I started another blog. This one is specifically about Messages from Dreams. It simply started off as a "Discovery Group" project in my grad school course. Our large theme was SURVIVAL, and my group chose narrowed that down to, "Survival through Spiritual Enlightenment". One of my group members is very spiritually connected, and has acted (and still continues actually), to act as a spiritual guide for me. She insisted that I could receive messages from my higher self through the dream world, because of my abilities as a lucid and vivid dreamer. You can check out my adventures and messages by reading my other blog if you so desire. All of the entries are back dated, as I like to let several months settle between dreams and messages, especially if they are rather lengthy and filled with many symbols. http://messagesfromdreams.blogspot.com/
3.) I've nearly worked at my small retail store for a year. I have gotten a lot better at creating outfits within the fashion line, applying makeup (and learning the secret cocktail of prestige vs drug store makeup for people with adult acne), getting the absolute best deal possible with store promotions/coupons, speaking up about promotions regardless of customer reactions and generally helping people to the best of my ability. Which means, I'm going to be applying for a sales lead position. I want to start as the holiday sales lead, to make more money at the end of the year. If anything, it'd be an interesting addition to my resume of temporary teaching positions that lasted as long as 5 months. I'm not sure what that means to a hiring agency or a school, but if I can survive more than a year in retail purgatory while still looking for a teaching position, that may say something about my ability to work with customers aka parents.
4.) I'm also still deeply in love with the cello. During the summer, I was a bit more proactive with recording rifts and putting small experiments together in Garage Band. (I think, ever since I started collecting data for my ethnography, that has waned slightly). I additionally collect sounds from nature, and include them in these experiments.
http://soundcloud.com/daring-danielle/samples-cello2
I have majorly spent the month of September learning extended hand position (or rather training my tendons and ligaments to stretch to extended position), using a metronome while playing, as well as learning the bass part to Rasputina's song, "Mayfly". I have a feeling that once I get through the data on my project, and my hand stretches more naturally, I will have a surge of creativity. (I also purchased a keyboard from a friend, and I play around with that as well. I find it is much easier for me to create minor rifts on the keyboard, write down the notes, and then find them on the cello. It will make for more interesting pieces as well with the two instruments!).
1.) I'm writing my first ethnography paper. Some of you (like myself) may not be familiar with the terminology. Basically an ethnography paper is a primarily social study of a culture. It can be simply a study of the culture of your work place, the culture of your family, etc. My paper can only be 10 pages, so it's going to have to be a micro study.
My research question is, "What is the role of the creative band for young people in a struggling economy?"
I was drawn to pursue this question when I became involved in my first band this summer. I replied to a Craigslist posting in July, met the leaders, and was accepted into the band as improvisational cellist and vocalist. We practiced steadily through the summer and even had a gig in August. Four of the six of us are visual artists with sobering levels of music training, while the other two actually have been playing an instrument for much longer. We're all about the same age and are in it to have fun. However, I noticed that absolutely none of us holds a full time job. I wondered, why are young people drawn to be in a band, despite a somewhat steady era of economic hardships?
I have chosen to do my research by interviewing and observing practice sessions and live gigs of my friend Randy's band, Medicant Downline. Medicant Downline is classified as industrial and has been around for about 8 years, although for the last two they had ceased to perform as Randy was going through a lot of personal trials. But they're back! And they had a lot to say! At this point I am almost done collecting data, and I'm not going to tell you everything just yet, but I have realized that the state of the economy does nothing to keep people from making music together. I daresay it practically feeds the urge to create music, and that the music industry is certainly changing in ways that allow the artist to directly connect to their the fans.
2.) I started another blog. This one is specifically about Messages from Dreams. It simply started off as a "Discovery Group" project in my grad school course. Our large theme was SURVIVAL, and my group chose narrowed that down to, "Survival through Spiritual Enlightenment". One of my group members is very spiritually connected, and has acted (and still continues actually), to act as a spiritual guide for me. She insisted that I could receive messages from my higher self through the dream world, because of my abilities as a lucid and vivid dreamer. You can check out my adventures and messages by reading my other blog if you so desire. All of the entries are back dated, as I like to let several months settle between dreams and messages, especially if they are rather lengthy and filled with many symbols. http://messagesfromdreams.blogspot.com/
3.) I've nearly worked at my small retail store for a year. I have gotten a lot better at creating outfits within the fashion line, applying makeup (and learning the secret cocktail of prestige vs drug store makeup for people with adult acne), getting the absolute best deal possible with store promotions/coupons, speaking up about promotions regardless of customer reactions and generally helping people to the best of my ability. Which means, I'm going to be applying for a sales lead position. I want to start as the holiday sales lead, to make more money at the end of the year. If anything, it'd be an interesting addition to my resume of temporary teaching positions that lasted as long as 5 months. I'm not sure what that means to a hiring agency or a school, but if I can survive more than a year in retail purgatory while still looking for a teaching position, that may say something about my ability to work with customers aka parents.
4.) I'm also still deeply in love with the cello. During the summer, I was a bit more proactive with recording rifts and putting small experiments together in Garage Band. (I think, ever since I started collecting data for my ethnography, that has waned slightly). I additionally collect sounds from nature, and include them in these experiments.
http://soundcloud.com/daring-danielle/samples-cello2
I have majorly spent the month of September learning extended hand position (or rather training my tendons and ligaments to stretch to extended position), using a metronome while playing, as well as learning the bass part to Rasputina's song, "Mayfly". I have a feeling that once I get through the data on my project, and my hand stretches more naturally, I will have a surge of creativity. (I also purchased a keyboard from a friend, and I play around with that as well. I find it is much easier for me to create minor rifts on the keyboard, write down the notes, and then find them on the cello. It will make for more interesting pieces as well with the two instruments!).