Interview with Caller Chris Ricciotti

What is your background in Contra Dance? When did you start? Did you grow up doing it?

Started dancing a 6 yrs old in Coventry, RI. Coventry, RI at that time had a great, very vibrant dancing community. As a kid, I didn't take well to sports, but when I first heard the music of square dancing and discovered square dancing I was immediately drawn to it. I Started off dancing in competition, and eventually they ask me to call at the competitions. in old time style square dancing.
Started calling in competition. I did a lot of dancing when I was in 4H, and when I got kicked out of 4H, because I was of coarse too old, I wanted to continue dancing

What about the Gender Free Contra Dance?The Community behind it?

I discovered contra dance in 1984, and took to contra dancing in Rhode Island back when there was a dance community in Providence. When I got out of college he wanted to continue in contra dance, I discovered that I wanted to bring together two things about my self, my journey of discovery of being a gay man and contra dance. The Gender Free Contra Dance started in 1987, but it started out as Ladies and Gents. I began it in Providence and then it extended to Hartford. Eventually, the community were dissatisfied with the name of it (Ladies and Gents) and wanted something that would be more encompassing, something that everyone could identify with. That's why it is now called Gender Free. The community really wanted to take hold of how the dance was being defined to better represent themselves.

So is Gender Free Contra Dance only in Jamaica Plain?

No its everywhere, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, North Carolina...

Is this all the result of your started of Gender Free Contra Dance?

No, people would always get together and dance. What I did was development a consistent series where we would get together and dance every other week.

Why is Contra Dance important to the community (lgbt)? What draws people to contra dance?

Contra Dance attracts like minded people. It tends to attract people “outside of the mainstream.” It's a subculture, it attracts people within subcultures. a same subculture. It attracts people who put more importance on feeling good from being together rather than feeling good from what you buy for yourself. It's a group participatory event where you can actually touch each other, and its important because in the outside world it's not always safe to do that.

What about the Brown University Contra Dance? History With it?

The Brown University contra dance started with a group of young people who use to participate in the Providence contra dance when it was still running and decided to get together and start one at the university. When the Providence contra dance stopped running, people Started attending the Providence contra dance. I started sometime in the mid ninties. I believe Andy Grover (fiddler with white squall) was one of the students who helped start it. People would come in around 9:15. The more experienced older dancers would come in to dance early on, and as the night progressed the younger crowd would come in. The dance now has really changed. It's grown to be more consistent.

What about NEFFA?

NEFFA, New England Folk Festival, is a free form networking group that networks the different folk dance communities around New England. There are a number of different dance groups around. Boston has a very vibrant history of dance and dance community. Here there is Contra dance, traditional English and Scottish dancing , Scandinavian style dancing they all exist around the boston area. NEFFA happens every year, and it allows the dancing group to market and network with each other. Callers speak with other callers, dancers speak with other dancers, and musicians speak with each other.

For me, I do this, because it is a way for me to connect with people. It builds a community. It allows me to Network and be with people of like mind. Contra dance shows us the values of generations before us, Making own music, your own dancing, providing your own entertainment without needing it to come from somewhere else. In 1993, I got in my car and traveled across the country, and during that time, when I was away from home, what sustained me was meeting up with dancing communities across the country. Everywhere I would stop and meet up with a different group of dancers, and that allowed me to meet new people which has led to me being able to build bridges from across the country.

Feld

Feld discusses the "Africanization" of American music as parallel to the Afro-Americanization of African Music. Right off the bat, I would have to disagree with the notion of American music being "africanized" seeing as how most music genres considered American (rock, RnB, blues, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, soul) are simply rooted in African American culture, they were not original musics that increasingly became "africanized." He focuses on Paul Simon's album Graceland and the politics that surrounded is formation. While Paul Simon contributed greatly to exposing South African music to the west (the U.S. in particular), Feld had a problem with the power structure Simon had over the South African musicians. He felt as though Simon's work bordered on exploitation. Racial, social hegemony is obviously transcendent in the arts as it relates to industry. Feld presents a sort or back handed complement by praising Simon's contribution to South African music in monetary support but condemning him for handling the business aspect of the music (holding the copyrights). Feld did not provide a lot of detail outlining this situation, but I wonder if Simon's holding of the copyright was completely out of malice. Did the pros outweigh the cons in this situation?

Titon

Titon discusses the problems of character and plot representation in documentary film which is suppose to be a "real" and "accurate" representation of the subject at hand but often time follows and caters to the filmakers own agenda. He discusses modern non-fiction film as being a misrepresentation of reality through the actions of editing the material to fit a certain perspective, whether it is one of scorn, love, or nostalgia. Does this phenomenon of "altering" reality blur the genre of non-fiction? Should placing the label of "documentary" on a film automatically attribute everything the movie presents as fact?

Moore and Manuel

Moore and Manuel discuss Cuban music from the time of the Cuban revolution until now. Moore focus of the devolopment of music in Cuban. Directly after the Cuban revolution and introduction of Communism, Cuban artists and musicians had unlimited creative freedom, but this period soon came to an end with the destruction of major capitalist businesses like the casinos and the infiltration of government into all things artistic. Although artist were well-supported, their work was solely composed for the government. Provision by the government were reduced to none at all with the fall of the soviet union. This led Cuba into regaining some capitalist characteristics for money. Manuel discusses the development of salsa in the U.S. (Cuban reaction was timbales). Wrongful copyright practices were numerous during this period with the cut-off of Cuban artists from the U.S. Aren't these practices exemplary of many wrongful copyright crimes against minorities in the U.S. music industry during this period, both African Americans and Cuban Americans?

Waxer

Waxer discusses Cuban musics that were pervasive in the 20th century up until the Cuban revolution in the late 1950's. He begins by talking about the roots of Cuban music and noting that's it's style is representative of a transcendent style across the entire carribean (Haiti, the D.R., etc.) This is particularly true due to the immense presence of African culture in Carribean music due to the slave trade. Although Afro-cuban culuture is pervasive in most Cuban music including danzon, rumba, son (use of clave and montuno), and the bata rhythm, Afro-Cuban identity is often rejected. Is this a direct result of assimilation and colonialization of Cuban by American and European (Spain) culture?

Challenge Question

Jeff Titon writes that "The problem with being a participant observer is that you sometimes know too much. It is like not knowing the forest for the trees: the closer you are to a situation, the less of an overall view you have, and in order to address your project to an outside reader, you will need to imagine yourself an outsider, too" (2002. Worlds of Music. New York: Schirmer). Titon focuses on the study's audience, but what style of ethnography is most beneficial to the musical culture itself? Is the final product of ethnography really just a written project aimed at an "outside reader"?

I believe that efficiency in producing ethnographic research that benefits the culture of study itself is rooted in authenticity and ethics. In Kofi Agawu's article Representing African Music, he discusses the ethics of representation. In short, Agawu concludes that maintaining an ethical outlook while conducting research is one step to presenting ethnography that is “honest” to the culture of study. The definition of what is ethical is circumstantial, because it changes depending on the culture, atmosphere, and context of study. Agawu does site that “deception” can be somewhat of a necessary evil in ethnography when it comes obtaining certain materials of study crucial to the project, but the use of “deception” in research is just as circumstantial as considering ethics. In chapter 10 of IN: Worlds of Music, Jeff Titon discusses ethics as an important aspect of ethnography. He states, “...think carefully about the impact of what you propose to do. Always ask permission. Understand that people have legal rights to privacy and to how they look, what they say, and what they sing... be honest with yourself and with the people you study...” The importance of respecting the culture of study is clear in Titon's statement. First and foremost, a person's image and privacy must be respected and not exploited against their will. Ethics is one step toward benefiting a culture while conducting ethnography.

Titon uses the oxymoron participant-observer to denote a helpful way for producing research that is more authentic. In Gregory Barz's article Confronting the Fieldnote in and Out of the Field, he explores the act of being a participant-observer and how this practice should be documented in research. A researcher must conduct his/her studies both while immersed in the culture and on the sidelines. Efficiently recording research as a participant is linked to the phenomenon of epoche'. Epoche', the act of releasing oneself totally to the moment without inhibition, allows one to really absorb their experiences in a culture. Recording one's feelings and actions in moments of epoche' relays a side to the research unable to be obtained by mere observation. Becoming a participant-observer is one step toward producing research that is more authentic.

The audience of ethnography/ ethnomusicology can most readily be separated into two groups, ethnographers/ ethnomusicologist and “other.” In most cases, people who belong to the culture of study are grouped into the “other” category and regarded as such. Regardless of how ethically one interacts with the culture of study or how authentically the study is portrayed , the relaying of research materials to an audience all comes down to the writing. Who is the reader? Like most research, ethnographic and ethnomusicology studies cater to the esoteric. Without a doubt, writing style and terminology will be most relatable to researchers in the same nook. Whether or not this phenomenon is beneficial to the culture of study depends on the circumstances. Titon talks about providing a copy and explanation of the research to people involved in the study. He suggests that this is an ethical way to inform the culture itself regardless for whom the research was intended.

Interview with Ned Quist of Brown University Contra Dance and the band White Squall

David: What is your musical background? What bands or ensembles have you been apart of?

Ned: Well, I started playing guitar in high school, and I played in a rock band like almost everyone did at that time. I also played saxophone in my high school band. I taught myself guitar for the first five years before I received classical training while I was in college. Most of my training has been classical oriented, so I'm probably one of those people who wouldn't be considered authentic (laughs). I started playing this kind of music (folk) when I got here (Brown University) and joined Jeff Titon's Old Time String Band. He knew I played guitar and asked me to join. That's where I met a lot of other people who played at the Contra Dance dances. They asked me to try it so I did. I also met Andy Grover, a recent Brown Graduate (2001), who played fiddle, and we ended up playing gigs together at Contra Dance.

D: So is guitar your main instrument?

N: Well, also I play a lot of saxophone. I used to take sax lessons from an eighty year old nun who was one heck of a sax player. In college I took lessons with David Starobin the founder of Bridge Records. I also took lessons with Ray Chester who was at Peabody where I worked at the time.

D: So how did White Squall come about, and how did you guys get involved in Contra Dance?

N: It came about with me (guitar), my wife Alice (percussion), and Andy (fiddle). Alice were actually both dancers; we had been dancing at the Contra Dance since we had been dating. We met Andy at the dances through a member of the Old Time String Band.

D: So has Contra Dance always been with the Brown Community?

N: Contra Dance is a bit of a movement? You should see a movie called Paid To Eat Ice Cream which is about the history of Contra Dance which has been around for the longest. It goes back to English contra dancing, and it was very much a rural thing here in New England. It has spread all over the world now. I remember a while back when I was in England, I went to a country *edit* dance, and it was completely different from what we do here. It was much more stylized versus contra dance here in New England which is much more athletic and “flirtatious.” The English musicians also tended to use more sheet music in their performance than we do here.

D: I noticed that your wife used a lot of different instruments in the performance. Can you tell me about those?

N: I don't know if the instruments we use are considered authentic contra dance instruments or not. Around here you can utilize pretty much anything in performance. The frame drum she used is an Irish instrument called a Bodhran. It's pretty authentic for playing gigues and reels which is mostly what we play. We play gigues, reels, marches, and a few waltzes. Her Bodhran is actually made by a man in Cumberland, RI who makes the instruments and teaches lessons which is how she learned. You can see and hear the same music played at sessions down at Ri Ra.

D: What style of dances are typical here at the Contra Dance on campus? What is the Cajun Waltz in particular?

N: The Cajun waltz tends to be more shuffling. Depending on whose dancing, people who know the dance shuffle in a straight line and turn in corners rather than a circle like a more Viennese style waltz. They turn in right angles and make a square.

D: Who are the artists that the caller calls out before a dance? Are they the composer?

N: No, they are actually calling out the choreographer of the dance not who wrote the music. He names the choreographer and the name of the dance. The caller tells us what style of music he wants (reels, gigues, etc.) for the dance. Chris Ricciotti is an interesting caller because he actually dances while he calls and does so very successfully. Callers are very particular about naming the choreographer. Tony Parks is one of the well known choreographers in this area. Boston has one of the most well-run contra dances I've ever seen which is the Gay and Lesbian Contra Dance at Jamaica Plain. Many Boston contra dances often have a fund-raising approach where people actually sponsor dances.

D: So is there an umbrella organization over contra dance in New England?

N: Not particularly, but there is NEFFA (New England Folk Festival Association). NEFFA is coming up in April, and there will be tons of contra dancing as well as many of the bands like Wild Asparagus and Nightingale which are two famous bands in the area, but each individual dance throughout New England is its own association which does its own booking and organizing.

D: So do people come far for the Brown Contra Dance?

N: Yes, people come from all over, but it is mostly students. Brown of course is a “crunchy-granola” type of place, and there are a lot of contra dancers here. A lot of kids come with their parents for contra dancing and a lot of students here grew up contra dancing especially those from New England.

D: What is Contra Dancing for you? Is it a hobby? Is it a side gig?

N: Well, its definitely not a vocation or a job for me, but it's fun. It's not a lot of money, but you do it because you like it and you get enough money to pay your expenses for it (instrument costs, travel and what not). It's also good to hear people enjoy themselves and to have fun.

Turino

Turino discusses Peruvian music of the Andes, particularly that of the Aymara in Conima. Turino presents Aymara culture as fundamentally based on how the society functions as a whole which is "as one." From what I gathered. The Aymara are staunchly rooted in the notion of "all for one, and one for all." The community is meant to function for the sake of itself, and actions that divide the community in favor of individualism are discouraged. The thematic motif of binary symmetry is present in Aymara art, music, and even cooking. This binary symmetry mimics the pattern of the sun in that everything radiates from one central source to create one functioning system. In Aymara music, performers work as a whole to produce one musical system and thus essentially play as "one performer." The modus operandi for composition is very intriguing in that one person's idea is never truly attributed to them. Although one performer or composer may be sought out for their talents, it is seen as prideful to claim their own creativity. Also, the musical community is encouraged to alter or re-write a composer's music whoever they see fit to meet the majority's own tastes. Basically, NO DIVAS ALLOWED. In American culture, we champion virtuosity in all walks of life (arts, academics, etc.) Specifically in the U.S., the capitalist attitude favors individualism, and in the arts, we usually see individualism as essential for cultivating one's artistic identity. I feel as though our attitudes toward individualism favors the artist versus the community in a way that is not seen in Aymara culture. Does the Aymara attitude toward the arts truly allow for cultivation of individual creativity?

Agawu and Waterman

(This was totally sitting on my desktop when I thought I had submitted it)
Agawu and Waterman both discuss the state of African music as it is viewed outside of the continent. They come to the conclusion that African music has been pin-holed into becoming a generalized genre that reflects how it is portrayed in film/ musics in western countries. Agawu is more concerned with the aspect of crossover and how the vast variety of music throughout the continent, each with its own cultural and historical significance for the hundreds of African ethnic groups is deduced to one or two generalized styles that are perceived, in the west, as African. This deduction has resulted in stereotyping African music as being some form of a rhythmic, tribal-like, tune. Waterman delves into the influence of African musics on American music by way of black Americans. He discusses notions of African-esque musics as being ideally rhythmic in character. Agawu makes the statement that not enough African ethnomusicologist are presenting African music in a way that combat's this phenomenon in the west. Is this really the responsibility of African ethnographers? Aren't Western ethnographers knowledgeable enough to combat the in authenticity of African music in the West?

Fieldnotes: 3/5/2010

Last night was the first contra dance meeting of the month. The band was white squall who consisted of Andrew Grover (fiddle), Ned Quist, yes Ned Quist at Brown in Orwig who plays guitar, and Ned's wife who plays precussion. She utilized some very interesting instruments which I will question her about later on in my interview with them. The caller (the person responsible for calling out the steps of the dance) for the night was Chris Ricciotti, and the dance took place in Sayles Hall. The attendance was fairly large with a 50/50 mix of students and non-students consisting of a vast variety of ages (even some pre-teens). I will admit that I entered the situation not wanting to participate in the dance , but several of the participants were not having it, lol! So, I joined in, and it was very enjoyable. One woman remarked, "How on earth can you study it without doing it!" It wasn't that I was never going to participate, but I didn't plan on doing it so soon. Better now than never I guess. In a conversation that I had with one of the participants (A middle aged woman), she said that the contra dance was therapeutic for her and that it served as a wonderful outlet during a trialing time in her life.

All of the songs were in 4/4 time which was ideal for the types of moves involved in the dance. The style was reminiscent of Appalachian/ Bluegrass/ Cajun tunes which all derived from an American adapted mix of folk Scottish/Irish/ British music. Two of the song's names I recorded were Ricky Hill's City Swing and Ted Sheneller (?) Love and Kisses. Most of the dances took place with 2 lanes of dancers. Each lane had two rows made up of dancing pairs across from one another. One dance consisted of everyone in a circle. The following are a few bits of dance vocabulary used in the contra dance that night:

hands four- four people hold hands in a circle
swing - swinging/turning in a circle with your partner
promenade- take one of your partner's hands in the back and one in the front and
walk them in a line
turn 'em round- turn partner in a circle
allemande- *to be defined when I get a better definition*
return to the one you left behind- return to your partner

Wong

Deborah Wong discusses Asian American musical tastes in relation to the plethora of American music genres. She centers the article around an interview she conducted with colleague Rodney Ogawa. Rodney discusses how his musical tastes evolved with age and how that music correlated to his Japanese American background. Wong churns the interview to make a bigger point about how Asian Americans' cultural tastes fit into American racialized culture. Here she focuses on the racialization of music. Wong feels as though Black and White are the only to cultures represented on the American music scale, and that other cultures like Asian Americans have musical tastes that lie somewhere in between. The title "Finding an Asian American Audience" is suggesting that music in America is never directly "marketed" towards Asian Americans (which further proves her point). This issue of Asian American musical tastes could have been better explored if more than one interview was sighted or if Wong had spoken more from personal experience, but overall the material was extremely stimulating.

In the article, Wong makes a statement that essentially says that the music itself is never what draws in the listener, but it's the cultural connection (if there is one). I would have to heartily disagree that this is the case ALL the time. Obviously culture has a direct connection to taste, but how domineering is this connection overall to musical tastes?

Agawu

In the Ethics of Representation, Kofi Agawu discusses the need for taking ethics into consideration when conducting fieldwork. He considers ethics to be important for conducting research that maintains an "honest" relationship with those who are being researched, but at the same time, he denotes "deception" as being a necessary evil in the overall process. He sees upholding ethics as a problematic to researches who continue to research other cultures from a prospective dictated by there own background. He doesn't mention epoche' as a means of correcting the problem, but he does recall several experiences where ethics are either compromised or applied in his researched.
One experience that fascinated me was the occurrence of him asking to film the drum. Here he remembered feeling as if in that instant, the the Peki saw him as "other" (a spy) rather than a participant in the culture. Is this the deception Agawu was talking about?

Berger

Berger explored the use of phenomenology as a means of obtaining more "accurate" well rounded research in ethnomusicology. He felt as though modern ethnomusicology still retained too much "colonialism" in thought and process. In his experience, romantic view were much to prevalent in how many ethnographers relayed their subjects in research, this phenomenon resulted in exotification and hegemony within much of the ethnographic research.
Question: Berger claims that although and ethnographer's perspective can come close, it can never truly provide and authentic view of the culture of study; if this is true, does this apply to ethnographers who can have a background in more than one culture (ex: Americans studying popular American music)?

SEM history

The journal Ethnomusicology was essentially started to forge a more visible community amongst ethnomusicologists and to promote the field. Apparently, early 1950's music ethnographers lacked umbrella organizations as a means of support for researches. Even worse, ethnomusicology education was scarce at the university level, so students aspiring to enter the field were left without resources on how to engage in the field.

Particularly in Germany, many researcher/ professors left during the Nazi regime thus leaving the country nearly dry of ethnographers (vol. 1, no. 1). To somewhat combat the shortage of support for ethnomusicology at the university level, the journal started a list of available courses at various universities (Survey of Courses in Ethno-Musicology and Related Subjects). The journal was also sent to various institutions thus introducing it to students interested in entering the field. This survey as well as the Bibliography section of the journal provided reading references on various topics relating to current ethnographic research. Eventually, the Survey of Courses stopped being produced in the journal (fizzled out by the late 50's) and was replaced by an even better resource, articles and dissertations. Because the journal reached its intended goal of fostering a community amongst ethnomusicologists, it was able to replace rudimentary listings of “news and notes” with feasible research material. By the 1960's it was a full fledged journal serving as a viable resource for the ethnographic community.

One interesting aspect of the ethnomusicology journal was its avid inclusion of art forms other than music. Even the early-on “Survey of Courses” sited materials having to do with dance and the visual and literary arts. Subjects like Folklore, Folk-Literature, and Primitive Art were referenced as being important to ethnomusicology education. Dance in particular was seen as almost inseparable from the study of ethnomusicology (vol. 1, no. 7). The aspect of performance would be of more importance in fieldwork when including dance in the research. A number of articles relayed ethnomusicology reseach that included dance as a crucial subtopic. Some of those include Song and Dance in St. Lucia; Dance-Music Interdependence; Ponca Dances, Ceremonies and Music; Dance, Music and the Daily Bread; Teaching and Research in Ethnic Dance; Folk Dances of the USSR; and The Development of Taos Dance. The 1961 no.3 issue even lists an entire collection of Dance reviews.

Barz and Titon

Both the Barz and Titon readings thoroughly informed the reader about the importance of utilizing materials (notebook, recorder, video, etc.) to conduct research. While Titon gave a very informative run-down of some key essentials while engaging in ethnographic fieldwork, I found Barz's questioning of the usefulness of fieldnotes very interesting.

The two main themes standing out in the Barz article are the reliance upon oral and auditory "documentation" versus reliance upon text and the function of the fieldnote as secondary or primary to the end result in research. Barz often talks about the notion of an "original" experience, and from what I gathered, he feels as though the fieldnote is one way to move towards relaying that notion to the audience. At one point, he recalled a conversation with Mzee Masanga in a fieldnote. He denotes it as an "innocent"/"original" experience, because both his words and thoughts were reflected in the same setting, and this was achieved using text. Later in the article, Barz somewhat rebukes fieldnotes as a necessity when he suggests that conveying an experience through text might be a hindrance to having a true connection. He even sites anthropologist Michael Jackson as saying that only one's senses can truly allow one to revel in an experience, but Barz doesn't completely dismiss the power of fieldnotes which brings me to the next topic, how important are field notes?

Barz presents two diagrams that place fieldnotes as an important conduit to the final ethnographic interpretation. He feels as though, although fieldnotes aren't completely necessary (the interpretation can be drawn directly from experience), they are a beneficial anchor for the overall research, but he claims that fieldnotes are much more beneficial to the ethnographer than the reader.

I would have to disagree that fieldnotes are majorly more benefical to the ethnographer than the reader. Of course, unpolished (or as he stressed without the use of headnotes) fieldnotes are fairly useless in a final interpretation because they're out of context, but if fieldnotes are presented in a fashion similar to how they were presented in the Barz article, they provide a very rich narrative which heavily enforces the reader's perspective when viewing the research. If anything, wouldn't the presence of fieldnotes make the material (including the interpretation) more objective, because the reader has a chance to derive his/her own interpretations from the text depicting the experience pre-interpretation? An interpretation from experience alone would be sufficient but wouldn't providing the fieldnotes make for a more "accurate" account of the research on behalf of the reader?

Fieldwork: Contra Dance Society

I will be conducting research on the Contra and Folk Dance Society here at Brown. It consists of both students and people throughout New England. Here's a link to their description page. http://students.brown.edu/Body_and_Sole/contra.htm

My 24 hour Log #1

9:40-11:00 am
While at home after waking up

preparing sequences of my own compositions (a flute sonata and a string quartet)
iTunes while getting dressed and checking email:
-Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald- “Take the A Train”
-Bach 3rd Cello Suite
-My roomate upstairs is playing what sounds like Lil' Wayne “I Milli”
-Chrisette Michelle- Best Of Me
-Chrisett Michelle- Love is You
-Dvorak Cello Concerto, Movement I
-Bach Mass in B Minor- I let it play until left

11:00am – 3:00pm

While in Steinert:
-I practiced modulation exercises, Stravinsky “Five Fingers”, and Prokofiev “Rain and the Rainbow”
-someone was playing a Mozart piano sonata
-a piano trio practicing some piece obviously from the Romantic Era, but I can't recall the composer
-a trumpeter practicing
-various pianist practicing music I can't quite hear well enough to decipher.

While in Orwig before my 2:00pm class:
-going over the sequences of my compositions with Professer Shapiro.
In Advanced Musicianship:
-Several modulation exercises on the piano using chromatic chords as the conduit for modulation.
-Arlene playing a two measure excerpt for dictation.

3:00-6:00pm

-While on my way from Owrig to Hatian Creole which meets in the Rock, I heard serveral cars bumping music: three hip-hop (I did not know the song) and one Rhianna “Live Your Life”
In Hatian Creole: two and a half hours

6:00pm – into the night

-Back at home: my next door roommate was playing some sort of Top 40 techno remix
-I took an hour nap: SILENCE
-When I woke up, I put my iTunes on random: Thelonius Monk “Blue Monk” and “It Don't Mean a Thing”
Went to a meeting
-Back home: My roommates and I watching Ru Paul's Drag Race, then Project Runway, various bumper music and what not for television programming.

Itunes in my room until bed while checking email and reading:
-Ravel “Tombeau de Couperin”
-Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1
-Tchaikovsky String Serenade
-Vaughan Williams's Partita for Strings Walton Sonata for String Orchestra
-Vaughan Williams Concerto Grosso
-Stravinsky Violin Concerto
-Handel Rinaldo “lascia ch'io pianga”
-Handel “venti turbini”, Corelli La Folia,
-Miles Davis “So What”
-Ellington “C Jam Blues”
-Ellington/Strayhorn “Lush Life”
-Sarah Vaughan “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
-Kirk Franklin “Love”
-Miles Davis Bitches Brew Album
-I let Bitches Brew run while I took a shower and got ready for bed “John McLaughlin” was on when I returned.
-Last song before posting this log: Erykah Badu “Orange Moon”

I'm on my way to bed...or maybe not