HUM 221: Final exam, due Monday, May 4

NOTICE: Our final exam is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday, May 4, in Dawson 220. I am giving to you as a takehome exam, but you have the option of coming in and writing it during the scheduled period. I will be there. -- pe


Since we don't have a functioning photocopy machine in Dawson Hall today, I am posting the final version of our final exam questions to the class blog so you'll have it now. -- pe

Humanities 221: Native American Cultures
Benedictine University at Springfield
Instructor: Pete Ellertsen pellertsen@sci.edu

Final Exam, Spring Semester 2009

Below are one 50-point essay question and two 25-point short essay questions. Please write at least four pages (1,000 words) on the 50-point essay and two pages (500 words) on each of the 25-point essays. This means you will write answers to all three questions below. Use plenty of detail from your reading in the textbook, the Internet and handouts I have given you, as well as class discussion, to back up the points you make. Your grade will depend both on your analysis of the broad trends I ask about, and on the specific detail you cite in support of your analysis Due at the regularly scheduled time for our final, at 10:30 a.m., Monday, May 4, in Dawson 220.

1 (50 points). In his Siskal & Ebert review of Sherman Alexie’s movie “Smoke Signals,” Gene Siskal said the movie “is not, in any way, a standard film involving Native Americans. [Victor and Thomas] are very specific characters, but not every utterance and every event in the film revolves around their Indian heritage. The result is to expand our notion of just who Native Americans are and can be.” But Gerald Peary, writing in The Boston Phoenix, said the movie has universal themes of “anguish, pain, anger, forgiveness, release,” and Alexie told Peary that audiences identify with Victor’s and Thomas’ quest. How well, in your opinion, does “Smoke Signals” transcend the boundaries of its Native American cultural milieu? To what degree does it qualify as a specifically Native American cultural expression? To what degree does it reflect universal feelings and values shared by people in many cultures? How do you relate to it in light of your own cultural background? Cite specific examples to support your points.

2A (25 points). What have you learned in HUM 221 that surprised you? What was your overall impression of Native American culture before you took the course? Has that impression changed as a result of your reading, class discussion and research for the course? What specific thing (or things) surprised you the most? Why? What do you think was the most important point made in the course. As always, cite specific evidence - in this case, while discussing what you learned in the course. Your grade on the essay will depend on the specific evidence you cite. So be specific.

2B (25 points). On a separate sheet you will be given a copy of the poem “Two Heart Clan” by Duane Big Eagle. Write a brief reader response in which you tell: (1) your response to and interpretation of the poem; (2) what in your cultural background, taste, attitudes, etc., makes you feel that way about it; and (3) what specific passages in the poem are grounded in Duane Big Eagle’s culture but still convey meaning across cultural boundaries. Be specific. Always be specific.

HUM 221: 'Smoke Signals' - how a movie gets made

In 1998 Sherman Alexie was interviewed for Cinaste magazine, which specializes in film criticism, about how he wrote "Smoke Signals" and adapted it for the movies. Alexie had a lot to say about how he wrote the story the movie is based on, how he quit drinking before he did the movie and how the characters changed because he quit, and some of the decisions he made about music, camera shots and the other details of making a movie. Some highlights:

* * *

Remember the young women driving a car that only works in reverse? It's an inside joke on the "rez." It's also kind of an ironic comment on the way Victor and Thomas set out on a mythic journey.

* * *

Mythic? Well, yeah. Alexie said in the interview he wrote the screenplay to tell "a very basic story, a road trip/buddy movie about a lost father, so I'm working with two very classical, mythic structures. You can find them in everything from The Bible to The Iliad and The Odyssey."

* * *

Alexie chose to do a road movie because it's one of the "cheapest kind[s] of independent film to make." So he adapted one of his stories to a screenplay about "these two odd buddies, sort of Mutt and Jeff on a road trip." Alexie says:

You can let the landscape tell a lot of story. And if it's a road/buddy movie, you're going to have a lot of music, and I always knew music was going to be a part of this. There are specific music cues in the screenplay about traditional music or rock and roll music, or a combination of the two. "John Wayne's Teeth," for example, is a combination of English lyrics and Western musical rhythms along with Indian vocables and Indian traditional drums. I also wanted to use Indian artists, so as not only to make a revolutionary movie for Indians, but also to use Indian artists on the soundtrack, which fits well with the road/buddy movie structure.

There's more in the interview. Let's take a look at it Monday.

HUM 221: Hints (industrial strength) for final exam

You'll have three questions:

A 50-point essay about "Smoke Signals." You'll be asked to decide how the stories of Victor and Thomas transcend the boundaries of their culture -- including "the rez" and jokes cars that only work in reverse because the other gears are stripped -- to explore universal themes ranging from forgiveness, fathers and sons, and Greek drama to "road movies." It'll be about the things we discuss in class today.

Question 2A (25 points). This is the same on all my finals: "What have you learned in HUM 221 that surprised you? What was your overall impression of Native American culture before you took the course? Has that impression changed as a result of your reading, class discussion and research for the course? What specific thing (or things) surprised you the most? Why? What do you think was the most important point made in the course. As always, cite specific evidence - in this case, while discussing what you learned in the course. Your grade on the essay will depend on the specific evidence you cite."

Question 2B (25 points). Will be about the poem “Two Heart Clan” by Duane Big Eagle in our poetry book, "Native American Poems and Songs." Here's the question: Write a 250- to 300-word reader response in which you tell: (1) your response to and interpretation of the poem; (2) what in your cultural background, taste, attitudes, etc., makes you feel that way about it; and (3) what specific passages in the poem are grounded in Duane Big Eagle’s culture but still convey meaning across cultural boundaries. Be specific. Always be specific.

HUM 221: 'Smoke Signals', forgiveness and our final exam

Gerald Peary, writing in The Boston Phoenix, has a review of "Smoke Signals" that's worth reading.

So let's do it before we watch the last of the movie. It brings out a theme we might miss otherwise, and I think it's important.

Peary says the movie is about forgiveness, among other things. "The movie climaxes," he says, "in a truly universal flood of anguish, pain, anger, forgiveness, release." In fact, Peary says he cried when he saw the movie. I didn't. And I'm not worried about you guys, either. If you want to cry, feel free. But don't feel like you have to. I'm not even bringing tissues to class Friday. OK?

But there's a deep issue here: How do we forgive our parents? Watch for this theme in the movie. How can Victor forgive his father? How do any of us forgive anyone? You'll have an opportunity to express yourself on this subject in writing, shall we say?, at final exam time.

Peary and Alexie talked about it during an interview in Boston. In the movie's last scene Thomas, off camera, will recite a poem by Boston poet Dick Lourie while Victor scatters his father's ashes into the river at Spokane. (Thomas and Victor's dad had been there in an earlier scene, a flashback. It all fits together if you let it.) The poem's title: "Forgiving Our Fathers." Alexie told Peary:

"I've seen the film hundreds of times, and the ending still gets me, maybe because I didn't write that poem, when the film goes from a simple, tender domestic drama and becomes spiritual, universal, tragic. The movie is about these Indians, but it seems to affect everyone's life. It's been astonishing: I had no idea of the huge, aching, father wound, of all genders, colors, races.

"After one screening, a woman told me, 'I'm going to call my father. I haven't talked to him in 12 years.' I saw her in the lobby on the phone."

All this will make sense when you see the movie.

Here's an excerpt from the poem you'll hear Thomas reciting:

forgiving our fathers

* * *

... maybe for leaving us too often or
forever when we were little maybe
for scaring us with unexpected rage
or making us nervous because there seemed
never to be any rage there at all

* * *
... for speaking only through layers of cloth
or never speaking or never being silent

in our age or in theirs or in their deaths
saying it to them or not saying it -
if we forgive our fathers what is left

A link to Thomas' voiceover at the end of "Smoke Signals" - "How Do We Forgive Our Fathers?"

'Teaching no fallback career'; Forum in NYTimes

Posted Sunday in the opinion section of The New York Times' website, a collection of short pieces on midcareer classroom teachers and their expectations. Not

"What does it take to become a teacher," ask the Times' editors, "let alone a good one?"

Answers from:

Pam Grossman, professor of education
Patrick Welsh, teacher
Tom Moore, teacher
Michael Podgursky, economist
Kenneth J. Bernstein, teacher and blogger.

And 85 comments (as of 11 a.m. CDT on Monday). Some of the forum comments are more incisive that the experts' thoughts.

HUM 221: 'Smoke Signals' - some questions and a background link

The questions are basically the same ones you asked yourself Friday as we watched Sherman Alexie's 2001 lecture at Rutgers University-Newark. I'll copy them below, and you can scroll down a couple of posts for more information about it. The questions (lightly edited):

1. How are Alexie's life experiences reflected in his writing. What do you think he wants his movie audiences to experience? What's his message?

2. Alexie's mother was Spokane Indian, and his father was Coeur d-Alene. How is his Native American background reflected in the movie? Would you say he's a Native American screenwriter or a writer who happens to be Native American?

3. How do you, as a white or black American, react to what he says? If you have Native heritage in your family, does that affect the way you feel about him? If not, does that affect the way you feel? How many of his themes -- affect you as a moviegoer? In your opinion, is he talking about American Indians or human nature?

If you suspect I'm leading up to the final exam with these questions, you're exactly right.

Here's a link to the page on Coeur d'Alene culture and history on the Native-Languages website. It begins:

As a complement to our Coeur d'Alene language information, here is our collection of indexed links about the Coeur dAlene tribe and their society. Please note that Coeur dAlenes and other American Indians are living people with a present and a future as well as a past. Coeur d'Alene history is interesting and important, but the Coeur d'Alene Indians are still here today, too, and we try to feature modern writers as well as traditional folklore, contemporary art as well as museum pieces, and the life and struggles of today as well as the tragedies of yesterday.

Good advice for us, too, as we watch "Smoke Signals" and get ready for the final exam in HUM 221.

HUM 221: 'Smoke Signals' -- reviews

For your viewing enjoyment, some reviews of "Smoke Signals," the 1998 movie based on Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories titled "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."

From the Rotten Tomatoes movie review website, this plot summary:

Synopsis: Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-A-Fire are brought together by Victor's father who saves Thomas from a fire that destroys his house and kills his parents. In close proximity all their lives on the Coeur D'Alene Indian reservation in Idaho, the boys could not be more different. Victor is the extrovert who excels at basketball and Thomas is the savant who lives with his grandmother after the death of his parents. The journey the two young men take to the home of Victor's estranged father in far off Arizona brings out of the past the remarkable events that brought them together.

You can see how Alexie takes material from his life, changes it around and uses it his art.

This excerpt from the Siskel & Ebert review on TV June 28, 1998, featuring Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, sums up the way I feel from previewing parts of the movie:

Siskel: Obviously, Smoke Signals is not, in any way, a standard film involving Native Americans. These are very specific characters, but not every utterance and every event in the film revolves around their Indian heritage. The result is to expand our notion of just who Native Americans are and can be. This thoroughly entertaining film Smoke Signals could turn out to be a milestone in Native American cinema. It could become the equivalent of the black cinema's She's Gotta Have It by Spike Lee in terms of contemporizing characters. Obviously, I'm giving a strong recommendation to Smoke Signals.

Ebert: I loved it, too. I'll tell you, Gene, the interesting thing here is that, for once, I felt I was seeing real Native Americans everyday, talking to each other, living life, without all kinds of filters of history and tradition and archetypes and stereotypes between me and the screen. These are just two people.

Siskel: People first!

Ebert: And that was really refreshing. And the acting is lots of fun, especially the smaller of the two actors, who can't stop talking and is really engaging.

Just two people ... and people first ... and that is refreshing.

Janet Maslin's review in The New York Times (June 26, 1998) says the movie's stories "describe a contemporary American Indian culture coming to terms with its past in offbeat, unexpected ways. These range from casual asides about George Armstrong Custer to the patter of the reservation's radio station, where "It's a good day to be indigenous!" is a way to greet the morning."

Peter Travis, reviewing the movie in Rolling Stone (July 17, 1998), says:

When it comes to American Indians, Hollywood either trades in Injun stereotypes or dances with Disney. Forget that. Smoke Signals, written and directed by Indians, also casts Indians as Indians. "No Italians with long hair," says Sherman Alexie, 31, the Indian poet, novelist and short-story writer who brings a scrappy new voice to movies with his first screenplay. And what a comic, profane and poetic voice it is. Alexie risks pissing off the PC [politically correct] cavalry as he explores the humor and heartbreak of being young and Indian and living on a reservation ("the rez") at the end of the twentieth century.

Peter Stack, movie critic for The San Francisco Chronicle (Jule 3, 1998), said the movie "looks at Indian life in a down-to-earth yet irreverent way that focuses on its engaging characters." But more importantly, he adds, it "also clicks as an on-the-road adventure with Victor and Thomas playing off each other." Stack says:

The sullen, skeptical Victor is clearly annoyed by his sidekick's wacky stories and dorky way of dressing. He urges Thomas to get cooler clothes and affect a tough-guy swagger -- ``you gotta look like a warrior,'' he says.

But Thomas is an irrepressible spirit whose talk is more than nattering -- he has an uncanny ability to seize on wisdom at the same time he's going for a cheap laugh.

I think you could say the same thing about Sherman Alexie.

HUM 221: In-class journal on Sherman Alexie

In class Friday we will watch a 53-minute talk by Sherman Alexie at Rutgers University-Newark in 2001. He talked about everything from literature to sports mascots, the "commodification" of Native American art, the state of American society, what and why and how he writes. We will have to begin screening immediately in order to fit it all in, so I have made out some questions to help you focus on themes that will appear on the final exam. Please answer them on the back of the question sheet and turn it in at the end of the hour. I'll return it to you before finals.

1. What does Alexie say about his life as a writer (including movie screenplays)? Listen for him to say why he writes, what kinds of things he writes about (and why), how his own life experiences are reflected in his writing. What does he want his readers (or movie audiences) to experience? What's his message?

2. Alexie's mother was Spokane Indian, and his father was Coeur d-Alene. How is his Native American background reflected in his writing? In his views on society? Wpould you say he's a Native American writer or a writer who happens to be Native American?

3. How do you, as a white or black American, react to what he says. If you have Native heritage in your family, does that affect the way you feel about him? If not, does that affect the way you feel? How many of his themes -- or other things he talks about -- affect you as a reader or listener? In your opinion, is he talking about American Indians or human nature?

Publisher's blurb on Trygve Gulbranssen

You are here: Home / Authors / Aschehoug / Aschehoug Fiction / Gulbranssen, Trygve http://www.aschehougagency.no/authors/aschehoug/aschehoug_fiction/gulbranssen_trygve

Gulbranssen, Trygve
Trygve Gulbranssen (1894-1962) was a well-known and respected sports journalist, as well as a businessman, and later a farmer.

The books Beyond Sing the Woods, The Wind from the Mountains and No Way Around, are often referred to as The Bjørndal Trilogy or simply The ‘Beyond Sing the Woods’ Trilogy. It is a family chronicle from the 1700s.

["Beyond Sing the Woods" and "The Wind for the Mountains" are the ones that were in my family. I don't think the third was as popular, at least in America.]

Sherman Alexie's world: Two TV interviews

We'll continue to get into Sherman Alexie's world with two television interviews. We'll also look at a couple of his poems, "Poverty of Mirrors" and "What the Orphan Inherits."

In the first TV gig, Alexie talks about stereotypes of Native Americans on Cobert Nation Oct. 28, 2008. He says positive stereotypes can be just as damaging as negative stereotypes ... wonders why New Agers take wolves and eagles and other predators as spirit animals ("my spirit animal is the squirrel"), and trades wisecracks with Steven Cobert (5:18). As usual on Cobert's show, there's more than wisecracking going on. When you've finished laughing, you realize a lot of what he says is true.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sherman Alexie
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

On Cobert's show, Alexie explained why American Indians were going to vote for Obama. In January, Timothy Egan of The New York Times visited Indian Country in Arizona and blogged on their joy at Obama's inauguration when, "for once — if only for a January moment — they will feel like they belong."

Next we'll watch an in-depth interview with Enrique Cerna of KCTS-TV Seattle that aired July 11, 2008, on the Conversations at KCTS 9 show. In it he talks about his life, his writing, alcoholism ... and how he broke that cycle in his family. (26:44) One of Alexie's main points, especially now he's writing for younger readers, is what he told his interviewer in Seattle: "What you realize when you talk to young people is that everyone feels like an outsider ... when you're 16, everybody feels like a freak." (I first posted the link to this interview for Monday's class. We didn't get to it, so I'm copying it here for today's class.)



Later. In a talk at Rutgers University-Newark in 2001, Alexie takes on sports mascots, commodification, stereotypes for 53 minutes

HUM 221: Sherman Alexie ... "everyone feels like an outsider"

Today we will watch two interviews with Sherman Alexie, whose "Unauthorized Autobiography of Me" we read for today. As you watch, ask yourself if there's a change in your impression of the essay "The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me" (Here First __-__), which we read for today, and the poem "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel" (Native American Songs and Poems 28-29), which we read last week. Take notes as you watch, and be ready to journal about your perceptions of the two before and after seeing the videos. For Wednesday, read the profile of Alexie in The Guardian, a British newspaper. Next week we'll watch his movie "Smoke Signals."

Sherman Alexie's first impression doesn't last very long.

Which is probably a good thing.

All too often he comes across as flippant, angry, sarcastic. He talks about things we don't want to hear about. Race, for one. Alcoholism, for another. The injustices done to American Indians through history. He vents his anger. But as he keeps talking, listeners come to realize there's more to him than wisecracks. Similarly, a lot of readers are put off by "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel" and "Unauthorized Autobiography of Me." But as they figure out where Alexie is coming from, often they change their minds.

We'll see both sides of Sherman Alexie in action. Tony Gallucci, of Milk River Film in Texas, shot his appearance on a literary panel of "nerdy bookworms" in Austin, Texas in November 2007 (9:57). Alexie spoke about Young Adult ("YA") novels, the teenagers who read them ... and the excitement he said teenagers -- and adult writers -- can get from books. Let's say he has an unusual way of describing it, but after a while you realize he has an unusual sense of humor but he's serious about loving books. Gallucci says:

At one point he appears to be flippant, but it's a false impression -- the questions were being randomly drawn from a fishbowl, and the questioner had no choice about who or what to ask ... In any case I thought Sherman handled it with great humor and poise, and made the situation evolve into a funny and astute answer.

Another interview, the public television in Seattle, shows another side of Sherman Alexie. Or is it the same? You decide.

Alexie's Seattle interview aired July 11, 2008, on the Conversations at KCTS 9 show on KCTS-TV. In it he talks about his life, his writing, alcoholism ... and how he broke that cycle in his family. (26:44) One of Alexie's main points, especially now he's writing for younger readers, is what he told his interviewer in Seattle: "What you realize when you talk to young people is that everyone feels like an outsider ... when you're 16, everybody feels like a freak."

Q. Was May 8, 1977, the Grateful Dead's best show? A. It depends on who you ask

Ben Ratliff has a cover story on Grateful Dead recordings in The New York Times Magazine this week that attempts to answer this burning question. It's also a very good story on the Dead, Deadheads and the whole taping phenomenon.

Content advisory: You have to be awfully interested in the Grateful Dead to follow some of this. To want to follow it, in fact.

But Ratliff has been the jazz and pop critic for The New York Times since 1996, and he knows how to write about the arts. He also knows how to interview artists and fans ... who to talk to ... what to ask ... how to work the quotes into the story. Also: How to write about music without putting people to sleep.

Barton weighs the evidence for a concert May 8, 1977, at Barton Hall, Cornell University. Rather he lets an expert weigh it:

DAVID LEMIEUX has been the tape archivist and CD producer for the Grateful Dead’s official archival releases since 1999. Mr. Lemieux said he has listened to the Cornell concert “virtually weekly” since the late ’80s.

What’s so great about that show? I asked him.

The group had just finished making the studio album “Terrapin Station,” which included a long and intricate suite sharing the album’s title; it was well practiced. Garcia had just completed editing of “The Grateful Dead Movie,” a concert documentary of sorts, and a long and costly ordeal. Perhaps the members felt unburdened and retrospective: the set list made an even sweep of the band’s career up to that point, from the early-repertory “Morning Dew,” with its cathartic but carefully paced five-minute solo by Garcia, to the up-to-date “Estimated Prophet.” (Much has also been made, by those who were there, about the Fátima-esque appearance of snow on that May evening.)

But Barton also asked surviving members of the Dead (as the off-again on-again band calls itself since Jerry Garcia's death). Their answers:

Since Mr. Hart obviously sees his time with the Dead as a journey, what does he say when someone starts asking him about the specifics of a single night, brandishing dates and concert-hall names?

“I say ‘Yes,’ ” he said. “I always say ‘Yes.’ ”

Mr. Lesh said he thinks along remarkably similar lines. He remembers the free shows, the early years, ’75 to ’77, parts of the late ’80s. He doesn’t remember Cornell ’77. “I haven’t listened to Cornell for a long time,” he said in a telephone interview. Was there any sense of immediate recognition, I asked, right after the band finished a great show?

“We may have walked off and looked at each other and said, ‘Whoa,’ ” he said. “But generally there wasn’t a lot of that. Performing takes a lot out of you. Physical and mental energy. When it’s been a good show, you’re kind of drained. ”

And what does he say to the pinpointers, the best-show-ever-ists?

“I appreciate it, and honor it, and, you know, wail on,” he said. “But it’s an individual thing. Maybe they were there. A lot of people gravitate to the shows that they had seen. Since Jerry’s death I get the feeling that a lot of the Heads need to confirm for themselves that it was as good as they thought it was.”

Which is where I think I should leave it.

A Civil War dulcimer (or scheitholt) from Georgia

In the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tenn., there is a dulcimer that has been traced back to Civil War days. It is a small, obviously homemade instrument in the shape of a long, narrow trapezoid. John Rice Irwin, proprietor of the museum, describes it like this:

"As bitter and relentless as the fighting was, there were long periods of encampment and waiting during the Civil War, and various games and musical instruments provided relief from the boredom. This early dulcimer is made of black walnut, and the entire body, neck and tail piece are carved from a single piece. The top or front portion comprises the second piece of wood in the instrument.
"I bought the dulcimer from my longtime friend, Professor Roddy Moore of Virginia's Ferrum College on May 31, 1994. Roddy had traced its history to the Allen family in Commerce, in Northeast Georgia. Oral tradition passed from one generation to another was that a member of the Allen family had carried this primitively made dulcimer with him while serving in the civil war."

While it can be called a dulcimer, the instrument has features that make it look a lot like a scheitholt or a transitional instrument. Its frets appear to be stapled right onto the soundbox instead of a raised fretboard, and its trapezoidal shape is similar to that of a scheitholt. The Museum of Appalachia is just off Interstate 75 at Norris.

'Knoxville Girl': From Wexford to East Tennessee

Moved from my faculty website at http://www.sci.edu/faculty/ellertsen/facultypage.html.

Appalachian music comes from Anglo-Celtic roots, but it has its own sound. In a book with the marvelous title of "Roadkill on the Three-chord Highway," Colin Escott, a Canadian journalist who has written about Hank Williams Sr., Sun Records and the origins of country music, traces the sound back from early rock and the music heard on 500-watt Southern radio stations in the 1930s and 40s:

The Everley Brothers borrowed the sound of the Louvin Brothers. The Louvins sang an old murder ballad called 'The Knoxville Girl,' and if you dig around you'lll find that the Blue Sky Boys recorded an even spooker version twenty years earlier, in 1937, and that the first recorded version dated all the way back to the dawn of the country music record business in 1924. Dig around some more and you'll find that the song came over from England as 'The Wexford Girl,' but what's really interesting is that 'The Wexford Girl' isn't really 'The Knoxville Girl.' Something happened in the darkness and isolation of Appalachia, something indefinable. It happened before the recording machine, and it happened in the little hollers [sic] and valleys. The American experience warped and transformed the immigrants, changing their music as it changed them. 'The Knoxville Girl' is eerier and darker than 'The Wexford Girl,' despite the fact that 'The Wexford Girl' is more explicit. (vii)

The song clearly has Anglo-Celtic roots. Wexford is in Ireland, and "Wexford Girl" is variously described as Irish or English. But "Knoxville Girl" just sounds Appalachian. Especially if you first heard it, as the writer did, on the jukebox at the former Yardarm tavern just off the Western Avenue viaduct in Knoxville during the 1960s.

Reference(s)

Escott, Colin. Roadkill on the Three-chord Highway: Art and Trash in American Popular Music. New York: Routledge, 2002.

A really, really welcome blog on traditional, dronal style of dulcimer playing

Standing out like a rock in a weary land, finally, a blog that advocates the old-fashioned way of playing the Appalachian dulcimer. It's called the

APPALACHIAN DULCIMER NOTER AND DRONE BLOG

... and its available on line at http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/. A couple of quotes that started me thinking:

... dulcimer clubs, festivals, camps, and workshops are a very good thing in that they now fill a terrible vacuum that was left behind when people stopped playing music as part of their daily lives with family and friends in their communities. When people scattered and moved away from families and home towns, and became Too Busy to play music. Now it takes a determined bit of planning to get together with anyone to play or learn music.

But ...

The end result is also a sort of homogenization of dulcimer playing into something that rewards those who play fast and fancy, and that encourages playing in BIG all-dulcimer groups, in unison, generally encouraging one key, one playing style, and one tuning over all others. This inevitably isolates dulcimer players from other musicians, makes them dependent on each other to provide 'dulcimer safe' playing environments, and it makes it all the more difficult if a dulcimer novice gets it in their head to actually want to play with people who play other kinds of instruments, in various keys. I personally feel sad when I see how isolated beginner dulcimer players can become from other music players who enjoy mixed sessions. I have heard some dulcimer players say that they feel the rest of the music playing world is just not open to them. And even though it's not always true, dulcimer players now have a reputation for not being able to play in anything but the key of D. Indeed, I know several who can't play in any key other than D even though they've been playing for many years more than I have. Yikes.

For what it's worth, I think she's right on the money. But I don't know exactly what I think about that.

HUM 221: In class Wednesday

In class we will read an interview with Sherman Alexie, Coeur d'Allene writer and filmmaker, at http://www.bookpage.com/0306bp/sherman_alexie.html on artistic and cultural values in his work, and his poem "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel," in Brain Swann, ed., Native American Songs and Poems, pp. 28-29, and compare it to traditional poetry in the book.

"Dances with Wolves" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMOQORiWn80 and interview with Mary McDonnell at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkBifAlfLsU

Internet joke: Fw: Banking

From my cousin on Long Island, in its entirety (scroll down) ...

> Subject: Fw: Banking
>
>> The old Native American wanted a loan for $500.00
> The banker pulled out? the loan application, "What are
> you going to do
> with
> the money?"
>
> "Make jewelery and sell it," was the response.
>
> "What have you got for collateral?
> "Don't know collateral."
>
> "Well that's something of value that would cover
> the cost of the loan.
>
> "Have you got any vehicles?"
>
> "Yes, 1949 Chevy pickup."
>
> The banker shook his head, "How about livestock?"
>
> "Yes, I have a horse."
>
> "How old is it?"
>
> "Don't know, has no teeth."
>
> Finally the banker decided to make the $500 loan.
>
> Several weeks later the old man was back in the bank. He
> pulled out a
> roll of bills, "Here to pay." he said. He then
> handed the banker the money to
> pay his loan off.
>
> "What are you going to do with the rest of that
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HUM 221: For Wednesday, April 8

Bring Brian Swann, "Native American Songs and Poems."

Small Town America Conference, Millikin University, Decatur

APRIL 3-4, 2009

Join Kirkland Fine Arts Center and Millikin University’s College of Fine Arts for a weekend of music, conversation, and lectures on the music of rural America. Scholars will discuss the nation’s diverse musical cultures and practices in small-town communities and address the challenges they face in the musical industry.

Friday, 3 April 2009

Kaeuper Hall, Perkinson Music Center (unless otherwise noted*)

9:00 AM REGISTRATION AND REFRESHMENTS

10:00 AM WELCOME
Barry Pearson, Dean, College of Fine Arts

10:15 AM PANEL DISCUSSION: SITUATING DOWNSTATE ILLINOIS IN THE AMERICAN MUSICAL LANDSCAPE
Matthew Meacham (West Plains [MO] Arts Council, Missouri State University), chair
Pete Ellertson (Springfield College-Benedictine University))
Garry Harrison (Indiana University)
Linda Smith (Southern Illinois University—Carbondale)
Lynn “Chirps” Smith (Chicago, IL)
Paul Tyler (Old Town School of Folk Music, National-Louis University, Chicago State University)

11:30 AM LUNCH (Provided)

12:00 PM KEYNOTE LECTURE: Does Place Matter? Perceptions and Realities of Music in Small Towns

Paul F. Wells (Middle Tennessee State University)

*Perkinson Art Gallery: Kirkland Fine Arts Center

1:00 PM BREAK

1:30 PM RACE, ETHNICITY, AND IDENTITY IN SMALL-TOWN MUSICS
Sandra McKenna (Millikin University), chair

La Valse de Platin: Crowley as a Cajun Music Center, 1920-1950
Kevin Fontenot (Tulane University)

Country Boy, B-Boy: Renegotiating Southern & Hip-Hop Identity in Rural Upstate South Carolina in Early 1980s
David B. Pruett (Middle Tennessee State University)

2:30 PM BREAK

2:45 PM CONSTRUCTING PLACE MUSICALLY
Devon Fitzgerald (Millikin University), chair

The Tie that Binds: Translating Operatic Success from Central City to New York City
Laura Doser (University of California—Davis)
Communal and Nostalgic Soundscapes through Bell Instruments at American Universities
Kim Schafer (University of Texas at Austin)


The Sound of a Fiddle: Hearing the Music in Thomas Hart Benton’s Depictions of American Folksongs
Annett Richter (University of Missouri—Columbia)

4:15 PM DINNER (On Own)

7:30 PM CONCERT: The Gordons and The Special Consensus
Kirkland Fine Arts Center
Tickets $12 (Complimentary Ticket included in Registration)

Saturday, 4 April 2009

Perkinson Music Center Room 110 (unless otherwise noted)

8:30 AM REGISTRATION AND COFFEE

9:00 AM WELCOME
Stephen Widenhofer, Director, Millikin University School of Music

9:15 AM MUSIC IN DOWNSTATE ILLINOIS

Matthew Meacham (West Plains Arts Council, Missouri State University—West Plains), chair

The Multi-Cultural Aspect of Folk and Country Music in the Midwest
Paul Tyler (Old Town School of Folk Music, National-Louis University, Chicago State University)

iPods in Little Egypt: Technology and Southern Illinois Folk Music
Linda Smith (Southern Illinois University—Carbondale)


10:15 AM BREAK

10:30 AM “The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance”: A Filmmaker’s Perspective
Stephen Parry (Image Base, Chicago, IL)

11:30 AM LUNCH (Provided)

12:00 PM MILLIKIN UNIVERSITY STUDENT POSTER SESSION

1:00 PM REVIVALS AND RETRENCHMENTS IN AMERICAN HYMNODY

Stephen Widenhofer, chair

Sweet Harmonies of Praise: Reviving Shape Note Singing in Rural Arkansas
S. Andrew Granade (University of Missouri, Kansas City)
The Decline of Southern Gospel Convention Singing
Stephen Shearon (Middle Tennessee State University)

2:00 PM BREAK

2:15 PM PEDAGOGIES OF TRADITIONAL MUSICS: A PANEL DISCUSSION (Kaeuper Hall, Perkinson Music Center)
Neal Smith (Millikin University), chair

Gary Gordon (Sparta, IL)
Greg Cahill (Nashville, TN)
3:15 PM BREAK

3:30 PM MUSICKING IN SMALL-TOWN AND RURAL AMERICA

Travis D. Stimeling (Millikin University), chair

Happiness Self Made: The Sears Roebuck Catalog and Music in Rural America, 1894 to 1927
Mona Kreitner (Rhodes College)

Local Culture for Sale: Small Town Music Monopoly, Small Town Resistance
Carey Sargent (University of Virginia)

4:30 PM CONCLUDING REMARKS

Travis D. Stimeling (Millikin University)

5:00 PM DINNER (On Own)

7:30 PM CONCERT: Asleep at the Wheel
Kirkland Fine Arts Center
Tickets $24 (Complimentary Ticket Included in Registration)

Registration:
Register online or call the Kirkland Box Office at 217.424.6318. Registration fee of $70 includes one complimentary ticket to The Special Consensus & The Gordons as well as Asleep at the Wheel. Online registrants may choose their seats to both performances. One day registration will be available at the door only for $35.

Additional Opportunities:

The Macon County Conservation District hosts free Music Jams the second Sunday of every month from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the Rock Springs Nature Center. Local bluegrass musicians play throughout the afternoon. Musicians are welcome to join in or you can just come to listen. To find out more, visit www.maconcountyconservation.org.

Lars Paul Esbjörn

http://www.migranternashus.se/Esbjorn_skrift.pdf

4 Lars Paul Esbjörn

* * *

Esbjörn lyckades driva igenom att kören fick en egen läktare i
Hille medeltidskyrka (denna kyrka revs 1863 då den nya kyrkan
byggts). En av de första sångerna kören sjöng kom att bli något av
hans signaturmelodi:

Upp vänner, till himmelen vilje vi gå,
gott är ej på jorden att bygga,
där stöden utgöra blott bräckliga strå,
och grunden är svag att oss trygga.
Ej böre vi dväljas uti denna ort,
där fienden skada åt tusende gjort,
förstört deras dyrköpta själar.
Texten av läsarprästen A G Sefström i Bjuråker i Hälsingland.

Esbjörn kom för övrigt att få stor betydelse för psalmsången,
tack vare att man nu började använda psalmodikon, ett enkelt
musikinstrument med en enda sträng, spänd över en trälåda. Han
utarbetade liksom Johan Dillner i Östervåla ett enkelt notsystem med
siffror, som gjorde att man lätt kunde spela efter dem. De siffror som
angavs i sångboken stod på träribban under strängen på psalm-
odikonet.

HUM 221: No class Friday, bring "Native American Songs and Poems" Monday

That kind of says it all, doesn't it?

I'll be at the Kirkland Fine Arts Center in Decatur, taking part in a panel discussion on music in downstate Illinois as part of its Small Town America Conference.
"Native American Songs and Poems," edited by Brian Swann, is the little Dover Thrift Editions book of poetry you picked up at the beginning of the semester.

One of the poems, "Cedar Swamp" (p. 38) by Carroll Arnett, or Gogisgi. In his autobiographical essay in "Here First," Gogisgi tells about a time he and Cheyenne poet Lance Henson were hiking in a cedar swamp near Gogisgi's home in Michigan and a brief conversation they had.

What did they say? What did they mean by that? What does it mean to you?