Wow. This whole writing once a week thing is getting old. Sorry! I've just been running around like crazy and haven't had much knitting content. This summer is going to be a wild pull from one festival to another. I went to MerleFest this past weeked down in North Carolina, and this weekend I'll be in Kentucky for a series of smaller festivals and celebrations. This is the fun part of work, but it's also a little crazy driving someplace new every weekend. I've put A LOT of miles on my car. On the knitting front, I've started my Lorna's Laces footies on size 0 (gasp!) needles, but I think they're gonna be too small (I'm working without a pattern) and dread having to rip them out. The good news, though, is that my new Addis got here and I can continue work on the long-neglected Orangina. I hope to have it finished soon so I can wear it!
Several of you have asked in e-mails and comments what it is that I do down here. I'm a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology and I'm down here doing research for my dissertation on bluegrass and old time music in southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky. I'm dealing with a bunch of different issues, but I'm focusing on the relationship between music and place. So -- think about how many times you've heard someone say or read in some magazine article that a particular kind of music "comes from the mountains." This is a phrase that gets repeated again and again in reference to old time and bluegrass music (particularly the music of Ralph Stanley). I'm trying to get at what that means by talking with people and observing role that music plays in life down here. I'm particularly interested in the history of Appalachia as a region, the way music fits in to this history, and the way in which the contemporary relationship between music and place is complicated when this place is rapidly being devastated by destructive surface mining practices. So... at this stage in the game, I participate in bluegrass and old time jams, go to concerts and dances, talk with musicians and individuals interested in music, and (this summer) go to every festival taking place in the area that I possibly can. I'm talking with as many people as possible, both formally and informally, and observe as much as I can, and out of this will come some kind of book. We'll see where it all goes...
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2 comments:
Sounds like fun - can't wait to see the mountains myself!
Nice life you've made for yourself. Hope to see that book, and maybe a movie, someday. If the socks are too small, don't rip them out. Give them to a small person in your life (i.e., Julia). They're probably too big for the tinies.
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