Hello! This could be the last post for a while, I think Angela and I are going to be taking a small break from blogging over Christmas. I could be wrong. Angela's mother, father, and sister Larisa are flying in tonight at 5:40, and we're not going to drag them to the school so we can check our e-mail and blog. Then on Monday, we're all flying down to Bongolo, which is a Christian Missionary Alliance (CMA) Hospital.
I'm excited about that, because it's in the rainforest, which means more chances to see wildlife that is non-existant in Libreville (although Wednesday I saw a Barn Owl fly over my head. It was very cool). I may have said this before, but Gabon has a terrible (read: pretty much no) road system, which means loggers have not been able to get into the interior much. Because of this, Gabon is still something like 80% untouched rainforest, which is the largest concentration of virgin rainforest, with Brazil not too far off. A guy named Micheal Fay (I think that's how his last name is spelled) walked across the entire country a couple of years ago, which was approximately a 2,000 mile trek, and National Geographic made a documentary about it (which I actually haven't seen). So with any luck, I'll be posting a picture of a Gabonese Viper on here one month from today.
That being said, have a merry Christmas everyone, a happy new year, and we'll post pictures in early January, when we're back.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
My Musical Niche
After a listening to a lot of different music, over a decent period of time (I would say I’ve been listening to good music, consistently, for about four years. There was a transition year that went from my senior year of high school, to halfway through my freshman year of college, that I’m not counting), I think I’ve found a musical niche in Country music. Not that I was ever looking for one, because I wasn’t. But yesterday I was listening to Hank Williams Jr. sing, “All My Rowdy Friends,” and I realized that out of all the other music available to me, that’s what I want to listen to.
I know it’s not exactly where I fit with life circumstances, because I’m not from the South, I’m not poor, and unlike the main characters in Williams’s, “A Country Boy Can Survive,” I cannot brew my own whiskey or smokes—but I find the music relaxing, and enjoyable to listen to. Every once in a while I relate to the songs. Now, I should say that I’m using the word “Country,” rather loosely, and contrary to what I’m sure most people are thinking, I’m not specifically referring to the likes of Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw, although I certainly enjoy both of them—they’re actually more toward the bottom of my list.
Country music, like all musical genres, has a lot of sub-genres, the names of which you will probably only hear, either if you spend time talking about music with other people (labels help clarify discussion), or do some investigating. For instance, singers like Garth Brooks, and Tim McGraw, are called neo-traditionalists. The music that really appeals to me is the older stuff- guys like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt—and then the newer, alt-country music—such as Ryan Adams, Okkervil River, and, dare I say, Bright Eyes and Iron & Wine (I dare). It gets debatable with some bands/artists, but I would say both the latter are folksy enough to fit under the alt-country label.
If you just angrily exclaimed, “That’s not country music,” without thinking through what you said, you may be at a point where you refuse to listen to reason from me. Perhaps you felt an immediate rage take over, and have written this off as artsy-fartsy. If that is the case, before you read any more from me, here’s a few lines from Alan Jackson, who says it pretty well:
Well the folk scene's dead, but he's holding out in the village
He's been writing songs, speaking out against wealth and privilege
He says I don't believe in money, but a man could make him a killin'
Cause some of that stuff don't sound much different than Dylan
Really, it doesn’t. That’s from, “Gone Country.” I would tentatively say that newer music—the alt. country—is somewhat more appealing to me stylistically, and lyrically. It’s modern, so I relate to it on a more immediate level. The older stuff, I appreciate the style, the stories that most songs tell, and how they often interweave with the life of the actual song-writer.
I was reading a story about Merle Haggard, and how he went to a concert by the late Johnny Cash. After the show, he went up to Johnny Cash, they talked for a few minutes, and Merle Haggard said, “I really enjoyed your show at San Quentin.” Johnny Cash was surprised, and said he didn’t know Haggard was playing with his band than, and Haggard told him he wasn’t-- he was in the crowd. Merle Haggard was incarcerated something like nine times, and did 15 years in San Quentin. Also interesting, he was later pardoned by Ronald Reagan, who was than Gov. of California. Interesting stuff. If you found any of this the least bit intriguing, here are two things to check out. The first is an essay by Nick Hornby (He wrote the movies About A Boy, and High Fidelity, and is also a music critic.) about the Ryan Adams song, “Oh My Sweet Carolina,” which is one of my all time favorite songs, on every level.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/song/hornby.html
The second item to check out is on Marc Buwalda’s blog.
Follow the link on your right, and scroll down to his November 14th blog entry entitled, “Leave Me Alone! I Like My Hootie CD!” It has some good insight on acquired taste in music, and why, out of my many years of listening to music, I consider only four of them worth mentioning. Cheers.
I know it’s not exactly where I fit with life circumstances, because I’m not from the South, I’m not poor, and unlike the main characters in Williams’s, “A Country Boy Can Survive,” I cannot brew my own whiskey or smokes—but I find the music relaxing, and enjoyable to listen to. Every once in a while I relate to the songs. Now, I should say that I’m using the word “Country,” rather loosely, and contrary to what I’m sure most people are thinking, I’m not specifically referring to the likes of Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw, although I certainly enjoy both of them—they’re actually more toward the bottom of my list.
Country music, like all musical genres, has a lot of sub-genres, the names of which you will probably only hear, either if you spend time talking about music with other people (labels help clarify discussion), or do some investigating. For instance, singers like Garth Brooks, and Tim McGraw, are called neo-traditionalists. The music that really appeals to me is the older stuff- guys like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt—and then the newer, alt-country music—such as Ryan Adams, Okkervil River, and, dare I say, Bright Eyes and Iron & Wine (I dare). It gets debatable with some bands/artists, but I would say both the latter are folksy enough to fit under the alt-country label.
If you just angrily exclaimed, “That’s not country music,” without thinking through what you said, you may be at a point where you refuse to listen to reason from me. Perhaps you felt an immediate rage take over, and have written this off as artsy-fartsy. If that is the case, before you read any more from me, here’s a few lines from Alan Jackson, who says it pretty well:
Well the folk scene's dead, but he's holding out in the village
He's been writing songs, speaking out against wealth and privilege
He says I don't believe in money, but a man could make him a killin'
Cause some of that stuff don't sound much different than Dylan
Really, it doesn’t. That’s from, “Gone Country.” I would tentatively say that newer music—the alt. country—is somewhat more appealing to me stylistically, and lyrically. It’s modern, so I relate to it on a more immediate level. The older stuff, I appreciate the style, the stories that most songs tell, and how they often interweave with the life of the actual song-writer.
I was reading a story about Merle Haggard, and how he went to a concert by the late Johnny Cash. After the show, he went up to Johnny Cash, they talked for a few minutes, and Merle Haggard said, “I really enjoyed your show at San Quentin.” Johnny Cash was surprised, and said he didn’t know Haggard was playing with his band than, and Haggard told him he wasn’t-- he was in the crowd. Merle Haggard was incarcerated something like nine times, and did 15 years in San Quentin. Also interesting, he was later pardoned by Ronald Reagan, who was than Gov. of California. Interesting stuff. If you found any of this the least bit intriguing, here are two things to check out. The first is an essay by Nick Hornby (He wrote the movies About A Boy, and High Fidelity, and is also a music critic.) about the Ryan Adams song, “Oh My Sweet Carolina,” which is one of my all time favorite songs, on every level.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/song/hornby.html
The second item to check out is on Marc Buwalda’s blog.
Follow the link on your right, and scroll down to his November 14th blog entry entitled, “Leave Me Alone! I Like My Hootie CD!” It has some good insight on acquired taste in music, and why, out of my many years of listening to music, I consider only four of them worth mentioning. Cheers.
Cheetah
Some friends have a turtle as a pet in their back yard that we discovered after being here a couple months. We finally got to see it the other week when Dad was here so I thought I would post a couple pictures of the little guy.
Don't let Cheetah fool you - he is not really eating. He is just inching his way towards his real goal. . .
Pushing Brett off of the sidewalk! Kind of a crazy picture but a fun one to share. I am curious to hear what Brett says to me about the post.
- Angela
Thanksgiving
Palm Trees, flip flops, and hot weather have created a new feeling for Thanksgiving this year! We went over to Sablier - a neighborhood across town - and got together with some friends for dinner. Despite the absence of cold weather, Christmas commercials, and family we had a great Thanksgiving here in Libreville. Here is a picture of our Thanksgiving feast!
I know it is way past Thanksgiving time and onto Christmas but I hated to post nothing from Thanksgiving!
- Angela
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