A little bit out of my sphere of interest, but it’s Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and that’s gotta be good.
I should really be putting this post under jeeeezus as well, as Tharpe is one of those big voice chicks who got it going on in revivalist shows originally.
Dancers know her for the stuff she did with Lucky Millinder (especially ‘Shout Sister Shout’), but she had a big rep as a stage performer.
I think I remember reading somewhere about her having to retune her guitar for white audiences in the north – apparently the distinctive southern tuning she used didn’t go down so well with the honkies. But this is a nice clip because it’s not all that often we see a black woman with a jazz/blues rep playing guitar on stage… Yes, yes, I know this is a 60s clip, and she’s playing gospel, but you know what I mean.
…I’m listening to a version of this song by Mahalia Jackson as I type… these chicks had freakin’ BIG voices.
i can has female role model?
My hormones are rumbling, and I’m beginning to feel a little self-doubting.
This year’s plan is as follows:
1. (semester one): make book.
2. (semester two): make teaching and/or research.
But things have gotten complicated. I’ve been offered different work by different university departments. Teaching? I has it. Exploitative first year tutoring? I choose not to has it. Researching? Hmmm. Interesting repeat teaching of last semester’s Mega Teaching Experience, offering op to rework lectures and tutes and general Make It Gooder? I think I choose to has it.
Book? Oh, yeah, it’s harder than it seemed. Rewrite? Why? It was a perfect thesis – there were no corrections needed! And what if I break it? Rewrite? But how? I mean, what exactly should I do? How should I do it? This rewriting – what exactly do you mean by that? Publishers. Yes, well. I choose Routledge. I choose them because it is an Impossible Dream, and we are in proximity to the Big Dream type stuff. Don’t hold your breath though, homies – could be a long wait. There may be some resistance to my Choice.
And then, of course, there’s the long, unbroken future spent tappa-tapping away at home, on my own, far, far away from other academic types. Trapped in a kind of netherworld, the Land of Far Far Away from Institutional Support. But also the land Relatively Close To (but not actually in) An Early Career.
I’m finding I’m more than a little needy with middle aged women academics. I’m looking for validation. For direction. For sound advice and useful criticism of my written work. I want pencilled comments in the margin of my work. I want an hour of uninterrupted Me Time with someone I admire and respect (and whose entire function, during that hour, is to listen to me, be interested in me, and most importantly, let me know how I’m going). I don’t really know how to do this sort of larger project all on my own. Not only is the writing style I’ve spent 4 degrees and about 15 years perfecting almost completely inappropriate, every word I write seems to scream ‘Feelings of inadequacy! Lacks confidence in own thinking! Overly defensive!’ It’s like I’m reading the internal monologue of a young woman dancer from the local McDance school. GoDAMN this whole over-achiever thing. I am hopelessly institutionalised and no longer capable of functioning on my own without a role model.
All these feelings are of course the product of my rampaging hormones. Premenstrual anxiety and self doubt? I HAS it.
This lolcat has, consequently, assumed disproportionate importance in my life:
steel is real
(Originally uploaded by fixedgear on flickr).
One gear nerds are everywhere. But this is the first time I’d seen one getting all recreationist with it.
These are neat pics.
lindy + sisters + SF = want!
(From flickr, uploaded by The Library of Congress)
Carefully trained women inspectors check and inspect cargo transport innerwings before they are assembled on the fuselage, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.
Photographer: Palmer, Alfred T., 1942 Oct.
How freakin’ awesome.
when the metal is hot and the engine is hungry
cool
egads!
Read this article.
The bit that kind of blows my mind is this:
Transperth’s cycling integration manager Jim Krynen said a car park survey found 60% of motorists drove less than two kilometres to their preferred station. And 40% had driven less than 800 metres to the station.*
That kind of blows my brain. I walk about a kilometer (maybe 1.20km?) to the station and it takes me 20 minutes. That’s a nice, short walk to get the blood flowing. Certainly not taxing or warranting a change of clothes. To think of driving 800 metres… holy moley. There are, of course, extenuating circumstances – infirmity, kids, etc. But, really, if you’re able bodied and the weather’s fine, why would you drive? I enjoy that type of quick, purposeful walk, and couldn’t think of anything nicer than sharing with someone, so why would you choose to drive?
You know how I feel about bikes on trains. I’m for it. I’m totally for it. The ‘ban’ is kind of shitful (though you don’t get fined, so it’s not a massive deterrent), and of course I feel there should simply be more trains running to accommodate the crush (yes, yes, I know that’s it’s more complicated than that, but please. We’re talking ideal world, here). I still don’t really understand why more people don’t ride bikes or walk, and why there aren’t better bike lanes. I mean, it’s just plain fun! And I’m a currently scarily unfit, ordinary person who doesn’t ride a supermachine bike, isn’t a super bike rider and doesn’t ride terribly quickly…
I know people who drive down from the ‘wick to Melbourne Uni. That kind of makes my brain explode. It’s a 15-20 minute bike ride from my place. You could walk it in an hour. It’s all bike paths, all the way, and it’s a nice walk – down a lovely tree-lined avenue for the most part. Or you could cut through the parks and go down the lovely bike path through the park. It’d be a frustrating drive and it would take you at least as long (if not longer) to drive – the traffic is poo down Sydney Road in peak hour. I mean, I’d ride every day, and catch the odd tram when the weather was bad, and I’m not a hardcore rider. I’d do it just because it’s such a nice thing to do…
Look, I’m still trying to get my brain round that not walking 800 metres thing. It’s just such a short distance. Maybe 2 minutes drive. Only about 15 to 20 minutes walk (20 slow minutes at that). Easy, even in work clothes. And if you have someone to walk with and talk to… Or if you live in a suburb like the ‘wick, where there are plenty of people to say hello to, lots of interesting things to stare at as you walk long…
I mean, I’m constantly looking for new ways to squeeze a bit more incidental exercise into my life – I choose not to ride to the station because I need the extra 15 minutes walk (it’s about 5 minutes, max to ride).
Golly. It’s mind boggling.
Oh, remind me to post the number of steps I took at MLX. Crinks and I wore pedometers one night of the exchange. I wore mine from 9.30 til 6am on the night I was running an event (not dancing) and racked up a phenomenal number of steps. The stupid pedometers got all confused by dancing, especially with nice, fat lindy hopping bounce, so we had to discard that data. Next year we’ll get it together and wear our pedders every night.
*I wonder how they got these results? Let’s just assume they’re ‘accurate’.
feeling a little traumatised
by difficult French films?
There is only one solution:
Also having difficulty imagining the dissertation as a book, so rereading markers’ comments, just to remind me that I don’t completely suck. Academia = way great fun.
…and I’m finding editing the Transformers pages on wikipedia very satisfying. I know nothing about the Transformers universe, I can’t figure out what the articles are actually about because they’re so badly written, but I am feeling immense satisfaction in rewriting them. Soon, though, I will know everything about the Transformers. Just ask me.
Bunk Johnson’s Bunk and the New Orleans Revival 1942-1947
Bunk and the New Orleans Revival 1942-1947. Not something you’d like if Sidney Bechet gives you the shits. I’m not really the hugest fan of revivalist stuff any more. I did go through a massive phase, but I’m kind of coming out the other side… I mean, I like it, but I have limited tolerance for it. It can go badly when DJing, and I know I’ve had moments when I’ve really not liked dancing to it. I think you have to pick your songs and artists carefully, otherwise it can just be a bit too annoying.
But this was an interesting CD (another from the Tasmanian jazz shop guy – gotta keep supporting him as they’ve just opened a JB in Hobart. Argh!), and I’m kind of interested in the parallels between the revivalists in Australia and the US. In fact, jazz in Australia is kind of interesting, when you consider the fact that there weren’t any African American artists in Australia to keep things fresh…. I’m sure you could make all sorts of provocative arguments about white Australian jazz… but I won’t.
The Jimmie Noone Collection
I’m especially liking The Jimmy Noone Collection from Collectors’ Classics.
Favourite tracks? Very scratchy versions of familiar songs like:
After You’ve Gone by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
Love Me or Leave Me by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
My Melancholy Baby by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
Ain’t Misbehaving’ by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1929)
And a few others, including
Wake Up! Chill’un, Wake Up! (as above)
My Daddy Rocks me (as above, with female vocals)
The vocals aren’t all ok for dancing – they can be a bit cheesy, but there are some goodies. Love Me or Leave Me is really fab. As is My Daddy Rocks Me. I’m not sure any of it’s really of a high enough quality for DJing, though it’s better than a lot of the really old recordings I have. Once you get into the 1920s, unless it’s a super Mosaic set, you really can’t be sure the quality will rock.
But I’m quite keen on Jimmie Noone atm. And Wingy Manone. It’s all pretty olden days, and not necessarily something I’d DJ for lindy hoppers, but it’s definitely stuff I like to listen to.