HONOLULU, HI

Off to honolulu.  In spring quarter I shall embark on an adventure to Hawaii. I will be saying aloha here and aloha there.  When the opportunity came up that I would have the chance to travel to Honolulu in the Spring,  I sprang into action instantly.  I was immediately in contact with my friends Gabe, Missy and David who all  on the island to tell them that I might be stopping down their way in the Spring.  They  were more than happy to lend me a favor by letting stay with them in their home on the island.  I will begin my voyage in mid april and will be in Honolulu for about 10-14 days.  Because I have very little time on the island, Gabe agreed to show me around to places he knows are filled with music, sounds, culture, history and more.  Hopefully having a personal guide of the island will make my field studies a little more easier/accessible.

I have never been to Hawaii.  All I really know about it is what I have seen in movies or heard from music. So seeing the beautiful land and water of honolulu that I have always enjoyed 2nd hand, now getting the chance to experience it all first hand is going to be an awesome time.  While I’m there I will be filming and recording my adventures on the island.  I’m going to be walking through the hustle and bustle of the busy city streets, I’ll strut along the beach picking up sounds of the waves crashing and the surfers and birds gathering in flocks along the water.  I will also be hiking around the forests observing the scenery and sounds of nature on the island. The abundance of wildlife in the forests there are a delight to listen to (so ive been told by my friends who live on honolulu).

My expectations are kind of going off my preconceptions.  I dont really know what to expect exactly but I have a pretty good idea.  My goal when I get there is to get settled in at my friend gabes house and then hopefully start exploring ASAP. I’m not there for very long so I need to try to get to as many places as possible in very little time.  I expect it may be difficult for me to get to all of the places I want to visit while i’m there, but I will definitely try to get as many as I can. I expect my expenses to be somewhat minimal.  I found cheap airfare to Honolulu at about $400 round trip.  I will be living with my friends at their home located just 3 miles from Chinatown and only a couple more miles from the beach.  I expect my longboard will be my main mode of transportation.  I will also have a bicycle there  can use and possibly a truck I can borrow to get to places that are farther away.  My food consumption will be at little cost.  The majority of my meals will be free, for I will be eating mostly at the house I’m staying at.

I’m anticipating this to be a great experience getting to learn more in depth about some of the sounds and culture Hawaii has to offer.  Like I said, I’ve only really gotten the 2nd hand version of what Hawaii is, so getting to go there for myself, I think, is going to be a big eye opener.  I really hope I get to see all the places I want to and film and record some of the architecture and landscape on the island.  Im hoping I will be able to use my friends truck to get the other parts of the island so i can hike and explore the terrain all around the area.  I want to learn how much surfing and the ocean really influence the music of Hawaii.
I am extremely excited to be taking this trip to honolulu, and am lucky enough to have such awesome friends there willing to help me out while i’m there. I also hope to possibly go to a concert or 2 while there. I know of a couple concerts that will be on the island while i’m there but i’m not sure if I will be able to make it.  My friends said they also know of some places where local bands play almost every night, so I will definitely be going to a  couple of those shows.

Chicago is a city I’ve always known but never fully dove into. It’s safe to say that I have only stepped in what could be considered a damp spot, and not nearly the whole body of metaphorical water that is the city of Chicago.

I was born in Arlington Heights,  a pretty little suburb outside of the Chicago zip code, and I lived in that area for the first two hazy years of my new life. Fast forward slightly under twenty years and I have visited Chicago over 25 times to see family, yet I have not been exposed to Chicago as a musical city other than by the bucket drummers who sit on State Street and provide a rough soundtrack for the hurried shoppers and city goers. That being said, even though I have visited Chicago many times, my preconceptions are mostly based on media I have consumed. Through scattered but thoughtful music research over the past five years or so, Chicago has been brought to my attention many times due to the talented musicians and genres that have come and continue to come from the windy city.

My preconceptions of my time there mostly are surrounded by the different culture that’s going to slap me in the face after being in Olympia for too long. It it safe to say that the town of Olympia has a little cultural bubble that is very easy to get comfortable in. People generally swim the same way here and people are quite liberal and happy go lucky. Although Chicago is a somewhat progressive city, it’s location in the Midwest makes me shift in my seat a bit.

Some expectations that I have of my time spent in Chicago are that I will talk to a lot of different people. I am making it a goal to challenge myself and talk to as many (willing) strangers as I can muster up the courage to approach. I expect to talk to people who have seen Chicago’s music scene grow as they have grown in their own lives. I expect to talk to tourists and visitors and find out what they think of Chicago as a musical city from an international perspective. I also expect to feel overwhelmed, both positively and negatively. The fact that I am going to be doing a project in which I am the creator is something that I have always dreamed of -educationally speaking. But, I worry that my tendency of having too many ideas to handle resulting in the ideas going unacknowledged or lost in my mind will take form in this project. I foresee me being too focused on making my project too detailed and/or multifaceted that the quality of the content will suffer or not be as rich as could potentially be. That said, I have completed step one: admitting I have a problem. Now, it is my time to attempt to work past it and I truly hope that this project can be an example of my growth.

I anticipate that I will push myself to make the most of my time in Chicago. I do not want to waste a moment and I am going to have to be ambitious if I want to complete everything I yearn to do.

Some preparations that I am making logistically for my trip are the seek out the Chicago music “experts” that live in Chicago, or can be contacted via email. I am reading articles and watching documentaries writing down names of people that are being mentioned as pioneers in the scene. I also am extremely curious to contact record store owners as well as local show bookers. Folks of these occupations often get looked past as contributors to a music scene. I think these people will be able to give me  some behind the scenes insight on how the city has grown musically over time.

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What is the current culture of popular music in Bangalore and how does it compare to scene of Seattle?

Currently a month out. Still waiting for a response from a connection in Chicago. Still trying to fit the trip into a budget ill be able to manage. Still wrapping my head around the fact that Im getting credit to travel and experience a place I’ve never been to in a way I’ve always dreamed of. Madness… but I have high hopes.

This field study can give to me as much as I put into it. That needs to continue to be my mindset in order to get the most of my research. Chicago is the third biggest city in the United States, my momma’s birthplace, and my current favorite musical city (next to Seattle of course) and a city rich in Blues, Rock, Jazz, and Hip-Hop as well. Im thrilled I have the opportunity to live there for a month and take in fully everything it has to offer. I expect to be bombarded with opportunities to experience live music, learn about the history, and engage with people who have a love for both. I think the Columbia College will be able to provide a majority of these opportunities, but I crave the experience of the street as well. Ive heard of the many Jazz clubs and have an interest in seeing and better understanding the history of Chess Records, that I read so much about when I took a History of Rock n’ Roll class at community college. I expect that the opportunities will be endless, but that may not be true. I’m looking to find out where, like so many other genres have done before, the exotic that Chicago’s cutting edge musicians are drawing inspiration from. Im sure it will cross over multiple mediums so It’ll be important to stay aware of the full art movement in Chicago, wether its music, art, architecture etc..

I am going to be bringing some books about Blues and Rock to see how the styles came to be so greatly appreciated and created in Chicago, and how the musicians of 1900′s were inspired, and by whom. Another book is a history of Chess Records which was crucial to the creation of Rock n Roll and allowing black musicians into the studio. It will serve (I hope) as reference place to go to and from with questions and inspirations regarding my research questions.

Because I will not be in Chicago during the months of summer, some of the bigger festivals will be unavailable to attend but there are two that are scheduled that I will be attending. The first is the Urban Arts Fest, and the second a pop/rock fest which will be held at Millennium Park during its 10th year anniversary.

As far as living expenses and arrangements  go, I will need to be saving as much money as possible. Ill save most my money for food and transportation being that they are my heaviest expenses.Though I do consider myself a food connoisseur of sorts I will not be researching the food in Chicago so its not my priority to fine dine every night. That being said it’ll be important to know where to eat or wether or not to pack food while in the field.

Through couch surfing we (being me and Steve) are looking to stay with 2 or 3 hosts over the time that we are to be in Chicago. If location is a choice we will try to organize our research efficiently around the places we are staying. We are avoiding a rental car and hopefully by paying for a 30 day pass and having our longboards we can get around the city effectively.

My hopes are high, and I think in the next month before we leave I will be able to get everything I need in order to get the most out this experience. There is still more to be done regarding our itinerary, housing, and getting my expenses paid for, but I still have more resources to check out and time for my connections in Chicago to find some help for me. This is a month long endeavor, it wasn’t made out to be a walk in the park to get everything hammered out. But when I’m walking through Millennium park, I hope it feels like it is.

Woo