Every city has it’s street art but not every city has its street art on every street like I’ve seen in Montevideo.

 

Latin America has a rich culture of street art. It’s not illegal and is not considered graffiti like it is in some other countries (U.S.) Most of the art is ripe with cultural and political meaning although the meanings aren’t as obvious to me, an outsider to the city. The emotional meaning, as for all art-forms, speaks for itself. One theme I see in four pictures here are trees and roots connecting people. I love the character/culture street-art contributes to a city and wish there was more of it in American cities.

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Monday, we attended an incredible performance of La Filarmonica at the splendid Teatro Solis. The program was: Alexander Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances, Tchaikovsky’s Variation on a Rococo Theme Op.33 with Stanimir Todorov playing the violoncello solo, and, my favorite, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite Op. 35. Tickets were 150 Uruguayan pesos, a jaw-dropping $6.00. There was a lively social scene in the lobby with both the audience and the performers who showed up about twenty minutes before the show. When it was time, everyone filed into the concert hall. In Teatro Solis, one must allow an usher to show you to your seat. The ensemble played with a type of freedom and abandon that reminded me of feelings I felt were more potent when I was younger. In this style, the performance lacked the tight-jaws some associate with classical music. The dynamics were constantly in very noticeable flux and not a single audience member dozed, not even the sleepiest. The instruments blended together so well that I believe La Filarmonica of Montevideo rehearses together more than the Seattle Symphony! 

I only makes text posts because we’re threatened with a loss of credit if we don’t (this is gauging the value of learning based off of ones ability to follow directions, no thanks). But the blog site has a maximum amount of data that can be hosted at one time. 100MB. Apparently we live in 1995. I can’t upload anymore music or photographs and this directly conflicts with my prospectus, my ability to construct my education creatively as well as my requirement to post sketches. This is discouraging and I’ve decided to take the path of not giving a f*ck.

 

Here’s one track (of seven) Eli and I performed in Huntington Beach:

 

I have a lot more to post and reflect on but I’m over it until the presentations. Playing games with technology is not how I learn.

 

-Seacrest out.

 

Last week we put what felt like four days of work into two days. Not only had we not finished the songs prior to accepting to play, we also had to look at this opportunity as the first chance to establish our name. In All You Need to Know About The Music Business Donald Passman talks about establishing a team consisting of you – the artist, a personal manager, a business manager, producer, mixer and an agent. Kory is someone who has looked out for me and help establish who I am today and is consistently guiding me to help better my career, I couldn’t be more thankful and honored to call him my manger. Steve is the business head; his mind handles the things that regard the affect of the company in a way I wish I could understand. We have established he will take on the roll of business manager and producer/mixer.

Creating a brand was the next part. Passman and the authors Dan and Chip Heath from Made to Stick have helped lead me to understand what a successful brand looks like. Building off of what makes an idea sticky; simplicity – what hooks an audience, unexpectedness – what keeps people’s attention, a successful idea also needs to be concrete, credible, emotional, and you need to have a story. Concreteness – puts a picture in our head and help people understand and remember. Credibility helps people believe. Emotional aspects make people care and stories get people to act.

Kory helped put some of these concepts into perspective of myself. What’s stuck with me since being here is the nick-name everyone has been calling me – “tuna” whether its got the prefix “lil” or “yung” or just straight Tuna Boy, its what it is. And it’s so hilarious. I’m a white rapper from god-knows-where Washington who looks like a surfer punk from So-Cal who plays guitar and should probably be in a Ska-band writing songs about woman and weed. Yung Tuna sounds like he’d probably fall right in line. It’s an easy name to remember and everyone calls me it anyway. Yung Tuna is simple and it creates mental “hooks,” like the Heath brothers mention, to grab people’s attention. You don’t just hear Yung Tuna is about to play a show and not start thinking of all the possibilities of music that he’s going to be playing (or she!?). Being unexpected makes people pay attention. I’m coming down to a shared level of understanding by establishing first and foremost that, yes, I am a rapper, and a concrete idea like this helps coordinate people to a better understanding of what I do.

After establishing the name it was ironic what the next people that we met had to say and offer.

Prior to our performance Hannah and Cindy asked me what our name was and I said Yung Tuna, and they said it matched perfectly with my style and we hadn’t even performed yet. (Steve goes by Dusty but the stage name for both of us falls under Yung Tuna). After hearing our music the credit they gave us seemed unbelievable. They said that they could see us playing festivals, and coming from two street musicians who just have a genuine love for music that meant a lot.

But what was really uplifting was the advice three people with established careers had to offer us.

The following Thursday we met with Robbie Crawford who is an “insta-famous” instagram photographer sponsored by GoPro, and a good friend of Kory’s. We got to hang out with him and his wife and play some games; converse and he also showed Steve some tricks on mixing vinyls. When we played him the song in the video below he asked us to play it two additional times, and he enjoyed it, but this was the first time we realized our music was credible. Not only did he give us his opinion on what he liked he also instructed us on how to spread our product, and offered to promote it on his personal page.

Unbelievable. Blessed. Blessed, blessed, blessed.

The support kept coming, on Saturday, while we were in Long beach, Cathy, a hairstylist for Kory, was the mother of OC’s best female rapper. When she listened to our music she immediately gave Steve the number to a Venue owner she knew personally and said we would be able to play there for sure and wouldn’t need to be a warm up band, rather someone should open up for us. Turns out she grew up with a lot of artists who were big in Long Beach during the 70’s and sounded like she was either the agent of, or managed a few of them. Her credibility reassured us of our goals and aspirations.

When I picked up Kory’s friend Berrick, who is a pro surfer from South Africa from the airport, him and I started talking about what I was doing in LA and I told him about our music. He was interested, being that his primary listening was hip-hop, I played him the same song as the one below. His response was “I got nervous because when I hear someone is a rapper and has a goal and is pursuing it I get excited but a lot of people don’t have what it takes, when I heard your songs it sounded fresh the production was great and you were good and new, I believed it.”

By being emotional in our songs and creating a story we have made people care, and inspired people to act. Robbie wants to promote our song, Cathy gave us the resources to get in touch with venues and Berrick wanted us to make a song for one of his surfing videos. It is so rewarding to feel the support we’ve been getting from these amazing people and reinsures me that we are on the right path and making the right steps moving forward.

 

I just got back to my apartment in Paris from a three day trip to the Alsace wine region. I thought hiking around Scotland was cool…..  and it was but Im pretty sure nothing compares to biking the entire Alsace wine country in just a few days with the weather sunny and in the 70s. This was a truly unforgettable experience. I took a train from Paris to Strasbourg very early Monday morning with the fancy road bike i had just rented from one of the coolest guys I’ve met while abroad. His name was Sam and he owns a little bike hire/repair shop just outside Paris. And he gives tours all round the country too. So if you are ever in the area and have any desire to do some biking to see a bit of the amazing French countryside, Sam at Paris Bike Co. is your guy. I went into his shop last week to ask about his bikes and to get some advice on where to do about a 50 mile day ride. He helped me plan this three day trip to Alsace and I ended up getting over 150 miles in! And that only took us a half hour to work out. We ended up sitting and chatting for three hours. He was American so I didn’t have to worry about my terrible french.

Here is sort of the route I took. I started in Strasbourg and headed down to stay in Colmar for two night. So I spent Monday biking down to Colmar, and seeing that town once I got there as well as 5 or 6 other old mid evil villages on the way. Tuesday I biked around to half a dozen different little vineyards tasting the afternoon away. All wine tastings were free! I guess they are just looking for you to buy a bottle or two. Today I got up had breakfast and biked back to Strasbourg with enough time to eat at a nice little restaurant before I had to catch my train back to Paris.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish that I could find some connection between this little tour and what I have been studying here in France….. But really it was just a wonderful little trip that had nothing to do with Parisian music, the Romani people, or music in general. It was purely for the pleasure of eating amazing food, drinking incredible wine, and biking through some of the most picturesque countrysides I have ever seen. Speaking of food, here is a bunch of food I have had the chance to try while here is France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An amazing pot of fondu I got to share with Tristan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very German meal of sauerkraut with sausage, ham, a boiled potato, and an Edelweiss served with a baguette of course. Everything here is.

There is a lot of German in influence on everything here in the Alsace region because it is right on the border of France and Germany. This area has been fought over for hundreds of years. But at the moment it is apart of France.

 

 

 

 

 

My last breakfast in Colmar before heading back to Strasbourg.

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn’t believe this was a thing so I had to get it. Its real……..

Its just a whole deep fried hunk of camembert served over roasted potatoes.

 

 

It was amazing. I can’t believe I ate a whole thing of camembert….

 

 

 

The more time I spend here is France, the more connection I make between the things that I perceive as very French. This week I am starting to see that French cuisine shares many of the same characteristics as French music. French cooking has always been known worldwide as the standard for good western cooking. It’s innovative, interesting, lively and much of it comes from such humble ingredients. And I think that most of that is true for French music as well.

Maybe French music and cuisine aren’t really that similar, but it’s been fun while I am learning about this wonderful culture to try and make connections between the things that I really love.

After several days in New Orleans, I decided to dedicate more of my time towards doing field work. I refreshed myself on my original research goal which was to learn more about the physical and social landscape of New Orleans and how the affects of Hurricane Katrina have influenced it. Although my approach this time was still largely interactive-based, I added another dimension to my work by preparing a survey which I could hand out to interviewees and generate data from. The survey I made was composed of several basic demographic-related questions followed a series of statements to which the respondent could answer according to a Likert Scale (a scale rated from 1-5, 1 being Strongly Disagree and 5 being Strongly Agree). My plan was to distribute this survey to as many random people as possible and hopefully gather enough substantial information to use in my work. Although I learned a lot from the survey’s, I learned even more about how to properly conduct this type of work.

I took a streetcar down to the French Quarter and only a few blocks down from my stop I approached my first interviewee. He was 24-year-old black man named Jeffrey. Before I approached him, Jeffrey was performing a style of spoken word similar to rapping but without any beat or accompaniment to go along with it. He was friendly and gladly obliged to fill out a survey and chat with me. He said he was not originally from New Orleans and that he didn’t move there until after Katrina had happened. He said he originally moved there for school but was now working as a tutor and performing around the French Quarter whenever his schedule allowed it. I thanked him for his time and moved onward.

A few surveys later, I realized that all the people I was approaching all shared something in common: they were all expressing or showcasing some type of art form. I realized that I was gravitating towards these people only and that in turn, I was subjecting my intended research methods to my own bias. Although I intended for the survey to be distributed randomly, there was no possible way to do this as long as I was going to be selecting and approaching each person myself. I worked around this slight complication and decided that I would just use artists and musicians as the focus group for my survey.

Several hours later, I had made my rounds through most of the French Quarter and had accumulated about 15 surveys from various musicians, painters, and street performers. By this point I was becoming aware of the fact that I had barely met a single artist or musician who had lived in New Orleans before and after Katrina. However, I soon met someone who completely changed my outlook on my research and affirmed my already forming skepticism about what I was hoping to find in New Orleans.

A couple blocks over from Jackson Square, I found myself gazing at vintage movie posters and art deco-style lithographs inside a small art gallery called, “Rue Royale”. There I introduced myself to the gallery’s director, Deborah. She was a middle-aged white woman who had been living in New Orleans since 1993 and was there to witness Hurricane Katrina, before and after. She assured me that the only street musicians I would find in downtown New Orleans were mere “wannabes” who conveniently swooped in on the work left behind by all of the city’s previous musicians who were displaced by Katrina. A painter I talked to in the French Quarter described this is as “cycling”. The native musicians and artists were washed away and younger musicians from around the country came to New Orleans while all of the permits were left available to them. Although some of the new artists I talked to described this as “not necessarily a bad thing” and maintained that it provided work for the next generation of artists and in some ways even refreshed the scene in New Orleans. Deborah argued that these people were entirely phony and just trying to capitalize on something that wasn’t theirs to begin with. She also described what it was like to be in the city during the hurricane and how she witnessed the dark side of humanity unfold outside her gallery window when citizens looted the streets and in panic and desperation, turned against one another. She felt that all of this was portrayed in the media as a giant spectacle that attracted the interest of national politicians, investors, and celebrities alike. I appreciated hearing this very candid and radical perspective.

Although I didn’t find the exact information I had originally sought after in my survey, it was through the process of interviewing and experimenting with the survey that I found answers to some of the “bigger picture” questions related to my project. I felt inspired to become more critical about my investigation of New Orleans and intrigued to delve deeper into the seedy undercurrent beneath all of the idealism and tourism on the city’s surface.

This week I was fortunate enough to be able to meet with Joe Kaharimbanyi who is a member of the Ugandan band Qwela. Qwela’s music is often described as afrofusion. Joe mentioned that his influences range from Rukiga music (the Bakiga are a group from Southwestern Uganda and Rwanda), Blues, Jazz and Reggae. This diverse range of influences can be seen in their instrumentation and choice of language. Their ensemble consists of typical ‘western’ instruments such as guitars, a drum kit, saxophone and keyboard/piano alongside traditional Ugandan instruments, particularly drums.

When I asked Joe about the bands selection of instruments and language he said that they intentionally try to use instruments and languages from different regions in Uganda. Their goal in representing different cultures from around the country in their music is to try and connect with a wider audience. This aligns with the Ndere Troupe’s goal (mentioned in a previous post) of promoting unity across cultures by presenting dances and music from diverse cultures.

Here is a song from Qwela’s album Afrotopia:

Qwela – Tendeko

 

On Wednesday night, I made it down to the National Theater for the opening performance for and event called DOADOA. DOADOA refers to itself as the ‘East African Performing Arts Market.’ Their goal is to provide networking and educational opportunities in order to develop the performing arts community in East Africa. Unfortunately the rest of the DOADOA events were taking place in Jinja. Although Jinja isn’t too far from Kampala, I wasn’t able to make it over there. However, I was able to learn a bit more by perusing their program.

The opening performance was by Annet Nandujja. She performs music and dance that is in the style of traditional music from the Baganda people of central Uganda. She sang entirely in Luganda which is the language of the Baganda. Kampala was also historically the center of the Buganda kingdom (from which Uganda got its name). As such, it is the most widely spoken of Uganda’s languages spoken in Kampala. In my conversation with Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza, she identified the use of Luganda as one of the defining characteristics of the music created in Kampala.

Although I couldn’t understand the lyrics (I have been trying to pick up a bit of Luganda while I am here but haven’t gotten very far yet), the person sitting next to me mentioned that one of the reasons she really liked Nandujja was that she is a great storyteller. This emphasis on storytelling is a component of her music that she pulls from traditional Kiganda music.

Her band consisted of an endigidi (tube fiddle), amadinda (xylophone), and the Kiganda set of drums. The Kiganda set is a group of drums that is typically used in the Kiganda music. This set of drums includes the engalabi (tall, cylindrical drum), nankasa (high pitch), embutu (middle pitch) and empuni (low pitch). She also performs with a group of dancers called The Planets. They also derive their dances from tradition Kiganda dances.

On Saturday night, I went to a restaurant called Casablanca near where I am staying. There was a distinct contrast in the types of music played there. When I first arrived the were playing a fairly typical American and European pop. However, every 20 to 30 minutes a performer would come out to play live drums accompanied by several dancers. She would play without taking a rest for about 10 minutes and then the recorded music would resume.

This week I also started learning how to play the adungu which is also known as the bow harp. The adungu originated in Northern Uganda mostly among the Alur and Acholi. It is now one of Uganda’s traditional instruments that is played in many different cultures throughout the country. The adungu seems to be one of the traditional instruments most commonly incorporated into contemporary music (I have mentioned it in previous posts as being featured in different bands).

Along with most forms of traditional music, the adungu was originally tuned in a pentatonic scale. However, along with the influence of colonialism it is now tuned to a diatonic major scale. Most adungus have 7 or more strings. The one that I have has 12 strings with the first 8 tuned to a major scale and the next 4 repeat the 5^th, 4^th, 3^rd, and 2^nd of the scale an octave lower. The adungu also comes in several different sizes ranging from the solo adungu (which has the highest pitch) to the bass adungu. I will be continuing to take lessons for the rest of my time here so I should have an update on my progress in my next post.

It is wild to me that one week ago I was just getting into Alabama and now I am back sitting in my room in Olympia. It was such an amazing experience to drive that far across the country and see so much of how the United States changes over such a large amount of land. Since I last posted I did a lot of river laying, eating, drinking, and a lot more driving; but I also did a lot of thinking and listening. The time I was in Alabama I mostly spent in a small home on the side of a river, it was an incredibly peaceful and relaxing place to stay. It was interesting to me how much could be similar to home but so very different while i was in the south. We have rivers in Washington that probably have a similar look, but if you dig deeper you see how different things are. The trees, the color of the water, the fish, the birds, the sounds the birds make were all much different than home. I kept thinking about these differences, I would eat a lot of fish I eat fish in Alabama just like home, but it wasn’t fish I was used to. This really sums up what my time in the south was like, it is very similar to home in a large vague way, but it’s the small things that make you remember just how far away you are, and how different everything really is.

I have been to the south before so the environment was mind blowing, but I have never driven there. I have never seen the environment around me change so gradually along with the people and the culture in it. It was a crazy experience to be able to see change happen like that. The drive also again brought me back to the Ecotopia book by Ernest Callenbach and the idea of Cascadia. I am not the most patriotic person, I don’t always have a great sense of pride in my country, or even the view that we live in the greatest country in the world; but I do identify as an American. Except, this trip actually made me challenge that, because when I was traveling around America I wondered if I identify with the entirety of America or just the Pacific Northwest. This notion of taking more pride in the PNW than all America was mostly inspired by going to the south and really listening to how things are different. It is like the world moves in a different way in the south. Things felt slower, and older, and people more nostalgic. It very much felt like I could be in a different country. On the way back driving for hour, after hour, after hour; I kept thinking “Wow we could really split things up!” Western Texas looked nothing like Eastern Texas, and Louisiana felt much different from the rest of the South. All these places are so different from each other it reminded me of how every once in a while someone talks about splitting Western and Eastern Washington because the two sides seem to have little in common. It is really interesting to me we can be from such varied places and all be called American.

 

I started out this field study with the intention of looking for trends in Seattle music to see if there is a way the city effects what is being created there. However after this trip and my ever changing interest, I keep zooming out and looking at not just Seattle, not just Washington, but the overall Pacific Northwest. I think my field study has broadened not just to looking at a Seattle sound, but looking at the music from the Pacific Northwest as a whole. This next week I will be doing very little driving in comparison to the last couple, and I will be able to be in Seattle for an extended period of time for more research.

 

“A man’s got to have a code.”

 

Whether it’s Sandor Clegane, Omar Devone Little, or John Wayne, it seems everyone is in agreement on the subject. Every person needs a code. What is the nature of this code though? What is it and why is it necessary? There are several other meanings of the word code which can grant us a some insight into this word: the code used to program a computer, your genetic code, a system of symbols (as in a cipher), or a body of law. A person’s code then may be seen as a set of rules or instructions which govern their interpretations and actions. In other words, its your personal philosophy, and it is necessary for determining the view, standard, and manner by which you choose to interact with the world and with yourself. Your philosophy is a part of every action you take, every thought you have, because it is the basis by which you choose which actions to pursue and which thoughts to develop. It then follows: do you form your philosophy, or do you allow your philosophy to form you? That is, is your code explicit or implicit? Have you consciously laid down the foundational steps by which you have come to identify yourself, or have you allowed yourself to be haphazardly formed according to circumstance?

It is this line of thought which has led me to pursue the realization of my own philosophy during the second half of this study. When I was originally outlining this study my intention was an exploration of my aesthetics concerning music. I was aware then that such an exploration would necessarily encompass other branches of philosophy to a certain extent, but I had not anticipated that my curiosity would lead me to take on something of this scope. I began by reading Philosophies of Art & Beauty; Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger. From the introduction, it became clear that many of these philosophies of art were tied to deeper philosophical questions, such as the nature of reality. This reminded me of Botton’s chains of questions, and I understood that, if I wanted to fully appreciate my own musical aesthetic, I would need to determine my philosophy from the foundations up. That’s not to say that my attention shall shift away from esthetics, as art, and more specifically music, is clearly an avenue by which I may readily connect with the subject of philosophy. In fact, the introduction of Philosophies of Art & Beauty points out that some philosophers see art as “one of the keys to philosophical understanding” (xviii). What I mean to say is that, while I explore philosophy from the side of esthetics, I endeavor to also explore the “central hub composed of a few blunt, large questions” (Botton, 116).

I’ve been unsatisfied with most of what I’ve been reading in Philosophies of Art & Beauty, and have been exploring other avenues by which I may supplement my learning. I’ve learned a bit about Plato’s theory of forms, for example, from an online resource referred to me by my room mate. I also find that, while reading about philosophical ideas is helpful, discussing ideas with other can be so much more engaging and illuminating. So if any of you are interested about learning more about your personal philosophies, I’d be happy to open up a dialogue with you. It’s a win win situation, we both learn!

All that being said, the focus of this study is still music. This past week I’ve been working on a slew of new songs with my band. We also played a show in Rochester, and I’m looking forward to playing two house shows later this week. I’ve been enraptured by the piano, and have been learning Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata over the past few weeks. This past week I’ve been particularly focused on, and pleased with, the working up a new piano piece to add to my repertoire: Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka’s Kraid’s Lair from Metroid. It’s a song I’ve really enjoyed for a long time, and it’s been very satisfying working out some of the more difficult fingerings for before slowly bringing them up to speed. In addition, I’ve been developing some ideas for a piano piece- a piece which I hope I will be able to eventually call my first piano sonata. I would like to eventually record myself playing each of these songs and post the recordings on this blog site. In the mean time, I’ve started learning how to use a free music notation software called MuseScore with which I’ve laid out the first bit of my sonata. Tomorrow I’ll designate what has, until this point, been my largely unused “Sketch” page as the place I’ll upload my creations/recordings to. Expect to see the first fragment of my sonata and the latest cut of the song I demo’d earlier on this blog.

 

Work Cited:

 

Botton, Alain De. The Art of Travel. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Print.