Silly Viruses

I am quite sure that there is some virus attempting to invade my body. So far I'm not too sick, and hopefully the imbibing of much orange juice today will stave off the invasion and leave me healthy for my trip to New York this weekend!

On another note, I finally caved and bought a new iPod today. Terry gave me puppy eyes because he's sad to see me give up on the iPod he bought me for x-mas 3 years ago, but it was time. This new one is great! It's small and green and holds twice as much music. I named it Krunkteef.

I also bought an album by Yael Naïm, who did the song for the MacBook Air commercial (with the laptop in the folder). J and I were listening to her online on the weekend and I decided she would be the perfect present for Krunkteef. I definitely recommend the album.

Confronting History II

As I thought about this topic a little more today, I realised that I think the US is already doing what the author of this article suggested. Perhaps that's why he suggested it for Germany...

Most of the recognition of slavery that I've seen does in fact focus on the people who worked to help the ancestors of slaves build a less oppressive world: Martin Luther King Jr day and Black History Month to name just 2 that I've experienced since moving here. However, I haven't yet encountered any holidays or monuments that focus on the victims. Perhaps I'm not far enough South... Send me some links of different holidays and monuments if you know them.

Confronting History

The African-American work song session at the FSGW workshop has led to much discussion here among my friends on the nature of racial politics in the US and their failings in properly addressing their history of slavery in a way that would significantly improve race relations.

I don't know enough about it to really comment, but David sent me this interesting article on how Germany has attempted to come to terms with their horrific past.

I am also reminded of what Dr. Gramit said to me a few years ago when I was really struggling with a reading from Adorno in which he focused on a single note in a Beethoven symphony as the turning point of modernity: Adorno was a German who was writing just after the Holocaust, and in the wake of such unfathomable events he was searching for whatever he could find to justify German existence.

FSGW mini-fest

Today we went to the Folklore Society of Washington mid-winter festival in Takoma Park. It was close enough to walk to and great fun all around. We opened the day watching J's friends Margaux and Matthew's family playing and finished with Sacred Harp. The Sacred Harp singing was pretty great, and much too short for my taste. By the time we set up there was only about 45 min left for singing. Pretty good turnout though, for such a small event. I led 274 on the top, Golden Harp.



I also went to 2 sessions of Bulgarian singing, a banjo/fiddle tunes workshop, a klezmer fiddle workshop, and a session on African-American work songs. I enjoyed most of it, but the work songs session put me off pretty badly. It was hosted by a couple of WASP-y types, one of whose family had previously employed slave labourers. It seemed like an effort to placate his sense of guilt over his family's activities and smacked of oppressive colonialist attitudes. Although the music was presented with respect and information on historical context, the fact that it was presented by a white couple to a room full of white listeners singing along really seemed wrong to me.

The comparison that I made is that it would be akin to someone whose family was part of the Nazi SS during the holocaust getting up and singing Jewish traditional songs to alleviate familial guilt. Though perhaps that would be more offensive because it is 2 or 3 generations closer to us. At any rate, i would have felt much better about the experience if they had actually invited someone who is an actual culture-bearer of the music (if such a person exists) to participate in the singing.

On the positive side, J and I really enjoyed the Bulgarian presentations and are thinking of visiting one of their rehearsals on Monday nights. That music is great fun and very, very beautiful.

Coffee Thoughts

I follow Judith Warner's NY Times blog pretty closely, and I just finished reading this fantastic post. Please read it!

My strongest memories of coffee represent some of the few warm memories of Aaron that I keep close. The ritual of making the coffee... grinding the beans, boiling the water, steeping it until it was just right, and slowly pressing down the plunger in the french press we always used. On special days we would use the stovetop espresso maker to make small delicious cups. Then we would sit at the table and read together or chat about something one of us had read. It was easily the time that he smiled the most in a week, and the times that I can say I felt truly happy with him.

Whenever I breathe in the smell of fresh coffee it takes me back to those moments. Even though our marriage was turbulent and painful in so many ways, the coffee gave me something to hold on to and treasure.