Montagnard Music

This is the brief documentary I made for my final project in class.

Remixing

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working on a remix of traditional versus modern. I chose to use traditional string quartet (Mozart) and a modern string quartet (Apocalyptica). I chose to use the entire Apocalyptica song, Harmageddon, as well as the video from it. I used the audio from this song as more of a backing track. The Mozart piece is the main audio piece, cut down to fit into the timeframe of the Harmageddon audio and visual. Actually mixing these two pieces provided to be a challenge of sorts, and I originally started out using another Apocalyptica song, Grace. I went to using Harmageddon because it was a little less agressive and the Mozart piece worked better with the visual. I like the end result, it could be better, but I don't think there are any quick fixes for it.

Montagnard Music and Culture

I am most interested in the Montagnard-Dega music and how it relates to their daily life. I am interested in this because while I am not a music student, I do enjoy learning about music and how it shapes and is shaped by the culture around it. I am also interested in how their instruments are created.

By reviewing the Skype call made during class, the Montagnard women said that traditional music and dance is typically done during celebratory times (New Year's, birhtday's, etc.). This website was also very helpful, describing the various instruments, how they are crafted, as well as what they are used for.

I think that in order to examine how culture plays an influence on the Montagnard-Dega culture, it would be best if I were able to talk with some of the traditional musicians within the Montagnard-Dega community.

Framing the Brain

While listening to a recording of the speech Marshall McLuhan made at John Hopkins University, I could not help but notice how he was always talking about either people as a whole or communications; or both. The talks of the differences between how the right and left hemispheres of the brain process information most interesting because he is able to tie in communications and people as a whole on a simple, personal level. He is also able to talk about differences between cultures and the differences in communication. For example, because the Greeks and Romans had a more lineal language, it created more of a left-hemisphere way of thinking. However, with the introduction of electronic communications, starting with the telegram, the right-hemisphere started taking dominance. The right-hemisphere is also the hemisphere that deals with interpretation of facial expressions. Marshall McLuhan then talks about a Chinese man who had suffered a stroke on the left side of his brain. Despite this, he was still able to read, write, and speak Chinese due to the non-lineal manner of the language.

This was interesting to me because it made me think about how dependent we are on both the written language and facial expressions to convey ourselves in daily life and how saying something and writing the same thing can have drastically different effects on the audience. Further pursuing this, I thought of how different the same poem can be when it's read as opposed to when it's spoken. The perfect example of this would be Taylor Mali's "The the impotence of proofreading." (Warning: Fairly frequent and strong language) This poem, while it can be done as a spoken word poem, doesn't have the same effect as when it is read (Video). Granted, Taylor Mali is able to pull it off to a certain extent, that poem is still better read as opposed to spoken. The same is true with many poems, as many are written to be either only be read or only be spoken. It is rare that there is one that works well in both mediums.

This alone is in contrast with Walter Ong stating that our oral and written languages are merging. However, poetry is one of the few areas where that is not true, and even there it is starting to take place. I agree with him when he states our writing is much more akin to our speaking than it used to be, even to the point where a "formal" paper isn't at all that formal anymore. When I have to write a formal paper, I find it very hard to write without using contractions simply because I talk using contractions.

---Dan Woods

Hello

This is me

This is my mosaic

Part of my half of the room

The other part of my half of the room

Hi, my name is Dan Woods, a student of Unversity of North Carolina School of the Arts, or UNCSA. I'm from Medford, New Jersey. Medford is located in the southern portion of New Jersey. I have one sibling, Molly, who currently lives in Toms River. Toms River is located closer to the middle of New Jersey. At home I also have two dogs, Honey and Ember, who I love as if they were my family. I kind of miss home because I miss seeing my dogs everyday and I miss having a home-cooked meal every day. However, I'm also glad to be at UNCSA, because I'm able to pursue my lighting career in theatre. The picture below my first picture is, as you can tell, a mosaic of the same picture consisting entirely of smaller pictures that pertain to lighting.

Ember, who is very attached to me

My mom is a family therapist for families with children with special needs. She goes around from house to house and helps the families with any paperwork or questions they may have. My dad is a computer engineer. He currently creates programs for military defense systems, specifically for the Navy.

Honey, who is blind in her right eye

My mom's side of the family immigrations here from the former USSR, most likely from Russia, Poland, and Romania, during the 1890's through to the early 1920's. This would make me a 4th/5th generation member of that side of the family. On my dad's side, the most recent immigrations were 7 generations on his father's side and 8 on his mother's side, however, on his mother's side, we can trace our lineage back to the earliest known birth in this country, 13 generations ago in Maryland, 1608. At the bottom of this post is a picture of me standing next to a giant rock in Scotland. Granted, I'm not actually standing next to the rock, I photoshopped myself next to the rock.

In my experience, problems younger people face are more social problems, such as trying to fit in with the "cool" people and what they will do to fit in. In itself, this includes issues of underage drinking, drug use, and bullying in any form. If I were to give advice to anyone who is facing these issues, I would tell them that in the long run, none of them are really okay. I would also tell them that if you are found out for doing anything like that, do not try and lie to cover it up. Lying in that instance will only make things worse.

As much as I hate to give her credit for getting me interested in theatre, my mom is really the one who kick started that interest. Back in 2004, she was looking for a day camp to put me in for the summer. She found a local summer theatre camp that ran for most of the summer and placed me in it. When I was picked up after the first day, I promptly told them that I was definitely coming back the next year. From 2004 to the summer of 2009 I was always there in some form during the summer. Also from 2004 on, I was always involved in theatre in some form.

My house

I have never traveled to any foreign countries, but I hope to change that by the time I graduate college. Medford is not really a culturally diverse town, for the most part everyone there (or at least everyone I went to high school with) is caucasian and somewhat rich. Also back at home in New Jersey, my mom loves to grow her own fruits and vegetables, however, I'm not very good at growing things, so I tend to stay out of the garden.

In my life, digital technology is very important because it keeps me in touch with a lot of my friends from New Jersey. That in itself is important because if I didn't meet these people, I might not have decided to pursue theatre as a career. Aside from the aforementioned friends, what matters most to me is living a happy life filled with friends. I know it sounds really cheesy, but that's all I really want.

---Dan Woods