In a fit of flattered silliness I agreed (several months ago) to give a talk tonight at the PRCC on “Music in the Civil Rights Movement” in honor of MLK day. I then mostly ignored it for ages, and of course had to scramble all day today to get it together.
There was a nice crowd of about 15 people that were attentive and appreciative, so I think it went well. I played some very cool music, which was the easy part, although whittling the huge pool of cool music down hurt lots. In the end I probably had 5-10 minutes more music than I should have, even after deciding to only play excerpts from two pieces to make more room, but people still stayed to chat for a bit at the end so I don’t think it was out of control long.
I wish I’d had more time to practice my talk and transitions, and I wish I’d somehow made more time for audience discussion, since many of the pieces really needed a chance to talk about them. (Sadly, I am a professor at heart, and will lecture at people when given half a chance.) Still, I think it went well, and I certainly enjoyed the excuse to think about the topic in some detail and pull together a playlist.
And to think that Bernice Johnson Reagon will be on campus for two weeks later in the semester. If she’d been there tonight I quite clearly would have so intimidated that I would have simply wet myself and run.
I wonder if I should post my playlist to the iTunes store? I have no idea how many of the songs I played are available through their store, but it might be fun. I’ve got nothing else to do, right?
And classes start tomorrow. Syllabi? What syllabi?
Help.
Currently listening to See through by The Necks. This is yet another of their hour long epics (in a double CD with the equally epic Mesquito. See through is odd in that it (intentionally) includes long (multi-minute) silences at points that I at least don’t fully understand. An interesting idea, but I’m still struggling to decide if I buy the execution. The non-silent bits are classic Necks, though, and that’s certainly a good thing.
Oh, all three of us saw Finding Neverland night before last, and it’s definitely on the recommended list.
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