ethnographic account: concert production

My major is Audio Engineering Technology, and I've always enjoyed live concert production.  So as soon as I heard about this assignment I knew I wanted to take the chance to describe what I would see at the Christian Showcase this weekend.  I am taking Belmont's Advanced Sound Reinforcement class, so I was required to be there to help out with load-in, load-out, and everything in between.  I thought I knew what I would find: a very distinct set of behavior, clothing, and speech.  That's the way all shows are.

That's not what happened.  I was surprised.  There were a few things of note, that I will get to soon, but overall, most of the audio crew was not acting noticeably different than what I would consider normal.  There were no crude jokes, superfluous fowl language, or even the expected arrogance towards those who don't know as much.  It was weird.  I think because the showcase is supposed to be a learning experience for all those involved, the arrogance must be thrown out the window.  Also, most of the students that showed up to help had never done anything like it before.  They didn't know what to expect.

What did I find, though?  Everyone was wearing black.  This is easily explained: on a dark stage in a dark room, stagehands aren't seen as easily if they wear black.  A yellow t-shirt wouldn't work very well.  This is such common practice that my professor even remarked that he would be present at the show wearing neon green.  We all laughed, and the next day he was wearing black.  A few of the new students hadn't figured this out yet, so the first day there was a little variety in color, but by the second day, everyone working audio had on black.

I definitely didn't experience what I thought would happen, but it's still interesting to see how something as simple as shirt color can give someone away as inexperienced or "illiterate."

fieldworking: frothy monkey.

I went to Frothy Monkey to do some practice note-taking.  I really enjoy coffeeshops, so it was nice to spend some time there actually paying attention for once.  I saw some interesting things...  There was a couple that showed up that looked like they belonged (they were dressed like Nashvillian hipsters, if I can use the term), but they had two kids with them.  I don't think I had ever seen that before.  I wrote: "Hipster meets parenthood?"

A little later, a family came it.  Mom and Dad were in their 50's, with a daughter about 15 years old.  They came in, proceeded to the cash register, ordered drinks (Dad got plain coffee to go, Mom ordered an iced fruit tea, and their daughter got hot chocolate), and then left.  The longest part of their experience was waiting for their drinks.  And those 45 seconds were very awkward for them.  Why didn't they just go through the drive-thru at Starbucks?

I wouldn't say that anything disturbed me while I was there.  After all, I'm as much a part of the culture as any.  I was a little taken aback by the guy that walked in with a 2-3 ft. long beard.  But he didn't seem out of place.  Any other day, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it.  It's interesting how your perspective changes just because you're paying attention.

ethnography idea:

In the last several years, I have become what some might call a "reader." As such, I really enjoy spending time in libraries, so I have thought that I may study the competing Discourses within and between a few libraries in Nashville. I know that there is a strong secondary Discourse associated with presence in a library, and I think it would be interesting to study how these norms vary from library to library.  I hypothesize that Belmont's library would have a vastly different culture than the downtown public library.  Knowing that Belmont's library is open 24 hours during the week, I would enjoy seeing how the culture changes throughout the day.

I know this idea needs some refining: there is no specific question I have in mind to answer.  But I think it will turn out to be an interesting project.