So I sent some samples and a CV a few months ago to some of the local papers, and Seattle Weekly took me up on it (here's my first blurb--scroll down). This is cool: unlike academia, people are going to read what I write, and I'll get paid for it. The editor liked my Snoop piece, and has included me in the weekly asks: she sends out a list of everything that's going on, and we pitch story ideas to her. I got the first listing of probably around 200 events and was quite shocked. I had heard of Snoop Lion (Dogg); about 199 of the artists that she sent out for this week were a mystery to me. Granted, I've only been in the Pacific NW for about two years now, but still... I wondered what I had gotten myself into. What could I, the ivory tower academic with a dissertation on non-tonal pitch-class space, have to say about Cee Lo Green playing at the Puyallup Fair?*
Later that week, we met up with some friends in Seattle (I told you I go there often) at a restaurant called Local 360. The restaurant's name comes from the fact that all of their ingredients are sourced within a 360-mile radius of the restaurant. Here's what might be considered their "mission statement" from the front page of their website:
We believe in real food, grown and harvested by the good folks in our community who take care of their land for future generations. We believe in whole, natural flavors. We believe in sustainability, not as an abstract concept, but as a conscious daily choice. We believe in hands; the hands of our local farmers, products made by hand, and the goodwill fostered by such hand-in-hand relationships.I began to ponder the parallels between eating locally and listening locally. Taking Local 360's stance as emblematic of many locavores' beliefs, how does this translate to music? I've spent a fair amount of time on the blog and in class railing against "Big Music". And I've taught a "Music in Tacoma" class a few times at UWT: physically and philosophically, the campus really seems to be a part of the downtown, and vice versa (it certainly was one of the main catalysts for the revitalization of downtown about 20 years ago). In the past, I've taken a top-down approach ("here's everything that's wrong with Big Music); perhaps a change in outlook is warranted ("here's all the good stuff happening right here, and why you should care about it"). That last bit--the "why you should care about it"--might be the lynchpin; it's what I, as a music academic, can bring to the table.
More on this later, as I continue to think through some of these things. (There's an amateur/professional thread working its way through my head, as well as a "I'm a classical musician" thread as well...)
*To be clear, I do not aspire to be the next Chuck Klosterman or Lester Bangs, or to quit my "day job" and spend the next year following some band around. If I'm lucky, I might get to write 500 words on a band every two months, and I'm OK with that.