I’m also worried about the 10 minute presentation because I feel that my project will be “boring” to those listening because my project isn’t multimedia focused. It’s a paper. And I could stand up there and read my paper but I feel that would be boring too so I don’t know what I’m going to do. I feel it is critical to finish my paper before the 11th but with WA5 due, I don’t know how I’m going to do that. Just my honest opinion.

Outline

Intro – first person blurb

Cowhill coffee and Jerald Thomas “Hip vibe, I dig it”

Antiques and the pictures on the wall, clocks

Timeless – Joanna’s quote

Songwriter’s night – Jerald and Brad – using the middle space, increasing business

Insert – blurb on joke – character of Cowhill “Spotlight?”

Mention quote on the mirror

Literacy

How Cowhill draws in the community

How songwriters affect each other à sponsors of literacy, influences

The songwriting process

Creativity with each other

Core groups, “click”

How the audience interacts with the performers

Beneficial relationship

Blurb on my own experience

Rachel’s blurb about her observations of the crowd

The performers

Emotional connections

Heartfelt genre

Helping each other, encouraging growth

Conclusion – small town atmosphere – Jerald’s comment on loving to see the square and watch, keep it nice. Preserving a good thing while growing in literacy – Heartfelt and timeless.

Annotated Table of Contents

TITLE PAGE

1. Hand-drawn map of Cowhill

2. Thoughts on Cowhill – talks about what I want out of my project.

3. My first collection of data on random pieces of paper – names, email addresses, phone numbers…

4. First set of fieldnotes

5. Expanded fieldnotes

6. Collage of all the clocks at Cowhill, plus a picture of a funny mouse trap joke on the wall. “They have all the time in the world!”

7. Second set of field notes.

8. Expanded fieldnotes

9. 3rd set – VERY extensive.

10. Another page of information for future interviews

11. Expanded field notes

12. Lists of interview questions: version 1 and 2

13. First interview: Jerald Thomas – permission sheet and fieldnotes

14. Later field notes from listening to the interview again.

15. Second interview: Brad Davis – permission sheet and fieldnotes

16. Later field notes from listening to the interview again.

17. Third Interview: Mary K Croft – permission sheet and field notes

18: Expanded Fieldnotes

19: Fourth Interview: Paula Bahamon – permission sheet and fieldnotes

20. Expanded fieldnotes

21. Other students’ responses to Cowhill (open mic night) – Rachel, Breanna, Andrew, Ashley

22. Collection of my one-page analyses

23. Expanded fieldnotes – my own personal experience at Cowhill (add more from after the performance)

24. List of Codes

25. Printed off blips from all my research journals that tie into my project… notes for final project.

ONE PAGE ANALYSIS

I think my project is finally coming together. I have conducted four very successful interviews (though I wished I could have done more), have taken field notes at all of the songwriters’ nights held since I began my project, and have even become emotionally attached to the project itself. I feel a connection to Cowhill and the performers there because I know the internal struggle of producing songs and then getting up the guts to perform them. I think that my project will be beneficial to those who believe in themselves and want to share their talents. I do not have 20 codes, but I have gone through my research, coding and recoding and I think I have filled in the holes that were missing from my codes before. I now have 11 codes and I believe that is sufficient for my personal project.

I’ve outlined my project and I think I am ready to begin writing it. I’m nervous, as I said, to get things done right but I believe my project is good and is worth something, at least to me. I even performed at Cowhill last week in order to get an insider’s perspective, and I think it was beneficial to me for the writing of my project. I was able to experience the audience’s reactions from the performer’s point of view and I think that has better prepared me to write this project because now I have seen the audience from the stage and from the second story viewing area. I also have the reactions of fellow classmates dealing with Cowhill, and the open mic night, and I think those will be great contributors to my project as well.

I think this is going to be an awesome project and that it might even create more publicity for Cowhill. It has a great atmosphere and is set in small town, quiet, “good-for-writing” Commerce, and I think that is significant for the community to realize. People have come to love this place and all it has to offer, and people are making the best of what they have and encouraging each other to do better. It’s an awesome event and I believe that Cowhill songwriter’s night in itself is a sponsor of literacy because it gains as well as gives. “Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress or withhold literacy – and gain advantage by it in some way.” – Debra Brandt.

As I progress in my interviewing and researching project, I keep coming back to the importance of songwriting in my own life. This Thursday I will be performing at Cowhill (hopefully), which should be really fun. But I think it is also important because I need to go up there and have the experience that these other songwriters have when performing at Cowhill. How does the audience look from the performer’s point of view? How does the audience react? How do I feel? What do I notice most? Etc… I think this will highly influence the outcome of my project if I decide to make it very, very personal.

Also with further research I’ve realized that I need to add more questions to my interview list. Some of them are ones that have to do with performers experience at Cowhill – were you nervous? Were you glad you did it? Would you do it again? How do you think this helped or hindered your writing process? Who encouraged you to perform here? If you had to, could you pinpoint one event in your life that if it hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t be performing at Cowhill? If Cowhill songwriter’s night didn’t exist, would you still perform at other places, in other opportunities? How do you think that this event would differ if set in a larger town, or if people were forced to come to it for a class requirement, ect?

I recognized the lack of these questions as holes in my research, and I’m glad I caught them before conducting too many interviews. I hope that with further research I will delve into this process even more, and learn to pinpoint the important things that I should begin writing about. I would love to start my project now and continue it as I go along. I think that making use of my research journals, field notes and observations, and interviews is very important, and I also want to add in more pictures of the events and of Cowhill itself. I think these will be steps towards a richer, more complete project. Maybe even one worth publishing? Who knows.

2) The codes I’m using are not extensive, but they will help me to find the points that are helpful in my categories. Inspiration, timelessness, object worth, publicity, connections, experience, skill/talent, small town atmosphere, and sponsors will be the labels throughout my portfolio that will help me see how to organize my final project.

3) Listening to the East Caney interview was beneficial for me because I saw more styles for interviewing, and how to probe more information out in a conversational way. I found it important because this will cause the interviewee to be more comfortable in the situation and thus create more opportunity for that rich information in stories to come out. I enjoyed my own interview because I could ask a question and my interviewee would tell me a story related to how my question addresses the topic. For example in my own interview with Brad Davis, when I asked about the importance of community, he told a story about how he thought college students would like to perform at Cowhill so that they have more opportunity that wouldn’t have been there before.

1. Hand-drawn map of Cowhill

2. Thoughts on Cowhill – talks about what I want out of my project.

3. My first collection of data on random pieces of paper – names, email addresses, phone numbers…

4. First set of fieldnotes

5. Expanded fieldnotes

6. Collage of all the clocks at Cowhill, plus a picture of a funny mouse trap joke on the wall. “They have all the time in the world!”

7. Second set of field notes.

8. Expanded fieldnotes

9. 3rd set – VERY extensive.

10. Another page of information for future interviews

11. Expanded field notes

12. First interview: Jerald Thomas – permission sheet and fieldnotes

13. Later field notes from listening to the interview again.

14. Second interview: Brad Davis – permission sheet and fieldnotes

15. Later field notes from listening to the interview again.

CODES

I – inspiration

C – confidence

T – timeless

O – object worth

P – publicity

C – connections

E – experience

S – skill/talent

A – small town atmosphere

Sponsor (of literacy, or apprenticeships)

ONE PAGE ANALYISIS

As you pointed out in your comments in my last writing assignment, the focal point of my project seems to be either too broad or too fuzzy. I agree – I’m having a little trouble focusing in on what I ultimately want my project to be about. Hopefully with further interviews my doubts will be cleared up and my project will be as great as I’m hoping it will be.

Somehow I need to tie in the importance of the history of Cowhill into the lives of the songwriters that perform there. My plan so far is to have the introduction to my project be about Cowhill’s history, its timelessness, and its role in the lives of people in the community. Cowhill really does have an interesting background, rich with history especially since Jerald Thomas, the owner, loves antiques and history and shows that by displaying all his things all over Cowhill. I think that the small town atmosphere of this shop plays a vital role in the songwriter’s night and I need to find a way to express that. That’s one thing I noticed from both of my interviews so far – both Jerald Thomas and Brad Davis mentioned something about loving Commerce and the square, loving the atmosphere, the quiet, and wanting to bring out the talent hidden in its corners.

I also want to focus a large portion of my project on how the songwriter’s life stories have brought them to be where he is, and what Cowhill means to him. I haven’t interviewed any other performers yet, but I do have interviews set up for this week. I want to know their reactions to their experiences at Cowhill, what they want to do with their talents, skills, dreams, and how their performances are affecting others. I think it’s a circle of affects… Someone in these songwriter’s lives had to affect them and lead them on towards where they are, where they are going. And they in turn, either by performing or by teaching or by forming friendships, also affect what happens in the future with songwriting. Jerald Thomas made a comment that I found important – he said that once someone has started performing, he gets better every time he does. He thinks Cowhill songwriter’s night is a great opportunity, which he called “poor boy’s copyright,” to get a writer’s stuff out there and work towards becoming better at what he’s doing.

Another thing I’d like to touch on, but not extensively, is the importance of connections. A key role that people played in Brad Davis’s life were helping him move on towards stardom… he played with well known people and spent a long time on the road, playing all over the country and making connections that way. Are these considered sponsors?

I think I have a good start so far… I just need to go through and organize the main points, collect more information with my interviews, and sit down and start writing. I think it would also be fun to put random blurbs throughout my project of just funny archives on the wall… there are little jokes and stories scattered throughout the shop, and I think it would be cool to make my own comments on those. They add character to Cowhill and its timelessness.

Another idea I’ve been toying with is one of sparkle vs. talent – which I think is important in this context because a lot of talented people perform at Cowhill but they would not succeed in the larger society’s view of the media because they don’t have the right look or vibe. However I need to be careful in this, not to mention names or anything as to not offend the readers.

I’m planning on making use of Rachel Bailey’s blogging about Cowhill because it gives me more outside perspective and I found her opinions about the interaction between crowd and performer very insightful. It definitely ties into my views on the small town atmosphere, and how Cowhill is so great because everyone in the audience is there because they WANT to be there, not for an assignment or because they were forced to come. Once I saw her blog, I started to wonder if maybe other people who took field notes on songwriter’s night would have useful insights for me as well. This is something I’m definitely going to look into. These are a few points that all tie into my project, and as I said, I just think I need to tighten up and decide how to use them. I think that this is going to be an awesome project, and I can’t wait to start writing it! I think it will turn out well!

I’m completely shocked! First of all, why in the world would an old piece of metal with the word “coffee” on it be so expensive?? Second of all, why would you hang it on the wall? Third of all… why is old stuff so expensive??? It doesn’t make sense to me but I guess I can’t bash other people’s hobbies when it’s actually a big thing for a lot of other people. But this piece of history shows how some people treasure the past and do their best to keep it alive and well.  The history of this particular piece isn’t important compared to the meaning it holds for the owner, who takes pride in collecting coffee signs, coffee tins, clocks with coffee logos on them, etc… Each piece of history is important to him but not necessarily to everyone else. I think this relates in a big way to songwriters themselves – each event in someone’s life is important for a different reason, and only he knows it. Have you ever thought about how one event in your life, if it was taken away, could have changed your entire life course? It’s an interesting question.

Another phrase used was “Hook line.” This came up when talking about the writing process – the writer first comes up with one catchy phrase or chorus, or even a guitar riff, and continues from there to write the entirity of the song. This I found important in light of literacy because literacy is a process, and you have to start somewhere.

Sadly there wasn’t much else besides this single important term because all the other “phrases” are normal, regular, understood by society. Unless you get down to the technical terms about music or writing which are mostly educational, and to be honest, not widely used among songwriters themselves. That is why I’m not making a big use of them – simply because they’re not that important unless you’re taking classes about them or learning them for your career. When songwriting is a hobby, there’s just no use for them.

“Terms” that songwriters use are pretty regular and often used in stories. They say, “well I wrote this song a couple days ago so hang in there with me.” They say this a lot – as if apologizing for doing badly even though they rarely do badly. I think this is a kind of reverse psychology: if I say it’s a bad song (even though I myself don’t believe it; otherwise I wouldn’t be performing it), people will expect it to be bad and be surprised when it turns out ok. It’s this kind of thing that songwriters use a lot, but the terms aren’t new to society. That’s why I’m having a hard time coming up with a solid list of words. However these few things I’ve pointed out should be helpful for insight into the writer’s mind.

What surprised me? I was surprised at such a large range of styles and talents. Each person’s style is so different and yet each are unique in that their life stories have affected how their style comes out. If I may make a reference to one of the speakers at the graduate students presentation, the man who’s life is centered on writing is a prime example of this. The events of his life caused him to be consumed with reading and writing, making him a “nerd”… a better writer, a master student. His life events shaped his style, and his way of living.

What intrigued me? I was intrigued by the way that these many forms of writing and songwriting captured the attention of the audience. Given, it is always a special audience filled with people who desire to be there, but nonetheless the talent of the performers caught their complete attention. These different genres combined to one – Heartfelt music – because each song, despite the style, form, or whether it was words or music, touched the hearts of those who were listening, affecting emotion. Funny, scary, sad, or happy – each changed the person’s reaction according to the emotion created. This is what I found so intriguing.

What disgusted me? I was disgusted amidst my feelings of awe and amazement when I thought about how most of these amazing, talented artists would never be recognized by the world’s standards. It takes luck to catch the attention of society – who one knows, how committed one is, etc… but some people who work equally hard and have endless amounts of talent will not “make it” because they are not up to society’s standards. They have talent but not sparkle. However, my disgust is partially appeased when I reason that these artists can affect their community around them in a huge way, even if they never make it to the media. It’s events like Cowhill Songwriter’s night that allow artists to affect their immediate community in big ways that might not affect them if the artist were a “popular artist” in the media. The amount of influence someone has on a life does not depend on how largely popular they are, in my opinion.

Box 30: Since my project is a little different, I haven’t gone through boxes of archives looking for interesting things because all of the interesting things related to my project are hanging on the walls of Cowhill Express. I love this about the coffee shop because of the sense of timelessness and history it arouses in me. I’ve come up with a possible title for my whole research project that I think is catchy and meaningful – “Heartfelt and Timeless.” I think this ties the meaningfulness of my project all together in that one little title. It references the genre of music I’m studying and how it effects emotion and also the timelessness of the cafe in connection with the timelessness that words possess. I think tying the personal histories of these talented artists to the history of Cowhill songwriter’s night will create a meaningful project that people will enjoy reading: I’m hoping that it will attract more people to this event.  The archives I will be focusing on, though there are many interesting pieces in Cowhill, are the clocks. In my interview with the owner of Cowhill that I will have on Saturday morning will hopefully shed some light on the background of these pieces as well as some other pieces at Cowhill. I’m excited to find out more about these archival objects and their significance to my project. Wish me luck!!