perspective from the outside
tonight i sang, like most thursdays, with the krakow gospel choir, where like most thursdays, there was not a huge, mountainous black woman with a voice of gravel, and 'soul' exuding from her pores conducting.
last week however there was, and i was thinking about a few things. Namely:
white folks cant sing gospel. true and not true because this director from england had us sounding better than we had done in ages, and really feeling the music. i thought at various intervals that it was because we were too lazy, or too young, or just couldnt uderstand the half of it. when i say we i mean they, the choir consists of 45 18-23 year old blond polish girls and me. well, and about 10 other guys but they dont really count. me of course i understand.
And then i just had a great conversation with I about polish culture (even if she doesnt think so). Poland is an interesting place but one of the reasons that i am still here is that it is so damn hard to figure out exactly what is going on here in terms of social reality and protocol.
that and recent experiences with polish hierarchy, notably with educational structures. this is a country where nothing less than twenty years of study qualifies you to say something, and once you are qualified, there is nothing in the country that can contradict you. the discourse smacks of eloquence and righteousness and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in frustration and anger. i think, most probably, because it doesnt allow for creativity, or the possibility that someone might have something intersting to contribute unless they have studied about it for 20 years. it makes me crazy. maybe even crazier whe i can understaand it in its native tongue. and most crazy of all because people accept it.
There is no questioning academia here, and it is exactly the reason why it hasnt changed for the last twenty years, and wont in the near future.
it goes back to the choir because not five days after this magnificent bawling mound of positive energy went back to england, the choir is again, in the grips of the polish conductor who 'knows' how things should be, and mocks the things we learned last week. and he's qualified to know because he has studied it for 10 years of course. it all smacks of a lack of common sense, and no ability to questions what is going because of a lack of faith in your own convictions. so frustrating.so frustrating.
anyway. maybe itll be easier to deal with itin my dreams. kolorwych snuv wszysce.
rx
last week however there was, and i was thinking about a few things. Namely:
white folks cant sing gospel. true and not true because this director from england had us sounding better than we had done in ages, and really feeling the music. i thought at various intervals that it was because we were too lazy, or too young, or just couldnt uderstand the half of it. when i say we i mean they, the choir consists of 45 18-23 year old blond polish girls and me. well, and about 10 other guys but they dont really count. me of course i understand.
And then i just had a great conversation with I about polish culture (even if she doesnt think so). Poland is an interesting place but one of the reasons that i am still here is that it is so damn hard to figure out exactly what is going on here in terms of social reality and protocol.
that and recent experiences with polish hierarchy, notably with educational structures. this is a country where nothing less than twenty years of study qualifies you to say something, and once you are qualified, there is nothing in the country that can contradict you. the discourse smacks of eloquence and righteousness and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in frustration and anger. i think, most probably, because it doesnt allow for creativity, or the possibility that someone might have something intersting to contribute unless they have studied about it for 20 years. it makes me crazy. maybe even crazier whe i can understaand it in its native tongue. and most crazy of all because people accept it.
There is no questioning academia here, and it is exactly the reason why it hasnt changed for the last twenty years, and wont in the near future.
it goes back to the choir because not five days after this magnificent bawling mound of positive energy went back to england, the choir is again, in the grips of the polish conductor who 'knows' how things should be, and mocks the things we learned last week. and he's qualified to know because he has studied it for 10 years of course. it all smacks of a lack of common sense, and no ability to questions what is going because of a lack of faith in your own convictions. so frustrating.so frustrating.
anyway. maybe itll be easier to deal with itin my dreams. kolorwych snuv wszysce.
rx
posted by rob at 10:22 pm
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