Day 34 "In the trenches" (Too Much Monkey Business edition) and, Fuzzy People 28

Too much, too much, it's all too much. With a search, two seminars, two private lessons, a sixteen-minute video podcast, a radio program, a music-appreciation textbook, and a set of lost keys, it's all too, too much. Woke up at 4am, couldn't get back to sleep, started working and didn't stop until about 15 minutes ago. Stress level is off the charts.

But, dammit--I'm just so proud of my guys. 10am was a Master's student who's writing up her fieldwork in Ethiopia, in a beautiful photo-essay set with commentary that's going to break some hearts when it's published. 11am was MUBA student who's learning Irish fiddle--very very fast. 12:30 the African Diaspora seminar--today was Haitian rara and Dominican merengue, and a first introduction to the Trinidad calypsonians. A lot of my guys have heard Arrow's "Hot Hot Hot" (either in a soccer commercial or the David Johansen version), or maybe Belafonte's version of "Jump in the Line" (from Beetlejuice), though I like Sir Lancelot's 1958 original much better. But my very favorite is Attilla the Hun's 1937 "Roosevelt in Trinidad", which I first heard from Martin Grosswendt, who got it from Ry Cooder, who probably got it from Attilla:

When Roosevelt came to the "Land of the Hummingbird"
Shouts of welcome were heard
His visit to the island is bound to be
An epoch in local history
Definitely marking the new era
Between Trinidad and America.

Usually they're in hysterics by the end of the first verse.

Hell of a weekend: bunch of gigs with the Celtic ensemble. I was proud of them:



That's my guys.

Below the jump: morning cloud, and Ian's buddy Hank the Cow-Dog:

Thanks to Chipper for the "Fuzzy People" appellation.