Chicago rocks!

I realized that I haven't updated in a really long time... I've been down to Chicago twice, and both times were fantastic! I got a lot of information from Miss Sylvia, my consultant who is a resident at the Sound-bar. Meeting her was really incredible, partly because she's so passionate about what she does, and partly because she is so kind, in the most basic sense of the word. She was open and honest when we talked, and very straightforward. She told me about her life, her artistic goals, and her ideas... I really appreciated her candor. It was in the top five first conversations I've ever had with anyone, I think, and I definitely recorded an hour and a half of it (we talked for probably close to three hours).

One of the things that I thought was interesting was her passion about enabling the dancers. I asked her to describe her DJing aesthetic in three words, and she said "creative artistic medium," as in, she sees herself as a translator, or a go-between, or a channel between the raw music and the raw dance. She allows the dancers to express themselves through her expression of herself. It was something I couldn't have guessed before the interview.

So much of what she said was so insightful that my part on the recording sounded kind of dumb... basically all I said was "whoa, cool... awesome. That's really neat." But what else was there to say?

I was afraid there wouldn't be enough to write on, in this project... now I'm afraid there might be too much. Women's aesthetic in this culture is striking and beautiful, and Sylvia's ideas about the fusion of music and movement are very thought provoking.