Research time...getting hectic

Thank goodness my internet is still working correctly (insh'Allah nothing ever fouls it up again!).

This week I have really started throwing myself into my independent research here which got off to a bit of a slow start last week due to a combination of circumstances (particularly our academic director not speaking with us about our proposals until last Friday...). Anyway, the past two days have been exhilarating, exhausting, exciting, and...well...I'll admit it, more than a little intimidating. The people I've worked with so far have been extremely helpful, open about their opinions, and generous with their time, but just the idea of calling people (some of whom speak more English than others) to make appointments or looking at a list of names of musicians, government-affiliated officials, and music-enthusiast friends of my adviser to be interviewed in the future can be utterly daunting. I am doing my best to just tackle everything head-on (I am two days into that plan and things seem to be going well).

Yesterday I finally got to meet with my personal adviser for my Independent project, Hatem, who is a good friend of Mounir's (our academic director at SIT) and whom I'd met at the very beginning of our stay here for an in-depth tour of the medina (old arab city) of Tunis. he is a writer, playwrite, and poet (among a seemingly endless list of other things). He is an artist.

I met him yesterday at Hotel Africa in the European quarter and went back with him to his "office." He pulled up on his bike, dismounted, and introducted himself. I can't possible describe this man, but he's got to be one of the coolest guys I've met. It been windy and raining that morning and he had a green winter hat (complete with yellow pompom on the top) and a real bounce in his step. Back at his "office," which was a single paint-spattered black table in the open space between rows of seats in a movie theater in the center for culture, we talked over my project. He was really excited that I was interested in what I suppose I will call "fusion music" and simply laid out the broad sweeps of the history of fusion in Tunisia and listed the most influential and interesting artists. Then...he took out his phone and wrote down phone numbers for the majority of the musicians. I am completely blown away by how connected this man is! I'd been fretting that I hadn't been able to talk to Anouar Brahem after the concert a few weeks ago, but now I have his number along with about ten other musicians and directors of various institutions.

This morning I walked just up the hill to the Center for Arab and Mediterranean Music, an institution established in 1992 by the current president both the preservation of Tunisian music and the propotion of new Tunisian music and musicians. The center is located at the historic palace of Baron d'Erlanger (called "Ennejma Ezzahra" or the "Star of Venus"), one of the most prominant musicologists and promotor of the arts from the early 20th century. I was lucky enough to have an hour-long interview with the assistant director who was a great contact. I commented on a really cool instrument hanging on his wall (a chordiphone with a sea turtle shell as its body) and he got really excited and walked me down to the instrument workshop where I met the master craftsman and got to see several Ouds and rebabs under construction. They (the musicologists and crafts men) also aim to re-create instruments that are no longer used today (some of them sub-saharan) from old photographs that are hanging in the shop and in the assistant director's office. What a fascinating job. Can I do that when I grow up? I was reminded of Professor Knight's various organological passions.

Tomorrow I have an interview with the director of a small "off-mainstream" theater in Tunis where they apparently sometimes have fusion music concerts. Hatim will facilitate and translate for me which I hope goes well.

More soon hopefully!

Please post a comment if you are reading here—I'd love to hear how everyone is doing and what is new!