The Cultural Life

Since classes started two weeks ago, my exploratory visits in the D.C. metro area have been limited to the occasional, rather than the regular. However, this past week I have managed to do a bit more than usual.

I attended the 2008 Knight-Barren Symposium and Awards for Innovations in Journalism. As a 'poor student' (TM), my main motivation was the free lunch which would be served to all in attendance, but it proved to be a thought-provoking event and display. US media companies and initiatives exhibited their innovations in new media. First prize went to Wired.com's WikiScanner coverage, but for me the most impressive was the Des Moines Register's special coverage of a tornado which wiped out a third of a town in Iowa called Parkesburg.

Also this week, the Humphrey Fellows participated in an event called the 'Ropes Challenge' at the College Park campus. The other fellows and I participated in a series of tasks (some more physically demanding than others) as we came to grips with team-building issues we might face in the future. The day ended with a pizza lunch (yay, more free food) but before that, all the fellows took a 'leap of faith': strapped in harnesses and donning hard hats, we each climbed a fifty-foot pole and then tried to jump and grab at a trapeze hung just metres away from us. If you managed to make the jump and grab a hold of the trapeze, you succeeded; if you didn't, you'd start making a rapid decent towards the ground. I didn't get anywhere near the trapeze. Fortunately seven other fellows were at the ready to hold on to the cord that would prevent my fatal fall and then let me down easily.

The highlight of this week's cultural delights, though, was getting a taste of the local D.C. music scene. Since I started getting into funk music and digging into literature on this genre, I had read about a funk off-shoot genre called Go-Go, but had little idea of what it actually sounded like. Thanks to a free gig at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, I got to see THE godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown, perform live. He also brought along a friend - DJ Kool, who had a hit with the anthemic 'Let Me Clear My Throat' in the mid-90s. I was part of a pretty integrated crowd which showed no shame in bustin' some moves, and I just had to join in on the action. It was the perfect way to build up a sweat on a hot, sticky September night in D.C.

Next weekend's musical entertainment will be provided by Dante Beze (bka Mos Def), who'll be performing at the Kennedy Center.

Now it's time for me to clear my throat and get my day started.

Peace y'all,
E