Ethnography Results, Week 8

By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla

Goal:
Our goal was to once again go to a poetry slam to go more in depth in our analysis of both the reasons poets recite what they do as well as the reasons the crowd reacts.  In doing this we hope to gain a better understanding of the emotional state of the guests.

Setting:
Sunday night around 10PM was fairly windy.  The slam took place outside this time which made much more room for people to sit.  There were about 60 people outside in attendance and 7 inside at the bar. 

People:
The main MC was back heading the slam.  There were a couple regular poets I noticed, however, there were more faces I did not recognize than normal.  At least half of the poets for open mic I had never seen before.  Many of them were from Austin who came with the feature performance.  The DJ was also a different person than usual.  The bartender was the same person.

Mood of Poetry:
This night was filled with expressive poetry of accusation of others, expression of self as the better way of life, and sex.  There were two types of poems that were told: the poem either involved the condemnation of someone or some class of people, or the poet crying out in pain (physical, emotional, or spiritual).  It put a very dark mood on the night.  Often, when a poet would express a poem that was anticipated to be deeply heart-wrenching, sad, or convicting, they would often ask to perform one more of a bit lighter mood.  This was interesting because the poet did not want to leave the stage with the audience hurt.  This at first did not make sense to me, but as more people did it, by their words I found that it was not so much for the audience but for the next poet.  They respected the upcoming poet and therefore did not want to have the audience in a mood that would alter their connection with their poem.

Response of Audience:
The response I saw from the audience was exactly what I expected from our previous encounters at poetry slam.  Snaps, claps, and cheers rose up for anti-religion, pro-spirituality, hauntings from the past, and thoughts against political policies.

Ethnography Results, Week 7

By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla


Goal:
The goal of going out for this week was to experience once again a Monday night at the bar as the past few findings have been Sundays for poetry slam.  Now that notice of the regulars at poetry slam have been found, we want to know if the same people attend Monday nights as well.  Hopefully conversation will arise from there.



Setting:
We were able to go out Monday night around 10PM.  There was a band on the inside of the bar with about eight people inside when we arrived.  The band was playing as we arrived as we could hear it when we pulled up.

People:
There was probably a total of no more than 18 people there the entire time we were there, never more than 12 guests on the inside of the bar and around 7 on the outside.  There were two guys playing an in-house game of chess, while everyone else inside seemed to be listening to the band.  Only a little over half of them seemed to be drinking.  A couple looked to be with members of the band.  The lady who was sitting at the bar the first time we ever went in to Rev's was there again - could be a Monday regular.  The usual bartender was there in addition to a new female bartender.  She told us we were welcome to pull in chairs from the outside since most of the seats were taken when we arrived.

Band:
The band consisted of five members - guitar/singer, mandolin, violin, bass, and another singer.  As the night began, only three were playing.  They were waiting for the basis.  The lead singer and guitar player was the mandolin man we saw a few times before.  Once the bassist arrived another singer joined them from the audience.  Mandolin man kept talking about the fact that they had been all around Bryan that day mostly hanging outside The Village Cafe playing and singing.  It seemed as though they had a much better time there than they were at Rev's because of the frequent mention of it.  He was often distracted by a stage light that was on a random timer and would flicker about 3 times every 5 seconds which made it annoying for the lead vocalist (which he expressed).

The music was always played in a minor key and the melody often sounded similar to the other songs performed that night.  They had some songs that they were still working on that were just instrumental.

Ethnography Results, Week 6

By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla

Goal: 
We planned to travel to Revolution again on a poetry slam night to once again look for continuities in attendance as well as the atmosphere of the event.


Setting: 
Going on the Sunday upon returning from spring break, there was not the usual large crowd there so the slam was again held inside the bar.  It was a fairly warm night so it was surprising that the slam was inside.  We arrived around 9:45PM to see roughly 40 people sitting mostly in chairs inside the bar listening to the slam.  Again there was a feature poet whose team placed second in nationals when he began slam poetry.  We were able to witness locals slamming for half of our stay and the feature slamming the other half.

People: 
The MC was a poet who we saw slam in the past (not the normal MC).  The normal MC was there close to the front.  The reason for this may be because the normal MC is training up someone to replace him, or he wasn't sure he would be able to make it in time for the slam.  These are just guesses as we were not able to determine the reason.

As mentioned earlier, there was not a large crowd Sunday.  Aside from the bartender, regular and working MC, and just a couple others, we did not see people who we recognized.

One important person to note was a person who seemed intoxicated.  This person either liked or did not like the poet who was slamming.  On multiple occasions he booed and slandered the poet up front out loud, even on one poet's first time to the mic.  The response from the audience was negative as they told him to leave and hush up.  Eventually he was asked by the bartender to leave, but he did not, but he calmed down after that.  I was a bit surprised that the group did not make a bigger fuss about this man.  From this instance it seems that they are not very confrontational, but on the other hand seek to comfort people as much as possible.  In response to the person's antics, the crowd and MC greatly encouraged the poets who were being booed, especially the first-timer.

To note I was able to speak to one of the poets who presented a very pro-religious piece.  This is something that I have never seen before.  Many poets mention religion, God, and such but none have ever performed a piece focusing completely on God in a positive way.  I was interested in his motivation for going against the grain.  He was not a very talkative person, but did respond that he just thought of that poem during class.  Upon further examination, he really did not have much to say.  I am unsure whether he was embarrassed or simply did not want to talk about it.

Ethnography results, Week 5

By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla


Goal:
The goal of this outing was to once again observe poetry slam and get the reactions of the audience to get a general feel for the reason why they would go to a place such as Revolution.

Setting:
Again on a Sunday night around 10PM we ventured to the venue.  When we passed the parking lot was full but we could not see anyone outside in the courtyard.  We were curious but proceeded to park.  When we walked in most of the people were huddled inside with the windows open so those on the outside could hear.  There was camera equipment on the inside and we guessed there was a recording of some sort in progress.  There were about 20 people outside when we arrived smoking, talking, and listening to the poetry.  The outside group was less listening to the poetry and more talking to one another in seemingly the groups they came with.  There were about 40 people crammed inside sitting on the floor listening again to the poetry slam where people were reciting poetry.

People:
We recognized about six poets from our last adventure to poetry slam.  The Austin group was back (the feature of the last slam) and many of the local poets were back.  The bartender was the same, so we are thinking that he may be the owner of the place as he seems to have many connections.  There was the same host for the slam as well.

Feature:
We were only able to listen to about two poets before the feature presentation came on.  Outspoken Bean, a Houston poet (http://www.outspokenbean.com/ - which is currently out of date), was the feature and had a set list of a span of about an hour and a half.  He was doing a live recording at Revolution for Mic Check (I assume that Mic Check is what the poetry slam is at Revolution on Sunday nights).  He was encouraging people to support the arts.  About a third of the people there had heard him do poetry before.  He had a sound guy and another guy with him who occasionally aided him in his poetry.  These poems seemed of a bit more mature variety than you would find on any open mic poetry slam.  This is probably due to the fact that he is a bit older than many of the local poets (at age ~24).  For this everyone was encouraged to crowd the bar and roughly 60 people were seated in side at the height of the occupancy.  There were also still a few people outside.

Audience Response:
The audience was very receptive to Outspoken Bean, though not as enthusiastic as he wanted (since he was doing a live recording).  As the night progressed, however, the audience did build in emotional response as they connected more and more with his poetry.  His poetry focussed more on events going on in the world around us than personal testimony like it seemed the local poets were reciting.  Once again the audience did grow excited with snaps and claps of his resonances of poor self-image being unjustified, broken and stale religion, sexual and sensual references, and meaningful people in his life.

Ethnography Results, Week 4

By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla


Setting:
This outing was personal as there was only one member at the show this week.  This was a Sunday night and there was an actual poetry slam going on.  A poetry slam is a poetry competition in which there are judges who judge contestants poems and presentations.  This is opposed to the regular open mic nights that are usually at Revolution.

The night was windy.  We arrived around 9:15PM.  The competition was held outside to accommodate all the guests.  There were about fifty people present.  This night was a black tie event (which we did not know about).  We guess this was just because of the judges present.  about a third of the people there were dressed up.  Most of these dressed up were poets in the competition.

People:
This seemed to be a very important night for all the poets, so most of the regular poets were seen there.  The MC was someone who had never been MC while we were present.  The poets who usually seem most influential in the happenings of open mic were involved in the slam along with some others.  There were about eight poets involved in the slam.

Slam:
There were about eight poets in the slam.  Each recited two poems: one poem per round.  They were judged on a ten point scale.  The four poets with the most points advanced to the third and final round.  Each round corresponded to the number of minutes the poems were to be.  Out of the final four, the one with the most cumulative points won first place.  The prizes were $20, $10, $5, $5 from first to fourth respectively.

Poetry:
The poetry of the first two rounds almost exclusively dealt with relationships - usually that between a girlfriend/boyfriend or a father.  As it advanced to the last round the poems became more diverse speaking of situations and politics.

Responses:
This was more difficult than in past times to tell how the crowd reacted to the poems.  None of the poems seemed new, but repeats of what the poets had done in the past.  This along with the fact that the audience had to clap for the receiving of points made it hard to gauge how well the audience liked each poem.

Ethnography Results, Week 3

By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla


Goal:
Our goal was to go out on a Sunday night to Revolution in order to observe a new environment: Poetry Slam.  We see that different nights have the potential to attract different types of people, and in order to get the full scope of the culture at Revolution, it is important to see all these interactions.

Setting:
We arrived around 9:30PM to find a packed parking lot.  We approached the venue not knowing what to expect.  As we walked closer we heard the microphone and concluded that the slam was going down outside, which in fact it was.  The wind was stiff, but that did not stop patrons from coming to watch the Sunday night poetry.

Layout: 
There were about 50 to 60 people huddled outside in the chairs as well as standing (as all the chairs were taken) listening to people recite poetry.  Inside were about 8 people who were not a part of the listening of poetry.

People:
The outside crowd was very affirming of the poets that went on it seemed regardless of how good the recitation was.  Many people knew each other as many were greeting friends as they entered the venue.  It seemed like most people came in groups of 2 to 4.

The type of dress that people had there were a bit more diverse than we were expecting.  I would say it was split about half and half between 'trendy' dress and regular 'Northgate apparel' (clothes that one would where while going to Northgate).

We also saw both the musicians that were there last time (not playing, of course) as well as the bartender.

Poetry:
There was an MC who occasionally recited some poetry as well as a DJ who would coordinate intro music as well as interlude music.  Most poems were recited via open mic, locals who came and either recited memorized poems or read poems.  Some were personally written and others were written by others.  Featured were two brothers from Austin who seemed to carry a little bit of weight in the poetry world as one was on the nationally fourth-placed team based in Austin.  They seemed to go on in the middle of the night and would also perform at the end of the night.

I picked up on a few themes I saw in many of the poems recited by all performers.  All poems seemed to be artfully spoken by the performer in an attempt to stir the audiences emotions in some way, usually to relate to them in some deep way or move them to think a certain way.  I would say that at least half of the poems recited by locals were about death and suicide.  Many seem to come out of emotional distress.  I posit that this is an attempt to express deep struggles within self, a way of reaching out to other people in a meaningful way without having to get personally involved in the reaching out.  By this I mean that no resolution is saught nor wanted, the performer simply wants their problems to be known by others but not worked out by others.  This could be in an attempt to simply relate with others and give witness that there are people struggling with the same things you are.

Side Note (Bathrooms):
I went into the bathroom to notice first of all that it was difficult to identify which bathroom was which due to the labeling of the bathroom.  This seemed to be due to uniqueness and wanting to be fassionable to regulars.  This was a bit deterring to outsiders (myself).  When I was in the bathroom washing my hands I found that the hot and cold knobs were reversed from normal convention!  The one on the left was the cold water and the one on the right was hot water.

Ethnography Results, Week 2

Ethnography Week 2 Results
By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla


Goal:
Our goal going into this night was to mingle a bit more with those at the bar.  Specifically we wanted to speak with the bartender and see what he is about.  We found ourselves able to go on Valentine's day, which interested us in if there would be many singles there, few singles there, and if there were any couples there.

Setting:
Two of us ventured to the venue on another Monday night, Valentine's day, around 9:30PM.  They had been open for about an hour and a half (since 8PM).  There is live, usually local musicians every night and this night was no different.

We were able to get a better glimpse of the inside as we sat in there.  The 4 small round tables in the place were all made of a tile mosaic.  There was a bench seat on one side that was not extremely comfortable.  On two of the tables there was a plastic chair that was not really comfortable either.  On the other two tables sat 80's chairs that looked really retro and comfortable.

People:
When we arrived, there was the bartender, a woman at the bar, and an artist who we came to call the Mandolin Man who was setting up speakers and his guitars and mics.  At one time, the most guests there at one time was 12 (including us two).  On average (including us) there were about 8 people.  Only about 3 people left that we noticed in our stay.  There was first a man playing guitar and singing.  The Mandolin Man, although not a part of his band, went up there and jammed with him for the first couple of songs.  To me, this showed the comradery between the locals musician there.  After he played a few songs, the Mandolin Man and another went up to play.  That is the time we left.  As we were about to leave, a man came in who looked pretty shady asked us if we could help him get a bag of chips.  I have no idea what that meant, but we declined.

There seemed to be one couple there that night, but the rest came as same sex pairs.  Near the end we found it interesting that four guys similar to ourselves (engineer-looking people) came to hang out, only one of them getting a drink.

One of us purchased a drink and we were able to have some conversation with the bartender.  He was obviously unhappy to be there, but as more people came in his mood seemed to perk up.  It seemed he knew personally about half of the people that came in.  He also seemed to be friends with the musicians.

Activities:
It seemed that those sitting at the bar for the most part were conversing with one another and the bartender while those sitting in the chairs at the small tables were more listening to the musicians.

Ethnography Results, Week 1

Revolution in Happening - Week 1 Results:
An Ethnography by Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla

Goal: 
Our goal for the first visit is to observe the general setting of Revolution Cafe and Bar in order to get a feel of what to expect in future visits. We hope but are not expectant to do much interaction with the patrons of the establishment, but do seek to observe from a distance their demeanor.  

Setting: 
Not knowing what at all to expect, we ventured to Revolution with three other friends, a total of five people. We arrived at approximately on a Monday night at 11:40 PM to our parking spot on main street in Downtown Bryan. The temperature was about 45 degrees outside. After traversing a dark alleyway riddled with graffiti we saw a sign painted on the sidewalk with backwards lettering pointing an arrow signaling Revolution. A few steps later we found ourselves at the entrance of a tucked away courtyard surrounded by buildings on three sides and the parking lot side with large privacy bushes. The courtyard had a cement flooring with roughly fifteen metal tables and chairs to accompany them. They were dispersed in no particular order, but some had been pulled together in the center to form one very large grouping of tables. Outside we were able to see a bar roughly belly height which was made out of cement with a mosaic on the outface. There was a stage about seven feet by fifteen feet in area with three hula hoops proudly resting on it. Atop the roof of the building directly left enclosing the courtyard was an ominous statue resembling either an owl, Buddha, or little boy. Sitting together by a cement-looking fire pit were two men talking. Everything was very dimly lit with light blue Christmas lights, so it was difficult to see their attire, and they had their backs towards us. The music outside did not match the music inside, for the outside music was a wide array of genres of music.  

The door to the inside cafe and bar was difficult to distinguish as it blended into the surrounding buildings. It was a large unattractive door with a latch on it that swung wide open. The five of us peered in to see roughly fifteen people dispersed throughout the joint all conversing or on the computer having a good time. The room was extremely small for a cafe or bar with enough room to fit about fifty people all standing together. There was a stage in the far end away from the door with two men making music. On the left side as you waked in there were about four extremely small round tables with a bench along the side wall and a couple of chairs every so often. There were also a couple of stools at the bar in which people were sitting. There was not an empty chair in the building, be it there were not many chairs to begin with. On the opposite wall as we entered was the bar where the barhop was entertaining guests. Immediately on the right I assume there were bathrooms. There were a few hand-painted paintings, presumably art from previous guests. The outside had a mural painted across the entirety of one of the buildings which was calming.  

Initial Feeling: 
Throughout the entire night the humongous sign pasted on our foreheads was “outsiders”. We were all very out of place there looking around at everything, searching for a place to sit and generally taking everything in. We met glaring patrons wondering for what reason we would enter their domain. The outside felt nice and open - welcoming for a group to just sit and relax and enjoy a drink. The mural and lights added an ambiance to the evening - a nice place for an political, philosophical or intimate discussion. That may be because there was hardly anyone outside. The inside seemed very exclusive and we felt very unwelcome and judged. Two of us decided to hula hoop on stage, and with the large windows of the cafe could be seen by the folks inside. This was a bit unnerving, but we went for it anyway.  

People: 
While unable to speak to any of the ladies and gents there, we did observe quite a few. Again, there were two men outside sitting by the fire pit and roughly fifteen people inside the building (not including us). Most of the men tended to have facial hair and dressy hats atop their heads. The clothing was hip and trendy - tight pants and vests all around. The place was mostly filled with Caucasian folk.  

The two men performing had a guitar and kazoo in the time that we observed them. Their music was very indie and hard to follow. In addition to these two, a man walked up to the microphone when they were finished to recite something. We are unsure whether it was a speech or poem, but was either memorized or impromptu with much emphasis. We think it may have been slam poetry.  

We feel that the condescending stares we received hindered us from being comfortable looking too much at the people present.  

Conclusion: 
This excursion provided a solid base of information to prepare ourselves for our next encounter at Revolution. We intend next visit to have conversation with at least the bartender and hopefully a few of the guests. We understand the importance of being able to be inside, as that is where most of the action seems to be. It will be difficult to find a seat since it is so limited, so we see the bar as a good option to that since we can stand.

Ethnography Proposal

Revolution in Happening:
An Ethnography by Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla


Abstract:
This paper explains the reasoning and process of how Evin Schuchardt and Jeremy Nelissen will observe the atmosphere and people frequenting Revolution Cafe and Bar in Bryan, Texas.  The purpose of this study is to explore the habits and ways of Downtown Bryan focusing on one location in particular, one with which we are very unfamiliar.  As neither of us regularly visit bars or cafes, Revolution provides a mix of both and is centered in the heart of Downtown Bryan.  We expect to learn the personality of the people, their interests, habits and reasons for being there, the local vernacular and how they interact with one another.

Introduction:
We have heard tales of the happenings in Downtown Bryan - the people, the music, the environment - but have never experienced it for ourselves.  The eclectic environment provides opportunity to see a different side of the community we live in and more than likely a different life style than we are used to living as engineers.

Methods:
We will observe them for roughly two hours per week.  The way in which we plan to do this is to venture there together on different days of the week to get the full feel of what goes on there.  We will first attempt to go together so we can ease in to the atmosphere and have a companion to fall back on if need be.  While there, we will visit and talk with the bartenders, guests, musicians and other patrons.  We will observe from a distance and through conversation their interactions with one another as well as with us.  We will attempt to show our feelings of the environment in order to give an overall picture to the cafe.  We will comment on their speech patterns and mannerisms as well as our hypotheses of why they come there.  We will also gather the quantitative information of the number of people present, expected capacity, how many people are by themselves verses with others, how many people are outside and inside, at the bar and at the tables.  For interaction, we will speak with the bartender as we stand at the bar, ask to join people at their tables for a chat, hopefully interact with any musicians after their performances.

Conclusion:
We are about to enter a world unknown to us in a culture possibly completely dissimilar to us.  The excitement is high and the anticipation is building.  Results to come soon!


-------------------------------NOTE-------------------------------
Everything below this line is old stuff that we trashed
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Title:
 Computers and Class

Abstract:
This report explains the process in which I, Evin Schuchardt, would be able to conduct ethnographical research on the topic of students bringing a laptop to class.  The purpose of this study is to find answers to the following questions:
1. Do students at Texas A&M who bring a laptop to class think it aides them in comprehension, why?
2. Do students at Texas A&M who use laptops in class believe themselves to be more productive overall in class, why?
This paper will give the the background to why this study would be meaningful, give the methods to which I would use to conduct the study, and end with my final thoughts on the project.

Introduction:
At the beginning of last semester, I traded in my desktop for a netbook for various reasons.  Now I carry my netbook with me where ever I travel, including class.  I often pull it out in class to take notes, do homework, or research the thoughts running through my mind.  I have noticed that many classmates in all my classes also use their laptops in class for reasons I could only guess at.

It seems logical that with all the information on the internet, the possibility of a person being able to type quicker than write, and so many professors reading from slides published online that having a laptop in class could greatly aide to the student's ability to take in the information being presented in class.  On the other hand, this also paves the way for students potentially not paying attention to the lecturer and instead browsing online or doing other personal matters when they should be listening to the professor.  This could however be a benefit as many believe that professors often lecture on things absolutely meaningless to the class or anything relevant thereof. 

Methods:
For this study I would create a survey in which participants would be asked to provide information of whether or not they bring a laptop to class.  This would separate the user group into two and give viewpoints from two different angles.  They would also be asked how often they use their laptops in class and what they use their laptops for in class.  Finally, participants would be asked to evaluate their efficiency and productivity with their laptop and without to compare.  The user group would be focused on students at Texas A&M of any classification, and may include opinions of professors.  The survey would be both online in a Google Docs form as well as hard copies.  Facebook now allows for information to be distributed to many people at one time, so I plan to use that to publicize the online survey.

I will also observe students in my classes to gain quantitative information on who is using their laptop during my classes throughout the weeks.  I can keep track of what class I am in as well as how many of the students pull out their laptop during class.  I can also qualify my observation of the amount of attention the students who have their laptops seem to have.  I could also compare this to the perceived attention of those without a laptop.

Conclusion:
I am interested to see the results of this survey and see whether laptops in class seem beneficial or not.  I know my opinion which I will publish in the final report and I want to see if people share my same views.

Ethnography Ideas

Title: 
Ethnographic Ideas

Comments:
Stuart J.
Vince Kocks


Discussion:
I am not exactly sure if I am hitting the point on some of these ideas, here is a working list of my ideas:

1. The life of the female as it compares to the male.  This is not necessarily a task I would be excited about undertaking; no offense, ladies, but I am perfectly fine with only knowing the little about you that I do.  This being said, it would provide an interesting experiment to have a guy immersed in a flock of girls.  As discussed in class, I am not sure that this would adequately get a feel for the specimen of the girl because the mere presence of a guy could throw their entire way of doing things.

2. As I have never been addicted to drugs, another interesting study would be to get into the life of a drug addict.  I don't know if it would be the safest study, but what is a few gunshot wounds for the sake of science, right?  One could notice whether or not it is true that the single thought of acquiring and using the drug would consume every part of a druggies life or not.

3. Homelessness could prove to be another extremely interesting way of life.  It would be sensational to get into their lives for just a week and experience a taste of what they experience every day of their lives.  For the one studying it would be a great humbling experience I am sure.  It would give a deep respect and appreciation for the things we have.