Alterations.

So I need a post to go over some project changes.  If there was one thing I could alter about this course, I'd be much clearer about it's intentions and purposes.  I feel perhaps I've just gotten an idea for what the purpose of this proposal is, and it might sound obvious once I state it, but it wasn't obvious in the beginning of the course--not for me.  Perhaps because I'm an over-achiever.  I believe the purpose of the proposal is to propose what it is you want to learn, not necessarily what it is you want to produce.  This makes everything about 100% easier than it was about half an hour ago when I was preparing to write my Literature Review and had NO idea how to even begin.  I didn't even know what my project was!

So I've changed my project question:

What was the influence of French culture on African-american expatriate musicians?


Simple.  Bahh.  Which means all this agonizing over what I was going to do was totally unnecessary.  You know--not everything has to be learned the hard way.  Some people will learn not by being told the answer, but by being explained the purpose.  I can find my own answers, but when it comes down to a class and grade, I really don't need anyone to make my life harder.

Now that that vent is out of the way...

I'm going to recreate the damn Literature Review web/map.  Excuse the french, as Dave would say.  It'll be a lot more helpful now.  I've decided to focus a little more on the history, and all the separate elements that would go into answering the new question and have organized it like such:

So now I'm working on looking for some books and articles that backtrack a little.  I need to fill in more about French culture, though that's kind of what I hope to look at in the field.  Also I need to fill in more people.  But I think this is a good start which indicates some of the influences on the music, but also influences on the expatriates themselves, why they went to Paris, why they stayed in Paris, and perhaps a beginning of what kind of an influence French culture eventually had on them.