Cultural Awareness

Last night Richard Bonomo, Travalon, Astrochick, a friend of hers, and I went to Concert on the Square. I got a sandwich to eat up there, and the Mexican guy working at the sandwich shop asked if I spoke Spanish, so we spoke a little Spanish. What I can’t figure out is how he knew. I certainly don’t look Latina… Maybe he said something to me in Spanish and I didn’t notice and replied in English – I’ve been known to do that. It amuses people to no end.

Astrochick is the head of the Astronomy department at her school, and she also teaches math and physics. Good thing she doesn’t teach music appreciation! She asked if I were still in that avant garde group called Buxtehude, and I replied that I was still in a folk band, which is about the opposite of avant garde. (For the record, I have no idea why she thinks our group is named after a Baroque composer; we’re actually called Dark of the Moon.) She asked if I still played the ukulele or mandarin or whatever. I replied, “You mean the mandolin? Yes.” Then she wondered if I still loved that music that was Egyptian monks yodeling, and when I said, “I have NO idea what you’re talking about,” she said, “Well, maybe they weren’t Egyptian. And maybe they weren’t monks. And maybe they weren’t really yodeling. Wasn’t it called Gregorian something?” I said, “Gregorian chant? Chant isn’t yodeling!” and she said, “It sounds like it!” Rich said, “Oh Astrochick, we have to work on your cultural awareness!” This has inspired me to create a handy Cultural Awareness Quiz.

1.       Gregorian chant is:

a.       That guy named Greg chanting “Beer! Beer! Beer!”

b.      A Medieval liturgical music form

c.       Egyptian monks yodeling

2.       Avant garde means:

a.       Ahead of its time

b.      Folk music

c.       A French security person

3.       Buxtehude was:

a.       An avant garde band Famous Hat played in

b.      A Mandarin

c.       A Baroque composer who mainly wrote for the organ

4.       My answers are:

a.       Mainly a, because I always choose the first answer

b.       I’m not taking this stupid quiz 

c.       Irrelevant - who can say what the truth really is?

How did you do? Are you sufficiently culturally aware?

Famous Hat