Tools of the Trade - The Video Camera

At first, I wasn't sure that a video camera would be useful to me. I'm only likely to interview a few people, most of whom will be of peripheral importance to my project. And this is academic research, not a documentary (although now that I think about it, a mockumentary about academic research would be a hit . . . in the academic community only).

But then I had an interesting conversation with a patronage scholar in New York (Sylvia Kahan) that convinced me of the utility of a video camera. If ever I'm granted permission to photograph a larger number of documents (as is possible in a private collection, but unlikely in a public archive), it might make more sense to video the collection so I don't have to pause every time I turn the page to take a picture. As long as the video camera is stable, and as long as I turn the pages appropriately, I could pull screen shots from a video later on. That way I'll waste time outside of the collection, not while I'm there.

With that in mind, let me introduce my new friend: the Flip Video Camcorder. (If you go to that website, beware the loud, corny music and ADD-inspired animation.) I've actually already "reviewed" this camera on my other blog (so dorky!) so I'll just re-embed that video.

(We all know that this camera is really most useful for taking video of Panda leaping about in the snow, or going on a bike ride, or playing with Sophie - but I can dream about using it for professional purposes, right?)

Tools of the Trade - The Audio Recorder

Every good ethnographer knows the value of an excellent audio recorder. They're great for capturing

1. the sounds of the field,
2. any interviews you might conduct, and
3. all the silly pop songs you write during your isolation.

Now, I'm no ethnographer, but I will likely be conducting some interviews, and we all know how much I love writing silly pop songs.

Lucky for me, my mom and grandfather gave me an excellent - nay, superior - digital audio recorder for my birthday this year. With its multidirectional, stereo microphones (that's right, plural), its easy-to-use interface, and its ability to record around 4 hours of low-quality and 20 minutes of super high-quality sound, the Edirol R-09HR Recorder deserves every bit of praise heaped on it by cnet.com, and more.

So far, I've used it for (you guessed it) recording myself, most playing organ or guitar and singing (my quasi-fake band, The Somervillains, even recorded a demo!). But I also used it to record a recent concert I gave at the assisted living facility where my grandmother hangs out. You can hear the recorder on its lowest-quality setting here:

I'd post a high-quality recording, but the files are humongous (which is necessary if you're planning on professionally editing the recording); hopefully this gives you enough of an idea. If we're both lucky, I'll get to interview Madeleine Milhaud (widow of eminent composer Darius Milhaud) while I'm in France, and I'll be able to post excerpts for your listening pleasure!

Tools of the Trade - The Computer

Nine months of research abroad constitutes a legitimate reason to invest in a lightweight, long-battery-life, superfast computer, right?

Dude, I'm getting a netbook.

It's all Maggie's fault - as her 7-year-old Macbook grew feeble, she invested in an Asus Eee PC 1000 He, which captivated me with its 8.5 hour battery life, not to mention its 3.2-lb. weight. Meanwhile, my 3-year-old Dell Inspiron, also quickly reaching its last legs, gets around 10 minutes of battery life (on a replacement battery, no less!) and weighs a whopping 7 lbs!

So, with a little over a month before we leave, I decided to similarly invest in something that would be convenient for research, if not online movie watching. (I'll bring the Dell along for that very purpose, since we won't have a TV in our apartment.) The new Asus netbook is the Eee PC 1005 Ha (ha!), and it supposedly gets an epic 10.5 hours of battery life (under ideal settings). It also has a 160 GB hard drive, 1 GB ram, and a 1.66 ghz Intel Atom processor. Pretty sweet.

This will be perfect for spending 10.5 hours a day at the library doing research (read: at a cafe, googling). I can't wait!