Legislative Recorder

The Tennessee State Senate Chamber, April 1990. It was my job to audio record the senate sessions and keep a log for the archives. I am sitting in the little desk, to the right of the press gallery, in the corner. I had to learn the names, and faces of all 33 senators, and the 99 house representatives. I also recorded some in the House of Representatives Chamber. Most of the time I recorded in Legislative Plaza, where there were several committee rooms--some large and some small--where the individual committees met, such as Education, Transportation, Ways and Means, etc. These committees could sometimes be long, but usually between 60-90 minutes, and they were rather informative. I tried to look at the whole experience as a way of learning about Tennessee politics and the democratic processes and protocols in general. I do not aspire to being involved in politics, but I was a Speech major in college, and I enjoyed to some degree the public discourses and speeches.