Music Progression Into Rock

To demonstrate music progression into a complex rock song I've chosen our own Canadian Sarah McLachlan's "Building A Mystery."

Progression into a complex rock song

Repetition, some musicologists tell us, lies at the heart of rock music. To prove this, they not only point at the rhythms, but also at the harmonic structures of rock music. Indeed, in many rock songs almost identical patterns of chord material recur over and over again. Sometimes even a whole song is built on the repeated sequence of just the same few chords. Sarah McLachlan's beautiful song "Building A Mystery" offers a perfect example of precisely such a song. It is based on the chord progression: Bm -» G -» D -» A. Almost instantly the song opens with this sequence and then it keeps going on till the end. Still, as a whole the song doesn't sound monotonous or boring. Not without reason: a swift modulation or key shift keeps changing the semantic meaning of the chords.

For the chords of the song, check HERE.
* Caution: Video contains language.

Educators Hiding Art ?

The stash includes noteworthy paintings by members of the Group of Seven, nearly a million photographs dating back to the mid-19th century and a pair of 1950s Turbinator hair dryer-chairs, secreted away with the stealth worthy of a spy novel....they amount to one of the board’s greatest educational resources, albeit an untapped one.
Read HERE.



Image:"Dixie Queens" (two schoolgirls at lunch Hadleyville, Oregon, circa 1911), Roy C. Andrews collection, PH003-P954, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1299.

ART MATTERS: Citizens, artists, academics and administrators together discuss the challenges facing culture and examine these issues in our society.

ART MATTERS!

I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN!
Big Blue Bear ~ Colorado Convention Center.

She understands the value of arts and culture. Last week in Montreal, Governor General Michaëlle Jean gave this statement: “Culture must be able to express itself everywhere and always, and be accessible to as many people as possible, for it bears within it our choices, our hopes, our memory and our imagination.”

Canada’s beautiful, and arty Governor General, Michaëlle Jean.
Image: divineshows.com

On the evening of March 1, culture-minded Torontonians gathered at a Town Hall meeting to protest the City Council’s rejection of BeautifulCity.com’s initiative to have taxes from advertising billboards going toward arts and culture.

It might not seem like a big deal, but it points to the fact that the arts community must keep fighting for recognition of the importance of art in Toronto. It’s the most obvious difference between Toronto and cities like Chicago and Montreal.

Isn’t it odd that Canada’s Governor General understands - even champions - the value of arts and culture, as does the City of Montreal and La Belle Province, while Toronto City Council (not to mention Harper’s government) has yet to have the foresight to see how a tax on billboard ads (outside the box funding stream, hello) should be used to beautify the city, creating significant long-term value for city dwellers? Especially at a time when Toronto is undergoing significant densification? (The 'Sociologists' that read this blog should enjoy this link. It includes those little charts that they're crazy about. *smile*)

On February 23, 2010 their Excellencies the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and Mr. Jean-Daniel Lafond hosted the first Art Matters public forum to be held in Montréal, at the Société des arts technologiques (SAT). The event was themed “Citizens, to the arts! (Re)Connecting citizens, artists and the arts” and honoured the recipients of this year’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.

For the past four years, Rideau Hall—on His Excellency Jean Daniel Lafond’s initiative—has organized a series of forums on culture and society called Art Matters. They are wonderful opportunities to bring citizens, artists, academics and administrators together to discuss the challenges facing culture and to examine these issues in our society. More than 40 sessions have already been held across Canada and abroad.

HuffPo agrees, saying: “Art has the power to inspire, to heal, to transform, to rehabilitate, to bear witness, and to make us believe that there are better days ahead.” Read more from the Huffington Post HERE.

For more information on the Art Matters forums, please click HERE

For more on BeautifulCity.ca, and to sign the petition, please click HERE.




Resources:VOCA,Huffington Post, Futurist:Torontoist,Montreal Highlights Festival,Nuit Blanche.

Ancestors In The Attic

Most professors have a bit of the thespian in them. Standing up in front of a packed lecture hall or a large conference gathering requires an inherent ability to perform. Prof. Kevin James, History, University of Guelph, can relate to that, though he's taken the concept further than most in his field. James will make his major television debut this week on History Televison's hit show Ancestors in the Attic as the on-air genealogist.

James has worked both as a researcher and panelist for the show, which helps Canadians unearth mysteries about their past, during its first three seasons. But last winter, he received a last-minute call from the producers asking if he’d be willing to step into the role of the on-air “lab guy.” Soon James found himself catching a midnight plane to Newfoundland to shoot his first episode.

Kevin James: “They needed someone right away and I guess I fit the bill — well enough.”

Life has been a whirlwind ever since, with James hastily joining the actors’ union and getting some on-the-job TV training. For most of 2009, he spent his weekdays researching and teaching Scottish studies at U of G, and his weekends flying all over Canada including to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Winnipeg to film segments of the show.

Kevin James: “On Fridays, a limousine would pick me up for the airport. I’d fly off, do an 18-hour shoot and come home. It's been a juggling act.” said James, a married father of two children under age four.

The show kicks off its fourth season Jan. 7 with 10 new shows. They take viewers all around the world as James and others help Canadians find lost relatives and discover the truth behind unsolved family mysteries.

Kevin James: “For me this has been an amazing opportunity to get outside of the University and see how history and research can make a huge difference on a personal level for people who have questions that need to be answered.”

One episode is set in Belarus, where a Canadian woman is searching for a sister who was lost during the Russian Revolution. Another is based in China, where a woman is trying to uncover her father’s secret past. Other stories are set in Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, France and Italy and involve a black market baby, a town’s efforts to hide an injured pilot during World War II, and the life-and-death stories of two Canadian soldiers.

Each episode of the show includes a “reveal” in which the mystery is solved or the answers (or a lack of answers) are unveiled. “We don’t tell them in advance what is going to happen before, so consequently, their reactions are deeply moving,” James said.

Kevin James: "Part of my job is to bring them comfort; I believe it’s the reason I was chosen for this job. I’m an emotional person and I get very emotionally involved with the subjects — I am fascinated and moved by their stories.”

Solving the mysteries or unearthing those answers requires a lot of research, including in libraries, online, and in other countries. “We pick stories that are not too easy to solve but that we can still resolve in some way,” he said.

James filmed the “made in Canada” portions of the show, while the show’s star, Jeff Douglas, did the international travel. Douglas is known for his work on the “I am Canadian” commercials.

While he loved working as a researcher and doing some on-air studio work for the show for three years, James never expected to find himself in front of the camera, in the field and trekking all over the country. He said he knew the show was holding a casting call for a new “staff genealogist/lab guy” but he didn’t apply.

Kevin James: “I just never saw myself doing this. I never had any acting lessons or anything.”

He was able to preview the upcoming episodes and said watching himself on TV took a bit of adjusting. “It’s hard to look at yourself this way,” he said, adding he quickly went on a diet and started growing out his curly hair. “I realized that from some angles I was starting to look bald,” he said with a laugh.

“The most exciting thing has been watching my three-year-old son when he saw a tape of the show. He couldn’t understand how I ended up on TV, but he was so excited to see me there.”

Ancestors in the Attic airs Thursdays at 6 and 9 p.m. on History Television.
Resource:U of G /Kevin James

The Art of Library Trends in this high tech world!

They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain and nourish all the world.

William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

My cousin Pascal Calarco, a librarian at ND is looking forward to hear Columbia's Jim Neal speak on the future of libraries at Notre Dame today. He hopes to get permission to record the session and put it up on iTunes so many more people can hear it as well. Let's hope permission is granted!
I'm a bit of a library nerd and love the atmosphere of old buildings filled with books - takes me back to another period in time.
If you're at all interested in the future trends of libraries have a peak at the video. Lengthy but interesting even though it's a year or so old now. I find this particularly fascinating because we live in such a high tech age that it makes me curious - what will become of 'the book' and what does the future holds for our libraries. Intesesting stuff!



James Neal is the Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University in New York City, providing leadership for university academic computing and a system of 25 libraries. Neal is a frequent speaker and author with a focus in the areas of scholarly communication, intellectual property, digital library programs, organizational change, and human resource development.


Image of Hesburgh Library ND: http://www.nd.edu/~nlw/images/library-ext.jpg
Image of OLD LIBRARY ROOM here.

U of G students know what's BEST! The REPORT card is in!

The Report Card is out! And the University of Guelph is a straight-A institution when it comes to student satisfaction and quality, according to a national survey published today by the Globe and Mail.

U of G earned an A+ for having the most satisfied students — the only school among Canada's small, medium and large-sized universities to receive that mark. It also received an A+ for campus atmosphere and an A for overall quality of education in the University Report Card. Read more HERE.

“It’s gratifying that our students, year after year, reward us with top marks,” said president Alastair Summerlee.
“It tells us that we are succeeding in our primary mission: providing our students with the most unique, engaging and satisfying learning experience possible. Simply put, students come first at Guelph, and this continues to distinguish us.”

In addition to overall quality of education and student satisfaction, U of G was ranked No.1 in its division or tied for the top ranking in several key areas, including teaching, course availability, student services, food services, buildings and facilities, and campus technology.

New this year is the category “environmental commitment,” and Guelph received an A-minus, the highest grade awarded. U of G was one of only four schools in the country to earn that mark.

Photos: FSC

Gregory Levey is an Assistant Prof in Professional Communication at the University of Ryerson who wrote an interesting essay called "LAMENT for THE iGENERATION" .

"The simple fact is that universities are going to have to radically change. They’ll need to find ways to accommodate students with ever-shrinking attention spans, who are used to instantaneous and interactive communication and not one-way lecturing. Not all of my students are like this, of course. Some read books for pleasure and are able to write lucidly. They’re as sociable in real life as they are adept at pointing and clicking; they’re able to retain new information; and some aren’t even particularly tech-savvy. In my experience, however, these students are the minority."

Art School Ph.D's Make the Blood Run Cold

Art School Ph.Ds Make the Blood Run Cold
In THIS article in the New York Times, Roberta Smith notes that “The recent inflated art market has created the illusion that being an artist is a financially viable calling.”

“An artist without a graduate degree is like a fish without a bicycle.”

“…The growing interest among art schools and universities (mostly abroad so far) in offering a Ph.D. in art makes the blood run cold. It also seems like rank, even cynical commercial opportunism. It’s too soon to tell, but I’d like to think that the economic downturn is doing serious damage to this trend and maybe even put budding artists off graduate school entirely.”







Photo:Drawing Jesus

Was your creative mind stifled?

When one speaks of an artist they often speak of their creative mind. Creative thinking is tied to an artist, the so called dreamer. What would the world be without it's dreamers - artists or scientists?

Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this."