Uneducate the Arts

Or, how should the arts be taught?

At the shoe store I get a chance to meet a lot of people of different professions. This is a company that tries to appeal to as many people as possible and so we get a full range of cultures from the emo skater to the university professor. Recently I had the chance to meet a photographer.

One of our associates was helping the photographer find a pair of shoes when I overheard them talking about the photography profession. Being nosy and wanting to get into the conversation, I stop my work and invite myself into their conversation. The photographer was talking about how he started working and was mentioning how he picked up a film camera (digital was not prevalent at the time) and just started learning how to use all of the parts of the camera. He said to just start experimenting and find your own style, find what you like. “Don’t go to school. They teach you a lot of crap about what is artistic. You’ll photography a lot of nuts and bolts in black and white and call it art.” That wasn’t his style. His appeal was the vintage.

He made a strong emphasis to not waste time at a school. He said several times to go to a pawn shop, buy an old film camera that’s all manual adjustments and just learn how to use it. He said, “find your own taste. Find what you like and just take pictures.”

This got me wondering about education in fields that are largely aesthetic - the arts. I don’t have any formal education in photography but I do enjoy taking pictures and experimenting with them. Are they good? Depends on who you ask. Photographers will be able to point out flaws or strengths in the composition while everyone else just says ‘yeah, I like it’ or ‘no, I don’t’. Do I need formal education in photography? No, but then there lies the question of authority. Am I doing it right? Do I have the right skill?

I have formal education in music, another aesthetic. Specifically, I have formal education in composition. I’ve studied what makes “good” music. I’ve studied pieces 500 years old and I’ve studied pieces 5 hours old. While the rules and expectations for music have shifted, and in a few cases dissolved completely, music professionals still have a real sense of what is good music and what is not. Here, I can argue from authority.

However, when it comes to aesthetic skill, the question is, can I learn the skill through intuition alone? There are certain aesthetic trends in photography: you don’t want your subject to be in the center of the picture, be careful that the picture is not too bright or too dark, etc. Likewise there are trends in music: a lot of fast notes for low-range instruments only creates rumble, adding counterpoint and variation makes a melody more interesting, etc. These “rules” are always broken with varied success. But, can we learn these things simply through teaching ourselves, through experimentation, through intuition?

I believe the aesthetics can be autodidactic. But, the skills cannot. I would not hand a student a flute and say, “take this home and experiment with it. See what sounds you can make on it. Try to figure out how to hold it, how to stand, and how to play. Then come back next week and we’ll start with Fauré.” After a week or a month, that student would have learned so many wrong ways to hold the instrument, to breathe, to move and play, that in a couple of years they would be crippled (physically or musically or both).

Skill has to be taught and learned. Aesthetics has to be experimented and found. Any institution can fall into the trap of teaching students the skills and also crippling their creativity, their aestheticism. The first half of the class should be: here’s the skill. The second half of the class should be: why do you dis/like this? In my formal music education, a few professors strongly voiced their opinion of what was good and what was not good. A few encouraged personal opinion and even fewer pushed you to understand why you have that opinion. The arts should be taught. There is no doubt about that. They are fundamental to our culture (any culture) and greatly influence the future of any nation. But, the way it should be taught is through developing skill and encouraging aesthetics.

Why is this a problem? Because from an early age we are taught what is good and what is bad. We are told what music is good. If it wasn’t for teenage rebelliousness, our culture would be dumbed down and more unhappy (yes, I claim rebellious teenagers are a cause of happiness). From an early age our self intuition is moved over and set aside and, for some people, destroyed completely.

The younger we are the more open to creativity we are. The more open to creativity we are, the more solutions to problems we have. There is a real link between children that study the arts at a young age and better test scores. Is that really surprising? As we get older we limit ourselves more and more. We try to fit in. Peer pressure becomes real and continues throughout our adult lives. Children who learn to recognize and cultivate their aesthetic intuition, their creativity, will be better to finding creative solutions to real world problems. They will be better at expanding their thought and opening the world up to unimaginable possibilities!

In my opinion, higher education has been crippled. Until skill is taught and creativity is encouraged at a very early age, we will not reach a potential we are capable of. Peer pressure and societal pressure stymies our creativity, our individuality. Like death and taxes, it is a part of life - a part of our human psyche - that is never going away. But we can still do better. Teach skill, encourage creativity.

Loreena McKennitt in the Sidebar!

All Souls Night • The Visit • Loreena McKennitt

Loreena is a Canadian musician who has traveled extensively and brought much of what she has experienced in those travels to us through her music. She first became interested in Celtic music in the late ‘70s. Growing up on a dairy farm Loreena had a free childhood and had wanted to become a veterinarian but music had called her and hasn’t let go since.

Quinlan Road is the record label Loreena started on her own. She started this label in 1985 and is the sole artists that uses this label. “Loreena ran its operations from her kitchen table, selling recordings by mail order and producing her own concert tours across the country.”

“All Souls Night” is one of my favorites from Loreena’s albums. “The Visit” is the first album I had heard of hers and at first I was put off by “All Souls Night” because I simply did not like the bouncing low instrument (I’m not sure exactly what instrument it is), but when I finally listened to the entire song in context I quickly fell in love. Loreena mixes celtic/pagan bonfires and dancing with a Japanese ritual of floating lanterns and candles down a stream.

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Astronomical Size Comparison

Found from Phil Plait.

Nino Rota in the Sidebar!

Un Giorno Per Noi • Nino Rota • Josh Groban

Here’s a small feature I found in my collections.

This piece was originally composed by Nino Rota for the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet (directed by Franco Zeffirelli). There were several song versions released in the U.S. One set of lyrics was written by Eugene Walter called “What Is a Youth” and the other was written by Larry Kusik and Eddie Snyder called “A Time for Us”. You can find the original track from the movie here. Here, Josh Groban sings an Italian version.

All in all, I did not realize just how popular Nino Rota was. Born in Milan in 1911 he studied in Rome at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia with Alfredo Casella in 1929. From 1930 to 1932, he studied with Rosario Scalero and Fritz Reiner in the U.S. at the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia. He had written ten operas and five ballets as well as over 150 film scores. His film score career took off in the 1940s under directors Federico Fellini, Renato Castellani, Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli, Mario Monicelli, Francis Ford Coppola, King Vidor, René Clément, Edward Dmytrik and Eduardo de Filippo.

Josh Groban was born on February 27, 1981 in Los Angeles, CA. In his early childhood, Josh had a lot of musical influences. His singing started to come out in the seventh grade when he performed a solo of “S’wonderful” at school. Since then he’s pursued music at Interlochen Arts Camp, LA County High School for the Arts, and a short time at Carnegie Mellon University. Josh had left school to pursue a career in music full-time.

David Foster heard Josh and invited Josh to sing at the inauguration of California governor Gray Davis. Shortly after that, Josh was invited to perform at the 1999 Grammy Awards with Celine Dion after Andrea Bocelli was unable to attend. Initially Josh turned the opportunity down, but Foster convinced him and since then he’s been performing in public settings. Josh seeks to not only bring classical operatic music to the public but wants to reach into the popular crowd with giving his music more of a “pop” feel to it.

This recording is found on the Awake album. It was released on November 7, 2006 and has since reached platinum status.

The first time that I can recall hearing (and knowing that I was hearing) Josh Groban was about 3 years ago while working at the shoe store when “Don’t Give Up” would come over the radio. Being a rather dramatic song compared to the others we normally heard, it quickly caught our attention (Bobby and I would occasionally over-dramatize a lip-syncing of the song to out of - and possibly only our - amusement). After finding the album, I found several songs that I really liked. Ironically “Un Giorno Per Noi” was not a favorite. However, when looking for a feature I wanted to do something that wasn’t incredibly popular but widely known enough to draw attention.

It is really interesting when listening to music that is in another language. When studying opera in school the language barrier was always something that interrupted my enjoyment of the opera. However, when it comes to songs that are in another language where an overall story is not important, it is much easier for me to enjoy the music. Getting beyond the meaning of words and just listening to how the syllables mix with the music can be a different experience than what we ever hear with vernacular music. Probably true with all cultures, foreign languages always seem to have an artistic ring to them (even those that don’t seem to sound romantic). I’ve never looked up the translation of this song, and though it may heighten my enjoyment knowing what the song is about, I enjoy it well enough now. Take a listen.

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Talking Bacteria

While watching this video, I couldn’t help but grin big. If you haven’t read them, read Orson Scott Card’s Ender series of books. What he wrote a few years ago in those books is reality, in fact, a lot of future inventions and innovations that Card wrote about in the books very much become reality. Pretty cool.

Unlimited Income Potential!

About a week ago I received a phone call from “Larry” asking me to come in for an interview. He had received my resumé and was looking for someone to learn about what he did and to work for him. Being open to any career opportunities that may arise, I went.

I did as much research I could find and found that Larry works for Primerica, a financial company that invests your funds. Also, everybody I talked to either did business with Larry or knew someone that was interviewed by Larry. This is the first time I heard of him, and knew nothing about Primerica, but after doing research I already had a pretty good idea of what kind of company it was and what Larry was going to do. Needless to say, nothing he did really surprised me and I was even amused and remained for the entire session. Here’s my notes.

This operations is not a scam, but it certainly is a scheme. It’s not illegal, and there is potential, but only on a pyramid level. There are two ways to make money in this company: selling “financial services” to clients (commission) and training others to sell those services (you make money off their commissions). I probably should have left after the first 15 minutes of the “interview” but I decided to stay and see just how many red flags I see popping up behind Larry during the pitch. Here they are:

• interview turns from “am I qualified for the job” to “why I want to work for this company”
• the interview lasts about an hour, I talk for 10 minutes and Larry talks for the other 50.
• Larry makes a point to say he is a college dropout
• Larry makes a point to say he has become a Christian since joining this company
• Larry makes a point to say he left two $70,000/yr jobs to join this company
• unlimited income potential working whatever hours I choose, I can even work from home if I wish
• I pay $99 on my first day for a background check and something else and then I pay $25 per month for training and licensing which Larry will run and will save me hundreds in licensing fees the state charges. I pay these licensing fees myself first and then the company will reimburse me.
• pay is 100% commission
• I make commission by selling products to clients I have found. Larry also makes a commission off of my sales. I cannot sell without a license and there are three Primerica recommends you get. Each license takes about 3 to 8 weeks to get. Classes conducted by Larry are held three times a week. So, for the first three weeks I don’t make any money no matter how well I sell. With one license commission is very limited so I’ll be working to get the other two. At most I would start making money after 8 weeks depending on my sales skills and client database. After 8 weeks I will have paid the company $149 and expect reimbursements for the licenses I paid the state for.
• the products I’m selling are things everybody should/would want and can be sold to the low, middle, and high income clients. Anybody can become a client! Not only that, but this office is the only office in a 150 mile radius so there’s plenty of potential. Larry has trained many clients all over this side of the US.
• while explaining the products and how great they are, Larry kept asking me numerous times if I knew friends or family that would like these products. Of course, the answer always is ‘yes!’
• Larry flashed about 20 sheets with 10 or 15 referrals. Claims that client database is practically built for you.
• showed all kinds of statistics where the economy and stock market has been falling, but the market this company invests shows increase over 75 years and averages 2 to 3 times better than average stock or bond gains.
• gave me 24 hours to think about it. (Better than saying, “you have one day”)
• asked me how interested I was from 1 to 10. I scored myself at a 6 and he tried convincing me I was a 9 or 10.

That was about all I can remember from the sales pitch a week ago. I still wonder how companies like this still work, but apparently they do. Anything that states “unlimited income potential” is suspect. Any company that has you pay for your training is suspect. If you want to pay for your training, then go to school and get a degree!