There was a story about this book on NPR this morning that I found absolutely amazing. Can you imagine a time in American history where common, everyday people would get into DEADLY battles over who they thought was the better interpreter of Shakespeare?
Quick project
Not really an assignment, but it will be a challenge and fun nonetheless.
Jobie is teaching a class on postmodernism and wants me to come in and present this video clip to them.
It is of course utter crap, but he wants me to provide pomo commentary as if we thought it was important for the kids to know about. So whattaya say, guys, can we analyze this film?
Rest in Peace.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37182
east Inflatables
Right, Wrong, or Left?
How much of what we “know” about the capacity to develop skills is based on years of tribal knowledge that is, in fact, groundless? Is there some point as which perception/tradition becomes reality? This story was in the sports section, but I thought it was deliciously interesting from at least one other perspective.
Summer solstice
Today’s the summer solstice. Only six months until our Annual Meeting. Only six months since our Annual Meeting. Balance.
Now are our brows bound…
More terms to use in our discussions on art. Â I’ve been reading a book by Susan Jacoby called The Age of American Unreason. Â It’s an extended and Jeremiad written with a nod to Hofstader’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life and Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death. Â As a personal and autobiographical reflection, the book devotes some elegiac passages to the passing of what Jacoby sees as an important aspect of American life during the twentieth century, certainly one that shaped her own perspective and that of her generation: Â middlebrow culture.C4090-452
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Definition?  I want to keep it short and not seek out relevant passages to quote.  Let me offer what I hope is one vivid illustration instead.  Perhaps if you are over forty you will remember a family that invested in the series Great Books of the Western World.  No?  How about Encyclopaedia Britannica?  American middlebrow culture in a nutshell.  Not a pejorative, clearly.  But a characterization–the middlebrow–that conjures up a complex network of associations, some making us smile, some making us wince.  Jacoby does a nice job of setting up a useful context for experiencing a wide spectrum of connections and implications.
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Cannot help but raise the question of how we define highbrow and lowbrow, then, I suppose.  But I don’t want to take time to do that either.  Maybe you could offer something relevant in your comments.  I’m writing this post because I wonder if, now, there is such a thing as no-brow culture.  Perhaps we could say that this is part of the postmodern condition.  No longer is there a sense of hierarchy in how we distribute our appreciations or exercise our competencies or apply our creativity.  Is this development (if we’re willing to go with it) an illustration of democratization in action or something not remotely idealistic, utopian or welcome?  I would like to unpack further my thoughts about this by engaging comments.C4090-451
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Theatre is NOT moving!
Theatre company is NOT moving out of the building, thanks to anonymous donors.
Also … they’re changing their name back to NCTC!
More in this weekend’s Times-Herald.
Jeff
L.08.6: Honea
