Solo Showing

The New York Times profiles professional teaching artist Judith Sloan, a teacher at the International High School at LaGuardia Community College. Ms. Sloan is a solo performance artist whose teaching feeds her performing. She has spent "a decade documenting immigrants’ stories and teaching teenagers to transform their experiences into theater..."

An audio link at the Times excerpts Ms. Sloan's solo-show "Yo, Miss!"

Also: Goodbye Solo a film Directed by Ramin Bahrani. With Souléymane Sy Savané, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo (Trailer)

Good Bye Solo shows @ BAM
Thu, Apr 16 at 4:30, 7, 9:15pm
Fri, Apr 17—Sun, Apr 19 at 2:15, 4:45, 7:10, 9:15pm

The Food of Love

On the Dana Foundation website, I am skimming the fascinating preliminary results of a study titled Effects of Music Training on Brain and Cognitive Development in Under-Privileged 3- to 5-Year-Olds.

Somehow I wandered over to Henkjan Honing's Music Matters | A Blog about Music Cognition. There, I discovered a link to an online research survey and a test that you can take if you think you might have perfect pitch. The test takes about 15 minutes to complete, and you get your score at the end. Your score is kept confidential, which is just shy of anonymous.

Also: Schubert's Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon.

Les Misérables

The MTA raises subway fares and cuts services on all forms of mass transit in an effort to rein in a huge deficit.

Unemployment in New York City reaches 8.1 %.

Chancellor Joe Klein wants more power and more money for the New York City Public School system.

Also: Jeanne Moreau - Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud

Moving Pictures

If you love movies, head over to the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.

You'll have to take the subway, so if you go on the weekend make sure to read up on travel advisories or you'll never get there because the trains are always a mess.

Luckily, the museum has a slew of online educational resources that you can access right now.

For example, I found this animated explanation of movie-making to be both delightful and informative.

Here and Gone

Linda Shopes has worked on, consulted for, and written about oral history projects for more than twenty-five years. Her essay, Making Sense of Oral History, was published in 2002 as part of History Matters: U.S. Survey Course on the Web.

Making Sense of Oral History explains everything. It is a comprehensive overview with a how-to approach and I'm finding it really useful. I am especially grateful for the tips on what kind of questions to ask and how to interpret an interview.

You can navigate the essay topic by topic on the website, but if you're impatient, you can also download the entire essay (pdf) in one fell swoop.

In my experience, oral histories and peer-to-peer interviews are useful starting points for collaborative art-making.

Have you ever been interviewed by a child?

It's kind of poignant because most young children have no idea that time really does fly.

Oral History: “Your People Live Only Upon Cod” is "An Algonquian Response to European Claims of Cultural Superiority"

HyperCinema: Kurosawa's RAN is a version of King Lear.