The Touro Communication Club Notes - #128–November 17, 2010
Contents:
1. Eight Quotes about Music by Maurice Ravel and 2 poets, one saxophonist and one philosopher.
2. UPCOMING CLUB PROGRAM: - “Critical Listening Institute: Ravel’s ‘Bolero’”
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 @ 2 pm in Room 2233.
3. Logical Fallacy of the Week # 18 – “Misleading Vividness”
4. Professor Geo’s “Communication Thought of the Week”
5. Note to Communicators: “Listening to Music”
6. .NEXT WEEK’S TOPIC: “Talking to Guys/Talking to Girls””
7. Upcoming Conversations - please add your topic to the list
8. What happened last week: ““Money”
1. Four Quotes about Music by Maurice Ravel
“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.”
“Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.”
“I begin by considering an effect.”
“I did my work slowly, drop by drop, I tore it out of me by pieces.”
“I did my work slowly, drop by drop, I tore it out of me by pieces.”
Four Quotes about Music
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900), 19th century German philosopher
“Music was my refuge. I could craw into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
Maya Angelou, (b. 1928), American writer and poet, author “Father Together in My Name
“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”
Charlie Parker, (1920-1955), ”Bird” was an American Jazz saxophonist and composer.
“Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), American expatriate poet and critic
2. The Touro Communication Club
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 2 pm – Room 223 – Midtown
Critical Listening Institute II – Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero”
In this second session of our effort to sharpen our listening skills, we turn to a famous piece of music, a one-movement orchestral piece by French composer Maurice Ravel, premiered in 1928. “Bolero” gained universal attention when it was commandeered for the 1979 Blake Edwards film comedy, “10” starring Dudley Moore, Bo Derek and Julie Andrews. We are going to listen to the piece twice, once for a general impression followed by a discussion. Then we close with a second hearing. It should be fun to understand how the structure of this particular piece of music created such notoriety.
Last spring, the first Critical Listening Institute program was on Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The third Critical Listening Institute program will be on Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First’ routine.
3. Logical Fallacy of the Week #18:
“Misleading Vividness”
Although this is technically not a “logical’ fallacy, it gives evidence of how our brain works. We are drawn to the shiniest objects. We are draw to the prettiest person or thing. We are drawn to the most sensational visual effect. Fireworks always draw a crowd. Vividness is a magnet for our eyes and ear.
And we are fooled.- often. :”All that glistens is not gold,” Shakespeare reminds us in “The Merchant of Venice.” Yet we still are magnetized by the package. People come out of a movie stunned by the visual effects. Who cares about the plot or characters? Great effects = a great movie. We come out of the theatre, whistling the scenic effects.
The fallacy points out how we are affected by sensation. We buy a newspaper for its sensational headline. Celebrity gossip tells us that pretty people have problems, too. As the holiday season appears, the child in us imagines a pretty experience, yet many of us have memories of difficult times during a holiday season.
We learn to “fake until you make it.” So we “Dress for Success” and we learn that we have nothing to say when we open our mouth. The pretty box is empty inside.
Political rhetoric of the campaign is always suspect.. The candidate wants to be elected so he/she speaks inflated poetry. We want our latest political savior to come on his white steed and sweep down a rescue us from jaws of reality.
As long as we recognize our child-like aspirations are just wish-fulfillment, we can operate in a world of sugar plum fairies just so long.. We have to keep in mind, “Fool me once shame on me; fool me twice shame on you.” But then I have to recognize the carnival mirror image as it happens. Sometimes it’s hard and we can get fooled – again.
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4. Professor Geo’s “Communication Thought of the Week #6:
Ernest Hemingway comments, “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
5. .A Note to Communicators:
“Listening to Music”
I spent nearly a decade in the music department of the University of Buffalo, doing opera - producing, directing, designing, building and painting scenery, designing and hanging lights and sweeping the theatre. I was a misfit. I was a theatre person, not a musician. I tried to absorb the ethos of what a classical musician is and does. I hung and focused the lights for famous musicians and watched them perform and argue among themselves. I inhaled music.
On the subway and on the street, I watch people nodding their heads or humming along to their iPods. I can only guess how people listen to music with their iPods because I don’t have one and don’t want one. What I think most people do with their iPods is to let the sound wash over them, engulf them, letting the sound transport them to another plane.
I am the opposite. My theatre and opera experience has conditioned me not to “appreciate” music, but rather to study it as I listen to it. What are the instruments playing now? What is time signature? What are the musical themes and their pattern of repetition? What is the range of the acoustical and rhythmic dynamics? How is the piece constructed to achieve the effect the composer seems to be trying to achieve? My mind is never quiet.
The matter of “like” and “dislike” in music – and most of the arts – is irrelevant. I am working as I listen though no one is likely to be aware of what I am doing inside my head.
I don’t mean to imply that I don’t get absorbed with music. I do. However, that emotional absorption is never complete; my mind is always operating analytically to some degree all the time.
Why should you or anyone care how I listen to music? What I do is ultimately of no concern to you. You are interested in you. I offer this brief reflection on what happens when I listen to music because there might be someone out there that listens to music – or any arrangement of sound – in a different manner.
Please comment.
6. Next week’s Conversation:
Wednesday. November 24. 2010 – Room 223 – Midtown
“Talking to Guys/Talking to Girls”
In the last four years, we’ve talked about this topic at least three times in one form or another. The academic term for conversation between the sexes is “Gender Communication.” John Gray’s 1992 bestseller “Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus” codified the communication difficulties between the sexes in the popular mind. For centuries, the conflict has been called ‘The Battle of the Sexes.” Going beyond sexual attraction to attempt building a relationship is an ongoing challenge for everyone. Some have answers. Other are searching. We’ll share our questions and conclusions.
7. UPCOMING CONVERSATIONS:
What about one of these topics?
“Repetition”
“Meaning”
“Why Does History Repeat Itself?”
“Heroism”
“Concentration”
“Coping with Adversity”
Student Poetry showcase
“Empathy”
“Connecting the Dots”
Role play of Cynical people
“Cold Calling in Sales”
“He’s Just Not That into You”
Critical Listening Institute III: “Abbott & Costello’s ‘Who’s On First?’”
“Criticism – Giving and Receiving”
“Logical Fallacies”
“Freedom II”
“Gender Communication II”
“SPAR Debate”
“Distraction II”
“Negotiation II”
“Imagination II”
“Rodney King: ‘Can’t We Just Get Along?’ II”
“Political Savvy”
“Emotions: Anger II”
“Capitalism and Socialism”
“Illusions”
“Parenting”
And dozens of others!
Compare the notice of the session with what really happened!
8. What happened on Wednesday, November 10, 2010?
“Money”
Expect this topic to promote lots of heat. Although money is often invisible in many of our daily activities, its presence or lack of it can provoke the most extreme human behavior. Money can be a measure of self-esteem, a tool for measuring accomplishment, a springboard for greed, a sacrament of poverty, a replacement for love, and on and on. Everyone has a different relationship to money which may be conscious or not. Let’s start the discussion with “The love of money is the root of all evil.”
An exciting new group of students found the topic attractive. Maybe they thought there would be free samples. They included Braudlee Dupuy, Roberto Moel (sp?) and Ladaya Thomas. Robert Gilmore, Peter Bryan and Jamal James had joined us for the Jazz film. Among the familiar faces were Myrtho Leon, Moche Bengio, Miriam Sanor, Gary Sheinfield, Charles Mason, Lorinda Moore, Carlisle Yearwood and Hal Wicke.
The entire discussion was quite spirited with everyone offering their viewpoints and disagreeing in a professional manner. As usual, Hal asked what money meant to each person.
· Money is a necessity.
· “I need it all.”
· “I want a lavish style of living.”
· There is an emotional attachment to money.
· “I have a debate in my mind all the time about money. Should I spend? Why not?”
· “I have money worries.”
· “Money is just paper. I worked in a bank and money is just money. It doesn’t stand for anything.”
· “The value of money is in your mind.”
· “Money is the accept system in America. There is 5% poverty world wide.
· “Money is a way to exchange goods.
· “Money = stability.”
· “As long as I have $3000 cash in my pocket, I feel okay.”
· “No money, no happiness.”
· Moche: “In France there is less money than now. Everything has been
Americanized.”
Americanized.”
· “In America, you need money.”
· “You want money to be happy.”
· Money represents more than money itself – it represents value
· America is so materialistic.
· Everyone is right – the collective need vs. the individual desires.
· “Money is not going to buy happiness.”
· “Money can buy the illusion of happiness. You want more things.”
· Gary – “When you talk about money, you talk about everything.”
How many of you are “money driven”?
How many of you are “money driven”?
Yes – 3
No – 5
· Robert - “I don’t need money. I have a free public library card.”
The discussion followed a number of directions – masks, scheming for money, symbols of success, individual greed, demands of society, what’s reality?, etc.
· “Why can’t you be you?” Without masks – between 2 worlds
· Money as evil.
· Money clouds the mind.
· “The minority culture does not support itself.”
Tyler Perry’s new film “For Colored Girls” is an important film and different from his previous films.
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We always have a great time exploring these issues. So often our daily life never focuses on these Communication issues. If you have something you want us to discuss please let us know and we’ll add it to the list.
Next time bring a friend. The Communication Club is always an open discussion, limited only by time. Everyone gets a chance to speak. All opinions are welcome. Here is an opportunity for students to challenge professors’ views outside the class without any homework or assignments. You just have to show up and listen and talk if you want.
Hal Wicke
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