learnteach (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
learnteach) wrote2015-11-08 01:56 pm
learnteach) wrote2015-11-08 01:56 pm
In which John has a good time
5 things!
1. Collegium was big fun, especially spending time before with cool people. I took good classes that made me think. Diane gifted me with a very nice calligraphy example. Helped setup, sat gate, wandered through some classes.
2. Related to the above, the "Big Man" theory of history really doesn't work for me. "Who started Rock n' Roll" has a complex and ambiguous true answer, with roots and influences. "Elvis" is not the answer. In the same way, looking back 500 years and saying "This was the person who made these changes" is falling prey to the "Big Man" theory. While it makes a rhetorical point, and it is a nice comparison for who was a star, the cultures are different enough that saying Dufay was Elvis is wrong. Dufay was Prince, or really, Sondheim. Or possibly Danny Elfman...If I'm going to whine about it, I should put together my own course on the subject, and use local resources--if you want to understand Burgundian poetry, read Gerhardt's take on them, then listen to Juliana of Tregony's contrafait. If you want to understand the thought and literature, read what they read, reminded of what was happening in the world around them. If Wikipedia contains more than 40% of your lecture, you're doing it wrong.
3. Rocks are cool. Finding ones that you smash, grind, separate, and turn into paint? TOTALLY FREAKING COOL. Makes me want to make pigments as part of an alchemical experiment. Like I need another project.
4. Peer's Balls need some new Pelicans. I was enthusiastically told by a young lady that she was Catherine's favorite dance partner because she was such a good dancer--and I am afraid I disagree; she danced to make herself look good, not her partner. The sound systems sucked, the flow wasn't studied, and the calling of the dances was not working in the hall. I can see ways of fixing all these things, but don't care to do the orginizational work required. And the tech component, when you have varied performances, is very important.
5. I also feel I should have danced more at the ball...ah well, I did dance the lesson and the great majority of the waltzes. I shall strive to be a better dance host next time.
6. The winning costumer was Laina's (I liked Tara Le Fantastics, but Laina's had a better range of expression.) For men, nothing really stood out to me--the John Constantine was very well done, but he's not my favorite, and while Mr. Seely was impeccably dressed, he didn't step it up. Z looked nice...hmm. Perhaps I didn't look enough.
1. Collegium was big fun, especially spending time before with cool people. I took good classes that made me think. Diane gifted me with a very nice calligraphy example. Helped setup, sat gate, wandered through some classes.
2. Related to the above, the "Big Man" theory of history really doesn't work for me. "Who started Rock n' Roll" has a complex and ambiguous true answer, with roots and influences. "Elvis" is not the answer. In the same way, looking back 500 years and saying "This was the person who made these changes" is falling prey to the "Big Man" theory. While it makes a rhetorical point, and it is a nice comparison for who was a star, the cultures are different enough that saying Dufay was Elvis is wrong. Dufay was Prince, or really, Sondheim. Or possibly Danny Elfman...If I'm going to whine about it, I should put together my own course on the subject, and use local resources--if you want to understand Burgundian poetry, read Gerhardt's take on them, then listen to Juliana of Tregony's contrafait. If you want to understand the thought and literature, read what they read, reminded of what was happening in the world around them. If Wikipedia contains more than 40% of your lecture, you're doing it wrong.
3. Rocks are cool. Finding ones that you smash, grind, separate, and turn into paint? TOTALLY FREAKING COOL. Makes me want to make pigments as part of an alchemical experiment. Like I need another project.
4. Peer's Balls need some new Pelicans. I was enthusiastically told by a young lady that she was Catherine's favorite dance partner because she was such a good dancer--and I am afraid I disagree; she danced to make herself look good, not her partner. The sound systems sucked, the flow wasn't studied, and the calling of the dances was not working in the hall. I can see ways of fixing all these things, but don't care to do the orginizational work required. And the tech component, when you have varied performances, is very important.
5. I also feel I should have danced more at the ball...ah well, I did dance the lesson and the great majority of the waltzes. I shall strive to be a better dance host next time.
6. The winning costumer was Laina's (I liked Tara Le Fantastics, but Laina's had a better range of expression.) For men, nothing really stood out to me--the John Constantine was very well done, but he's not my favorite, and while Mr. Seely was impeccably dressed, he didn't step it up. Z looked nice...hmm. Perhaps I didn't look enough.
no subject
In men's, Cathyn was lusting after a long red Russian coat, I think some pawing may have been involved. :-)
no subject