I listen to classical music a lot, even more than before since the arrival of the new classical FM station in Collingwood. But while my listening at home is through a selected collection of CDs, the content played on radio – internet radio included – is more eclectic. Airplay often includes
Continue readingTag: Culture
Dead Wild Roses: How Equal Do We Want the World? – Dan Ariely
More than you’d think really. Human beings seem to intrinsically value fairness and equality and yet, as of today have constructed societies based on moving as far away as possible from any sort of equitable norm. Take note of the piece on John Rawls and how using the Veil of
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Jonathan Zittrain – Wikipedia Works Well in Practice, Just Not In Theory
It is kind of amazing how Wikipedia manages to survive given all the anti-reality tendencies of the human race. Religion, extreme right and left politics – wikipedia manages to muddle through most of the time and present a version of truth that is mostly acceptable. More amazing is that the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: War On Drugs Still a Losing Battle
Why are drugs still illegal? I wrote a while ago about the success of Portugal, where all drugs were legalized, and the money previously used to enforce drug laws were instead used to fund social programs to help those with drug problems. Not only was Portugal’s drug abuse problem significantly reduced,
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month in Canada. I don’t know if this gets widespread acknowledgement much less appreciation among the public and in the schools, but it should. Poetry is an important part of our cultural lives, although it seems to me our collective passion for it has waned over
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: No One Is Free Until All Are Free
Illustration by Denitza Tchacarova This column is adapted from a talk Chris Hedges gave Friday night at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. VANCOUVER, British Columbia—The scourge of male violence against women will not end if we dismantle the forces of global capitalism. The scourge of male violence exists independently of
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Bad Thinkers and the Unknown Knowns
I came across an interesting piece on bad thinking online recently. In it, the author argues some of the points I’ve mentioned in the past about people who believe in conspiracy theories, gossip and other online codswallop: The problem with conspiracy theorists is not, as the US legal scholar Cass
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Reading Ukulele Tabs
One of the things I want to discuss in our upcoming CPLUG workshop is how to read tab sheet music. In this post I’ve give you some pointers so you can practice on your own. It’s worth learning to read tabs because it gives you the ability to play melodies
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Lucy and the 10% Brain Myth
We watched the film Lucy on iTunes last night and, while reasonably entertaining, its plot is founded on a persistent bit of pseudoscience: that people only use 10% of their brain capacity. It’s so widespread a myth that Wikipedia has a page on it that opens: The 10 percent of the brain
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Forced Birthers On the University of Alberta Campus
Well it had to happen sooner or later, the viciously anti-woman contingent of local forced birth brigade came to campus with their misleading fetus porn and all the lovely related argument for women to be incubators first and people second. Thankfully the feminist and queer communities counter demonstrated to help
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Revised Chord Wheel
I have revised my transposing chord wheel/circle of fifths tool this week. It is now a three-ring version for use by all musicians (ukulele players who want to learn music theory or work on arranging songs especially). You can click on the image on the right to download the PDF.
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Ukulele Festival Coming in May!
It’s official: the Canada Ukes ukulele festival will be held right around the corner from Collingwood: in Midland at the Midland Cultural Centre, May 22-24. Three days of ukuleleness, featuring Ralph Shaw, Stevie McNie (leader of Toronto’s Corktown Ukulele), The Skinnydippers and others. Performances, jams and workshops galore! Vendors, too.
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Why Elvis Matters to Collingwood
There are some things that are pointless to argue, it seems. Creationism with a fundamentalist. Anti-vaccination with a New Age wingnut. Reason and logic with local bloggers. The value of the Elvis Festival to Collingwood with a closed-minded resident. I recently heard complaints about the cost of the 2014 festival:
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Ukulele Workshop Today
I just returned from Orangeville where Broadway Music hosted a two-and-a-half hour musical workshop this Saturday by Manitoba Hal today (which will be followed by his concert tonight from 8-11 p.m. – try to attend, if you can: he’s very talented). Very informative and well worth attending. Interestingly, at least
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Not All People Suck
Sometimes we need a reminder that the world isn’t the news, that mostly(sometimes?), we are good people who do kind things for each other. Filed under: Culture Tagged: empathy and compassion, Humanity for the winz, people being people
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Bad News For Balderdash
A recent story on New Scientist gives a glimmer of hope for those of us who bemoan the swelling tsunami of claptrap and codswallop that fills the internet: THE internet is stuffed with garbage. Anti-vaccination websites make the front page of Google, and fact-free “news” stories spread like wildfire. Google
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – The Judge and the Hijab
I’m always impressed with La Belle Province and her ability to serve up controversy. Recently a judge in Quebec decided that a hijab was considered not to be suitable attire for her courtroom and dismissed a case when the litigant refused to comply with her request. The judge’s words courtesy
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Marx, Darwin and Machiavelli
What do these three men – three of the world’s greatest thinkers – have in common? Science? Economics? Politics? Their impact on culture and society? Their foresight or insight? Their importance to the development of modern thought? Their continued relevance today? The depth and breadth of their wisdom? The quality
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘Pornography Is What the End of the World Looks Like’
Bacchanal with a wine vat (c. 1475) by Andrea Mantegna BOSTON—Fifty Shades of Grey, the book and the movie, is a celebration of the sadism that dominates nearly every aspect of American culture and lies at the core of pornography and global capitalism. It glorifies our dehumanization of women. It
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: “We the North” and the “Marketing of Blackness”
The Raptors are hot. Toronto’s professional basketball team sits atop the Eastern Conference and are arguably the NBA’s most exciting team to watch. But on-court swagger has been paired with slick re-branding, the centerpiece of which is the “We The North” campaign. The campaign’s lead commercial intersperses Raptors’ highlight-reel dunks
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