Orchestra Hall and Greatness

I read the blog of "Information Literacy Ramblings" and visited the WCCO link. Very interesting what appears as news online. I'm sure somebody thinks "bit on X or Y or Z" is news but...

I really wanted to put in a plug, actually for the MN Orchestra's stretch of concerts of film music. I went to hear the Orchestra play Chaplin's City Lights on Friday night. It was superb. But even better, in my mind, was the pre-concert given by Central High School's orchestra and chorus. I always knew that Mr. Oyen and Ms. Graber do fabulous jobs in the education of Central's music students. But in Orchestra Hall, one could hear every mistake and all of the harmonies that very likely are missed in the auditorium at school. Mistakes, let me tell you, were very rare on Friday night and the harmonies were glorious! I truly love listening to a great high school ensemble and to play at Orchestra Hall must have been a real treat for both the students and Mr.Oyen/Ms. Graber. I also had fun seeing former students of mine performing that night. (I used to teach elementary music at Jackson School.) All of you teachers/librarians should attend your schools concerts as much as possible. It will bring you new connections you can make with your students, even if you don't know that much about music!

Wikis -- thing 32

Wow! I was thinking about our meeting yesterday and what kinds of uses for wikis I could find. Not being a teacher with a class means that I need to look at other groups of which I am a part. I think any committee work could be done via a wiki which could cut down on meetings (hooray! but, we all love meetings, don't we??). My family decided over XPmas to plan a mini-reunion sometime this summer. Again, this could be planned on a private wiki set up for just our family to use. So that is something in which I will try to involve them. I think it would be an interesting experiment; especially since few of them have actively embraced use of computers or the internet (beyond email, I mean). I also belong to an intentional Christian community and we could find uses for this too, I think. So wish me luck in this endeavor.

It was a great meeting! The talk about copyright (and copyleft) is pertinent to me as a creative music composer and poet; I liked the discussion of a continuum with respect to copyright and the innovations/realignments taking place. Though the tension between individual rights and community's "common good" is always present in my understandings. I'm not sure about the "gold standard of individualism" which has hurt our society in many ways while driving discoveries and creative endeavors forward at the same time. hmm...