Music as a Weapon

Have you ever looked out the window of an airplane and winced as you saw your brand-new luggage soaring through the air? Or recovered your brand-new luggage only to find it sopping wet and realize that all the perishables inside had perished a water-induced death? Or found that the sides of your brand-new luggage were all scraped up? Or realized that the handle of your brand-new luggage was all bent out of shape and couldn't extend or retract anymore? Or gone to the airport desk and complained only to be told that it wasn't their fault?

I have.

What did I do about it? I felt sad, but I figured that my luggage would have to get initiated to the rough life of being a traveling suitcase sometime, so I straightened out the handle and shrugged and left meekly.

Yet what did a musician named Dave Carroll do when his custom-made Taylor guitar was destroyed by United Airlines, and they refused to do anything about it? He threatened to make a music video.

What did United say? "Good luck on that one,"

Obviously they didn't take his threat seriously, but what did he do? He made a music video.

Music turned out to be a very effective weapon. Right now, the video has almost 12 million views, and I'm sure it will get many more. Pretty soon, United was offering compensation if he would only remove his video.

What did he say? "Good luck on that one."

Arts: An Annotated Bibliography

My research process was to look for people that I had thought of previously in terms of the subject, and then shamelessly Google keywords when I ran out of ideas. I tried finding people in Google+ and Facebook, but couldn't seem to locate any of them that way. For further readings, I looked on Blackboard to find articles I had read for a class, and I searched Goodreads and Google Books and JSTOR.

My group is discussing how technology has affected the production and spread of the arts over time. Since a big part of the spread of the arts has been through arts education, I looked for sources that explored types of art education in the modern world, affected as they are now by technology.

Further Reading:

1. Bartscherer, Thomas and Roderick Coover, "Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts," University of Chicago Press, 2011. Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10554253-switching-codes

This book explores the connection between the rapidly changing technological world and the world of the arts. Since technological people often know little about the humanities, and arts people sometimes know little about the digital world, the goal of this book is to foster a discussion between the two groups, using many different forms to do so. Since we are talking about the relationship between the arts and technology, this is a valuable source to us, especially since it is exploring the current relationship between the two.

[I found this source by searching on Goodreads, and it seems right up the alley of our tweethis.]

2. Jaccard, Jerry, "A Brief Rationale for High-Quality General Music Education," n.p., 1996.

This article explains how the value of music education in society has changed over time, and reviews Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences to show that music and artistic ability holds an important part in a child's education, alongside other technological pursuits. This is important to our thesis, especially since we are focusing quite a bit on music in our chapter.

[I read this article for my Careers in Music Education class, and immediately thought of this article when we figured out what our chapter was going to be about.]

3. Rudolph, Thomas E. et al, "Technology Strategies for Music Education," Technology Institute for Music Educators, 2005. Google Books link: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fYdSeCj1irQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=technology+%22arts+education%22+-industrial&ots=XeiL-oeq28&sig=XdvNbJS4YxkTHVj97g1cqdopmNs#v=onepage&q=technology%20%22arts%20education%22%20-industrial&f=false

This is a wonderful handbook exploring many different facets of music, technology, the arts, and education. This is a great resource for further reading about a number of the aspects we discussed for our chapter.

[I was e-mailed a link to this book, and realized it would be perfect as a reference for further reading, because it applies so well to our thesis.]

Thought Leaders:

4. Jaccard, Jerry L. (http://cfacbeta.byu.edu/directory/jaccard)

Author of "A conceptual model for literature-based musical education" - http://books.google.com/books/about/A_conceptual_model_for_literature_based.html?id=YPAmGwAACAAJ

Jerry Jaccard is an active researcher and strongly promotes the importance of music for the development of children's mental capacities in all areas of life. He is the coordinator of BYU's Elementary Music Education program, received the Organization of American Kodaly Educators (OAKE) National Outstanding Educator Award in 2004, the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications Teaching Excellence Award, is Vice-President of the International Kodaly Society and a board member of the Willems International Music Education Association, and is coauthor of The Complete Musician series and wrote "A conceptual model for literature-based musical education," as well as offering many other contributions to the world of music education.

[I met with Dr. Jaccard in a recent interview and was impressed with his wealth of knowledge about the importance of music education in a modern world. I had heard many good things about him, but was still amazed as I researched him to find just how much he has contributed to the field!]

5. McClure, Marva P. (http://www.artstechacademy.org/)

Marva McClure is the head of The Arts and Technology Academy in Washington DC - a unique school that combines the arts with the latest technology to help children learn effectively.

[The idea that technology can support the arts rather than detracting from them fits well with our thesis. I liked what Marva McClure is doing with her school, and I feel she is leading forward to find a connection between technology and arts education.]

6. Stephenson, Brad. (http://bradpstephenson.com/)

Brad Stephenson is the director of online communication for Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III College in Pittsburgh, PA. He works with Technology in the Arts, an initiative that explores the intersection of arts managment and online technology. (http://technologyinthearts.org/) Previously, Stephenson was the director of projects and marketing for the University’s Center for Arts Management and Technology, an applied research center dedicated to providing technology services and support for non-profit arts organizations. Brad has been assisting artists and arts organizations with their technology needs for more than seven years. Stephenson is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Master of Arts Management program, for which he currently teaches technology planning.

[I chose Stephenson as a source because I like what he is doing with the Technology in the Arts initiative - it fits well with my group's exploration of the relationship between technology and the arts.]

What Do You Think of Group Projects?

This semester I have had more group projects than ever before. By the end of April, I think I will have been involved in at least five major group projects/presentations. And that doesn't count musical performances.

I have been thinking, and have come up with a number of decided pros and cons to working in a group setting for a grade.

Pros:

1. You get to know people in your class.

2. You get to learn ideas from them that you might not have thought of yourself.

Cons:

1. Your grade depends on the work of someone else.

2. If you fail, you damage others as well as yourself.

3. You often assume someone else will do something, when they think you'll do it.

4. Group members sometimes don't care and fail to fulfill their responsibilities, leaving it all up to the few who do care to bear the brunt of the work.

5. Miscommunication often causes project segments to not splice together evenly.

6. Group members often don't agree on content or method.

7. Group members may start to feel either cocky or incompetent, depending on their level of know-how about the subject.

8. Schedules may not line up, making it difficult if not impossible for students to effectively collaborate.

9. Some students may be more quick to get things done than others, leaving the early birds nervous as they wait for the others to get started.

10. It is difficult to know who contributed what, and some students may ride along on the efforts of others and get a good grade despite doing no work.

While there are some definite perks to group projects, the pro-to-con ratio does seem a bit lopsided.

I love being around other people and working with them, but I agree that too many cooks spoil the soup, and sometimes I would rather work alongside others than work on the same thing as them.

Do You Sing in the Shower?

I know I do.

I warble vocal warm-ups, and sing showtunes, and try to squeak out the Queen of the Night's famous aria from Mozart's "The Magic Flute" while shampooing my hair.

I also walk around campus whistling, I hum in the kitchen, and I drum out rhythms on my computer desk. Most people in America would probably classify me as a bit of a music nut. My friend just the other day was describing someone to me that they thought was a little overly artsy, and gave as an example the fact that that person sings while walking around campus.

Ooooh... burned! So do I.

Why does this seem weird to us in the USA? Knowing that I go around randomly singing, people would probably classify that I'm somewhat of a "musical person," and nod their heads in understanding once they heard I was from a "musical family."

Interestingly enough, other cultures don't have the same perspective on daily music that we do. In Liberia and other parts of West Africa, for example, all young men and women go through special training as part of their coming-of-age, which includes training in music and dance. Everyone is expected to be at least somewhat musically proficient, and they mix music into everything they do. Sometimes people march around town in the morning, singing a good-morning song, and everyone joins in the procession. When they are working in the rice fields, they sing a song and beat on drums so they can work in time to the music. In Ghana, even the postal workers, when cancelling stamps, devised a song that they whistle while creating an intricate rhythm with the stamps.

Now, I could be wrong, but it seems like the last time I was at a post office in the good old USA, it was silent, grim and gray. Emphasis on silent.

In Brazil, music is also enmeshed in daily life. In the past, Brazilian slaves who were trying to escape invented Capoeira, a sort of martial arts that they disguised with music to make it look like they were dancing. I was talking to a friend the other day who has spent a lot of time in Brazil, and she told me that there are always some kind of street performers out on the streets playing music and dancing.

Yet if I were to dance in the middle of Brigham Square and sing at the top of my lungs for long enough, I would probably end up in the campus paper.

I realize different cultures value different things, such as Canada's interest in hockey and Brazil's passion for soccer, but it seems to me that musical expression is a universal language that transcends the boundaries of nations. While not everyone can kick a soccer goal or skate on ice, pretty much anyone can listen to music. It seems very sad to me that our culture is missing the joy of integrating music into everyday life.

Imagine if you went into the DMV and the grim officials pulled out keyboard and sax and drums and jammed for you while you waited.

Imagine what your daily bus ride would be like if the bus driver sang showtunes.

Imagine what the wait would be like if you were sitting in the doctor's office and the receptionists started typing in rhythm and tapping their pencils and singing scat syllables.

Imagine what it would be like if you were waiting in a long line at a ticket office and everyone in line started clapping and singing while they waited.

I realize some people are easily distracted and annoyed by music, but I would love having it everywhere.

The USA has such a great musical heritage, and I would love to see us make the best of it. I would love to see music integrated into the daily American lifestyle.

This isn't just a fantasy - it has certainly been possible elsewhere. If you were in a post office in Ghana, you would hear something like this:

Crazy? Me? Well... Maybe a Little...

I may be a bit crazy. Here's why:

This week I had my interview for BYU's Elementary Music Education program. I interviewed with a wonderful man, Dr. Jerry Jaccard, who I respect immensely. The interview went well. He stood up at the end, shook my hand, and thanked me for coming.

No, that's not crazy. Here's the crazy part:

I didn't just say goodbye and get me out like a sensible person would. I asked him if I could ask him a question. He said sure. I explained I was working on a section of an e-book about music education, and wanted to ask him a question about the topic.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: You believe children are inherently musical, right?

Dr. Jaccard: Yes...

Me: In light of that, why do you think children should learn music in school as opposed to elsewhere?

That question opened up a well of information.

Dr. Jaccard said that although all children may not be able to develop their musicality to the same level, each child should be taught to develop their musicality in order to obtain a well-rounded educational experience. He feels children will have a use for a musical education in their future lives, whether they will use it someday to be teachers, performers, or just appreciative audience members. He also told me he feels schools should work with home life to teach children music, and cited examples of several school programs of various nationalities that do well at that, especially the music education program in Finland. He went on to tell me how music is quite compatible with scientific ability, citing Einstein as an example of one who is renowned for his brilliancy in math and science, but who was also, I found out, a prestigious violinist. Dr. Jaccard even told me a great story about Einstein being kept out of a performance in a queen's palace by a new guard who thought this scraggly, hobo-like man was a crazy fellow come to assassinate the queen with a gun hidden in a violin case.

When Dr. Jaccard finally saw me out of his office, there were already two other applicants waiting for their interviews.

I would have liked to have recorded him - obviously I can't quote the interview verbatim - but I thought that, in light of the circumstances, that might be taking it a wee bit too far.

A crazy person interviews the interviewer, but for someone to actually record the interviewer... well, they have nice padded cells for those sweet folks.

Arts Education in the 19th Century

Technological advances in the 19th century greatly influenced the spread of the arts.

For example, formal music education in the United States was introduced in the 19th century when Lowell Mason and George Webb founded the Boston Academy of Music, and Mason published a Manual of Instruction that taught music theory. The publication and spread of this handbook was influential to the spread of music education in the United States. While music education was first used just in the elementary schools in the 19th century, Luther Whiting Mason influenced the spread of music education to grammar, primary and high schools. Music education for teachers also developed in this period, starting in what was called the Normal School. During this time, the spread of music in general was greatly influenced by technology through the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison.

Art education was influenced through the Picture Study Movement, which started late in the 19th century, and focused on learning in school to appreciate the art found in daily life. This appreciation of art found everywhere was greatly influenced by technology through the invention of photograph technology.

The Physical Culture Movement also occurred in the 19th century, promoting physical activity in normal life through dance and exercise. Technological advancements in mass production techniques allowed for the widespread distribution of exercise equipment.

Certainly these things could probably have developed to some degree without the accompanying technology, but it is certain that without publishing, phonograph abilities, photography, and mass production techniques, the advances of the arts in the 19th century likely could not have turned out to be what history has shown them to have become.

Identity Theft - Your Very Own Evil Twin

You read stories where people have their credit card number swiped, and next thing they know their account has been cleaned out. You hear tale of people taking the social security number of a dead person and passing it off as theirs. You learn of people traveling to foreign places using someone else's passport, or checking things out with someone else's library card, or even entering the temple using someone else's recommend.

Then, you cluck your tongue and shake your head and fill out a long doctor's office form with all your personal information that the doctor will never read and will stow away who-knows-where.

What are you doing with your information? Do you really have ANY idea what happens to it after you share it? When you give a check to the cashier, do you know where it goes? When you swipe your credit card in a vending machine, how do you know your number is still safe? When you give the DMV your entire life and proof of existence in legal document form, what assurance do you have that the employee does not have photographic memory and is not storing up your info in his head and planning to steal your identity?

Well, all right, some implicit trust in the innate goodness of human nature is required for you to retain your sanity and not dig yourself a hole to hide in. You must realize that in this world, you can't very well keep your identity entirely safe and still live a normal life. But be wise. I would recommend two steps for both those disseminating information and those requiring it. Don't give out or take in more information than is absolutely necessary for the service being rendered, and once that information has been shared, ensure that it will be kept safe.

Is the information necessary for the service being rendered? If a field is optional in a form, why fill it in? If the doctor does not require you to sign a statement, why sign it? If the site does not require you to use your primary e-mail address, why not use a secondary one or make up a fake one? If the information being asked for is only recommended and not required, consider carefully whether or not them having it would be beneficial to you, and whether or not you would feel comfortable if that information was accessible to anyone. Then, make your choice accordingly.

Once the info has been shared, is it safe? If you are buying something on the internet, are you using something secure like PayPal, or are you typing your credit card number anywhere you see a cursor? If you are using online banking, do you make sure you have a secure server connection first? Do you make sure you shred old bills and bank statements before you throw them in the trash? Do you look up unfamiliar sites that you want an account on to find out if they are safe before sharing all your personal information with them? Do you have a secure password with more than seven letters, and other parts like numbers, capitals, punctuation and spaces? Do you make sure that you don't use the same password for your e-mail address as you do for an an account on an untrusted website that requires you to sign in with your e-mail and a password, so they don't have all the info they need to access your e-mail? When you are sharing information, even if it is minimal, you need to be careful about who you are sharing it with unless you are OK with the whole world knowing it.

OK, here are a couple of examples to shiver you right out of your fuzzy socks. Real people. Real stories. Muahaha!

My ward made a Facebook page. The password was HACKED. The worst that happened: the password had to be changed. Inconvenience.

My sister's medical records got transferred to the U of U hospital. 2.2 million records were STOLEN. The worst that happened: my sister's info was taken. Lasting uncertainty.

I went to vote for BYUSA president on campus computer. I was about to place my vote when it dawned on me that I hadn't been asked to authenticate. Danielle Somebody-or-Other had forgotten to log out. I almost STOLE somebody else's identity. The worst that happened: Danielle Somebody-or-Other almost voted for BYUSA president. Surprise.

So, bottom line is, unless you want someone else controlling your identity, protect your personal information, folks! Identity theft can happen to anyone. Just be smart.

Is It Written in the Stars?

I remember various times throughout my childhood when I would find myself lying out in the backyard with my family on cots in the middle of the night, eating cinnamon toast, drinking cocoa, shivering under blankets and trying to keep the dog from licking our hair while we waited for a lunar eclipse or a spectacular meteor shower. As I hunted the sky for constellations, watched the moon turn red, or looked for sparkles of light shooting across the blackness, it never occurred to me that for different viewers over time, what I was seeing would have had many different meanings.

A book I've been reading called "The History of Astronomy talks about astronomy up through the 19th century. It was fascinating to me to realize how much religious importance astronomers of past ages placed on the stars.

Many different cultures had their forms of zodiac or patterns of constellations that they placed religious significance on. The ancient Egyptians patterned their calculation of the seasons off of sky patterns that corresponded with the flooding of the Nile - an event that they believed was caused by the god of the Nile. Aristotle created a concentric diagram of the cosmos, portraying angels and God at the outer levels. Kepler focused on diagramming the aspect of geometry in the universe, which he believed was created by God, the great geometer. Newton saw the sun and planets as having been planned by a divine Providence for the protection of man. The list goes on and on.

What happened? Now, the stars are viewed as lumps of matter out in space, placed there by some sort of Big Bang. Those viewed as serious astronomers have placed God on the sidelines and covered him with the cloak of religious fanaticism as related to the heavens.

Some people, however, still cling to the belief that God is involved in the heavens. They read accounts of the stars being formed in the heavens, and the earth being turned backward for a day, and the star appearing at the birth of Christ, and they believe that God still has power in heaven. They read the Revelation of John and believe that someday the stars will fall from heavens and the sun will hide its face and all the other miraculous heavenly occurrences that have been prophesied will happen.

Is there a way to prove they are right or wrong? Not in any way that will convince both believers and non-believers, as far as I can see. I just don't see the harm in letting people believe what they want.

After all, if God is not allowed in heaven anymore, then where is he allowed?