In Harmonium
Being in the main the musings of a Symbolic Anthropologist
Music, symbols and cross-cultural communication
Posted By admin on June 25, 2009
Last night, I caught the second half of The Music Instinct: Science & Song on PBS (yes, we get PBS in Canada). Two sections really caught my attention – Oliver Sachs speaking on the Importance of Early Musical Training (1:22) and How music can change the brain (1:03). What was most intriguing, for me at any rate, was that the changes operated in several areas including a) enhanced language (communicative) abilities and b) an increased connectivity in the corpus collosum.
Why the military should study poetry
Posted By admin on June 22, 2009
Last week, after the OBC tour, I was at the Cultures in Conflict symposium at Cranfield University. On the whole, it was an excellent get together, so kudos to Charles Kirke for organizing it (and Lynn Anderson for all of the nitty-gritty work!). As with most conferences in the area, it was a mixture of truly great and truly boring: after all, one can only hear so many times that the military needs to understand “Culture” 
.
London and Paris
Posted By admin on June 15, 2009
What can I say about St. Paul”s and/or Notre Dame? Well, for one thing, apparently we have been invited back again. More importantly, they are truly amazing places to sing in. Both are centres of their respective traditions and, even though I was raised in the tradition from St. Paul’s, I think I prefer Notre Dame. It is, however, hard to choose between them for way too many reasons.
Tommorrow on CBC Radio 2….
Posted By admin on June 15, 2009
Just a short note to let people know that the Ottawa Bach Choir’s last home concert will be airing on Tuesday, June 16, 8 pm on Michel Keable’s Soirée classiques, so don’t forget to mark it on your calendar (102.5 FM – Ottawa, 100.7 FM– Montreal, 90.3 FM – Toronto). It is also available online at http://www.radio-canada.ca/espace_musique. Why I am I pushing this? Well, not that many of my readers have heard my group sing 
. Besides that, this is the day most of the Choir is flying back from Paris (I’m off to Shrivenham…).
A Review of Cyburbia
Posted By admin on June 2, 2009
Lost in Cyburbia: How Life on the Net Has Created a Life of Its Own.
Little Brown UK
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
On May 2nd, 2009, I had the pleasure of hosting James Harkin at the Ottawa Writers Festival as he talked about his new book Lost in Cyburbia. As someone who has a strong interest in cyberspace, I would have read the book anyway and found it quite interesting. What I did not expect to find in it was its strong application to and discussion of military planning.
A focus on music
Posted By admin on May 31, 2009
Right now, most of my attention and time is focused on music. In particular, the Ottawa Bach Choir in which I sing 2nd Bass, is getting ready for our third European tour. As with our two previous tours, we will be choir in residence at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig (Bach’s old church) and, let me say, that if you are into Baroque music, this is THE place to sing!
A “Universal Translator”?
Posted By admin on May 25, 2009
Joel Garreau at the Washinton Post has a very interesting article posted yesterday called TONGUE IN CHECK: With Translation Technology On Their Side, Humans Can Finally Lick the Language Barrier (hat tip to Adam Russell). The story is well worth reading for a number of reasons.
Audio from the 2008 conference on Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency
Posted By admin on May 19, 2009
The University of Chicago has posted the audio of presentations at their 2008 conference on Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency (hat tip to Savage Minds). I hope that any recordings (audio, video, whatever) from this years CASCA conference will be available sooner. It is hard to have an open, public discussion about issues when large amounts of the material are not available to the public either because they are hidden under a security blanket or its academic equivalent (i.e. “if you didn’t attend the conference, we don’t care”).
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