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Categorically Not! – Resistance

by cjohnson

The next Categorically Not! is tomorrow! Recall my post on the Categorically Not! series of events held at the Santa Monica Art Studios.

Here is K.C. Cole’s teaser:

Resistance. You can’t leave home without it. Try walking without resistance and you might as well be in a mine field of banana peels. Cars slide right off the road. You can forget lifting weights, or even lifting food to your mouth on a fork. You can’t talk—or blow dry your hair. And it’s not just the physical world: Growing up is all a matter of resistance, as is a good deal of progress in politics, science and art. No matter what realm you’re in, you can’t move forward without pushing back.

For this month’s Categorically Not!, USC physicist Stephan Haas will talk about how resistance reveals the hidden quantum properties of matter behind such mysterious effects as superconductivity—knowledge that could lead to the development of “intelligent” materials. Stephan is also part of the USC early music ensemble, and will perform (on recorder) along with Daniel Zuluaga, who specializes in the lute family of instruments. A music scholar currently preparing an edition of the collected works of Spanish art-song composer José Marín, Daniel will tell us why 17th Century French Baroque music is considered a form of resistance. Political resistance is also an art, of course, and Carol Wells founded Center for the Study of Political Graphics in part to preserve that tradition. An activist and educational archive of human rights and protest posters, the Center has the largest collection of post World War II political posters in the U.S. Carol will speak about posters of resistance, posing the question: “Can Design Stop a War?”

By the way, Stephan is a true virtuoso on the recorder! Just amazing! It will be worth going just to see him play….

As usual, it is held at the Santa Monica Art Studios, come at 6:00pm for drinks, cookies and a look around the space, and there’s a 6:30 start. For more information, visit the Categorically Not! website.

Hope to see some of you there! (Assuming I make it…..what with timezones, and a new semester to prepare for starting the next day….)

-cvj

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January 7th, 2006 10:14 AM
in Arts, Entertainment, Science | 5 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

5 Responses to “Categorically Not! – Resistance”

  1. 1.   Richard Says:
    January 7th, 2006 at 5:31 pm

    Daniel will tell us why 17th Century French Baroque music is considered a form of resistance.

    Clifford,

    Please give us a full report! French Baroque, which seems to be distinctly different than German and Italian Baroque, is one of my favorite genres, and I’m curious what he has to say.

    Oh my goodness, I just noticed on Amazon that, after all these years, the movie Tous les Matins du Monde will finally be released on DVD in March! The movie has a gorgeous sound track directed by Jordi Savall.

    Plot Synopsis: It’s late 17th century. The viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe comes home to find that his wife died while he was away. In his grief he builds a small house in his garden into which he moves to dedicate his life to music and his two young daughters Madeleine and Toinette, avoiding the outside world. Rumor about him and his music is widespread, and even reaches to the court of Louis XIV, who wants him at his court in Lully’s orchestra, but Monsieur de Sainte Colombe refuses. One day a young man, Marin Marais, comes to see him with a request, he wants to be taught how to play the viol.

  2. 2.   Clifford Says:
    January 7th, 2006 at 5:43 pm

    Richard… the movie sounds good actually. As to the Cat Not. I can’t promise anything…. I might have to cancel going (first time ever!) if I can’t get everything done this weekend to prepare two sets of classes, and furthermore get my system to want to be awake and alert at that time after the recent timezone shift. It might be a bit confused at that time, and sitting in a reverently hushed dimmed room will likely just mean I’ll snooze.

    -cvj

  3. 3.   Richard Says:
    January 7th, 2006 at 10:53 pm

    For the youngsters out there who were too young: that was a very popular film here in Madison WI when it was released. While on the topic, another great French film from roughly that period was released in two parts six months apart: Jean de Florette followed by Manon of the Spring. It was a haunting and heart wrenching tragedy of greed and stupidity that I think remains unsurpassed to this day in film, and should be seen by everyone.

  4. 4.   Grooming for the New Semester | Cosmic Variance Says:
    January 9th, 2006 at 1:33 am

    [...] This took longer than I expected (involving some accidental “symmetry-breaking” due to my being tired….. symmetry which then has to be restored, which is of course much harder than breaking it….there’s a lot of physics in there…..) I made myself really late for Categorically Not! as a result. I did make it there eventually, after some rather fun (but careful!) high speed drag-racing along the rather coorperative highways (the 101, 110, and 10 – when they’re running well it is just great driving them…..). Made it from my place to Santa Monica in some sort of record time, in fact. I will report on tonight’s “Cat Not!” events later. It was excellent. [...]

  5. 5.   Bad Physics Jokes | Cosmic Variance Says:
    February 13th, 2006 at 10:55 pm

    [...] To compensate for the curling remark, I’ll end with a better bad physics pun, or collection thereof. It was on a slide that my colleague Stephan Haas showed as part of his excellent presentation on “Resistance” in the last Categorically Not! (which was great….I’m supposed to do a post on sometime…..Hmmm.) Anyway, here it is…I’m not sure if it is attributable to him or not (I’ll try to find out): [...]