January 2010 Blog Posts (10)

Create Culture = Brain Power!

Longtime family friend and honorable Culturalist@ Annie Stanfield Hagert recently sent me a link to the "Perspectives on Creativity 2010" conference to be held at Holy Family University in Phili during March of this year. The conference looks great and as I read through the website my mind started… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 28, 2010 at 6:00am — No Comments

What culture can bench press the most?

If you traveled to Seoul, Korea in 2004 for the Culture Games you would have seen the World Peace Award handed to Uighur dancer Dilnar Abdulla for this wonderful performance to the folk song Qemberhan. These games were organized by the organization World Culture Open and brought together 400 artists from all over the world. Although the dance is from 2004 the fact that it won the peace award caught our eye… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 25, 2010 at 6:00am — No Comments

Website: Life of a Travel Writer - WorldHum

I love the website WorldHum. Maybe it's because I always love to write when I travel. For me it is the best time to find inspiration or think about things in a new way. Or maybe I'm digging the site because it has reviews about graphic novels that document travels to Burma, Naples, and North Korea (And I am loving graphic novels these days!). Whatever it is, I'm hooked.

Take for example, the story written by Doug Mack called… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 21, 2010 at 6:00am — No Comments

Arabic Melody (Maqam) classes in New York City

I just taught my first maqam class of the 2010 session last night at Alwan, an Arab arts center in New York City, and had a great group of new students in addition to some familiar faces!

For those of you who don't know what maqam is, it is the melodic modal system used in Arabic music, similar to raga in Indian Music. The Arabic maqamat are known for having many… Continue

Added by Sami Abu Shumays on January 20, 2010 at 2:40pm — 2 Comments

Book: Destination Culture, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

Destination Culture, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. University of California Press, 1998.

This is a book that opened up for me a whole way of looking at culture, tourism and issues of tradition. The book is a series of articles written by the eminent scholar Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett on ways in which the "display" of people and objects in museum or tourism settings is… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 18, 2010 at 6:00am — No Comments

Adventures in Costa Rica – Verugua Rain Forest

The drive to Limon Province was INSANE. Imagine being completely surrounded by the tallest mountains you have ever seen. Mountains so tall that when you gaze over the cliffs to your right and left, you can easily see death…yes death. Imagine roads so narrow that you are sure that they were made for slender punch buggies or scooters. With every wind in the road, fear filled my heart. My fellow truck drivers and sedans had no problems at all. Like buzzing insects, they whizzed passed me so… Continue

Added by Metra Lundy on January 14, 2010 at 9:25am — 1 Comment

Praying For FOKAL - My Time With The Prime Minister of Haiti

We are here in shock at what is happening in Haiti and praying for the people of this small island. When I visited Haiti in January 2008, I spent some time meeting some of the cultural leaders. I had heard of an arts center called FOKAL (Knowledge and Freedom Foundation), so I sent an email to the then Director, Michele Pierre-Louis- who went on to become the country's Prime Minister- and she agreed to see me the next day.…

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Added by Create Culture on January 14, 2010 at 6:00am — No Comments

Create Culture Interview with Jeremy Beck

TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.

My parents both grew up in Missouri: my father in a small town with no stoplights and my mother in a more urban, college town. I was born in Michigan but spent most of my childhood in Dallas, Texas and my young-adulthood in Arlington, Va (Dad's job in newspapers moved us around a couple of times). I have extended family in Missouri, California, Arizona, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Georgia (to name a few) so I have… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 7, 2010 at 6:00am — 2 Comments

Cricket Smith and Jazz in Goa

There is almost no published information about the life of Cricket (or Crickett?) Smith. Yet he is a fascinating historical figure whose career spanned at least five decades of music, before jazz all the way to lead and solo trumpet in jazz and dance bands.

That is not the least of it. An expatriate, his career took him from his place of birth, Nashville, Tennessee in 1883, to Goa, in India, where he was instrumental in establishing the jazz played there today. Here’s some of his… Continue

Added by Razz'm Jazz'm on January 4, 2010 at 1:35pm — 2 Comments

What trips are you taking in 2010?

The following is my top 10 list of trips I would like to make this year. I've tried to be realistic, taking into account time and budget. The only thing that is certain about this list is that it will change. But for now here it is, in all its grandeur and glory.

What trips are you making this year and what will you be doing during your travels?

1. Dakar, Senegal-Wonderful things are being written about the music scene… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 4, 2010 at 6:00am — 6 Comments