May 23rd, 2014 I was Music Director of KCRW and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic during the 1980s and we did regular programs featuring the latest in Soviet-era Russian pop and rock music. Back then, the Cold War was alive and well, with Reagan and Brezhnev regularly rattling their swords. Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny once […]
ACEI BLOG - ARTS
Easter Island’s Only Concert Pianist
April 24th, 2014 Mahani Teave: Easter Island’s only classical pianist I recently saw a BBC feature by a Santiago-based correspondent on a young woman named Mahani Teave who is Easter Island’s only classical pianist. These are the type of stories I find truly inspiring. When you think of this remote and isolated South Pacific island, […]
World Music Teaches You Everything
April 3rd, 2014 Music tells the stories of our world I majored in Humanities as an undergraduate because it was broad-based and I could take many courses, from California Geography to Entomology to history, philosophy, languages and literature. Later, I took an MA in Comparative Literature for similar reasons: I could read the great writers […]
Celebrating Spring
March 13th, 2014 With nervous pleasure, The tulips are receiving A spring rain at dusk ––Richard Wright Cultures around the world celebrate spring as a time of renewal, healing, and rebirth, moving from the darkness of winter to the much-anticipated light of spring. Whatever form of celebration this takes, it is a time of new […]
Love and Romance: Our 3 Favorites in Music, Literature, Art and Film
February 13th, 2014 Last year for Valentine’s Day we posted a blog on how different cultures and countries celebrate the day. This year, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I’ve invited three of my friends and contributors to ACEI’s AcademicExchange blog to chime in and share their most favorite romantic songs/musical compositions, literary creations, film and […]
Calypso Gets Muzzled in Guyana
January 16th, 2014 Q: Why is it that music always gets banned in totalitarian regimes? A: Because music is a human expression of freedom. Q: Why did the Vatican try to suppress music that had any rhythm to it? A: Because rhythm is dangerous and might make people want to get down, shake some booty, even fornicate. In Germany […]
January 1964: A Retrospective
January 2nd, 2014 As we start the New Year, we thought it would be interesting to look back and see what historical events took place on this month in January, fifty years ago in 1964. As you can see from the list below, in only one month, a great deal happened around the world, some […]
Nelson Mandela, South African Music and the Struggle Against Apartheid
December 26th, 2013 On December 5, 2013, Nelson Mandela, a beloved hero, a giant of history and one of the greatest visionary leaders of our time who fought to protect and promote human rights, passed away. As we come to the end of 2013, we would like to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela by sharing […]
Martin Heidegger’s Influence On “Riders On The Storm”
December 5th, 2013 Heidegger’s Concept: “Geworfenheit” (“Thrown-ness”) The song is a 60′s classic: “Riders On The Storm”. We’ve heard it a thousand times. But do many people know it may well be associated with the thinking of a modern German metaphysical philosopher? Jim Morrison was a voracious reader; even his senior-year high school English teacher […]
The Difficult Life For Those Born Albino In Africa
August 22nd, 2013 Joseph Torner from the film, In the Shadow of the Sun There is a new film about being born albino in Africa, In the Shadow of the Sun. The name derives from the classic book, The Shadow of the Sun by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski. In this moving narrative, the author talks […]