Get a haircutAfter a good few weeks of interaction at Forum we reverted back to the old format of insomniac curing movie viewing. It is of my opinion that the ‘favourite things’ format needs reviewing. One could say you could take from this whatever you wanted and I would say yes. You could take absolutely nothing and yet you could take absolutely everything, and then some. Are we to be analysing the film? Meh. Everyone will no doubt do this in their blogs anyway. Are we to be analysing the presenter on their choosing of presented favourite thing? This could go pretty deep. Are we to be analysing students? This could go even deeper. Are we to be analysing the score? I wonder if anyone even blogs this. We are music students after all. Are we to be analysing anything at all? Are we to be awake? Or are we merely being entertained with a show and tell which brings me back to my review comment.
If something is being presented as their ‘favourite thing’ I would much like to hear about why it is their favourite thing. I am much more interested in hearing about what makes this particular thing appeal to the presenter than listening to a history lesson about this ‘thing’ or random tidbits and trivia. It would be much more entertaining to hear if this ‘favourite thing’ has inspired the presenter in some way directly or indirectly in their work or life. Most importantly, why is this a favourite thing of theirs? Was it life changing? How it influenced them. Did it change their career? Did it change musical choices, writing or listening? Simply stating that they like the sound of it, talking about some history and then pressing play and sitting back is a pretty easy way out if you ask me. Why could we not have focused on a few chapters only? We could have viewed those, perhaps one at a time, received a commentary on why this is significant and then possibly discussed them in more detail with the class.
If something is being presented as their ‘favourite thing’ I would much like to hear about why it is their favourite thing. I am much more interested in hearing about what makes this particular thing appeal to the presenter than listening to a history lesson about this ‘thing’ or random tidbits and trivia. It would be much more entertaining to hear if this ‘favourite thing’ has inspired the presenter in some way directly or indirectly in their work or life. Most importantly, why is this a favourite thing of theirs? Was it life changing? How it influenced them. Did it change their career? Did it change musical choices, writing or listening? Simply stating that they like the sound of it, talking about some history and then pressing play and sitting back is a pretty easy way out if you ask me. Why could we not have focused on a few chapters only? We could have viewed those, perhaps one at a time, received a commentary on why this is significant and then possibly discussed them in more detail with the class.
Presenting something personal as a ‘favourite thing’ such as an own composition or artpiece is different as people, well most would anyway, already acknowledge the presenter as having a close connection to it and an audience would respect it as a favourite thing. A video, song, painting or whatever by some other composer/artist with no real personal connection other than perhaps sentiment does not pull the same automatic respect from an audience. Without an articulated explanation as to why the film Eraserhead is one of David’s favourite things, the mind is allowed to wonder as to the reasonings why, which in itself could be dangerous given the nature of the film.
Harris, David. 2008. “Forum.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 18th September
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