Monday, November 27, 2006

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

NOTE: With classes slated to end Dec. 6 and professors planning to leave campus, “Today’s Response” will go on hiatus Monday, Dec. 4 for the holiday season. “Today’s Response” will return on Monday, Jan. 16, 2007.

The Altman alternative

Robert Altman, who died last Monday at the age of 81, was a creator who insisted on doing things on his own terms. The director of M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, and Gosford Park, among others, was nominated for competitive Oscars five times, but never fit into the Hollywood mold, says Dr. Robert Kalwinsky, electronic media communication. “He interwove dialogue, genres and cultural forms in a sometimes confusing but ultimately revelatory fashion,” Kalwinsky says. “His camera zoomed and arced in ways often more lyrical than illuminating. He cast stars against type and allowed a great deal of improvisation. He disdained straightforward narratives. … He critiqued gender roles, class and ethnicity far before the mainstream got to it. In many ways, he was ahead of his time. In fact, always. He will be missed.”

Contact Kalwinsky at 615-904-8366.
rkalwins@mtsu.edu

Squeezing the Juice

Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism, has his own take on Rupert Murdoch’s decision to pull the plug on a book and a TV special allowing O.J. Simpson to talk about the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman with O.J. in the hypothetical role of the killer. Burriss says more serious than the issue of taste is the continuing blurring of reality and fiction. “Look at so-called ‘reality television,’” Burriss notes. “Just how real is the danger when there is a television crew standing a few feet away? … And then there are the docudramas, a blending of the time-honored documentary tradition with entertainment programs in which creative license is the norm. … Oh, and don’t forget all of the movies and television programs that begin with the words ‘based on a true story.’ ‘Based on a true story’ probably means the events you are about to see may have some slight connection with real events.”

Contact Burriss at 615-898-2983.
lburriss@mtsu.edu

Vibrant verse

Students and teachers in grades 6-8 will delve into poetry in “Promoting Student Thinking: Using Poetry to Scaffold Student Creativity,” a satellite videoconference slated for 9 a.m. CST TOMORROW. Dr. Bobbie Solley, elementary and special education, and Beverly Barnes of Community High School in Bedford County will demonstrate ways in which poetry from both published poets and student poets can foster creativity. They will examine poems and poets that are especially appropriate for middle grade learners. In addition, students will write their own original poems.

For more information, contact Jenny Marsh at 615-898-2737 or vmoxley@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

“TALENT WORKS, GENIUS CREATES.”—ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)—H. Stephen Smith, associate professor of voice, and collaborative pianist Caleb Harris will present “An Evening of Schumann” at 8 p.m. TONIGHT in the T. Earl Hinton Music Hall of the Wright Music Building. “This year … marks the 150th anniversary of (Robert) Schumann’s death,” observes Smith, who, along with Harris, will perform two song cycles from the year 1840, which is known as Schumann’s “Year of Song.” These cycles are Liederkreis (Song Cycle) Op. 39 and Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love) Op. 48. “The Liederkreis is a cycle of 12 songs about life and love,” Smith explains. “Dichterliebe is a cycle of 16 songs reflecting the intense feeling of the joy that only true love can give and the intense feeling of sadness one can feel having been rejected by the object of that true love.” The concert is free and open to the public. Contact Tim Musselman at 615-898-2493 or tmusselm@mtsu.edu

A WHOLE NEW WORLD--Your children can be transported to Japan, China and Indonesia without flight reservations. A new exhibit at the Discovery Center enables youngsters to play dress-up with sarongs and kimonos, view animated superhero Astro Boy or learn about Japanese folklore on a 20-inch DVD player, construct their own colorful kites, make origami figures, work challenging tangram puzzles, stage their own hand puppet theatre and hold Japanese tea parties. The interactive exhibit is made possible by generous donations from Toshiba, Nissan, the Foreign Ministry of Japan and the Japan-U.S. Program of MTSU. The Discovery Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 for anyone age 2 and up. Contact Steve Hoskins at the Discovery Center, 502 SE Broad Street, Murfreesboro, at 615-890-2300.