Last week I briefly attended an event held at the N'Namdi gallery by artist ____ fleur, who discussed how the future of Detroit's aesthetic will likely move from a grungy/gritty presentation to something brilliant and colorful--she pointed to traditional African aesthetics, and even the diversity of existing architecture in Detroit.  I used to think about parallels between abuse and the Detroit aesthetic--its music, a lot of its art, the stories in the news.  There's something about some people who experienced deep and sustained harms where we find an attitude that's a mix of resilience and a weary-worn frankness.  Sometimes, an element of guarded shame stands as a likely possibility.  It's often comfortable to recognize it.  You know you're at peace in their company but there's a certain darkness to how they live--unanswered or seldom explored questions remain like mysterious gashes:  no one can tell whether they're still wounds to be healed or closed scars, and we've either developed habits for moving in ways that don't aggravate them, or are too afraid to move any further.  Knowing that a lot of media and negative imagery already exists for both, I never expressed it to anyone before.

However, I happen to know several people who endured sustained abuse, sometimes terrifying in its truest sense, who can embody the most vibrant aspects of life.  They often define what's possible for living in a better world, or demonstrate how to carry on by living amid its realities.  In spite of misfortune, they continue, we live well.  I also had the privilege to know so many brilliant people who know Detroit as their home do brilliant things.  Their actions and the communities they create exist as the tinder and fuel aflame--the growing feathers of a phoenix--through which the city finds itself amid its ashes.  While I've been through gunshots on the East side, I've also been to the Alkebu-Lan Village which soon celebrates a 35 years of exceptional karate in Detroit and sustained community enrichment that's drawn the attention and admiration of companies known for their mid-town investment presence like Quicken Loans.

Stigma in mental health and Detroit in the media

Spurred by comments on this: https://www.facebook.com/LiteraryDetroit/posts/446844592058214

Going back to the idea of parallels in mental illness and community: In a lot of ways, the negative media and identity stigma that many Detroiters loath mirrors the same imposition of identity a person undergoing mental health challenges meets when labeled with a certain disorder/illness.  Identity becomes objectified by another, opportunity for change is denied in the reality constructed by those who impose/accept it as such.

Life and the Life Sciences Orchestra

Hi Sharon,

There's one more thread of thought I'd like to share about the program and my experience with the LSO and how it can relate to audiences. Even if the article will be printed tomorrow without it, I think it's important to share as it adds some depth to what I was trying to capture in our conversation yesterday.

In essence: we're privileged to discover glimpses of what drives the nexus of art and science, and we have the opportunity to experience profound reminders about the nature of life as part of the symphony.

I vividly remember one of the French Horn players rushed out of rehearsal to attend to one of his patients during rehearsal this season. Last year in the summer, our piccolo/flutist passed away after a long grapple with breast cancer and chemo therapy shortly after performing in the spring concert. Our director, Oriol Sans, sent the following letter to members of the symphony:

"At this moment I want to share a few words with you. Last week I went tosee Lisa at the hospital, and it was an experience that I will neverforget. The open and honest way she talked about her cancer and what wasgoing to happen to her, made a deep impression on me. Among other things,she told me that for the last year music made her forget about all thehealth problems she was going through. Music didn't cure her, she said, butit helped her to get through that.
I told her what a great example she was for all of us. She came to ourrehearsals with a crutch, without it, with a wig, without a wig, with longhair, with short hair... But she was always there, and I never heard asingle complaint from her. Until the very end, the illness never stoppedher to do one of the things that she most loved: making music. The sameweek of our last concert she didn't agree to a last round of chemo untilthe doctors promised her that she would be ready to play for our dressrehearsal and the concert.
I think that I can speak from all of us when I say that seeing her examplewas truly a gift. I am glad that my last words to her before I left herroom at the hospital were thank you."

Medicine and health care are intimately connected tied to the life and environmental sciences. Given that the causes of cancer are an interconnected mix between genetics, diet, and environmental factors ( http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/cancer_and_the_environment_508.pdf ), the past experiences are a reminder to me about some of the people and things we love and strive to creatively improve about the world we live in.

One last note: Curiosity and experience drive the arts and sciences alike: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." - Albert Eistein

As mentioned in the program notes written by Oriol for our upcoming concert, the Mahler symphony was deeply influenced by themes from nature and our relationship with it--it features bird calls (of a cuckoo) in its opening movements, and the story of a hunter's funeral--attended by animals. Shostakovich's Festival Overture was performed as a fanfare for the 2009 nobel prize. The LSO presents an opportunity for audiences and participants alike to entice a shared sense of wonder.

Thank you again for sharing your time to consider my thoughts, I hope I was able to share this in time with you.

All the best,
Ian D. Tran

---
B.S. Environmental Science, Political Science Minor Class of 2012 The University of Michigan-Dearborn

Didactic Artistry, Socratic Artistry?

Since November of 2011, I sought to certainly create more than I consumed, and accompany any broadcastings/re-broadcastings of my own work/lesser known work with explicit writing about something that I learned from the content or the circumstances surrounding whatever it was I created (see the text accompanying my youtube videos and soundcloud clip).

Better to ask questions in the School of Athens right?

A noble endeavor perhaps, but certainly cumbersome, sometimes burdensome, and for the most part, incompatible with the amount of things I created or found/re-discovered.

In opposition to sporadic postings of things I found (for an extreme example of what I'd call hyperbroadcasting, take a look at almost anyone's tumblr account that re-blogs material sans interpretation), a didactic approach to the arts almost threatens the notion of "art for art's sake".

Yet I also believe that as a form of communication, the arts have remarkable capacity to convey explicit or implicit information, and that many pieces that we enjoy and share sometimes do benefit from pointing to worldly context to enhance our appreciation for the world, or deepen our awareness with troublesome issues.  Based on the following statement:

"Art ain't about paint. It ain't about canvas. It's about ideas. Too many people died without ever getting their mind out to the world." - Thornton Dial, SR. [a folk artist whose quote is on display at a national museum in Washington D.C.]

I believe the integrity of a good idea withstands any questions about value and utility given appropriate context.  In the arts, you need only one of the three for an idea to appeal:

1.  good idea/intention
2.  good conveyance of an idea
3.  relevant circumstances that make parts of an idea more appealing

If you conceive and successfully create something that meets all three of these conditions, it's a wonderful piece and timeless adventure for anyone who has the privilege of experiencing it.

I'm backlogged almost beyond hope with incomplete broadcasts of ideas and pieces, and especially with neat findings of music, film, or imagery chiefly due to the fact that I start to notice that share common threads with other things I've done or seen (time constraints and other obligations being the other contributing factors to this backlog).

For a time, I considered just posting these out of the blue, but doing so degrades the novelty and joy of broader thematic discoveries I had for myself.  This evening, I realized: why not lay out the individual pieces and disclose that I encourage people to find and share any bigger themes they may  come to discover in what I've shared?

A savvy educator usually uses questions to uncover inspiration, appreciation, deeper inquiry, discovery, and understanding about the world.  Yet art also elicits many of the same outcomes in ways that don't necessitate the immediate presence of an individual to ask these questions.  We can communicate and stir the imagination of another person by sharing something that speaks to us.

What happens then, when we recognize something bigger about the things we appreciate?  As in, we've gathered enough information to discover a new level of themes and content among the individual pieces we love?  Can we guide imagination?  I think so, though the process must be done with ethical cognizance.

This is a bit like the success of the Socratic Method (thus the second half of this post's title), which uses a series of questions toward an individual/ group of people to examine the soundness of their foundational beliefs.

More accurately, what I've resolved to explore is a method of sharing glimpses of insight in a way that's akin to a Japanese style of academic essay composition (at least, according to an informational video for writing consultants I saw while working at the UM-Dearborn Writing Center about English as Second Language writers circa 2008/2009).

So here we go, will you kindly share your thoughts with me?

#Started 01:37 27 IX 2012 finished 3 X 2012 0:37 at home

Lessons learned in performance and the "entertainment industry"

Lessons learned from an interview and performance on international television/radio; some of these are actually reminders, but they were very clear themes from my most recent performance:

- Even if you’re not ready, be prepared: Opportunities, and life itself, are a one shot operation - When the point lead isn’t there to represent the team's interests, the organizational structure is unclear, and you're part of the team, don’t hesitate to purposefully step up, take the reins, and do what matters
- Sometimes, whispers are more important to listen for than the rest of the din
- I’ve entered an arena where small talk, superficial relationships, and aimless banter are prevalent if not the norm. Even if someone has lots of experience as a TV show host, if they're asking questions to fill time, bring up what I need to say when my gut tells me I’ve got something far better to convey.

I played with Elemental Meaning at the Middle East American cultural festival in Warren, Michigan. Our band was scheduled to perform for a talent show sometime around 5:00/5:30, but (unbeknownst to us) due to changes in the broadcast schedule we were asked to play on stage sometime after 6:00pm instead. We requested to play later in the lineup in hopes that our drummer, David Watson could make it from work. As we waited, we went about separate ways to rest and pre-game.

Fifteen minutes before we were needed on stage one of the people coordinating it asked me "are you ready to be on international television?" Even though I saw a few cameras and some kind of banner that said "MEAtv" earlier in the day, I didn't realize it was going to be on television--according to him, to 40 states and 160 countries.  That scale of broadcasting still doesn't really register in my mind.  I've been to a big conference where 11,000 people attended.  I've been to "The Big House" AKA Michigan Stadium where 100,000 people attended to see the President.  I could see real people there.  This however, was a glaring disjoint.  There were few people in the physical audience nearby (people sat at peripheral picnic tables), just a single camera on the lawn in front of the stage.

To add to the surrealness of the event, the event was sponsored by the CIA. Even though it makes sense [someone's got to update the world factbook about what's happening elsewhere in the world], it still amazes me.

1. I had no idea there were federal agencies that can afford to sponsor events nowadays!

2. I commend whoever it was that came up with the idea of asking them, and actually followed through with asking them, for sponsorship.

3. It was so strange to perform rock music in front of a giant screen displaying a federal agency's seal.

Meanwhile, they asked where our band leader, Markita went (and so did Phelan and I). Markita was straightening out logistics with David as she was told our performance time would be later than it turned out to be as one of the other talent show contestants did not appear, and we were bumped up and asked to get on stage right away. To fill time, one of the hosts interviewed Phelan and I with what I like to refer to as the "superficial small-talk tone". She actually asked fair questions, but if you're not on your game because your mind is elsewhere, rising up to represent something simple like what the band name "Elemental Meaning" stands for and taking the opportunity to do your thing (in this case, make a brief speech) can be a challenge when you're not sure what's going on around you. Taking care of the semi-mundane (I try to believe that they should be treated as very eventful actually) things like sleeping, eating, and exercising properly so that there's no room to wonder what else could have happened comes to mind, and not taking care of oneself runs far from any reasonable explanation of events.