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25

Nov

Crossing Cultures: Happy Thanksgivukkah!

by Meredith Mullins on November 25, 2013

Menorah and turkey equation, crossing cultures of Hanukkuh and Thanksgiving by creating Thanksgivikkuh and the Menurkey

What happens when you cross a menorah and a turkey?
© Carly Hennigan/Thinkstock

Thanksgiving Meets Hanukkah

Once in a lifetime

The very words—once in a lifetime— stir the creative spirit.

An exceptional comet. The first moon landing. A rare transit of Venus across the face of the sun. A new millenium.

We are inspired to celebrate these rare moments and to capture them in some special way.

This year, this week, for the first time in recorded history since President Lincoln established Thanksgiving in 1863—and for the only time until around 77,000 years from now—Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day. Crossing cultures in the best possible way.

Gobble tov. Happy Thanksgivukkah. Mazel turk.

 

Clever Ideas/Crossing Cultures/Cultural Heritage & Traditions

24

Nov

Culture Smart: The Musical Scale Across Cultures

by Your friends at OIC on November 24, 2013

Children learning to play the violin, symbolizing the different musical scales across cultures

Learning to play different styles of music

Tonal Patterns and Changing Intervals

When you first learn to play an instrument, the first series of notes taught is called a scale. A scale is a series of ascending pitches, usually ending on the octave, the same note, at a higher pitch. Music from different cultures uses different intervals between the notes of an octave.

If you’ve seen The Sound of Music, you know the Western music major scale: do, re, mi, fa, so la, ti, do. It consists of 7 unique notes, with the 8th note being the octave. Listen to a C Major Scale:

 

In the Middle East, the scale is also 7 unique pitches plus the octave, but it differs by several notes from the Western scale. A common song using the Middle Eastern scale is Hava Nagila. Listen to a C Middle Eastern scale:

 

Unlike the other two, the Chinese scale has only 5 pitches. Most Chinese folk tunes can be played using just the black keys on the keyboard. Listen to a C Chinese Scale:

 

Starting on C, the middle key of the piano, typically called Middle C, this chart shows the actual notes played on each scale:

Music-Chart-2

There are several theories on why different musical scales were devised in different cultures. One is that scales are derived from the sounds made by the language spoken and the tonality of pronunciation. Another has to do with religion and superstition determining the number of notes (5 being lucky in Asian culture and 7 in Greek) and the intervals.

Hear music from all over the world at the World Music Network.

Comment on this post below.

 Image © iStockphoto
 

China/Cultural Diversity/Middle East/The World's Music

23

Nov

Aha Moment Maker: Julia Child Flubs the Flip

by Your friends at OIC on November 23, 2013

Female chef illustrating Julia Child's on-air accident, an opportunity for readers to have their own aha moment

BOSTON, 1963—On an episode of “The French Chef,” Julia Child spoke to the fact that flipping food items in a pan requires courage in one’s convictions. She set the stage perfectly for what would happen next.

That day, she was demonstrating a lesson in how to make potato pancakes. Just as she was deftly performing the outward-and-back motion necessary to flip a pancake, clumps of the potato mixture missed the pan and plopped onto the counter.

Unfazed, Julia acknowledged, “Oh, that didn’t go very well” and calmly scooped the wayward bits back into the pan. Then she pointed out to her viewing audience that they cook alone in their kitchens and nobody would be the wiser if something like this occurred.

And so it was that some of her potato pancake famously flipped out, but the real lesson demonstrated that day may be that Julia Child herself did not.

What’s the aha moment you see?

 

 Image © iStockphoto
 

Your Own Aha Moments

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