Classes

The Russian revolution of 1917 was a cataclysmic event that completely changed the course of the history in this country and had a profound influence all around the world. The Russian Silver Age is a time period in art history before and after the revolution, around 1880 to 1925. The Russian Golden age was the first true blossoming of arts during the first half of the 19th century, Pushkin and Gogol in literature and Glinka in music. In the end of the 19th century Russian poets and writers began experimenting with symbolism which initially developed in France. In music, symbolism found expression in mystical compositions of Alexander Scriabin and early works of Sergei Prokofiev. Gradually, in spite of the very popular following of the late Romantic Russian composers Sergei Rachmaninoff, Anton Arensky and Alexander Glazounov, a new generation of modernists developed it before and after the revolution. Modernism was strongly expressed in Stravinsky’s ballets Petroushka and even more so in The Rite of Spring which initially caused an immense scandal. Sergei Prokofiev’s operas The Fiery Angel and The Love of Three Oranges and his first three piano concertos were seen as extremely modernistic and cutting edge works at the time. After the death of Vladimir Lenin, the Communist Party clamped down creativity and persecuted modernism which they associated with the capitalistic values and lifestyle. The Silver Age ended around 1925 and a new era, often called “social realism” was officially pronounced in 1929. Hear the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovitch and many others performed by pianist Alexander Tentser.

Painters of all levels are invited to come together for instruction, inspiration, and encouragement. Review the basic elements of painting and receive plenty of individual attention in a small and supportive class environment. Work on projects of your choice or those suggested by the instructor. Discuss methods for color mixing, techniques for paint application, and ideas for still life, landscape, and portrait. Bring any art supplies you have. Additional supply needs will be discussed at the first class.

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Also see Oro Valley Session

During the 19th century, American poets, like those of Europe, were writing in traditional verse forms and the poems were nearly always in rhymed verse. We all remember memorizing those rhythmical lines from Longfellow and Poe. Actually, Emerson once called Poe “the jingle man” after reading The Raven, The Bells, and Annabel Lee. Then, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson arrived on the American poetic scene and became beacons of change and experimentation. Both received criticism for their poetry and were totally misunderstood for their unorthodox styles. Poetry scholars today realize that both Whitman and Dickinson were challenging the norms and greatly influenced the movements in poetry following World War I such as Modernism, Imagism and beyond.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) began his career in poetry in writing verse that was typical of the early part of the 19th century; however, in 1855 he published his first edition of Leaves of Grass. That book and later editions of it changed American poetry (and world poetry) forever. He created free verse which had no rhyme and no specific form. His lines of poetry were of vastly different lengths; his poems didn’t look like poems on the page. He made use of long lists which he called catalogs, phrases celebrating the unique character of the American people, democracy, and the beauty of the landscape. He also was the first to celebrate the human body and sexuality – giving graphic descriptions of the parts of the female and male bodies. He described not only heterosexual love, but also homosexual love. He was also the first poet to honor the great diversity of the American people in gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. There are many other inventive accomplishments to be found in Whitman’s numerous editions of his Leaves of Grass, an American classic that has changed poetry for the 20th and 21st centuries.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote over 1,775 poems but only published eleven during her lifetime. But today she is one of the most celebrated American poets. Who has not read I’m Nobody, Some Keep the Sabbath, or A Narrow Fellow in the Grass? Emily, too, was breaking new ground in creating new types of rhymes which she called “sight rhymes” (eye rhyme) and “half rhymes” (slant rhyme). She experimented with punctuation by eliminating most commas and periods and making significant use of the dash to show her breaks in thought and to allow her readers to fill in the missing words. Another experiment of hers was the unorthodox use of capitalization in unusual places to show emphasis. Dickinson was the forerunner of the confessional poets of the 1950’s-1970’s: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich. She wrote of her inner-most feelings, passions, torments (“I had a terror I could tell to none.”). She was also a forerunner of the 20th century modernist poets as her poems deal with very complex themes such as her questioning the existence of a benevolent God or anguishing over her fears of life and an afterlife. Dickinson gave American literature a body of poetry that was unfettered by time or fashion and became the idol and inspiration for many poets who followed her.

Perspectives from Archaeology and Paleoanthropology

Paleoanthropologists have tracked the story of human evolution through over 7 million years, by following the archaeological evidence of human development. The story begins with our large bodied Miocene apes in Africa, traces the origins of bipedalism and cognitive expansion, and then follows human expansion out of Africa and into the rest of the world and beyond. Topics include understanding evolution, early hominids and the origin of bipedalism, cooking and anatomy, early migrations, art and cave paintings, the peopling of the Americas, and recent discoveries that are changing how we understand the development of modern humans.

Week 1: Understanding the Evolutionary Process and Origin of Species
Modern Evolutionary Biology: Review the basics of Darwinian evolution, and current research that help us understand how evolutionary forces mold species.
DNA: Also focus on DNA studies that are illuminating paleoanthropology. Consider theories, methods, and findings from this area of paleoanthropological research.

Week 2: Early Hominids and the Origin of Bipedalism
Ardipithecus Group and Early Hominids: Look at some of the earliest fossils in the hominin lineage, discuss significant changes in the skeletal anatomy, and discuss what this suggests to us about the behavior of each species.
Origins of Bipedalism: Examine theories of the origin of our unique form of locomotion and consider the evidence and potential links between past environmental change and hominin evolution.

Week 3: Cooking, Technology, Modern Human Anatomy
The Cooking Ape: Desmond Morris famously dubbed modern humans “the Naked Ape”. Since then, others have employed similar labels. Explore a theory that connects human digestive anatomy to cooking and to increases in cognitive ability.
The Archaeology of Food: Discover how archaeologists and paleoanthropologists learn about past diets, and discuss several methods employed in the exploration of past food systems.

Week 4. Early travelers
The Travels of Homo erectus: Trace the expansion of hominins from Africa into the rest of the world and discuss some of the theories and important sites associated with this first migration and expansion.
Expansion of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens: Explore the expansion of modern humans and Neanderthals in the upper Paleolithic, looking at the timing and evidence of this migration.

Week 5: Development of Artwork and Cave Paintings
The Upper Paleolithic: In the Upper Paleolithic we see an explosion of new technologies as modern humans move into new ecosystems. Consider some of these technological developments and ideas about the interaction between hominin species, as modern humans move into inhabited landscapes.
Cave Paintings, Rock Art, and the Creative Human Mind: Look more closely at the expansion and development of art in the archaeological record and famous cave sites, Lascaux and Chauvet Cave, and discuss the importance of the development of art.

Week 6: Expansion into the Americas
Clovis First: The peopling of the Americas is a lively topic in archaeological research. Examine the history of the research and the development of major theories about the timing, route, and source of the first Americans.
Pre-Clovis Research: Consider the current research on the peopling of the Americas, discuss major findings and new discoveries, and explore how these findings change our understanding of human expansion into the Americas.

Week 7: Recent Developments in Paleoanthropology
New Species: In this final section, we will discuss new findings that are dramatically changing the way we think about human evolution and explore the new species discovered over the past few years.
Stones, Bones, and Wrap Up: Review recent developments and discuss the implications for future research on the origins of modern humans.

At the end of the nineteenth century the British Empire comprised approximately one third of the world’s population and one fourth of the world’s territory. Add to that the naval supremacy enjoyed by Britain and the imperial governance reached its apex. Pride in empire was the ‘greater nationalism’ of Britain. They were indeed the ‘lords of humankind.’ The imperial impulse has existed from medieval to modern times and the path from empire to commonwealth runs for centuries. What remains is the continuing debate over the value and validity of the Empire itself.

Week 1: The Angevin Empire, 1154 – 1558
From its inception with the accession of Henry II in 1154 to the loss of Calais in 1558, England sought to expand its power in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These efforts, although often desultory, followed a pattern of failure and success for centuries. In Wales only had the English established a permanent sovereignty. In addition, the position of the king of England as also the duke of Normandy enmeshed England in French politics. Henry II was arguably the most powerful monarch in Europe. In 1180 he controlled more territory in France than did the French king. The long struggle to acquire France lay at the heart of the Angevin Empire.

Week 2: The Old Empire, 1558 – 1789
This era laid the foundations of imperial greatness. The British expanded into distant areas of the globe in competition with the Dutch, French and Spanish. The motives for these rivalries were both foreign and domestic. The British defeated the French for dominion in India and began a debate that questioned whether the empire had any long term value.

Week 3: The Empire at its Zenith, 1789 – 1945
British imperial growth occurred all around the world including the scramble for Africa and hegemony in the Middle East. The Empire became a model for other European nations who aspired to gain empires of their own. None, however, could match the size and strength of the British Empire. It is this period that permits an evaluation of the imperial ideology, the intellectual premises upon which the empire rested and the criticisms that opposed them.

Week 4: The End of the Empire, 1945 to the Present
World War II had exhausted the resources of Great Britain. Indian independence in 1947 and the establishment of a sovereign Israel in 1948 heralded the dismantling of the formal empire, though some nations chose to remain in the Commonwealth. Scholars now discuss not so much the British impact on its possessions, but what influence the empire had on British society. The empire has retained a scholarly importance even as its actual size has diminished greatly.

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Also see Tucson Session

During the 19th century, American poets, like those of Europe, were writing in traditional verse forms and the poems were nearly always in rhymed verse. We all remember memorizing those rhythmical lines from Longfellow and Poe. Actually, Emerson once called Poe “the jingle man” after reading The Raven, The Bells, and Annabel Lee. Then, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson arrived on the American poetic scene and became beacons of change and experimentation. Both received criticism for their poetry and were totally misunderstood for their unorthodox styles. Poetry scholars today realize that both Whitman and Dickinson were challenging the norms and greatly influenced the movements in poetry following World War I such as Modernism, Imagism and beyond.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) began his career in poetry in writing verse that was typical of the early part of the 19th century; however, in 1855 he published his first edition of Leaves of Grass. That book and later editions of it changed American poetry (and world poetry) forever. He created free verse which had no rhyme and no specific form. His lines of poetry were of vastly different lengths; his poems didn’t look like poems on the page. He made use of long lists which he called catalogs, phrases celebrating the unique character of the American people, democracy, and the beauty of the landscape. He also was the first to celebrate the human body and sexuality – giving graphic descriptions of the parts of the female and male bodies. He described not only heterosexual love, but also homosexual love. He was also the first poet to honor the great diversity of the American people in gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. There are many other inventive accomplishments to be found in Whitman’s numerous editions of his Leaves of Grass, an American classic that has changed poetry for the 20th and 21st centuries.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote over 1,775 poems but only published eleven during her lifetime. But today she is one of the most celebrated American poets. Who has not read I’m Nobody, Some Keep the Sabbath, or A Narrow Fellow in the Grass? Emily, too, was breaking new ground in creating new types of rhymes which she called “sight rhymes” (eye rhyme) and “half rhymes” (slant rhyme). She experimented with punctuation by eliminating most commas and periods and making significant use of the dash to show her breaks in thought and to allow her readers to fill in the missing words. Another experiment of hers was the unorthodox use of capitalization in unusual places to show emphasis. Dickinson was the forerunner of the confessional poets of the 1950’s-1970’s: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich. She wrote of her inner-most feelings, passions, torments (“I had a terror I could tell to none.”). She was also a forerunner of the 20th century modernist poets as her poems deal with very complex themes such as her questioning the existence of a benevolent God or anguishing over her fears of life and an afterlife. Dickinson gave American literature a body of poetry that was unfettered by time or fashion and became the idol and inspiration for many poets who followed her.

Giving Voice to Our Stories!

So many of us enjoy writing, but instead of sharing our work we accumulate boxes of journals, stories, essays, etc. over the years. We replay in our minds insightful moments and experiences, thinking someday we’ll get them written down and even published. If you would like to give voice to your life stories, to liberate them from memory—let them have a life of their own—this is the class for you. We’ll write vignettes and essays utilizing a variety of narrative writing techniques to find the larger narrator within each of our stories: the voice which is able to discern the themes, patterns, and metaphors running through our lives: the voice which is more reliable and fresh than memory: the voice which keeps us evolving. Whether you’re putting family stories together for the clan, seeking to publish a memoir, or simply interested in writing more vibrant personal essays, this class will allow you to explore, be heard, and get feedback in a supportive environment. Practice getting out of your head, onto the page, and into a larger life!

Follow the evolution of the humble algorithm from Euclid trying to tile his floor to the present day all powerful algorithms that run our world. Algorithms do everything from recommending movies and mailing packages to running the stock market. They are rooted in simple step by step instructions that anyone can understand.  Join Learning Curve host Paul Fisher as he elucidates Euclid, demystifies the mysterious and demonstrates the effectiveness of this ingenuous practice that has run our lives since we learned to read.

Treasures of Italian Cuisine

Session 2: Cucinare in riva al mare: Cooking at the seaside.

The Italian cuisine commonly known in America is basically the one imported by the emigrants of the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. These people were often very poor and came in most cases from Southern Italy. This explains why many of the famous Italian dishes in the United States such as Alfredo sauce, chicken Parmesan, and spaghetti with meatballs are practically unknown in Italy today. The same is true for wines. Chianti and especially Pinot Gris, so beloved by the US public, are considered just average by Italian consumers, while some wonderful treasures – from the Sfursat della Valtellina to the Sicilian dry Moscato, from Taurasi to Ornellaia, are often missed.

Three special evenings presented by the Fufi Cooking School will try to discard a few myths and introduce some lesser known culinary treasures. Each evening opens with a brief lecture, followed by a cooking demonstration and – of course – a sumptuous Italian dinner with wine pairings.