My department (Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University), got together and did a little skillshare on teaching online. Or rather, we broke into groups, people did homework, and then reported back. The resulting document is our best attempt to produce something useful for ourselves. It still leaves open questions about office hours and other […]
Category Archives: Text
Recording Your Lectures 2: the one thing you can do to improve your recording experience
Tl;dr: record in segments of 5-10 minutes. Never record a full class’ worth of material in a single take. That’s the short version, but there’s a bit more to it than that. — Slightly longer summary: Plan your class as you would normally (making whatever adjustments you make for it being online). Using the plan, […]
Locked down reviews: Jewish General Hospital + some good news
This morning I arose an a frankly disgusting hour (or so said by body) in order to get my blood drawn at the Jewish General Hospital at 7:30am. I wasn’t sure what to expect. JGH, which is where all my cancer treatment happens, is also one of the hospitals in Montreal designated to deal with […]
Locked-Down Reviews: TV
Okay, we’re here for awhile. I’m going to start reviewing stuff. The usual caveats apply. My tastes aren’t yours, they might suck to you and certainly cannot withstand political scrutiny. Today is television shows. There are minor spoilers included but nothing that would ruin it for me if it was the other way around. There […]
…and some something about musicians
tl;dr if you care about music and musicians, and you have some spare money, now would be a good time to send it their way. You could buy recordings, subscribe to support people on platforms like Bandcamp or Patreon, hire them for a lesson or studio work if you are yourself a musician, or just […]
Academic advice from cancer for the COVID-19 epidemic: let it go
Compared to the massive life and death issues people are facing, this is a tiny thing, for a tiny segment of the world. But with that caveat, it is still worth saying. In 2009, I was diagnosed with a very aggressive version of papillary thyroid cancer. I had to bail on my courses, and lost […]
Some bass players I have recently been enjoying
KT Chang: Elephant Gym. Math rock! Chang has developed an interesting hybrid technique of tapping and melodic playing, and the band is happy to write around her bass lines (Elephant Gym is in fact a bass reference). Not everything is this busy or elaborate, but “Games” gives you an idea of her approach. I heard […]