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Something New - Month Six
Oct. 30th, 2020 01:52 pmWe've been out and about quite a bit in the last six weeks, which counts as new in that we've done very little of that for most of the year, although up to 2020 I wouldn't have counted as 'something new'. And we celebrated our 40th anniversary, with a cream tea with son, his wife, and our granddaughter; lunch out for the two of us on the day - we walked to the restaurant, which meant we managed to drink a bottle of Prosecco while we were there; and then finally a meal out with our daughter (who I last saw in February) at the end of the week.
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story_works Take A Leap challenge this month was to Find a New Destination, so I sat down with a travel brochure and made a collage. Which, incidentally, also counts as something new, as I haven't done one before:
( collage )
Also in the last six weeks I have completed four more FutureLearn courses:
Discover Chinese Drama: Understanding 'The Injustice to Dou E' by National Chiao Tung University. I learnt a bit about Chinese drama, and the play in particular, but I didn't find it very exciting, and wouldn't want to pursue the subject any further. It seemed to be part of an undergraduate course, with references to set text books, which didn't help.
William Wordsworth: Poetry, People & Place by Lancaster University. This was an absolutely brilliant course. I'm not convinced I'll ever become a Wordsworthian, and his poetry isn't really my thing, but the course was excellent. And certainly, if I ever end up in the Lake District again I will be visiting Dove Cottage, where the Wordsworths lived at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The course had a variety of activities: quizzes, construct your own page of Wordsworth's journal and letter to Coleridge (photo below), and two peer-assessed assignments, so something for everyone. The tutors leading the course were enthusiastic and didn't just lecture, but talked about the poems in situ, and in Dove Cottage/Jerwood Centre. At the end of each week they filmed a summary and discussion of points raised during the week via zoom, which got longer as the weeks progressed - and there was so much to cover. And finally, for this particular course, they added an extra short film to show how Dove Cottage is being updated to give more of a sense of the Wordsworths living there.
( Wordsworth )
Shakespeare: Context and Stagecraft by King's College, London. A course designed more with A-level students in mind (knowledge of the plays discussed was essential), taking certain aspects of the plays apart and looking at them in more depth than most of the original audiences would have done. While some explanation of what would have been generally known/believed at the time was helpful, I am not convinced some of the minutiae was relevant.
Pop Art by Centre Pompidou. I knew little about Pop Art, and this was a good introduction, and now if I do see some in an exhibition I will have a better idea of what's behind it. Although again it's not a subject I would be interested in pursuing. However, it did give me the inspiration for my very non-pop art collage above, as well as access to making my icon, which I'm rather pleased with.
story_works Take A Leap challenge this month was to Find a New Destination, so I sat down with a travel brochure and made a collage. Which, incidentally, also counts as something new, as I haven't done one before:( collage )
Also in the last six weeks I have completed four more FutureLearn courses:
Discover Chinese Drama: Understanding 'The Injustice to Dou E' by National Chiao Tung University. I learnt a bit about Chinese drama, and the play in particular, but I didn't find it very exciting, and wouldn't want to pursue the subject any further. It seemed to be part of an undergraduate course, with references to set text books, which didn't help.
William Wordsworth: Poetry, People & Place by Lancaster University. This was an absolutely brilliant course. I'm not convinced I'll ever become a Wordsworthian, and his poetry isn't really my thing, but the course was excellent. And certainly, if I ever end up in the Lake District again I will be visiting Dove Cottage, where the Wordsworths lived at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The course had a variety of activities: quizzes, construct your own page of Wordsworth's journal and letter to Coleridge (photo below), and two peer-assessed assignments, so something for everyone. The tutors leading the course were enthusiastic and didn't just lecture, but talked about the poems in situ, and in Dove Cottage/Jerwood Centre. At the end of each week they filmed a summary and discussion of points raised during the week via zoom, which got longer as the weeks progressed - and there was so much to cover. And finally, for this particular course, they added an extra short film to show how Dove Cottage is being updated to give more of a sense of the Wordsworths living there.
( Wordsworth )
Shakespeare: Context and Stagecraft by King's College, London. A course designed more with A-level students in mind (knowledge of the plays discussed was essential), taking certain aspects of the plays apart and looking at them in more depth than most of the original audiences would have done. While some explanation of what would have been generally known/believed at the time was helpful, I am not convinced some of the minutiae was relevant.
Pop Art by Centre Pompidou. I knew little about Pop Art, and this was a good introduction, and now if I do see some in an exhibition I will have a better idea of what's behind it. Although again it's not a subject I would be interested in pursuing. However, it did give me the inspiration for my very non-pop art collage above, as well as access to making my icon, which I'm rather pleased with.
