On the Transmission of Culture

Following are some video and audio clips of a few things that I showed to my students last week that may be of general interest as well. What's this have to do with the transmission of culture? Ah, you'll have to take my class to find out...


A traditional New Orleans jazz funeral. Gets more interesting once the casket comes out.


What class on culture would be complete without the Beatles?


Incidentally, did you know that the Beatles cribbed the lyrics from "Hard Day's Night" from Shakespeare? Here's proof.


Speaking of things out of their contexts, here's Van Gogh's Starry Night in a back alleyway in Chiang Mai, Thailand. More views of Starry Night here and here. Oh, and here.

If Starry Night dog T-shirts aren't your cup of tea, check out poet Anne Sexton's haunting take on the painting.


Conjunction Junction. Back to the blues. Basically one of the best educational videos in the world, in my humble opinion. Can you watch this and still feel depressed? I think not.


Lastly, educator and tinkerer Gever Tulley on, what else, turning kids loose with power tools to have them learn from their own creations. Transmission of culture, indeed.