Autumn

When the temperature cools, the leaves change color, and you find yourself carving pumpkins, stuffing turkeys and watching football, you know that autumn has arrived!  Find out how best to put together your child’s Halloween costume, learn the history of pumpkin farming, and discover why fall is the best time to plant your garden — all with the help of our Public Arts features.

Contemporary Composers

Delve into the minds of contemporary music composers as they explain the ideas that fuel their sound.  For example, how do they use a flute to convey the frustration of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict or a violin to describe an ice skater gliding across a pond?  Visit the Public Arts section of our website to find out how musicians channel thoughts into sounds as composers explain their compositions.

Marie Antoinette

Airing on WOSU TV, Monday, September 25, at 9 PM.
“Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution”
Her name has become synonymous with the French monarchy and all its excesses, but there is more to the story of Marie Antoinette than the simplistic tale of how a frivolous sovereign helped provoke the uprising that became the French Revolution.  She was, in fact, a tender-hearted, complex woman, whose tragic awakening came too late to save her from the guillotine.

Without losing sight of the dire inequities in 18th century France, the film paints  a surprising portrait in which Marie Antoinette emerges as a sympathetic and, in the end, courageous figure.  The two-hour film traces her journey from the splendors of her childhood in the palaces of the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire to her final hours in a squalid French prison cell. To tell the story of Marie Antoinette is to relive the great revolution that unleashed the forces that shaped our modern world.

From her disastrous marriage which remained unconsummated for seven years to her tortured relationship with her iron-willed mother, Marie Antoinette’s life was a long list of humiliations. Sacrificed to 18th century power politics, she arrived in France when she was fourteen, a naive foreigner eager to please, hardly prepared for the intrigues of the court at Versailles. Light-hearted, charming, graceful, she threw her energies into an endless whirl of extravagant parties, never troubling to ask who was paying for the luxuries she took for granted.

The revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille found the Queen a ready target for all that was wrong with France.  Torn from her 100-room palace when a mob of some 7,000 women marched on Versailles, thrust into a common jail, she was plunged into despair, only to be transformed by her suffering.  “Tribulation,” she said, “first makes you realize who you are.” Her wealth and crown had made her heedless of the poor and the powerless.  With new awareness and regal dignity, she mounted the steps of the scaffold, conscious of her failures, doomed by her own tragic flaws, a young woman trapped in a tumultuous moment of history.

Learn More…  

Anthem

In memory of 9/11/01, and to those who have lost and wondered what to do next, I present the words of Leonard Cohen.

“Anthem”

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government –
signs for all to see.

I can’t run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring …

You can add up the parts
but you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.

- Posted by Scott Gowans
gowans.1@osu.edu

43210-the next 90210?

I get to talk with folks from all walks of life during the course of my day. Yesterday I had the opportunity to chat with a viewer who called in to advocate for a home-grown documentary. The topic of conversation was varied as we chatted about programming in different geographic locations and the different mindsets of viewers.

The viewer proceeded to share w/me an encounter she had while world traveling back in the late 80’s. During a 10 hour flight on a Chinese airline the Chinese flight attendants were encouraged to practice their English speaking skills with native English speaking passengers. Being that they were on an overnight flight, not many passengers were awake with exception to the viewer with whom I was chatting. A young gentleman attendant asked he if could practice his English with her. She graciously agreed. Upon his asking her where she was from, she replied “Columbus, Ohio, 43210″. Not being able to contain his excitement he exclaimed “43210-I know that zip code-The Ohio State University!” The attendant proceeded to explain to the viewer that he had many friends who had attended the University and he would correspond with them via mail. The zip code 43210 was a now a permanent part of his psyche. It never ceases to amaze me -the far reaching impact that OSU has had on the rest of the world-and how we can all make connections through conversation…

Alysia Gobert-Smith, Audience Advocate, WOSU Public Media, wosu@osu.edu