With many thanks to Lee over at Ready Writing, who suggested the title of this post!
We had our first event Tuesday. Our wonderful hostess at The Tigress Pub made the drinks and we provided the entertainment and food.
Basil palmiers, chosen because they look like hearts.
My collaborator and I had been preparing for a week:
Our set list. Hi-tech, huh?
At 6:30, we arrived at our venue. As we worked out our A/V difficulties (some things never change), we stationed my collaborator’s sister to collect the cover at the door, figuring that no one would mess with a pregnant lady. (Even if they did, they’d be in for it — that baby bump belongs to the hardest negotiator this side of the Mississippi.)
A happy couple enjoys a Honeymoon cocktail. Here's hoping our 'Is Your Love Truly Platonic?' quiz didn't cause any problems...
And guess what: people actually showed up, willingly, to hang out and talk about history! My collaborator and I traded off reading poetry from Sappho and Ovid, adding some selections from Plato’s Symposium. We talked about the difference between ancient and modern ideas of love, sex, and romance. The participants asked questions about Plato and seemed to enjoy themselves.
My collaborator starts her bit on Eros.
Me, illustrating her points about ancient sexuality. It's probably a good thing you can't see the drawings very well...
Earlier this week, I’d given a guest lecture at UT, just to see if I missed teaching. The twenty-year-olds had the same dead-fish expression I remembered. They were boring me and I (more than likely) was boring them; they hadn’t exactly chosen to be there, but at least they were polite enough not to text as they waited out the fifty minutes.
Conclusion: learning can be fun, when everybody has voluntarily agreed to be there. And there’s alcohol involved. And there aren’t any academics just waiting to pick fights about stupid, trivial details instead of focusing on the cool, useful advice that Plato and Sappho have for us today.
Several people have expressed surprise that our idea (asking people to pay) worked, noting that in this day and age, people simply expect all information to be free. And it’s true: you can find most great works of literature online. Go ahead, here’s Plato’s Symposium at the MIT database. Of course, it’s an old-fashioned, public domain translation with no notes; you get what you pay for. And if you want to know which translation is best, I’m available for consultation — I’ll even give you that one for free.
In honor of the Madison teachers protesting their jobs being made suckier than ever, I’d like to remind everyone that the internet is not a stand-in for actual experience. Wikipedia can’t give you a live reading of poetry, for example, or the ability to ask your own individual questions; or the ability to discuss different interpretations with like-minded people; or motivation, if you need it.
We’ve reached a point where for-pay tutoring services are considered one of the best investments you can make; given people’s unwillingness to invest in public education, that’s not too surprising. So I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to invest in continuing education–of the alternative variety.
Our goal was simple: we wanted to show off some of the most entertaining authors that we knew and loved. That was all. The fact that people actually wanted to discuss them was a bonus, and we were happy to oblige. We’re already talking to other venues and expect to host more events soon.
So, now we’re curious, what kinds of classes would you pay cash money to see live at the bar?
Sounds like a great event! I hope someday you’ll do a traveling act, so I can attend. I love how “beer goggles” was on your agenda — very efficient.
We’ll let you know if we travel. Believe it or not, the beer goggles is a reference to a bit of Ovid’s poetry. Although he’s actually talking about wine goggles, I suppose.
This is awesome. I love love love it. I will go to Austin if only to a) see a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse and b) see you in action at one of these. This is what being a public academic is all about.
I hope this inspires more people to go out and do things like this. It has me thinking about it (problem where I am living is where to do it).
One more thing: how did you promote the event?
Thanks, and we were actually inspired by the Alamo’s approach to infotainment. We promoted it by social media/word of mouth (people posting the link on Facebook, community fora, that sort of thing) and the old-fashioned way, by leaving cards at the bar — hmm, maybe I should try to find an image of that.
You mention infotainment there. I’ve been describing myself a lot as edutainment lately. I’m glad you had a successful start. You def have an idea that will work. Keep at it.
Thanks, and here’s hoping…like edutainment, goes with EduClaytion
Congrats, WoPro! It sounds like it was a success. This is such a great idea. It makes sense; why not take learning/teaching outside of the classroom? I was just thinking about this today in my class. Your post is inspiring. Thanks a bunch, WoPro.
I’m glad I could help — sometimes I think the only way to save the idea that learning is positive is to take it out of the classroom.!
Pretty much anything I take at school, honestly. Early modern European politics is a favorite. Classical and Romantic historical musicology. Thomas Aquinas, but he’d have to be early in the evening because after a few drinks he wouldn’t make sense anymore. I’m not excited about the “you don’t get to listen to lectures anymore” aspect of graduating from college, so if one day when I have a real job I can take a class here or there that would be awesome.
Aquinas? Good lord, that’s more like Theology on Tap one commenter was describing…and we hope that we’ll be able to serve people like yourself, who actually enjoy learning and want to make it a lifelong thing!
God DAMN this is excellent. Will you do more?
And yeah — teaching is a lot better if we take it out of the classroom. Hell, even taking your class and meeting somewhere else seems to shake them up. It’s like being in the classroom actively deadens your intellectual curiosity (maybe something in the flourescents?)
Thanks, and oh yes, we’ll do more. We’re still figuring out the logistics, though! Agreed, that flourescent light is not helping anything, especially paired with the industrial, windowless rooms favored by so many institutions!
This is such a great idea — I wish you much success with it. Reminds me of this guy, Baba Brinkman, who does rap versions of “classic” literary and other texts and performs them at campuses and fringe festivals. His “Rap Canterbury Tales” and “Rap Guide to Evolution” are a riot. I would definitely pay money to see something like that at a bar — and even better if there was a “real” scholar (er, postacademic public intellectual) there to lead a discussion of the original text afterwards.
Thanks very much. Post-academic public intellectual — that has a nice ring to it; also could be incorporated into a rap, like OPP maybe? And who knows, maybe we’ll be in your town someday…
Love this guerilla classroom thing you’ve got going on. Fab. It’s great that you were able to promote it successfully via social media and word of mouth, too. It’s a little like Café Scientifique, I guess …
(And yeah, I totally agree with the deadening effects of flourescent light)
I didn’t know about Café Scientifique, thanks for the link. Gotta check that out! And guerilla classroom is a great concept, too!
Hmm… I can’t think of exactly what I’d pay for and what I wouldn’t, class-wise. But I do know that it’s motivation I pay for, above all else, and I think that’s what it is with most people, too.
I also thought of a quote that actually comes from [not proud to admit it, but not ashamed] a famous pickup artist. He said, “Why is there a market for guys like me? Because men need to be told that it’s OK to be men.” I think that applies to just about everything. We pay to be told that it’s OK to practice/study/devote our lives to a subject. If the instructor doesn’t help us feel that way, we feel ripped off, and if they do help us feel that way, we feel like it’s priceless.
Crap! I’ve been doing this kind of thing for free for years in bars in the US, the Caribbean and Europe (Parisians are big fans). And I could’ve been making some cash all along! Where were you 5 years ago? You are an inspiration to all intellects of the night, worst professor ever! May I call you worst professor of the whole world?
Here’s something you might also want to try: In Berlin, they have intellectual jams, like poetry jams, except you (and by you I mean volunteers from the audience) jam about a theory/reading of your own concocting –science or humanities, doesn’t matter– and you have to defend your thesis to crowds of really sharp + drunk folk. Granted, it is much more open, less hierarchical, but as the organizer of such events, you (and by you I mean you) can take home a few coins.
Next time I’m down there in Texas, I hope I can catch one of your symposiums. Perhaps you will get a chance to hear me riff on Aristophane’s contribution to the conversation, one of my greatest hits ever and the cause of my first divorce.
Jamming good; thesis-defending rather tedious. I’d love to be wost prof of the world, but I fear the competition is stiff. And we are very fond of Aristophanes, so perhaps someday…
I’ve always liked the transitional areas, where one subject bleeds into another, so I would probably pay to come to a bar lecture/discussion on something like comparative literature, or the interaction of history and geography, or economics and language change. Basically, I’d be willing to pay for something that is related to a subject I am already familiar with and pushes that knowledge into areas that I’m really not familiar with at all.
Yes, we’re all about interdisciplinary; we’re working on getting a broader area of subjects.
Not for nothing, but I just tricked the folks in my book club to do a writing exercise. It was a hoot. Yes, the wine helped loosen everyone up. So maybe that is the trick: Stop having the kids hide their booze and tell them to just bring it to class. Let them – nay, insist that they slam a few back, and then let’s talk.
Seriously, it was the best book club ever. And the book sucked. But the writing was incredible. And, you know I teach English, so they are totally screwed. We are always writing when it is my turn to host from here on out.
Sounds like your infotainment was fabulous. (Yay, you!) I wish I could have been there. I actually have some serious questions about sexual politics that I would love to discuss.
I now have a new visual of you as a hot, blonde chick not in a blue bikini.
Yes, I’ve had to explain to many people that a) that was a wig, and b) I don’t wear bikinis everyday. Wine definitely helps book clubs and faculty gatherings; I’m sure it would help classes!
I would totally have gone to this. And loved it. I’d go to any class in a bar, especially if I knew the people running it (this sounds a little weird until you understand that I have been drinking with several of my former professors on numerous occasions) were on top of their material. I’d basically draw the line at math, because I’m not good at that sober any more, and I can’t imagine how horrible I’d be while drunk. But philosophy, music, history, art, English, any given foreign language (although this is probably also not a productive place for that), physics, biology, chemistry, whatever. I’d be there.
I feel like bar chemistry could be awesome, by the way.
Bar chemistry…hmmm, now that’s something to think about. The owner of the Tigress used to be in microbiology, actually.
That sounds so cool, and I would totally pay to see it. You’ll have to let me know if you guys take your act on tour and come to the East Coast!
I would also pay for logic classes held at bars. It may seem that liquor and logic don’t mix, but a little booze always helps me get past common fallacies. Or at least it would be fun to be quizzed on fallacies so the audience could shout “Bandwagon!” “Straw man!” “Slippery slope!” Fun!
Now that’s a fantastic idea! What a great way to improve media literacy–and really, you could just turn on any news show to see plenty of examples.
This is pretty cool. I would pay a small fee to find out what I should care about calculus. Not the actual calculations, but what it’s good for. The things people forget to talk about in class, actually.
Good question. Did you happen to see yesterday’s post?
I would absolutely pay for this. If this happened in SF or Berkeley, I would go often and happily spend $$ to do so. Thanks for trying this. The best part of your plan is that helps confront the problem that I had while contemplating leaving grad school (I did) which is: how will I have intellectually conversations if not in grad school?
More pressingly, for us, we’ve found we have better intellectual conversations with those who aren’t in grad school!
I gave a fun talk once at a bar on 18th-century British pornography (involved lots of etchings of skirts over heads) at a gathering called that has since gone global. At the time (2005) they were pretty sciency, but they seem to have expanded. Looks like Austin has a chapter–check ‘em out!
Yes, we’re going to check out our “competition”, which includes this, Geeks Who Drink, and Encyclopedia Readings, and a couple of others…this is quite a town!