Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Lectures on Tap.
A new approach to education: academic lectures in bars. For $35, you can hear, for example, an analysis of the horror-film genre by Drew McClellan, an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Here’s a new way to get some learning if traditional postsecondary education feels out of reach or unappealing. Although $35 per lecture might also be out of reach, I imagine that a really great talk could inspire someone to educate themselves.

Yahoo has kindly shared what Kailyn Brown wrote about this at the Los Angeles Times.

“A man wearing a Jason Voorhees T-shirt steps onto a purple-lighted stage and stands next to a drum set. Audience members, seated in neat rows and cradling cocktails, enthusiastically applaud. Then they look toward a glowing projector screen. Some clutch their pens, ready to take notes.

” ‘In cinema, three elements can move: objects, the camera itself and the audience’s point of attention,’ Drew McClellan says to the crowd before showing an example on the projector screen. The clip is a memorable scene from Jordan’s Peele’s 2017 film, Get Out, when the protagonist (Daniel Kaluuya) goes out for a late-night smoke and sees the groundskeeper sprinting toward him — in the direction of the camera and the viewer — before abruptly changing direction at the last second.

” ‘Someone running at you full speed with perfect track form, you can’t tell me that’s not terrifying,’ McClellan says laughing with the audience.

“McClellan is an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the cinematic arts department chair at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). He’s presenting on two of the seven core visual components of cinema — tone and movement — as part of Lectures on Tap, an event series that turns neighborhood bars and venues into makeshift classrooms.

“Attendees hear thought-provoking talks from experts on wide-ranging topics such as Taylor Swift’s use of storytelling in her music, how AI technology is being used to detect cardiovascular diseases, the psychology of deception and the quest for alien megastructures — all in a fun, low-stakes environment. And rest assured: No grades are given. It’s a formula that’s been working.

” ‘I hunted for these tickets,’ says Noa Kretchmer, 30, who’s attended multiple Lectures on Tap events since it debuted in Los Angeles in August. ‘They sell out within less than an hour.’

“Wife-and-husband duo Felecia and Ty Freely dreamed up Lectures on Tap last summer after moving to New York City where Ty was studying psychology at Columbia University. Hungry to find a community of people who were just as ‘nerdy’ as they are, they decided to create a laidback space where people could enjoy engaging lectures typically reserved for college lecture halls and conferences. …

“Lectures on Tap, which also hosts events in San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago, is the latest iteration of gatherings that pair alcoholic beverages with academic talks. Other similar events include Profs and Pints, which launched in 2017 in Washington, D.C., and Nerd Nite, which came to L.A. in 2011 and takes place at a brewery in Glendale. At a time when the federal government is moving closer to dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, AI is impacting people’s ability to think critically, attention spans are shrinking and literacy rates are down, events like Lectures on Tap are becoming more than just a place to learn about an interesting new topic. …

“During his presentation, McClellan broke down key film concepts in layman’s terms for the diverse audience. … To illustrate his points, he played several movie clips including the 1931 version of Frankenstein and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later, both of which made several people in the audience, including myself, jump in fear. …

“Though some patrons like to go to Lectures on Tap events for specific topics they find interesting, others say they would attend regardless of the subject matter.

” ‘I felt really comfortable and I loved the social aspect of it,’ says Andrew Guerrero, 26, in between sips of wine. ‘It felt more like a communal vibe, but at the same time, I miss learning.’

“He adds, ‘I can absorb [the information] more because I’m not pressured to really retain it and because of that, I actually do retain it.’

“The relaxed environment allows the speakers to let their guard down as well.

” ‘I can play with certain elements that I maybe haven’t used in the classroom,’ says McClellan, who made jokes throughout his presentation. ‘It’s definitely looser and getting around people who’ve been drinking, they’ll ask more questions and different types of questions.’ “

More at the Los Angeles Times, thanks to Yahoo, here.

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