Browsing by Author "MacDonald, Michael B."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 20
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    American goddess: a modern apotheosis
    (2011) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Since the 1970s America has inherited Britain's place as the world center of modern paganism. One of America's significant contributions to neopaganism is the transformation of Wicca into a feminist spiritual practice. Some American feminist witches have suggested that the roots of witchcraft may be found in goddess polytheism. American goddess worship seems to differ, however, from other named-goddess worship elsewhere in the world, in that the goddess of much American paganism has no single name or identity... Exploring the development of goddess worship in the United States since 1970 will show how this nonhierarchical, nondogmatic, spiritual practice has developed into very personal and community spiritual practices that celebrate the goddess. [Taken from work]
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    Back to the garden: territory and exchange in western Canadian folk music festivals
    (2010) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Until now folk music festivals in western Canada have not been systematically surveyed nor has their operation been theorized as a mode of creative production. This work develops a historically grounded approach to folk music as a means of social production and challenges the idea that folk music is only a music genre. I conclude, using a theoretical approach developed by Deleuze and Guattari, that contemporary folk music festivals make use of social capital to establish a folk music assemblage. This assemblage provides an alternative, non-centralized, and increasingly global alternative for the flow of music capital. Folk music is no longer a style of music but a mode of doing business in music that is socially oriented and politically and economically potent.
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    Citizen science on the Bras D'Or
    (2016) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Citizen Science is a community based approach to ecology research. One afternoon in the summer of 2016 Bras D'Or Watch organized an opportunity for the general public to learn how to do citizen science. This short film introduces citizen science and some of the interesting scientific questions that face the Bras D'Or Lakes, Cape Breton Island's UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (blbra.ca). 3:35 minutes. Retrieved from: http://www.michaelbmacdonaldfilms.ca/
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    Cultural studies of youth culture: aesthetics as critical aesthetic education
    (2014) MacDonald, Michael B.
    This chapter presents a study of Hip Hop Kulture aesthetics, and lays out a call for students, teachers and community arts practitioners to engage in a practice of critical aesthetic education.
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    Flow
    (2012) MacDonald, Michael B.
    A short piece on the concept of "flow" as it applies to the works of Gilles Deleuze.
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    Fold
    (2012) MacDonald, Michael B.
    A short piece on the concept of "fold" as it applies to the works of Gilles Deleuze.
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    Hip-hop citizens: local hip-hop and the production of democratic grassroots change in Alberta
    (2012) MacDonald, Michael B.
    The purpose of this chapter is to capture my involvement with the young artists and presenters who are involved in emancipatory forms of hip-hop in Edmonton. The first part of the chapter documents how I became connected with the research partners in this project and an overview of some of the obstacles inhibiting the hip-hop community in Edmonton and impoverished sections of Edmonton. Next, I highlight how we became aware of how neoliberalism is responsible for inhibiting the development of the hip-hop scene in Edmonton as well as the development of 118 Ave. Third, I flesh out how the research team formulated a research methodology and pedagogy to revitalize the hip-hop scene in Edmonton and our urban community itself. Finally, I suggest how this project impacted the individual members of the research team, the hip-hop community, and this urban context. At the same time, I also highlight some of the obstacles of sustaining a cultural ecology that has the potential to raise critical awareness, inside and outside of the hip-hop world, of what causes oppression and how to dismantle it.
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    Knowing Pandora in sound: acoustemology and ecomusicological imagination in Cameron's Avatar
    (2013) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Using the music in James Cameron's Avatar, and drawing upon four case studies on ethnomusicology, this chapter reflects upon a way of knowing-through-sound called acoustemology.
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    Letters to Attawapiskat
    (2016) MacDonald, Michael B.; Cipher5
    The story of tragedy at the Attawapiskat First Nations brings up issues of colonization, truth and reconciliation in a very personal way for a group of hiphoppas in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A film by Michael B. MacDonald; A CIPHER5 Production; 31:11 minutes. Retrieved from: http://www.michaelbmacdonaldfilms.ca/
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    Megamorphesis: the hip hop quest for enlightenment
    (2016) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Every week Dre Pharoh and iD meet with young Edmonton hiphoppas at a local community centre. Together they make a knowledge cypher called Cipher5 where they work towards developing both skills and better selves. This is a film about one of those meetings where they talk about HipHop Kulture and build a new hip-hop track about their transformation to a higher self, Megamorephesis. A Cipher5 production; a Michael MacDonald film; 29:46 minutes. Retrieved from: http://www.michaelbmacdonaldfilms.ca/
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    Minor
    (2012) MacDonald, Michael B.
    A short piece on the concept of "minor" as it applies to the works of Gilles Deleuze.
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    Nomadic
    (2012) MacDonald, Michael B.
    A short piece on the concept of "nomadic" as it applies to the works of Gilles Deleuze.
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    Pimachihowan
    (2015) MacDonald, Michael B.; Lertzman, David
    The product of three years of work in Northern Alberta that explores the traditional Cree philosophy of Pimachihowan that roughly translates into living with the land. The northern Cree are First Nations (Indigenous Canadians) living in the Boreal forest, second in size and ecological importance only to the Amazonian Rainforest, an indispensable resource to maintaining life. A Michael MacDonald film; written and produced by Dr. David Lertzman; director, editor, sound: Michael MacDonald; featuring Dr. David Lertzman, Conroy Sewepagaham, and Willard Tallcree; 33:03 minutes. Retrieved from: http://www.michaelbmacdonaldfilms.ca/
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    Singing me into this land: the territorialization of a spiritual ecosystem
    (2009) MacDonald, Michael B.
    The fear of environmental catastrophe is very real in our daily lives. Dealing with fear at times means combating it. A small pagan community in Washington State gathers together up to eight times a year to ritualize their connection to nature. These rituals use music as a magic to transform the consciousness of the participants. Becoming one with nature in a spiritual-ecosystem allows the forces of nature to become animate and real. This is the magic of music.
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    "The best laid plans of Marx and men": Mitch Podolak, revolution, and the Winnipeg Folk Festival
    (2008) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Mitch Podolak said, “Pete Seeger and Leon Trotsky lead to everything in my life, especially the Winnipeg Folk Festival.” This article discusses the creation of the Winnipeg Folk Festival (WFF) in 1974 as Podolak’s first attempt to fuse his ten years of Trotskyist political training with his love for folk music. His intention was to create a Canadian folk festival which would embody the politically resistant nature of the Trotskyist international movement for the purpose of challenging the Canadian liberal capitalist democratic system on a cultural front. Heavily influenced by the American Communist Party’s use of folk music, Podolak believed that the folk song and its performance were socially important. This importance, he believed, stemmed from the social cohesion that could be created within a festival performance space. This space, when thoughtfully organized, could have the ability to create meaning. The relationships between the artistic director, the folk singer, the folk song and the festival audience become intertwined to dialectically create the meaning of the song and the space simultaneously defining folk music
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    Unspittable: long-form ethnographic music video as cine-ethnomusicology research-creation
    (2020) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Cine-ethnomusicology, the cinematic study of music culture, is an emerging discipline in ethnomusicology. Benjamin Harbert, a leading figure in this movement, has called for a critical cinema of music to blend ethnomusicology and film studies. In response to this call, I forward the long-form ethnographic music video as a research-creation model that combines ethnographic filmmaking with music video production. This article introduces a three-assemblage ethnographic production model and uses the making of Unspittable (2019) as a case study.
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    Who's afraid of the vagina monologues?
    (2017) MacDonald, Michael B.
    Behind the scene at the University of Calgary's fifth annual production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. This short behind-the-scenes film follows directors Shirley R. Steinberg and Lauryn Record at the dress rehearsal as they shape their contribution to the global effort to stop violence against women and girls. A Michael B. MacDonald film; 15:47 minutes. Retrieved from http://www.michaelbmacdonaldfilms.ca/
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    Wildness, eschatology, and enclosure in the songs of Townes Van Zandt
    (2013) MacDonald, Michael B.
    An analysis of songs by Townes Van Zandt chronicling late twentieth-century American culture amid significant social and economic change.
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    You are here
    (2017) MacDonald, Michael B.; MacDonald, Michael B.; Pearson, Diana
    A daughter's journey to discover the music festival her father loved and the island that makes it possible. A Michael B. MacDonald film; written by Diana Pearson; all songs by Mike Pearson; filmed on location on Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada; 37:03 minutes. Retrieved from http://www.michaelbmacdonaldfilms.ca/