Category: UC San Diego

Why We Make Music

Is it possible to define music? What is its utility? What needs does it serve? Does it have survival value? Is it biologically necessary? Are humans inherently musical?

In the second installment of the fascintating “To Be Musical” series, saxophonist and educator David Borgo uses audio and video examples from around the globe and draws on historical, psychological, neurological and cultural research on music making to explore why we make music, ultimately arguing that music is a universal human phenomenon, but not a universal language.

Don’t miss “To Be Musical: David Borgo,” airing on UCSD-TV and available online.

If you missed the series debut, “On the Bridge: The Beginnings of Contemporary Percussion Music” with the incomparable Steven Schick, you can watch it at the series page, where you’ll also see what’s to come in the rest of this 6-part series, presented by UC San Diego’s Eleanor Roosevelt College.

Make Room on the Award Shelves!

It’s time to make some room on our award shelves!

We’re happy to report that a whopping five UCSD-TV programs have been honored with awards for excellence.

Gold is the metal of honor when it comes to our haul at the Aurora Awards. That’s because four very different UCSD-TV programs took home Gold Aurora statues.

The winners are:

Building it Better: Earthquake-Resilient Hospitals for the Future (Documentary/Project category), produced by Rich Wargo

Tan Dun’s Water Passion – La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest 2012 (Music/Live Concert category) produced by John Menier

Colon Cancer Screening: Health Matters (Educational/Fitness, Health), produced by Jennifer Ford

San Diego Opera Spotlight : Moby Dick (Documentary/Cultural category), produced by John Menier

We also rose to the top at the Telly Awards, where The Skinny on Obesity: Sickeningly Sweet, produced by UCSD-TV’s Rich Wargo and Jennifer Ford for the YouTube original channel UCTV Prime, won the Silver Telly for Internet/Online Programs in the Health and Wellness category.

The Aurora Awards are an annual independent film and video competition that honors excellence in commercials, cable programming, documentaries, industrial, instructional and corporate videos.

The Telly Awards honor the very best film and video productions, groundbreaking online video content, and outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs.

Congratulations to everyone on the UCSD-TV team!

Alzheimer’s Prevention Program: Keep Your Brain Healthy for the Rest of Your Life

Someone in America is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every 68 seconds. Is there a way to keep this disease at bay?

Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry and director of the UCLA Longevity Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, suggests there may be.

In “Alzheimer’s Prevention Program: Keep Your Brain Healthy for the Rest of Your Life,” Dr. Small examines the connection between lifestyle choices and susceptibility and offers physical and mental preventative strategies, including stress relief and cross-training your brain.

The program premieres on UCSD-TV tonight (Feb. 14) at 8pm, or get a jump on your brain betterment by watching it now online.

Also make sure to watch UCTV Prime’s original webseries,“Heartache & Hope: America’s Alzheimer’s Epidemic,” featuring Dr. Small and his UCLA colleagues who’ve made some promising strides in their Alzheimer’s research.

Want more healthy aging help? Check out the other programs from UC San Diego’s Stein Institute for Research on Aging at our website.

Can the World Breathe Easy?

UCTV Prime’s series “Lifting the Blanket: The Pursuit of a Climate Change Solution” has been following  the remarkable journey of Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Veerabhadran Ramanathan, whose scientific curiosity took him from a refrigeration plant in his native country of India to becoming a globally recognized leader in climate change research.

Episodes one and two tracked the progress of his groundbreaking research that identified the significant contribution of CFCs and black carbon soot to global warming. In episode 3, “Can the World Breathe Easy?,” Ramanathan returns to India with an international collaboration to demonstrate that improving cooking methods in the developing world could slow global warming and improve public health along the way.

Watch episode 3 now, or catch up with Ramanthan’s quest to find human-scale solutions to climate change at the series website. Stay tuned February 12 for the fourth and final installment, “Scientific Authority Meets Moral Authority.”

Steven Schick: Percussion as 'Physical Art'

Ever wonder what makes music, well, musical? Then don’t miss “To Be Musical,” a fascinating new series from UC San Diego’s Eleanor Roosevelt College that welcomes professors of music, literature and psychology to decode the mysteries of music and its effect on our brains, our emotions and our lives.

The first installment is a must-watch. Renowned percussionist Steven Schick explores the origins and global development of percussion-based composition as a “physical art.” Schick’s captivating presentation is airing all this week on UCSD-TV — or watch it online right here and now!

And make sure to tune in Feb 19 at 9pm when saxophonist and educator David Borgo explores why we make music, ultimately arguing that music is a universal human phenomenon but not a universal language.

To Be Musical: Steven Schick