Westside Ideas Discussion

Portland, OR, US

92 members · Public group

Organized by Michael

What we’re about

"Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses." - Michel de Montaigne

"To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face and to know it for what it is..." - Virginia Woolf

It's not easy to find a place to have formal discussions about intellectually oriented topics. So that's what this group is for. It's a discussion group based on articles, books, videos, podcasts, and films. The source material will be based on ideas, in other words substantial stuff. The choice of topics will be eclectic and wide-ranging: ideally a mix of the sciences, the humanities, and the arts.

Please note: A priority of the group is a rational (reason-based) approach (scientific and/or critical thinking). We're looking for people who have considered opinions but aren't dogmatic about them, people who are open-minded and able to talk about opinions that differ from their own in a cooperative way.

The meetings will be on weekends at a pub or restaurant on the Westside & its suburbs.

The group will be kept small to allow members to become familiar with each other, but new members are welcome! If you’re interested in joining, you must have a realistic, recognizable, fairly up-to-date photo. Then apply by answering these questions, which will appear when you click on the ‘request to join’ button:

Please list three non-fiction books or articles you’ve read recently (please be specific).
Please list three videos or podcasts that you've found interesting (please be specific).
Where do you get your news?
What's your opinion of science?
What sorts of topics do you most like to talk about?

Thanks...
Michael

Upcoming events (2)

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Sun, Dec 8, 2024, 2:00 PM PSTClassical Music (and the other Arts) in Today’s Environment?
Location available to members, Portland, OR
This discussion will be hosted by Michael & Doug.

Max Richter is a contemporary British classical musician and composer, but also highly eclectic in his musical taste and abilities. Let’s listen to Sean Carroll (physicist) interview Richter about the current state of classical music on his podcast series Mindscape. They also discuss some of the technical nuts & bolts and theories involved in making successful or meaningful modern classical music, but watered-down enough to terms a layman can understand. The podcast is about an hour long but it’s perfectly okay to skip around and just sample parts you’re interested in:

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/09/09/288-max-richter-on-the-meaning-of-classical-music-today/

Classical music has comprised a large chunk of our culture as well as the edifice of Art in the Western world for many hundreds of years, but we know that fewer average people still want to listen to it. The downstream consequence is that the number of orchestras and smaller classical formats have been slowly decreasing. However, many younger composers & musicians are now attempting to make music that is more accessible to their peers.

Do you think this is possible, and does it even matter, given all the other music that is available in the world today?

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Other questions we could consider (but there are many others):

Do you have any thoughts or opinions about the arts (in general) in relation to our current culture and zeitgeist?

Progress may be a misguided or irrelevant concept when it comes to the arts. Because the experience of art is so subjective it would be hard to say that it gets better or worse. But the arts do evolve and change their style over time - the only thing that is certain is that they will always change. But as far as you’re concerned, are there any rights or wrongs when it comes to the arts - or is it all totally arbitrary?

As we know, music is the form of Art that is the most abstract, being composed (pardon the pun) only of sounds. At one point, Max Richter makes the interesting observation that music is paradoxical: that even though the composer may construct a piece of music using concepts & formulas, specific structures & technical components, in the end for the listener “it’s a feeling thing” that comes across, an experience that largely has to do with emotions. This may be one of the characteristics that ties music to the other arts, from the abstract to the more concrete. In your opinion, what are the broader purposes & connections between the various arts?

~Michael
8 attendees+3
Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 7:00 PM PSTHoliday Get-Together
Golden Valley Brewery, Beaverton, OR
Come out and meet with other people from the group for food & drinks at Golden Valley Brewery & Restaurant in Beaverton.

https://goldenvalleybrewery.com

No required reading or agenda for this one. Unless you’d like to debate whether Santa Claus is real or not. But everybody knows that’s an obvious Yes!

Partners, significant others, and friends are welcome!

Hope to see you there!
~Michael & Evie
8 attendees+3