and it works the other way, from the point of view from the composer, trying to compose something. i might be sitting on an airplane and i will remember some experience. let's say running with anticipation, or something you saw. maybe you saw something spectacular, an illusion of light or something, and it creates an image. i will try to read something done quickly because i am trying to capture one that is. and of course, that stuff is very fleeting. the other thing, musicians who played the guitar, something with your fingers, they feel as if they are remembering in their fingers. oftentimes, you play a passage

and you cannot think your way through it. your fingers have to play the way through it. muscle memory. from a scientific standpoint, if i were to scoop your brain out of your head, your fingers would not remember, but there is a motor cortex that remembers the sequence. there is a whole field that studies the sequence, how one movement is remembered in a succession of a sequence. >> the process of creating, trying to start creating music is not that different for me that it is remembering music. it is revoking some kind of image or movement. -- evoking some kind of image or movement. >> can i ask, i am a musician, do you have any advice -- often have trouble losing -- moving

away from my everyday and getting into music. do you have any recommendations on how to speed up that context switching? >> i am assuming that as a professional musician, he doesn't have to do with complicated problems. >> you would not want me doing that. believe me. >> still, you have the context switch of being creative, non creative. >> that is true. sometimes you need something to wipe the slate clean. it could be taking a walk. these days, disconnecting. i have a studio. when i go there, is a place to work, i did not need to take my cell phone out there. having a physical location you can go to -- this is where i do this -- even just a quarter of your room. >> from a cognitive

neuroscience standpoint, if you dedicate a place, if you are religious about it -- or clock 30 i am going to spend an hour -- 4:30 i'm going to spend an hour here or there. that contextual aspect helps. inform is now wrapping up all of our events by asking our speakers, ourselves included, the following question. alex, what is your 60-second the idea to change the world? >> i think everybody should listen to music from other cultures. even daniel has said that, you know, we need to have that in printing when we are young to understand balinese monkey

chants or something to put it into context. i travel a lot. i just came back from asia. i was given a lot of career in music, a lot of ethnic music -- a lot of korean music. even though you may not have a cultural context, if you give it a little bit of a chance, it is an opportunity to open up your mind a little bit. when you do that, it may on sub -- some subconscious level give you a better understanding of why people are the way they are in different parts of the world and who they are. i think we should all be listening to each other's music and all try to play a little bit of music or sing. i think it is -- yeah. 60 seconds there? [applause] >> and you, daniel, what is your 60-second idea? >> as an educator and teacher, i

think my 60-second idea to change the world is better education. if we could teach the next generation of kids to be critical thinkers, just not accept what they are told but to decide for themselves, to give them the tools to make informed decisions about what is right and what is not, about what has been established and what is just here say, what really has a grounding in fact versus rumor, i think the world would be a much safer, more peaceful, and more prosperous place. [applause] >> let's get a big, final round of applause for this nice, informed foray into neuroscience and music with myself, daniel levinson, and the great guitarist and composer, alex degrassi. now, this meeting of in forum

and the commonwealth club is adjourned. [applause]>> please join me in g our mayor, ed lee. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. i am very happy to join all of you here today. it is an exciting day to join our high school kids, our high school, here at john o'connor. principal gomez, our deputy superintendent, our school board president, and our building trade, thank you for being here. the director of the joint power

trended authority. we have the sfpuc, the school alliance, school district personnel. we are all here because we are excited about this wonderful announcement. we are here in a very green, multipurpose use building that has just been opened. this is going to be representing something that i am quite familiar with. i know mike and others closer to my age, we had a wood shop. we had metal shop in middle school. we had exposure to how to deal with graphs. more importantly, you are talking to somebody who used to spend five years at the department of public works, as the director. we're having to pay attention to our infrastructure, one of the most important things any city can do. when we are trying to grow a new

economy -- and as you know, i have gone around the city selling this idea about how the economy is about tech jobs, but we also have an important infrastructure to take care of. if we do not take care of the infrastructure, these other jobs will not be here. jobs at the transbay terminal, which we are already building, celebrating and historic project labor agreement. we also have a commitment to our growing kids, that we are going to get them there. they are not just going to school to get bored. they have to have those jobs here, and we need them trained and ready for those jobs. so, in this new economy, when we are investing, like our city is, my commitment to the city is making sure we pay attention to infrastructure.

we are going to do it right and make sure that our kids know, by fulfilling their educational goals, being exposed to a facility like this, where you are building our labor representatives with the curriculum that the school district has offered to work with the infrastructure agencies that we have just mentioned, we have a curriculum that will train them in the jobs to come. being able to pay attention to this overt -- capital structures of the city, our high school kids can be exposed and get the experience, whether it is automotive, engineering, architectural design. they will get that exposure here in the center with all of the participants. so i am excited about this because it blends so much of what i believed in, what we have been doing in the city. all of our facilities that we

are building in the city, whether you look at the mission bay, the building's at hunters point, treasure island, a partner said, all of these projects, or the hospital's going up, they will all meet plant engineers, in infrastructure commitments. for our high school kids, as you often heard, maybe not enough, i want to welcome you to the million-dollar club. that is the difference, what our school district is trying to teach all of you, to make sure that you know there is a difference between someone who just graduated from high school, and someone who will go after their college education. it is a million-dollar difference. i want all of you to participate in that million dollar economy, because that will be the difference. and we will be working, not only through the school alliance,

city colleges, local colleges to make sure we reinforce that. i am here to celebrate, participate, and the knowledge all of a great, wonderful entities that have come together to create this tech 21 center, where this exposure and experience will happen, with your leadership, printable gomez. these kids will be able to see they have a way forward in this challenging city, but one that will be there city, when they have all the skills. thank you very much for being here. [applause] >> thank you. mr. mayor, we want to thank you on behalf of the 56,000 students in the san francisco unified school district, children of our community, for your tireless work on their behalf. we look forward to calling you a long-term partner.

thank you. the mayor was gracious with his time. as you can imagine, he has a full schedule today and asked to be part of this ceremony today to show his appreciation for the work being done here. we want this to be a celebration and i would probably take until now until 3:00 to thank all of the dignitaries here, but i wanted to recognize some of our elected officials and dignitaries. of course, you met mayor lee, and we also have with us today two commissioners of our board of education. commissioner sandra fuhr. we also have commissioner moss. [applause] we are very happy to with us

also -- the mere mention her -- our transbay executive director maria ayerdi-kaplan. thank you for being here with us. and the executive vice president for the united educators of san francisco, linda, thank you. and our president of united educators of san francisco, denis kelly. thank you as well. whenever you go down this path, you are going to miss someone. with all due respect, as i see you, i will call you out as we go through the program. thank you for being here. i serve as the separate -- deputy superintendent for social justice. what i would like to think about, as the good to this dedication ceremony, this is a tangible, real world artifacts of social justice. if we believe social justice is

about kids having opportunities to explore career paths, opportunities to have jobs in the real world, if it was not for these types of opportunities, that is social justice. we are happy to have you here to be part of the celebration of social justice. on a personal level, i will say to you, this is so important to me, because i stand before you as the son of a dirty man she metalworker. local 353 in tucson, arizona. why is that important? it is important because mayor lee mentioned, you cannot run a city, have infrastructure for a city, without these jobs. there is a connection between college and career and career and college. they are very much interconnected.

as my father, who never graduated from high school, later earned a ged, the person who taught me geometry was not my geometry teacher, who had a master's degree. she was wonderful, but i was just one of those kids. i learned geometry with my father actually doing the work. when you are cutting out sheet metal, bending the angles, you have to make it fit and you have to measure. i learned about ankles and how geometry works by actually doing it. when i say that career tech education is about college readiness, it is about utilizing all of those skills that we send kids to school every day to learn. this gives you a reason to read and write and do arithmetic, because you get to apply it. that is the duty of what is happening here today. happy to have you here. what a wonderful building. what do you think?

do you like this building? [applause] this is our flexible use green building. we call it the text 21 building. we have not named it officially yet, but there is a naming opportunity for you, if you want to take advantage of that. just kidding. before we dive into the program, i would like to talk more about all the wonderful individuals that have made this a reality. this has truly been a collaborative effort on the part of our partners, union partners, labor partners, educators, former administrators. you will hear from the former principal, dr. schultze, who was part of the original work. before we get to that, i want to introduce the current principal, martin gomez.

this high school is named after one of san francisco's own labor champions, and john o'connell. i want to introduce to you the man leading the academic work in collaboration with all the wonderful teachers here at john o'connell high school. [applause] >> it is a lot more full than it was five minutes ago. as principal, i want to welcome everyone to this event. it is important, not only for o'connell students, but all of san francisco. the district is making a push to include, improve, and pushed toward education. today, we are here to celebrate another reason of how o'connell is supporting and encouraging all students to be prepared for college and for a career. while some people are spending

their time looking at what students are going to college, which are going to a career, with this new tech 21 program, the courses will support students to be prepared for a career, and for college. that is the difference between the programs of before and now. the new tech 21 courses will require students to be able to apply tougher math concepts. the program will recruit students that are college-bound and students that want to go straight into the workforce. the whole purpose is to make sure that these students are prepared for the requirements that internships and jobs are asking for out of high school. we want to ensure all of the graduates are prepared for these requirements because we are promising them jobs and

internships, which is huge for our students, and for san francisco. i want to thank mark, david, the entire ct department, all of the stakeholders, dr. schultze, the previous administration, for making this building, and the course of the reality, which is much needed in san francisco. it is an exciting time to be a high school student in san francisco, but particularly, that john o'connell, and if you are excited about these tech 21 classis, please stay in touch with us as we figure out ways to continue supporting students. thank you for your time, thank you for coming out, and let's move this forward. [applause]

>> welcome to "culturewire." today we are at recology. they are celebrate 20 years of one of the most incredibly unique artist residency programs. we are here to learn more from one of the resident artists. welcome to the show, deborah. tell us how this program began 20 years ago. >> the program began 20 years

ago. our founder was an environmentalist and an activist and an artist in the 1970's. she started these street sweeping campaigns in the city. she started with kids. they had an exhibition at city hall. city officials heard about her efforts and they invited her to this facility. we thought it would coincide with our efforts to get folks to recycle, it is a great educational tool. since then, we have had 95 professional artists come through. >> how has the program changed over the years? how has the program -- what can the public has an artist engage with? >> for the most part, we worked with metal and wood, what you would expect from a program like ours. over the years, we tried to include artists and all types of

mediums. conceptual artists, at installation, photographers, videographers. >> that has really expanded the program out. it is becoming so dynamic right now with your vision of interesting artists in gauging here. why would an artist when to come here? >> mainly, access to the materials. we also give them a lot of support. when they start, it is an empty studio. they go out to the public area and -- we call it the big store. they go out shopping, take the materials that, and get to work. it is kind of like a reprieve, so they can really focus on their body of work. >> when you are talking about recology, do you have the only sculpture garden at the top? >> it is based on work that was done many years ago in new york.

it is the only kind of structured, artist program. weit is beautiful. a lot of the plants you see were pulled out of the garbage, and we use our compost to transplant them. the pathway is lined with rubble from the earthquake from the freeways we tour about 5000 people a year to our facility, adults and children. we talk about recycling and conservation. they can meet the artists. >> fantastic. let's go meet some of your current artists. here we are with lauren. can you tell us how long have been here so far and what you're working on? >> we started our residency on june 1, so we came into the studio then and spent most of the first couple weeks just digging around in the trash.

i am continuing my body of work, kind of making these hand- embroidered objects from our day-to-day life. >> can you describe some of the things you have been making here? this is amazing. >> i think i started a lot of my work about the qualities of light is in the weight. i have been thinking a lot about things floating through the air. it is also very windy down here. there is a piece of sheet music up there that i have embroidered third. there is a pamphlet about hearing dea -- nearing death. this is a dead rabbit. this is what i am working on now. this is a greeting card that i found, making it embroidered. it is for a very special friend. >> while we were looking at this, i glanced down and this is amazing, and it is on top of a

book, it is ridiculous and amazing. >> i am interested in the serendipity of these still life compositions. when he got to the garbage and to see the arrangement of objects that is completely spontaneous. it is probably one of the least thought of compositions. people are getting rid of this stuff. it holds no real value to them, because they're disposing of it. >> we're here in another recology studio with abel. what attracted you to apply for this special program? >> who would not want to come to the dump? but is the first question. for me, being in a situation that you're not comfortable in has always been the best. >> what materials were you immediately attracted to when you started and so what was available here? >> there are a lot of books. that is one of the thing that hits me the most. books are good for understanding, language, and art

in general. also being a graphic designer, going straight to the magazines and seeing all this printed material being discarded has also been part of my work. of course, always wood or any kind of plastic form or anything like that. >> job mr. some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. -- taught me through some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. >> the first thing that attracted me to this was the printed surface. it was actually a poster. it was a silk screen watercolor, about 8 feet long. in terms of the flatwork, i work with a lot of cloddish. so being able to cut into it come at into it, removed parts, it is part of the process of negotiating the final form. >> how do you jump from the two dimensional work that you create to the three-dimensional? maybe going back from the 3f to

2d. >> everything is in the process of becoming. things are never said or settled. the sculptures are being made while i am doing the collages, and vice versa. it becomes a part of something else. there's always this figuring out of where things belong or where they could parapets something else. at the end goal is to possibly see one of these collage plans be built out and create a structure that reflects back into the flat work. >> thank you so much for allowing "culturewire" to visit this amazing facility and to learn more about the artists in residence program. is there anything you like our viewers to know? >> we have art exhibitions every four months, and a win by the public to come out. everybody is welcome to come out. we have food. sometimes we have gains and bands. it is great time.

from june to september, we accept applications from bay area artists. we encouraged artists from all mediums to apply. we want as many artists from the bay area out here so they can have the same experience. >> how many artists to do your host here? >> 6 artist a year, and we receive about 108 applications. very competitive. >> but everyone should be encouraged to apply. thank you again for hosting us. >> thank you for including us in "culturewire." ♪ ♪ meet cathy, who's lived most verywhere, from zanzibar to barclay square. but patty's only seen the sight, a girl can see from brooklyn heights, what a crazy pair! ♪ cathy: oh my, patty. did you find all your files? patty: finally! who knew it would be this much work when richard and i decided to retire! cathy: well, what are you going to do first? patty: we're heading down to brooklyn heights and

start in on that social security paperwork. cathy: why would you do that? patty: what do you mean? cathy: it's so much easier to log onto socialsecurity.gov and file online. patty: what if i need to know how much money i'll be getting? cathy: online. patty: what if our address changes? cathy: online. patty: what if i want medicare too? cathy: online. patty: so, how did you get so darn smart anyway? cathy: online! ♪ when cousins are two of a kind! ♪