Recently (Feb. 18, 2012) the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine held its annual, low pressure, no winners/losers “No Talent Show,” which is now bringing Longevity Readers an illuminating slide show, video clip and descriptive feature. No Talents included OCOM staff, faculty, students and family.
This just-for-the-fun-of it event can relate, theoretically, to a concept worth mention: ELEPHANT, Encourage Learning, Entertaining People and Having A Nice Time.
Recognizing that medical education can be boring and miserable, Hugh Gifford and Aravinthan Varatharaj of the University of Oxford, U.K., pulled together their thoughts in a 2010 paper asking can medical education be fun? They are not singular in asking and reference Sir William Osler’s 1905 statement:
“Hilarity and a good nature [and] a breezy cheerfulness help enormously in the study and in the practice of medicine.” –Sir William Osler.
Gifford and Varatharaj don’t present the idea that ELEPHANT—encourage learning, entertaining people and having a nice time—learning is for everyone. They point out that people with defensive/pessimistic personality types might have a hard time advancing with such cheerfulness. In addition:
“Theories of mood congruence and mood dependence propose that emotionally charged information is encoded and remembered best in a matching mood. Thus, if a junior doctor needs to remember upsetting information in the dead of night—while in a foul mood—perhaps he ought to learn it in such a fashion.” –Gifford and Varatharaj
The opposite also holds and Gifford and Varatharaj point out that more research is needed. Yet if you want to see ELEPHANT in action, check out this YouTube: “Diagnosis Wenckebach” made by the University of Alberta’s 2010 medical class. FYI “Wenckebach” refers to a type of cardiac arrhythmia.
Now, back to the No Talent Show!
But first just a little background.
The Oregon College of Oriental Medicine has been a part of the Portland scene since 1983, almost thirty years, establishing it as one of the earliest colleges in the U.S. offering degrees in Chinese medicine practice. Curriculum involves acupuncture, longstanding herbal medicine traditions, therapeutic massage, qi cultivation and collaborating between Chinese medicine and Western biomedicine. OCOM will be moving to larger facilities this fall, yet that’s another story.
OCOM’s “No Talent Show” was first held in 1994 and got such a rousing reception it’s become a yearly tradition. No Talent participants may be staff, students, faculty and friends or family of staff, students or faculty. It’s a community event held sometime soon after the Chinese New Year. No Talent may include poetry readings, participatory chanting, juggling, animal acts, song, dance, visual presentations (slides/video) and just about whatever a person of no-talent wants to offer. One year included a fire twirler. Actual fire could not be used, what with fire regulations and all, so it ended up a fireless twirl.
To find what’s happening at OCOM or mark your calendar for next year’s show, a person can sign up for their emails. An additional point of interest is that OCOM hosts Julie Porter’s well-being and longevity-inducing, healing qigong classes, offerings also open to the public.
For sure, now the No Talent Show!
For a show advertising “No Talent” a lot was evident. No less than Lee’s Association Lion Dancers (see video) kicked off the main event held at Floyd Wright Middle School in SE Portland. What followed involved a talent for getting up on stage, humor, good nature, an element of silliness, one dog, music, video, original or un- songs, dancing, rap, one taiji demonstration (Cannon Fist), costumes, slide show, with some virtuoso talents sprinkled about for great measure. Raffle tickets and prizes raised over $300.00 to benefit Acupuncturists without Borders. Over thirty sponsors joined in the celebration. Raffle prizes ranged from acupuncture or foot bath treatments to milkshakes and pizza.
Highlights: (See slide show for more.)
A house talent favorite manifests in Momo Freeman, daughter of an OCOM student who’s expected to graduate this year. Momo’s been part of the No Talent Show since kindergarten four years ago when she sang a song. Since then she’s taken more to dance. This year’s entry in two parts was “Shake Your Body with Momo.” The first part featured Momo performing a solo interpretive dance. Next the audience was invited to join her onstage as she yelled encouragement saying, “There is no such thing as being shy!” About a dozen people joined her in fun and dance. (See video clip.)
And because it’s quite impossible to put links in captions, mention needs to be given to OCOM faculty member and longtime musician Michael Berletich. Berletich sang two original songs—“God Bless Johnny Cash” and “Sometimes Even the Coyote Sings the Blues”—while playing guitar. His number came up following the exuberant lion dancers, not the easiest act to follow.
The sole animal act was listed as a “Sad Song” performance by Catherine Busby & the Scanty Yang. With Catherine on ukulele (she’s been playing it for two weeks now) and presumably Scanty on guitar (who evidenced greater familiarity with his instrument), Sally the star dog joined in on a mixed chorus of "500 Miles".
The lone film entry, titled “S*#t OCOM” and directed by Melissa Brown with particular assistance from three of her friends—assistant director Deidre Calabro and associate producers Stephanie Lau and Katie Rablin—was inspired by a hallway conversation. Apparently parking and code changes, along with schedule change requests, sighing and the ubiquitous qi sometimes run riot at the school. Best line in film might be: “I feel spleeny.” Best action: being able to tell somebody the exact location of where to itch one’s back. Ah, those spunky acupuncturist students.
The slide show presentation by staff member Kyle Christoph, facilities coordinator, presumably resulted from a survey seeking the three most prominent questions plaguing OCOM students. These are:
“Can we get less healthy snacks?”
“Why can’t we park where we want?”
And, earning its thematic entry in the No Talent Show, “What are behind all those closed doors?”
There were some surprises: the elaborate staff bathroom and Kyle’s expansive office space. The more pedestrian things found behind OCOM’s closed doors included: electric panels, extra garbage cans, clean towels, AV cart, hot water heater and other miscellany. The whole was unexpectedly hilarious.
Eliot Sitt, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Reed College (Philosophy) and current OCOM student, presented an original folk song: “Expel Wind & Damp.” Certainly there’s more to the title than meets the casual eye, so to speak. The title suggests something very Chinese medicine-y.
Sitt’s song speaks of meeting the most beautiful woman with “soft eyes” on the street (today). The song continues in diagnosing elements of her physical condition (manifested as twitches, stiffness, etc.) and recommended treatment—carried throughout the romantic vision of marriage, home and their (weak/frail) children. True love.
“Piano Antics” by Amitai Schwartz were dazzling, his hands at times a blur, and obviously exhausting, Schwartz being forced to stop and eat after a particularly strenuous piano section before continuing. Michael Johnson’s trumpet rendition of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” ended the evening on a sweet note.
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