Morehouse College Glee Club performs Battle Hymn of the Republic

 

[VIDEO] I sadly haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the movement of President Jimmy Carter's remains or any services that have been held for him. At one point his remains were in repose at his presidential library in Atlanta which is where the Morehouse College Glee Club made this recent performance.

Currently, the Presidents remains are in repose at the US Capitol as ceremonies continue for the 39th P.O.T.U.S. who had passed away December 29, 2024.

Illinois was admitted to the Union on this day in 1818

 I almost missed out on marking this most important day for this state and the Governor's post on IG helped to remind me.

The Golden Record on the Voyager probes

 

[VIDEO] The Voyager program consisted of two probes who in the last decade have finally reached interstellar space. The probe Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977 which was 16 days before Voyager 1 on September 5, 1977. Both probes contain a golden record which you see analyzed in the above video.

It's amazing what the team that created this time capsule of our planet and civilization. It's designed to last at least a billion years and contains data such as audio and 116 pictures. The audio are sounds of our world of human voices, animals, weather, and samples of human music. Also contains a message from then President Jimmy Carter - he was POTUS when these probes were launched from Earth in 1977. There is also a message from then United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim.

As one member of the team that created this golden record Jon Lomberg stated this project was about dreaming big. That they did and what they did with the technology they had at the time - unless you're into vinyl records you won't find those in many homes today. They used phonograph technology to hold this amount of data for any extraterrestrials (or aliens).

You can check out all the contents of this golden record here. You can also see details of how it was manufactured via NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Want to see what music they selected for this record here's a playlist at Spotify.

94th Annual Spelman - Morehouse Christmas Carol Concert

 

[VIDEO] I wanted to share this with you all when it first premiered on YouTube on Wednesday. So it's here for your viewing pleasure today as you will see the treats of both the Morehouse and Spelman College's respective Glee Clubs. I suppose due to the pandemic this year they had to do something different especially since students at both schools are likely doing remote learning as of now.

I hope you enjoy.

Happy 4th of July: "My Country Tis of Thee"

[VIDEO] For today's post on this very special holiday - and it is a very special holiday where most will light fireworks in addition to firing up a BBQ grill with their friends and family - I will share with you the first US National Anthem I knew while attending our elementary school. I really didn't know that the Star Spangled Banner was the national anthem until I started watching Chicago Black Hawks games on Sports Channel (and even then only away games at that point and when they go to Canada you hear the US anthem with the Canadian anthem O Canada)

Regardless I hope you enjoy this and you have a happy enjoyable and safe one. I also need to say right now we're going through some challenging times in America right now facing a pandemic and of course seemingly ongoing unrest.

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday from me and the Peanuts gang! Have a happy and safe one.

Also it will be snowing on this blog until at least March which would mark the end of the winter season. We can start looking again towards spring & summer! :)

EDIT 11:09 AM - And for this holiday Barking Dogs - Jingle Bells [VIDEO]

Science & Technology: It's fun you'll see!

[VIDEO] Recently this song just came into my head. I don't remember when this aired on TV, but it had to have been when I was still in school. It had to have been a message to encourage young people to consider studying science and engineering. Is it catchy to you as well?

BTW, this was a public service message from the National Science Foundation.

Had the chance to see the Glee Club, however...

Glee Club and Morehouse Alumni sing college hymn on stage

I posted about the Morehouse College Glee Club coming to Chicago recently, unfortunately due to  being unable to get off work that night I wasn't able to make the show. However, I did get a chance to see them a little over two years ago at the Harris Theater. I wrote this post originally on March 7, 2012.

It hits me that 2011 and 2012 marks a milestone in my own personal history with Morehouse College. In 2001, I was accepted to Morehouse for the first time and Spring 2002 marked my first semester there. Back then I was talking a good game about supporting Morehouse, however, I have yet to put my money where my mouth is.

Anyway it's been 10 years since my acceptance and my first semester there. And of course after dropping out for a year and half due to money and it took me some time to finally graduate from Morehouse. I can't believe that it's been that long already. Where has the time gone?

Last night, I saw current Men of Morehouse perform at the Harris Theater. The Morehouse Glee Club came to Chicago and performed and impressed a lot of people who never got to see the Glee Club perform. This is the first concert I've been to involving the Glee Club. They often performed at college functions such as crown forums or even baccalaureate and commencement. Sometimes they perform at events such as that for the King Memorial.

Believe it or not, I hadn't planned on going. My mother just decided this was something she wanted to do and she had tickets through her job so we went last night. It was a great performance and say what you will about them the Glee Club has talent.

Here's an example of what they perform. They performed this very song last night in fact, "Betelehemu" [VIDEO]

This has encouraged my mother to support schools like Morehouse College. She may give a donation in the future and I would also be interested as well although I've yet to find a "Morehouse Man job". Also I have other goals as a function of being a Morehouse Man that I think would be valuable but I'll save that for another post.

Morehouse College Glee Club coming to Chicago this month!

morehouse.edu

I've been knowing about this information for more than a month. Two years ago, I got to see the Morehouse College Glee Club in action at the Harris Theater. Of course many came to support the young men who make up the student body at Morehouse. Here's more information via Morehouse Chicago Alumni FB if you wish to attend this event.

The Morehouse College Glee Club is coming to Chicago March 21, 2014 at Harris Theater

Ticket information can be found at www.HarrisTheaterChicago.org

Support Morehouse College and the Chicago Area Morehouse College Alumni Association in our quest to raise scholarships for deserving students in their matriculation at the college

For more information on the Morehouse College Glee Club www.mcgclub.org

www.morehousechicago.com

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MorehouseChicago
• Twitter https://twitter.com/MorehouseChi
• Instagram http://instagram.com/morehousechicago
• Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Chicago-Area-Morehouse-College-Alumni-4105822/about

Also refer to the flyer below! Full disclosure, I'm an alum of Morehouse College although currently not a member of the Morehouse Chicago Alumni Chapter.

Bennett School song

If you graduated from Bennett at least within the last 20 years or so if not very recently you may have sung this song. My time in elementary school well when teachers had to make copies they didn't always use a xerox copier they may have used a facsimile device that might give off a strong aroma because of the chemicals used to produce copies. The image I'm going to show you is of the song, however, some parts of it are cut off.

In the fourth line off to the side that should be halls. All other cutoff words should be easily determined.

Also when I graduated from Kindergarten there was a song for Shedd School that we sung. Not sure where to start to even find that. It was TOO long ago and long lost like my KG diploma. :(

Thunder Soul and musical education...

[VIDEO] Thursday night I went to the local movie house (ICE Theaters-Chatham 14) to see a special Black History Month presentation of a documentary Thunder Soul. It's the story of a high school stage band that were able to accomplish so many accolades with their performances not only in this nation but around the world.

The documentary started off with the original band members who had attended a Houston high school back in the 1970s and how they came together as well as talking about the man who brought them all together. "Prof" Johnson was a music teacher who definitely made an impact on his students and was able to write music around the popular style at the time.

They talked about the genre of stage band music. How this band - Kashmere Stage Band - had essentially outperformed all the other stage band. In the words of one Kashmere band member those other bands were technically good, however, they didn't feel the music and had no soul. They did some things as performers much different than other similar bands of their era.

Then they talked about the breakup of the band. Questions by officials at the Houston school board about how this band could afford to tour and then they just decided it was time to break it up instead of continuing to support such a good thing in a poor neighborhood high school. Ultimately in frustration Mr. Johnson just retired because they gave him a lot of grief for doing his job.

Typically it's safe to say this blog isn't an always activist blog, but there was a point to be said in that last paragraph. "Prof" opined in this movie that anyone who wants to take music (or art) out of our schools should be fired. His point was when would be the next time any youngster would at least get a chance to play a musical instrument of any type.

I had to think about my music teacher at Bennett-Shedd, her name was Ms. Burnett. I remember making fun of her because she wore sneakers to school one day. I had never seen that from a teacher and rarely did I expect back then any teacher would wear casual clothing to school.

In any event, I'm sure my classmates in that era did the typical music thing listening to key songs and what not at the time. Unfortunately there isn't much that I remember of those times where we studied music. The only memorable material was all the notes and to arrange them on a musical staff.

The point to be made here is what if students had the ability to touch a musical instrument at the time. Just to get an opportunity to play around with an instrument just to experiment with the idea of having any type of musical talent. If there were instruments at Bennett-Shedd there was only a piano that no students (unless they already had talent) ever played.

Granted I'm sure it's a financial issue but can one really have musical education without allowing one student to play an instrument of some sort. It's OK to study musical notes and arranging them on a music staff, but one thing I never learned in school was to at least carry a note whether with a voice or an instrument.

I'm giving credit to "Prof" Johnson he did it with his students back in the 1970s allowing them to perform as a band. Would today's music teachers on the elementary & secondary levels allow the young people to do it now?

BTW, if you can find it go see Thunder Soul!

My country tis of thee

This was what used to be sung instead of The Star Spangled Banner after we recite the pledge of allegiance. Usually just one section of the song, however.

Check out the Wiki article!

BTW, it does have a resemblance to the British national anthem!