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You have come to the spot to absorb diatribes, rantings, historical references, stories, quotes and music for your eyes and ears. Read. Absorb. Learn. Grow. It is part of your daily experience. Learning concepts, ideas, and principles that make meaning in your life is a spiritual quest. Wasting time on senseless crap like useless social media postings, stupid video postings and other mindless crap wastes your time, your mind and your soul. Enrich yourselves with all the world has to offer to make you a better person and make our communities better, safer places.
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"I think, therefore, I am." Happy Birthday to Rene DesCartes, French mathematician and scientist, better known as the father of modern western philosophy. His Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most universities. The Cartesian coordinate system is named after him. He is also credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, and was a key figure in the scientific revolution. According to one story, Descartes shut himself in a room with an "oven" to escape the cold. During that time, he had three visions and believed that a divine spirit revealed to him a new philosophy. Upon exiting, he had formulated analytical geometry and the idea of applying the mathematical method to philosophy. He concluded from these visions that the pursuit of science would prove to be, for him, the pursuit of true wisdom and a central part of his life's work. I am not advocating you put your head in an oven to improve your logical reasoning. Of course, understanding the rationale of logic seems to go further than hoping that Donald Trump will actually care about poor people. A joke has it that DesCartes was trying to drink inconspicuously in a bar when someone approached him and asked if he was indeed the famous philosopher. Upon replying, "I think not.", DesCartes vanished. Read more about DesCartes.
Information Society hails from Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota, area. Known for their electronica dance hip hop sound, the band formed at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1982. The bandmates chose the name partly after "Ingsoc", the newspeak term for English socialism in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The band has gone through many face changes over the decades but primarily consisted of Paul Robb synthesizer, James Cassidy bass and keyboards, and Kurt Harland Larson, audio engineer. In 1983, the band independently released The InSoc EP and Creatures of Influence. Two years later it released "Running", their first single, which became popular in the New York City Latin dance club scene. The single gave the band needed recognition. The band followed the money and moved to New York City. The move provided opportunity in terms of revenue and contacts. The band added keyboardist Amanda Kramer to the lineup. The band secured a contract with Tommy Boy Records and released their debut album under the label, which included "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)", a dance song which spent 39 weeks on the dance chart, going straight to number one and peaking at number three on the Hot 100 pop chart. Their song "Walking Away" hit Top 10 Billboard and reached number five on the dance chart and number nine on the Hot 100 chart. A third single, "Repetition" hit number 76 on the Hot 100. The fourth single from the album was a cover of ABBA's "Lay All Your Love on Me", which reached number 23 on the dance chart and number 83 on the Hot 100. Over the years, the band has continued to cater to the dance club scene with numerous hits. The band has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, ] recognizing performers that played shows or demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Check out Information Society at their BandCamp site.
It is the day for fools to be celebratory or in anguish, if you voted for the biggest fool of them all - The Orange Menace. The origins of April Fool's Day are uncertain. Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons. Many different cultures have had days of foolishness around the start of April, give or take a couple of weeks. The Romans had a festival named Hilaria on March 25, rejoicing in the resurrection of Attis. The Hindu calendar has Holi and the Jewish calendar has Purim. Perhaps there is something about the time of year, when it turns from winter to spring, that lends itself to lighthearted celebrations of foolishness. Who knows? For those students who are sophomores, remember the translation of the word simply means wise fool. I think it would be more emphasis on the fool. Be enlightened and read more quotes about fools. One need not look too far to see many fools dressed in an outfit bordering on clownish or buffoonery. Oh forgot, just go to a local high school where many students dress to school in pajamas, slippers or or inappropriate "fashion", not suitable for the elements of the weather or even someone with demetia.
World Party is not so much a band as it is the project of Karl Wallinger. He started the band in 1986 in London after leaving the Waterboys. He served as the musical director of a West End performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Karl Wallinger joined a funk band called "The Out", before joining the Waterboys. In 1985, Wallinger departed to form the band World Party. Soon after he recorded his debut album Private Revolution at his home in 1986. The Album yielded two minor hits in the UK, "Private Revolution" and "Ship of Fools", which hit number 4 in Australia, 21 in New Zealand, and 27 in the US. It was their only major international hit. Wallinger suffered an aneurysm that left him unable to speak. After five years of rehabilitation, Wallinger re-emerged in 2006. The last North American tour took place in 2015. Visit the official website, last update in 2015.
The Spanish explorer, Ponce De León, sighted Florida and claimed it for the Spanish Crown after landing at the site of present day St. Augustine, now the oldest city in the continental United States of America. He led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his first voyage to the area in 1513. He named it La Florida in recognition of the verdant landscape and because it was the Easter season, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida, Festival of Flowers. According to a popular legend, Ponce de León discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth, a tale known among the native peoples of the Caribbean islands. Ponce de León returned to southwest Florida in 1521 to lead the first large-scale attempt to establish a Spanish colony in what is now the continental United States of America. However, the native Calusa people fiercely resisted the incursion, and Ponce de León was seriously wounded in a skirmish. The colonization attempt was abandoned. Ponce de León died from his wounds soon after returning to Cuba. Read more about Ponce de León.
Procol Harum was an English rock band formed in 1967. Known for their baroque and classical influence, critics described their music as psychedelic rock with a twist of blues, R&B, and soul. Procol Harum rose from the ashes of The Paramounts, who broke up because the band was unable to generate any follow-up success with their UK top 40 single "Poison Ivy". Frontman keyboardist Gary Brooker decided to retire from performing and focus on songwriting along with lyricist Keith Reid. They failed to find any artists interested in performing their songs. So, Brooker and Reid formed their own band using their own material. The band found its musical mates through various means. Once the band formed, they named themselves after a male blue Burmese cat. The cat's pedigree name was actually Procul Harun, but the name was taken down over the telephone, leading to a misspelling. In 1967, Procol Harum recorded their debut single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale". The song reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for six weeks and in eleven other countries, while hitting Number 5 on the US charts. In three weeks, it became the fastest selling record by a new group, selling over a million copies worldwide. It is considered the band's signature song. However, Procol Harum found themselves a one-hit wonder in England, while in the US their reputation in the US grew as both a studio and live act. The band experienced many changes in personnel due to conflicts, lawsuits, pursuits of solo careers and musical differences. The band broke up and reformed multiple times through the decades with Gary Booker as the mainstay. In 2018 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted "A Whiter Shade of Pale" into the new Singles category. Brooker, the only constant member of the band and the main songwriter, died on 19 February 2022. The band's website described him as "a brightly shining, irreplaceable light in the music industry". After his death, in February 2022, Procol Harum disbanded for good. Click here to read the glowing article in memory of Gary Booker at the BCC News.
Here is a subject dear to me as it was my fifth grade project to trace the pony express, stagecoach and train routes across the continental United States of America on a large wall map. In the American West, the Pony Express service began as the first rider departed from St. Joseph, Missouri. For five dollars ($5) an ounce, carriers delivered letters two thousand miles to California within ten days. The famed Pony Express riders each rode from seventy to one hundred miles before handing the letters to the next rider that awaited at the station. One hundred ninety way stations were located about fifteen miles apart in some of the harshest environments. The service lasted less than two years, ending upon the completion of the overland telegraph. Today's modern postal service carries on the tradition by delivering letters and packages to the far parts of the nation for a mere fifty two cents a letter. Perhaps not for too long as the Orange Menace wants to sell it to the highest bidder. There goes the universal delivery at inexpensive rates. Here are ten real cool facts about the pony express.
"The Letter" is the debut single by American rock band the Box Tops, released in 1967. It was their first and biggest record hitting charts in the United States and internationally. Joe Cocker's version in 1970 became his first top ten single in the U.S. Wayne Carson Thompson, a Nashville songwriter, wrote the song inspired by the lyric given to him by his father, "Give me a ticket for an aeroplane." Thompson gave the song to The Box Tops on the recommendation of his friend, Chips Moman, who managed the ARS Studios and liked the sound of an unnamed band headed by then-16-year-old Alex Chilton. The Box Tops formed in Memphis in 1967 but began as The Devilles. They changed their name to The Box Tops to avoid confusion with another recording band from New York with the same name. The song was considered gruff blue-eyed soul style. Music producers Lincoln "Chips" Moman and Dan Penn at American Sound Studio in Memphis made this music style popular by working with bands such as The Box Tops. In 2018, the Box Tops were inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. Click here to learn more about The Box Tops.
Civil Rights leader Reverend. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper, James Earl Ray, in Memphis, Tennessee on this day. The assassination was one of several incidents that plunged 1968 into a year of turmoil. The year saw the Tet Offensive, which exposed the futility of the war in Vietnam. President Johnson decided not to seek re-election. King's assassination was soon followed by the assassination of Robert Kennedy after RFK won the California Democratic primary. Riots erupted in Grant Park during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as the whole world was watching. The Civil Rights movement took a hit with the King assassination. As head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King had championed non-violent resistance to end racial oppression and had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He is best remembered for his I Have a Dream speech delivered at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington. The march with King's other efforts helped the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I find that his Mountain top speech that night before his death was more powerful. Of course, one cannot forget the awesome song by U2 that remains a great tribute to Reverend Dr. King's life and legacy, which seems as important today as ever given the rise of hate groups, the attacks on women and LGTB people and legislation aimed at making it harder for black and brown people to vote and have the same basic rights as Y. T. Manne. Read more about the importance of the assassination.
Here are some national events to remember the assassination of MLK. The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park, in partnership with The King Center will host a program to mark the anniversary of the assassination. Of course, Atlanta, Georgia always holds a big event to commemorate the day. The Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is another location to visit. Then if you were visiting DC to check out the Cherry Blossom festivities, then head over to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. If all that is beyond your budget, your locale or time commitment, then there are probably many local events happening in your area, most likely at public libraries, art galleries, museums and parks.
TGIF: Those Goofy Idiotic Fools!
Probably voted for Trump.
Be the scorn of all your peers. Get street cred. Be the beast. Got an
original TGIF? Submit the survey with the TGIF. maybe I will post it.
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