Year: 2014
Star Spangled
In 1780, John Stafford Smith wrote the constitutional song of the Anacreaontic Society of London. Ralph Tomlinson a President of the society wrote the words to the song. For a bit of time it was a popular drinking song. It probably would not be familiar to you and me except for the familiar tune. Take a listen here:
Anacreon recording is performed by John Townley from The Top Hits Of 1776 on Adelphi Records.
I presume you recognize the tune of the drinking song. The tune was used in the 18th and 19th centuries a lot with the lyrics changing to fit the affairs of the time.
Most of us should be familiar with the history of fort McHenry and its role in the War of 1812 when Baltimore Harbor was successfully defended from an attack by the British navy on September 13 and 14th in 1814. We all learned in our school history classes (hopefully) that while observing the bombardment of the fort Francis Scott Key wrote the poem (Defence of Fort M’Henry) that was to become our nations National Anthem. The poem was then set to the tune of Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven” and its title soon changed to to The Star Spangled Banner.
President Woodrow Wilson gave the U.S. Bureau of Education the duty to provide an official version of the Star Spangled Banner. The Bureau enlisted the help of five musicians Walter Damrosch, Will Earhart, Arnold J. Gantvoort, Oscar Sonneck, and John Philip Sousa deliver the arrangement. In 1889, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy signed General Order #374, making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that “The Star-Spangled Banner” be played at military and other appropriate occasions. President Herbert Hoover signed a law adopting The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem of the United States of America.
I do not know about you but our nations anthem has to be one the most near impossible songs to sing. I know the tune, I know the words, but seriously, it is an odd day out when I can get through it without stumbling on the words trying to muddle through the tune. If the lyrics were set to a drinking song, why not choose one of the easier old sea shanties – chanted, with emphasis on a syllable or word. Perhaps they saw the future where thousands of people gathered in a coliseum drinking beer signalling the games beginning by singing the tune.
This post is getting long but if you are so inclined here is a sampling of versions of the anthem.
The Star Spangled Banner
1898 Souza band played on a 1913 Victor Victrola model X:
1991 Whitney Houston Super Bowl XXV :
2014 A modern interpretation by Madison Rising. They performed a shortened version at the Nascar Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona.
And of course our friend Reyna! @ age 11
Where Were You?
Most of us remember the Alan Jackson song – hence the title.
Where were you? I was driving down the freeway almost to work when the first reports of an airplane hitting the World Trade Center hit the local radio. By the time I arrived at work it was clear that yes the unbelievable – a commercial plane had crashed into one of the towers. Then the second plane hit.
I was now opening the garage of the second tallest building in Sacramento. One of the tenants was Trade and Commerce. To make a very long story short the Parking Facility Manager, the Janitorial shift lead person, and a couple security guards were the only people remaining in the building. I sure hope they have better plans in place now because back then the plan sucked. If you were high enough up the food chain you either arrived and argued with us explaining how important you were trying to bully your way into locked down building without proper ID or you stayed away afraid the aircraft that were reported missing and headed to Calif were going to hit the building.
I remember watching the Towers fall on a TV we borrowed from the Pawn shop next door. Over and Over again. As my pal the janitor awaited news about his cousins that worked in the buildings hoping that they somehow survived.
Today in remembrance:
From Bathroom to Vest
I am making an effort to get on with doing stuff I have put off for too long.
Like cleaning the bathroom super good. The tile around the tub/shower now is as close to sparkle as it can be. Over time, the tile became water spotted. whatever you call it the usual wipe down was not getting it. We purchased some super duper cleaner that had me wishing I had put on a gas mask. UGH. A job that is much tougher to complete than it was a few years ago. It was a hold your breath, spray on, get out of the room, and breath affair. Rinse and repeat because I missed some sections while holding my breath LOL.
I purchased a new battery backup. I took the old one (ten years old) into the bedroom where I have my game consoles and hooked them up so the next power outage hopefully will not cause me to loose my save games. Last outage I lost my Assassins Creed Black flag saves. With over 65% completion of the game done, I was so not the happy camper. Now I have to start all over again.
The truth is I did not go out a purchase the backup because the old one was insufficient for the main computer and was so dang old that it did not work with my windows 7 or that it lacked features that I really needed. Nope – I bought it so I could use the old one for the game consoles. The surge protection stuff still works just not the auto shut down the computer features and it had no protection for the cable lines. So now, I can leave Darwin (main computer) on even when no one is home. Cool!
The Adaptive PE class I take started Monday. Our teacher is out again 🙁 so we have our teacher’s assistant and a woman that just graduated from college with a degree in physical education and adaptive PE. The dang classroom was to dang hot for me this week. We have been doing the basic testing we always do. Body measurements and how far, fast, or the number you can do something. Then those of us who have taken the class before and completed the day’s tests went off to exercise. The classroom was too hot.
A few of MS peeps were not doing so well with it so warm. I mentioned it to the teacher’s aide and he called the college maintenance department to see if anything could be done. Right before the end of class a person showed up and used one of those temperature gauge things. He set temperature as low as it is allowed to be set. Apparently, each room can only change the temperature by three degrees. Whoopee. After he set it as low as he could his gauge said 79. Ok 79 is pushing it for me without exercising.
I am very heat intolerant. I came home rather bummed out. The PE class forces me to get up and get going each day and I get the exercise I need. Exercise is good. Getting to hot is bad. Knowing the classroom will be 79 on warmer days not so great.
Those of us with Multiple sclerosis joked that we were melting but seriously, I cannot do it. I have to go out, crank the a/c up in the truck, and wait until I cool off and my vision returns. When exercising I want to crawl into a walk in freezer. However, my legs probably would not work well enough to get into one. Therefore, if they are only going to cool to 79 degrees unless I figure something out I am going to have to either suffer or drop out.
How silly is it really to keep an adaptive physical education classroom this warm? The teachers assist gets it but I do not think the new teacher really understands. I asked her if the classroom would be this hot all the time and she just said yes. I told her I could not exercise in that warm of a temperature because of my MS and would probably have to drop. Oh, she says and walks off.
I have researched cooling vests before and have never found one that looked like it would work for me. All the ones I have borrowed were too bulky, made me feel like a clown when wearing them, or did not cool for long. Neck type coolers only work so so. I put the look for cooling options off. I did not want to be stuck in a bulky piece of gear that screamed Hey look at me the older woman stumbling around in the dumb vest. I can do canes, hiking poles, my scooter, but I have not found a vest that I could use without getting that feeling I get when stuck in a in an elevator.
I took the plunge this evening and ordered a vest.
It should be delivered tomorrow.
If it works out, I will have a topic for my next post.