In 1888, Thoman Edison sent his 'perfected' phonograph to his agent in England. U.S. Civil war veteran and medal of honor recipient George Gouraud. On August 14th, Gouraud, playing piano, and an unnamed musician playing the cornet recorded what is thought to be the earliest recording of music. "The Lost Chord" by English composer Arthur Sullivan. Gouraud, in Edison's employ, hosted several partie... » Continue Reading
It's difficult to properly describe someone from the past as 'transgender' or any other modern term or to truly know how they may have viewed themselves in terms of how we unde » Continue Reading
It's difficult to properly describe someone from the past as 'transgender' or any other modern term or to truly know how they may have viewed themselves in terms of how we understand gender today. Never the less, there are individuals who are fascinating stand outs in their own time and worth learning about. » Continue Reading
"So an Evangelical, a Muslim, an Orthodox Jew, a lapsed Catholic, and a pagan ..." Sounds like the start of an uncomfortable joke. Let's see how it turns out. ".. all go to work. And talk over their lives, friends, families, loves, fears, and little adventures in tiny doses between navigating far too much work stress during the day." It's not a joke. It's where I work. Truth be told, as far as I ... » Continue Reading
In the predawn hours of April 19, 1775, a force of about 700 British regulars had been dispatched to the small towns of Lexington and Concord to recover reported caches of arms hidden by colonial militia. This is when, of course, at about 4:00 am that morning that assembled militia met with the regulars on the North Bridge and the ‘shot heard ‘round the world’ occurred toughing off the American r... » Continue Reading
There are places. Places in space and places in time that are neither here nor there. The edge of one place and yet not another where all things are possible. The crossroads. The crossroads is a place where you can drift down any possible path, or anything can come down the road from any direction. Th » Continue Reading
M had written a bulletin concerning the nature of true love and I chimed in with a comment that I'm proud to say they appreciated. I got to thinking about it a bit more, and certainly the long road of time with all of its glories and defeats reveals true love again and again. I've seen relationships come and go amongst the people in my life through all stages. Divorces, break-ups, couples that jus... » Continue Reading
It's not often you get to hear about a cat from history. This 9th century cat may not be the earliest specific cat known to history, but they might be the earliest cat that we » Continue Reading
The right song at the right moment. Having been a part time working musician for a number of years has brought home the deepest meaning of the transformative nature of music at times. I used to play a number of the local small venues ‘back in the day’, from ‘dank old man bars’, county fairs, backyard BBQs, coffee shops, dinner gigs, etc. Playing music was deeply therapeutic for me, and I think the... » Continue Reading
The office I work in is fairly small. The computers are typical ancient Microsoft office fare that are held together with chewing gum and paperclips. As we're all engaged in work, one or three of my coworkers insist on music to work by and my computer is the only one with speakers. So, I'll put on some youtube type uploads that are long playlists of unobtrusive music so we can work, hear each othe... » Continue Reading