Illinois State is a college located in Normal, Illinois. The school competes in the football only Missouri Valley Football Conference, which is a “FBS” conference, or for what old-timers will remember, is the “Division II” of NCAA football.
Kurt Beathard used to be the offensive football coach for the school.
Depending on whose side you listen to, Beathard was either fired or resigned. Given the fact that he is suing the school, we are going with “fired.”
According to his lawsuit, Beathard alleges he was fired because of a controversy regarding “Black Lives Matter” posters, and Beathard’s belief that all lives matter.
Today is the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 that launched the United States into World War II.
The Japanese plan was simple: Destroy the Pacific Fleet. That way, the Americans would not be able to fight back as Japan’s armed forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack.
At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained onto the vessels moored below. At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona and landed in her forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside. (more…)
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas time, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.
While the song is a “standard” for this time of year, we are betting that not many have seen the song performed this way, and not on this instrument.
On October 1, 1943, Crosby recorded the song under the title “I’ll Be Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams)”, with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records; it was released as a 78 rpm single, Decca 18570A, Matrix #L3203, and reissued in 1946 as Decca 23779. Within a month of release, the song charted for 11 weeks, with a peak at number three. The next year, the song reached number 16 on the charts.
The U.S. War Department also released Bing Crosby’s performance of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” from the December 7, 1944, Kraft Music Hall broadcast with the Henderson Choir, J.S.T., on V-Disc, as U.S. Army V-Disc No. 441-B and U.S. Navy V-Disc No. 221B, Matrix #VP1253-D5TC206. The song from the broadcast has appeared in many Bing Crosby compilations. (more…)
It is rare that cameras actually capture law enforcement seizing someone’s money under the guise of “civil asset forfeiture.” In this case, the cameras show that the Nevada State police were hoping get the DEA to confiscate a man’s savings even though he had done nothing wrong and was never charged with a crime. The mere assertion based on the fact that a dog alerted to some sort of drug on the money was the basis for the seizure. (Before you say that the presence of drugs on money should be enough, as noted in the video, 90% of US money – especially $20’s, $50’s and $100’s dollar bills have drugs on them. That means the money you are carrying around in your wallet would have drugs on it.)
Stephen Lara did everything right. But, as subscribers of our YouTube channel know well, even innocent people aren’t safe from civil forfeiture. (more…)
Well, this is different. (But we kind of like it.)
Patricia Büchler (born 1997), known professionally as Patty Gurdy, is a hurdy-gurdy musician, singer, songwriter and vlogger from Germany.
Fiddler’s Green is a German band that plays Irish folk music. Formed in 1990, their first concert under the name of Fiddler’s Green was at the Newcomer-Festival in Erlangen in November 1990. Their debut album entitled “Fiddler’s Green” was released in 1992 and featured both live and studio tracks, some traditional and some original material. It was released on their own label, Deaf Shepherd Recordings. The band has been signed to a major label, but chose to go back to being independent. The band members themselves refer to their music as Irish Speedfolk, as opposed to Folk rock or Irish folk.[1]
The band has kept up the mix of traditional Irish or Scottish songs and self-written tracks, though the self-written tracks have progressively become less and less folky. The band’s influences are wide and varied, but obviously heavily influenced by Celtic rock bands like the Pogues, the Waterboys and Great Big Sea. Recent albums also see a clear influence from Gothic rock music.
And if you are wondering:
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents—small wedges, typically made of wood—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible.
Most hurdy-gurdies have multiple drone strings, which give a constant pitch accompaniment to the melody, resulting in a sound similar to that of bagpipes. For this reason, the hurdy-gurdy is often used interchangeably or along with bagpipes, particularly in Occitan, Aragon, Cajun French and contemporary Asturian, Cantabric, Galician, Hungarian and Slavic folk music.
A German group teaming up with a German hurdy-gurdy musician to sing Irish or Scottish influenced songs and folk songs.
We always say that music can bring people of all nations together, especially during Christmas.
P.S. Would it be judgemental, stereotyping, or something for us to note that the video of a Scottish / Irish influenced song played by Germans features images of beer?
Something different today as we are tired of writing a bunch of negative things.
A group called “WayNation” puts out positive videos featuring different Christian artists.
They periodically host what they call “Guess the….” where various people and artists gather for a “contest” to see who can guess the song before their opponent does.
This is their Christmas Song “battle.” (It’s fun to play along.)
Can you guess these Christmas classics before CCM legends, Michael W. Smith & Steven Curtis Chapman? Also, watch Wally take on Marc Martel of “How Many Kings” fame.
