Running Towards
This amazing video is an ad for the Sharp’s SH-08C handset. Pretty cool how they built a long stepped wooden ramp, down which a wooden ball rolls and strikes a wooden bar to produce each note. The video goes on for about 2 minutes, during which the impacts play some of the 10th movement of Bach’s Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben.
The video was uploaded one day before the earthquake and tsunami.
Marley would have been 66 today and this video celebrates his birthday via the Playing for Change foundation and Marley’s estate. If your not familiar with Playing for Change, it was founded by Mark Johnson, dedicated to creating positive change through music and arts education. They released an album called Songs Around the World, back in 2009, which included an awesome version of Stand By Me. Be kind, give them both a listen, and make a contribution to the foundation if you can.
It’s also my wife’s birthday so Happy Birthday Lorie
Today is the day I do my ‘alumni’ show on WLTL and I’ll be hosting this afternoon from 2 to 4 pm. I will be brining along two second generation broadcasters to keep me company. My son Matt was on the radio station at Downers Grove South during the 2008 school year and my daughter Jenna was on during the 2009 school year. We will be playing some alternative Christmas music, talking about their radio experiences and maybe take a trip back to 1979.
Tune in to 88.1 FM if you in the LaGrange area or you can stream the show from http://www.wltl.net/rock/index.php and click ‘listen live’.
Update: I had a great time hosting the show with Matt and Jenna. The station was quite a bit larger than I remember as they took over what used to be the video studios on the lower south east corner of the north campus building (Brainerd and Elm). The old classroom where we learned the finer points of broadcasting was still there and you still step down into the entrance to the studio but instead of 
making an immediate left into the news room/PSA prep area and then into the actual DJ area, you step down and keep going straight where the room opens up into basically a living room/green room complete with couches a TV and some computer workstations. Along the left wall (the Brainerd side) there are now three studios: a smaller prep recording studio, the main large broadcasting studio and then another smaller prep studio. The main broadcasting studio is about three times the size of our original studio we had in ‘79 and the only remnants of that era that I could see was two rows of record albums stacked on shelves against one of the walls.
They have the top wall section of the ‘green room’ nicely decorated all the way around with many of our old school record album covers in individual frames. Each album is numbered with what I would guess is the code to find the songs on the mp3 digital system. It is nice that they kept a touch of the past in this new very impressive area.
Thanks to the WLTL staff and advisors for letting me be a part of this years alumni week. I look forward to participating again next year and hope to get a few of my classmates to do it with me.
On our recent trip to Minnesota to see the Sox play the Twins at the new Target field, I was able to hear my uncle play the awesome pipe organ at the First Baptist Church of Saint Paul. The church opened in 1875 and at the time had one of the most impressive pipe organs in the Midwest. He plays there every Sunday morning at 10:45, driving in from his home in Excelsior, about 45 minutes away.
My Son, Brother, Nephew and I had the pleasure of hearing him play for about 30 minutes before we had to hit the road to head back to Chicago. I recorded his practice session on my phone and posted the 7 minute video of him getting his practice in before the service.
The first half of the video is him explaining to us, how all the different knobs, buttons and keyboards have an affect on the sound that comes out of the massive pipes at the front of the church. The second half is him practicing his opening song for the service. The sound is a bit low in the beginning but once he gets playing you may want to turn it down as that organ has a big, big sound.
In the church I grew up in, the organ and pipes were at the back, but he explained that the setup can be in the front, in the back or on the sides of the church as it is up to the discretion of the architects and organ designers where to put the hardware. The placement of the pipes and the shape of the space work together to give each organ a unique sound and this old girl was pretty impressive.
Check out the video below.
My godmother sent me a little piece of history last week in the mail. She knows what a big Disney fan I am and when she was going through her childhood items, she came across a piece of music that was signed by and sent to her by Leigh Hairline.
Leigh wrote the music for ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ for Disney in 1940 and the piece of course made its mark on history when it appeared in Pinocchio in the same year.
Leigh lived in Owatonna, Minnesota for a while and became very good 
friends with my Grandmother on my moms side. He also got to know my mom and her siblings and was kind enough to give my godmother this signed piece of sheet music when she was taking piano lessons in the the old Victorian House they lived in.
Leigh had not yet become famous or worked for Disney when he gave this two her, so for her it was one of those ‘I know him when’ relationships.
It seems that all too often we loose track of the good people and the families who have made a positive impact on our lives. Last night I had a chance to reconnect with a friend I made way back in Kindergarten during the 60’s. Although you may think that you can’t have much of a friendship at such a young age, it did not necessarily start that way, but by the time we were in 8th grade together we had become pretty close with each others families. We played ball together, hung out together, played guitar together and the girl chasing changed from trying to push them down to trying to ask them out. We both went to different high schools, different colleges, spent time in different states and went on looking for what would make us happy.
Fast forward to 2010 where I received an invite from Kevin to come to a benefit show that he was giving to aid a wonderful cause called Odyssey of the Mind. The Odyssey program provides mechanical problem solving opportunities to K thru college students. We don’t have enough young interest in science and mechanics in the US, so this is a great program.
Kevin is an accomplished guitarist and songwriter and his partner has a 7th grade son who is involved with the program, so every year, they do a benefit that helps defer the travel cost so these kids can compete on the local, state and national levels. This year the benefit was in Brookfield Wisconsin which is only about 2.5 hours from my house, so I made a road trip of it to go see my old friend. I was not able to leave till almost 5:30pm so I did not arrive in Brookfield till almost 7:45. 
There was a good size crowd of friends and family gathered at the indoor/outdoor pavilion in and I just happened to get there while Kevin was on his break. Kevin looked the same as I had remembered him with just a few more grey hairs sprinkled around his still short hair. We talked for a few minutes before he had to get back on stage but before he did he introduced me to his wife who was kind enough to fill me in on some of the tings I had missed over the past 30 plus years.
I was a bit surreal to sit there for the next few hours and watch my old friend entertain the crowd. It was strange because even though we both have a son, a daughter and a wonderful wife, I did not feel that we had changed much since lat time I saw him. I was very comfortable just giving him a hug and picking up where we left off years ago. I hope he felt the same.
I was back on the road by 10:30 and home by 1 so it was a pretty quick turn around. Was it worth it to drive 5 hours to spend less than 3 hours with an old friend? You bet it was. I have many St. Francis buddies (girls and guys) who were always such great people and it makes me very happy to see that they still are.
You can check out Kevin’s Music over at kevinmulvenna.com.