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General Interest

  1. Inaugural History and the Faith of Our Fathers

    As we get ready for today's inauguration ceremonies, one has to wonder what the unique tone of this one will be. Certainly a celebration of our first black President. Certainly a celebration of our way of peacefully passing power with each new President. And there will be a prayer or two, which is likely to be where at least some of the discussion will center. The original words our Constitution specified for swearing in our President did not include the ending, "so help me God." That was added ...
  2. Do You Twitter? I Do.

    I have recently joined the Twitter community. It's somewhat experimental for me because I'm not sure how well it fits in the low brass world, but if you are into that, find me at:


    davewerden on Twitter


    I'll try to "Twit" now and then so it doesn't get too boring!
  3. Merry christmas!

    On December 23, 1968, our Apollo 8 astronauts were circling the Moon. Here is the message they pronounced over the radio to all of Earth. Below the transcript is a video if you would like to hear their actual voices:

    (William Anders)

    We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

    In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

    And the earth
    ...

    Updated 12-20-2017 at 04:54 PM by davewerden

    Categories
    Euphonium-Tuba Blog , General Interest
  4. Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

    Somehow during my growing up I came to think that we have had a national Thanksgiving holiday ever since the Pilgrims' meal in 1621, where they were joined by Indian chiefs Massassoit, Squanto and Samoset. However, that was not an official, annual event. It would be more than 200 years before that happened. But President Washington declared a "A Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer" on Thursday, November 26, 1789. According to the decree, the day was "to be observed by acknowledging with grateful ...
  5. Nov. 11 - Veterans Day. Remembering Plane Crash, Navy Band

    On Veterans Day it seems appropriate to remember the 19 members of The United States Navy Band who lost their lives in a plane crash in 1961. At a memorial service in Christ Church, Rear Admiral H.P. Weatherwax (Chief, U.S. Naval Mission - Brazil) unveiled a stained glass window "...to the glory of God, and in memory of the men of the U.S. Navy who lost their lives in an air disaster in Rio de Janeiro in the year 1960."


    More info here:


    United States Navy Band, ...
  6. O.T. Quote for the Day: William J. H. Boetcker

    William J. H. Boetcker was an American religious leader and influential public speaker. He was an ordained Presbyterian minister and one of the first "motivational" speakers. He offered these words of wisdom in 1916:You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.You cannot ...
  7. Bias in the News?? Nah!

    This is off-topic for a tuba-euphonium forum, but timely at least!


    We are within a month of our next national election. But even if it not nearing election time, you may still be following various stories in the news outlets. Do you know if your favorite news outlets tend to "flavor" their stories with a political slant? The odds are quite good that they do. And IF they do, perhaps you would want to seek out opposite opinions now and then, just to make sure you aren't being "sold ...
  8. IMDB - Still My Favorite Internet Site

    I LOVE movie music! Writing for the movies is a sophisticated art form these days. In the earliest days of movies, before they had sound, it was up to the theater's pianist to come up with appropriate background music to fit the action on the screen. As "talkies" became a reality, composers were hired to come up with the recorded soundtracks. At first there was substantial content from existing classical music. When I was growing up the TV Western series "The Lone Ranger" was how many people came ...
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