1. |
Missing Heidrun
02:03
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Heidrun went to Germany and I am missing her.
She will be gone for a month. I think it is great that she will connect with family and friends. At our age, you never know . . .
She has been going to Germany several times a year for many years.
That all stopped when the pandemic hit and she has not been in her home country for 3 years.
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2. |
Message In The Music
03:21
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"The music is the message, the message is the music. So that's my little ministry that the Big Man upstairs gave to me - a little ministry called love and happiness."
Al Green
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3. |
Dangerous Times?
06:46
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These are dangerous times — with inflation hurting us, weather killing us, the war in Ukraine, women’s rights on the line . . .
The world is on fire. We have lost a sense of collective truth. Maniacs and racists massacre innocent people and innocent children. Authoritarianism is very popular.
Haunting images of empty cities, wild animals roaming the streets and long food lines conjure George Orwell’s “1984”, Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale" and Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games.”
These dystopian visions are fiction - but these are truly DANGEROUS TIMES and the WORLD IS ON FIRE..
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4. |
TRAIL OF TEARS
02:39
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On July 4, 1776, the United States of America was founded with the Declaration of Independence, which stated in Grievance 27 that “He (The British King) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless "INDIAN SAVAGES”, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
The revolution was not only an effort to establish independence from the British but also a push to preserve slavery and suppress indigenous people's resistance. The U.S. government treated the indigenous people with a belief in white supremacy and set out to annihilate the so called "Indians." They attempted to eradicate the race through “cultural genocide”. The indigenous culture was fundamentally crushed.
This slaughter, forced relocation, cultural assimilation and unjust treatment was GENOCIDE, as defined by the United Nations.
"THE TRAIL OF TEARS" was a series of forced displacements of 60,000 indigenous people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the U.S. government. Members of the "Five Civilized Tribes" were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands, after the passage of the "Indian Removal Act" in 1830.
The U.S. government must drop its hypocrisy and double standards on human rights issues, and take seriously the severe racial problems and atrocities in its own country.
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5. |
String Quartet in F
13:57
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Since its birth around 1760, the string quartet has maintained a vital and profound hold on composers, players and listeners. Across time, nationality, and centuries of changing style, the string quartet has formed the backbone of small ensemble chamber music.
Music for the string quartet consistently features lyrical beauty, complex harmony, intense passion and powerful rhythm. This is my humble attempt at this extraordinary musical genre. Not being a purist, I did add some occasional piano and flute.
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6. |
Electric Vehicles
02:39
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Some cars look fantastic. Others are exceptionally reliable and well-built and more than a few have outstanding performance.
I love my EV. It will do 300 miles on a single charge and accelerate silently from 0-60 in a few seconds. It is supremely comfortable, airy and bright.
It is a complete joy to drive and I would unequivocally say that I would never go back to a gas car. I do not miss going to a gas station. In my almost 2 years of ownership, the only service has been tire rotation.
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7. |
Sound on Mars
05:29
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NASA’s Perseverance Rover has used its microphones to capture the sounds of the Red Planet!
They have determined that the Red Planet’s thin carbon dioxide atmosphere causes sound to travel slower on Mars, with a sound’s pitch further affecting its speed.
On Mars you would hear high-pitched sounds slightly earlier. On Earth, sound reaches you at the same speed, whether they are low or high. On Mars you’d have to be much closer to the source of a sound to hear it at the same volume as you would on Earth.
The atmosphere of Mars would absorb a lot of higher-pitched sounds, so only lower-pitched sounds would travel long distances. So it would be like wearing ear plugs - less volume and less high end!
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8. |
Go Grey!
02:36
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Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal. I play Senior softball on several teams. We laugh at ourselves and at each other. We share laughter as a team. This allows the trust to continue to build and become even stronger. When you laugh together, you communicate better.
Every winter, flocks of Geese take to the skies and work together to achieve their common goal of reaching a warmer climate. Common errors with human teams include lack of communication and allowing some members to take all the pressure while others coast through. Flocks of Geese never have these problems. As they fly, they honk loudly, motivating their tired teammates, and by flying in a V-shape formation, the leaders reduce air drag for those behind them. When the lead Goose is struggling, another one from the back swaps to give their companion a break. The result means that all members of the flock work and recover equally.
Who knew? Now if we could only get the geese not to poop all over the field!
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9. |
Summer Ballade
03:04
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"Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night."
-Mark Twain
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10. |
Memories
03:18
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"Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them."
- Bob Dylan
"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined - to strengthen each other - to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories."
- George Eliot
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11. |
The Whole Tone Scale
03:09
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The Whole Tone Scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone. The whole-tone scale has no leading tone and because all tones are the same distance apart - no single tone stands out. The scale creates a blurred, indistinct effect that does not give a strong impression of the tonic or tonality.
Béla Bartók's "Mikrokosmos" was the inspiration for this piece.
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12. |
Cicadas
02:34
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Newly hatched cicadas fall from the trees and go back down into the soil where they'll spend the next 17 years of their lives, sucking on the sap from tree roots for energy. CIcadas emerge from the ground as nymphs and climb the nearest available vertical surface (usually a plant) and begin to shed their nymph exoskeleton.
When they do come above ground, it's mating time. Males try to attract females by making these loud clicking sounds.
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13. |
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14. |
Tribute to Mr. Rogers
03:07
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Mr. Rogers was an American television personality, musician, puppeteer, writer, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
I am too old to have grown up watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and knew him primarily as the parodied version of himself - slow, awkward and dorky with different colored sweaters. The two recent films about him changed my perception. Mr. Rogers was a soft-spoken, gentle man with a peaceful demeanor showing humility and gratitude and trying to make the world a better place.
Of all the things Fred Rogers was celebrated for, the time he allotted to making children feel heard and appreciated may be the greatest.
I find this meditation from his 1997 Emmy Lifetime Achievement speech very poignant:
"Would you just take, along with me, 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are, those who cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life...
Whomever you've been thinking about, how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they have made."
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Steve Shapiro Oakland, California
Steve Shapiro has composed music for hundreds of radio and TV commercials, documentary films, infomercials and other TV programs. He was the music director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which produced hundreds of award-winning educational films and recordings. He has a BA in Music from Brown University and an MA in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. ... more
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