IT'S BEEN A LONG, LONG TIME: We started watching lectures from Week 1 of our History of Rock 'n Roll class today. These first lectures are primarily about mainstream pop music before the birth of rock 'n roll. Bing Crosby was one of the biggest names in the business. I made sure to tell the kids he's from Washington. I think the only Bing they've heard to date is "White Christmas," so I had them listen to "It's Been a Long, Long Time," a lovely performance with the Les Paul Trio.
Sinatra also got his start before rock took off. We listened to "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" (interestingly, Phil Silvers was one of the song's co-writers).
Big Band music was also pre-rock. The kids learned a bit about Benny Goodman, Harry James, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey and, of course, Glenn Miller. I had them listen to a Miller recording of "A String of Pearls" from November 8, 1941,
When it came to women, The Andrews' Sisters were as big as anyone. I played "Rum and Coca Cola"on YouTube for the kids.
A couple lectures covered the early years of country and western music - and yes, the 'and' belongs between those two words. We learned about the differences between country music (mostly SE U.S., with white gospel influences) and western music ('cowboy' songs and Western swing, with roots in Texas, Oklahoma and California). Early country artists were the Carter Family, Roy Acuff and Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers (you know we just HAD to listen to a track from them today!). Early western music stars were Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
We also learned about the rise of Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry, and the birth of bluegrass, which isn't as long ago as most people think it is. It pretty much spawned when Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys burst on the scene in 1945. We listened to Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" as an example.
We also watched a video featuring a 1952 television performance by singer-songwriter Hank Williams where he performed "Hey, Good Lookin' " Afterward, I found myself reading a wiki about him, and learned he had spina bifida. Speculation is the pain from that condition is one of the factors that 'helped' him get hooked on narcotics.
A FRICKIN' LASER BEAM!: Our favorite, laser-shootin', Mars explorin' rover continues to be a workhorse on the Red Planet. The rover recently drilled into some sandstone, zapped it with ChemCam, and then took this photo of it.
Now, some of the powdered rock collected is inside MSL, to be analyzed by its on board lab instruments.
AND A REAL, LIVE FLYING SAUCER: NASA's gearing up for a Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) experiment over the Pacific Ocean featuring a saucer shaped craft. The flight will simulate the entry, descent and landing speeds a spacecraft would be exposed to when flying through the Martian atmosphere. During the test, a disk carrying an inflatable inner-tube-shaped decelerator and parachute system will be lofted to an altitude of 120,000 feet (37 kilometers) via a giant balloon. After release, rockets will lift the disk another 60,000 feet while reaching supersonic speeds. As it descends, LDSD will be traveling at 3.5 times the speed of sound, the saucer's decelerator will inflate, and a parachute will deploy to carry it to the ocean's surface.
On June 2, at 11 a.m. PDT, NASA will hold a media briefing about LDSD (coverage on NASA TV - http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv). NASA has six potential dates for launch of the high-altitude balloon carrying the LDSD experiment: June 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.
Here's a short video with more info about LDSD
I also found a neat classroom activity about LDSD - http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/best_ldsd_workbook.pdf
LAUNCH ALERT: We were all prepped to watch a Delta IV launch this evening around 5 when we got news it was scrubbed due to weather in Cape Canaveral.network. The launch has been rescheduled for Friday evening, 5:03 p.m. Pacific time. You can follow the mission on Spaceflight Now: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d366/status.html
There's a new Global Positioning System satellite on board.
country and western --> country - western --> country western I'd never thought of that. A lot of Elvis's early records were country. And he sang songs by Afr-Am artists who only were heard on "black" radio stations.
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