American Music Reflection

The most significant thing I learned about American music would have to be the origin of spirituals. George L. White, Fisk University’s
treasurer and music director in 1866, encouraged a few African American students to share their culture music with him. They weren't willing to share the music that was rich with slave codes and messages of their ancestors, handed down to them by their mothers and fathers, but they did. He then took their intimate slave music and intertwined it with the standard systemic European style of music and gave
birth to the genre we know today as Negro spirituals.
In his efforts to save the university from financial ruin he took the students on a tour, naming them, Fisk Jubilee Singers. They were not received well in the beginning but eventual
it caught America’s attention creating a path for other chorale singers of the “spirituals”
genre…

Driver's of Nashville!

I have been living here in Nashville for a little over a year now and I must say it's a beautiful city, but I am irritated with the driving skills of the natives. On a daily average, I have either witnessed a car accident or had the devastating pleasure of seeing the end result of one. While I am sitting in traffic during these frustrating times,I try to gauge the environment and there's mostly nothing amiss where the weather or streets are concerned. God forbid when the weather is bad! The stats definitely go up.
How are we allowing numerous poor drivers out on the streets? Are the driving tests here easy enough for 3rd graders? Is defensive driving not part of the driving test curriculum for a city that averages 2 accidents a day by my eye sight alone? I have yet to check the actual stats on the issue... But I will. This blog isn't over..

Enthused

" Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation and a pinch of creativity" Bo Bennett

What I have noticed about my self as a life time student is that in the past I was never enthusiastic about my academic prospects. Nothing really moved me. I did only enough to meet a certain need of that time. Taking random courses with no definitive goal insight. Looking at my transcript one would wonder "what were those needs again?" (laughing)
Now that I am back in school, there is something different. I actually know where I would like to be. This term my grades are more than average. There is a goal set. I can say that there is enthusiasm bubbling in my gut for the path I am on. Never have I felt so determined academically.
Students who are just in school randomly taking courses but not taking the time to truly figure out themselves in relation to their goals are honestly wasting their time. They will either flunk miserably or find themselves in a career that is unsatisfactory. There should be a sense of enthusiasm in one's academic career, so that there can be a sense of fulfillment in one's life.

BE EVER READY!

I've been hearing the cries of "snow! snow!" all winter long (since November), and now that it's here we act surprised! I'm sitting here in my apartment waiting for the sounds of the plow trucks, but they never come. Where are these blessed trucks this winter morning? Why aren't they here wielding their salt of rage on this cursed snow!?! Did we have disbelief in our own words of snow?Granted I'm not a native of Nashville... but if you speak of snow for so long there should have been proper previsions made in a timely fashion.

For a city that isn't used to snow of this capacity, there should have been enough sense of paranoia to set aside some funds and lay out a plan of immediate action for such a time as this. Looking at the world news and seeing all the calamity, we should be EVER READY for what may come!