Home Articles posted by ekkarn (Page 81)

Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas

Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas – (Book 6 for 2014)

So the question is: Can a 63 year-old grandfather love a book that features an eighteen year-old kick-ass female protagonist? The answer is a resounding hell yes!! The book is Throne of Glass and the heroine is Celaena Sardothian the Adarlan Assassin who has been captured and sent to a slave labor camp. Celaena has amazingly survived 1 and 1/2 years in the Endovier Salt Mines, when the story begins. The novel opens when Crown Prince Dorian Havillliard of Adarlan visits and makes Celaena and offer she can’t refuse return with him to Rifchold and be his champion in a competition to be his father, the King’s Champion! If she wins and serves the King for four years, she will be set free. Soon Celaena is on her way to join a competition against twenty-three killers, thieves and warriors to become the King’s Champion and ultimately be set free. Read More

William G. Morgan – Inventor of Mintonette (volleyball)

William G Morgan (23 January 1870 – 27 December 1942) Inventor of Mintonette (aka Volleyball)

On February 9, 1895 William G. Morgan a YMCA physical education director in Holyoke, Massachusetts unveiled his new game called Mintonette. Mintonette was designed by Morgan as an indoor game, that combined a little of tennis, you hit a ball over a net and a little of handball – no racquets you just used you hands. The game was invented about four years after basketball was introduced in the area by James Naismith in Springfield Mass.Morgan had met Naismith while Morgan was studying at Springfield College, Massachusetts in 1892. Both Naismith and Morgan pursued careers in Physical Education at the YMCA. Morgan designed Mintonette to be less rough than basketball, to be suitable for older members of the YMCA, but so that it still required some athletic effort. Read More

Richard Johnson, the only US VP Elected by the Senate!

Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson (October 17, 1780 – November 19, 1850)                           Ninth Vice President of the United States

So this morning as I was checking the events that occurred on February 8th, I saw that date in 1837, Richard Johnson became the 9th Vice President of the United States, What caught my attention was the Richard Johnson is the only Vice-President ever elected by the U.S.Senate under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment, which says in part….. Read More

Charlie Sifford the first Black Golfer on the PGA Tour.

Charlie Sifford

Charlie Sifford (June 2, 1922 – February 3, 2015)

So we all know about the great Jackie Robinson breaking color barrier in major league baseball. But do you know the name of the golfer who paved the way for Tiger Woods! I didn’t when I saw his name among the recent deaths today at Wikipedia his name is Charlie Sifford. Charlie was the first African-American to play on the PGA Tour. Read More

The Promise of a Pencil – Adam Braun

Adam Braun author of The Promise of a Pencil

The Promise of a Pencil:How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change                                   Adam  Braun

A pencil a simple writing instrument that many of us couldn’t wait to leave behind and move on to the mighty pen! But as Adam Braun visited many countries while he attended the Semester at Sea program, he asked children what they would want most, if they could have anything in the world. What he discovered was that many children wanted simple things like: to dance, or a book, one wanted a pencil, just a plain old ordinary No. 2 pencil! What Adam realized was that every pencil holds a promise to many of the world’s poorest children, that the simple pencil  was a symbol, a portal to creativity, curiosity and possibility! So for the rest of the semester Adam handed out pencils to children where ever he went. Read More

Immigration Act of 1917 – (February 5, 1917)

Immigration Act of 1917 (aka the Asiatic Barred Zone Act)

We all know that one of the main issues that has plagued the last several Congresses has been illegal immigration. The furor mostly surrounds the flow  of immigrants across the Mexican border into the US. The immigrants are not only from Mexico, but other countries of Central America. In spite of what we think, America has not always had open arms to all LEGAL immigrants either!  The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese from entering the US, and The Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907 was made with Japan to regulate Japanese immigration to the US. Today is the 98th anniversary of the passing an immigration act, that closed the doors to legal immigration to a large part of Asia……from Wikipedia….. Read More

Rick Sparks – Endless

Rick Sparks

Rick Sparks – Endless                                                         Quiet Piano to Replenish Your Spirit

Many times I am drawn to an album by the album cover’s art work. That was the case with the album at #7 on the Zone Music Reporters December Chart, Endless from Rick Sparks. The second thing about the album that caught my eye was that the album is a self-release. It seems I’m always drawn to these albums!. Hurrah for the little guy! But it was the quiet,and relaxing beauty of Spark’s piano playing that ultimately made this one of the most enjoyable New Age albums, I have listened to in a while! The tag line on the album reads “Quiet Piano to Replenish Your Soul”and that’s just what it did for me! Read More

Voyager: Cailyn's voyage through our Solar System!

Cailyn Lloyd

Voyager – Cailyn (Lloyd) – Released January 2015

 
Several weeks ago, I took a trip through space courtesy of the music of John Serrie and his album Day Star. Over the last week I have traveled through our own solar system tracing the travels of the Voyager ship, via the music of Cailyn (Lloyd)and her latest release apply titled Voyager. 
Cailyn is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She began her music career at an early age, starting with piano and quickly moving on to violin and bass. By her teens she was living in London, England and playing in blues and prog-rock bands Cailyn eventually returned to the states, still studying and playing guitar, bass and keyboards. Not satisfied with that she added drums to her repertoire. Oh, and she took some time off to raise a family!! Around 2004, Cailyn returned to music full-time, initially touring with the Alimony Blues Band as a guitarist and then with the power-rock band IX Lives playing guitar, bass and keyboards.
Since 2008, when she released her first EP, Cailyn has released three full-length albums,True Lies and Other Fairy Tales, a classic rock album recorded with WAMI award-winning vocalist Dani Daly , “Four Pieces”, an album composed of a fusion of progressive rock and classical music, that features three standards from the classical repertoire and one original composition, all performed on modern instruments, and her current release Voyager.
I really, really liked Voyager from the opening track “Voyager”, but then I got to the fourth track :”Jupiter” and I thought I know this song, and I feel in love with the album!. Seems that Cailyn and I share a mutual love of Gustav Holst‘s “The Planets” and for years she has dreamed about creating a progressive rock adaptation of the work. Finally, well let’s let Cailyn talk about what happened……, Read More