Live DC Bluegrass Broadcast Tonight 6-8PM

One of the best Bluegrass bands in the Washington DC area is Rockledge (Darrell Slone-Banjo; Mark Clifton-Dobro; Lynn Healey-Guitar; Bradley Sams/Bill Taylor-Bass). The band will sing and play live in the WAMU-FM studios in the Nation’s Capital on Katy Daley’s Open Mic program this evening (Friday April 3rd, 6PM to 8PM EDT), but you can hear them from anywhere on the planet through BluegrassCountry.org.

There’s more. Thanks to to a cutting-edge breakthrough in wireless radio-telephony,  people in Northern Virginia and parts of  Maryland can hear this exciting live concert free on those ordinary FM radio receivers found in many homes and motor vehicles! Astounding. Simply set the indicator on the device to 105.5 megahertz.

Both of the Bluegrass fans who actually own HD(tm) radios can hear the digitally-modified broadcast at HD 88.5-2 if they live near the transmitter.

This is a seriously awesome band. Hear Rockledge on the radio tonight and in the flesh each Wednesday at FireFlies in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood.

  

Image by Mike Licht, who is proud to have played bass for amazing singer and guitarist Lynn Healey.

Macon The Most of Cherry Blossom Season

Washington’s National Cherry Blossom Festival® begins this weekend, but today marks the end of  “The Pinkest Party on Earth,”  the International Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, Georgia.  Unlike the crass commercialism of DC’s event (“Brought to You by Target“), the spring observance in Macon preserves many of the serene, graceful, and contemplative customs of traditional Japanese hanami (blossom-viewing):  the Bed Race, the Sea Lion Splash, Pink Pancake Breakfast, Lawnmower Races, Pink Tutu Ballet, Amazing Animal Athletes, all your old-time Asian faves.

Macon also has poodles. Pink poodles.

20 January 2009

The 44th President of the United States of America will be was sworn into office on the steps of the United States Capitol today, January 20, 2009, just before after noon Eastern Time. See the White House web site.

11:30 AM Musical selections —  The United States Marine Band, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus

Welcoming Remarks— Senator Dianne Feinstein

Invocation — Dr. Rick Warren

Musical Selection — Aretha Franklin

11:46 AM Vice Presidential Oath of Office administered to Joseph R. Biden, Jr. by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens

Musical Selection— Itzhak Perlman (Violin), Yo-Yo Ma (Cello), Gabriela Montero (Piano), Anthony McGill (Clarinet)

11:56 AM Presidential Oath of Office administered to Barack H. Obama by the Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr.

12:01 PM Inaugural Address –– President Barack H. Obama

Poem — Elizabeth Alexander

Benediction — The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery

The National Anthem — The United States Navy Band and Sea Chanters vocal ensemble

Details from PIC. CBS on the Lincoln Bible.  Inaugual FAQs from VOA.  Live video coverage from VOA

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

New Heights for David Gregory — Meet the Press

Photo by Mike Licht (5’9′).

As Chief White House Correspondent for NBC News, David Gregory was already a towering presence in Washington journalism.  His appointment as host (pardon; Moderator) of the iconic Meet the Press program places him head and shoulders above his colleagues.

In making this personnel decision, NBC News management had to consider the past; they were choosing a successor to a beloved personality, the late Tim Russert.  But they also had to look to the future and consider one key question: Who could go head-to-head with the Obama administration; who could best interview the country’s new leaders face-to-face?  That’s a pretty tall order. They quickly decided the job would be a stretch for anyone except David Gregory.

Why? The answer, by the numbers:

Broadcast Bluegrass Returns — in Reston

Bluegrass radio is on the air in Northern Virginia. Why is this news? The transmitter, mighty 250-watt W288BS-FM (105.5 MHz), is the “translator” or relay station for Washington’s WAMU-FM which, after 47 years, deleted Bluegrass from its programming during the Great Bluegrass Purge of 2001. The American University public broadcaster put Bluegrass out to pasture way beyond the North 40, in the sideband Siberia known as HD Radio ™.

 

Refuge of Scoundrels

Milton Greenberg, professor emeritus of government at American University, wrote “I Swear I Am a Patriot” in today’s InsideHigherEd.com. Political wonks know Dr. Greenberg as co-author of the standard reference The American Political Dictionary. History buffs and WWII vets may know his book The G.I. Bill: The Law That Changed America, companion to the PBS broadcast of the same name.

Excerpts from Dr. Greenberg:

Patriotism is generally defined as love for one’s country. It is an easy step to identify one’s self-interest with the national interest and make it a test of patriotism. Nothing puts a person more on the defensive than a challenge to his or her loyalty to the nation. Claims of patriotism are often referred to, in the words of Samuel Johnson, as “the last refuge of a scoundrel,” though others see it as the first and last refuge of scoundrels. George Washington, in his Farewell Address, cautioned against the “impostures of pretended patriotism.”

Bo Diddley Radio Special Sunday 6PM on WAMU-FM

Hear Nick Spitzer’s 2002 interview with Bo Diddley on WAMU-FM 88.5 this Sunday, June 8, 2008.  Rock n’ Roll icon Bo Diddley (Ellas Bates McDaniel) passed away on June 2nd. Bo Diddley lived here in Washington, DC in the early 1960s, worked with local musicians, and recorded the classic Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger in his basement at 2614 Rhode Island Avenue, NE.

Fort Reno Park and Outer Space

Some people think the music played at Fort Reno’s summer concerts is pretty far-out, and the Washington, DC park is on a hill, but the place never had a real relationship to outer space until now. Interpretation of satellite data revealed possible arsenic contamination in the park’s soil, and it was shut down.

The park has re-opened after soil testing gave it a more-or-less clean bill of health, and concerts will go on, although a nearby area has been closed for additional soil testing. The initial poison report came from analysis of data from the LANDSAT satellite (above).

Halloween Warm-Up

This week is “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” at U.S. campuses nation-wide, but not at American University, where event producers couldn’t find student sponsorship.

100 universities are said to be participating, including George Washington, Georgetown and George Mason. The activities are not without controversy, here and elsewhere. “Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week” is a production of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and local Young America’s Foundation chapters appear to be campus hosts for many of the events.

Locally, Michael Ledeen and Daphne Patai spoke Monday morning at George Washington University’s Mt. Vernon Campus, and Luana Saghieh and Alan Nathan appeared Monday at 8:30pm at George Mason University’s Johnson Center Cinema. The initiative’s founder, David Horowitz, speaks at GWU’s Marvin Center at 8pm on October 25^th.

The list of speakers, a guide to student host organizations, and other information is on the web.