September

 

[VIDEO] Happy Labor Day as I post this, and therefore this music video from Earth, Wind & Fire of the song September. Hopefully something for you to enjoy as we head in the last quarter of the year. It moved way too fast didn't it?

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

 I've got religion on my mind lately, I won't elaborate any further. Just wanted to share this song I heard at a Catholic Church many years ago. When this post is published it will be Sunday, so I hope you have an enjoyable and restful one.

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

What a fellowship! What a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms!
What a blessedness! What a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms!

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning, leaning leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms!
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms! [REFRAIN]

What have I to dread? What have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on th everlasting arms! [REFRAIN]

Saw the Tupac movie recently

Over at E.M. I wrote a post about seeing All Eyez on Me this past Friday. Many gangsta rap/Tupac fans were eagerly anticipation this biopic of Tupac Shakur who died so young in September 1996.

In that post at E.M. I start off by saying it's rare a negative post is written about a movie. Most of the time when going to the show it's about entertainment and you just go up find a movie to see and there's nothing groundbreaking about the movie. Instead you watch be entertained and then you just forget about it. It's not often you watch a movie that is entirely memorable.

I could compare this film with the hit movie from two years ago Straight Out of Compton. I'm not sure the Tupac film could even compare even if an important character included the infamous gangsta rap producer Suge Knight.

To be sure, though this film has brought back so many memories of the 1990s music scene. The young people are listening to vastly different music and some of it has very little meaning. Tupac at least started off with a message especially in providing a voice to the voiceless.

Here's hoping Tupac's story inspires someone, especially a young person to take up his mantle. Provide a voice for the voiceless through a variety of mediums whether social media or with art such as music, painting, sculpture, or writing.

Steve Goodman: A Dying #Cubs Fan's Last Request #postseason #flythew

[VIDEO] A nice song by the late Steve Goodman. The response to this song caused him to write the Cubs anthem - Go Cubs Go - you may hear at Wrigley Field after Cubs victories, especially if you're actually there at a game also when you watch a TV broadcast.

Goodman unfortunately would die of cancer in September 1984, that year the Cubs faced the San Diego Padres and would lose the NLCS that year and went the full five games. Up until 1985, the NLCS was best three out of five games.

All the same this silly but somewhat sad song has a new meaning as there have been generations of Cubs fans who have been waiting for a Cubs world series. They got one and now they hope of a long time in coming world series victory.

We shall see as game 1 of the 2016 world series against another long suffering team - Cleveland Indians - will start Tuesday night.

In the meanwhile I can only hope that Mr. Goodman is smiling from the stars especially when the Cubs clinched the National League pennant!

I want to refer you to the last two posts regarding the Cubs. The first is the championship history of the Cubs which dates all the way back to the founding of the National League in 1876. Then there is another post and my history of Cubs fandom.

Garry Shandling

[VIDEO] Now I have the theme of his 1980s sitcom in my head. I now know that it used to air on Showtime originally but when I first saw it FOX aired It's Garry Shandling's Show. Of course he moved onto Larry Sanders but I never had the opportunity to get to know that show in its entirety.

Shandling passed away Thursday and this is the only reason I bring up those classics. RIP

September has crept up on me again...

[VIDEO] Summer is over because today is Memorial Labor Day so to mark the start of Autumn even if the official day is not until later this month, let's hear some Earth, Wind & Fire. It's still a great song!

I marked the start of this month this way back in 2008!

Obligatory music post

[VIDEO] It's interesting how in spite of my lack of interest in much at times, I always discover something that proves to be interesting. I only wish the music industry could produce this quality today although there is an apparently lack of hipness on my part therefore there's probably something out there worthwhile that's worth listening to.

Anyway, I got wind of a 34-year-old rap song by The Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight. Wow, blows me away and unfortunately I found the 14 minute version of this song. What's in the video above is the 12" single version.

What also helped bring the song to my attention was a artful rendition of this song shown on Tonight with Jimmy Fallon during their premiere week. Basically editing footage of NBC anchors Brian Williams and Lester Holt. [VIDEO]

BTW, if you're from Chicago you might remember Mr. Holt as an anchor at WBBM-TV.

ALSO, I've downloaded from iTunes a much shorter version of this song. So now I can carry it with me as long as I'm able to play this song! :)

In the mood for "The Right Stuff"

[VIDEO] When I was in high school (GO FALCONS) I had designs on being an astronaut and unfortunately that was one path never followed. Basically my vision was to go on a real live "Star Trek" thanks to the fact that I was a fan of that franchise and other series and movies that involved space exploration.

There was a documentary mini-series that aired on TBS years ago called Moonshot that chronicled the early days of the space program and through the Apollo years. Then at theaters was Apollo 13 which is a real life story of a "moonshoot" that didn't quite land on the moon due to a mechanical failure.

Then in my junior year of high school I did a research paper on the lead-up to Apollo 11. I have to say, at one point in my paper was a paragraph that was a full page long. What was that about? LOL!

Anyway, during this time I discovered this movie called The Right Stuff that also chronicles the early days of the space program and somehow fits in the role of aerospace pioneering by one Chuck Yeager. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier in the late 1940s.

So I'm a huge fan of movie soundtracks and therefore want to share some music from The Right Stuff's soundtrack. It's very heroic although in this YouTube vid above it turned heavily 1980s near the end. This movie definitely was an homage to a group of men called the Mercury 7 who were the first Americans trained for spaceflight.

Now I need to find this film!

This song makes me miss the 1980s

[VIDEO] I'm old enough to barely remember the 1980s. So young by the time I became aware of the decade that was, it became the 1990s just like that.

80s culture is different by culture I'm referring to music, TV or even movies for example. There were other aspects than that I'm sure, but those are the easiest ones to point out.

While the music scene of the 21st Century doesn't stand out to me as much as it did the last century, wouldn't anyone get a kick out of a music video inspired by the one above. Talking Heads song "Road to Nowhere" and watching the video version I pay attention to the running man in the lower right hand corner.

Consider this your Saturday entertainment on this blog!

If I had a humor blog, I've decided on background music...

[VIDEO] The theme to Curb Your Enthusiasm. I don't have HBO anymore is that show still on?

This music gives everything a hilarious feel to it! BTW, good thing I don't have a humor blog because I've learned over the years that well humor is not my forte. Although we do have our moments even if humor isn't what we're good at! lol

VIDEO: "I Wanna Be Rich"

[VIDEO] You know this song just popped into my head at random today. Right now it's my current aspiration although well one needs a plan to get rich or maybe one doesn't have no idea. All the same it would be nice to make more money than I currently do now.

 BTW, this song is just indicative of my 80s experience. I was a child of the 80s, but by the time I became aware of the period it was about to be over and then started the 90s a time where I came of age!

Anyway enjoy Calloway's I Wanna Be Rich. :)

Yeah, so the song was released in 1989 and reached #2 on record charts in 1990. So it's still a 1980s song. :P

In honor of Sherman Hemsley

[VIDEO] I had little idea that he had an album Dance back in the early 90s. We mostly know him as George Jefferson from the sitcom The Jeffersons and another sitcom Amen. Since both of those series are no longer in production whenever we see Hemsley make an appearance his characters weren't much different that the personas he had been most famous for.

In the video above he performed one of the songs for his album on Soul Train in 1992. Ya know I wonder how many albums he sold at that time.

I'm doing all this to note that Hemsley died yesterday, he was 74.

Went to see the Morehouse Glee Club last night

Glee Club and Morehouse Alumni sing college hymn on stage

It hits me that 2011 and 2012 marks a milestone in my own personal history with Morehouse College. In 2001, I was accepted to Morehouse for the first time and Spring 2002 marked my first semester there. Back then I was talking a good game about supporting Morehouse, however, I have yet to put my money where my mouth is.

Anyway it's been 10 years since my acceptance and my first semester there. And of course after dropping out for a year and half due to money and it took me some time to finally graduate from Morehouse. I can't believe that it's been that long already. Where has the time gone?

Last night, I saw current Men of Morehouse perform at the Harris Theater. The Morehouse Glee Club came to Chicago and performed and impressed a lot of people who never got to see the Glee Club perform. This is the first concert I've been to involving the Glee Club. They often performed at college functions such as crown forums or even baccalaureate and commencement. Sometimes they perform at events such as that for the King Memorial.

Believe it or not, I hadn't planned on going. My mother just decided this was something she wanted to do and she had tickets through her job so we went last night. It was a great performance and say what you will about them the Glee Club has talent.

Here's an example of what they perform. They performed this very song last night in fact, "Betelehemu" [VIDEO]

This has encouraged my mother to support schools like Morehouse College. She may give a donation in the future and I would also be interested as well although I've yet to find a "Morehouse Man job". Also I have other goals as a function of being a Morehouse Man that I think would be valuable but I'll save that for another post.

I went to a Catholic Church for the first time...

On Wednesday night I went to St. Elizabeth Catholic Church located in the Bronzeville (also known as the Black Metropolis because it is a historic black neighborhood) neighborhood at about 41st & Michigan Avenue. And don't think I went to mass, it was actually for a memorial service of a family friend. And I thought it was nice.

The church was a lot more intimate than I'm used to. A nice pit with a table where the candles were lit and the podium in the background with a water fountain in the back. A big chair for the pastor. The benches were arranged in an unusual pattern that created a pit. It was arranged in the usual two rows of pews with a center aisle and outside aisle. I'm think I should find my way to a Catholic Church service one day.

I want to share this song that we sung during the memorial service there. It was nice.

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

What a fellowship! What a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms!
What a blessedness! What a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms!

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms

Leaning, leaning leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms!
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms! [REFRAIN]

What have I to dread? What have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on th everlasting arms! [REFRAIN]