Matthew "Sitting Bear" Jones

Matthew "Sitting Bear" Jones

To help celebrate Native American Heritage Month, Native Historian and Storyteller Matthew "Sitting Bear" Jones spent Tuesday, November 17, at Peru State College.

The program commemorating national Native American Heritage month was brought to campus courtesy of the Education Department of the Durham Museum in Omaha, NE.

The Durham Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the American heritage and to the enrichment of area citizens through sharing world-class exhibits and speakers.

The Durham enjoys reciprocal relationships with the Chicago Field Museum, The Smithsonian Institute, the National Archives and the Library of Congress. You should visit the museum's web site.

While on campus, Matthew visited two classes and talked with members of the college community in the College Theater.

You can view and download images from Matthew's discussions and stories from the collection I posted.

I was thrilled to see Matthew "Sitting Bear" Jones back on campus, for Matthew is an entertaining and seasoned teller of Kiowa tales.

I recorded a couple of Matthew's tales, including this one, "How the Bobcat Got its Tail," a fitting story about the mascot of the Campus of a Thousand Oaks.



In addition, I filmed Matthew's performance of a story about "How Death Entered The World," the telling of which he began in his native language, Kiowa.

I filmed this story from the balcony, but since Matthew performed on the floor and not on the state, his hat hides his eyes.

PSC Fall Choral Concert

Concert Choir

On Sunday afternoon, November 15, the Peru State College Concert Choir, Madrigal Singers, and Misty Blues, entertained a large gathering in the Peru State Theater.


Conducted by Dr. Tom Ediger and as the groups did in previous years, the three performances filled the theater with a delightful array of songs and wonderful voices.


You can, in fact, still enjoy some music and numerous pictures from 2008 and 2007, the year I first began this blog.


As usual, I posted photographs of the fun; feel free to download the entire "package" or individual shots.


The afternoon's festivities began with the Concert Choir's performance, which included a challenging twelve-minute number; I will include the name of this piece in the near future.


As he did last year, the talented Russian pianist Denis Plutalon joined the Concert Choir. Denis completes his PhD in Music at UNL. We welcome him back to PSC.


Enjoy a short sample on You Tube of the excellent performance.

PSC Madrigal Singers

The Madrigal Singers entertained with a fun variety of melodies, a couple of which I posted on You Tube for your pleasure.


Tom Ediger and the Madrigal Singers invite one and all to attend the pageantry, music, voices, and fun at this year's Madrigal Dinner that features a new opera, "Nerdwell: From Clod to King.

Just click on the following image of the poster for contact information.


Get your tickets now and join the Madrigal Singers in the Peru State cafeteria.


As they always do, the colorful and energetic, not to mention talented, Misty Blues completed another successful Fall Choral Concert.

Misty Blues

The Misty Blues performed a couple weeks ago at the Show Choir Festival here at the college. For fun, check out the group's pre-costume performance of Eli's Coming from the October 29 show.

And then view the group's new look and the same talented singers and dancers in this brief video from the Sunday afternoon entertainment.

The Woman in Black

Last Thursday night at 11:oo PM, 13o people gathered in the Peru State Theater to enjoy opening night of The Woman in Black's gratifyingly successful run, culminating in a matinee performance on Sunday, November 1.

Directed by Josh Young and featuring Peru State College Students Madison Ferris as "The Actor" and Michael Casvant as "Kips," the engaging and at times frightening play, a "Ghost Story," fit well with the Halloween season and also the Homecoming theme, "Nightmare on Hoyt Street."


After this successful and well-attended production, we all look forward to the next Peru Theater Company production and thank the cast and crew for all their efforts.

Thanks to everyone involved for a tingling and entertaining effort.

You will find a number of photographs posted for your enjoyment. As always, download individual images or the entire album.


Take the time to watch the short video that offers a look at three scenes from the chilling production.




And watch for the Spring Term play--No Sex Please, We're British--for you might just fine a role just waiting for your talents.






I also put together for Josh Young a short trailer for the play that you might enjoy:

Ted Harshbarger's Transformation

In the preceding photograph, Ted Harshbarger poses with the 1971 Peru State College Homecoming Queen, Vicki (Hall) Beilke.

As many of you might have noticed at Homecoming, Ted has gone blond.

I asked Ted the genesis of this new do, and he wrote me the following description:

Nebraska Phi Beta Lambda does a Husker Raffle every year which I provide all of the prizes for annually. Each year, as a little incentive, I usually offer some type of challenge for them. Three years ago, they finally raised enough to have my mustache shaved. This year, if $1500 was raised statewide, I said I would go blond.

If they raised $1,750, I said I would do a blue mohawk. Well, they raised $1,824 so you have the results. Obviously, my hair was not long enough to do a true mohawk so we compromised with the blue mini-mohawk which turned purple and black. But, you have the pictures to see it was blue at one point.

Well, I think that he just wants to have fun.

Peggy Groff supplied me with a series of photographs from which I made a film posted on You Tube and supplied here for your amusement.

Oh, enjoy the song.

Bonfire and Homecoming

NIGHTMARE ON HOYT STREET

This year, Homecoming fell on Halloween, which made for an especially fun-filled week at the college, which included an excellent football game in which the Bobcats defeated William Penn University to move to 6-3 on the year.

Student Senate, which organized the Homecoming Parade, also added some effective Halloween decor in front of the Student Center.

The preceding link will take you to the Student Senate photograph page which includes other images from this campus group's work.

This year for the first time in too many years, various campus groups--including the Cheerleaders, Athletics, Pep Band, CAP, and Student Senate--joined the Fire Department, Decker's, and others to bring the Homecoming Bonfire back to town.

The Pep Band led the Cheerleaders, students, and representatives of the football, volleyball, and cross country teams down to the lot south of Decker's were they all gathered to light the rain-soaked wood.

As the photographs suggest, the fire burnt hot, and quickly, and we will work to ensure larger crowds and more energy next year.

But the bonfire has returned to where it belongs.

I enjoyed announcing the Homecoming Parade for the 16th time and the pleasure of my company, Mara Giles and daughter Sofia pictured here.

Well, the combination of Homecoming and Halloween goes very well and manifested itself in entertaining ways, especially with the Pep Band, as the following few photographs suggest.




I took a few photographs at the game to share with you and hope that you enjoy the short video from the Bonfire and Homecoming; the movie features the Peru State Fight song.

Soul Specimen Performs At Cotty's

John Hnida, Guitar; Phil Chinske, Drums; Pat Fortney, Bass; David Norris, Keyboard

This past Friday night after the first Homecoming Bonfire in quite a few years on the lot near Decker's, about which I am excited, Soul Specimen gave its first public performance, entertaining at Cotty's Restaurant a loudly receptive crowd.

I posted quite a few photographs of the evening's festivities at Cotty's and hope that you enjoy them. Again, feel free to download what you like.

You will also find on You Tube, Soul Specimen's pulsating rendition of "My Baby Caught The Train" with Pat Fortney on vocals.

The excellent trumpet player DJ Martin joined the group and also lent his voice to the engaging "Baby Please Come Back To me" I filmed and published on You Tube.






Everyone enjoyed Soul Specimen's performance at Cotty's, and we all look forward to their next show.

Phil Chinske on Percussion

Pat Fortney on Bass

David Norris on Keyboard

John Hnida on Guitar

Good Time at Cotty's