Music Faculty Recital

Marcelo Lian, Debra DeFrain, Tom Ediger, Ken Meints, and Jake Bartlett

Tuesday evening, October 9,  at 7:30 in the Jindra Fine Arts Recital Hall, the Peru State College Music Faculty entertained an appreciative audience with a variety of music and instruments, from piano to voice.

Jacob Bartlee, bass-baritone, accompanied by Tom Ediger, piano, let off the recital with J. S. Bach's Qui Fecit Mihi Magna, part of which you can enjoy, along with selections from the other performances, on the video I posted.

Afterwards, Drbra DeFrain joined Tom Ediger at the piano and performed The Scarlet Cape, followed by the return of Jacob Bartlett to sing Robert Schumann's Veir Husarenlieder, op. 117.

The following translation give you an idea of the tenor of what Bartlett sang:

From this and that chateau

I sampled the wine,

While your blood 

Went dry.

Finally broke out

The hot fight,

My sword, and now

Your time has come.

At the piano, Marcelo Lian then entertained the crowd with Fredric Chopin's Ballade No.4 in F Minor, Op. 52. 

And Ken Meints, trombone, and Tom Ediger, piano, concluded the evening with Donald White's Sonata for Trombone and Piano.

In addition to the video, I posted some photographs from the recital.

College 101 Field Trip

 College 101 Classes with Joe Starita

On Friday, October 5, the Language Arts/Social Sciences College 101 joined with Ken Meints' Art and History College 101 class for a field trip.

On the way up to our first stop, Ken Meints talked with the students about Ponca Indian music.  Afterwards, we listened to come recordings before putting on a video about Chief Standing Bear, Standing Bear's Footsteps,  a famous Nebraska Ponca Indian and the focus of one of the books--I Am A Man--my section of College 101 reads.

We started out our day at the Beth Streeter Aldrich House and Museum.   Dan Holtz visited my class a couple weeks ago to talk about this still popular  Nebraska author. 

 

Beth Streeter Aldrich was a best-selling author from the 20s into the 40s, publishing numerous novels and over a hundred shorter works.  Most of her books remain in print.

After touring the house and the museum in Elmwood for an an hour a half, we hopped on the bus to Lincoln, to the Nebraska Historical Society Museum of Nebraska History.

The museum features on the third floor a collection of Nebraska Indian artifacts.   The slideshow from the trip includes some photographs from this selection on the museum's third floor.

After lunch and a tour of the museum, we all gathered in the museum's auditorium to listen to and interact with Joe Starita, who is a professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNL and whose book, I Am A Man, students in my class read.

For over an hour, Joe Starita talked with enthusiasm about the significance of Chief Standing Bear and discussed a variety of issues with the students before signing books.  

I hope that Joe Starita can visit Peru State in the near future, for he has never seen the college and looks forward to making his first trip to the Campus of a Thousand Oaks.

I recorded a few minutes of Starita's talk and apologize for not turning on more lights in the facility.   But you can hear with clarity Starita's enthusiasm for and love of his topic.

The Friday previous to our field trip, author Andy Duncan visited my section of College 101; check out the blog page devoted to Andy's time on campus and listen to a couple videos from his readings on both Thursday and Friday.

Homecoming at PSC, 2012

This year marks a special Homecoming at Peru State College, the final Homecoming Game played in the old Oak Bowl.  And while the Bobcats fell 28-20, everyone will take warm memories of the stadium with them.

 My day at the campus began around 9:00 in the Wheeler Center, where the college honored a number of people for the important role they played in the creation of this athletic center, including Jerry Joy and Doug Bereuter; Al Wheeler's son also joined the group to commemorate a new plaque at the entrance to the building:

 I posted photographs from this event for everyone's enjoyment.

After the ceremony in the AWAC, I headed to my familiar station down the road in Peru to serve as the announcer for the 92nd Homecoming Parade--my nineteenth as the announcer!

 

As Homecoming Part One photographs indicate, we all enjoyed ourselves at the parade and on campus afterwards for all the festivities that included entertainment provided by The Hoyt Street Jazz Ensemble and the Stepping Saints Dance Team--and lots of free food and activities for the youngsters. 

A special commemoration also took place, one that honored State Senator Lavon Hiedemann for his successful efforts in Lincoln that resulted in funds for the renovation of the Oak Bowl; construction will begin after the season's final home game on 20 October.  

This event outside the Fine Arts Building also paid tribute to the Sapp family members for their generous donation of $500,000 for the new stadium to honor their sister who graduated from Peru State College.  

The college also named in the family's honor a new recreational area alongside the recently renovated women's dormitory, Morgan Hall--if you get a chance, take a tour of the "new" facility.

I enjoyed the first three parts of the day and then moved to the press box to help with statistics as I have for the past, gulp, twenty years or so. 

Well, I hope that photographs in the Homecoming Part Two collection captures some of the excitement and enjoyment the game provided.


The festivities included the naming of the Homecoming King, Queen and Court.  This year's top royalty are Christopher Hawkins and Jenny Trapp, pictured on the right.

The game also featured between the third and fourth quarters a successful (we were all much relieved) marriage proposal, and we all congratulate Madison Farris and Becky Boshart.  

I enjoyed myself all day long and collected some video from the game to share with all of you.  

The video includes short sequences from Dan Perkins and the Hoyt Street Ensemble, The Stepping Saints Dancers, the PSC Band's Led Zeppelin half-time performance, The Peru State Pep Band, the Farris-Boshart romantic interlude, and the PSC Cheerleaders. 



Enjoy the video and the photographs.

 

Field Ornithology, Fall 2012

Field Ornithology Field Excursion, September 21, 2012

Every two years, biologist John Hnida teaches Ornithology and Mammalogy here at the college, and I try to get out with the class on their scheduled field trips, along with offering the class a slide show and discussion of area birds.

I have to upload some recent shots--including the Clay-colored Sparrow on the left--but you might enjoy looking at some of my favorite images collected on Flickr.

So on Friday, 21, September, we made our first two-hour walk along the Trace Trail; I added photographs to the set of images from the first trip from our second trip on Friday, 28 September.

On this second trip, Science Fiction and Fantasy author Andy Duncan joined the group--Andy gave  presentations on campus Thursday and Friday, all chronicled on the blog entry about him and his visit. 

Field Ornithology, Friday, 28 September, Trace Trail North of Peru

 Field Ornithology Class, October 12, Brownville

For our third, and probably final outing, we headed north from the Brownville trail head along the Trace Trail and the Missouri River.

On this crisp morning, we saw four kinds of Woodpeckers--Downy, Hairy, Red-Bellied, and a Yellow-shafted Flicker--Cormorants, Blue Jays, Black-capped Chickadees, and, among others, the mystery Flycatcher, perhaps a Phoebe, pictured on the left (image by Clayton Osburn).

I added photographs from this excursion to the set for the class.  

While a tad chilly, the fall colors brightened up the walk, as did the birds here and there.  On my way out of the area, a group of Eastern Blue Birds perched in the trees.

 

I added a video here and will include some other bird-related videos. This short sequence comes from October 6, early in the morning when thousands of Grackles invaded the fields and woods about my house: