http://jameslogancourier.org/ News from James Logan High School en-us Nucleus CMS v3.24 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://jameslogancourier.org//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://jameslogancourier.org/ http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5641
By Brandie Moore, Courier Books Editor

At midnight, the premier of Twilight’s second movie, New Moon, opened in theaters.

Many, many people went to the theater at Union Landing to attend this event. Some may have expected the throngs of Twilight fans to just be teenage girls , but there were actually many adults and children, boys and girls. People came early to wait in line for the multiple showings of the film.

“I came around 6 p.m. and the line was already started. I was amazed. I think this movie is going to do really well. The only bad thing about this situation though is that they make you wait outside and it’s so cold out here.” Sally, a fan of Twilight, said.


As time went on more people showed up to the theater. Around 8 p.m. the lines were so long that it moved to the other side of the street.

“This is crazy!" a moviegoer named Michael said, "I knew people loved this movie, but I didn’t think it was this popular. It amazes me that there are this many people here on an school/work night. I’ve seen really little kids and I thought they are never going to wake up for school tomorrow.“

Around 10:30 p.m., ushers started to let people into the theater to get out of the cold. People moved in quickly leaving all their trash on the floor.

Inside, people got anxious. They crowded in the theaters until they were packed with people, making it hard to find a seat. Many people were buying food and drink and the workers in the theater even brought in a cart of food so people wouldn’t have to leave the theater and get food.

“I’m really excited! I got my popcorn, drink and candy and I’m ready. Bring on the movie!” a girl named Rose said.

When there were about five minutes until the movie started, people started the count down. When the lights dimmed and the previews started people started cheering.

The movie lasted about 2 hours and 30 minutes. As expected there was much cheering when the title appeared and when the familiar Twilight actors Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner made their appearances.

After the movie ended people were cheering and sad simutaneously. People left the theaters as quickly as they came.

“The movie was simply amazing! I loved every second of it! I can’t wait for it to come to DVD and more important I can’t wait for the next movie to come out!” filmgoer Zara said.

An attendee named Sid was less enthusiastic: “I thought the movie was alright. Still not as good as the books though, I hate how they take parts of the story out. They kind of rushed everything too.”

News reports today indicate the midnight showing of New Moon broke the midnight premier record.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5641 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:32:28 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5640
By Gurpinder Kaur, Courier Editor-in-Chief

On my brother’s birthday, he decided to have dinner at his favorite restaurant. So, on Saturday night, we were headed to Red Robin located in New Park Mall in Newark.

Known for their “Gourmet Burgers”, Red Robin also has many other options of food for those choosing something less common. From different types and styles of soups, sandwiches, salads, wraps, and entrees, along with a smaller menu for those kids, are available.

For those watching their weight, customers can choose certain ingredients to keep their calories in check.

Within the same minute we walked in the restaurant, we were escorted to a table fit for the four of us.

When our drinks were brought out just moments before we arrived, we were already asked what we would like to eat.

Going for an entrée, we waited about twenty minutes until food for four came out.

Being as tasty as it always is, I was once again satisfied with my order, and the restaurant.

Always satisfied with their employees, I, once again, was surprised at how thoughtful and polite they were. Even with a full restaurant, our waiter made sure she came around more than once to make sure we were okay and everything was how we expected it to be.

If one is looking for flavorful, filling food, a clean, warm place to eat, and courteous service, then Red Robin is a restaurant to keep in mind.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5640 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:06:11 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5639
By Gurpinder Kaur, Courier Editor-in-Chief

On a Saturday night, a friend planned her birthday dinner at Chili’s.

Because the planning was somewhat last minute, we were expected to wait thirty to forty-five minutes. Within what seemed like only fifteen minutes, our group of seven was headed to a back table that sat all conveniently.

While we all sat deciding what to eat, our drinks were brought out.


Chili’s offers a variety of different types of food for someone who was as indecisive as us. From the regular burgers, sandwiches, soups, and salads, Chili’s also has seafood, quesadillas, steak, grilled salmon and chicken, etc.

Some minutes later, our orders were taken where more waiting awaited us. About twenty-five minutes later food was given two-by-two, and some had to wait longer for food to arrive.

While handing our food, our waiter made some confusing jokes; jokes that we did not understand – nothing offending, just confusing. Whether they were funny or not, they had our group laughing at his attempt while the rest of us had our food cooking.

Being a Saturday night, the longish wait we experienced was expected, especially since no reservations were made in advance, and the event was planned just hours before.

Overall, with the company of friends, the night was one to be remembered. Chili’s is a restaurant I recommend to have dinner or lunch with family, friends, or both for any occasion. Even with a waiter whose attempt to make us laugh failed, he was sweet enough to give the birthday girl a special treat at the end of the dinner. Whether he charged for that “treat” we don’t know.

Chili's is an international restaurant chain with about 1,400 locations worldwide.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5639 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:58:09 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=1044
skydog

From wikipedia:
Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American lead guitarist.

Allman is noted for his slide guitar skills. In 2003 Rolling Stone magazine named Duane Allman as number two on their list of the greatest guitarists of all time, trailing only Jimi Hendrix.He was a noted session musician, was a founding member and the leader of The Allman Brothers Band, and also had a major role on the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, by Derek and the Dominos, a 1970-71 band led by Eric Clapton. His nickname, "Skydog," was given to him by soul singer Wilson Pickett to replace his earlier nickname, "Dog." Pickett was acknowledging that Duane was always up, always cheerful.

Hear Duane Allman perform "Goin' Down Slow," free from youtube.com.

Early years
Duane was born in Nashville, Tennessee. When he was three years old, while the family was living near Norfolk, Virginia, his father, Willis, a United States Army sergeant, was murdered on December 26 in a robbery by a veteran he had befriended that day. Geraldine "Mama A" Allman and the boys moved back to Nashville. In 1957 they moved to Daytona Beach, Florida.

As a teenager in 1960, Duane was motivated to take up the guitar by the example of his younger brother, Gregg, who had obtained a guitar after hearing a neighbor playing country music standards on an acoustic guitar. Gregg later said that after Duane started playing, "he ... passed me up like I was standing still."

Another important event occurred in 1959 when the boys were in Nashville visiting family. They attended a rock 'n' roll show in which blues artist B.B. King performed, and both promptly fell under the spell of the music. Gregg reports that Duane turned to him in the middle of the show and said, "We got to get into this."

Allman Joys and Hour Glass
The Allman boys started playing publicly in 1961, joining or forming a number of small, local groups. Shortly thereafter Duane quit high school to stay home days and focus on his guitar playing. Their band the Escorts eventually became the Allman Joys. After Gregg graduated from high school in 1965, the Allman Joys went on the road, performing throughout the Southeast and eventually being based in Nashville and St. Louis.

The Allman Joys morphed into another not-completely-successful band, The Hour Glass, which moved to Los Angeles in early 1967. There the Hour Glass did manage to produce two albums which left the band unsatisfied. Liberty, their record company, tried to market them as a pop band, completely ignoring the band's desire to play more blues-oriented material. The Hour Glass songs that are on the first and second Duane Allman Anthologies, as well as the Allman Brothers' anthology Dreams are so radically different from the Liberty releases that they might as well be two different bands. Duane's guitar playing, buried in the 1960s albums, takes on the commanding presence that he later displayed with the Allman Brothers.

At this point Duane added electric slide guitar to his repertoire, after hearing Taj Mahal perform the Willie McTell classic "Statesboro Blues", the group featuring Jesse Ed Davis on slide; this was later a signature tune for the Allman Brothers Band. Duane used an empty glass Coricidin medicine bottle, which he wore over his ring finger, as a slide; this was later picked up by other slide guitarists such as Bonnie Raitt, Rory Gallagher, and Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The Hour Glass broke up in early 1968, and Duane and Gregg went back to Florida, where they played on demo sessions with the 31st of February, a folk rock outfit whose drummer was Butch Trucks. Gregg returned to California to fulfill Hour Glass obligations, while Duane jammed around Florida for months but didn't get another band going.

Session musician
Duane's playing on the two Hour Glass albums and an Hour Glass session in early 1968 at FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, had caught the ear of Rick Hall, owner of FAME. In November 1968 Hall hired Duane to play on an album with Wilson Pickett. Duane's work on that album, Hey Jude (1968), got him hired as a full-time session musician at Muscle Shoals and brought him to the attention of a number of other musicians, such as guitar great Clapton, who later said, "I remember hearing Wilson Pickett's 'Hey Jude' and just being astounded by the lead break at the end. ... I had to know who that was immediately - right now."

Duane's performance on "Hey Jude" blew away Atlantic Records producer and executive Jerry Wexler when Hall played it over the phone for him. Wexler immediately bought Duane's recording contract from Hall and wanted to use him on sessions with all sorts of Atlantic R&B artists. While at Muscle Shoals, Duane was featured on releases by a number of artists, including Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Otis Rush, Percy Sledge, and jazz flautist Herbie Mann. For his first Aretha sessions, Duane traveled to New York, where in January 1969 he went as an audience member to the Fillmore East to see Johnny Winter and prophetically told fellow Shoals guitarist Jimmy Johnson that in a year he'd be on that stage; the Allman Brothers Band indeed played the Fillmore that December.

Formation of The Allman Brothers Band
The limits of full-time session playing frustrated Duane. The few months in Muscle Shoals were by no means a waste, however, because besides meeting the great artists and other industry professionals he was working with, Duane had rented a small, secluded cabin on a lake and spent many solitary hours there refining his playing. Perhaps most significantly, at F.A.M.E. Duane got together with R&B and jazz drummer Johnny Lee (aka Jai Johanny Johannson, Jai, and Jaimoe) Johnson, who came there to meet Duane at the urging of the late Otis Redding's manager, Phil Walden, who by now was managing Duane and wanted to build a three-piece band around him. Duane and Jaimoe got Chicago-born and -raised bassist Berry Oakley to come up from Florida and jam as a trio, but Berry was committed to his rock band with guitarist Dickey Betts, the Second Coming, and returned south.

Getting fed up with Muscle Shoals, in March Duane took Jaimoe with him back to Jacksonville, Florida, where they moved in with Butch Trucks. Soon a jam session of these three plus Betts, Oakley, and Reese Wynans took place and forged what all present recognized as a natural, or even magical, bond. With the addition of brother Gregg, called back from Los Angeles to sing and replace Wynans on keyboards, at the end of March 1969, the Allman Brothers Band was formed. (Wynans became well known over a decade later as organist with Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.) After a bit of rehearsing and gigging, the sextet moved up to Macon, Georgia, in April to be near Walden and his Capricorn Sound Studios.

Success, Layla, and death
The Allman Brothers Band went on to become one of the best and most influential rock groups of the 1970s, described by Rolling Stone's George Kimball in 1971 as "the best damn rock and roll band this country has produced in the past five years" . After months of nonstop rehearsing and gigging, including fondly remembered free shows in Macon's Central City Park and Atlanta's Piedmont Park, the band was ready to settle on the band name we know and to record. Their debut album, The Allman Brothers Band, was recorded in New York in September 1969 and released a couple months later. In the midst of intense touring, work began in Macon and Miami (Atlantic South - Criteria Studios), and a little bit in New York, on the ABB's second album, Idlewild South. Produced mostly by Tom Dowd, Idlewild South was released in August 1970 and broke ground for the ABB by quickly hitting the Billboard charts.

A group date in Miami, also that August, gave Duane the chance to participate in Eric Clapton's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton had long wanted to meet Duane; when he heard that the Allman Brothers were due to play in Miami, where he had just started work on Layla with producer Tom Dowd, he insisted on going to see their concert, where he met Duane. After the show the two bands--the Allman Brothers Band and Derek and the Dominos--returned to Criteria, where Duane and Eric quickly formed a deep rapport during an all-night jam session.

At one point, Duane cautiously asked Eric if he could come by the studio to watch. Eric refused, telling Duane to bring his guitar because, "you got to play." Duane wound up participating on most of the album's tracks, contributing some of his best-known work. Duane never left the Allman Brothers Band, though, despite being offered a permanent position with Clapton. The Allman Brothers went on to record At Fillmore East, one of the classic live albums of rock and roll, in March, 1971. Meanwhile, Duane continued contributing session work to other artists' albums whenever he could.

Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident only a few months after the summer release and great initial success of At Fillmore East. While in Macon on October 29, during a band break from touring and recording, Duane was riding toward an oncoming truck that was turning well in front of him but then stopped in mid-intersection. Duane lost control of his Harley Sportster (a motorcycle with long front-wheel forks that tend to make it unstable) while trying to swing left, possibly striking the back of the truck or its crane ball. Duane flew from his bike, which landed on and skidded with him, crushing internal organs; he died a few hours later, less than one month shy of his 25th birthday. In a bizarre coincidence, bassist Berry Oakley would die 13 months later in a similar motorcycle crash with a truck, not but three blocks away from the site of Duane's.

Memorials
After Duane's funeral and a few weeks of mourning, the five surviving members of the Allman Brothers Band carried on with the name, resuming live performances and finishing the recording work interrupted by Duane's passing. They called this next album Eat a Peach for one of Duane's interview lines, in response to the question "How are you helping the revolution?": "There ain't no revolution, only evolution, but every time I'm in Georgia I eat a peach for peace. " Released in February, 1972, this double album contains a side of live and studio tracks with Duane; two sides of "Mountain Jam," recorded with Duane at the Fillmore during the same March stand as At Fillmore East; and a side of tracks by the five-piece band.

There is a widely believed urban legend that Eat a Peach was a reference to the type of truck that killed Duane, however that is not true; though the cover art of the album does a depict a truck underneath a giant peach, and whether or not it is a reference to Duane's accident or not is unknown.

A year later, after Berry Oakley's death in Macon following another motorcycle accident just a few blocks from where Duane crashed, Duane's body was laid to rest beside Berry's in Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery. The variety of Duane's session work and ABB bandleading can be heard to good effect on two posthumous Capricorn releases, Duane Allman: An Anthology (1972) and Duane Allman: An Anthology Vol. II (1974). There are also several archival releases of live Allman Brothers Band performances from what is called the band's Duane Era.

Shortly after Duane's death, Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd dedicated the song "Free Bird", which he initially wrote for a friend's wedding, to the memory of Duane Allman.

In 1973 some fans carved the very large letters "REMEMBER DUANE ALLMAN" in a sandstone embankment along Interstate 20 near Vicksburg, Mississippi. A photograph was published in Rolling Stone magazine and in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll; the carving itself lasted for over ten years.

In 1998 the Georgia state legislature passed a resolution designating a stretch of State Highway 19 within Macon as "Duane Allman Boulevard" in memory of him.

Allman was generally considered a pacificist and was highly respected among his band mates. A care-free hippie throughout his teen and adult years, he was an avid reader, enjoying the Lord of the Rings trilogy and his highly regarded comic book collection. He named his only child Galadrielle in honor of Galadriel. Although never formally educated, roadie and band manager (1970-1976) Willie Perkins has joked that Duane refered to himself as a "roads scholar" from knowledge attained through his own readings and travels.
]]> In Quotes http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=1044 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:09:00 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5638
ACTIVITIES
The annual talent show is approaching December 18th. Interested in performing? Pick up a purple application in Room 67. Today is the last day!

Coach Webb needs your help at the 2nd Annual Turkey Trot. Stop by the Career Center for a flyer with all the information.

Interested in Track & Field? Come out to the track after school to sign up.



MISCELLANEOUS
Come support the boys soccer team tonight vs. Hayward. JV @ 4:00, Varsity at 6:00.

Chilly in the morning and chilly at night, Logan’s long-sleeve t-shirt will take care of that. Check them out at Colt Necessities, located in the Career Center during 4th and 5th period lunches.

Students: Please return textbooks for classes in which you are no longer enrolled. You will be billed for these books if they are not returned. Book room hours for student drop-in: 8:00 to 8:40 a.m., 11:44 a.m. to 1:28 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily.

Come run the Turkey Trot on Sunday @ Cesar Chavez Middle School. The race starts at 9:00 a.m.

Need Driver’s Education? Your place is at the Adult School. Cost is $125. December 28, 29, 30 – Monday through Wednesday – 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Applications are now available in your house office or see Mr. Caruso in Room 77 for both an application and details. Hurry, classes fill up fast!

Drop-In homework/tutoring in Room 77. Daily before school 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., Tuesday-Thursday 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Popcorn available 4th and 5th period in front of the Career Center. Small bag $.50, large bag $1.00. “Be a general, pop a kernel.”

JUNIORS
Juniors of Latino Heritage: There is a Hispanic College Fair Thursday, December 10th in San Jose. If you are interested, please see Mr. Huertas in the counseling office for more info and field trip forms. Deadline to sign up is Monday, December 7th!


SENIORS
“Class of 2010” hoodies are available at Colt Necessities located in the Career Center during 4th and 5th lunches.

Seniors, if you are planning to apply to 4-year universities and have not yet met with your counselor in a group, please go to the Counseling Center during lunch to pick up a college informational packet.

Seniors: Please turn in your panoramic picture order forms and payments to Mrs. Whitaker at the front office by today. You can also order on the web. Fliers with more information are available in Room 67.

Also, don’t forget the blue Senior Contracts are due today to the House 12 Office. Blank contracts are available at the House 12 Office.

]]> Daily Bulletin http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5638 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:27:00 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5637

By Brandie Moore, Courier Book Editor

Pink, also known as Alecia Moore, came out with her 5th CD in 2008.

Her previous albums include Can't Take Me Home, M!ssundaztood, Try This, and I'm Not Dead. All of her CD's have been successful, but her single "So What" on her new CD Funhouse has become her first number one hit since "Lady Marmalade," which she sang with Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Lil' Kim. "Lady Marmalade" was a massive hit in both the United States and the U.K.

It's no secret that the hit "So What" is the song Alecia made after her breakup with her husband. The interesting part about that though is that in her music video her husband was in it well aware of what the song meant. Many of her songs are actually based on this break up.

The second song on her CD is called "Sober." This song is again about her relationship with her husband. This song is upbeat and easy to dance to. She talks about how good and strange it is to be sober. In this music video is pretty interesting in a strange way. It's almost like a crazy person made it.

"I Don't Believe You" is the sad song of her relationship. Unlike the last to songs it's slower and tear-filled. In her music video for this song she's wearing a wedding dress and looking at all the things that once made her happy. I think it's easy to get moved by this song.

The next song is "One Foot Wrong" and it is kind of a slow paced song with some faster parts. She talks about how basically you make one mistake and it changes everything.

"Please Don't Leave Me" is her most popular song out right now. This song talks about how in a relationship you fight a lot but in the end you don't want them to leave you. I think the music video for this song is kind of creepy but very well done. She shows the extent of how much she doesn't want her boyfriend in the video to leave and it's kind of psychotic.

"Bad Influence" is more of an upbeat song. It has a fun rhythm to it. Though she is a little bit repetitive in this song.

This song is "Funhouse" also the name of the CD. I think this is a really fun song to dance to. If you watch the music video for you see some freaky looking clowns. I think that it's a way of showing how people see clowns. But the main purpose of this song is pretty much how Pink feels in her house after the breakup.

"Crystal Ball" is a really slow song. I think this song doesn't really fit in with the theme of her CD. I do think this song is pretty and well written though. The lyrics are really nice and people can easily relate to them.

The next song is "Mean" and this song is a beautiful song. She talks about how people change after you move in and get closer. People start to drift away and she wants to know how they get so mean and change after it was so good. She wants to know how to move on from that. I think this song relates to many people's relationships.

"It's All Your Fault" is a song Pink wrote to her husband. I think this song is really sweet and heart breaking at the same time. She says how hard it is to breath and move on after all they have been though and how she can make him come back. This is another song people can easily relate to.

"Ave Mary A" is a fast pasted song. I really don't get the point of this song. It seems so random on this CD. The lyrics sound like how she feels about the breakup but it's a little confusing. I do think this is a good song on this CD though.

The last song is "Glitter in the Air." This is another slow song. This song is nice and sweet. I think this is the song she came up after all the pain of the breakup. I think this song is her "I forgive you" song. It's really pretty, but I don't think it's a song that should have been put on this CD.

As you can tell this whole CD was based on Alecia's breakup with her husband. The silly thing now is that they are back together and most of these songs are irrelevant now. But I do recommend this CD. If you liked her other albums you'll like this one to. Pink truly is an amazing artist.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5637 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:58:58 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5636
By Beatrice Esteban, Courier Staff Writer

Underground Japanese producer Nujabes (real name Jun Seba) emerged onto the scene in 2003 with melodic, jazz-based beats and meaningful lyrics. People from both Japan and other countries developed an appreciation and respect for his music, finding it to be a stark contrast to mainstream hiphop’s repetitive hooks and misogynistic lyrics. Over the years he has not disappointed listeners, collaborating with other producers and artists to deliver such albums as 2005’s Modal Soul. The follow-up Mellow Beats, Friends & Lovers, released in July of this year, was intended on preserving his reputation as a musical mastermind.

Many listeners that have listened to Nujabes’ past albums were expecting him to have turned out yet another exceptional album. However, the same dedicated listeners that appreciated the tranquility and solitude offered to them may end up disappointed and regretful of their time. Songs such as “Kiss of Life”, “After It”, and "Sitting on the Beach” begin with soothing instruments such as the piano and violin, but completely change the mood of the song by introducing either striking, obnoxious vocals or taking on completely different tempos halfway in. The listener may decide to end their time there, but if they choose to continue, there are a few more likeable songs, despite the fact that many tend to draw themselves out for far too long. For instance “Green Power,” gives the listener a relaxed feel, but it would have been better as a song rather than a simple instrumental. The piano screams “love lyrics” and soothes the listener, making this song one of the better ones off of this album.

Another one of these “better” songs is “Right Here” by DJ Mitsu The Beats and Dwele (of Kanye West and Common collaboration fame). In the beginning, the song begins to sound like a song by Common, but later evolves into a sound similar to that of older R&B artists such as Maxwell. The saxophone in the background adds a unique touch but is far too subtle, buried by Dwele’s rapping.

The highlights of this album are the two songs with the beautiful lyrical content and relaxing harmonies that Nujabes’ collaborations have gained notoriety for. In JAM’s “Jazzy Joint,” the listener is immediately given the impression that they are in a jazz club, complete with a saxophone. The lyrics are extremely optimistic, telling the listener, “We’ll find time for love to exist.” Rapper Jose James has a voice that sounds similar to today’s rappers, but with meaningful lyrics. Meanwhile, Uyama Hiroto’s “Vision Eyes” gives a more urban feel. Hiroto and Nujabes have collaborated various times and always come out with very satisfying music, so it is no surprise that this newest track is no exception, giving the listener an earful of Hiroto’s astounding saxophone skills. Aside from the instrumental aspect, the lyrics scream beautiful metaphor and true thoughtfulness, explaining that “in sleep, magic dreams reveal hidden patterns between what is real and imagined” and that “there’s none more profound than mere logic.”

Many of the later tracks tend to follow a similar pattern as the first few: they sound like Nujabes is trying too hard, with forgettable instrumentals and repetitive lyrics. The song titles do not seem to match many of the songs; “Lust” does not give the listener any type of lustful feel, instead making them feel as if they are playing a video game.

Nujabes has diverged from his usual style of instrumentals with beautiful lyrics, resorting to many unremarkable, average beats and bothersome vocal redundancy. The listener is left wondering how Nujabes could have come up with such an album in comparison to its subtle but beautiful predecessor Modal Soul. However, tracks like “Jazzy Joint” tell the listener that although he may have made a generally sub-par album, he has great skill that he merely has not executed properly.
]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5636 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:40:01 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5635
By Eric Brown, Courier Music Editor
The supergroup is a volatile entity. Whether one chooses to look at the ensembles formed by jazz titans in the 1950’s and 60’s or collaborations of a more modern bent, bands composed of various famous musicians rarely meet their expectations. The occasional supergroup, such as famous Eric Clapton project Cream, enjoys success and prospers, but for the most part supergroups collapse quickly due to infighting or simply fail to produce good music.


On their eponymous September debut album, Monsters of Folk, formed by Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes), M. Ward (She & Him), and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket) sidesteps at least one supergroup hazard, the pitfall of mediocrity. Using subtle production, true collaboration, and their undeniable individual talents, Monsters of Folk has developed a nuanced and masterful work of art.

Monsters of Folk begins with a Yames track, “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” that presents a radical new interpretation of folk music. Over a nearly hip-hop rhythm track and an unexpected (but excellent) harp sample Yames enters with the pseudo-soul falsetto that has brought My Morning Jacket fame. “Dear God” quickly introduces Yames shifting to his resonant lower register, bringing profundity to the song’s lyrics, which call into question God’s intentions (“I know I’m thinking aloud/But if your love’s still around why do we suffer?”). The following Marvin Gaye styled keyboard interlude and folky electric guitar trip close out this superb tone-setting opening track; after experiencing “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.) it is evident Monsters of Folk isn’t a leisurely pursuit, it’s a work that warrants serious lyrical and musical appreciation.

To say that from the second track on Monsters of Folk is scattered would be an understatement, but for once in popular music variation is used skillfully and artistically. The album vacillates between lively traditional folk jaunts, such as Oberst’s animated “Say Please” and Yames’ saloon toned “The Right Place”, and contemplative (though rarely dark) gems such as Ward’s “Slow Down Jo” and Oberst’s “Temazcal”. What makes Monsters of Folk such a phenomenal record however, are the non-folk elements the band chooses to interject. Some songs fall into neither the traditional nor contemplative category, and can border on bluegrass (“Man Named Truth”), alternative rock (“Losin Yo Head”), or even religious (“His Master’s Voice”). The unique flares Monsters of Folk employ aid them in making a truly new product.

“Say Please” is one of the better quick songs on the record. Oberst’s writing is at its prime (as it is on the whole album) and the track flows seamlessly. The dichotomy between folk guitars and a raucous blues guitar solo is one that is used multiple times on Monsters of Folk and is an excellent creative gesture. “The Right Place” and “Losin Yo Head” are both frenetic efforts by Yames that anchor the album. These two songs feature some of the most adventurous instrumentation on the album (presumably spearheaded by Mogis), from harpsichord and synthesizers on the former to wah wah effects that allude to George Harrison’s style. Other quick highlights of Monsters of Folk include Ward’s Orbison-like “Whole Lotta Losin’” and “Baby Boomer”, where all three vocalists trade verses like weathered storytellers.

Nuance is important on the fast tracks (how else could the aforementioned qualities function?) but is utilized even more brilliantly in the slow songs on the album. “Slow Down Jo” is easily Ward’s best contribution to the album, featuring Ward’s dark and slow vocals with only a plain acoustic guitar accompaniment. Later a plaintive steel guitar emerges in the background, a wisely placed production gem that cements the track’s beauty and grace. The song sounds like a hybrid between the best of Yames’ and Oberst’s styles; the fact it is a Ward song serves as a reminder of the true collaboration that occurred during the sessions. Two Oberst masterpieces, “Temazcal” and “Ahead of the Curve” function as the other emotional centers of Monsters of Folk. “Temazcal” is a haunted reflection (“The love we made at gunpoint wasn’t love at all.”) that uses precise imagery to conjure the picture of a dusky night on a Southwestern plain.

The album closes with a glorious Yames’ track “His Master’s Voice” that uses grandiose instrumentation and harmonies to conclude the album with style and suspense. After the final chord ceases to echo, the assortment of ideas put forth on Monsters of Folk begins to take effect. One might think back to the lilting “Ahead of the Curve”, where Oberst declares “I’m not carefree/I’m free to care, I just never do.” One can only wonder what Oberst is referring to, since Monsters of Folk is clearly the work of four brilliant men who have devoted their lives to creating extraordinary music.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5635 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:26:30 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5634
By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer


The Board of Education on Tuesday night received a report on the work that Instructional Leadership Teams are doing at each of the District’s schools to involve teachers in the leadership process, make decisions about the instructional program and lead and monitor the implementation of sound instructional focus.

Chief Academic Officer Wendy Gudalewicz told the Board how the Ball Foundation, which has adopted New Haven as one of a handful of districts across the country where it supports the development of high-performing schools, is partnering with the consultant group Targeted Leadership to provide ILT training. The training is built around the Seven Essentials for Continuous Growth and Improvement, designed to help meet the Board’s goal of having all students performing at grade level in core academic subjects.
The ILTs, made up of 6-12 teachers at each site and including representatives from each grade level and/or department, are focusing this year on three of the Seven Essentials:
• Providing District-wide instructional foci;
• Using data to inform instructional and professional development decisions;
• Learning and using research-based instructional practices.

Specifically, ILTs are working in support of the District’s focus on literacy, with Writing Workshop and Balanced Literacy. ILTs meet twice monthly at the sites and also are coming together five times over the course of the year for two-day learning opportunities, including visits to individual school sites for “walk-throughs” of all classrooms, to see how the work is being implemented.

Kitayama Elementary School Principal Lisa Metzinger and ILT members Allison Sayavong and David Ellison shared with the Board their enthusiasm about the program, the improvement they have seen in their students’ writing, and their experiences as hosts of an October walk-through.

Cesar Chavez Middle School Principal Alberto Solorzano shared how his staff is benefitting from the process and how they are looking forward to their walk-through in March, and ILT member Patsy Lockhart told the Board how ILTs make it easier for teachers to share best practices with their colleagues and/or ask for help.

Also on Tuesday night, the Board:
• Approved the creation of a Community Day School for expelled special education students, including a voluntary Independent Study component. The school will open in January in the annex building at the Educational Services Center.
• Received a presentation from the legal firm of Miller, Brown & Dannis and voted in favor of adopting a general counsel or full-service model for legal representation, though not with a specific firm.

Agendas of regular Board of Education meetings and minutes of past meetings are available on the District website: www.nhusd.k12.ca.us ]]> News http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5634 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:51:58 -1100 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5633
From wikipedia:
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American athlete who, after being a popular outfielder in baseball's National League during the 1880s, became the most celebrated and influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.

Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some years in an orphanage before working at odd jobs and playing for local running and baseball teams. His speed and agility provided him the opportunity to play baseball in the major leagues for eight years, where he was an average hitter and a good fielder known for his base-running.

Take an online tour of Billy Sunday's home.
Converted to evangelical Christianity in the 1880s, Sunday left baseball for the Christian ministry. He gradually developed his skills as a pulpit evangelist in the Midwest and then, during the early 20th century, he became the nation's most famous evangelist with his colloquial sermons and frenetic delivery. Sunday held widely reported campaigns in America's largest cities, and he attracted the largest crowds of any evangelist before the advent of electronic sound systems. He also made a great deal of money and was welcomed into the homes of the wealthy and influential. Sunday was a strong supporter of Prohibition, and his preaching almost certainly played a significant role in the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.

Despite questions about his income, no scandal ever touched Sunday. He was sincerely devoted to his wife, who also managed his campaigns, but his three sons disappointed him. His audiences grew smaller during the 1920s as Sunday grew older, religious revivals became less popular, and alternate sources of entertainment appeared. Nevertheless, Sunday continued to preach and remained a stalwart defender of conservative Christianity until his death.

Billy Sunday was born near Ames, Iowa. His father, William Sunday, was a Union soldier during the Civil War who had enlisted in the Iowa Twenty-Third Volunteer Infantry and died of disease at Patterson, Missouri, five weeks after the birth of his youngest son. When Sunday was ten years old, his impoverished mother was forced to send him and his older brother to the Soldiers' Orphans Home in Glenwood, Iowa. At the orphanage, Sunday gained orderly habits, a decent primary education, and the realization that he was a good athlete.

By fourteen, Sunday was shifting for himself. In Nevada, Iowa, he worked for Colonel John Scott, a former lieutenant governor, tending Shetland ponies and doing other farm chores. The Scotts provided Sunday a good home and the opportunity to attend Nevada High School. Although Sunday never received a high school diploma, by 1880 he was better educated than many of his contemporaries.

In 1880, Sunday relocated to Marshalltown, Iowa, where, because of his athleticism, he had been recruited for a fire brigade team. In Marshalltown, Sunday worked at odd jobs, competed in fire brigade tournaments, and played for the town baseball team. In 1882, with Sunday in left field, the Marshalltown team defeated the state champion Des Moines team 13-4.

Sunday's professional baseball career was launched by Adrian "Cap" Anson, a Marshalltown native and future Hall of Famer, after his aunt, an avid fan of the Marshalltown team, gave him an enthusiastic account of Sunday's prowess. In 1883, on Anson's recommendation, A.G. Spalding, president of the Chicago White Stockings, signed Sunday to the defending National League champions.[

Sunday struck out four times in his first game, and there were seven more strikeouts and three more games before he got a hit. During his first four seasons with Chicago, he was a part-time player, taking Mike "King" Kelly's place in right field when Kelly served as catcher.

Sunday's speed was his greatest asset, and he displayed it on the basepaths and in the outfield. In 1885, the White Stockings arranged a race between Sunday and Arlie Latham, the fastest runner in the American Association. Sunday won the hundred-yard dash by about ten feet.

Sunday's personality, demeanor, and athleticism made him popular with the fans, as well as with his teammates. Manager Cap Anson considered Sunday reliable enough to make him the team's business manager, which included such duties as handling the ticket receipts and paying the team's travel expenses.

In 1887, when Kelly was sold to another team, Sunday became Chicago's regular right fielder, but an injury limited his playing time to fifty games. During the following winter Sunday was sold to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys for the 1888 season. He was their starting center fielder, playing a full season for the first time in his career. The crowds in Pittsburgh took to Sunday immediately; one reporter wrote that "the whole town is wild over Sunday." Although Pittsburgh had a losing team during the 1888 and 1889 seasons, Sunday performed well in center field and was among the league leaders in stolen bases.

In 1890, a labor dispute led to the formation of a new league, composed of most of the better players from the National League. Although he was invited to join the competing league, Sunday's conscience would not allow him to break his contract with Pittsburgh. Sunday was named team captain, and he was their star player, but the team suffered one of the worst seasons in baseball history. By August the team had no money to meet its payroll, and Sunday was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for two players and $1,000 in cash.

The Philadelphia team had an opportunity to win the National League pennant, and the owners hoped that adding Sunday to the roster would improve their chances. Although Sunday played well in his thirty-one games with Philadelphia, the team finished in third place.

In March 1891, Sunday requested and was granted a release from his contract with the Philadelphia ball club. Over his career, Sunday was never much of a hitter: his batting average was .248 over 499 games, about the median for the 1880s. In his best season, in 1887, Sunday hit .291, ranking 17th in the league. He was an exciting but inconsistent fielder. In the days before outfielders wore gloves, Sunday was noted for thrilling catches featuring long sprints and athletic dives, but he also committed a great many errors. Sunday was best known as an exciting base-runner, regarded by his peers as one of the fastest in the game, even though he never placed better than third in the National League in stolen bases.

Sunday remained a prominent baseball fan throughout his life. He gave interviews and opinions about baseball to the popular press; he frequently umpired minor league and amateur games in the cities where he held revivals; and he attended baseball games whenever he could, including a 1935 World Series game two months before he died.

Conversion
On a Sunday afternoon in Chicago during either the 1886 or 1887 baseball season, Sunday and several of his teammates were out on the town for their day off. At one street corner they stopped to listen to a gospel preaching team from the Pacific Garden Mission. Attracted by the hymns he had heard his mother sing, Sunday began attending services at the mission. A former society matron who worked there convinced Sunday, after some struggle, that he should become a Christian. He began attending the fashionable Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church, a congregation handy to both the ball park and his rented room.

Although he socialized with his teammates and sometimes gambled, Sunday was not a heavy drinker. In his autobiography, he said, "I never drank much. I was never drunk but four times in my life. ... I used to go to the saloons with the baseball players, and while they would drink highballs and gin fizzes and beer, I would take lemonade." Following his conversion, Sunday denounced drinking, swearing, and gambling, and his changed behavior was recognized by both teammates and fans. Sunday shortly thereafter began speaking in churches and at YMCAs.

Marriage

In 1886, Sunday was introduced at Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church to Helen Amelia "Nell" Thompson, daughter of the owner of one of Chicago's largest dairy products businesses. Although Sunday was immediately smitten with her, both had serious on-going relationships that bordered on engagements. Furthermore, Nell Thompson had grown to maturity in a much more privileged environment than had Sunday, and her father strongly discouraged the courtship, viewing all professional baseball players as "transient ne'er-do-wells who were unstable and destined to be misfits once they were too old to play." Nevertheless, Sunday pursued and eventually married her. On several occasions, Sunday said, "She was a Presbyterian, so I am a Presbyterian. Had she been a Catholic, I would have been a Catholic — because I was hot on the trail of Nell." Mrs. Thompson had liked Sunday from the start and weighed in on his side, and Mr. Thompson finally relented. The couple was married on September 5, 1888.

Apprenticeship for evangelism
In the spring of 1891, Sunday turned down a baseball contract for $3,000 a year in order to accept a position with the Chicago YMCA at $83 per month. Sunday's job title at the YMCA was Assistant Secretary, but the position involved a great deal of ministerial work. It proved to be good preparation for his later evangelistic career. For three years, Sunday visited the sick, prayed with the troubled, counseled the suicidal, and visited saloons to invite patrons to evangelistic meetings.

In 1893, Sunday became the full-time assistant to J. Wilbur Chapman, one of the best known evangelists in the United States at the time. Chapman was well educated and was a meticulous dresser, "suave and urbane." Personally shy, like Sunday, Chapman commanded respect in the pulpit both because of his strong voice and his sophisticated demeanor. Sunday's job as Chapman's advance man was to precede the evangelist to cities in which he was scheduled to preach, organize prayer meetings and choirs, and in general take care of necessary details. When tents were used, Sunday would often help erect them.

By listening to Chapman preach night after night, Sunday received a valuable course in homiletics. Chapman also critiqued Sunday's own attempts at evangelistic preaching and showed him how to put a good sermon together. Further, Chapman encouraged Sunday's theological development, especially by emphasizing the importance of prayer and by helping to "reinforce Billy's commitment to conservative biblical Christianity."

When Chapman unexpectedly returned to the pastorate in 1896, Sunday struck out on his own, beginning with meetings in tiny Garner, Iowa. For the next twelve years Sunday preached in approximately seventy communities, most of them in Iowa and Illinois. Sunday referred to these towns as the "Kerosene Circuit" because, unlike Chicago, most were not yet electrified. Towns often booked Sunday meetings informally, sometimes by sending a delegation to hear him preach and then telegraphing him while he was holding services somewhere else.

Sunday also took advantage of his reputation as a baseball player to generate advertising for his meetings. In 1907 in Fairfield, Iowa, Sunday organized local businesses into two baseball teams and scheduled a game between them. Sunday came dressed in his professional uniform and played on both sides. Although baseball was his primary means of publicity, Sunday also once hired a circus giant to serve as an usher.

When Sunday began to attract crowds larger than could be accommodated in rural churches or town halls, he pitched rented canvas tents. Again, Sunday did much of the physical work of putting them up, manipulating ropes during storms, and seeing to their security by sleeping in them at night. Not until 1905 was he well enough off to hire his own advance man.

In 1906, an October snowstorm in Salida, Colorado, destroyed Sunday's tent—a special disaster because revivalists were typically paid with a freewill offering at the end of their meetings. Thereafter he insisted that towns build him temporary wooden tabernacles at their expense. The tabernacles were comparatively costly to build (although most of the lumber could be salvaged and resold at the end of the meetings), and locals had to put up the money for them in advance. This change in Sunday's operation began to push the finances of the campaign to the fore. At least at first, raising tabernacles provided good public relations for the coming meetings as townspeople joined together in what was effectively a giant barnraising. Sunday built rapport by participating in the process, and the tabernacles were also a status symbol, because they had previously been built only for major evangelists such as Chapman.

Under the administration of Nell
Eleven years into Sunday's evangelistic career, both he and his wife had been pushed to their emotional limits. Long separations had exacerbated his natural feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. As a product of a childhood that could well be described as a series of losses, he was extremely dependent on his wife's love and encouragement. For her part, Nell found it increasingly difficult to handle household responsibilities, the needs of four children (including a newborn), and the long-distance emotional welfare of her husband. His ministry was also expanding, and he needed an administrator, a job for which his wife was ideally suited. In 1908, the Sundays decided to entrust their children to a nanny so that Nell could manage the revival campaigns.

Nell Sunday transformed her husband's out-of-the-back-pocket organization into a "nationally renowned phenomenon." New personnel were hired, and by the New York campaign of 1917, the Sundays had a paid staff of twenty-six. There were musicians, custodians, and advance men; but the Sundays also hired Bible teachers of both sexes, who among other responsibilities, held daytime meetings at schools and shops and encouraged their audiences to attend the main tabernacle services in the evenings. The most significant of these new staff members were Homer Rodeheaver, an exceptional song leader and music director who worked with the Sundays for almost twenty years, and Virginia Healey Asher, who (besides regularly singing duets with Rodeheaver) directed the women's ministries, especially the evangelization of young working women.

Campaign platform
With his wife administering the campaign organization, Sunday was free to do what he did best: compose and deliver colloquial sermons. Typically, Homer Rodeheaver would first warm up the crowd with congregational singing that alternated with both numbers from gigantic choirs and music performed by the staff. When Sunday felt the moment right, he would launch into his message. Sunday gyrated, stood on the pulpit, ran from one end of the platform to the other, and dove across the stage, pretending to slide into home plate. Sometimes he even smashed chairs to emphasize his points. His sermon notes had to be printed in large letters so that he could catch a glimpse of them as he raced by the pulpit. In messages attacking sexual sin to groups of men only, Sunday could be graphic for the era. Some religious and social leaders criticized Sunday's exaggerated gestures as well as the slang and colloquialisms that filled his sermons, but audiences clearly enjoyed them.

In 1907, journalist Lindsay Denison complained that Sunday preached “the old, old doctrine of damnation,” getting results by "inspiring fear and gloom in the hearts of sinners.” But Sunday himself told reporters "with ill-concealed annoyance", that his revivals had "no emotionalism." Certainly contemporary comparisons to the extravagances of mid-nineteenth-century camp meetings — as in the famous drawing by George Bellows — were overdrawn. Sunday told one reporter that he believed that people could "be converted without any fuss," and, at Sunday's meetings, "instances of spasm, shakes, or fainting fits caused by hysteria were few and far between."

Crowd noise, especially coughing and crying babies, was a significant impediment to Sunday's preaching because the wooden tabernacles were so acoustically live. During his preliminaries, Rodeheaver often instructed audiences about how to muffle their coughs. Nurseries were always provided, infants forbidden, and Sunday sometimes appeared rude in his haste to rid the hall of noisy children who had slipped through the ushers. Tabernacle floors were covered with sawdust to dampen the noise of shuffling feet (as well as for its pleasant smell and its ability to hold down the dust of dirt floors), and coming forward during the invitation became known as “hitting the sawdust trail.”

By 1910, Sunday began to conduct meetings (usually longer than a month) in small cities like Youngstown, Wilkes-Barre, South Bend, and Denver, and then finally, between 1915 and 1917, the major cities of Philadelphia, Syracuse, Kansas City, Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, and New York City. During the 1910s, Sunday was front page news in the cities where he held campaigns. Newspapers often printed his sermons in full, and during World War I, local coverage of his campaigns often surpassed that of the war. Sunday was the subject of over sixty articles in major periodicals, and he was a staple of the religious press regardless of denomination.

Over the course of his career, Sunday probably preached to more than one hundred million people face-to-face—and, to the great majority, without electronic amplification. Vast numbers "hit the sawdust trail." Although the usual total given for those who came forward at invitations is an even million, one modern historian estimates the true figure to be closer to 1,250,000. Sunday did not preach to a hundred million different individuals but to many of the same people repeatedly over the course of a campaign. Before his death, Sunday estimated that he had preached nearly 20,000 sermons, an average of 42 per month from 1896 to 1935. During his heyday, when he was preaching more than twenty times each week, his crowds were often huge. Even in 1923, well into the period of his decline, 479,300 people attended the 79 meetings of the six-week 1923 Columbia, South Carolina, campaign—23 times the white population of Columbia. Nevertheless,"trail hitters" were not necessarily conversions (or even "reconsecrations") to Christianity. Sometimes whole groups of club members came forward en masse at Sunday's prodding. By 1927, Rodeheaver was complaining that Sunday's invitations had become so general that they were meaningless.

Wages of success
Large crowds and an efficient organization meant that Sunday, the former resident of an orphan home, was soon netting hefty offerings. The first questions about Sunday's income were apparently raised during the Columbus, Ohio, campaign at the turn of 1912-13. During the Pittsburgh campaign a year later, Sunday spoke four times per day and effectively made $217 per sermon or $870 a day at a time when the average gainfully employed worker made $836 per year. The major cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and New York City gave Sunday even larger offerings. Sunday donated Chicago's offering of $58,000 to Pacific Garden Mission and the $120,500 New York offering to war charities. Nevertheless, between 1908 and 1920, the Sundays earned over a million dollars; an average worker during the same period earned less than $14,000.

Sunday was welcomed into the circle of the social, economic, and political elite. He counted among his neighbors and acquaintances several prominent businessmen. Sunday dined with numerous politicians, including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and counted both Herbert Hoover and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. as friends. During and after the 1917 Los Angeles campaign, the Sundays visited with Hollywood stars, and members of Sunday's organization played a charity baseball game against a team of show business personalities that included Douglas Fairbanks.

The Sundays enjoyed dressing well and dressing their children well; the family sported expensive but tasteful coats, boots, and jewelry. Nell Sunday also bought land as an investment. A fruit orchard farm and rustic cabin at Hood River, Oregon, caught the attention of reporters, who called it a "ranch." Sunday was a soft touch with money and gave away much of his earnings. Neither of the Sundays were extravagant spenders. Although Sunday enjoyed driving, the couple never owned a car. Their American Craftsman-style bungalow at Winona Lake, Indiana, where the Sundays had moved their legal residence in 1911, was furnished in the popular Arts and Crafts style and had two porches and a terraced garden, but the house had only nine rooms, 2,500 square feet (230 m2) of living space, and no garage.

Religious views
Billy Sunday was a conservative evangelical who accepted fundamentalist doctrines. He affirmed and preached the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth of Christ, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Christ, a literal devil and hell, and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. At the turn of the 20th century, most Protestant church members, regardless of denomination, gave assent to these doctrines. Sunday refused to hold meetings in cities where he was not welcomed by the vast majority of the Protestant churches and their clergy.

Nevertheless, Sunday was not a separationist as were most orthodox Protestants of his era. He went out of his way to avoid criticizing the Roman Catholic Church and even met with Cardinal Gibbons during his 1916 Baltimore campaign. Also, cards filled out by "trail hitters" were faithfully returned to the church or denomination that the writers had indicated as their choice — including Catholic and Unitarian.

Although Sunday was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1903, his ministry was nondenominational, and he was not a strict Calvinist. He preached that individuals were, at least in part, responsible for their own salvation. "Trail hitters" were given a four-page tract that stated, "if you have done your part (i.e. believe that Christ died in your place, and receive Him as your Saviour and Master) God has done HIS part and imparted to you His own nature.”

Sunday never attended seminary and made no pretense of being a theologian or an intellectual, but he had a thorough knowledge of the Bible, and he was well read on religious and social issues of his day. His surviving Winona Lake library of six hundred books gives evidence of heavy use, including underscoring and reader's notes in his characteristic all-caps printing. Some of Sunday's books were even those of religious opponents. In fact, he was later charged, probably correctly, with plagiarizing a Decoration Day speech given by the noted agnostic Robert Ingersoll.

Sunday's homespun preaching had a wide appeal to his audiences, who were "entertained, reproached, exhorted, and astonished." Sunday claimed to be "an old-fashioned preacher of the old-time religion," and his uncomplicated sermons spoke of a personal God, salvation through Jesus Christ, and following the moral lessons of the Bible. Sunday's theology, although sometimes denigrated as simplistic, was situated within mainstream Protestantism of his time.

Social and political views
Sunday was a lifelong Republican, and he espoused the mainstream political and social views of his native Midwest: individualism, competitiveness, personal discipline, and opposition to government regulation. Writers such as Sinclair Lewis and John Reed attacked Sunday as a tool of big business, and poet Carl Sandburg called him a "four-flusher" and a "bunkshooter."

Nevertheless, Sunday sided with Progressives on some issues. For example, he denounced child labor and supported urban reform and women's suffrage. Sunday condemned capitalists "whose private lives are good, but whose public lives are very bad", as well as those "who would not pick the pockets of one man with the fingers of their hand" but who would "without hesitation pick the pockets of eighty million people with fingers of their monopoly or commercial advantage." He never lost his sympathy for the poor, and he sincerely tried to bridge the gulf between the races during the nadir of the Jim Crow era, although on at least two occasions in the mid-1920s Sunday received contributions from the Ku Klux Klan.

Sunday was a passionate supporter of World War I. In 1918 he said, "I tell you it is [Kaiser] Bill against Woodrow, Germany against America, Hell against Heaven." Sunday raised large amounts of money for the troops, sold war bonds, and stumped for recruitment.

Sunday had been an ardent champion of temperance from his earliest days as an evangelist, and his ministry at the Chicago YMCA had given him first-hand experience with the destructive potential of alcohol. Sunday's most famous sermon was "Get on the Water Wagon", which he preached on countless occasions with both histrionic emotion and a "mountain of economic and moral evidence." Sunday said, "I am the sworn, eternal and uncompromising enemy of the Liquor Traffic. I have been, and will go on, fighting that damnable, dirty, rotten business with all the power at my command." Sunday played a significant role in arousing public interest in Prohibition and in the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919. When the tide of public opinion turned against Prohibition, he continued to support it. After its repeal in 1933, Sunday called for its reintroduction.

Sunday also opposed eugenics, recent immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and the teaching of evolution. Further, he criticized such popular middle-class amusements as dancing, playing cards, attending the theater, and reading novels. However, he believed baseball was a healthy and even patriotic form of recreation, so long as it was not played on Sundays.

Decline and death
Sunday's popularity waned after World War I when radio and movie theaters became his competitors for the public's leisure time. The Sundays' health also declined even as they continued to drive themselves through rounds of revivals—smaller but also with ever fewer staff members to assist them.

Tragedy marred Sunday's final years. His three sons engaged in many of the activities he preached against, and the Sundays paid blackmail to several women to keep the scandals relatively quiet. In 1930, their housekeeper and nanny, who had become a virtual member of the family, died. Then the Sundays' daughter, the only child actually raised by Nell, died in 1932 of what seems to have been multiple sclerosis. Their oldest son George, rescued from financial ruin by the Sundays, committed suicide in 1933.

Nevertheless, even as the crowds declined during the last fifteen years of his life, Sunday soldiered on, accepting preaching invitations and speaking with effect. In early 1935, he had a mild heart attack, and his doctor advised him to stay out of the pulpit. Sunday ignored the advice. He died on November 6, a week after preaching his last sermon on the text "What must I do to be saved?"]]> In Quotes http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=5633 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:47:58 -1100