Tag Archives: Tennessee Tech

Combing the Net – 6/12/2012

TTU’s Carillon Bells Ring Across Campus — Here’s a great little local story from the Herald-Citizen about the bells that chime on the TTU campus every single day. I got a chance to see the carillon room up close and personal during my time as a student when I took the “Acoustics of Music” class taught by Dr. Wells, who is interviewed in this piece. (HT: Noel Bohannon on Facebook)

Teacher-Student Interaction Using Texting and Social Media — For you teachers out there: How do you feel about communicating with your students outside of the classroom? Do you use social media? My dad asks that question and provides a few thoughts of his own on the website of his new business, VirtualMusicOffice.com. He started VMO to help provide service to “Music Teachers, Band, Choir, Orchestra Directors, who have more music office tasks than time”. If you’re a music teacher, you should check it out! You can learn more about it through Facebook and Twitter.

Are We Living in Sensory Overload or Sensory Poverty? — We’ve often heard that all the technology available today puts us at risk of sensory overload, but this editorial asks whether the opposite may be true. A very compelling read. (HT: Breakpoint)

As a species, we’ve somehow survived large and small ice ages, genetic bottlenecks, plagues, world wars and all manner of natural disasters, but I sometimes wonder if we’ll survive our own ingenuity. At first glance, it seems as if we may be living in sensory overload. The new technology, for all its boons, also bedevils us with alluring distractors, cyberbullies, thought-nabbers, calm-frayers, and a spiky wad of miscellaneous news. Some days it feels like we’re drowning in a twittering bog of information.

But, at exactly the same time, we’re living in sensory poverty, learning about the world without experiencing it up close, right here, right now, in all its messy, majestic, riotous detail. The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature’s precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature.

Eugenics, Past and Future — I love Ross Douthat’s columns, and typically don’t miss one, but somehow this slipped by the other day. Thankfully I caught an interview with him on NPR yesterday as he was talking about it. His comparison between the near eradication (by abortion) of Down’s Syndrome with the early 20th Century American fascination with the concept of eugenics is both fascinating and frightening.

Are you a betting man? Here are “10 Bets You Will Never Lose” (HT: 22Words)

A Big Week for Cookeville Concerts

For those in the Cookeville and Crossville areas, there are several really great opportunities to hear live music in the next two weeks. Some have a price of admission, while others are free. I hope you’ll take advantage and attend one or more of these concerts!

Chamber Music for Winds, Strings, and Voice, featuring Robert Swan, piano

Part of Tennessee Tech’s “Center Stage Concert Series”, this performance will be held in the Bryan Fine Arts building tonight (April 18) at 7:30. The Center Stage concerts are always tremendous, and always free!

School of Performing Arts Student Recitals

Students from the Stevens Street School of Performing Arts will be performing in three recitals this week. Each will feature students of various ability levels playing a wide variety of instruments. These recitals are a great encouragement to me, and also wonderful for those who are considering taking music lessons. Children and parents can see what our students are capable of doing, which is helpful when deciding where to take lessons! The recitals will be held in the sanctuary of Stevens Street Baptist Church at 7:00 Thursday evening (April 19), and 5:00 and 7:00 Friday evening (April 20). All are free and open to the public.

TTU Symphony Band and Concert Band

As an alumnus I realize that I’m partial, but I think the Symphony Band is one of the best collegiate bands in the region! Their spring concert will be held in the Bryan Fine Arts building on Friday evening (April 20) at 7:30, and will be free. Students playing band instruments really need to have opportunities to hear great bands, so parents, get them there!

Southern Stars Symphonic Brass with Buddy Greene

The Southern Stars Brass Band is a great group, and one I’ve really enjoyed playing with. But of all the concerts we’ve played in the band’s three years of existence, this is the one I’ve anticipated most. In addition to a show consisting primarily of swingin’ hits from the big band era, we’ll be featuring guest artist Buddy Greene, who is the world’s greatest harmonica player. He’s most known as a member of the Gaither Band, and for co-writing the song Mary, Did You Know?, but he’s also a tremendous solo act. He’ll be playing a few songs specially arranged for harmonica and brass band, as well as doing a 30-minute segment by himself. As you’ll see in these videos, he combines great humor with extreme talent!

The concert will be held at Stone Memorial High School in Crossville, TN, at 7:00 on Saturday evening (April 21). Tickets are just $18 for adults and $5 for students (college and younger). You can purchase them at the door, or talk to me and I can get them for you. You can read more about this concert here.

Bryan Symphony Orchestra Concert

Many people don’t realize that we have a professional symphony orchestra right here in Cookeville. Not many towns our size can say that! They always put on a great show, and this one will be no different, featuring soprano soloist Sabrina Laney Warren. You can read about the concert’s programming on the BSO website, or watch this concert preview:

Tickets (if they are still available) are $30 for adults, $26 for seniors 65 and older, and $8 for students.

Tech Troubadours and Troubadours Alumni Big Band Concert

This one’s going to be a lot of fun! A group of alumni from TTU’s historic big band have “put the band back together“, and we’re playing our first gig this Sunday (April 22) at 6:00 p.m. in the banquet hall at Pueblo Viejo restaurant (located in what used to be the Wheeler Skating Rink on 10th). The current Troubadours group will perform a set in between ours. We’ve got a lot of great swing tunes in the book, and have a Wayne Pegram chart where any current or former Troubadour can take a solo (if this is you, bring your horn!). There’s a $7 cover charge for admission, most of which will go to help fund the jazz program at TTU. You will also be able to order from the dinner menu if you like to listen to jazz during your meal (who doesn’t?).

School of Performing Arts Faculty Recital

In addition to the student recitals listed above, we will be holding our first ever instructor recital on Thursday, April 26, at 6:30 p.m. This will also be at Stevens Street Baptist Church. It’s always fun for students to see their teachers perform, and I’m excited for ours to get this opportunity. We’re also encouraging folks from our community and from our church body to come out and see what a spectacular staff we have! Our 15 teachers are all incredibly talented, and will each be performing. There will be solos, chamber music, and a couple large ensemble pieces covering a wide variety of genres from classical to pop to bluegrass to corporate hymn singing. This is a free event, and we hope many will come!

An Introduction to Twitter for the Cookeville Crowd

I have noticed that, for whatever reason, Cookeville doesn’t really seem to be a Twitter town. Maybe it’s because we’re not a big city. Maybe it’s because new technology is slow to catch on here (for instance, when I arrived at Tennessee “Tech” in 1999, we were still using this convoluted system for e-mail, and our music department didn’t make the switch from Digital Audio Tape to CD until 2000). It’s certainly NOT because we disdain social media… this community practically lives on Facebook!

Twitter might not be for everyone, but I’ve found it to be a useful tool. Today, I thought I’d take a moment to explain a few things about Twitter in case you might like to try it out.

First of all, there are some things you should NOT do with Twitter:

  1. Follow 10,000 people and try to read every tweet that passes by
  2. Give constant updates of the mundane details of your life
  3. Tweet while driving
  4. Send lewd photos to college students across the country (especially if you’re in Congress)

Of course, like any other form of social media (I’m looking at you, FarmVille users), the misuse of Twitter can lead to addiction and cause you to fail to interact with people in real life (just ask David Crowder). However, used properly, Twitter can be handy, informative, and fun!

People use Twitter in a lot of different ways. Here are the primary ways I use it:

  1. Communicating with friends
  2. Keeping up with developing news stories
  3. Following blogs I enjoy reading
  4. Learning about upcoming local events and sales
  5. Help drive traffic to my blog (thanks for dropping by!)

So, want to give Twitter a try? Let me help you get started.

Step 1 – Sign Up

This part is easy. Just head to Twitter.com, type in your name, e-mail address, and a username. You might have to get creative with that last step… there are a LOT of Twitterers and each one has to have a unique handle! Be sure to fill out your profile. It’s a good chance to practice being pithy: you have 160 characters to describe yourself!

Step 2 – Who to Follow?

Most of this will depend on what you hope to get from Twitter. You can search for personal friends, your favorite celebrity or politician, news services, restaurants… follow whatever and whomever you like! Here are a few suggestions that I follow:

LOCAL FARE — Who to follow if you’re in Cookeville

REGIONAL NEWS – News sources for Middle Tennessee

NATIONAL NEWS – Keep track of breaking stories from around the world

BLOGS TO WATCH – Quick access to lots of interesting things

  • 22Words - Self-described web scavenger. If it’s unique, funny, bizarre, etc., it’ll most likely end up here
  • Stuff Christians Like - Sometimes insightful, always humorous blog about Christian culture
  • Challies.com - Original content plus daily “A la carte” to point you to good links
  • Between Two Worlds - Round up of everything from the Christian Blogosphere
  • Kingdom People - One of my personal favorite Christian bloggers just happens to be from Middle TN

And, of course, make sure you follow me!

Step 3 – Start Tweeting

And now you’re off! You have 140 characters to say whatever it is you have to say. That’s not a lot; soon you’ll get the hang of being economical with your words!

A few special Twitter terms and symbols:

  • @Mentions — The “@” symbol followed by someone’s Twitter name is called a “mention”. It’s the primary way conversation happens on Twitter. For instance, if you Tweet, “Everyone should follow @honeylocusts”, I’ll probably respond, “Thanks, @newtwitterfriend”
  • Re-tweet — Like something someone said? Click the “re-tweet” button to send it to your followers (which will also @mention the original poster)
  • Hashtag — Tweeters use the “#” symbol to take part in a larger conversation. For instance, those following the NHL playoffs use the hashtag #StanleyCup to discuss hockey news. You can also make up your own hashtag… just don’t use spaces!
  • Direct Message — This works similar to a text message. Simply type the letter “d” before someone’s username (example: d honeylocusts) to send a message that does not go out to all your followers. As Anthony Weiner just found out, though, these are NOT private! Anything that goes out on Twitter is public, archived, and accessible to search engines, so watch what you say!

Step 4 – Twitter Client

This step is optional, but I recommend it. There are a couple support tools (called clients) you can use to help manage your Twitter account, along with other social media. I use HootSuite to monitor three Twitter accounts, my blog, my Facebook account, and several Facebook pages. These clients can also tie in other social media such as LinkedIn and Foursquare (but if you don’t have Twitter I’m assuming you probably don’t have those, either!) giving you one-stop access from your computer or smart phone. I almost never actually visit Twitter.com; I do everthing from HootSuite.

What I like best about Hootsuite is that it allows me to draft and schedule Tweets and Facebook updates. This is nice because it limits my time spent on social media. Often people think I spend all day on Facebook because I typically have posts appearing every couple hours. In reality, I try to plan out all my Tweets for the day at one time, and schedule them to show up at pre-planned intervals.

Many people use a different client called TweetDeck, which does the same thing. You could also use Digsby, Seesmic, twhirl, or a number of other similar clients, but you don’t need more than one of them!

Final Step – Leave a comment here

Have you signed up for Twitter? Already had a Twitter account? Know of any other local “must follows” that I’ve left off this list? Leave a comment on this blog so I (and other readers) can follow you, too!