David Honeyboy Edwards died at the age of 96. He was the last living link to the original generation of Delta (as in Mississippi Delta) Blues Musicians, including Robert Johnson.  These musicians are original “source” for much of the blues, soul and rock and roll of the 20th Century.  I thought it was quite interesting that he actually played himself in the movie “Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story.”  You can read the article here. Edwards performed with Robert Johnson, acknowledged as a foundational early influence for Rock and Roll (he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame at their very first induction ceremony.) This piece is in what is call a 12-bar Blues pattern, a formula that was the basis for hundreds if not thousands of songs.

I also found some video:

http://youtu.be/_C8BaalxCjg

Here is the Cream version:

http://youtu.be/ejPi8D8LFnI

One of the ongoing assignments we will complete for this class is the blog itself. Students are required to read news of the Arts (especially the Arts in New York) via the internet and post interesting articles to share with the class. You can post a link to the article, or video and your “post” should be a short reaction to and analysis of the item you have discovered. Think of the blog post as an opportunity to tell someone about something interesting you read. Your posting MUST be in formal English, with good spelling, careful word choices and proper punctuation. This is serious writing assignment, but it should also be “fun.” Look for interesting or quirky examples of the Arts in New York to report to your colleagues. Make your response entertaining and informative, and provide a link to the original article. Your colleagues are required to read ALL posts to the blog, and respond when they have something useful or informative to add (comments that say “nice post!” don’t count.)

I will expect each of you to complete at least 20 blog postings over the course of the semester. I will also keep track of the number of comments you provide. We will use some of the postings as a springboard for class discussion, and to fill up the “word hoard” and “name dropping” pages of the blog.

One of the first steps, is to make sure you learn how to post pictures and videos. The simplest way to embed a video, is to simply copy the “embed” code into the “HTML” tab of the post window. When you copy the code, it shows up as text, but when it is posted to the blog, it shows up as the video, ready to play.

Here is a video of something I did over the summer: