3 Depression Era Songs (from Seewah)

This page gives lyrics to 3 prominent songs of the era that will probably be included in the songs list when the materials are released:

1. "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" Lyrics by Yip Harpburg, Music by Jay Gorney
The two popular versions, sung by Bing Crosby

and Rudy Vallee

I listened to a pretty good deconstruction of the music on NPR.  Very detailed...


2. "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries,"lyrics by Lew Brown, music by Ray Henderson

Again, Rudy Vallee and Bing Crosby have their versions of it, but I like this the best...
As sung by Jack Hylton


I can't find much background info, so do me a favor a look into this one and e-mail me what you find. Danke! ^^

3. "We're In the Money" Lyrics by Al Dubin, Music by Harry Warren
This song is from the music "Gold Diggers of 1933".  Here's the clip from the film:

This page does a pretty good job telling you about the movie...

Watch the movie
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZws4r7IQPk
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gGVryQDvv4&feature=related.

_______________________________________________________________________

Well, darlings, that's all for now. Don't forget, you can always do research on your own, type up a blog, and e-mail it to me. Keep up with reading Grapes of Wrath; we'll be focusing on that during the summer break (it'll be more of a open discussion session rather than the lectures from winter break... God, those went horribly).  I'm not sure if the official Acadec materials have been released yet, but Becca said they are so she's buggin' Mr. Hall about that. ANYHOO, get your music guides done.  Ciao!

-Seewahchu! ^3^ < <3)

Reading through the older posts...

... and I now see David's deformity. Interesting. It doesn't make him any less awesome of an artist, though. (No, it would instead be the fact that he let Lavoisier die. Yes, I'm still not over that.)

Well, with the release of the materials, we now have more to do over the summer! Mr. Hall and our coaches will be meeting to discuss buying them for us soon.

Until we get the materials, read The Grapes of Wrath and familiarize yourself with the music and art pieces. Remember (and for those who didn't know, know this), that the art tests in competition (and in do ask for the sizes of each piece and what the piece is made of. Learn the "on-the-surface" stuff and we'll discuss the deeper meanings, history, etc. later (but feel free to enrich yourselves).

I hoping that everyone will have read all the literature at least once through by the time we start the summer program.

For the Frosh (2.0)

Here I am trying to rewrite hours of work. You better be grateful. This entry is for the freshmen and noob sophomores that aren't quite sure about what they signed up for.


Here's a basic description of what the competition is (as taken from the USAD site):

"The Academic Decathlon® is a ten-event scholastic competition for teams of high school students. Each high school enters a team of nine students: 3 "A" or Honor students, 3 "B" or Scholastic students, and 3 "C" or Varsity students. The theme for the 2009–2010 Academic Decathlon season is 'The Great Depression.'"

These ten events are:
-Language & Literature
-Mathematics
-Music
-Art
-Economics
-Social Science
-Superquiz (written and oral relay)
-Interview
-Speech (prepared and impromptu)
-Essay

(See more info about the first six events here.)


Our school will send 2 teams: red and gold. We are only allowing students who participated in Academic Decathlon last year to be able to be starters. Everyone else who is taking AcaDec will also compete, but in the alternates division.

Alternates participate in the eight of the events. They do not do the interview, oral relay, or the speeches.


The competiton:

Day One: Starters have to give their speeches, interview, and write their timed essay on this day. Alternates will write their timed essays later on in the week at their school sites (I think, that's what we did last year). Alternates do not have to come on day one, but I strongly encourage that they do. By coming along, you get a better idea of what to expect when you compete later on. It's also great to be there for the team! A less hysteric person supporting a starter by doing last minute speech rehearsals, reminding him or her of the the proper interview etiquette, and waiting with them outside the rooms was giga-helpful last year.


Day Two: The whole team has to be there. Most of the day will be spent taking multiple choice tests on the material we slaved over in Art, Music, Economics, Social Science, Mathematics, Language & Literature, and the Superquiz (this is the written part). Don't worry, we snack breaks after every 2-3 tests.

After the tests, we head to the auditorium where the the starters will participate in the oral relay. There's a waiting period for the scores and points to be calculated before the awards ceremony begins. Starters who medaled first in Speech and Essay will give their speech or read their essay to the auditorium. Alternates are given medals in first through fifth place and starters are given medals in first through third. The top alternates and starters in each division are recognized and scholarships are awarded. At the end, the team awards and handed out. The last award is the cup (which Lodi High has been winning lately).


Our goals for Academic Decathlon is to win as many medals and awards as we can. There is a small schools division award, which we hope to beat Middle College for this year.


Study materials: New AcaDecians (or Decathletes, whatever) should drop by during the AcaDec Summer Boot Camp for borrow a copy of the Basic Guides to then take to Kinko's so you can have your own to study from. USAD already has materials for sale on the website, so we'll probably order those and recieve them this summer (I shouldn't be making any promises when I don't control the school budget, but Mr. Hall probably will buy them). DemiDec hasn't posted any materials lately, and won't until August. I'm still in the process of scheduling the dates of the summer program. As soon as I know, you will also.


If you have any questions, e-mail me at neon.garnet@gmail.com.
Ciao.

There Will Be Blood

I just spent five hours writing a blog for the Frosh. And then Blogger crashed on me without properly saving it periodically. I'm now back where I was hours ago.

I am angry.

Expect the blog by the end of tomorrow or Friday.

Update on the Summer Boot Camp (further updated at 7:30)

The details for the Academic Decathlon Program are slowly being put together. I intend to focus on the Grapes of Wrath and the development of our speech and essay skills. Any particular focus on the information in the basic guides hasn't been scheduled, but if anyone is looking to make a lesson plan on anything for the team, feel free to approach me, Dr H-S, or Sarah about it.

Attendence will NOT be mandatory. If you don't want to come, please don't! Your willingness to participate in these sessions will probably reflect in your performance.

FOR THE FROSH: Yes, you are welcome to attend the AcaDec Boot Camp. These meetings will be an excellent place to get copies of the basic guides so you can begin studying (seven months before competition). Freshman will not be allowed to join the actual starter team, but they will be allowed to compete as alternates. I'll write up an entire blog about what events alternates do and don't in a later blog (which will probably be in a half hour, as I'm at the district board meeting and do not have much to do).

Now, where when who how why ?

Where: Probably at the school site.
When: Yet to be determined, but we're projecting at least two days a week. The meetings will not coincide with the Algebra 2 slash 3/4 slash whatever college class that will also be at the school site. (A few of the kids kept asking me that, as if we'd schedule an enrichment period during a mandatory class that a third of the AcaDecians would be attending. Feel stupid? You should. Now discontinue your inquiries. XD)
Who: Because Ms. Kelly will be our coach next term: her! But we still need to know how much of her summer she wants to give up. So... not really yet to be determined, but technically: yet to be determined (I haven't talked to her about this at all, but I'm supposing she would want to because a) she's our coach, b) she helped us out over the Winter Break, and c) she loves us oh so much).
How: Most of the sessions wil be led by students and students will make lesson plans. Ms. Kelly will probably be there for the speech practices and she may or may not be there for discussions about the book. I still have to talk to her about that (probably should've put off writing this blog until then, but hey, here I am).
Why: To kick some rich kid butt in January/February/whenever it is.

Well, this is about as detailed as I can pass on to you. I will approach Mr. Hall tomorrow see if we can get a mailing list of the Frosh AcaDecian Wannabes.
(OMG, some guy sitting next to me has an iPad! This is the first time I've seen one in person! It's so cool! I can see the touch screen keypad from here! Hmm... the "keys" look big enough to use comfortably, unlike the iPhone. I was worried about that. Oh wait, I've got a blog to wrap up. Just thought I'd let you know that! Current events! Gawsh, I love blogging. Or maybe I like treating Blogger like it's Twitter...)

Until next time, this is RadAcaBecca! See you in a half hour! I'm going to beg a dollar or two or three or seven from my mom and raid the vending machine!

Music Basic Guide Summaries Extended

As of thirty minutes ago, Dr. H-S has decided to extend the summaries of the Music Basic Guide until Tuesday, May 18, 2010. She's suggesting we used the table of contents as an outline for the summaries and wants the completed summaries double-spaced. Don't forget!

The Video Quiz 1 Answers

Well, most of you did not do very well (seriously, some of you answered that the president was affiliated with the Communist Party*) and have requested the answers, so I'll post them up here for you. Next time we have a video to watch in class, WATCH IT. You don't have to take notes, but you will be tested on the information. I'll try and get links to each video posted on this site, but the quizzes may or may not be on the same day as the initial viewing. So pay attention! First period really isn't a study period, it's AcaDec time there as well.

Many of you have also requested that the quizzes be multiple choice in the future. Well, we could do that and I probably will make a few like that in the future. But the harder the quizzes are now, the easier the test in January will be. Also, the test in January is going to be on stuff you will have studied for months. The quizzes that I am making are to make sure you know the information you have just been given, because we still have a whole lot of ground to cover.

Remember: next year, we are snatching that cup away from Lodi. Victory will be ours. Our goal is to beat those rich kids and advance onto state competition (and at least make the first page of the results [cough cough Lodi: page 2, 42nd of 62 cough cough]**). Those seniors will remember our young sophomore faces and die a little (because they're insignificant compared to our awesomeness, not because we're ugly).


Anyways, here is the promised answer key (I'm not providing the questions, just the answers):

Video Pop Quiz 1 Answer Key

1) Over-production, the Dust Bowl, Stock Market Crash

2) Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) was the president of the United States at the beginning of the Depression. He was a Republican.

3) Republicans controlled the newspapers at the time. They chose to report news about what was going well, instead of the bad news. Bad news, to them, meant that something was wrong with Hoover’s Republican administration.

4) Hoover called in the Red Cross to help feed farmers. The Red Cross distributed boxes of garden seeds for the farmers to grow their own food, instead of buying it.

5) Charles Floyd was also known as “Pretty Boy” Floyd. He evaded arrest by robbing towns hundreds of miles apart from each other and seeking refuge with farmers who would gladly help him out for a few dollars.

6) People underestimated his political abilities due to his handicap (he was paralyzed in his legs).

7) Veterans from World War I began to flood into Washington D. C. to receive their pay for serving in the war. They were promised pay in 1945, but they wanted their money with a bonus immediately. They came to be known popularly as the Bonus Army.

8) The Communist party began to claim that the movement was their idea, although they had very little to do with the veterans.

9) The bill to give the veterans their pay early was passed in the House of Representatives, but rejected by the Senate.***

10) “…. Rich and Poor.”


If any of you have received your letters from the school about the CST schedule for April 26-29, it tells you to bring a book to read in case you finish the test early. Try and find a resource about the Great Depression to read! I'm sure there are a bunch in the library (that's just two blocks away) that you could grab, and maybe even some with lots of pretty pictures (of failed crops and upset masses)! The more back ground information you know, the easier the quizzes will be.


*A Communist as President of a democracy? Because you learned nothing in World History, right?
**http://www.academicdecathlon.org/scores/state2010SummaryResults.pdf
***I made the quiz according to what we watched. If you later went on and watched the rest of the video, I marked you down because as far as we are concerned, it never happened.