Category: Local

Local items of interest from Greenville and Upstate SC.

The Shrub Comes to Furman, Part Two

Posted on By Tom No Comments on The Shrub Comes to Furman, Part Two
Local, Rants

Air Force One arrived at Greenville Spartanburg Airport Saturday evening and the presidential motorcade made its way through Greenville to Furman for commencement. Roads were blocked, and the citizens of our city came out to try to get a glimpse. Some waved flags. Some held signs of various types. One paragraph from the Greenville News … Read More “The Shrub Comes to Furman, Part Two” »

The Shrub Comes to Furman, Part One

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on The Shrub Comes to Furman, Part One
Local, Rants, Uncategorized

Not since the separation from the Baptists has Furman found itself in such a maelstrom of controversy. As usual, the problems really started when the local media got involved, and got it wrong. From there, the community has gotten involved, voicing its opinion based on the erroneous information from the Greenville Cage Liner. First, the … Read More “The Shrub Comes to Furman, Part One” »

Who’s Gonna Clean Up After All These Elephants??

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on Who’s Gonna Clean Up After All These Elephants??
Local, Rants, Weirdness

Our neighborhood and district are staunchly Republican. So much so that there often isn’t a Democrat opponent in the general election. Therefore, if we are to have any say in who represents us, we have to hold our noses and vote in the Republican primaries. This has had some interesting side effects. We get multiple … Read More “Who’s Gonna Clean Up After All These Elephants??” »

The Search for Moving Water

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on The Search for Moving Water
Local, Photography, Travel

Pearson Falls Detail

Memorial Day Weekend is always the pits, at least as far as Furman is concerned. This weekend is particularly bad. Laura has to give exams both Saturday morning and Monday morning. When she’s not giving the tests, she will be busy grading them. With Furman going onto a semester system next year, this is the last time that Memorial Day will be messed up.

Even knowing that she wouldn’t be available for exploration, I got my household chores done ahead of time this week during the evenings so that I could head out and explore this weekend. I had planned to do a bit of geocaching, but I put that on hold to take a few photos.

My first target was Freedom Weekend Aloft. Last year I stumbled onto a balloon launch from a parking lot and was able to get some great shots. I was hoping for the same this year, but I was afraid the brisk winds this morning would keep the balloons grounded. Either my fears were confirmed, or I had missed the schedule. There were no balloons to be seen. Therefore, I headed north to look for some waterfalls.

Read More “The Search for Moving Water” »

A Day of Festivals

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on A Day of Festivals
Local, Photography

Greek Festival in Greenville

Saturday was an absolutely stunning day. The air was dry and clear, and the sky was so blue that even cerulean doesn’t do it justice. There was no way that I was going to waste this on the huge stack of chores and yard work I had waiting for me at home. So, I decided a photo drive was needed. Several communities in the Upstate were having festivals this weekend, so I decided to check out a couple of them. I was actually able to hit four festivals – the Issaqueena Festival in Six Mile, the Banjo Bonanza at Hagood Mill in Pickens, the Strawberry Festival in Slater, and finally the Greek Festival at St. George Orthodox in Greenville.

Read More “A Day of Festivals” »

Shape Note Singing at Furman

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Shape Note Singing at Furman
Local, Music

Open Square Formation

Saturday morning I skipped out on a bunch of gardening chores that Laura had lined up for me and went to a shape note singing at Furman. When I arrived, there were about thirty singers already in their open square configuration, singing away.

Unlike the William Walker Memorial Singing at Wofford a couple of months ago, this event was held in a room designed for singing. The sound in Herring Hall (where the Greenville Chorale rehearses) was much more resonant, and the tunes sounded much better than they did in the dead room at Wofford.

The group started singing from the Southern Harmony, which has the more traditional do-re-mi scale. Even so, I struggled with the note names on the initial sing-through, and wound up singing “la” for most of the notes. For the second hour of the morning, they switched to the Sacred Harp, which uses the four-shape fa-so-la scale. It was much harder, and I never really got the hang of the note names. There was a break when we switched from one tune book to the other, and I had a chance to talk with several of the singers. I was told that Southern Harmony tends to be a bit more subdued, whereas Sacred Harp singing is always more raucous. Even though the notes were more difficult for me, I was up for high-energy raucous singing.

Read More “Shape Note Singing at Furman” »