"I'm yours if you'll take me" - A prayer song to God

"I'm yours if you'll take me"

A Bossa Nova by T.H. Culhane 

copyright 2014 T.H. Culhane  Culbrain records

(Rough demo mix )

A letter I wrote to Jesus
as a song
in High School, 33 years ago.



 

D                                        Ebm7b5
You've the right to condescend
E                         
Nobody can touch you
               C#
You're a million miles above
                  F#m
There's no pretend
                      B9
You're just too good.
                 Bm9
But I'm yours if you'll take me
E6                                 D       Ebm7b5  Amaj7
Make me or break me down. Down. Down.

D                                        Ebm7b5
You've the right to criticize
E                 C#               F#m
We'd be fools in your eyes
                            B9
And you're oh so right
           Bm9
But I'm willing to take it
E6                                 D       Ebm7b5  Amaj7
'cause I'm going to make you mine. Mine. Mine.

G#m7b5                 C#7b9
Worlds appear in my sleep (whispered: "Heaven!")
G#m7b5                      C#7b9
Dreams of somewhere else (whispered: "Heaven on Earth")
F#m7b5                               B7b9
These still waters run deep (whispered: "Heavens!")
F#m7b5                               B7b9
Perhaps you think that I'm somebody else?

E   Emaj7   Bbm7b5   Amaj7  Bbm7b5   / F#m7    B7b9 G#m7b5  C#7b9  /  F#m7  B7b9 /  Amaj7 Bbm7b5  Emaj7 /  Bbm7b5

Amaj7                                                   Bbm7b5                               E                                             E6
Look back into childhood where the only good was relative to thoughts that were simplistically naive
Amaj7                                      Bbm7b5                               E                                                    E6
Futuristic nightmares hover over the horizon, just the thought's enough to make one disbelieve
Amaj7  Bbm7b5 E6      Amaj7  Bbm7b5 E6      
My faith's in... you.  Ah... ah... ah.

Amaj7                              Bbm7b5
People say I've lost my mind
B                               
Many say to worship you
         G#7
and follow in your footstep's
C#m7
 suicide,
                          F#7
and they may be right...
                 F#m7
But  Lord that's how you made me...
          B7
And I can't live the fake way
       F#m7
So I'm yours if you'll take me
   B7          
Take me away please
B7b9                                 E                      Eaug  E E7 Eaug E Eaug
Don't make me wait too long...

  Fmaj7   Am  Fmaj7    Am    E

My daddy's dyin'

Visiting my beloved father this weekend in NY I note the acceleration of his progressive degenerative disease and the impact it is having on his ability to think, remember and function, express himself and recognize people and things. I know so many of my family and friends have gone through or are going through similar hard times and join in the collective sorrow that senescence imposes on our fragile human condition. To cope with my feelings I've written a song that I hope to record soon, expressing the tragedy of slowly losing a loved one to the unfairness of biology and pray that we can find cures to the ills of old age and along the way find the fortitude to always honor our elders and continue to see their greatness during the sunset of their years :

 "My dad -- he's dyin' (Dm, G6)
He's goin' away... (Cmaj7, Em)
My daddy's dyin' (Dm, G6)
What more to say... (Cmaj7, Em)

 (F) For all my life I've feared these words
I worried and I feared the worst
(Bbmaj7) And now my childhood nightmare's coming true...

 (F) Don't tell me I should take this well
(Dm6) And let my feeling's go to hell
(Bb6) 'cause now I'm older and a father too

(Am) 'Cause age don't take the love away
I want my loved ones all to stay
 (Em, F) The arrow doesn't only go one way

 (Bbmaj7) And just because we all face death
 It doesn't make it hurt no less
(Bb7) The pain is still within my breast
And Daddy how I wish that you would (G7) stay...

My Dad -- he's dyin' (Dm, G6)
 Does it have to be this way? (Cmaj7, Em)
 Excuse me cryin' (Dm, G6)
The sorrow doesn't go away... (Cmaj7, Em)

(F) I always will look up to you
You're still the man I always knew
(Bbmaj7) And no disease can take your soul away

(F) And when they say your mind has gone
(Dm6) Your body just a broken one
 (Bb6) I see your spirit shining just the same

 (Am)'Cause old age ain't the final word
(Am) To look at life that way's absurd
(Em, F) And shutting down your heart's the coward's way

 (Bbmaj7)And just because we all face death
 (Bbmaj7)To be there 'til the final breath
(Bb7) Is better than to turn away
The elderly deserve more than our (G7) prayers...

Your body's dyin' (Dm, G6)
and so's your brain...(Cmaj7, Em)
But we'll keep trying (Dm, G6)
 Because we love you every way (Cmaj7, Em)

 Yeah, Daddy's dyin' (Dm, G6)
But my love ain't goin' away (Cmaj7, Em)
My daddy's dyin (Dm, G6)
But his spirit's here to stay (Cmaj7, Em)
Yeah Daddy's dyin' (Dm, G6)
But our love won't go away (Cmaj7, Em)
 My daddy's dyin' (Dm, G6)
But his spirit's here to stay..." Cmaj7, Em)

Making Robots with my Arduino

Making Robots with My Arduino
A Music-Video about Robotics Education
set to a Country Western Rock-a-Billy Beat
by T.H. Culhane
copyright 2011 T.H. Culhane
Culbrain Records




Em7b5      A7b5                        Dm7b5      G7 (Slowly, arpeggiated, no beat)
How would you make, (a robot that can make) the world a be-tter place...

(Drums, bass kick in here for 2 bars)


C7      

With my Arduino, you know that I know that I can build one myself
C7
With a couple of sensors and some motors and some servos and some
Bb                                              G7hardware you can buy off the shelf.


C7
With my Arduino, the open source world is open to me
C7
I can program in Python, I can program in Java
             Bb7                                G7
and of course I can program in C

C7
With my arduino...
(It’s almost a cult thing...)



C7        
Putting Lego bricks together makes a Mindstorm of fun
F                                           Fm If you got a lotta money a designer kit’s the one
C7
But if you’re trying to put together a nifty robot on your own
                          F                                       Fm
You wanna make it inexpensive and you want to make it run
C7
using cheap microcontrollers that you can hack ;em all you want
             F                                                          Fm
using open-source programming software you’ll be the savant
        G7
in the avant-garde of the
G#7              G7
Ro-bot van-guard


C7      

With my Arduino, I’m building robots on and under the sea


Using Sea Perch as my base,with this circuit board in place,
            Bb                        G7
I bring autonomy to my ROV
C7

With my Arduino, yeah I can learn to program robots for free
C7
I can make a robot do things that are good for you and me
                        Bb7                         G7
while learning science math and technology

                C7
With my arduino... (It’s kind of a STEM thing...)

Bridge section:
Em7b5      A7b5    Dm7b5      G7
(Boy 1:) You can afford  (Chorus of Girls background vocal: “It’s open source”)
(Boy 1:) This circuit board
( Girl 1:)You won’t get bored (Chorus of Boys working on R2D2 and C3PO background vocal:: Just use the force!)
(Team of girls) We’’ll win awards.... G, G#, G7
                                C7
(All students holding up their micro-controllers):  With our Arduinoooooooos!
Yeeeeha!  (The students do a line dance with a group of robots).

C7  F   G7  G#  G7

(Vocal follows classic Country chicken pickin’ lick:)
C7                                                                                                                                        F
First run a simulation, testing out your new creation, then model it with parts you can afford,
                G7                             
Then you enter a competition, take the software code you’ve written, download it to your Arduino
C7
board.

C7
Make your robot relevant, like, you could save the elephant,
                F7
surveillance and security are two
    G7
of the tasks for which we program, saving people and environments is something we can make
    C7
our robots do.
                               C7
“Build them with:  VEX Robotics, LEGO Mindstorms,  Lynxmotion Erector Sets  and Fischer
                               F7
Teknic, Parallex Boe Bots
    G7                                                                                                               C7
Aldebran and Robosoft and Corobot and Pioneer and Traxter and Create from  IRobot
                                   C7
“There - are -  so -  many options out there, there are robots lurking everywhere, and all you have
                     F7
to do is be a-ware...
G7
Robots are embedded, from the workplace down to Toys are Us, you might find one inside  your
           C7
Teddy bear..”

(Bear says, “yeee-ha!” Getta along there little coder!”)


After country lick part go to walking bass:  C E F F# G  A Bb B C
Voice over:
“The Office of Naval Research and the AUVSI, (the “Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International”) are working with Hollywood technology company Motion Picture Marine and a host of University and Institutional partners to create an international STEM education program that is designed to make robotics engineering affordable, accessible, relevant and FUN for all students.  The program is called “PORPOISE: Precision Oceanographic Robotics Program On and In the Sea Environment” and it’s geared toward mentoring young people from all walks of life to develop robots and prepare for careers that can tackle the biggest challenges confronting their futures:  pollution, oil spills, overfishing, habitat loss, wildlife conservation, coral bleaching, piracy, homeland security, energy security, food security, storm prediction and climate change.  PORPOISE is engineering education with a purpose -- so get involved and join the mission today for a better future tomorrow through robotics that works for everyone!

C7  

So now that we know
 C7
that we can make a robot all on our own
C7
We can run it using windows, using Linux or a Mac,
               Bb7                                             G7
or using bluetooth from our new Android phones
                       C7
Because Arduino,
C7
is agnostic to the platforms we run
Em7b5                                                A7#5
It can be built from scratch by you or me


 Dm7b5                                G7
programmed wireless or by USB
C7                                         Bb7             A7
We're talking black, white, Asian or Latino...



               D7                                    G7
Arduino makes  robotics so much  fun....
                Dm7
and within the reach...
         G6
of eve-ry-one...

                C7                                      
With our Arduino...  
               G7
We can make a better world 
      G#        G                C7
for you....  and .....me...

D.E.M.M.O. Productions Experimetal Class Description for Hollywood High School

D.E.M.M.O. Productions Experimetal Class Description for Hollywood High School, 

By T.H. Culhane, 1995

D.E.M.M.O. Productions (Digital Engineering for Multi-Media Occupations) is an experimental program at Hollywood High School that integrates the technical, technological and vocational areas of students instruction (digital engineering), the academic areas that underpin our multi-media information age (language arts, history, science and math) and career oriented instruction that helps students relate their school experience to the workplace. It conforms to the Perkins 2+2 and 2+4 models that link high school to higher education while allowing students who are not college bound to find their niche in growth industry trades. D.E.M.M.O. Productions conforms to WASC guidelines for school improvement by offering project based/portfolio assessed instruction to its students; the teachers in the program use a coaching model and a product driven curriculum.

The emphases in this program are critical thinking, creative thinking and real world problem solving. The students are nurtured in their ability to "confront the blank page." -- to solve the fundamental problem of how to create something of value where nothing existed before. The class teaches students how to draw on prior knowledge and use what is known and relevant to them as the raw material from which they can fashion new product.

The class helps students overcome writers block, artists block and other creativity blocks such as stage fright, "boredom", circular reasoning and "infinite iteration". It supplies techniques for overcoming fear of censory and criticism -- fear that freeze the mind and shut down higher cortical functions. When fear and low self-esteem do impede student progress and interfere with motivation, the curriculum teaches students how to work with their limbic system and their fight or flight response as tools for focusing and directing creative energy.

D.E.M.M.O. Productions draws on a solid research foundation in "Brain Compatible Learning" and "Multiple Intelligence" Theory and uses the art ,psychology and science of what used to be called "film-making" in order to teach students how to fashion a compelling, engaging and socially useful story out of the uninflected data stream supplied by academic education. The art and science of story-telling through many media then becomes a valuable tool that students can use to order their world and make sense of the vast amounts of information that can be so intimidating and bewildering in our information age.

The program uses all creative and technical arts tools and manipulatives that are available, from pencil and paper to sophisticated multi-media audio-visual computers, video and audio production hardware, musical instrument digital interface technology, clay, paint and paper mache and and electronic test equipment. With guidance from the instructor, students put these tools to use in the creation of multi-media presentations that illustrate and explain concepts drawn from the academic curricula they are confronting in their other classes.

In effect then, D.E.M.M.O. Productions is an "Edu-tainment" class in which students learn how to process and manipulate information and create their own learning materials -- content based, entertaining instructional materials that are "of the students, by the students, and for the students."

Course Description

The major emphasis 0f this course is to develop the student’s ability

to communicate visual ideas using basic filmmaking techniques. Story

writing, story-based display, basic visual composition, and general

reproduction, and skills will be included with camera techniques, animation,

and line action planning.

Representative Objectives

In accordance with his or her ability and capacities, the student grows in ability to:

• Recognize filmmaking as a basic method of communication in our economy.
• Apply the art elements and principles to filmmaking.
• Acknowledge filmmaking as an art form.
• Perceive filmmaking as a medium that unites the visual arts, the literary arts, and the performing arts.
• Recognize the role of film in professions other than entertainment including medicine, education, space exploration, and business.
• Coordinate thinking processes with technical skills.
• Develop objective aesthetic visual criteria related to filmmaking.
• Value experimentation and originality.
• Experiment with light and design as they apply to filmmaking.

Compare the content, intent, and use of different kinds of films including drama, comedy, documentary, and commercial.Assess vocational aptitude and interest in a career in filmmaking or related professions.

Application of Basic Skills

The student will use:

• Language skills related to the preparation of stories and scripts for film.
• Reading and research skills to write a paper on the history of film.
• Appropriate technical vocabulary.
• Reading and conprehension skills in the study of camera and equipment manuals.
• Matematical skills to plan the length of films, and the timing of scenes and actions for animation.
• Organizational skills to plan and produce a film.

Visual discrimination skills through application of the art elements to set design, character, and lighting.

Performance Skills

The student will:

• Research information for media productions.
• Organize work activities to meet project deadlines.
• Funtion as an informed consumer of the visual media.
• Identify the occupations and professions related to the mass media.
• Identify the occupations and professions that use filmaking.
• Communicate an idea using visual symbols.
• Apply the art principles to the design and construction of sets and props.
• Demonstrate basic drawing skills.
• Compare various films made by students and other filmmakers.
• Verbalize personal reactions to a film.
• Write a report on the history of cinema.
• Prepare a script.
• Develop a storyboard.
• Use a camera.

Instructional Units

Topics

Phisical Properties of film and light

History of Cinema

Animation Techniques

Live Action Filming

Preproduction Planning

Camera Techniques

Design Elements in film

Sound

Editing

Lighting

Careers in Film

Set and Prop Design

Treadle Pump, Treadle Pump...

" ... if I can build a treadle pump that you can build a treadle pump too!!"




This melodic-mnemonic is a music video intended to introduce the concept of the treadle pump. It also demonstrates our latest Solar CITIES initiative training Africans in diaspora (particularly Nigerians, like Paul Chido Iwunna, our Nigerian-German colleague featured in the video) in "Green-collar jobs and sustainable development technology" here in Germany and then traveling to our mother-countries to share the knowledge and technologies with our homeland communities.  In this case  Chido and I  and Dr. Charisma Acey (American professor of Urban Planning married to a Nigerian) traveled to Port Harcourt with Chido's mother to build a treadle pump with local craftsmen  for the family home so they no longer have to pull water from the borehole with a small bucket and a rope. It is our intention to involve many more Africans and Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants here in Germany and abroad so that we can all participate in the "Sustainable Green Brain Gain"!  Won't you join us?

Chords and Lyrics:

(Chorus: G6, A7, Cm, G )

Treadle Pump Treadle Pump, if I can make a treadle pump then you can make a treadle pump too!
A cool effective water pump that runs on human power and functions as a stair master too!

(Verse I section 1: Em, A7, Em A7, Cmaj7, Em, A7)

You start by building pistons cut from 4 inch PVC 'cause it's cheap and it's fast and the plastic will last.
A great new use for sewer pipes, just cut them to 9 inches, then glue them in caps,
Drill two holes, just like that
Use a half inch plastic nipple, threaded with one-half-inch taps... but you can use a metal nipple too, just screw and screw!



(Verse II section 2:  Em, A7, Em, A7, Cmaj7, C#dim, D)


Now you mount your check valves, note each piston has one in and one out... (uh, huh, upstroke in, downstroke out!)
These connect to water hoses carrying your water about (as you tread you can dance, twist, and shout!)
'cause we want to make things simple, cheap and fun as they can be -- your legs will run your water pump for free!


(Chorus: G6, A7, Cm, G )
Treadle pump Treadle Pump, why use electricity when you can get a workout and pump your water too?
Treadle pump, Treadle pump, if you're still using fossil fuels, something must be wrong with you!

(Verse II section 1: Em, A7, Em A7, Cmaj7, Em, A7)
 
Cut two five inch pieces of your PVC to make the piston discs -- each has three where the leather will be;
Cut each section open and then put it in the oven -- it will soften and flatten to make plastic mats and then...
Cut six discs out -- three per piston -- watch out, middle discs must quite precisely fit...
that's the tricky bit!

(Verse II section 2:  Em, A7, Em, A7, Cmaj7, C#dim, D)

Five inch circles made of leather, two per piston under the discs -- after soaking the leather gets soft.
All the rest is carpentry, the pistons are the hardest piece; the treadle is made out of bamboo or wood.
Just connect the treadles to two pulleys pulling up and down...
It'll pump water from 7 meters underground!!

(Chorus:  G6, A7, Cm, G)
Treadle Pump Treadle Pump, if I can make a treadle pump then you can make a treadle pump too!
A cool effective water pump that runs on human power and functions as a stair master too!

Treadle pump Treadle Pump, why use electricity when you can get a workout and pump your water too?
Treadle pump, Treadle pump, if you're still using fossil fuels, something must be wrong with you!






Tags:
 Treadle Pump, Solar CITIES, do-it-yourself, Nigeria, NIDO, Nigerians in Diaspora Organization, T.H. Culhane, IDE

Ode to the Hadron Collider

G Dm Bb C

(G) Once our species believed
That the (Dm) atom was the smallest thing
our (Bb)  Earth -- Center of Everything
(C) Euclidean Geometery was (G) king. (bass: G, G#, D, G, G#)

(G) Then our physics conceived
Of a (Dm) special relativity
A (Bb)  general relativity
and the (C)  hope for theories of Grand (G) Unity

But there's been a crisis in the field
And world's been turning upside down
by a paradox we can't understand
Quantum mechanics and relativity can't be held within one hand.

In the collider (G)
We'll (Cmaj7)  find out (Fmaj7b5)
The  (G) right and the (F) wrong (C)  about
Our (G) deepest (Cm) beliefs of (F) space and (Em) time.

Power from Hell

Power from Hell
(A heavy metal riff... real heavy!)

c 2001 T.H. Culhane


The sky god gave us wind and rain
and the holy sun to light the day
He gave us everything we need
and sent his son to show the way

We turned our backs, we turned insane
And with the devil now we play
He tempts our everlusting greed
with oil and coal on which we feed

We've chosen power from hell
we've chosen power from hell

Of course there is another way
the winds of heaven, sunny days,
the force of water, gentle flows
combined  can make our nation grow

But if we want to get rich quick
with Satan we will always stick
continue mining Hades store
no matter that  it makes us sick

We've chosen power from Hell
And we will never get well
If we can buy cheap and sell
expensive power from hell

We've chosen power from hell
Oil, gold and diamonds as well
coal and uranium -- hell
Look what we're eatin!
Goodbye to Eden
Look what we've done since we fell...

We're using power from hell!

Hey there you consumer I have heard this vicious rumor
that you want to drill into the river styx
Hey there Mr. Politician what the hell is your religion
do you worship golden calves as well?
Forget about the prophets; as you quest for higher profits,
still you  never stop to gaze up at the sky
The answers up not down below but all you do it send the flow
of capital down deeper where it goes....


That's where it all goes to HELL.
Down to the bowels of hell
The gate to hell: the oil well
We're using power from hell