Subject: Darwin concert

From: "Carol Baird" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 08:19:10 -0800

Hello,
    I have sent lots of previous information to Amanda Chesworth over the years and I wonder if you still have any of it.  First of all, we have 4 CDs of Scientific Gospel music (although the last CD is more ballads and less science, but still funny0.  Our band's 'The Ballad of Charlie Darwin" played on your website  few years ago and our most recent "The Single Best Idea Anybody Ever Had" was sent to Amanda at her request to be put on the website, but I never heard more about it even though I sent her the lyrics.
    This is our 5th annual Darwin Birthday concert.  This year we are performing at UCSD's School of Medicine where Dr. Baird lectures during his day job as Professor of Pathology at the medical school.  He is also the Chief, Laboratory Services at the La Jolla Veterans Adminstration Medical Center, as well as a lecturer on medical ethics, especially stem cell research.
    The band will perform their concert on Saturday, February 12th at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $15 for adults and $7 for children and students (at the door, it's $20 and $10).  The concert has 2-45 minutes sets and after the concert, the audience joins the band in singing Happy Birthday to Charlie and then we provide Darwin Birthday Brownies for dessert.

    Here is our first press release:

DARWIN BIRTHDAY CONCERT

UCSD SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

12 February 2005

Celebrate February 12, 2005 with evolutionists all over the world, as we celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin who had one of the best ideas of all time - his Theory of Evolution.  Dr. Stephen Baird & Opossums of Truth will be performing their annual Darwin Birthday concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 12, 2005 in Liebow Auditorium at the School of Medicine on the campus of UCSD in La Jolla, California.

While never denying any deity's creation of the universe, Darwin simply and eloquently stated the mechanism by which it all evolved, so that we are here today.still evolving - some of us more than others.

Many states in the USA at the urging of Creationists, Christian Fundamentalists and the Bush Administration are still trying to castrate science because of their militantly ignorant or religiously biased mindsets.  They want the biblical version of Creation taught in schools, right along side that of the scientific version.  If this is allowed to continue, science education now and in the future will be sacrificed at the altar of their narrow view of God.  Students will suffer when they try to enter scientific professions without rational knowledge of the scientific method.  Patients of doctors who graduate from Christian medical schools will suffer because of their lack of knowledge, both with treatment and with research technology.  The country's electorate will not possess sufficient knowledge to vote on such things as stem cell research or medical marijuana issues.  The Supreme Court of this nation will base their decisions upon faulty analysis of scientific facts and pressure from the fundamentalist right wing to decide issues in the name of their irrationality rather than data driven reality.  Those who oppose evolution as the random selection that got us here will be unable to understand the other concepts of science necessary for progress.  They will doom the rest of us to another Dark Ages.  As my bumper sticker says, "What the schools need is a moment of science" in their classrooms.

We plan to celebrate Darwin's contribution to the enlightenment of mankind with our type of folk music that will make science fun and understandable.   Our hope is that we can all live a rational life and laugh at the randomness of the universe as it hands us such tragedy as war and political unrest, yet such joy as the birth of a child and when science provides a cure for some disease.  

Concert tickets will be sold online at our website, www.scientificgospel.com, beginning December 10, 2004.  Reservations may be made by phone as well with Carol at: 858-481-0765.  Advance tickets: Adults $15 and Students with I.D. $7.00.  Tickets at the door: Adults $20, Children and Students with I.D. $10.  Open seating.  

CD's will be available at $15 each or all four bundled at the concert special of $50.  

Of course, there will be the traditional Darwin Birthday dessert that so many of you have come to expect!  EVOLUTION IS THE WAY and RANDOMNESS ITS SOURCE.

Then we sent another one like this:

DARWIN'S BIRTHDAY CONCERT

Dr. Stephen Baird and The Opossums of Truth

in concert

12 February 2005 at 7:30 p.m. 

Liebow Auditorium at the UCSD School of Medicine

 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA.

An evening celebration of Charles Darwin's birth with folk songs, written by Stephen M. Baird, M.D., in praise of evolution and other scientific disciplines.  Join scientists, rationalists and free thinkers as Dr. Baird and his band make the fight against ignorance more joyful.  It's a natural selection!

Tickets: $15 adults ($20 at door), $7 ($10 at door) for children and students with I.D.  Purchase online at:  www.scientificgospel.com, 

or by phone at 858-481-0765.

Concert special:

All four of the band's CDs for sale

 at $15 each or a bundle of the 4 for $50.

Contact:

Scientific Gospel Production, LLC

Carol Davidson Baird

255 South Rios Avenue

Solana Beach, CA 92075

858-481-0765

[email-masked]

We have lots of plans for next year that couldn't be accomplished this year:   

DARWIN DAY CELEBRATION February 12, 2006

SCHEDULE

Noon-4 p.m.                Science games for children

1.      Pea plants with various skins - teach Mendelian square

2.      Excavate plaster of Paris for bones in different strata

3.      Stanley Miller experiment of life in a test tube using Legos or tinker toys

4.      Create a DNA helix using different media

5.      Taxonomy - use lots of items to sort in piles according to types

6.      Probability demonstration using marbles going into tubes showing normal distribution

7.      Properties of water:  boil ice cubes (solid) into condensation (steam) as drops pour down as water (liquid)

8.      Posters of Creation myths, Big Bang, evolution - how do you decide which one is true?

9.      EVOLUTION-The Game: use random throw of the dice; game uses special cards as prizes for certain moves ("Divine Intervention"),  but it's not really a perk - it never works because one of the keys to game not stated in the rules of the game - randomness always explains the mysterious

Lectures

1:00-1:45 p.m              1.  Dr. Stephen Baird                .           The Evolution of Creation Stories

2:00-2:24 p.m.             2.  Dr. Carey Carpenter                        Evolution vs Creationism?

3:00-3:45 p.m.             3.  Dr. Darwin Berg                              Evolution of the Neurological System

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.   Big Bang Potluck Dinner - It's A Gas!

                                                Caesar Salad, Mendelian Pea Salad, Cabbage Salad

                                                Stuffed Cabbage

                                                Chile con carne & corn bread

                                                I'd Rather Eat Chocolate Brownies

                                                Coffee, tea, water, Coke, Sprite

7:00 p.m.                      6th Annual Darwin Birthday Concert with 

                             Dr. Stephen Baird & The Opossums of Truth

For more information about our CDs or band members and other qualities of our website, please go to:

www.scientificgospel.com

Thank you,

Carol Davidson Baird, President, SGP

(Agent, Manager, Promoter, Producer, Wife and Mommy of Dr. Stephen Baird and The Opossums of Truth)