Don’t you know? I love to sing. I sing around the house. I sing while I work… sing to my dogs. I even sing in the shower. Great acoustics in there.

I think it is in my veins. And now… I’m even more inclined to believe this. You see… with a last name like mine… and all other lineages on both sides… I am German to the core. Well, except for the part of me that is American.

Anyway…. German Heritage. I just read about a part of the German Culture I had never heard of before. They were the Singers. First, there were the Minnesingers (12th Century beginnings)… who were then replaced by the Meistersingers starting around the 14th Century.

The Meistersingers played a huge role in German Culture. It was a guild for lyric poetry & composition. It also included the unaccompanied art song. (I am not quite sure what THAT means… but perhaps the songs could go out at night by themselves…. maybe.)

The Meistersingers were drawn from middle class males for the most part. They had schools, and rules, and meetings and EVERYTHING. I can only imagine….

But the meetings were more than just meetings… and the rules were pretty stringent.

The meetings (called Schulsingen) were more like competitions. The people would come together to listen. Their were judges (called Merker).

Prizes were awarded. BUT…..dang it….those who sang poorly were fined.

The prize was sometimes money or EVEN sometimes a crown. There were challenges… and they dressed up…. in costumes. History books say they were sumptuous costumes… and not motley.

Is this sounding like the X Factor…. or The Voice to anyone else? I think it was the precursor to all these modern shows…. I DO!

They were mostly in Southern Germany… and that is where my ancestors came from. Maybe I descended from a Meistersinger. Krony the Sockmonkey Meistersinger. Yeah. It has a ring to it.

And that would explain why I like to wear sumptuous costumes without warning. I won’t even get in to the whole yodeling fixation. And why I think I can win the X Factor….

At any rate. Happy Birthday to Hans Sachs. Famous Meistersinger Extraordinaire (b. Novermber 6, 1494 (d. January 19, 1576). I bet I’m related to him.

I remember when the candle shop burned down. Everyone stood around singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ – Stephen Wright