Well hello everybody! My name is Herb Bloomquist, and while many of my students call me Mr. B (and lots of other things, I bet! ha ha - just kidding, guys!), you can call me Herb. There's a fellow who has a super project called Marty's Sock Puppet Portraits, and guess what? Herb Bloomquist is a part of it! Well what do you know!

Here's my sci fi song about Earth Science:
"Whistle for Science"

Okay, about me. Well, as you might already know (since I think a lot of my students are on this Internet thing), I teach Earth Science to 9th and 10th Graders at the Bob Costas Memorial High School, just outside of Brooklyn in East Speedunk. But why is this a musical web page? Well guys, as lots of you know (and some probably want to forget - ha! Just kidding, guys!) I like to teach with songs!

You know - truth be told (as they say in the Biosphere), singing...and...WHISTLING songs was my dream... That's right, old Mr. B was once on the track of becoming a professional whistler. And I was good, darnit. Heck, I was great...But it all slipped away...How does it all slip away?.. .. But hey! Here I am today, proud of my students and my songs, and there's nothing I like more than to whistle a tune about electromagnetic fields and tectonic plates! 

BAND Members
Just me, old Herb Bloomquist, whatever instruments I can bang out a tune on, and my own TWO LIPS! Ha ha!....Though I was recently contacted by none other than Perfect Jimmy from this strange band called Uncle Monsterface, and we've been tossing some ideas around, too.

Influences
Oddly enough, I also have a lot of fun dabbling is short science fiction stories. I think I consider it a "musical influence" because it also gets the old "creative juices" flowing, sometimes inspiring a companion song, too! I don't want to confuse the kids, though - hard science is hard science and fun is fun. A handful of the short stories get a little W-E-I-R-D, if you know what I mean. My "Fantastic Tales of the Hollow Earth" series has gotten published in several small periodicals, including "Amazing Adventuring Tales of Tomorrowland" and "Weird and Weirder Happenings Bi-Monthly," two of my personal favorites. And my story from 2003, "Harold the Whistler and the Trembling Terror of the Giant Mole" won an award for Best Existential Short Story from the prestigious Peruvian "Interstellar Cloud Awards." In short, it tells the tale of a world-weary Math Teacher who dreams of saving the world with a powerful device he builds to amplify his heroic ability to whistle. After his entire school and all of his students are tragically crushed by a Giant Mole who is powered by stolen dreams, Herb (with the assitance of the beautiful and astute Penny Mayflower) tunnels deep below the earth to use his whistling powers to destroy the mole that has siphoned away his dreams, only to find that the giant mole is controlled by the very children he was avenging...

Needless to say, I'm working on some companion songs....
Ha ha! Of course, I have MUSICAL influences, too. I confess, my tastes are pretty old fashioned, though sometimes the kids will bring in something that I find interesting. While most of my listenings stops at Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, in my more rebellious days I could be found "rocking out" to The Kingston Trio or Bob Denver. Ok, I confess to liking some Bob Dylan, too, just don't tell my mom! And more recently I found this cool guy named Andrew Bird - quite the whistler!

Sounds Like
Well, I sure do hope it sounds like learning is fun! Maybe it also sounds like shifting tectonic plates, or around Halloween like a Moleman from the center of the Earth. Ha! Just kidding!

Check out my olde school Myspace band Page!