NASA's Golden Record - The Legacy of Blind Willie Johnson

Brian Borg of San Diego, California is a human resources and risk management professional who has over 17 years of experience in his field. Musically, Brian Borg is a blues fan. One of his favorite blues musicians is Blind Willie Johnson.

Somewhere, out in intergalactic space, there is a record containing some of the most important and influential music in human history, including a track from Blind Willie Johnson. The “Golden Record,” launched with NASA’s Voyager 1 probe in 1977, serves as one part of a greeting to any potential alien life that may intercept the craft. Aside from Johnson, the record also includes music from Mozart, Bach, Chuck Berry, and many others. 

The committee that chose the music for the record included famed astrophysicist Carl Sagan, who wanted to choose a song that represented all of humanity and the human experience. He eventually settled on Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” saying that the song’s haunting hums and slide guitar evoked a situation Johnson and many others had faced, “Nightfall with no place to sleep.”

In life, Johnson had it rough. He was blinded by his stepmother as a child and eventually died of malaria after his house burned to the ground. In death, however, he’s one of a select few musicians whose legacy may one day include contact with an alien race millions of miles from his home.

Pinnacles Helps Support Wild California Condors

A summa cum laude graduate of San Diego University, Brian Borg has more than two decades of experience in risk management, human resources, and business analysis. Personally, Brian Borg enjoys traveling with his family from his home in San Diego to visit some of the state's natural areas, such as Pinnacles National Park.

First inhabited by native peoples and then Spanish missionaries and settlers for centuries before its designation as a national park in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Pinnacles National Park encompasses approximately 26,000 acres of land formed by the eruption of several volcanoes. Visitors have the opportunity to hike numerous trails through the quiet wilderness and learn about the area's flora, fauna, and geology.

Pinnacles National Park began serving as a release site for the California condor in 2013. The species had disappeared from the wild by 1987. In response, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with the Ventana Wildlife Society in order to make a coordinated effort to save the California condor. Over a period of 15 years, they set roughly 20-30 condors free each year in Pinnacles.

Today, park staff at Pinnacles work with scientists, interns, and volunteers to watch and protect the park's resident condors. Visitors can also see the spectacular birds of prey soaring over the park.