March 2007
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Robert Gotcher asks how I convert lps to cds, and I thought I would answer in a post rather than a comment, so it can be found again more easily, as it's going to include some links that are worth remembering. First: Erik supplies this link, which is extremely thorough (thanks, Erik). Second: here's a…
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Van Morrison: Common One The reader who signs himself “Jack” quotes—strikingly in the context—a lyric from this album in a comment on this month-old thread, prompting me to avail myself of it as another Music of the Week entry which I can write about without listening to again. Jack shortens the line a bit: where…
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The discussion about the Incredible String Band got me curious about what Robin and Mike have been doing for the past twenty years or so, so I went over to AMG to look and got a big and intriguing surprise: Robin is now recording for ECM. If you don't know, ECM is very much a…
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Discovering Traherne (2) I mentioned last week that this has so far been a rather unreflective Lent for me. The main problem is the medium by which you’re reading this. It doesn’t do any good, or not much, to turn off the television and stop the flow of hysterical “news” from that source, or to…
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Arvo Pärt: Kanon Pokajanen I’ve heard only a fairly small portion of Pärt’s music, so I can’t say that this is his masterpiece. I do feel justified in saying that it is a masterpiece. I’m sorry that I was not able to get this note onto the web well before Lent was over, as Kanon…
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…and computers were computers, John Backus and associates developed FORTRAN, formally released in 1957. He was also the "B" in "BNF," for Backus-Naur Form, a very elegant notation for describing formal grammars (e.g. computer languages). (Not that I was ever very knowledgeable or proficient with things at that level of abstraction, but I think it's…
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…and then I might think about considering the possibility of stepping out on this thing. I don't like heights. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just to look at the picture. Pre-TypePad http://js-kit.com/for/lightondarkwater.com/comments.js
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The Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band No, I have not been listening to this album. Yes, I have kept pretty well to my liturgical/devotional music-only plan for Lent. But I'm not yet prepared to write about any of those works, so I'll take this opportunity to feature some music that I don't have…
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Som Great Thing: Discovering Traherne When the encounter with a single sentence sends you looking for more of a writer’s work, it must be a pretty striking sentence. And naturally you wonder if his other work is going to live up to the hopes produced by the one sample. My Lenten reading involves just such…
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Choir of St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church: This Is the Day This disk was a gift from my friend Daniel Nichols and is the work of the choir where he is a parishioner: St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church in Barberton, Ohio. The subtitle describes the music: Seasonal Chants of the Eastern Christian Church. It’s a…
Light On Dark Water 