October 2008
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The first Scarlatti I ever heard was a collection played on the harpsichord by Wanda Landowska. And for a long time I didn’t want to hear his music played any other way. The truth is that I have never really loved the sound of the piano, in spite of all the great music that’s been…
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Pink Floyd: “Grantchester Meadows.” The funny thing about nostalgia is that you can have it for places and times that you didn’t actually experience. That was the way I felt when I first heard this ca. 1969. Then, hearing it again years later, I had that same feeling, plus the memory of the pleasure of…
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I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a pretty depressing week. In an attempt to escape I’m indulging myself in a bit of sentimental nostalgia, which I here share with you. It’s a little over two minutes long. Don’t adjust the volume until you’ve gotten past the screaming girls at the beginning. The album…
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I think I mentioned a few days ago that I had come across a very interesting essay bringing together the central insights of these two men, Polanyi’s “tacit knowledge” and Newman’s “illative sense.” At the time I hadn’t finished the essay, but now that I have I recommend it very strongly. I haven't read any…
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Interesting bit from Wednesday’s meditation in Magnificat (Thursday is my Adoration night, and that’s when I catch up): It really isn’t up to us whether or not we’re going to pray, as though prayer were something we start. It’s up to us whether or not we’re going to agree to pray. Because prayer is going…
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The mention in comments earlier today of the recent Ayn Rand discussions (here and here) reminded me of something I ran across during those discussions and meant to link to, but never did. It’s an account by Michael Prescott, a former Objectivist, of why he was attracted to the philosophy in the first place, and…
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In my daily or almost-daily perusal of the new arrivals at eMusic, I often come across some great song and album titles. Best of the week so far: “The Truth Hurts So This Should Be Painless”. Another favorite which I swear I saw once but now can’t find was something like: “Depression Brought On By…
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The First Beautiful Thing I Ever Saw I was at the home of my maternal grandparents. I was probably about four years old, maybe a bit older. Some of the men had been out duck hunting. Later when I was old enough to hunt, I found it mainly boring, and I didn’t like killing things.…
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Just letting everybody know that I’ll be out of town for the weekend. I may have a chance to check in once or twice but will mostly be offline. Enjoy your weekend. Clare’s links to her pet photos in the comments (whatever thread that was) reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post this one.…
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Ok, I finally did this. If I tell you either the results or the length of time it took me to complete the test, you can probably guess the other: (1) melancholic (59%) / phlegmatic (41%) and (2) 45 minutes or so, i.e., too long. I kept getting hung up on questions that didn’t really…
Light On Dark Water 