March 2014
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I've read two reviews, one good, one bad. The former did as much as the latter to give me the impression that it's somewhere between bad and extremely bad. I also note that the usual Hollywood vs. Christians arguments seem to be going on: assorted mockers more or less daring Christians to be offended; Christians…
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Alex de Grassi. The term "New Age music" has long since become somewhat pejorative outside of the quasi-religious circles which supplied its name. But there was some very good music that more or less fit that category. There were three guitarists who appeared on the Windham Hill label (more or less synonymous with New Age) …
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And difficult. I had a surprising, if not startling, conversation a couple of weeks ago with several younger people, by which I mean people in their 30s. All three of them (I think there were only three) were of the opinion that Tolkien is a very boring writer. They had tried to read The Lord…
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In the Hobby Lobby case: Justice Elena Kagan also vigorously defended the coverage rule, arguing that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga were not being forced to provide insurance coverage and could simply choose not to by paying $2,000 per year per employee—an amount far lower than the cost of health insurance. We’re not going to force…
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Craig Burrell at All Manner of Thing has an excellent review of a book I've long wanted to read, The Drama of Atheist Humanism by Henri de Lubac, S.J., which apparently makes a point similar to mine about Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. That's only part of the interest in the review, though–by all means read it…
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I finally finished it a week or so ago. Here are a few reactions, certainly not intended as any sort of presumptuous "review" of a book almost universally acknowledged to be one of the great literary monuments, but simply a record of my immediate impressions. I'm not making an attempt to summarize the plot, either,…
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Paul Galbraith and his amazing 8-string guitar, nicknamed "the Brahms guitar," because Galbraith developed the idea in order to be able to transcribe and play a Brahms piano work more effectively. I wasn't able to find the Brahms piece on YouTube, but here is a beautiful Bach prelude. And the video, which seems to have…
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His Incarnation now, in us, is in the suffering world as it is. It is not reserved for a utopia that will never be; it does not differ from his first coming in Bethlehem, his birth in squalor, in dire poverty, in a strange city. It is the same birth here and now. There is…
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I went into Lent as usual, like a dog running on a hardwood floor and trying to make a sudden turn–feet slipping wildly, head making the turn while the rest of the body swings out, trying to continue in the original direction. I have managed to sustain a couple of disciplines, so it hasn't been…
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John Williams. Serious classical guitar aficionados may think this piece overexposed, but I'm going to bet that most readers of this blog haven't heard it that often. And it's very beautiful, as well as technically impressive: "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" ("Memories of the Alhambra"), by Francisco Tárrega. I mentioned last week that I had once…
Light On Dark Water 