You Tubes
Steven Riddle's recent prodigious amount of YouTubing inspired this post. I'm far more bourgeois though.
Donovan singing Jennifer Juniper in Ireland in 2005:
Rising of the Moon
The Impossible Dream
MacArthur Park
Melt with You
Morningside of the Mt
Deep Purple
Seal's Kiss of the Rose
You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma
You Never Even Call Me By Name
Patti Loveless "Keep Your Distance"
Don't Come Home a' Drinkin'
January 12, 2007
Week in Review
Well the Bucks game was over nearly before it began. I went to my inlaws because they lived closest to my house and it was a “school night” as they say. The gods of college football apparently cared little about the decreased productivity in the states of Ohio and Florida on Tuesday, at least not when it means m-m-m-money. Plus the in-laws are OSU-crazy, beginning and ending family gatherings with the blessing “Go Bucks”. Their passion is heartfelt and entertaining and I can share it only derivatively. Not being an OSU grad or a Columbus native I always feel like I’m cheating on my wife (my alma mater). OSU, as mistresses go, is extremely attractive and sexy, and given the Bengals and Reds seasons I feel a sense of entitlement.
The Bucks lost the coin toss (John McCain lost a roomful of voters), but that bad taste was quickly turned on its head by an electric kickoff return for a touchdown. Many highfives and hugs later, sobriety returned as Florida methodically returned fire. “Gay-tors” they weren’t. They had teeth. My father-in-law aged before my eyes, disconsolantly saying they always break his heart. But it was just January of 2003 when they last won it all, and I don’t think your team shouldn’t win it all too often lest you become complacent. Once a decade would be nice as well as exceptional given how rarely the average Division 1 team wins a national championship. But all is relative. If Notre Dame is the king of the notoriously overrated, it seems the teams of the Big Ten, this year at least, were princes.
Speaking of the game and game recaps, Ham o' Bone toiled long and hard in his blogratory on this post, calling it his breakthrough 100-comment post, but it appears it wasn't to be. Tough to find an audience these days.
Well the Bucks game was over nearly before it began. I went to my inlaws because they lived closest to my house and it was a “school night” as they say. The gods of college football apparently cared little about the decreased productivity in the states of Ohio and Florida on Tuesday, at least not when it means m-m-m-money. Plus the in-laws are OSU-crazy, beginning and ending family gatherings with the blessing “Go Bucks”. Their passion is heartfelt and entertaining and I can share it only derivatively. Not being an OSU grad or a Columbus native I always feel like I’m cheating on my wife (my alma mater). OSU, as mistresses go, is extremely attractive and sexy, and given the Bengals and Reds seasons I feel a sense of entitlement.
The Bucks lost the coin toss (John McCain lost a roomful of voters), but that bad taste was quickly turned on its head by an electric kickoff return for a touchdown. Many highfives and hugs later, sobriety returned as Florida methodically returned fire. “Gay-tors” they weren’t. They had teeth. My father-in-law aged before my eyes, disconsolantly saying they always break his heart. But it was just January of 2003 when they last won it all, and I don’t think your team shouldn’t win it all too often lest you become complacent. Once a decade would be nice as well as exceptional given how rarely the average Division 1 team wins a national championship. But all is relative. If Notre Dame is the king of the notoriously overrated, it seems the teams of the Big Ten, this year at least, were princes.
Speaking of the game and game recaps, Ham o' Bone toiled long and hard in his blogratory on this post, calling it his breakthrough 100-comment post, but it appears it wasn't to be. Tough to find an audience these days.
Midwest Writers
Nice Dispatch feature on Ohio writers:
Nice Dispatch feature on Ohio writers:
In his afterword to Good Roots: Writers Reflect on Growing Up in Ohio, novelist Mark Winegardner makes a persuasive case for the Midwest being the cradle not only of football coaches but of the country’s greatest writers. The evidence is ample: Mark Twain (Missouri), Ernest Hemingway (Illinois), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Minnesota), T.S. Eliot (Missouri), Theodore Dreiser (Indiana), Thornton Wilder (Wisconsin). And the list goes on and on. Take that, New York. Good Roots editor Lisa Watts asked several writers to contemplate how the Midwest in general, and Ohio in particular, shaped them as people and, especially, as writers. Popular children’s author R.L. Stine wonders: "Would I have ventured outside more if it wasn’t so BORING out there? If I lived in a more stimulating, crowded, cosmopolitan, lots-to-see-and-do environment? I don’t know. But the quiet and normalcy of my little block of our little town gave me the security to stay inside and explore this new passion of mine. "
From Today's LotH Bible Reading
Sirach 43:13-35
Sirach 43:13-35
For him each messenger succeeds,
and at his bidding accomplishes his will.
More than this we need not add;
let the last word be, he is all in all!
Let us praise him the more, since we cannot fathom him,
for greater is he than all his works;
Awful indeed is the Lord's majesty,
and wonderful is his power.
Lift up your voices to glorify the Lord,
though he is still beyond your power to praise;
Extol him with renewed strength,
and weary not, though you cannot reach the end.
January 11, 2007
Golden Age?
Manishevitz but I just caught The Office and that show is just flat out hi-larious. The killer moment was when Phyllis asks how this guy's wife is doing and he shows a picture and she's got the same buffant hairdo as Phyllis & her co-worker had just had done. Ah but you have to be there. Yesterday's Friday Night Lights wasn't too shabby and of course 24 begins next week. Julie of "Happy Catholic" writes:
Manishevitz but I just caught The Office and that show is just flat out hi-larious. The killer moment was when Phyllis asks how this guy's wife is doing and he shows a picture and she's got the same buffant hairdo as Phyllis & her co-worker had just had done. Ah but you have to be there. Yesterday's Friday Night Lights wasn't too shabby and of course 24 begins next week. Julie of "Happy Catholic" writes:
Heroes? Prison Break? Friday Night Lights? Studio 60? House? (Lost is on the edge ... we'll see how they go with the return from the winter break ...)Homer: When will I learn? The answers to life's problems aren't found in the bottom of a bottle. They're on TV.Some of the best drama, whether for excellent writing about the human condition (House, Friday Night Lights) or just excellent story telling (the others above) is on regular network TV. As a commenter pointed out here, this is another "golden age" of television.
Ave Maria
A week before Christmas I heard soprano Renée Fleming's angelic rendition of Schubert's Ave Maria, and the song has been lingering in memory ever since. Wow can she sing.
Through the miracle of YouTube I found it again:
There are other renditions here.
Link:
A week before Christmas I heard soprano Renée Fleming's angelic rendition of Schubert's Ave Maria, and the song has been lingering in memory ever since. Wow can she sing.
Through the miracle of YouTube I found it again:
There are other renditions here.
Link:
The Ave Maria was composed in about 1825 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) when he was twenty-eight years old and filled with devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was written for voice and piano and first Published in 1826 as Op 52 no 6. The words most commonly used with Schubert’s music are not the words that the composer originally set to music. Franz Schubert actually wrote the music for an excerpt from the poem “The Lady of the Lake” by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), which was translated into German by Adam Storck...
The composer died young at the age of 31. After his death Latin lyrics were replaced on the song for performance in a liturgical setting. The composer’s name was Franz Schubert, and “Ellen’s Song Number Three” is known to us today as “Ave Maria”.Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum;
benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus [Christus].
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
Ave Maria, Mater Dei, Ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
Ora, ora pro nobis, Ora ora pronobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis, in hora mortis nostrae,
in hora mortis, mortis nostrae, in hora mortis nostrae,
Ave Maria.
Commenting on Corner & Drudge Posts
A few stream o' conscious thoughts about various & sundry Corner & Drudge links (click to enlarge):
It's sort of amazing how politicians are able to stab someone in the back and then the next day be smiling in an "it's not personal" sort of way. I'm reading John Ashcroft's book and Teddy Kennedy did everything but accuse him of child molestation in front of the cameras while behind the cameras solicitiously offering a cloakroom of some sort to Ashcroft's family.
This is "comedic genius". Simply hi-larious. One of those posts you say, "wish I'd have written that".
Strong stuff coming from a Republican senator. If he's not up for election in '08 then it's really strong stuff. Hard to disagree.
Proof again that there is a God. Or at least that some people have a spine. I was greatly cheered by this.
I thought Johnny Carson was dead?
A few stream o' conscious thoughts about various & sundry Corner & Drudge links (click to enlarge):
It's sort of amazing how politicians are able to stab someone in the back and then the next day be smiling in an "it's not personal" sort of way. I'm reading John Ashcroft's book and Teddy Kennedy did everything but accuse him of child molestation in front of the cameras while behind the cameras solicitiously offering a cloakroom of some sort to Ashcroft's family.
This is "comedic genius". Simply hi-larious. One of those posts you say, "wish I'd have written that".
Strong stuff coming from a Republican senator. If he's not up for election in '08 then it's really strong stuff. Hard to disagree.
Proof again that there is a God. Or at least that some people have a spine. I was greatly cheered by this.
I thought Johnny Carson was dead?
A Quote from The Other Paper
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." - Woody Hayes
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." - Woody Hayes
An Eastern Catholic...
..sent me these charming photos from Jakubany in Slovakia, the village in which his great-grandfather was born:
..sent me these charming photos from Jakubany in Slovakia, the village in which his great-grandfather was born:
O'Rourke on Wealth
P.J. O'Rourke on C-Span's In Depth said that the main economic error we make can be summed up in two words: "zero sum". As in "zero sum" game. As in wealth is like a pie and every slice you get is one slice I don't get. It isn't true, at least not anymore. He said it was once true and so it is understandable so many people get this wrong. It was true when land=wealth because there was a limited amount of land. But the Industrial Age changed all that and now wealth is not finite.
I'm often puzzled by those who are resentful of the rich and who are bothered by disparities of income. Disparity is minutiae, what counts is how much the poor have, whether their needs are met, and that the "floor" be as high as possible.
I suppose that for those of us living in a democracy disparity is intrinsically bothersome. We want everything "even-steven". Moving to the spiritual sphere, one of the Thomist's least popular positions is that God loves some more than others, i.e. those who he has predestined in a special way (such as the Theotokos). The disclaimer is that He loves everyone more than they could ever love themselves but it was interesting to reading commenters discuss/recuss that on Pontifications blog.
P.J. O'Rourke on C-Span's In Depth said that the main economic error we make can be summed up in two words: "zero sum". As in "zero sum" game. As in wealth is like a pie and every slice you get is one slice I don't get. It isn't true, at least not anymore. He said it was once true and so it is understandable so many people get this wrong. It was true when land=wealth because there was a limited amount of land. But the Industrial Age changed all that and now wealth is not finite.
I'm often puzzled by those who are resentful of the rich and who are bothered by disparities of income. Disparity is minutiae, what counts is how much the poor have, whether their needs are met, and that the "floor" be as high as possible.
I suppose that for those of us living in a democracy disparity is intrinsically bothersome. We want everything "even-steven". Moving to the spiritual sphere, one of the Thomist's least popular positions is that God loves some more than others, i.e. those who he has predestined in a special way (such as the Theotokos). The disclaimer is that He loves everyone more than they could ever love themselves but it was interesting to reading commenters discuss/recuss that on Pontifications blog.
Divine Mercy, Divine Justice
That mercy/justice post reminds me how Fr. Groeschel, on his Sunday Night Live show this past week, mentioned that he's a big proponent of Divine Mercy. He joked that some folks are prophets of Divine Justice, but he stays the hell away from that group. Says he knows which end his bread his buttered on. Amen brother, er, Father.
His comments reminded me of reading Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie many, many years ago. I read with great surprise how he (Steinbeck) longed to find a Christian church that preached fire and brimstone. He wanted fire and brimstone! I thought at the time: why would anyone want that "mean God" preached? But now I understand it better. As you creep into middle age the tendency is towards complacency. Youth is many things, but it's not usually marked by complacency or lethargy. Middle age usually means you have a family and a more comfortable income, more stability, and that tends to induce tepidity. Of course, the fire and brimstone sermons are probably not helpful to those prone to despair, but that's a horse of a different color. In the end one can see how we need lessons of both justice and mercy, primarily because both are true.
That mercy/justice post reminds me how Fr. Groeschel, on his Sunday Night Live show this past week, mentioned that he's a big proponent of Divine Mercy. He joked that some folks are prophets of Divine Justice, but he stays the hell away from that group. Says he knows which end his bread his buttered on. Amen brother, er, Father.
His comments reminded me of reading Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie many, many years ago. I read with great surprise how he (Steinbeck) longed to find a Christian church that preached fire and brimstone. He wanted fire and brimstone! I thought at the time: why would anyone want that "mean God" preached? But now I understand it better. As you creep into middle age the tendency is towards complacency. Youth is many things, but it's not usually marked by complacency or lethargy. Middle age usually means you have a family and a more comfortable income, more stability, and that tends to induce tepidity. Of course, the fire and brimstone sermons are probably not helpful to those prone to despair, but that's a horse of a different color. In the end one can see how we need lessons of both justice and mercy, primarily because both are true.
January 10, 2007
To the tune The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Olentangy on down
through Woody from Ohio's days early
The Buckeyes, it's said, never lose when ahead
'Less the skies of Jan'ry turn gloomy.
The team was the pride of the Big Ten's side
Ranked first in the nation all season
As good teams go it was better than most
With a crew and a Captain well seasoned.
For fifty-one days they watched lesser bowl games
Till they took the bright field down in Glendale
And later that night when the half-time whistle rang out
The Gators'd robbed the wind from their sails.
The Florida rush made a terrible sound
As the linemen sent the Buckeye team reelin'
And every man knew, as did Cap'n Tressel, too,
T'was the curse of the Heisman come stealing.
As the fourth quarter dawned Coach Mullen became alarmed
Saying fellows come on now what's in ya
By 11PM a Gator field goal went in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.
The Captain announced that time was running out
And the scoreboard be telling no lies
And later that night when 00:00 was the sight
Came the Wreck of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When turnovers turn minutes to hours
The experts all say that momentum'd gone their way
if that fourth-and-one had not soured!
Friendly Fire Hurts the Most
OSU star Ted Ginn got injured by teammates in the endzone. I echo his sentiment wishing the Buckeyes had tackled the Gators as well:
(Graphic: Ham o' Bone)
OSU star Ted Ginn got injured by teammates in the endzone. I echo his sentiment wishing the Buckeyes had tackled the Gators as well:
(Graphic: Ham o' Bone)
On Liturgy
Link here:
Link here:
Men and women worship God because God is. They corrupt worship if they bend worship to some other goal: peace of mind, career advancement, family unity, better health, moral improvement or political cause. Some such secondary goods may follow from worship, but if these become the aim and purpose of worship, the worshiper instrumentalizes God to other ends, thus diminishing God to what God is not, the great slot machine in the sky...
While one corrupts worship if one reduces it to the "so that" and the "in order to" of politics (or to the goals of the marketplace or psychic health), secondary implications, including the political, do flow from worship. The Catholic moralist Dietrich yon Hildebrand sketched in Liturgy and Personality a portrait of the liturgically formed person, the person who takes the liturgy seriously, who does not corrupt it for reasons of self-improvement, self-advancement or any other secondary gains, yet who reflects secondarily the shaping power of the liturgy on character. Similarly, one may ask what liturgically formed citizens might look like, that is, citizens who take seriously the sacraments of the Lord's Supper and baptism and the ordinary prayers of the church as an influence on their interactions in the polis, even though they do not exploit worship for political goals. (Protestants need to learn here from other faith traditions. Whereas the Protestant usually asks, "What is the scripturally formed person like?," the Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) believer asks, "What is the liturgically formed person like?")
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