Donut Things

Now this is funny...

Now, This is Funny

h/t Mark Shea

'Tis the Season

h/t Mark Shea

And We All See How Well That Worked Out

The same August 29 1966 issue of the Milwaukee Sentinel that carried the stories on the picketing at Judge Cannon's house had a story in Part 2, p. 11, quoted the new leader of the Church Music Association of America regarding a papal commission that had proposed banning "imitation folk songs," "hootenanny masses," etc. from Catholic rites.  "Let the musicians themselves outlaw the music."  The Church's top musicians know good from bad and, like a doctor, should have the final say.  If musical experimentation is given a chance, he said, the good music will eventually win out over the bad. He was supported in this by the outgoing president Archabbot Rembert G. Weakland OSB, whom some may remember as the later-disgraced Archbishop of Milwaukee, so perhaps his tastes in music were no better than his tastes in other matters. 

TOF's Rule for Church Music:
If you can imagine the hymn being sung by a Disney Princess (Pocahontas, Ariel, et al.) then it is not a good hymn.

Corollary: if you can imagine it being sung on a Broadway stage, likewise.  

One song:

An older song:


And.... an even older song:

New Technologies

beget new art forms.  There have always been "dancing waters" ever since there have been fountains.  But add computers and a decent respect for s=0.5gt^2 and you get this:

Giant Panda Strikes

English language news reporting in Taiwan is a bit...  odd.

Old Boskone Panel on You Tube

I had run across this a few years ago and thought it would amuse some folks. It is a video of a panel on the Rise of Modern Science done at Boskone a few years back. For the patient, it is in seven parts and the embed below is for the first part, after which you will be cued to pick the second, etc. The panelists are John Farrell, Br. Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory, and yr. obt. svt.

Attack Ad

The Sweet Sentimental Music of Eireann

h/t Nancy Kress

Now This is Funny

h/t Jerry Pournelle

Something That Crossed My Mind

Oh, yes....




h/t Mark Shea

Okay.  And then there is this:









I actually quibble with one thing he says. The Mayans (and others who used this and similar calendars) did think that the world was destroyed and reborn at the end of every Great Year. (Although the term "great year" is Chaldean, it was also used by the Greeks and by some people in the Renaissance.) The notion is that when everything in the universe is aligned once more as it was in the beginning, everything will reboot. Socrates will be born again, be denounced again, and will again drink the hemlock when everything is aligned the same was as before. This is curiously consonant with the beliefs of determinists, who substitute something they call "physical causes" for the alignment of the stars.  But more on that later.

This is Kool

h/t Mark Shea

Irene Goodnight

Star Wars, by J-P Sarte

This is too good not to share:




h/t Mark Shea

Who, Indeed?

The great classics never die

Speaking of Thomas Aquinas

which we were, there is this:



h/t Mark Shea

A Musical Moment

While driving back from the doctor's office today, Bob Gibson streamed down from the satellite on the folk music channel.  YouTube has a version credited to Shel Silverstein, Bob Gibson, and John Hartford.  The video is nothing, but the song has a peculiar effect on me.

The Philadelphia Opera Company

sure do like to sing, even while shopping.  You saw them last at Reading Terminal Market singing opera.  Now, along with 650 close friends and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, they do a little seasonal chorale.  A word of explanation on the venue: Wanamaker's was the old downtown department story in Philadelphia, which features a huge organ that plays for shoppers.  There is also a large sculpture of an eagle that is iconic for Philadelphians.  "I'll meet you under the Eagle" was a common phrase when I was going to college down there, and explains all those people we would see sitting around at its feet.  It is also why the Philadelphia Football Team bears that name. 

Toot Suite

A few days back I treated you to some musical entertainment.  Thanks to Mark Shea, we can bring to you now the stunning virtuosity of the St. Luke Bottle Band playing Scott Joplin's Peacherine Rag. 



Followed by Auld Lang Syne and the Quickstep from the 1812 overture, complete with cannons. 

Right Here. Right Now.

h/t Mark Shea