Thursday, December 08, 2005

weather or not

So, is it the weather? I've just had two phone calls in a row that really stretched my tolerance. (My tolerance is pretty low, anyway.)

I'm stuck in a horrible situation right now, so I don't have much to give to anybody except a resolve not to pass on any bad karma.

One conversation about drawing the line about church and liturgy. I draw lines, too, but when I find myself at that point, it feels like total failure.

Another from someone whose life is so incredibly messed up he'll never pull it together, and I'm stuck listening to him telling me why someone else is impossible to live with.

I don't want to argue about anything. Just live and let live.

It would be nice to get some constructive work done, too.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Special effects take the light from Harry Potter

If you've been to see the Goblet of Fire, you know that it has some of the most believable, seamless special effects of any fantasy movie. The dragon is the best I've seen. The underwater scene, in which Harry turns into a fish-person, is eerie and convincing. Merpeople and grindylows are believable.

Unfortunately, these beautiful, stunning, entertaining effects diminish the main line of the story of Goblet of Fire, take away the tension. Rowling's Goblet of Fire is a two-layered thriller. The background line is the extreme threat of Voldemort in Harry's life. The foreground school story features everyday challenges that are not evil, but extremely difficult, and this is the sense that is missing from the movie.

In the books, the TriWizard Tournament is a somewhat-over-the-top school event. It reminds me of the Wide Games we used to hold at Girl Scout camp, where everyone went all-out for some kind of theme adventure in which we immersed ourselves for a few hours or a few days. If it's a little overenthusiastic, well, so are our state football championships. People get hurt in them, too.

In the book, the dragon challenge is plenty real to Harry and the contestants, but the dragons are tethered, and a dozen wizards are standing by to stun the beasts if they get out of hand. It's a challenge of nerve, preparation and courage. We are priveleged to Harry's feelings of inadequacy and dread, and his huge relief when he finds himself able to use his Quiddich skill to meet the challenge well.

Harry's preparation for the second task is mostly avoidance. Rowling makes exquisite use of his awareness of time passing without this huge problem being solved. He does eventually start to prepare, but not soon enough were it not for luck (Dobby's help). When the task happens, the merpeople are there to see to the contestants' safety. Harry's near-drowning in the movie, while entertaining, would not have happened in the book-story. And for this reason, the book gives us the emotional tension of Harry's accomplishing the task, followed by acute embarrassment at coming in last because of taking it too seriously. He conquered the physical challenge, but missed the boat on the social challenge, he thinks, and THEN is exonerated by the judge's award of second place for "moral fibre." To me, this is more emotionally satisfying than a pretty rescue and escape scene.

The third task is very different for Harry. The second task has taught him how to prepare, and he, Hermione, and Ron spend a very large amount of time cramming and preparing. They research magical techniques, practice and perfect them. For the third task, Harry is nervous, but not afraid. He is ready. It's a real challenge, and the true challenge, as we see, is not one of skill, but of his sense of fairness.

THEN, the evil of Voldemort breaks in. And it is really evil. But Harry has grown, and his escape is not just luck or protection. His own growth is a very real part of what saves him.

So you see, the over-the-top movie effects cheat Harry of the very real accomplishments and growth. They also cheat the story line, for when the true beyond-his-skill challenge of Voldemort comes, we've long since suspended our disbelief, so there's no real shock or surprise. It's just another fantasy story.

Reading between the lines, director Mike Newell has said he was frustrated that the special effects had such a life of their own. I agree. Stunning as they are, they took away from the chance to tell the human story--a story of a person faced with difficulties who learns to overcome them, later finding himself able to prevail against unexpected difficulty.

I read somewhere that the special-effects people are salivating at their chance to portray Grawp in the next story. Well, I'd like to see Grawp well-done, but even more, I'd like to see the character interplay of the human side of the story. Order of the Phoenix is very much about people, their misconceptions in time of danger, their blindness and meanness. Ultimately it becomes the story of their ability (esp. Dumbledore's Army) to take charge of their own lives cooperatively. I'd hate to let this human story be swamped by special effects.

Monday, October 17, 2005

life, the universe, and everything in two sentences

"The difference between one and more-than-one
is all the difference in the world.

Indeed, that difference is the world."


--Ursula LeGuin, The New Atlantis, The Compass Rose, p. 17

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Cindy's questions and mine

WHY are they dying?
WHEN will it end???
It's about Oil.
It's about Domination.
It's about Money
& Freedom to exploit.
It's NOT about Democracy.

Whose children will be sacrificed today?

Research and "science" in education

http://susanohanian.org/show_research.html?id=71

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Cindy Sheehan

We held vigil last night with Cindy Sheehan.

We, too, believe that our government is NOT answering the following questions:

Why did we go to war?
How many have died because of this?
When will our military come home?

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

What's wrong with this picture?

I just got cable television. We were privileged to see the President's press conference in Crawford, Texas, where he answered questions about, among other things, Cindy Sheehan.

The staging was interesting. President Bush is standing in his blue shirt-sleeves, talking earnestly like a good-ole-boy. Mr. Cheney is wearing some kind of windbreaker jacket outfit, and Dr. Rice is wearing a pantsuit outfit and low heels.

The dirt road is in the background, and the President, at least, is made up to look as if he belongs there, unless you realize that the whole country is experiencing a heat wave and these people are all all standing out in the sun.

What good ole country boy wouldn't have the sense to stand in the shade?

All hat, no cattle.

Brings to mind the 30,000 Boy Scouts who were forced to stand in the sun and heat for many hours so that the President could console them on their losses recently.

What kind of judgment is going on here?

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Dear Representative Ron Lewis,

I’m writing to express my extreme disappointment in learning that you voted for the 2005 energy bill and its billions of dollars in giveaways to coal, oil, and nuclear companies.

Nuclear power is not a safe option, although its construction will generate lots of money to big business entities. Any resulting catastrophes, which are bound to happen sooner or later, will generate cash flow as well, I suppose. Maybe that's the reasoning behind support of nuclear power?

I have spent time in Heidelberg, Germany, and have noticed that a more "green" lifestyle is not only a long-term benefit for the future of the people, but generates short-term, immediate well-being in a better lifestyle. Everyday life is much better. People enjoy themselves more, and are not caught up in the ratrace of "consume, consume, consume, work, work, work" that we are saddled with here in the US.

I hope you will go back to the drawing board before the next election and craft a truly forward-thinking national energy policy that includes the following: 1) An end, not an increase, to coal and oil subsidies; 2) A significant increase in funding for energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy programs – the quickest way to reduce our oil dependence; 3) An immediate and significant upgrade of the CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) on new cars and light trucks; 4) A comprehensive set of tax incentives for energy-efficient technologies and appliances; 5) Adoption of the Hannover Principles as guidelines for planning.

Please show that you care more about the well being of the people of our state than you do about increasing the already huge profits of coal and oil companies. Please lead the way back to the drawing board and immediately set to work on a national energy plan based on efficiency, conservation and renewable energy. We need a forward-thinking plan with real goals, real benchmarks, real dates for reaching energy sustainability.

I look forward to hearing from you on what you plan to do.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Karl Rove

Karl Rove is being quoted as saying: "Perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

This statement makes a lot of people angry, but Karl's famous for being perceptive. Let's use hindsight to look at what he said.

"War." Those who prepared for war certainly got what they prepared for. War. We don't see signs of increased national security as a result. Instead we see exponential increase in desperate people who are prone to become terrorists, increased terrorist organizations, and a highly efficient training ground (Iraq urban battlefields).

"Understanding." One of the clearest bits of hindsight for all of us is the fact that our understanding of the Middle East was lacking. Our leadership's understanding, especally of Iraq, has proved to have been tragically, disastrously wrong. Can anyone argue against the need for more understanding?

"Prepare indictments." According to news reports, indictments and legal proceedings by world police and governments have brought many terrorists and their organizations to justice, far more than those apprehended by military means.

And "therapy." Therapy. Interesting concept. In Iraq, pouring money into military strength, though it has cost over $170,000,000,000 and used many, many thousands of people (including 1734 Americans who gave their lives), has not been able to prevail.

Suppose we had used "therapy?" Suppose our response to 9/11 had been to spend $170,000,000,000 dollars and set many thousands of people to use our knowledge of healing, peacemaking, community improvement, education, economics, global interaction to eliminate or reduce the indignities that have produced the last 30 years of tragedy and suffering on both sides?

Nothing like that has ever been attempted in the history of the world. But we, in the USA, do have the power.

When will we humans learn to put our strength behind our true strengths?

Thursday, May 26, 2005

filibuster for life


And at least one opponent of the measure [to extend federal funding for stem-cell research], Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, has indicated that if Dr. Frist puts the bill on the agenda, he may try to block it by filibuster.

"I have conveyed to Senate leadership that we must do everything we can procedurally to stop unethical embryonic stem cell research in the Senate, and I will work to do just that," Mr. Brownback said in a statement released Tuesday night. "We simply should not go down the road of using taxpayer dollars to kill young humans."


Well, I'll drink to that! YES!
Do you suppose Senator Brownback will filibuster anything that doesn't meet these inspiring criteria?

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Chant at St. Joe

Pentecost 7 am
Entrance: Come Holy Ghost (with organ)
Responsorial Psalm from missalette
Sequence: Holy Spirit, Lord Divine alternating lines: cantor/ choir
Gospel Acclamation: Easter Alleluia
Prep. of Gifts: Spiritus Domini
Sanctus Mass XVIII
Memorial Acclamation: Christ Has Died, Alleluia (Wise)
Great Amen
Agnus Dei Mass XVIII
Communion Psalm: Psalm 63 O God, You Are My God. English verses.
Sending: organ voluntary

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Evolution, Creationism, Randomness


"Can you tell us, sir, how old you believe the Earth is?" the lawyer, Pedro Irigonegaray, asked William S. Harris, a chemist, who helped write the proposed changes to the state standards.

"I don't know," Dr. Harris replied. "I think it's probably really old."

If the state board adopts the new standards, as expected, Kansas will join Ohio, which took a similar step in 2002, in requiring that students be taught that there is controversy about evolution. Legislators in Alabama and Georgia have introduced bills this season to allow teachers to challenge Darwin in class.

Do these people who "challenge Darwin" actually know Darwin? What are they really trying to challenge? I think it's their own perception of Darwin that contains the evil they are trying to eliminate, not Darwin.

When I was little, one of the questions in the little blue book was, "Where is God?"

The answer, as I remember it, is: "God is everywhere."

"God is everywhere." and "Where your heart is, there your treasure is."

We find God in that which we know, love, and pursue our greatest interest. People who embrace family and responsibility find God in that pursuit, and will probably define God with words from their personal experience. People who embrace Church, in its depth and fullness of potential, will certainly own a rich vocabulary to speak of God. People who find God, as Kepler did, in the harmony of the heavenly bodies, define God's goodness in the vocabulary of their love: science. People who find God in reason can speak of God in reasonable ways.

The problem only becomes a problem when someone of one branch of God-experience looks at the other's words and says, "They must be wrong. They have faith in empty words, or empty deeds, or meaningless images," mistakenly ascribing their own emptiness of that particular God-experience to the other person.

From their own point of view, the Creationists are correct to say that Science is wrong to teach that randomness drives the universe, with no love, no personal direction, no caring, no afterlife.

They are "correct" because they equate "randomness" with "meaninglessness." They don't understand that randomness is the key point at which all life and all value is generated. Randomness is that cherished point at which love functions most fully.

Science & reason are not opposed to creation. They are merely a bigger vocabulary. A different image.

Where is God? God is everywhere.

If you truly believe in God, you should be able to stop fighting about things you don't understand, and go about your own life, walking with God wherever God is found.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Baghdad

Faiza writes:

Now I began to understand why some Iraqis objected to the elections, considering it illegal, with the presence of an occupying force… I used to see them as silly extremists, while I supported the theory of "try, work, and push towards achieving your national goals", and by your intelligence, you could achieve the demands of your people, bringing honest, nationalist men to rule, men who want to achieve much for the welfare of Iraqis, and push the occupation outside Iraq…
But I discovered that these were naïve dreams, and an un-achievable equation within the present circumstances of Iraq.
As long as there is an occupation… it means you are weak, and do not posses enough pressure cards to win against the occupation force…and push it out of the country.
And day after day, they confirm the theory that they didn't come for the eyes of the Iraqis, and that they wouldn't pull out, not even if some 20 million Iraqis walk in a demonstration demanding they leave Iraq, ( that is, assuming some 5 millions are supporting them).
"We are here to stay"… it looks like this is their undeclared slogan, which is slapping all our faces, and that is something that the whole world will know, after the Iraqis.
Time is the only wager…
And we shall see…

Why are we all so helpless to stop this carnage that we started?

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Chant at St. Joe

Holy Hour and Benediction
Sunday, May 1, 3:00 PM
13th Anniversary of Eucharistic Adoration at St. Joseph

Opening Song: O Salutaris Hostia
Praying of the Rosary
Silent Prayer and Adoration
Liturgy of the Word
Tantum Ergo
Divine Praises
Blessing, Benediction
Holy God We Praise Thy Name
Thank you to volunteers
Reception

Father Bill Medley, Presider
Eucharistic Adorers
Gregorian Choir

Chant at St. Joe

In honor of Pope John Paul II
Maggie Hettinger
will sing
Vespers in Latin
for
Eucharistic Adoration
on
Tuesday, April 12th
and
Thursday, April 14th
in the
West Sacristy Chapel
at 5:00 PM

--Flaget Nalley, organizer

The Blessing and Recital of the Pilcher Pipe Organ--St. Catherine Church, New Haven, KY

The Blessing and Recital of the Pilcher Pipe Organ
St. Catherine Church, New Haven, KY
Sunday, April 10, 2005

BRIEF HISTORY OF ST. CATHERINE PARISH

St. Catherine's rich heritage goes back to 1844 wenn this parish was first established.

The first church erected on this site in 1844 was destroyed by fire in 1928. This church was described as being the finest church in the United States for a small town. Lost in this devastating fire was the Van Dinter organ, made in Mishawaka, Indiana. This organ was possibly the first instrument made in the state designed so the organist would sit with his/her back to the instrument while playing it.

The present church of Romanesque architecture, designed by Carl J. Epping, was dedicated on Sunday, March 30, 1930.

These words were taken from the dedication brochure:
"Today, all obstacles surmounted, this new church stands, a monument to the zeal and energy of this parish..." (This same zeal and energy still exists in our parish today.)

The main altar and two side altars are of the finest statuary and Poanazzo marble, inlaid with Venetian Mosaics. The Stations of the Cross, by Feuerstein, were imported from Munich, Germany, a gift from the Rt. Rev. Obrecht, at that time, Abbot of the Abbey of Gethsemani.

The stained glass windows in St. Catherine's Church were researched in 1993 by Father Fred W. Klotter, who was then a seminarian assigned to St. Catherine. Father Klotter found a name on one of the windows "signed" Emil Frei, Inc. of St. Louis and Munich, a company still in operation, but their company experienced a fire and lost all the records of their work done during 1930.

The pipe organ was installed in this church in Many 1931 at a cost of $1,350. This modest jewel of an organ was built in the 1890's by the firm of Henry Pilcher's Sons of Louisville, their Opus 83. Mr. John Gunther and Mr. Roy Heimerdinger, employees of the Pilcher Co., installed this organ. The organ was played for the first time on Sunday, May 17, 1931.

This historic organ is one of the last few remaining unaltered organs built by the prestigious firm of Henry Pilcher's Sons, Louisville, Kentucky. Where this instrument was originally installed is a mystery.


ORGAN RESTORATION

This fine example of late 19th century organ building has two manual deyboards and a pedal keyboard which access 10 ranks (or sets) of pipes totaling 514 pipes in all. This is a "tracker" organ. It has mechanical action where the organist, through a series of verious levers, trackers, squares, rollers, backfalls and pulldowns, actually opens the valves which let air into the pipes. The organ was in very good original condition. Prior to 2002, this organ was not played for about 10 years, but with periodic repairs, it has been in regular use since January 2002.

Major renovation of the organ began in February 2004. Work was carried out following guidelines set up by the Organ Historical Society which is dedicated to preserving these fine old instruments.

The renovation included replacing all leather parts, a thorough cleaning, replacing some missing and damaged pipes and a final regulation of voicing and turning to maintain the original tonal levels and balances of the organ.

Te single largest part of the project was releathering the four by seven foot reservoir including the feeder pumping bellows. Also, another significant part of the project was turning the organ 90 degrees out of the balcony alcove where it had been installed so that it now speaks directly out into the church.

New case sides were also added.

With the renovation of this instrument completed, we expect another 110 year of organ music for St. Cathering and the community.

We would like to thank everyone in St. Catherine Parish and the New Haven community for the courtesy shown to us during our time here at St. Catherine.

Pete Webber,
Webber and Borne Organ Builders
Louisville, KY


SPECIFICATIONS OF THE ORGAN

Great Swell Pedal

8' Open Diapason
8' Violin Diapason
16' Bourdon
8' Melodia
8' Stopped Diapason
8' Common Bass
8' Common Bass Couplers
8' Dulciana
4' Harmonic Flute Swell to Great
4' Octave
8' Oboe
2' Super Octave
(Reed pipes t.c.) Swell to Great Octaves
Tremolo Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal


BLESSING OF THE ORGAN

Opening Hymn Gather and Remember (Finlandia)
...accompanist, Roberta Tannahill

Greeting and Welcome
...Father Clarence Howard, pastor

Psalm 98: All the Ends of the Earth (David Haas, Marty Haugen)
...Cantor: Randy Stephens
...Accompanist: Roberta Tannahill

Blessing Prayer
"We dedicate this organ for your glory and your praise!"

The deacon sprinkles and incenses the instrument.
Psalm 47: Ascendit Deus,
"God mounts his throne to shouts of joy, a blare of trumpets for the Lord."
...Amy Hettinger, vocalist
...Gregorian Choir, Director, Maggie Hettinger

Song of Mary (Magnificat) Schola and assembly
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, organist
...Gregorian Choir, Director, Maggie Hettinger
...Carmel Bowman, cantor

The Lord's Prayer

Final Prayer

Hymn: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Beethoven)
...Choir made up of members of many, many, local choirs.


RECITAL
Fubue in C Major ("the Great") Johann Sebastian Bach
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Canon in D Pachelbel
...Maggie Hettinger, Flutist
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Voluntary VI, Set II, Opus 6 John Stanley (1713-1786)
...John Marcum, organist

Meditation Richard Lloyd
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Finale (Organ Sonata, Six, Opus 65) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
...John Marcum, organist

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock Johann Sebastian Bach
...Maggie Hettinger, Flutist
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Two Hymns:
Chorale Prelude on Praise to the Lord, the Almighty Johann Gottfried Walter (1684-1748)
Lobe den Herren
Exaltation on Christ the Lord is Risen Today Alice Jordan (b. 1916)
Easter Hymn
...John Marcum, Organist

After the recital, you are invited to the balcony to greet Mrs. Maggie Hettinger, Ms. Amy Hettinger, Bro Luke Armour, OCSO, and Mr. John Marcum.

Mr Pete Webber, of Webber & Borne Organ Builders, will also be in the balcony to greet you and answer any questions about the organ restoration.




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For their invaluable assistance, we wish to express our thanks and gratitude to Bro Luke Armour, OCSO, Mrs. Thelma Ford, Mrs. Carol Ann Haynes, Ms. Amy Hettinger, Mrs. Maggie Hettinger, Mr. Philip Hines, Mr. John Marcum, Mrs Joan O'Bryan and Pete Webber and staff.

We would like also to thank those in news media, expecailly, Mr. Mike Grosso, Mr. Barry Bernson, The LaRue County Herald News, The Kentucky Standard, PLG TV-13, and WAVE-TV News.

A special note of appreciation to all our benefactors, the Sa. Catherine parishioners and our pastor , Father Clarence J. Howard. Without your generosity, support and encouragement, this organ restoration would not have been possible.

Organ Restoration Committee:
Billie J. Alvey
Fred Boone
Totsie Boone
Sissie Clark
Julia Sims
Randy Stephens
Betty Vittitow
Martha Vittitow
Leigh Ann Wimsett


Notes:
The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. Attendance was good, the church was full. An exceptional meal was served by the parish, and a great time was had by all.
Prelude music by a flutist and violinist is not listed on the program.
Thanks Martha!!!

Monday, April 25, 2005

Air in tires would = ANWR oil

excerpts from an Earth Day observation by syndicated columnist Edward Flattau:

By simply pumping up their tires to the proper pressure, Americans would free up as much oil as is expected to be derived from the unique ANWR wilderness.

Benedict XVI on war


"There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war.'"

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, May 2, 2003.


I wasn't paying a bit of attention to politics until our country's horribly misguided, mistaken, WRONG, response to 9/11. I agree wholeheartedly with this positon of our new pope. If the new "young priests" were to take some active attention to THIS bit of the Holy Father's wisdom, I would buy them all the fancy dishes and frilly clothes they want.

But, I suspect they only want to follow him in as much as he appears to give them power & control.

My wonderful pastor was treating us Sunday with his insight that the last 40 years in the Catholic Church have been a "wasteland" from which he and our newly Confirmed are going to rescue all of us. He says "that's why we got the Pope we got." He crowed about that a little, then did some name-dropping about his connection with "Uncle Joe" Ratzinger.

All this from a newly-ordained convert to the Catholic Church who never lived through the last 40 years with us. What an ass. Every Sunday, from the ambo and the altar, we get put-downs--who we are, what we've learned, the people who taught us (priests, sisters, laypeople in the church, Archdiocese, the American Bishops, liberals), the things we do. And there is almost always a good statement about how educated or how ordained he is, or just plain name-dropping. He is "instructing" us now, from the ambo and in our Sunday bulletin.

It's a unique experience. Certainly not a performance I've ever seen from a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

I will say one thing. Sunday, he mentioned the word "Christ" 4 or 5 times. That's a record. I think that's more often than he's said the word during the whole 10 months of Sunday sermons.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Abu Ghraib

As the courts-martial and the Armed Services Committee hearings over Abu Ghraib clear senior Army officers (except Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. prison facilities in Iraq) and find low-level soldiers guilty, we Americans can observe a government administration that barges confidently and controllingly into all situations, but takes no responsibility for its actions.

I suspect that, when we look back at the ongoing grief, death, and humiliation in Iraq, we will realize that the Iraqi "insurgents" won the last battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people when they launched their concerted attack on Abu Ghraib last month.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Standing during Communion

Hey, David,

I had some insight last night as I thought about what you'd said about communion. It doesn't change anything, but it helped me understand why I feel differently about it than you (& many others) do.

I realized that since I'm a church musician (since the sixth grade), my concern during communion time has ALWAYS been with the whole assembly. I am part of that whole procession. I am always aware of everyone in the church. My job is to make the singing work well for all of them, for all of us. It's not private at all. When I'm not playing the keyboard, I'm standing, as choir, right there near the altar. It's powerful. I love it. When I participate from the pew, I keep that perspective--being one of many people, centered together around the altar (close and active). I wouldn't trade that for anything. I see the Vatican II renewal's idea of bringing that to everyone as a gift. It was a gift to me.

But, if your formation was different, as yours seems to have been, you don't have as much of a "communal" connection with Christ at Communion time. I can see that it's private, and of course no one would want to give that up, either.

It's funny, because the liturgy renewal started by first paying attention to the more personal (though still communal), more prayerful liturgy. The first step was the translation of the Liturgy of the Hours (The Divine Office) into English. When you read the hopes of people who worked on that, they were thrilled to be bringing that to lay people as well as religious. The Office contains more, much more, of that sense of prayerful connection with Christ (that I sense you get from communion at mass and rightly don't want to lose).

So, IF we had all joined, as parishes, into the Office (the great Prayer of the Church) then we wouldn't be fighting over bits of the Sunday Eucharist, trying to make it be all things for all people, unable to gather for prayer at all unless we "have" a priest.

And that was the plan. But people rejected it. They still do. Go figure.

love you,
maggie

Saturday, April 16, 2005

American TV--Another gift to Iraq

Baghdad Burning:

Riverbend reacts to the inundation of American TV on Iraqi stations:

"We sat there watching like we were a part of another world, in another galaxy. I’ve always sensed from the various websites that American mainstream news is far-removed from reality- I just didn’t know how far. Everything is so tame and simplified. Everyone is so sincere.

Furthermore, I don’t understand the worlds fascination with reality shows. Survivor, The Bachelor, Murder in Small Town X, Faking It, The Contender… it’s endless. Is life so boring that people need to watch the conjured up lives of others?

I have a suggestion of my own for a reality show. Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in the suburbs of, say, Falloojeh for at least 14 days. We could watch them cope with the water problems, the lack of electricity, the check points, the raids, the Iraqi National Guard, the bombings, and- oh yeah- the ‘insurgents’. We could watch their house bombed to the ground and their few belongings crushed under the weight of cement and brick or simply burned or riddled with bullets. We could see them try to rebuild their life with their bare hands (and the equivalent of $150)…

I’d not only watch *that* reality show, I’d tape every episode.
"

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Chant at St. Joe

Musicians' Dinner

Talent Show offering:
Pigorian Chant, sung by Gregorian Choir, with Amy Hettinger as Chicken, Bill Fell as Farmer

"orsnay....orsnay..."

Friday, April 08, 2005

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was a gift to all of us.
I think most of his untiring efforts to empower the Vatican II liturgy renewal
* working tirelessly to bring ALL of us into the full liturgy of the Catholic heritage
* personally and politically championing peace, justice, dignity and love
* showing us by example, how to live our lives while enjoying that greater communion with God and the People of God
Pax Domini

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Tickle: Tests, Matchmaking and Social Networking

Tickle: Tests, Matchmaking and Social Networking: "maggie, your secret to success is to be Proactive

Maggie,

You are a born leader with a take-charge attitude. Unlike many people who believe problems will simply go away if you give them enough time, you're one to tackle the obstacles in your path head-on.

Part of being proactive means you can aggressively anticipate the future and work to shape it according to your desires. You don't wait for things to happen; you make things happen, which is why you also tend to find yourself in a position of responsibility.

Also, because of your quick mind and ability to strategize, you can keep yourself two steps ahead of everyone else when it comes to executing plans or anticipating future actions. These characteristics help you rise to positions of authority where others can more fully appreciate your drive and direction.
"

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

iraqi_hospital_7apr2003


iraqi_hospital_7apr2003
Originally uploaded by hettingr.
I was reading Raed's blog, and pulled this photo from it. His family is my window on Iraq, although I do check other blogs as well.

This picture says it all. It's the price that's paid for our so-called "prosperity" here in this country.

'Historic agreement'

'Historic agreement':

A letter to the editor of the Courier-Journal

"Your March 9 coverage of the historic agreement between Yum Brands/Taco Bell and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was thorough, but emphasis is needed on the 'teeth' of this agreement.

The key significance of this agreement is that the farm workers, through the CIW, have won the status of monitor and enforcer of labor standards for any tomato grower that sells to Taco Bell. All of Taco Bell's 10 million to 11 million pounds of tomato purchases in Florida are now transparent for the coalition. The books are open, the growers identified. CIW and Yum have become the enforcers. That is the stunning, beating heart of this groundbreaking agreement.

And since any grower who supplies Taco Bell also supplies others in the restaurant and grocery industry, the impact on labor relations is likely to be generalized to all tomato-harvesting activities of those growers.

Meanwhile, Yum pledged to work with CIW to persuade the other big growers to pass through the penny-per-pound income increase to farm workers and to enforce a strict labor code that explicitly prohibits 'involuntary servitude' or modern-day slavery, a condition that has afflicted thousands of farm workers in recent years.

Unlike fast-food tomatoes harvested green and gassed to ripen, this agreement is as sweet and homegrown as a vine-ripened tomato.

STEPHEN BARTLETT

Louisville 40206

Thank you, Stephen. Thank you, Yum. Thank you, CIW!

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Cantus Sanctus: The Mystery of Gregorian Chant

Cantus Sanctus: The Mystery of Gregorian Chant: "Chant heard day in and day out, then, would not have become boring or tedious because the four different styles of chant would require the use of four different modes of thought. Also, many chants contain a mixture of word-music relationships, and some are performed in cantor/response style, which offers further variety. Perhaps the different styles of chant correspond to different areas of the brain, so that the change from one style to another stimulates a different brain function. The result is that chant continues to be refreshing, even stimulating, to the listener"

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Chant at St. Joe

Palm Sunday is a beautiful day to be in Gregorian mode. Opening the mass with "Hosanna to the Son of David," is very direct. At both St. Joe and St. Aloysius, I taught the chant before mass as a call and response between cantor and assembly. It should be really effective if we use the same one year after year.

The best part, for me, was singing the responsorial psalm. I went to the ambo this time, because the choir is now ok with leading Gospel acclamation without me. I sang the antiphon from Today's Missal, and for the verses, I adapted the Gregorian melody of Deus, Deus Meus respice to the English texts. Wow. What an incredible experience that is!!!

I'll post those notes here, just so they don't get lost, and perhaps someday I'll look at it seriously and transcribe it to decent notation.

We sang "All Glory, Laud and Honor" for entrance, Pater, si non potest at Prep of Gifts, and for Communion: "Were You There" and "Jesus, Remember Me." Sending was organ instrumental: "O Sacred Head Surrounded." Father Tuon led us in "Jesus, Remember Me" as we knelt during the Passion, as well.

Today we also had our new worship aid booklet with the regular chant mass parts that we sing and the two psalms we usually use for communion.

I don't get any complaints about what we're doing. We DO get compliments, and Fr. Bill says St. Joe is glad to have us as.

OK.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

t r u t h o u t - Tom Engelhardt | Are We in World War IV?

t r u t h o u t - Tom Engelhardt | Are We in World War IV?:



Here's a good article that calls us back to the original problem: we totally miscalled our "response" to 9/11. People picked up flags and started waving them around, and our Government picked some wars to fight. Remember? "Kick Ass." And only stupid "liberals" thought we were doing the wrong thing. Had we responded to the attacks as if they were want they were, a small, but effective, demonstration of unrest from a small group, enforceable by law, what a different world we'd be in now.


"As the Bush administration and its neocon allies called for a global response that rose to the level of apocalyptic battle, small groups of legal types and liberals called for a response keyed to those 19 men and the dangerous but modest-sized organization behind them. They claimed 'terrorism' was a method of asymmetric warfare, not an enemy; that our actual enemy, while determined, fanatical, and murderous was not the equivalent of a state and that what was at stake was not 'war' at all; so they called, in one fashion or another, for internationally cooperative police work to bring the criminals and murderers to justice and to dismantle their organization or organizations. This approach was instantly and roundly dismissed - trashed, you might say - by the administration and its various acolytes and has now largely fled the national mind."

Monday, February 28, 2005

t r u t h o u t || Another Bloodbath in Iraq

t r u t h o u t || Another Bloodbath in Iraq: "I try to imagine what the psychological reaction here in America would be if there were bombings every day, if dozens and sometimes hundreds of Americans were blasted to bits each day shopping at Wal-Mart or trying to sign up for the Marines. We are still recovering from one attack - albeit an attack of epic proportions - and I can only guess where we'd be if such a thing were a daily occurrence"

from "left, right, & wrong" by Garret Keizer

I read a surprisingly fresh article in March/April 2005 Mother Jones and I'm going to record some of the insights here:

Some time after election day, I receive a call from a woman in my community...the woman is speaking of what she sees with her own two eyes on her own dirt road. Most of all, she is speaking of her struggle to protect what she values, which is partly her community and partly its youth and absolutely her teenage son.

If there is anything the left fails to appreciate, and that politicians on the right exploit with unerring tact, it is the nature of that woman's struggle. I mean the class nature no less than the moral nature. You may call it universal if you wish, because it is common to parents everywhere and, in fact, to anyone who loves anything at all, but the struggle to preserve what you cherish becomes especially acute when you live in poverty, or close to poverty, when your well-kept prefab sits on its half-acre a quarter mile up the road from the shack with all the dogs. Or, tougher still, when you live in the shack with all the dogs and try to teach your kids not to treat animals like the little sadists up in the prefab house. Sophisticated people of independent means can afford to be disdainful of lower-class attempts at "respectability," chalking it up to religious prejudice or provincial narrowness, but when their own kids come anywhere within the smell of social dysfunction, they have the private-school applications in the mail...

...To be honest, I have begun to lose patience with "compassion," be it the conservative version that sees poverty as a moral disease to be cured with a benevolent dose of 19th-century rectitude, or the liberal version that views poverty as an exotic culture to be scrutinized through the kindly lens of tolerance. Poverty is not a culture to be understood; it is a condition to be eradicated. The only people who think otherwise have never sat down in the places where I've sat down, including the house with all the dogs (and the mold and the burns and the bruises and the blank-eyed toddlers and the interminable cough.)

But "compassionate conservatism" is now the ascendant and thus the more insidious form. Like other kinds of demagoguery, it is based on a partial truth: the idea that individuals and civic groups can meet needs that no government can. This is a claim guaranteed to resonate in any place where the fire department is staffed by volunteers.

But none of us lives entirely in a small town (no more than a city dweller lives exclusively in Chicago or New York.) We live as beneficiaries of a society that is complex, affluent, centralized, and-when it operates as intended--democratic. This is the level on which compassionate consercatism becomes completely disingenuous...

...Revolutionary politics...have always been tied to a dogged willingness to teach...

...Democrats seem prepared to subordinate every value to that of winning, failing to realize that they can never win--especially in a time of international terror and domestic disarray--until they subordinate winning to conviction. This is where jabs at George W. Bush's intellect prove to be every bit as lame as their target. Nobody thinks Bush has a brain. They think he has a backbone.

...The main point, which is always the main point, is this: What do you) know for sure?

..The right is right when it says that certain social problems cannot be addressed by what we on the left like to call "systemic change." The right is right when it says that certain social problems can be addressed only by a change in our cultural values.

Where the right is wrong is in trying to impose a single set of cultural values on a pluralistic society. Whre the right is also wrong is in failing to keep faith with its own professed values...

The one thing more insufferable than a pretense of moral superiority is a pretense of superiority to morals, as if the task of an "evolving" woman or man is to stand above the struggle instead of on the right side.

...So what am I saying?...

Should we continue in Iraq?

Should we continue in Iraq?

Fahreed Zakaria says yes. Our best successes are Germany and Japan, where we stayed.
Faiza and her children say NO. Leave. We can't do anything until the U.S. is gone. Stop the destruction.
GWBush assured us that we have no permanent plans for U.S. presence in Iraq. He lied again. The U.S. is building between four and fourteen permanent bases (depending on how you define "permanent") in Iraq. Haliburton and Kellog Whoever are still scooping up the cash to do the work.
My beloved pastor is fervent in proclaiming the parish's support of the military. Says he.

Here's a letter written by one set of military parents, and endorsed by local parents:

Our son recently joined the U.S. Navy and we feel pretty much the same as the author, Mr. Kamileqicz  below.  Thought you would like to know our feelings and our question about where your children are...

James and Carla McMillin
40206

 
Published on Monday, February 14, 2005 by the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine)


How Dare Some Say, 'Support our Troops'?
by Dexter J. Kamilewicz

Someone recently informed me that they didn't know that my son was being deployed to Iraq and asked why I hadn't told them. I really didn't have an answer.

That is when I began to be annoyed by those ever-present, good-intentioned but mindless ribbons stuck on the back of cars and SUVs exhorting, "Support Our Troops."

I find those magnetic messages to be offensive when I think of parents and friends of National Guard soldiers who purchased expensive Kevlar armor for their soldiers while Donald Rumsfeld said they didn't have any in stock.

Those marketing messages seem so empty when soldiers are told to "up-armor" their Humvees because the Department of Defense had not asked the manufacturers if more could be done.

I am saddened when veterans wait over a year for appointments at veterans' hospitals and soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and places like Walter Reed Hospital are required to pay for phone calls and emails home. I bet Rumsfeld doesn't have to pay for calls and e-mails back home, and I find it unbelievable and unacceptable that Rumsfeld has not been fired while the troops have been treated so poorly. Support our troops?

I accept that there are justifications for going to war. However, I cannot find anyone who can give me a solid reason to justify our going to and continuing the war in Iraq.

Seeking Reasons

There seems to be no question in America more avoided, particularly by elected officials, than a discussion of the war in Iraq. I asked Maine's members of Congress those questions.

U.S. Rep. Tom Allen said the war was not justified, but to abandon Iraq and its people now would be a mistake. Sen. Susan Collins said that going to war in Iraq was a problem of faulty intelligence, but the chaos in Iraq required us to stay.

Sen. Olympia Snowe blamed Saddam Hussein as the revised apparent rationale for invading Iraq, and she focused on the need for global support for the U.S efforts in Iraq. U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud agreed with Snowe.

Those answers translate that we got there by mistake, and we are staying there by mistake. There is no plan, there is no discussion and there is no leadership. Didn't we go into Iraq to protect ourselves from weapons of mass destruction and because of Iraq's connections with the terrorists, reasons that have been found to be utterly in error? Support our troops?

The pointless death and maiming of this war is pure insanity and probably even criminal. In this war, many times those who died in the World Trade Center have been wounded or killed. Over 1,400 American soldiers are dead, over 10,000 soldiers are physically wounded while uncounted others are psychologically wounded, and, by some estimates, over 100,000 Iraqis have been killed and maimed.

How can the killing be justified? Are we going to destroy a nation and kill its people to save it? We tried that once before. Support our troops?

I am afraid for my son. I certainly worry about his being killed, but I am also worried about his being placed in the position of killing, too. Most of all, I am angry that we are sending our soldiers to a war that nobody can justify.

Most Americans, especially members of Congress, do not have to worry about a loved one in the middle of this war, and they duck the tough questions.

Why do we permit a defacto back-door draft of the National Guard and recycle them, too? We were lied to once before, and we must avoid being lied to again. Will President Bush be this generation's Robert McNamara? I hope not. Will the Congress have the courage to ask the relevant questions? I hope so. Support our troops?

Please Don't Ask

Now you know why I didn't go out of my way to tell people that my son is being deployed to Iraq, and please don't ask about him if you really don't want to know.

Instead, please know that you will be in my shoes or his shoes unless you ask questions and demand answers of those in power. In the meantime, please excuse me if I have a painful lump in my throat or tears brimming in my eyes and that I am so angry with this damned war and the people who declared it.

Support our troops. Ask tough questions. Bring them home now.

Dexter J. Kamilewicz is a resident of Orr's Island, Maine.(dexkam@aol.com)
\xA9 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Beat the Devil: Ward Churchill and the MAd Dogs of the Right

Beat the Devil: Ward Churchill and the MAd Dogs of the Right: "At this point Churchill could have specifically mentioned the infamous bombing of the Amariya civilian shelter in Baghdad in January 1991, with 400 deaths, almost all women and children, all subsequently identified and named by the Iraqis. To this day the US government says it was an OK target."

Book Review: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens

From a review:

Book Review: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: "“The Ghosts of 9-1-1,” originally published in a shorter form directly after 9-1-1,1 caused quite a stir amongst some American leftists. Intent on categorizing themselves and their loved ones as “innocents” in the wake of the attack, they flinched at Churchill’s description of the majority of those who died from the 9-1-1 attack as “little Eichmanns.” Whining “But Eichmann was a nazi!” – as though Churchill was unaware of that – those who use “nazi” to describe most everything they dislike are perhaps unable to comprehend how someone could use the same term with very specific intent.

Churchill uses “little Eichmanns” to describe that “cadre of faceless bureaucrats and technical experts who had willingly (and profitably) harnessed themselves to the task of making America’s genocidal world order hum with maximal efficiency...”  Eichmann, Churchill notes,

was a mere mid-level officer in the SS, by all accounts a good husband and devoted father, apparently quite mild-mannered, and never accused of having personally murdered anyone at all. His crime was to have sat at several steps remove from the holocaustal blood and gore, behind a desk, in the sterility of an office building, organizing the logistics – train and “cargo” schedules, mainly – without which the “industrial killing” aspect of the nazi Judeocide could not have occurred. His most striking characteristic, if it may be called that, was his sheer “unexceptionality” (that is, the extent to which he had to be seen as “everyman”: an ordinary,” “average” or “normal” member of his society. (“The Ghosts of 9-1-1,” note 131)

Although it is easy to see why many of us might wish to self-define ourselves out of this category, the fact remains that in the eyes of the world, today’s Good Americans are ultimately just as responsible for the state terror perpetrated in their name as were yesterday’s Good Germans. Then, with Americans cheering the loudest, the entire German people were convicted for “never attempting to meet the legal/moral obligation of holding their government to even the most rudimentary standards of human decency.” (7) Do American’s have less responsibility today then the Germans did then?"

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Iraq Dispatches: What They’re Not Telling You About the “Election”

Iraq Dispatches: What They’re Not Telling You About the “Election”: "As Vice President Dick Cheney's Defense Policy Guidance report explained back in 1992, 'Our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the [Middle East] region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region's oil.'"

Monday, February 21, 2005

Heidelberg recordings

As my journal shows, I spent the last three days of my trip to Heidelberg in a beautiful, medieval church. Singing. (No surprise there.) Many thanks to the folks at the JesuitenKirche, who graciously allowed me to do this.

The reverberance in the church is very long, and I spent most of my time experimenting with this question: What does it take to sing the chant so that Word, the text, is foremost?

It became clear to me that in order to make this happen, many long tones must be held really long, letting the sounds catch up with themselves. Many other connecting tones must be sung very lightly, sometimes fast, so that they do not obscure the main tone, but decorate it, or stretch it, or amplify it, or harmonize with it.

I'm posting two files. One, Pater, si non potest is almost well-done. I can't hear the "s" in transire, but otherwise, ok.

The second, Ascendit Deus," is out of my league. I don't have the vocal skill that it takes to pull it off well. But, my daughter heard the recording and was fascinated by it. She didn't think it was a chant, but just "Mom playing around with the echoes in the church." And she likes it enough to learn it herself, which is good, because she IS a good vocalist.

This is the piece I was so excited about elsewhere in this blog (you can search for 'Ascendit Deus' if you want to read more.) It's expressive to the point of being medieval movie music, with God swooping up thru the clouds and trumpet calls playing in the distance.

Anyway, I'm putting this here so I can access it if I need to, but I hope some of you excellent vocalists will tackle the piece and record your own. I want to hear it.

Friday, February 18, 2005

Haight silencing feeds theologians’ fears

Haight silencing feeds theologians’ fears:

Oh, my. Human beings. Can't live with them, can't live without them.


"Reports that Jesuit Fr. Roger Haight, a professor of systematic theology at Weston Jesuit [School of Theology], has been barred from teaching while the Vatican scrutinizes his views made headlines recently around the country. Haight, in fact, has been on leave from teaching at Weston for the entire academic year, while he responds to questions about his newest book.


The investigation was prompted by Haight’s book, Jesus, Symbol of God. Winner of the top prize in theology from the Catholic Press Association, it was published in 1999 by Orbis Books.


The Vatican’s criticism turns on Haight’s attempts to separate Christology from Greek philosophical concepts, on which many of the traditional doctrines on the role and nature of Christ depend. Specifically, the problems relate to formulation of the mystery of the Trinity, an interpretation of Christ’s divinity and the role of Jesus in salvation.


The investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was reported in the Aug. 11, 2000, issue of NCR, but did not gain wide publicity until an article appeared a week ago in the April 24 issue of The Boston Globe.


In response to the recent news reports, Jesuit Fr. Robert Manning, Weston’s president, released a written statement saying Haight was on leave at the request of Archbishop Zenon Grocholewski of the Congregation for Catholic Education.


Haight has not responded to inquiries from the press. In July, he told NCR, “I want to handle this like Jacques Dupuis did and not comment.”


Dupuis is a Jesuit who taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome until the fall of 1998, when he came under Vatican investigation for his book Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. Dupuis was later cleared.


Franciscan Fr. Kenneth Himes, a professor at Washington Theological Union and president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, said he found the sudden storm of publicity about Haight’s silencing to be curious, given that the Vatican intervention had happened months before. The silencing is unfortunate, he said, because it is “a preemptive strike that short circuits the give and take of theological conversation.”"

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Google Search: "Envisioning Past Musical Cultures"

Google Search: "Envisioning Past Musical Cultures" : "... Peter Jeffery’s Re- Envisioning Past Musical Cultures investigates ethnomusicological
parallels for the formation of the medieval sacred repertory. ...
journals.cambridge.org/article_S0961137101210122"

JSTOR: Could Not Retrieve Article

JSTOR: Could Not Retrieve Article: "[Letter from Peter Jeffery]

Peter Jeffery
Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Spring, 1996) , pp. 175-179"

Project MUSE

Project MUSE: "Snyder, John L. 1950- 'Aspects of Orality and Formularity in Gregorian Chant (review)'
Notes - Volume 58, Number 3, March 2002, pp. 560-562
Music Library Association

Excerpt


Gregorian chant has long been a focus of musicological research, and recent decades have seen new research paradigms, reinterpretations of established data, and the development of new views concerning the origins, transmission, and notation of this vast repertoire. Representative works include Leo Treitler, 'Homer and Gregory: The Transmission of Epic Poetry and Plainsong' (Musical Quarterly 60 [1974]: 333-72); Kenneth Levy, 'On Gregorian Orality' (Journal of the American Musicological Society 43 [1990]: 185-227); and Peter Jeffries, Re-envisioning Past Musical Cultures: Ethnomusicology in the Study of Gregorian Chant (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). The present offering is thus of exquisite timeliness.

The book 'revolves about three themes: (1) the role of orality in the transmission of chant ca. 700-1400, (2) the role of the formula in the construction of chant, and (3) the varying degrees of stability or instability in the transmission of chant' (p. ix). Karp explores these themes individually and in various combinations over the course of the book. The methodologies employed range from traditional source studies (especially collations of multiple sources), to psychological theories of memory (both constructive and abstractive processes are considered), to 'folkloristic' studies of the transmission of various oral literatures (Homeric, the Hindu Veda, and synagogue practices, inter alia). The transmission of Gregorian chant, initially oral and later via notation, is thus placed in context with other literatures that have to varying degrees undergone similar processes and transformations.

The book comprises an introduction..."

Robert C. Provine: Publications

Robert C. Provine: Publications: "Review of Peter Jeffery, Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures, in Early Medieval Europe, 2, 2 (1993), 174-176."

A Response to Younkin's "Sing We and Chant It: Revisiting Some Musical Terminology"

A Response to Younkin's "Sing We and Chant It: Revisiting Some Musical Terminology": "In his work Man, Magic, and Musical Occasions, Charles Boilès describes this power as 'extra-normal forces' and elucidates the phenomenon as follows:
...words by themselves have little magical force, but when combined in special ways, when spoken or sung in unique contexts, these words of chants, spells, carmens, litanies, and invocations set in motion those extra-normal forces reckoned within the magical universe of the culture in question.4




Boilès's use of 'extra-normal forces' includes a broad range of musical repertories as well as many that some would consider non-musical. To illustrate his point Boilès turns to sports chant sung by the public or perhaps sideline cheerleaders at sporting events. According to Boilès, 'since there is nothing in the music that physiologically abets the team, it must be assumed that at least this music is partly for magical purposes if not completely so.'5 This magical purpose evokes the power of extra-normal forces, in this case team 'spirit,' to favor the home side over its competitors."

A Response to Younkin's "Sing We and Chant It: Revisiting Some Musical Terminology"

A Response to Younkin's "Sing We and Chant It: Revisiting Some Musical Terminology": "Younkin describes the numerous definitions of chant as falling into two general categories: a) chant as a style and b) chant as an act-in other words, 'chant' as a noun and 'chant' as a verb. An important point here is her clarification of the two. According to Younkin, chant, as a style, is an abstract concept that focuses on musical sound rather than contextual significance. She turns to several uses of 'chant' and 'song' in the literature, namely articles by George List, Andrew Strathern, and Helen Roberts, for illustration.2"

t r u t h o u t - Kelpie Wilson | Al Gore, Global Warming and Moral Leadership

t r u t h o u t - Kelpie Wilson | Al Gore, Global Warming and Moral Leadership: " To speak of market (read: economic growth) solutions to a problem caused by markets (economic growth) may not be as contradictory as it seems. It all comes down to how one defines growth. It is possible to envision a growth economy that is not based on material growth but rather on cultural and spiritual growth. Services are as much a part of the economy as goods, and a cleaner environment is the most valuable service of all"

Friday, February 11, 2005

anthonymcwatt.co.uk : Pirsig's annotations on Copleston

anthonymcwatt.co.uk : Pirsig's annotations on Copleston:

Coleridge and [Pirsig]:


"The ultimate principle is to be sought in the identity of subject and object. [This is strikingly similar to the MOQ.]



Where is this identity to be found? [At this point Coleridge is at the same door that Phaedrus was at, but he doesn’t have the key of Quality with him.]  So he answers: 'Only in the selfconsciousness of a spirit is there the required identity of object and of representation.' [What in the world is selfconsciousness of a spirit?] But if the spirit is originally the identity of subject and object, it must in some sense dissolve this identity in order to become conscious of itself as object. [Ridiculous]. Self-consciousness, therefore, cannot arise except through an act of will, [How did will get in here?] and 'freedom [How did freedom get in here?] must be assumed as a ground of philosophy, and can never be deduced from it'. The spirit becomes a subject knowing itself as object only through 'the act of constructing itself objectively to itself'.  [This is the sort of nonsense that has inspired logical positivism."]



I think "will" refers to the human function of following a DQ event with a conscious action at the biological/inorganic level.
I think "freedom" refers to the human function of following a DQ event with a conscious action at the social/biological level.

That's how they got there.

The"spirit" is the DQ event registering in intellect. "Identity" refers to the intellectual pattern that results, which, once conscious, creates a social pattern of value within one person's mind (its web of social pov's). It is only manifest to others, though, as "freedom" or "will."

Note: the sentence above would be too unwieldy to include this, but I must make a concession to the word "conscious." Without changing the meaning of the rest, realize that that particular interaction could be just as well with the somatic (unconscious) cognitive forms of perception and storage.

What word to use? Recognized? interacted with? aaaah..


Verstand (empirical knowledge) & Vernunft (reasoned knowledge)

Interesting that the definition of these two German words splits the world thus:

empirical (conclusions drawn from observation of action)
and
reasoned (conclusions drawn from observation of those conclusions).

the roots of the words are:
"stand" = booth, class, estate, frame, profession, rank, stall, stand, standing, state, station in life, status

"nun" = now

Looking at the roots, you would expect the two words each to refer to a level higher, ie. 'verstand' should be static understandings of the world in accordance to the observation of the conclusions of social empiricism (intellect reacting with social), and 'vernunft' should be the new divisions being made in the immediate present (Dynamic Quality reacting with intellect).

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Where is Raed ?

A memorable quote on the headline of an informative blog:

Where is Raed ?:

"----------'the West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.'----------
Samuel P. Huntington"

Iraq Diaries: Salam Pax - News from the ground #2

Iraq Diaries: Salam Pax - News from the ground #2:

[This is old news, I guess. From a 2003 photo/narrative journal of a civilian. This is not a government-sponsored effort, just some Iraqi's using their education to investigate and get the information out to the world. But who listened? Thank you to the Jarrar family and their friends for providing me a window on their world.]

"The Shamia medical center saw 44 civilian deaths in one single night. All making the mistake of getting near the Shamia checkpoint on a day when the US army was having a bit of a mood. The people who live there told us that it was one of the sandstorm days. Everything that approached the checkpoint was shot without any discrimination. One of the cars was carrying the casket of a dead woman to the cemetery. All four passengers died. "

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

poem: For Our World

 

"We need to stop
Just stop
Stop for a moment
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else... ...

--Mattie J.T. Stepanek
















   


   








 

 
"

Diversity Pledge

Quoted on Peace Love & Candlewax:

"Tolerance is a personal decision that comes from a belief that every person is a treasure. I believe that America's diversity is its strength. I also recognize that ignorance, insensitivity and bigotry can turn that diversity into a source of prejudice and discrimination.

To help keep diversity a wellspring of strength and make America a better place for all, I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own."

--We Are Family Foundation

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Salt Lake Tribune - Health & Science


Salt Lake Tribune - Health & Science
: "Adair, like most music thanatologists, draws from a repertoire of ancient, Gregorian chants and lullabies when she plays. Familiar music might trigger an unhappy memory,   she says.
   'We use lullaby because it has a rocking, three-quarter time that is so soothing to everyone,' says Adair. And Gregorian chant is 'exquisitely beautiful and meter-less. I can take Gregorian chant and because it doesn't have a beat, I flow the music to the patient.'
"

Monday, February 07, 2005

t r u t h o u t - Apocalypse Now: How Mankind Is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth

t r u t h o u t - Apocalypse Now: How Mankind Is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth: "    The experts at Exeter were virtually unanimous about the danger, mirroring the attitude of the climate science community as a whole: humanity is to blame. There were a few skeptics at Exeter, including Andrei Illarionov, an adviser to Russia's President Putin, who last year called the Kyoto Protocol 'an interstate Auschwitz'. But in truth it is much easier to find skeptics among media pundits in London or neo-cons in Washington than among climate scientists"

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Amy, What you Gonna Do?

On radio today I heard "Amy, what you want to do?" And as I listened to the verses, they were simple chant, with exactly the types of ornamentation you find in the Triplex, IF you interpret it the way I do, with many of the square notes intended to be ornamentation.

When you look at it from the other direction, St. Gall notation is EXACTLY what a singer needs if he/she wants to record the nuances in a pop vocalist's renditions--the ornamentations that the simple shape of the melody can't convey, the part that (if you try to notate it in standard notation) comes out looking like unbelievable rhythmic complexity.

But it's not really complex. Any child can sing it, if it's learned orally.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

USATODAY.com - What got so many counties to shift from blue to red?

USATODAY.com - What got so many counties to shift from blue to red?

Environmental issues--are they "domestic issues"?

Sometimes I see "Environmental Issues" labeled as "Domestic Issues," as if they are some kind of small-change backburner problem.

Don't people realize that a huge factor of the grief in the Middle East, (esp. Iraq and Afghanistan) is caused by the United States' uncontrolled race to suck up all the available oil in the world?

Don't they realize that the wildly out-of-balance money flow created by this so-called "U.S. interest" corrupts government after government in the Mideast, while the people who live above that oil live in poverty and frustration?

Don't they realize that quick homebased fixes to our energy problems, such as jumping headlong into nuclear power, pose huge dangers to us and our children? Any mistake is catastrophic, and do we know any organization that doesn't make a mistake or two? C'mon. Murphy's Law happens.

Don't they realize that permitting energy drilling in the last natural wildernesses destroys those ecosystems? Pristine ecosystems hold the keys for people who are going to be living in a world that has no more fossil fuel. In tomorrow's world, they will be the wealth. If we are destroying these ecosystems for a few weeks' or a few months' supply of fuel, can't we understand that this is not for America's good, but mostly to line a few pockets with more money?

Do people realize that in our grandchildren's lifetimes, people are going to look back at our greed and see it for what it is? Why can't we all see it now?

We really need to wake up. The sooner the better.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Baghdad Burning

Baghdad Burning: "It sometimes seems, from this part of the world, that democracy in America revolves around the presidential elections- not the major decisions. War and peace in America are in the average American’s hands about as much as they are in mine. Sure, you can vote for this man or that one, but in the end, there’s something bigger, more intricate and quite sinister behind the decisions. Like in that board game Monopoly, you can choose the game pieces- the little shoe, the car, the top hat… but you can’t choose the way the game is played. The faces change but the intentions and the policy remain the same.
"

Dissertation

I just started a new blog for my dissertation notes.

CREATION MUSEUM TO OPEN IN PETERSBURG, KY (courtesy of T. Moiser)

"Other exhibits in the museum will blame
homosexuals for Aids."


http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/02/weden02.xml&pos=portal_puff3

In the beginning . . . Adam walked with dinosaurs
By James Langton in New York
(Filed: 02/01/2005)

With its towering dinosaurs and a model of the Grand
Canyon, America's newest tourist attraction might look
like the ideal destination for fans of
the film Jurassic Park.

The new multi-million-dollar Museum of Creation, which
will open this spring in Kentucky, will, however, be
aimed not at film buffs, but at the growing ranks of
fundamentalist Christians in the United States.

It aims to promote the view that man was created in
his present shape by God, as the Bible states, rather
than by a Darwinian process of evolution,
as scientists insist.
The museum, which has cost a mighty $25 million (£13
million) will be the world's first significant natural
history collection devoted to creationist
theory. It has been set up by Ken Ham, an Australian
evangelist, who runs Answers in Genesis, one of
America's most prominent creationist
organizations. He said that his aim was to use
tourism, and the theme park's striking exhibits, to
convert more people to the view that the world and its
creatures, including dinosaurs, were created by God
6,000 years ago.

"Market research companies hired by the museum are
predicting at least 300,000 visitors in the first
year, who will pay $10 (£5.80) each...

The museum's opening will reinforce the burgeoning
creationist movement and evangelical Christianity in
the US, which gained further strength with the
re-election of President Bush in November...

"Since President Bush's re-election we have been
getting more membership applications than we can
handle,'' said Mr Ham, who expects not just the
devout, but also the curious, to flock through the
turnstiles. "The evolutionary elite will be getting a
wake-up call..."

Monday, January 17, 2005

Monday.
Dianna and Cherie took a bus trip, I went to the Jesuiten Kirche to see if I could sing there. Last time I was there, the church was empty and quiet. Today, there was a tape playing (Gregorian Chant, of course). I saw a man working there, and asked him if it would be ok for me to sing, and he turned off the tape so that I could. (I don't remember what I said, my German is not good at all for conversing).

I practiced and recorded quite a few piece. When people come in, I stop practicing and simply sing. People seem to like to hear Requiem and Kyrie from familiar masses.

Wonderful. Awesome. Challenging. And, just like the silo at Bernheim, you kno it's time to go when your toes are frozen.

Recordings made on this day seem to have good diction--the sounds aren't swallowed up--but I hear too much of myself. Tomorrow I'll record from further away.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Heidelberg

10 Uhr Mass at Jesuiten Kirche. Children’s choir, organ, alto recorder. Young soloist.
Presider was very comforting and engaging.
Recessional: organ only.
Hymn numbers projected on the wall when needed.

Dagmar and Martin met us to go to Speyer, on the Rhine River. It was COLD!. Foggy.
The cathedral is Gothic, amazing. Couldn’t sing there, music playing. Archdiocese offices were across the street.
We went in St. Joseph’s Church, a beautiful church with clean, spare lines. Beautiful. This would be a good place to sing with our choir someday.
Dagmar’s favorite church is the protestant church nearby with the statue of Martin Luther in front. (I can’t remember its name). It was closed for lunch time when we got there.
Fish soup for lunch.
Anna’s hockey.
Supper: leftovers and liver & rice & potato cakes & applesauce.
Philip had a flat tire. (Later we found out it was three. The tires were old, probably dry-rotted. )

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Heidelberg

Breakfast at Denner
We drove to Strassburg, France with Philip and Laura.
Autobahn. Philip is good. He was upset, though, because even though it was very cold, the sun was shining in Heidelberg for the first time in weeks. As we left Heidelberg, though, the fog and clouds closed in. We sang sun songs.
Strassburg Cathedral of Notre Dame, once the tallest building in the world. I sang, of course.
The town was Roman ‡ German ‡ French.
Dog piles had little signs on them. (Go figure!)
Christmas decorations and medieval streets.
Gas, grocery ad home.
Dinner w. Dagmar, Martin and Eva. Pork and spatezle; salads, cheese and wine dessert, then ice cream dessert!

Heidelberg

Breakfast @ Denner.
Went to JesuitenKirche early. Locked. Back to hotel.
Met Laura, we went to Monastery, where the monks raise apples, vegetables, guinea pigs and rabbits.
Walked across Old Bridge.
Lunch: Indian food
Bought “Think” shoes. They are excellent. (From this point on, in spite of much walking, my feet don’t hurt any more. YES!)
Naps.
Philip takes us to see the Celtic Hole, Castle & Church Ruins and Amphitheater. (Heiligenberg-anlage). Sunset.
We drive to see the US Army base with fences and barbed wire (“America Land”). Aldi’s has shoes for $6.
Then we "Tie One On." First we go to Laura’s work, talk to John (privatizing SS), drink Jaegermeisters; then go thru the street-in-the-wall bar, then the Heiligeist Kirche door is open because someone is packing up sound equipment. We go there, and I sing it for a few minutes. Then to another bar, Barbie & Ken. “Ein Bier, bitte!”

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Heidelberg

Breakfast @ Denner (which is, by the way, a beautiful, hand-crafted hotel. Lots of love here.)
Cherie & Dianna & I felt sure enough of ourselves to walk down the Hauptstrasse and find the stairs (300+ of them) up the hill to the Castle. We stopped often to enjoy the view, and wondered about the people who live there. At lunchtime, we stopped and ate a snack. A man passed us ( he was eating his bread, too), and said "Mach es dir gemütlich." We did.
We went into the castle (Schloss), went through the Apothecary museum, and took a tour. The tour ended up in the Chapel, which had a picture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. I sang Omnes qui in Christo.. Had a conversation with the tour guide about smoking. We had a late lunch (Fish & chips) in the little place just outside the castle, where (I believe), Philip's dad once had to jump thru the windows to escape the police. (Too much partying inside, I think.) Cherie walked around and made a video.
Supper; pizza under the Kaufhof Galleria. Then Philip took us to the Skylounge, where we had a drink and sat and talked. Very nice.
Philip asked me to send him information about the "Left Behind" series. I will.

Heidelberg

Breakfast at Denner Hotel.
Dianna, Cherie and I walked out Rohrbacher Strasse. We went in a cemetery, (trees, woods motif, Christmas trees, candles). Stood on the sidewalk and watched people parallel park. Unbelievable. Walked back past the schools--kids out on lunch break, some playing soccer.
Met Laura, walked down Hauptstrasse, shopped, shopped, shopped. HeilegeistKirch: closed. JesuitenKirche: empty.
Rain. Cold. Took the bus back.
Supper, chinese, w. Laura & Philip.
Rummy with Cherie.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Heidelberg

7:20 AM Arrive in Frankfurt (Me, Cherie, Dianna)
Follow people getting off the plane. Don't declare anything. Go out the green side.
Our luggage is the very last off the plane. Meet Laura and Philip. Philip has curly hair that he didn't have before. Cool.
Ride on Autobahn with Philip driving. To avoid traffic jam, take a "shortcut" through fields and greenhouses. Into the city, up tiny streets. Philosopher's walk.
Amazing driving the winding roads up to the castle, arch.
Lunch at Philip's mom's house (noodles, bread crumbs, peas & carrots).
Met Oma and Opa. Opa tells me about JesuitenKirche.
Supper: German Sauerbraten & spaetzle.
SLEEP!

Denner Hotel Room #34

Monday, January 10, 2005

Heidelberg

2:31 Depart Louisville NW1232 Arr Detroit Metro 3:53
Get a Vogue Magazine and Harper's New York for Laura
5:10 Depart Detroit Metro NW51

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Omnes qui in Christo rehearsal sheet


Omnes qui in Christo sheet
Originally uploaded by hettingr.
Communion Antiphon Galatians 3:27 for Sunday, Baptism of the Lord.

Omnes qui in Christo baptizati estis, Christum induistis, alleluia.

All who have been baptized in Christ have pu ton Christ. Alleluia. Alleluia!

Ode: How I lost faith: How the end of religion can be the beginning of God.

Ode
Laura sent me this article. Good to read.