If I have a thought to add I will. Meanwhile, here's a tune for your Sunday, the opening hymn and Alleluja from The Sound of Music.
Or you can listen here.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
ABBA
Had forgotten about this group before stumbling upon this. My contemporaries used to bad-mouth them because they were neither hip nor dirty nor drug-ridden enough. But the girls could sing, and the group achieved enormous popularity. Their videos on Youtube have had millions of hits. That's a nice head of golden Swedish hair on the one girl. Problem is I have a thing for brunettes, the more raven-haired the better. Don't know why.
Fernando and The Winner Takes it All
While we're at Youtube, TSO offers one by a couple of creative grad student types on the necessity of good grammar in Youtube comments. This particular plague, I can assure them, is epidemic across the internet.
Fernando and The Winner Takes it All
While we're at Youtube, TSO offers one by a couple of creative grad student types on the necessity of good grammar in Youtube comments. This particular plague, I can assure them, is epidemic across the internet.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sunday Thought
Almost forgot to post it. Gotten by something posted at Zippy's, from the one time Cardinal Ratzinger:
It is strange that some theologians have difficulty accepting the precise and limited doctrine of papal infallibility, but see no problem in granting de facto infallibility to everyone who has a conscience.
The problem extends beyond theologians, evidence for which can be found in this interminable thread at W4.Saturday, January 10, 2009
More from the Dancing Queen
Just one more Christmas memory, from the year 2000, before I let the season go. It's from a dress rehearsal for that year's Nutcracker. Elizabeth was 17, her partner was Bobby O'Brien, and the choreography, as always, is Russell Sultzbach's, former Joffrey star, and her most beloved teacher. This is the Sugar Plum and Prince 'variation', I think they call it. Larger version here.
Looking for Fr. Neuhaus, or...
...they sure named this Institooshun after the right guy. I remember watching Fr. Neuhaus on Firing Line way back when, mostly in the 80's. So I went looking through the Hoover Institution's Firing Line archives and found him. Well, I didn't actually find him, but rather proof that Hoover had him hidden away in there somewhere. There are over 1500 fully archived Firing Line episodes, of which a mere 400 are available for viewing or purchase (any online streaming limited to 5 minutes). Father Neuhaus was in a bunch, but not a one is available for "viewing or purchase." Not one. I especially wanted this one. I remember it. It was a good one, filmed not too long after the publication of The Naked Public Square. Too bad. Thanks for nothing.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Obedience is a virtue...
...for with delayed gratification comes great reward.
Update: The posting of this video seems to have inspired inordinate scepticism among otherwise intelligent commenters. In the interest of providing evidence sufficient to ye of little faith, and of promoting peace in the blogosphere among Christian kin, I offer the following as a public service: The dog in the video is real. He is not a robot, as a commenter at one website speculated, nor has he been photoshopped, according to another. He has a name, Skidboot. He's an Australian cattle dog, known also as a blue-heeler, widely considered to be among the more (if not the most) intelligent of the canine family, to the extent that if he is not taught tricks and given complicated tasks to perform, his behavior tends toward destructive mischief. Sort of like people. He needs to be 'focused', as they say. Skidboot actually achieved a mini-celebrity status for his feats, being featured on TV shows ranging from Oprah and Jay Leno to Animal Planet's Most Amazing Pets (or something like that), and being invited to churches, schools, etc., to entertain the kids and put a spark back into the lives of old folks. You can watch his story here. You will recognize his owner's voice at once. The film was shot in 2006, at which time Skidboot was in the process of going blind. He passed away in 2007.
Sorry, but you doubters are going to have to make a better argument than "he's just a dog" to deny Skidboot the possibility of seeing his master in heaven.
Update: The posting of this video seems to have inspired inordinate scepticism among otherwise intelligent commenters. In the interest of providing evidence sufficient to ye of little faith, and of promoting peace in the blogosphere among Christian kin, I offer the following as a public service: The dog in the video is real. He is not a robot, as a commenter at one website speculated, nor has he been photoshopped, according to another. He has a name, Skidboot. He's an Australian cattle dog, known also as a blue-heeler, widely considered to be among the more (if not the most) intelligent of the canine family, to the extent that if he is not taught tricks and given complicated tasks to perform, his behavior tends toward destructive mischief. Sort of like people. He needs to be 'focused', as they say. Skidboot actually achieved a mini-celebrity status for his feats, being featured on TV shows ranging from Oprah and Jay Leno to Animal Planet's Most Amazing Pets (or something like that), and being invited to churches, schools, etc., to entertain the kids and put a spark back into the lives of old folks. You can watch his story here. You will recognize his owner's voice at once. The film was shot in 2006, at which time Skidboot was in the process of going blind. He passed away in 2007.
Sorry, but you doubters are going to have to make a better argument than "he's just a dog" to deny Skidboot the possibility of seeing his master in heaven.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Happy New Year...
...you're still alive and other people aren't. At least three prominent writers died last year - Samuel Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations; Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the conscience of Russia; and William F. Buckley, who, in his longevity, could certainly be said to have served as a great part of the conservative conscience in America. Another (not prominent, exactly, but certainly well- known) was Michael Crichton, who came to fame via The Andromeda Strain. He was only 66. Likewise with the 90 year old Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In other areas of pursuit you can say good-bye to Mark Felt, better known as Deep Throat after it was known that he was Deep Throat; before that he was known as Mark Felt, which is to say he wasn't known; and to Yves Saint-Laurent, fashion designer; and to Sir Edmund Hillary, first man up the big mountain called Everest; to Betty Paige, possibly the most famous pin-up girl ever; to Bobby Fischer, chess master and addled genius; to 86 year old Jesse Helms, hero of the pro-life movement; to NBC reporter and Meet the Press host Tim Russert; and to 53 year old Tony Snow, Fox news reporter and White House press secretary under Bush.
On this page you can find a fairly exhaustive list of deceased entertainment personalities. There you will find the foul-mouthed comedian Bernie Mac, lauded after death as such a fine, family values sort of fellow. I'd provide a link, but the two stand-up acts I saw were so relentlessly filthy, I don't want to risk the wrath of female readers. Another funny guy was the religion-despising George Carlin. Here he is despising it. Watch out for his language too. Like Bill Maher (who is, reportedly, still alive) he was funnier when he used to be funny.
There were many to miss, though, and I wish I had energy to pay tribute to them all. A few:
Suzanne Pleshette, who got pecked to death in The Birds, and later played Bob Newhart's wife.
Roy Scheider, who was made famous not by Jaws, but by The French Connection.
Charlton Heston, defender of the 2nd amendment, but also Moses, Ben-Hur, The Omega Man, and on and on, until Alzheimer's took him down without firing a shot.
Paul Newman: Hud, The Hustler, The Sting, etc., but most importantly he stayed married to one of the best (and one of the few, if not the only, self-effacing) actresses in Hollywood, Joanne Woodward, till his own death parted them. A bio.
Harvey Korman, of the Carol Burnett Show, and Blazing Saddles. Here he is with Tim Conway, and with Carol satirizing Born Free.
Cyd Charisse, one of the goddesses of my younger years, here dancing with Gene Kelly, who actually gets to touch her.
Pervis Jackson of The Spinners. He's the bass in this old song.
Jerry Reed, country singer, seen here with Glen Campbell on a couple numbers. Some of you might have caught him in the Burt Reynolds Smokey and the Bandit movies. But he could sing.
Another country singer, Jerry Wallace, singing "In the Misty Moonlight." I remember him from a 50's boyhood.
Likewise with Eddy Arnold.
Rock pioneer, Bo Diddley.
Edie Adams, wife of Ernie Kovacs, imitator of Marilyn Monroe, and pitch girl for Muriel cigars ("Why don't you pick one up and sssmoke it sometime"). She sang a song on the finale of "I Love Lucy."
Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops. I saw them in concert at UF in the late 60's. Here he is trying to sing from his wheelchair. And before that singing one of their hits, "Bernadette." Like the sound of it.
Others you might like to search on Youtube:
director Sydney Pollock, Dick Martin of "Laugh-In", and character actor Robert Prosky.
I almost forgot Eartha Kitt, whom I first saw in a film bio of William Handy with Nat King Cole, but can't remember the title of (St. Louis Blues?). Here she is with Nat, and singing "I Want to be Evil."
2003_468x356.jpg)
No Catholic can help but feel fondly for the great Paul Scofield, who, for us moderns, became the face and voice of Sir Thomas More. In the following embeds, he duels with Cromwell, and later inspires the rear-ends of the eminences at a rigged trial before Parliament to resume their seats.
Thank you, Mr. Scofield. An admiring article.
Lastly, there are those who die alone, sometimes homeless, sometimes nameless, known only to God. May they find peace in their rest.
In other areas of pursuit you can say good-bye to Mark Felt, better known as Deep Throat after it was known that he was Deep Throat; before that he was known as Mark Felt, which is to say he wasn't known; and to Yves Saint-Laurent, fashion designer; and to Sir Edmund Hillary, first man up the big mountain called Everest; to Betty Paige, possibly the most famous pin-up girl ever; to Bobby Fischer, chess master and addled genius; to 86 year old Jesse Helms, hero of the pro-life movement; to NBC reporter and Meet the Press host Tim Russert; and to 53 year old Tony Snow, Fox news reporter and White House press secretary under Bush.
On this page you can find a fairly exhaustive list of deceased entertainment personalities. There you will find the foul-mouthed comedian Bernie Mac, lauded after death as such a fine, family values sort of fellow. I'd provide a link, but the two stand-up acts I saw were so relentlessly filthy, I don't want to risk the wrath of female readers. Another funny guy was the religion-despising George Carlin. Here he is despising it. Watch out for his language too. Like Bill Maher (who is, reportedly, still alive) he was funnier when he used to be funny.
There were many to miss, though, and I wish I had energy to pay tribute to them all. A few:
Suzanne Pleshette, who got pecked to death in The Birds, and later played Bob Newhart's wife.
Roy Scheider, who was made famous not by Jaws, but by The French Connection.
Charlton Heston, defender of the 2nd amendment, but also Moses, Ben-Hur, The Omega Man, and on and on, until Alzheimer's took him down without firing a shot.
Paul Newman: Hud, The Hustler, The Sting, etc., but most importantly he stayed married to one of the best (and one of the few, if not the only, self-effacing) actresses in Hollywood, Joanne Woodward, till his own death parted them. A bio.
Harvey Korman, of the Carol Burnett Show, and Blazing Saddles. Here he is with Tim Conway, and with Carol satirizing Born Free.
Cyd Charisse, one of the goddesses of my younger years, here dancing with Gene Kelly, who actually gets to touch her.
Pervis Jackson of The Spinners. He's the bass in this old song.
Jerry Reed, country singer, seen here with Glen Campbell on a couple numbers. Some of you might have caught him in the Burt Reynolds Smokey and the Bandit movies. But he could sing.
Another country singer, Jerry Wallace, singing "In the Misty Moonlight." I remember him from a 50's boyhood.
Likewise with Eddy Arnold.
Rock pioneer, Bo Diddley.
Edie Adams, wife of Ernie Kovacs, imitator of Marilyn Monroe, and pitch girl for Muriel cigars ("Why don't you pick one up and sssmoke it sometime"). She sang a song on the finale of "I Love Lucy."
Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops. I saw them in concert at UF in the late 60's. Here he is trying to sing from his wheelchair. And before that singing one of their hits, "Bernadette." Like the sound of it.
Others you might like to search on Youtube:
director Sydney Pollock, Dick Martin of "Laugh-In", and character actor Robert Prosky.
I almost forgot Eartha Kitt, whom I first saw in a film bio of William Handy with Nat King Cole, but can't remember the title of (St. Louis Blues?). Here she is with Nat, and singing "I Want to be Evil."
2003_468x356.jpg)
No Catholic can help but feel fondly for the great Paul Scofield, who, for us moderns, became the face and voice of Sir Thomas More. In the following embeds, he duels with Cromwell, and later inspires the rear-ends of the eminences at a rigged trial before Parliament to resume their seats.
Thank you, Mr. Scofield. An admiring article.
Lastly, there are those who die alone, sometimes homeless, sometimes nameless, known only to God. May they find peace in their rest.
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