American entertainment

I ran across this on one of the St. Louis Cardinals websites the other day. One of the contestants on American Idol this year is the 15 year old daughter of Joe Magrane, who pitched for the Cardinals in the 1987 World Series. Here’s the video:

So Steven Tyler thought it would be okay to say that this 15 year old girl is “hot, humid, and happening?” I like the look on Joe Magrane’s face – the smile suddenly disappears and you get the feeling he’d like to throw one high and tight to Steven Tyler.

But this is what entertains America these days. Guys like Tyler who have never grown up, acting not just like a kid from high school, but the sleezy jerk from high school. We have become inundated with “reality” shows full of over the top personalities hovering around the edges of reality, our most popular radio hosts are shock jocks and political talking heads who say whatever it takes to get an audience (following the basic rule of “professional” wrestling – love or hate, it doesn’t matter, as long as you’ve got the crowd), and our music gets less and less creative and more and more base seemingly by the minute.

Somehow I missed this when it came out a few years ago (I apologize if there are inappropriate words in it – I can’t listen to the whole thing):

Seriously? I mean, I know that Ozone’s Dragoste Din Tei is a classic, but Rihanna can’t write her own melody? Probably not.

Now, before I get too carried away ranting, there surely are some good places to look for quality entertainment, even in America, so don’t hear me making universal statements about how horrible the arts are these days. There still shine some lights.

January 24, 2012  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: culture, music, Stupid Things You Can Find on the Internet  2 Comments

Classic (German) Christian rock for the weekend: Semaja

I don’t remember when I first ran across Semaja. I know it was most likely at the Inner Court – the music department of the Shepherd’s Shoppe. But I remember liking them immediately. They were different. I don’t know, maybe I was in my European music phase, because I liked Edin Adahl, too. And Semaja also had a number of instrumentals which I thought was kinda cool. Just a bunch of guys jamming.

I found a few samples on youtube. You’ll have to deal with some extraneous stuff – a rather long song introduction in German; an example of why keyboardists should not step out from behind the keyboards; songs in German. And yes, I had their live album with some of the songs in German, but no, I did not learn the words well enough to sing along. I should point out that it might be easier to listen and appreciate their music if you don’t actually have to watch them…

In my search for Semaja, I found this cool website from which you can listen to all four of their albums (I had No Burning Out and Semaja Live). Check out “No Burning Out” and “Karin” from No Burning Out (although I had the English version, so “Hey! you! Jesus is alive!” sounds kinda different in this version). “Dawning” from the live album is pretty cool, too. Or the jam session called “Big Noise.” Good stuff. Enjoy.

January 22, 2012  Tags: ,   Posted in: music  No Comments

Quick(ish) Review: His Excellency: George Washington

Ellis_George_Washington“Absorbing…An incisive portrait…”

“Absolutely fascinating…”

“Lively and engaging…An accessible portrait…Ellis write simply but eloquently. His prose is lucid, graceful and witty, his book is hard to put down…”

It took me more than a month to read Joseph J Ellis’ biography of George Washington. While I’ll agree with “fascinating” and “accessible,” perhaps even “incisive,” I absolutely can’t agree that it was hard to put down. That in no way should suggest that it is not a good book, nor that the writing is not simple but eloquent. Just not…lively.

Ellis bases his biography largely on the writings of Washington compiled as The Washington Papers, some 50 volumes of diaries, letters, personal papers, etc. that Washington left behind. What is not included are the personal letters between George and Martha, the vast majority of which she destroyed.

Since my own experience with Washington is rather limited – this being the first real Washington biography I’ve read – I’ll obviously give very little opinion as to accuracy or the point of the view of the author or whether I think the treatment was fair or not. And this is it: the author explains his process and lists the various experts from whom he received help and whose opinions he requested. Rightly or not, that gives me some indication that he was interested in being fair and providing the reader with an accurate portrayal of the man. It doesn’t necessarily follow that he succeeded in doing so, but my feeling while reading it was that he was trying to be fair while at the same time giving Washington the benefit of the doubt in many cases.

george-washingtonBeing a relatively short book – 275 pages not including the endnotes – this obviously isn’t going to be the most detailed biography of Washington. However, he does cover every period of Washington’s life (at least as much as is known) and from my limited perspective at least, offers a very good “portrait” (as the professional reviewers have said) of the father of our country.

This book isn’t going to answer every question. In fact, it raised a few for me for which I’m now curious to find answers. For instance, was Washington really not interested (or did he really consider himself unqualified) to lead the Continental Army, and if so, why did he show up to the Continental Congress meetings in his old uniform? There are some things that don’t completely transfer from his generation to ours and I think perhaps that is one of them.

Some things I learned that I should have known but was never taught and had never considered:

  • Washington was a wealthy man (especially in land holdings), the vast majority of it accumulated while working for the British.
  • Prior to becoming the supreme commander of the Continental Army (such as it was), Washington’s military career was sketchy. It included a massacre which led to the French and Indian war, a severe beating at the hands of the French, some success against Indians on the Virginia border, and the capture of an essentially abandoned fort.
  • Washington revered Cincinnatus and intended to retire after the war to Mount Vernon in the same manner. He was convinced by several men involved in trying to create a new Constitution that his presence was necessary in order to gain the trust of a wary public.
  • Washington was convinced by his experience in the army that the system of 13 loosely confederated states could not and would not last. Throughout the war he deferred to the Continental Congress and the states, and constantly he was disappointed. States which were supposed to give men and money refused to do so and the Congress had no power to persuade them otherwise. Because of this, Washington was a staunch federalist (and in fact refused to be a part of the Constitutional Convention until he was assured that the effort was not to be a reworking of the existing Constitution, but the creation of an entirely new one).
  • Like his attitude toward taking command of the army, Washington seems to be extremely modest about his ability to lead as president, as well as unaware that he was even a candidate for the position. He was elected unanimously. Ellis describes Washington’s attitude:

“My movement to the Chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.”

Though he unquestionably meant what he said, his thinking was multilayered, like his earlier expressions of reticence about becoming commander and chief of the Continental army. Modern sensibilities make it difficult to comprehend Washington’s psychological chemistry on this score and dispose us to interpret his routinized reticence as either a disingenuous ploy or a massive case of denial. But in Washington’s world no prominent statesman regarded the forthright expression of political ambition as legitimate; and anyone who actively campaigned for national office was thereby confessing he was unworthy of election…

He explains that even while denying that he knew he was a candidate, he was preparing to lead (e.g. outlining domestic and foreign policy priorities).

Washington_1772“In effect, by denying his interest in the office, he demonstrated that he was in control of his ambitions; by privately preparing to serve, he began to assume control of his forthcoming responsibilities.”

  • While he was elected unanimously to his second term, it was during that term that rifts began within the leadership. We often think of the “forefathers” in terms of a unified group of men, but they were far from it. And most hurtful to Washington was that some of his inner circle (Jefferson, most notably) turned against him and stirred up all variety of trouble (including circulating rumors that Washington was old and senile).
  • Washington’s attitude toward slaves changed after the war (Ellis suggests it was because of his experience with  black volunteers during the war). He couldn’t sell his slaves because he felt it unethical to split up families and the majority of his slaves had intermarried with others that he could not legally sell. Still, he sought ways to divest himself of any slaves – for two reasons – one on the ethical side that he now felt it was morally wrong, and on the economical side, he couldn’t afford them. The vast majority of his slaves didn’t actually do any work as they were either too young, too old, not strong enough, etc. Though he was unable to see a way to do anything while he still lived his will cleared up the issue entirely by granting freedom to all his slaves.

On the issue of slaves, Ellis says this:

He had been brooding about how to do it [free them] for over five years, procrastinating within a tangle of financial factors, and the drafting of his will represented his ultimate recognition that the only way to do it was, well, to do it. Though conscience, his deep moral revulsion at the blatant wrongness of human bondage, surely played an important role in his decision, his motives were not purely or merely moral, as they seldom were. For he knew that posterity was watching, and that his statement on this score would help to clear his legacy of the major impediment to his secular immortality.

There is so much more to cover, even from such a short book. But I shall have to leave it to you, interested reader, to take it upon yourself.

BU Rating: 9 (with the caveat that it’s not a particularly easy read).

Recommended for: Americans, Brits, French, history buffs, morons who think that throwing a hot dog at Tiger Woods is courageous, anyone who thinks this country would exist without George Washington.

January 21, 2012  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Book Reviews  No Comments

The king is dead

Kodak_filmWell, not dead yet. But Kodak is filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy which puts it pretty near the edge. So what was once a very proud and extremely successful company has found that 130 years of history means nothing if you can’t keep up.

I’ve always been a fan of their film. Used to use it in bulk when I was briefly on the yearbook staff at Moody. I don’t know exactly how much T-Max 100 I shot that year, but let’s just put the number at “a bunch.” I liked their high speed black and white film back when I was into taking pictures of rock bands. You had to have something around a 1600 ISO or 3200 ISO film to get a decent picture in a concert setting.

There was a time when you’d look on the back of the photos you got back from the HEB photo lab or Walgreen’s or whatever to make sure that they had printed those pictures on Kodak paper. Because if they hadn’t, well, you just knew that those pictures weren’t going to last. Or weren’t the best quality. Or something. I’m not sure what you knew. But you knew that Kodak paper was the best.

Back in the day, you might even be using a Kodak camera. You might even be using one now, albeit a point and shoot digital. They never did get into the high-end camera market and with the transition to digital, they still kept their focus on the cheaper, more accessible cameras.

Perhaps it will be a tragedy if Kodak doesn’t emerge from bankruptcy. Perhaps there is still some hope (although the linked article doesn’t actually mention much). I certainly hope so. I’m not ready to give up black and white film just yet. And while I know that there are still others out there making film (Ilford, Fuji at least. Is Agfa still making film?), I still want to be able to put some Tri-X in the camera and remember the good ol’ days. Maybe I’ll get me a 100’ bulk roll while I still can.

January 19, 2012  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: photography  No Comments

Reading List Update

Last night I finished His Excellency: George Washington. A full review will follow shortly. As I was updating my reading list on goodreads.com (and consequently what shows up in the left margin of the blog here), I realized that I probably need to update one little detail about the reading list. I find it a bit depressing (not to mention dishonest) to keep calling it my 2010 Reading List.

I mentioned in the Year In Preview post that I intended to just keep adding books to the reading list as I finished one – something like a never ending reading list. So to continue calling it the 2010 Reading List doesn’t make a whole lot of sense anymore (thankfully). Therefore, I have decided to update the name of my reading list. I thought about it for some time and came up with “Reading List.” I know…it may be a bit pretentious but I think it will be okay.

January 18, 2012  Tags: ,   Posted in: Books  No Comments

No Jesus prayers

You can pray. Just don’t say Jesus. Or Christ. Or Savior, or a number of other words that will not be allowed in Forsyth County, North Carolina government meetings. From this point forward, the county will have to police all prayers offered at their meetings to conform to a federal appeals court’s assessment of a non-sectarian prayer. The ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State brought the lawsuit originally (shocker).

Again the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, leaving the lower court’s judgment in place. For a conservative court, I have to say I’m extremely disappointed.

Apparently the House Chaplains most often try to be non-sectarian also. But if you look at the archive of prayers (yes there is such a thing – at least for the House), you don’t have to go too far back to find this prayer given on Dec 7, 2011 by the Reverend Roger Schoolcraft:

Almighty and Most High God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, You led our forefathers to weave Your presence in the fabric of our nation. Move us also to acknowledge and trust Your presence among us daily. And although we may face many obstacles and adversities, continue to shower us with Your mercy that we may recover.

Today, we thank You for healing our nation from the attack on Pearl Harbor seventy years ago. We are grateful for all those who sacrifice their lives to preserve our freedom. O Lord, may we not squander it. Bless all wounded warriors, veterans and their families. Fill them and us with Your peace and joy this Christmas season.

Give us wisdom and lead us by Your Spirit that the choices made here would result in our country united, an economy restored, and hearts grateful for Your loving care, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Or the previous day’s prayer by Reverend Bryan Thiessen:

Father, we thank You for this Nation, Your love, and, most of all, Your forgiveness of sins.

We acknowledge, as Scripture states in James 1:5, that You are the giver of all wisdom. May You give these men and women, whom You have placed in leadership over this Nation, Your wisdom in all their deeds and discussions.

According to Romans 13, ‘‘Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” May these here be good stewards of this responsibility, leadership, and Your gift of freedom for our Nation.

We ask for Your special protection over our military and blessing for their families. We pray for our enemies, as You instruct us in Matthew 5:44. May their plans be thwarted, and may they come to the love and grace that You offer.

In the only name through whom man can be saved, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Never mind the first prayer given in the Continental Congress in 1774:

"O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!

Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior. Amen."

Reverend Jacob DuchĂŠ
Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 7, 1774, 9 o’clock a.m.

So I ask again, are you sure that “separation of Church and State” means you can’t say “Jesus?”

January 17, 2012  Tags: , ,   Posted in: If you're not outraged..., politics  No Comments

Question to you graphics/photography types

Anybody know a cheap (ie not buying a $100 or more device) way to calibrate my new monitor?

My only thought at this point is to just have some prints done and compare them to what I see on the screen. I suppose that is not a terribly trustworthy method. I’ve found a few websites that suggest various online tools or a method similar to what I already described (although they suggest printing it at home – but I think I would prefer having them professionally printed, since that is the end result I am shooting for.

So has anyone had success with any of these alternative methods?

January 17, 2012  Tags: ,   Posted in: photography  No Comments

God-centric or Cristo-centric?

All of our music this morning was centered on Christ to some extent or another. There were a few songs that use the term God, but also referred to “the Lamb,” so I’m going to count those as songs about Christ also.

This on the heals of reading an article by Glenn Packiam about song writing in which he encourages songwriters (and I assume worship leaders as well) not to focus on only one person of the Trinity, but to be truly Trinitarian in our writing (and singing). I’ve heard this before. From him. He spoke at a songwriter’s workshop that Demetrios and I went to two years ago and said essentially the same thing in his small group meeting. He even used this story to illustrate his point:

I have a friend who is a self-described recovering atheist. On his slow journey back to faith it is the ancient prayers, creeds, confessions, and the canonical office that has been a light. He recently observed that much of contemporary worship writing focuses on a singular hero figure that remains nameless and ambiguous enough for those songs to be happily at home on the Lion King soundtrack. His point is simply that our worship expression doesn’t adequately reflect our theology, specifically our Trinitarian theology.

It had me thinking then, and it has me thinking again. And yet when I was putting songs together for today’s service, I didn’t feel a need to search for more Trinitarian songs. In fact, that search would be difficult because the majority of our worship music is either God the Father centered, Christ centered, or, let’s be honest, me centered. The Holy Spirit somehow doesn’t get a lot of play.

So I ask: is that wrong? Is it harmful to the church – or should I say it another way – is it less healthy for the church to have a Cristo-centric approach to worship? Assuming, of course, that the songs we sing are not “Lion King” quality songs but clearly worship songs to and about Christ, must we also include songs to and about the Father and the Holy Spirit?

January 15, 2012  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: music, worship and the church  One Comment

Update on New York public school/church issue

From Tim Challies’ a la carte section:

In New York, Police arrested 43 protestors outside a school where Mayor Bloomberg was speaking on Thursday. The protestors were pastors and lay people protesting the New York City school board’s decision, upheld by Federal courts and ignored by the Supreme Court, to ban Christian churches from renting schools to hold church services.

The ban will go in effect on Feb 12, leaving hundreds of churches without a place to meet (and also leaving the school district millions of dollars poorer). Apparently a state congressman is forwarding a bill that would solve the problem. “New York Assemblyman Nelson Castro has introduced Bill A08800, which would allow ‘the use of school buildings and school sites for religious meetings and worship when not in use for school purposes or when such service or worship is deemed not disruptive of normal school operations.’” Still it is unfortunate that a bill needs to be introduced to specifically allow what the Constitution is supposed to grant – religious freedom.

January 14, 2012  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: christian culture, If you're not outraged..., worship and the church  No Comments

Words I pronounce wrong–or is it wrongly?

My friend Sarah sent me a link to a blog post called “10 Words You Mispronounce That Make People Think You’re an Idiot.” I actually don’t mispronounce any of the words mentioned. Although he would disagree on prerogative. And I disagree on often – while I pronounce it the way he says it should be pronounced, I believe either way is acceptable. That said, I learned much more from the (endless) comments.

Did you know, for instance, that almond and salmon are both pronounced with a silent “l”? Me neither.

I was reminded of my Romanian friends who insist on saying foreign words the way they are said in their native tongue. For instance, when they say “salata de beouf” they say beouf with a French accent, because that’s how the French say it. A good example would be croissant. Although I don’t remember it happening with that word specifically, I was corrected more than once for saying a French word in an American way. Cra-sahnt. Crass, I know. Radu, in particular thought I was a Barbarian. “It’s French. You have to say it the French way.” And I would respond, “no it’s not. It’s an English word of French origin.” I say this all to bring up a recurring argument in the thread, which concerns the phrase et cetera. While the original article claims the proper pronunciation is “et setera” as opposed to “ek setera,” many people wanted to correct him by pointing out that there is no soft “c” in Latin and therefore it should be pronounced “et ketera.” So if you want to say et cetera and you’re speaking Latin, keep that in mind.

Also, staying with the “pronounce words like their language of origin” theme, niche is pronounced “neesh” and clique is pronounced “cleek.” I didn’t know.

Primer, the name of the blog, is properly pronounced with a short “i” not a long one. Primer with a long “i” is apparently reserved for the stuff you put on the wall before you paint it. Although I went to primary school, and I’m pretty sure they share a root word. So is it alright if I keep saying it “prymer”?

A few English lads made their presence known (I’m betting the “primer” guy was one also (although I could be wrong because dictionary.com says that the “prymer” pronunciation is more commonly British. Odd that.)). One informed us that the proper pronunciation of nougat is “noo-garr” although no one could seem to find a dictionary that remotely implies an “r” anywhere in the word. Still, he was adamant about it. Another was frustrated with our pronunciation of fillet, since it is not a French word and is not somehow related to the word flay. It should be “fillit” like billet. Also, everyone knows that Jaguar has three syllables, not two. We’ll leave out the conversation about aluminum versus aluminium.

One person wrote this comment, which I must admit puzzles me:

My new least favorite:

The trend of pronouncing the “L” in “calm,” “palm,” etc by tv journalists and weathermen. It’s silent, just like it is in “walk” and “talk.”

Firstly, um…the “l” in walk is silent? And secondly, let’s assume that the weathermen are saying calm differently than walk. How, exactly?

Another of the puzzlers:

Word: forehead

Incorrect Pronunciation: fawr-hed

Correct Pronunciation: fawr-id

I’m proud to say I don’t use the incorrect pronunciation. But to my shame I’ve never heard the correct pronunciation in my life. Is he a sailor? Is that akin to the forecastle being called the “fo’c's’le”? I don’t understand.

And apparently a “PRO-teen” is someone who becomes a professional athlete before their 20th birthday. Because as I learned from the comments, protein is pronounced “PRO-te-in.” I’m not actually sure what that means. PRO-tee-in? PRO-tee-un? PRO-tay-in? PRO-tay-een? I’m so confused.

Of course, what I learned most from the comments was that if you care at all about any of this you have way too much time on your hands and you either don’t understand how language changes with usage, or you are simply a pretentious snot. Good to know.

January 14, 2012  Tags: , ,   Posted in: culture, humor, language, Stupid Things You Can Find on the Internet  One Comment