try TWO
February 2nd, 2008
Please go to my other bog Two
I’m not doing anything here right now.
what is this?
March 22nd, 2007
i just noticed that chris murray has linked to this ONE … so an explanation is in order … partly because i’m confusing even myself with this flurry of blogs …
i am currently blogging via typepad … with two and plainer … but the problem is that i’m actually paying for the typepad service & it ain’t very cheap … and i’ve decided i just don’t need what TP offers … so when my term runs out sometime near the end of summer i’ll be shifting back to this here ONE … or maybe one i operate from my own site, which is already THREE … in the meantime, i’m at the other spot … thanks for dropping by
a hard knocking comes
March 1st, 2007
i crawl out of the swamp to name ten influential books of poetry … no order … for jordan …
Complete Poems - Carl Sandburg
The Waste Land and Other Poems - T. S. Eliot
The Double Dream of Spring - John Ashbery
Post-War Polish Poetry - Czeslaw Milosz (ed.)
This in Which - George Oppen
One Night Stand & Other Poems - Jack Spicer
Collected Poems - Frank O’Hara
Selected Poems - William Carlos William
A Selection of Poems - E. E. Cummings
The Crystal Lithium - James Schuyler
using a very narrow sense of ‘influential’ … these at one time or another in the past forty years were books i’d open, read for a few or more than a few minutes, then jump up for a pencil to write my own … they made me want to write my own
cathblogawa
February 24th, 2007
i’m trying to figure out why i’m so unsettled by so many of the blogs that i’ve found via the 2007 Catholic Blog Awards … i mean pepto-bismol unsetttled … i keep hoping that the blogs will rise a few feet higher than yr average ewtn production … but …
well … really … i should talk … i realize that you’d have to look very very closely to spot me as catholic anything … and i’m sorry for that … i’ve never known exactly how to present myself AS catholic … (and now isn’t that just weird?) … and i know this puzzles and disappoints some people … but i’ve always felt it was kind of impolite to push one’s religious tendencies in the presence of others (holden caulfield: “Catholics are always trying to find out if you’re a Catholic”) … and i know we live in very impolite times … but …
uh … sorry about that …
here are a few catholic blogs that don’t make me squirm too much …
battle of the bands
February 23rd, 2007
as usual my ears are humming … i was “an adult presence” more or less … i stood around watching and listening but i was too close down front .. when a few kids wanted to dance on my side i stood between them and the stage and looked official … the bands are always surprising … as impressive in unexpected ways … sure somebody’s off-key sometimes or the beat gets momentarily lost (but hardly ever cuz the drummers are spectacular across the board) or this song is pretty much like the last one … and sure i never could make out more than a moment’s worth of lyrics … but i could tell they were saying something & trying real hard to mean it … some had a really strong presence … being there & owning the stage for the moment … letting the music take them … it was this most evident desire to give themselves to the music that ran through every band & made it worth being there while it happened … and all these folks are ours and they walk the halls every day being ordinary carmel kids … and they come out on a friday night and rock the place … and buzz my old ears
what they said
February 19th, 2007
reviews of the opera …
Daily Herald … ‘Dialogues’ cast excels in sensitivity, redemption
Chicago Sun-Times … Fear, religious fervor work in ‘Dialogues’
Chicago Tribune … Ravishing `Dialogues des Carmelites’ pierces the heart
pretty much raves all around … yeah … what they said
103
February 18th, 2007
Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.
God does not always rebuke, nurses no lasting anger,
Has not dealt with us as our sins merit, nor requited us as our deeds deserve.
As the heavens tower over the earth, so God’s love towers over the faithful.
As far as the east is from the west, so far have our sins been removed from us.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on the faithful.
For he knows how we are formed, remembers that we are dust.
Our days are like the grass; like flowers of the field we blossom.
The wind sweeps over us and we are gone; our place knows us no more.
But the LORD’S kindness is forever, toward the faithful from age to age.
the opera
February 17th, 2007
now i’m just back from the dinner that followed the opera … the opera was sharp really sharp and cool … black & white … brown & white … i guess you’d say simple & minimal with very graceful efffects … les dialogues des carmelites … my first visit to the lyric opera in chicago …our seats were main floor back a ways on the left under the balconies … if i tipped my head just right i could get the faces in focus through one of my trifocal ranges … but how does one take in an opera … watching the stage … reading the translated text up top … & listening most of all listeniing to voices and instruments … there must be an art to taking it all in somehow, too … during intermissioon somebody lifted my program … the lady next to me was a heavy smoker … pretty close quarters for three hours … i think the sound was a bit weak in my section of the room … or maybe it was just my ipod-wrecked ears … but it was still quite hearable
i wonder how many actual carmelites were in the audience … two for certain … (well, compared to these 18th century nuns, i am a weak 21st century carmelite … but i am an actual one) … a good way to begin the celebration of our 800th year … i’m not sure what to say about the work itself … i had the experience … it was … well … see this
