Ethyl Alcohol- The Lighter Side of Christmas

Gloria in excelsis Deo...et gratias ago tibi Deo! Indeed, thank you God for seeing me through the service playing gauntlet that is the birth of Thy Son. Three separate Masses, 2 different sermons-I am now prepared to contemplate the Christmas question...which has much to do with another kind of post. One thing bears mentioning now: sentimentality. As I sat behind the console plunking away at the swooning chromatic strains of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" I was swept up in raptures. The little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes is an appealing image. And the picture only grows in glory when coupled with the finest ethnic piety. Fr. Benedict Groeschel once told us a scenario where he felt the Spirit in such a way: Discerning God's call, young Mr. Peter Groeschel wondered around NYC and North Jersey visiting various religious houses, hoping he might find one that seemed to work. Sure enough, after finding all the orderly Germans and hot-tempered Irish he could handle, he came across some earthy Italian Capuchins. He described them as loud, blunt, and a bit crazy- it appealed to his self-described "sense of humor of an old Jewish lady from Jersey City." He loved it. He also attended Christmas Mass at their chapel where they erected the traditional ornate creche- sans Jesus, of course. At midnight Jesus made his appearance like He, Himself, could not have imagined. (No, this one takes ingenuity straight from the heart of post-Romantic Sicily). As the choir piously chortled the toothache-sweet Gesu Bambino (courtesy of master Pietro Yon from those glory days at St. Patrick's Cathedral) the tiny, chubby, rosy-cheeked plaster Christ Child descended from the rafters, dangling precariously from a thread of a wire. Upon the arrival of the airborne bambino, John the Divine surely stammered in astonishment as he watched from the heavens- never had the "Word become Flesh" like that. Conveniently, the parish in which I play has excellent rafters, like a ski-lodge, but we didn't have any Sicilian Capuchins to throw up there! Nope, my Christmas entertainment had more to do with hippies- like my uncle. (Uncle Tony is awesome but sometimes drug-use hurts the brain, for decades.) So, after all the music duties were done I proceeded to the family Christmas Lunch. On the maternal side the 7 kids take turns hosting the annual feast. Because it was Uncle Tony's turn and his house is essentially an environmentally-friendly lean-to, he hosted lunch in a small, 3 room, vacant apartment which he owns... in a nearby town...always full of meth labs. Uncle Tony doesn't mess around with that kind of stuff but he makes his own booze, which is also an adventure of epic proportions. (Wine, I should say...to my knowledge). Things got off to a great start. Grandma found some prayer in a small devotional book which she decided 30-plus people should pray. Accordingly, she copied it, by hand, over 30 times onto separate sheets of legal-pad paper. She's 84 but she knows of zerox machines. It defies explanation. I'm almost positive this incident now joins the ranks of other significant mysteries, such as the Incarnation- I think the timing on this one was a sign! Once the meal began the Bud-Light appeared (because this is Nebraska). Soon after the Coronas followed, Uncle Tony swearing by these with limes in hand- and of course his homemade "wines." Some interesting observations on these "wines:" the bottles are labeled with various innocuous titles like "chokecherry," "pear," and "apple" but the immediate acerbic tinge seems to say this your generic unleaded gasoline with food coloring; initially, the ephemeral sweetness tingles the tongue but soon this gives way to a vicious bite which sends rottweilers running. It needs a chaser- I'll take some of that pomegranate 7-up. Yum! But more scientific analysis was needed. Ah yes, the 'cup test!' Notice how that 80-proof brandy is slowly warping that paper cup; Also note how that homemade "wine" burns through that cup like chemical warfare is going out of style. Yet, I live- a testament to resilient genes. My cousin, who is a chemist at an ethanol plant, toyed with the idea of taking a vile and running a scan to determine alcohol content. And then he said he went to the "Upstream Brewery" in Omaha. Describing it, he said: "It was alright, but they didn't have normal beers there- just that microbrewery stuff." The cousin in cowboy duds tacked on a bit, "Yeah, I can't hardly stand Sam Adams, way too rich." Oh, that's right, Bud-Light country. Someday an old German farmer who brews a killer stout will win the Powerball. He will give it to the Husker Athletic Department and suddenly all of "Husker Nation" will drink that ale like it was the Fountain of Youth. Too bad Ponce de Leon didn't find it first! At least I'm sure he saw his share of kitschy Iberian Jesuses.

Jesuits and other heretics, part 2

...So here comes the part actually related to title. At least two people I ran into this week made some comments to the effect of "Jesuits aren't really Catholic" and "Jesuit tradition? What the hell is that?" Well, my gut reaction to both statements, respectively, goes as follows: "Yes they are. If they are baptized then they are real Catholics. If they are validly ordained then they are real Catholic Priests as well." And, "Religious orders have intellectual and spiritual traditions associated with them. The Jesuit Tradition is one associated with the Society of Jesus as much as the Benedictine Tradition is associated with Benedictines etc." Perhaps my answers are a bit trite, a tad too smug. Perhaps I'm not reading the serious subtext here: the Jesuits are off their rockers. Honestly, I hate it when people make the Jesuits the ecclesiastical whipping-boy. Realizing the underlying message of these and other recent comments I was determined to find the catalyst. Jesuit bashing is endemic to these parts- but such a concentrated rash? Something is ticking people off. It's like some kind of virulent disease broke out. In the 1969 techno-thriller "The Andromeda Strain" an entire fictitious New Mexico town is nearly wiped out by a mysterious and apparently extra-terrestrial pathogen. There are but two survivors- a baby and a crazy old man. Uncle Sam assembles a team of elite scientists to decipher the problem. One doctor comments, "We'll have the answer to this disease when we know why a sixty-nine-year-old Sterno drinker with a bleeding ulcer is like a perfectly healthy two-month-old baby." Likewise I found myself wondering, "What makes both an athletic female high school senior and a middle-aged pastor of a large urban parish tick?" Evidently it was something that happened in St Louis, Missouri, last fall no less. The version I heard goes like this: 'The Jesuits finally came clean; they renounced their affiliation with Rome. Didn't you hear? St Louis University is no longer a Catholic school; they are a school in the "Jesuit tradition."' Hoorah! We always knew they were screwed up. Now all our slander was justified! After all, "if you're not going to be 'Catholic,' you might as well stop pretending," as one gentlemen incisively mused... Which is funny because the facts indicate that this situation is precisely the opposite. If SLU is pretending to be anything (and nothing suggests they are) they are pretending to be non-Catholic! Indeed, SLU is ever the 'Catholic' institution (for all practical intents and purposes) that it has been in its distinguished 180 year history. If we take a peek at their website at http://www.slu.edu/sluhistory/index.html we immediately find references to this "Jesuit Tradition"- which ultimately leads to information that is unmistakably Catholic. So who are they tricking? The government evidently. This is actually about something as simple as money. The City of St Louis approved a multi-million dollar TIF (tax increment financing) plan which would fund certain urban renewal projects for a blighted area- including facilities for SLU. At some point the whistle-blower appeared and pointed out that tax dollars for religious schools violate the Federal 'Establishment' Clause, not to mention the Missouri State Constitution which has stronger wording yet. According to the Missouri Court of Appeals the State Constitution is in this regard "both more explicit and more restrictive than the First Amendment to the United States Constitution." Apparently The Masons sued. Nevertheless the Jesuits, brilliant as always (in all seriousness) found a way. According to both the wording of the law and scrutiny of relevant judicial precedent mere loose affiliation with a religion does not disqualify an institution from receiving aid. It must be, in fact, "controlled by a religious creed"(emphasis mine). Jesuits are Catholic. But Catholicism is a choice. ('creed' is credo, I believe, and belief absolutely must be free). And all Catholics, and non-Catholics for that matter, are not Jesuits. Students aren't turned away from SLU based on creed, and while it is a Catholic institution (whatever 'institution' happens to mean) the power lies in the hands of a lay-board. Thus, from an operational standpoint SLU is non-sectarian. Yet, it remains identifiably Catholic. Enigmatic? So is any city or public organization filled with a demographic group in majority or plurality which happens to be Catholic: Los Angeles in 2000 was 46.5% Hispanic, incidentally L.A. was also 39% Catholic in 2005, but the "City of Angels," or more precisely Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles is still not part of the RC Church. According to this reasoning which was, of course, supported with ample precedent, The Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals found that SLU, a school in the "Jesuit tradition," does NOT violate the Establishment Clause and is therefore eligible to receive public funds from the City. Sure, Jesuits are still Catholic but here the word Catholic was merely a nominal distinction that stopped the school from getting millions of dollars. Heck, for that matter let's not pretend; critics of the Jesuits and their 'crazy' liberation theology won't pretend that people go to Jesuit schools for religious reasons anyway! But what about that that business where Jesus said "Whoever is ashamed of me...the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory," Mark 8:38? Aren't they forsaking God? Nope, they dropped a politically charged word. In seminary we once were assigned to debate various moral issues without referencing the Bible or the Catechism, not to speak of the word "Catholic." Our professor's soundly reasoned that "if you dispute someone hostile to your Church, you can bet they will reject your internal sources. If you use these words, you're dead in most forums." When in Rome...no pun intended- in a secular society use the jargon. It's all about the words. I bet things haven't changed functionally around SLU since Fall 2006. Everyone knows where the Jesuits stand (like it or not), God not the least, and that ultimately dismisses the criticisms here, whether on a legal or theological level. Heck, around here the Catholic Schools would love to get public funds of any kind. The closest we ever got was some kind of text-book lending program. I was looking at Yugoslavia in textbooks. The legislature ran from vouchers like the plague. If only we were schools in the "Catholic tradition"... But that would forfeit too much control, not to mention be impossible because the Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the diocese are parochial not private organizations per se, that is, they are associated with parishes. This deeper level of "sectarian" entanglement makes the mere thought quite a stretch. Perhaps my analysis of the SLU situation is overly simplistic. To be safe I'll let the accused party speak for itself. Let those friendly to the cause explain their reasoning in their terms. This amicus curiae brief from the aforementioned case should suffice: http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/clrf_brief.pdf . And for that matter you can read the Appelate Court's decision for yourself: http://www.courts.mo.gov/courts/pubopinions.nsf/ccd96539c3fb13ce8625661f004bc7da/b1deebaf441860fa862571fb004db9cc?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,ED86804
And so, sadly, I regret to inform my friends that this ordeal at SLU had absolutely nothing to do with a cowardly renunciation of Catholic doctrine. It's all law and politics. Which is okay...and money. I think the Church likes those things. Check it out yourself, but don't let the facts get in the way. Oh, the St Louis Urban Review always has wonderful information regarding "urban planning and related politics in the City of St. Louis and region." There's always a lively discussion. Check it out at http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/

Jesuits and other heretics, part 1

I know, loaded headline- all to be read with a spark of subtly facetious cynicism. I mentioned the Jesuits before, and what perfect timing! These last few days I turned on my ears and deduced that it was "Degrade Things I Don't Understand" week with some folks around town. I shall elaborate. First, "The Golden Compass." Critics have been giving mixed reviews. After all what do we expect? Another fantasy film is bound to be a bit predictable. But I've not been hearing cinematic criticisms. I've been hearing content criticisms. The word on the street is that the movie is anti-Catholic. PAUSE. Now, it's terrible to profile but I do it anyway, so here it goes: the people living in the USA of 2007 who complain about the moral content of movies probably also subscribe to a broader reactionary ideology. So, let's go on a joyride with this premise. American Society always was and is an anti-Catholic social structure. Should it shock us that a purportedly anti-Catholic movie surfaces? Then again, this movie has British influences which makes perfect sense- we all know that those crazy, progressive Europeans are lost! But before we get lost there, let's back up. Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials (the book on which the film was based), did not direct this film. Regardless of Pullman's beliefs or comments regarding the RC Church, Chris Weitz directed this film. Mr. Weitz found something he liked in the book but nevertheless intentionally departed from the book's more overt anti-Catholicism and was met with stiff criticism from censorship groups and Atheists. To think! People angry that the movie wasn't anti-Catholic enough! Anyway, Weitz and Pullman surely share some of the same convictions- that stuff about questioning unquestioned authority. Oh, but here comes the heresy: is this so bad? I don't think that even the most intellectually bankrupt Christian will argue that God gave us brains for no reason (then again, I suppose somebody will step up to bat on this one). Yeah, the Trinity and Mary's Perpetual Virginity are mysteries but many things aren't. Exercising mental discretion is a good thing, perhaps necessary. I don't suppose members of the Church hierarchy have ever abused power or betrayed trust. (Please don't read US newspapers from the last decade or any accurate history book). Ah yes, clergy can't screw up. No concupiscence there! This is probably true in any institution. Uh oh, here comes anecdotal evidence: I recently made a move in my Catholic Fraternity to establish some type of mechanism for systemic oversight. Inevitably the question came: "But do we really need this. I mean, we're a Catholic organization. Can't we trust each other?" Yep, it's true: human nature is subsumed by systems. Back to the movie... Nothing sounds more noble than Latin and in "The Golden Compass" villain is called the "Magisterium." As one fine young man recently put it, "The bad guys are called the Magisterium, I mean, literally, the Magisterium. Can they make it any more obvious?" The answer is "no," "no they can't- to me" (whoever "they" are, but that's neither here nor there). The connection is crystal clear to me- 14 years of Catholic school and some seminary; of course, I know that the Magisterium is the official "teaching authority of the Church." To the rest of the world, does this ring a bell? You know, magister means teacher, etymology..huh? I guess I'm not much for conspiracy theories. Let people speak for themselves if possible. Said Weitz regarding anti-Catholicism in his film: "If that's what you want in the film, you'll be disappointed." Heck, even Nicole Kidman pitched in her two cents, "the Catholic Church is part of my essence. I wouldn't be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic." Of course, we may still think what we like; we just can't maintain that these folks meant it that way- which is entirely the argument I've been hearing. Nope, "The Golden Compass" merely addresses thought control- and not even the most orthodox, right-thinking Catholics want the Church to be described that way. Indeed "In the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots" (emphases mine). This comment from Weitz reminds me of what the beloved Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said: "There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church." Even if I'm wrong, even if Weitz was lying through his teeth, even if there was an organized plot with Pullman to undermine the Catholic Church in this movie, cui bono, to whose benefit? The Atheists? People aren't leaving Church in droves since the movie appeared. The Devil? We never know who's going down with that hell-raiser. Money? Money is supposedly the false-god that drives the film industry and yet this flick has been grossing a good deal less than expected. Bill Donohue and the Catholic Action League call for a boycott, a bunch of people stay away, fewer dollars come in, and guess what, Pullman wins the moral victory! Instead of engaging or at least ignoring "dangerous ideas" zealots took the bait, made a stink about it and validated the all the delicious irony that Pullman savored. Ultimately, I can't see how this movie is morally consequential. It tried out for the team, barely made the cut, and now sits on the bench with Harry Potter, bored as hell, watching child abuse, marital infidelity, and sexual exploitation play hardball. Frankly, I thought "The Golden Compass" was mostly about a little girl riding around on a Coca-Cola mascot in a Winter Wonderland- perfect for Christmas! If you don't believe the Weitz and Kidman quotes see them for yourself at the link below- but ultimately, don't let the facts get in the way. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/14/npullman114.xml

class concludes, festivity

Hooray! 17 credit hours are more or less complete. Class is done for the semester and all that remains is the formidable foe of finals. Light and fluffy snow presently falls upon us in clumps. It covered my car which makes driving difficult. I looked in my trunk and found a large red broom with plastic bristles. Off came the snow! However, the handy broom was not the best of the evening. My professor held a party for members of the University chamber choir this evening. There were a bunch of college students, some other professor-ly types (and spouses), pizza, delightful munchies, and a bag of freshly roasted coffee beans straight off a plane from Portland (courtesy of the sister-in-law of our gracious host!) Everything was magnificent! I will shamelessly admit that I love majoring in something where I can hang-out with my teachers and joke about class/music, Church, and/or politics off the clock. Musicians don't clock-out- this is not so much a job as it is a way of life. So, I was talking with my professor's husband (and his sister) and the conversation wove its way through a number of topics: a Jesuit mission trip to Columbia, my former seminarian life, Church Hierarchy, the Latin Mass and finally the Latin Mass in England where they formerly lived. And then he showed me a picture of his wife and the late Basil Cardinal Hume (O.S.B.), Archbishop of Westminster. What an outstanding prelate! He could administrate while balancing British identity with Roman Curial demands. And speaking of balance: his cathedral's choir. The Westminster Cathedral choir must be the best Roman Catholic Cathedral Choir in the world. They are proof that the Roman Church has no reason to be ashamed of taking musical cues from our Anglican brethren. I have several recordings of the choir under James O'Donnell- and they are exquisite! I can only hope to visit soon. Even though the choir was initially patterned after the Anglican model they manage to maintain a distinctive, bright treble sound. Somewhat atypical in the Anglican tradition, this tone has nonetheless garnered the admiration of the likes of Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Howells and others - and resulted in commissioned works! Though not as well known (but she can hold her own from how it sounds), composer Roxanna Panufnik was commissioned to write a Mass for the celebration of Cardinal Hume's 75th birthday. The aptly titled "Westminster Mass" contains all the typical ordinary of the Mass plus a special piece. This piece, "Deus, Deus meus" (O God, my God) comes from the text of Psalm 62(63). Cardinal Hume specifically selected this text, a favorite of his (and incidentally, mine as well) which shows up in Sunday vespers. The music is hard to forget once you've heard it. Panufnik juxtaposes minor and major chords of the same root simultaneously! The resulting clash creates a distinct sense of urgent longing which paints the text beautifully: "for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a weary land without water." If you are curious, this piece can also be found on the Hyperion label: "The Music of Westminster Cathedral Choir." Now I must sleep. In eight hours I must play cute organ music with flutes 8' and 2' while the Bishop blesses creches. (Oh, that rhymed!)

my apologies to philosophy

In an apparent tribute to unilateralism the University Chancellor held out and opted to hold classes despite a formidable glaze of ice. Oh, well, 'water under the bridge' as they say. I was thinking again and realized that I think often. And that seems ironic. Okay, I'll come clean: I don't hate philosophy. In fact, it can be interesting and aid our understanding of the world. It's just that often the people who love it most seem so pretentious and out of touch. Philosophy is like a tropical poison tree frog. It may look cool, intriguing, and occasionally pretty- but. if you lick it (or get too intimate) it WILL murder you! Indeed, the cancerous effects of elitism can be found throughout the higher reaches of any field. (Philosophy merely has a long and noble tradition with this). You know the people: "I'm too busy with my terribly important x, y, and z to waste my time dealing with people. It distracts me from important things, like (fill in blank with respective discipline)." They are everywhere and certainly musicians have been guilty too! Sure, concentration and dedication are necessary for any success but if people take a back seat our priorities are screwed up. Maybe I have too much youthful naivety but I like to pretend that people like jobs/career fields because they want to make the world a better place by changing individual people's lives- one at a time. And heaven knows we need some changing! Look at the news: A troubled teen from suburban Omaha, NE guns down 8 random people at Westroads Mall. Of course, no one is truly random. Everyone has a life and a story that is utterly unique. Brutal toying with that defies explanation. All the sociological and psychological analyses in the world won't undo grief. They never will calm the human soul stunned in the face of raw evil. The smallest and simplest response is love. And it is the best. I read a marvelous op-ed piece by Leonard Pitts the other day entitled "Deliver Us from Our Capacity for Evil." He goes to the Holocaust Museum every holiday season. It reminds him why we need deliverance- often from ourselves. But the response is simple. When we realize that everyone is ultimately trying to get by, trying to find some sense of happiness, fulfillment, or love in their life, then the world is much smaller. There are suddenly no random people- for we share all the most important things! That solidarity is wonderful and yet it is so terrible that it often takes evil to refocus the perspective. I was reading a Christmas letter today from my great-aunt whose husband passed away on their Kansas farm this summer. In talking about great uncle Walt's passing this lady used language so similar to everything I've been reading in the paper about the Westroads Tragedy. It struck me. Grief is one of those precious few things that binds people from all time and space together. I once encountered a 4th century poem by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius that offers a vivid and powerful imagine of death and eternal life. This translated text, "Take him, earth, for cherishing," was set to music in 1963 by English composer Herbert Howells- to be sung in a memorial service for JFK at Washington National Cathedral. Howells' writing is distinctive to say the least- full of exquisite dissonance and elegiac nobility. The spirit of this text and Howells' composition style were a match made in heaven- the result is one of the finest motets of the 20th century. A grand piece of nearly 8 minutes, Britain's musical expression of solidarity and sympathy with a grieving nation captures all the fear, pain, and uncertainty of death as well as the steadfast joy of salvation. I have never heard confidence more powerfully portrayed in music than at the words "take, o take him" in the final stanza. (It's not gender neutral, but perhaps we can forgive our ancient Latin poet). The choir of St. Paul's in London has an excellent recording of this in a Howells compilation on the Hyperion label. Borrow it. Buy it. Listen to it. You can hear heaven.

Yoda was wrong

Today in Music Theory my professor made a Yoda reference. While I think Star Wars was alright Yoda was definitely wrong. "Do or do not; there is no try" ??? This quote assaults that whole Cohen Brothers effort-based ethos which I love so dearly. 'Trying' by definition would be some form of doing but I suppose he meant "do" in the way that effects certain results. It seems he meant "stand up and deliver or get out!" Maybe this abrasive imperative doesn't quite fit the mold for his whole ambiguous, quasi-New Age aura? Perhaps there is a reason I cling to this whole validation-by-effort thing...ah, yes! I've got it!- anxiety on account of impending trials. With final exams and an organ jury looming before me I feel a wee bit uncomfortable defining myself in terms of academic success/failure (surely to be extended into my future professional life). The solution? I shall insulate myself with the consoling padding of my inherent dignity as a child of God, or to put it like a priest I heard recently, "We're all very special." (Indeed, it's true, but I can't help but poke fun at such an overwrought expression). Of course, I don't think that everyone should get an 'A' for effort and amble recklessly though life with nothing to show for it; I'm merely suggesting a sane balance. Yoda was too harsh. Sometimes we work hard and receive a just reward. Other times we bust our ass and leave empty handed. Strangely enough, it's humbling- and again I know "We are not in control." In other words, stressful times can restore proper perspective. Of course, flip-flopping bastard that I am, I'll likely come full circle when an 'A' comes back on one of those tests; my fears- unfounded. There's nothing like that feeling of being the existentialist Juggernaut. I'll lounge on the beach of my proverbial island high on the speed of self-determination while sipping cocktails with Gilligan cursing John Donne. So, Yoda, 'try' time is every time- to be rewarded for trying, for the effort to bear fruit? That time's much rarer. And therein lies the only distinction between 'doing' and 'trying.' As a hippie once said (and the Bible) "to everything there is a season." (more cliche courtesy of Pete Seeger). But, all things in good time. Speaking of seasons, it is winter and sleeting like hell. I hope class is canceled in the morning.

the wondrous Cohen Brothers

"No Country for Old Men" was a paean for reality. I loved it and accordingly I went and saw it three times in the theater. So, what is the antithesis of this cinematographic gem? Ah, yes, I know exactly! Once, when I was a seminarian there was this guy who lived down the hall. He didn't speak to other human beings- except in the language of philosophy. His typical social interactions consisted of one way conversations that went like this, "If only our confused modern culture would embrace the brilliant Scholasticism of Aquinas the world would be much better off." Apart from my general skepticism concerning people who make the distinction between the evil modern world and good medieval world, I just found such comments exceedingly entertaining. But I digress- what truly creeped me out about my sophist neighbor was his love for curling up in the library with a hefty volume of Nietzsche on Friday night. I can think of a few things I'd rather do- for example, drinking drain cleaner. And to think, he hates Nietzsche! But that's not the point. Sitting around and reading gobs of literature by insane people while entertaining the delusion that I can change the world by doing so, is foolish. Descartes, Montesquieu and Diderot wrote and then Robespierre and a whole pile of people acted, perhaps too much. John Locke and Thomas Paine wrote and then George Washington and a bunch of colonial traitors staged a revolution. Nietzsche wrote and then Hitler and then a bunch of fascists...well, you know what happened. Marx and Stalin... Misinterpreted? Misapplied? I can put my all my faith in political and philosophical systems or I can put it in God and do my humble part. I know I at least won't be wasting my time. "No Country for Old Men" doesn't paint the world in rosy colors. This is not a stock Western either! I think it is even a bit dark to be "dark comedy." Chalk-full of cold dispassionate brutality it doesn't pretend this is anything new nor ending anytime soon. This movie has its own category- REALITY CHECK. Near the end it really gets to the heart of this matter. Things will never work out quite the way we want and they never will. So much for Manifest Destiny and the American Dream! So do we give up? No! We keep working. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," curing cancer, police, parking tickets, etc. This is good. Trying with the expectation of being the savior, well, "That's vanity." Helping even one single person have a better life? That's a goal satisfying enough for me. And, God knows, with a musician's salary, I won't be moving mountains with my money!
(See www.nocountryforoldmen.com )

premier ramblings

I was born about 120 miles from the geographic center of the continental United States. Among many things this infers (not the least of which is a stereotypical lack of "culture") is that I inhabit an agrarian land. The soil and climate around this particular place lend themselves to corn. Characteristics of the environs include small towns, multiple bars, healthy elderly people, long vowels, hard -r's, Republicans, Roosevelt Democrats, football, diseased elm trees and a whole host of other important things. You wouldn't expect to find a fixture of North Italian/Lombard Romanesque architecture in the middle of a cornfield. Yet, that is what one may find in Seward NE- courtesy of Sinclair Hille Architects and the Knights of Columbus. Sadly, "Campanile in the Cornfield" is not likely to arouse the interest of individuals interested in either of the two. People interested in campaniles (free standing bell-towers adjacent to churches) tend to not care about corn and people interested in corn tend to have not the foggiest idea what in the dickens a campanile happens to be (much less care). After considering this I find myself disturbed by the sudden realization that we live in a frustrating world. I can't ever quite make things as I wish. I might venture to say that on the whole things will never be perfect- frustratingly close, perhaps, but nevertheless falling short. Goodness, how novel!- a fallen world (or somehow 'cosmically disoriented' if it pleases you). Don't worry though, everyone has a solution! Reagonomics, organic food, Communism, and lead-free toys. (anecdotal evidence- when I was very small I chewed on a windowsill covered in lead paint. Nothing happened). No, I can't waste my time mentally drilling too deep into the semantic quibbles of others- that takes masochistic fortitude that could only end up launching me into the far reaches of pretentious elitism. If I read every piece of philosophical literature ever written and discovered, perchance, a feasible solution to the world's problems I would be, by that point, so hopelessly irrelevant, that I may as well have never wasted my time. This is, incidentally, why I don't plan to resume being a philosophy major anytime soon and very much a part of why I loved the recent blockbuster "No Country for Old Men." But more on this later! I am content to bask in the minute irregularities and subtle joys of life (I'm thinking "Dappled Things" by Gerard Manley Hopkins...) And then I turn on the TV- Presidential Election campaign ads. My head splits. So, off it goes and me as well. I listen to Rachmaninoff's "Bogoroditse Devo" as it snows at 2 am. I recalibrate. He was always a Romantic, even long after the "Emancipation of the Dissonance"- old fashioned music, like Widor 1920, but beautiful nonetheless. I'm glad I came home to music. It can give peace, like God's, if for a moment.