Jaap van Zweden ... I Forgot That He's Dutch

I tend to think of him simply as Dallas's symphony conductor, who incidentally seems to get fantastic reviews where ever he goes. However, it is interesting to see the first few minutes of this profile done by a Dutch classical music company. Especially as it is "in full-on Texan" for the first minute or two, as the Observer's Unfair Park blog noted (which is where I picked this up in the first place0.

If My Life Were A ...

... Short Story

... Play

... Poem

... Novel

Then which ones would it be?

Back to the little game that Enbrethiliel was playing which took my fancy but which I couldn't get back to until now after doing the poem section.

I don't want to risk never getting back to it so I will finish now. Except for the play, which I am still pondering because I don't get out to plays much.

Novel: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I, too, was hardhearted and rather sour like Mary until she entered the secret garden and learned the secret of looking out for something besides oneself. As I mentioned a while back in a somewhat round about way.

Short Story: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber. This isn't exactly the same as Walter Mitty used fantasy to escape the harsh reality of a nagging wife. I am not using fantasy but doesn't every Christian have that interior sense of a dual reality? They see things (if they can or are lucky) through Heaven's eyes, they offer prayers, they look at motives and actions filtered through a completely different reality from the secular world. If that makes sense, then you're there with me!

Worth a Thousand Words

Christmas Fair taken by Budapest Daily Photo

Christopher Closeup Radio

I wanted to let you know that an upcoming episode of “Christopher Closeup” had your blog as its starting point. I read about Tisha Young donating her kidney to 4-year-old Sam Gappa on your web site and was motivated to request an interview with Tisha and Sam’s mother Tami on the show. It’s scheduled to be put up as a podcast at the end of next week and air on Sirius-XM on Dec. 28. I just wanted to give you a heads up since you played a role in this.

I am thrilled to have had any part in this. All too well I remember being impressed at Tisha Young's selflessness in donating her kidney to little Sam Gappa. It is a story of sacrificial love for a child that Tisha didn't even know. I will be waiting impatiently until next week to hear this interview. In the meantime, you can hear many other great stories at Christopher Closeup.

Thanks Tony!

Advent Series

Catch it over at The Anchoress's place

Patron Saints 2009

The Pious Sodality of Church Ladies are at it again.

It's time again for the most popular Church Lady event, the distribution of patron saints for the new liturgical year.

On the first of January a new calendar year begins. On the first Sunday of Advent the new year of the Church begins. Therefore, the Saturday preceding the first Advent Sunday has something of the character of a New Year’s Eve. One of the old customs is to choose a patron saint for the new year of the Church.
[Maria Trapp, Around the Year with the Trapp Family]

In keeping with the year of St Paul, this year's saints include the Apostle and his companions. I hope you enjoy learning more about your new patron by reading Acts and the Pauline epistles and looking at images of St Paul in art.

Leave a message in their comments box to get your saint assignment.

UPDATE
I have been chosen by:

St Mark the Evangelist

Pray for the Church in Africa

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is helpful to me in the ministry. [2 Tim 4, 11]

Worth a Thousand Words

Glasgow University from Flickr Scotland

What does a slumdog know? The answer.

In the case of Jamal Malik, the answer he knows is not necessarily the one that will win him millions of rupees on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The answers he knows are loyalty, love, perseverance, and truth.

In a story largely told in flashbacks, the movie opens with Jamal being tortured by the police as they are sure that no uneducated slumdog would know the answers to win 10 million rupees. As the detective takes him through the background for the answer to each question, we see that Jamal's life has extraordinarily prepared him for this moment. Each answer is the linchpin to a hardwon bit of information in key events of his life which begins as a tyke in the Bombay slums. Jamal and his older brother Salim exemplify brotherly love in this Dickensian tale which shows us modern India in a way that surpasses documentaries. To a point that is. We watch warily as Jamal retains his tenacious grip on truth and loyalty while Salim is only to willing to use brutality to achieve his goals. In the mix is Latika who the brothers encounter as children and who Jamal loves for herself in contrast to Salim who uses her as a playing piece for his own purposes.

As the story begins to catch up to current time, the viewer then finds many other questions such as how Jamal got on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire at all and why he is doing it. This is where the story picks up speed and intensity as the past gives way to the future which the movie characters don't know either.

As with Charles Dickens' way with a story, Slumdog Millionaire shows us a classic tale of adversity and the human spirit told with passion and peril. Yet, despite the bleak slum setting there always are swirling the gleams of hope and humor that keep this story from being depressing. Directory Danny Boyle uses his trademark "canted shots" (Rose has the correct name for everything, being fresh from film classes), swift cuts, close-ups and speed to convey the spirit which carries the film. Anyone who has watched even a few movies set in India knows to expect vivid color and vivacity. Boyle uses this to great effect not only to show us past and modern India, but to express life which is always moving forward despite what has preceded it.

In fact, it just occurred to us that the current tragedy in Mumbai (Bombay) of which Get Religion says, "India, of course, is a culture soaked in religion. It should not be surprising that this massacre is soaked in religious content and imagery..." is reflected to a degree in this movie as well. As modern as the techniques being used by terrorists are, the fact remains that human nature and India are timeless.

Allow me to drop the hint not to miss the credits which express India in a way unique to the movies. Also, the soundtrack deserves credit for keeping us definitely in place. I want it for my repeated enjoyment, but then I'm a sucker for modern Indian music.

The movie is rated R and the rating is earned. However, I will add that Boyle used inference to a large degree for some of the most disturbing scenes and it was these that honestly brought Charles Dickens to mind. There is not much in that movie at which Dickens would not have nodded knowingly. The types of poverty may have changed over the years but the human capacity for both vileness and love have not. I have seen PG-13 movies which have shown greater explicitness than this movie. It is the content of Slumdog Millionaire which is adult, as it rightly should be. This is a story with themes which should be pondered by adults. Those who do so will find themselves enriched on many levels.

Highest recommendation.

Saturday at the Movies

We're getting ready to hit the Magnolia Theater and see Slumdog Millionaire ... I've been really looking forward to this movie.

Twilight
I have not had any desire to watch Twilight ... not due to the vampires which I see that various folks are cringing at for many of the same reasons they cringed at Harry Potter (magic! gasp!). No, my reasons are due to cringing at bad writing and acting, according to all accounts. (I got enough bad writing listening to DarkFever, which was not written for little girls, by the way ...).

For those who, like me, do not cringe at the occasional explicit word, I refer you to Cleolinda's Movies in 15 Minutes where you will see an absolutely hilarious send up of the movie by someone who saw it. Here's a sample to get you in the mood. For this, one must know the context that the real reason vampires don't go out in the sunlight is that their skin sparkles and that would give them away. Bram Stoker is busy turning in his grave right now ...

EDWARD: I AM VAMPIRE. HEAR ME TWINKLE.

BELLA: Oh, wow, I spent like $60 at Sephora trying to get sparkle like that. What is that, Urban Decay?

EDWARD: NO!

BELLA: Oh, so it's a drugstore brand?

EDWARD: THIS IS THE SKIN OF A KILLER, BELLA!

BELLA: FINE. WHATEVER. But the lipstick, that's gotta be Cargo, right?

EDWARD: *FLOUNCE*

The Spirit
For something with a whole lotta style that has us interested at the moment, check out these trailers for The Spirit. Loved Frank Miller's style in 300 and I'd watch Sin City but the girls assure me that I'd hate the extreme violence in all except one segment. I bow to their judgment. I have high hopes for The Spirit though ...

Worth a Thousand Words

Forgotten by Manuela Valenti

Worth a Thousand Words

Aural Delights, the little sibling of the audio science fiction magazine StarShipSofa, is one year old. To celebrate this occasion, StarShipSofa will have a new SF art cover designed each month by science fiction artist Skeet Scienski.

I love this magazine-cover style illustration. I am also quite fond of StarShipSofa as should be any fan of audio science fiction. Be sure to check it out.

You know, Columbia College is the most amazing sounding school for film majors ...

... Tom was talking Rose through "don't forget this" and "think about that's" before she took off on the L for O'Hare to fly alone for the first time (on the busiest day of the year at one of the busiest airports in the world).

He says they also talked movie stuff, as does everyone she talks with these days. She told me that one of her teachers was the executive producer of "Secondhand Lions". (Not the same guy who does Lifetime movies.) Only one of our favorite imaginative, heart warming movies. Wow.

Story Corp's National Day of Listening on Nov. 28

I thought you and your readers might be interesting in a new initiative StoryCorps in launching to make conducting these interviews easier. This November 28th, the day after Thanksgiving, StoryCorps is launching the first-ever National Day of Listening. We’re asking Americans to set aside an hour to record a conversation with a friend, family member, or loved one. We've launched a separate website with more tools and tips, a downloadable guide, and an instructional video for recording family and friends the day after Thanksgiving and beyond. Thank you again for helping us build a movement to honor the people in our lives through listening to them!

StoryCorp is one of my favorite podcasts and this is a great idea. Check it out!

Something Shiny for the Christmas Tree

Yes, it's too early ... but once Bill C. kindly emailed me with this notice, I had to grab one for a fellow Firefly fan. You never know how long these will be in supply, much less available for half price!

I present ... the Firefly grade ship, Serenity.



Someday I really am going to knit Jayne's hat for my pal.




The original place where I found the pattern has vanished, so I found this pattern instead.

However, until then, I think he'll like the ornament.

Thanks Bill!

Worth a Thousand Words

From Art Knowledge News

A New Novella by J.J. Campanella

This week Uvula Audio premieres an SF novella from J.J. Campanella. The actual podcast gives the full history of the story which dates back about 12 years in its writing, but essentially the story asks what might happen if the Islamic Jihad against the west succeeded. In short,what if the terrorists won? Would there be anything left of Western civilization to stand in their way to total domination? What might arise out of the dust of the west that could resist the martial efforts of a dozen nations.. . ? This story suggests one possibility.. . . By the way, that wonderful crusader pictured in the web page photo above was painted upon the nosecone of a WWII fighter plane. It can be observed in the flesh at a hangar in the New England Air Museum. (Rated M for mature themes and violence.)

You won't hear a better narrator anywhere than J.J. Campanella (ok, Scott Brick is my new crush as a narrator but otherwise, I'm sayin'!). I loved his book The Standards of Creation (my review is here. This will be a treat!

Pick up the podcast here. Just scroll down.

Thanksgiving Sale at Aquinas and More

You don't have to wait in line, you don't even have to leave the house ... and they're checking everything twice to make sure it is faithfully Catholic. Sounds like a great deal to me!

It starts tomorrow evening the 26th (5pm mountain time) and runs through Sunday night the 30th until 9pm. All our jewelry, DVDs, rosaries and chaplets, crucifixes and crosses, and a selection of our statues will be 20% off during the sale. Our Bible studies and Oxford Bibles will be 15% off, and some of our apparel will be 10% off. You can read more details and links to the sections of sale items here.

As always, we offer free shipping on orders over $55.

Thank You President Bush

Sherry at Semicolon has a list of the many things she is thanking President Bush for ... and I heartily agree. I read this article the other day in the Wall Street Journal and it made me think over all the reasons I have supported and liked President Bush these past eight years. So I'm on board with Sherry.

Count me in the whatever-small-percentage of Americans today who heartily approve of the job President George W. Bush has done in leading our country for the past eight years. No, he hasn’t been the perfect president. Yes, I’ve disagreed with him on some issues. But right now I want to say thank you , President Bush for:

Swing by her place to read the list.

As For Me, I'll Be Spending Advent with Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa's Secret Fire by Joseph Langford

This isn't a review because I'm only on page 91 of this 300 or so page book. However, I can tell this is one I'll be reading into Advent and sharing with y'all.

I feel as if I'm being haunted by Mother Teresa (or is that "hunted"?).

Not that other people probably don't feel as if they bump into Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (her "other" name) everywhere they turn. She is a saint for our time, one whose actions spoke to us more personally than any other about the preciousness of each human being, whether man gave value to that soul or not. She spoke also to our poverty of spirit in the West, where we may wallow in material riches but be bereft spiritually, bereft of any true love. Plenty of books have been written about her and doubtless will continue to be written.

In my own case, I have never felt particularly attracted to Mother Teresa. I have never felt like reading about her. Certainly, I have never wanted to know as much as I now do about her life and ministry. Oh, I acknowledged her saintliness, her goodness, and all that. However, I never felt drawn to her or her message in the way, say, that the author of this book, Father Langford did. Early on, he was drawn to a photograph of her, then to the goodness radiating from her work, and then to the words painted on the wall of the convent in Calcutta, "I thirst." Pondering these, he eventually met her and wound up helping found the Missionary of Charity Fathers.

I remember at my in-laws house long ago I picked up Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. I never had heard of him and had only the slightest acquaintance with the details of Mother Teresa's ministry. I had brought a book with me to read but wound up devouring this one. I actually wound up more interested in Muggeridge to the extent of noticing quotes by him and finding out that he converted to Catholicism due to his encounter with Mother Teresa.

Later I read Revolution of Love by David Scott. Honestly I read that only because I had become friends with David by that time and he sent it to me. Never has an obligation of friendship been more richly rewarded than the many ways I have since been able to see the crying need for Mother Teresa's influence in our society and in our world. That book is very underappreciated and I urge you to seek it out.

Like so many I was sent a copy of Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light and I was definitely curious to read about a modern saint's experience of the "dark night of the soul" as St. John of the Cross called it. What I didn't expect was how it would expand my horizons not only about Mother Teresa but about simple human nature and God's love.

I looked at Mother Teresa's Secret Fire in The Catholic Company's list of items reviewers could choose and thought, "No way. I have read enough books about Mother Teresa, thank you very much." It took a very nice and flattering email from Our Sunday Visitor's PR person to make me rethink reading this book (yes, I am sadly susceptible to flattery just as much, if not more, than the next person).

Last night I was reading and came across this in her "Varanasi Letter":

Be careful of all that can block that personal being in touch with the living Jesus. The hurts of life, and sometimes your own mistakes -- [may] make you feel it is impossible that Jesus reeally loves you, is really clinging to you. This is a danger for all of you. And so sad, because it is completely opposite of what Jesis is really wanting, waiting to tell you.

Not only He loves you, even more -- He longs for you. He misses you when you don't come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don't feel worthy. Even if you are not accepted by others, even yourself sometimes--He is the one who always accepts you. ...

Somehow it clicked. I understood on a level that was hard to verbalize, hard to grasp fully. I connected with that feeling of "the beloved," of being newly in love and yearning to be with your beloved so much that it hurt whenever you were apart.

Shaken, I was thinking of this and began flipping through the pages of the book toward the end (something I never do). I came across Appendix Three which points out that Mother Teresa is merely the latest in a long line of witnesses to Jesus' thirst for us. St. Augustine, St. Bonaventure, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Padre Pio, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and very many more ... even the Catechism of the Catholic Church ... all attest to God's thirst for us.

2560 "If you knew the gift of God!" (Jn 4:10). The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desier for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him...

I was further shaken. I never knew of this far-reaching testimony to the sheer depths of Love's desire ... thirst ... for the true fullness of reciprocated love, and all for the sake of those God loves. I suddenly felt very little. Not that I felt less. But little in the face of the overwhelming thirst of Jesus for each and every one of us. Including me.

There is much more than that in the first 91 pages alone and I do not want to rush this. Therefore, I present this as a long introduction to what I will be contemplating during Advent. Rest assured that along the way I will be sharing the nuggets I feel can stand somewhat alone.

OTHER EXCERPTS

• No One to Blame But Ourselves
• Choosing to Believe Despite the Darkness
• "I Thirst": a Window on the Heart of God
• Divine Thirst and the Ardor of Divine Love
• 10,000 Hours, Prayer, and Mother Teresa
• Just How Much Does God Love You?
• Deep Prayer and Pearl Diving
  

Almost as exciting as having Rose home for Thanksgiving ...

... was when Tom called me over to his computer where he and Rose were having a conversation about Christmas flight reservation. She had her webcam on and I could see her!

NOW I'm really excited! I can't wait ...

AND Hannah is driving in this afternoon.

WOOHOO!!!