While Pixar’s One Man Band still holds the (somewhat dubious) distinction of being my favorite Imaginative Busking Example Ever, this New York story is a worthy entry: On Monday morning, New York City added a new sound to its usual cacophony of honking cars and taxis, groaning buses, and screeching subways: 5,280 tinkling piano keys. In a collaboration … Read more
As a long-time SoCal boy, I have watched my former state’s efforts to get off the economic schneid with considerable interest. Yet no amount of concern for the Golden State’s finances can make me think of this suggestion as a good idea: The California Legislature is considering a bill that would allow the state to begin researching the … Read more
After months of fevered anticipation, Pixar’s latest animated adventure — Toy Story 3 — has finally arrived. And if early reviews are any indication, it’s a worthy finale to one of the most enjoyable cinematic trilogies in recent memory. Over at RottenTomatoes, the T-Meter Critics are checking in at a whopping 130-for-130 in the Fresh ranking. … Read more
Over the past several months, The Telegraph’s (UK) ever-interesting Damian Thompson has written a number of posts concerning Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell and the chance that he might soon be named Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. In early May, Thompson reported that “authoritative sources in Rome” had all but confirmed the good Cardinal’s impending appointment. Yet … Read more
Carl Theodor Dreyer, the Danish director responsible for creating Almost-Certainly-The-Greatest-Silent-Film-Of-All-Time, has finally received our technocratic society’s greatest honor: his very own website. Welcome to the Carl Theodor Dreyer website, an expansive initiative of the DFI, making transparent and accessible the unique Carl Theodor Dreyer Collection. The aim of this site is to disseminate knowledge about … Read more
The image on the right, courtesy of Futility Closet, is one of the most unique images one could possibly find from the score to Chopin’s Étude No. 5, Op. 10, perhaps best known as the “Black Key Étude.” Why unique, you ask? Well, as FC points out in the original post, “the red F is noteworthy because … Read more
Since film’s earliest days, no genre has stood out as more quintessentially American than the Western. Drawing heavily upon that era of America’s violently romantic, whirlwind adolescence, Hollywood’s savviest studios churned out an extraordinary number of them during the industry’s silent and early sound years. These films — along with the dime novels and tall … Read more
An unusually wet spring, combined with an unusually large amount of snowmelt in the Wind River Mountains, has produced flood conditions in and around my hometown of Lander, Wyoming: In the largest state activation of the Wyoming National Guard in more than 10 years, more than 200 soldiers and airmen are working around the clock to … Read more
An unusually wet spring, combined with an unusually large amount of snowmelt in the Wind River Mountains, has produced flood conditions in and around my hometown of Lander, Wyoming: In the largest state activation of the Wyoming National Guard in more than 10 years, more than 200 soldiers and airmen are working around the clock to … Read more
Check out today’s insane YouTube clip, which comes with a bit of a backstory: The genesis of the sport, which has acquired the catchy (though perhaps a tad unwieldy) name of “Liquid Mounaineering,” is described by its practitioners over at the Liquid Mountaineering blog: There are some historical statements that suggest that this sport was created … Read more
Gallons and gallons of ink (both real and electronic) have been spilled in the aftermath of last night’s Detroit-Cleveland baseball game, and the botched call that ruined Armando Galarraga’s shot at the 21st perfect game in baseball history. Emotions are running high, to say the least. Countless commentators — everyone from former players to former umpires to politicians — have … Read more
In the “laughing to keep from crying” category, today’s xkcd comic takes a tongue-in-cheek look at ways we might find for making the oil spill more exciting. Only it’s not as “tongue-in-cheek” as one might expect (or want): The Gulf is drowning in oil; a “titanic” solution is needed. Enter director James Cameron. As the government … Read more
Robert Reilly’s monthly musical articles nearly always produce the same effect on me: a mad scramble through either NaxosMusicLibrary.com or YouTube to hunt down recordings of the music he’s talking about — so many worthy composers; so little time — and this month’s offering, “Merry May Music”, was no exception. The third paragraph, however, produced a particularly enjoyable and unforseen … Read more
Remember the old saying about imitation, sincerity, and flattery? This clip might be the definitive example of the ol’ saw, while simultaneously underscoring the fact that flattery and subversion are always a bit closer to one another than one realizes. The thing about the clip that I find particularly amusing/instructive is the way Zucker and Co. retained … Read more
Clark Griswold himself would have been proud (and maybe even a trifle envious) of the way I spent the last ten days of my life. My family and I were subjected to privileged to spend 8+ hours on the side of a Wyoming road in 30 degree weather with two fewer tires than is generally considered … Read more
I must admit to feeling a bit lost in the sea of ink being spilled over the BP oil spill. It’s not that I want to ignore the drastic impact it’s having on the surrounding area. I just find myself having a difficult time comprehending what exactly is happening down there in the Gulf. I’m a visual person, and written descriptions of … Read more
Figures. No sooner do I switch out my snow tires in anticipation of our impending trip to Sunny SoCal than a May storm descends on the area. That’s the view from my office window this morning, and the weather man is predicting snow accumulation of somewhere between 10″ – 20″. I love it! (Though I must … Read more
Jeffrey Overstreet, of the Looking Closer blog, is one of the film critics I look to with great regularity, particularly when it comes to identifying and analyzing the more “spiritual” components of cinema. (His book “Through a Screen Darkly” examines the ways in which “artists – whether they know it or not – have captured … Read more
One of the things that has always fascinated me about baseball is the way it somehow manages to be ever-constant, yet also ever-changing. The general parameters of the game remain the same, so if I happened to stumble across ESPN Classic’s rebroadcast of Don Larsen’s shining moment, its connection to Mark Buehrle’s moment last year would be immediately recognizable. Yet … Read more
Over at The Catholic Herald (UK), Roy Peachey has an intriguing piece on a number of Catholic writers he fears are being left by the wayside — not for any fault in their craftsmanship or in their ability to be relevant, but simply for geographic reasons: Most English language studies of the Catholic novel – and, I would guess, … Read more
With so much happening in the Church right now, we are hard at work drawing out the battle plans so we can keep the faithful informed—but we need to know who we have on our side. Do you stand with Crisis Magazine?