Posted in fauna, reseña, tagged birding, fauna, reseña on December 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »
With the size and appearance of a slimmed-down Reader’s Digest, the less famous Bird Watcher’s Digest is a chirpy little optimist of a magazine not so very different from, say, a black-capped chickadee.
Short and moderate-sized articles cover specific species, how-to/techniques, choosing the right birding equipment, and joy-of-birding anecdotes.
Advertisements abound but do not overwhelm. Some are quite helpful.
BWD is a perky standard for birders both casual and serious.
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Isaiah, textures on December 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »
La literatura bíblica emplea el verbo hebreo bara’ con reticencia. Notoria por la manera en que describe la creación del mundo en el primer capítulo de Génesis, la palabra adquiere un significado creativo que realiza su vocación léxica en la medida que alude a actos de creación de la nada. Es decir, YHVH de costumbre forma y YHVH de costumbre configura. Pero uno siente que la palabra bara; llega a ser apropiada solo en aquellos momentos cuando YHVH hace algo nuevo de la nada. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged music, reseña, Sting on December 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The unhurried pace of `When We Dance’, the opener to a decade’s anthology of Sting’s best work, could serve as an icon for the artist’s contribution to serious popular music. Pensive, elegant, emotionally resurgent, the song captures the burden of the man’s music. Perhaps the highest compliment this reviewer can pay the collection and the reservoir from which it was drawn is just this: unlike the figures in Sting’s balladic poetry, the music refuses to grow old. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Revelation, textures on December 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Anger, we are resolutely assured, is not a bad emotion. If societal instruction comes to us in unanimity on any topic, this one surely occupies the top of the list.
It is also true: anger is not in itself a bad thing. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on December 20, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The searching eye of the Lord is not always for the biblical writers a pleasant notion. In his agony, Job finds it ruthless. Sinners, we are told, consider it laughable and, sometimes, a paper tiger meant to scare people straight but quite powerless once you get a clear angle on things. (more…)
Posted in paterfamilias, tagged DIY on December 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »
This is the second Black & Decker Complete Guide that I’ve used to good effect in my battle to overcome being born and raised as the quintessential not handy guy while tending to as much of the care and feeding of our 1930s-era home as I can.
I”m not there yet. (more…)
Posted in paterfamilias, reseña, tagged reseña, sports on December 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The two principal articles in the December 22, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated number that lies before me are why SI remains the uncontested leader in North American general sports periodicals. Jim Trotter’s ‘D As in Dominant’ connects the dots between the Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain of yore and its present day top-ranked NFL defense. Joe Posnanski’s noir take on the winter baseball meetings in Las Vegas (!) captures the pathos and ridicule that are both required for a full understanding of this off-season institution.
Both are simply great sports writing. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on December 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »
No voice speaks more poignantly from exile than the writer of the one hundred thirty-seventh psalm. ‘By the rivers of Babylon’, he explains, ‘we sat and wept for Zion.’
To these captors of the exile Judaeans, the songs of Zion seemed mere entertainment. The exotic accent, the strange musical lilt, must have appeared to offer a respite from empire’s deadening tedium. All they wanted—it didn’t seem like much—was to prod their captives to sing a tune or two from the Old Country. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on December 15, 2008| Leave a Comment »
A special bond links those who labor by night. Few volunteer to lay their energies down on the dark side of the day’s cycle. Usually extraneous considerations have made it necessary, often unpleasant ones. The world looks different from the angle of nighttime work. People who have seen it understand this and become part of a loosely linked tribe defined by its members’ shared nocturnal journey.
A psalm speaks to those whose temple assignment finds them waking to their nightly duties while others retire. Fittingly, it is brief and spun of well-wishing.
Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD! Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!
May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth! (Psalm 134:1–3 ESV)
One thinks of the night attendant breaking the monotony by mouthing these words quietly from the shadows. He lifts his hand towards the most holy place. From his solitude he blesses the Lord. No one knows except the unseen God who receives the blessing and, more often than not, returns it in grace.
Those, too, who labor through the soul’s dark night recognize each other. From their shadow, they raise a hand towards a holy place. Quietly their lips form their blessing, shaped by darkness, spoken quietly as befits the night and its sounds that carry far.
May it, too, be returned from Zion, speeded to its destination by the maker of heaven and earth. May it rest gently on the shoulder of the one who stands alert in his corner while others sleep, unknowing.
Posted in my hometown, reseña, tagged music, reseña, The Aaron Pelsue Band on December 13, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The Aaron Pelsue Band has become a fortunate fixture on the Indianapolis worship music scene. From its `home stadium’ at the Circle City’s East 91st Street Christian Church, the band has developed a dedicated following among Christian worshippers who appreciate—in addition to some rockin’ music—the band’s ability to play alternating lead and supporting roles in that spectrum of Christian experience that unites biblical instruction to the emotional expression of corporate worship. As an occasional visitor to East 91st Street Christian Church, this reviewer is a card-carrying member of TABP’s enthusiasts.
Though this live CD provides a glimpse of the energy TAPB brings to live worship, it undersells the bands other strengths. Unimpressively mixed, the album fronts Pelsue’s voice at the expense of the band’s broader sound. This is, of course, an occupational hazard of both live and debut albums. At points on TAPB LIVE, the band seems to have reaped the downside of these twin liabilities. (more…)
Canter Bridge 