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Archive for the ‘reseña’ Category

a different scar for every song: Over the Rhine, The Trumpet Child

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on December 13, 2008| 1 Comment »

This CD is my entrée to the beguiling art of Over the Rhine. If impressions count for anything, this is going to be a long, pleasant, even coquettish courtship.

The music is difficult to classify, yet adjectives abound. My first: inviting. The lyrics invite you in and reveal new depths with every return. You don’t quickly get beyond an OtR tune, you don’t quickly figure it out and move on. There is captivating suggestiveness to each line, the insinuation that there’s here than meets the eye if you’ll just stick around long enough to allow disclosure to happen on its own terms. (more…)

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sweet as cherry pie: Sade, Diamond Life

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on December 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Before there was Freddy Adu, Ghana-born, US-naturalized soccer phenom, pop culture had another Adu. Hardly anyone knew it though, for she was one of those artists whose given name seems to say it all.

Her name is Folasade. We know her, and the English band that took her name as its own in the country to which she emigrated, as Sade. (more…)

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Excellent reference source, mind the implications: Cecil Price, ‘What Does Jesus Say About …’

Posted in reseña, tagged , on November 16, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This handsome, sturdy reference work serves up the words of Jesus on an A-to-Z thematic basis with a simple, serviceable intro to each citation under the rubric of ‘setting’. The result is a highly accessible compendium to Jesus’ words, neither illuminated nor obscured by commentary, with just enough context to establish their environment.

It would be difficult not to be grateful for such a sourcebook. (more…)

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a standout guide for teachers or personal Bible study: Gary Inrig, The Parables: Understanding what Jesus meant

Posted in reseña, tagged , on November 16, 2008| 1 Comment »

At the risk of starting this review sounding like an incorrigible elitist, I must confess that I prepare myself for disappointment when I open a popular Bible study guide like this one. I anticipate that it will be poorly written or captive to a provincial North American point of view or hopelessly naive regarding the biblical text. (more…)

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old school: ‘Praise to the Lord O My Soul’. The Psalms of David, Volume 8 (Ely Cathedral Choir)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on November 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Ely Cathedral rises out of the flatlands of East Anglia like a glorious surprise. Its towers and parapets dwarf the surrounding buildings and landscape. As the Cathedral’s website explains the mindset of its intellectual authors, ‘The Benedictine monks only concern was to glorify God, and nothing less than a building on a majestic scale would do.’

God, it is reported elsewhere, is capable of being glorified by many means. Having visited the cathedral on numerous occasions, I have no doubt that its Benedictines hit on one of them. (more…)

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easy street: Merengue (Ballroom Latin Dance)

Posted in reseña, when a white boy dances, tagged , , on November 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Compilations of tunes that are assembled to support beginning dancers in their instruction vary wildly with regard to the quality of the artists and the adequacy of the recording technology. This selection from the Ballroom Latin Dance series excels on both counts.

Nine tunes average about four-and-a-half minutes each, long enough for the dance student to get into the rhythm and movement of a piece. It’s beautiful music for pure listening too, and that comes from a reviewer who is not easily moved by merengue.

The photo that graces the CD liner of each entry in this series is wonderfully evocative of the dance in question, a bonus that may move you to choose from the Ballroom Latin Dance lineup rather than a competitor.

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suelto: Early Romantics (Sunday Times Music Collection)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on November 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »

From the mid-90s Sunday Times Music Collection comes this splendid introduction to the period when European art music was beginning to let its hair down as the well-coiffed standards of the Classical era were undermined by the kinds of experimentation that is audible in these ten selections from six composers (Mendelssohn, Chopin, Berlioz, Field, Schubert, Schumann). (more…)

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reviewing ChinaSource: perspectives and analysis for those who serve China

Posted in missio dei, reseña, tagged , on October 29, 2008| 1 Comment »

When peering through the window of a train car at a fascinating, fast-changing, complex landscape, you can’t make the train slow down for a bit of gawking. The best you can ask for is a window with minimal smudges.

That’s what you get when contemplating the velocity of change in China today through the lens of ChinaSource, now a decade old in its present form. Published quarterly by the organization that bears the same name, ChinaSource is intended—as its tag line declares—for those who serve China. This is a centrist, Christian, English-language publication written principally for those outside China with missional interests in that great country. (more…)

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a singular touch of grace: Sting, Brand New Day (1999)

Posted in reseña, tagged , on October 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Despite criticism that it is eclectic to the point of distraction (sometimes expressed as `Has Sting run out of ideas?’), Brand New Day contains several of the finest songs of the entire final decade of the twentieth century. Sting being Sting, you wade through a couple of dry stretches on this album as on almost any of its level. Yet the gems are gorgeous, enduring glimpses of brilliance. The album’s opening track, `A Thousand Years’, may be the most splendidly lush love song to be performed in twenty years. Pulsing, obsessed with a love whose mathematics defy infinity, Sting in this profound statement of amour knows only one thing: I still love you. (more…)

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sensible: Alexandre Desplat, The Queen (motion picture soundtrack)

Posted in reseña, tagged , on October 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Alexandre Desplat’s minimalist score fitly accompanies the taut psychological drama that is the 2007 motion picture that imaginatively chronicles the tectonic shifts that were occurring in the royal family behind closed doors in the wake of Diana’s tragic death in a Paris highway tunnel. Alternately brooding and winsome, Desplat produces a soundtrack that underscores Queen Elizabeth II’s rather heroic change of mind regarding her family’s role vis-à-vis ‘the people’. (more…)

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