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Archive for the ‘reseña’ Category

I’ll bet you didn’t know … : Jonathan Steinberg, Fountain Pens. Their history and art

Posted in paterfamilias, reseña, tagged , on November 23, 2007| 1 Comment »

This handsome volume reflects the high quality standards, cantankerous spirit, and eccentrically traditionalist preferences that seem to characterize many of us who are drawn to the impractical beauty we insist upon calling fountain pens. (more…)

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the whole earth sings: Hillsong Music Australia, You Are My World

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , , , on November 23, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Nobody does high-energy, emotionally exuberant musical praise like Australia’s Hillsong. This reviewer is happy to leave the debate about whether Hillsong is a church or a production company to those closer to the ground. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the music. (more…)

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Reviewing Joseph Naveh, The Development of the Aramaic Script

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , on November 18, 2007| 2 Comments »

Joseph Naveh’s classic work constitutes ‘an attempt to survey the Aramaic epigraphic material from its very beginnings until the third century B.C.E. It examines the development of the Aramaic script in its various styles on the basis of the dated inscriptions.’ (more…)

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love has a hold: Amy Grant, House of Love

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on November 9, 2007| Leave a Comment »

It took many listenings-through of this fine 1994 recording before it dawned on me what Amy Grant was getting up to here. She has produces a whimsical but ultimately very serious ode to enduring love between a man and a woman. I had somehow missed the thread that joins these tracks together into a coherent statement, touching upon love’s beginning, love’s apparent end, and love’s stubborn rebirth.

Now it seems obvious. (more…)

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easy: Early Baroque (Sunday Times Music Collection)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on November 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

There’s a reason why all those drug store compilations with the breathless titles (‘Most Relaxing Classical Music Ever!) sell year after year. The pre-Classical baroque style really is relaxing. (more…)

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a suburban secret: Seki Edge toenail clipper

Posted in paterfamilias, reseña, tagged , on November 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

A dirty little secret stains the neat homes that lurk behind the tree-lined streets and across the manicured lawns of suburbia: those little nail clippers you picked up at the Walgreens for $3.99 will never cut through a man’s gnarled, oaken toe nails.

They’ll make little cuts in it, they’ll promise and fail to deliver, they’ll even break apart in ashen resignation to the formidable power of the nail.

Those cheap little metal gizmos were made to sell on promise alone. You need a nail clipper that was not designed by the bean counters and the marketing wizards, but by the car guys … I mean … the toenail engineers.

That would be the Seki Edge. (more…)

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strong that way: Reflections, Carly Simon’s Greatest Hits

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on November 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Every once in a while an anthology covering the high points of an artist’s career simply dazzles with the accumulated weight of one memorable musical statement following upon another. The danger of beginning a review of Carly Simon’s Reflections with such an observation is that it may understate her achievement. (more…)

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the strongest man cries: Dan Fogelberg, Souvenirs

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on November 4, 2007| 2 Comments »

Back in the 70s, Dan Fogelberg’s lyrics were written into the pages of college yearbooks and his emotive sound pencilled onto the hearts of the students who read them. Today he is regarded with a kind of what-were-we-thinking (?) morning-after cringe.

No reason to worry. His music is as good now as it was back then. Don’t follow the herd. Just listen up. (more…)

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the writing on the wall: Bob Seger, Face the Promise

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on November 4, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Don’t judge a book by its cover, nuestros abuelos taught us in a spasm of earthy wisdom.

If you did, you might think Bob Seger was about to declare himself washed up and done for in the blues-rock entree to this 2006 album. Where the younger Seger could claim that things were gettin’ better and better’, the grizzled graybeard of Face the Promise finds things decidedly on the down swing, and toys with the idea that he might just ‘wreck this heart’. (more…)

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someday, baby: Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, Against the Wind

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on November 3, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my rating of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

If you had to choose a single voice to represent blue-collar American rock & roll, you might well settle on Bob Seger’s as that iconic sound. Against the Wind could be Exhibit A as you face down the Springsteens and the Pettys and the Mellencamps to make your case. (more…)

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