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 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 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 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…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Camilo Sesto, music, reseña on December 13, 2008| Leave a Comment »
This collection of twenty of Camilo Sesto’s hits from the 1970s and 1980s is an excellent introduction to the Spanish-born love balladeer’s work. Largely unknown in the English-speaking world, Sesto is a mega-star with a voice well suited to the stage.
His lyrics are all about women and the love they inspire, reject, nourish, and protect. Rich orchestrations back up a strong, supple, capable voice. In the Spanish-speaking world now middle-aged people often locate formative experiences in their young lives by pegging them to a Sesto song the was current at the time, much as might happen among English speakers via the music of the Eagles or, say, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. More than one young love will leap to mind when a Sesto ballad arrives unexpectedly over the airwaves.
Though the genre is not my favorite, one has to respect Camilo Sesto as a master of it.
Posted in reseña, tagged music, Over the Rhine, reseña 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…)
Posted in reseña, tagged music, reseña, Sade 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…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Ely Cathedral Choir, music, reseña, worship 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…)
Posted in reseña, when a white boy dances, tagged dance, music, reseña 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.
Posted in reseña, tagged music, reseña, Sunday Times Music Collection 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…)
Canter Bridge 