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Sufjan Christmas November 30, 2005

Posted by Patrick in : Music , 2 comments

Christmas comes a little bit early this year. And it can for you too! If you fancy the banjo plucking, soft voice singing, Sufjan Stevens, and the traditional hymns and songs of Christmas, look no further. Adrian links to a blog entry from last year that has three of the Sufjan Christmas EPs in an easy-to-download format. The songs range from the beautiful (O Holy Night) to the ancient (The Friendly Beasts) to the fun (Come On! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!) to the lo-fi (Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella) to the original (It’s Christmas! Let’s Be Glad). And those genres mix too!

More Lewis - On Liturgy & Novelty

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Reading , 3 comments

Having nothing to do with yesterday’s post, I looked up a Lewis quote (again) because of my recent visit to Ascension last Sunday. Ascension is an Anglican church in the Oakland/Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh. I went along with a friend who wanted to visit. Never visiting an Anglican or Episcopal church before, it reminded me a lot of my upbringing as a Catholic. It was high on liturgy, and had a deep connection to history and tradition.

About five years ago, maybe only two, I had a sour taste in my mouth with anything to do with liturgy. This was mostly due to an upbringing in a highly liturgical church that had little gospel depth. So, I mostly reacted negatively to anything dealing with structures or patterns on Sunday morning. But now, I’m starting to see the wisdom and reason behind liturgy. Grounded in the gospel, liturgy actually helps rather than hinders.

To ponder these ideas further, I looked up this quote. It’s rather long, but quite good. C.S. Lewis, as usual, can put things better than anyone. Here’s one on liturgy and novelty within the church from Letters to Malcolm - Chiefly on Prayer :

It looks as if they [Anglican clergymen] believed people can be lured to go to church by incessant brightenings, lightenings, lengthenings, abridgements, simplifications, and complications of the service. And it is probably true that a new, keen vicar will usually be able to form within his parish a minority who are in favour of his innovations. The majority, I believe, never are. Those who remain—many give up churchgoing altogether—merely endure.

Is this simply because the majority are hide-bound? I think not. They have a good reason for their conservatism. Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best — if you like, it “works” best — when, through familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping….

A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude the question, “What on earth is he up to now?” will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”

Thus my whole liturgiological position really boils down to an entreaty for permanence and uniformity. I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put. But if each form is snatched away just when I am beginning to feel at home in it, then I can never make any progress in the art of worship.

CS Lewis’ thoughts on Narnia adaptation November 29, 2005

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Movies , add a comment

I’m not sure where this letter was taken from, so I can’t validate its authenticity. It’s supposedly a letter from CS Lewis regarding an adaptation of his Chronicles of Narnia. Here it is in its entirety (from BB):

The Kilns,
Headington Quarry,
Oxford
18 Dec. 1959

Dear Sieveking [BBC Producer]

(Why do you ‘Dr’ me? Had we not dropped the honorifics?) As things worked out, I wasn’t free to hear a single instalment of our serial [The Magician’s Nephew] except the first. What I did hear, I approved. I shd. be glad for the series to be given abroad. But I am absolutely opposed – adamant isn’t in it! – to a TV version. Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare. At least, with photography. Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) wld. be another matter. A human, pantomime, Aslan wld. be to me blasphemy.

All the best,
yours
C. S. Lewis

Unfortunately, I’m not sure which series CS Lewis is commenting on. Does anyone know? It definitely cannot be the BBC rendition that I viewed as a kid in third grade. IMDB’s earliest entry for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is 1967. That would put it eight years after the writing of this letter.

In the letter, the author seems skeptical about translating his Chronicles into image form. Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare. At least, with photography. Cartoons…would be another matter. Granted in this new rendition, Aslan is more a cartoon than anything else. But still, there seems to be some hesitation in his voice about an adaptation. Is it because the wonder and the imagination are lost? Are the grandeur and mystery of the wild king Aslan reduced (or neutered) in some way because you can now see him?

Indy schmindy

Posted by Patrick in : Photography , add a comment

Dang, I was hoping that we’d be the ones to silence the unbeatable Colts. They definitely outplayed us. I wonder if Ben will have anything to say about the game….

On another note, the battle between the DSLRs continues to rage. I evaded the ever persistent Best Buy salesmen today to test each one out. The body and UI of the Nikon D50 and D70 impress me more so than the Rebel XT. The XT’s grip was just a little too thin for my tastes. Plus, the back of it - basically the entire UI - seemed too cluttered. Combining the LCD with an LED menu above, and a collection of buttons to the side, almost fried my brain at first glance. But, in almost no time at all, it was easy to switch on the camera and snap photos of the bustling geeky patrons.

So, like most big time decisions, I’m still undecided. If you thought that I jumped the Canon ship and tethered to Nikon, you’re wrong. The Canon XT is still quite promising in my book. Their host of great lenses keeps my mind a-buzzing. We’ll just have to wait and see. Don’t turn that dial!

Finally broke down November 25, 2005

Posted by Patrick in : Photography , 5 comments

During the last year or two, my chemical affection has been slowly eroding away, and another wholly different type of love has been growing in its place. This time it’s in the world of bits, bytes, JPEGs, and megapixels. Within the next few weeks, I plan to take the leap over the digital divide and acquire a digital SLR. Experimenting with my friend’s D70 did me in. Unfortunately, I possessed it for all of one hour before my gig to shoot my friends Nate and Melissa’s wedding. So, I didn’t get to learn all of its quirks and nuances. But it still did me well.

Now, I’m booked for another wedding in a month, and am currently hunting for a digital SLR. Does anyone recommend one? The Nikon D70 and the Canon 350D are currently duking it out. From what I’ve read and heard, the D70 seems to win most of the battles. My problem lies with owning three Canon EF lenses (17-35 mm, fixed 50 mm, and 70-300 mm) that would work with the 350D. Though the lenses are a little cheapo, they would be nice to have in the arsenal. Plus, I could carry around both my 35mm body and digital body.

Anyone have any suggestions? Pros/cons, snide remarks?

A week of sights & sounds

Posted by Patrick in : Movies, Music , 6 comments

The past week has been a tour-de-force, well at least a Bird tour-de-force, of some of the better art things that Pittsburgh has to offer. In no specific order, other than chronological, they are:

Gospel - the antireligion November 24, 2005

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity , add a comment

Good quote from Tim Keller (via cityblog):

The Bible’s purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible’s purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome… religion is ‘if you obey, then you will be accepted’. But the Gospel is, ‘if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey’. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference.

This subject of gospel vs. religion has been on my mind lately. Most Christians today (myself included) seem to be saved by grace, but live the rest of life under the trappings of religion. They would change the words of Amazing Grace from “Tis’ grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home” to “Tis’ grace has brought me safe thus far, and hard work & obedience will lead me home.”

And I’d venture to guess that this attitude springs from not believing the gospel. It really is just the life/death/resurrection of Jesus Christ that saves us. Nothing else. Unforutnately, we hardly hear the distinction between gospel and the sin of religion. Sin is usally portrayed as the prodigal son’s sin - licentiousness, lust, greed, etc. But we rarely hear that the elder brother son’s sin - demandingness, nose-snubbing, bitterness, joylessness - is just as evil and corrupt. We need to hear the gospel’s distinction against both of these attitudes more often, and with equal weight. If not, the church will grow up too many elder brothers in its midst.

Tim Keller, who’s been incredibly helpful, has a great article (pdf) that clearly unpacks the gospel as the third way.

Do you pronounce ‘cot’ like ‘caught’? November 19, 2005

Posted by Patrick in : Pittsburgh, Reading , 1 comment so far

In this month’s edition of National Geographic, there’s a little blurb about North American dialects in the Geographica section. Unfortunately, I cannot find the article on the online edition.
dialect map

The one page article highlights the findings of UPenn linguists Bill Labov, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg. It was humourous to find Western PA given a separate dialectic region amongst large geographic categories like West and South, which each include several states themselves. The article reads:

The different dialects developed from the various groups that immigrated to the continent generations ago. Until recently, notes University of Pennsylvania linguist Bill Labov, many experts assumed that “under the influence of universal literacy and mass media, regional dialects were being leveled.”

Not so: Local identity and other social forces exert a stronger influence than even TV on how dialects evolve. “The Inland North, the Midland, Canada, and the South are now more different from each other than ever,” says Labov, who directed a long-running study on American dialects…In each region the study found major sound changes in progress. In the North, for instance, vowels are shifting so that the o in “stock” sounds more like the a in “back”. Just across the border in Canada, the exact opposite shift is occuring.

I’ve always thought that Pittsburghese was an ugly accent, and was embarrassed whenever dahntahn slipped out of my mouth when I wasn’t paying attention. Saying words like down and fire required extra concentration to evade certain Pittsburgh pigeonholing. I would seriously concentrate on the ow sounds, which would cause me to accent and elongate them. The pendulum swing would be noticable : “I’m going dowwntowwn to buy a pound of meat.”

Now that there’s a little more grace in my life, my strict linguistic chastising is not as evident. Like my last post, it’s another way of being part of the city. When in Picksburgh, do as the ‘burgers do, an’at.

Pittsburgh left November 17, 2005

Posted by Patrick in : Pittsburgh , 2 comments

Not the political left mind you, but the driving left. The “Pittsburgh left” is the phenomenon when drivers will try to beat out opposing traffic when making a left at a traffic light during the red-green switch, instead of properly yielding. My coworker (who’s from Philly) was the person who first introduced me to the term. And frankly, I thought that he coined it, because I really didn’t think it was unique to Pittsburgh. He just wasn’t exposed to the diversity of habits across this nation. I mean, c’mon, most people drive like that. Don’t they? Apparently, they don’t.

Its eternal truth has finally been verified by the mighty powers of wikipedia (hat tip to Adrian). Does the “left” happen because Pittsburgh is sort of the crossroads between the rush of the east and the molasses of the midwest? The article maintains the narrow width of the streets as the culprit. Wherever it originates, it’s funny how it’s an expected courtesy. You might be even considered rude if you don’t yield to these lefties - me being one of them.

It’s just another oddity that makes Pittsburgh great.

A paperclip for a house November 9, 2005

Posted by Patrick in : Random , add a comment

It’s something that my coworkers and I discussed several weeks ago while perusing the barter services on craigslist. What we wanted to do was perform some menial task for someone (i.e. pick up their mail), who would then perform a task that required a little bit more time or energy (do the laundry). But then, we would advertise this laundry task for something even better (clean a kitchen or something). And hopefully by stringing along multiple tasks, we could get something grand out of it (renovate our upstairs bathroom or something).

Ironically, someone’s trying to do just that. He started with a red paperclip and he’s hoping to get a house out of it when everything’s said and done. It’ll be interesting to see how far he gets. So far, these have been the trades (via BoingBoing):

red paperclip -> ink pen -> weird looking doorknob -> coleman stove -> 1000 watt generator