I didn't even realize I hadn't posted to Livejournal since I learned I was coming back to Kent. Yes, I'm here for one more year, translating Berlioz writings (from French to English) for a thesis and studying more Latin as well as starting Russian and Italian. A friend has also started a Stammtisch group so I get to keep my (poor) German in ( Read more... )

So what does the empty cross mean? Why do we display it and why does it matter that almost two thousand years ago a couple of women showed up to mourn the body of a dead carpenter and instead found an empty tomb being guarded by angels ( Read more... )

Two Unrelated Musings (the first is short :) - I would LOVE FEEDBACK ON THESE, both the content and writing style. I am thinking of posting this for a much broader group of friends on MySpace. Though it's not the sort of thing I normally share this one feels right, especially the Marx/John 6 part. I would really appreciate diverse commens and ( Read more... )

Ghost Rider was my favorite comic when I was in middle school. That's why I found it sad that of all the comic-inspired movies that have come out lately, this is the one they had to screw up.
You can make a dark-toned action movie or a comedy, not both. The movie spent more time setting up the character's back story and tracing his broken romance ( Read more... )

The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) is a fascinating look into the deeper meanings inherent in the Roman Catholic liturgy. As an Evangelical, the book deepened my respect for and understanding of how my Catholic friends approach God. I've tremendously enjoyed the few experiences I've had with liturgical ( Read more... )

Red: An Orchestra opened their fifth season yesterday afternoon. "Assembling Beethoven" included works by Cage, Corigliano and of course Beethoven. The twentieth century pieces both contained material from Beethoven's Seventh. Cage's Credo in Us required a pianist, two percussionists and a recording of the Seventh operated by the conductor. Highly ( Read more... )

I had the pleasure of singing Mozart's Coronation Mass for the second time on Sunday night. This was the first time I got to do it with a full orchestra. The purely musical aspect couldn't have gone off better. We were under the baton of guest conductor Vance George and had gotten to work with him for the past week. Even that short amount of time ( Read more... )

I know all of my readers are painfully familiar with the "dumbing down of America" as the guitar ensemble director here referred to it. I just wanted to give you one more little marker of how far and how fast we're falling ( Read more... )

Let's see, where do I start? OK, there needs to be a federal law that says that if you have a horrible orchestra, you can only work with bad soloists. I was at a concert here on the Kent Campus on Saturday and it was frankly physically painful. The Beethoven Emperor Concerto was performed by one of our piano faculty (he won the BKP International ( Read more... )