St. Peters, and a Miracle Voice Teacher

[jeff_duntemann]

It's been a low-energy and off-my-peak couple of days here for reasons I won't bore you (or gross you out) with. Had to take a run up to Denver, but mostly I've been sitting quietly and reading. I finished a book that I don't really recommend unless you're chained to the potty and need to kill

Comments

books

[happy_hacker]

May I also recommend David McCauley's "Cathederal" on the subject? It is aimed at children, but very interesting nonetheless.

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=969345&matches=217&author=david+mccauley&title=cathederal&cm_sp=works*listing*title

May you be well soon.

-Jim

[apostle_of_eris]

ISTR a late interview with George Carlin where he said that one of the nuns who had taught him in school was a life-long fan, and enjoyed his shows. She said he was doing God's work. FWIW, I agree.

[samwinolj]

Have you ever read Papal Sin or Why I Am a Catholic by Garry Wills? I found them both fascinating, but as a lapsed Lutheran, I have to admit that some of my fascination was, well, voyeuristic. Jerry Corrigan has read them, and liked them enough to go on to read What Jesus Meant.

If you have read any of Wills's stuff, I'd love to read your take on it.

Changing the subject a bit, I don't know how much you recall of the conversation we had before Berzerker, but I told you an old joke about a Jew who visited Rome.... Well,the joke is as old as I thought it was; it's in Boccaccio's Decameron, though as a story, not a joke. It's available here: http://tinyurl.com/g67nz

[jeff_duntemann]

Wills is one of my favorite authors, and the first two books you mention are spectacularly good. It's interesting that Wills and I have both read (in detail) the same history, and come to diametrically opposite conclusions: I think that the papacy as it has evolved is not only unnecessary but also potentially fatal to the RCC as a viable global organization. Think of it (in the engineering sense) as a single point of failure for the whole Church. (This is one thing that Old Catholics is about.) Wills, however, sees the papacy as essential for Catholic unity. This is peculiar, as there has not been Catholic unity since 1054, depending on how you define "unity"; and to imply that jurisdictions not under Papal authority are not fully Catholic contradicts the Pope himself, who admitted at some (recent) point that the Orthodox are fully Catholic

[chris_gerrib]

Sorry to hear you were under the weather.

Miracle Voice Teacher

[m_s_sargent]

Poking about under pitch matching + midi on Google, and following a couple of resulting links, has turned up a couple of possible candidates for your “Miracle Voice Teacher”:

Music Lab HARMONY ($47.99) - seems to get pretty close to what you were describing, especially the “SING” chapter, but the sales page (here) is short on screen shots, so I’m not to sure.

Practica Musica ($109.99) - the same vendor offers (here) Ars Nova’s Practica Musica, the feature-set of which seems a little like overkill, but might just cover all the bases. The only use of the word “sing” in the copy refers specifically to singing rounds, but the software accepts input via “a microphone using Vocalis™ pitch recognition technology (microphone not included), from the computer's letter keys 'piano', from the screen piano or fretboard using the mouse, or from an external MIDI keyboard, or any combination of these.“

Chaumet Software’s “Canta” - (here) offers a free demo version, accepts MIDI input (so one could