“FUN SIZE” BLOGWATCH: Good, funny post from Barlow in re Jim Beam idiotic bathroom policy. Read the comments too, of course. And E. Volokh sums up my basic stance re home-schooling, testing/accountability, parental rights, and libertarianism. Scroll up or click here for the John Ford “110 Stories” poem, as well, which I have not read yet (wanted to work up the mental and spiritual energy first), but which has gotten a lot of good reviews in the blogosphere. Read more

COOLER THAN HOWARD ROARK: KRAKOW–The old quarry where Karol Wojtyla began to work at age 19 is today a silent place, a huge open hole in the south of the city. But the Divine Mercy Shrine, which now dominates the scene with its ultra-modern tower, is not the only change in the surrounding landscape. [clipped] There will soon be other buildings, as the field will become the new campus of the university, in which Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope, began... Read more

IN RE ALLAN BLOOM (II): One way of getting at some of my thoughts on the reason/passion connection: Philosophical discourse is always better with someone who’s sung some songs with you. Preferably when you have both had a mint julep, or two. You don’t need to do the singing and the philosophizing on the same night… but it can’t hurt. Read more

IN RE ALLAN BLOOM (I): Those who have been following the rock’n’roll stuff on this blog (and apparently at least one brave soul actually fought his way through the immense screed below) may enjoy this article from Shamed‘s college days: “DMX: The Darker Side of Modernity.” Read more

IF YOU GET TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES, you’re in for a treat tonight at 11:15, when the channel will be airing Tod Browning’s “Freaks.” At 9 PM it will be showing David Lynch’s “Elephant Man”; I haven’t seen that one, but I have seen “Freaks,” and it’s one of the best horror movies ever made. It’s a moving and furious story of the beautiful aerialist who betrays a circus freak. There are moments of intense sweetness and intense brutality. (I don’t... Read more

“The future is a drag, man. The future is a flake.” –Beatnik chick, “High School Confidential!” Read more

POETRY WEDNESDAY: Because it’s hideous and gray and drizzly outside. I need one last hit of August. From Ira “No, I’m His Brother” Gershwin and DuBose Heyward: Summertime, an’ the livin’ is easy Fish are jumpin’ an’ the cotton is high Oh, Yo daddy’s rich an’ yo’ ma is good lookin’ So hush, little baby, don’t you cry One of these mornin’s, you goin’ to rise up singin’ Then you’ll spread yo’ wings an’ you’ll take the sky But till... Read more

ONE KIND READER has emailed me a farm-subsidy-related link, which I’m about to post over at TFD. I know you want to do the same! [email protected], y’all. Read more

STUCK BETWEEN A ROCK AND CATHARSIS: Two (belated) replies to my post about Allan Bloom and rock&roll.; First, from someone who prefers anonymity (she’s in bold, I’m in plain text): Although I don’t share Bloom’s distaste for rock ‘n’ roll (I’m a product of my age; for better or worse I’ve been formed by the stuff, like you), I don’t think that he would find the case you make convincing, as it doesn’t address his real concerns. Like Plato, Bloom... Read more

ALLAN BLOOM, HEP CAT: And from Michael Tinkler (the Cranky Professor): I fall back on the great, misguided, but useful division of all into Apollonian and Dionysiac and/or listening music in opposition to dance music. The condemnations of the waltz are very much the same as the condemnations of Brand New Lover (B.N.L. and Right Round Baby are both in high rotation on my iPod this month!). I think that part of this can be put down to middle age,... Read more