View image | gettyimages.com Today, while looking for something else entirely, I found this video. And it is awesome. In fact, if the modern Oscars had stuff like this, I’d probably watch ’em. All 137 hours. OK, fine. I watch ’em anyway. So maybe I should say that if the modern Oscars had stuff like this, they’d actually be worth watching. Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster perform “It’s Great Not To Be Nominated” at the 30th Academy Awards. “Well, the best... Read more
Looking back on my recently-completed musical adventure, I’m pleased. I feel like it did exactly what I wanted it to do: made my Lent both more meditative and more musical. I’m a bit surprised, though, at how much of it was Russian. And/or Polish. (I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Music is the one place — OK, the most obvious place — where my sorta-Eastern European roots force their way to the surface. Whether I want them to or not.)... Read more
I can sympathize with either one of these guys, depending on the moment. (Also, I love the way it uses the expanding and contracting windows/frames/panels.) An aspiring hermit, an aspiring socialite and a shared flask of tea. Written, directed and animated by Gavin C. Robinson; music composed and performed by Mike Vass; sound by Keith Duncan. Attribution(s): All artwork, publicity images, and stills are the property of Gavin C. Robinson and all respective creators and/or distributors. Read more
He is Risen! Let the Alleluias ring! Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: exultemus et laetemur in ea, Alleluia. This is the day the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it, Alleluia. Attribution(s): “La Résurrection” by James Tissot (Source) is licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons; “Bells” via Shutterstock. Read more
Waiting; waiting; waiting. O tù chì dormi in sta petra sculpita d’avè suffertu da colpi è di ferite dopu d’atroci martiri persu hai ancu la vita, oghje riposi tranquillu a tò sufferenza hè finita. Oh you who sleep Within this sculpted stone And have suffered blows and wounds After atrocious torments You have also lost your life Rest in tranquility today Your suffering is over. Attribution(s): “The Two Marys Watch the Tomb (Les deux Maries observent le tombeau)” by James Tissot comes... Read more
This piece was originally posted on March 28, 2013. “Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violences which precede and follow them.” — Flannery O’Connor I stumbled across that O’Connor quote earlier this week while searching for ways to commemorate her birthday. I’ve seen it before, and I’ve always loved it — in no small part because it significantly influenced my... Read more
Bach’s Matthäus-Passion has served as the soundtrack to so many of my Good Fridays, I’ve lost count. It’s particularly effective (for me, at least) when paired with the libretto (pdf version here), because Bach highlights and underscores the text in all sorts of wonderful (and deeply moving) musical ways. I was pleased to find this version (led by Otto Klemperer) in playlist form on YouTube because it’s a nicely-digestible, highly-indexed version that features the soloists from my Favorite Matthäus Ever: Herbert Von Karajan’s. (Peter... Read more
“Some people think the Crucifixion only took place on Calvary. They better wise up!” Recommending a film on a particularly liturgically-meaningful day such as today always seems a bit incongruous to me. Audacious, even. Yet I’ve always tried, spurred on by the fact that I myself have had several transformative cinematic experiences on Good Friday (most of them revolving around Dreyer’s harrowing, redemptive The Passion of Joan of Arc). This year was a bit of a puzzle to me, though. (Calvary was the first film that... Read more
The Matthäuspassion of Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, my first (and to this day, most moving) encounter with his music. Wonderfully meditative, preparatory stuff. Attribution(s): “Bells” provided by Shutterstock. Read more
Today, the Matthäus Passion of Gottfried August Homilius. I’m not terribly familiar with him as a composer, so I had to do a bit of hunting to find out more. According to (the ever-reliable) Wikipedia, he was “a German composer, cantor and organist,” “one of the most important church composers of the generation following Bach’s,” and “the main representative of the empfindsamer style.” Now I need to do some digging on what they’re getting at when they say “the empfindsamer style.” Sturm und... Read more
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