Snow Days, Wyoming Style

Last updated on: January 11, 2015 at 3:19 pm By Joseph Susanka

So… …we may have gotten a bit more snow during the night than we were anticipating. And it’s still coming down. I’m not sure of the official numbers yet, but my unofficial measuring system puts this one in the “world o’hurt, shoveling-wise” category. Firmly. In fact, we might be lookin’ at the largest single-storm accumulation since we arrived here in “God’s Country.” It’s our own little Snowmageddon (though I’m also partial to Sarah’s “Snöwtterdämmerung” title). The boys took it in... Read more

A Little Housekeeping

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:15 pm By Joseph Susanka

Apparently, Wyoming is experiencing a bit of a weather relapse. Forecasts suggest anywhere between 8″-10″ of accumulation by the end of the night, which should fit in nicely with the 4″ or 5″ I’ve got on my porch right now. I love the snow, so I’m not particularly disappointed by Winter’s extended run. But there’s a downside this time around, particularly the havoc it plays with our hardworking bishop’s confirmation schedule. (Sons #1 and #2 were scheduled to receive the sacrament this evening, and while our... Read more

Finding Serenity with Jobson’s Flickr Finds

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:15 pm By Joseph Susanka

I had a long (and if past history is any indicator, a hopelessly over-written) movie post scheduled for this afternoon. But in the wake of Roger Ebert’s passing yesterday (and a quick, in memoriam spin through his great “Great Movies” series as well as several wonderful testimonials), I’m uncomfortably aware of my piece’s deficiencies. Just can’t pull the trigger on it right now; somehow, it seems disrespectful. (Will I bludgeon you about the head and shoulders with my long-winded thoughts on The Apartment in... Read more

Rest in Peace, Roger

Last updated on: March 2, 2015 at 11:21 am By Joseph Susanka

View image | gettyimages.com Renowned and beloved film critic Roger Ebert passed away today after a long battle with cancer. From his long-time employers and friend at the Chicago Sun-Times: My newspaper job,” he said in 2005, “is my identity.” But as always with Roger Ebert, that was being too modest. He was a rennaissance man whose genius was based on film but by no means limited to it, a great soul who had extraordinary impact on his profession and the world... Read more

Sound the Trumpet!

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:15 pm By Joseph Susanka

I’ve been racking my brain for the past few days in an attempt to come up with a topic more “in my wheelhouse” than Alison Balsom’s “Sound the Trumpet” album, but to no avail. Let us count the ways that I have been unsuccessful (though not disappointed) in my attempts: 1. I’m in a celebratory mood, since it’s still Easter. And the trumpet is very celebratory. (So is bacon, come to think of it.) 2. Out of the vast array of... Read more

The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, According to John (and Bach)

Last updated on: January 21, 2015 at 1:24 pm By Joseph Susanka

Each year, as part of my Good Friday devotions, I try to listen (as distraction-free as possible) to a musical work suited — both emotionally and liturgically — to the commemoration of Christ’s passion and death. Past listening sessions have ranged from Alfeyev’s Passion of St. Matthew and Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light to Schutz’s Passions (Matthew, Luke, and John); from both Haydn settings of The Seven Last Words to Gorecki’s Miserere and Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Unsurprisingly, the piece making the most... Read more

Flannery O’Connor In Her Own Words

Last updated on: November 3, 2015 at 10:36 am By Joseph Susanka

It’s the birthday of the world’s foremost Hillbilly Thomist, Flannery O’Connor. She’d have been 88 today had she not been taken from us, all untimely-like. In honor of the occasion, here’s a recording of Miss O’Connor reading a somewhat-truncated version of her own essay, “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction” — a piece that, when paired with “The Church and the Fiction Writer,” has made her more explicable to me than anything I’ve read (other than her stories... Read more

The Triumphant Return of Mickey Mouse

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:15 pm By Joseph Susanka

After a frenzied few weeks of Papal watching and analysis (followed by the “Peace-o-Mind”-preserving decision to step back and settle into “Let’s Just Wait And See” mode), I find myself returning my blog to its regularly-scheduled (if a bit flippant, in contrast) programming. And so — a week or two later than I’d originally intended — a note-worthy event in the world of animated shorts, particularly for those of us who grew up watching Disney cartoons on Saturday mornings (and any other time... Read more

Spending My Thursday Afternoon with Thomas A. Arne

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:15 pm By Joseph Susanka

This afternoon’s office insanity was set to the musical ramblings of Baroque master Thomas Arne, highlighted by Trevor Pinnock’s performance of this Presto movement from his Keyboard Sonata #6. “But who,” you ask, “is Thomas Arne?” “Who’s Thomas Arne?” I respond, shocked. “Thomas Augustine Arne? ‘Rule, Britannia!’ and ‘A-Hunting We Will Go?’ How could you possibly not know about Tommy Arne?” …OK, fine. I admit it. I don’t think I knew him (by name, at least) until my trek through the vast, unexplored... Read more

From One Father to Another, Gratitude

Last updated on: January 11, 2015 at 3:14 pm By Joseph Susanka

I consider it an honor and an even greater blessing to have been named after Saint Joseph. As a father (and as a man), I can think of no better patron: St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church’s Liturgy teaches, he “cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation” and is truly... Read more