Musical Meditation for the Feast of St. Patrick

Last updated on: March 17, 2016 at 11:44 am By Joseph Susanka

I’ve got to admit that my life haven’t felt particularly Lenten of late. The anticipation, excitement, and joyful celebration of Papam Week 2013 has dominated the last few days, and I’ve been struggling to return to a more “liturgically-appropriate” frame of mind ever since. Ironically, today’s feast — traditionally a time of great/excessive celebration — might have been just what I needed. After a YouTubing session that contained nearly as many Irish drinking songs as sacred selections, I happened across... Read more

Checking Into The Weekend, New Pope in Tow

Last updated on: January 19, 2015 at 6:53 pm By Joseph Susanka

It’s been quite a week, hasn’t it? My Fridays are a bit unfocused under the most ordinary of circumstances, and the roiling emotions of the past few weeks have been anything but ordinary. (Think we’ve had it crazy? Try imagining what life’s been like for Monsignor Guido Marini over the past month or so. Monday’s “Extra Omnes” moment was certainly memorable, but then I rewatched Benedict XVI’s resignation announcement and realized that Monsignor Marini was sitting right beside him. And remember that spine-tingling moment when Pope... Read more

Watching with the Family as Papal History Unfolds

Last updated on: January 14, 2015 at 6:34 pm By Joseph Susanka

View image | gettyimages.com I love the fact that we must wait to learn the identity of the new pope. In this explosively-expanding technopoly of ours, having to wait seems borderline absurd. We use our cell phones to help diagnose and treat diseases, but when the Catholic Church wants to notify its members of the most important decision it can make, it uses smoke signals? I love it! This time around, I experience a somewhat unanticipated blessing as a result... Read more

No Commentary Necessary — “Habemus Papam” Edition

Last updated on: November 19, 2015 at 8:48 am By Joseph Susanka

Yes, I know it’s Lent. But come on, people. We have a pope! View image | gettyimages.com Bonus Celebratory Music: Palestrina’s “Tu es Petrus” — always beautiful, but particularly appropriate today. Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram ædificabo ecclesiam meam et portæ inferi non prævalebunt adversus eam. Et tibi dabo claves regni cælorum. Attribution(s): Photos courtesy of Getty Images, which allows the use of certain images “as long as the photo is not used for commercial purposes (meaning in an... Read more

Today’s Conclave Soundtrack: England’s Robert Johnson II

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

This afternoon, I’m calming my nerves (and ignoring the enormous Catholic elephant in the room) with a bit of Robert Johnson’s lute music, courtesy of my dad. It’s entirely possible that I’ve heard Johnson in the past, but I don’t think I’ve heard of him until I started to investigate this particular clip. The occasionally-reliable Wikipedia says that he “was an English composer and lutenist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean eras. He is sometimes called ‘Robert Johnson II’... Read more

Makoto Shinkai’s “Garden of Words”

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

Last year, when a friend suggested Makoto Shinkai’s The Place Promised in Our Early Days as a potential fit for my bizarre cinematic tastes, I was intrigued. And when I heard the director described as “The New Miyazaki,” I moved well past intrigued; I could hardly wait. It was fascinating (both artistically and philosophically), and I resolved to hunt down as many of his films as possible — a tricky task, since he’s not particularly prolific, and they’re not particularly easy to... Read more

What Bothered Me Most About Rand Paul’s Filibuster

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:16 pm By Joseph Susanka

There were a number of things about Wednesday’s Capra-esque spectacle that bothered me. But the one that I couldn’t get out of my mind no matter what? The one that compelled me to break one of my cardinal blogging rules: “Thou Shalt Not Write On Politics, Lest Your Ignorance Be Laid Bare Before the Entire World?” It isn’t that we lack for Stewarts — we’ve always had Quixotes, and always will (thank God) — it’s that we have no Claude... Read more

Pop Cultural Litmus Test of the Day

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:16 pm By Joseph Susanka

If viewing this image affords you half as much amusement and pleasure as creating it gave me, I urge you to seek medical advice immediately. (I hear Dr. Greg’s excellent with this sort of trouble…) I’m done for, I know — trapped in the Fire Swap of Pop Culture References. But there’s hope for you yet. You’ll just have to go on without me… Read more

The Smithsonian’s Annual Photo Contest Is A Visual Feast

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 3:16 pm By Joseph Susanka

Speaking of dangerous time sinks, Smithsonian Magazine recently unveiled the finalists for its 10th Annual Photo Contest. The 50 images are broken down into categories — The Natural World, Travel, People, Americana, and Altered Images — and as I scanned through them (and through the archived photos that took part in the nine previous contests), I was reminded of why judging these sorts of contests always seems so impossible difficult to me: 1) Pick a picture at random. 2) Make... Read more

The Art and Importance of Title Sequences

Last updated on: July 17, 2015 at 11:40 am By Joseph Susanka

Title sequences are sadly under-appreciated. When expertly wielded, there are few filmic tools more instrumental in setting the mood and tone for their audiences. Yet they get almost no attention, slaving away in relative obscurity. Perhaps we should demand an Academy Award for Best Credit Sequence, to assist these pillars of Cinemadome in receiving the “credit” they so justly deserve. (Actually, given how quickly and completely I forgot this year’s awards, an Oscar might not help. About the only thing that... Read more