Music for Higher Purposes...

The glut of woeful sounds that are alleged to be"religious"[or its odious acronymCCM} cause a reflex against what is geuninely beautiful music,that praises Jesus. I am thinking of Woven Hand, of Ruth Naomi Floyd,of Current 93,of Bach[I know its an obvious statement, but I feel St Matthew's passion to be the height of European music}Of Inez andrews, the Luminous Arvo Part. Have you ever heard the songs, all 8 of them ,of Kentucky hill preacher Alfred G . Karnes? the Kingdom isn't far from that music.Or the amazing Olivier Messiaen,the quiet devout Catholic who was his church organist for 50 years,who wrote some of the most sonically dense, luxurious music of the 20th century,replete with birdsong and elements of Hindu ragas?Or Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers?How can I keep from singing...my point is music that praises God need not be either tedious or simply bad,nor 300+ years old.Like beautiful architecture or excellent poetry,praising the Lord God can envelop us in Wonder AND Glory. From Ralph Stanley to Bessie Smith, from Duke Ellington to Francis Poulnec,perhaps, as the oft attributed[and never verified} Dostoyevsky quote rings true:"The World will be saved by Beauty." Amen...

Impressions

The first Andrei Tarkovsky movie I saw was the bastardised cut of SOLARIS in 1976. I was completely,totally baffled.The print was poor,the subtitles were clumsy. Later, I saw the improved version on a two tape VCR,then, on the beautiful Criterion Collection print now available on DVD. Tarkovsky has been called the poet of cinema,though perhaps simply a poet will suffice[the medium is not always the message}.When I first saw Andrei Rublev, especially the Bell casting scene, I was deeply ,almost profoundly moved.The final images, when Tarkovsky switches to Color film, delicately, deliberately scanning the Trinity Icon is shockingly gorgeous. Of his films, I love Nostalghia and Solaris,with their attendent sublime poetry perhaps most,though each of his 7 films[just seven, taken so young at 54] builds on the previous. There are few films I can return to now ,Tarkovsky's are always welcome fare
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Words
Often sound of late ice cracking
The spill of laughter
Echoing through a childs
Genes
Taut lives wound round
Hopeless hollers filled with
Dreams
Muffled groans ecstatic ecstasy?
Are lightly covered
In something like snow
down
it

Seems
Smoke laced dawn shrugs
The cold clean darkness
Leaves Prayers forced through squinted eyes
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Another day of war dead. Another day of lies emanating from the government.Auden once wrote the epitaph for this most foul of governments"...The truth is not whatever lie you choose to believe"
Where are the people of vision,the statesmen and women?Are they running for political cover?Hillary?Obama?.Wanting to be president is not a good enough reason . Where,O Lord, where is the person of courage? enough
Listen to Messiaen, to ali Akbar Khan, to Emmylou Harris, to the Grateful Dead, to Bach,to Wilco, to the amazing Woven Hand,to Slim Cessna,to Ruth Naomi Floyd,to Duke Ellington at Fargo, to the second sacred concert. That is hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More...

...left out some influences. Howard Thurman,Primo Levi, Thomas Merton,Nelson Mandela,Tom Paine,June Jordan,Ceasar Chavez,Olivier Messiaen, Hans Urs Von Balthasar,James K Baxter,Kenneth Kaunda,Anna Akhmatova,Pasternak,Czeslaw Milosz,Seamus Heaney,Blind Willie Johnson,Rabbi Nachman, Rep. John Lewis,the sanest man in washington,and the finest,Martin Buber,Robert Coles,Camus...
I see the Mets are white hot approaching the Selig-inspired[is that an oxymoron?} inter-league play. The same people who like interleague play like the DH and World series games at night.Sigh. I simply loathe interleague play, who cares if the mets play the A's or Tigers [or vice versa}but only see the Dodgers,Cubs and Giants once each year! Lack of vision is everywhere,not just in politics.
Is it any wonder that kids numb themselves with caffeine and mindless,destructive,absurdly violent video games? Don't do drugs, kids, do this instead...heavy sigh...

Beginnings...

A t-shirt arrived in the mail recently, bearing the legend"Who would Jesus Bomb?" Certainly provovative,still it is instructive. So many professed Christians seriously support violence that the question is NOT a non-sequitur. Jesus is not a republican.Jesus is not a democrat,either.It is difficult to imagine a scenario where the Lord God Almighty would be pleased with the relentless bombing of women and children in His name.I've been informed that this is naive`. I don't believe that Jesus' message was to be easy.nor something to be contained in a neat box,to be opened ,like a fire extinguisher,only in emergency.What would Jesus do,indeed...
some influences:The Gospels,my bride Annie and kinder,the films of Andrei Tarkovsky,Rublev's icon,Abbe` Pierre,William Blake,Gerard Manley Hopkins,Bach,Martin Luther King,Jr.,William Byrd,the late Father Joesph Buckley,humble parish priest and saint,Dorothy Day,the novels of Dosteyevsky,Duke Ellington,Dylan,the paintings of Nolde, Edward Hopper, Van Gogh,Kandinsky,and William Congdon,Marion Williams,living what she sang like no other,the astonishing music of David Eugene Edwards, of the lamented 16 Horsepower and Woven Hand,Sr. Flora Miranelli, long time spiritual advisor,George Bernanos novels,Flannery O'Connor,Rev. Gardner Taylor,the epitome of what a Pastor should be,the finest preacher I have ever heard, or for that matter, am likely to hear,Desmond Tutu,a man whom I always wanted to have dinner with after Mass,Rev Daniel BerriganS.J.,poet,prophet,kind ,good great man, my hero,Henri Nouwen,the late great Father Alexander Men,the shining example of a priest,Sam Cooke and the soul stirrers,teachers of the handicapped everywher,Catholic workers one and all...