Music and Spirituality | Fr. Basil Cole, O.P.

The Ignatius Insight just published an article from Fr. Basil Cole Music and Spirituality | Fr. Basil Cole, O.P. | Ignatius Insight | Ignatius Insight that is very insightful and very much needed in this Society Gone Madd!  I've read his book Music and Morals which really helped me, he is just awesome.  Now he connects Music and Spirituality to the tune of St Thomas Aquinas - my favorite saint.  Part of spirituality is using your mind, but people today seem to believe whatever they feel is ok.  When music (or any of the arts, I believe) causes feeling a certain way for a prolonged period of time it is bound to have it's effects.  Please consider reading the article (which I think can be applied to all forms of the arts), it may change your life, like his book Music and Morals did mine. 

GH Nightshift 08/06/08

General Hospital is by far the best soap on right now.  I began watching it in the dayroom with all the second shift guys in the dorms on the Air Force Base I was at.  It was during the Luke and Laura days.  About twenty five years later, I got back into it somehow.  Now all the kids of the characters are in it and it's as good, if not better than ever.  Then Last year they started a spinoff, Nightshift, with some of the same characters and they bring in new ones also. 

This particular episode was the best one ever.  I was really happy they tackled the subject of abortion in a worthy way.  They really brought out the horror of abortion and how it really affects the mother, even years later.  This is what will stop the crisis the entertainment industry is in.

A Christian at the Movies

First Things has a good article - A Christian at the Movies that chronicles some of the things that have happened in Hollywood to cause it's deterioration.  There is also good information on Dr. Ted Baehr and his MovieGuide web site and Christian Film & Television Commission. The article notes, interestingly, that since around the turn of the century Hollywood has released an average of 33 movies with strong positive Christian content each year.  Though the article questions his rating system, it has some good information to ponder.

FIRST THINGS: Interview with an Ex-Vampire Novelist

 FIRST THINGS: Interview with an Ex-Vampire Novelist is an article that gave me some insight on how art can bring about the conversion process.  It took writing 27 books for Anne Rice to learn the things that helped bring her to Christ.  I like how she characterizes some of the current scandalous biblical scholarship.  It seems to me she is a bit misguided in the area of politics.  For the best explanation of how to vote in a informed manner consistent with Catholic Moral teaching and fundamental human rights read the Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics.

Earthquake Coverage

We had a 5.4 Earthquake yesterday (07/29/2008) here in Los Angeles and TV coverage during events like this is dismal at best.  We had all channels covering it most of the day.  This is totally unnecessary.  Nothing really happened, some things fell, but that's about it.  All they needed to do was come on, make an announcement, and return to regular programming.  I bet all the people that wanted to watch the soaps in LA were really mad, I know I was, they pre-empted General Hospital! !   I had to wait until 10:00 to watch it on SoapNet! ! !  They could have run GH at the normal time and have a ticker at the bottom informing everyone news of the earthquake and nothing big happened.

This is LA and we have strong buildings, not straw huts like a lot of places that get earthquakes.  Some places an earthquake of this size would kill thousands of people, but basically nothing happened here, just some minor things.

I know some have good intentions but it's really all about the hype and trying to scare us so that we'll be ok with the government taking more of our money.  Don't Be Scared!

An American in Paris - A Refreshing Feeling

I was flipping channels this evening and came across the movie "An American In Paris" and thought I'd seen it before but I never had and right from the beginning of the movie,  from the first notes of music, it just gave me a good feeling.  It made me really realize how much entertainment has devolved.  It is amazing the drastic difference in the past fifty years.  The mid sixties is when the de-evolution started.

The biggest change I felt watching the movie is the quality of music.  I normally am not a big Gershwin fan, but most of the music in the movie was very uplifting to the soul, unlike the music of this day and age.  There has to be something that can be done to re-beautify the music and movies of this day and age.

KUSC is making classical music relevant

This is a good article on the state of Classical music in LA and in the USA.  I like Rich Capparela and Dennis Bartel.  Long Live Classical Music.

KUSC is making classical music relevant - Los Angeles Times

Bo Diddley, Who Gave Rock His Beat, Dies at 79

The guy known for his square guitar is gone.  I always thought that was pretty cool. 

Bo Diddley, Who Gave Rock His Beat, Dies at 79 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Speed Racer review

We saw the movie Speed Racer this weekend and it was actually pretty good.  It wasn't as good as the original series in the 1960's but it definitely could have been worse.  It had a relatively good story with the message that cheaters never prosper.  My children (boys 11 & 9) liked it and as I am sure, as most kids, liked the action and didn't care about the story which was kind of confusing at the beginning because they went back to the past, forward to the future, to the present, future, present, past, future, etc.  Boy it got confusing at times, probably too confusing for my 9 year old.  The racing was kind of strange to me, the cars were constantly going sideways, "drifting", and constantly spinning around bouncing and crashing into each other with little or no damage.  But that's what my kids liked.

Get your kids away form the terrible cartoons of this age and get the original version on DVD for them to watch.  The 5 seasons of the original Speed Racer TV series are available here.

     

                      

If you haven't caught the newest in the Speed Racer series, they have been showing Speed Racer - The Next Generation on TV and it is actually pretty good also.  They already have it on DVD if you want to check it out.

Iron Man Review

I saw the movie Iron Man last night with my 11 year old son and he said it was probably better than Spiderman 3. When asked, he said it was basically the effects and action parts that he liked, when I asked him what he thought about the story, he said "Boring, especially at the beginning."

My opinion of it is that I expected a little better movie. The anti-war theme is a bit tiring; can't they come up with anything new instead of the same old propaganda? They give the impression that weapons are bad in anyone's hands instead of the fact that they are bad only in bad peoples hands. They also give the false impression that all weapons contractors sell weapons to both side because they only care about the money and power. Yes, I am sure there are a few contractors that may be like this, working both sides of the fence, but if the exception is always shown as what is the norm, the normal end up getting viewed as being bad when it shouldn't be. It is definitely a great good vs evil message that needs to be heard.

It could be because I am jaded by Hollywood making the same kind of movies all the time. It's all about the money anyway.

Great May for Movies!

May is going to be a great month for movies.  The 2nd of May Iron Man opens.  May 9th Speed Racer begins.  May 16th the next in the Chronicles of Narnia series - Prince Caspian.  May 23rd is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie. 

I do hate it though that they bunch all the good movies together.  It's so much money to go to them all in one month.  After years of only one or two good movies in a whole year I guess I'll take a month of good movies.

Get Smart

I haven't seen the movie Get Smart yet but the trailer doesn't make the movie seem like it's going to be very good.  Most of the time you usually can tell from the trailer if it's going to be something worth watching.  I am sure I will see it when I can rent it on DVD or maybe I'll wait until it is on TV.

I love the original Get Smart on TV in the late 60's.  Don Adams and Barbara Feldon are definitely hard to top, they were the best.  But for some reason none of the Get Smart movies were very good.  I've heard it said that it was partly because Edward Platt, the Chief, died and there wasn't anyone as good as a straight man for the show.  That's a very good possible reason and also a show more than a half hour may just be too much.  Plus in the first movie, The Nude Bomb, 99 wasn't in it either which didn't help the chemistry. 

When I heard Steve Carell would be playing Maxwell Smart, I thought he would be great for the part.  From the trailer, he looks ok, but the content and delivery of the lines are just plain terrible.  It is sad that such a bad job was done with the great character created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.  Maybe this will be one of those times the trailer will be misleading and it actually will be a good movie.  I will let you know after I see it on DVD or TV.

Some great information is available on this Get Smart Fan Page.

Good Catholic Writers Need

Here's an interview about Rich Culture Nourishes Catholic Writers. I think Gregory Roper, author of The Writer's Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing(ISI Books), makes some great suggestions on what is needed to help our kids to learn to write well.

Music and Morals

I am a musician and this book Music and Morals by Basil Cole, OP really changed my perspective on the effect that music has on our lives. It answers or at least may prompt you ask the following questions: Does music have a subtle but definite influence over our attitudes and behavior? Is there a way of judging between “good” and “bad” music? It was a major factor in changing my life. With the state of entertainment today this book is highly recommended reading.

Heath Ledger and Acting Parts

I heard on the news this morning that he had trouble sleeping after playing the Joker character in the latest Batman movie. I also heard that Jack Nicholson told him to be careful in playing the part.

That makes me ask the question of how actors are able to get into their characters and the effect it has on them personally. It seems they may need to learn to separate fantasy from their own life. There are so many couples in hollywood that think they fall in love playing love interests in the movies. They get married in real life and get divorced so quickly because they are living in the fantasy of the parts they are playing and not real life.

Fox News article Jack Nicholson Says He 'Warned' Heath Ledger
NY Daily News article Jack Nicholson warned Heath Ledger on 'Joker' role
KUTV story Heath Ledger Was Reportedly 'Warned' By Jack Nicholson

Boston Legal 12/11/07

The Boston Legal Dec 11th Show had a similar agendas the Dec 4th show and also over the top:


Some of the idiotic liberal charges are below with my comments in italics.

• Claiming it's unpatriotic to criticize this country while we blow up someone else's country
• Iraq - saying the National guard are all in Iraq and can't help here at home
• Katrina
• Schools are bad - No child left behind / they are the ones to blame
• standardized tests are bad - they got that right
• school system is raising idiots - true
• Kids forsake knowledge to get to college - TRUE
• Education
• SSI
• inflation
• unemployment
• healthcare
• homeland security
• the war
• osama and Brittany turning out videos
• global warming
• NOTHING IS GOING RIGHT
• war cost too much
• listed ways the government could spend money on us instead of war - that's known as communism
• Pentagon only counts our losses not Iraqis - we're not killing the Iraqis they are killing their own
• British kids know more about our country than we do - they probably do because of the democrats and how they destroyed our school system
• less than 40% seniors can read proficiently
• standardized tests messed with to prove schools doing well
• teach the test or shred it - shred it
• ill equipped for national emergencies - too busy imposing democracies elsewhere
• Katrina alot of experts saw it coming did nothing - democrats fault of course
• Democrats complain and offer no solutions - Once in a while the show will get somethings right
• complain about age limit for national guard
• Standard test to get federal funding why stick to your values when there's cash at stake.
• test cost too much - No child left behind Nazis, Fed give states money to fix schools
• National Guard is backdoor draft and won't have anyone too fight our war anyone should be able to join age, sex orient, non job performance
• Joining the Boy Scouts but you have to be young and straight
• Get rid of NO child left behind - it is leaving kids behind
• Conservatives act like idiots and want to shoot anyone
• Volunteerism is up even though alot is wrong - at least they admit it
• Incompetent government - and they want more of the same with health care and all the government programs the want it to run.
• Bush incompetent was plan all along to get people to help
• Bush can't speak English language

• Conservatives are idiots and want to nuke Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Korea, Afghanistan, basically nuke happy that's what Bush wants to do.

These notions are so totally not true, but they know if you tell the same lie over and over it will be believed by alot of people not willing to research the facts.

Daytime Soaps keep going through strike

This is what I like to see. People that don't let Union mobsters control them. After 20 years I have got myself back into General Hospital and am glad to see there is no stopping production. This is an interesting article in the NY Times.

Boston Legal 12/04/2007

We watch Boston Legal and the Dec 4th show was a little bit too much over the top. I like some of the characters and how they interact with each other, but they always throw some idiotic liberal cause in the show that make it kind of stupid and ruins it. This week I think they went too far, there were so many slams at conservatives, it was really too much.

Some of the tired old material that they just keep spewing includes stuff about

• Larry Craig
• about talk Radio being too Conservative and too powerful.
• Ann Coulter - No one takes her seriously - she's a joke
• Mitt Romney - Gay union flip flop
• Howard Stern
• Don Imus
• Talk show hosts as so called journalists hate mongering bigotry - wrapping themselves in the American flag and calling it free speech and claiming that Americans are calling for stations to fire these people
• Katrina (When are they going to stop lying about this. They can't see that they were the problem and transfer the blame to others)
• 911 victims
• claiming that the presidential candidates refuse to engage in debate
• claiming reporters lost their jobs for criticizing the war and that 35% of journalists say newsworthy stories are shunned because they'll hurt new organization monetarily
• The usual jabs at Family values senators
• Saying that Congressmen are criminals but have to go after Larry Craig
• Wondering why police are wasting time with sex crimes when we should concentrate on Terror (I afree with that) ..... but Larry Craig deserved what he got
• Republicans don't care if you're gay as long as you persecute homosexuals

The show would be a lot better if they stopped all the easy jabs and actually write a good story. I know it's hard work, but why work hard when you can easily write idiocy, which is far easier. So I am glad the writers are on strike when they write trash like this. Normally unions cause a turn to the lowest common denominator like the teachers and automotive unions where in the teachers union you basically can't get fired no matter what you do including abusing children. So with the automotive union where you get paid a lot of money for not doing a lot of work and that is why our cars are inferior and so expensive.

Broken Trail

I know this TV movie has been out for a while but I didn't see it until this past holiday season and I am glad I finally did. It is a really good story and seems to be more realistic than most of the Westerns that have been made. The acting was superb and the scenery excellent. A reality I noticed was that the head of the brothel was a woman and was the one exploiting the Chinese women and the men were the ones who cared about them. I think that happens more often than others hurting particular people. Just like it was blacks in Africa who sold other blacks into the slave trade. Women made money exploiting other women by prostitution. I'm sure it happens with all other groups. You know your own, so so you know the weaknesses to exploit.

Golden Globes Cancelled!

Great news! I really hate these award shows, they are the biggest waste of time and even more waste of money. Thank you writers for sticking to your demands. Hope the same happens to the Academy Awards another waste. There should be more of what has happened with some shows, making private deals with the different companies. The Union shouldn't be doing any of this each writer should make a deal for them self and not rely of some union thug. Then they will be more free and have more choice.

Sound of Music

Believe it or not I finally saw the movie Sound of Music this past weekend. I have HD TV on my computer now and decided to watch things I normally don't watch just because it looks so good. I started to watch the Sound of Music and right at the beginning I could tell iti actually had a very good story to it. Over the years I have caught about ten or fifteen minutes in the middle and about the same amount three quarters into the movie. Now I have seen the whoole thing and was very pleasantly surprised at what a great movie it is. I 've always liked Andy Williams version of the song "My Favorite Things" and never knew it came from that movie.

It really makes me wonder how in such a short amount of time television and movies has gotten so bad. Although I do see some signs of improvement, it is going to take a while to get back to Hollywood doing mainly good movies, if they ever do.

Writers are a dime a dozen

I rarely watch the Tonight Show but since he is going back on the air when the writers are still on strike, I thought I'd support him. The show was actually pretty good! The only difference I noticed was that the show was actually better the the last times I have watched it. I always used to watch it when Johnny was on, but ever since Jay took over, it just wasn't as good. But this wasn't that bad.

Shows should just hire the best writers they can find and write a contract that satisfies that writer and forget about the union. Unions have destroyed America. I think that's part of the reason we have this lowest common denominator thing happening in movies and television.