Posted on September 8, 2010, 11:04 pm, by Jack L. B. Gohn, under
Theme Songs.
I very specifically recall the thrill of reading Tolkien sitting there. And while I was reading it, I often had playing softly, so as not to wake my parents, one particular record from The Treasury of the World’s Great Music. This LP combined on one side the symphonic version of Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances and Dukas’ The Sorceror’s Apprentice. Now with all respect to Howard Shore’s estimable soundtrack for the Peter Jackson’s near-definitive movies, once you’ve listened to these pieces, you will never think of Shore as being in the same class in capturing the thrill of those books.
Tags:
Alexander Borodin,
Alexander Glazunov,
Allegro,
Allegro con spiritu,
Allegro Vivo,
Bree,
C.S. Lewis,
Chronicles of Narnia,
classical music,
Clive Staples Lewis,
Edvard Grieg,
Edward Grieg,
Fantasia,
grocery store classical records,
grocery store encyclopedias,
J.R.R. Tolkien,
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Kismet,
LPs,
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Mickey Mouse,
Minas Tirith,
Mirkwood,
Moderato alla breve,
Mordor,
Moria,
Nadezhda von Meck,
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,
Not Since Nineveh,
Pathetique Symphony,
Paths of the Dead,
Paul Dukas,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikosky,
Peter Jackson,
Pippin Took,
Polovetsian Dances,
Polovtsian Dances,
Presto,
Prince Caspian,
Prince Igor,
Rohirrim,
Shelob's Lair,
STranger in Paradise,
The Last Battle,
The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe,
The Lord of the Rings,
The Sorceror's Apprentice,
The Treasury of the World's Great Music,
Weathertop Comments Off on Dances for Tolkien |
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 2, 2010, 10:21 pm, by Jack L. B. Gohn, under
Theme Songs.
Have I been defending my youthful tastes a little by portraying myself as a sophisticate-in-training with a yen for the challenging hidden within the mundane like a diamond in the rough? Probably. But with this next item, Lawrence Welk’s version of Calcutta, there is absolutely no making that argument. However intelligently constructed, it is musical kitsch, and one has to start with that.
Tags:
Ann Arbor,
Around the World in 80 Days,
Billboard Top Pop Singles Guide,
Calcutta,
California Girls,
easy listening,
exoticism,
Four Preps,
German music,
Heino Gaze,
India Country Side,
Jim Morrison,
Lawrence Welk,
Mitch Miller,
roller skating,
St. Thomas the Apostle School,
Victor Young Comments Off on A Kitschy Gilde |
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on July 21, 2010, 10:56 pm, by Jack L. B. Gohn, under
Theme Songs.
Rolling arpeggios, a haunting theme, spectacular effects, Detroit at its swankiest, and my dad …
Tags:
1958,
1960,
Ann Arbor,
Ballet at the Village Vortex,
Bay of Biscay,
Christian Radich,
Cinemiracle,
Cinerama,
Detroit,
easy listening,
Leonard Bernstein,
Madeira,
Michigan,
movie music,
movie themes,
Music Hall Theatre,
New York City,
On the Town,
Pablo Casals,
Park Shelton Hotel,
steel bands,
Walter Hogan,
Willow Run Airport,
Windjammer,
Windjammer (The Ship) Morton Gould,
Wonderful Town Comments Off on A Stately Roll |
Read the rest of this entry »
Neither Richard Blumenthal nor any of the rest of us, be we combat vets, reservists, war protesters, or draft dodgers, should be ashamed to speak from our experiences of the Vietnam War. Everyone has something valuable to share.
Tags:
13th Amendment,
Allen Ginsberg,
Cambodia bombing,
Canada,
draft avoidance,
draft resistance,
Great Society,
judicial review,
Me Generation,
military-industrial complex,
My Lai,
New Frontier,
Richard Blumental,
Selective Service,
student deferments,
the Draft,
Vietnamese War,
War Powers,
Wichita Vortex Sutra,
Woodstock Generation 2 Comments |
Read the rest of this entry »
Let us concede that the paper trail stops one or two levels shy of Ratzinger in many of these cases, though not of Rev. Kiesle. What is required is for the Church to release all documents. And even if Benedict has grown, letters like the one shielding Kiesle can only be expiated by Benedict leaving the hierarchy now.
Tags:
Benedict XVI,
child abuse,
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Laurie Goodstein,
Michael Gerson,
priests,
Rev. Lawrence Murphy,
Rev. Stephen Kiesle,
Rev. Thomas Reese,
Rota,
Thomas Brundage,
Wall Street Journal,
William McGurn 1 Comment |
Read the rest of this entry »
It is grotesque for perpetrators to put themselves on the same moral plane as victims of any sort, let alone victims of one of the greatest wrongs ever committed.
Tags:
Benedict XVI,
child abuse,
Crimen Solicitationis,
Good Friday,
Gospel of John,
Isaiah,
James Madison,
Michael Teta,
Msgr. Robert Trupia,
Nazis,
Pontius Pilate,
Rev. Michael Teta,
Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa,
Robert Trupia 1 Comment |
Read the rest of this entry »
If those who teach us about God are to dispel our reasonably doubts, they must be visibly and consistently honest and reliable. Someone who has participated in a coverup of criminal activity simply cannot command our trust that way.
Tags:
Benedict XVI,
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
Cardinal Tarciso Bertone,
celibacy,
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith,
holiness,
homosexuality,
pedophiles,
priests,
Ratzinger,
Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy,
Rev. Peter Hulleman,
St. Augustine 2 Comments |
Read the rest of this entry »
What then do we observe about Jesus’ example? Why, he’s the guy who gets taken to task for dining with sinners.
Do we really want to fight a whole large nationalist movement (however hateful) just to stop a separate small (if historically effective) terrorist front?
Next I Read The News Entry Seems Like Old Times in Afghanistan They say that President Obama is meeting with platoons of advisors to determine whether and if so how to carry on that conflict. To those of us old enough to remember Vietnam, it all seems eerily familiar. Take one Democratic president, elected with […]