A Momentary Taste of Being

History featuring Canterbury Tales ("California Dreaming") and Attila the Hun (Here Comes the Rain Again.) History for Music Lovers But for real literature-- The Divine Comedy to Blondie's Rapture

Malnutrition I knew once of a person who bragged that she was able to get through her entire college career taking only one course outside of the discipline she had chosen to major in.  She held a Ph. D. in one of the sciences.

The Collecting Impulse

William Howard Russell gives us a view of Charleston after Sumter.

I've spent the last few days in a blog conversation that really culminated in the realization of just how hubristic and self-centered the whole art (or practice) of blogging can be.  In the course of the conversation, we were discussing matters that had occupied the great minds of three centuries and attempting to conclude a debate that was and continues to rage--all within this isolated bubble chamber of exchanged comments. In this case, the question of whether or not theology is a valid means for knowing and exploring the world and coming to a deeper understanding about reality.  I, for one, was humbled at the thought of my own arrogance in (A) even approaching the matter, given my weak grasp of the salient tools; and (B) the thought that I would have anything at all significant to add to the conversation.  Once again, roundly put in my place, I've made a resolution that has become all too frequent with me to not darken the doors of such a conversation every again....

Elvis Presley's Birthday

Yan Lianke's Dream of Ding Village reviewed. I loved Serve the People , and given the description, I can't imagine that this one doesn't match it.

The Editor's Introduction to the Redaction of Huckleberry. via Books Inq.

Well, I'm not even sure what to call it.  It isn't a plea-bargain.  Perhaps reason for clemency? Two sister friend from jail because of kidney donation.

The Lost Art of Reading --David L. Ulin

Music Library Digitized--what a wonderful resource!

Real-life Superheroes Registry Ah, well, yes, um. . . what more can one say?

. . . Because of Catholic Mysticism naturally appeals to me

Divinely inspired constitution via North Face I note this excerpt and must discover if it is true.  If so, as one mathematically inclined, it appeals to me as it reminds me of the geometry proofs and transformations that permitted one to make that particular transformation or step on the basis of the axiom, postulate, or previously proven theorem.  How elegant. To build laws that are specifically allowed by the constitution.  However, as with many of these kinds of things, I suspect the purpose is more obfuscatory and unnecessarily inhibitory than elegance. Today, on the second day of the 112th Congress, the Constitution will be read on the floor in its entirety. In addition, the new Republican leadership in the House will be instituting a new rule requiring that each new piece of legislation cite the provision which grants Congress the authority to enact such a law. Let me just reiterate--when it comes to politics I'm exceedingly dubious of any stated objecti...

from Guns and Steel Yukio Mishima This antinomy rested on the assumption that I myself from the outset was devoid of flesh, of reality, of action. It was true, indeed, that the flesh came late to me at the beginning, but I was waiting for it with words. I suspect that because of the earlier tendency I spoke of, I did not perceive it, then, as "my body." If I had done so, my words would have lost their purity. I should have been violated by reality, and reality would have become inescapable. Interestingly enough, my stubborn refusal to perceive the body was itself due to a beautiful misconception in my idea of what the body was. I did not know that a man's body never shows itself as "existence." But as I saw things, it ought to have made itself apparent, clearly and unequivocally, as existence. It naturally followed that when it did show itself unmistakably as a terrifying paradox of existence that rejected existence--I was as panic-stricken as though I had ...

"Cyberspace When You're Dead"

Mass Animal Death: Fact and Fiction

Bloom's Last Poems

Chesterton on the art of missing the point

Carl Sandburg tribute