more on benedict vs. contemporary worship

June 29, 2006 on 12:45 pm | In organ, rants | No Comments

the telegraph is running another article on pope benedict’s demand that contemporary worship be squelched in catholic churches.  honestly.  the electric prunes’ mass in f minor?

monorails: the best and the worst

June 29, 2006 on 9:25 am | In ramblings | No Comments

in dispute of the common notion that (monorail eq disneyworld) evaluates as true, the monorail society’s construction gallery chronicles what may be the world’s most beautiful urban monorail: the sentosa express in singapore.

a nice contrast to fantazyland’s little number in alexandria, egypt, which could quite possibly be the most depressing theme park in the world now that splendid china has closed.

keep a song in your heart, and a kitty on your lap. — dennis steckley

June 26, 2006 on 9:08 pm | In organ, ramblings | No Comments

last week in review:

  • monday: two permanent crowns squashed onto my molars. actually not that bad.
  • tuesday: skipped out on work a little early, because i just couldn’t wait any longer to head to nag’s head
  • wednesday/thursday/friday: offline and out of touch. books, beach and some good college friends i hadn’t seen in years. so wonderful.
  • saturday: back to the triangle for everything raleigh has to offer. a tentative possibility seems to go well, then falls flat. early to bed.
  • sunday: off to church refreshed, but not ready for one of the childrens’ depressing account of the previous day’s annual celebration. no matter how timeless and steadfast some traditions may seem…
    came back home half-expecting a promised call, and got it at an unsurprisingly late enough hour to render the call pointless. no, i’m not a cynic, i’m pragmatic.  and i was never very good with a yo-yo.  (don’t try to play me out!  don’t try to play me out!)

onward to this week: we set up our new netapp filer! now to iron out a couple of residual problems not related to the new filer, and we’ll be ready to synch data!

got a repeat of the unexpected late phone call: “hey, got your message, on my way to coffee so i’ll call you later or maybe tomorrow… have a good night!” at least have the decency not to call if you don’t want to. it makes it so much easier on the person you don’t really want to call.

on a much lighter note, pope benedict xvi rocks! or doesn’t rock, i should say. r.s. chamberlin had them all wrong!
i especially appreciate benedict’s comments after overhearing a conversation at my church before service started yesterday. we have a relatively new pastor who was hired specifically because the service didn’t connect with the children. the service is about them. we need to meet them where they’re at. bye bye hymnal, hello powerpoint. we’re mostly praise-n-worship and had a drummer for some time, until he went home for good, leaving the set dismantled to one side of the altar. one of the older boys can’t wait to set the drums back up so he can learn to play. one of the other older boys pointed out that the drums were too loud in the church, that they were giving people in the congregation headaches, and that they would complain. the pastor smiled and replied, “it’s not about them.”

the weekend in review

June 17, 2006 on 10:22 pm | In ramblings | No Comments

thursday evening was spent tasting absinthe chez jones, and i’m glad to have had the opportunity. i’m not particularly fond of anise or licorice, but pinching my nose and taking each sippy glass as a shot allowed me to sample each of the brands available, including the fire-water-in-an-airplane-bottle that kristina brought. so now i can say that i’ve tried absinthe. to balance the aesthetic of the wretched airplane bottle, kristina also brought a casserole dish with delightful lemon-roasted asparagus. yum! it was also great to see miles again, who is in boone now while jessica works on her Ph.D.

friday evening i drove to greensboro and had a wonderful dinner at mikato’s with kristin, scott and summer. afterwards scott and summer wanted to go to the comedy zone, which lived up to my expectations. a young guy warmed up the crowd by cursing a lot and embarrassing the bachelorette’s party in the front row, then a 72 year-old former wrestler from UNC gave an underwhelming monologue that culminated in a strange strip tease in which he revealed all 8 pairs of underwear he had layered on. next a screech look-alike tried to effect a half rum-runner’s, half stand-up routine, then the first guy came back on stage, thanked everyone for coming, and told everyone to leave. thank goodness i didn’t pay the admission!

saturday started out slowly. i was wide awake around 6 a.m. and got a shower, only to sit on kristin’s computer waiting for her to wake up. by the time she woke up, i was sleepy again, so i took a nap snuggled up with martini (her very fat cat) while she watched HGTV. the awesome part? martini went to sleep under my arm for close to an hours, and it didn’t even phase me. perhaps i’m finally outgrowing my lifelong cat allergies?

  • saturday afternoon observation: burlington coat factory’s p.o.s. terminals run red hat.
  • saturday evening observation: i’m still not ready to be around the super hero.

sunday morning was spent trying to stay cool in a sanctuary whose compressors had frozen over. immediately after church i high-tailed it to the pool and am now burnt. i finished the shirley jackson “ordinary day” collection and started on the road through the wall, hangsaman and the bird’s nest collection. i should be out running at present but instead treated myself to cold stone and am now sinking into my couch. i’m going to hit the gym hard this week, i promise.

sigh…

June 13, 2006 on 8:27 pm | In peeps, ramblings | No Comments

whine! it’s cold(ish), it’s raining, it’s going to rain for the next two days, i’m only 40% through an interminable week of training, the one who is so close yet so far away is off wining and dining an undeserving attention enthusiast, i haven’t heard from my only possibility of enthusiasm for a few days, and for the first time in my life i was a stammering, bumbling fool when presented with the opportunity to seem a dashing, cultured suitor this past weekend.

however, things are looking up. coffee and conversation tomorrow night, absinthe and pernod on thursday night, out of training early and off to greensboro on friday night, a cookout on saturday, and a relaxed, typical sunday consisting of church, nursing home visits and hopefully some pool time. i’ll return to work refreshed, energized, and in perfect condition to have my permanent crowns squashed onto my molars on monday afternoon! oh wait, i’m being negative again.

best of all, i’ve managed to emotionally exorcise the spectre of the past year and a half of my life, and am getting back into my own groove. unfortunately, i seem always to be on one ghost hunt or another…

reality doomsday approacheth, indeed

June 9, 2006 on 7:33 am | In ramblings | No Comments

not that i worry much in the first place about missing anything good on television by not watching it, but the latest issue of popbitch has set my mind at ease. here are one network’s five new reality shows for the summer:

1. Buy It Now – members of the public sell stuff on ebay.
2. How To Get The Girl – four women go dating in San Francisco.
3. Master of Champions – wacky competitions e.g. Interpretive Pizza Tossing and Extreme Unicycle Obstacle Course.
4. One Ocean View – a fly on the wall of a shared house of “young professionals” weekending away from NYC.
5. The One – like Making The Band, but will create another new solo star from TV.

now, watching people go dating in san francisco could be great if they spend more time talking about the food and the city rather than chronicling someone’s failed attempts at love with pop-up video balloons – but i think i’ll stick with reading a book my pool. the summer reading list (in no particular order) includes:

  • the complete writings of shirley jackson. who knows what this is doing to my subconcious mind.
  • joseph campbell’s masks of god series. no, i haven’t read them yet. yes, i know i should have.
  • robert lomas’ turning the hiram key
  • various 19th-century books on freemasonry
  • anything else on the borders sale rack that strikes my fancy.

note that i’ll be at my pool for most of the summer, and not in atlanta or at the beach. this will be a busy but exciting summer, as my former and again current employer, ibiblio, prepares for a migratory trifecta:

  1. from UNC’s data to that of MCNC in RTP (underway)
  2. from the current, 3 year-old cluster hardware to new machines (holding pending above)
  3. from Apache 1, PHP 4 and MySQL 4 to Apache 2, PHP 5 and MySQL 5 (probably last)

i plan on taking my summer vacations in september and october when it’s not so hot and places won’t be so crowded. now if i can just stop myself from feeling like a loser all summer for not dating and not traveling…

do you know what the pipe organs are doing to the soil?

June 6, 2006 on 8:32 am | In organ | No Comments

this story from the sydney morning herald underscored the danger inherent in burning organ pipes spewing lead into the environment: “I wouldn’t want to be around a church fire,” said Elizabeth O’Brien, president of the Lead Group. she has sung with the [Sydney] Opera House and Town Hall organs but adds, “I am just grateful the place is not on fire” during a performance.

the lead group’s proposed legislation would strictly limit the use of lead in electrical equipment. but if the law goes into effect, pipe organs would be affected due to their lead pipes, and churches such as britain’s salisbury cathedral would be forced to more seriously consider a piano instead.

being a small-church organist myself who has extremely pleased with his digital “toaster,” i have no footing to lament the decreasing numbers of traditional extant organs. but it makes me sad to see misdirected if well-intention legislation dooming the few organ builders left to build and renovate new instruments with not-so-bright pipes. ah, well, there will always be the digital samples.

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