Saturday, March 31, 2018

Holy Saturday 2018



Holy Saturday . . . is the sound of perfect silence. Yesterday's mockery, the good thief's prayer, the cry of dereliction - all of that is past now. Mary has dried her tears, and the whole creation is still, waiting for what will happen next.

Christ in the Sepulchre                                                         William Blake, 1808




With the altar stripped bare and the Divine Service unspoken, the wait in silence resonates.






The opening quotation is taken from an excerpt from Death on A Friday Afternoon, by Richard John Neuhaus. The excerpt was posted on firstthings.com in 2007.  



Sources
Photos and Illustration:
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74285/the-angels-hovering-over-the-watercolour-blake-william/


Friday, March 30, 2018

Good Friday 2018


For contemplation on this day...


File:Dali Crucifixion hypercube.jpg
Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)  Salvador Dali, 1954




For more information on Dali's Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) go here and here
For information on the Christian dimension of Richard Wagner's Parsifal go here




Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dali_Crucifixion_hypercube.jpg



Thursday, March 29, 2018

Maundy Thursday 2018


"Maundy" is an Anglo-French word derived from the Latin "mandatum," meaning "commandment." On this day Christians remember the Last Supper - likely a Passover meal - and the institution of Holy Communion, Jesus's command to his disciples to love one another as He loved them, His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and His betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

Detail, The Sacrament of the Last Supper                         Salvador Dali, 1953



A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34 NIV




Stay with me, remain here with me.

Watch and pray, watch and pray.

Stay here and keep watch with me. 
Watch and pray, watch and pray!

Watch and pray not to give way to temptation.
The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.

My heart is nearly broken with sorrow. 
Remain here with me, stay awake and pray.

Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by.
Father, if this cannot pass me by without my drinking it, 
your will be done.

Stay with me, remain here with me.
Watch and pray, watch and pray.
Stay with me, remain here with me.
Watch and pray, watch and pray.





If you are interested in learning more about Dali's surreal Sacrament of the Last Supper, go here and here.




Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Dali painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.


Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Two Monuments In Jazz


Two remarkable performers from the world of jazz had birthdays this week. Paul Whiteman, the "King of Jazz,' was born on March 28, 1890, in Denver and Sarah Vaughan, known as "Sassy" and the "Divine One" was born on March 27, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey.
Today, Paul Whiteman is almost forgotten outside of tight circles of music history' He was primarily responsible for promoting the integration of jazz in popular music throughout the United States. Historian Glenn T. Eskew says this about him:

Alert to the emerging style, Whiteman pioneered standardized settings of the songs, capturing the melodies on paper and leaving room for improvisation while making jazz appear "respectable" for dancing by using symphonic arrangements. Whiteman made recordings in 1920 of "Avalon" and "Whispering" songs that inspired Johnny Mercer. By 1924, in a bid to blend the "serious" with the "popular," Whiteman conducted his Palais Royale Orchestra in the world premier of George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue,' which revealed the omnipresence of syncopation. Indeed, Whiteman's various approaches to jazz gained him his crown, for he mastered a jazz-inflected light-sweet music that while never the hot music of [Louis] Armstrong nonetheless popularized the genre in the United States. From the cabaret to the symphony hall, musicians embraced the rhythm and blues of playing as Americans consumed Whiteman's liberating jazz.

Paul Whiteman in Radio Stars.jpg
Whiteman photo in the magazine, Radio Stars, Februay 1934

And we can't let Whiteman's birthday pass without an opportunity to hear his celebrated orchestra performing the popular music that made them famous. This 1928 recording features 25 year-old Bing Crosby singing his first number one hit. Crosby would go on to shape popular singing for the rest of the century.







The magnificent American singer, Sarah Vaughan, was a performer if not a magician who wrang emotion out of a song with her warmth and three-octave range. Indeed she was a symphony of sound over her fifty years on the stage. The introductory paragraph of her Wikipedia entry quotes the music critic, Scott Yanow, as saying she had "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."  When coupled with the greatest of songwriters from the first half of the 20th century I think she could be matched only by Ella Fitzgerald for her vocal magic and entertainment value. 


Sarah Vaughanm 1946                     William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress

The Divine One performed for almost fifty years and, nineteen years after her death in 1990, we still wait for a singer who can approach her amazing voice. The decline of professional songwriting and popular music in general have contributed to the void. And where is jazz, a genre birthed in the United States, but cast aside for mass market mediocrity and worse. I wait eagerly for a paradigm shift in music.


In the 1970's this Stephen Sondhein classic became her signature song and tour de force demonstration of her amazing vocal abilities.






Sources
Photos and Illustrations:
Whiteman photo, photographer uncredited, archive.org

Text:

Glenn T. Askew, Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World, University of Georgia Press: Athens and London, 2013

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Palm Sunday 2018




Today is Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday, the last Sunday of Lent, and the beginning of Holy Week. On this day, Christians around the world commemorate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is also a time to remember the Passion history as preparation for the Holy Week experience. Readings for the day recall the anointing of Jesus, the institution of the Lord's Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus's trials before Caiaphas and Pilate, the crucifixion of Jesus, and His burial.





Ride on ride on in majesty! Hark, all the tribes hosanna cry, thy humble beast pursues his road with palms and scattered garments strowed. 
Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die, O Christ thy triumph now begin oer captive death and conquered sin. 
Ride on, ride on in majesty! The winged squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondring eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. 
Ride on, ride on in majesty! Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh; the Father on his sapphire throne awaits his own anointed Son. 
Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; bow thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, thy power and reign.



Next Sunday we celebrate a 2000 year-old event that changes everything and brings extraordinary meaning to the following quote:

Jesus surprises us. He is a liberator, but his way of freeing us is often not dramatic. He comes to us with simple, quiet promises, using the water of baptism and the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper to assure of those promises. He is gentle and patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to believe in him for their salvation. He frees us from the guilt of our sins, and strengthens us to bear our daily burdens.



Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
postcard, OTR family archives

Text:
quote, archive.wels.net (inactive link)

Flannery O'Connor: Southern Convergence

One of the most significant writers in America, Flannery O'Connor, was born on this day in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. She spent her early childhood as a devout Catholic there in a home on Lafayette Square. The square features moss-draped live oaks, colorful azaleas, and abundance of birds, all sitting in the shadows of the towering spires of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  Things haven't changed much in this beautiful space. It still has its interesting spectrum of regular visitors: fast-walking pedestrians, lovers holding hand, lunch hour diners, retirees enjoying the benches, touring families, people waiting for the bus, runners and bikers, and playing children. And every day as they have for 120 years, the cathedral bells remind the people of God's grace and their obligations as His children. I think as long as you can visit Lafayette Square, say on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, you can know O'Connor well.


Her family moved to Atlanta in 1938, where her father was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic disease involving the destruction of healthy tissue by the body's immune system. Soon after they moved 100 miles southeast to her mother's family home in Milledgeville. When her father died in 1941, O'Connor moved a few miles north of town to her uncle's farm where she lived with her mother. Eventually, the farm would be called Andalusia, and it would become a refuge following her own diagnosis with lupus in 1950. At Andalusia, she would  raise her beloved peacocks and weave her experiences and memories of people, ethics, morals, and religion into her novels, Wise Blood, and The Violent Bear It Away, and scores of short stories published in two collections in her lifetime, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Her Complete Stories appeared posthumously in 1971.


Main house at O'Connor's farm, Andalusia, near Milledgeville, Georgia



O'connor's bedroom-office at Andalusia
Lupus took Flannery O'Connor from us in 1964 when she was in her 39th year. You can visit both her childhood home and Andalusia thanks to foundations that preserve the landscapes and memories she cherished. And, thanks to her, you can visit the South anytime by simply opening one of her books.

Many years ago the management at Andalusia removed scores of the offspring of O'Connor's beloved peacocks to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, a large Trappist estate about two and a half miles from our ridge top home. At that time the area was still quite rural and the peacocks flourished in and around the monastery grounds. 




On a quiet evening it was not unusual for us to hear them calling faintly in the distance. Eventually , they were removed and for a decade or so there has been no call to break the silence. But we do remember those urgent and sometimes fearful calls in the dusk. Today the woods remain a gallery of sounds. Some we know well. Others we may not recognize so easily. Those of us who know O'Connor and her work well may find it difficult to distinguish between the peacock, the author's veil, or the rich spirit world that inhabits her American South. After all, in the ancient traditions of the Catholic world the peacock is the symbol of immortality.



I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner, who isn’t convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God. Ghosts can be very fierce and instructive. They cast strange shadows, particularly in our literature. In any case, it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.


Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Childhood photo, Andalusia Farm, Inc. Photo courtesy of the Flannery O'Connor Collection, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia.
House, deepsouthmagazine.com
Bedroom, photo courtesy of Emily Elizabeth Beck
Adult portrait, openculture.com

Text:
Flannery O'Connor entry, Sarah Gordon, et al, georgiaencyclopedia.org
quotation from Flannery O'ConnorMystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, selected and edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, New York; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969




Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Spring 2018 Is Here...At Least On The Calendar



Spring                                                      William Blake, Songs of Innocence, 1789

Today was the first full day of spring but most folks from Georgia to Maine hardly noticed. What was morning rain turned to snow in the mountains, then snaked northeast along the Appalachians into Virginia where it exploded into another major snowstorm aimed at the Canadian Maritimes.   So it feels like just another day in Winter but who among us expects seasonal doors to close and open abruptly. Most times, the changes are comfortably gradual. There are thousands of songs written about the promise of this new season. Some of the best deal not with the fullness of the season, but with the anomalies and the worlds turned upside down when snowfall covers the tulips in our lives.

The incomparable Ella Fitzgerald captured an unfulfilled spring in a song, Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, written in 1955 by Tommy Wolfe and the poet and lyricist, Fran Landesman.  It's superb, and many critics say it is Fitzgerald at her finest.





If you enjoyed the song it has an interesting backstory you may enjoy posted by Scott Johnson on Powerline. 




Monday, March 19, 2018

Let Me Freeze Again To Death: Last Day Of Winter 2018





It's the last day of winter. For me it really can't come soon enough. While friends in the  mountains a hundred miles north are cleaning up from yesterday's storms - at least one tornado - they await another round of nasty weather tonight.  Meanwhile, friends on the East Coast look forward to their fourth hurricane-like coastal storm in four weeks.  That's quite a contrast to mild temperatures covering much of nation a month or so ago. 

Variances come with all the seasons but for those who prefer warmer climes the thought of sub-freezing temperatures, howling winds and depths of drifting snow measured in feet is enough to awaken the chills and shivers. Sometimes it may be necessary to awaken those chills and shivers. In fact there's a 325 year-old song - a much older legend as well - where Cupid rouses Cold Genius, the spirit of Winter, to assist King Arthur in a search for his fiance, Princess Emmeline. It is a surprisingly modern sounding piece of work from the semi-opera, King Arthur, by Henry Purcell and librettist, John Dryden .  Regardless, let's hope our modern personification of Cold Genius finds his rest soon so spring can take over the landscape and end our fever for a season of renewal.





What power art thou, who from below,
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow,
From beds of everlasting snow?

See'st thou not how stiff and wondrous old,
Far, far unfit to bear the bitter cold,
I can scarcely move or draw my breath;
Let me, let me freeze again to death.





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
snowflake, its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/alike/alike.htm


Saturday, March 17, 2018

Happy Saint Patrick's Day 2018!


Happy Saint Patrick's Day, a day so admired that everyone becomes a little bit Irish!

For the past few year's today's post has focused on the religious aspects and the true meaning of the celebration of Saint Patrick. This year we'll take a wider view and look at a bit of Irish history and culture.

In the late 19th century the Arbuckle Bros. Coffee Company of New York began issuing themed advertising cards in series to increase its business. I have over 300 of these cards that were collected by my ancestors over two generations. The company issued three cards with Irish themes and I'm pleased to post one of them today. It appeared in the National Geographical Series and did not have descriptive information on the reverse. The description below was issued with the card in the company's special promotional booklet entitled, Arbuckles' Illustrated Atlas of Fifty Principal Nations of the World (1889).




IRELAND, known to the Greeks by the name Ierne (Erin) and to the Romans by the name Hibernia, is the second largest of the British Isles, and is washed on the N. W. and S. sides by the Atlantic Ocean and separated from Great Britain by the N. Channel, the Irish Sea and St. George's Channel. Dublin, the capital, first mentioned by Ptolemy, is one of the finest cities in the Empire, and is situated at the head of Dublin Bay. A Lord Lieutenant is head of the executive government, and is assisted by a Privy Council and Chief Secretary.
Area, 32,531 square miles; population 1881, 5,174,836. Between 1853 and 1889 2,289,735 Irish emigrants landed in the United States.
The great central portion of Ireland is flat, and not less than 2,830,000 acres is bog, but much of the soil is of singular fertility. The climate is milder and moister than that of Great Britain, and clothes the plains and valleys with the richest pasture, procuring for Ireland the name of the Emerald Isle. The coast inlets, called Loughs, are many and of great extent. The lakes of Killarney, three in number, in Kerry, and under shadow of the loftiest mountains in the island, are widely famed for their romantic beauty. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, beans, peas. The live stock comprises horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. The most important manufacture is that of linen. Other industries are muslin sewing, lace making and woolen and worsted goods. There is a considerable amount of whisky distilling and porter brewing. The Shamrock (trefoil) is the national badge of Ireland.

 


















We end the post with  Song of Ireland written by the English singer-songwriter, Phil Colclough, and his wife, June. The performance is by The Dubliners featuring one of its founding members, Luke Kelly. Although Kelly's career was cut short by an early death in 1984, he is credited with saving much of Ireland's traditional music. His Wikipedia biography notes the "[he] remains an Irish icon and his music is widely regarded as one of Ireland's cultural treasures."






Walking all the day, near tall towers where falcons build their nests
Silver winged they fly, they know the call of freedom in their breasts
Soar Black Head against the sky, between the rocks that run down to the sea
Living on your western shore, saw summer sunsets, asked for more 
I stood by your Atlantic sea, and sang a song for Ireland


Talking all the day with true friends, who try to make you stay
Telling jokes and news, singing songs to pass the night away
Watched the Galway salmon run like silver dancing darting in the sun
Living on your western shore saw summer sunsets, asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic sea, and sang a song for Ireland


Drinking all the day in old pubs, where fiddlers love to play
Someone touched the bow, he played a reel, it seemed so fine and gay
Stood on Dingle beach and cast - in wild foam we found Atlantic Bass
Living on your western shore, saw summer sunsets asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic sea, and sang a song for Ireland


Dreaming in the night, I saw a land where no man had to fight
Waking in your dawn, I saw you crying in the morning light
Lying where the Falcons fly, they twist and turn all in you e'er blue sky
Living on your western shore, saw summer sunsets asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic sea, and I sang a song for Ireland




Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
postcards, OTR family archives




Thursday, March 15, 2018

"Welcome South, Brother"- Atlanta's WSB-AM Celebrates 96 Years On The Air


In the early days of the 20th century the call sign "WSB" was assigned to a ship for communications with land-based stations and nearby ships. When that vessel sank, the letters were assigned to another ship that was quickly lost. Mariners are very superstitious about such happening and soon the marked call sign was reserved for land based operators. The year was 1919. Civilian radio use - almost exclusively with a crystal set - began a robust recovery from prohibitions in World War I. At that time there were around 8000 licensed amateur radio operators in the U.S. They shared the airways with fewer than half a dozen licensed radio stations broadcasting brief, intermittent programs featuring concerts, news, and special sports events, especially boxing.

By 1922 technological improvements led to a large expansion in the number of broadcast stations - commercial operations - including the landmarks established by Westinghouse (KDKA Pittsburgh, WJZ Newark, WBZ Springfield/Boston. and KYW Chicago) and American Telephone and Telegraph (WJY Hoboken/New York). It is in this wave of enthusiasm for radio that the owners of the Atlanta Journal established WSB, the oldest station in the Southeast, on March 15, 1922. They beat their competition, the Atlanta Constitution and WGST, by two days. In time the management adopted "Welcome South, Brother" as WSB's slogan. It was a perfect fit for call letters that had been randomly selected and assigned by the Federal Radio Commission.




In its 96 years WSB has played significant roles in the American experience. They range from the popularizing of Southern gospel music to the advocacy for civil rights through a pioneering editorial policy faced by broad and often hostile opposition.

Today, the WSB family serves its listeners as a national talk radio leader, the driving companion for millions of metro Atlanta commuters, and the University of Georgia flagship station for football and basketball.

In retirement I don't listen to local radio much these days unless the Bulldogs are on the gridiron and there's no video media at hand. At the same time, I'm never far removed from the magic of radio because my great uncle Charles's 1921 Westinghouse RC Regenerative Receiver sits in an honored place in our den next to my desk. It was built by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The radio was dated by its very low serial numbers (2239 and 4004). My uncle lived about 75 miles from KDKA in Pittsburgh and I know he enjoyed listening to that station on his radio because he told me so. There's written evidence on the radio manual as well. As for WSB, I can't say with certainty but he was an avid fan from the very beginning of the commercial radio era when it had thirty stations. With so few choices it's hard to imagine him missing Atlanta on the air and that warm greeting, "Welcome South, Brother!"





Happy birthday, WSB!



Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
logo, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WSB_NewsTalkLogo.jpg
radio, OTR photo collection

Text:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSB_(AM)
eh.net/encyclopedia/the-history-of-the-radio-industry-in-the-united-states-to-1940
earlyradiohistory.us



Tuesday, March 13, 2018

It's Pi Day 2018!




Today, you have an opportunity to celebrate, celebrate, celebrate morning and night. Yes, that's three official celebrations:

1. Pi Day - today is March 14 or 3.14;

2. Pi Minute - official designation is March 14 at 1:59 PM or 3.14159; and,

3. Pi Second - official designation is March 14 at 1:59:26 PM or 3.1415926


If you're a night owl you could get away with minute and second celebrations in the A.M.

One could say it's an opportunity for "constant" enjoyment.

Put more pi in your life by visiting the Pi Day Page  at San Francisco's Exploratorium. The museum's resident physicist, Larry Shaw, founded the celebration in 1988. 


Pi Day founder, Larry Shaw, in 2007




Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prince-of-pi.jpg



Thursday, March 1, 2018

Wales Celebrates Its National Day


Today is celebrated as St. David's Day in the Christian world. St. David - "Dewi San" in his native tongue - was born in Wales in the 6th century, attained sainthood in the 12th century, and today is recognized as the patron saint of Wales. He died on this day, now recognized as the National Day of Wales,  in 569 and was buried in the cathedral bearing his name in Pembrokeshire. 






I'm equally proud to say that I have Welsh ancestors thanks to the bloodline introduced by my grandmother's parents. They immigrated to the United States from Cardiff, Wales, in the early 1870's. Although I don't remember my grandmother - she died before my second birthday - my father always reminded me of her Celtic pride and Welsh ancestry expressed especially in a love for song and singing.   A century ago Welsh male choirs could be found in every mining and quarrying village across the country. Now most of the singing is confined to professional choirs and individuals who emerged from the tradition.  Perhaps the best known of those singers today is the bass-baritone, Bryn Terfel:






Wales is a small, ancient country located southwest of England between the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea south of the Isle of Man. The nation has a rich cultural heritage beginning with Celtic peoples in the early Iron Age. Its isolation has left them with strong genetic identifiers as the "last of the 'true' Britons." There are only 3 million people living in Wales today. Historically, the population was never large but there was a limited diaspora beginning two centuries ago particularly with the Industrial Revolution and its need for coal. Only half of one percent of Americans claim Welsh ancestry. I'm pleased to be among them.


Welsh national flag created in the 15th century



Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Welsh flag, public domain image, Open Clipart Library

Text:
wales.com
wikipedia.com

ShareThis