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All about the standing-upright chimps that really love to talk about themselves.

Failing

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My fellow Americans, our nation is failing.

It’s not failing because our government is failing. That is, by itself, merely a symptom in a nation where it truly is a reflection of its people. The politics which guide our dialogue and create the government are also little more than a symptom of the disease in much the same manner. To be truly free, much is demanded of a people, any people, and we are not meeting that challenge in any useful way.

We are failing as a people. We are failing as a society. We are simply failing.

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Me, Too

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Me, too.

Two simple words betray enough emotion to define an entire being, or when swallowed and pushed aside devour a person from inside.

Me, too.

Two simple words repeated in a cadence, one person after another, leaving thousands of words unsaid and thousands more falling between them

Me, too.

Two simple words dominated social media this week. By repeating them over and over, they defined a monster which has consumed generations of women and defined far too much of their lives.

Me, too.

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St Crispian Day

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Many holidays have been proclaimed for various reasons. Some are important, some are trivial. Martin Luther King Day took a long fight to become a holiday, Columbus Day has largely passed on without a fight. But October 25th is one holiday that could be added to our calendar, a holiday that celebrates something I am rather fond of. It is St Crispian’s Day, and it celebrates the English Language.

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Dies Irae – Nightmare Before Christmas

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Friday the 13th just before Halloween – a good day for this repeat of my favorite post on my favorite musical score.

It’s the spooky season, but it’s also the fun season. Before Winter wraps its embrace around us there is Halloween, the last chance to have some fun. It’s a challenge to the eerie creep of darkness we’re still adjusting to, still resisting at least one last time.

No movie captures the season for me quite like “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” the epic Tim Burton classic of stop-motion animation from the old school. Released in 1993, it was immediately recognized as a great classic movie for the holidays – Halloween, for the fun of it, and Christmas for the cynically twisted reaction to what it has become.

What makes this movie, however, isn’t just the great story and animation. The score by Danny Elfman is pure genius – and belongs in the repertoire of classical greats.

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Product of the Times

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It has been a bizzy weekend.  I have to run a repeat, this one from 2011.

What we know about our past is often heavily filtered through something like “conventional wisdom”. Certain “great men” are raised up as heroes while others are confined to the footnotes of history. The names that we hear often get credit for far more than they deserve as they ossify into myths, people who are bigger than life. That’s been changing lately as we study history as the actions of people who were simply doing their best. It’s especially evident in the growing body of performances of ancient music that showcase “minor” composers – those who made up the scene that made it all happen.

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