Happy Feast Day!

By Mitchell Hadley

Of course, that goes for everyone tomorrow - at least we know we'll be feasting (or is that gorging?) - but today it applies to our friend and contributor Cathy of Alex on this feast day of her patron saint!

A Turkey of a "Church"

By Bobby Chang

On a social networking site recently, a person wrote that she was attending the new "satellite church" service of a popular "non-denominational" megachurch that's 150 miles away and feeds its signal via satellite from that "church" (which is more of a life enhancement centre) to the building. When I read the information about this megachurch, I saw red lights appear almost immediately.

Earlier in the year, they had as "service music" (no joke here) a popular r&b hip-hop ditty that does not sound appropriate. In another service, this same church offered another silly pop ditty. To top this silliness, what about this tune? How many of these tunes are suitable in church?

And other "churches" have followed the bandwagon. This isn't suitable, sorry, you're headed to the Oval Office.

What has happened to sacred song? Is sacred song not "cool" or relevant to others anymore?

Holiday Entertainment

By Cathy of Alex

A(mannered ) Cranky Cathy post! Mannered because Mitchell will not have it any other way!

It’s not even Advent yet and the Christmas music is already playing 24/7 on, at least one, local radio station. Another station will start the 24/7 music this week. I know, because the start of the Christmas music on these two stations was worthy enough to warrant several brief newspaper stories in the Pioneer Press

Retailers, already anticipating a dismal shopping season, have started Black Friday a week early.

Sadly, for marketers, Christmas is always December 25th. Yet, I’m sure if there were a way to move the date to maximize sales, they would.

Ads for holiday entertainment have been popping up for about a month now. The day I buy tickets for a Trans-Siberian Orchestra show, please question my sanity. Thank you.

I know Mitchell thinks you can never have enough Menotti and he’s probably eagerly looking forward to listening to Amahl and the Night Visitors again! I know he and Judith are already watching their Christmas Special DVD collection! They told me. God bless them.

There’s nothing wrong with quality and inspiring Christmas entertainment. I admit, openly, that “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee is a song I never get tired of hearing. I’ve seen the “Nutcracker” staged numerous times and love it. I enjoy the Guthrie’s “A Christmas Carol”. “Black Nativity” staged by the Penumbra is very good as well.

But, I open up the Pioneer Press today (I’m old school. I read the print paper daily.) and the front page of the A&E Live section is entirely devoted to those dopey dinner theater “nun” shows.Every Christmas these shows that mock Catholicism, Catholic school education and nuns pop up. Someone must be going to them because a few of them are on version or part two or higher. I’m sure a local drag queen will have his local holiday show as well. In that show, he usually mocks Catholic religious songs like “Ave Maria”. I must have a heart of stone and a complete lack of humor to think this stuff isn’t funny, fabulous and heartwarming entertainment for the entire family, right?

In an attempt to head off any Catholic anger, the Pioneer Press theater reviewer , in recent years, always makes a reference to his Catholic school education when he reviews any show with “Catholic” content. So, that makes it all ok, right? He can get the joke and I can’t? I’ve no idea what Mr. Papatola’s religious views are, but I know from extensive personal experience that Catholic haters are rife within Holy Church.

Even the Lutheran shows often have an anti-Catholic joke or angle in their somewhere. In defense of my Lutheran brethren, I can be upset on their behalf about the continued perpetuation of Lutherans as eating only jello and “hot dish”. I don’t think they settled the Dakotas on jello. I’m pretty sure the Sioux Uprising did not occur over a bad jello mold or the audacity to offer “cold dish”.

Be really careful about what kinds of holiday productions you are giving your money too. Does anyone want to spend this faith-filled and joyous season as we anticipate the Birth of Our Savior sitting thru an hour or more of anti-Christian dreck? I suppose there are some folks who do. If there weren’t, these productions would die a merciful death.

Oddballs

By Bobby Chang

Now here's an oddball.

At Homestead-Miami Speedway, the track removed the fixed-digit scoring pylon and replaced it with a video pylon, a trend that has been seen at various tracks worldwide. While in F1 it has been seen with just the infamous three-letter driver abbreviations, during last month's IRL race, the track chose to post the rear wing plates in place of the car number (colours and design of wing plates, along with colour of numbers, stays faithful to the car). During NASCAR races, the stylised numbers seen on-track are used, a trend that began in 2001. Look carefully from the IRL race in Homestead and see one of the wing plates on the pylon. Something doesn't look right.

Can you find it?

I Know I Shouldn't Indulge Myself, But...

By Mitchell Hadley

Mike Potemra at NRO offers the following commentary on a "blogger" which is simply too good to pass up.

After noting the blogger's jeremiad (which is what people of our age used to call what people today refer to as screeds) against "frenzies" about the president's bow to the Japanese emperor, Potemra goes on to say this:

The blogger who wrote this is himself, actually, among those especially highly prone to frenzies. (Look at the tone of the rest of his post — not the substance, some of which I agree with and some of which I don’t — but the tone. You’ll see what I mean.) I point this out not to “gotcha” him with a hypocrisy charge, but to praise him for upholding the principle. It’s well known that we dislike most in others the faults we ourselves share, and this fault — the cultivation of rage in our hearts — is one I’m sure most of us know, only too well. He deserves as much slack on this as any of the rest of us.

And to that, I can only say "ditto, ditto."

Oh, and the blogger to which Potemra refers? That would be none other than the man formerly known here as the "Blogger Who Shall Remain Unnamed," the number two man on my Enemies List, Mark Shea.

Potemra's remarks underline the main gripe I've had with Shea for years, i.e. his tone, which I find incredibly off-putting, not to say malicious. Shea may make excellent points from time to time - in fact, I know he does - but he's so annoying, so condesending, so snarky the rest of the time, it makes me want to disagree with him just on principle. I'm just glad I converted to Catholicism before I started reading him; otherwise, I might still be a Protestant today. I've finally acknowledged that on some issues, I find myself agreeing with him in spite of what he says, rather than because of what he says.

Often Shea conducts his discussions as if he were a child on a playground. And I'd expect more from an adult - wouldn't you?

How the Nazis Stole Christmas (Sort Of)

By Mitchell Hadley

Christmas decorations are going up all around the town, and so we'll get a head start on our own month of festivities with this fascinating story (H/T Jonah Goldberg at NRO) of how the Nazi propaganda machine tried to subvert Christmas for their own purposes. The Nazi goal (much like that of today's PC secularists?) was "to turn it into a pagan winter solstice celebration."

Most interesting (and perhaps chilling) was this quote pulled out from near the end of the story:

Surprisingly, German churches put up little opposition to the Nazification of Christmas. 'You would have expected them to protest loudly and insist that it was a Christian festival,' said Breuer. 'But instead they largely kept quiet,out of fear.'

But that can't happen here. Can it?

Wish I'd Written That

By Paul Drew

They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours."

Margaret Thatcher

Opera Wednesday

By Paul Drew

For those of you who think we spend too much time trashing modern opera, here's a clip of the great Beverly Sills in one of her signature roles, "Baby Doe" Taybor, in Douglas Moore's 1956 The Ballad of Baby Doe.

Pelosi's Socialised Medicine

By Bobby Chang

The utter arrogance of Congress to pass a Communist-style health "care" policy is outright arrogant. As I mentioned in July, I have a friend who tore her ACL and needed surgery (fortunately it was caught early, and she is doing very well; saw her at a show for her group; another friend of mine danced in it).

Once again, the rules of Congress created the Communist style rules - One Side Only from the Left.

One Congressman noted the current leadership has a "command and control" style of governing, demanding people do what the government tells you or penalties will be severe. We saw it with automakers, and we saw it with industries. Now they want us to do it with healthcare.

As Glenn Beck says, we have a new National Anthem. Please Stand for the National Anthem.

While We're At It

By Mitchell Hadley

By the way, you'll indulge me one last bit on Tosca, won't you? There's been a lot of ink (and pixels) spilled on the Met's recent fiasco - er, production - and there is the misocnception that those who hated it are simply tradition-bound trogs who hate any kind of change.

One of our favorite writers, Alex Ross of The New Yorker, has a very nice piece about why this just isn't so - why the ultimate reason for the Met's failure was director Luc Bondy's fundamental misunderstanding (or at least misreading) of the music was a part of it. And do be sure to listen to the soundbites he uses to illustrate his points - this kind of teaching brings back the good old days of Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. (As well as the recent PBS series Keeping Score, and let's hope we see more of that next season!)