Go Down Gamblin'

Here is an excellent piece by Steven Den Beste. He clearly articulates something that everyone should understand about our presence in Iraq, and the good it is doing them.
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It doesn't surprise me that they make it nearly as much as it surprises me that people actually eat it. (Courtesy of Michele)
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Interesting day today... I had Windows XP installed on my computer, but in the process I lost most of my e-mails and a lot of my other important files. Well, I guess they weren't THAT important... Anyway, I had some trouble reinstalling my printer and my scanner, since they're both a little long in the tooth, but I found the appropriate drivers online and managed to get them up and working. We'll see if Windows XP is as big an improvement as it's supposed to be.

By the way, I apologize for not blogging anything of great importance lately. As much as I admire the job that Glenn Reynolds and the rest do, I actually have to work during the day. ;-)
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My office is COLD today. My office happens to be in a building that's 150 years old, and although the windows are not original, they are certainly older than I am. They have wood frames, and don't keep out the cold (or the heat) well. I was wearing my jacket a good part of the morning, because it was actually colder in my office than it was out in the hallway, which isn't even heated. Fortunately, the sun managed to warm up the air sufficiently for me to type and play the piano. I'm not really complaining, though... I LOVE fall weather. It gives me a sort of thrill of excitement, coupled with a feeling of nostalgia and melancholy. An unbeatable combination. It reminds me of the past in so many different ways... going back to school as a child, marching band in college, the approach of Halloween and my birthday... That's why Fall has to be my favorite season. I might be free from school in summer, or I might have wonderful holiday celebrations in winter, but for me, nothing beats that first, crisp day of fall.
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Went and saw Luther yesterday. On the whole, a good job. The only quibble I would really have about it was that it covered 25 years in the span of just under 2 hours, which caused some scene-to-scene transitions to be rather abrupt, and probably confusing for non-Lutherans. That, and the end was a tad bit anticlimactic... although fairly accurate. But I really enjoyed it, and I think most of the other moviegoers in the theater did, too. It was certainly a lavish-looking film, with great costumes and sets, and the music was very enjoyable. The story was engaging, and Joseph Fiennes was completely convincing as Luther, even though he looks much different than Luther did.

Basically, this film is a must-see for all Lutherans, and I highly recommend it to everyone else as well.
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Sorry about the light blogging lately... I spent most of Thursday cleaning the house, and Friday was basically spent away from the computer. I can tell you about today, though...

So far today, I had a rehearsal at 9:45 this morning. I was REALLY happy to get up early and sing Renaissance music at that time, I assure you. I got done with that at noon, and came home. I drove the boyfriend to work, and then I ate some leftover pizza for lunch, along with an apple and some pumpkin pie I made yesterday (made it from scratch, crust and all). I crashed for a two hour nap... a two hour nap (Gilligan's Island comes to mind). And here I am. If anything exciting happens today, I'll be sure to write about it. Meanwhile, if you have time, check out the links on the right side of the screen. Tschüß!
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LUTHER opens today!
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I just posted a response over at A Small Victory, and I have no doubt that I'm going to get a lot of flak for it. Michele's readers tend to be very... enthusiastic... and sometimes brook no debate.

Michele's blog post showed the parents of "martyr" Rachel Corrie presenting a portrait of their daughter to professional terrorist, Yasser Arafat. Of course, I thought the whole thing ridiculous in a certain light-- that light being Rachel Corrie held up as some kind of heroine/martyr who died doing something laudable and good, when in reality she was just perpetuating the string of violence in the Middle East by defending terrorists and their ability to strike at Israeli innocents.

That said, I think it was awful the way she died. I used to have nightmares as a child about being crushed to death. That's about the only thing I fear more than falling to my death. So, although I abhor Rachel's politics and the things she stood for, the fact is she was a human being just like me, and she died a horrible death. Some may say that she was asking for it, standing in front of a moving bulldozer. Well, I daresay she was. But many of us are "asking for it" many times a day, and yet by the grace of God we continue on unscathed.

So, basically, I think it is rather unsettling that some people find pleasure and humor in her death, and see fit to make it a tasteless joke.

That's really all I wanted to say, although I would rather have said it in fewer (and better) words.
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Well, I watched WAY too much TV tonight, and ate WAY too much fried food. That's what I get for living by myself. At least I washed and partially waxed the car, and vacuumed the house. Now I have to wash the dishes and clean the bathroom, and maybe even mop the floor.

SIGH.

A man's work is never done. Wait, that's not how it goes...
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This explains it all (courtesy Andrew Sullivan).
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Well, I had a really nice post that I typed up, and as I was publishing it, Blogger crashed or something. Maybe it was my computer, I don't know. But at any rate, I had it, and now I don't. Grrr.

Oh, but hey, I have a new hit counter. Woo-hoo!
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Here's a thought:

Britney Spears=Presbyterians

Heh. (Courtesy of VH1)
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I sure hope that the much-anticipated perscription drug benefits cover this.
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And here is a great post (as usual) from Steven Den Beste on the attempt by the BBC to paint treasonous acts (committed against the US by US citizens) in a much brighter light.
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Here is more from Michele at "A Small Victory" about the high school football hazing case. I just can't believe that so many people are rushing to the perpetrators' defense and leaving the victims behind. Well, scratch that, yes I CAN believe it. It strikes me as typical, considering the rabid nature of many sports fans out there. I mean, I am a musician, I've studied music for years, I teach music-- I LOVE music. But I can't imagine my fervor for music ever matching that of, say, Iowa Hawkeye football fans. They are a breed apart. Apart from me and most people I know, that is, but apparently not apart from many other sports fans. To them, Sports rule all, and anything (even legitimate punishment of criminal action by the players) that is a detriment to a sports program is reviled as ridiculous and unfair, to put it mildly. Sheesh.
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Sorry I didn't blog yesterday... (not that anybody reads it anyway)... Had a pretty good Sunday, though. I announced in church about the movie "Luther", which is due out on September 26th. I also watched "Chicken Run" for the first time, which was highly entertaining. I get a kick out of the British Claymation-type movies, such as "Wallace and Grommit" (sp?), and this one was definitely worth renting. It'll make me think twice the next time I eat a chicken pie. Well, maybe... "Mmmm, chicken pie... " (drools)
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Last night I was watching TV, when a commercial for a movie came on... I wasn't paying too much attention to it, but then I sort of noticed that a lot of the scenes in the movie seemed very familiar to me. When I started paying attention more closely, I said to myself, "That reminds me of stuff that happened to Martin Luther." Well, guess what? It IS about Luther! The movie itself is simply called Luther, and it's coming out on September 26th. It will be playing close to me, so I'm looking forward to seeing it. It stars Joseph Fiennes as Luther, and also includes Alfred Molina as Tetzel and Peter Ustinov as Frederick the Wise. Claire Cox plays Frau Luther, and the cast also includes Jonathan Firth and Bruno Ganz (Staupitz). According to my Dad, it's supposed to be surprisingly accurate, so go see it!
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Here is a good article by A. M. Rosenthal, for all those who still take issue with Bush's determination to invade Iraq and depose Saddam. (Courtesy of Porphyrogenitus.)
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My dryer makes noise. A LOT of noise. It's a combination of a squeak and an agonizing moan, and it makes it each and every time the drum makes a complete revolution. As a result, it's a little difficult to be in the house when it's running. I usually try to wash the clothes, and then put them in the dryer right when I'm leaving for work. That way, it can run as long as it wants, but bother nobody, and I have dry clothes when I get home.

This morning, of course, I had plenty of time to get ready (it's a Friday, and I have little to do in the mornings). And, as per usual, I frittered away my time, until I realized I had to get cracking or be late. So, of course, I didn't have time to do the dishes, and even worse, I forgot to start the dryer. Which means that either I have to run home soon and start it, or I have to dry my clothes while I'm at home, which is EXTREMELY unpleasant. I think I'll choose the former option. It just means I will have less overall time to prepare for choir.

Man, I need to get that dryer fixed.
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James Lileks has been one of my favorite columnists/bloggers for some time now. This is due partly to the fact that he writes about his everyday life in such an engaging, captivating manner, and also because he treats political issues of today (such as 9/11 and Iraq) with common sense, clear thinking, and an appropriate amount of righteous anger. This column, for 9/18/03, demonstrates EXACTLY what I'm talking about. He should be required reading for every left-wing apologist for Saddam Hussein, and for Big Media types who are on "spin cycle" more often than a washing machine. Go read it.
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Well, now the boyfriend is mad at me for chatting on the computer with a friend who lives in Brazil. I don't know what he thinks is going on (although I have somewhat of an idea), but it is certainly not whatever he thinks it is. The thing is, he gets angry before I have a chance to explain that it is nothing remotely bad, and IF he does actually give me a chance to explain, he doesn't believe me. I asked him if he trusts me, but he dodged the question. Well, I need to find out the answer, because if he doesn't trust me, then our relationship can't go anywhere.

(By the way, I am really quite angry at him right now. I'm sure he'll do the usual thing and call me tomorrow, saying he's sorry and that he stupid and all sorts of stuff like that, and I'll probably do my usual thing and forgive him. I just wish I could impress upon him how much it hurts me every time he does this, and that I'm not going to take it forever.)
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Here is a very interesting item from a German (I think) who has changed his thinking on Iraq. (Courtesy of LGF)
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Well, I made it through my crazy morning. I was asked by a fellow faculty member to teach a section of music history this morning, since he would be out of town. I foolishly agreed, and he informed me that I would be teaching about the transition from 13th-century organum purum to the beginnings of the motet. Yikes! I haven't even thought about this stuff since I studied it myself in college. I had to do some quick review, and some of it came back to me, but I still had trouble because I had no idea about what they had covered previously, nor what the format of the class was to be. I ended up explaining about the addition of more voices to 2-part organum, and how that led to the creation of the motet. I played a LOT of musical examples. Fortunately, I think the students got something out of it, although I'm not sure it was actually what I wanted to convey to them.
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Take a look at this. Cool, eh?
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Every time I see this, I positively seethe with anger towards the people who would so callously kill children on their way to school. I'm afraid that, should I ever meet a Palestinian, I won't be able to refrain from thinking, "Your people have murdered countless innocents, women and children; your people danced in the streets and sang for joy when 19 depraved men slaughtered nearly 3000 of my countrymen." I don't want to be a racist; I don't want to paint all people with the same brush. But it's becoming increasingly difficult not to.
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I've been reading through the whole school lunch debacle over at A Small Victory, and Michele is right-- it's time to give up. Many people who contributed to the discussion tried to be reasonable, and many more others had no such compunction. All I will say is, despite the fact that I generally favor less government, I have no serious objections to subsidized school lunches for some kids. I had 'em for a little while when I was in school, and now that I'm making money and paying taxes, I hope that other kids somewhere get the same use out of it.
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Well, I had another faculty meeting today, which set me back considerably from the time I was originally planning on going to Iowa City. Every Monday, I have a rehearsal in Iowa City for an early music ensemble which performs concerts to raise money for hunger relief. I had originally planned on leaving for I.C. right after my last lesson for the day, which ended at 2:30. However, then I got an e-mail saying we had a meeting at 4pm, which means I wouldn't be able to leave until about 5pm. That would get me to Iowa City about 6pm, leaving only 45 minutes for dinner and a visit with the boyfriend. Fortunately, my colleagues had mercy on me, and we ended earlier than usual, so I could get to Iowa City at about 5:30pm.

And instead of dinner, I had 2 Drumstick ice cream cones. That's nutrition!
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If you love Japan, and the crazy Japanese obsession with putting English on EVERYTHING, then you'll love this... (courtesy of www.engrish.com)
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Well, this just beats all. Apparently, a judge has decided to allow some people to sue American Airlines, United Airlines, the Boeing Corporation, and the New York Port Authority for their losses from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. I don't know how any reasonable judge could hold any of those companies responsible for anything that happened that day, especially since airport security is handled by the airport itself, and the Port Authority is neither responsible for the unplanned introduction of burning jet fuel into the World Trade Center, nor for the force of gravity.

What I also want to know is: Who are these people, and can there be a countersuit? I'm serious; the ridiculousness of this situation is such that the plaintiffs should lose a significant portion of their own private property for bringing this suit. They are trying to use innocent people's deaths as an opportunity to score some dough, and since they can't get it from the people responsible (who are, for the most part, already dead), they are going to try to get it from parties who are in no way responsible, just because they are perceived to have lots of extra money lying around. This amounts to legal thievery. And the judge is no better... what could have possibly made him think that this suit is a good idea? He should be fired.

I am sick and tired of all the frivolous lawsuits flying around these days. I have news for you, folks: Stuff happens sometimes. People die when airplanes crash. Airplanes crash because they are machines. Machines fail because they are not perfect. They are not perfect because they are made by humans, who are also not perfect. To expect them to be otherwise is to live in delusion. Add to that the fact that humans can also thwart the best precautions and security measures if they try hard enough, and there is NO WAY that everyone can be completely protected at all times from everybody who wishes them ill. I can't believe that this is news to some people.

I think that these are the same people who are surprised that eating McDonald's food makes you fat.
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Well, I just spent the last two hours after church fiddling with the colors on my blog. As I have absolutely no prior knowledge of HTML, it took quite a bit of experimenting before I got something close to what I wanted. However, I'm fairly pleased with the result. Could maybe use a tiny bit more tweaking, but that will have to wait for another day.

Church this morning was good. The choir sang, and we had almost 6 people, which is pretty good for us. We also sang some pretty stirring hymns, although the melody for "When I survey the wondrous cross" was not the one I was expecting and hoping for. I didn't stick around for refreshments afterwards, though... it usually takes forever for me to get away once everybody starts chatting, so I grabbed the first opportunity and ran for the door. Besides, they only had brownies today.
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I just read an article about the record labels' lawsuits against people who had downloaded and shared music files. On the one hand, I can sympathize and, even to a certain extent, agree that music is definitely the intellectual property of the musicians and needs to be paid for. However, on the other hand, it looks like in this case that the record companies are just being greedy and vindictive. They claim that album sales are down 30% since file-sharing became widespread, but if you take a closer look, the decline since 2000 has been only half that, and only 35% of that decline comes from file-sharing (see link below). Add to that the fact that most musicians never see ANY royalties from the record companies, and something starts smelling really fishy. It seems to me that, despite their claim that file-sharing takes money "out of the musicians' pockets", record labels are only out to protect their own huge margin of profit.

Now, I don't see anything wrong with making a profit. Profit is what drives our country and our economy. But these companies are using lawsuits to go after people who may not have even known that their computers were being used to download files, as well as kids who probably don't have as much access to CD recordings as adults. So, that makes them look bad right there. I certainly agree that people who record and market these albums deserve some compensation, but surely there is a better way.

What I would really like to see is musicians turning to marketing their songs and recordings solely over the internet through a pay-per-song medium, independent of any record label. They would have much greater freedom over the content of their songs and albums, and wouldn't have to let the record companies take the lion's share of the profit. Not only that, but musicians themselves would have a much greater chance at exposing their music to the listening world. Right now, we only hear the bands and songs that record companies want us to hear, or think that we want to hear. With an internet-based pay-per-song system, everyone could choose for him- or herself what they would like to pay for and keep, and what they'd like to chuck.

I know it's pretty unlikely that this will come to pass anytime soon, but it's a nice fantasy. I know, of course, that there are flaws... For example, there are quite a few people out there who wouldn't care about fair compensation for musicians, and would STILL try to get music for free. But if the price-per-download were reasonable (and I'm talking really reasonable... maybe 25 or 50 cents per song), you would probably weed out most of the people who do it.

Well, anyway, that's just my two cents.

NY Times article
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I just finished cleaning up the last of the dishes from a party I held for my choir students. Altogether, about eleven of them came (out of 30), plus one of the other music faculty members. It was a pretty good time, I think... since it was raining, we weren't able to cook outside, but I still managed to get the food done in a reasonable amount of time. We had bratwurst, hamburgers, beans, and chips. I also made a New York cheesecake for dessert. Hopefully, next time we'll have even more people show up.
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Well, the site is under construction right now... we'll see what happens when I actually get around to writing something of value. In the meantime, welcome to my blog-- hope you come back soon and check it out!
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