I really like counterpoint as a musical style. It combines simplicity with complexity, and it combines repetition with variation. In terms of its value for meditation on a particular theme, it’s hard to get much better than that.
I wonder if counterpoint is strictly a “classical” phenomenon?
I was actually pretty surprised that Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code only got a 23% freshness rating over at Rotten Tomatoes. Apparently, it didn’t resonate nearly as well as the book did.
Most people recognize that there is a great deal of controversy about the book. I have to say that I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, though I still have some philosophical comments about it. Perhaps the most common response to the book is “Who cares?”, implying so the historical inaccuracies are not important. I’ve thought about this a bit, and thus far the most effective response I can think of would regard, for instance, a book that had as its theme that the Holocaust was a fictional event. I believe that just about everyone, from the intellectually honest to the politically correct would have an objection to such a plot line. “But it’s just a novel!” Well, the public masses are educated in many ways, and entertainment media is just one of those ways.
Sure, we can give some leniency to historical fiction writers for adding romances where they did not exist, or conflict, or whatever, but it is deceptive and unethical (in my opinion) to play with the more profound elements of history. Anyone willing to do some research will find that The Da Vinci Code is twisting these more profound elements of history.
The Bible is an amazing book. It’s worthwhile to read it regularly, but few Christians do so, and I’m no exception to the general rule in this case.
Just recently I’m thinking that it would be a great thing to take in the Word of God and the exposition of the Word of God via the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Why?
1) I seem to have a need (along with most people?) to have daily times of reflection away from the mental clutter of media, pressure, habits, etc.
2) JS Bach’s music is very soothing, beautiful, and stirring, in my opinion. It leads to growth in my mental and, I believe, spiritual life. His music sets a standard that is generally unmatched and rises above just about all of the music before, during, and after his time.
3) JS Bach uses Scripture and hymns as the basis for most (all?) of his musical works.
4) I have a strong intellectual background in the Word of God, but sometimes my heart/emotions are not in step with my intellect. A musical presentation of the Word of God provides the beauty and repetition to speak to both my mind and heart–that is to say, my all.
That’s not to say that I shouldn’t crack open the Bible, though I’d like to think that I have an in-depth intellectual understanding of Biblical precepts and contents.
This makes me somewhat nostalgic for the time when I was singing two or three Bach cantatas a year with a group at Camelback Bible Church. It was a vigorous mental, physical, and spiritual exercise.
From a high level, it seems to be very clear that maintaining standards and exercising performance management is a smart and necessary thing to do. From the lowest levels, it can be an extremely difficult process that smacks of being unfair. Take this story from the Arizona Republic that details one family’s fight to against the AIMS test, a statewide test that sets a performance standard that has to be achieved before high school students can graduate from high school. This particular story seems to paint an accurate assessment that it is silly for this particular family to sue the state so that one person can pass high school.
Quotas add an interesting element to the debate about performance management. In the case of the AIMS test, there are no quotas for failure. In some companies there are quotas that a given percentage of the employee population receive a performance message. Now that’s a sticky situation. From a pragmatic point of view, this could be effective (I suspect that that’s true though I’m not sure of it), but I just can’t justify such a policy with the ethics and morals that I hold to.
The latest interest for Noelle and Carolyn (two of my three daughters) is the YMCA, or the “Y” as they now know it. Noelle really hasn’t gotten past the 2nd step in the swimming pool (except when she sort of fell in), though Carolyn is progressing reasonably well with her attempts to swim.
Hopefully their interest in these activities stays high.
It’s an interesting decision that I had to make recently: work less so I can commit more time to family.
My wife got me tickets to the Suns game last night. It was a really great game …
It’s easy to overlook the contribution that my wife has to my life and to our kids’ lives. It’s also to just buy in to the commercialization of Monday’s Day and just get her a token “yes-I-remembered” gift. Actually, I think that that’s better than nothing. But perhaps better in my case is a nice entry in my blog that my wife will stumble across.
Katie, thank you for your patience with me and with the kids. It’s pretty difficult to handle the chaos of three small children, and I’m grateful that you handle it well. Please know that you are appreciated and loved. May God give us both strength for the continuation of our family journey.
Love always,
Joel
No, this isn’t an entry about people getting along with people. It’s about mechanical tolerances. Specifically, I went to Lowes to get some shelf pegs for the cupboard shelves in our home since the pegs that were there are too large and are breaking off. My wife bought some shelf pegs, but there really are too large.
I borrowed some calipers from Lowes to find out if their shelf pegs are actually small enough to fit the holes. It turns out that most of the pegs labeled for a 5mm hole are actually just a bit larger than 5mm. I think perhaps we should be a little less tolerant if it means that I am expected to put a 5.1mm peg into a 5.0mm hole.
A co-worker first introduced me to the term “podcast” nearly a year ago. Now that I have a portable media player (actually, it’s my Palm Treo 700w smartphone), I’m exploring the abundant resources that are hidden and not-so-hidden on the web.
Among the more interesting podcasts that I found so far:
The Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers
Hopefully those links will be valid for a while.
Blending into the din of voices is the new “Binary Oasis,” my take at sharing my thoughts for the benefit of my readers and for the benefit of myself. Topics won’t be limited within this space. I anticipate that I’ll blog on the topics of philosophy, media, pop culture, real estate, business, technology and more.