Quote of the Day:

Courtesy of those wacky folx at lowbrow (no, I'm not posting a link),

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Link of the Day:
The Hymn Society

Very cool org, with a not-so-great website, but their mag is dynamite. I've belonged for only a few months, but lots of great info. As a hymnal collector (only collecting in earnest for the last year or two), their historical info is top-notch, and well-documented.

Lest you thought no one was writing hymns anymore...

Quote of the Day:

"With no Osama bin Laden and no Saddam Hussein, the war on terrorism becomes a metaphorical abstraction, like the war on poverty. Clearly we ought to be rebuilding Afghanistan and securing its future. But we as a people have a short attention span and it's hard to keep a focus on nondramatic things that cost money and don't provide the immediate satisfaction you get from blowing things up."

Keith Shimko, Purdue University

Assembling the studio:

In anticipation of my daughter and her daughter someday moving out (insert Rosary intention here), I've been pulling together stuff for my recording studio room. Here's a list:

Recording hardware:
Roland VS-840 recorder,
Compaq P-III 833mhz 256mb PC,
MidiSport 2x2 USB,
M-Audio Quattro sound card.

Acoustic / Electro-mechanical Instruments:
Acoustic piano, spinet,
Hammond D-152 organ with solo pedal unit,
Hammond M-3 (but probably gone soon),
Fender Rhodes 73 Stage piano,
Hohner Clavinet D6;
Arp String Ensemble (needs repair),
Epiphone 335 Dot electric guitar.

Mics:
Oktava MK-319,
Shure SM-57,
Shure SM-58,
Shure Green Bullet.

Synths/Controllers/Modules:
Alesis QS-8.1,
Novation K-Station,
Kurzweil SP-88,
Roland XP-10,
Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (Rev 3.3, no midi),
Yamaha KX-88 (needs repair),
MidiMan Oxygen 8,
MidiTech 49-key knobby,
Yamaha P-50,
Roland P-55,
Yamaha TQ-5,
Yamaha RX-11,
Yamaha TX-7 (2 of 'em).

Key Software:
Cubase 5.1,
Acid Pro 3.0,
Reason 2.0,
Sound Forge 6.0,
Sonic Foundry Noise Reduction,
Encore 4.2,
Band-In-A-Box 8.0,
NI B-4,
NI Pro-52,
Steinberg Model E,
GigaSampler LE,
Emagic EVP-73,
plus boatloads of sample disks.

Monitoring:
Alesis M-1s,
Samson P-60,
M-Audio SP-5Bs.

I'm sure there's a lot more I need, but right now, I just gotta learn these tools better, especially Cubase and Reason. Watch this space!

Finally, a minute to breathe...

Work has been wild - big project comes in in two weeks, resulting in tons of overtime and tons of pressure. No fun at all.

BTW, Hammond's not going over well at home - I lugged it across the state in the back of my pickup truck, loaded it in the house with the help of four buddies. Mostly good shape, but it's absolutely huge compared to my old M-3, whicxh has now been demoted to the garage.

And the hugeness is the issue. I'll have to make it up to her somehow. Ideas, anyone?

I did! I did!

Details:

Hammond D-152, AGO-type pedalboard, built-in speakers.
It will replace my M-3, which I like well enough, but only an octave-minus-one pedalboard. Part of the church music degree I'm going for requires organ performance classes, so I needed the 32-note (AGO spec) pedalboard.
Kinda glad I didn't use e-bay's "Buy-it-now" feature - it was $1500! Picked it up for $1075.

Here's the link.

Last five minutes! I Might win this one!

Link of the day:

National Association of Pastoral Musicians, aka NPM. I've belonged since 1999. An amazing bunch of folks, predominantly Catholic, NPM has largely overcome its folk-mass origins, and is now all over the map, liturgically and theologically. Can you say "diversity"? Anyhow, they've got a great (and lively!!!) mail list too, about 250 strong, 30-60 messages per day most of the time. not for everyone, but it's been a must-read for me for the last 3 1/2 years.

More about St. Cecilia:

Posted by one of my rare visitors, but commenting the wrong entry, so I thought I'd repost for him.

My wife and I just finished reading her biography by the Abbe Gueranger.

As a matter of fact we know a great deal about her *with certainty." Cecelia did not refuse marriage, but on her wedding day after being escorted to the nuptial chamber she confided to her husband Valerian that she had vowed her virginity of Jesus. There follows the story of the conversion of Valerian and his brother Tiburtius, their trial, the conversion of the prefect's notary Maximus, the beheading of the two brothers, the thrashing to death with leaded whips of Maximus, Cecelia's trial, attempted suffocation in the steam bath of her palace, her attempted beheading.

This story was confirmed by the discovery of her incorrupt body in the catacombs of S. Callisto by Pope Paschal in 800, details of which confirm the substance of the Acts of St. Cecelia. Her body was translated to her palace- now basilica- and once more was discovered incorrupt underneath the altar by Cdl Sfondrato 800 years later. Nearby were the bones of two men of similar build who had been beheaded, and that a third not beheaded by whose skull had been fractured, presumably by the leaded whips. She was discovered in the same attitude that pascal had her in, as described in the Acts, on her side, knees slightly drawn up, head turned down... This was captured by the famous sculpture of Stephen Maderno who Sfondrato had summoned to witness the disinterment. Her garments were as described in the Acts. There are many other points of confirmation of her Acts, too numerous to mention here. It all happened. St. Cecelia, pray for us.

Vote on Aug. 6th!

I already said this somewhere else, but worth repeating:

I'll be voting for Dave Bonior in the Michigan Democratic gubernatorial primary next week. He's not the only anti-abortion candidate running, nor the "best" on the abortion issue - he picked a pro-abortion running mate - but he's the closest thing to being "truly pro-life" I've seen. Should Bonior win the primary (he's running third right now), he'll come up against a fiercely anti-abortion Republican, Dale Posthumus, in November. Anti-abortion voters will vote for Posthumus. Pro-life voters will vote for Bonior.

But I didn't mention this part:

Dave seems to be very quiet on the anti-abortion issue. It's at odds with his party's platform, and he is a party man - he'd never have been Minority Whip if he wasn't. I think he's missing a golden opportunity - not just to score an anti-abortion victory, but to carve a niche for the Dems, and give primary voters a clear alternative - since "pro-choice" (and a hell of a choice it is) voters will be split among Granholm and Blanchard, he could pull a lot of votes just by announcing his anti-abortion stand. It won't happen, though...

Link of the Day:

Chicago Trib has a real nice article on Catholic Blogs - I won't link it here, but will link the site they reference:

St. Blog's Parish

Typically, they had to quote someone who objected to these sites (and clearly "just didn't get it"), but generally a real nice article. The "parish" is a loose-knit community of bloggers who share a common interest in all things Catholic, but quite diverse points of view and areas of focus. THIS link is to the webring of the same name. Check us all out!

Correction:

"livelywriter" is the owner of St. Blog's - maybe "facilitator" would be a better word, but her site is just one on the list. Webrings usually offer a list site, but apparently this one doesn't - so visit A Random St. Blog Site instead. Each click will take you somewhere new.

Link of the Day:

In Between Naps, Amy Welborn's commentary site on all things Catholic. She's a bit farther right on the horizontal plane than I am. Nevertheless, she is well-spoken, concise, thoughtful, and informed. Give her a visit.

Quote of the Day:

Lifted from Prairie Home Companion...

Y'know, it's 90% of lawyers that give the rest a bad name.

I never tire of lawyer jokes.

Link of the Day:

Contemporary Catholic Music - once a Yahoo Club, converted to a group earlier this year, where they lost all our photos. Two notes to the no-help-at-all desk haven't resolved that. Our discussions on music tend to be light, as does traffic, despite 250+ members. We expanded our membership early on to reach out to persons from other denominations, other countries, and at times we spend nearly as much time discussing traditional music as we do contemporary music.

So, possibly misnamed, but a friendly place. And it's nearing its 4th anniversary - ancient by WWW standards...

Questions about St. Cecilia?

Here's the primer.

Quote of the Day:

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.- Douglas Adams

lifted from The Boar's Head Tavern

Wedding Tomorrow:
For a young lady who clearly had some serious thoughts about her wedding music. She actually asked for some very good stuff, including Twila Paris' "How Beautiful", some sacred classical pieces, and the p-n-w hit "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever", but, given our limited prep time, we couldn't accommodate her, except that she also wanted Jernigan's "My All in All". She was especially disappointed about the Paris tune (I DID play it once, about 7 years ago, but Debbie didn't know it, and I would have needed time to refamiliarize myself with it), but only got argumentative about our refusal to use Mendelssohn's Wedding March from A Midsummer's Night's Dream" as recessional - only sacred music in the mass. Although the mass is technically over before the recessional, the American perception is that it is part of the mass - I know of very few parishes that don't close the mass with a sacred song, except maybe Palm Sunday.

Here's the list:

Prelude:
Covenant Hymn (Cooney/Daigle)
We Are Called (Haas) - on our list as recessional, but first time chosen here...
Ave Maria (Schubert)

Processional:
Trumpet Voluntaire/ Christ, Bless This Marriage (Clarke/ Ricketts) - we "converted" this secular processional into a sacred song - once everyone's in, Debbie leads it responsorially, from the ambo.

Psalm:
128, Blest Are Those (Haugen)

Gospel Acclamation:
Alleluia from Ps. 96, "Sing a Song to the Lord" (Lawton)

Unity Candle:
Make Us One (Cymbala)

Presentation:
Amazing Grace (NEW BRITAIN) - on our list as both processional and gathering, but also first time here...

Mass:
Mass of Creation (Haugen)

Communion:
You Are My All in All (Jernigan) - lyrics to be included in wedding program. CCLI license strikes again!

Recessional:
Ode to Joy (Beethoven)

Link of the Day:

Commonweal Magazine. Intelligent, skinny, genteel, Catholic, worthwhile. Not from any single perspective, and decidedly non-rabid about its issues. Give it a look, take a trial issue.

New Feature:
Link of the Day. Now that I finally figgered out how to fit more than a couple of links on the sidebar (Duh, you use the Template rather than the Settings. NSS.), I'll be adding them, but a day at a time. Much like the less-than-aptly-named Quote of the Day, it may or may not be daily - most likely not.

Today's link: America's Best Christian, Betty Bowers, tells you why she's going to heaven and you're not. Not quite seamless (she steps out of persona when she's afraid you won't get the real point), but uproarious at its best, and still worth a chuckle when the seams are showing.

Finally, the personal stuff:

Andy's our 18 year old son. He's always been a bit, um, difficult - extremely bright, but not interested in schoolwork, or in public acceptance. And it's not that "I want to be unique, just like all my friends" stuff. He skipped the piercings and the gothness and the weird hair (I'm covering the weird hair thing for him...), he really doesn't care much what the rest of the world thinks.

He moved out after 11th grade, shortly after his 17th birthday. He dropped out of high school, and enrolled in an on-line high school, opting to get his diploma that way rather than shooting for the GED.

Two years before that, he met a girl, Sarah, over the internet. She was nearly 3 years older, but seemed nice, and he liked her a lot. She lived about 45 miles away, so we'd drive him out to meet her in Davison, about 35 miles. He only had a learner's permit then. They'd go to the movies, or dinner.

And, apparently, dessert. Shortly after the beginning of 10th grade, Andy wrote us a note telling us that Sarah was pregnant, he was the father, and he wanted to marry her after finishing high school.

Wesley, now 2, was born 6/6/2000. We saw him, once, when he came home from the hospital. Andy and Sarah were married 6/22/2002. We found about about it with a wedding announcement received through the mail. Her family knew, but apparently did not attend either - it was a private ceremony.

Kim (my wife) and Andy were very close, and the last couple of years' events have broken her heart.

Since the wedding and my original post, Sarah and Kim have made some faltering steps toward reconciliation. Kim's putting on a post-wedding shower for our side of the family, Sarah and Kim have had dinner - and Kim finally got to see some Wesley pictures.

So, there you have it. Our little soap opera. Missing a lot of the day to day agonies, thoughts, motives (both perceived and/or real), and other details that went into the decisions and reactions. But you get the drift, I think.

Back to work.