Two new songs came out of the oven this week. “Cars in the Road” is one that I have worked on for about a month; this is the second re-recording of the entire thing. It’s really hard to write a slow song that doesn’t plod along; still not perfect. “Hurt a Lot” is a song that came to me almost fully written as I walked in the door after work last week. It’s faster and shorter; both virtues in pop music. Neither song has electric guitars, just acoustic + bass + drums + voice.
Category: Uncategorized
New Song: Highway 49
Philip Melancthon’s Objection to Other Worlds
“The Son of God is one: our master Jesus Christ, coming forth in this world, died and was resurrected only once. Nor did he manifest himself elsewhere, nor has he died or been resurrected elsewhere. We should not imagine many worlds because we ought not imagine that Christ died and was risen often; nor should it be thought that in any other world without the knowledge of the Son of God that people would be restored to eternal life.”
Initia doctrinae physicae, Corpus Reformatorum 13 (Halle: Schwetschke, 1846; reprint, Frankfurt; Minerva, 1963) 1.221.
Cited by Thomas F. O’Meara, “Christian Theology and Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life” Theological Studies 60 (1999), pg. 6.
Limerick for a New Year
Said a certain good fellow named Shane
Who could tinkle only during rain
“Come, O nimbus, beneath ya
Release the urethra
Allow my poor bladder to drain”
(by Neil Strickland and Jonathan Barlow)
Wrecked Horses
On HWY 82 yesterday, between West Point and Starkville, I saw an overturned horse trailer a quarter of a mile ahead and there was a man standing on the shoulder who was signaling for everyone to slow down.
My chest seized up when I first entertained the idea that there were horses inside. I think of horses as being so heavy and long-limbed – sturdy when upright but almost absurdly brittle in every other inclination. As I passed, I looked back and saw two brown horses on their sides, one on top of the other. There were two men and a woman talking to the horses and trying to figure out how to get them out safely.
I really hope that the horses are alright. That when they were removed from the trailer that their limbs were whole… that they didn’t bolt into traffic… that they didn’t kick anyone…
Update: Found a tweet that the horses are okay:
There's a multi-car wreck on HWY 82 West Bound Lane in Oktibbeha Co. No injuries and the horses are safe. Details tonight on @WCBINEWS #WCBI pic.twitter.com/JE30oJsEjL
— Jory Tally (@jorytallyWCBI) December 5, 2016
“She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.”
Austen, Mansfield Park
“We lose our bearings entirely by speaking of the ‘lower classes’ when we mean humanity minus ourselves.” – G.K. Chesterton
The Economy of our Nation State
These two facts I’ve heard recently really made me pause:
1. The U.S. economy still has fewer breadwinner jobs than it did in 2007.
2. The 22,235,000 people employed by government in the United States now outnumber the 12,258,000 employed in manufacturing by 9,977,000.
Place Names in England
My friend Neil is studying in England right now and has been sending me some great place names:
Stoke Newington, Tooting Bec, Chalk Farm, Heron Quays, Golders Green, Pontoon Dock, Limehouse, Snaresbrook, Harrow & Wealdstone, Tott’ridge and Whetstone, Angel, Chigwell, Crouch End, Neasden, Ickenham, Bromley-by-Bow.
I think it would be really cool to live in “Crouch End.”
Dear Rita: Misheard “Lyrics” in Jane Eyre
I just finished listening to Jane Eyre on audiobook. It was great, and the reader’s English accent was very pleasant. When I finished listening to the book, I immediately thought of looking up literary criticism to find out who Rita is. Throughout the novel, Jane writes, as in a diary, to someone named “Rita” and yet there are no epistolary artifacts – a diary written *to* someone seemed to be an interesting thing to explore. Of course, as I told Ann what I was hoping to research, it dawned on me that “Rita” is “reader!” My train of thought – maybe “Rita” is a pun for “reader” and then, doh…