Website Dedicated to Mahna-Mahna

Brought to you by Amos Hunt, a website showcasing a collection of mahna mahnas.  The website is aptly named Mahnamahnology.

My favorite is the Mah na mah na Techno.

This website makes you want to tap a pencil on a desk while patting your head and making high pitched noises...oh wait maybe that's just me.

"We Can't Wish Away Climate Change" by Al Gore

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28gore.html?pagewanted=1

Op-Ed in The New York Times contributed by former VP Al Gore.

It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.

 ...

But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake.

...

 The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as fodder for ridicule by those who argue that global warming is a myth, yet scientists have long pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere — thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions, including the Northeastern United States. Just as it’s important not to miss the forest for the trees, neither should we miss the climate for the snowstorm.

...

From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.

Excuses by The Morning Benders

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

A Pillbox and a Jack of Spades

The kids had been imitating him for a while now. Sometimes he saw them in the hallways waving their arms in feigned excitement and gasping in high-pitched voices, "Perspective!"  Another time as he walked around the lunchroom, he thought he heard one of them say "cheese sticks," but decided that that must have been his imagination.  Some days it's better than others.  The other day he was teaching and saw one of his units reaching for an eraser to make that highlight look just right in the still life, and looking up at him, he stared at him for a second.  He stared back, and for a moment their eyes met, as if they were two reasonable and dignified gentlemen meeting for the first time.  The student broke the moment; lifting his arms up, clenching his fists, and then with a sort of coy look he squeaked, "Perspective," as he briefly waved his arms.  He couldn't help but laugh.  It had been what he had always wanted.

Bonnaroo 2010 Lineup

Got this Crazy Lineup list from Stereogum

Bonnaroo Music Fest in TN

• Jay-Z
• Kings Of Leon
• Stevie Wonder
• Weezer
• The Flaming Lips Do Dark Side Of The Moon
• Phoenix
• The National
• Dead Weather
• She & Him
• The Black Keys
• LCD Soundsystem
• Dan Deacon
• Tori Amos
• Japandroids
• Regina Spektor
• Daryl Hall & Chromeo
• Dr. Dog
• The Dodos
• Miike Snow
• Neon Indian
• Kid Cudi
• The xx
• Here We Go Magic
• Blitzen Trapper
• Calexico
• Baroness
• The Melvins
• Damian Marley & Nas
• Mayer Hawthorne & The County
• The Postelles
• Gaslight Anthem
• Against Me!
• OK Go
• Wale
• Gwar
• Lucero
• Isis
• Les Claypool
• Rise Against
• Norah Jones
• They Might Be Giants
• Medeski, Martin & Wood
• Tinariwen
• Miranda Lambert
• Hot Rize
• Kris Kristofferson
• Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers
• The Avett Brothers
• Thievery Corporation
• Manchester Orchestra
• Dropkick Murphys
• John Fogerty
• Zac Brown Band
• Tenacious D
• Deadmau5
• Julia Nunes
• Dave Rawlings Machine
• The Entrance Band
• Martin Sexton
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Blues Traveler
• John Prine
• Lotus
• The Temper Trap
• Local Natives
• Cross Canadian Ragweed
• Ingrid Michaelson
• Baaba Maal
• Punch Brothers
• NeedtoBreathe
• B.O.B.
• Bassnectar
• Monte Montgomery
• Carolina Chocolate Drops
• Rebelution
• The Disco Biscuits
• Diane Birch
• Brandi Carlile
• Jamey Johnson
• Mumford & Sons
• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
• Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

More as they come. Bonnaroo's scheduled for 6/10-6/13.

Anyone thinking of going?  

Most excited about seeing (if I actually go):

• Phoenix
• The Black Keys
• Dr. Dog
• Rise Against
• Norah Jones
• Avett Brothers
• Tenacious D
• Dave Rawlings Machine!!
• Blues Traveler
• Brandi Carlisle

Grafton Street Band to Play St. Patty's Day TGIT in March

McInerny Revisited

A couple weeks ago a giant went ungently into that good night.  I am sad to say that I gave him only a passing mention, because I was so busy, but I would like to revisit and mark again the importance of Professor Ralph McInerny of the University of Notre Dame.  He was a giant, a Catholic, a man of wit and humor, a fierce friend, and an intellectual powerhouse.  He was an unabashed lover of puns and witicisms (like Chesterton and Belloc); he authored books such as On This Rockne, Irish Gilt, Law and Ardor, Rest in Pieces, The Book of Kills, Aquinas and Analogy (no pun, but a very important Philosophical text), and (my favorite) A First Glance at Thomas Aquinas: A Handbook for Peeping Thomists.

Chris Wester wrote a superb obituary for McInerny in the University News this week.  Wester's review highlights McInerny's influence and dedication to Liberal Education and the restoration of Catholic Culture.  Wester's review was the best thing I've read in the University News since Josh Mahan's Sports section interviews where he interviewed himself pretending to be another Rugby player.


Western civilization has lost one of the most celebrated Thomists in recent memory. On the morning of January 29, Professor Ralph M. McInerny, surrounded by his friends, succumbed to esophageal cancer. Despite McInerny's longtime association with the University of Notre Dame, it bears reminding that his influence on academia was not limited to one university. Rather, McInerny dedicated his life to redeeming the soul of the culture in which he lived, one university at a time. Between 1978 and 2004, McInerny gave over 380 separate lectures at institutions ranging from large and famous universities to small liberal arts colleges. Indeed, it was not long before McInerny found his way to the University of Dallas, an institution that McInerny came to admire and support with efforts that cannot go unsung.

Many of you reading this article may be wondering to yourself, who was Ralph McInerny anyway? This reaction would certainly make sense as many of us were not conscious of a Western intellectual tradition, much less Thomism, before coming to college. And given that McInerny's primary academic work was completed by the time many of us entered high school, it may be difficult to discern this man's importance to the tradition of liberal learning that we find at UD. Therefore, it would behoove us all to examine briefly the life and influence of McInerny and, in doing so, come to a better understanding of what one faithful man can do with the gifts God has given him.

Ralph McInerny was born in Minnesota on Feb. 24, 1929. After attending high school in St. Paul, McInerny spent a year in the U.S. Marine Corps. Following his undergraduate education at St. Paul Seminary, McInerny completed, with incredible speed, an intense series of postgraduate degrees in philosophy: a master's from the University of Minnesota in 1952, and a Ph.L. and Ph.D. from Université Laval, Quebec, in 1953 and 1954 respectively. After teaching briefly at Creighton University, McInerny was hired at the institution that was to become his home for the remainder of his life, the University of Notre Dame. After rising through the professorial cursus honorum, McInerny was named, in 1978, the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies at Notre Dame. One year later, McInerny was named the director of the Jacques Maritain Center.

McInerny's area of expertise was in the work of Thomas Aquinas, Soren Kierkegaard and Jacques Maritain. He authored no less than 46 books on philosophy, the Catholic Church and other academic topics. Some choice titles of his lectures and articles include "Maritain on Liberal Education," "Liberty in the Catholic Tradition" and "Memento Mortimer," this last one written just after the death of Mortimer J. Adler, McInerny's good friend and the architect of what is now considered to be the Western canon of literature. Through his Thomistic studies, McInerny came to be an ardent defender of liberal education in the Great Books. But, more importantly, McInerny saw the importance of Catholic identity to that liberal education. Never was this more clear than in 2009, the year he retired, when the ardently pro-choice Barack Obama was invited to be the commencement speaker at Notre Dame. McInery called the act "an unequivocal abandonment of any pretense at being a Catholic university" and added that the invitation was "in sad continuity with decades of waffling that have led with seeming inevitability to it."


Despite the sour note upon which McInerny ended his career at Notre Dame, he had plenty of reasons to be hopeful. His interest in promoting liberal learning in America had led him to a number of small liberal arts colleges around the nation, including a peculiar institution on a small hill in Irving, Texas. In 1990, McInerny came to UD as the keynote speaker at the celebrated Aquinas Lecture, put on annually by the philosophy department. His lecture at the event was titled "The Voice of Conscience." In 1991, McInerny was named to the steering committee for UD's Center for Christianity and the Common Good. McInerny returned again in 1997 as Notre Dame's official representative at the installment ceremonies of Rev. Milam Joseph. In 1999, McInerny delivered two more lectures at UD, the first titled "Fides et Ratio and Implicit Philosophy," the second "What is Literature?" McInerny's visits to Irving nurtured a growing friendship between faculty members at Notre Dame and UD. Indeed, many UD alumni have chosen Notre Dame as their first choice graduate school.

But other than lectures and visits, McInerny did not do anything to change our university. But this is precisely why he matters so much. McInerny's support of UD and other colleges was a simple confirmation that this school was worth supporting because it had the right mission. Like so many other intellectual giants of the late 20th century (Mortimer Alder, Jacques Barzun and Malcolm Muggeridge, to name a few), McInerny, in life, found UD to be a home base of like-minded friends and, in death, friends we indeed remain. 

Friendship is something that marked McInerny's life, particularly in the academic sphere. He sought to transform his culture, but not without allies. And this could ultimately be McInerny's greatest lesson for our generation: that the transformation of culture need not be a solitary enterprise. With the encouragement of certain gifted leaders, men like McInerny, a general mobilization of minds can take place, at which point only the grace of God is needed to achieve a sure and lasting victory. Ralph M. McInerny, "requiescat in pace."

A Couple New Sounds for "Y'all-Guys"

If you like Raising Sand with Robert Plant and Allison Kraus, Regina Spektor, and Rilo Kiley, you may enjoy this album by Jenny Lewis, the lead singer to Rilo Kiley.

It's her debut album, titled Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins

There are a few songs that I think are excellent, but to be fair, there are some that are less than impressive.

I highly recommend Jenny Lewis to Chelsea Davis

To those who enjoy Fleet Foxes and folky mellow tunes I recommend Great Lake Swimmers
album: Ongiara

Perty

check this out
click on it to make it bigger

Report from the homefront

Two things of note are happening in the bubble:

First, a group of us are putting together a new publication called The University Shield. The idea began in light of all the presidential buzz last semester. Campus debate over the three candidates often included very fuzzy or sometimes incorrect appeals to the "ideals" of the university, if they even included them at all. The faculty did what they could last semester by hosting a panel on the Legacy of Willmoore Kendall. De Alvarez, Alvis, and Lady Louise each said a few words. Now a few of us students are trying to do our part by putting some of the major UD ideas into the public forum through an archival, journalistic medium. So pretty much we are digging through the archives, finding lots of cool old stuff -- stories, speeches, etc. -- and writing about them in attempt to bring light to and explore the genuine character of the university. The name itself, the UD Shield, is actually the name of the first campus publication from the nascent years. It's an odd little project, but I think it will do some good. So look for that soon. We should have an online version eventually. Or if you have any thoughts or ideas, I'd like to hear them.

But more importantly, a hardwood floor just went into the barroom. It's classy. Y'all should come visit and check it out. (Nick says hi.) (and so does Sam Harvey.)

Petter

Any of you read this yet?

I feel a little squeamish after seeing the cover design, but "literary frolic"? I think it might be able to outweigh the horrendous cover and the terrible typesetting inside portended by said cover.

Destroy TV

http://www.whitedot.org/campaigns/ruineddiner.asp

This is from a website for a group that is dedicated to eliminate TV. This one goes out to all you who are finding less to do during the evenings.

More Evidence of Eugene's Brilliance

For more evidence of Eugene Curtsinger's brilliance, read his novel Strychnine and Ceremony in light of a recent short essay by David James Duncan, "Cherish This Ecstasy" (published in The Sun, July 2008 issue, and among what Mary Oliver calls The Best American Essays 2009).

The essay begins:

The peregrine falcon was brought back from the brink of extinction by a ban on DDT, but also by a peregrine falcon mating hat invented by an ornithologist at Cornell University. If you cannot buy this, Google it. Female falcons had grown dangerously scarce. A few wistful males nevertheless maintained a sort of sexual loitering ground. The hat was imagined, constructed, and then forthrightly worn by the ornithologist as he patrolled this loitering ground, singing, Chee-up! Chee-up! and bowing like an overpolite Japanese Buddhist. For reasons neither scientists nor fashion designers entirely understand, this inspired the occasional male falcon to dive onto the ornithologist’s head, [have sex with] the hat, and fire endangered sperm into the hat’s hidden rubber receptacle. The last few females were then artificially inseminated so that their chicks could be raised in DDT-free captivity. The young produced in this way saved the peregrine from extinction – a success story from the annals of human meddling, one as rare as debacles like DDT are common.

And so on. David James Duncan reminds me that when reading anything Eugene wrote, but especially Strychnine and Ceremony, it's important to remember what Curtsinger's imagination could do with a phrase from his beloved Meister Eckhart: "The greater the nudity, the greater the union."

For us, as for Duncan, may any void in our life be filled with beings

like the lone female loon who mistook a wet, moonlit interstate for water and crash-landed on the truck-grooved pavement of the fast lane; loon to whom I sprinted, as a convoy of eighteen-wheelers roared toward her, throwing my coat over her head so she wouldn't stab me, pulling her to my chest as I leapt from the concrete; loon who, when she felt this blind liftoff, let out

a full, far-northern tremolo that pierced, without stabbing,

my coat, ribs, heart, day, life. All is an Ocean, she

and Father Zossima and the avian choir keep

singing as into black holes in trees, truck

routes, river ice, frigid hearts, ecstatic

birds keep dropping. Till even alone

and in darkness, with no special

hat, clothes, or wings to help

me fly up and feel it, I find

myself caught in the

endless act

of being

loved.

Quick Thought In Poetic Form

On Interpreting dreams

I have heard that location is important in dreams.   

Do you have a simple rubric for interpreting dreams; 

I feel like it is more of an intuitive and non-

rational insight-based mode 

of thinking; 

Dreams are like picture frames that your mind

 puts together; that dreams are real 

important and necessary.

The Sounds of Peter Bloch

http://www.lala.com/#album/4900197869800801084/Dokaka/Human_Interface

from my roommate.

I don't have anything brilliant or insightful to share with you early this Tuesday morning. Rather, I just wanted to say hello and give thanks to you all. As I sit here, watching my 5th period honors students look up vocabulary words, I have been glancing through everyone's recent posts and I just feel grateful. Grateful to have such wise, caring, cynical friends, who are willing to share their 2 cents about life, bringing a bit of joy into what is sure to be a heck of a week. I consistently come to Peter's blog, looking for a bit of refreshment and rejuvenation, which I almost always find. So, thank you, for being you, for sharing your view of the world (or just who you think is the hottest literary figure), and for letting us silent viewers *until now* keep a slightly stalkerish tab on your life and the adventures it brings.