“During the sixties, a number of important cultural transactions took place. The classical musical tradition (that is, new music being composed in the tradition of Beethoven and Mozart) finally collapsed under the weight of its own inanity. The fact that John Cage and Karl Heinz Stockhausen were at all taken seriously was a sign that …
Musical Four-wheeling
“Music, quite simply, has to go somewhere. It is organized in time. If there is no reason why one note should follow another, there is no way of organizing that time in any coherent fashion. Atonality meant a freedom analogous to taking down all signs and abolishing all roads.” [E. Michael Jones, Dionysos Rising (San …
Happy Birthday Dear Blog
So today is my blog’s second birthday. For all the intoleristas who are following my doings most assiduously, this means that I am just now entering my terrible twos. And right now I have my eye on that interesting Vase of Diversity on the Coffee Table of Mutual Affirmation. Seriously, I am very grateful to …
Sali Forth
For those Idaho residents interested in the upcoming primary election, I would encourage you to check out Bill Sali’s web site here. Bill is an old friend, and it is good to see him out there giving liberals heartburn. Bill would be my nominee for “Least Likely to Go Native If He Makes It to …
Don’t You Love Them Madly?
“To jump ahead roughly one hundred years: Jim Morrison described his band The Doors as ‘erotic politicians’. ‘We’re interested in everything about revolt, disorder, and all activity that appears to have no meaning.’ It is difficult to imagine what Nietzsche would have thought of the music, but it is hard to imagine him withholding his …
Around This Table
Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank You for this Lord’s Day. We thank You for the fellowship we share around this table, and for the arrival here of good friends. We praise Your name for the gift of wine, and the salvation it represents. We thank You for the food, and for the diligent and …
Playing The Cult Card
One of the things that liberals did successfully for quite some time was play the race card. One of the things that conservatives (eventually) did in response was name the practice, calling it something like “playing the race card.” Little tricks of illusion and distraction in politics operate much the same way that tricks of …
Doctor, You’re Cutting Too Deep. You’re Scratching the Table.
Where We Got All the Uber-Goobers
“It took Nietzsche to philosophize out of Wagner’s music a program for cultural revolution that would shake the coming age to its foundation. The twentieth century was to become the proving ground for Nietzschean philosophy in its various permutations. There were the Nazis, and then there was the global cultural revolution of 1968-1969, and then …
Can’t Even See the Tablecloth
The eating of this meal is annexed to a great promise made by Jesus Christ. He says that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, we have no life in us. Conversely, if we partake, then Jesus Christ promises to raise us up at the last day. “This …