Chad and Jeremy: A Summer Song...

1964...

Lyrics?  Just okay.  The music?  The construction in terms of chords and melody were ahead of its time and very well though out.



and now? Looking pretty damn good!!!

Some Friday Boogie Woogie...

done right.

Famous Boogie Woogie piano player Silvan Zingg and award winning dancers William Mauvais and Maéva Truntzer.





For more fabulous Boogie Woogie check out:

Dona Oxford shows the piano no mercy in this boogie woogie masterpiece. 

Can you feel the love tonight...(video)

beautiful.

A patron of a Tim Horton's doughnut and coffee shop in Oakville, Ontario, stumbled into a senior's barbershop choir that meets every Monday after rehearsal.  The choir asked for requests.  The patron gave one, and pulled out his cell phone to record it.

May God bless them for bringing such joy into the world.

Thursday afternoon music break...

mandolin done right.

A Beautiful Way to Start Your Week...

When are we going to start teaching the faith to our children?

Obama Strikes Again
Always watch what he does on Friday.....

I fail to see how grinding up human babies for experimentation differs too much from the types of activities engaged in by Nazi Germany that so horrified the world. Do you?

*****"Today's news that President Obama will open the door to direct taxpayer funds for embryonic stem cell research that encourages the destruction of human embryos is a slap in the face to Americans who believe in the dignity of all human life," said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. "It is unethical to use human life, even young embryonic life, to advance science.

*****"We should be increasing funding for adult stem cell treatments, which have been used to treat patients for over 70 diseases and conditions, and we should fund the historic achievements in reprogramming ordinary skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells without compromising ethics by destroying life."

*****Once again, our current President tells his adoring public just exactly who is and what he intends to do. He promised to "change the face of America" and he is doing a great job.

*****And still the adorers sit in blissful ignorance, getting all excited about his choice of dog, and wondering how to get Michelle's sculpted arms.

*****Meanwhile the Obama's, displaying their usual lack of class and utter lack of taste, give a gift of DVD's to Gordon Brown (which can't even be played on a UK player), and courtesy of Hillary, a "reset button" to Russia labeled with the wrong Russian word.

*****And then he tells us we "must endure in these economic hard times" just before flying off with his family to Camp David for the weekend. Where are you spending your weekend?


Congressman Labels Obama "Abortion President" Ahead of Stem Cell Reversal
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., accused Obama of launching two attacks on pro-life measures. read more

Deception at Core of Obama Plans
By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the "$2 trillion dollars in savings" that "we have already identified," $1.6 trillion of which President Obama's budget director later admits is the "savings" of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019 -- 11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely. read more

Incompetence, malevolence, or both? or Why Obama’s policies are pink, not green...

*****I was having lunch yesterday with a prominent critic of the Spender in Chief, and he raised a possibility that many of us have entertained over the past several weeks: that Obama is simply out of his depth: that he hasn’t a clue about what makes the economy tick and his talk about the “profit-to-earnings ratio” was not a slip of the tongue but a worrisome confirmation of the suspicion that he is an empty suit floundering around in the dark. read more

Obama touts recovery amid grim economic news
By John Whitesides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama tried to highlight some good news and tout his economic plan on Friday, but the grim reality of plunging employment and faltering stock markets once again stepped on his message. read more

Warning: Bracket Creep Ahead
*****With a guarantee that only those making more than $250,000 a year will see a tax increase it is probably a good time to talk about something that has not been a problem for decades: Bracket Creep read more

Meantime the Obama's party in the White House....

Why do I keep hearing the song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"??


The sad state of Catholic liturgy and music....

*****We attend a Saturday evening Mass at one of the three churches in our cluster which is blessed by not having a choir. The parishioners manage quite nicely to sing the Our Father and the responsorial without even the help of a barroom piano banging away in the background. Father leads the opening hymn and the recessional hymn.

*****We are afforded the luxury of times of silence for prayer and reflection. The children are quiet because there is not the constant noise and motion that rattles their little cages. No one has to tell the people they are in church and need to be quiet.

*****It is time for the bishops and priests to start offering the Mass as called for by the Second Vatican Council and stop with the innovation and whimsy. It is distorting theology, and it is driving people out of the Church. Stop communion in the hand, "altar girls", and rock and roll Masses. Give us the music that is called for by the official documents and let us smell the incense again.

Ray from MN has a thoughtful post "How Come They Never Sing Anything Old?", over at Stella Borealis which is well worth a read.

When are we going to start teaching the faith to our children?

*****Having been involved in youth ministry for many years, I was always astounded at the complete lack on knowledge I witnessed in these young people after their first seven or so years of "religious education." I first got my hands on them when they were in 7th grade and not one of them was ever able to tell me the simplest fact about the Catholic faith.

*****Their education had consisted of learning moronic "singey songs", drawing pictures, and the teacher's favorite maxim - "Jesus loves you." The Ten Commandments, precepts of the church, or even the definition of a sacrament? Nope, nope, and nope (which rhymes with dope).

*****This sort of travesty has been going on in the church for forty years. Is it any wonder that Catholics raised in this atmosphere of contempt for the authentic teachings of the Church voted for a person like Obama?

Catholic Mom Climbing the Pillars puts a point on it in High Profile "Catholics" Need to Study

Radical Pro-Abortion FOCA Bill Coming Soon, Pro-Life Advocates Must Prepare

from Deliberate Engagement by Christine

The pro-aborts like to pretend that FOCA is not being proposed, or that it won’t be as radical as believed. Both lies. It IS coming, and it WILL remove any and all abortion restrictions. There will be NO parental consent required. Your 16 year old daughter, who can’t get a tattoo without your permission, can now get an abortion without your knowledge or consent. Obama has promised to sign it. read more

*****I just mailed hundreds of post cards to Washington, filled out and signed by the parishioners of the church I attend. When the priests of our diocese met just a few weeks ago for a retreat of sorts, the post card campaign was brought up.

*****Our bishop, Michael Driscoll, assured the assembled priests that it wasn't an issue since the bill would never even make it to the President's desk. I'm quite certain he was more concerned with the Idaho Catholic Appeal than with doing anything about the sorry moral state of this country.

“I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its “successful experiment” that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.” Andrew Jackson

And the World Starts to Change

*

*

We skipped the light fandango

Turned cartwheels cross the floor

I was feeling kinda seasick

But the crowd called out for more

The room was humming harder

As the ceiling flew away

When we called out for another drink

The waiter brought a tray

*

And so it was that later

As the miller told his tale

That her face, at first just ghostly,

Turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, there is no reason

And the truth is plain to see.

But I wandered through my playing cards

And would not let her be

One of sixteen vestal virgins

Who were leaving for the coast

And although my eyes were open

They might have just as wellve been closed

She said, Im home on shore leave,

Though in truth we were at sea

So I took her by the looking glass

And forced her to agree

Saying, you must be the mermaid

Who took neptune for a ride.

But she smiled at me so sadly

That my anger straightway died

*

If music be the food of love

Then laughter is its queen

And likewise if behind is in front

Then dirt in truth is clean

My mouth by then like cardboard

Seemed to slip straight through my head

So we crash-dived straightway quickly

And attacked the ocean bed

*

Dedicated to Heelers - my fine Irish freind who knows good music when he hears it.

What to do When the Liturgy Committee goes for the Throat

by Jeffrey Tucker ...

at "New Liturgical Movement", which is one of the best sites on the Liturgy you'll ever find. If you wish to have a fuller understanding of the liturgy of the Catholic Church, a visit to this site is a must.

Emphasis mine:

***"It happens often that when a musician upgrades his or her knowledge and competence in music, the liturgy committee will suddenly emerge to "express its concerns" about the growing "conservatism" or "traditionalism" of parish music, and call for more peppy hymns. They might even commission a parish poll on what people want. This sort of thing makes musicians crazy because it is a setting guaranteed to yield shabby liturgy and community chaos. It is the worst possible thing to happen to a parish music program, and not because the community shouldn't have a voice."

*** "If the community has a point of unity, it concerns the faith itself and the tradition; otherwise, in terms of issues of taste and preference, there is no such thing as a community: there are only individuals with a multiplicity of conflicting desires. A method of liturgical planning that exalts the "desires of the community" over the demands of the universal Church yields a very divided parish, with egos clashing against other egos, and to heck with what the liturgy is calling for.

***"It would be the same if we chose the texts or the vestments of the Mass with this method. Nothing good can come of it. The most important thing for a musician to do in these cases in to remain calm and remember that those intervening are in deep need of catechises. There is not much time to do this, since seminars are not exactly the way people want to go.

***"What a parish like this needs is for the liturgy committee to quickly face a different reality. Documents such as the GIRM are good, but they can be confusing. What these people lack is an understanding that the music of the Mass is a given. It is an embedded part of our tradition. I would suggest that the musician in question quickly get a copy of The Gregorian Missal, which has all the Sunday propers and the ordinary for Mass in Gregorian notation with English translations. No book better illustrates the point that the music of the Mass is part of the structure of the Mass, not something that is chosen by a committee or by democratic methods. Let everyone pass this book around, so that they can see for themselves what the music of the Roman Rite is in fact. This is the core repertoire, what the Church is asking us to sing and has asked us to sing since the earliest years of the Church. Gregorian chant was exalted at the Second Vatican Council as the music of the Roman Rite because it is holy, beautiful, and universal. "

***"The musician can explain that this is the liturgical ideal and that everything else that we sing or do is, in fact, a substitute for this ideal.Once that is understood, everything changes. People begin to see that it is not about the community's needs or the musician's training or preferences. It is about the universal faith. The standards are different. Now, you can't do all propers and ordinary in your Mass; it is not practical in most cases (though there are plenty of parishes that have achieved this). But chant remains the standard by which all substitutes should be judged -- a point made by every Pope dating back a thousand years, even back to early Church. If the musician can get people to see this, and the pastor too, the entire environment will change. It is absolutely urgent that musicians do what they can to help people understand this point. Any other path can lead to disaster.

*

*

O God, Beyond All Praising
*
Including the elusive middle verse which is not printed in most hymnals. Don't ask me why.

Scroll down and play the music while you read or sing the words.

O God, beyond all praising, we worship you today
and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay;
For we can only wonder at every gift you send,
at blessings without number and mercies without end:
We lift our hearts before you and wait upon your word,
We honor and adore you, our great and mighty Lord.

The flower of earthly splendor in time must surely die,
Its fragile bloom surrender to you, the Lord most high;
But hidden from all nature the eternal seed is sown
Though small in mortal stature, to heaven’s garden grown:
For Christ the man from heaven from death has set us free,
And we through him are given the final victory.

Then hear, O gracious Savior, accept the love we bring,
That we who know your favor may serve you as our King;
And whether our tomorrow be filled with good or ill,
We’ll triumph through our sorrows and rise to praise you still:
To marvel at your beauty and glory in your ways,
And make a joyful duty our sacrifice of praise!