the horror, the horror

I'm hesitant to unleash this monster I've found out on the web, but strangely feel compelled to do so.

How could I ever participate in such an horrific event as the unveiling of Ben Eckley's website? How could I not?

So go to it.

Ben's Page.

To be fair, he made it for our 506 class, and the assignment was to make a "resume" page, introducing oneself to the class.

I feel like I really know Ben Eckley now, really know his heart. It's so sweet how he and Spike are so different yet absolutely meant for one another.

Whatever happened to public comic book burnings?
Since I'm now a UB MLS student and also happen to be a lover of comic books, I feel like I should make everyone aware of the place where these two interests of mine collide: the enjoyable Comic Books in the 50s UB Library Project.

HTML- hellish torment murders life

Been working on my HTML Resume assignment due tuesday. 'Tis very invalid and needs much work. I won't be sleeping much. Invalid. Even though it's late and my head hurts from HTML overload, I am happy.

Two new friend blogs discovered today.
Uncle-Spikey, the man that I should have gone to a comic book convention with today and also my favorite unpublished author.
And Papist Pete, a good man to have around as a brother-in-law when you need one. Welcome to blogdom, brothers.

I envision a world where everyone reads each other's blogs and in which talking and spending time with one another becomes obsolete. The blog is sufficient.

Below is my first Non-Book Review assignment for my internet class. I received a 4/5 and was told to spice up the presentation. I had simply emailed him this. Anyhow, I've been using blogger for my homework. My second review can be found at nonbook review and the third at serial review. The second got a 5/5 and I just submitted the third one now. They are reviews designed to sell a product to a library and aren't the kind of reviews you'll find written by those review junkies, Joel and Jonathon at CDReviews.com.


Format: audio c.d.
Artist: Elizabeth Cotten
Album: Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes
SF CD 40009
UPC: 09307-40009-22

Manufactured in the US by Smithsonian Folkways and copyrighted by Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings in 1989:
Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings
Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies
955 L’Enfant Plaza, Suite 2600
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
Phone: (202) 287-3262

This standard sized single CD is a reissue of Elizabeth Cotten’s first LP and was originally issued in 1958 as Folkways FG 3526. It is recorded, edited, and annotated by Mike Seeger. Its 14 tracks comprise a complete running time of 34:12, and its current list price is $16.98. Like all Folkways reissues, it contains the original liner notes that provide detailed information about the artist and the individual songs. The sound quality of the recording is very good, considering that the original tapes were bedroom recordings using 1950s portable recording equipment. Any imperfections in sound remaining on the recording add to the charm and historicity of the album. Elizabeth Cotten’s unique upside-down (left-handed) playing and distinctive picking style cross over all boundaries of 20th century folk music, from blues to country ragtime, and her appearances at various folk festivals of the 1960s came to influence many younger crossover folk artists. Her original composition, Freight Train, was later covered and popularized by folk musicians Peggy Seeger, Nancy Whiskey, and Rusty Draper. Anyone of any age who is interested in folk music or American history would benefit from exposure to Cotten’s interpretations of traditional native North Carolina songs as well as the originals she composed in the context of that tradition. Elizabeth Cotten has also received widespread support in the music industry and arts communities, receiving a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award, among other awards and honors, including a Grammy. The release of this album on CD is a welcome event as it seems that the use of CDs will continue into the foreseeable future, and the recording will not deteriorate as it would have on the master copy. I highly recommend that this disc be purchased on the basis of its pleasing musical nature as well as its further benefit as a historical record of what was once a living oral music tradition, integral to the lives of this country’s citizenship.

The reviewer has a degree in English and continues to pursue his avid interest in folk history and musicology through acquiring, studying, and preserving the music of local singer/songwriters through his own field recordings.

If I hadn't been called to the pleasing vocation of marriage and childmaking, I'd be neck-deep in monkery by now. But to prove that it's not all beer and cheese, here is what is expected in a Benedictine Monastery:

from St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries:

Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works

1. In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
2. Then, one's neighbor as oneself.
3. Then not to murder.
4. Not to commit adultery.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To respect all men.
9. And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
10. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
11. To chastise the body.
12. Not to become attached to pleasures.
13. To love fasting.
14. To relieve the poor.
15. To clothe the naked.
16. To visit the sick.
17. To bury the dead.
18. To help in trouble.
19. To console the sorrowing.
20. To become a stranger to the world's ways.
21. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
22. Not to give way to anger.
23. Not to nurse a grudge.
24. Not to entertain deceit in one's heart.
25. Not to give a false peace.
26. Not to forsake charity.
27. Not to swear, for fear of perjuring oneself.
28. To utter truth from heart and mouth.
29. Not to return evil for evil.
30. To do no wrong to anyone, and to bear patiently wrongs done to oneself.
31. To love one's enemies.
32. Not to curse those who curse us, but rather to bless them.
33. To bear persecution for justice's sake.
34. Not to be proud.
35. Not addicted to wine.
36. Not a great eater.
37. Not drowsy.
38. Not lazy.
39. Not a grumbler.
40. Not a detractor.
41. To put one's hope in God.
42. To attribute to God, and not to self, whatever good one sees in oneself.
43. But to recognize always that the evil is one's own doing, and to impute it to oneself.
44. To fear the Day of Judgment.
45. To be in dread of hell.
46. To desire eternal life with all the passion of the spirit.
47. To keep death daily before one's eyes.
48. To keep constant guard over the actions of one's life.
49. To know for certain that God sees one everywhere.
50. When evil thoughts come into one's heart, to dash them against Christ immediately.
51. And to manifest them to one's spiritual father.
52. To guard one's tongue against evil and depraved speech.
53. Not to love much talking.
54. Not to speak useless words or words that move to laughter.
55. Not to love much or boisterous laughter.
56. To listen willingly to holy reading.
57. To devote oneself frequently to prayer.
58. Daily in one's prayers, with tears and sighs, to confess one's past sins to God, and to amend them for the future.
59. Not to fulfil the desires of the flesh; to hate one's own will.
60. To obey in all things the commands of the Abbot, even though he himself (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept, "Do what they say, but not what they do."
61. Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy, that one may be truly so called.
62. To fulfil God's commandments daily in one's deeds.
63. To love chastity.
64. To hate no one.
65. Not to be jealous, not to harbor envy.
66. Not to love contention.
67. To beware of haughtiness.
68. And to respect the seniors.
69. To love the juniors.
70. To pray for one's enemies in the love of Christ.
71. To make peace with one's adversary before the sun sets.
72. And never to despair of God's mercy.
These, then, are the tools of the spiritual craft.If we employ them unceasingly day and night,and return them on the Day of Judgment,our compensation from the Lord will be that wage He has promised:"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,what God has prepared for those who love Him."
Now the workshop in which we shall diligently execute all these tasks is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community.

Great Power, Great Responsibility

I have a guarded respect for Fathers 4 Justice. If I were a male victim of divorce, through no serious fault of my own (adultery, abuse, etc.), and court ordered to never again see my children.....
then I might consider dressing up as a superhero and scaling Buckingham Palace.

suet and lard, not malt beverages


This is from the Christian History website, special interests page:


Chunky Monks
Martin Luther was relatively svelte before he left monastic life and married. Benedict ordered his monks to avoid gluttony and indigestion, "for there is nothing so opposed to Christian life as over-indulgence." Several rules governing Celtic monasteries commanded, "Take not of food till thou art hungry."
Still, today's stereotype of a medieval monk is the corpulent Friar Tuck. Now Philippa Patrick, who has been studying the hefty subject for her Ph.D. at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, says the stereotype is broad but not grossly inflated.
"They were taking in about 6,000 calories a day, and 4,500 even when they were fasting," she told The Guardian during the International Medieval Congress in Leeds. "Their meals were full of saturated fats. They were five times more likely to suffer from obesity than their secular contemporaries, including wealthy merchants or courtiers." That's because, she says, they were eating suet, lard, and butter "in startling quantities."
Patrick bases her conclusions upon 300 sets of skeletons at three London-area monasteries (Tower Hill, Bermondsey, and Merton). The monks, she says, evidenced much more obesity-related arthritis than was the norm. Several suffered from a degenerative form of arthritis called dish (diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis), also known as Forestier's disease. "The marks of dish keep appearing on their skeletons," Patrick told The Guardian. "It forms a coating on the spine, like candlewax dripping down the side."

Hi Ho, Mildred, Away!

Saloon capital of the world.

One of my new favorite websites is the Buffalonian. I've added a link on the sidebar, but here's a direct link to their buffalo brewing history page. There's a wonderful little film clip, and excerpts from a book titled "Rushing the Growler: A History of Brewing in Buffalo 1789-2001" by Stephen Powell. Also, this coming saturday is the Buffalo Brewfest at the pier.

Wolfe...

This is much quoted now, but I think that it's well worth repeating here. Gene Wolfe, whom these following words were written by, is a Christian and self-consciously writes Christian SF. With this in mind, and even if it weren't true, the following have a clear sacramental ring that I joyfully affirm.

"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges. When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin, an asimi stamped with the profile of the Autarch. Their acceptance of that coin is their acceptance of the special duties and burdens of military life--they are soldiers from that moment, though they may know nothing of the management of arms. I did not know that then, but it is a profound mistake to believe that we must know of such things to be influenced by them, and in fact to believe so is to believe in the most debased and superstitious kind of magic. The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all."
The Shadow of the Torturer, Gene Wolfe.


I just linked on the sidebar to a great unofficial Wolfe webpage that I copied and pasted this from. The webpage also has a long interview of Wolfe conducted by James Jordan.

I've only read The Shadow of the Torturer that this quote is from and several short stories. Abigail, after I introduced him to her, has devoured nearly everything he's published.

Construction ahead...

I'm still doing lots of blog management- adding a link here and there on the sidebar every time I have a few extra minutes. I just added Ross Pavlac's Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction reading list.
I found his website shortly after Abigail and I got married and it was his site that first introduced me to the name James Blaylock. Anyhow, I still think his list is useful even though I disagree with his criticism of Blaylock, his summary of later Tim Powers works and find stunning his omission of Poul Anderson's The High Crusade, among other minor disagreements.

Houghton, Patron of the Arts

For any fellow Houghton College English students (especially Phil Hassey) that may be reading this...
John Leax is the Image Journal Artist of the Month.

If I had enough money to suscribe to only one "Journal of the Arts," Image would be it.

I put minimal effort into a casual search on Phil Hassey's website to find good stories about Leax to counterbalance this respectability, but to no avail. I know Phil has Leax stories, though.

The only blog with a Semex hat....

I've spent most of the day attempting to creatively fail my internet course. Not really, but I have a hard time posting anything that is not a critique of my professor. It looks pretty grim.

The good news is that at the end of the day, when I've exchanged my school work for email and a blog, I find a message in my inbox from my good friend Scott Terry marked "Important." My immediate reaction was that one of his sons was sick or that they'd been given a free trailer that he'd already moved next to theirs and was inviting us to move into. But, no, the news was of far greater importance. I'll reprint it here in its entirety:

I am now joining the world of Blogging. I could not be outdone by John Owen. Please put this site on your favorites list so you can read my amazing comments on culture, economics, politics and much more from a Reformed Presbyterian Agrarian.

http://www.xanga.com/Farmer_Scott


Scott Terry

?

the following is all stolen from George Grant's Blog...
and, to be fair, I came across it first on David Hegeman's Blog....

8.18.04

What We Know

My friend Eric Holmberg, of Reel to Real Ministries, often makes presentations to church groups on the smothering influence of media in our lives. He sent me this very telling transcript of a recent encounter he had with a college fellowship group:

“Who's the character in Seinfeld with the funny hair?”

A chorus of hands shot up excitedly. “Kramer!” came the almost universal reply.

“What time does Friends come on?”

Again, there was no hesitation. “Eight!” “Thursday nights.” “NBC,” offered one young lady, nailing the coordinates in both space and time.

“Complete this line from Spiderman: 'With great power comes…?”

“Great responsibility!” over seventy-five voices cried in unison.

“Now can someone tell me the difference between rap and hip-hop? Or emo and goth?”

There was a brief silence as the audience cast about for the best spokesman to address the nuances of the question. But after a few initial observations were made, the response again became lively and democratic. Person after person shared either their thoughts on the distinctions or at least illustrated them by identifying their favorite artists in each category.

“OK,” the speaker said. “Let's now change gears a bit. Who was the prophet in the Old Testament who had no hair?”

Silence.

“What hour of the day did Jesus die on the cross?”

Emboldened by the narrow range of possible answers, a few hands went up and numbers were offered. But it was obvious that nobody real knew.

“Complete this line from Proverbs 3: “Trust in the Lord with all you heart and….”

“…obey Him?” the NBC girl offered hopefully.

“Sorry, although obeying Him is certainly a good idea. OK, someone explain to me the difference between justification and sanctification.”

The silence among the church's college group was now deafening.

More than a little sobering, isn't it?

UberLibrarian

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040903_620.html

It's amazing to me that there were so many people who were willing to risk their lives to save books. What kind of a person rushes into a flaming building to rescue bound printed matter? It may not have been as bad as all that, but still there was a real threat and those stout German librarians continued to rescue books.
My respect for Germans increases daily- they abound in wonders: Martin Luther, Oktoberfest, Spiel des Jahres, and reckless librarians who probably meet at the tavern and exchange Luther quotes over mugs of malt beverages while playing games after rescuing precious books from a menacing inferno.
Surely these librarians had beards.

....like an elf on speed.....
That's how Jen Walters described Dr. Jane Maugans to me, and I'll never forget it.
Scott Wilkins and I shared Intro to Sociology with one another. I don't know if that's enough to make us "friends," but I just now included his blog under the links section: Friend Blogs. He did write a poem for me after all. It's in storage in Binghamton, otherwise I'd post the poem here now.
Jen Walters wrote me a poem, too, come to think about it. I wonder if she's blogging?

I met a fellow LIS student who told me that if I bought a game boy advance sp, he can get me games for 25% off from his workplace. Can anyone dissuade me from doing this?

Today I finished one week’s worth of Library Science classes. The most I have to show for it is a weary body and reduced mental capacities. Tuesday at work, my nurse partner and I took out S.J. and H.S. to K-mart to shop for tools (hammer, hex wrenches, screwdrivers). We got back to LDH where I immediately ran in to use the bathroom before unloading anyone. By the time I was finished urinating, I made it back outside for the final moments of unloading. I wheeled S.J. inside with the intention of going back outside to close up the wheelchair lift, move the van, and turn off the engine. Two hours later my boss went out for a smoke break and found this same van in the same spot outside the door, wheelchair lift down, engine still running. Twenty minutes later, I had to leave work early to go to my first live (as opposed to virtual) classes. None of them individually seem so bad, but taken together the work load is overwhelming. I am overwhelmed.

Some people who read this blog may enjoy the writing of Neil Gaiman. Here's a 24-hour-comic written and drawn by Gaiman for the wonderful Scott McCloud. Anything either one of these guys does is worth checking out.

I'll probably post stuff here that I write for my classes. Below is my first post to a web board for my internet class. I'm pretty disappointed with this internet class. A large part of it is reading this discussion board and interacting. Honestly, I don't care much what my virtual classmates think about things and don't really feel like I'm learning from their mere opinions.
bah.


" The following is a quick reaction to one sentence and a bit of its context in the essay “Information, Not Books.”Mostly, this is just a post to get myself out there and using the web board. I apologize if it’s a bit long.
“Limiting access to information because of its format is nothing less than a covert form of censorship.”
This judgement seems a bit rash to me. Can we speak of “Information” without speaking of concrete forms (formats), any more than we can speak of “Love” or “Logic”? Certainly, “Information” cannot be communicated to anyone without media. One such eminent medium is that of “Book.”
For example, if I wish to communicate information about the life of Stonewall Jackson, I could offer someone the biography written of him by his chaplain and Chief of Staff Robert Lewis Dabney. Or I can hand someone a copy of the recent film Gods and Generals. Now as much as I enjoyed the film, I don’t believe that it gave me or anyone the same information that Dabney’s bio does.
Limiting access to information because of its format is absolutely necessary. I may be able to discover the same “facts” about Jackson through a film, but is that the same “information”?Dabney’s biography is a written, printed biography. To offer it any other way is limiting access to information in another way. Even if the History Channel could do an outstanding job transferring the work to an hour long video documentary, the content (the information) would be radically altered. The person who can’t read (or at least read at the level that Dabney requires), but can watch a documentary may be receiving the same facts, but is certainly receiving different information. The information is tied to a specific medium.The information would be changed. I could spend 10,000 words describing to you Rodin’s sculpture The Gates of Hell.Would my extremely accurate description convey the same information as the sculpture itself? Format discriminates of a necessity. The blind man cannot appreciate Rodin in the same way that the sighted can, precisely because of the format. Rodin’s work could be broken down into information in other formats, but the blind man still does not receive the same information.
Limiting access to information because of its format is nothing less than an overt form of reality.
"