The book is about Pulp and what Hatherley considers the band’s main themes: class, sex, and urbanism. The following are all direct quotations. Jarvis Cocker, uniquely among male Pop lyricists, was and is a great writer of female characters, which mixes sometimes uncomfortably with songs of . . . . Continue Reading »
The reviews of the Obama speech are getting more negative from both the right and the left. The president is all defensive, the claim is, in the Carter mode, and he was darn close to playing the hope-being-replaced-by-malaise card. And the whining! Nothing Obama faces is anything like the bloody . . . . Continue Reading »
So last night’s Obama speech got mostly mediocre-to-bad reviews. I’ll try to see for myself tomorrow and the polls that come out next week will give us some idea of what most people saw. At least as important as the Obama speech was the mediocre-to-bad jobs report. . . . . Continue Reading »
Below, Matthew Schmitz lists “fifty essential religious songs” and asks what he missed. I wouldn’t suggest that Matt has missed anything on his list. For me, though, I add at least a few classical selections. The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah would rank at the the top . . . . Continue Reading »
Via Rod Dreher , columnist and former First Things contributor David Goldman (“Spengler”) contrasts the benedictions delivered by rabbis at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions: One difference between the two addresses is the fact that the whole Republican convention heard . . . . Continue Reading »
Dawn Eden, bestselling author The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On (Thomas Nelson, 2006) will be discussing her new book My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints (Ave Maria Press, 2012) tonight on Catholic . . . . Continue Reading »
Wesley J. Smith on the importance of ‘Living Dyingly’ : The late Christopher Hitchens wanted to be remembered for the excellence of his intellect. No doubt, those hopes will be met. As probably the best contemporary practitioner of the extended essay, he and the views he so . . . . Continue Reading »
In an article on Christian art at Ignitum Today , my colleague Anna Williams commends to her readers the band Scythian , a celtic-inflected group that treats religious themes. Now, I have nothing against Scythian, but there’s a lot of music—-even of music with religious . . . . Continue Reading »
As promised in my earlier post, I decided to weigh in some more on the late Christopher Hitchens’ denying Nietzsche’s maxim about being made stronger by that which does not destroy us. First, I note that Hitchens was the best contemporary practitioner of the extended essay, and reference . . . . Continue Reading »
Anger, self-righteousness, impossible promises, blame: political conventions are for setting a tone. Here is the Democrats’ tone for the coming months going into the election. It was not to my taste. On top of the Republican convention, it felt like an enormous political . . . . Continue Reading »
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