Immanentize the Eschaton » Uncategorized

Old Ways

Dan Kennedy — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:42:41 +0000

About two months ago, I started listening to classical music. It was not a conscious decision, in that I said to myself “Self, you need to listen to classical music and improve yourself.” It more of an “I can’t find anything decent to listen to on [a whole bunch of Sirius Stations]. Let me try the classical channel.”

Now, I did not know that much about classical music. I knew the basics (e.g., the Three Bs), and knew that I had long ago listened to Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony and enjoyed it. Oh, and Handel’s Messiah. So I tuned to “Symphony Hall” with no great expectation that I would enjoy what I heard. I was quite surprised that not only did I like the music; I was listening to it more closely than I did the rock stations. I now regularly listen to both “Symphony Hall” and “SiriusXM Pops”, as well as the local classical radio station (WDAV). I have also started listening more to what SiriusXM calls the “Sinatra” channel.

So, am I putting on airs? I do not think so. I think I am experiencing on a small, personal scale what Tom Wolfe called a “Great Relearning”. I am finding out that maybe, just maybe, some of the old things and old ways really were better. Certainly not everything older was better. But maybe my Dad knew something when he told us that Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and other artists of that era made some terrific music that would outlast the pop and rock we kids were listening to. He was no classical music aficionado, but he could appreciate a good symphony or concerto.

Another small example or two might help clarify what I am groping at. I head Dennis Prager on a podcast I listen to each week. He was talking about classical music, and one of the hosts said something like “you sound like a man who writes with a fountain pen.” Now when I was younger (and I mean around 4^th or 5^th grade), I used a cheap fountain pen. (I think it was a Schaeffer.) Whether out of enjoyment or affectation I can’t remember now, and it probably does not matter. I do know that the comment piqued my interest and I did what any one would do nowadays: I Googled “fountain pen.” I found a variety of sites proving that interest in this has not faded; indeed, it appears that many people still use fountain pens regularly. I found out that there is even a disposable fountain pen. I picked up a couple of them, and I enjoy using them for taking notes at work, writing in my journal (which I have also re-started), etc. I am also learning about better stationary, notebooks, and so on.

One site that popped up was “The Art of Manliness”. I checked it out (it was there that I learned about the disposable fountain pen). I wasn’t sure if the site was meant to be ironic, or if it was intended to provoke discussion and recovery of “manly” skills and virtues. One article concerned “How to Shave Like Your Grandfather”. It discussed the benefits of traditional shaving techniques and tools over those used today. For example, a double-edged safety razor actually provides a better, more comfortable shave for far less money than the four or five bladed cartridges most men use. This is especially true if one prepares the beard in the correct way: use hot water and a good shaving brush and shaving soap to really help the blade glide over the skin. As luck would have it, I had a particularly painful shave that day (it probably didn’t help that the Fusion cartridge I was using was on its fourth week of service, but at $17 for four cartridges, I push them as long as I can take it). I started looking into what some call “wet shaving”, and I decided to try it out. I bought an inexpensive (not cheap!) brush and some traditional shaving cream. So far, it has made my shaving more comfortable and pleasurable. I plan to get a safety razor and see how that works. I suspect that it will work just fine.

Now, my father used a safety razor. But when I started shaving, there was no way I was going to use that “old geezer stuff”. Nope, it was Trac II, etc., for me! I did like Old Spice and English Leather though (still do). Again, he knew something we didn’t, and I have to re-learn it now.

And I think that’s my point: newer isn’t necessarily better. The old ways have value. I have lost that somehow in the rush of modern life, chasing the new and “exciting”. My dad has not been with us for over 30 years, but I know he’ll smile when I say “Dad, I am sorry. You were right!”

An Underrated Guitarist

Dan Kennedy — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 02:00:53 +0000

While I was randomly surfing around the net, I came upon a few of those "Top 100 (Rock) Guitarists of All Time" lists. There were the usual suspects at the top, shifting places from list to list, and a diverse bunch of players the rest of the way down. But on all the lists I looked at, one name was absent.

Brian Setzer,

Can anyone who has listened to Setzer's playing seriously say that Joni Mitchell belongs on the list instead of him (I'm looking at you, Rolling Stone)? Or that any of a number of lesser players belong, but not the Stray Cat himself?

Pull out your copy of "Built For Speed" (you do have one, right?). Listen to his work on "Rock This Town". Listen to it again on "The Dirty Boogie". Check out his work in the cut "Sleepwalk".

Does he not get respect because he plays rockabilly and leads an updated big-band? I just don't get it. Help me out, please!

“Get Low”…A Fantastic Movie

Dan Kennedy — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 02:30:30 +0000

Just finished watching "Get Low". It reminded me why I give anything with Duvall a chance! Murray and Spacek were a bonus. I think that like "The Apostle", this will stay with me for quite some time. I am surprised that movies like this still get made.

It also makes me want to keep my Netflix subscription. Movies like this just aren't at Redbox, or even at Blockbuster (which we no longer have). I know of no place else to get these smaller, independent movies (we got "The Apostle" from Netflix years ago). Throw in foreign gems like "The Lives of Others" of the "Dragon Tattoo" trilogy (the movies were much better than the books), and suddenly it is worth the 10 dollars a month.

Susan Clyne R.I.P.

Dan Kennedy — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 01:36:57 +0000

Val saved a segment from the View yesterday for me. They were talking to the children of a woman from Marsh & McLennan, and she thought I might have known her.

They showed pictures of her in the background, and I did know her. Susan Clyne. Her desk was adjacent to mine. She was a fine person and colleague, and her children were her pride and joy. I remember her talking to them several times a day. She was killed in Tower 1 of the World Trade Center on September 11.

I couldn’t make it through more than 20 seconds of the segment.

Bastards.

Priceless Advice

Dan Kennedy — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 01:17:41 +0000

A young comedian sent the late, great Phil Hartman an audiotape of his work. Hartman sent him back an encouraging letter that contained some of the wisest, simplest advice I've ever read:

Develop your craft…don't be discouraged…work wherever you can. Be patient.

Great advice for anyone. Perhaps our schools should work on this, instead of "globalization".

You can read the whole letter (and background) here. I really miss Phil Harman.

Don’t Waste Time!

Dan Kennedy — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:13:30 +0000

“If it doesn’t make you happy, and it doesn’t make you money, just move on.”

Words of wisdom from Adam Carolla. It’s at least a good first cut!

Articles: Islamic Supremacism Trumps Christianity at Ground Zero

Dan Kennedy — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:49:00 +0000

While New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg works in anxious haste to build the cultural obscenity that is the Ground Zero mosque, the iconic St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was built in 1916 and destroyed in the attack on the World Trade Center towers by Muslim terrorists, remains vanquished, unable to rebuild.

Bloomberg is lobbying for 9/11 taxpayer funds for the Islamic supremacist grifters behind the Ground Zero mosque, but St. Nicholas Church is in purgatory ten years after the worst day in modern American history.

Perhaps St. Nicholas Church should claim that it is a mosque — then Bloomberg and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn would probably pour the cement for its foundation. Remember: the New York Daily News reported last December that “Mayor Bloomberg’s top deputies went to great lengths to help those trying to build a mosque at Ground Zero — even drafting a letter to the community board for them.”

After a Freedom of Information Act request from Judicial Watch, New York City officials released “a flurry of emails between its brass and Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam pushing to build a mosque near the sensitive site, and his supporters.” It was worse than we imagined. The release of these documents, emails, and various exchanges between Mayor Bloomberg’s office and the radical Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his motley crew of Islamic supremacists showed evidence of collusion, inappropriate political support for the Ground Zero mega-mosque, and favoritism given to the project.

Rauf is an open proponent of Islamic law, Sharia, with its oppression of women, stonings, and amputations. He is a prominent member of the Perdana organization, a leading funder of the jihad flotilla launched against Israel last year by the genocidal Islamic terror group, IHH. And he’s a slumlord and grifter: Rauf snagged more than $2 million in public financing to renovate low-income apartments. He took the money, never did the renovations, and forced good people to live with vermin and dilapidation.

So why did the mayor apparently break ethical rules for a slumlord with radical ties, whose buildings were placed in receivership? And why isn’t he working just as energetically for the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Church? Technically, he has no jurisdiction over the Port Authority, which is blocking the rebuilding of the church, but he could speak out more energetically for it — and meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver could do a great deal to help the church’s cause — but in sharp contrast to Bloomberg’s work for the mosque, they haven’t done a thing for the church.

Cuomo could order Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward to stop blocking the church’s reconstruction. He hasn’t. Silver hasn’t done a thing, either. Yet if they support the Ground Zero mosque, they should at least extend the same level of support to this church that was on the site for 85 years.

I spoke with Evan C. Lambrou, who is a former editor of the National Herald, the country’s oldest and largest Greek-American newspaper, and a distinguished graduate of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. He explained that it was “wrong for the Port Authority to take the church’s original property for its purposes, in exchange for another parcel nearby; extract the church’s good faith by promising to actually deliver the promised new parcel; and then not make good on that promise. In short, the Port Authority got the church to do something it didn’t really want to do by promising the church something else instead, and then refused to give what was promised. That’s just not right. It’s morally reprehensible, in fact.”

Yes, it is, and it gets worse. Lambrou continued: “It’s very disgraceful that the Port Authority has compelled the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to file a federal lawsuit just to rebuild one of our churches. And it’s simply astounding that people work themselves into such a frenzy about Park 51; that so many elected officials have rushed to defend development of an Islamic community center two blocks away from Ground Zero; and that virtually no one cares about the Port Authority’s plans to exclude a Christian church from Ground Zero altogether.”

Lambrou skewered the double standard: “This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and principles, so if elected officials are going to support religious freedom for Muslims in America, they should do the same for one of this country’s Christian minorities.”

“That’s why I’m disappointed,” Lambrou said, “in Governor Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.” He sent them both letters and emails, but their response “wasn’t even lukewarm.” He received “one feel-good call from a press officer at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation assuring me that the “Cuomo Administration cares.” And as for Silver, one of his aides told Lambrou that he was “concerned” about the church. That was it. Lambrou sent them both information from the American Center for Law and Justice that pointed out that in refusing to rebuild the church, the Port Authority had violated three constitutional amendments. Nonetheless, Lammbrou said, “neither Mr. Cuomo nor Mr. Silver have voiced their support for the church publicly. I have urged them to do so several times, and they still haven’t yet.”

Lambrou told me: “This is both a moral and a Constitutional matter. Is it really that difficult for them to release a substantive public statement of support for rebuilding this church? Is it really so hard for them to tell the Port Authority to do the right thing for the church?” When I asked him if the lawsuit that the church had filed against various New York officials might be causing the silence, he responded: “This is a no-brainer, and the lawsuit is no excuse. Anyway, the lack of response to my concerns has been deeply disheartening. Orthodox Christian rights are being violated by a powerful public entity under their watch, and the people who should be defending us are doing nothing about it.”

While those of us who oppose the Islamic supremacist mosquestrosity at Ground Zero are routinely called bigots, it is St. Nicholas Church that is encountering actual bigotry. Lambrou said, “I never thought I would find myself contending with this kind of bigotry in 21st Century America, and I feel completely betrayed that those who are in a position to reverse the problem have done nothing about it. That indicates they’re actually willing to relegate this innocent and historic house of worship to oblivion and, in so doing, perpetuate the tragedy of 9/11.”

They are, but we aren’t. Stop the Islamization of lower Manhattan. Stand with us against the Ground Zero Mosque and for St. Nicholas Church on September 11 at our Freedom Rally at Ground Zero.

Pamela Geller is the publisher of AtlasShrugs.com and the author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War On America (Simon & Schuster).

via americanthinker.com

From the American Thinker website.

Why Is It…

Dan Kennedy — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:51:51 +0000

Why is it that when a comedian makes degrading references to homosexuality, he is denounced, made to offer abject apologies, and meet with those “hurt and offended” by his words?

Why is it that when an actor trying his hand at stand-up uses racial epithets, he is called a racist and his career imperiled?

And why is it when an artist submerges a crucifix in bodily waste and those who are offended speak out against it, they are told by the same ones who denounced the actor and comedian to “stop censoring art”?

Just asking.

The NHL Does It Right!

Dan Kennedy — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 22:27:41 +0000

The Boston Bruins won game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night, and it really struck me just how different the NHL is from the other major sports leagues.

In football, baseball, and basketball, the championship trophy is given to the owners of the team. You see the Maras, the Steinbrenners, the Rooneys, etc., accepting the trophy. There may or may not be a coach or manager with them, and perhaps a star player, but the emphasis is on the owner.

Last night, Gary Bettmann presented the Stanley Cup to Zdeno Chara, captain of the Bruins. After skating his lap, the Cup was passed to each player to skate with for a lap in keeping with tradition.

That’s right, they give the Cup to the players. You know, the ones who actually take the hits night after night. The ones who actually score the goals and win the games. The ones who leave their blood on the ice.

The ones who deserve it.

Keep it up, NHL! Maybe the other leagues will eventually learn from you.

Andrew Klavan’s One State Solution

Dan Kennedy — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:57:58 +0000

Works for me! There’s more truth in this than the anti-Semites want to admit.

(h/t: www.ricochet.com)