Bourbon & Nachos

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Perverted Use of a Chesterton Quote

new category at Chesterton & Friends: Perverted Use of a Chesterton Quote

Monday, July 13, 2009

What’s a Culture Snob to Do?

"Pity the culture snob, as Kindles, iPods, and flash drives swallow up the visible markers of superior taste and intelligence. With the digitization of books, music, and movies, how will the highbrow distinguish him- or herself from the masses?" - by James Wolcott, link


Thursday, July 9, 2009

intelligence types

"With eight separate intelligences, the odds seem good that every child will be intelligent in one of those realms. After all, it's not called the theory of multiple stupidities."
- Christopher J. Ferguson @ Not Every Child is Secretly a Genius

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Who is to say?

From every page of A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books, author Alex Beam whispers: put down the Aristotle and pick up the remote. Stop reading that Dostoevsky text and start responding 2 a txt. There is a Dog the Bounty Hunter to watch, internet porn to surf, Grand Theft Auto IV to play. Conform... Beam's snobbishness toward a movement spreading great books to mediocre minds strangely morphs into egalitarianism when he attacks the project's contention that some books truly are great. Who's to say Jane Austin over Danielle Steele, Aristotle over Deepak Chopra, Thomas Aquinas over Richard Dawkins?
by Daniel J. Flynn, more @ http://tinyurl.com/mxmfup (ISI)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

What Is a Book Review?

"For what is a book review if not—at least in part—a narcissistic self-display?" - Jonathan Gottschall in his review of Geoffrey Miller's Spent

Thursday, May 14, 2009

needed to cure AIDS: 1. a humanization of sexuality; 2. a true friendship

During his flight to Cameroon, March 17, 2009, the pope had said within the context of the interview that "I can say that this problem of AIDS can't be overcome only with publicity slogans. If there is not the soul, if the Africans are not helped, the scourge can't be resolved with the distribution of condoms; on the contrary, there is the risk of increasing the problem. The solution can only be found in a double commitment; first, a humanization of sexuality, that is, a spiritual and human renewal that brings with it a new way of behaving with one another; and second, a true friendship, also and above all for those who suffer, the willingness -- even with sacrifice and self denial -- to be with the suffering. And these are the factors that help and that lead to visible progress".
 

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

music inspired by Tristan & Iseult

http://twitter.com/lobstermayo/statuses/1784279894

The medieval tale of Tristan and Iseult came to Patrick Ball when he found a tiny book tucked between some large folios in a library.... "The version I found and adapted was from the 20th century translation from the French by Hilaire Belloc," Ball said. "I love the characteristics of the prose and the beauty of the writing. There's something enchanting about the phrasing. It takes you back to the way they expressed things in the Middle Ages.