A Prog-rock Christmas: Day 4

Day 4 brings us back to Chris Squire--with a twist. The video is miguelbass of YouTube playing his bass to a track of Personet Hodie from Chris Squire's Swiss Choirs.

Hewing the Hobbit

Finished reading "The Hobbit": good!  Then I saw the movie. To Paraphrase GK Chesterton: “A good movie  tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad movie tells us the truth about its director.”

Don't worry! You can trust me!

The truth the movie tells us about Peter Jackson is that he has become a Gollum. He thinks "The Hobbit" is his to do with as he likes. Where he hews to the story the movie is fine. When he hews "The Hobbit", cutting from and adding to as he wills, it's a mess.

Spoiler alert!

To be fair, some of the additions work quite well. The council at Rivendell with Galadriel and Saruman gave a sense of import and danger to the journey. I also liked the prologue with the Ian Holmes' Bilbo and Frodo.

However, having Azog, "The Pale Orc", survive an earlier battle to be the enemy of Thorin  Oakenshield brings several changes to the story, and not for the better. As other have said, it is no longer simply "The Hobbit". It is now a prequel to Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. It is his precioussss, not ours.

A Prog-rock Christmas: Day 3

This song done here by the Moody Blues isn't all that proggy or rocky, but it's a lovely melody. The original melody was "Soleado", a tune from 1972 by Ciro Dammicco . The English lyrics were written a few years later by Fred Jay, According to Wikipedia.




And here's the classic Johnny Mathis version:

A Prog-rock Christmas: Day 2

OK, a little catching up to do!  The second video is from the "Chis Squire's Swiss Choirs" CD.  In addition to being a amazing bass player, Chris is a great vocalist, especially his harmonies. Here he is with his Run With the Fox:
Hmm, issues with YouTube...

A Prog-rock Christmas: Day 1

This a series of music posts for, hopefully, 12 days of Christmas with a progressive rock theme. Ready?

First up is a video from the elf himself, Jon Anderson. This is my favorite prog Christmas CD. It has both new and old; great originals and old British carols. Here's one of Jon Anderson's originals.

Faithful Citizenship Is Not Just for Catholics!

This is a good, basic overview of the idea od faithful citizenship as proposed by the USCCB.
I think that it is a overview for any voter.

What's Wrong with the World by G.K. Chesterton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rather than a collection of various essays, What's Wrong with the World is an attempt to answer that question. It introduces GKCs stand-ins for Big Government and Big Business, Hudge and Gudge. As with many of his books, it's important to remember that is was written in the early to mid 1900s in a British culture, therefore some things will sound a little strange to contemporary American ears. But this a brilliant and challenging look at where we got off track on education, government and family.

“The woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys. On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn’t obeyed.”
― G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World

And two of Chesterton's best known quotes:

"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
Part Four: Education, or The Mistake About The Child - Ch. 14 : Folly and Female Education

"The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough. Mankind has not passed through the Middle Ages. Rather mankind has retreated from the Middle Ages in reaction and rout. The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."
Part One: The Homelessness Of Man, Ch. 5 : The Unfinished Temple