In the interest of balance...

I saw this on andrewducker's journal, and I thought it might amuse some of you...

(From the picture URL, I can see it comes from The Church Times.)

In the interest of balance...

I saw this on andrewducker's journal, and I thought it might amuse some of you...

(From the picture URL, I can see it comes from The Church Times.)

Remember.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.

I was talking to a friend about the holocaust at the weekend, and we discussed how important it was to remember.

I have nothing else to say: except that we must rembember.

Remember.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.

I was talking to a friend about the holocaust at the weekend, and we discussed how important it was to remember.

I have nothing else to say: except that we must rembember.

"Gay Penguins Wed"

Catherine Townsend has posted an almost too cute story about gay penguins in China.

"Gay Penguins Wed"

Catherine Townsend has posted an almost too cute story about gay penguins in China.

"Iraq minutes 'must be released'"

From the BBC:

Ministers have been ordered to release minutes of the cabinet meetings which discussed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Iraq minutes 'must be released'"

From the BBC:

Ministers have been ordered to release minutes of the cabinet meetings which discussed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"A Love Supreme"

I wrote the other day about how my iPod was obsessing about John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and yesterday I had a text from a friend who I think was listening – not hearing, because I know I’ve played it to her before, but listening - to A Love Supreme for the first time, and she was bowled over by it.

It is music that demands listening to.

This got me thinking about what it is in the music that I – and many others - find so compelling.

There is something about Coltrane. I remember an article in The Wire when it was still a jazz magazine. It was about Coltrane on, I think, the twentieth anniversary of his death (which means it is more than twenty years ago now) (actually, I got that wrong – I think it must have been April 1991…). The article – by Richard Cook, I think – started with words that went a bit like this…

There are crazy jazz fans out there for whom John Coltrane is a kind of messiah, a god-like figure to be worshiped with awe. Thing is, they are right…

(If anyone has a copy of this article – and if you do, you’ll know the one I mean – I’d love to see it. Here’s looking at you, bro’…)

Coltrane really does inspire that kind of devotion. ( Read more... )

"A Love Supreme"

I wrote the other day about how my iPod was obsessing about John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and yesterday I had a text from a friend who I think was listening – not hearing, because I know I’ve played it to her before, but listening - to A Love Supreme for the first time, and she was bowled over by it.

It is music that demands listening to.

This got me thinking about what it is in the music that I – and many others - find so compelling.

There is something about Coltrane. I remember an article in The Wire when it was still a jazz magazine. It was about Coltrane on, I think, the twentieth anniversary of his death (which means it is more than twenty years ago now) (actually, I got that wrong – I think it must have been April 1991…). The article – by Richard Cook, I think – started with words that went a bit like this…

There are crazy jazz fans out there for whom John Coltrane is a kind of messiah, a god-like figure to be worshiped with awe. Thing is, they are right…

(If anyone has a copy of this article – and if you do, you’ll know the one I mean – I’d love to see it. Here’s looking at you, bro’…)

Coltrane really does inspire that kind of devotion. ( Read more... )