Friday, February 23, 2007

Technical question. Is it possible to set a blog site as host post only?

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Best movie soundtracks

Best soundtracks. Favorite soundtracks.

IMHO, the all-time best movie soundtrack is Alexander Nevsky, for obvious reasons. In modern times, I think the theme to Rocky was outstanding for its purpose. What are your favorites and your choices for best?

John Wayne Cavalry Trilogy

I am trying to get copies of this group of movies: Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Fort Apache. Have any of you seen all of them?

Swashbuckler movies

Sarah and I are big fans of this genre. I am sitting here listening to the soundtrack to Robin Hood and wanting to watch a good swordfight. Nothing to get the blood stirring like a good duel between Basil and someone. Any other swashbuckler movies that you particularly like?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

My favorite movies

Well, I guess all you out there in blogland are waiting breathlessly to hear my favorite movies. My two favorite all-time movies are The Quiet Man and The Great Escape. However, my favorite genre, by far, is the detective movies of the 30's, 40's and early 50's.
Happy Valentine's Day to all you ladies out there. (Whew! Good, I remembered. Now I can cross that off my list.)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

If you want to hear what a tenor is supposed to sound like, get a recording of John McCormack. He was the original Irish tenor, and hugely popular in the WWI era. His rendering of "Il Mio Tesoro" by Mozart is still considered the definitive performance of that aria.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Excuses for innovation

It is very interesting to me that that expression, "Our Primitive Baptist forefathers made lots of mistakes" has become an excuse to bring in all manner of innovations, in doctrine, but especially in practice.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Great composers, great pianists

I have often wondered about this. Many, if not most, of the great composers were also great pianists. Obviously, most of them were highly intelligent (Mozart's IQ has been estimated around 200). However, does intelligence always result in manual dexterity? And is it to be expected that people with that degree of intelligence are willing to devote the hours of drudgery necessary to become great pianists?

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Claiming to be a Primitive Baptist

The following reportedly is a transcript of a portion of a sermon by a man claiming to be a Primitive Baptist minister. It is an absolute abomination and travesty. Assuming that this is a correct rendering of what he said, this man, if he has any honesty and decency at all, should stop even pretending to call himself a Primitive Baptist immediately. It is nauseating! How ANY Primitive Baptist could try to defend someone who would make such a statement is a wonder to me!
Mark Green

"We have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house have sinned. Now here's what I want out of that. I want several things, but here's what I want, mainly. He said I and my father's house.
"You know what we're prone to do. We're prone to defend what our fathers have done whether it was right or wrong. We've got to get over that. I'm gonna tell you in 1832 there was a division in the Baptist family that sent the Primitive Baptists into one ditch on one side and the Arminian Baptists in one ditch on the other side. They were competing with each other to see which one could out do the best in getting away from the word of God, because both of them did.
"When you study that Black Rock Address and you study the attitude they had and bore the fierceness they claimed to be the vicar of truth and the measure and standard of orthodoxy, and the attitude that they had, I'm telling you, that was Phariseeism. And I believe that's when God withdrew his blessing from them. And we've been on a downward course ever since.
"Its time we as a people looked up and said our fathers have sinned. They had the wrong attitude. They had the wrong philosophy. In many cases they had the wrong motive for the decisions that they made. Nehemiah said our fathers sinned and so have I. "

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

OK. Here is a new secret that I know. Anyone want to bite?

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Ha ha ha. I'll bet all of you wish you knew what I know!

General of the Armies of the United States Washington

General of the Armies of the United States is the highest possible land-based rank in the United States military hierarchy, equal to a Generalissimo. The rank of General of the Armies has only been bestowed twice in the history of the United States Army and only once in an active duty capacity. The rank is superior to that of General of the Army (note the difference between the singular and the plural of the two ranks).
The only people in United States history to hold the title General of the Armies were John J. Pershing, who held the official title "General of the Armies" and, posthumously, George Washington, who was appointed to the official title of "General of the Armies of the United States".