The best composer you've never heard of

That's what the Wall Street Journal said of Morten Lauridsen.

Dana Gioia (past chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts) describes him as "one of the few living composers whom I would call great."

What does Mr Lauridsen say? 

"There are too many things out there that are away from goodness. We need to focus on those things that ennoble us, that enrich us."

And of his "Lux Aeterna": 

"I didn't want to write an elitist piece that only the very best choirs in the world could perform--I wanted to write a piece that could be within the reach of many people, many performers. It's a piece with a message, and I didn't want to complicate that message with complicated musical language."

Reminds me of what another composer said: "Use ordinary words and say extraordinary things." Arthur Schopenhauer

Beautiful, direct, true, from the heart. Too many things away from goodness. I'm so glad Morten Lauridsen isn't.

(The award winning new documentary about him, "Shining Night" isn't yet scheduled to be broadcast anywhere in the US. The Wall Street Journal: "All he does is compose radiantly beautiful music and lead what appears to be a wholly satisfying life, and these days that's not quite enough to make you a household name. Time was when PBS would have snapped it up. Why not now?")

 

Keep fit for writers

My favorite part: "And rest". Brilliant!

Magicians and Writers: truth and illusion

"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." 

Tennessee Williams in THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Magicians and Writers: truth and illusion

"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." 

Tennessee Williams in THE GLASS MENAGERIE

What the British say and what they REALLY mean

Anglo-EU Translation Guide
via BBC America

yes. oh dear. sorry. it's pretty much dead on.

the joy of books

for children: digital or paper?

See the full gallery on Posterous

Research done at Temple University showed that paper books provide a more positive parent-child interaction for young children--and that electronic books dampen it. (In other words, a picture book helps a child most when it's paper--not really any surprise to anyone who loves picture books. You know this but you love to hear it from officialdom.) 

Children sitting with a parent reading a digital rather than a physical book aren't getting as much interaction. "This research does suggest that parents should be aware of some of the limitations of e-book reading. We shouldn't use e-books to replace traditional books and we shouldn't expect them that they don't. They're not substitutes for a human being." (more here)

It seems it comes down to how you interact with a book and how you interact with a device... the difference between, "Careful! Push here! Hold it this way!" and, "I wonder... what do you think will happen next?"

Are we focused on the device or the story? 

I'm all for digital books--and the amazing things they can do. But they can't do everything. They can't replace a traditional book--or a human being. 

It's not a question solely for children and their books, is it? It sounds like something we need to be asking ourselves every day of our lives. Particularly at the start of a new year.

Are the tools we use enlarging or dampening our own lives, our own stories? What's our focus--on the new or the essential?

peanuts christmas special

Charles Schulz' Peanuts Christmas Special had to fight to get the Peanuts Christmas Special to be what it is. Everyone told him he was crazy.

Here's what he had to convince network executives at CBS to do:
-- to not use a laugh track 
-- to use actual children for the voices of the characters 
-- and (most crucial of all) to keep the true meaning of Christmas in there and have Linus quote from Luke 2:8-14

The big important personages of CBS all hated the idea and said it would fail. Particularly that Bible stuff.

Thankfully Schultz didn't believe them. And what would it be without that "Bible stuff"?

Sometimes your job isn't just to create something. It's to fight for it.

More here