23482. (Cristóbal de Morales) Officium defunctorum Missa pro Defunctis
23483. (Alonso Lobo) Motet: Versa es in luctum
23484. (Ed Sheeran) You Need Me EP
23485. (A$AP Rocky) Live Love A$AP
23486. (Moody Blues) The Magnificent Moodies
23487. Eight Lamas from Drepung: Tibetan Sacred Temple Music
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First-time listening for January 2016
Posted by Phil Paine
on January 31, 2016
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READING — JANUARY 2016
Posted by Phil Paine
on January 31, 2016
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23000. (Frs. Limbourg & Jean Colombe) Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry [1412–1489]
23001. (Jean-Paul Gagnon) Non-human Democracy: Our Political Vocabulary Has No Room
. . . . . for Animals [article]
23002. (Miljana Radivojević, et al) On the Origins of Extractive Metallurgy: New Evidence
. . . . . from Europe [article]
23003. (Patrick Vinton Kirch) The Lapita Peoples: Ancestors of the Oceanic World
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Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Posted by Phil Paine
on January 24, 2016
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Usually, I don’t list a book as “read” unless I read the whole thing, but this is a special case. The Très Riches Heures is a medieval breviary, famous for its artistic value as an illuminated manuscript. I doubt that many people have ever read the entire text, which is merely a collection of prayers, making tedious reading. Such books were made for laymen who wished to bring some elements of monastic practice into their daily lives. They provided a calendric schedule for reading passages from the Gospels, the Psalms, and litanies, and also helped one keep track of the many feast and saints’ days. Most were in Latin, but some were in local vernaculars. Thousands of these manuscripts survive, but a handful that were produced for wealthy nobles are spectacularly illuminated. The one produced for the Duc de Berry is considered to be one of the principal masterpieces of medieval art. It is sometimes said to be the most valuable book in the world. Read more »
Some Thoughts on a Year of Reading
Posted by Phil Paine
on January 3, 2016
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It’s been an average year of reading. 160 books and about 500 academic papers, articles, short stories and other short items. History and anthropology dominated the book reading, as usual, with an emphasis on Australia, the Pacific, the Canadian North and West, and the ideas of 19th century Canadian democratic reformers. I became particularly fascinated by the 19th century convict colonies of Australia and the French Pacific possessions, and I amplified previous readings (such as Robert Hughes venerable The Fatal Shore, and the eye-opening but little known Australia’s Birthstain, by Babette Smith). Thomas Keneally, giving Hughes a run for his money in A Commonwealth of Thieves, covers the general subject with extraordinarily vivid prose, and Siân Rees makes a closer case study in The Floating Brothel — The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth- century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts. Read more »
Image of the month: a Syrian refugee “menaces” Europe
Posted by Phil Paine
on January 1, 2016
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I’m proud to say that Canada is welcoming 30,000 Syrian refugees. They will make fine Canadians.
FILMS – DECEMBER 2015
Posted by Phil Paine
on December 31, 2015
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(Lambert 2011) Mega Python vs. Gatoroid
(Groening & Mirkin 1993) The Simpsons: Ep.88 ― Bart’s Inner Child
(Moore 1964) Perry Mason: Ep.210 ― The Case of the Tandem Target
(Marks 1964) Perry Mason: Ep.211 ― The Case of the Ugly Duckling
(Robson 1946) Bedlam
(Groening & Mirkin 1993) The Simpsons: Ep.89 ― Boy-Scoutz ‘n the Hood
(Donner 1964) Perry Mason: Ep.212 ― The Case of the Missing Button
(Dante 2010) Trailers from Hell: Joe Dante on The Invisible Ghost
(Lewis 1941) The Invisible Ghost
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First-time listening for December 2015
Posted by Phil Paine
on December 31, 2015
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23449. (Ferde Grofé) Hudson River Suite
23450. (How To Dress Well) Love Remains
23451. (Leoninus [Leo Léonin]) Messe du Jour de Noël
23452. (Nathan Chan & ThatViolaKid) “Hello” [Adele cover]
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READING – DECEMBER 2015
Posted by Phil Paine
on December 31, 2015
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22963. (Jonathan Safran Foer) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
22964. (Philipp W. Stockhammer, et al) Rewriting the Central European Early Bronze Age
. . . . . Chronology: Evidence from Large-Scale Radiocarbon Dating [article]
22965. (Robert M. Kerr) Coït sacré ou deuil rituel? Quelques remarques préliminaires sur
. . . . . l’apthéose chez les Phéniciens [article]
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Mbongwana Means Change
Posted by Phil Paine
on December 28, 2015
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Mbongwana Star
I fell in love with African pop music long ago, in Nigeria, during the heady days of Victor Owaifo, Dele Abiodun and King Sunny Adé (whose hand I got to shake in Toronto, many years later). I’ve tried to follow it ever since, but there is simply too much to keep track of. Africa produces wave after wave of new music, the hotspots shifting back and forth from region to region. Kinshasa is a hotspot, lately.
Mbongwana Star is taking African pop in a new direction with the release this year of From Kinshasa. Mbongwana actually means “change” in Lingala, and the change is apparent. Musicians in the Congo* have long been in a groove whose outside influences were primarily reggae, soukous and classic rhyhm and blues. From Kinshasa is quite different. It has a spacy, almost psychedelic sensibility that pulls influences from punk and electronica, and has an ambience something like the science fiction-motown experiments that George Clinton made back in the 1970s. This amount of innovation is all the more remarkable because the founders of the band, Yakala “Coco” Ngambali and Nsituvuidi “Theo” Nzonza, are men in their sixties, confined to wheelchairs, and veterans of the brief celebrity of Staff Benda Bilili. Read more »
Sunday, December 20, 2015 — Pride
Posted by Phil Paine
on December 20, 2015
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Canada’s Cabinet Ministers of Immigration (John McCallum), Defense (Harjit Sajjan), and Health (Jane Philpott) with Syrian refugee children.
I’m a curmudgeony cynic, most of the time, so it’s not often I get to proclaim that I’m proud of my country. But the behaviour of Canadians in the last week has filled me with pride. Last month, I posted a letter I sent to my Member of Parliament, asking that the commitment to admitting Syrian refugees to Canada be expanded to greater numbers. My sentiments seem to be shared by most Canadians, but that is not the case elsewhere.
In the United States, the majority of politicians (all Republicans, of course, but many Democrats, too) have decided to be pals with ISIS, collaborating in their attrocities by making it difficult for their victims to find refuge. The Marching Morons have triumphed, and there have been numerous acts of terrorism against innocent people, encouraged and abetted by Fox Pravda and the usual Conservative scumbags. Read more »