I wish I had gotten this quote in my Inbox yesterday, instead of today…
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
� Antoine de Saint-Exupery � Aviator, Author
Month: August 2005 (page 1 of 5)
I first heard this music late-late one night last week, while watching the movie Unfaithful. I tracked down the group, and it’s been on my playlist almost every day since. You may recognize the tune “Nara” if you watch Cold Case on CBS. It’s the opening theme.
Cool stuff…just what you need on a Sunday night…
See that street? Yep, that’s the world-famous – or infamous – Rue Bourbon in the Vieux Carre, New Orleans, Louisiana. Now, imagine that street with anywhere from 8-20 feet of water standing there. That’s what might happen in the next twelve hours when Hurricane Katrina blasts through the Gulf Coast.
We spent two years in N’awlins. For a city that we hated the first four months, it sure has grown on us since then. My professors told stories of live fish in the lobbies of on-campus apartment buildings when one Category 3 storm came through in the 1960s. Local lore holds that a little boy drowned while riding his bicycle. “Drowned while riding his bike? Well, that’s tragic, but not highly out of the ordinary, right?” Well, the boy was riding his bike on a railroad bridge. The bridge is over US Hwy. 90 in front of the Seminary. Lots and lots of water.
Now I know some folks would say that the best thing that could ever happen would be that New Orleans just washed away. I say pray for the safety of the people there. Pray for those who’ll go in to help out in the aftermath. I say pray that God will be glorified in the middle of a difficult and stressful time. I say pray that Jesus would be lifted up in the Crescent City.
…the way it should be!
Yesterday, the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” and I went to Atlanta on a quest to buy her a dress. (No, that’s not her! The lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” makes the dress look much, much better!) We ended up at the Talbots store in the Peachtree Battle Promenade.
A great woman named Kathy helped us. So many times, “customer service” is a misnomer. Not with Kathy. She knew her stuff and more importantly, she knew people!
Thanks, Kathy! And thanks, Talbots!
In my South, there’s just one true Sport…(and it ain’t hockey!)
…the way it should be!
Yesterday, the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” and I went to Atlanta on a quest to buy her a dress. (No, that’s not her! The lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” makes the dress look much, much better!) We ended up at the Talbots store in the Peachtree Battle Promenade.
A great woman named Kathy helped us. So many times, “customer service” is a misnomer. Not with Kathy. She knew her stuff and more importantly, she knew people!
Thanks, Kathy! And thanks, Talbots!
…but at least he didn’t beat me up. With an iron. A hot iron, at that! Go figure!
I got this in my Inbox yesterday (it was a personal e-mail, “from Diana Krall!” Yeah, right…!)
Dear Diana Krall Fan Club Member,
It’s the experience of a lifetime: an intimate evening with Diana Krall at a private residence in the hills of the Bay Area on Saturday, September 24th. Diana will share dinner and a very special performance with a small group of only 40 guests in support of the cause to cure multiple myeloma, an incurable bone marrow cancer that took the life of her mother, Adella, in 2002.
Since then, Diana and her sister Michelle have partnered with Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), the world’s largest nonprofit foundation dedicated to the single mission of accelerating the search for a cure of multiple myeloma, to create the MMRF Krall Family fund.
This “Evening of Jazz with Diana Krall” will benefit this fund entirely. This incredible opportunity to be a guest is being offered to you as someone who truly appreciates the beauty of Diana’s voice; both as a musician and advocate for this incurable disease. An extremely limited number of tickets remain at $5,000 per person (USD), with 100% of the proceeds going to the cause of curing multiple myeloma.
Don’t miss out on this chance to be part of Diana’s most intimate performance ever. For further event details and ticket information, please contact the MMRF today at 203-972-1250.
I promise I’ll behave! And I’ll even mention your name to the lovely and gracious Mrs. Costello – and her our hosts – if you pony up the five grand so I can go! I promise! It would be for a good cause…’cause I’d like to go!
Last week, I posted about reading C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, and I wondered in that space how the Disney folks would handle Aslan.
Now we know what the book marketers are going to try to do. Thanks to Evan Erwin (misterorange)and his comment over on Gary Lamb’s blog, we see this article about that very topic.
This from the Slate article…
Fifty years later, Lewis is surely looking down from heaven in horror. The New York Times recently reported that his beloved “Chronicles of Narnia” series will soon be supplemented by new, secularized installments; HarperCollins plans to bring us, as the title of Doreen Carvajal’s article put it, “Narnia Without a Christian Lion.” All the Narnia books, new and old, will be marketed aggressively, and according to a memo obtained by the Times, “no attempt will be made to correlate the stories to Christian imagery/theology.”
And this…
…Narnia’s “Christian imagery” goes beyond a sprinkling of biblical allusions; the entire story line mirrors the Christian salvation story. The Magician’s Nephew tells the creation story and the way evil seeped into Narnia; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe tells of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ; Prince Caspian tells how right religion was corrupted and then restored; and so on, until the final volume, The Last Battle, where Ape (the Antichrist) tries to take over Narnia, which leads to Aslan’s second coming. In addition to all the usual challenges of attempting a sequel to a classic, HarperCollins will have to figure out what it could possibly add to such a complete, iconic tale. Will the publishing house insert amusing anecdotes and preteen adventures amid all the divine revelation?
I’ve often wondered why “we” have to “baptize” everything in order to get a message across. And now I’m wondering why “they” feel the need to screw around with an absolutely riveting tale, just to avoid the fact that it just might say something of real and lasting value. Go figure…
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*What Would C.S. Lewis Think?
Some good stuff to help you enjoy whatever remains of the summer, from the good folks at Bruderhof…