Bloodless Bullfighting Link

Awhile back, in an attempt to thwart spam comments, I nixed the .biz extension. Sure enough, someone I eKnow through the Mundo Taurino wanted to post a comment, and she has a .biz address.

Unfortunately, ever since I have had this new version of Movable Type, I have been unable to make any changes to the Blacklist. So, every so often Konni drops me a line very politely reminding me of the situation, and I keep forgetting to link to her website, which is a ranchcardoso.biz. Anyway, today I am going to mention it here, because it is good if you are at all interested in the California Bloodless Bullfights, and I am going to add it to the links column at the side.

Catholictopia... and you. Certainly not me.

I have been (probably uncharitably, but that is the way it goes sometimes), tossing rocks over at the bunker and retreat set in Mark Shea's comboxes. You see, the problem that they see is this: impurity has settled over the land. All is hopeless. Old Europe is uncontrollably beset by papism; even in lands that are no longer papist, romish customs last on. The only thing to do is to pick up and move to a Niiiieeeew land, and build a Niiiiiieeeew house, with a select group of the pure, the elect.

Florida anyone?

Oh, there are farms that provide work for migrant farm workers? No problem. A little sprawl never hurt anyone, in fact, it ensures that we will always have Niiiiieeeeeew houses. And the "pizza" will arrive in thirty minutes or it is free.

You didn't know that old St. Peter actually led two congregations of Christians. One was the Catholic Church, and the other, well, they had some peculiar notions:

Elder Peter: We must convert these death-obsessed, pagan, pervert Romans.
Goodman Flavius: Well, Elder Peter, it seems that is a great idea, but it is not really practical, and, well, you know, the children and all that. Your ideas might work well with single men, but you really wouldn't want to raise your children in the shadow of the Coliseum, what with all the orgies and idol worship...not to mention the persecution. The other day my neighbor made fun of me. I about wanted to cry.
Elder Peter: What do you suggest, then?
Goodman Flavius: We could find some pure land, uninhabited, and untainted by the practices of Rome. Preferably the country, so that we would not have any neighbors to get in the way.
Elder Peter: But, Goodman, Love thy neighbor is the Law.
Goodman Flavius: Well I daresay that Jesus never knew my neighbors. Hmmm. Your opposition to our plan makes us think that perhaps you are not the apostle you were cracked up to be. Perhaps you are a backslider, no? Well, you go sacrifice your children, but as for me and my family, we will go off to Pureland (R) and set up a lucrative business.

What we can piece together from remnants of manuscripts is that this second community flaked off from the Church as well as from society and only lasted a couple of generations before the grandchildren ended up more pagan and depraved than what the parents fled from.

Meanwhile Rome ended up Catholic.

At the very least I would like to get the concession to sell front row seats for the legal battles. Not the ones between the ACLU and the Ave Maria folks, rather the ones between disgruntled and angry settlers who feel that have been duped by this preposterous venture and the Ave Maria higher-ups.

You would think that at some point, folks would wake up and stop having anything to do with Monaghan's Shenanigans.

Ah, the sweet music...

We have a metal awning over our front door.

Right now there is a hailstorm.

Halfway there.

Your Marching Orders for Tomorrow

Now, I don't normally make excessive demands on my readers. Demanding steep tributes, sure, but who doesn't do that? At least if they can get away with it. However, I normally don't make you all go out and chip rocks, or use short-handled hoes to pick crops or any of that.

Tomorrow, though, is another thing, so I have to lay down the law:

Eat gumbo. Listen to guys with names like Clifton and Canray. And, most importantly (courtesy of C.P., whose brilliant idea this is), at five minutes to midnight bring up the debate topic of whether or not the feasting is supposed to stop abruptly at the stroke of midnight or whether Lent begins at the first liturgical act of Ash Wednesday. This will work best if everyone is well-oiled.

Since Mardi Gras is about anticipating Ash Wednesday, and that is all about penance, I thought of a fun name for a movie theater: Cinema Purgatorio. All of the films shown will be beneficial to you, they will eventually end, but they will be torture to sit through. And your protestant buddies will claim that the place doesn't exist. "It's OK," you can tell them, "we have a special theater in the basement for your types."

Cinema Purgatorio: this week's special: Road Safety films. Shown in twelve hour blocks.

Laissez les bon temps roulez, folks.

Creative Zoology

Today, as we were driving to Trader Joe's, Amalia announced, "the cat in Alice and Wonderland is a shoosher cat."

Shoosher cat. Shoosher cat. Does it say "shoosh?" Ah, Cheshire.

Art Talk On Line...

The preliminary recording of my upcoming lecture at Oakland's St. Margaret Mary's is online. Please note that I call it preliminary. I keep thinking of ways to improve the last sections. The final version might well be quite different. Then again, maybe it won't.

What I shorted was the section on a philosophy of art. The main reason is that the topic is big, important, and should be done in a multi-week seminar. I would rather get people to start looking at art and start reading/thinking about a philosophy of art than to stand up there and give a micro-summary of my own thoughts on the matter.

My own philosophy of art is a work in progress (hopefully it is progress, although there are moments when I wonder). Every day for the past month and a half I have done a little more reading on the matter, and every day I make at least a minor adjustment to my own thinking about the issue. So to say "well, I think this about the philosophy of art" and give a neat five or ten point summary is pretty worthless. Especially compared to you going out and spending time looking at art and thinking about what it is all about and why it is important and so forth.

The second thing that is seriously lacking in the talk, as it stands, is in selections and quotes from major sources in the development of a Catholic view of art. Again, this is mostly due to time, and I would much rather get the art viewing off on solid footing. One of the main points that I am trying to make is that theory is good, but it must not obscure our direct experience with the art itself.

Making a critique of a theory of a particular school of painting, rather than trying to see what is actually in a particular painting is an easy trap to fall into, a trap I sometimes find myself trying to get out of.

So, at this moment I will probably let the lecture stand pretty much as recorded, but a couple of hours ago I was contemplating some major revisions to the last section. We will see.

Interest in food topics...

Two entries that have consistantly drawn comment, long after their initial posting have been about pink popcorn (just had some yesterday, and, yes, we were at the zoo) and grappa. Just today or yesterday, a fellow from Bulgaria posted a very interesting comment about Bulgarian grappa, known as Rakia (fans of Middle Eastern beverages will note the similarity to the word Arak, the wonderful anise liqueur of the Middle East). According to Ivo, our correspondent, rakia is made of all sorts of things (when it is made out of plums it is known as Slivovica, which I have had and highly recommend. It is a fragrant, bone dry eau de vie similar to the Western European prunus brandies), most often muscat (which would make it a kissing cousin of Peru's famed Pisco) and then oak aged, giving it wood nuances and color.

Anyway, peruse the archives for the grappa post and be sure to read the comments from time to time.

Preview of coming attractions!

I have been thinking about Lenten resolutions, and, in the great spirit of coming up with penances for others, I have decided to impose on you, my dear readers, a return of FRIDAY AFTERNOON SERMONS on each of the Fridays of Lent! I know you miss those.

Attendance is, of course, mandatory. We will be taking roll, and we will ask the absent to come down to the station to have a little chat with the captain. Or the Colonel, if things go that far. Usually they don't. A chat with the captain, with or without the Good Doctor present, usually settles the mind and returns folks to normal life.

And please, remember to bring your ID cards. Nothing irritates me more than people who come to compulsory rallies without their ID cards.

Your assignment, in order to be in the ideal mindset, is to repeat twevle times a day "if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of."

Remember, the Duce dislikes grumbling. Don't be a grumbler.

Believe!
Obey!
Fight!

2006 Bullfight Schedule

By the way, Mr. Gerry Campos has reactivated bullfights.org and has a schedule of the California bloodless bullfights here.

Please note that when he says the schedule is subject to change without notice, he ain't whistlin' Dixie. Always check before driving out to the Central Valley. One way to do so is to drop me a line, as I know who to call to find out.

I hope to see you at one of these at least!

Art Talk Details

For those of you interested in the Art talk, the audio will be available on the St. Anthony of Padua Institute website on the 20th of this month. The talk itself will be at St. Margaret Mary's in Oakland on the 23rd at 7:30pm. I think that we will record the talk and then allow web access to the Question and Answer session as well.

When I have the specific url to the talk download, I will post it.

Take this as a warning that blogging might be sporadic for a few days (as opposed to the usual?!?) because I have to finish writing the talk for the recording session on Monday.

Blog Lull...Sorry,

I realize that I have not posted any recipes recently, and it is because I have not been cooking as much as usual and that when I have, I have been using traditional recipes.

As for the lack of rants, well, they have been replaced with demented ideas, which are not fit for public consumption. At least not yet.

You see, these ideas come to me and my reaction is twofold: that's brilliant/that's just horrible. Then I have to decide if it can be made un-horrible.

My latest is an on-board device that monitors all sorts of stuff in your car. When you go over the speed limit a yellow light goes on. If you do not slow down in a certain amount of time, your bank account is debited the bail, and an onboard printer gives you a receipt/citation. If you have some mitigating circumstance, then you can set a court date. If the judge agrees, you get a refund.

Also, when the doors close, all passengers can have their thumbprint scanned, thus prequalifying the car for the diamond lane. If an unauthorized car goes into the lane: account debited, citation printed out.

Now, people will hate this. Big Brother. Violation of Civil Liberties. Blah blah blah.

I have said it before and will say it again: if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to hide.

But people, being what they are, insist on their right to break good laws. So they will need a benefit for stage one of the implementation (the voluntary stage). What it is is that you can order your fast food from your car, and when you enter the parking lot of the fast food establishment, your order is prepared, your account debited, and all you have to do is pick it up.

It is a commonplace that people will give up frivolous liberties for security, but I would bank that more people would give them up for convenience.

Also, the device in stage two would be required on new cars. People could sign up for the service, which would include, in the fine print, authorization for the DMV to use the "auto-fining" feature as well as to record all information of passengers and driver and to share that information with sundry governmental agencies.

Again, repeat:

If you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to hide.

In fairness to Canadians...

My general policy is that when you bash a whole people, it is good to hold up a good counter-example (unless we are talking about England). So, while you are cooking up schemes to annex Canada to strip her of natural resources, take a listen to Oscar Peterson, probably the best pianist of any genre. I especially recommend Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio. Excellent record.

Oscar Peterson is to Canada as Lot is to Sodom.

At least he takes the edge off Margaret Atwood, the Canadian's Canadienne.

Proof!

A while back I cleaned up my links. It was a long time ago, as you can probably tell from the omissions as well as the dead links. If I can find a couple of hours I will do it again. Don't hold your breath. In a couple of hours I can do a lot that is more fun or more profitable than cleaning blog links.

Anyway, I decided, in the last purge, to get rid of all Canadian links. I was either angry with Canada over something in particular, or was just a little extra grumpy in my general dislike of things Englisch. Since I consider Washington state to be a southern outpost of the dread Canada, I delinked Mark Shea (he also lost points because he is an apologist, and I rarely read him anyway). Like I said, I was in a pretty foul mood.

Now, even though I am no fan of reading apologetics, the whole reason I linked to Shea is that he writes interesting tidbits here and there, and I have been impressed by his general manner of distinguishing between the Catholic Faith and the Republican Party. So far so good. Recently I went over there and saw some good stuff on this or that. Nothing Earth-shattering, but some amusing items here and there.

So I got to thinking, "maybe I should put him back on the blog roll."

And then...

I read this.

He confesses. He is Canadian on his mother's side.

Now, I am no stickler for limpieza de sangre laws, and even have some Canadian in my background (it was just a brief stop for part of my family from Austria to Oregon to California). However, I find it hard to ignore Canadian heritage from someone who lives in Seattle, which is exactly where I would impose martial law and interrogate all of the citizens, were I the dictator, and looking for Canada-symps, fellow travellers and other creeps and kooks.

Their coffee is third rate, too, while we're at it. And don't get me started on their crappy "scunge" music either. Yuck. All the noise of punk rock, but coupled to the dripping sentimentality of 1980's pop, awash in a wave of heroin. Lovely.

So, it is with a clear conscience that I continue my policy of not linking to Mark Shea, even though he really has had some interesting tidbits, which would be worth looking at, were he not impure.

A Meme from Thomas...

What are three of the dumbest things you've done in your life?
1) I plead the fifth
2) That's between me and my confessor
3) That's also between me and my confessor

At the current moment, who has the most influence in your life?
The little Mussolini who rides around in my head, barking orders and insulting my cooking. I'll get him one of these days! I don't take kindly to people riding around in my brain, especially if they are bald. However, he is the Duce, so I do what he says. Until I can get him. Hah!

If you were given a time machine that functioned, and you were allowed to only pick up to five people to dine with, who would you pick?

1. Aristotle
2. Dante
3. Jack Kerouac
4. Mussolini
5. Fellini

If you had three wishes that were not supernatural, what would they be?

1) A kitchen of my own design, with a fireplace for roasting hapless animals, a professional range, a giant freezer, etc.
2) A printing press
3) A huge studio with natural light, a large door, and good sound-proofing.

Name two things you regret your city not having, and two things people should avoid:
1) A decent cafe
2) A bullring

Avoid:
1) Hippies
2) Puritans

Name one thing that has changed your life.
... Espresso.

How To Look At Modern Art

For those of you interested in how to look at art, particularly modern art, with a Catholic perspective might be interested in a lecture/guided museum experience I will be doing on the 23rd and 25th of this month. While the lecture will be at St. Margaret Mary's in Oakland, and the museum experience will be at the Oakland Museum of California, out of towners will be able to get the lecture, with links and bibliographic suggestions, via webcast probably available from the 20th on.

We will be discussing the problems of the definition of style, the problems of relying excessively on theories of art, we will touch on a philosophy of art, and we will take a close look at four paintings from the Oakland Museum's permanent collection. While the discussion will be geared to those with no arts background, even artists and art historians might be interested, because I take a radically different approach to looking at paintings than the standard orthodoxies of art history.

For those wanting to get a head start, I will provide a suggested reading list this weekend.

I have not finalized the paintings we will look at, but I am toying with:

1. A Thomas Hill painting of Yosemite from the late 19th century.
2. A Society of Six painting
3. Nell Sinton's Yukata
4. Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park #107.

First I need to make a preliminary trip to make sure that the selected works are currently on display (they generally are, but you never know when a curator will get the itch to do a cleaning or a rehang), but if you want to sneak a peak, these are what I am thinking of.

The lecture will be in the evening, and the museum experience will be in the morning, with discussion continuing through lunch (bring your own or get one at the good museum cafe), and possibly meandering into the afternoon, if people are interested and have the time. There is no charge for the lecture or to go on the trip, but you will have to take care of your own museum admission.

The material is geared towards adults, but any teenager/advanced pre-teen with an interest in the material and a good attention span should have no problem.

Also, particularly for teenagers, but adults are welcome, I am teaching a beginning drawing class in March. Details later, but the course will pretty much follow a classical model, with 1, 2 and multi-point perspective, use of basic drawing media, modeling by shading, and will culminate with a landscape drawing field trip. Motivated 10-12 year olds will be allowed to take the class as well as teenagers and adults. I will try to keep the equipment list to a minimum to economize.

Why learn to draw? First, it is fun and rewarding. With basic drawing skills you will be surprised at how far you can get. Second, I am convinced that having some basic drawing skills is essential to really understanding art.

But wait, you say, I have no talent for art! I believe that any reasonably intelligent person with reasonably functioning eyes and normal eye-hand coordination can be taught to draw. I cannot guarantee that anyone can be a great artist, and painting is a skill that takes years to master and is generally self-taught, even with the assistance of teachers. However, with some basic training, anyone should be able to convey the illusion of depth and to capture the basic contours of an object.

Both classes/events are under the auspices of the St. Anthony of Padua Institute.

If you want any more information feel free to email me at EKeilholtz [at] aol [dot] com or to call me at 510.261.9596.