Monday

Quickly (I hope. Never happens, though).

Reading:  A few things –

Finished The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain.  A thorough and necessary corrective, although I could have used a ten-page summary with charts and lists at the end, but that’s just my elderly addled brain speaking, I suppose. Shortest version: Any “tolerant co-existence” you hear about in this culture is the consequence of legally-imposed limits and coercion. A simple test: Visigoth and later, Christian Spain and Spanish kingdoms produced female leaders and religious leaders. Did Islamic kingdoms? Where are the Muslim Isabellas and Teresas?

Reading this book, I found myself wanting to explore the issue of Islam, Europe, knowledge and the Dark Ages more. He alludes to arguments that 1) Any European “Dark Ages” were deepened and exacerbated by continual Muslim attacks and disruptions of trade routes – which makes a lot of sense once you start thinking about it and 2) the much-vaunted “Muslim protection of ancient classical knowledge” is false – what really happened is that Christian monasteries in Muslim-conquered areas had retained that knowledge.

A related book that came on my radar is Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World, published in 2018 by Princeton U. Press. You can read the introduction here.

Also read: the wise and witty Dorian Speed’s piece at Medium on Imposter Syndrome

The first chapter of my son’s new novel, to be published in July. 

Going to read some of this in prep for Wednesday’s feastday. 

Watching: 

Summer movies continue, although we’ll be on break for the next month.

M – I hadn’t seen it in years. There are a few slow parts, but the imagery is startling and memorable – particularly the moment when Peter Lorre turns and faces his accusers. Wow. Also that creepy balloon floating up to the electrical wires?

The question, of course, involves the sources and roots of justice – who has the right to manage and mete out justice? And really, is there any inherent “virtue” in the State’s efforts that’s superior or preferable to any other group’s efforts?

Also – the smoking. 

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – with Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy and a memorable Jeff Goldblum, definitely establishing his type for all time.

It holds up, and it’s interesting to see 1970’s San Francisco in action. Also interesting to observe the obvious budgetary constraints as one montage of Sutherland supposedly racing around the city in a panic was obviously all filmed on a single street.

All sorts of people – including Kaufman (the director) himself, in a post-Trump interview, like to analogize the film to right-wing forces in action, while really, watching the film today in the midst of progressively-fueled call-out culture, watching the pod-people recognizing, pointing and screeching at the uninfected – well, it’s hard to watch that  and not think, “Uh, yeah- Twitter. Right there.”

(Note for parents – there’s a bit of nudity)

Also, I watched Always be My Maybe with Ali Wong and Randall Park. It was mostly enjoyable, although I found the last twenty minutes or so pretty boring – except for the very last development, which was moving and came around full circle in a satisfying way. The best part – the absolute best part that’s worth watching even if you don’t watch the rest of the movie – is the segment with Keanu Reeves. It’s sharp and funny and skewers both celebrity and food culture expertly. 

Do you have any dishes that play with the concept of time?

(Always Be My Maybe was at the very least miles – miles, thousands of miles – above the other Netflix movie of the moment, Wine Country which is shockingly bad. I watched the first fifteen minutes, then skipped through portions, stopping for five minutes here and five there, each time more astonished by how inept and awkward and weirdly bad it was.)

Listening: A musical weekend.

I listened to my own son – and a couple of dozen others – play at the winner’s recital for the Alabama State Music Teachers Convention. He played his Ginastera – go to Instagram Keyboard highlights for a snippet. Of course, all the students were extremely talented, with only one sad moment of blanking-out – always so painful to see.

Aside from our Ginastera, I think my favorite piece of the afternoon was this Schubert Impromptu. 

Also listening to fantastic music at our Cathedral, with the first Mass of our diocese’s newest priest, Fr. Justin Ward (we couldn’t make the ordination because of the piano thing). The program is here. 

Vierne Kyrie and Gloria, Byrd Ave Maria Corpus and this Vierne as the postlude. 

My son turned pages for the organists and got a good taste of how demanding the work of a church musician can be – two hours later he staggered down from the loft….and all he’d done was turn pages!