Six O’Clock Vintage

Seek those images that constitute the wild, the lion and the virgin, the harlot and the child. Find in middle air an eagle on the wing, recognize the five that make the Muses sing. | W.B Yeats, Those Images

Phantastes - a brief review

After reading George MacDonald’s "Phantastes" it is clear to me why CS Lewis chose MacDonald to be his Virgil in "The Great Divorce."  "Phantastes" is truly one of the most remarkable works I have ever read.  Overflowing with rich imagery and lyrical finely measured prose (along with some superb longer ...

For Book Lovers

Bibliophiles take note, Aaron, of cangooglehearme.com fame, has released a beta version of his product and it looks very promising.  He calls it Book Lamp.  Click on over to their site and watch the video description of how Book Lamp works.  I was very impressed and I think you will ...

Bookplates

I am obsessed with Ex Libris (Bookplates). These images are from a site devoted to scanning images of old books. Superb. Do you have any bookplate images on file? If you created your own Ex Libris what would it look like?

L’Engle on Revelation

L'Engle herself from Walking on Water, Reflections on Art and Faith, pg 27-28: Of course, because I am a struggling Christian, it's inevitable that I superimpose my awareness of all that happened in the life of Jesus upon what I'm reading, upon Buber, upon Plato, upon the book of Daniel. ...

RIP Madeleine L’Engle

I just found out that Madeleine L'Engle passed away yesterday at the age of 88. L'Engle is an author I have always been particularly fond of and her writing has challenged me to stretch my mind as well as my imagination. She was a brilliant thinker and writer ...

Satanic Verses Continue to Influence

This sort of thing is getting boring; is it even possible to take fundamentalist Muslim Leaders seriously?  Esteemed author, Salman Rushdie, was just awarded a well-deserved knighthood.  Now, unfortunately, Sir Rushdie will be watching his back again with a renewed vigor.  Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister of Pakistan, told the ...

Of the Strength of Men

I just finished reading the latest Tolkien book, Children of Hurin. I hadn’t planned on finishing it this quickly, but my untimely bout with the flu resulted in some extended downtime cozying up with the tome. Children sure didn’t brighten my spirits; the story is wild and viciously dark. Yet, ...

New Tolkien Available Today

Christopher Tolkien, the third son of JRR Tolkien, has been working for thirty years on an unfinished manuscript left by his father. J.R.R Tolkien began "The Children of Hurin" in 1918 but never finished it. His third son, Christopher, has spent nearly 30 years piecing together drafts to turn them ...

Great Fantasy

I’ve been craving some George MacDonald lately. I’ve scoured all the best used bookstores in town over the last week and have come up essentially dry. I did find an old illustrated hardback copy of At the Back of the North Wind, but it was illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, ...

On the Destruction of Man

How is a man destroyed?  Is it through a grievous defect of character?  Is it through a series of uncontrollable circumstances that place him in an impossible situation?  Is it through a man’s own cultivated perversion?  Are these destroyed men dealt a bad hand from Fate herself?  Or are they ...

September 17th 2008
Tags: Literature, Poetry

Phantastes - a brief review

After reading George MacDonald’s "Phantastes" it is clear to me why CS Lewis chose MacDonald to be his Virgil in "The Great Divorce."  "Phantastes" is truly one of the most remarkable works I have ever read.  Overflowing with rich imagery and lyrical finely measured prose (along with some superb longer ...
August 27th 2008
Tags: Photography, Politic
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Live at the DNC

Since Monday I've been hanging out downtown Denver and covering the DNC.  I've met some really cool people; in addition to bloggers and writers from Momocrats, JackandJill, Green Mountain Daily, Huffington Post and other places, I've had a chance to meet and talk briefly with Katie Couric, Senator Ken Salazar, ...
August 13th 2008
Tags: Asides

“You’re a Phony, a Big Fat Phony! Hey Everybody, He’s a Phony!”

I know that China is the home of iPhone rip-offs and lead-filled Colgate, but it appears that their duplicity and fakery  don't end with electronics and domestic household products. China admitted faking the opening fireworks of the Olympic Opening Ceremony as well as faking the voice of the cute little singer ...
August 6th 2008
Tags: Asides

Mountain Lion Drags Dog out of Owner’s Bedroom

Crazy story, this is a small front range town just southwest of the Denver area.  I go mountain biking in this area all the time. A mountain lion slunk into the master bedroom of an Idledale home early Monday, snatched a yellow Labrador retriever and vanished. Officers are hunting the mountain lion ...
July 14th 2008
Tags: Tech

iPhone Apps

I spent the weekend at a cabin in the mountains and so didn't get a chance to download the the latest iPhone software update until late Sunday evening.  After a frustrating flurrey of "restore, verify, restore" proceedings I finally was forced to delete by back up and do a full ...