ABM Treaty?

We don’t need no stinkin ABM Treaty.

This audio file has been modified from the original. It has been resized to fit your TV. Some extraneous comments about the world caring about our opnion were nuked . . . er . . . removed. Anyway, the world had better care about our opinion, or we’ll drop bunker-busters on them!

Kucinich vs. Dean

Issue by issue.

It’s the primary. Vote for the person who you agree with most. If you want to vote for somebody who is not a liberal, then go ahead. Then, if you’re a democrat, vote for whoever wins the primary when the general election comes around. It’s just the primary. If ‘anybody but Bush” is your motto, well, you can compromise your ethics in the general election, instead of starting now. If you simply support who you think will “win,” you can’t complain when they don’t represent your interests.
I don’t care. I’m just procrastinating. I have a piece of music due Wed (mostly done. Needs to be fine-tuned for 4 channels of audio), A half hour presentation on La Koro Sutro on thursday, which I haven’t started preparing for, and A ten page paper due friday, for which I have just used google to translate all of my primary source material from French to english. That alone is 23 pages. there may be something very interesting in there about Ascention sunday, but there might not be. at the very least, there are a lot of pauses for trumpet playing.
I do care, actually. the more I know about Dean, the less I like him. I wish that the Greens weren’t the “major” leftist party in the US. We have the conservative party and the ultra-conservative party. Plutocrats rule this country and settling for a less bad plutocrat just to get out the current despot is a defeatist strategy. We need to work for a progressive government, rather than celebrating if we get one that is less bad. which is why I want Kucinich to be President 2004.
mostly, i want to be where Christi is, instead of in the snowy, cold, dark, grumpy New england where Christi is not.

More More More

the catholic encyclopedia, specifically, The Te Deum atricle at newadvent.org notes that:

The general rubrics (titulus XXXI) of the Roman Breviary direct the recitation of the Te Deum at the end of Matins: (a) on all feasts throughout the year, whether of nine or of three lessons, and throughout their octaves. It is said on the octave day of the feast of the Holy Innocents, but not on the feast itself unless this should fall on Sunday; (b) on all Sundays from Easter (inclusively) to Advent (exclusively) and from Christmas (inclusively) to Septuagesima (exclusively); (c) on all ferial days during Eastertide (namely from Low Sunday to Ascension Day) except Rogation Monday.

Guess what day le Mystère du Siège D’Orléans (erroneously) states is the day that the English left Orléans! Guess!

Ascension Day!!!!
since the writer of the play certainly knew that the English left on the 8th and not the 9th, s/he must have had a reason for writing in the wrong date. Is there symbolism involved? Since the play is closely tied to the annual thanksgiving procession and celebration, the establishment of that process, described here as Joan of Arc direction the town to sing Te Deum may have had very very strong import to the writer. It might have been the point of writing the whole play.
It sure would be a lot easier to tell if I could read French…

in other news

(still news about the MdsO) Slobin thought that kids here would be really excited to stage the play. So I asked some kids about it, and they were really excited. hopefully, they can be excited long enough to translate it. Putting it on for all 4+ days that it would take is probably overly ambitious, so i’m thinking: pick one day. and i can write music for the pauses (using the correct instruments were directed). and undergrads can take the 129 speaking parts. and maybe the SCA could help out with the battle stuff. i just need a vision and an army of excitable undergrads.
It would be the first ever staging too, which could add to the excitement.

too much excitement!!!!

Joan of Arc mentions the name of a song in line 13638! She orders the town to chant Te Deum laudamus! The name of an actual piece of music, for which the words and melody are known! Actual, real music! Not just, “Then here is a pause of trumpets. then the messanger says:” No, real, actual music that I can listen to. And right after that, “then, here is a large pause, etc” with musical instrument mentioned! Not only does it say what song to play, but how to orchestrate it! with bells and trumpets and loud voices!

And what does grove music say about this song? It has “been used as a processional chant, the conclusion for a liturgical drama, a song of thanksgiving on an occasion such as the consecration of a bishop, and a hymn of victory on the battlefield.” there it is! A song of thanksgiving on a battlefield! As a part of a (nonliturgical) drama!
I’m going to go jump up and down now . . . or sing Te Deum

Still snowing

Went out last night and played with dog for a long time. Then wandered around with some undergrads and went and got some simulation of a soy hot chocolate at the town café. Tried throwing snowballs, but the snow was too dry. Also, apparently too dry for a snowperson. someone suggested snow angels, but it seemed cold. I missed both concerts I was going to go to.

Today, snow continues to fall. I dunno how much this stuff weighs, so I brushed it off the roof of my car. I might have to get Aaron at the train station tomorrow, so I’m hoping I can get somebody who has experience driving in snow to come with me, so s/he can warn me if I’m about to do something stupid.
I want to try to make a snowperson, but I’m supposed to do reasearch. The east coasters all seem to want to pat me on the head and send me on my way when I act amazed/confused. Except for the undergrads, since many undergrads are perpetually amazed/confused. I wish Christi were here.

My dog ate my research

Came home last night to find part of a dissertation (that i’ve been using as source material) torn up and full of bite marks. What’s worse is that the post-it notes had been systematically removed. Fortunately, I own the copy that I was using and so don’t need to pay fees to the library.

bad dog