Month: December 2007 (Page 2 of 2)

There are gifts and then there are those times when a giant shark shows up on your front porch. This is one of those times…

Newsweek recently asked this question and its author critiques the use of software like Adobe’s Photoshop for digitally distorting “a record of something real that occurred in front of the camera.” This criticism seems like that of the art “establishment” who railed against French revolutionaries in the late 19th century for creating “mere impressions” of their subjects. Still, how real is the “real” photography of the pre-digital world? Isn’t it reasonable to think the great photographers have attempted to “control” their images with camera settings, filters, lens manipulation, and darkroom dabbling? In the end, if the two dimensional image viewed isn’t exactly the image seen by the naked eye at the time of the shot, is it real, or just an impression?

As for Newsweek’s question, one commenter wrote something like, “there’s a website called Flickr. Go visit it and then tell me photography is dead.”

For now, I’m too cheap to spring for photo-editing software, so pics from my new Nikon D40 will be um, digitally unaltered. Even a blurry shot can capture a memorable moment.

What do eggs, flour, sugar, buttah and coconut have to do with digital music? Well, on Thanksgiving Day, Auntie San and Auntie Barb delivered a Coconut Custard Pie from Luberto’s Pastry Shop. They even put in a special order to “go easy on the coconut,” but the slip seemed to indicate “easy on the custard.” I can’t see how an “easy on the custard” custard pie would be, um, custard pie, but once it passed my lips to a longing sense of taste, it was clear Luberto’s can handle a pie.

As simpletons who easily regress to the mentality of teenagers, my brother Corey and I giggled over the custard connotation, but quickly moved to dissect the Led Zeppelin song as we did the pie. Corey even voiced the opening Jimmy page riff to the elders curiosity and bemusement. A few hours later, “Custard Pie” and the 14 songs that follow it from 1975’s “Physical Graffiti” were surging a digital pipe filling my hard drive. It’s a great song and probably my favorite Zep studio record. I couldn’t find a live version of the song, but here’s a creative montage with the studio version by “ginaitaliangirl” on YouTube:

Oh, and I picked up the new Zep reissue CD/DVD “Mothership” for baby bro’s 43rd…

I appreciate the efforts and the prayers of a friend who recently wrote, “Get down on your knees, put aside all your pretenses and posturing and all the crap about how God doesn’t exist or care or whatever…and give Him a chance to show you that he does?” Hey, that day may come, but right now I’m focused on keeping everything cool with Santa Claus so I don’t end up on the “naughty list.” I also want to go on the record and state, unequivocally, I am not a participant in the “War on Christmas.” I am all for anyone’s peaceful celebration of this holiday, whether they celebrate in a religious or secular fashion.

It’s a cliché that people should never talk about “politics or religion,” because the discourse often veers into discord. Why is it then, that the Republican presidential candidates, and the party in general are so fixated on religious issues? The answer is that those issues help them win enough “red states” to win the White House every four years. I contend the right puts Christian “hot button” issues like abortion and gay marriage into the spotlight to manipulate evangelical voters into voting Republican and this trickery gave us the worst president ever in the last 2 elections.

In the CNN/YouTube Republican debate Wednesday night, candidate Fred Thompson astonished me by saying, “I think (Overturning abortion rights precedent Roe v. Wade) should be our number one focus right now.” What? We have thousands of people dying in a hellish desert and we’re burning trillions of dollars contributing to it, and Mr. Thompson thinks overturning Roe should be our top priority?

On September 30, 2007, Republican Presidential Candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona clarified his notion that the U.S. is a “Christian nation,” by saying “…the United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian values, which were translated by our founding fathers which is basically the rights of human dignity and human rights.” I agree with Senator McCain’s clarification and he further illustrated this fundamental tenet of what we should be when he scolded former MA Governor Mitt Romney over waterboarding:

“And, governor, let me tell you, if we’re going to get the high ground in this world and we’re going to be the America that we have cherished and loved for more than 200 years. We’re not going to torture people… and how in the world anybody could think that that kind of thing could be inflicted by Americans on people who are held in our custody is absolutely beyond me.”

Human dignity and human rights… Pretty basic stuff. I’d like to know how Christians that vote Republican reconcile these seemingly un-Christian positions:

• Treating those who cross our Southern border seeking a better life as criminals
• Denying people in love to marry
• Supporting the death penalty
• Using war as an instrument of foreign policy
• Opposing universal health-care for all

What would Jesus do?