Mast Brothers Chocolate chocolate done right by hipster…

Mast Brothers Chocolate: chocolate done right by hipster dudes with 1890s beards in Brooklyn:

• http://mastbrothers.com/
• http://isteve.blogspot.com/2012/05/latest-whitopia-1890s.html
• http://nymag.com/news/features/artisanal-brooklyn-2012-4/

I’m trying out the p2 theme might be…

I’m trying out the p2 theme – might be nice for work.

This brings back memories

Martin Roth‘s “semi-definitive” list of Christian blogs from July 29, 2002, a week after I put together my first blog post with hand-written html.

The psalms in a week

Here’s the psalm schema defined by St Pius X’s reformers in 1911 and used in the Divine Office until the asteroid hit in 1970.  It ain’t traditional by any means, but it does take you through the entire Psalter in a week without editing out the naughty bits and with only one repetition (see Sunday Lauds II and Sunday Prime).  Lauds II is used during Advent and Lent, the penitential seasons (it opens with Psalm 50); Lauds I is used the rest of the year.

Note that the psalm numbers here are the Septuagint/Vulgate/Catholic numbers.  If you use a Psalter with numbering like 51[50], our number is in brackets.  The “twenty-third” Psalm, The Lord is my shepherd, is number 23 in the Masoretic/Protestant numbering scheme and 22 in our scheme.  I use this little pocket edition that’s easy to carry around in a shirt pocket or in my briefcase, and there’s a well-worn printout of this table tucked into it:

|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
| Hour     |   Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |  Sat |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          |     1 |  13 | 34a | 44a |  61 | 77a | 104a |
|          |     2 |  14 | 34b | 44b | 65a | 77b | 104b |
|          |     3 |  16 | 34c |  45 | 65b | 77c | 104c |
|          |     8 | 17a | 36a |  47 | 67a | 77d | 105a |
| Matins   |    9a | 17b | 36b | 48a | 67b | 77e | 105b |
|          |    9b | 17c | 36c | 48b | 67c | 77f | 105c |
|          |    9c |  19 | 37a | 49a | 68a |  78 | 106a |
|          |    9d |  20 | 37b | 49b | 68b |  80 | 106b |
|          |    10 |  29 |  38 |  50 | 68c |  82 | 106c |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          |    92 |  46 |  95 |  96 |  97 |  98 |  149 |
|          |    99 |   5 |  42 |  64 |  89 | 142 |   91 |
| Lauds    |    62 |  28 |  66 | 100 |  35 |  84 |   63 |
|          |   148 | 116 | 134 | 145 | 146 | 147 |  150 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          |    50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |   50 |
|          |   117 |   5 |  42 |  64 |  89 | 142 |   91 |
| Lauds II |    62 |  28 |  66 | 100 |  35 |  84 |   63 |
|          |   148 | 116 | 134 | 145 | 146 | 147 |  150 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          |   117 |  23 |  24 |  25 |  22 |  21 |   93 |
| Prime    | 118ab |  18 |  24 |  51 |  71 |  21 |   93 |
|          | 118cd |  18 |  24 |  52 |  71 |  21 |  107 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          | 118ef |  26 |  39 |  53 |  72 |  79 |  101 |
| Terce    | 118gh |  26 |  39 |  54 |  72 |  79 |  101 |
|          | 118ij |  27 |  39 |  54 |  72 |  81 |  101 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          | 118kl |  30 |  40 |  55 |  73 |  83 |  103 |
| Sext     | 118mn |  30 |  41 |  56 |  73 |  83 |  103 |
|          | 118op |  30 |  41 |  57 |  73 |  86 |  103 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          | 118qr |  31 |  43 |  58 |  74 |  88 |  108 |
| None     | 118st |  32 |  43 |  58 |  75 |  88 |  108 |
|          | 118uv |  32 |  43 |  59 |  75 |  88 |  108 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          |   109 | 114 | 122 | 127 | 132 | 138 |  143 |
|          |   110 | 115 | 123 | 128 | 135 | 138 |  143 |
| Vespers  |   111 | 119 | 124 | 129 | 135 | 139 |  144 |
|          |   112 | 120 | 125 | 130 | 136 | 140 |  144 |
|          |   113 | 121 | 126 | 131 | 137 | 141 |  144 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|          |     4 |   6 |  11 |  33 |  69 |  76 |   87 |
| Compline |    90 |   7 |  12 |  33 |  70 |  76 |  102 |
|          |   133 |   7 |  15 |  60 |  70 |  85 |  102 |
|----------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|

Over the Rhine over the Rhine

Here are three newly-released recordings of Over the Rhine concerts in Germany from late 2001.  These are high-quality recordings of stripped-down touring arrangements, usually just keyboards and voice.  OTR is good with a lot of instruments but they’re at their best with just a bare sketch of a song’s harmonic structure and Karin’s voice exploring that space.

• Cologne, October 25, 2001
• Hamburg, October 26, 2001
• Berlin, October 27, 2001

Which it’s the plain truth

Matthew Lickona makes Mel Gibson say:

No, the Catholic Church is rehab. It’s a halfway house for people who are just smart enough to know they’re fucked up, and just dumb enough to hope there’s something that can be done about it short of getting their own shit together or blowing their brains out. They know they can’t make it out in the world on their own, so they come here for support. Meetings on Sunday. There’s rules posted by the door, but nobody really checks to make sure you’re in compliance.

This evening’s voyage of discovery

This self-driving car is pretty danged awesome, and I want one now.  The music in the video was produced by The Album Leaf, the performing name of a guy from San Diego named Jimmy LaValle.  The Album Leaf opened for the Icelandic band Sigur Ros, who also make this sort of music.

And I guess I had forgotten or hadn’t really realized that music could be like that – I’ve been stuck listening to wordy verse-chorus-verse stuff and this is a relief. Also see ambient music and post-rock.

Enjoy the links! (or not, as the case may be)

The social encyclicals

Here’s a handy compendium of the social encyclicals from Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum to Benedict XVI’s Caritas in veritate. The older I get the more I see that these old popes know a thing or two about the proper ends of society. I used to be a “Mater si, magistra no” Buckleyite; now I just try to be a Catholic.

Flannery’s horror

We’re reading a collection of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories for the parish book club this month.  I’d only tried to read her novels before and found them too grotesque to make much sense of, but in these short stories the grotesquerie makes sense.  She’s not so clumsy and dim-witted that she has to mutilate people or invent scary monsters to tell her horror stories; she knows that true horror lives in the ordinary human soul.

Wendell Berry

This comes to mind every time I hear about the laws of supply and demand:

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy. –Wendell Berry, Economy and Pleasure in What are People For? p. 135 (1990).