Summa minutiae

Moving the blog

Bill White — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 03:57:06 +0000

I’ve moved to http://summa.motd.org, where I can use any wordpress theme I want. Maybe I’ll even stay there a while.

On Naboth

Bill White — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:35:16 +0000

That’s Naboth the Jezreelite from the reading for today’s Mass in the Usus Recentior. Here are some links:

St Ambrose of Milan, On Naboth
an article in 30 Days, quite good at times
a collection of links from The Text This Week
the old Haydock commentary

Sean Powers, historian

Bill White — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:26:34 +0000

Sean Powers, a new guy at our local public radio station WILL, has been digging through the station archives and posting all sorts of cool things to their facebook page. That’s where I found Ebert’s interview of Clarke. (No, I don’t support WILL – every time some excellence in their local broadcasting tempts me to give them money, I’m also ticked off by some partisan nonsense from the national folks at NPR.)

Ebert & Clarke on 2001

Bill White — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:20:02 +0000

Here’s Roger Ebert’s interview of Arthur C. Clarke in 1997 as part of Cyberfest ’97 at the University of Illinois. Cripes – that’s 15 years ago already. Note that the interview was conducted by way of a now-primitive AT&T videophone, the sort of advanced technology featured in 2001.

The palace of memory

Bill White — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:02:55 +0000

Here’s a TED talk on memory that reaches back to the basic memory techniques of antiquity: Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do.

Mast Brothers Chocolate chocolate done right by hipster…

Bill White — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:38:31 +0000

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

I’m trying out the p2 theme might be…

Bill White — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:15:30 +0000

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

This brings back memories

Bill White — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:41:21 +0000

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

Bill White — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:49:01 +0000

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

Bill White — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 17:11:32 +0000

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.