Une Superbe Chanson de Yves Montand

Yves Montand (13 octobre, 1921 – 9 novembre, 1991)

Bonjour à vous. Aujourd'hui c'est l'anniversaire d'Yves.
Fin: Entendre sa chanson: Sous Le Ciel de Paris (1951)

She's at Cold Mountain

Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn't melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart's not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You'd get it and be right here.
--Han Shan (寒山)
9th Century Tang Dynasty Chinese Poet/Hermit
(tr. Gary Snyder)


The first and last time I saw her was at the a San Francisco Symphony Concert with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a Hector Berliloz's program. That night, she sang in the Lélio ou le Retour à la vie chorus. Now remarried, she and her children of the first marriage are settled in North Carolina.

She was originally from northern California. How she ended up in the Blue Ridge Mountains was partially my doing. When Charles Frazier's book Cold Mountain first published 1997, I recommended it to her through a classical music forum. She read it and was smitten with Frazier's eloquent evocations of the North Carolina landscape. She packed up her children and moved there. She's found her Cold Mountain.

Frazier quoted the first two lines of the preceding Han-Shan poem in the epigraph of his book. The main character of the story, Inman, died at the gates of his beloved Cold Mountain. I will leave the transcendental and metaphorical discussions of Han-Shan's poem and Frazier's work to others.

The cable channels are showing Cold Mountain this week. This film, however, barely does justice to the book which it took Frazier six years to write.

Fantasia on Greensleeves

12 October is Ralph Vaughan Williams birthday. As surely as the sky is blue, many will mispronounce this English composer's first name.

Fantasia on Greensleeves

Clergy Appreciation Month

Today is Columbus Day. If one were political correct and left leaning, than he would not be pleased. As a matter of fact, there aren't many national holidays or remembrance days the left would like. But given the chance of taking a national holiday day's off from work, they will oblige at a heartbeat. Principles will be temporarily tabled or redefined for the duration of the observance.

This month is also Clergy Appreciation Month. This morning I went to Marie Callanders and bought 10 gift certificates. All of the ministerial staff at church are predestined to receive a certificate for a sumptuous pie at MC.

At the nearby Ace Hardware Store close to Marie Callanders, I bought some cleaning supplies needed for the Vine House clean-up next Saturday.

Under the Paris Sky

Fin: La musique du Trio de Galaxie: Sous Le Ciel de Paris

On The Wrong Side of the Track

There are at least two empirical observations concerning the growth pattern of a city where land is either available or annexation merited. The emerging affluent residential and commercial developments are likely to occur first in a northerly direction away from the old downtown and city seat. The presence of railroads or highway further demarcates the have and the have nots of the inhabitants. The concentration of wealth and amenities services are more abundant and accessible on the "right" side of the track and fartherest away from the city hall and inner city surroundings.

A double whammies beset and dissect the westside of our city. This section of town is separated by the north-south State Route 99 and the Southern Pacific Railroad. Here is where our version of the West Side Story unfolds daily. It is here on the "wrong" side of the track Medical Ambassadors is serving the poor, the sick, and the destitute with Jesus' eyes.

The Vine House is Medical Ambassadors' drop-in center. At this house, food and drink are provided along with Christian-based videos, a clothing exchange, and a warm place to rest. Our church small groups will be doing repair and remodeling for this center for the next 40 Days of Community and beyond.

Our group will start cleaning and repairing parts of the Vine House next Saturday afternoon, and on the two following Sundays after worship.

Camille Saint-Saëns

Dans la celébration de Camille Saint-Saëns 170e anniversaire sur 9 octobre:

8 octobre MP3: Yelena Obraztsova, messo-soprano: Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix (My Heart Hears Thy Voice). L'aria de Dalila de Samson et Dalila, l'Acte 1.

9 octobre MP3: Joshua Bell, violon: Le Cygne (The Swan) du Le Carnaval des Animaux.

Merci de votre visite!

A Third of the World

A few years ago my then dewy-eyed and dimple-faced cousin from Canada stopped by on her way to Xinjian, China. She was on her first overseas missionary assigment. Miss Muffett was not so little anymore. A college graduate proficient in both French and English.

In her short stay, we conversed on things of cultures and customs, from the Chinese to the Québécois. At our last meal together, she broached the subject of "third world this, and third world that." I asked what she meant by third world. Without pretense nor guile, she said: "A third of the world."

The phrase, "third world", is still very dear to the socialist-technocrats and Poli-Sci majors. It is at the ready in the arsenal of anti-American rhetorics. Unlike the Patrick Moynihans and Alfred Sauvys of another world and time, many of these pseudo-intellects are clueless what "third world" means and yet they parrot as though they do. Furthermore, they expect the average Joe Six-Pack knows it as well. If anyone dared to question its usage, he would be frowned upon with condescension as a red state hick.

I leaned over my coffee on the dining table and looked at the rosy-cheeked Miss Muffett and began, "It has nothing to do with the abstract or imaginary partition of the earth into thirds..."

Miss Muffett is no longer the innocent abroad. She is on her second missionary stint in Xinjian. I'd like her to enlighten me about that part of the world upon her return. But I'll pass on the Yak milk and salted butter tea.

Unmarked Borders

When I read this comic strip today, and apropos of the moment, it came to me these words by Sharon Kay Penman. In this passage from The Sunne in Spendour, she penned of the yet to be king young Edward (Edward IV) and his siblings during a critical moment in the War of the Roses:

"they were citizens now of two countries, passing back and forth across the unmarked borders between manhood and boyhood with such frequency that she (their mother) never knew with certainty where they'd be found at any given time." - 'The Sunne in Spendour'

Running Together

This post was sent from the mobile iPAQ hx2755.

Today, 2 October, 2005, is world wide communion Sunday. It brought me joy in tbe spirit and warmth in the heart; I, our church, you, and your church, all partook in the Lord's Supper.

It is He who draws us to run the race together (cf Song 1:4). Wherever we are, may we keep our eyes on Him and run the race together as the messengers of grace. Pray that His Word wlll simply take off and race through your land and mine to a groundswell of response (cf 2 Thess. 3:1).

From this member of the body, God's peace be with you.

EXPIRED: Ralph Vaughan Williams: For All the Saints.