We know that people don't come to Sinden.org for CD recommendations, and we don't normally put out a "best of the year" list in recorded music. But if we did compile a list for 2009 David W. Solomons "When one is gathered together . . ." (iTunes link) would be near the top of the list.
The title should alert you that something odd is going on here. As you may have already guessed, David W. Solomon is singing all the parts for all of the choral music recorded on the album.
The ascription "dwsChorale" simply refers to a phantom vocal ensemble comprised entirely of himself.
The resulting effect is eerie but captivating. The album is a real feat of engineering and a triumph of art.
It's worth a listen.
Labels: randomness
For all of you working on the Sunday crossword in the New York Times, 42 down is "organ".
Yet another example of our instrument's cultural relevance.
Take that, harpsichord!
Labels: NYT, organ, randomness
Sinden.org is proud to bring the second installment of our multi-part series of Episcopal Cathedrals and their distance from Starbucks stores. Using field agents and survey crews we have worked tirelessly to bring you this valuable resource.
We continue now in Province II (New York and New Jersey). Province II includes ten diocese, including two that are in neither New York nor New Jersey, and one "convocation".
The winner in this province is (surprise!) New York.
I am happy to be corrected on any of these stats.
| Diocese | Cathedral | Dist to SBUX |
|---|---|---|
| Albany | All Saints, Albany1 | 0.6 mi (10 N Pearl St) |
| Central New York | St Paul's, Syracuse | 0.4 mi (290 W Jefferson St) |
| Convocation of American Churches in Europe | American, Paris | 0.3 mi2 (76 Avenue des Champs Elysees) |
| Haiti | Holy Trinity, Port au Prince | 400 mi (Florida) |
| Long Island | of the Incarnation | 0.5 mi (184 7th St) |
| New Jersey | Trinity, Trenton | 5.6 mi (1 N Main St, Yardley, PA) |
| New York | St John the Divine | 0.2 mi[from the front steps] (2853 Broadway) |
| Newark | Trinity & St Philip's | 0.3 mi (744 Broad St) |
| Rochester | none3 | n/a |
| Virgin Islands | Church of All Saints, Charlotte Amalie | 1000 miles (Florida) |
| Western New York | St. Paul's, Buffalo | 0.7 mi (235 Delaware Ave) |
1. All Saints claims to be home to the longest running Men and Boys' Choir in the country.
2. Actually this distance is 0.5km since miles don't work in France.
3. Rochester is one of nineteen domestic dioceses that has no cathedral (the others being Alaska, Central Gulf Coast, East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Oregon, Fort Worth, Georgia, Navajoland, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Northern Michigan, Northwest Texas, Southern Virginia, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Western Michigan).
Labels: cathedrals, Episcopal Church, randomness, Starbucks
Can you figure this tweet out?
I've always wanted to go to Australia.
Labels: randomness, web
In other news, I'm a gourmet chef, I was trained by a tractor salesman.
Labels: randomness
Choir members from All Saints, Pasadena, California are seen in Born Again American singing in the Rose Bowl Stadium. (via Bill Moyers Journal)
Labels: randomness
AA - battery
B. B. King - guitarist and singer
C. C. Sabathia - Cubs pitcher
Dee Dee Meyers - former White House press secretary
E. E. Cummings - poet
ff - fortissimo!
GG Allin - controversial rock artist
H. H. Holmes - serial killer
II - Roman for two
J. J. Abrams - TV/film creative force
KK - webspeak for okay
L.L.Bean - clothes
mm - millimeter
N.N. - anonymous person
OO - ah!
pp -pianissimo
QQ - aw, don't cry
RR - railroad
SS - saints (as in "SS Peter and Paul")
TT - Tritone
UU - University of Utah
v.v. - vice versa
WW - quadruple u
XX - girly chromosomes
YY - indeed, why?
ZZ Top - rock band from Houston
Labels: randomness
Today marks 101 years since the T. S. Eliot's conversion to Anglicanism.
Labels: literature, randomness
92% of Americans believe in God these days, which might explain how He can be selling cocaine near a church in Florida. (thanks Janey!)
Labels: randomness
It's been a busy day on Sinden.org already, but let it not be said that we failed to acknowledge Poop for Peace Day.
Labels: randomness
Two logos are seen. The first was used until from 1989-1996, and the second from 1996 onward.
Wait for the second one. It's worth it.
(via herself and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a movie she's embarrassed to admit she was watching -- and let's face it, I would be too if it started out like that)
Need another BFS video logo? Here's a version of the first logo with different music.
Labels: film, randomness
Celebrity canine confusion: Ellen and Paris
Ruckpositiv and Hauptwerk
People I like who I recently discovered were once on the cover of Time magazine: Britten and Cram
Labels: randomness
On the Diane Rehm show today: the story of John Brinkley, inventor of the goat testicle implant.
Rehm's guest, author Pope Brock (the book is Charlatan), said that the inspiration came from a farmer who reportedly told Brinkley that he had "lost his pep" and said that he wished he "had a pair of Billy Goat nuts".
This, according to Brock, was the eureka moment.
Apparently the wife of this same farmer also had a goat-themed operation from Brinkley. The two conceived a son and named him "Billy".
You can't make this stuff up.
Labels: randomness, real life
Sinden.org is proud to bring you this multi-part series of Episcopal Cathedrals and their distance from Starbucks stores. Or perhaps it is a series about Starbucks stores and their distance to Episcopal Cathedrals -- for, you understand, in most cases the cathedrals predate the stores.
Using field agents and survey crews (well, Wikipedia, Starbucks.com and Google Maps anyway) we have worked tirelessly to bring you this valuable resource.
We begin in Province I (New England). Province I includes seven diocese and contains the oldest (Connecticut; think Samuel Seabury, the first American Episcopal bishop) and the largest (Massachusetts; 194 congregations, 77,000 members) in the Episcopal Church.
| Diocese | Cathedral | Dist to SBUX |
|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | Christ Church, Hartford | 0.2 mi (185 Asylum St) |
| Maine | Church of St Luke, Portland | 0.3 mi (594 Congress St) |
| Massachusetts | Church of St Paul, Boston | 0.3 mi1 (12 Winter St) |
| New Hampshire | none2 | n/a |
| Rhode Island | St John's,3 Providence | 0.4 mi (1 Financial Plaza) |
| Vermont | Church of St. Paul, Burlington | 0.3 mi4 (2072 Burlington Town Ctr) |
| Western Massachusetts | Christ Church, Springfield | 1.0 mi (1089 E Columbus Ave) |
1. This would be 1.3 mi in the car since the one way streets in Boston are nefarious. But really it would be a two and a half block walk.
2. New Hampshire is one of nineteen domestic dioceses that has no cathedral (the others being Alaska, Central Gulf Coast, East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Oregon, Fort Worth, Georgia, Navajoland, Nevada, North Carolina, Northern Michigan, Northwest Texas, Rochester, Southern Virginia, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Western Michigan).
3. No website? Not cool.
4. Google doesn't understand this address, but Starbucks does.
Well, we did pretty well distance-wise until we got to the end.
Average distance from an Episcopal Cathedral to a Starbucks store in Province I is .4167 mi.
Join us next month when we explore Province II (New York & New Jersey).
Labels: cathedrals, Episcopal Church, randomness, Starbucks
After I watched The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T late last week, I descended into a merciless spiral of word-association movie watching fueled by Red Bull and eight-at-a-time Netflix. Here's how it went down:
- The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)
- Dr. T and the Women (2000)
- Women vs. Men (2002)
- Men in Black (1997)
- Black Hawk Down (2001)
- Down with Love (2003)
- Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)
- Stranger than Paradise (1984)
- Paradise Road (1988)
- The Road Warrior (1981)
- Xena: Warrior Princess, Season 1 (1995)
- Princess and the Warrior [Der Krieger und die Kaiserin] (2000)
- Warrior Queen (2003)
- Queen of Outer Space (1958)
- Space Cowboys (2000)
- Cowboys of Faith (2007)
- Faith of our Fathers (1997)
- Fathers and Sons (2004)
- Sons of the Desert (1933)
- Desert Hearts (1985)
- Hearts and Minds (1974)
- Mindstorm (2001)
- Summer Storm (2006)
- Bikini Summer (1991)
- Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)
- Goldfinger (1964)
- The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)
Labels: film, randomness
(in "Aggregate" from Bibliodyssey)
Listening to Handel's Messiah this month?
Keep an ear out for "We like sheep".
Labels: randomness
Don't let the United Parcel Service keep you from speaking with a real live person with their crafty automated phone system at 1-800-PICK-UPS.
Incidentally, you should know that they chose this number after a focus group revealed that dialing 1-800-CHOOSE-THE-UNITED-PARCEL-SERVICE was a bit cumbersome
Just press 8.
You'll have to wait around for the next available representative, but at least you won't have to scream obscenities at the computer-voice woman.
You might try 9 too, but only if you speak Spanish.
Labels: randomness
Wow. I hope I can find a way down to Texas to take this in.
Tyler Music Coterie is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. Thursday for a sacred music program and luncheon at First Baptist Church, 301 W. Ferguson St.Hymn of the month is "When the Treetops Whisper," led by Sammye Woodward with Patti Long at the piano. June Mauer is program leader, Coterie spokes-person Dorothy Lomax said.
Other selections include "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing," with Dorothy Lomax at the piano; "When in Our Music God is Glorified," with Huey Harpe on the organ; "My Faith Has Found a Resting Place," with Myra Brown on oboe and June Shull on piano; "Blessed Assurance," with Sally Clemmons joining the above on flute; "What Wondrous Love Is This," with Patti Long at the piano; "The Lord Is My Shepherd," vocalized by Elsie Ahlgren with Eleanor Garvey on piano; "This Is My Father's World," with Vi Rhodes at piano; and three sacred selections with June Shull on piano and Jeffrey Ford on organ.
Labels: church music, randomness
I was shocked by the name Harris Wittels on Jimmy Kimmel Live! late last night.
I think I might put an exclamation mark after more stuff I come up with, because it really does add a festive quality to things. Sinden.org! Or maybe it's the addition of the word Live to something. Choral Evensong Live!
Anyways, yes, Harris Wittels. He lived down the street from me in Houston. I've been to his house.
Now, after graduating from Emerson College, he appears to be making a go of it as a comedian.
I didn't really need to check, but it is the same Harris. I mean how many can there really be? Facebook comes up with a Harrison Wittels at Southern Methodist University, but no other Harris Wittels.
I really wanted to like his abbreviated routine more (the whole "I knew him when" factor), but something about interacting with homeless people on a daily basis makes me less eager to laugh at his homeless jokes. They didn't seem to go over so well with the JKL! audience either.
Labels: randomness, stand-up comedy
It was on the Feast of St. Columba (June 9), 2007 that we at Sinden.org noticed a remarkable numerological coincidence involving the hymns set to the tune named after him.
In the 1940 Hymnal, "The King of love" is 345.
In the 1982 Hymnal, it's 645.
Both hymn numbers end in 45. Columba died in 597.
597 - (45*2) = 507
Hymn numbers 345 and 645 are separated by three hundred.
507 - 300 = 207
The two hymnals bear dates 42 years apart:
207 - (42 * 2) = 123.
123 represents the first three scale degrees of the tune ST. COLUMBA.
1 2 3 4 5 The_____ King of Love
Additionally, "King of Love" rests on scale degrees "345" the same hymn number as found in the 1940.
Labels: randomness, St. Columba
It wasn't too long ago that I was on the road, lost in thoughts of the Italian baroque, and I saw a sign that read "RV Park".
"How peculiar," I mused to myself.
"A Vivaldi recreational area."
Labels: randomness, Vivaldi
As we were traveling this afternoon, herself started to spontaneously sing this educational gem from the mid-90s.
Ahhh! All the Beauty
The Rainforest The Tropical Rain ForestWelcome to the Jungle It’s so exciting
Exotic Mysterious We are inviting
You on an adventure So pay attention, please
Pythons Macaws All the other Species
Mammals Insects Birds Bees
Live under the shelter of 100-foot trees
Where living things vary from Jaguars to Ants
Home to more than ½ the world’s animals and plants
Trees are high, they don’t let in light
The dark in the jungle makes you think it’s always night
Little sunshine Under the trees
Average Temperature is 75 degrees
The breeze is quite wonderful; you’ll see what it’s about
It’s Fun, it’s thrilling, come check it outAhhh! All the Beauty
The Rainforest The Tropical Rain Forest
Quite stunning, really, that more than a decade later she remembers good sections of the World Wildlife Fund's "Rainforest Rap".
Labels: randomness
I AM IN UR CHORDZ
AUGMENTING UR SIXTHZ
You think that's geeky? Check out this HTMLriffic tattoo.
Synergy: At tattoo that reads: "I am in ur skin / pigmenting your dermalz"
Labels: music theory, randomness
Oscar the:
- architect, Niemeyer
- boxer, de la Hoya
- class of submarine
- doomed musical (2004)
- edible meat and cold cut production company, Mayer
- fashion designer, de la Renta
- Grouch
- hotels, Greece
- I, King of Sweden
- Judicial application
- King of Sweden (also), II
- Latin American patriarch, Romero
- movie (1967)
- Norwegian and Swedish prince
- Oil Spill Contingency and Response
- Peterson, pianist
- Queen Sharmell's husband, Gutierrez
- relief pitcher, Villareal
- single-engined land-based fighter, Nakajima Ki-43
- traditional leader in folk music since 1886, Schmidt
- undesireable remake (1991)
- van Nooijen
- Wilde, author
- X-ray technician, Medrano, Jr.
- Y. Takeshita
Zmoked meat and cheese products- Zoology professor, Werner Tiegs
Labels: film, randomness
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