Messe Secunda, by Fr. Michael Haller

For those of you poor saps who were unable to make it to the concert last night, here is the rendition of the Mass that we performed.



I will upload the other parts of the concert as time permits.

**Update**

The Vox Caelestis women's ensemble's set is also up:

Place Ya Bets... Again!

Birthday: _______
Weight: _______
Length: _______

As before, 5 points for each day by which your birthday guess is off. 1 point for each ounce, and 2 points for each quarter-inch. Also, a new rule this time around: if your name starts with "K" and ends with "atie Belland" you get 15 points automatically just to make it fair for those not gifted with powers of divination. (Kidding, of course.)

As before, lowest score wins.

For reference. Damien was:
July 25th (his due date)
7 lbs. 7 oz. (best guess)
20 inches long

Anthony is due July 23rd.
The Pregger Murloc's weight gain so far this pregnancy has been less than that of her first.
Anthony really likes stretching out, more so than Damien did in the womb.
Also, Rie's OB-GYN Kenobi has said she doesn't want her to go too much past her due date, to avoid a C-section. Narrow birth canal and all. There has been talk of inducing at some point.

Interesting Point of the Day/Week/Month

(H/T Mike Flynn)

'"Congressman Weiner departed this morning to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person"
-- Weiner publicist Risa Heller to New York Times last Saturday.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi concluded that his behavior required medical intervention. (also in the Times)

There is a strange notion implicit here: heterosexual behavior can be cured! Who knew? But isn't there something dehumanizing about the supposition that homosexuals are helpless victims of their urges while (with professional treatment and medical intervention) heterosexuals can learn to control them?'

!!Breaking News!!

Did that get your attention? I hope so! The news isn't actually all that breaking, but I just wanted to make sure you were listening.

For those loyal readers (hi Mom!) in the Southern California area, I have an important announcement.

Well, not actually that important. I just want to make sure you're paying attention.

Anywho, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church's Latin Schola, of which yours truly is a member, will be performing our first ever concert on June 24 (the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist) at 8:00pm. The concert will begin with a low Mass in the extraordinary form (in Latin, priest faces ad oriens (that is, he is oriented correctly, in the same direction as the people, so the Mass isn't a staring contest)). This will be followed by actual singing. Our showpiece is the "Messe Secunda" by Fr. Michael Haller, a 19th century Palestrina scholar, who wrote this gorgeous 3-part (SAB) Mass in the style of the great Renaissance sacred works of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Other works we will be performing are: the chant "Ut Queant Laxis", a chant to St. John the Baptist, from which the solfège "do re mi..." originates; César Franck's "Panis Angelicus"; and maybe one or two others (if you're lucky!).

(Did you notice all the bold text? I put it there. It was designed to subtly catch your eye and make you more interested. Did it work?)

So, come and bring a friend, why don't you? Bring ten friends. Bring a hundred friends! You probably won't regret it™! (That's my personal guarantee!)

Oh, yeah, and we also have this cool flyer.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "wow, Joe, that's a cool flyer! How could the concert not be awesome if it has such a cool flyer?" (Yes, I know you think in bold text.)

Well, you, that's a good question. How could the concert not be awesome if we have such an awesome flyer? The answer is: there is no conceivable way the concert could not be awesome with such a cool flyer. This has been rigorously proven by science-type people, like this guy.

This Guy? Tell everybody why it will be awesome:

The concert will be so awesome, because it has a cool flyer. I have proven this scientifically!

You know you can trust him because he wears glasses. That means he's got, like, +5 to science!

And that's why you need to come! You probably won't regret it!™

Too Clever By Half

So, in Boston, Sarah Palin makes a reference to Paul Revere warning the British...



...for which she is roundly ridiculed by the Left. Everyone knows that Paul Revere's ride was to warn the towns of Lexington and Concord of the coming British invasion. We all read the poem in middle school.

Of course, it turns out she was right. In Revere's own words from a 1798 letter, he had warned the British that “there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.”

Perhaps before mocking someone's ignorance, we ought make sure we are knowledgeable on the subject ourselves?

The Left's response was, of course, telling. Upon having their ignorance pointed out, they merely insisted that, "OK, maybe Sarah was right, but she couldn't have known she was right. She just got lucky." This is a wonderful argument: it is absolutely unprovable. It is simply assertion about what someone else was thinking. Since no one knows what anyone else is thinking, the assertion cannot be proven false.

But of course, for the Leftists, it can be proven, by their weird logic. Remember, these are the Cultural Elite. The Brights. The Educated and Informed. They don't get their news from stupid channels like Fox News. They get it from reliable sources, like MSNBC and NPR, which never spin and are never wrong. They have degrees from Columbia and Berkley. They're smarter than you.

So, really, it's quite simple in their logic:
M. Leftists are smarter than right-wing rabble.
m. Leftists did not know that Paul Revere warned the British.
C. Therefore, Sarah Palin could not have known that Paul Revere warned the British.

You see? Quite clever. Too clever, one might say, by half.