Bishop Butler’s quote “Probability is the Very Guide of Life” (Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature (Charlottesville: Ibis, n.d.), is one that I invoke from time to time in the most unlikeliest of contexts. (The other Butler quote I invoke from time to time in “identity…
Telegraph NYT Guardian basscreamEric ClaptonJack brucemusic
Here’s a review from NDPR — notwithstanding the reviewer’s criticisms, this may well be a useful update to a longstanding, and often infertile debate. The traditional opposition between social wholes and individuals rings a bit hollow to contemporary ears, not only because the poles of the opposition are only vaguely or ambiguously conceived, nor solely because…
Ignatius snorted at the movie credits. All of the people involved in the film were equally unacceptable. A set designer, in particular, had appalled him too many times in the past. The heroine was even more offensive than she had been in the circus musical. In this film she was a bright young secretary whom…
Born on this day. benjamin constantfreedomLiberalismPolitical philosophy
Here is astrophysicist Adam Frank’s insightful look at Walker Percy’s wonderful book. I don’t share Frank’s nor Lawler’s nor Percy’s optimism but I’m trying very hard. Also check out Peter Lawler’s take on LITC. There is one book that begins to answer these questions and I’m happy to pass it on. Walker Percy’s “Lost In…
Good to see that Fats and Dave were able to attend this showing as per my last post. Here are some lovely shots of the three maestros, Dave ever irrepressible; Fats the quiet one. The best extended research on Fats and Dave is in the excellent book Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of…
Glad to hear that this documentary has come to full fruition. Below is the blurb from the film’s Kickstarter page. The early years (1949-62) of the Fats Domino / Dave Bartholomew collaboration and its roots in the culture and music of New Orleans. ….On the day in 1948 the unlikely paths of Antoine “Fats” Domino…
2014 JEFFERSON LECTURER It is particularly meaningful for me to be giving this lecture on the 25th anniversary of the one by Walker Percy. I took the train from New York for that occasion, looking out of the window and thinking of his eerie essay about the malaise, “The Man on the Train.” If memory…
Since we are coming up to the time of year when Booker died I thought I’d mark it now. IMHO Booker is one of those geniuses on par with “Gatemouth” Brown in the sense that they were so versatile encompassing so many different styles and so authentically. Both were “characters” but of course were very different in…
manwithoutqualities 