Saturday Good Reads

A friend asked me if I would be glad when the election is over. I thought about it, and said, no, actually I won’t be. Because then we’ll have the next four years. Watching the mainstream media hurl themselves like lemmings off a cliff is already making me embarrassed that I have a journalism degree; if you haven’t realized by now, we don’t have journalism in this country any more. And that’s both a sad and dangerous thing.

You may not know who Neville Marriner was, but he was influential in the world of music, created a thing of beauty at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Church, and was something considered unusual in the music conducting world – a gentleman. American Conservative has a good story about him, and now I know whom to thank for those concerts at the church on Trafalgar Square.

The Babylon Bee likes to puncture our evangelical balloons, and Emily Belz at World Magazine has the story behind the satirical site and its founder. A wonderful story in the London Review of Books about a J.M.W. Turner painting. Stunning photographs of palm fronds. Why a quarter-life crisis and a mid-life crisis are good things. A confession of faith. Good poetry.

Poetry

The Guardians – Brendan MacOdrum at Oran’s Well.

Floyd Casey – Megan Willome.

Letters on a Japanese Moth – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

A Sonnet for St. Luke’s Day – Malcolm Guite.

Poetry gives words to the wordless – Donna Pucciani at National Catholic Reporter (Hat Tip: J of India).

Life and Culture

Serious Laughter: Adam Ford and the Babylon Bee – Emily Belz at World.

The Necessity of a Quarter-Life and Mid-Life Crisis – Jon Mertz at Thin Difference.

Art and Photography

The Chase: Turner’s “Rain, Steam, and Speed” – Inigo Thomas at the London Review of Books.

Palm Fronds – Tim Good at Pics, Poems, and Ponderings.

Faith

CREDO: This is My Confession of Faith – Diana Trautwein at She Loves Magazine.

When the hurricane hits – Troy Cady at T(r)oy Marbles.

British Stuff

Remembering Neville Marriner – R.J. Stove at American Conservative.

Behold Our God – Sovereign Grace

Painting: Woman Reading in a Garden, oil on canvas (1902-1903) by Henri Matisse; private collection.