Saturday, December 30, 2006
Relativity and the Nature of God
Let me preface this essay by posing a question about God, the answer to which has enormous ramifications about the divine nature.
Consider the following scenario: suppose that at a particular instant in time, your sister is halfway around the world, and about to get hit by a truck. Coincidentally, at nearly that precise moment, you offer a prayer, asking God to protect your sister. The moment you offer the prayer is so close in time to the accident, that there is no way *you* could possibly rescue your sister were you alerted to her peril, even if you were able to travel as fast as the speed of light. But what about God? Can God protect your sister as a result of your prayer? Or is He, too, limited by the speed of light?
The ramifications of that question are surprisingly immense. Allow me to jump to the end result: if you believe, as I do, that God is *not* limited by the speed of light, that He could protect your sister even if your prayer is issued only a nanosecond before she gets hit by the truck, then the physics principle of relativity proves that God is not limited by causality--that is, God can produce an effect that precedes the cause.
Let me explain why that happens. Bear with me, this is a little long—but hopefully all in fairly simple language and concepts. All of the following basically stems from the physics principle that there is no such thing as simultaneity. That is, two events which are simultaneous to one observer are not in general simultaneous to another observer.
This is a direct consequence of Einstein’s Second Postulate of Relativity, which says that all light rays travel at the same speed relative to observers, regardless of the motion of the observers. That is a bizarre concept, and foreign to our everyday experience—for example, if you are skating along a road at 5 mph, and throw a ball ahead of you at 5 mph, then a person standing nearby will measure the ball going at 10 mph. And if you throw the ball backwards at 5 mph, then to the person on the ground the ball will appear to just drop straight down. But Einstein says that if you are flying in your rocketship at 100,000 miles per second, and send a beam of light ahead of you at 186,000 miles per second, then the “bystander” will see the light beam travel at 186,000 mps, not 286,000 mps. That is, *you* see the light beam traveling 186,000 mps faster than you, but the *bystander* sees the light beam only traveling 86,000 mps faster than you.
Bizarre! But Einsteinian Relativity has been proven correct countless times since it was proposed in 1905. It is, as far as we know, 100% correct. It affects measureable quantities in very real ways.
To prove that the constancy of the speed of light means that there is no true simultaneity, consider this “Gedankenexperiment” (thought experiment): Frank is standing in the middle of a train car. This train is going tremendously fast relative to the ground, close to the speed of light. Frank is holding two flashlights, and turns them both on at the same time. The light beams travel out from Frank at 186,000 mps, and in Frank’s point of view, strike the opposite walls of the train car at precisely the same time. The impacts are simultaneous.
Meanwhile, George is standing on the ground watching the train go by. However, consider what George sees: George, too, sees both light rays travel out from Frank at 186,000 mps. What he *doesn’t* see, is the forward-moving ray travel faster than the backward-moving ray, which is what would happen if for example Frank were throwing balls on a slow-moving train—in that case, the velocity of the balls would be added/subtract from the velocity of the train like in the skateboard example above. No, instead, George sees the forward-moving light ray travel at 186,000 mps forwards, and the backward-moving light ray travel at 186,000 mps backwards.
As the forward-moving ray travels forward, the front of the train car moves ahead of it. As the backward-moving ray travels backwards, the back of the train car catches up to it. To George, then, the backward-moving ray has a shorter distance to travel than the forward-moving ray, and it hits *first*. To George’s point of view, the two light rays do *not* hit at the same time; the impacts are *not simultaneous*!
This is not only true for “light ray impacts”, but is a general feature of relativity—two things which seem to occur at the same time for one observer will only seem to occur at the same time for people who are moving at the same relative speed. That is, everyone else on the train will agree with Frank that the events were simultaneous, but nobody else will (unless they are on other trains/rockets/whatever going the same speed and direction as Frank).
And actually, even though George thinks the backward-moving light ray hits first, other people won’t even agree on *that*. For example, if Herman is on a second train, traveling even faster than Frank’s train, he will think that the other light ray hits first.
Moreover, it is impossible to say whether Frank, George, or Herman is “right”. They are in fact *all* correct—none of them has what you might consider a “privileged viewpoint”. In fact, that is essentially Einstein’s First Postulate—that there is no such thing as a privileged viewpoint. All (non-accelerating) points of view are equally valid.
How does this relate to the prayer for your sister?
Well, although *you* might think that your prayer was issued a split second *before* she was miraculously rescued from being hit by the truck, to someone speeding past the earth in a rocket, your prayer was issued a split second *after* the miracle occurs. And even though such a person might not actually exist, the point of view, or “frame of reference” as physicists call it, is a valid one. One cannot say that the prayer was issued before the miracle, if there is *any* valid frame of reference in which the miracle came first.
When the equations for determining times and locations of events in different frames of reference are used (the “Lorentz transformations”), it turns out that as long as two things happen close enough together in time that a light-ray (or anything slower) couldn’t go from one to the other, one can *always* find some frame of reference where event 2 precedes event 1.
So, as I said in the introduction, if you do not think that God is limited by the speed of light, then physics tells you that God can produce a result *before* the cause. And that, in my opinion, is just plain cool. It tells me that God is not bound by time in anywhere close to the same sense that you and I are.
Consider the following scenario: suppose that at a particular instant in time, your sister is halfway around the world, and about to get hit by a truck. Coincidentally, at nearly that precise moment, you offer a prayer, asking God to protect your sister. The moment you offer the prayer is so close in time to the accident, that there is no way *you* could possibly rescue your sister were you alerted to her peril, even if you were able to travel as fast as the speed of light. But what about God? Can God protect your sister as a result of your prayer? Or is He, too, limited by the speed of light?
The ramifications of that question are surprisingly immense. Allow me to jump to the end result: if you believe, as I do, that God is *not* limited by the speed of light, that He could protect your sister even if your prayer is issued only a nanosecond before she gets hit by the truck, then the physics principle of relativity proves that God is not limited by causality--that is, God can produce an effect that precedes the cause.
Let me explain why that happens. Bear with me, this is a little long—but hopefully all in fairly simple language and concepts. All of the following basically stems from the physics principle that there is no such thing as simultaneity. That is, two events which are simultaneous to one observer are not in general simultaneous to another observer.
This is a direct consequence of Einstein’s Second Postulate of Relativity, which says that all light rays travel at the same speed relative to observers, regardless of the motion of the observers. That is a bizarre concept, and foreign to our everyday experience—for example, if you are skating along a road at 5 mph, and throw a ball ahead of you at 5 mph, then a person standing nearby will measure the ball going at 10 mph. And if you throw the ball backwards at 5 mph, then to the person on the ground the ball will appear to just drop straight down. But Einstein says that if you are flying in your rocketship at 100,000 miles per second, and send a beam of light ahead of you at 186,000 miles per second, then the “bystander” will see the light beam travel at 186,000 mps, not 286,000 mps. That is, *you* see the light beam traveling 186,000 mps faster than you, but the *bystander* sees the light beam only traveling 86,000 mps faster than you.
Bizarre! But Einsteinian Relativity has been proven correct countless times since it was proposed in 1905. It is, as far as we know, 100% correct. It affects measureable quantities in very real ways.
To prove that the constancy of the speed of light means that there is no true simultaneity, consider this “Gedankenexperiment” (thought experiment): Frank is standing in the middle of a train car. This train is going tremendously fast relative to the ground, close to the speed of light. Frank is holding two flashlights, and turns them both on at the same time. The light beams travel out from Frank at 186,000 mps, and in Frank’s point of view, strike the opposite walls of the train car at precisely the same time. The impacts are simultaneous.
Meanwhile, George is standing on the ground watching the train go by. However, consider what George sees: George, too, sees both light rays travel out from Frank at 186,000 mps. What he *doesn’t* see, is the forward-moving ray travel faster than the backward-moving ray, which is what would happen if for example Frank were throwing balls on a slow-moving train—in that case, the velocity of the balls would be added/subtract from the velocity of the train like in the skateboard example above. No, instead, George sees the forward-moving light ray travel at 186,000 mps forwards, and the backward-moving light ray travel at 186,000 mps backwards.
As the forward-moving ray travels forward, the front of the train car moves ahead of it. As the backward-moving ray travels backwards, the back of the train car catches up to it. To George, then, the backward-moving ray has a shorter distance to travel than the forward-moving ray, and it hits *first*. To George’s point of view, the two light rays do *not* hit at the same time; the impacts are *not simultaneous*!
This is not only true for “light ray impacts”, but is a general feature of relativity—two things which seem to occur at the same time for one observer will only seem to occur at the same time for people who are moving at the same relative speed. That is, everyone else on the train will agree with Frank that the events were simultaneous, but nobody else will (unless they are on other trains/rockets/whatever going the same speed and direction as Frank).
And actually, even though George thinks the backward-moving light ray hits first, other people won’t even agree on *that*. For example, if Herman is on a second train, traveling even faster than Frank’s train, he will think that the other light ray hits first.
Moreover, it is impossible to say whether Frank, George, or Herman is “right”. They are in fact *all* correct—none of them has what you might consider a “privileged viewpoint”. In fact, that is essentially Einstein’s First Postulate—that there is no such thing as a privileged viewpoint. All (non-accelerating) points of view are equally valid.
How does this relate to the prayer for your sister?
Well, although *you* might think that your prayer was issued a split second *before* she was miraculously rescued from being hit by the truck, to someone speeding past the earth in a rocket, your prayer was issued a split second *after* the miracle occurs. And even though such a person might not actually exist, the point of view, or “frame of reference” as physicists call it, is a valid one. One cannot say that the prayer was issued before the miracle, if there is *any* valid frame of reference in which the miracle came first.
When the equations for determining times and locations of events in different frames of reference are used (the “Lorentz transformations”), it turns out that as long as two things happen close enough together in time that a light-ray (or anything slower) couldn’t go from one to the other, one can *always* find some frame of reference where event 2 precedes event 1.
So, as I said in the introduction, if you do not think that God is limited by the speed of light, then physics tells you that God can produce a result *before* the cause. And that, in my opinion, is just plain cool. It tells me that God is not bound by time in anywhere close to the same sense that you and I are.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Book Review - This Alien Shore
This Alien Shore, by C.S. Friedman – unrated. This was an amazing book, with one fatal flaw that prevents me from assigning a score out of 10: extensive use of the “f-word” by one of the central characters. If not for the bad language, I would say that this was the best science fiction book I’ve read in years, and possibly one of the top 10 science fiction books I’ve ever read—as befits a book by the author of the Coldfire trilogy that I enjoyed so much.
There were several interesting ideas going on in this book; I’ll highlight a few:
* “brainware” – computer interfacing directly with the brain plays a huge role in the book.
* computer programming – the way futuristic computer programming is presented was very interesting, and two of the major characters are computer programmers (one legit, one a hacker). Basically, it involves tracing patterns, creating independent subroutines, tracking other peoples’ programs through the net, etc. But much more interestingly than my description!
* a diaspora – in this future world, Earth sent out colonies which got cut off from the mother world. When contact with Earth was lost (prior to this book), some of these colonies banded together; some got lost. When contact was reestablished (also prior to this book), Earth is practically the “bad guy”. This book was written entirely away from Earth.
* different “variants” – the reason why contact with Earth was lost, is that Earth discovered that the initial space travel had left the travelers genetically altered, making “variants” on the basic human DNA. Thus the colonies have unique traits—some good, some bad, some neither—and some are so different as to practically be different species.
* the Guild monopoly on space travel – the much plot line involves a group attempting to break the monopoly on space travel possessed by the “Guild”. Reminded me a bit of Dune, in that sense.
* the “anniq” – the reason why the monopoly exists, is to travel large distances, people must use a worm-hole like thing called an “anniq”. Inside the anniq, however, are powerful creatures which attack travelers—so only those pilots who can sense the creatures and avoid them are able to traverse the anniq. Such pilots are tightly controlled by the Guild—hence the monopoly.
Again, it was a great book, except the language. Sadly, I can’t recommend it.
There were several interesting ideas going on in this book; I’ll highlight a few:
* “brainware” – computer interfacing directly with the brain plays a huge role in the book.
* computer programming – the way futuristic computer programming is presented was very interesting, and two of the major characters are computer programmers (one legit, one a hacker). Basically, it involves tracing patterns, creating independent subroutines, tracking other peoples’ programs through the net, etc. But much more interestingly than my description!
* a diaspora – in this future world, Earth sent out colonies which got cut off from the mother world. When contact with Earth was lost (prior to this book), some of these colonies banded together; some got lost. When contact was reestablished (also prior to this book), Earth is practically the “bad guy”. This book was written entirely away from Earth.
* different “variants” – the reason why contact with Earth was lost, is that Earth discovered that the initial space travel had left the travelers genetically altered, making “variants” on the basic human DNA. Thus the colonies have unique traits—some good, some bad, some neither—and some are so different as to practically be different species.
* the Guild monopoly on space travel – the much plot line involves a group attempting to break the monopoly on space travel possessed by the “Guild”. Reminded me a bit of Dune, in that sense.
* the “anniq” – the reason why the monopoly exists, is to travel large distances, people must use a worm-hole like thing called an “anniq”. Inside the anniq, however, are powerful creatures which attack travelers—so only those pilots who can sense the creatures and avoid them are able to traverse the anniq. Such pilots are tightly controlled by the Guild—hence the monopoly.
Again, it was a great book, except the language. Sadly, I can’t recommend it.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
mp3s from Christmas concert
As advertised, I have now put a few (3) songs from the Chamber Chorale's recent concert, on to my website.
http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/colton/chamber%20chorale%20music.htm
The newest songs are found at the bottom. Enjoy!
http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/colton/chamber%20chorale%20music.htm
The newest songs are found at the bottom. Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Survived Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone!
We survived!
To wit:
On Sat Dec 16, we had the branch Christmas party/talent night. I sang "The Wexford Carol", and accompanied myself on the piano. Leslie played "Simple Gifts" on the piano while Emily and I sang the Christmas words to the tune written by the King's Singers. Emily played "Swans on the Lake", while I played along on my trumpet.
Sun, Dec 17, was the big combined branch/ward Christmas program that I was in charge of. I thought it went extremely well. The choir sang five numbers:
* Far, far away on Judea's plains (from the hymn book)
* Star Bright, by Lorin F. Wheelwright (as a duet between tenors & basses)
* Coventry Carol, with a cello solo by John Robinson
* Gentle Jesus, by Mabel Jones Gabbott and Michael F. Moody, with just the women singing.
* Angel's Carol, by John Rutter--by far the most challenging of the bunch. I think we got it sounding OK, though!
Additionally, I sang Son of God, by Robert Peterson, in a quartet with Linda Winans, Todd Ebbert and Deanna Ebbert. I also accompanied Deanna Ebbert on the piano, while she sang One Star, by Cheryl Jones Rogers. (Very nice job, by the way, Deanna!! (if you are reading this).) And I as I mentioned in the previous blog entry, I played a trumpet descant to the final congregational hymn, O Come All Ye Faithful.
Sun, Dec 17, was also the "Advent Hymn Sing", an annual Chamber Chorale choir concert with many audience sing-along numbers (and brass & organ numbers). I'll post a few numbers from that today or tomorrow on my Chamber Chorale music website, http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/colton/chamber%20chorale%20music.htm.
On Mon, Dec 18, I went to a local hospital (Franciscan Skemp) with some other Chamber Chorale members, to sing Christmas carols for a special annual religious service for people who had lost babies. It was a nice service, with many teary eyes (including my own).
On Thurs, Dec 21, about half of the Chamber Chorale sang for the Rotary Lights. That is the annual Christmas lighting display that's held at the main city park by the river. I thought we would be singing for the cars driving past, but it turned out we sang in a tent for people walking through the display. There were about as many choir members as audience members. Pauline, Leslie, and Emily, managed to come in about half-way through--they had gotten on the loop to drive through the display before realizing that they had to get out in order to see us. I'm glad they made it! Then we walked through the display a bit, saw some live reindeer, and talked to Santa.
On Thursday and Friday I also got all of my final exams graded. I also managed to pick up a Christmas present I got for Pauline--a very nice Craftsman tool chest from Sears. It stands on casters, and has three sections that go up about 5.5 feet.
I spent most of the day Saturday working on another Christmas present for Pauline--making CDs of the songs from our Muppet Show DVDs. I had gotten most of the way through the 45 episodes at a previous Christmas a few years back, making 4 CDs, but hadn't taken the time to finished the last 15 episodes. So I got that done, and made another two 75 minute CDs. I guess we now have seven and a half hours of Muppet music on CD. Yay!
Sunday was Christmas Eve. We just had a short church service--just Sacrament meeting instead of the full set of meetings. Pauline was certainly happy not to have to teach Sunday School! Plus, the previous week we had met with the ward that shares our building, and she didn't have to teach then either. So, she's had two weeks off. In the evening we had the traditional Christmas story reading from Luke 2 and Matthew 2, with Pauline, the kids, and Thomas Odenwalder (the friend mentioned in my last blog entry, who is staying with us for a bit).
Then yesterday (Monday) was Christmas Day! We opened presents in the morning, Pauline cooked a turkey, and we watched three movies later in the afternoon/evening. Among other presents we ended up with 18 (!) new movies, so we had to make a start on them. The three we watched were Nacho Libre (funny in places, odd in others, jury's still out), Church Ball (pretty funny and well-done), and The DaVinci Code (I enjoyed quite a bit, Pauline and Thomas also enjoyed but felt it was too long).
Leslie and Emily watched Church Ball, but not the other two. The presents that they seem to like the most are (1) the *really big* cardboard box that Pauline's tool chest came in, which they have turned into a clubhouse, and (2) the "pet duct tape" Pauline gave them, which they take for walks around the house. Go figure.
Now I'm back at work, trying to finish some things up before I go out of town to Utah on Thursday.
Like I said... we survived!
We survived!
To wit:
On Sat Dec 16, we had the branch Christmas party/talent night. I sang "The Wexford Carol", and accompanied myself on the piano. Leslie played "Simple Gifts" on the piano while Emily and I sang the Christmas words to the tune written by the King's Singers. Emily played "Swans on the Lake", while I played along on my trumpet.
Sun, Dec 17, was the big combined branch/ward Christmas program that I was in charge of. I thought it went extremely well. The choir sang five numbers:
* Far, far away on Judea's plains (from the hymn book)
* Star Bright, by Lorin F. Wheelwright (as a duet between tenors & basses)
* Coventry Carol, with a cello solo by John Robinson
* Gentle Jesus, by Mabel Jones Gabbott and Michael F. Moody, with just the women singing.
* Angel's Carol, by John Rutter--by far the most challenging of the bunch. I think we got it sounding OK, though!
Additionally, I sang Son of God, by Robert Peterson, in a quartet with Linda Winans, Todd Ebbert and Deanna Ebbert. I also accompanied Deanna Ebbert on the piano, while she sang One Star, by Cheryl Jones Rogers. (Very nice job, by the way, Deanna!! (if you are reading this).) And I as I mentioned in the previous blog entry, I played a trumpet descant to the final congregational hymn, O Come All Ye Faithful.
Sun, Dec 17, was also the "Advent Hymn Sing", an annual Chamber Chorale choir concert with many audience sing-along numbers (and brass & organ numbers). I'll post a few numbers from that today or tomorrow on my Chamber Chorale music website, http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/colton/chamber%20chorale%20music.htm.
On Mon, Dec 18, I went to a local hospital (Franciscan Skemp) with some other Chamber Chorale members, to sing Christmas carols for a special annual religious service for people who had lost babies. It was a nice service, with many teary eyes (including my own).
On Thurs, Dec 21, about half of the Chamber Chorale sang for the Rotary Lights. That is the annual Christmas lighting display that's held at the main city park by the river. I thought we would be singing for the cars driving past, but it turned out we sang in a tent for people walking through the display. There were about as many choir members as audience members. Pauline, Leslie, and Emily, managed to come in about half-way through--they had gotten on the loop to drive through the display before realizing that they had to get out in order to see us. I'm glad they made it! Then we walked through the display a bit, saw some live reindeer, and talked to Santa.
On Thursday and Friday I also got all of my final exams graded. I also managed to pick up a Christmas present I got for Pauline--a very nice Craftsman tool chest from Sears. It stands on casters, and has three sections that go up about 5.5 feet.
I spent most of the day Saturday working on another Christmas present for Pauline--making CDs of the songs from our Muppet Show DVDs. I had gotten most of the way through the 45 episodes at a previous Christmas a few years back, making 4 CDs, but hadn't taken the time to finished the last 15 episodes. So I got that done, and made another two 75 minute CDs. I guess we now have seven and a half hours of Muppet music on CD. Yay!
Sunday was Christmas Eve. We just had a short church service--just Sacrament meeting instead of the full set of meetings. Pauline was certainly happy not to have to teach Sunday School! Plus, the previous week we had met with the ward that shares our building, and she didn't have to teach then either. So, she's had two weeks off. In the evening we had the traditional Christmas story reading from Luke 2 and Matthew 2, with Pauline, the kids, and Thomas Odenwalder (the friend mentioned in my last blog entry, who is staying with us for a bit).
Then yesterday (Monday) was Christmas Day! We opened presents in the morning, Pauline cooked a turkey, and we watched three movies later in the afternoon/evening. Among other presents we ended up with 18 (!) new movies, so we had to make a start on them. The three we watched were Nacho Libre (funny in places, odd in others, jury's still out), Church Ball (pretty funny and well-done), and The DaVinci Code (I enjoyed quite a bit, Pauline and Thomas also enjoyed but felt it was too long).
Leslie and Emily watched Church Ball, but not the other two. The presents that they seem to like the most are (1) the *really big* cardboard box that Pauline's tool chest came in, which they have turned into a clubhouse, and (2) the "pet duct tape" Pauline gave them, which they take for walks around the house. Go figure.
Now I'm back at work, trying to finish some things up before I go out of town to Utah on Thursday.
Like I said... we survived!
Friday, December 15, 2006
quick update
Wow, I've let more time elapse than I thought.
Here's the quick update:
* Classes finished two days ago. I gave two take-home finals, so I've got some breathing time now while students are working on their exams. I've managed to order a bunch of equipment that I need for January's experiments.
* I'm directing the church choir for this Sunday's Christmas program. I'm also playing the trumpet, as a descant to "O Come All Ye Faithful". And I'm singing in a quartet for one number, and playing the piano for a solo. So I get to use all four of my musical talents in the same program: directing, singing, piano, and trumpet!
* Chamber Chorale also has a concert on Sunday. So I've been practicing for that as well.
* Saturday is a church party & talent show. I'm planning play the piano and sing a number there as well. As you can see, music has pretty much taken over my life this week.
* We have a semi-permanent house guest: Thomas Odenwalder is staying with us for a month or two. He was missionary from Utah that served in this area, who moved back and wants to attend UW-L. He's staying with us while he finds a job and gets an apartment. He'll be working for a year before starting college.
* Pauline and kids are doing well. I still need to get them Christmas presents.
Here's the quick update:
* Classes finished two days ago. I gave two take-home finals, so I've got some breathing time now while students are working on their exams. I've managed to order a bunch of equipment that I need for January's experiments.
* I'm directing the church choir for this Sunday's Christmas program. I'm also playing the trumpet, as a descant to "O Come All Ye Faithful". And I'm singing in a quartet for one number, and playing the piano for a solo. So I get to use all four of my musical talents in the same program: directing, singing, piano, and trumpet!
* Chamber Chorale also has a concert on Sunday. So I've been practicing for that as well.
* Saturday is a church party & talent show. I'm planning play the piano and sing a number there as well. As you can see, music has pretty much taken over my life this week.
* We have a semi-permanent house guest: Thomas Odenwalder is staying with us for a month or two. He was missionary from Utah that served in this area, who moved back and wants to attend UW-L. He's staying with us while he finds a job and gets an apartment. He'll be working for a year before starting college.
* Pauline and kids are doing well. I still need to get them Christmas presents.
Monday, December 04, 2006
A cappella Christmas music
My dad sent me this link last week, and I've been listening to it for several days now. Good stuff! It's basically a free internet radio station that plays a cappella Christmas music 24/7.
http://www.totallyacappella.com
Make sure you have "pop-ups" enabled, then click on the top middle link that says, "Click here to listen to Acappella Christmas". It'll then take you to another website, and open up a window with a music player.
I've found several albums that I now want to buy (which is partially the point of this free service, I imagine). My favorite songs so far have been:
(group, track, album)
Acappella, Joy To The World, Acappella Carols
Acappella, Merry Christmas, Acappella Christmas
Acappella, There Were Angels, Family Christmas
Four Shadow, Ave Maria, Flake
Four Shadow, O Come O Come Emmanuel, Flake
Four Shadow, Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer, Flake
Garment Of Praise, Good News, The Wonderous Gift Is Given
Gas House Gang, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Some Children See Him...
Glad, All Praise To You, Voices Of Christmas
Larry Mayfield & Singers, Mary's Boy Child, 20 A Capella Christmas Carols
Rescue, Go Tell It On The Mountain, The First Christmas
Rescue, Mary Did You Know, The First Christmas
Rockapella, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Rockapella Christmas
Rockapella, Mr Grinch, Rockapella Christmas
Schola Cantorum, Hark I Hear The Harps Eternal, Reflections Of Grace
The Persuasions, The Jesus Song, You're All I Want For Christmas
This Hope, Away In A Manger/Silent Night, A Capella Christmas
This Hope, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, A Capella Christmas
This Hope, Go Tell It, A Cappella Christmas
This Hope, Mary Did You Know, A Capella Christmas
Various Quartets, Born In Bethlehem, To Live As Friends
That list excludes songs on albums I already own; e.g. Rockapella's "Comfort and Joy".
http://www.totallyacappella.com
Make sure you have "pop-ups" enabled, then click on the top middle link that says, "Click here to listen to Acappella Christmas". It'll then take you to another website, and open up a window with a music player.
I've found several albums that I now want to buy (which is partially the point of this free service, I imagine). My favorite songs so far have been:
(group, track, album)
Acappella, Joy To The World, Acappella Carols
Acappella, Merry Christmas, Acappella Christmas
Acappella, There Were Angels, Family Christmas
Four Shadow, Ave Maria, Flake
Four Shadow, O Come O Come Emmanuel, Flake
Four Shadow, Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer, Flake
Garment Of Praise, Good News, The Wonderous Gift Is Given
Gas House Gang, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Some Children See Him...
Glad, All Praise To You, Voices Of Christmas
Larry Mayfield & Singers, Mary's Boy Child, 20 A Capella Christmas Carols
Rescue, Go Tell It On The Mountain, The First Christmas
Rescue, Mary Did You Know, The First Christmas
Rockapella, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Rockapella Christmas
Rockapella, Mr Grinch, Rockapella Christmas
Schola Cantorum, Hark I Hear The Harps Eternal, Reflections Of Grace
The Persuasions, The Jesus Song, You're All I Want For Christmas
This Hope, Away In A Manger/Silent Night, A Capella Christmas
This Hope, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, A Capella Christmas
This Hope, Go Tell It, A Cappella Christmas
This Hope, Mary Did You Know, A Capella Christmas
Various Quartets, Born In Bethlehem, To Live As Friends
That list excludes songs on albums I already own; e.g. Rockapella's "Comfort and Joy".
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Some quick movie reviews
Haven't seen a whole bunch of movies the last month or so, but I have seen a few. In fact, I managed to watch about 3 over the Thanskgiving break. But I figure before I write about them, I should catch up on ones I saw a while back.
Cars (actually saw it in the theater, one of the very few movies this year) - 8/10. Pauline and I watched it with the kids at the "Rivoli Theater," a local dollar-theater ($2 probably, if you want to get technical) located in an old fashioned theater. You can even order pizza which you can eat during the show; they have tables in the front. Cars was very enjoyable, maybe a little too predictable--about what you'd expect from a Pixar show about race cars. The hot race car gets stranded in a very small town and is sentenced to do community service by the judge after he gets into a crash. Some very big acting names do the voices, including Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shaloub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, and Michael Keaton. There are also a whole lot of interesting cameos.
Whisper of the Heart - 9/10. This animated film was written by Hayao Miyazaki, the same guy who wrote and directed Castle In The Sky, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki's Delivery Service. This one wasn't directed by him, but had the same sweetness that Kiki's Delivery Service did. Tells the story of a romance between two kids, approx. 15 year old. The girl was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, and the boy was in training to be a violin maker. The basic message of the film was that you should follow your dream. Humorously, a major part of the film was John Denver's song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," to which the main character invented alternate words. This song was in the original Japanese version, too, which is what I found funny for some reason. The show is highly recommended.
Seven Samurai - 5/10. Sadly I can't really recommend this, although I could see how it was a classic in its day. If I understand correctly, it's basically a Japanese version of "The Magnificent Seven", an American Western which I haven't seen, but set in Samurai Japan. It tells the story of a group of seven samurai that were hired by a village to protect it from a much larger group of marauders. The story was good, and there is a lot of suspense as the samurai prepare for the oncoming battle. However, it was in my opinion far too long a movie (208 minutes), some of the makeup jobs were laughable, and I only thought one or two of the actors were good. (I must admit that the film was in Japanese, with English subtitles, so I might not be the best judge of the actors' abilities.) In the end, it just wasn't gripping enough for me to rate highly.
Cars (actually saw it in the theater, one of the very few movies this year) - 8/10. Pauline and I watched it with the kids at the "Rivoli Theater," a local dollar-theater ($2 probably, if you want to get technical) located in an old fashioned theater. You can even order pizza which you can eat during the show; they have tables in the front. Cars was very enjoyable, maybe a little too predictable--about what you'd expect from a Pixar show about race cars. The hot race car gets stranded in a very small town and is sentenced to do community service by the judge after he gets into a crash. Some very big acting names do the voices, including Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shaloub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, and Michael Keaton. There are also a whole lot of interesting cameos.
Whisper of the Heart - 9/10. This animated film was written by Hayao Miyazaki, the same guy who wrote and directed Castle In The Sky, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki's Delivery Service. This one wasn't directed by him, but had the same sweetness that Kiki's Delivery Service did. Tells the story of a romance between two kids, approx. 15 year old. The girl was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, and the boy was in training to be a violin maker. The basic message of the film was that you should follow your dream. Humorously, a major part of the film was John Denver's song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," to which the main character invented alternate words. This song was in the original Japanese version, too, which is what I found funny for some reason. The show is highly recommended.
Seven Samurai - 5/10. Sadly I can't really recommend this, although I could see how it was a classic in its day. If I understand correctly, it's basically a Japanese version of "The Magnificent Seven", an American Western which I haven't seen, but set in Samurai Japan. It tells the story of a group of seven samurai that were hired by a village to protect it from a much larger group of marauders. The story was good, and there is a lot of suspense as the samurai prepare for the oncoming battle. However, it was in my opinion far too long a movie (208 minutes), some of the makeup jobs were laughable, and I only thought one or two of the actors were good. (I must admit that the film was in Japanese, with English subtitles, so I might not be the best judge of the actors' abilities.) In the end, it just wasn't gripping enough for me to rate highly.
