Norwegian Royal Guard
Jan 29, 2012
Louie Schwartzberg On Gratitude
Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer whose notable career spans more than three decades providing breathtaking imagery for feature films, television shows, documentaries and commercials.
As a visual artist, Louie has created some of the most iconic and memorable film moments of our time. He is an innovator in the world of time-lapse, nature, aerial and "slice-of-life" photography - the only cinematographer in the world who has literally been shooting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week continuously for more than 30 years.
We hope you will enjoy his "Gratitude" presentation taped at a TED 2011 conference in San Francisco, CA.
TEDxSF - Louie Schwartzberg - Gratitude
Schwartzberg has won two Clio Awards for Best Environmental Broadcast Spot, an Emmy nomination for Best Cinematography for the Discovery Channel Special, Oceans of Air, and the Heartland Film Festival's Truly Moving Picture Award for Walt Disney Pictures' feature film release America's Heart & Soul.
Schwartzberg completed production on a feature length nature documentary, Wings of Life, to be theatrically released worldwide, under Walt Disney Pictures' new production banner, Disneynature. The film was released in France (March 2011) under the title Pollen and won the Roscar Award for Best Cinematography at the 2011 Wild Talk Africa Film Festival. –Hazelden
All-American Failure
As the eighth and final episode of “All-American Muslim” airs and the series wraps up, it does so as a failure. Last week’s 9/11 episode once again failed to appear on the Cable 100 rankings. Viewers were willing to tune in an hour earlier to TLC’s “Hoarding: Buried Alive,” but they changed the channel to anything and everything when it was time for “All-American Muslim.”
What were viewers willing to endure rather than experience the Shiite version of the Jersey Shore? They tuned in to National Geographic’s “Alaska State Troopers,” Tru TV’s “Lizard Lick Towing” and Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot,” but you couldn’t get them to watch “All-American Muslim.” Which just goes to show that we’re a nation of Islamophobes. Or that even people with bad taste in television have standards.
The dirty little liberal secret is that progressives don’t watch “All-American Muslim” either. The show only exists as an Islamophobia talking point. Every time an advertiser drops it in favor of “Finding Bigfoot,” the progressives crow that once again they have proven that we are a nation that hates Muslims and loves Bigfoot.
All-American Muslim’s hopeless ratings suggest that Americans are more confident of finding Bigfoot than of finding those even more imaginary creatures: moderate Muslims who reject terrorism of all kinds. They certainly aren’t to be found on “All-American Muslim” where the guest Imams have been far less peaceful than Bigfoot who in all his decades of appearing in grainy videos has not been known to curse infidels or support terrorist groups.
But what does the existence of “All-American Muslim” really say about America? The focus of its final episode, “Crunch Time,” is once again the Fordson High football team. Tim Tebow’s public identity as a devout football player led to volleys of mockery and ridicule from the same entertainment industry which celebrates the Muslim football players of “All-American Muslim” and “Fordson: Faith – Fasting – Football,” a documentary lauding the same High School football team.
“Crunch Time” airs on the same day as the Pittsburgh Steelers play the Denver Broncos. On the same day that pundits will be mocking Tim Tebow’s faith, TLC will be celebrating the faith of the football players of Fordson High. While liberals sneer at critics of “All-American Muslim” as being threatened by public displays of Islam, they are the ones who are actually threatened by public displays of religion.
Is a Muslim football player better than a Christian player? Is he more entitled to be patted on the back for talking about his religion? “All-American Muslim’s” continued focus on the Fordson team certainly suggests that is the case. There are no Saturday Night Live routines featuring Mohammed coming out and telling Coach Zaban of “All-American Muslim” to stop talking so much about Islam, Ramadan and all that and get on with the football part of coaching a High School football team. Not that any American television show could bring out Mohammed on stage. Not even South Park was able to do that.
When former MSNBC anchor David Shuster complains that a public figure who wraps himself in religion perverts and cheapens that religion, does that only apply to Christian football players or does it apply to Muslim football players as well?
Are we a nation of Islamophobes or Islamophiles? The relative treatment of Coach Zaban and his Muslim players who are celebrated for combining football and religion, and Tim Tebow who is mocked for doing the same thing, indicates that we reward Muslims for the same behavior for which we punish Christians.
But “Crunch Time,” the last and final episode of “All-American Muslim,” is about more than another round of Muslim football. It also tries to wrap up some of the tedious family drama of the Amen clan. In a startling moment of pure patriarchy, when Suehaila Amen proposes moving to Washington DC, her father makes it clear that unmarried women cannot move out of the home of their parents. It’s one of the few authentic moments in a series that has specialized in being inauthentic.
Much less authentic is an exchange between another of the Amens and an Israeli tattoo artist who regrets that they had to leave their countries to be friends. That statement isn’t particularly true. There are Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs who are friends. And many Muslims in America maintain the same resentments and hatreds as they do back in Egypt, Pakistan or Lebanon. The issue is not one of geography, but of attitude. The links between the clerics who have been featured on the show and the hatemongers they have supported are ample testimony of that.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has denied the Holocaust while calling for a new one. “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” All-American Muslim has featured Imam Husham Al-Husayni who is a fan of Hezbollah and has signed the Jerusalem Document endorsing a Hezbollah Jihad against the Jewish state. And Suehaila Amen serves as president of the Lebanese American Heritage Club whose founder has spoken openly in defense of Hezbollah.
For all the football, tattoos and nightclubs, All-American Muslim shows a glimpse of a world that still operates on the old assumptions of hijabs, female inferiority and a wink and a nod to Jihad. Where Islam is king and America is useful only as a provider of material comforts and economic opportunities. And that is at the heart of the problem. There is more to being American than owning small businesses, holding down jobs and playing football.
All-American Muslim failed to explore the contradictions between Islamic values and American values. It also failed to convince Americans to watch a tepid drama which couldn’t decide if it wanted to convince them of the beauty of Islam or to sell them a third rate version of the Jersey Shore. The show’s supporters have managed to gain a good deal of publicity with their smear campaign of Lowe’s, but the ratings show that they still have not convinced anyone to actually watch the series.
The show’s stars insist that there is no word from TLC on whether the series will get a second season. The numbers certainly lean against it. All-American Muslim is a hole in TLC’s schedule and no matter how many companies are willing to buy ad time to show their Islamophilia, the ad rates for a poorly rated series are not likely to be worth the time. Which leaves the series what it was all along: an unserious affirmative action program. –Front Page Mag
What were viewers willing to endure rather than experience the Shiite version of the Jersey Shore? They tuned in to National Geographic’s “Alaska State Troopers,” Tru TV’s “Lizard Lick Towing” and Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot,” but you couldn’t get them to watch “All-American Muslim.” Which just goes to show that we’re a nation of Islamophobes. Or that even people with bad taste in television have standards.
The dirty little liberal secret is that progressives don’t watch “All-American Muslim” either. The show only exists as an Islamophobia talking point. Every time an advertiser drops it in favor of “Finding Bigfoot,” the progressives crow that once again they have proven that we are a nation that hates Muslims and loves Bigfoot.
All-American Muslim’s hopeless ratings suggest that Americans are more confident of finding Bigfoot than of finding those even more imaginary creatures: moderate Muslims who reject terrorism of all kinds. They certainly aren’t to be found on “All-American Muslim” where the guest Imams have been far less peaceful than Bigfoot who in all his decades of appearing in grainy videos has not been known to curse infidels or support terrorist groups.
But what does the existence of “All-American Muslim” really say about America? The focus of its final episode, “Crunch Time,” is once again the Fordson High football team. Tim Tebow’s public identity as a devout football player led to volleys of mockery and ridicule from the same entertainment industry which celebrates the Muslim football players of “All-American Muslim” and “Fordson: Faith – Fasting – Football,” a documentary lauding the same High School football team.
“Crunch Time” airs on the same day as the Pittsburgh Steelers play the Denver Broncos. On the same day that pundits will be mocking Tim Tebow’s faith, TLC will be celebrating the faith of the football players of Fordson High. While liberals sneer at critics of “All-American Muslim” as being threatened by public displays of Islam, they are the ones who are actually threatened by public displays of religion.
Is a Muslim football player better than a Christian player? Is he more entitled to be patted on the back for talking about his religion? “All-American Muslim’s” continued focus on the Fordson team certainly suggests that is the case. There are no Saturday Night Live routines featuring Mohammed coming out and telling Coach Zaban of “All-American Muslim” to stop talking so much about Islam, Ramadan and all that and get on with the football part of coaching a High School football team. Not that any American television show could bring out Mohammed on stage. Not even South Park was able to do that.
When former MSNBC anchor David Shuster complains that a public figure who wraps himself in religion perverts and cheapens that religion, does that only apply to Christian football players or does it apply to Muslim football players as well?
Are we a nation of Islamophobes or Islamophiles? The relative treatment of Coach Zaban and his Muslim players who are celebrated for combining football and religion, and Tim Tebow who is mocked for doing the same thing, indicates that we reward Muslims for the same behavior for which we punish Christians.
But “Crunch Time,” the last and final episode of “All-American Muslim,” is about more than another round of Muslim football. It also tries to wrap up some of the tedious family drama of the Amen clan. In a startling moment of pure patriarchy, when Suehaila Amen proposes moving to Washington DC, her father makes it clear that unmarried women cannot move out of the home of their parents. It’s one of the few authentic moments in a series that has specialized in being inauthentic.
Much less authentic is an exchange between another of the Amens and an Israeli tattoo artist who regrets that they had to leave their countries to be friends. That statement isn’t particularly true. There are Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs who are friends. And many Muslims in America maintain the same resentments and hatreds as they do back in Egypt, Pakistan or Lebanon. The issue is not one of geography, but of attitude. The links between the clerics who have been featured on the show and the hatemongers they have supported are ample testimony of that.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has denied the Holocaust while calling for a new one. “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” All-American Muslim has featured Imam Husham Al-Husayni who is a fan of Hezbollah and has signed the Jerusalem Document endorsing a Hezbollah Jihad against the Jewish state. And Suehaila Amen serves as president of the Lebanese American Heritage Club whose founder has spoken openly in defense of Hezbollah.
For all the football, tattoos and nightclubs, All-American Muslim shows a glimpse of a world that still operates on the old assumptions of hijabs, female inferiority and a wink and a nod to Jihad. Where Islam is king and America is useful only as a provider of material comforts and economic opportunities. And that is at the heart of the problem. There is more to being American than owning small businesses, holding down jobs and playing football.
All-American Muslim failed to explore the contradictions between Islamic values and American values. It also failed to convince Americans to watch a tepid drama which couldn’t decide if it wanted to convince them of the beauty of Islam or to sell them a third rate version of the Jersey Shore. The show’s supporters have managed to gain a good deal of publicity with their smear campaign of Lowe’s, but the ratings show that they still have not convinced anyone to actually watch the series.
The show’s stars insist that there is no word from TLC on whether the series will get a second season. The numbers certainly lean against it. All-American Muslim is a hole in TLC’s schedule and no matter how many companies are willing to buy ad time to show their Islamophilia, the ad rates for a poorly rated series are not likely to be worth the time. Which leaves the series what it was all along: an unserious affirmative action program. –Front Page Mag
Jan 22, 2012
Etta James Dies at 73; Voice Behind ‘At Last’
Etta James, whose powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice could enliven the raunchiest blues as well as the subtlest love songs, most indelibly in her signature hit, “At Last,” died on Friday morning in Riverside, Calif. She was 73.
Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said that the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, had been undergoing treatment for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside.
Ms. James was not easy to pigeonhole. She is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that is how she made her name in the 1950s with records like “Good Rockin’ Daddy.” She is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
She was also comfortable, and convincing, singing pop standards, as she did in 1961 with “At Last,” which was written in 1941 and originally recorded by Glenn Miller’s orchestra. And among her four Grammy Awards (including a lifetime-achievement honor in 2003) was one for best jazz vocal performance, which she won in 1995 for the album “Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday.”
Regardless of how she was categorized, she was admired. Expressing a common sentiment, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that she had “one of the great voices in American popular music, with a huge range, a multiplicity of tones and vast reserves of volume.”
For all her accomplishments, Ms. James had an up-and-down career, partly because of changing audience tastes but largely because of drug problems. She developed a heroin habit in the 1960s; after she overcame it in the 1970s, she began using cocaine. She candidly described her struggles with addiction and her many trips to rehab in her autobiography, “Rage to Survive,” written with David Ritz (1995).
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 1938. Her mother, Dorothy Hawkins, was 14 at the time; her father was long gone, and Ms. James never knew for sure who he was, although she recalled her mother telling her that he was the celebrated pool player Rudolf Wanderone, better known as Minnesota Fats. She was reared by foster parents and moved to San Francisco with her mother when she was 12.
She began singing at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles at 5 and turned to secular music as a teenager, forming a vocal group with two friends. She was 15 when she made her first record, “Roll With Me Henry,” which set her own lyrics to the tune of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ recent hit “Work With Me Annie.” When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, it was changed to “The Wallflower,” although the record itself was not.
“The Wallflower” rose to No. 2 on the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1954. As was often the case in those days with records by black performers, a toned-down version was soon recorded by a white singer and found a wider audience: Georgia Gibbs’s version, with the title and lyric changed to “Dance With Me, Henry,” was a No. 1 pop hit in 1955. (Its success was not entirely bad news for Ms. James. She shared the songwriting royalties with Mr. Ballard and the bandleader and talent scout Johnny Otis, who had arranged for her recording session. Mr. Otis died on Tuesday.)
In 1960 Ms. James was signed by Chess Records, the Chicago label that was home to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other leading lights of black music. She quickly had a string of hits, including “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “Trust in Me” and “At Last,” which established her as Chess’s first major female star.
She remained with Chess well into the 1970s, reappearing on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with the funky and high-spirited “Tell Mama.” In the late ’70s and early ’80s she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.
After decades of touring, recording for various labels and drifting in and out of the public eye, Ms. James found herself in the news in 2009 after Beyoncé Knowles recorded a version of “At Last” closely modeled on hers. (Ms. Knowles played Ms. James in the 2008 movie “Cadillac Records,” a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of Chess.) Ms. Knowles also performed “At Last” at an inaugural ball for President Obama in Washington.
When the movie was released, Ms. James had kind words for Ms. Knowles’s portrayal. But in February 2009, referring specifically to the Washington performance, she told an audience, “I can’t stand Beyoncé,” and threatened to “whip” the younger singer for doing “At Last.” She later said she had been joking, but she did add that she wished she had been invited to sing the song herself for the new president.
Ms. James’s survivors include her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills; two sons, Donto and Sametto James; and four grandchildren.
Though her life had its share of troubles to the end — her husband and sons were locked in a long-running battle over control of her estate, which was resolved in her husband’s favor only weeks before her death — Ms. James said she wanted her music to transcend unhappiness rather than reflect it.
“A lot of people think the blues is depressing,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992, “but that’s not the blues I’m singing. When I’m singing blues, I’m singing life. People that can’t stand to listen to the blues, they’ve got to be phonies.” -The New York Times
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At Last - Etta James With Lyrics On Screen
Hope Even Through Cancer: Matthew West Gets To ‘The Heart of Christmas’
The parents of Dax Locke would certainly agree. A two year-old boy from Washington, Illinois, Dax was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukemia in September 2009. His doctors declared he wouldn’t live to see another Christmas. The signature song of West’s new CD, ‘The Heart of Christmas,’ tells the remarkable, moving story of what happened next.
West’s song, ‘One Last Christmas,’ documents the small miracle that grew out of the love and pain of the Locke family. Upon hearing his son’s terrible prognosis, Dax’s dad determined that his boy deserved to spend one last holiday with the family. Late one night when everyone else was in bed, he got down the tree, the twinkle lights, and the ornaments from the attic, and proceeded to decorate their entire home for Christmas, inside and out.
The next day, when the neighbors saw the Locke house and heard Dax’s story, they were so moved and inspired that they too packed up their autumn and Halloween decorations, and decked their homes for Christmas. Soon local news stations began covering this phenomenon, and within weeks, the entire town was decorated in a community effort to help give Dax and his family one last, glorious Christmas season together. Eventually, people all over the world began putting up lights and sending photos of their homes and their Christmas trees to the Lockes.
Dax departed this life to be with God on December 30, 2009. But Matthew West, and the people of Washington, Illinois, have ensured that both his story and the Locke family’s amazing legacy of love will endure here on earth forever.
“Middle of September – still seventy degrees,
Daddy climbs up in the attic, brings down candles,
Hangs the lights on all the trees,
Then the neighbors started asking,
And pretty soon word got around,
First it was the neighborhood,
Before too long they lit up that whole town.
“One last Christmas, one last time,
One last season when the world is right,
One more telling of the story,
One more verse of Silent Night,
They'd give anything so he could have
One last Christmas.”
One Last Christmas, by Matthew West, from ‘The Heart of Christmas’
No doubt, West is not your typical contemporary pop musician. In fact, it’s safe to say that he’s not your typical artist in general. That’s because West, in his heart of hearts, is a prodigious storyteller who’s not afraid to tackle the toughest and most emotional subjects. If you attend one of his concerts or pick up one of his recordings, you’ll listen to the stories of people he’s met along the road, tales of hope in heartbreak, as well as the testimonies of his friends and fans across the world.
His holiday release, ‘The Heart of Christmas,’ is no exception. Yes, there are traditional carols like ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘O Holy Night,’ but there is also a song that tells the story of soldiers who have to spend Christmas overseas in foreign countries. There’s another that relates the story of Jesus before he was born to Mary, explaining to the world, “You’re the reason why I’m leaving Heaven.” Perhaps inadvertently, West’s own story is woven throughout the songs; the story of a loving husband, father, and follower of Christ.
In fact, it’s not surprising that West’s previous album was titled, ‘The Story of Your Life,’ (now also a book). To provide inspiration for its composition, West accepted letters and emails from his listeners and then translated their stories into song. The CD features lyrics based on real-life testimonies of single moms, troubled teens, cancer survivors, and people who find hope in crisis. By using music to inspire faith and reveal purpose in everything, West proves that he is a very unique talent and has an extremely special ministry.
In a nutshell, West’s new album, ‘The Heart of Christmas,’ is the musical embodiment of the happiest, liveliest, and most heartwarming holiday celebrations you’ve ever attended. While this disk deals with the vagaries of life realistically, even Charles Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Present would be hard pressed to find greater joy. Grounded in the Biblical story of Christ’s birth, West uncovers the deeper meaning and unfathomable comfort we so often miss when we’re swamped with the shopping, cooking, hosting, and the general chaos which usually engulfs everyone during this season.
With ease and grace he infuses well-worn Christmas carols we’ve all heard a thousand times before with so much fresh passion, unique personality, and radiant bliss that you’ll want to listen to them a thousand times again. In addition, West has composed seven beautiful new Christmas songs that are intimate, lyrically inspiring, and musically timeless.
In fact, West’s hallmark may be that when one hears him sing, one feels one is listening to the heartfelt confidences and reminiscences of a dear friend. His voice has a warm, embracing persona, combined with an exceptional range and a striking ability to transition gracefully between jazz, rock, and pop styles.
While many pop artists tend to have rather canned-sounding musical arrangements backing them up, West’s instrumentals are all well conceived and interesting from a technical perspective. One can hear big band influences, hints of good old-fashioned folk, and stirring orchestral movements that maximize West’s theatrical charisma.
Guesting on ‘The Heart of Christmas’ is legendary crossover artist Amy Grant, Gospel vocal power-house Mandisa, and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Vince Gill. Together they lend West a multi-textured array of sound and feelings, while not stealing the spotlight off the man himself.
In a recent interview, West told The Business of Being Diva author Jennifer Grassman that “It doesn’t have to be Christmas to carry the heart of Christmas with you.” He also talked about everything from Amy Grant’s quirky recording studio rituals, to his songwriting techniques, and his own family’s plans for the holidays.
You can read a transcript of West’s full interview below. To learn more about West and his many projects, including ‘The Heart of Christmas,’ please visit www.MatthewWest.com. His albums are available for purchase through his official online store, iTunes, and Amazon.
One Last Christmas
Matthew West Official Music Video
Matthew West Official Music Video
Interview Transcript:
GRASSMAN: Hi Matthew! Thanks for taking the time to chat. First off I want to say, I truly enjoyed 'The Heart of Christmas.' I only review albums that I love and this one has become really special to me, so I’m very excited to get the chance to talk to you about it. Now … Recording an album is a huge project. Needless to say, you’ve been in the studio singing carols year round. So, how did you get in the Christmas spirit when it was 80 degrees and sunny outside?
WEST: Well that was a bit tricky. We had an assignment to make a Christmas CD. While lot of people might not realize this, the majority of Christmas CDs are recorded in the heat of summer. You have to finish it long before the holidays come. It was in the middle of a big heat wave and I was in the studio wearing shorts and flip-flops singing 'Jingle Bells!' Ha-ha! We did the best we could though. We brought in a Christmas tree and put lights on it. I brought a little nativity scene in …
GRASSMAN: Oh wow, that’s awesome!
WEST: Yes! Every member of the band got one figure from the nativity scene at their station! It was ridiculous! But we had fun. It’s funny, I even tried to order some eggnog and get it shipped in. You’d be amazed how hard that stuff is to find that time of year.
GRASSMAN: I bet! You’d probably have to get someone to home-make it or something.
WEST: Yeah! But despite everything, we did manage to get into the Christmas spirit. It’s amazing how Christmas music can make any time of the year feel like Christmas. We were in this log-cabin studio, and (as long as you didn’t go outside) you started to feel like, "Wow! It really is Christmas time!”
And you know, that’s really the meaning behind the title of the CD, 'The Heart of Christmas,' and the story that inspired it. It doesn’t have to be Christmas to carry the heart of Christmas with you. It was a neat underlying theme that carried through even though we were singing Christmas carols in July.
GRASSMAN: And it shows! That’s wonderful. It’s funny because I’ve always wanted to sing more Christmas carols throughout the year at church. I completely agree with you there.
Now, on 'The Heart Of Christmas,' you’ve got secular songs in addition to Christian carols. Speaking of which, I absolutely love your rendition of ‘Jingle Bells.’ How do you take a song like 'Jingle Bells,' which everyone has heard 1,000+ times, and infuse it with so much fresh energy and personality?
WEST: A lot of times artists will take a classic song and they’ll kind of try to modernize it or make it sound like their own style, but for me, I love it when they’re classic. When I think of Christmas music I think of Bing Crosby, Eddie Arnold, or Nat King Cole. Even Harry Connick Jr. or Michael Bublé. It’s the kind of music I put on when the fireplace is going and chestnuts (or whatever those are) are roasting on an open fire. You know what I mean? It’s kind of this, wrapping-gifts-while-all-is-well classic spirit of Christmas.
I undertook that same approach to the traditional carols that we recorded. I didn’t want to spruce them up necessarily, but still be somewhat inventive and unique in the approach, while keeping them classic. That's my goal. With 'Jingle Bells' we made it this big band classic version, where I got to kind of find my inner Michael Bublé. We added some spruced up energy elements and threw a little 'Deck the Halls' in there as well.
GRASSMAN: Well you sound like you’re having a blast when you’re singing it!
WEST: Oh man, we did! And we’re going to have a blast on tour singing it. It’s just fun, you know? Normally there’s a lot more pressure. I mean, as far as Christian music goes, as I just came out of a season of addressing a lot of pretty intense topics.
GRASSMAN: Sure, with your last album, 'The Story.'
WEST: Yes. And while there’s elements on this record that are bit heavy and a bit more emotional, it’s been a fun release to just sing some Christmas songs that I love and that have meant a lot to me since I was a kid, and now to be able to share that with people. Every album I make I feel is a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride. Hopefully people are up to taking that ride with me this Christmas.
GRASSMAN: Speaking of storytelling and instrumental arrangements, one song (which I particularly liked), is called “Leaving Heaven” and it has a nostalgic kind of folk feel. As an artist, how do you decide how you’re going to arrange or produce a particular song? How do you forecast what instruments and overall feeling you want to get behind a song?
WEST: A lot of that happens while you’re writing the song – the style of the song is created at the same time. I don’t try to overthink the style of a song, which is why my albums tend to be more eclectic. One song ends up this way, one song ends up that way. Whatever the lyrics are saying, my goal is to make the music follow that, and allow the lyrics to be communicated in the most emotionally effective and appropriate way. I had a great producer on this record, and my band that travels with me actually played on this record. All of their input was huge in creating the sound that has become the finished product.
It seems like a lot of people are liking it. I’ve been very scared of reading critic’s reviews. It seems the critics are in the Christmas spirit because they’ve been very kind to me so far!
GRASSMAN: Well they better not be grinches! I agree with you in regards to the songwriting. I write songs as well and I think a lot of artists do tend to get into a little box sometimes as far as far a style goes, so I really enjoyed the versatility on your album.
‘Leaving Heaven’ is an original, in fact, you wrote seven out of the 12 songs on, 'The Heart of Christmas.' Do you think there’s a big difference – inspiration-wise or artistically – between composing Christmas songs as opposed to regular songs?
WEST: You know, I think there is a little bit of added challenge, because Christmas music has been written and written well for so many years. There are so many good songs! You’re tempted to say, “Oh man! There’s nothing new under the sun!” The challenge that I issued to myself was, if I’m going and write Christmas songs they better be coming from a unique perspective. The songs have to breathe something new, while at the same time preserving the old.
So that was my goal, and that’s why you’re going to hear songs on the record like 'Leaving Heaven.' It takes a few liberties, but it’s written from the perspective of Jesus on the day when he’s getting ready to come down to earth as a baby, entering into our fallen world. So he says, “I’m gonna walk around that broken earth, I’m trading in these streets of gold, and if you ever wonder how much you’re worth you should know; you’re the reason why I’m leaving Heaven.”
And you know, as I was writing it I was thinking, “God, how could you send your son down from the paradise of Heaven to the brokenness of Earth?” Just think; Jesus did that for us. I felt that this was a message God was putting on my heart, and it really made me feel so much worth and value just letting that thought sink in, and I thought putting that in a song might be a unique way to connect with people this Christmas as well.
GRASSMAN: That’s wonderful! Now, when you write a song like this do you write the lyrics or the music first?
WEST: Hmmm, usually it starts with a concept or an idea. The last couple years it’s been all about the stories I’ve been reading. So, I’ll read something in a story that sparks an idea, and then the music immediately follows. I’m typically not one to sit down and write a whole set of lyrics before putting it to music. Both elements tend to develop hand-in-hand.
GRASSMAN: OK. Now I have to ask: Guesting on 'The Heart of Christmas,' are household names like Amy Grant, Manias, and Vince Gill. For a lot of people, these are huge celebrity icons! I always find it funny when I read People Magazine or something and see the photos documenting the fact that celebrities walk their dogs, shop, and drink coffee just like the rest of us (as if that were a surprise)! You’ve got a truly insider perspective though. So what are they really like as friends and colleagues? Was it strictly business or did you guys hang out and have fun while recording?
WEST: Yes! To me that’s one of the big high-points of the whole record – the appearance of those three artists. I was just in awe. You know, Mandisa and I have been friends for a few years, so I already knew her and we were very comfortable working with each other. I knew she was going to sing as beautifully as she did. But as far as Amy and Vince I had no idea that I could even get them to sing on my record, so when they came into the studio, I was kind of giddy over it. You know? It was such a thrill and they were so humble and gracious. They showed up prepared and they were excited to be a part of the project.
It was pretty cool. So, now I’m trying to get Vince to come and sing for my church on Christmas Eve. I’m going to see if I can pull some strings. I’ll be singing and they want me to do the song that he and I did on the album, so I’m going to call him and see if he’s available to do me a favor.
GRASSMAN: That would be lovely! What church is that?
WEST: It’s a church in Franklin, Tennessee called The People’s Church. It’s my home church.
GRASSMAN: Do Amy, Mandisa, Vince or you have any funny studio quirks? For example, one of mine is whenever I’m recording vocals I have to be snacking on tortilla chips and guacamole (or as my producer calls it, “green magic”) between takes. I seriously believe it helps! Candles also help. Were there any funny eccentricities or traditions like that when you recorded?
WEST: Ha-ha! I’m not sure I could do chips and guacamole, but I know Amy has one tradition sort of along the lines of yours. I’d always heard that she’d have a bag of Lays potato chips to eat before her singing. When I went into the studio, sure enough, there was a bag of Lays potato chips! So I started doing that too, but then I was like, “Wait a minute. I’m going to put on 30 pounds while I’m recording this Christmas album!” I don’t know how she does it! She keeps her figure, but I sure wouldn’t be able to.
GRASSMAN: Yes, you want to sing about Santa, not look like him!
WEST: Yeah! This time around, since I was sitting there recording vocals for Christmas songs in July, it was all about finding ways to create a Christmas-y vibe. We were lighting candles, and even though it was 100 degrees outside, I’d come in and wear a sweater. Just, anything to try and make it feel like Christmas!
GRASSMAN: I’m sure! It’s funny, I was an opera major over at The Moores School of Music for a while, so I saw all sorts of quirky traditions people have. Some would drink Coke, others would chew gum while they’re singing, etc.. But getting back to the track list, your version of 'O Holy Night' is beautiful and incredibly powerful. I love how you back off on the choruses instead of belting them.
The history behind that song is that the lyrics were translated from French and abridged by an American Unitarian minister named John Dwight in 1855. As such, he gave the song an anti-slavery message. How do you think that message connects to people today?
WEST: It’s interesting. I always interpreted that verse, “chains shall he break for the slave is our brother,” as speaking to those who are slaves to sin. The hope of the world has arrived. We’re celebrating the birth of a Savior who will set us all free from our sin. But how neat it is to find out that that statement was actually originally intended to be a political statement! I think it’s incredible that both in the spiritual realm and the physical realm there is relevance. But personally the way I’ve always received that lyrics is, “Thank God we’ve all been promised the gift of freedom. Whatever chains that bind, they can be broken and we’re set free so that we can know a love like no other.”
GRASSMAN: It is really beautiful.
Like 'O Holy Night,' when people think of Christmas music, they usually think of happy songs in major keys. However, there’s a tradition among artsy artists, like yourself, to write at least one very sad, bordering on depressing carol. I’m thinking of songs like Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ or Sarah McLachlan’s “Wintersong.” Yours of course is “One Last Christmas,” and it is heartbreakingly moving! What’s the story behind that?
WEST: Well, I’m a storyteller at heart, and I’ve kind of been a songwriter in search of his next story for the last couple years. It’s been hands down the most fulfilling creative season of my life – ironically, not telling my own story – but the stories of other people’s lives, and giving their stories a voice.
The story of 'One Last Christmas' is a one that moved me greatly. It’s about a young couple whose little boy, Dax, was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia. He had to receive 18 months of intensive treatment. He was really kind of quarantined. He couldn’t go outside. After 18 months though, the doctors couldn’t do anything more for him. This little boy’s body just couldn’t take anymore treatment. They sent him home with his family to Illinois with the simple instructions to make the most of their last days together. He was given four to six weeks to live. When the parents got home they realized that that meant he wouldn’t make it to see Christmas.
While on the surface this story is leading to a heartbreaking end, and like you said, people might think, “Wow. What a sad story.” But what I focused in on and what became glaringly obvious to me in what happened next, was how there is such hope and redemption even in seemingly hopeless circumstances.
So, in the middle of the night, without the rest of the family knowing it, Dax’s dad went and got all their Christmas decorations out and decorated their entire house and their front yard for Christmas. He made a big sign with the letters, “Dax,” so everyone could see it. And when they woke up that next morning Dax had Christmas at their house. The only trouble was it wasn’t even closed to December. It was like, September or October.
The neighbors were all kind of puzzled as to what was going on because they were all getting ready for Halloween and getting their fall decorations out. But when the neighbors found out why they had decorated for Dax, all the neighbors decided to do the same. One by one the houses began to light up with Christmas decorations. Then the local news stations caught on and pretty soon the entire town where they lived was lit up for Christmas in 75 degree fall weather.
To me, that is what the heart of Christmas is all about; looking out your front door, seeing another family in need, and showing them love and support. That whole community rallied around one another. I just felt that this was a story that needed to be told; how one little boy – thanks to the love of his parents and the support of his community – was able to have one last Christmas.
To me, even beyond being a sad song, as a parent I needed that story because it made me go hug my kids. It made me call my wife and tell her how much I love her. I sure hope it will do the same for everyone who hears the record this Christmas.
GRASSMAN: Speaking of your kids, there’s a hidden track at the end of 'The Heart of Christmas.' Is that one of your daughters singing?
WEST: Yeah! That’s one of the perks of the job; I get to let my kids have a moment on the record. My daughter came up to me and said, “I’ll write a Christmas song! I want to write a song for your record.” So she made up this song about how there are kids that don’t have any Christmas, and I thought it was pretty cool so I put it on the record.
GRASSMAN: Oh yes, it’s adorable!
WEST: So if people keep listening past the end of the record they’ll hear it.
GRASSMAN: That’s exactly what I did! I was getting ready to write the review and I had my CD player set on repeat and instead of cycling back to track one, this cute little voice started singing!
So finally, in closing, what are your plans for Christmas, Matthew?
WEST: Well right now it’s a bit of a different Christmas for us because I’ll be on tour quite a bit. So our Christmas is going to get a little bit of a later start than I would like. We’ll have Christmas on the road for most of the month. My family will come out some of that time. That week of Christmas I’m just excited to be home with my family and just have a nice quiet time. We’ll all be at Christmas Eve service and we kind of have our own little special traditions. But, it’s just a time when the whole family – all our relatives – all come over to my house. We’ll cook up a big dinner and just have an amazing time.
GRASSMAN: Alright! Well I hope you guys do have a very Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for your time!
WEST: Thank you!
About Jennifer Grassman:
Singer, songwriter and pianist, Jennifer Grassman is an award-winning recording artist based in Houston, Texas. Subscribe by RSS feed and read more from Jennifer at www.JenniferGrassman.com. You can follow Jennifer on @JGrassman orFacebook.com/JenniferGrassmanMusic
By Jennifer Grassman-The Washington Time
Top Ten Christmas Movies From The Golden Age Of Hollywood
There have been some really good holiday movies made in recent years but the old black and white ones are my favorites. Frank Capra, one of my very favorite directors made a couple of these.
1. It’s a Wonderful Life(1946) – This seems to be everybody’s favorite, and for good reason. Believe it or not this movie bombed at the box office when first released.
2. The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) – Character actor Monty Woolley and legend Bette Davis star in this funny movie inspired by critic and commentator Alexander Woollcott. I admire Bette Davis for taking a secondary role at a time when she was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Jimmy Durante’s character Banjo was inspired by Harpo Marx.
3. A Christmas Carol (1938) –This is my favorite version of this story by far. Lionel Barrymore recommended British character actor Reginald Owen to play Scrooge. Also, starring as Bob Cratchit, Mrs. Cratchit and one of the daughters is actress June Lockhart (the mom of TV’s Lost in Space fame) and her parents Gene and Kathleen Lockhart.
4. The Bishop’s Wife (1947) – Starring Loretta Young and David Niven as the Bishop and his wife. Cary Grant plays the angel sent in answer to a prayer made by the Bishop although his and Niven’s roles were originally opposite. I don’t think it would have worked the other way.
5. The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) – Only part of this movie takes place at Christmas but it gets lots of play during the holidays. The basic message behind this movie is peace and goodwill so it fits.
6. Christmas in Connecticut (1945) – Barbara Stanwyck stars with Dennis Morgan in this charming Christmas classic set during World War II. Character actor S.Z. Sakall plays Stanwyck’s Uncle Felix who is a master at behind the scenes maneuvering in an effort to make everything turn out right in the end.
7. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) – Judy Garland made famous Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and The Trolley Song in this movie. It also gives us a glimpse of the very beginning of the 20th century when electricity and long distance phone calls were still marvels to behold.
8. The Shop Around the Corner (1940) – This has been re-made at least two other times; In the Good Old Summer Time (1949) starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson; You’ve Got Mail (1998) starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. This original one is set in Budapest, Hungary and stars Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan. Of all three I think this one is by far the best.
9. Holiday Inn (1942) – This movie starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire inspired the hotel chain of the same name. It was also the movie in which Irving Berlin’s classic White Christmas debuted. Look for an amazing tap-dancing scene where Fred Astaire incorporated real firecrackers into his dance.
10. The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) – This is a quintessential Bob Hope movie that also stars Marilyn Maxwell. In it the two sing Silver Bells on screen for the first time as they stroll down a snow covered city street complete with a Santa ringing a bell on each corner they pass.
Honorable Mentions:
Miracle on 34th Street (1947) – I wish I could have fit this on the top ten list but there wasn’t room. Edmund Gwenn will always be my ideal of Santa Claus.
Meet John Doe (1944) – Another Frank Capra standard starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. The end of the movie takes place at Christmas but the message of the movie is the same.
Come to the Stable (1949) – This lesser known Loretta Young film is about nuns who set out to build a children’s hospital by faith with the help of several colorful characters. It’s a great film but not shown on TV very often.
Heidi (1937) – Who can forget Shirley Temple’s cries of, “Grandfather! Grandfather!”
as Jean Hersholt attempts to rescue her from the wicked governess trying to sell her to gypsies. This one never gets old to me.
White Christmas (1954) – Another Christmas favorite; I love the chemistry between Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.
I want to wish each and every one of my readers the message of Christmas: Peace and Goodwill. No matter what celebration you take part in, or even if you don’t I wish you all the very the best for you and yours.
White Christmas/Bing Crosby
Silver Bells
Jan 15, 2012
All-American Muslim’s Very Special Tribute to 9/11
Empathy is the essence of tragedy. To be able to mourn for others we have to feel their loss and make it our own. Most Americans never lost anyone on September 11. Most never knew anyone who died that day in the planes above or the buildings below. And yet we as a nation felt that blow. Their pain was our pain. And that response was not limited to the United States as millions of people beyond these shores reached out and took in the full weight of that tragedy and grief.
All-American Muslim: The Day the World Changed, an episode of the reality series that has the cast interacting emotionally with the attacks of September 11, is less about those who were murdered on that day than about the cast’s feelings and exploitation of that day. It may be unfair to criticize the cast of a reality television show for being self-centered. An obsessive focus on one’s own feelings and needs to the exclusion of all else seems to be a standard prerequisite for appearing on one of these shows. The perfect reality show performer must be a sociopath or capable of playing one on television. And yet this self-centered reaction to the attacks of September 11 is disturbingly common among Muslim leaders and activists in the United States.
Perhaps the most odious aspect of this is the incorporation of the Islamophobia theme into a day of remembrance for the dead, until the very act of remembrance becomes tarred with accusations of bigotry. Every commemoration of the day by Muslim leaders seems determined to not only foist the Islamophobia myth on us, but to also associate it with some national overreaction to that day. Like the family of a cop killer arriving at a memorial determined to make their own sense of victimization the center of attention, the need by some Muslims to turn their own sense of victimization into the focus of September 11 is inappropriate and flies on the face of what should be basic decency.
That sense of grievance is rarely if ever directed at Al-Qaeda and those Muslims who carry out terrorist attacks against Americans; instead it is directed at Americans who woke up to a day of fire and terror, and tried to understand what was going on. The All-American Muslim cast follows the political line of groups like CAIR by indicting Americans for their reaction to a terrorist attack carried out by Muslims, rather than engaging in some soul-searching about the violent roots of their own religion.
When cast members insist that the terrorists were not Muslims, or not truly Muslims, their denial echoes the collective denial of Muslim communities and leaders in America who have never come to terms with the problem because they are too busy misrepresenting themselves as the victims. They are too busy feeling sorry for themselves to understand the pain of so many Americans on the anniversary of that awful day.
But All-American Muslim’s denial that the September 11 hijackers were Muslims acting in the name of Islam, because Muslims are incapable of terrorism is blatantly dishonest. Especially when the series featured two Imams who support terrorists, Imam Abdul Latif Berry, who is quite a fan of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and Husham Al-Husainy, who supports Hezbollah. The appearance of these two men on a series which pretends to show us the peaceful nature of the real All-American Muslim demonstrates how difficult it is to detach the religious violence in Islam from the Muslim community.
When Al-Husainy signed a document which read in part, “We remind our sons to get ready to carry out their duty in Holy Jihad and continue the path which our young valiant men in Hezbollah began in Southern Lebanon” and which invoked a “Islamic nation which extends to all parts of the world”; how was this any different than a bulletin from Osama bin Laden?
The “All-American Muslims” of All-American Muslim may be entirely sincere when they claim that Bin Laden is not a Muslim. After all they are Shiites and he’s a Sunni. Al-Qaeda has targeted Shiites in its massacres. The Shiite view of Sunnis and the Wahhabi view of Shiites tend to be equally ugly. And Shiites and Sunnis often persecute each other in Muslim countries.
The problem is that while the All-American Shiites may reject Bin Laden, they don’t reject the Ayatollah Khomeini and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah. If they did then Abdul Latif Berry and Husham Al-Husainy wouldn’t have a place to promote themselves on All-American Muslim.
Most Muslims reject some form of terrorism, but not that many Muslims reject all forms of terrorism. There are always exceptions and exemptions. Whether it’s Shiites who want to give Hezbollah a pass or Sunnis who think that Al-Qaeda goes too far but that Hamas is just right, what is lacking in the Muslim community is a wholesale rejection of all forms of violent Jihad.
It’s not enough to reject Bin Laden in order to participate in commemorating September 11. Not when a Shiite Bin Laden like Hassan Nasrallah or the Ayatollah Khomeini are still okay. And even those Muslims who do reject terrorism in all its forms must still address the widespread affinity for terrorism in the Muslim community. An affinity so widespread that even a television series like All-American Muslim whose entire reason for being is to present a positive non-terrorist image of Islam is still unwilling or unable to keep Imams like Husainy and Berry off the stage.
An honest admission that their community has a problem combined with sincere mourning for the dead without any of the self-serving victimization that characterizes episodes like The Day the World Changed would go a long way toward easing the minds of Americans. It would also change the dialogue from dishonest platitudes and denial to a meaningful exchange of feelings and ideas.
September 11 is first and foremost a day to remember the horrors inflicted on this country and the grief of those who were lost amidst the flames. Truly All-American Muslims would use that day to join the national grieving, rather than bringing to it their own victimization agendas. Above all else it is unseemly for a community where a man like Husham Al-Hussainy remains a respected figure to present itself as the real victims of an ignorant backlash when it has clearly not even come to terms with the conflicting demands of American values and its own religion. –Front Page Mag
All-American Muslim: The Day the World Changed, an episode of the reality series that has the cast interacting emotionally with the attacks of September 11, is less about those who were murdered on that day than about the cast’s feelings and exploitation of that day. It may be unfair to criticize the cast of a reality television show for being self-centered. An obsessive focus on one’s own feelings and needs to the exclusion of all else seems to be a standard prerequisite for appearing on one of these shows. The perfect reality show performer must be a sociopath or capable of playing one on television. And yet this self-centered reaction to the attacks of September 11 is disturbingly common among Muslim leaders and activists in the United States.
Perhaps the most odious aspect of this is the incorporation of the Islamophobia theme into a day of remembrance for the dead, until the very act of remembrance becomes tarred with accusations of bigotry. Every commemoration of the day by Muslim leaders seems determined to not only foist the Islamophobia myth on us, but to also associate it with some national overreaction to that day. Like the family of a cop killer arriving at a memorial determined to make their own sense of victimization the center of attention, the need by some Muslims to turn their own sense of victimization into the focus of September 11 is inappropriate and flies on the face of what should be basic decency.
That sense of grievance is rarely if ever directed at Al-Qaeda and those Muslims who carry out terrorist attacks against Americans; instead it is directed at Americans who woke up to a day of fire and terror, and tried to understand what was going on. The All-American Muslim cast follows the political line of groups like CAIR by indicting Americans for their reaction to a terrorist attack carried out by Muslims, rather than engaging in some soul-searching about the violent roots of their own religion.
When cast members insist that the terrorists were not Muslims, or not truly Muslims, their denial echoes the collective denial of Muslim communities and leaders in America who have never come to terms with the problem because they are too busy misrepresenting themselves as the victims. They are too busy feeling sorry for themselves to understand the pain of so many Americans on the anniversary of that awful day.
But All-American Muslim’s denial that the September 11 hijackers were Muslims acting in the name of Islam, because Muslims are incapable of terrorism is blatantly dishonest. Especially when the series featured two Imams who support terrorists, Imam Abdul Latif Berry, who is quite a fan of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and Husham Al-Husainy, who supports Hezbollah. The appearance of these two men on a series which pretends to show us the peaceful nature of the real All-American Muslim demonstrates how difficult it is to detach the religious violence in Islam from the Muslim community.
When Al-Husainy signed a document which read in part, “We remind our sons to get ready to carry out their duty in Holy Jihad and continue the path which our young valiant men in Hezbollah began in Southern Lebanon” and which invoked a “Islamic nation which extends to all parts of the world”; how was this any different than a bulletin from Osama bin Laden?
The “All-American Muslims” of All-American Muslim may be entirely sincere when they claim that Bin Laden is not a Muslim. After all they are Shiites and he’s a Sunni. Al-Qaeda has targeted Shiites in its massacres. The Shiite view of Sunnis and the Wahhabi view of Shiites tend to be equally ugly. And Shiites and Sunnis often persecute each other in Muslim countries.
The problem is that while the All-American Shiites may reject Bin Laden, they don’t reject the Ayatollah Khomeini and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah. If they did then Abdul Latif Berry and Husham Al-Husainy wouldn’t have a place to promote themselves on All-American Muslim.
Most Muslims reject some form of terrorism, but not that many Muslims reject all forms of terrorism. There are always exceptions and exemptions. Whether it’s Shiites who want to give Hezbollah a pass or Sunnis who think that Al-Qaeda goes too far but that Hamas is just right, what is lacking in the Muslim community is a wholesale rejection of all forms of violent Jihad.
It’s not enough to reject Bin Laden in order to participate in commemorating September 11. Not when a Shiite Bin Laden like Hassan Nasrallah or the Ayatollah Khomeini are still okay. And even those Muslims who do reject terrorism in all its forms must still address the widespread affinity for terrorism in the Muslim community. An affinity so widespread that even a television series like All-American Muslim whose entire reason for being is to present a positive non-terrorist image of Islam is still unwilling or unable to keep Imams like Husainy and Berry off the stage.
An honest admission that their community has a problem combined with sincere mourning for the dead without any of the self-serving victimization that characterizes episodes like The Day the World Changed would go a long way toward easing the minds of Americans. It would also change the dialogue from dishonest platitudes and denial to a meaningful exchange of feelings and ideas.
September 11 is first and foremost a day to remember the horrors inflicted on this country and the grief of those who were lost amidst the flames. Truly All-American Muslims would use that day to join the national grieving, rather than bringing to it their own victimization agendas. Above all else it is unseemly for a community where a man like Husham Al-Hussainy remains a respected figure to present itself as the real victims of an ignorant backlash when it has clearly not even come to terms with the conflicting demands of American values and its own religion. –Front Page Mag
The Civil War: Beauty From Tragedy, "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day"
Many musicians and writers of poetry will admit that some of their finest work comes when they have experienced a death or a tragedy of some kind, that the writing of poetry has an almost cathartic effect on the writer.
Such is the case of one of the best known and most beloved carols associated with Christmas, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which came from the pen of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) and was written on Christmas Day, 1864.
His had been a tortured life in last few years before that day. On July 11, 1861, his wife Fanny had clipped some long curls from the head of her seven-year-old daughter, Edith, and wanting to save them in an envelope, melted a bar of sealing wax with a candle to seal the envelope.
Somehow the thin fabric of her clothing caught fire, and she quickly ran to Longfellow’s nearby study for help. He immediately tried to extinguish the flames with a small rug, and when that failed, he threw his arms around Fanny to smother the flames, causing him to sustain serious burns on his face, arms, and hands. His heroic act did not suffice, and Fanny died the next morning of her injuries. Longfellow was unable to even attend the funeral.
Photographs of Longfellow taken or made after the fire usually show him with a full beard, since he was no longer able to shave properly due to the burns and scarring.
The coming of the holiday season in the Longfellow house became a time of grieving for his wife while trying to provide a happy time for the children left at home. It was during Christmas 1862 that he wrote in his journal, “A ‘merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”
He had also suffered another disappointment when his oldest son, Charles Appleton “Charley” Longfellow, quietly left their Cambridge, Mass. home, and enlisted in the Union Army much against the wishes of his father.
In mid-March, Longfellow had received word from Charles, saying, “I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave, but I cannot any longer.” The determined young man continued, “I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good.”
He was 17 years old and went to Capt. W. H. McCartney, who was in charge of Battery A of the 1st Mass. Artillery, asking to be allowed to enlist. McCartney knew the boy and knew he did not have his father’s permission, so he contacted the senior Longfellow to see if he could obtain it on his behalf. Longfellow conceded and acceded to the request.
It was only a few months later that Charley came down with typhoid fever and malaria and was sent home to recover, not rejoining his unit until August 15, 1863.
Following the Gettysburg battle, which Charley had fortunately missed, the conflict made its way into Virginia, and it was at the Battle of New Hope Church, in Orange, VA., part of the Mine Run Campaign, that the young Lt. Longfellow sustained injuries, which seriously disabled him. He was hit in the shoulder and the ricocheting bullet took out some portions of several vertebrae. It was reported that he missed being paralyzed by less than one inch. Longfellow traveled to where his injured son was hospitalized and brought him home to Cambridge to recover.
The war for Charley was over.
And so at Christmas of 1864, a reflective and sad poet sat down and began to write the beautiful words that we sing each Christmas:
Such is the case of one of the best known and most beloved carols associated with Christmas, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which came from the pen of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) and was written on Christmas Day, 1864.
His had been a tortured life in last few years before that day. On July 11, 1861, his wife Fanny had clipped some long curls from the head of her seven-year-old daughter, Edith, and wanting to save them in an envelope, melted a bar of sealing wax with a candle to seal the envelope.
Somehow the thin fabric of her clothing caught fire, and she quickly ran to Longfellow’s nearby study for help. He immediately tried to extinguish the flames with a small rug, and when that failed, he threw his arms around Fanny to smother the flames, causing him to sustain serious burns on his face, arms, and hands. His heroic act did not suffice, and Fanny died the next morning of her injuries. Longfellow was unable to even attend the funeral.
Photographs of Longfellow taken or made after the fire usually show him with a full beard, since he was no longer able to shave properly due to the burns and scarring.
The coming of the holiday season in the Longfellow house became a time of grieving for his wife while trying to provide a happy time for the children left at home. It was during Christmas 1862 that he wrote in his journal, “A ‘merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”
He had also suffered another disappointment when his oldest son, Charles Appleton “Charley” Longfellow, quietly left their Cambridge, Mass. home, and enlisted in the Union Army much against the wishes of his father.
In mid-March, Longfellow had received word from Charles, saying, “I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave, but I cannot any longer.” The determined young man continued, “I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good.”
He was 17 years old and went to Capt. W. H. McCartney, who was in charge of Battery A of the 1st Mass. Artillery, asking to be allowed to enlist. McCartney knew the boy and knew he did not have his father’s permission, so he contacted the senior Longfellow to see if he could obtain it on his behalf. Longfellow conceded and acceded to the request.
It was only a few months later that Charley came down with typhoid fever and malaria and was sent home to recover, not rejoining his unit until August 15, 1863.
Following the Gettysburg battle, which Charley had fortunately missed, the conflict made its way into Virginia, and it was at the Battle of New Hope Church, in Orange, VA., part of the Mine Run Campaign, that the young Lt. Longfellow sustained injuries, which seriously disabled him. He was hit in the shoulder and the ricocheting bullet took out some portions of several vertebrae. It was reported that he missed being paralyzed by less than one inch. Longfellow traveled to where his injured son was hospitalized and brought him home to Cambridge to recover.
The war for Charley was over.
And so at Christmas of 1864, a reflective and sad poet sat down and began to write the beautiful words that we sing each Christmas:
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."
Till, ringing, singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."
Till, ringing, singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!
Remembering that this was written during the Civil War, even though not published until 1872, we see the concerns of the War were much on Longfellow’s mind and heart. Thus there were two other verses that appeared in the original as verses four and five and are not song today, since they emphasize his feelings surrounding the War:
Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound,
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn,
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And with the sound,
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn,
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Longfellow’s heartfelt words of loss and hope were published and well received. John Baptiste Calkin (1827-1905), an English composer, was similarly affected by the poem, and it was he who penned the music that we know and sing today, slightly rearranging the verses or stanzas as he did.
While he was an organist and a music teacher, Calkin probably is best known as the composer of the music for Longfellow’s poem.
It is a glorious carol and provides the enduring concept that despite tragedy, loss, and even warfare, there is within most of us the hope and wish for “peace on earth, good-will to men!”
A very Merry Christmas to all of you, good friends and readers. May the coming year of 2012 be filled with good times, good books, good friends, and good health! And peace on earth. –The Washington Times
Jan 8, 2012
Ragbag Headliners
PTC Concerned About Network's New Path
A media watchdog group isn't happy with NBC for picking Howard Stern to be a judge on its prime-time talent competition.
The Parents Television Council (PTC) accuses the network of having "lost its way" for choosing the shock jock to be on the show, America's Got Talent.
"It's an act of desperation on behalf of the NBC network," suggests Dan Isett, director for public policy at the watchdog group. "[The show] trails badly in the ratings across the board, and this reeks of nothing short of a PR stunt to try to draw some attention to a show that's been relatively successful and relatively family-friendly. It's going to be quite a shock to viewers that have become fans of the show to tune into next season and find a guy like Howard Stern on there every night."
Stern's performances are notorious for his profanity and obscenity, so Isett tells OneNewsNow that PTC will be reaching out to advertisers who have sponsored the show in the past.
"We're going to serve notice to advertisers that by sponsoring this show, they are complicit and responsible for bringing Howard Stern and his name and his brand into every living room in the country," the public policy director details.
PTC also wants to reach out directly to NBC to discuss the path the network is taking. –One News Now
A media watchdog group isn't happy with NBC for picking Howard Stern to be a judge on its prime-time talent competition.
The Parents Television Council (PTC) accuses the network of having "lost its way" for choosing the shock jock to be on the show, America's Got Talent.
"It's an act of desperation on behalf of the NBC network," suggests Dan Isett, director for public policy at the watchdog group. "[The show] trails badly in the ratings across the board, and this reeks of nothing short of a PR stunt to try to draw some attention to a show that's been relatively successful and relatively family-friendly. It's going to be quite a shock to viewers that have become fans of the show to tune into next season and find a guy like Howard Stern on there every night."
Stern's performances are notorious for his profanity and obscenity, so Isett tells OneNewsNow that PTC will be reaching out to advertisers who have sponsored the show in the past.
"We're going to serve notice to advertisers that by sponsoring this show, they are complicit and responsible for bringing Howard Stern and his name and his brand into every living room in the country," the public policy director details.
PTC also wants to reach out directly to NBC to discuss the path the network is taking. –One News Now
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Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt Headed To The Big Screen, Columbus Acquires The Rights
The story of Jesus Christ may once again be told on the big screen. This time around, the Son of God will be portrayed as a child as he’s depicted in Anne Rice’s 2005 book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, which is based on the New Testament Gospels.
According to Variety, Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures and CJ Entertainment have acquired the rights to Rice’s book. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt follows Jesus when he was seven-years-old and tells the story of his return to Nazareth with his family, and how he came to understand who he was and what he was meant to do. Cyrus Nowrasteh (The Stoning of Soraya M) was approached by Rice to take on the project. He wrote the screenplay with Betsy Nowrasteh and has agreed to direct it. Representing 1492 among the producers are Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe. Meanwhile, CJ Entertainment’s Sean Lee, Patricia Chun and Keo Lee will also produce.
Columbus says the movie has “the potential to be a cinematic classic,” and expressed pride in being a part of the production. It’s certainly an ambitious project, to say the least and will no doubt require an extremely talented child actor to take on the role of young Jesus. It’ll be interesting to hear news of the casting and whether familiar names and faces will be featured in this movie or if they’ll go with unknowns. –Cinema Blend
The story of Jesus Christ may once again be told on the big screen. This time around, the Son of God will be portrayed as a child as he’s depicted in Anne Rice’s 2005 book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, which is based on the New Testament Gospels.
According to Variety, Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures and CJ Entertainment have acquired the rights to Rice’s book. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt follows Jesus when he was seven-years-old and tells the story of his return to Nazareth with his family, and how he came to understand who he was and what he was meant to do. Cyrus Nowrasteh (The Stoning of Soraya M) was approached by Rice to take on the project. He wrote the screenplay with Betsy Nowrasteh and has agreed to direct it. Representing 1492 among the producers are Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe. Meanwhile, CJ Entertainment’s Sean Lee, Patricia Chun and Keo Lee will also produce.
Columbus says the movie has “the potential to be a cinematic classic,” and expressed pride in being a part of the production. It’s certainly an ambitious project, to say the least and will no doubt require an extremely talented child actor to take on the role of young Jesus. It’ll be interesting to hear news of the casting and whether familiar names and faces will be featured in this movie or if they’ll go with unknowns. –Cinema Blend
All-American Muslim: Religion of Protest
When Obama listed his favorite shows, All-American Muslim didn’t make the cut. On Sunday at 10 o’clock the television set at the White House isn’t tuned to TLC, it’s tuned to Showtime for Homeland. Obama isn’t alone. Homeland has been picking up viewers, while All-American Muslim has been losing them.
Obama’s attitude shows the paradoxical attitude of liberals to All-American Muslim. They want to see a show like it exist, but they just don’t want to watch it. For week after week, Front Page Magazine has been the only site covering All-American Muslim. The media outlets that kicked into hysterical witch hunt mode last week after Lowe’s pulled its ads from the failing, viewer-deprived series never actually bothered to tune in to the show.
The liberal attitude toward All-American Muslim reveals something darker about their exploitation of Muslims. They are only truly interested in them when they can use them as a cudgel or as a badge of tolerance. After a single episode of All-American Muslim their tolerance was affirmed and they were free to go back to watching Homeland, a show that tries to marry the political incorrectness of Islamic terrorism and a politically correct insistence on exploring its ambiguities. It was only when Lowe’s was targeted for pulling its ads that they suddenly became interested in the show again; not the actual show, but the idea of the show as a “tolerance test.”
At the Washington Post an editorial suggests that “All-American Muslim fans” should invade Lowe’s with signs protesting against the home shopping giant. But how many of those fans are there? The series has fallen out of the Top 100 cable shows for two weeks running. It was the lowest-rated series even before that. But the editorial highlights the problem. Liberals are only interested in Muslims as a means of fighting a culture war against the bogeymen of American “intolerance.” All-American Muslim isn’t interesting to them except as a vehicle for another protest movement.
The left needs an “Other” to justify its war against American traditions and values. Muslims conveniently provide that “Other,” a role that they began to fill after September 11. Even as the left denounces the right for “Otherizing” Muslims and associating them with terrorism, it is the left that is truly guilty of it. If the attacks of September 11 had never taken place and the War on Terror had not followed, then the left would have as much interest in Muslims as they do in Hindus or Baha’i or any number of other world religions.
All-American Muslim has included the usual complaints about prejudice and discrimination, but not nearly enough of it to interest the left, which doesn’t want to hear a lot talk about the virtues of the hijab; they want to see men driving pickup trucks with confederate flags on them shouting at women wearing hijabs. They don’t really want to see a show about Muslims, any kind of Muslims, they want to see a show about how awful Americans are.
That is why All-American Muslim truly failed. But its failure is reviving its purpose. The Jihad against Lowe’s reminds liberals of why they were interested in the show, not for its content, but as a cause for another round of the culture war. Probably the only honest corporate response to All-American Muslim came from KAYAK’s CEO who explained why his company was pulling its ads from the series by saying, “I watched the first two episodes. Mostly, I just thought the show sucked.” And it does.
Astoundingly few media outlets can admit something so simple as that. They would rather ignore the show except when it’s a convenient way of picking a fight. But admitting that All-American Muslim isn’t very good requires being critical of something involving Muslims, even if it is something as a minor as a television show. And that is something they simply cannot and will not do.
Sunday’s episode, “A Chance at Redemption,” continues cribbing from “Fordson: Faith, Fasting and Football,” the documentary on the Fordson High School football team. It’s material that the show returns to often because it’s the only part of the narrative that goes anywhere. And yet at a time when Tim Tebow is being widely ridiculed for his religion, it’s surreal to watch a celebration of Islamic religion interlaced with football. If it’s somehow wrong for Tim Tebow to combine religion and football, why celebrate the Islamic version of Tebowing at Fordson High?
The entire existence of All-American Muslim is a testament to the fact that some religions can be promoted more than others. A show following around Christian football players that was as enthusiastic about its subjects as All-American Muslim is about its team is all but inconceivable on TLC or anywhere else. But All-American Muslim’s football players face no such obstacles. It is enough to make you wonder who the real victims of discrimination are when Christians get “Jesus Camp” while Muslims get “All-American Muslim.”
All-American Muslim is a conscious case study in the politicization of religion, but to what end? The underlying premise of All-American Muslim has always been that Muslims are the victims of ignorance and discrimination. But the dangerous question is: are they really the victims and, if so, whose victims are they?
The Muslims of All-American Muslims are certainly not the members of an underclass. They are successful members of their community who nonetheless make their token complaints about being discriminated against. They are the stars of a television series that failed on its merits but is being deluged with advertising dollars from advertisers who want to show off their tolerance. They are privileged. But that privilege is also a double-edged sword.
The left doesn’t need All-American Muslims, it needs marginalized Muslims, it needs suicide bombers and protesters. It needs people who are being oppressed and whose physical violence can justify their political activism. In return for privilege, Muslims act out the role of the oppressed, but the act is unconvincing. As All-American Muslim passes its sixth episode, its continuing existence despite its poor ratings and the firestorm of controversy aimed at advertisers who dared to pull out of the series is a testament to the privileged status of the All-American Muslim. –Front Page Mag
Obama’s attitude shows the paradoxical attitude of liberals to All-American Muslim. They want to see a show like it exist, but they just don’t want to watch it. For week after week, Front Page Magazine has been the only site covering All-American Muslim. The media outlets that kicked into hysterical witch hunt mode last week after Lowe’s pulled its ads from the failing, viewer-deprived series never actually bothered to tune in to the show.
The liberal attitude toward All-American Muslim reveals something darker about their exploitation of Muslims. They are only truly interested in them when they can use them as a cudgel or as a badge of tolerance. After a single episode of All-American Muslim their tolerance was affirmed and they were free to go back to watching Homeland, a show that tries to marry the political incorrectness of Islamic terrorism and a politically correct insistence on exploring its ambiguities. It was only when Lowe’s was targeted for pulling its ads that they suddenly became interested in the show again; not the actual show, but the idea of the show as a “tolerance test.”
At the Washington Post an editorial suggests that “All-American Muslim fans” should invade Lowe’s with signs protesting against the home shopping giant. But how many of those fans are there? The series has fallen out of the Top 100 cable shows for two weeks running. It was the lowest-rated series even before that. But the editorial highlights the problem. Liberals are only interested in Muslims as a means of fighting a culture war against the bogeymen of American “intolerance.” All-American Muslim isn’t interesting to them except as a vehicle for another protest movement.
The left needs an “Other” to justify its war against American traditions and values. Muslims conveniently provide that “Other,” a role that they began to fill after September 11. Even as the left denounces the right for “Otherizing” Muslims and associating them with terrorism, it is the left that is truly guilty of it. If the attacks of September 11 had never taken place and the War on Terror had not followed, then the left would have as much interest in Muslims as they do in Hindus or Baha’i or any number of other world religions.
All-American Muslim has included the usual complaints about prejudice and discrimination, but not nearly enough of it to interest the left, which doesn’t want to hear a lot talk about the virtues of the hijab; they want to see men driving pickup trucks with confederate flags on them shouting at women wearing hijabs. They don’t really want to see a show about Muslims, any kind of Muslims, they want to see a show about how awful Americans are.
That is why All-American Muslim truly failed. But its failure is reviving its purpose. The Jihad against Lowe’s reminds liberals of why they were interested in the show, not for its content, but as a cause for another round of the culture war. Probably the only honest corporate response to All-American Muslim came from KAYAK’s CEO who explained why his company was pulling its ads from the series by saying, “I watched the first two episodes. Mostly, I just thought the show sucked.” And it does.
Astoundingly few media outlets can admit something so simple as that. They would rather ignore the show except when it’s a convenient way of picking a fight. But admitting that All-American Muslim isn’t very good requires being critical of something involving Muslims, even if it is something as a minor as a television show. And that is something they simply cannot and will not do.
Sunday’s episode, “A Chance at Redemption,” continues cribbing from “Fordson: Faith, Fasting and Football,” the documentary on the Fordson High School football team. It’s material that the show returns to often because it’s the only part of the narrative that goes anywhere. And yet at a time when Tim Tebow is being widely ridiculed for his religion, it’s surreal to watch a celebration of Islamic religion interlaced with football. If it’s somehow wrong for Tim Tebow to combine religion and football, why celebrate the Islamic version of Tebowing at Fordson High?
The entire existence of All-American Muslim is a testament to the fact that some religions can be promoted more than others. A show following around Christian football players that was as enthusiastic about its subjects as All-American Muslim is about its team is all but inconceivable on TLC or anywhere else. But All-American Muslim’s football players face no such obstacles. It is enough to make you wonder who the real victims of discrimination are when Christians get “Jesus Camp” while Muslims get “All-American Muslim.”
All-American Muslim is a conscious case study in the politicization of religion, but to what end? The underlying premise of All-American Muslim has always been that Muslims are the victims of ignorance and discrimination. But the dangerous question is: are they really the victims and, if so, whose victims are they?
The Muslims of All-American Muslims are certainly not the members of an underclass. They are successful members of their community who nonetheless make their token complaints about being discriminated against. They are the stars of a television series that failed on its merits but is being deluged with advertising dollars from advertisers who want to show off their tolerance. They are privileged. But that privilege is also a double-edged sword.
The left doesn’t need All-American Muslims, it needs marginalized Muslims, it needs suicide bombers and protesters. It needs people who are being oppressed and whose physical violence can justify their political activism. In return for privilege, Muslims act out the role of the oppressed, but the act is unconvincing. As All-American Muslim passes its sixth episode, its continuing existence despite its poor ratings and the firestorm of controversy aimed at advertisers who dared to pull out of the series is a testament to the privileged status of the All-American Muslim. –Front Page Mag
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