Jitterbugging for Jesus

(For Linda K.—thanks!)
Ring Out, Wild Bells
from In Memoriam A.H.H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1849)
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ll never forget taking the kids on a campout at Huntsville State Park on New Year’s Eve 1998–a New Year’s I documented in this little essay I wrote for the Houston Chronicle’s “Texas Magazine” when I was a Chron reporter and frequent contributer to that now-defunct magazine.
Where the dooh-dah man waits
PAUL MCKAY Staff [...]

Read Full Post »

He inherited a massive mess from “conservative” (???) Republicans who held power from 1994 (Remember the G.O.P takeover led by Newt Gingrich with his “Contract With America” and all the lasting “radical change” that was going to bring? Like term limits?) until 1996, when voters got fed up with the needless and bloody and costly [...]

Read Full Post »

PBS is featuring two documentaries tonight on two great Americans.
So you know we’re not talking about Sarah Palin or Sean Hannity.
The first is at 8 p.m. (Dallas time) on Patti Smith–a new doc in which the filmmaker shot footage of “the godmother of punk music” for more than 10 years–followed by an old and [...]

Read Full Post »

Excerpts from today’s noonday A New Zealand Prayer Book
© 1989 the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
All Rights Reserved
Psalm 119:89-96
Dear God, your eternal word of love
endures for ever in the universe.
Your truth stands fast from one generation to another.
You have laid the foundations of the earth, and it abides.
In fulfilment of your purpose [...]

Read Full Post »

Environmental art is not really new and different, but we like it. And we like the E.A. of Alastair Heseltine.*

**** I am a sculptor working with mixed media relating to the environment. Imagery is guided by the inherent nature of material and by construction systems evolved through mindful observation and play. I also draw from [...]

Read Full Post »

Many consider Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson the best American prose writer around. In addition to her much -acclaimed and spiritual novels, she’s a tough-minded essayist and contrarian, even though she doesn’t consider herself a contrariarn at all. For sure, she’s an intellectual and religious force to contend with.
Here are quotes from her interview with [...]

Read Full Post »

Rocker Ted Nugent has zero musical talent, zero class and precious little between the ears. But whatever you think of PETA, vegetarians or tofu and tofu eaters–or hunting–you gotta give this darling of the Fox News Channel and the Glenn Beck cult his due–he knows how to attract attention to Ted Nugent.
Speaking of Ted’s good [...]

Read Full Post »

Is Jitterbugger all about Chet Atkins?
Is he a fan of the late and great guitarist?
Does a wild bear spit in the woods?
Does Sarah Palin spit in the woods?
First is with Jerry Reed, no slouch on the sweet guitar his own self.

Read Full Post »

Yes, two mellow guys from two vastly different generations and music cultures come together to make some mellow guitar music–Nashville Chet Atkins and rocker Mark Knoppler, who influences were very much Nashvillian despite the rock career that saw him become a guitar god.
First song they do here is “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” followed [...]

Read Full Post »