Piano Recital from last year. The participants included music students from Durham Arts Council’s Music Program. It was fun and View full article »
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Question from a friend:
I could have sworn the court ruling pertained to the State of California; as, that is where the case originated.
The Prop 8 ruling applied only to California.
The DOMA ruling pertained to federal benefits currently only extended to heterosexual couples
The Prop 8 rulings do not affect any other state, but they are a moral boost for advocates and seen as something of a setback for anti-gay-marriage and anti-equality groups since they see developments like this as an affront to “traditional family values” although it has yet to be proven that any of this will actually threaten “traditional marriage” or “family values” since the definition of both have been neither “traditional” nor “family” oriented.
This is, of course, mostly my opinion, but since the biblical definition of marriage was originally one of ownership and seeing the wife as chattel, and most recently marriage was suddenly redefined as “continuation of the species” rendering any non-child bearing marriage as not a real marriage, I can’t for the life of me see what their problem is short of outright ignorance or fear of the unknown at best to simple bigotry at worst. I can only give the opposition the benefit of the doubt but I’ve been called faggot too many times to believe it’s all about family values.
To me it has turned out that too many well-meaning Christians have been lead by self righteous biggots into believing that they are doing the Lord’s work. I judge that work by it’s fruits and I see disparity and suicide too m any times – this cannot be the Lord’s will when too many suffer at the hands of the “well meaning rescuers.”
This is the recording of the premiere of “Hear Our Song” as performed by Common Woman Chorus and Triangle Gay Men’s Chorus.
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| Stephen Chatman | Dryads’ bells | |
| sung bell sounds by this Canadian composer, written in 1999 | ||
| Dan Locklair | Bond and Free | |
| world premiere of NC composer Dan Locklair’s 2012 setting of a Robert Frost poem that explores two sides of life: the intellectual and the emotional | ||
| James MacMillan | A Child’s Prayer | |
| written by Scottish composer James MacMillan to honor the victims of the 1996 killing at the Dunblane Primary School, which took the lives of 16 children and one adult; performed in this concert to honor the victims of the killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December | ||
| Steven Sametz | On the death of a friend | |
| 2003 composition, with a text from a sermon prior to 1910 burial of King Edward VII | ||
| Francis Poulenc | Vinea mea electa | |
| one of French composer Poulenc’s 4 Lenten motets from 1939; based on Isaiah and Jeremiah texts about a beloved vine that has turned bitter | ||
| Herbert Howells | Take him, earth, for cherishing | |
| massive and powerful work written in memory of President John F. Kennedy; performed in this concert to mark the 50th anniversary of his 1963 assassination | ||
| Ned Rorem | Lift up your heads | |
| written for Ascension Day in 1963, in memory of composer Francis Poulenc | ||
| Dale Warland | There will be rest | |
| a Sara Teasdale poem, in a choral setting with harp and flute, composed for the Dale Warland Singers in 2003 | ||
| Dan Forrest | Amen | |
| 8-voice final movement from SC composer Dan Forrest’s Words of Paradise, 2007 | ||
| Eriks Esenvalds | Northern Lights | |
| 2012 composition by this Latvian composer; including a Latvian folk song and the words of two Arctic explorers who encountered the wondrous sight of the Northern lights; with tuned water glasses and chimes! | ||
| Arvo Pärt | Nunc dimittis | |
| highly expressive 2001 setting by this beloved Estonian minimalist composer; “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” | ||
| Jaako Mantyjarvi | Psalm 150 in Grandsire Triples | |
| his Finnish composer’s1999 piece that includes sung bell patterns in the specific change-ringing style called Grandsire Triples | ||
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Well, this has been an extremely productive week so far. View full article »
I suddenly had a “Duh moment.” View full article »
A local Restaurant has painted the top of their tables with chalkboard paint. They leave chalk on the tables, presumably for the kids to doodle.
Well, I was never one to pass up a chance to doodle in unusual circumstances, knowing I couldn’t keep the drawing.
Unplanned drawing of a stylistic butterfly. The first frame is the state the canvas was in before starting the recording. Drawn and Recorded using Sketchbook Pro for the iPad.
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The definition of “cooperation” is not “I’ll work with you as long as you do as I say.” Representing the American people does not mean ignoring the election results and the polls and continuing to do the same crap you’ve always done. Saying you’ll do everything to help America succeed does not mean getting elected into congress and taking off more days than any hard working citizen, then getting paid to go raise money to make sure you stay in office. All the while you’re saying that you can’t get anything done? Of course not you loud mouthed blowhards – you’re never in the office long enough.
Stop telling us that you have great ideas to save the economy when you actually conspired to sabotage it!
The only reason these creeps are still in office is that they can manage to work up enough fear through the fox-idiot mouth piece and through making complete lies sound like half truth – their followers are so lazy, they probably stopped at the second sentence of this post.
By this point, I’m so tired of people blaming the president for the state the country is in without regard to the state it was in when he took office or the state it currently is in with employment on the climb and the stock market at record levels.
The only way America is going to succeed is if we get together and some of us stop acting like playground bullies. The economy is improving despite the Republican-best-efforts to make Obama a one-term President (how’s that working for ya?)
Imagine how far along we’d be if there hadn’t been continual obstruction. Oh, and don’t give me the line about how much worse it would be if the republicans hadn’t stonewalled, especially since most of them hopped on the benefit bandwagon after the Obama Administration was able to get the legislation through and then went and told their constituents how evil Obama is!
Know Your Bible – All of It
Why do evangelical conservative Christians refuse to take the time to know that there are cultures that are completely unlike theirs that aren’t going to burn in hell? That we as gays and lesbians aren’t the way we are “just because it feels good?” That our love and devotion to our partners, husbands and wives is just as real as theirs?
I think the folks that argue using the Bible should know it completely and very well before bringing it out as a fencing instrument.
They like to use the Bible to tell everyone else not just how great they are but just how inferior and sinful gays and lesbians are. Especially, just how specific God was about making sure we know how Evil homosexuality is because it was singled out in Leviticus.
Well, I have some bad news for you, and I think you should sit down for this one: Leviticus only mentions homosexuality once. However, it mentions a great many other things punishable by death.
Of note, I would like to point out that divorce and adultery are hugely forbidden in the Big OT, but I don’t see anyone trying to outlaw them. Also of note: The eating of shellfish and any animal with a cloven hoof can’t be eaten, according to the OT. But, again, I don’t see any great upstanding born-again pleading to their law-makers to write a bill! And, too any garment of mixed cloth (can you say poly-cotton blend, boys and girls?) – nope, again, nothing from the super-holier-thans.
Oh, but that’s right, God told Peter, “what I set before you, eat” [Acts 10:8-10:16] but God was speaking of the Gentiles, not actual food – so much for the Bible being a “literal document.”
Look, all we are asking for is this: We want to live with the same freedoms that you have, not “Special rights.” If we were asking for special rights, we could fire you for being straight or for being Christian. We can’t, but in 29 states, we can be fired simply for being gay! How is that right? You choose to be Christian just as much as you say that we choose to be gay.
The Supreme Court overturned DOMA because it created a Protected Class of people. I believe that this illustrates that point, once again.
I’d go on, but then I’d lose they few that even stuck with me this far.