"On the act of cooking: I despise recipes that promise results without work, or success without technique. I have eaten too many short-cut piecrusts to trust anyone who tells women that pastry made with oil is just as good as the 'hard' kind. Mere facility, of course, is no more a guarantee of good taste in cooking than it is in music; but without it, nothing good is possible at all. Technique must be acquired, and, with technique, a love of the very processes of cooking. No artist can work simply for results; he must also like the work of getting them. Not that there isn't a lot of drudgery in any art - and more in cooking than in most - but that if a man has never been pleasantly surprised at the way custard sets or flour thickens, there is not much hope of making a cook of him. Pastry and confectionery will remain forever beyond him, and he will probably never even be able to get gravy to come out the same twice. Interest in results never conquers boredom with process."
~Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
17 August 2008
Memorable Quote
"...(P)eel an orange. Do it lovingly - in perfect quarters like little boats, or in staggered exfoliations like a flat map of the round world, or in one long spiral, as my grandfather used to do. Nothing is more likely to become garbage than orange rind; but for as long as anyone looks at it in delight, it stands a million triumphant miles from the trash heap.
"That, you know, is why the world exists at all. It remains outside the cosmic garbage can of nothingness, not because it is such a solemn necessity that nobody can get rid of it, but because it is the orange peel hung on God's chandelier, the wishbone in His kitchen closet. He likes it; therefore, it stays. The whole marvelous collection of stones, skins, feathers, and string exists because at least one lover has never quite taken His eye off it, because the Dominus vivificans has his delight with the sons of men."
~Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection.
"That, you know, is why the world exists at all. It remains outside the cosmic garbage can of nothingness, not because it is such a solemn necessity that nobody can get rid of it, but because it is the orange peel hung on God's chandelier, the wishbone in His kitchen closet. He likes it; therefore, it stays. The whole marvelous collection of stones, skins, feathers, and string exists because at least one lover has never quite taken His eye off it, because the Dominus vivificans has his delight with the sons of men."
~Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection.
22 April 2008
Who Am I?
No, I'm not going soft in the head or having a quarter-life crisis.
Amanda Witt, on being yourself:
"But if we die to ourselves, as Christ calls us to do, He does what we cannot and makes us more sharply and brightly ourselves, beautiful, distinct. With his help, we find our truest and best selves."
True identity is found in Christ. See the rest here.
Amanda Witt, on being yourself:
"But if we die to ourselves, as Christ calls us to do, He does what we cannot and makes us more sharply and brightly ourselves, beautiful, distinct. With his help, we find our truest and best selves."
True identity is found in Christ. See the rest here.
18 April 2008
Music as Shared Language
I once considered music therapy as a college major, so this quote stood out to me the other day.
Starbucks "The Way I See It" #267
"Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity."
~Oliver Sacks, Neurologist and author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.
I think it points to the way God created music to have the potential to be a language unto itself. The other day I attended the final rehearsal for the Idaho Philharmonic, and even without the program, the music tells the story clearly in Stravinsky's Firebird suite. There's a prince, a princess, an evil monster, a call for help, a battle, a scene of triumph, and a transformation of an evil castle into a radiant paradise. Anybody, regardless of their language, can understand elements of the Russian composer's message through his music. In a different approach, Jim Cockey's new composition An Idaho Symphony blends audio and visual through the use of a slideshow of Idaho photographs (Glenn Oakley), which plays throughout the piece. It was captivating to hear how the music had been matched to scenes the photographer had taken over a year earlier. But perhaps the most demonstrative composition was Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, originally written for piano, over a period of 7 years following a visit to an art exhibit with works by Victor Hartmann in 1874. Maurice Ravel orchestrated the work in 1922 after Mussorgsky's death. Throughout the 10 movements, we can hear scenes such as a troubador wandering old Italy performing on his lute, a big heavy oxcart making its way down a country road, a lighthearted ballet, and the famous last movement The Great Gate of Kiev. Outgoing Philharmonic conductor James Ogle commented on the decline of new music being produced in classical spectrums today, but also noted that popular music simply can't fill the void that would be left if we didn't have the works of composers such as Stravinsky, Cockey, and Mussorgsky. Classical music takes a little more effort to appreciate, but perhaps that's what makes it worthwhile.
Starbucks "The Way I See It" #267
"Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity."
~Oliver Sacks, Neurologist and author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.
I think it points to the way God created music to have the potential to be a language unto itself. The other day I attended the final rehearsal for the Idaho Philharmonic, and even without the program, the music tells the story clearly in Stravinsky's Firebird suite. There's a prince, a princess, an evil monster, a call for help, a battle, a scene of triumph, and a transformation of an evil castle into a radiant paradise. Anybody, regardless of their language, can understand elements of the Russian composer's message through his music. In a different approach, Jim Cockey's new composition An Idaho Symphony blends audio and visual through the use of a slideshow of Idaho photographs (Glenn Oakley), which plays throughout the piece. It was captivating to hear how the music had been matched to scenes the photographer had taken over a year earlier. But perhaps the most demonstrative composition was Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, originally written for piano, over a period of 7 years following a visit to an art exhibit with works by Victor Hartmann in 1874. Maurice Ravel orchestrated the work in 1922 after Mussorgsky's death. Throughout the 10 movements, we can hear scenes such as a troubador wandering old Italy performing on his lute, a big heavy oxcart making its way down a country road, a lighthearted ballet, and the famous last movement The Great Gate of Kiev. Outgoing Philharmonic conductor James Ogle commented on the decline of new music being produced in classical spectrums today, but also noted that popular music simply can't fill the void that would be left if we didn't have the works of composers such as Stravinsky, Cockey, and Mussorgsky. Classical music takes a little more effort to appreciate, but perhaps that's what makes it worthwhile.
The Wisdom Of Luther On Books
"The number of theological books must also be lessened, and a selection made of the best of them. For it is not many books or much reading that makes men learned; but it is good things, however little of them, often read, that make men learned in the Scriptures, and make them godly, too. Indeed the writings of all the holy fathers should be read only for a time, in order that through them we may be led to the Holy Scriptures. As it is, however, we read them only to be absorbed in them and never come to the Scriptures. We are like men who study the sign-posts and never travel the road. The dear fathers wished, by their writings, to lead us to the Scriptures, but we so use them as to be led away from the Scriptures, though the Scriptures alone are our vineyard in which we ought to work and toil."
—Martin Luther, An Open Letter To The Christian Nobility
via Rev. Danny Hyde of Oceanside URC
—Martin Luther, An Open Letter To The Christian Nobility
via Rev. Danny Hyde of Oceanside URC
26 February 2008
Quote of the Day
"Though the wicked are in prosperity and are not in trouble as other men, yet the godly, though in affliction, are in a state infinitely better because they have God for their portion."
~Jonathan Edwards
~Jonathan Edwards
25 February 2008
Religion & Politics
"...civil religion is the misidentification of the nation of the United States with the covenant people of God. It is the casual assumption that America enjoys a special role in redemptive history. It is the confusion of the office of the political leader with the office of the spiritual leader. It is the frequent presumption of divine blessings without submission to divine judgment. It is the sublimation of Christian distinctives to a generic amalgam that conflates many faiths into a common national identity. It is as old as America itself. And it is not biblical Christianity."
~William Inboden
~William Inboden
Quote(s) of the Day
I've got two for you today!
"At the historic space-time Fall, man refused to stand in the proper relationship with this infinite reference point which is the personal God. Therefore, people are now abnormal (emphasis mine)."
~Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?
I love how Schaeffer says that--"people are now abnormal". Sometimes we forget that in our sinful nature, we aren't the people God means us to be; we are not normal.
"I wish that the young men might have something to rid them of their love ditties and wanton songs and might instead of these learn wholesome things and thus yield willingly to the good; also, because I am not of the opinion that all the arts shall be crushed to earth and perish through the Gospel, as some bigoted persons pretend, but would willingly see them all, and especially music, servants of Him who gave and created them."
~Martin Luther's foreword to the Wittenberg Gesangbuch, as quoted in Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live?
Luther's reference to the arts being "crushed to the earth and perish[ing] through the Gospel" is a description of the way certain groups of people over-reacted in their disagreement with the Roman Catholic church in their enthusiasm for the Reformation. Many statues and other works of art were destroyed becuase of the implication of idolatry.
Luther never meant to divide the Church but rather to reform it.
"At the historic space-time Fall, man refused to stand in the proper relationship with this infinite reference point which is the personal God. Therefore, people are now abnormal (emphasis mine)."
~Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?
I love how Schaeffer says that--"people are now abnormal". Sometimes we forget that in our sinful nature, we aren't the people God means us to be; we are not normal.
******************************
"I wish that the young men might have something to rid them of their love ditties and wanton songs and might instead of these learn wholesome things and thus yield willingly to the good; also, because I am not of the opinion that all the arts shall be crushed to earth and perish through the Gospel, as some bigoted persons pretend, but would willingly see them all, and especially music, servants of Him who gave and created them."
~Martin Luther's foreword to the Wittenberg Gesangbuch, as quoted in Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live?
Luther's reference to the arts being "crushed to the earth and perish[ing] through the Gospel" is a description of the way certain groups of people over-reacted in their disagreement with the Roman Catholic church in their enthusiasm for the Reformation. Many statues and other works of art were destroyed becuase of the implication of idolatry.
Luther never meant to divide the Church but rather to reform it.
24 February 2008
13 February 2008
Trivial Pursuit
And speaking of Starbucks, I love reading the quotes on the side of the cup. I was getting tired of reading the same quote for the past week chastising humanity for not taking care of their young better than animals, who "after all do it by sheer instinct".
Today's quote: "Playing in an independent rock band will eventually make you equal parts truck driver, gladiator, and mule. Glamour is for those with trust funds." - Neko Case
I've known about Neko Case for about a year now but never took the time to look her up. She sounds like a harder version of Alison Krauss. And a more countrified version of Brandi Carlile. Very much home-grown and indie, in a good way.
Today's quote: "Playing in an independent rock band will eventually make you equal parts truck driver, gladiator, and mule. Glamour is for those with trust funds." - Neko Case
I've known about Neko Case for about a year now but never took the time to look her up. She sounds like a harder version of Alison Krauss. And a more countrified version of Brandi Carlile. Very much home-grown and indie, in a good way.
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