Nathaniel Peters

A few weeks ago a composer contacted us, wanting to know if we would be interested in reviewing his setting of the popular children’s book The Runaway Bunny to music à la “Peter and the Wolf.” It turns out that his concerto for violin, reader, and orchestra is . . . . Continue Reading »

In 1993 U2 wrote a song called “The Wanderer” for Johnny Cash, which they then recorded with him. The result is a haunting picture of a sinful man looking for God in the modern world, all in Cash’s rich baritone. If you’ve never heard it, watch the movie below. . . . . Continue Reading »

Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Patterson, NJ, in his diocesan newspaper The Beacon (via Whispers in the Loggia ), writes a sound defense of the proposed new translation of the Mass. Or more accurately, a sound defense of the spirit in which the translation was made: But there is something more at . . . . Continue Reading »

In yesterday’s Boston Globe , Jeff Jacoby writes of the the dangers of depopulation and of how having more people can help society. A sample: Like other prejudices, the belief that more humanity means more misery resists compelling evidence to the contrary. In the past two centuries, the . . . . Continue Reading »

First it was DC’s voucher program under attack , now it’s New York’s charter schools. An opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal gives the details: Charter schools are built on a simple idea. In exchange for less state funding and a mandate on performance, charters are . . . . Continue Reading »

If you’re in New York today, you might want to attend the following public forum: “What Did Pope Benedict Say to America?” Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus (Editor in Chief, First Things) Fr. John Farren, OP (Director of Advancement, Dominican Province of St. Joseph) Angelo Mater (Publisher . . . . Continue Reading »

Opera is known for its ridiculous plots, but La Scala is taking it up a notch. According to the New York Times , they have commissioned the Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli to write an opera of Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Truth . The Times’ John Tierney has a marvelous satire of . . . . Continue Reading »

Today DC’s school vouchers come up for discussion in the House, and the outlook isn’t good. Despite the fact that these vouchers have saved many of the city’s underprivileged children from attending some of the worst public schools in the nation, Democrats do not seem inclined to . . . . Continue Reading »

We like to hope that this blog might change what you think, but Nicholas Carr has a theory that it might change how you think too. In the cover article of the Atlantic Monthly , of which Arts & Letters Daily reminded me, he asks whether our style of reading has changed our style of thinking, and if . . . . Continue Reading »

Our friend and FT contributor Sally Thomas has a nice meditation on confession on her blog today . A portion: My confessor raised the question of whether I needed to confess them at all, but when I said I thought I needed to, he heard me out. And then he absolved me. In that moment, I experienced a . . . . Continue Reading »