Ubi Caritas

I have neglected you of late, blog, and I apologize.

But after today, I will not have another exam until final exams in December.  And yes, I do have a book review post to go up.  I just have to WRITE it.

Note: for those vegetarians or those Catholics who'd like to eat this on a Friday, I imagine that vegetable broth could easily be substituted for the chicken broth.

You'll need:

Olive oil

4 TB butter

Balsamic vinager

2 onions

4 stalks celery

1 bunch green onions

6 carrots

1 green bell pepper

2 small cans of tomatoes

4 cans of chicken broth (or the homemade equivalent, or vegetable broth, or...)

1/2 pound black beans

1/2 pound black-eyed peas

Two generous pinches of tarragon and sage

Three generous pinches of thyme

Dash of salt

Black pepper to taste

Dash of cayenne pepper

 

Slice the fresh vegetables.  Put them into a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and the butter. Simmer until the onions have been translucent for a few minutes.  Splash in a little balsamic vinegar, the half the juice from one of the cans of tomatoes, the herbs and the spices.  Simmer on medium-high heat until the vegetables are slightly past "browned" but not quite "scorched."  Dump in the remaining tomatoes and juice, the broth, the (rinsed) beans.  Simmer until the beans are tender.  Best served with fresh bread and perhaps a salad.

This is one of those soups that gets better with time.  It's quite good immediately, but the flavors meld together better after two days or so. 

This is both tasty and cheap; I got all the ingredients for less than $20.  Of course, I already had the stock items (vinegar, spices and herbs, onions), but even if you had to buy some of those this soup would still be quite reasonably priced.

 Enjoy!

I'm headed to work, where we're playing the Beatles, the Beatles, the Beatles, and very little else. 

I'm probably the only woman in the Western Hemisphere who can't stand the Beatles. 

Here's something to fill my brain with for the evening:

 

 

 

I spent last night dealing with an obscene phone caller (yes, another one) and several fairly annoying individuals while listening to everything that the Beatles ever recorded.  This should take the taste out of my mouth:

 

 

 

Good morning!  Enjoy a little music while you get ready! 

 

 

 

Too often, it seems as though I'm too busy being a music student to appreciate, well, music.  I'm going to be trying to post a video here every morning, just for kicks and to remind me to slow down and listen to the music.  Enjoy!

 

A few months ago, I posted about the closing of the church in which I grew up.  The Tridentine Mass is no longer said there; the group moved to another church last month.  Their new church is stunningly beautiful; the priest there wants to learn to say the Tridentine Mass (in the current situation, several priests from around the diocese take turns saying it), welcomed all the new parishioners warmly, and has generally been a boon to the community.  No one could ask for a better new home for the Mass than such a parish.

Those of the parish who attended the Ordinary Rite Masses (said in English and Spanish) have been told to attend a nearby parish.  The facts that both of these churches have strong (and different) ethnic backgrounds has been grossly ignored. 

I have done my best not to think about that poor church that has been left behind, so beautiful, so alone.  For nearly a century and a half, she stood in that poverty-stricken neighborhood, a comfort to all who walked through her doors.  Inside her doors were Truth, Love, Beauty, Compassion.  It's empty now, a shell. 

The diocese wouldn't invest money into the church to repair the structure, but it will be paying for its demolition. 

I heard polyphony and chant for the first time in that church.  Such music rang eternity through the Mass and through our souls.  I love opera, and much of it is great and beautiful, but there is a niche in my heart that only well-sung early sacred music can fill.

Last week, I gave a presentation in a music history class.  The presentation covered (necessarily briefly) chant and early litrugical polyphony.  Needing some music, I turned to a recording made fifteen years ago inside this church.  While deciding what to include in the presentation, I listened through the CD, which consists of the Solemn Mass of Corpus Christi (DesPrez' Missa Pange Lingua and assorted motets, the Lauda Sion Salvatorem sequence, etc).  The music permeated my day, and for a little while that moldy little office in the School of Education had a sense of peace and gentleness.

The church is closed, its pews bare, its tabernacle bereft, as is my heart.  Ordinarily, I do not mind being poor.  I have enough money to put food on my table, keep a roof over my head, keep kibbles in my cats' dishes, and keep me in books and music.  I have dear friends and good teachers, and who could ask for more?  Today, I can't help but wish I had millions of dollars I could donate to see that church back in that neighborhood, to see that Friend in that particular home once more.

For so many years, this church and the sacred music I associate with it was the only thing that kept me sane.

The music is still with me.  I carry it with me with my sheet music and my voice and in my heart.  This church's demolishment won't take away the music or, even more importantly, that for which it stands.  Today, as I sang, I let my soul lift on the chant's simplicity and soar through the words.  Hope lit once more.  The music and its Source are still here, and they always will be.

 

 

Carapiccoladiva, you may expect to receive:the Yeats and March whenever customs deigns to let 'em through.  Operatech, I'll see you Monday, and I (should) come bearing Bel Canto and People of the Book.

You both mentioned that you'd read the #1 Ladies, so I'll bookcross it and include a Surprise Book with each package, if that's okay.

Enjoy!

 

1) Renee Fleming has a new CD out.  It's a gooily Italian conglomeration of Puccini and his ilk--some far better known than others, all good.  It's retailing in the $15-ish area in stores, and $10 in at least one online place (Barnes & Noble, last I looked).

 

 

2) Pie in the Sky series 2 will be arriving in stores on January 26, 2010.  Still a ways off, but it's nice to know that the British series, which features a gourmet-cooking-would-be-retired detective, will continue to be released here.

 

 

 

Now then.

Several months ago, I entered a book drawing on Emily's blog.  Yes, I got a book:  Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  It was nice to read Amy Tan; her books were on my list of "things to read when I get a chance...and that chance may not happen for months."  I can't say it was one of my favorite books of all time (sorry, Emily!), but it did a really neat job of pulling me into China, as it was incredibly well-researched.

Cooler by far than the book, though, was the notion of someone I knew only through the Internet sending moi a book "just because."  (Oh, and the Strand bookmark was an absolutely brilliant touch.  She couldn't possibly know that The Strand is one of the places I want most to visit, but it is, and the bookmark and accompanying note will be a treasured keepsake in this bibliophile's scrapbook.) 

Huh, thought I.  I'm going to have to steal this idea at some point.  Emily okayed my borrowing of the idea, and so here goes.

On October 11, I will have been blogging for two years, and I'd like to celebrate it by giving you a book.

Now, I don't have a sitemeter, and I know that Vox requires registration for comments (something which is annoying, I realize).  Therefore, I don't know how many people read my blog regularly, but I don't think that there are that many.  Still, I'm afraid that I don't see a way to give each and every one of you a book.  Sorry!  :( College student budget, and all that.

I do want to offer some books, though.  I've kept an eye out at library sales/Goodwill/various and sundry book stores and I came up with five fairly diverse books that I thought my "public" might like.

Want a book?  Here's what you do:

1) Write a comment to this post saying that a) you want a book, and b) list the books in order of most to least wanted.

2) Check back on Sunday the 4th (ie, a week from today), when I will post the names of the winners.  If I don't have a sufficient number of comments to begin book distribution by then, then I will a) be quite depressed (and we can't have that!) and b) extend the deadline by another couple of days. 

3) PM me your real name and mailing address, not forgetting to write said mailing address with whatever line-breaks are usual for your country's postal service.  For example, if I were to PM my address I would write:

UbiCaritas' Real Name

123 Diva Lane

Cowtown, TX 11111

U.S.A.

Doing this will mean that I will not irritate some postal clerk by having three incorrectly addressed international packages.  As they handle the mail, 'tis best to keep them happy.  Also, it will teach me how to write addreses for your postal area--certainly a bonus!  (Yes, I do mean that seriously.  Learning new things is good.)

4) Get your book, read it, and let me know what you think!

I will ship internationally, as at least half my readers and commenters aren't in the U.S.  Please be advised that I will also ship via book rate/media mail/whatever is cheapest to your country/state, so it may take a while for the book to arrive.

While you will need to send me your name and address, I promise not to share such information with anyone.  Period, full stop, end of statement.  Remember, while I do have my picture up on here I would not care to have my name associated with this blog; there is far too much personal, school and work information on here.  (Unless you're a book agent, in which case PM me about having me write a book about my crazy stories.)  Seriously, though: no personal info I receive will be shared with anyone. 

Are you a new reader?  Post a comment!

Are you a long-time reader?  Post a comment!

Are you someone I know in "real life", having met outside the blogosphere?  Post a comment!  (Do note, however, that I may simply drop a package on your doorstep rather than mail it to you if you're in or about the Fort Worth area.)

I'll use a random number generator to pick names and books.  Depending on the number of entries, that random number generator may become "a hat" if it seems easier to me.  My blog, my rules, blahblahblah.

I would also appreciate a comment about what you like on here and what you'd like to see more or less of.  I guarantee nothing, mind you--but I would like some general feedback, and the offer of Free Stuff seems like as good a time as any to ask for it.

What am I giving away?

 

 

First off, I have a paperback copy of Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett.  This is a novel, and it is really one of the most beautiful and heart-rending fictional depictions of music and opera and humanity I've ever read.  This is a decidedly "read" copy; I picked it up at a library sale, and it has a few dogeared pages and slight yellowing of the edges.  Still, it's perfectly readable, and I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys a very well-written story. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next is a hardcover copy of People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.  Brooks won a Pulitzer for March, her novel about the father of the Little Women of Louisa May Alcott (see below).  In my opinion, People of the Book is much better.  This novel tells the (fictionalized) story of the Sarejevo Haggadah, a real-life manuscript which has survived Inquisitions, bombings, fires and Nazis for the last five hundred years.  It speaks of the people who risked everything to save the book and the people associated with it, and it speaks to the heart of a bibliophile.    This is definitely in my top five favorite books I've read this year; thanks, big diva, for recommending it to me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mentioned March above.  I purchased this book (hardcover, quite good condition) after reading People of the Book.  I was, in truth, disappointed.  My opinion may have been colored by my adoration of the book Little Women.  This does not exactly follow the story as Alcott wrote it, though much of it is written quite well and believably.  To me, though, it didn't have the magic of People of the Book.  Clearly the Pulitzer folks disagreed with me, as this book won the Pulitzer Fiction prize, but....

In any case, I expect that someone out there will want it.

 

 

 

 

 

  

This is a bit of a diversion from the usual fare discussed on this blog, but it's a neat little book nonetheless.  This is a small hardcover volume (in very good condition) of Yeats' early love poems.  Should someone ever want to court Yours Truly, he'd find his task considerably easier if he had a familiarity with this:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with gold and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Beautiful, no?  Surely you want this on your bookshelf?

 

 

Finally, I bring to you a (paperback, about as "read" as Bel Canto) mystery: to wit, Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.  This is not your typical all-too-cutesy mystery.  This is a lovingly crafted book filled with glorious Botswana scenes and settings and people...and yes, the odd mystery here and there.  Smith grew up in Botswana, and while he writes an entertaining and pleasant story, the whole of it is permeated with his love for Africa and the people thereof.  You don't want to miss this series...and this is the perfect way to start it!

 

 

 

 

Good luck, my various and assorted (dozen) readers!  May fortune favor those in need of a new book to read!