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intensely Irish emotion: The Cranberries, No Need to Argue

August 2, 2007 by David Baer

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

Delores O’Riordian has a voice like no other, perfectly suited for the upfront Irish anger of this 1994 album. Single digits ahead of the St Valentine’s Day accord and its imperfect afterlife, O’Riordian and the Cranberries lament–this *is* the dominant tone–the things that are wrong with families, fathers, lovers, and the hatred that has made ‘the Troubles’ so linkable an expression with Northern Ireland.

The front lady’s severe, alto and usually unaccompanied voice drives each song forward with self-propelled force. You either love it or hate it. Not too many simply liked this album. It was one of those musical offerings that invoked strong response from across the spectrum of listeners. Continue Reading »

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the joy of the lowly: Psalms 68-69

August 2, 2007 by David Baer

It is remarkable to find so much joy in the literature of lament and need.

A recurring feature of the Psalms’ prayers is the happiness of the lowly who have seen YHWH act. ‘You have turned my sorrow into dancing, ashes into a garment of praise’ is one explicit poetic recognition of a theme that runs deep and quiet elsewhere. Those who have no hope outside of YHWH, no recourse but the movement of heaven, are the most natural participants in that explosive joy that flows when YHWH is seen to act.
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hymning messiah: Steve McConnell, We Delight. A collection of messianic songs.

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

This private-label collection of Messianic Jewish worship services highlights the tenor voice of the author and a moving collection of biblical texts that are sung in both Hebrew and English.

The spare arrangements mean that one hears a lot of McConnell, arguably the album’s strength andweakness. His voice is fluid and not unpleasant, but not blessed with immense range. If you like it, you get a lot of it. If you don’t, ditto.
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Reviewing Craig C. Broyles & Craig A. Evans, eds, Writing & Reading the Scroll of Isaiah. Studies of an Interpretative Tradition. Volume 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1997).

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

This collection of 36 essays provides a telling profile of the state of Isaiah studies following the breakdown of the paradigm constructed by B. Duhm and generations of his followers. This first volume of a twin set is divided by subject matter into two parts: ‘The Formation and Leitmotifs of the Book of Isaiah’ and ‘Oracles and Passages’. When viewed as a snapshot of Isaiah studies at the end of the century just ended, however, the articles helpfully record clustering of a different nature. Most of them published here for the first time, these essays illuminate the methodological and sometimes ideological divergences which characterise both the speciality in question and biblical studies in general.

Whether this represents a post-modern flourishing of variety which is to be celebrated or a fragmentation of the discipline which ought rather to be lamented will depend upon the perspective of the reader.
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Reviewing Marvin A. Sweeney, King Josiah of Judah. The lost messiah of Israel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), xvi + 350.

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

Marvin Sweeney’s distinguished career has so often touched upon the compositional urges that lie behind different tranches of biblical literature that he has become one of the most-mentioned points of reference in introductions and prefaces to works that travel the same road. This 2001 publication now turns to one of the personalities—whether one defines such in historical or literary terms—that appears to lie behind the literature and to illuminate the product by filling out our understanding of the process. Temperamental considerations suggest that the book’s provocative—and not entirely misleading—subtitle is likely the invention of Sweeney’s editors rather than the author himself.
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strong out of the gate: American Interest

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

This recently-launched intellectual journal has a most promising masthead. Chock full of news-, policy-, and even history-makers, it suggests that the publication taking shape under the influence of such notables will soon be a must-read for those who don’t leave home without Foreign Affairs. Fukuyama, Brzezinksi, Applebaum, Berger, Ferguson, Huntington, Mead, Rabinovich, Vargas Llosa … The jaw drops.
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no room for fear: Twila Paris – Greatest Hits

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

Twila Paris is the grande dame of Christian music, a classy fixture on the stage, and a genuine voice that has never been overproduced or diluted by crossover ambitions.

Paris is one of those artists who projects enough real-human street cred to her fans that it seems natural to most of them to refer to her simply by her first name. This collection of ‘Twila Songs’ links old with new to great effect.
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ching ching vroom: Robb Report MotorCycling

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

Maybe you’ve never placed luxury and motorcycles in the same sentence before. Then you’ve never stumbled upon Robb Report: Motorcycling, a bi-monthly glossy that actually brings the two together with a fair amount of panache.
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hamburger helper: Motorcyclist magazine

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

Motorcyclist is a mainstay in the motorcycle magazine world, a place where cycle novices like this reviewer can begin to get a monthly diet of news, mechanics, advertisements, reviews, and cycle talk.

The format is busy, with very narrow margins. Think the opposite of those luxury goods magazines that seem bent on calming your mind. Motorcyclist wants to rev it up, or better yet, place it in a helmet and roughly equidistant between the two ends of a handlebar.
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all we’ve got left: All Quiet on the Western Front (Universal Cinema Classics)

August 1, 2007 by David Baer

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

It’s a shame this American-made film portrayal of a WWI German unit trapped in the vanity of trench warfare didn’t have currency in 1930’s Germany. It might have made a dent in the German people’s hunger for the bellicose rhetoric happily supplied by the young National Socialist movement.

Alas, we forget too soon.
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