The Queue
Signore Machiavelli's reputation in popular culture is unfair & undeserved, a distorted misrepresentation of the arguments put forward in The Prince. The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic was a gift from church, paid for by the parish educational trust. I am engaged in the attempt to sublimate my will to His, to become an instrument of His Will for whatever purpose He envisions, & intentionality of one of the keys; therefore, it behooves me to do what seems natural whenever anything else catches my interest & read up on the subject. (This reminds me that I am very far behind on "Urbi et Orbi.") The 2012 motion picture Kon-Tiki is coming soon to a theater near me, thus promoting Mr. Heyerdahl's account from the obscure depths to the very top of the queue. I am reluctant to reembark upon Leviathan 'til I know I will be uninterrupted for long enough to finish, but I will not let it languish indefinitely as I suffered to happen with Moby-Dick.

Recently
Frank Miller, 300
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" from The Arabian Nights
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

Currently
Thor Heyerdahl, translated by F. H. Lyon, Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft
Matthew Kelly, The Four Signs of the Dynamic Catholic: How Engaging 1% of Catholics Could Change the World

Presently
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill ***suspended***
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Swords of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Synthetic Men of Mars
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Llana of Gathol
Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights
Richard Price, Clockers

This Week in Motorsport
With the Monaco Grand Prix & the Indy 500 in the books, all eyes now turn toward the third jewel of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, the 24 Heures du Mans—the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This will be the ninetieth anniversary of the "Grand Prix of Endurance" & the eighty-first running of the great race since its inception in 1923 (interrupted for many years in the '40s by a little thing called the Second World War). Get excited, people!



The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "You Left Right?" from the Pin Points and Gin Joints (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I love virtually the whole of The Bosstones' catalog, but Pin Points and Gin Joints is one of my favorites because its sound is more purely ska than is usual for them; the songs, including "You Left Right?" (which should be titled "You Left, Right?") are without the hard rock/heavy metal influence evident on some of their earlier works.

Typical of a ska song, she left him.

"Are you regretful? Are ya?
Are you remorseful? Are ya?
Are you successful? Well, are ya
Just tryin' to make it through?
Did your whole world just shatter?
Are you happy or sadder?
Does it really matter?
And did I ever matter to you?"