Santa Fe Pale Ale 'close second' to Sierra Nevada

I was recently in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and ate at the Catamount Bar & Grille, where I ordered a pint of Santa Fe Pale Ale.

Santa Fe Pale Ale reminded me of Sierra Nevada and Bass -- I loved it.

I'm not alone in my opinion. At a dinner party in Albuquerque the next day, I talked with a fellow who lives in Santa Fe. He said Sierra Nevada is his favorite beer, but Santa Fe Pale Ale is a "close second."

Sante Fe Brewing Company is the oldest microbrewery in New Mexico.

I also tried the microbrewery's Santa Fe Nut Brown. It was good, with the smoothness and malty sweetness I expect from nut brown ales, but not the depth and variety in the flavor profile that I had hoped for. Still, a good, solid nut brown.

Happy Halloween!

Sadie Elisabeth Burch, age 2

Historical anatomy images online

Shop Amazon - Thanksgiving Dinner and Desserts - Prepare the Perfect Feast

Fascinating and creepy anatomy sketches from old medical texts.

The sense of dark intrigue while viewing anatomical atlases from yesteryear.

The U.S. National Medical Library has posted a big chunk of its Historical Anatomies collection online.

Dive into weird and wonderful presentations of the human body at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/home.html .

As for the praying fellow above, he is a fan of the N.C. State Wolfpack, begging God for a football win. Notice he's been there a while.

Actually, he's an icon for the religious life -- we're already dead, even as we seek the eternal.

Paglia on religion and the arts

In an article in the Spring/Summer 2007 edition of Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, Camille Paglia wrote about the relationship between religion and the arts, and how respect for religion can revive the arts. What follows in an excerpt from Paglia’s article; thanks to the folks at Mars Hill Audio Journal for posting it on their Web site.

Paglia wrote:

For the fine arts to revive, they must recover their spiritual center. Profaning the iconography of other people’s faiths is boring and adolescent. The New Age movement, to which I belong, was a distillation of the 1960s’ multicultural attraction to world religions, but it has failed thus far to produce important work in the visual arts. The search for spiritual meaning has been registering in popular culture instead through science fiction, as in George Lucas’ six-film Star Wars saga, with its evocative master myth of the “Force.” But technology for its own sake is never enough. It will always require supplementation through cultivation in the arts.

To fully appreciate world art, one must learn how to respond to religious expression in all its forms. Art began as religion in prehistory. It does not require belief to be moved by a sacred shrine, icon, or scripture. Hence art lovers, even when as citizens they stoutly defend democratic institutions against religious intrusion, should always speak with respect of religion. Conservatives, on the other hand, need to expand their parched and narrow view of culture. Every vibrant civilization welcomes and nurtures the arts.

Progressives must start recognizing the spiritual povery of contemporary secular humanism and reexamine the way that liberalism too often now automatically defines human aspiration and human happiness in reductively economic terms. If conservatives are serious about educational standards, they must support the teaching of art history in primary school — which means conservatives have to get over their phobia about the nude, which has been a symbol of Western art and Western individualism and freedom since the Greeks invented democracy. Without compromise, we are heading for a soulless future. But when set against the vast historical panorama, religion and art — whether in marriage or divorce — can reinvigorate American culture.

#

For something that looks a little like the marriage of religion and the arts, check out this interview with Nicora Gangi, along with images of two of her paintings, at http://www.liturgicalcredo.com/NicoraGangiJuneJuly2007.html .

Myrtle Beach Moment, No. 11

It's the Fall Pilgrimage for bikers here in Myrtle Beach. We planned to go to Myabi for dinner, and when I parked in the back, I got a view of the stunt show going on behind The Dog House bar. This was around 5:30 p.m. this afternoon. The power line is in the foreground, by the way.

I used my Canon Xti Rebel for the pics, and then tweaked levels, contrasts, etc., with the Adobe Photoshop Album Starter.