A visit from an old friend, Part I

I will admit this post is way long overdue. Back-dated to May 6, 2010.

I had the chance to spend some time with an old friend, Fr. Mel Portula, CICM. Currently, he is Formator/Postulancy Program Director at the Maryhurst Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines. He had visited friends and parishioners in North Carolina during his short stay.

Over dinner, he was telling us about his work amongst the seminarians. They go through a four-year program at the seminary but also take academic courses at St. Louis University. Tuition costs around US$350.00 / PHP 16,200 per semester, which a lot of the seminarians cannot afford.

One class may start off with 40 seminarians; however, on average, thanks to one thing to another, including financial hardships, only 4-5 would end up going to the Novitiate.

Fr. Mel says we could help in many ways, including sponsoring a seminarian, send supplies like basic office supplies (e.g., paper, pencils, pens, etc.), t-shirts, shorts, towels, etc. The Zaballeros are collecting these items and will ship a Balikbayan box to the seminary, and the contents will be distributed to the seminarians in need.

Of course, we could also pray for more vocations to the priesthood, most especially during this Year of the Priest.

He told us to look for a couple of videos the Maryhurst Seminarians had made on Youtube. They did a two-part video, mostly in Tagalog. The description: A presentation that depicts the life of the seminarians in Maryhurst-CICM Mission Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines. It includes the four aspects of life in the seminary namely, Academic Life, Spiritual Life, Community Life and Apostolic Life.

The videos are embedded below.

Pipe making and metal casting at the Ahrend organ workshop

Tonight I received a call from Robert, a good friend of mine, who wanted to share with me this video. As he pointed out, there are a great many organ and organ-related videos on YouTube, but relatively few of exceptional quality. There are even several videos on pipe making and metal casting, but I haven't before seen any of this calibre.

I think you'll agree that the camerawork, background music, and audio mixing on this video make it one truly worth watching. Enjoy!

Bonus points if you can (correctly!) identify the choral prelude.

The Perfect Fifth

H/T to K.S. via the Anglican Music listserv.

He gave a link to an episode to a very funny French TV series, Kaamelott. Its aim is to make the Arthurian Legend ... unlegendary, for lack of a better term.

In this particular episode, the characters are discussing Sacred Music and its "strict codes."

This is hilarious! It is in French with subtitles, but if you can understand the French, you will be able to catch all the humour.

How not to use the ATM machine

... or as my old college buddy, Jeff used to call it, the "Bank in the Box." H/T to Tyler for this brief video.


How Not To Use The Drive Through ATM - Watch more free videos

PCR Music Video

H/T to Lisa L. This is too cute. You can tell which artists these people are emulating. The science nerd in me deeply appreciates this one, even though I've never had the ... pleasure ... of having to do PCR (Polymerase chain reaction).

Even though this essentially amounts to an advert by those at Bio-Rad, it's still cute.

I don't think I can embed this one, so click here to see the video.

Enjoy!

Tracker Organ, 2m, Catching Its Wind

This comes courtesy of PIPORG-L. Here's a YouTube visit with a 19th century two-manual British tracker organ built by Bevington and being refurbished. Fred Hohman demonstrates the organ's wind prostration caused by a malfunctioning blower and/or blown-out reservoir leather. There is a nice outcome for the organ as repaired by Patrick Murphy of Philadelphia.

Working with an instrumentalist -- or not

This comes courtesy of the PIPORG-L list. Larry Wheelock of Kenwood United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, WI shared this hilarious video with the list. My rudimentary translation of the Italian reveals the, er, "instrument" as a makeshift horn constructed with a heater hose and parts of a truck horn.

Some interesting comments I've received thus far:

"I want that hose!"
"What?! No ornaments!?"
"That is outstanding ... I'll have to find some garden hose now ..."
"Sounds God-awful, but that is hilarious, a riot!"

The message Larry included with his post:

In this busy season many of us will find ourselves working with various instrumentalists. They can be demanding, fussy, and annoying, but this organist seems to have found a workable solution...

For your listening...(pleasure?)

Enjoy!!!

YouTube for Catholics

Finally, a Catholic Video Sharing Site. This comes courtesy of Fr. Stephen Cuyos, a Filipino Missionary of the Sacred Heart. This website, lovetobecatholic.com, was apparently launched sometime this month, and its goal is to “provide a safe and entertaining place for people to access Catholic content on demand, 24/7.”

It's a pretty neat idea, kind of a YouTube for Catholics. According to Fr. Stephen, "it is a cool ministry tool as well as a fresh and innovative way to communicate the Word of God in today’s world."

More from Fr. Stephen:

Lovetobecatholic.com invites everyone to upload and share videos, build communities, join existing groups and connect with friends, but the site reserves the right to “monitor content to assure that videos reflect true Catholic teaching.” I hope that the site will not only gather Catholics but also become a meeting place and a connecting point where Catholics and non-Catholics learn from each other and enrich each other.

I definitely agree with Fr. Stephen's sentiments. Naturally, I paid attention to the Music section. It's mostly Catholic Rock videos. Not my cup of tea, but interesting, nonetheless.