This Summer’s Musical Crop

This summer, I again saw two musicals at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, Les Misérables and The Music Man. The former is my favorite musical of all time (as mentioned previously here), and the latter, as I’ve said recently, is the first musical I was exposed to and is a family favorite.  I was very excited to see both of these shows, but while The Music Man delivered, I was left feeling a bit shorted at Les Mis. Presented here are some thoughts about both shows.  I’ll work my way backwards since the people searching for reviews are likely to want them for the show that is actually still playing.

 

Book Review: Oracles of Science

I recently finished the book Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists versus God and Religion. This book, written by Karl Giberson and the late Mariano Artigas, was introduced to me when Dr. Giberson gave a talk about it at Westmont in November 2007. I picked up a copy but didn’t have make much time to read it until this summer. I’m glad I found the time. A very interesting and thoughtful read, I would highly recommend this book not only to anyone seeking information on some of the leading science popularizers of our time and analysis on their positions, but also for anyone looking for a jumping-off point to the study of philosophy of science in general. Here’s the product description from the jacket:

Biologists Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, and Edward O. Wilson, and physicists Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Steven Weinberg have become public intellectuals, articulating a much larger vision for science and what role it should play in the modern worldview. The scientific prestige and literary eloquence of each of these great thinkers combine to transform them into what can only be called oracles of science. Curiously, the leading “oracles of science” are predominantly secular in ways that don’t reflect the distribution of religious beliefs within the scientific community. Many of them are even hostile to religion, creating a false impression that science as a whole is incompatible with religion. Karl Giberson and Mariano Artigas offer an informed analysis of the views of these six scientists, carefully distinguishing science from philosophy and religion in the writings of the oracles.

 

… and Batman

Yes, in order to prove that at least some of my interests are concurrent with prevalent cultural norms, and also in order to have two concurrent blog posts indicating my affinity for alliteration (almost always attempted (alongside assonance), as appropriate), here is a bit of a review / analysis of The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, and directed by Christopher Nolan. It, of course, attempts to stay as spoiler-free as possible.