You know, it is always good to have friends around to e-mail you and tell you how much they enjoy reading your blog. Then again, they are your friends and their opinions are somewhat, ummm, tainted. As with anything, I would still like an outside opinion as to the soundness of this blog and whether my logic is on track.

You know, I need to give a little love to my man Johann. I am Lutheran and I am German. Therefore, I must love Bach. Nothing is more lovely to the mathematician's ear than to hear four lines of melody interfingering in the most imaginative ways and each line of melody serving as harmony to the others. Counterpoint is a wonderful thing. There is power in his works, unlike the moronic garbage being produced by the Christian Money Machine. Oh, "Christian Music" and "Christian Books" and "Christian Trinkets". I walk into a "Christian Bookstore" (where did the books go?) and I'm overrun with "Trinkets for Christ". I'm embarassed by most of the emotional garbage they sell there. I have taken to buying stuff off the internet just because I cannot find what I want in a Christian bookstore. For instance, how many of us can find Lutheran classics like The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel or Two Natures in Christ? No Christian bookstore will cary these. It drives me insane. They do not even cary any of the great classical works that have sustaned the Church for centuries. I have to go into Borders to Handel my love of Bach.

I love classical music in general. Yes, I love Bach most of all, but I enjoy other composers as well. I am interested in Medieval and Renesance Church music. As with many things, as I have come to find out, old does not equal useless. How many people can meditate to Michael W. Smith or Amy Grant or whoever else is popular right now?