The village of Pyla in the United Nations Buffer Zone on the island of Cyprus is the site of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP). My little brother, Ian Ragsdale, is producing and directing a documentary on this archeological survey, and I have a large part to play in this film’s music.

Birth of Jesus. Detail from the side facing the apse of the so-called “Sarcofago di Stilicone” (”Stilicho’s sarcophagus”), an Ancient Roman christian sarcophagus dating from the 4th century. It is preserved beneath the pulpit of Sant’Ambrogio basilica in Milan, Italy. Picture by Giovanni Dall’Orto, April 25 2007.
Oh my!  An update!
Save for some shingles and all [...]

Next week will be busy, though it will also be a really nice respite from the daily grind.  Portus 2008 is a Harry Potter symposium (replete with papers, panels, presenters, parties, pageantry, pomp, etc.) that will be held at the Hilton Anatole hotel in Dallas, Texas from 10-13 July.  It’s being put on by the [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXwYruAEPnA
Enjoy!
Jeff

A little late this is, but liturgically still just fine. Happy Easter, everyone (including my Orthodox friends who will celebrate it about a month from now)!
Jeff

YouTube is a gift from God.
Always on the news and elsewhere, we only get the famous last two minutes or so of this most-famous oratory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But seeing the entire thing (yes, from the moment the gathering’s MC introduces King) for the first time gives me [...]

Though I have to say I’ve a friend who teaches at a Montessori school, sings in the Houston Grand Opera Chorus and sings at Palmer Episcopal.  She is every bit as busy as I and since she works with kids, her responsibilities are much, much greater than mine.
High Holy Days are once again upon us [...]

I’m taking a post-England break from my choir gig at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. Today I got to do something I had not done in a while: my first Sunday-morning attendance at my home church, South Main Baptist, since the last week
of December 2004.

If you live anywhere in the vicinity of southeast Texas, your world is not so bright as it was: Marvin Zindler, the most-iconic television news personality our area has ever had or ever will have, has passed away this evening from complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 85.

Snapecast Episode 19
A little belated, I know - I was in England at the time it came out.

Rachael.
The visionary behind the Harry Potter Snape-related podcast Snapecast, and an amazing person, I cannot find enough good things to say about her and Charles, her new husband. I’ve known Rachael since March 2006 when [...]