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dbarthe.bsky.social
Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸
@dbarthe.bsky.social
330 followers 490 following 220 posts
Socialist Episcopalian, newly arrived in DC, ace-gay 🏳️‍🌈. Trying to get my reading list under control. Average Weil enjoyer. Sondheim-pilled. For friends hold all things in common.
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dbarthe.bsky.social
Everything is terrible but I do get to make chocolate mousse for my whole house today (chocolate and cream melting together first!)
Chocolate and heavy cream melts together in a bain marie
October 17, 2025 at 6:58 PM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Watching the NYC mayors debate, ang I think Cuomo should be *VERY* careful about throwing around nepo baby allegations lmao
October 16, 2025 at 11:11 PM
dbarthe.bsky.social
One last thing before I close this thread. This passage from Simone Weil on attention and the challenge of the classics in education is a lodestone for my pedagogy:
October 13, 2025 at 3:03 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
I love how this is stated in the Statement of the Program (in case you couldn't tell, I went to St. John's College in Santa Fe!)
From the Statement of the Program of St. John's College: "The books speak to us in more than one way. In raising the persisting human questions, they lend themselves to different interpretations that reveal a variety of independent and yet complementary meanings. And while seeking the truth, they please us as works of art with a clarity and a beauty that reflect their intrinsic intelligibility. They are, therefore, properly called great, whether they are epic poems or political treatises, and whether their subject matter is scientific, historical, or philosophical. They are also linked together, for each of them is introduced, supported, or criticized by the others. In that sense they converse with each other, and they draw the readers to take part, within the limits of their abilities, in a large and continuing conversation. This conversation, however, is unavoidably one-sided. The books can only repeat what they have to say, without furnishing the clarifications that we desire. To overcome this limitation is the goal of the St. John’s seminar." 2/3: From the Statement of the Program at St. John's: "This conversation, however, is unavoidably one-sided. The books can only repeat what they have to say, without furnishing the clarifications that we desire. To overcome this limitation is the goal of the St. John’s seminar. Here a number of students of varied backgrounds, faced with a text that may present unfamiliar thoughts, attempt to discuss it reasonably. It is presupposed that the students are willing to submit their opinions to one another’s questions. The demands of the individual and those of the group are in continuous interplay, setting limits within which the discussion moves with the utmost possible freedom. The discussion may concern itself primarily with trying to establish the meaning of a poem or the validity of an argument. It may concern itself with more general or with very contemporary questions that thrust themselves forward. The students bring to the seminar the assumptions they have derived from their experience in the contemporary world. Through discussion they acquire a new perspective, which enables them to recognize both the sameness of a recurrent problem and the variety of its historical manifestations." Statement of the Program posting concludes: "Principally, however, the aim is to ascertain not how things were, but how things are—to help students gain understanding and make reasonable decisions in whatever circumstances they face. And it is the ultimate aim of the Program that the habits of thought and discussion thus begun by the students should continue with them throughout their lives."
October 13, 2025 at 2:40 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
I mean, look at the joke that is the "Classical Learning Test", which is basically the SAT but with grammar questions and "based" passages from George Herbert and Teresa of Avila. In what way is this kind of standardization a meaningful challenge to the dominant paradigms in education?
A screenshot from a practice version of the Classical Learning Test, the "classical education" movement's answer to the SAT and ACT. Questions from the verbal reasoning section of the Classical Learning Test.
October 13, 2025 at 2:40 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Went out yesterday to Rock Creek Park, walking and praying with the house in one of DC's most spectacular natural wonders. ⚓
October 3, 2025 at 3:23 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
It seems the only appropriate register!
A still from "First Reformed" (2017). Ethan Hawke skulks past a white sign in front of his church, which reads "Will God Forgive Us?"
September 10, 2025 at 2:05 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Watching Brideshead Revisited (1981) for the first time, and my accent is *very* pleasant, thank you very much
A shot from Brideshead Revisited (1981), subtitled, "And beware of Anglo-Catholics. They are all sodomites" A shot from Brideshead Revisited (1981), subtitled, "with unpleasant accents"
September 8, 2025 at 2:30 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Amanda Seyfried in First Reformed

Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby

Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday

Cate Blanchett (obviously) in TÁR
Amanda Seyfried in First Reformed Kate Blanchett in Bringing Up Baby Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday Cate Blanchett in TÁR
August 25, 2025 at 7:14 PM
dbarthe.bsky.social
This will be a long one:

All four Oscar nominated actresses (esp. Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter) in All About Eve

Brent Carver in Lilies

Charles Melton in May/December

Vivian Oparah in Rye Lane
Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter in All About Eve Brent Carver in Lilies Charles Melton in May/December Vivian Oparah in Rye Lane
August 25, 2025 at 6:41 PM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Evil daughters for the win
Ann Blyth (left) as Veda Pierce in 1942 Joan Crawford star vehicle "Mildred Pierce".
August 23, 2025 at 11:38 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
You had to go to the Middle East to find Bertha Russell?
Carrie Coon as the nouvelle riche socialite Bertha Russell in "The Gilded Age", a show I love to hate. Bertha Russell insists on dressing and decorating her home like a deposed minor Hapsburg.
August 20, 2025 at 3:15 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Never forget that it won Best Musical at one of the most bizarre Tony Awards in history (justice for Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812)
A poster advertising the 2017 Tonys hosted by Kevin Spacey
August 6, 2025 at 9:29 PM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Don't forget the classic: it is literally too confusing for the laity to have the Eucharist consecrated by a woman
Excerpt from Section V of Inter Intersignores, Pope Paul VI's 1976 encyclical that argues that priestly ministry is naturally, essentially male.
May 22, 2025 at 11:30 PM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Quote post with the fictional character you are in your head
Bronx public school teacher extraordinaire Dorothy Zbornak, "The Golden Girls"
February 16, 2024 at 3:17 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Because Angels are without substance they are not individuals. Every Angel is a species.

You know I went to Rome? Italian men don't wear beards!

I won't try to *convert* you; I'm not a missionary. In fact I'm a bit of a heresy myself.

(this has become a Pope Joan stan account)
Pope Joan, in the 2019 National Theatre Production of Caryl Churchill's feminist masterpiece "Top Girls"
February 11, 2024 at 2:32 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
It's nearly Ordinary Time, which means I'm once again open to gentleman callers (aka it's back to the apps 🙃)
Laurey and the Gentleman Caller, a scene from the Arizona Theater Company's excellent production of "The Glass Menagerie" I got to see last year
January 7, 2024 at 4:13 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
Listen to that. WILL YOU LISTEN TO THAT????

-"It's A Hit", Merrily We Roll Along
Top 0.1 percent of Sondheim listeners worldwide BAYBEEE
November 29, 2023 at 2:29 PM
dbarthe.bsky.social
It's giving
The ignominious cake scene from Red, White and Royal Blue (2023)
October 30, 2023 at 1:25 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
The mistress of the house is unimpressed by my musings on unequal exchange theory and the political economy of climate change
My landlord's cat is rightly unimpressed by my work.
October 24, 2023 at 3:56 AM
dbarthe.bsky.social
SIR YOU ARE A DENTIST
Congressman Paul Gosar's tweets announcing the Jan. 6 insurrection, quoted in Robert Draper's "Weapons of Mass Delusion" (2023)
October 13, 2023 at 1:50 AM