It’s often said that music can tell a story; only occasionally is this really true.
Death and Transfiguration – by Richard Wagner
Corvallis-Oregon State University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marlan Carlson. The sound begins about 40 seconds into the video, and is very soft at first.
(0:45 – 2:00) An old man sleeps, stirs, and begins to wake up. These are the faint horns at the beginning, like the dawning of consciousness; but even as his mind rises from sleep, a deep counter-point intrudes, a low beat, a chronic pain, silent only during sleep, but almost immediately palpable upon awakening. Despite this, he continues to regain consciousness, the beat fading as the orchestra takes up the theme of his increasing awareness. A sustained horn, the orchestra echoing and holding the note a moment later — he is aware again. He opens his eyes, sees the sunlight, and while the low beat picks up again, subdued but insistent, he rejoices in the morning air, listening to the songs of the birds outside his window. Read the rest of this entry »
Contrary to popular belief, there really are circumstances in which the courts allow private citizens to take the law into their own hands. If, for instance, your home is broken into by an armed, homicidal burglar, and if you are in legal possession of a firearm, you may take your gun from the safely-locked storage cabinet, get your ammunition from its secure and separate location, load the gun, and — with full sanction of the law — discharge it in the direction of your dog to make it stop barking.
That is your right.
The courts, however, are far less lenient on those who burn their wives to death to save her from being stolen by fairies. Read the rest of this entry »
Proto-gnostic Influences upon the Nature and Character of the Johannine Jesus
Introduction
During the 1950s, John’s gospel enjoyed a surge of popularity. Already well established as the Love Gospel, its portrait of Jesus appealed to a generation engaged in the spiritual (and often chemical) reawakening of society. The Gospel According to John assured us of God’s compassion, telling us “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16). He is a protector who calls himself “The good shepherd” (Jn. 10:11), as well as a conscientious host who goes to prepare our “dwelling places” in his father’s house (Jn. 14:2). It is a Jesus who is one part older brother, one part New Age guru, and one part Marcus Welby M.D. Even his role as lover is not neglected: aside from short references in the synoptics, it is the Johannine tradition (both in gospel and revelation) which is most articulate about the bride and bridegroom when speaking of the relationship between Jesus and his believers. Read the rest of this entry »
If misery loves company, misery has company enough
Henry David Thoreau
Rock and roll brings us together through a shared sense of power and locus. It is a kinship born of place (be it physical, social, or chronological) and our relationship to it. In essence, it is not unlike the kinship found among people who have shared travel destinations: except that instead of recalling the excitement of discovery we experienced as travellers in places such as Katmandu, Peking, or Kyoto, we recall the Intimations of Immortality we experienced as teens in friends’ basements, out-of-town rock concerts, or packed into a car cruising the city streets. Read the rest of this entry »
Although media seem dedicated to portraying men as oblivious to anything outside of sports, tools, and sex, the truth is that until a few decades ago any self-respecting man was expected to have a wide range of knowledge. “I have taken all knowledge to be my province,” says Bacon, while Marlowe encourages us to have “aspiring minds” and to climb “after knowledge infinite.”
To this end, we offer one book for each of ten categories with which the well-rounded man should have at least some familiarity. Read the rest of this entry »
Far from being an "idiot box," the television set has acted as a window into a world of liberal values
It’s been called “the idiot box,” “the boob tube, and “the electric teat.” In short, TV has been considered by many to be a complete and utter waste of time. According to its critics it has no redeeming features – aside from the occasional PBS documentary and high-brow British comedy featuring men dressed in women’s clothing. Its only legacy: a brainwashed, docile, and homogeneous society. Questioning this assertion is tantamount to admitting that you accidentally tossed your brains into the blue box – along with your copies of Weekly World News and National Enquirer. Read the rest of this entry »
And I got to thinking about the concept of teaching people how to write, and the inherent problems involved, and I started making notes and by the time all the marks were in, I had enough material for over half a dozen posts. But they’re not funny. Some are explorations into possible lectures, others examine the [...]
It seems I made a couple of mistakes in my last post. Most of these were the result of four glasses of wine and include a new spelling for “thinking” in which the semi-colon plays an important role. The major mistake, however, had nothing to do with alcohol and can be blamed entirely on my well-deserved [...]
I’m drunk. Well, I’ve had several glasses of wine, so I’m not entirely sober. Sober’s a funny word. It’s actually from the Latin sobrius. “Se” means “without” and and “ebrius means drunk. The actual origins are unknown. That’s probably because they were drunk when they came up with it. In any […]
Somewhere out there is a man who believes I’m an angel. And I don’t mean one of those wimpy angels whom everyone knows is just some mortal Good Samaritan who does a good deed and then modestly walks away without giving his name. (“Oh, he was like an angel come just at the right moment [...]
I’m in a rush so I hope this makes sense, but I’ve got to do something other than write comments like, “I think you mean, ‘Children can be very suggestible,’ not ’salable.’” Or “I’m not entirely sure that Perez Hilton is a reliable source.” Anyhow — I really like the show Mythbusters. Pa […]
A report has appeared on Regulation of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine. The report is written by people all of whom have vested interests in spreading quackery. It shows an execrable ability to assess evidence, and it advocates degrees in antiscience It would fail any examination. Sorry, Prof Pittilo, but its gamma […]
Steve Newton of the wonderful National Center for Science Education has written another article promoting science in the Huffington Post, this time about asteroid impacts. And special bonus; he gives your loyal host here a shout-out. Specifically, he mentions that I have said that the Hale-Bopp comet was larger than what wiped out the dinosaurs. It’s [ […]
People all have their own ideas of what a time machine would look like. If you are a fan of the 1960 movie version of H. G. Wells’s classic novel, it would be a steampunk sled with a red velvet chair, flashing lights, and a giant spinning wheel on the back. For those whose notions of time travel were formed in the 1980s, it would be a souped-up stainless ste […]
The ever sharp Bishop Hill blog writes: While perusing some of the review comments to the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, I came across the contributions of Andrew Lacis, a colleague of James Hansen’s at GISS. Lacis’s is not a name I’ve come across before but some of what he has to say about Chapter 9 of [...]
