Author: AKMA

Got me hypnotized…

Dave Barry pointed to this Lobster Trap Webcam located somewhere near Halifax, saying that it had viewers around the world “mesmerised.” Pippa and I checked it out — right now, a starfish and two lobsters are hanging out in the trap, with occasional fishy visitors — and we think that this renders Rickrolling obsolete; from now on, people will have to lobster roll unwitting link-clickers.

Honest, I haven’t forgotten about my blog. Just been busy, finishing a first pass through my commentary on James, writing a book review, working on course prep for my three new courses in the autumn (one of which may not be offered, what fun!), and keeping up with Margaret and Pip.

The past few weeks have provided occasion for fond memories and renewal of long-time online friendships — and in the spirit of renewing, re-binding, reconnecting loose joins that have come far too loose, it’s time to wish the very best to the Velveteen Rabbi, who has been installed as interim rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel. It’s a blessing to know her, and we send her intercontinental prayers as she begins this ministry.

I’ve lamented here that my recent article in Biblical Interpretation seems to have been printed without corrections from the proofs that I marked up. At the International SBL meeting today, I had the chance to talk with both the journal editor and the issue editor, and it turns out that mine was not the only article that was imperfectly edited. It’s a sad thing, and embarrassing to all concerned, but they indicated that they support my concern and they will try to work toward making available at least the corrected digital versions.

My train trip to London started out all right; good weather, plenty of time to pick up my ticket. about a half hour out of Glasgow, though, I remembered my last train to London, the one that impelled me to pick up some motion sickness pills. the pills that I had left behind at the flat. The first ninety minutes or so were dreadful. I was sweating and queasy and altogether fiercely nauseous. At that point though I gave up the fight against my innards, and let them have their way. For the last part of the trip, i’ve felt merely uncomfortable rather than miserable. Not the most enjoyable journey in history.

Not especially earth-shaking, but with the upgrade I can post from my phone or iPad. We’re here at Cottiers with newly-returned Madhavi, Doug passed through on his way home, and Andy Murray won. Glasgow is good.

With garlands and a hat tip to Christopher Roussel (who’s just finalising his doctoral thesis, congratulations as well as thanks!), I’m fully up-to-date for my WordPress installation. With any luck, that may betoken renewed activity on the blog here, and perhaps even a new design for the page — who knows?

Since I hadn’t indicated this before on the blog, Margaret and Pippa arrived safely and are settling in. I’m finishing up the school year (graduation for our undergraduates in a few minutes, with several reports due in a hurry), writing up my comments for a book panel at the International SBL, and looking forward to a grand meet-up with some online friends from of old — Euan, Gary, Suw and Kev, Halley, maybe J.P., and who knows who else, in London next Wednesday.

Now, though, it’s time to don my robes and look solemn while our soon-to-be-alumni/æ receive theirs degrees. Cheers to Jonathan, Isobel, Stuart, David, Alison, Brian, Roise, and several others whose names I’ll add after the ceremony.

I’ve been running with this WordPress template for a very long time, and with the WP software back at version 2.5 (it’s up to 3.1.3 now). In the last week, though, some people have reported to me that the blog has been forwarding them to dodgy-looking sites involuntarily, which suggests to me that the time for stasis is long past.
 
Anyone up for coaching me through an upgrade (and back-up) process?
 

Next fall, we’re reworking the Level One introduction to the Bible. We’ve rejiggered our undergraduate programme to begin by familiarising students with the Bible itself, and to prepare them for critical reading by helping them observe differences between what you might call “the cultural story of the Bible” (on one hand) and what one reads from one’s own copy of the Bible. It’s (roughly speaking) a literary-critical introduction, eschewing the historical issues in favour of nailing down a broad sense of what is written (granted that there remain problems about translation and text). This all works pretty easily for the Old Testament, where there are relatively few internal parallel passages, and those that we see can be contrasted moderately easily.
 
It will be vey tricky, though, for the Gospels. It’s easy to talk through a generalised “life of Jesus”, but the concurrence of four parallel accounts of Jesus, accounts that generally agree with most of the culturally-imagined/recalled events in his career, introduces snaggy complications. Our job will be to brief students on the contours of Jesus’ ministry, arrest and trial, death, and resurrection, and to alert them to differences among the gospels, and to the ways that the “cultural Jesus” differs from the literary Jesus. Right now, I’m guessing that we’ll have units on Jesus as wonder-worker, as Teacher (parables, apothegms, discourses), and Jesus as “king” — or something such as that — followed by a day on passion/resurrection. That’s four units, far too little in one way, but already a disproportionate fraction of the one-semester course.
 
That’s what I’m puzzling about this morning, anyway.
 

Sunday night I’ll be going to King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut (no, I’m not kidding, Radiohead and Oasis were “discovered” there, among other bands) to see the Mountain Goats touring behind their new album, All Eternals Deck. I’m an ardent Goats fan, and I probably mentioned here several times that I wrote an article about them for the “Popular Music” issue of Biblical Interpretation (sorry, limited access). I love having written it; I’m (mostly) proud of it and of how it compares to professional music criticism and to biblical critics’ writings about popular culture (especially for my first go).
 
Unfortunately (“catastrophically”, in my self-absorbed moments) something intervened between the “Send” button and the editors. We were having connectivity issues at home, and maybe I sent the proofs on via the Uni server during a down-for-maintenance interval; I don’t know how it didn’t get out from Glasgow, but apparently it didn’t because they didn’t print my corrected proofs. I’ve written them to plead for a corrected version to replace the defective version in the digital archive, but no word so far. Anyway, if you can’t get it from the official channels, I can send you a copy of my corrected version and you can write in the page numbers yourself (109-128) since the pagination isn’t affected by their non-entry of my emendations.
 
It’s frustrating and embarrassing, but it’ll be great to see the Mountain Goats Sunday evening, and I won’t be thinking of typos and editorial lapses — I’ll be hoping they play some of my favourites, thrilling at some surprises, and generally having the time of my life.