(Untitled)

Aug 16, 2007 23:33

Highlights of Axver's day ( Read more... )

university, muse, concerts, religion, generork, israel, judaism, public lectures

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Comments 19

cat_incarnate August 16 2007, 15:45:50 UTC
So Kate DID make it to Australia alive! This is good.

Free lectures at school are *awesome*, especially for learning cool stuff outside my major.

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axver August 17 2007, 08:41:18 UTC
Hee, yes, she made it safely. She's here at the moment and wants to let you know that she doesn't have the Internet at the moment. Personally, I don't know how it is that she hasn't gone completely mad yet.

I looked up what other lectures are on, but unfortunately, anything I could learn outside my major consists primarily of lectures on medicine or science that sound like they'd be a bit complex - not to mention dull to someone like me!

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cat_incarnate August 17 2007, 13:23:02 UTC
Ahhhhh, I understand not having internet. Believe it or not, it IS possible to survive without it. Your inbox will hate you, especially if you revieve lots of random newsletters like I do, but it can be done!

Clubs and departments at my school poster like mad (usually) when there's a speaker. That's actually one of the things I really enjoy about the Oberlin experience: the wacky promotional posters people put up. It's daily entertainment.

I think you should go to a science research one just to get an idea of the scientific institution. It's a unique beast.

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axver August 18 2007, 00:32:10 UTC
Heh, when Kate checked her e-mails here yesterday, I think she had something like 160! I know she's trying to get the Internet set up, but things seem to be moving slowly there. Personally, I struggle to cope when my Internet is down for just a few hours.

A lot of clubs at my uni do chalking to announce stuff, which isn't of much use to me as I walk fast and pass everything without a chance to read more than half of it. And too much stuff has a tendency to be on Monday lunchtime, when I have a lecture, or on Tuesday, which is a crazily long day (9:30am to 5:45pm, but it means I barely have to go in the rest of the week!) and I'm in no mood to go to anything on Tuesday evening.

I'm somewhat tempted to go to one of the climate change public lectures or forums, but otherwise, none really sound all too exciting.

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screwtape2 August 16 2007, 15:51:28 UTC
I hope you enjoy the Muse concert. The Desert Island Game has completely turned me off of them. Thanks in part to the numerous Black Holes And Revelations tracks.

The thing that stuck out in your journal was the line about how it was weird hearing holy texts for a cultural purpose. I can relate to that. It seems like any quoting of religious texts is used as a way of converting or somehow supporting a person's claims. It is refreshing to hear it in a setting of a cultural discussion. I hope the lecture was as fun as it sounds. I would have loved to spend an evening listening to a lecture like that. I must be a Generok too. ;)

Oh and more music posts.

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axver August 17 2007, 08:44:35 UTC
All of their pre-Black Holes albums are worth your while. I cannot comprehend why people enjoy Black Holes so much; I can see why it would put someone off Muse. Knights Of Cydonia is the best song, and even then, it's a huge let-down. It feels to me like a 5-6 minute lead-up to nothing.

Yes, exactly! When he first mentioned the Bible, I thought "uh-oh, he isn't trying to advance something religious here, is he?" But I should have known better. I loved hearing someone talk about religious figures as an integral part of a culture as opposed to "so-and-so said this, so BELIEVE!" He used the story of Moses and the Jews in the desert in a similar way to how Aussies and Kiwis use the Gallipoli campaign or you Americans would use George Washington.

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screwtape2 August 18 2007, 10:20:50 UTC
Would Absolution be a good album to start with then?

Whenever someone says I'd like to quote the Bible I'm the same way. I've always looked at the figure and lessons in religion as not being a reason to believe but a reason to question or think for one's self. Holy texts are a great way of examining cultures. What better way to look at a people and way of life than what they view as ultimate clarity?

You know, I've always seen the story of Moses and the Jews as being more tragic than an example of gaining independence. He is basically forced to help these people. He is feared by others for rest of his life. He kills countless people. He becomes monster, victim and murderer all at once.

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axver August 18 2007, 13:31:17 UTC
Yeah, Absolution's pretty sweet. It has my favourite Muse track, Hysteria, along with other great songs like Time Is Running Out and Stockholm Syndrome. That said, 14 tracks is probably too many.

"What better way to look at a people and way of life than what they view as ultimate clarity?" That's a really good point. What I find just as interesting is the way the same text is used by different people. Just compare American evangelicals/fundies to Coptic Christians in Egypt, for example. I'm especially wary of people quoting from the Bible nowadays given how people in Western cultures are so incredibly culturally divorced from the culture of the authors.

I can't help myself: the political scientist in me causes me to see the story of Moses as a tool of "sanctified" political propaganda. After all, the evidence for the existence of Moses and the exodus is scant. However, as a story of cultural history, it contains powerful meanings and implications for those to whom it matters.

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screendoor3 August 17 2007, 05:31:17 UTC
One can never have enough food. That's what they invented vomitoriums for.

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axver August 17 2007, 08:48:19 UTC
That sounds rather bulimic to me!

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screendoor3 August 17 2007, 19:22:11 UTC
I was referring to feasts...I have never been bulimic.

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axver August 18 2007, 00:26:38 UTC
Yeah, but if you were going to open a theme park for bulimics, "vomitorium" sounds like a damn appropriate name, heh.

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