Whisky

I've been studying for an exam which takes place tomorrow morning at my local public library. After that, I'll have finished yet another semester of study, and can reward myself with an indulgent purchase. I'm thinking of buying some single-malt scotch whisky. This is unusual for me because I've always been a drinker of white spirits, yet the thought of buying a bottle of Bombay Sapphire has lost its appeal. I want something more enjoyable, more complex, as a straight drink - a new world for me to explore. I also wouldn't mind getting some of this Roquefort cheese I've been hearing about.

Study Period 2, 2006

Totally loving Michael Andrews' score to Miranda July's You and Me and Everyone We Know. A new semester begins tomorrow, and these are the two subjects I'll be undertaking; Newspapers in History

This unit explores the role of the newspaper in the history of modern Western society and culture. In particular the unit focuses on the emergence of mass circulation and new forms of journalism in the second half of the nineteenth century. Students will explore historical and analytical frameworks through case studies which address some of the following issues: Effects of the commercialisation of the press; The press and political opinion; The press and cultural authority; Changes in the structure and ownership of the press; Historical analysis of aspects of newspapers (e.g., advertisements, cartoons); Relationship between mainstream and the alternative/radical press; Journalism as a profession and The effects of commercialisation on journalism.

Education: The Social and Historical Context

This unit provides a socio-cultural history of Australian education. It explains the ways that education has influenced Australian society and the manner in which Australian society has effected education and teaching. This unit examines each era of education in Australia from the1780s to present, with focus on the participants and the material taught. As the study progresses in chronological order, modern theory will be examined. Students will explore issues such as the welfare state, citizenship, social class, multiculturalism, inclusion and identity in relation to education. This unit will also examine education markets, higher education, vocational education, image and representation, and lifelong learning.

Update

With the Roman Eastern Frontier subject over, and only an exam remaining for my other subject (next Thursday morning), I've been fairly relaxed lately. Following a late function at work last Thursday evening, I tried to catch the tram home, only to find the mass of soccer fans impenetrable. Instead I managed to meet up with the missus and her family for a late dinner at Cafe Corretti on Lygon Street. Good pizza. On Friday I had lunch at Spicy Fish Restaurant again, this time trying their titular 'spicy fish'. I think I overestimated my spice threshold, but I made it through to the end, with the help of an icy cold Coke. Dinner at Matsumoto around the corner from home. We'd never tried this Japanese place before, yet plenty of other had, as we were lucky to score a table. Lately been enjoying the Ethiopiques series, Soul Jazz's Tropicalia comp., Os Mutantes, gamelan orchestra comps from Nonesuch Explorer and Smithsonain Folkways, and I'm keen to check out the latest Concretes and Ekkehard Ehlers releases in the coming week.

Essay submitted / Dr Pepper

Essay finished and submitted. 2503 words, 54 footnotes. Towards the end, it was doing my head in, and I was desperate to finish it. That's 'The Roman Eastern Frontier' over and done with. I have an exam for my other subject on Thursday 1 June. Last night, dinner on Lygon Street with relatives from Adelaide who were in town for the football. My cousin, Scott, must be about 11 years old, and is currently obsessed with Dr. Pepper, of all things. It's impossible to find in Adelaide, apparently, and he'd gotten it into his head that he'd be able to find it in Melbourne. I suggested he try The Original Lolly Shop on Lygon Street, as they stock American soft drinks, but unfortunately they'd sold out of Dr Pepper.

The application Word quit unexpectedly

Still working on essay. Approaching the finish line. I love computers...

Spicy Fish

I had a pretty good lunch at Spicy Fish Restaurant yesterday. Diced chicken with chilli and peanuts, Szechuan style, for only $8. Considering the blandness that comes from a foodcourt bain-marie for the same price, I think I've found a new menu to explore on my Fridays in the city. I spent the evening at a friend's house who had recently returned from 5 weeks in Nepal. She had set her digital camera to auto-shutter-release, and captured in stop-motion style, the streets of Kathmandu from the back of a rickshaw. We pass cows, children playing, street markets, and smiling faces. And then UN vehicles, and army trucks, and soldiers. And people, arms linked, placards hung around their necks. She had arrived at the beginnings of the protests which brought down King Gyanendra. Then we drank duty-free Tanqueray and played Katamari Damacy for the rest of the night.

More on Bardaisan

Bardaisan is really growing on me - an intriguing Edessan local, and a man who brewed his own blend of early Christianity, paganism, neoplatonism, and anthropology. From F. W. Norris' entry on Bardaisan, in the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity;

The teaching of Bardaisan has Gnostic elements, such as a dualism of darkness and light and the view that the material world was created by beings lesser than the one God. Yet he seems to have been a convinced monotheist who avoided a physical dualism. Bardaisan evidently was much interested in astrology and the ways that customs and tradition influenced people’s thoughts, but he had some sense of the importance of human freedom. Although good and evil beset men and women, each person who is in Christ can choose, because Christ countermands the force of the planets. Little is known, however, of Bardaisan’s doctrines concerning the body and the soul, positions that would clearly specify how much he represented Gnostic views.

Dream fragment format

Extension granted for essay, due to feedback from previous essay arriving late. I have until Monday morning. This morning I dreamt that each time my alarm went off, my clock-radio captured a fragment of my dream, and that if I could only work out what format it was saved in, I could access an archive of these fragments.

Set

Nothing much to report today. I made it to the half-way mark of my essay last night, before retiring to the lounge to catch Anthony Pateras' performance on Set. I quite enjoyed the piece with Sean Baxter and David Brown, which I thought had an almost gamelan feel in parts. But I decided from the outset that this blog was not to be a music blog, so I'll stop right now. I do want to add though, that there has been some excellent camerawork in this series, particularly a shot which arced down and then floated across Pateras' piano keyboard. The series is now on hold until July, Also, whilst watching the late news... is it just me, or does Bill Shorten resemble Boyd Rice?

Bookmark

Well aware of my cartographical fixation, the missus bought me this ingenious bookmark, handmade by some artisan called Ramona Raven. That's a sliver of the borderlands between Sweden and Denmark, carefully scissored from an old map or atlas. The choice of this particular bookmark alludes to my fond memories of Copenhagen, which I visited in November 1999.

Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and Philip K. Dick

From Delbert Burkett’s An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity, another nice description of Gnosticism…

Gnostic Christians generally thought of salvation as immortality of the soul rather than resurrection of the body. The soul originally existed in a divine realm of light and was itself part of that light. Below this realm of light was the material world, a place of darkness, ignorance, and evil. When the soul descended to the material world, it became trapped in a physical body. The physical body had a negative impact on the soul, enslaving it to various passions and making it forget its true origin and divine nature. Salvation for the soul consisted of recalling its true origin and nature, a knowledge that would allow the soul at death to return to the divine realm. The progress of the soul was impeded by various evil powers that ruled the material world. In some branches of Gnosticism, it was aided by a divine being who descended from the realm of light to reveal the saving knowledge to the soul. Gnostic Christians identified this figure as Jesus or Christ. Some regard him as a purely spiritual being with no physical body.

Philip K. Dick was deeply interested in Gnosticism. I once had a philosophy lecturer, a man of my own age, who had just discovered PKD. He claimed that nobody understood Plato like Dick, and nobody understood Dick like he did – “…all these hipsters who get into Philip K. Dick, they know nothing”.

Nepal

Great timing. Just as I'm about to submerge into social seclusion so I can finish this essay, my oldest buddy Rowbot returns from six weeks in Nepal. She was even there for the uprising against King Gyanendra.

Mother's Day

Due to this impending essay, I've had to bail on Mother's Day lunch. Mum isn't too pleased about this, but she understands (I hope). When I was about 10 my father undertook an MBA whilst still working fulltime, so at least she has a reference point. So I feel compelled to work solidly today - no dickin' around on teh web. I've got a lot of Constantine to get through, and I hope to start writing this evening.

Saint Antony

From Timothy Barnes' Cosntantine and Eusebius, a brief summation of the life of Saint Antony, the forefather of Christian monasticism...

When his parents died, the young Antony gave away his patrimony and entrusted his only sister to a community of virgins. When he began the ascetic life, he copied an old hermit from a neighbouring village who had spent many years in a solitary existence. Antony, too, took up his abode just outside the village. He cut all ties with his family. He labored with his hands to earn enough to buy his daily bread, and he gave any surplus to the needy. He lived alone, practicing self-discipline and praying incessantly. At the age of almost thirty-five, Antony withdrew to the edge of the desert, where he lived in an abandoned fort in total isolation. After nearly twenty years - about 305, on the chronology of the Life of Antony - the door was broken down and Antony emerged like an initiate from the Shrine, full of God. He healed the sick, cast out demons, comforted the sorrowing, reconciled enemies, and urged all to put the love of Christ before anything in this world".

I love the almost superhero feel to this story - Antony spends 20 years in a dilapidated old fort, alone, refining his powers, before breaking down his door and emerging into the light. It was a trying time for Christians, who were being tortured and killed for their religion. Antony takes up the campaign to end persecution.

When the persecution ended, Antony returned to his monastery, where crowds of visitors, among them a Roman army commander, thronged his door seeking cures for their ills. Antony decided to escape, fell in with a Saracen caravan, and came to the remote mountain near the Red Sea where he spent the rest of his life.

And so, after Antony had so dramatically emerged from his solitude, he slipped back into it under cover of nomadic travelers, before spending the rest of his life in the remote mountains. He died, apparently, at the age of 105.

The martyrdom of Candida

When the ABC took over the screening of The West Wing from the Nine Network, one would expect that it would be treated with more respect. Nine is well known for dumping high-quality / low-rating programs into its schedule willy-nilly; Six Feet Under was dumped in whenever Who Wants To Be A Millionaire finished, so the start time would vary 20 minutes either side of the expected time. I'm a late-comer to The West Wing, and have caught up via the missus' father's DVD collection, so I can only speculate that Nine treated it in the same way it treated Six Feet Under. But the ABC has also been choppy with The West Wing's schedule. And so for some reason I had it in my head that it started at 10pm last night. After a sufficient amount of studying, I retired to the lounge, topped up my wine, and switched to the ABC, only to see the end credits. then we remembered that the time had changed to 8:30pm. All of this is, somehow, by way of saying that I read S. P. Brock's 'A Martyr at the Sasanid Court under Vahran II: Candida' last night. Poor Candida - not only does she suffer the indignation of having a nasty yeast infection named after her, but her supposed torture at the hands of Vahran II is one of the most brutal punishments I've read about from this period. I'll spare the gory details, suffice to say that (to use a cliche) 'Freud would have a field day'.

My views are well known and controversial

From Timothy Barnes' 'Constantine and the Christian Church', in Samuel Lieu & Dominic Montserrat (eds.), Constantine: History, Historiography and Legend.

Whether Constantine also in the years after 324 bestowed on Christianity the priveleged standing of which he deprived paganism is a question on which my views are well known and controversial. In this chapter, however, I do not wish to traverse this boggy terrain again.

This is a handy line to use when discussions turn to controversial matters - ie. "Whether we should buy the shiraz or the merlot is a question on which my views are well known and controversial". It can even be followed up with "I do not wish to traverse this boggy terrain again".

Removing the arms

I removed the arms from my chair last night. It's an office chair I salvaged from friends who were moving to Brazil. I've got an old wooden desk, with drawers down one side. The arms of the chair stopped me from being able to pull the chair right in. It's been like this for over a year, and causes me to crouch over whilst studying. Last night I had an epiphany, and removed the arms. Now I can sit upright, and it seems to help my concentration (at least, that's what I'm telling myself).

Gnosticism

From “Early Christianity And Edessan Culture”, chapter 6 of Steven K. Ross’ Roman Edessa, a nice summation of Gnosticism which highlights its Neoplatonic influence;

Gnosticism (or ‘Gnosis’) as a philosophy remains ill defined, as is to be expected of an esoteric movement that, until the discovery in this century of a secret cache of texts, was known primarily through the writings of its detractors. Although it is misleading to speak of a unitary ‘Gnostic religion’, it can in general be said that the Gnostics stressed salvation from the evils of existence but de-emphasized both ‘faith’ and moral behaviour, or good works, as paths to it, putting their trust instead in insight, or the knowledge of certain mysteries known to an elect few who would uniquely be saved. Along with this soteriology went a dualistic cosmology and theology that, like Marcion (himself often counted among the Gnostics), tended to deprecate the world and even the heavenly bodies as the work of an inferior Demiurge. The Gnostics spoke instead of an invisible or 'stranger' God, indescibable and in the unseen heaven, as the true source of all good, and the one with which the adherents of gnosis - trapped in a world of darkness and matter - must strive to be reunited.

For the Gnostics, salvation came through escaping Plato's metaphorical cave, where they had been mistakenly imprisoned by a lesser, clumsy God.

Julian's sarcasm

Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty from 361 to 363, wrote a letter to the city of Edessa, where the Arians had been harassing the Gnostics. Here is an excerpt, in which Julian's sarcastic take on asceticism displays his sharp, dry wit.

Therefore, since by a most admirable law they have been advised to prefer poverty, in order to journey by the easier way to the kingdom of heaven; in order that we may assist their people to this, we have ordered all the money belonging to the church of the Edessenes to be taken away, so that it may be given to the soldiers. I have also ordered that their possessions are to be added to our private domain; in order that being in poverty they may be prudent and not be deprived of the heavenly kingdom, which they still hope for.

Bardaisanites vs. Marcionites

Bardaisan's son Harmonius received his education in Athens, a hotbed of intellectual pursuit and learning. True to his name, he became an accomplished composer, and on return to Edessa he set his father's writings to catchy tunes. Bardaisan and his followers would spend rowdy evenings drinking wine and singing these songs. By day they would go hunting, with Bardaisan's unparalleled archery skills on full display. Bardaisan taught that God had not created the world ex nihilo, but had simply shuffled the pre-existing elements (water, earth, fire and light) into a specific order. With each new generation, the elements merged into an increasingly purer form, and thus procreation was encouraged. Moreover, it seemed that the world had been created to be enjoyed by humankind. Bardaisan's ideas were at odds with the Marcionites, a black-clad vegan sect who practiced abstinence. They believed that the material world lay sandwiched between a good God and an evil God. The body was considered evil and tainted, and thus sexual intercourse was forbidden, as was the consumption of meat. Not surprisingly, the two sects were is stark contrast to each other, and competition for adherents was fierce. I know which side I would join.

Bardaisan

Last night, I began reading for the next essay - 2500 words on the diffusion of Christianity in the Roman eastern frontier, due 19 May. Currently reading about the many sects which formed in the aftermath of the crucifixion - such as the Encratities, Marcionites, Bardaisanites, and Gnostics. Bardaisan was a Edessan man-about-town; a philosopher, poet, courtier, astrologer, historian, sportsman, evangelist, and fashionista. He considered archery to be an art form, and his skills in it were unsurpassed. He could 'paint' portraits of people with arrow-holes upon a target. In his text The Book of the Laws of Divers Countries, he discusses the problem of free-will;

"The nature of man is, that he should be born, and grow up, and rise to his full stature, and produce children, and grow old, eating and drinking, and sleeping and waking, and that then he should die. These things, because they are of nature, belong to all men; and not to all men only, but also to all animals whatsoever, and some of them also to trees. For this is the work of physical nature, which makes and produces and regulates everything just as it has been commanded. Nature, I say, is found to be maintained among animals also in their actions. For the lion eats flesh, in accordance with his nature; and therefore all lions are eaters of flesh. The sheep eats grass; and therefore all sheep are eaters of grass, The bee makes honey, by which it is sustained; therefore all bees are makers of honey. The ant collects for herself a store in summer, from which to sustain herself in winter; and therefore do all ants act likewise. The scorpion strikes with its sting him who has not hurt it; and thus do all scorpions strike. Thus all animals preserve their nature: the eaters of flesh do not eat herbage; nor do the eaters of herbage eat flesh. "Men, on the contrary, are not governed thus; but, whilst in the matters pertaining to their bodies they preserve their nature like animals, in the matters pertaining to their minds they do that which they choose, as those who are free, and endowed with power, and as made in the likeness of God. For there are some of them that eat flesh, and do not touch bread; and there are some of them that make a distinction between the several kinds of flesh-food; and there are some of them that do not eat the flesh of any animal whatever. There are some of them that become the husbands of their mothers, and of their sisters, and of their daughters; and there are some who do not consort with women at all. There are those who take it upon themselves to inflict vengeance, like lions and leopards; and there are those who strike him that has not done them any wrong, like scorpions; and there are those that are led like sheep, and do not harm their conductors. There are some that behave themselves with kindness, and some with justice, and some with wickedness.