The Hokey Cokey in the style of Mariah Carey!

This is fun

Day Off Week 28 2025

Another day off last Tuesday. Main things was reading the Tim Dieppe book, very interesting, and one or two other things. I also listened to some editions of More or Less from the Radio 4 archive, something I haven't done in a while. Also had a chipotle and a coffee.

John Wesley on the Radio

I enjoyed listening yesterday to a recent edition of Melvyn Bragg's In our time on Radio 4. It was on  John Wesley and Methodism and can be accessed here. The approach is pretty secular but it spotlights some interesting and important matters.

Day Off Week 23 2020

I had a nice day off this week. I managed to get my 10,000 steps in again and I finished Gimson's book on the presidents and read most of Dale Ralph Davis's latest book on the psalms, which lives up well to its usual standards. I also listened to Louis Theroux interviewing KSI, which was interesting, enlightening and in the end quite disturbing in some ways. (KSI is a YouTuber with a massive audience mostly of young people). Let me repeat that I try to report on the day off because I think it might encourage others in ministry to try and keep some pattern in their lives. Therefore, I should add that I began the day making a to do list and some of those things just had to be done on that day so I did them.

Day off Week 21 2020

This week's day off was okay but a bit bitty. I am trying to finish this Tom Holland book Persian Fire but didn't get too far. It was very warm yesterday. Another distraction was radio podcasts done by Louis Theroux. Fairly interesting, I guess. See here. At some point I read an obituary for Astrid Kircher at 81 (part of the Beatles story). In the evening we watched the last part of a Netflix series Unorthodox, which was interesting and quite moving. See here. I also began an assault on a manuscript I am hoping to make fit for publishing on Amazon. As for the book contribution I mentioned last time two good things - the cover is now prepared - see here. I was also notified that the first seven volumes of the Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society are online. They contain eight articles on my subject. Nice providence. See here.

Bragg on the covenanters

I notice that tomorrow morning at 9 am on Radio 4 Melvyn Bragg has an In our time on the covenanters. Should be interesting. The "experts" are Roger Mason, Laura Stewart and Scott Spurlock.

Bragg The Rapture

I'm a little behind at present with some things. Melvyn Bragg's In our time is up and runing again on Radio 4 and at the end of last month they had a programme on The Rapture with Crawford Gribben and two other academics. You can currently access it here. The programme was very informative, although there is one thing I must chase up that I read in Arnold Dallimore's biography of Edward Irving - that the idea of a secret rapture began with a young girl in Scotland, a disicple of Irving, who began to have ecstatic visions. It was only a45 minute programme.

Word of mouth episode

A recent episode of Radio 4's Word of mouth with Michael Rosen featured Elis James talking about the Welsh language. See here.

Bragg and Hope

I haven't been listening to In our time recently but yesterday's offering was on the interesting subject of Hope. Following the usual format, Bragg's experts took us helpfully through the subject from Hesiod through Aquinas and Luther to Sartre, Tolkien (only in the podcast) and modern times. Fascinating. Though unfamiliar with Locke, Kant and Heidegger I would guess your average well taught Christian would have thought much of this through already though not in the same way. The current link is here.

Emily Dickinson

I have mentioned Emily Dickinson before now and how I discovered her in University. She wrote 1800 poems in her life time but only had ten or eleven published. She has been brought to mind again by two media events. First, I persuaded Eleri to join me in the Phoenix, East Finchley to see A Quiet Passion the other week. I think her comment at the end "That's two hours we'll never get back again" was a trifle harsh but it is fair to say that the life of Emily Dickinson of Amherst, New England is not the stuff of movie blockbusters and so, despite valiant efforts, the film struggled to keep the interest up. More recently, on Radio 4, Melvyn Bragg has had some experts in to do an In our time on her. (See here). This was a much better format for looking at this interesting woman. I found the suggestion that not all her first person poems are about her a new angle to explore. Here is an example of her simple genius.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - 
That perches in the soul - 
And sings the tune without the words - 
And never stops - at all - 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - 
And sore must be the storm - 
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm - 

 I’ve heard it in the chillest land - 
And on the strangest Sea - 
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Radio 4 Book of the week

I don't keep up with Radio 4's Book of the week but I happened to hear it announced this morning and it is a book I have actually read already, the brilliant book on Snow by Marcus Sedgwick. The page for it is here.

Michael Fabbri's Dyslexicon

Popped Radio 4 on this morning and caught a very funny programme about dyslexia. Funny and informative. I think this is the first in a new series. See here.

Houdini and Newport

Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

I happened to catch Eggsy of Goldie Looking Chain on Radio 4 this morning talking about Newport. He mentioned Houdini having visited the place. My grandfather saw him jump off Newport Bridge (not the Transporter).

This item gives the background (see here)

HOUDINI AND THE 'PORT

The famous escapologist Harry Houdini visited Newport on a number of occasions. The first time he met Newport police, in 1905, Harry Houdini ended up in jail. No crime had been committed - he was merely accepting their challenge to escape from a police cell. Of course, this was all good publicity for Houdini who was appearing at the Lyceum Theatre. He duly arrived at the police station, was stripped of his clothing, and double-locked into cell number 9. Five and half minutes later he reappeared fully clothed having escaped his cell, opened the adjacent one to retrieve his togs, and unlocked the door to the corridor where he met an astonished Chief Constable.

During a week long stint at the Empire Houdini announced to the audience he would leap from Newport Bridge with hands manacled and feet shackled. The Newport Council of the time promptly banned the jump. On 5th March 1913, Houdini's date for the leap, the Bridge was packed with onlookers and police. Knowing the police were planning to prevent the jump, Houdini created a diversion. While police apprehended a look-a-like, he emerged from a taxi in a bathing suit and having descended the bridge to a buttress below, leapt into the Usk. The crowd cheered as he dived in but were silenced as he disappeared under the water, only to cheer again as he emerged from the water to be picked up by an assistant in a nearby boat.

Newport Police would not let the matter rest there. Houdini announced to the Empire audience on the Saturday night that he had been served summonses to appear in court charged with obstructing the highway and holding a public entertainment on the Bridge. A packed Magistrates Court heard the case on 12th March. The police said that Houdini had given his word that he would not jump, Houdini strenuously denied this. The magistrates dismissed the case.

Bragg on the Talmud

Today's In our time on Radio 4 with Melvyn Bragg was an interesting one. It was on the Jewish Talmud. Details can be found here.

Bragg about the Trinity

I was beginning to lose faith with Melvyn Bragg and In our time but the latest programme on the Trinity is worth a listen. See here. (I meant to thank Guy Davies for the tip off. 

Screwtape Letters

It's a little bit C S Lewis at the moment with the fiftieth anniversary of his death Friday. Someone kindly alerted me to the fact that his Screwtape Letters is Book of the Week on Radio 4 this week. See here.

Book of Common Prayer

Melvyn Bragg's In our time was on the Book of Common Prayer. Very interesting, as ever. See here for the recording.

Summer Reading 2 Fiction

Among the fiction this summer has been the novella The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy and Stoner by John Williams. Both are high classics, a little demanding but worth the little effort needed. The Tolstoy was hard to get into - too many characters. (It would be easier in a film). Once you were into it though it became gripping. Tolstoy clearly knew human nature well. Apparently, it is a manifesto for celibacy and works on that level but is surely a rallying call to biblical views of marriage and a warning against many dangers. The reason for the title only comes out towards the end, which is well done. It might have been good to have the Beethoven piece playing as I read. I might have cried.
Stoner is a 1965 novel by an American John Williams that has been rediscovered and touted by Waterstones and others. I heard about it on Radio 4 and then read the first page in store and was hooked. It really is a brilliant novel with several purple passages of great beauty. It tells the very ordinary 20th century life story of an English lecturer (the writer's own occupation). Morris Dickstein (nor me) wrote that Stoner is "a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving that it takes your breath away." I enjoyed it but only in cathartic way. Utterly bleak, almost the only moments of joy allowed to the protagonist come illicitly. You could easily get depressed on this stuff and I'm glad it was not a set text when I was in school. One has to feel sorry for humanists some time. They have very little going for them. Where would I be without the love of God in Christ and the hope of a glorious and joyful heaven?

Bragg on Solomon

I'm a bit behind with me Melvyn Bragg but if you check out the website here you should be able to find the one on Solomon, which though very secular was nowhere as near as anti-conservative as it might have been and worth a listen.

Pop goes the Bible!

There's a porgramme on Radio 4 this Saturday that sounds like it's up my atreet. The blurb says

As the 400th anniversary of the translation of the Bible into English draws to a close Paul Gambaccini picks out some of the 100's of pop songs that have been inspired by the Old and New Testaments. The stories, characters and text have led to a huge catalogue of songs ranging from Elvis Presley ('Adam and Evil'), to Bob Dylan (Highway 61 Revisited), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice ('Joseph' and 'Jesus Christ, Superstar'), The Byrds (Turn! Turn! Turn!), Leonard Cohen ('Hallelujah'), and U2 ('40' and 'Yahweh').

Paul talks to Tim Rice about his early schooling which laid down for him an intimate knowledge of Bible stories. One of his favourites was that of 'Joseph' and the musical that evolved became the foundation of the Rice/Lloyd-Webber partnership. His fascination with the stories and characters took Rice not only on to 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' but more recently to the story of King David and Saul. He talks about his continued absorption in the people within the pages of the Bible.

Diana Lipton, an Old Testament scholar, shows how many popular song treatments refresh the ancient stories by setting them in an entirely different and often contemporary context. She cites Bob Dylan's treatment of the story of Abraham and Isaac in 'Highway 61 Revisited', but also finds a connection in Tom Jones' hit 'Delilah'. Although the only Biblical connection is the name 'Delilah', the blind passion of both the character in the song and Samson provokes the same disastrous outcome.

U2, with their song '40', took much of the lyric from Psalm 40, and rock critic Neil McCormick points to the close connection between Bono and his religious upbringing, a connection which - as in many of the songs in this programme - feeds into popular song culture.