October 27

BBC Schools Online. Might this site, as blackholebrain speculates, going to be a "competitor" to schoolblogs?

Veritas

A bit of a breather right now -- no better time to blog, eh? I've been attending the Berkeley Veritas Forum this weekend. Mary Ellen Ashcroft gave a beautiful talk on calling and vocation this afternoon, one which I cannot summarize adequately right now -- but I found that what she spoke about resonated very much with my own experiences of calling over the last six years (as I was finishing my Ph.D. and figuring out what to do other than biophysics with my biophysics degree.) I had the privilege of leading a small breakout session afterwards, talking to students and a postdoctoral friend about our futures.

I'm off now to hear Jeremy Begbie -- wonderful speaker, musician, and theologian -- as he draws out the mysteries and wonders of Christian theology through the vehicle of the arts. He leads a fascinating project by the name of Theology Through the Arts at Cambridge University.

A sidenote: my article (The Cosmic Bach?) has just come out in Radix Magazine. I plan to post it sometime soon.

Morimur

Thanks to Jeremy Begbie's talk, I learned about Morimur, an amazing musicological thought-experiment brought to life: what Lutheran chorales might have been going through Bach's head as he wrote the Ciaccona of BWV 1004 for solo violin (arguably the most famous piece of solo violin music written)? The album is an answer: I'm listening to the Hilliard Ensemble singing over the violin -- instead of going to bed half an hour ago. Haunting and compelling and startling. (More later....)

Sep Nov

The opinions or statements expressed herein should not be taken as a position of or endorsement by the University of California, Berkeley. Nor should the opinions or statements expressed herein be taken as a position of or endorsement of the University of California, Berkeley. Links on these pages to commercial sites do not represent endorsement by the University of California or its affiliates.