You may have noticed the nifty feature at the bottom of our SWEET new design (I totally dig it…especially the little nuances that Matt will talk about tomorrow) where it shows “His”/”Hers.” When Matt put this at the bottom of the page, I was like, “Dude! I want to talk about this!” (There are a few things that I get really excited about :))

A CD/DVD that I have acquired (somewhat accidentally, but that’s another story) recently is “The Five Browns” which is a group of five siblings that all happen to be almost piano virtuosos. The CD has arrangements of classical and popular favorites (Flight of the Bumblebee, arrangement of Westside Story songs, etc.) for five pianos (yes, that’s FIVE pianos) and comes with a bonus DVD that shows them performing a few of the pieces on their five (yes, that’s FIVE) GRAND pianos. It’s quite the show. The DVD also has an interview with them which explains how their mother started giving each of them piano lessons at the age of 3 and sat with each of them nearly every day as they practiced. No wonder they are virtuosos! They continued their studies at Juilliard with several of them being there at the same time.

One of the most interesting parts of the deal is they are young and fairly hip/normal-looking. This really gets the teacher in me excited because it portrays young people who really enjoy and excel at music, and also gives my piano students (I guess maybe some of you probably didn’t know that I teach piano on the side…well, I do!) a visual of “what they could be like someday” if they work hard (always a bonus in motivating students :)) I also like using their example to have my students notice dynamics, posture, expression, etc. One of the pieces on the album is “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Grieg, and there just so happens to be a very basic arrangement of the same piece in one of the books I use with my students, so it’s fun to have them listen to that after they’ve played it.

I doubt there are many music teachers out there that read this blog, but even if you are a classroom teacher, this would make a great tool for listening and discussion. And if you’re just a random person looking for a little diversity in your CD/DVD collection, I recommend it :)

Okay,

I couldn’t wait.

Here it is. What do you think?

Next Steps:

1. Make the archives better. They’re a bit awkward right now.
2. Make “next post” and “previous post” links on the home page so that you can click through posts on this page, rather than having to use the links on the right.
3. Make the “categories” link above a dropdown menu.

I’m exhausted. The last several weeks have been many late nights and packed schedules doing many different things; mostly working. I have several sites that have gone live or are going live soon over the last several weeks.

In the midst of all of this, I have decided to be a little selfish and give THIS SITE a long over-due makeover. The design is complete, the new WordPress theme is created, all I need to do is click a button. Why haven’t I done this yet? I’m waiting until May 1. I will be participating in May 1 Reboot this year.

Monday at high noon (Central time) you can all see the beautiful new creation. Until then, you can see a small preview/teaser here.

The Lone Strangers are playing at tonight’s VEISHEA Battle of the Bands on the Iowa State University Central Campus. We go on at 6:50. Please come and support us, and remember the following crowd-participation rules:

a) Stand. At the front of the stage. You may see chairs – DO NOT use them. 2) When we are introduced, start cheering loudly. Do not stop doing so until we start our first song. Even if you are not excited (which you certainly should be), you can pretend for a few short minutes. D) At the end of every song, cheer loudly. Act like you care (which you certainly should) vii) If a band member does an imitable gesture (such as pumping their fist in the air and yelling “hey” repeatedly), you should join them in said activity (fist pumping/shouting). We are not doing this because it looks cool. Believe me, if no one else joins in, it doesn’t. Ω) Dance.

As usual, Ochuk has a much better explanation of this issue than I do, though it is longer.

Tim brought this up on Sunday, and it wrang a bell. I read a section of this in a class I took called “Christianity and the Early Roman Empire…” Fascinating stuff. Listen to his message here.

The Gospel of Judas, neither Gospel, nor of Judas

There is a lot of hype out there about the recent finding of “The Lost Gospel of Judas“. People are making it out as some wonderful new revelation; some wonderful new “inside track” into Christianity.

Well, the text that they found is real. The Gospel of Judas WAS written in the second century, and DOES say the things it is purported to say. What’s interesting is that this is not news to Christianity.

An early pillar of the church, Iraneus of Lyons, wrote about this “Lost” “Gospel” in 180 AD in a treatise known as Against Heresies

They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas. Against Heresies Book I, Chapter XXXI – Doctrines of the Cainites

“They” being referred to here are the so-called “Cainites”. A sect of early gnosticism.

Iraneus was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John, who was sitting right next to Jesus during the “last supper”. You don’t get a whole lot closer than that. So we have two options about his information. 1) He is a leader in “the conspiracy to supress the truth” or 2) HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT.

The Gospel of Judas was not written by Judas, and does not contain new information that will help you understand the true nature of Christianity. Iraneus wrote “Heresies” because, as he puts it:

These men falsify the oracles of God, and prove themselves evil interpreters of the good word of revelation. They also overthrow the faith of many, by drawing them away, under a pretence of [superior] knowledge, from Him who rounded and adorned the universe; as if, forsooth, they had something more excellent and sublime to reveal, than that God who created the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein.

Those who wrote the Gospel of Judas are not trying to get the truth out there to help you understand the way things really are. They ARE trying to shipwreck your faith and lead you astray.

But then, maybe I’m just part of the conspiracy…

[tags]Christianity, Judas, Gospel of Judas, Gnosticism, Iraneus[/tags]