Author: admin

Their foot shall slip in due time

~ admin

August 4th 2019 West Hill

Deuteronomy 32:35 Their foot shall slip in due time (the word order varies in our English translations)

Introduction

About 3500 years ago the descendants of Jacob were delivered out of the house of bondage in Egypt and started their journey to the Promised Land. The passage (Deuteronomy 31:30-32:52) which was read in your hearing this evening, records Moses’s words spoken to the people before he was to die on Mount Nebo and before Joshua was to lead the people across the Jordan and into the land. At that time they had already tasted the goodness of the land, as two and half tribes had already settled on the east bank of the Jordan.

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Fake News

~ admin

Fake news is nothing if not new

Something you might need to relieve it.

I have not seen it, why would I want to? When a unique opportunity presents itself, we should not play with trifles. The BBC article refers to a film clip which has apparently been doctored, a term which is strangely used, but regardless:

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Gaudeamus igitur

~ admin ~ 2 Comments

Student games at the First Viennese School

Things you might need to know.

Blick auf Mischwald im Wienerwald, links eine Sommerlinde https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Karl_Gruber
  • Buxtehude was Bach’s mentor.
  • Buxtehude called Bach The Master, and nobody disagreed.
  • Mahler was a superb master of key and modulation.
  • Bruckner was a superb organist, so much so that it has been said that when he played the orchestra he made it sound like an organ.
  • Schubert knew how to modulate but never wrote a successful fugue in his life.
  • Palestrina was the father of counterpoint. If it could be counterpointed, then Palestrina knew how to do it, even if he had deemed it would have been quite inappropriate to have done so for his audiences.
  • Paul McCartney is a successful song writer unlike Schubert but he neither knew how to write a fugue nor how to modulate, though he could change key.

It was at a gathering of music students and staff of the first Viennese school that the game gained great popularity. It was very much as all student games are full of challenges, where penalties and rewards were handed out to the amusement and humiliation of those who were willing to complete and also on those who refused the invitation to do so. The game was very simple. It was to right(sic.) a fugue. The fugue would be five minutes long, no more no less.

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Come, brave hearted lion eater: Chao Yuen Ren

~ admin
Moonlit night

施氏食狮史
首被平原的管家(Google-Coco)
Unregistered appointee

If you had ever thought that She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore was difficult – consider a puzzle in the style of Carroll –

Chinese is already confusing enough with all of its tones, characters, markers and lack of articles, inflections and tenses, but this poem really shows just how difficult Chinese is especially for the native Mandarin.

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Another year

~ admin

Another year has passed us by
And still we hear the song
As tulips blossom in the tree
And wild sparrows fly a-free.
A thought springs up into the night –
A cranial response to the plight –
Appraising what we sensed must be
April has come and now must we
Advert to a remembrance day
Apply ourselves to the affray
Appropriate to ourselves a pen
And write, again, two more than ten.

The second thief

~ admin

Did you see what is going on in China?

Coco thought he would offer two different perspectives on the day which we call Good Friday. Please grant him an indulgence for this first one. The second perspective has been inspired by events at the focus of the Sinospheric regions. He shall come to that shortly.

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Der Berg ertönte

~ admin

Der Berg ertönte den Nebel nach

Im Ferne sah der Berg die Blitze,
Er hört den Donner in den dunklen Nebeln
Die Sonne hoch im Himmel schien
Das Erde flieht, bewegt bei Regen

Und der Berg ertönte den Nebel nach,
Was willst du, Nebel mein?
Der Nebel noch immer näher kommt:
In meinem Bauch deine Gipfel stören

In den dunklen Nebel die Blitze schossen
Aus tiefer Not die Felsen krächzten
Die Sonne hört, die Mond nimmt ab
Und Donner grollte in dem Staub

Am Morgen kommt der Tag zurück
Die Dämmerung weicht dem Tag
Wo ist der Gipfel, der erhob sich hoch?
In meinem Bach, erwiderte das Feld

Die Staub des Berges floss zum Meer
Mit Hilfe des Regens Heer.
Das Wasser fragte nach dem Gipfel;
Steht noch oben der Berg über den Wipfeln?

Bill and Ben

~ admin

When Faith could..

Coco heard the other day about Bill and Ben, not the famous flower pot men, but a pair of mountaineering brothers, indeed twins, and their little sister. They were well known by all for their many adventures. They did everything together, and would only ever climb if they were both in the team.

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