Amidus Drexel's Alliterative and Awe-Accentuating Anvil of Random Banter CLXXXVI

[Blue Ghost]

I'm quite fascinated by this discussion, and would like to join, but am scared by the amount of text there. I should probably read Aquinas to understand your posts... wait.

DP, shouldn't you be using your writing energy for your paper? Or are you done with it already?

Curly, why did you change your gender in the first place?

[DraPrime]

I'm quite fascinated by this discussion, and would like to join, but am scared by the amount of text there. I should probably read Aquinas to understand your posts... wait.

DP, shouldn't you be using your writing energy for your paper? Or are you done with it already?

Curly, why did you change your gender in the first place?

Join in! You need not to know anything! It's more fun that way! Merry philosophy times are ahead of us!

As for my energies, they are divided. I'm going to end up doing something more drastic than shaving off most of my beard out of boredom if I do nothing but the essay. That was traumatic enough for me.

[Mutant Sheep]

I'm quite fascinated by this discussion, and would like to join, but am scared by the amount of text there. I should probably read Aquinas to understand your posts... wait.

DP, shouldn't you be using your writing energy for your paper? Or are you done with it already?

Curly, why did you change your gender in the first place?

Do what I do. POST WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE, RHYME OR REASON.

See below.

Why DID Curly do that? And more importantly, why did I not notice or care?

Join in! You need not to know anything! It's more fun that way! Merry philosophy times are ahead of us!

As for my energies, they are divided. I'm going to end up doing something more drastic than shaving off most of my beard out of boredom if I do nothing but the essay. That was traumatic enough for me.

Oh! OH! I know why DP is here! THIS IS FUN AND WORK IS NOT. Am I right?

I again missed the grande posts I would have enjoyed, but meh. Instead of quoting, I will just state my will.

1;Teddy:I agree with Curly, your wall-o-tech discussions are much less interesting to me than these philosophical "I am in love with Aquinas"-"But Locke is famouser!" discussions. Geddit? Wall o' TECH?

2;DP: Valeo Draco whatever-primo-would-be-I'm-too-lazy-to-debate-with-myself-on-it-being-primo-or-the-proper-form-of-first-which-I-forgot-. SO MUCH HYPHEN. *pant*

3;Teddy again: Doesn't most EVERYONE celebrate the Eve, rather than teh true day? Most of the celebrations are held on the Eve, with the day itself being solely a second Thanksgiving, complete with turkey. (For my familia, at least)

[DraPrime]

Oh! OH! I know why DP is here! THIS IS FUN AND WORK IS NOT. Am I right?

In part. I need something to balance out the madness of this essay. When you're playing Verdi's Dies Irae to pump yourself up for an essay, you know that you are in for grim business.

;DP: Valeo Draco whatever-primo-would-be-I'm-too-lazy-to-debate-with-myself-on-it-being-primo-or-the-proper-form-of-first-which-I-forgot-. SO MUCH HYPHEN. *pant*

Whut.

[Blue Ghost]

In part. I need something to balance out the madness of this essay. When you're playing Verdi's Dies Irae to pump yourself up for an essay, you know that you are in for grim business.

Yes, I feel you. I don't think I've had such a major undertaking in recent times.

Hmm... Dies Irae for study music... I might try that myself.

[DraPrime]

Yes, I feel you. I don't think I've had such a major undertaking in recent times.

Hmm... Dies Irae for study music... I might try that myself.

You are now pumped. You're welcome.

edit:

If you don't know, that was originally written to be often used in funerals.

[AsteriskAmp]

3;Teddy again: Doesn't most EVERYONE celebrate the Eve, rather than teh true day? Most of the celebrations are held on the Eve, with the day itself being solely a second Thanksgiving, complete with turkey. (For my familia, at least)

Down here it is celebrated on the midnight of the 24th with 25th being the day for family dinin.

You are now pumped. You're welcome.

I need to learn latin and choral composing; I now know the name of this magnificent piece, my eternal gratitude.

[DraPrime]

I need to learn latin and choral composing; I now know the name of this magnificent piece, my eternal gratitude.

You should also listen to Mozart's similarly awesome rendition of Dies Irae. It is also very good stuff. It's very fitting considering the fact that Dies Irae is about Armageddon.

[Blue Ghost]

*explodes from overpumping*

The... awesome...

[AsteriskAmp]

You should also listen to Mozart's similarly awesome rendition of Dies Irae. It is also very good stuff. It's very fitting considering the fact that Dies Irae is about Armageddon.

I can raise no objection or contradiction to the sentiment. And how oddly coincident with today's first reading. I know revelations is not about the Armageddon but the literal images do match with the idea of the world ending.

[Qwertystop]

Started watching Dennou Coil (after a TVTropes spree got me there).

Just saw Episode 12.


Cannot stop laughing.

EDIT: Oh, then the very next episode. Mood whiplash much?

[DraPrime]

I can raise no objection or contradiction to the sentiment. And how oddly coincident with today's first reading. I know revelations is not about the Armageddon but the literal images do match with the idea of the world ending.

Well, the nature of that book is hard to pin down. It could refer to the future while also referring to present and past events. It's hard to tell. Either way, Dies Irae is the best.

[AsteriskAmp]

Well, the nature of that book is hard to pin down. It could refer to the future while also referring to present and past events. It's hard to tell. Either way, Dies Irae is the best.

Indeed it is. I find choral music quite impressive, mainly due to my inability to sing or compose for singers; but also because of the sheer scale of gathering such a number and getting it to sing different tonalities which result in an amazing pleasant (and amazing sound).

Gregorian Chants in particular tend to be fantastic but the Classical and Baroque pieces are also wonderful. Carmina Burana is however probably still my favourite, even if the lyrics are emo poetry.

[DraPrime]

Indeed it is. I find choral music quite impressive, mainly due to my inability to sing or compose for singers; but also because of the sheer scale of gathering such a number and getting it to sing different tonalities which result in an amazing pleasant (and amazing sound).

Gregorian Chants in particular tend to be fantastic but the Classical and Baroque pieces are also wonderful. Carmina Burana is probably still my favourite, even if the lyrics are emo poetry.

Can't say I'm familiar with Carmina Burna. As far as really sad Gregorian chant goes, nothing beats Stabat Mater in my opinion.

[AsteriskAmp]

Can't say I'm familiar with Carmina Burna. As far as really sad Gregorian chant goes, nothing beats Stabat Mater in my opinion.

Carmina Burana is the Cantata from where O' Fortuna comes from, with which I suspect you are familiar.

I have been exposed to too little Gregorian chants to have a favourite amongst them sadly. I do find Stabat Mater rather fascinating in the interaction between the violins and the singing.

[DraPrime]

Carmina Burana is the Cantata from where O' Fortuna comes from, with which I suspect you are familiar.

I have been exposed to too little Gregorian chants to have a favourite amongst them sadly. I do find Stabat Mater rather fascinating in the interaction between the violins and the singing.

I've never actually listened much to versions of Stabat Mater with instruments. I'm more familiar with it sounding like this.

[AsteriskAmp]

I've never actually listened much to versions of Stabat Mater with instruments. I'm more familiar with it sounding like this.

I'm more familiar with Pergolesi's version which does have instrumentation; thus.

[CurlyKitGirl]

That's way too much formalities for me on what I find a rather non-factual subject, which is why I find myself put off by this kind of discussion.

It can actually get much worse.
Back midway through first or second year of uni I attended a series of lectures by a man called Professor Valentine Cunnigham (and yes, everyone called him Professor Valentine) about the Bible, midrash and whatnot. Where it gets interesting is that he is very much the stereotypical Oxford Don: eccentric, a little forgetful, prone to ramblings and so on (but alas, no pipe). And so we would get spoken lectures with untranslated Biblical Hebrew that, in the handouts (if he remembered them) would be written in Hebrew script, with a reference to a version of the Bible, some transliteration and then five articles/books/etc. debating the precise translation of this particular phrase, its midrash, where it mirrors other parts of the Bible and so on.
FOR ONE SENTENCE.
While everyone then busily scribbles, "Hebrew sentence x on handout" and tries to catch up with what he just said the Professor them name drops several authors, extremely specific Biblical hermeneutic terminology and interpretative themes and points.
This is just for . . . I think it was the first sentence in the Bible. In the first lecture.
This wasn't a speciality lecture of anything mind you. There were first years in the audience. There were PhD students and Professors in the audience. They were sometimes confused too.
Oh, and this wasn't in the Theology Faculty or anything.
This was the English Faculty, and there were actual professors with actual religious orders to their name (one from Blackfriar's, a PPH founded by Domnicans!) sitting in his lectures getting slightly confused.
So it can most definitely get worse.

Yeah, I don't doubt that. Your topic is at least possible to understand for as long as you possess a moderately extensive vocabulary. Mine, not so much...

I know, I'd need to understand mathematics and physics and computers and all sorts of things. You though, read half a dozen books and you can at least give a considered opinion with reasons to back it up.

On the topic of technology, however,I think I can guess what caused your computer issues: It's probably either too much RAM usage or too much CPU usage, both of which are problems you can monitor and fix through the Task Manager. Now, since I'm the one who's into Computer Science, and not you, I think it's better to just suggest that you close down some non-essential programs when the problem first appears, and restart the computer if that doesn't solve it. Playing around with the Task Manager when you don't know what you're doing can be... dangerous.

I do know how to use Task Manager thank you very much! Just about.
And as I was only using Firefox, and only had eight tabs (seven of which were open to text-only sites (i.e. no videos, ads and very few links)) open I had no idea why it was so laggy. And when I thought there were secret things going on in the background Task Manager said 'lolnope, only Firefox'. And then I looked on the Processes tab and was intimidated so I pretended it didn't exist.
And I'm the best computer user in the house.

The best part, the actual image is just 1 pixel high, and then repeated all the way down the page. When you break it, it's not that you get to the bottom of the image, but you actually break the code of the page*. This forum simply wasn't built to handle this much CurlyPrime (& co).

*Oversimplification/overdramatisation. Probably caused by simple loop termination (okay, continued studies of the phenomenon says that's probably not the case).

Ha! We broke the forum's page limit! Possibly. We're that talkative.

It's possible, although wikipedia doesn't comment on it. It's close enough to Boston that I'm sure some of the mid-1700's protests spilled over to Cambridge.

It's worth a shot, although if you don't like black licorice I can't guarantee anything. Licorice is an acquired taste, for sure.

Oooh riots. Always good for a bit of diversity.
You know when you've been up for a long time when it takes you a while to link 1700s Boston with riots though. Took a whole four seconds, good grief.

But...theological stuff...

Even politics overrides theological stuff. Besides, the HRE was at its zenith (more or less), so be happy that they had control over . . . Spain, Austria, the German states, parts of France, Italy, Switzerland, part of Poland, the Netherlands, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg . . . basically all of central Europe. (And when it was still Carolingian over everything else encompassed most of France and parts of Spain too!)
The Hapsburgs were so ridiculously inbred and had married into (I think) all the major Royal families by this point they couldn't help but marry their own cousins.
That said, the kingdoms of Castille and Navarre (and later just Spain) really took it to extremes.
But I got sdetracked. Can you imagine what it would have been like if they got a properly secure foothold in one of the few non-Scandinavian countries to escape their evermore inbred grasp?!

Coffee is the best. Especially when you pour hot cocoa powder into it. It's hard to explain, it's just a thing around here. It's a bit like alcohol. Most people don't like it at first, but once you've gotten some experience it is yumdeliciousthebest. Also, it is the brew of every exhausted student, which is how people get hooked. Speaking of which...

*takes a swig of coffee*

Blech. I will never understand you coffee lovers. When I was an exhausted student in the midst of an essay crisis I ran on tea, water and food from the nearest (or best) kebab van.

Anyways, British weather, eh? Is it getting cold over there? I was in London a week ago for Thanksgiving (it's a long story) and it wasn't so bad yet. New England weather is fun, because it's clearly got a sense of humor. Unlike the consistent rain that you guys are known for having, our weather reels about like a drunk, never sure where it wants to stand. One day it snows, the next it's bright and warm, and lightning all of a sudden come afterwards. Also, occasional tornadoes and hurricanes. I swear, most of you Europeans have such a wimpy climate.

Yeah yeah, us and our poor temperate climate bounded by the Gulf Stream. That said, exactly one week ago (as of 01:04 am,aka, the writing of this sentence) I was almost up to my knees in freezing cold flood waters after the river burst its banks and basically flooded the main flat part of our village.
I really must put those pictures up tomorrow.
I even got in the local newspaper.
And the weather's basically gone along the same rout for the past month: cold, wet and miserable, with periods of wetter wet and colder cold. last night it was so cold I could literally see the mist rolling off the river and the frost forming around me as I walked home.

I never got French myself. Everyone tells me it's so very beautiful, but after spending some time in France my attitude was "I guess it's alright." English might be messy. The orthography looks like it was assembled by someone who took a hammer to the head. However, I still think it sounds rather pretty. Besides, it's a fascinating linguistic mutant.

L'Academie Francaise is actively against loan words and foreign words, taking them almost two years to think of an acceptable French version of an e-mail (c'est un corriel), and the English term is absolutely not allowed to be used in anything official (even just an office-word e-ma- courriel) let alone the official French dictionary.
It is a shame really as so much English is derived from French or a bastardised version of it. I mean, I can see where l'Academie's coming from, but being so restrictive and prescriptive over its language is patriotism to the point of absurdity.

Interesting. Does this mean that Western Europe believed Martin Luther to be foxy?

Ooh, perhaps. It just depends on exactly how often he mumbled his way through his ideas.

I would be fascinated to hear how on earth Xenocrates tried to justify his moving number thing. It's just...weird. I blame Pythagoras for this.

I have no idea. Something about the soul being comprised of self-moving units and adding together to make a magic number of perfection. Something ditzy like that.

Søren Kierkegaard was a 19th century Danish philosopher/theologian, and the father of existentialism. He was very concerned with how one is to live as an individual, and the dread and anxiety that come with ethical dilemmas. He's a lot of fun, because he is incredibly witty. So much so that he was sometimes called out for not being serious enough for academia. A lot of existentialists like Sartre, Nietzsche, and Camus owe a lot to him, though they differ very radically from him. Kierkegaard probably would not approve of them. I have not read too much of his stuff, but what I have read I really like. Even when I disagree with him, I can't help but love reading what he writes. From what I have read, I would tentatively say that he may be the greatest Christian philosopher since St. Thomas Aquinas.

So he sounds like Neitzsche, but with a sense of humour? I could get behind that. However I keep getting distracting because his name is Kierke - suspiciously like it could be Danish for 'church', and with cognates to 'kirk' which is a Scottish dialectal form for 'church'.
Also James T. Kirk.
Look, I've been watching the good films and TOS again lately. I need my slash.
Oh, there's another existentialist I hate: Kafka. Almost as miserable as Thomas Hardy.

Our Cambridge was just founded by disgruntled Puritans.

Oh, how dull. I was expecting something more than a group of grumpy Christians. Not one little scandal at all?

Yes. Read the Summa. It's very weird to read, since it is broken down into separate individual questions. If you have a good table of contents, you can look up what particularly interests you. I actually think that it's pretty good to read from the beginning for at least a little while, because that's where St. Thomas Aquinas explains what philosophy is, what theology is, where they overlap, and where they differ. It's crucial for understanding the rest of his thought.

You'll turn me into a Thomist yet won't you? And when that happens you shall rejoice at converting one of the disbelieving masses into a follower of the Angelic Doctor.
Even if he doesn't have a sonic screwdriver.
here's a thought for you: is the Angelic Doctor the Doctor? :smallrevelation!:

Whoa, Gaudete is quite cool. I love that I can actually now understand significant parts of it, and the grammar underlying it. As for O Come O Come Emmanuel, we were fortunate enough to have sung it during vespers today in the seminary not long after I mentioned it to you. I was quite happy.

You've never heard it before?!
I do wish there were better version online though; the Anuna one is just fine for the chorus, but gaudete - rejoice! Stop sounding so solemn and demanding about it. You're meant to be filled with joy and celebration for Christ has been born and it is a miracle. At least in the choral sections there's a sense of wonder, but the soloist sounds too forceful to really get across the joy one's meant to feel upon hearing the news.
I've listened to a few versions on YouTube, and one of the more amusing ones is Steeleye Span (or however it's spelt) because the Latin seems a little unsettled, and then they get to ex Maria virginae (sp?) where they actually pronounce it 'virgin-ay' which makes it really jarring seeing as I'm almost certain 'veer-ginae' is how it should be pronounced.
Also Christus as opposed to Chreetus. It just doesn't seem to fit. Especially as one of the guys in the background sounds like he's just speaking the words with a very thick Somersetshire accent.
Ex Mar-ria vir-gin-ay Gow-day-tay indeed.

Also: Anuna sing Fionnghuala. My brain proceeds to tie itself in knots wondering how to say that at normal speed, and how they sung it so fast.

Oh good, I'll travel back in time, make it succeed, and be like Archbishop Turpin, except without dying.

You're certainly kickass enough to wield a broadsword with one hand as you charge around a battlefield simultaneously blessing and damning the combatants.

I'm quite fascinated by this discussion, and would like to join, but am scared by the amount of text there. I should probably read Aquinas to understand your posts... wait.

Not necessarily. I've not read very much of Aquinas at all, but I know enough of the surrounding schools and what preceded and followed him to engage in the discussion.
Now come, discuss with us!

Curly, why did you change your gender in the first place?

I think it was very early on in the year, there was some idiot going around being vaguely sexist so I proceeded to troll the person by claiming to be male IRL and only being female online or something.
This person was really not very nice, and so I proceeded to screw with him. Or her. I forget which.

Join in! You need not to know anything! It's more fun that way! Merry philosophy times are ahead of us!

Yes Blue, let us engage in the Socratic method and make a mess out of everything! Your turn to throw out a theologian/philospher/historian/linguist/etc.

Why DID Curly do that? And more importantly, why did I not notice or care?

For troll lulz. And because you knew I was a girl and didn't really need to look at the gender sign. Also I think it was at a point where you weren't as active in RB.

I again missed the grande posts I would have enjoyed, but meh. Instead of quoting, I will just state my will.

1;Teddy:I agree with Curly, your wall-o-tech discussions are much less interesting to me than these philosophical "I am in love with Aquinas"-"But Locke is famouser!" discussions. Geddit? Wall o' TECH?

It's not that they're less interesting, but it takes a lot more to understand even the basics of coding whereas just reading the Wikipedia page on a philosopher/theologian/idea can give you at least a footing from which to understand the conversation.

That done?
Done?
Good. I've been writing this for about half an hour and my tea's stone cold.

EDIT:
Oh noes. Church music discussion. Incoming quotestorm!

You are now pumped. You're welcome.

edit:

If you don't know, that was originally written to be often used in funerals.

That always amused me how the later orchestral composer made something so angry (in Verdi's case) out of a solemn declaration about the end of the world and the Last Judgement.
Got to say, of all the variations of dies irae I've heard and performed, Verdi's s just my favourite for being so big and angry and large. It really does feel like the end of days.

I need to learn latin and choral composing; I now know the name of this magnificent piece, my eternal gratitude.

You didn't know? It's probably one of the most famous short Latin pieces in the world. Certainly one of the most frequently interpreted.

You should also listen to Mozart's similarly awesome rendition of Dies Irae. It is also very good stuff. It's very fitting considering the fact that Dies Irae is about Armageddon.

I've sung this particular version! The altos didn't get many elaborate lines (in my opinion), but the chorals here are more impressive than in Verdi, but I prefer the musical composition in Verdi. It's bigger.
Mozart's Dies Irae . . . seems to peter out in power ending comparatively weaker.

*explodes from overpumping*

The... awesome...

Yep. Good angry music. That said, I love the Dies Irae that plays in the background throughout much of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, particularly in the opening song.
I will love that film forever in spite of those three colossal flaws.
And Hellfire forever. I will never stop talking about the genius of (most of) the music in this film.

Indeed it is. I find choral music quite impressive, mainly due to my inability to sing or compose for singers; but also because of the sheer scale of gathering such a number and getting it to sing different tonalities which result in an amazing pleasant (and amazing sound).

Gregorian Chants in particular tend to be fantastic but the Classical and Baroque pieces are also wonderful. Carmina Burana is however probably still my favourite, even if the lyrics are emo poetry.

Oooh! Ooh! Oooh! DP, link to the Byzantine liturgies and those thingies from the Eastern Orthodox Church! It was that wasn't it? Definitely Orthodox. In . . . Aramaic I want to say?

Can't say I'm familiar with Carmina Burna. As far as really sad Gregorian chant goes, nothing beats Stabat Mater in my opinion.

Gregorian chants are wonderful. Shame I lost a good number of my links to them during a crash about a year ago.

[AsteriskAmp]

It can actually get much worse.
Back midway through first or second year of uni I attended a series of lectures by a man called Professor Valentine Cunnigham (and yes, everyone called him Professor Valentine) about the Bible, midrash and whatnot. Where it gets interesting is that he is very much the stereotypical Oxford Don: eccentric, a little forgetful, prone to ramblings and so on (but alas, no pipe). And so we would get spoken lectures with untranslated Biblical Hebrew that, in the handouts (if he remembered them) would be written in Hebrew script, with a reference to a version of the Bible, some transliteration and then five articles/books/etc. debating the precise translation of this particular phrase, its midrash, where it mirrors other parts of the Bible and so on.
FOR ONE SENTENCE.
While everyone then busily scribbles, "Hebrew sentence x on handout" and tries to catch up with what he just said the Professor them name drops several authors, extremely specific Biblical hermeneutic terminology and interpretative themes and points.
This is just for . . . I think it was the first sentence in the Bible. In the first lecture.
This wasn't a speciality lecture of anything mind you. There were first years in the audience. There were PhD students and Professors in the audience. They were sometimes confused too.
Oh, and this wasn't in the Theology Faculty or anything.
This was the English Faculty, and there were actual professors with actual religious orders to their name (one from Blackfriar's, a PPH founded by Domnicans!) sitting in his lectures getting slightly confused.
So it can most definitely get worse.

I had a philosophy professor which explained why this came to happen and the term for it. She referred to it as "cultural inbreeding"; some branches of humanities, specially those which have limited employment options directly related, normally produce academics; which in turn means they report to other people versed in their area, and end up teaching to people interested in said area; this results in never having to simplify their ideas and generates the expectancy from them that their audience will have read the same material the he or she has. This is compounded throughout generations which in terms makes the reading material even more hermetic to outsiders and increases the volume of references to references.

In turn, newcomers are taught this is normal and they eventually become part of said academic structure. The problem appears when an outsider tries to vaguely discern what the hell is even happening and finds out the references have references.

The sciences avoid this (or mostly those outside pure physics and pure mathematics) due to having to explain it to common day people from time to time, and due to teaching structures having to make a part of what they do accessible to newcomers. Most people don't know how exactly air resistance works, most can't calculate it, but everybody knows it exists and what it does in general terms; which in turn doesn't work for more specialized humanities because explaining conditioning in merely Pavlovian terms is counterproductive, because Heidegger is more complex than "the thinginess of the thing" and because while Martinet's theory is clean and easy to explain and seems perfectly logical, it is only one theory and there are alternatives and empirical disproving is extremely hard, even with Neurolinguistics.

I know, I'd need to understand mathematics and physics and computers and all sorts of things. You though, read half a dozen books and you can at least give a considered opinion with reasons to back it up.

Same with the qualitative aspects of many sciences though, reading a small volume of literature might allow one to have a clear but not quantitative understanding of the working of many complex issues. The problems crop up when very specific issues are brought up, which is something that eventually happens in both places.

L'Academie Francaise is actively against loan words and foreign words, taking them almost two years to think of an acceptable French version of an e-mail (c'est un corriel), and the English term is absolutely not allowed to be used in anything official (even just an office-word e-ma- courriel) let alone the official French dictionary.
It is a shame really as so much English is derived from French or a bastardised version of it. I mean, I can see where l'Academie's coming from, but being so restrictive and prescriptive over its language is patriotism to the point of absurdity.

I vaguely remember a mentioning of Cultural Protectionism in terms of not just the L'Academie Francaise but also the French government; it seems they still haven't taken well to the end of Paris as the capital of anything but France (no longer neither the cultural nor the intellectual nor the economic capital [not that it ever was the last] of the world). I recall heavy payments being required for the use of non-French words in French media.

That always amused me how the later orchestral composer made something so angry (in Verdi's case) out of a solemn declaration about the end of the world and the Last Judgement.
Got to say, of all the variations of dies irae I've heard and performed, Verdi's s just my favourite for being so big and angry and large. It really does feel like the end of days.

That was the aim of most orchestral composers in terms of holy music, either make it a rage storm or something so depressing it would make a german slightly curve his lip. As it happens angry music tends to normally have more marked bass, the bass's (or in general lower pitched sounds) wavelength has been proven to affect the brain in interesting ways; a music teacher of mine once commented the reason churches used organs is because the resonance does affect the way you perceive the situation, coupled with the lower pitch sounds it make one sink into a more contemplative state.

You didn't know? It's probably one of the most famous short Latin pieces in the world. Certainly one of the most frequently interpreted.

I knew the sound, not the name. My knowledge of music is limited in terms of sung music.

Oooh! Ooh! Oooh! DP, link to the Byzantine liturgies and those thingies from the Eastern Orthodox Church! It was that wasn't it? Definitely Orthodox. In . . . Aramaic I want to say?

I have to say I'm mostly lost at what is being said in here though. I had not heard before of the Byzantine liturgies and Carmina Burana is in Latin, German and French from what I remember.

[DraPrime]

Blech. I will never understand you coffee lovers. When I was an exhausted student in the midst of an essay crisis I ran on tea, water and food from the nearest (or best) kebab van.

*swigs coffee*

You see, if you drink enough caffeine you develop a tolerance for it, which means that tea doesn't do it. Besides, throw in some good cream and sugar and you have a pretty solid beverage. Kebabs are the best; they're pretty much all I subsist on while traveling in Europe. Forget trying local cuisine, the Turks have got me covered. No doubt all my ancestors who fought in Poland's many battles with the Turks are rolling in their graves at that sentence.

Yeah yeah, us and our poor temperate climate bounded by the Gulf Stream. That said, exactly one week ago (as of 01:04 am,aka, the writing of this sentence) I was almost up to my knees in freezing cold flood waters after the river burst its banks and basically flooded the main flat part of our village.
I really must put those pictures up tomorrow.
I even got in the local newspaper.
And the weather's basically gone along the same rout for the past month: cold, wet and miserable, with periods of wetter wet and colder cold. last night it was so cold I could literally see the mist rolling off the river and the frost forming around me as I walked home.

Ah, so that's what that was about. As I was getting on my plain in Heathrow I saw the BBC broadcasting some story about torrential downpours in England. Frankly I was baffled by why that was news, but flooding certainly is a significant event. I hope no kebab stands got washed out, that would be awful.

L'Academie Francaise is actively against loan words and foreign words, taking them almost two years to think of an acceptable French version of an e-mail (c'est un corriel), and the English term is absolutely not allowed to be used in anything official (even just an office-word e-ma- courriel) let alone the official French dictionary.
It is a shame really as so much English is derived from French or a bastardised version of it. I mean, I can see where l'Academie's coming from, but being so restrictive and prescriptive over its language is patriotism to the point of absurdity.

Would it be rude of me to point out to them that they speak some weird sort of Germanicized Celtic/Latin thing?

Ooh, perhaps. It just depends on exactly how often he mumbled his way through his ideas.

Ladies...here I stand, and I can do no other.

Oddly enough, there is a guy at the seminary who looks almost exactly like Martin Luther. We wouldn't stop teasing him about it the moment we noticed the resemblance.

So he sounds like Neitzsche, but with a sense of humour? I could get behind that. However I keep getting distracting because his name is Kierke - suspiciously like it could be Danish for 'church', and with cognates to 'kirk' which is a Scottish dialectal form for 'church'.
Also James T. Kirk.
Look, I've been watching the good films and TOS again lately. I need my slash.
Oh, there's another existentialist I hate: Kafka. Almost as miserable as Thomas Hardy.

Kierkegaard is different from Nietzsche because he actually believes in morality and being good to other people. Both are very focused on the individual, but in very different ways. Existentialism is odd as a school of philosophy, because it's not really united in belief like Platonism or Thomism are, but rather in what it pursues, which is how one is to exist as an individual. Obviously some common threads show up, but it is extremely varied.

Oh, how dull. I was expecting something more than a group of grumpy Christians. Not one little scandal at all?

No scandals were involved in its founding, unless you find the Puritans scandalous. I mostly think of them as being the source of one of my favorite Blackadder episodes. "Cold is God's way of telling us that we need to burn more Catholics!" Heh. Harvard was actually a Puritan seminary at first, so I suspect that a few of the men behind the Salem witch trials were educated there, so there's a scandal for you.

You'll turn me into a Thomist yet won't you? And when that happens you shall rejoice at converting one of the disbelieving masses into a follower of the Angelic Doctor.
Even if he doesn't have a sonic screwdriver.
here's a thought for you: is the Angelic Doctor the Doctor? :smallrevelation!:

Yes, Curly, join us! It'll be awesome! Sadly, St. Thomas Aquinas is not a time lord. I'm pretty sure Aquinas would actually have something interesting to say about the Doctor. From how I understand his view on the soul-body relationship, he'd actually believe that the two are bound so closely together that one can't simply just give an entirely new body and personality to someone and have it be the same person. In other words, the Doctor has died a bunch of times only to be replaced by an entirely new being constituted out of the same matter and with the same memories. There are currently ten dead men somewhere in the afterlife watching the eleventh man at this moment. I privately hold to this theory for my own amusement, even though I realize that in the show the Doctor is the same man in every body that he has.

You've never heard it before?!
I do wish there were better version online though; the Anuna one is just fine for the chorus, but gaudete - rejoice! Stop sounding so solemn and demanding about it. You're meant to be filled with joy and celebration for Christ has been born and it is a miracle. At least in the choral sections there's a sense of wonder, but the soloist sounds too forceful to really get across the joy one's meant to feel upon hearing the news.
I've listened to a few versions on YouTube, and one of the more amusing ones is Steeleye Span (or however it's spelt) because the Latin seems a little unsettled, and then they get to ex Maria virginae (sp?) where they actually pronounce it 'virgin-ay' which makes it really jarring seeing as I'm almost certain 'veer-ginae' is how it should be pronounced.
Also Christus as opposed to Chreetus. It just doesn't seem to fit. Especially as one of the guys in the background sounds like he's just speaking the words with a very thick Somersetshire accent.
Ex Mar-ria vir-gin-ay Gow-day-tay indeed.

Also: Anuna sing Fionnghuala. My brain proceeds to tie itself in knots wondering how to say that at normal speed, and how they sung it so fast.

You should hear how I sometimes pronounce Latin. It's not that things are wrong, so much as that I have a hybrid accent. The fact that I'm American comes across strongly in my voice, but I also have Polish mixing in there. No doubt if there was some Roman who knew modern accents he'd have a very hard time figuring out where I'm from judging by my voice. This only happens with foreign languages though. I have a completely normal American accent when I speak English. Well, a New England accent really. American English is diverse enough that there is really no one accent.

You're certainly kickass enough to wield a broadsword with one hand as you charge around a battlefield simultaneously blessing and damning the combatants.

This has been my dream ever since I joined the seminary.

EDIT:
Oh noes. Church music discussion. Incoming quotestorm!

I was wondering when you were going to get in on the action.

That always amused me how the later orchestral composer made something so angry (in Verdi's case) out of a solemn declaration about the end of the world and the Last Judgement.
Got to say, of all the variations of dies irae I've heard and performed, Verdi's s just my favourite for being so big and angry and large. It really does feel like the end of days.

I've always been a big fan of Mozart's version as far as orchestral arrangements go. Granted, Verdi has that phenomenal booming drum, and buckets of bombast, but I just find Mozart to have written a more beautiful version of the hymn.

I've sung this particular version! The altos didn't get many elaborate lines (in my opinion), but the chorals here are more impressive than in Verdi, but I prefer the musical composition in Verdi. It's bigger.
Mozart's Dies Irae . . . seems to peter out in power ending comparatively weaker.

It definitely has less fire to it...but there's just something about Mozart's version that just moves me more. I don't know what it is, but it's there.

Oooh! Ooh! Oooh! DP, link to the Byzantine liturgies and those thingies from the Eastern Orthodox Church! It was that wasn't it? Definitely Orthodox. In . . . Aramaic I want to say?

Very well my dear Cirrata. First, Serbia has some great music from the monastery of High Decani. I find it fun to listen to because my knowledge of Polish allows me to pick up a lot of what is being said in Serbian. Now, if Serbian is not your thing, then perhaps some wonderful Greek would suit you better. Byzantine music was written around very consonantal languages such as Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Aramaic, Arabic, etc. This means that it does very well in being adapted to English. That piece is quite nice, since it is the oldest known Christian hymn that does not appear in the New Testament. By the way, I mentioned that Byzantine music was written for Arabic. The Melkites used it for a rather interesting flash mob in Lebanon. Basically, Byzantine chant is awesome.

edit:

I should also throw in a mention of Templar music. Before they were supressed they had some truly majestic music. Just listen to how incredibly low some of them can sing. It's impressive. I'm quite sad that they got put down. The other knightly orders managed to survive to modern day. The Hospitalers even still have a standing army!

extra edit:

Speaking of knightly hymns, I am a big fan of Bogurodzica, a hymn sung by Polish knights before battle.

[MoonCat]

Soooo much things.

Yeah. I'm sorry guys, I hve so many things I want to tell you, but then it's too late, but then I don't want to go on becuase I have ever more stuff to tell everyone, but if I don't go on, it stacks up, and if I don't tell about all the good things, I'm sad.

Compromise, I shall tell one things from last week, pretend the last five weeks before that had nothing interesting in them, and move onwards with a feeling of regret!

ION: Guys, remember that night I was telling y'all about my AmazingTM decision to, upon being assigned a month and a half to do a project, not even begin until 9 PM the night before it was due?

Well, I got over a hundred percent on the project, and the test on it the next day, which I took after two hours of sleep.

Can I get some worshippers? I really want worshippers.

And in other news, I'm finally making friends! Although, small sad thing, a few days ago, a kid form the grade below me (the grade that I used to be in), informed me that most of that class dislikes me. I'm not sure why. I haven't been in that school system while being in their grade since fifth.

Actually, I'm more perplexed about the circumstances in which I got mentioned to the students (which caused one of them to apparently call me a bitch and then have much of the class agree with him.(And I don't even know the person who caleed me that. At elas,t I don't recognize the name.)). Apparently, while they were in middle school, a teacher I never had who I've never met, used some of my work from a grade years below her classes as an example for something. Wha-?

<HUGS FOR EVERYONE I PROMISE I WONT VANISH FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT>*

*Unless another vehicle crashes into something and cuts off the entire internet/phone system for my city again. That happened this morning too.

[Mynxae]

Soooo much things.

Yeah. I'm sorry guys, I hve so many things I want to tell you, but then it's too late, but then I don't want to go on becuase I have ever more stuff to tell everyone, but if I don't go on, it stacks up, and if I don't tell about all the good things, I'm sad.

Compromise, I shall tell one things from last week, pretend the last five weeks before that had nothing interesting in them, and move onwards with a feeling of regret!

ION: Guys, remember that night I was telling y'all about my AmazingTM decision to, upon being assigned a month and a half to do a project, not even begin until 9 PM the night before it was due?

Well, I got over a hundred percent on the project, and the test on it the next day, which I took after two hours of sleep.

Can I get some worshippers? I really want worshippers.

And in other news, I'm finally making friends! Although, small sad thing, a few days ago, a kid form the grade below me (the grade that I used to be in), informed me that most of that class dislikes me. I'm not sure why. I haven't been in that school system while being in their grade since fifth.

Actually, I'm more perplexed about the circumstances in which I got mentioned to the students (which caused one of them to apparently call me a bitch and then have much of the class agree with him.(And I don't even know the person who caleed me that. At elas,t I don't recognize the name.)). Apparently, while they were in middle school, a teacher I never had who I've never met, used some of my work from a grade years below her classes as an example for something. Wha-?

<HUGS FOR EVERYONE I PROMISE I WONT VANISH FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT>*

*Unless another vehicle crashes into something and cuts off the entire internet/phone system for my city again. That happened this morning too.

MOONIE! *tackle hugs* We missed you!

[DraPrime]

MoonCat, you're alive!

*super hug*

It has been so very long since I last saw you. Mostly due to my own absence, but still, it's good to see you again.

[MoonCat]

@My-My: How long HAS it been? I kind of can't tell what day it is anymore, my brain got fried.

@DP: Heya! I saw yer post in the Goodbye thread, but I figured I'd say hi when I got back.

ION: Vaguely irritated because I can't I can't find my English copy of Death Note: How To Read, so I have to read it in French to find the info I'm looking for. And I'm not at my peak when it comes to reading a differently language right now. I can't barely do English.

(For the record, that last sentence I didn't do on purpose, I am genuinely that fried right now. I left it because I thought it would be an example.)

[Devmaar]

ION: Guys, remember that night I was telling y'all about my AmazingTM decision to, upon being assigned a month and a half to do a project, not even begin until 9 PM the night before it was due?

Well, I got over a hundred percent on the project, and the test on it the next day, which I took after two hours of sleep.

Can I get some worshippers? I really want worshippers.

While your achievement is noteworthy, I fond the concept of any assignment in which it possible to score over 100% severely annoying, so I'm afraid I cannot grant you worshippers.

And huzzah for friends! The friends I have made this term can now comfortably be called a few, long gone the days when I was happy to have reached a plural.

[MoonCat]

While your achievement is noteworthy, I fond the concept of any assignment in which it possible to score over 100% severely annoying, so I'm afraid I cannot grant you worshippers.

And huzzah for friends! The friends I have made this term can now comfortably be called a few, long gone the days when I was happy to have reached a plural.

Yeah, I know the feel. Have ye seen the epic Ponder Stibbons thing about 110%?

[Devmaar]

Not that I remember, was it in one of the books?

[MoonCat]

Not that I remember, was it in one of the books?

Yeah. It's either Unseen Academicals or the Last Hero.

[Qwertystop]

Oh, almost forgot:

SAT Completed!

EDIT: The 110% thing? That was something like 110% being impossible because if you get better you've just made the 110% bigger? That was Academicals. Don't quite see what's so epic about that, I was trying to tell phys. ed. teachers that since I learned what "percent" meant.

[Devmaar]

I just googled The Last Hero and... I don't think I've read it...

I thought I'd read all the Discworld novels...

I need to take a minute...
Think through some things...


Also I need to go to sleep. It's after 3am and I want to get up in time to do chores before D&D