The footage below was found on YouTube regarding the discovery of this bowl:

The report from the Christian Telegraph now follows:

Scientists find ancient bowl that may call Jesus a magician

In what is certainly to be a controversial speculation too hard for many Evangelical Christians to swallow, scientists claim they have found an ancient bowl that refers to Jesus Christ as a magician, reports Michael Ireland, chief correspondent, ASSIST News Service.

A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found the bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ.

In an online article by Jennifer Viegas of the Discovery Channel posted to the MSNBC website, scientists say the engraving reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted to mean either, "by Christ the magician" or, "the magician by Christ."

The MSNBC article says that if the word "Christ" refers to the Biblical Jesus Christ, as is speculated, then the discovery may provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world.

"It could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, in that he was once the primary exponent of white magic," said archaeologist Goddio, who is co-founder of the Oxford Center of Maritime Archaeology.

In her article, Viegas says that Goddio and his colleagues found the object during an excavation of the underwater ruins of Alexandria's ancient great harbor. The Egyptian site also includes the now submerged island of Antirhodos, where Cleopatra's palace may have been located.

Viegas says that both Goddio and Egyptologist David Fabre, a member of the European Institute of Submarine Archaeology, think a "magus" could have practiced fortune telling rituals using the bowl. The Book of Matthew refers to "wisemen," or Magi, believed to have been prevalent in the ancient world.

According to Fabre, the bowl is also very similar to one depicted in two early Egyptian earthenware statuettes that are thought to show a soothsaying ritual.

"It has been known in Mesopotamia probably since the 3rd millennium B.C.," Fabre said. "The soothsayer interprets the forms taken by the oil poured into a cup of water in an interpretation guided by manuals."

Fabre added that the individual, or "medium," then goes into a hallucinatory trance when studying the oil in the cup.

"They therefore see the divinities, or supernatural beings appear that they call to answer their questions with regard to the future," he said.

Viegas writes that scientists theorize the magus might then have used the engraving on the bowl to legitimize his supernatural powers by invoking the name of Christ.

Goddio said, "It is very probable that in Alexandria they were aware of the existence of Jesus" and of his associated legendary miracles, such as transforming water into wine, multiplying loaves of bread, conducting miraculous health cures, and the story of the resurrection itself.

Viegas explains that while not discounting the Jesus Christ interpretation, other researchers have offered different possible interpretations for the engraving, which was made on the thin-walled ceramic bowl after it was fired, since slip was removed during the process.

Bert Smith, a professor of classical archaeology and art at Oxford University, suggests the engraving might be a dedication, or present, made by a certain "Chrestos" belonging to a possible religious association called Ogoistais.

Klaus Hallof, director of the Institute of Greek inscriptions at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, added that if Smith's interpretation proves valid, the word "Ogoistais" could then be connected to known religious groups that worshipped early Greek and Egyptian gods and goddesses, such as Hermes, Athena and Isis.

Hallof additionally pointed out that historians working at around, or just after, the time of the bowl, such as Strabon and Pausanias, refer to the god "Osogo" or "Ogoa," so a variation of this might be what's on the bowl. It is even possible that the bowl refers to both Jesus Christ and Osogo.

Fabre concluded: "It should be remembered that in Alexandria, paganism, Judaism and Christianity never evolved in isolation. All of these forms of religion (evolved) magical practices that seduced both the humble members of the population and the most well-off classes."

"It was in Alexandria where new religious constructions were made to propose solutions to the problem of man, of God's world," he added. "Cults of Isis, mysteries of Mithra, and early Christianity bear witness to this."

The bowl is currently on public display in the exhibit "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" at the Matadero Cultural Center in Madrid, Spain, until November 15.

Report from the Christian Telegraph

Three recommendations in three different genres, all in one day - only on Torrent Times! After the nocturnes, I looked for more of Chopin and here's a collection of his waltzes played by Brazilian pianist Arthur Lima. Another series of brilliant compositions that I'm glad to have found.

download

artist website

The name 'pakhawaj' originates from the two words, paksha meaning side and baaj meaning to play. Together, pakshvadya became Pakhawaj, meaning an instrument, which is played from both sides.

Bhawani Shankar should be given the credit for exposing Pakhawaj to the world stage outside of the traditional Dhrupad performamces. He teamed up with Ustad Zakir Hussain in his percussion ensemble, Zakir Hussain and the Rhythm Experience. Their world tours have been highly successful, giving a great deal of exposure to Pakhawaj as an instrument. [Excerpts from Tabla.co.za Click here to read more]

For all those who love Hindustani Classical music in all its forms, here is a Pakhawaj solo by Pandit Bhavani Shankar in Taal Tilwaara. Lehra performed on Sarangi.

» Download [26.69 MB]

This week's assembly music will be Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel

I found this while scouring youtube - Incredible stuff!

This young boy is talented, he makes it seem so easy.

Classic music is boring...rubbish, watch this and tell me if you still think so!

Mr W.

Talk about someone being under the radar and you’ll certainly include the name of George Frederick McKay. Until the recent releases by Naxos, in their ever-expanding American Classics series, McKay had gotten little or no airplay since his death in 1970. Perhaps it was due to the fact that George spent most of his life in the Pacific Northwest, not exactly the same kind of exposure Copland received in New York. Known as the “Dean of Northwest Composers”, McKay was a Professor of Music at the University of Washington for 41 years leaving the area only for a short time to study at the Eastman School of Music and short stints as a conductor in North Carolina, Missouri, and South Dakota.

Composed in 1935 Epoch: An American Dance Symphony was given an extremely favorable review at the premiere by both daily Seattle newspapers. The dance is based on American history as seen through the eyes of some of its greatest poets Edgar Allen Poe, Sidney Lanier, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg, coincidentally all honored by the US Postal Service with stamps. The four sections of the work cover “Symbolic Portrait” (Poe), “Pastoral” (Lanier), and “Westward!” (Whitman), and “Machine Age Blues” (Sandburg) with the “Epilogue” the fifth episode unfinished with the comment from George that this is being prepared by time and will be written and enacted by us all.

“Symbolic Portrait” certainly touches upon the softer side of Poe as well as his curiosity of the ghastly side of life. The choreography ranged from romantic to the macabre (dance of death). While the music in parts is quite dark and dissonant (brass passages) George certainly maintained a melodic nature through the 14+ minutes with solos from harp, flute, and oboe, a struggle between good and evil.

“Pastoral”, featuring the University of Kentucky Women’s Choir, is a section of pure peace and tranquility. Lanier also played flute and composed, one of his works being Hymn of the Marshes (blackbirds) so the references to the birds could certainly have been one of the contributing factors when composing this second episode.

“Westward”, the third episode, is the Whitman section which depicts the beginning of the industrial age with timpani and brass type motif followed by the beckoning of the call of the mourning Cor Anglais to go west to the prairie to settle in the unknown and exciting new land. The episode also includes the movement of the wagons, a tom-tom Indian reference and a playing of the folk tune “Turkey In The Straw”, appropriate music as it was written in the early 19^th century.

The fourth episode “Machine Age Blues” written about Carl Sandburg and likely in reference to his poetry in his book Smoke and Steel must have shocked the audience with its brash dissonant approach to the ’Steel Age’ of the early 20^th century. Very much in the Gershwin style it includes riveting, jackhammers, and the sound of a very busy city. It also includes some slow blues, Charleston flapping featuring saxophones, and dance material of the era. Then it just suddenly builds to a loud crescendo and ends with the timpani motif, which started the beginning of the “Westward” episode.

Performed by the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and Women’s Chorus the recording sounded fine especially given the fact that this is very likely made up of students. The music is overall very melodic, and very easy to follow after reading the liner notes from the McKay family. To hear the music is like listening to a separate soundtrack from a film never viewed and this reviewer would be very interested to see first hand a performance of the dance. One can hope that there will be future recordings from this excellent American composer. Recommended.

Naxos CD# 8.559330

Produced and Engineered by Tim Handley

Track Listing:

1... Symbolic Portrait (Poe) (14:16)

2... Pastoral (Lanier) (15:28)

3... Westward! (Whitman) (18:49)

4... Machine Age Blues (Sandburg) (13:47)

Total Time is 62:52

"Let there be light" is the motto of my alma mater, the University of California.  I've decided to add the Latin words above the entrance of my library because I thought it would be fitting for a place of learning and self discovery.

The library's bronze doors might be familiar to some readers who have been to the U.S. Capitol.  They are textures of the Columbus Doors ordered by Captain Montgomery Meig during his tenure as superintendent of the Capitol.  Meig was at the time fighting with the architect of the Capitol's extension, Thomas U. Walter.  After Meig was removed from office, Walter kept the doors even though he hated Meig because he thought they were beautiful and fitting for such an important public building.  In a pleasant coincidence, the proportions of the Columbus doors, whose textures appears here, are identical to the entrances of my Library.  The spandrels above the doors are the same (but of a yellower shade) as those above the entrances to the Library of Congress (click on link to the Wikipedia article, there's a picture).

I have discussed in previous posts regarding my aversion to gray and monotone classical buildings.  So I've decided to add a little color to my library.  As evident in the above rendering the walls have a light tan color that accentuate the building's white Doric columns and pilasters.  The windows along the basement of the building are of a dark blue glass also to make them stand out from the stone texture.

I do not like the curved platform at the back of the building, the way it is currently built.  I've decided to change it to a rectangular platform, with stairs at each end leading to the building's rear exits.

Instead of the fancy bronze doors that we have at the front entrances to the library, I've decided that the large doors at the rear of the buildings would be made of wood.  I don't remember where I got the door textures from, but they fit quite nicely.

The last and final step of the construction was to add the large windows on the semicircular "drum" at the back of the building.  The final product appears in the rendering below.

Our Library is thus complete.

me, "how's Latin coming along?

mini, "pretty good."

"Can you say something interesting for me?"

"ummm, pdkeno dkfoie dfadfjfk jgoifgj fgkjfoid gfhgio."

"yeah? What else?"

"oh, we noticed our Latin dictionary has bad words in it."

"oooo, which ones?"

"ass and poop."

"so how do you say those in Latin?"

"I didn't look at how to say ass (giggle) but poop is 'puppis' (my spelling and it may not be correct)"

"yeah? are you sure it's not the bad word for poop? (giggle)"

"no, but it also means a stern person"

"well, this is good to know, you need to share your Latin studies a little more often. You guys aren't cussing at school in Latin are you?"

giggle, "no, but I taught the neighborhood kids some words."

"you probably shouldn't do that - teach me first next time ok?"

"ok, do you want to know the words they taught us in Italian?"

"yeah, duh"

Franz Schubert - "Śmierć i dziewczyna" (aka nr 14, aka D-Moll, aka D. 810): Romantyzm na całego. Schubert to był taki Mickiewicz, tylko pisał nuty, nie litery i Austria ojczyzną jego. Umarł niedoceniony w wieku 31 lat, kiedy właśnie na serio rozkręcił się artystycznie. Strach pomyśleć, ile arcydzieł by napisał, gdyby dożył pięćdziesiątki. Jego najsłynniejszy kwartet wziął nazwę od pieśni Schuberta Der Todt und das Maedchen, z której pochodzi melodia drugiego, najbardziej popularnego fragmentu. Jeśli znajdziecie ten kwartet na składance, to na pewno będzie to właśnie II Andante con moto. Polecam całą kompozycję, bo zaraz po najsłynniejszym fragmencie mamy szybki trzeci. A początek też jest mocny.

Antonin Dvorak - "Amerykański" (aka 12ty): Kameralne uzupełnienie Symfonii z Nowego Świata tego samego kompozytora. Również napisane pod wpływem wizyty w USA. W odróżnieniu od wspomnianej symfonii, tę "amerykańskość" naprawdę słychać, od początku do końca.

Aleksander Borodin - 2gi: Kogo nie ruszają piękne rosyjskie melodie, niech pierwszy rzuci smyczkiem. W tym kwartecie takich melodii jest bez liku. Borodin najbardziej znany jest jako autor przeboju hip-hopowego Prince Igor. Trochę wyprzedził swoje czasy, trzeba przyznać. Zsamplował tam własne Tańce połowieckie.

Dymitr Szostakowicz - 3ci: Doskonale oddaje napiętą atmosferę dyktatury Stalina. Za napisanie za mało przebojowego można było a) stracić posadę dyrektora filharmonii b) zostać uznanym za zgniłego kapitalistę-formalistę c) odbyć karną pogadankę ze Stalinem na temat sztuki d) coś znacznie gorszego. Więc Szostakowicz starał się łączyć negatywne uczucia z melodią. Najlepiej słychać to w środkowym, trzecim fragmencie tego kwartetu. Melodii mamy aż za wiele. A napięcie - jak prysznic zaraz po obejrzeniu Psychozy.