Martin Simek podfaded en in de wacht

Het is sneller gegaan dan gerechtvaardigd. Simek 's Nachts is met ingang van 2009 als radioprogramma verdwenen, maar als podcast had het best nog iets langer mogen bestaan. Hoeveel podcast luisteraars downloaden nog uit de feed weken na verschijning - velen, vraag het maar aan onwillekeurig welke podcaster.

De RVU heeft echter de podcast feed al gede-activeerd. De laatste twee uizendingen hebben zelfs nooit in de feed gestaan en zijn alleen van de site (die is er nog wel) te downloaden: Tjeerd Bomhof en Sander de Kramer (Kramer alleen in stream). Verder zijn van de site alleen nog de uitzendingen van 2008 op te halen. Ooit was er een archief dat terugging tot voor 2005, met werk uit Kleur Bekennen dat -meen ik- al sinds 1995 bestond. Allemaal weg, fantastische audio met eeuwigheidswaarde. Nu alleen nog onbereikbaar achter de RVU-deuren.

Wat kan ik er verder nog over zeggen? Ik heb nog de interviews met K. Schippers en Theo Maassen kunnen beluisteren. Daarin is Simek zoals we hem gewend zijn. Met Schippers zijn er interessante verhalen over zijn jeugd in Amsterdam, met Maassen over lef op het toneel. Het is wachten of er nog wat komt van het eigen intitiatief van Martin Simek, samen met Gijs Groenteman op een eigen site.

Meer Simek:
Dhyan Sutorius,
Louis Tas,
Piet Hein Eek,
Ernst van de Wetering,
Ageeth Veenemans.

The Hebrew Bible - Open Yale course review

I knew Yale offered great on-line audio, I just ignored them for a long time for the simple reason the content is not syndicated. The courses do not come in a feed. The audio is not a podcast. However, it is a damn pity to let the courses pass on a mere technicality.

One of the jewels in the menu is Professor Christina Hayes' Introduction to the Old Testament, that is to the Hebrew Bible. In addition to the audio/video of 24 lectures, also the handouts and other course material is available. This course invites for such serious study, that more than ever I regretted not being able to follow the discussion sections. Or abandon my day job and blogging and take up one story in the Tanakh and engage in the kind of analysis Hayes relates to us.

The truly amazing thing in this course is that Hayes manages to reveal a world of investigations and interpretations of the Bible's content, covering an enormous amount of it. Each story could receive an entire course in itself, but she has to move on. Yet, never does one feel the course becomes too superficial. Overall, the course deconstructs and reconstructs the Bible, from the revered unified source, to an inapt, compromised compilation of competing traditions, yet, still powerful in its narrative and inspiring for one who agrees to be open for the overt or concealed messages.

More Bible History:
MMW 2 - Classical Traditions,
MMW 3 - History Guided by Religions,
Early Christianity,
Samson, the conflicted hero,
The Historical Jesus.

More Open Yale:
Introduction to ancient Greek history,
Game Theory.

Formations of Modern Art

This review basically comes too late. I was just in time to download the lectures of UCSD's Formations of Modern Art by William Bryson. This was, as so often, recommended by DIY Scholar. Now that the podcast has podfaded, I am working my way through the lectures and have a sufficiently good time I want you to be alert, for UCSD will soon enough bring this one out again.

The code is: VIS 22. The title: Formations of Modern Art. The lecturer is William Bryson and this is especially worthy of note, because Bryson personality is one of the dimensions that make this series attractive - or repulsive if you are not in to it. Bryson has a flamboyant and affected speaking style that is very 'gay' so to speak. It makes for colorful and expressive comment, but again, you have to like it.

If you do, it adds to the entertainment of the series. The fact that art is discussed and necessarily not visibly (it is audio after all) may be a terrible disadvantage, but I find it just an additional challenge.

Dagelijks genoegen: hoor geschiedenis podcast

Een van de meest geslaagde podcasts van de laatste tijd begeleidt me elke dag. Het is Hoor! Geschiedenis, van Feico Houweling. Ik vind het indrukwekkend hoe Houweling er in slaagt om stipt elke dag een nieuwe vijf minuten uit te brengen. Elke dag ook weet hij zich te beperken tot een miniem aspect van de aanloopgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden. Een aspect dat klein genoeg is dat hij het in vijf minuten kan uitleggen en dat weer aansluiting zoekt bij de grote lijn van de historie.

Het is een knappe prestatie in meerdere opzichten. Het is knap om in vijf minuten een verhaal af te krijgen - de meeste podcasters lukt dat niet. Het is knap om de connectie met de grote lijn vast te houden. In kortere historische podcasts beperkt de verteller zich meestal tot het oplepelen van feiten. En het is knap om de gestage, dagelijkse productie op peil te houden. Vele podcasters knokken om een wekelijkse of tweewekelijkse productie vol te houden. Dagelijks is iets dat alleen Bob Packett klaarspeelt in History According to Bob. Bob daarentegen meandert door de geschiedenis en weet mij niet te binden zoals Houweling dat kan.

Zoals gezegd, voor mij is het een groot genoegen, iets dat het begin van elke werkdag markeert. Behalve zondag, want dat is voor Houweling geen werkdag, maar dan is er de onvolprezen Volkis Stimme.

Meer Hoor! Geschiedenis:
Hoor! Geschiedenis - historische podcast recensie.

Meer History according to Bob:
Pick and choose,
1000 AD according to Bob,
The battle of Tours,
The Franks,
Virginia Oldoini.

Meer Volkis Stimme:
Angela Merkel in Volkis Stimme,
Volkis Stimme - recensie van een Duitse podcast.

Doubt - Speaking of Faith review

On Speaking of Faith Krista Tippett spoke with Jennifer Michael Hecht about Doubt. Doubt seems like an enemy of faith or at least a problem to wrestle with, an emotion that is not welcome in faith and therefore, neither in religion. Doubt seems the realm of a negative philosophy, but as we find out in the program, none of that is the case.

Hecht made a study of the great doubters in religion and philosophy and apart from finding about thir tremendous contribution, she also found them to be negative hardly at all. Doubt can give rise to freedom, love of life and dedication to faith even. If anything, you leave this program optimistically happy with your own doubts.

The tradition of doubt is traced back to the Greeks with Socrates, with the Cynics and with the Epicures, but also to the Jewish sources, most notably Job. The effect is fundamental on both Christianity as well as modern philosophy and science. Doubt comes out as a quality, an essential element in thinking. Without doubt, there is no search, no development, no depth. There will be only fundamentalism.

More Speaking of Faith:
Listening Generously - Rachel Remen, (recommended)
The Sunni-Shia Divide and the future of Islam,
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Karen Armstrong,
Wangari Maathai.

Mesopotamian sources - MMW 2 podcast review

The first three lectures of UCSD's MMW 2 (Making of the Modern World - Classical Traditions) I learned something I did not know before. I knew the Sumerians were the first culture in Mesopotamia we know of, but I did not know it was only with the archeological discoveries in the area in the 19th century that we actually found out about them. The clay tablets of Ashurbanipals library mentioned them and this is how we know they preceded the Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians, to name a few. Those were in the Bible and hence were 'known' until then.

It makes Professor Chamberlain's lectures all the more interesting. As is his style, he takes this one through the texts. The two he discusses in the third lecture are the old Babylonian Enuma Elish and Atra-Hasis which are told to have roots as far back as Sumer, but are Babylonian after all. The first is a creation story and the second a flood story. Much is different with the stories of creation and of Noah's flood in Genesis, but by all means, there are parallels and unquestionably, the Babylonian version precede Genesis.

In the fourth lecture we are supposed to get some more insight in those Sumerian roots and I hope we will still get them. However, what is passed as Lecture 4 in the feed is an empty mp3 file. Maybe there was no lecture and we will still get this craved content. Otherwise, the recording may have failed and we have missed out on the Sumerians, once again and must wait until a later round of MMW 2.

Image: Cuneiform tablet of the Atra-Hasis in the British Museum on Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

More MMW 2:
MMW 2 - UCSD history podcast.

More Chamberlain:
MMW 3.