I danced in the morning
when the world was begun,
and I danced in the moon
and the stars and the sun,
and I came down from heaven
and I danced on the earth,
at Bethlehem
I had my birth.
Refrain:
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
and I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
and I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he.
I danced for the scribe
and the pharisee,
but they would not dance
and they wouldn't follow me.
I danced for the fishermen,
for James and John -
they came with me
and the dance went on. Refrain
I danced on the Sabbath
and I cured the lame;
the holy people
said it was a shame.
they whipped and they stripped
and they hung me on high,
and they left me there
on a Cross to die. Refrain
I danced on a Friday
when the sky turned black;
it's hard to dance
with the devil on your back.
They buried my body
and they thought I'd gone,
but I am the Dance,
and I still go on. Refrain
They cut me down
and I leapt up high;
I am the life
that'll never, never die;
I'll live in you
if you'll live in me -
I am the Lord
of the Dance, said he. Refrain
Last year, I was privileged to have Eisenbrauns publish Community Identity in Judean Historiography: Biblical and Comparative Perspective, a collection of essays that I co-edited with my advisor, Gary Knoppers. It was a great pleasure to share editorial responsibilities for this volume. Many of the essays came from papers presented at the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies 2007 Annual Meeting, which was held in Saskatoon, SK. You can still view the Saskatoon Sessions at the Historiography Seminar website. Contributors to the volume include Kenton Sparks, John Van Seters, Gary Knoppers, Louis Jonker, Mark Boda, John Kessler, Mark Leuchter, Katie Stott, Ehud Ben Zvi, James Bowick, and myself. Recently, this volume was reviewed by Rainer Kessler (PDF) for the Review of Biblical Literature. The review was reviewed by John Hobbins.
I also had the distinct honor of contributing to a volume published by Continuum and edited by my colleague at Penn State, Deirdre Fulton, along with my advisor, Gary Knoppers, and Lester Grabbe. Exile and Restoration Revisited remembers the enormous contribution of Peter Ackroyd through a collection of articles that clearly stand on the shoulders of this great scholar. My essay entitled, "Rebuilding Jerusalem: Zechariah's Vision within Visions" elucidates and comments on the prophetic-scribal vision of Jerusalem in Zechariah 1-8. One of my dissertation chapters revisits and incorporates aspects of that article, though I take aim at some of my earlier ideas, especially in one scathing footnote! I would like to extend my appreciation to the editors and the publisher for including my article.
In any case, I really enjoyed the experience of editing and publishing. Hopefully, my contributions are well-received.
Over the past couple of months, my wife and I have been using Netflix to stream movies and get DVDs by mail. Before using Netflix, we were happily using Blockbuster Total Access. I liked that with Blockbuster I could exchange movies received in the mail at the store. For some reason, I find it easier to browse movies in store than online. That really hasn't changed and the lack of a storefront is still my greatest frustration with Netflix. For the life of me, it takes hours to find movies to add to my queue at Netflix but all of five minutes to find movies I want to watch at the store. That being said, I ran into lots of trouble with Blockbuster Total Access and finally decided to make the switch to Netflix.
Though I'd still like to be able to visit a store, I can highly recommend Netflix. The website is easy-to-use and the queue works well. So far, I have experienced no problems with the queue and received the correct DVDs every time. The service is quick too. I get a new DVD about two days after I return the one I have out. The library is excellent, although as I mentioned, somehow I find it tougher to choose movies online. Still, it's not for lack of titles, because when I find something at Blockbuster, I do a search on Netflix and always find it. For auteurs, Netflix has a healthy selection of foreign films and many titles from the Criterion Collection. For an extra fee, you can also add the ability to order Blu-Ray titles.
Perhaps the coolest feature of Netflix is the ability to stream movies instantly and directly to your computer; and, now with select Blu-Ray and DVD players, televisions, receivers, DVRs, and even the XBOX, Playstation 3 and now the Nintendo Wii, you can stream them directly to your television. Streaming movies is great! So far I haven't had any problems with checkering, stuttering, or buffering. Also, the interface on the Playstation 3 is intuitive and easy-to-use. The kids like to stream movies and television shows all the time and they do it without problems. Obviously, the selection of available streaming movies is not as good but it is still an impressive, and always growing, library of titles. The kids are able to watch SpongeBob, iCarly, and many other television programs that we no longer get through cable. I especially like that you can start streaming a movie and then stop, come back weeks later, and Netflix resumes the movie at exactly the same place that you left off!
There really is no reason not to switch to Netflix. For $8.95/month, you can stream movies and get unlimited rentals (one-at-a-time). You can't even rent two movies from Blockbuster for that price! If you are still not sure, they offer a free trial so you can test the system. If you are not a Netflix member, I encourage you to give it a try!
I Danced in the Morning
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