wikipedia history

Here are the last 4 articles I read on wikipedia according to my "history" tab.


1. Haredim
For my Judaism and the Gospel class we were assigned to read a few articles in the Jerusalem Post for five consecutive days. I was reading about draft evasion in Israel when I came across the word "haredim" and wikied it. Even after reading 3 Chaim Potok novels over the summer (The Promise, Davitas Harp and My Name is Asher Lev) , This is My God by Herman Wouk and taking this class--I still have a hard time keeping the various branches of Judaism sorted out in my head. I think I was lumping Haredi and Hasidic Judaism together...but the distinctions between the two groups are actually pretty interesting. Danny Saunders in The Promise is Hasidic, the son of a Hasidic Rabbi. Hasidic Judaism was founded with the idea that Judaism, as a whole, had become too academic and lifeless. They wanted to rejuvenate things by focusing more on spirituality and joy (and mysticism!)



2. Charles Spearin
My film professor played a song from his new concept album The Happiness Project in class a while ago and I was going crazy trying to find it. Finally I emailed my professor and he directed me to this article. It is very interesting. The whole album is based on the melodic and song-like quality of the spoken word. Many songs start with simple speech and then layer on music that follows the intonation of the speakers.
Oh how I love a lot of these Canadian artists. I would expect nothing less from the man who brought us Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene.

See this episode of radiolab also, for another example of interesting spoken word/song.



3. Cotard Delusion

A rare neuropsychiatric disorder I heard about while listening to a radiolab show on death/dying/the after life. It is dark and eerie and utterly fascinating. Check it out.



4. Gibbous Moon

Sometimes you research very specific things when writing a screenplay. Like the optimum soil and lunar phase for broccoli growth. That is all I am going to say about that. Except when I say "research" I mean "making things up."




...I love wikipedia.