INTERVIEW: Gerd Ludemann says New Testament scholars should 'keep fundamentalism in check'
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- Written by Hank Berger
"The Spirit of Things" is a regular program of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, focusing on "contemporary values and beliefs as expressed through ritual, art, music, and sacred texts." -- This transcript of an interview conducted by Rachael Kohn with Gerd Ludemann of the University of Gottingen in Germany was broadcast on Apr. 4, 2004....
AMERICAN CREED IN SONG: Amos Lee's 'Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight' and Springsteen's 'Pink Cadillac'
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- Written by Hank Berger
Jocelyn Cesari, professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard University, says: "Muslim immigrants in the U.S. are well-educated and even after 9/11 they showed more trust in American society. There is still an American dream and Muslims are partaking in it." -- Here are two deeply democratic expressions of the American creed: Amos Lee's "Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight" (2005) [1] and Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac" (1998).[2] -- The key point being, in Amos Lee's words, "We all need a place where we can go/and feel over the rainbow," or in Bruce Springsteen's, "Feeling out of sight." -- Amos Lee is still optimistic: "I think we got a chance to make it right." ...
TRANSLATION: MC Solaar's 'Sauvez le monde' (Save the World)
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- Written by Mark Jensen
MC Solaar is, to quote Wikipedia as of Jul. 7, 2005, "the stage name of Francophone hip hop artist Claude M'Barali (born March 5, 1969). By far the most internationally popular French rapper, he was born in Senegal to parents from Chad. The family moved to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, just outside Paris, when Solaar was six months old. . . . As a rapper MC Solaar is known for the complexity and poetry of his songs, which have little of the violence usually associated with rap music and rely instead on word play, lyricism, and philosophical inquiry." -- The song below, entitled Sauvez le monde (Save the World) is from MC Sollar's 2003 album, "Mach 6." -- I have occasionally taken liberties with the text; the original follows the translation (I have changed the line Et le monde devint pénombre par fondue enchaînée, which makes no sense, to Et le monde devint pénombre par fondu enchaîné, with a play on words with par fonds dûs enchaîné)....