New Testament for Spiritual Reading: The Gospel According to St. John

Some time ago I saw New Testament for Spiritual Reading: The Gospel According to St. John Volume 2 by Josef Blank for $2 at...you guessed it, Half-Price Books.

I almost didn't pick it up since it was Volume 2, and there was no Volume 1 in sight. But then I thought, you know how these things go; you pass something up and then you never see it again...or you end up finding the other books in the series and wish you'd picked up that one. Besides what's two bucks these days? Not even a cup of coffee. So I bought it.

And then, as usual, the book sat on my shelf untouched for months. 

But then I started reading Raymond E. Brown's The Death of the Messiah--a two volume, 1,600+ page tome--and decided that I need to read a lot more about religion in general and Christianity in specific...and The Gospels in specificer. So I think this is next.

But hey, what's the sense of starting with Volume 2? So I Googled. And found that Volume 1...and the afore- unsuspected Volume 3...was mostly unavailable...or kinda pricey. (This 

was tempting...but (1) $60 ain't cheap and (2) I already had volume 2.

So what to do? The public library? Nope. The U of L library? Nope. Bellarmine? Nope.

😕

Ah. The Internet Archive?

Yes.

Volume 1: https://archive.org/details/newtestamentfors0007unse/mode/1up

Volume 3: https://archive.org/details/newtestamentfors0009unse_q8s0/mode/1up

Just one thing: while they had lots of other (maybe even all) of the books in the "new testament for spiritual reading" series, they DIDN'T have The Gospel According to John Volume 2.

🤔

No doubt the universe is evolving as it should.*

* Max Ehrmann ©1927...though I got it from Les Crane's "The Desiderata." 

Iggy Pop at the Highlands-Shelby Park Library

Kaveh Akbar on Velshi

 

"...we are all on this ten-minute train ride between two infinities, from which either end no one can report...."

Kaveh Akbar

Mobile Suit Gundam

 

Who knows what silliness lurks in the hearts of old men? Not me. But somehow I found myself drawn to this giant robot anime series. I watched the first episode (first series--"Gundam Rising" / ガンダム大地に立つ!!) on the You Tub, and that sent me to Crunchyroll. 

I started a subscription 5/17/26 at the discounted rate of $2.09 (tax included) for 3 months--then I don't know how much, but it's irrelevant as I'll be quitting. (I might be silly, but I'm not stupid. Or well-heeled.) So I'm going to have to get busy with this watching thing.

The only other Anime series I have paid any attention to is Evangelion (which I loved), and I couldn't help but note that there were several similarities between Mobile Suit Gundam and Evangelion:

Giant robots are controlled by a pilot sitting in the chest area.

Young, scared, inexperienced kid controls the giant robot. Kid gradually becomes super good at this gig.

Father is distant and bitchy...though much more part of the story in Evangelion.

There's a cute girl who likes the hero, but he's pretty clueless.

On the other, hand I found Mobile Suit Gundam to be much more visceral and realistic. People die and are mourned. Even characters who are not minor die. And some characters see death coming, and they scream and cry. Ridiculous as it sounds, this series feels real. 

I finished the 42 episodes of the original series 6/4/26 and started watching Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, but it only took a few minutes before I realized that this couldn't be the next in order (even though Crunchyroll made it look that way by listing it as Season 2 of the original Mobile Suit Gundam), so I went Googling and found this beauty:

Watch Order:

And then it was off to seek Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, which turned out to be available on Crunchyroll...although I had to do some searching to find it.

I just watched the first episode. It was good. Big upgrade in the graphics. But it was a bit disorienting dealing with new characters...and it paralleled the first episode of the original series too closely. But hey, I'm in for a pound.

News as it happens.

P.S. The opening scene of the first episode of the original series was killer. Guys in robot suits in space land on a giant artificial satellite, make their way inside, and then emerge into what looks like Planet Earth. Quite the bug wow. (And, alas, repeated pretty much verbatim in Zeta.) It was a beautiful opening. I'd really like to see it in live action. Maybe someday.

The Deadly Streets

 I belong to a Facebook group dedicated to Harlan Ellison. A regular thing there is to put up covers of Ellison books which group members have acquired. This morning I saw a version of The Deadly Streets which I really, REALly wanted:

Then I clicked on the image and found The Rest of the Story:

So THAT'S not happening. 

Meanwhile,  here are some other The Deadly Streets covers:

I think that's it. I used to have the Pyramid Books version...as well as the entire series of Pyramid Ellisons...but alas, most of them are gone now, sold for a pittance back in The Lean Years. 😫