Nun has feelings about staying home.

There was a Skinny Puppy show on Tuesday night. Damn near everyone went, which really would have been the only attraction for me: I've never been a Skinny Puppy fan. I've been astounded by everyone's tales of discovering SP in their youth. I do miss the nuclear social reaction, though.

Last night was Ladytron, which I admit to wanting to see. Indeed, I'd gotten in line for someone else's freed-up ticket. But then I saw that Kimberly Dietemann, local techno maven who's had some hard times in recent years, was in line right behind me. I thought to myself, a) it's a work night, b) Kimberly is probably a bigger fan than I am, especially of their more recent stuff, and c) what I would have spent on Ladytron plus the latex dinner I'm skipping tonight might, just might, cover the cost of one of the two items for my house that I've bought in the last month.

I... kind of hate myself a little for being an adult.

It occurs to me that no one is going to want to go out this weekend when I'll be out & about. But hey, Tacoma Girl and I have made plans for lower Fremont on Friday.

The Vampire Masquerade Ball is coming, yes. Also Fremont Solstice and Pride next month. I shall have my revenge on the universe. And at some time I shall again invite people over to my dynamite crib.

St. John the Trippy

I've started in on The Gospel According To John. It's easily the trippiest of the Gospels, and judging from the NRSV's copious footnotes it seems to have given translators fits for centuries as they tried to determine where quotes and even sentences began and ended. There's a little of that in the other Gospels, but not nearly as much as in John.

So who was this John guy, anyway? More than one person, if you believe modern scholarship. If you don't, St. John the Apostle; St. John the Evangelist, i.e. the author of the Gospel; and St. John the Presbyter, i.e. the author of some Epistles, are all the same person. While Christian tradition has it that John was the youngest of the Apostles and the only one who didn't get killed for being one, the dates just aren't right for all three of these dudes to have been one person. They may have been two, but they weren't one. Quit giving your kids overly common names, you muppets.

I noted with great satisfaction that the Samaritan woman in John 4:9 straight up calls Jesus a Jew. Take that, racists!

But speaking of Jews, there's definitely an anti-Jewish vibe running through John. John 7:35 mentions preaching to the Greeks; I'm reading about the birth of Christian internationalism. It's too bad it was so gross. I mean, yeah, the Jews didn't buy what you freaks were selling, but I wonder if John the Evangelist et al. would be proud to hear that their words would one day be used as a pretext for mass murder. I hope he wouldn't, but that I'm not completely sure doesn't speak well of him.