Weekend Notes

Today looks to be a busy day.

I'm starting with the public forum on Wisconsin English. After a break, I'm hitting the WI FilmFest again with the 3:30 showing of short films from Wisconsin. Another break and I'm off to the Orpheum to catch Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. I mean, come on! You get Ronnie James Dio, Bruce Dickinson, and Lemmy. It's a bargain at any price. Unfortunately, my favorite headbanger, a certain barista at Café Zoma, will be unable to see it. It's a shame that someone with a tattoo of Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, will not be able to revel in 96 minutes of headbanging, devil horn flashing goodness.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Triviatown. I'm hoping that the editors employed some footage of my trivia team, The Flying Zupan Brothers. Unfortunately, much Zupan behavior is not suitable for a family film. And don't forget that next weekend is the contest itself. I am planning on being there. Are any readers going to be competing? But before the cinematic revelry starts, I'm going to be attending a couple lectures. Starting tomorrow afternoon at 3 at the Pyle Center, there will be a couple lectures regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first is entitled "The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Our Bible":

Lecture by Eugene Ulrich, Notre Dame University

Eugene Ulrich is Professor of Theology at Notre Dame University. He specializes in the Dead Sea Scrolls and is the author of many books and articles, such as The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (E. J. Brill, 1999) and has co-edited numerous volumes in the prestigious series, "Discoveries in the Judean Desert" (Oxford Press). Part of Spring 2006 Jewish Heritage Lecture Series.

The second is "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Judaism":

Lecture by James C. VanderKam, Notre Dame University

James VanderKam is John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. His books include From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests after the Exile (Fortress Press, 2004), The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity , co-edited with Peter Flint (HarperSanFrancisco, 2002), and An Introduction to Early Judaism(Eerdmans, 2001).

A weekend full of Semitic & cinematic goodness.

Before I hit the rack last night, I noticed that Terry Jones' Story of 1 was being shown at midnight on PBS. I TiVo'd it and watched it this morning. Ostensibly a history of the number one, it also documented the invention of zero as well as numbers generally, the introduction of Arabic numerals, and the invention of the binary number system which gave rise to the wonderful binary counting machines we have today called computers. More on this and the Film Fest later.