j a m e s f o r s y t h ✡ n e t

I used to listen to a lot of ska music. I still enjoy it a lot. Unlike my comments re: rap music below, I don’t think there’s anything particularly childish about ska.

I’m not going to worry about the semantics too much - but there’s overlap between “ska” and “reggae”.

Of course, the most popular ska/reggae performer is Bob Marley. An Aussie barbeque goes really well with a Bob Marley album wiling away the afternoon (and some cabana and cheese - I’ve gone off heavy food recently). But the most popular isn’t always the best - which of course applies in a whole tonne of areas in music, art and life itself.

So, here’s a list of favourite ska performers that I really love:

Toots and the Maytals
Skatalites
Clancy Eccles
Lee “Scratch” Perry
King Stitt
Ken Boothe
Derrick Morgan
Prince Buster
Laurel Aitken
Desmond Dekker
Symarip
Bad Manners
The Selecter

All of the major Reformers contributed something essential to our understanding of the Gospel. We are indebted to Martin Luther for his teachings on salvation, Hulrich Zwingli on the Lord’s supper, Menno Simons on baptism and John Calvin on God’s sovereignty.

It needs to be pointed out that the Reformers in no way actually changed the Gospel. They highlighted (brought to light) truths that were not only inextricable from the Gospel itself but also self-evident if one is to return to Scripture, apostolic teachings and the Church fathers - which are all in agreement with themselves and each other.

For a clearer view of the Gospel and Christ’s work for us, we need go no further than the writings of the Reformers and the Puritans who closely followed them. What a glorious body of literature they have left us! And what a magnification of the splendour of Christ they provide!

For those floundering because they lack the doctrines of grace, I recommend you take serious note of them as soon as possible. Don’t let the teachings of Jacobus Arminius and his followers (of which today there are many, despite themselves not knowing it) rob you of the full richess of the Gospel.

Sola Scriptura! Soli Deo Gloria! Solo Christo! Sola Gratia! Sola Fide!

Not so long ago we had a picnic at Heidi Museum of Modern Art. Looking forward to returning there and doing the same.

Ying tells me Asher’s had a few growth spurts since I left Melbourne. That’s both good and bad. Of course the boy needs to grow, but I don’t want to miss out on too much of his growth while I’m away.

Recently I’ve been listening to Dr Octagon - just a bit, not all the time. He’s Kool Keith from Ultramagnetic MCs. Quite refreshing, funny and crazy. I used to listen to a lot of Lee Scratch Perry, and Dr Octagon is similar in some ways. Their genres are different, though. Lee Scratch Perry is basically a reggae performer, with his early roots in ska, moving through dub and now even dabbles in a bit of techno sound. Dr Octagon is hip hop.

I never enjoy listening to much hip hop anymore. It’s so childish. There are just a few artists that stand out:

Schooly D
Ultramagnetic MCs
Cool Chip/Chuck Chillout
7A3
Whodini
EPMD (first album)
JVC Force - Strong Island
Rammellzee
Grandmaster Flash
Africa Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force (as long as they shut up about the Nation of Islam)
Whistle
Break Machine
Herbie Hancock - Rockit
Just Ice (early stuff)
Mantronix
2 Live Crew (mainly for DJing, not lyrics - but latter can be quite funny)

***I’m reposting this at the top of the blog, because I accidentally deleted it last night. Having been unable to access Google’s cache here in China I owe big thanks to Terri for retrieving it for me and emailing it***

Literally “big bright lake”, I took David for a look at this major attraction. Well worth a second look.

It’s strange, the second character down (if you’ll compare it with the heading of this post) should have an 日 on the left, rather than a 目. I asked some kind bystanders what the reason for the difference was, and they said it was because of 特殊含义. I need to do a bit of investigating as to why this is. If you can give me any advice on this subject, please click on “4 Comments” below and add a comment to let me know about this strange occurrence. Thanks in advance.

I got some photos taken the other day. So, when you look at me, who am I thinking about? Who do I miss from my home town?

Mum (妈妈)

Dad (爸爸)

MeiYing (美莹)

Asher (明达)

Janne (妹妹)

Tyrone (妹妹的未婚夫)

雅各：嘿！用中文不是我的特长，你是逗哏我是捧哏，好不好？

新乐：好的。我们互捧互逗！嘿嘿！

雅各：哎呀！老兄！你为什么喝这么多可口可乐？喝多了对身体不好。每瓶里都含有很多糖。

新乐：老兄！你管得太宽啦！哈哈！我选择我喜欢！耶！！！！！！！

雅各：小心！你喝得太多大概睡不着。我就想帮助你啊.你为什么这么固执啊？

新乐：没关系，我很少喝可乐，就是和你在一起得时候才喝。谢谢您的关心。

雅各：好。行。喝咖啡也是我的爱好。但是，雀巢咖啡太不地道。没有咖啡因！很容易让人发困！

新乐：其实，我也很喜欢喝咖啡。不光好喝 ，而且我喝了不困。但是一瓶咖啡喝几口就没有了，而一瓶可乐可以喝很多口。

雅各：而且瓶子比较大，经济实惠。其实就是苏打水。可是喝咖啡不方便，咖啡只能和饼、蛋糕搭配，但是跟可乐可以和所有食物一起搭配食用。越来越胖嘟嘟！

新乐：咖啡和可乐都不错。其实我还是喜欢我家乡的水，尤其是小时侯的水清凉可口。

雅各：恩？你故乡的水？什么水啊？

新乐：就是平时喝得水，地下水或者是井水。

雅各：哦。真有意思，我应该尝一尝那个水。嘿！新乐，我得走了。我们应该很快就能在陶陶见面！保重！

新乐：好的，和你在一起很开心。我们很有缘分。

Well, writing this post didn’t get off to a good start - I couldn’t put any photos up. I haven’t taken many new ones recently, and those that are on my card I couldn’t resize. This computer is too slow for some reason.

I don’t even have firefox on this machine so that I can “save image location” on images, which is great for using someone else’s storage to display photos on one’s own page.

I’m going to have to send another package home. At the xinhua bookshop near my room I found the kid’s level for the first time - that’s right, LEVEL. I bought quite a few bits and pieces for Asher, but nothing I particularly want to carry to Beijing, Wuhan and Singapore later on, so tomorrow afternoon it’s off to the post office.

A BIG thanks to my friends Chen and Scofield for helping me find a hanyu pinyin text input method for my (old) laptop. If you have chatted with me on Skype and I used any Chinese, it was only because I was at the 网吧, because I had no Chinese on this computer. Now I can type Chinese from home (i.e. my temporary home here in China - back at my real home in Australia we’ve already got Chinese input installed on our desktop).

Chen and Scofield live in Taiwan, and I really hope we can catch up with them someday.

In Taiwan they don’t use hanyu pinyin at all, but a method (or methods) related to their 注音符号. If you’d like to learn how to write zhuyin fuhao, don’t forget that I’ve written a one-page guide, which you can access here.

If you are a billionaire and happen to be reading this, yes, I only have an old laptop and I’d like a new one and I am very poor.

Hi all,

I’m just procrastinating from doing correcting by dropping in to the internet cafe after my Sichuan lunch. The correcting this time round really is a weekend-long activity.

Recently I have closed my ears to the usual shouts from strangers in the streets of “外国人”, “老外” and “HELLO” by having my headphones on all the time. I’ve been listening to goa trance - and enjoying it immensely. I’ve noticed that the final Earthcore ever is happening in November this year. It’s probably beyond my role as a good father to go to it. But it does bring back memories of times when I had been to Earthcore parties in the early 1990s. I’d love to go to a dance party and burn a bit of energy, get fit and feel like I’m 20 again, but the problem is that so many people that attend these events behave like they’re not even 16. The beauty of electronic dance music goes beyond its fans!

Anyhow, I’ve nearly hit the half-way mark of actually being here in Jinan. I look forward to my return for all sorts of reasons. I guess the one problem with Melbourne is that if one’s really interested in learning Chinese one can become a bit desperate for language learning opportunities. And there aren’t a lot of Chinese people who bother to help Westerners with their Chinese once their own English is proficient - ever felt like you’ve been dropped like a lead balloon? I met a missionary couple here just recently who actually VOLUNTEER to help people in China with their English.

In any case, nothing is important when compared to the benefit of being reunited with my family.