Psycho Banditos

The weather has been veering between the extremes of unhindered sunshine and bitter snowstorm blizzards in the past two days (is that a fortday?). I think the times are past when foreigners could rightly claim that the British skies are no source of weatherly interest.

Being bitterly cold, now is a good time to be sitting in front of my father's laptop, listening to "Riot in Paradise" by Mad Sin, a Christian rock outfit. The last part's a joke. Psychobilly is indeed a niche genre. The band are self-described as "Johnny Cash on speed, next to the Clash on amphetamine, without losing the psycho punkabilly focus". Just what more could you want?

Simple pleasures. Add in a steaming mug of Colombian's finest (coffee, not cocaine), Nag Champa incense imported from some remote village in the south of India (or so they claim - was probably processed in some factory in Clapham) and some innate and sudden urge to be on the Superman: The Escape coaster in Texas, and life is full.

Some thoughts unfit to be transcribed to random essay form, due to lack of will:

- There have been an awful lot of articles on singleness in the Evangelicals Now recently...

- I should build a greenhouse for the sole purpose of cultivating obscene amounts of snowdrops...

- Why did Christopher Marlowe name his demon Mephistopheles?

Speaking of the devil, here's a brief synopsis of "Dr. Faustus" - it's dark, but mayhap has its uses - as a literary form of the hellfire-and-brimstone preacher. The play by Mr. Marlowe concerns a certain man, namedly Doctor Faustus. His scholarly achievements fail to sate his appetite for knowledge (reminiscent of the Ecclesiastical epigram "everything is meaningless"), and so yearns to learn dark magic, aka necromancy. This unhealthy desire leads him to attempt a conjuring, at which he is successful, and, just like that, Mephistopheles appears. After a little banter, Faustus thinks that it will be a good idea for him to sell his soul for 24 years to Lucifer (naturally..), and, delighted by the prospect of the powers that will be at his beck and call (origin - beckon call?), does so. He gains powers of summoning (spirits and a wife), which he uses to play various tricks and pranks upon members of the aristocracy. For example, he conjurs the spirit of Alexander the Great for Charles V and procures out of season grapes for a pregnant empress. Eventually, this childish and perilous game is the end of him. Whilst he is discussing with a group of students the question "Who is the most beautiful woman in the world?", they agree upon Helen of Troy, that famed bane of the male sex. The Old Man enters, and pleads with the Doctor to renounce his sinful ways, giving him a final chance for redemption. He seals his fate as he locks lips with Helen's spirit, and Mephistopheles abruptly appears and drags him off... (Incidentally, this story brings to mind the title of a short story by M.R. James, entitled 'A Warning to the Curious').

"For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream"

- Jeremiah 29v8