Occupy Easter (and similar sentiments)

Gregg Jocoy, intrepid producer of the fabulous Daisy Deadhead Show, expresses himself. (Photo from last week's Occupation.)





It has been 22 years since I missed any part of the Paschal Triduum. I did not want to write about this fact, until I was certain I could do it. And I wasn't at all sure; I don't mind telling you it is exactly like breaking an addiction. I have tried before and failed.

This year, success. In fact, roaring success, and I have been rewarded with more insights than I readily know what to do with. I will try to record some of these here. Wisdom means nothing if it isn't shared.

~*~

This year is the first year I did not attend Maundy Thursday Mass, Tenebrae (and/or Veneration of the Cross) or the Easter Vigil. It's a very strange sensation, a lot like losing your watch.

I wore a watch for years, and then quit after I got my wrist tattoo. It was jarring at first, then I realized I could estimate the time very well without it, at least within 5-10 minutes.

Going without my annual springtime ritual was daunting. It is so deeply ingrained in my psyche that I thought I might forget who I am. Again, jarring at first, and then I realized (emotionally, not just intellectually) I have entered a faith tradition that maintains the 'unchanging self' is an illusion. There is no reason to chastise myself for impermanence (anicca), and in fact, it is a natural phenomenon we should carefully observe, expect and welcome, as we welcome the seasons.

I have passed through the season of Catholicism.

And when you say it like that, it isn't nearly as scary.

~*~

We had a General Assembly today, Easter Sunday, which made it Occupy Easter. Writing that on a local Facebook page ("Occupy Easter!") got two local dudes all fired up and fuming at me, for reasons I am not sure I understand. Either they believe you should not demonstrate on a Christian holiday, or they believe you should... not quite sure what they were getting at. Apparently putting the two words together, Occupy and Easter, is what upset them so much. I couldn't figure out if they were religious or not, and maybe they couldn't either.

Yes, folks, things are getting mighty weird out there.

As I said on my radio show last week, it appears open racist war has been declared on African-Americans, specifically. The George Zimmerman apologists have streamed out of the woodwork, eagerly congratulating Zimmerman for shooting an unarmed black boy. They are serious too. A 68-year-old black veteran in New York, Kenneth Chamberlain, was shot in his home, apparently because they believed it wasn't really his home. A well-known and respected conservative columnist, John Derbyshire, was fired from the National Review because of a ravingly-racist column he wrote, filled with "talking points" that he shares with his children about how you shouldn't associate with too many blacks, go to heavily-black events, and "before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white." (Yes, I'm afraid it's all like that.)

In addition, the comments on this column were one long, horrific, endless litany of compliments for Derbyshire; the racists safely hidden behind their cute, made-up, untraceable, anonymous screen names like "Paul Ryan" and "HamletsGhost" (I couldn't hold back and added my two cents, of course).

What's going on?

As I believed during the ascent of the misguided Tea Party, I think the fact of a black president has caused them to become thoroughly discombobulated. I can't think of any other reason they have completely flipped their cookies.

I remember my husband replaying one Tea Party clip over and over on YouTube, a woman at a Town Meeting angrily proclaiming she "wanted her country back"--which made us wonder what she was talking about. Does she think she owns the whole country, all by herself? And where did she get an idea like that? Did somebody sell it? (Actually yes, Goldman Sachs did, but that doesn't seem to be what she was referring to.) She was a birther, and announced Obama was born in Kenya, her voice shaking with emotion.

Similarly, one of the angry (white male conservative) commenters who loved the column by racist Derbyshire, features a photo of Detroit in the 50s on the masthead of his blog. He captions the photo: I WANT THAT DETROIT BACK.

And this is the crux of it, isn't it? He wants to go back to the days when blacks were in their place, and they weren't rubbing elbows with the likes of him. One wonders if Mr Rightwing Blogger actually lives in modern-day Detroit? I'll bet he doesn't. He left Detroit willingly, waves of white flight at his back, and then shows tremendous fury that the city no longer belongs to him. And whose fault is that? Why did you leave, in that case?

Derbyshire counsels his children to avoid the multicultural and multiracial public square, to avoid the places and events that have "too many" blacks. And if they do, won't this make his kids even angrier... as Mr Rightwing Blogger is? As the birther-lady was? They have been taught that the blacks are TAKING OVER; the psychology of white flight is that whites and blacks cannot possibly co-exist in the same place. It's very territorial at base--the concept is that the place belongs to THEM or to US, and at some point, critical mass means it's theirs, and the whites run away in droves.

And they nurse the illusion that they have been banished, when in actuality, they have banished themselves.

They blame the blacks for the results of their own racism, as Mr Rightwing Blogger fusses that he wants his "old Detroit" back. Well, where did it go? Answer: white people like him left Detroit for whoever remained, for whoever came after. And then, they can blame the people who stayed, rather than themselves, for their own cowardice. (As I have written before, I have seen this over and over again.) As I read the comments on the Derbyshire piece, filled with taunts to the white liberals, that they should "go for a walk in a multiracial neighborhood"--I was flabbergasted. Do they consider blacks to be WILD ANIMALS, is that it? Because it sure does sound that way.

I comforted myself after reading this racist insanity, by going for a walk in my heavily-black, multiracial neighborhood. I was not accosted a single time.

~*~

My radio show Saturday featured my usual Tea Party-caller and sometime-commenter, who was also the subject of a discussion today, as we Occupied Easter. He is stuck on birth control (uppity women wanting to control their own lives, is a very sore subject with these people) and told me if I wanted government to buy birth control, then I can't complain when government ____ (fill in the blank). I asked him what was the difference between the dreaded Obamacare and Social Security or Medicare? Or government funds paying for Emergency Room treatment in public hospitals?

He replied, finally and truthfully, that he wanted to end all Social Security. Yes, finally, after months of goading, I got him to admit it.

Ending Social Security is basically advocating the mass deaths of sick, old and disabled people. Teabaggers who think this way intend to put disabled people down like dogs, since of course, that will be the actual result of this dogma put into practice. (After all, it was before.)

But we have a modest proposal.

If these conservatives want to renounce Social Security, they should be allowed to do so. (No, they don't get any refunds, just as us anti-war people don't get refunds on our war taxes and us vegetarians don't get refunds on meat-inspection taxes and so forth... sorry about that!) If they publicly announce that Social Security should be ended, we need to present them with an affidavit or some other legal waiver, and get them to sign on the dotted line. (I guess this would necessitate a new law or something, but hey, I am all for it.) This handy-dandy affidavit, which every liberal and card-carrying member of MoveOn shall have on their person at all times (needless to say), will immediately allow the gum-flapping teabagger in question to waive their rights to all future government aid: police, EMS, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, libraries, public schools, water fountains, parks, national monuments, The Smithsonian, etc.

And to enforce this new law, they would have a chip implanted and wear something like a Medic-Alert bracelet, which says: Do Not Resuscitate. If found on road half-dead, leave behind, do not call 911. (We should be able to easily devise a chip that helpfully BEEPS LOUDLY every time they enter public establishments, just like the library books that beep when they haven't been properly checked out.) Think of the huge amounts of money this would save, as the conservatives actually practice what they preach and stop being hypocritical liars! As of course, they will eagerly sign these documents IN DROVES.

I think this is a great idea. Who's with me?

Now, at first, the rise of deaths (leading to far less Republican voters, a pleasant short-term side effect) will alarm everyone, and finally, somebody will cry and squeal as they lay dying (quickly going viral on YouTube) that they are SORRREEEE SORRREEEE SORRREEEEEEEEEEEEE they signed the waiver and tearfully beg, whilst bleeding to death, to be taken to an Emergency Room after an accident. It will probably be some attractive white sorority girl, and it will make the news on all the cable channels for weeks on end. Fox News will plead that this innocent girl could not possibly have known the implications of what she was signing, and didn't intend to waive her ER privileges. She only meant the black people! She didn't know she would ever need an ER! (((sobs))) What a terrible misunderstanding!

And the law will be repealed, and that will be that.

But until then? Sounds like a lot of fun, and I say, introduce the waiver for them to sign IMMEDIATELY! The chip may take a little longer, but if you can implant nervous poodles with a chip to guarantee their way back to their frantic owners, we can certainly implant Tea Partiers with a chip to keep them out of OUR public hospitals and parks. Won't that be GREAT?

After a few dozen of them drop dead, they will get a clue and shut up. Or maybe not!

This means there will be a lot more STUFF for the rest of us.

I admit, I do feel sorry for the disabled children of the Tea Partiers, brainwashed to refuse life-saving medical care. But like they say, in every omelet you break a few eggs, etc. I am sure my Tea Party-caller will understand. And I am sure he will heartily agree about the signing the waiver!

Unless he is another Tea Party hypocrite, of course... and you don't think THAT could be true, do you?

(giggles)

~*~

Hope you all had a happy Easter. Here is DEAD AIR's official Easter song, which of course, I still love. The idea of rebirth and transformation is a recurring theme in all faith traditions.

It always makes me happy.

After the Goldrush - Prelude

Happy Easter!

And the angel spoke to the women, saying, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.

~*~

A Dead Air tradition revisited.

After the Goldrush - Prelude

[via FoxyTunes / Prelude]

Art by John Pitre. Song by Neil Young.

Happy Easter!

And the angel spoke to the women, saying, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.

~*~

A Dead Air tradition revisited.

After the Goldrush - Prelude

[via FoxyTunes / Prelude]

Art by John Pitre. Song by Neil Young.

Spring break

Left: Sacred Heart of Jesus (stained glass) from St Mary's, oldest parish in Greenville, SC.

~*~

I am using the occasion of the Paschal Triduum to announce a blog-break, my first real break since DEAD AIR's inception. It's been a long time coming!

A great deal of this is spiritual, and I am now reflecting on exactly what I am doing with my blog, what I want it to accomplish, etc. When I return, I hope to make some stylistic changes and improvements here at DEAD AIR. (And BTW, yall can go vote for me over at the Canadian F-word awards!)

On a more personal note, I am not sure how much of myself and my life I can safely share, and how much I should ideally share.

I am also presently dealing with almost-overwhelming issues of overwork, health and taxes. All of which have exhausted me. Admittedly, I have once again become obsessed with blogging and blog-stats, despite the better angels of my nature. It's time to take a step back and re-evaluate.

If you pray, please pray for me, as I wish all of you a happy, glorious, wonderful Easter.

As the governor of California so memorably said, I'll be back.

PS: I am very pleased DEAD AIR's official Easter Hymn is still alive and well on YouTube.

~*~

And the angel spoke to the women, saying, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.

~*~

After the Goldrush - Prelude

[via FoxyTunes / Prelude]

Art by John Pitre. Song by Neil Young.

What I feel, I can't say, but my love is there for you anytime of day...

The Greatest Beatle of them all. From Dark Horse: The Life And Art Of George Harrison by Geoffrey Giuliano.



I think I first realized it when reading Dark Horse, the biography of my favorite Beatle. The quiet one, the spiritual one.

And on an internet message board some time ago, during the time I was reading the book, someone announced (yes, you know the drill) Christianity Uber Alles and as proof, offered the pop-culture "facts" that the Beatles and Elvis were Christian, at least until John met that awful woman. [1] I wasted no time in jumping on it: Excuse me, but George was no Christian! HANDS OFF GEORGE.

The response: Show me where George officially converted!

And of course, I could have Googled my little heart out and not found a thing... Hinduism is not like Christianity. They do not dip you in water and then announce you are one of them. They just don't do it like that. George spent considerable time in India; learned to play their holy instruments; did whatever various gurus told him to do; financed English translations of the Bhagavad Gita and named his son Dhani. Isn't that enough for you?

No, not for this guy. And I suddenly realized that our world has been MARKED by the presence of the two major religions, Islam and Christianity, the religions that commanded their followers to make believers of all nations.

The Majors, in competition with each other, have very precise rituals for conversion. It starts with an altar call, the announcement: I am a Christian, I am a Muslim. It's on the record. And then, more rituals, classes, education. In Christianity, baptism, and in Catholicism, Lutheranism, Orthodoxy, there is also Confirmation, known as Receiving the Holy Spirit. All of these rituals leave a mark on the convert, as they do on those raised in the faith: you have crossed over. You have been accepted into a tribe; you are one of us.

On Easter, lots of new folks come into the Catholic Church; it's one of the main draws of the long Easter Vigil Mass, in fact... we can watch the faces of the people as they are baptized: some are so pensive and introspective and some are in tears of ecstasy. Some are looking at wives, husbands, moms and dads: I hope this pleases you, because this is embarrassing. The variety of faces reflect all manner of religious experience. I always pick the faces that look happiest, and afterwards, I welcome them personally into the Church. Thus, I am also part of the ritual, if I choose to be.

Other religions do not do this. Therefore, being the Majors, we can judge the conversion not to have really happened. We apply our standards, our measuring sticks, and then find them lacking. Where is the baptism? Did you ANNOUNCE yourself somewhere? Where are the official records?

They don't do it that way. WE do it that way.

Unfortunately, the lack of officialdom, like a lack of borders, can lead to trouble and weirdness. It can lead to appropriation.

And yes, I realize that Islam and Christianity, as The Majors, are appropriated all the time. Rather than see Christmas as Christianity encroaching on secularism, for instance, I tend to see it as the secular world stealing our cool shit. (Hey, Santa Claus was St Nicholas of Myra, goddammit, leave him alone.) When you have all classes of rock bands singing SILENT NIGHT, all you can do is shake your head in amazement. But when you are one of The Majors, you can endure that. In fact, it is just more proof of how BIG you really are. They have Santa Claus in Japanese store windows, now, take that! (Are we #1 or what?)

In the end, Christmas trees and bad carols notwithstanding, the question, the BORDERS, stay constant: ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN? There is only one answer to that. You can modify it any number of ways (and Lord knows, I love my modifiers), but in the end, there is only one answer. There is a BORDER, and there it is: Yes or no?

Again, other religions may not have the brightly-drawn borders; the yesses and nos are not in stark relief.

That means, the stealing is not as well-understood. How can it be stealing if they are giving it away? They do not do it like we do, after all... they don't have a ritual demarcating one's entrance. You can enter and exit at will, any time you want.

And so, people do.

~*~

Daniel Pinchbeck, photo from Sounds True.




All of this came to mind as I read Reality Sandwich, new to my blogroll. I've heard Daniel Pinchbeck's CDs regarding 2012, much of which is also in his book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. My first thought, after so much discussion and teeth-gnashing throughout Feminist/Lefty Blogdonia: Should he be doing that? Does the shamanic tradition properly belong to him? Is he stealing?

Much of Pinchbeck's work is about psychedelics and spirituality, which we could rightly claim is the recorded tradition of another tribe altogether, a tribe with a recognized pedigree, in which he does belong: hippies. (Pinchbeck's mother was Joyce Johnson, paramour of Jack Kerouac.) But there is a particular way that hippies approached enlightenment, and that is not necessarily the way Native Americans did, even if the mescalito is the same.

From the blurb on Pinchbeck's recent CD, titled Emergence 2012: The Soundtrack for Global Evolution:

Take a musical journey into the lush soundscapes of the 2012 phenomenon with Emergence 2012. Inspired by Baktuns—or cycles of the classical Mayan calendar—this mind-bending music infuses psychoacoustic rhythms with the chants of ayahuasca shamans and natural harmonics found deep within the forests of South America. Created by sound healing visionary Alex Theory and Daniel Pinchbeck, bestselling author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.

And now we come full circle, to that place where hippies encroached on Native American religion, as well as Eastern religions.

Or did they?

What if they feel they were directly asked by [fill in words for God here]? What if, in fact, this is The Truth? Does the religious activity still qualify as "encroachment"--or is this the end result of an exhaustive spiritual journey? Is it cultural appropriation and imperialism if one BELIEVES THEY HAVE FOUND THE TRUTH?

I don't think it is.

This is not appropriation, any more than learning another language is. I think it is endorsing another spiritual truth. It is LEAVING The Majors, for something one finds more suitable and real.

But I'll be honest: I get unaccountably nervous when I hear hippies employing ancient chants that were never theirs.

And then AGAIN: If white hippies with education and privilege announce that something is genuine and true, isn't that something of a revolutionary endorsement? This is the real thing, not what I was taught by my own culture--is a pretty powerful statement. (Maybe THE most powerful statement.)

Where does appropriation start, when we talk about religions? Because they are not simply cultural, they are accounts of life, creation, consciousness, truth and morality. They are VERSIONS of how we approach the divine.

Can we rightly say this is stolen, when it is being endorsed as the Truth, above and beyond The Majors?

What do you think?

~*~


[1] If you haven't read Cara's fabulous several-part series on racism, sexism and Yoko Ono, go over there RIGHT NOW and read the WHOLE THING. Great analysis.

[2] The title of this post is from the first lines of my favorite George Harrison song, What is Life? (And yes, I realize it was produced by Phil Spector, subject of much fulminating here at DEAD AIR.) Embedding has been disabled, she sighed once again...

The song was also employed to excellent advantage in the DEAD AIR favorite GOODFELLAS, which I also intend to blog about one of these days.

Dead Air Church: The Resurrection

And the angel spoke to the women, saying, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.

~*~

After the Goldrush - Prelude

[via FoxyTunes / Prelude]

Art by John Pitre. Song by Neil Young.

Odds and Sods - Holy Saturday edition

It is a stunningly beautiful day in upstate South Carolina!

My new blog-friend Mandy and her fabulous photos (see also her photo blog) have inspired me to get my artiste on and take some photos myself!

So, below, is a tour of my Holy Saturday.

~*~




Since John McCain has helpfully reminded us that Purim is the Jewish Halloween, I felt a distinct lack of Purim trick-or-treat candy in my life, and so I first went to Mast General Store. There are literally barrels of candy--in hundreds of varieties-- just waiting for Daisy!

Mr Daisy hates Mast General Store which he cynically compares to SOUTHERN LIVING magazine. (However, he WILL eat the candy.)

~*~



Next, it's on to the terrific LOOSE LUCY'S, where I buy most of my cutting-edge fashions. (YES, you can shop online, so click and purchase at will!)

At left: Lovely Natalie and Erica stand ready to assist you in your Deadhead fashion needs. They also play excellent reggae and jam band music while you shop. Only a dullard could resist.


~*~



And now, for more music, we hit the redoubtable Horizon Records to lose ourselves in stacks of merchandise, particularly the cheap bins. I am patiently waiting for Gene to put a copy of We're Only In it For the Money on sale. (Yes, whoring out the blog, people! Gene, are you reading?)

And right next door, there is the renowned Bohemian Cafe, where one must stop for a sip of sweet tea and some live music.

If you still have any money left! :)



~*~

Left and below: Malcolm Holcombe at the Bohemian Cafe, part of WNCW's Tower of Song series.

















And as a special treat for Holy Saturday, we have the Seven Deadly Sins quiz!

I like how well I scored (no "highs" on anything!), but I have to say, the Lust questions simply didn't, um, address the things I personally find worthy of lust. So, of course, I scored very low. It's all a matter of staying under the radar. I know how! (((grins and winks))) I'd guess lots of other people also know how.

So, don't haul the answers over to your local priest, announcing, "See!?!"--however tempting it may be.

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Low

Thanks to lovely Lady Banana!


Have a happy Easter, everyone!