Showing posts with label Wicca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wicca. Show all posts

Monday, May 5, 2014

Odds and Sods -- Duck Derby edition

DEAD AIR participated in the Reedy River Duck Derby this last weekend, to raise money for all kindsa good causes.





Your humble narrator took an unofficial blog break, as our beleaguered Occupy the Microphone crew gets things up and running at WMXP. I don't know if we will ever have the kind of podcast we had before (at WOLI), which was up on the net before we even got home from the radio studio. (sigh) I got spoiled.

I will keep you updated on our talk radio adventures, as usual.

~*~

In my meditation room (which is actually my kid's old bedroom! but "meditation room" sounds so much better!), I have some old movie posters, as I briefly mentioned in my old obit of Charlton Heston. One of the movie posters is Risky Business (in fact, it is the same poster in that link). Remember that one? It was before Tom Cruise became a Scientologist and was still cute, funny and charming.

Believe it or not, Risky Business REALLY happened in Toronto this past weekend, only without the call girls. The kids streamed in and trashed a whole mansion!

They are blaming social media, which is the only way 2000 kids (!) could have found the place so quickly and easily. From the Toronto Sun:
When you throw a “mansion party,” promote it heavily on social media and 2,000 of your closest friends show up, there’s a good chance it won’t end well.

That’s what happened Friday night when a throng of youth were packed like sardines into a partially-built house on upscale Stanley Carberry Dr. — near Goreway Dr. and Mayfield Rd.

Peel Regional Police quickly shut the house party down before anyone got hurt — but not before some $70,000 damage was done.

“I’m shocked,” Nancy Viveiros said Saturday, as she and her husband stopped by to see the aftermath of the house party their daughter briefly attended.

Gazing at the many broken windows, smashed doors and booze bottles strewn around the property and along the street, the Caledon woman explained her 18-year-old daughter and her friends wisely left the bash soon after arriving.

“My daughter walked in, looked around and told her friends don’t go upstairs because the railing was all falling apart,” Viveiros said.

Her daughter often asks her for a drive when she goes out, but on this night she got a ride with a friend to the party that “everyone at school was talking about.”

Had Viveiros provided transportation Friday night, there’s no way she’d have allowed her daughter to stay.

“She wouldn’t have got out of my car,” Viveiros said. “And I may have advised the police because you don’t want something happening to the kids.”

Police said they began receiving calls for noise complaints around 9:50 p.m., less than an hour after the bash began.

But they were already aware of the party thanks to Twitter.

“A couple of officers went to the address and determined relatively quickly that more units were needed to disperse the crowd safely,” Const. Thomas Ruttan said.

Officers from three divisions ultimately responded and co-ordinated the shutdown, directing vehicular and pedestrian traffic as the partygoers left.

Ruttan said numerous people were also arrested for intoxication and assaulting police.

“Social media is probably not the best place to advertise a party,” he said. “People need to realize how far reaching social media is and how quickly things like this can get out of control.”

The bash was so big that its hashtag #MansionParty began trending on Twitter.

“The homeowner’s son had permission to have a party, but not of this magnitude,” Sgt. Darcy North said.

Neighbours said the 5,000 square-foot home was under construction for a long time, but work suddenly stopped and the house has sat abandoned for several years.

Even without the beer bottles and broken windows, the unfinished house on the huge muddy lot is an eyesore on a street lined with pristine homes, one of which is currently selling for $1.45 million.

One area resident, who didn’t want to be named, said a young man came to his home prior to Friday night to notify him he was having a party “and the music might get a little loud.”

He said “kids” began arriving in droves around 9 p.m. and within half an hour it was obvious the party was out of control.

“It was crazy,” the neighbour said, adding he never did hear the music but the people lining the street were quite noisy.

He was relieved when cops arrived.

“I was ready to phone the police myself,” he said.
Video here. Wow.

~*~

I wanted to organize a demonstration against Senator Tim Scott, when he came to speak at Bob Jones University at the end of April... but nobody else wanted to. And then I got depressed over that. It was another reason for my blog break: I hardly knew what to say. We let Tim Scott come to town and we ... DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. Argh, I just can't stand it.

Nikki Haley fucked us good with Tim Scott. She knew exactly what she was doing.

See, white radicals DO NOT want to demonstrate against Scott and "look racist"--even if he is well to the right of Sean Hannity. Blacks do not want to demonstrate because he is black, the ONLY African-American in the Senate right now. THE ONLY ONE... and for that reason, I guess it does look bad to demonstrate against him, doesn't it? Doesn't it?

So is that tantamount to giving him a free pass to be another right wing swine, or are we going to treat him like Lindsay Graham, Jim DeMint and the others?

I find that I am suddenly (and uncomfortably) understanding the dilemma of the Republicans who want to protest Obama but do not want to be called racist. This is the FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT, and we always have to be aware of that. We must always be aware of the racist, colonialist history of the USA. But... but... but... WHAT ABOUT WHEN THEY SCREW UP? WHAT ABOUT THAT?

I have never backed down from my legendary Haleyating, and the fact that she is the first woman (and nonwhite) governor of SC, has never stopped me from trashing Governor Haley. But I know it does keep the national media from scrutinizing her as carefully and as completely as they should. (It drives her ex-boyfriend Will Folks crazy.)

What to do? Ideas?

Here is the video of Senator Scott at BJU, which I did not listen to. Nor will I. But you might be interested.

~*~

At Left: Miss South Carolina dances with children at the Duck Derby. (you can click to enlarge)


Speaking of Charlton Heston: SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! And do you know, some guy has honest-to-God named his nutritional drink SOYLENT? Seriously, its in the New Yorker, so it must be true.

Check out the story of SOYLENT and Bob Rhinehart, who is readable and interesting. And I actually agree with this:
Soylent has been heralded by the press as “the end of food,” which is a somewhat bleak prospect. It conjures up visions of a world devoid of pizza parlors and taco stands—our kitchens stocked with beige powder instead of banana bread, our spaghetti nights and ice-cream socials replaced by evenings sipping sludge. But, Rhinehart says, that’s not exactly his vision. “Most of people’s meals are forgotten,” he told me. He imagines that, in the future, “we’ll see a separation between our meals for utility and function, and our meals for experience and socialization.” Soylent isn’t coming for our Sunday potlucks. It’s coming for our frozen quesadillas.
He can have mine. I think that is a great idea. It would be a solid blow against obesity and waste, and would make us enjoy the "real" food we DO eat, that much more.

~*~

I did not do my usual commemoration for Kent State yesterday, because I decided to give that a break for awhile.

I usually reblog the same thing every year, but it always seems to start fights on Facebook. I am from Ohio, as are many of my Facebook friends, and it seems the people of Ohio have NEVER stopped arguing over the subject, who did what first, was there a sniper? etc etc... in fact, you can see that the first time I ever posted it, the fascist-apologists came out of the woodwork in short order. That first post earned me a troll that latched on for months.

I want to honor the day, but I don't like the people that show up. I am taking a break from them this year. Forgive me dear Jeffrey, Allison, William and Sandra.

I always remember you on May 4th, and undoubtedly will for the rest of my life.

~*~

Our Beltane celebration was wonderful on Saturday night, right after the Duck Derby. I hope your Beltane went well.

~*~

FLICKR UPDATE.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

12-12-12

... was yesterday! I attended the Feast Day Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe at St Mary Magdalene in Simpsonville. (photos at left) Liturgical dancing, mariachi music and singing, and they even gave us roses. It was a lovely celebration, which I have greatly missed attending.

The spiritual significance of 12-12-12 is purported to be that it is a 'preparation' day for the upcoming cosmic day of 12-21-12. I figured if the Mayans are indeed in charge of the end of the world (although this would appear to be a gross oversimplification of their astrological calendar), then I should go talk to Our Lady of Guadalupe, since that area of the world is her specific geographic purview and under her protection.

Like I always say, you can't be too careful.





More about the end of the world:

Doomsday Phobia Grows As World Awaits December 21, 2012 (Huffington Post)

Mayan End Age 12-21-2012 heralds a New Age of spiritual enlightenment (adishakti.org)

What Sources Say We’ll Ascend on Dec. 21, 2012? (The 2012 Scenario)

The Numerology of 2012 (2012 Spiritual Info)

2012 Predictions: Should You Be Worried? (About.com/Paganism/Wicca)

San Diegans prepare for Mayan doomsday: Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012 (10news.com)

Maya 2012 -Mayan Calendar, Mayan Prophecy and December 21 2012 (Maya 2012)

Top Destinations (or States of Mind) for December 21, 2012 (Reality Sandwich)

2012 in Bible Prophecy (EndTimes Ministries)

End of the world, December 21, 2012, NASA says there is nothing to worry about (WPTV.com)

Will the World end on 21 December? (PM News Nigeria)

What's going to happen on December 21st 2012? (Cornell Astronomy)

~*~

It's The End of the World as We Know It - R. E. M.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

At left, Samhain Productions welcomes you to their haunted house in downtown Greenville.

~*~







I participated in a Samhain circle/celebration on Saturday evening, which was quite wonderful. I was so thrilled to be invited.

Below, selected Halloween posts of the past.

Halloween Horror movie thread! Don't go to sleep! (2007) Commenters contributed their favorite horror movies.

Halloween Horror movie thread II (2008) Contains several great horror movie trailers... and unbelievably, most are still intact! Includes the fabulous Dementia 13, The Brood, and others...

Happy Halloween! (2009)-- Photos of the DOGS FOR AUTISM Halloween benefit, which included a doggie costume party!

And finally, HERE is my account of once attending a local Christian-themed "Judgement House"--which is an 'approved' fundamentalist-Christian-version of a Halloween "haunted house." As I wrote, it was unexpectedly professional and very well-done.

But such a let-down at the end... is heaven really that bad? ;)



Happy Halloween to everybody--have a great holiday!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Feast of the Presentation: Groundhog Day

The Presentation in The Temple (1342) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.


(DEAD AIR NOTE: I am reprinting last year's Groundhog Day post, since I don't think I can improve on it!)

~*~


I was intending to write a cool post about how Groundhog Day was once the Feast of the Presentation in the Roman Catholic Church. Then I realized I would have to be fair and explain this was once known as Candlemas, which was unabashedly grabbed from Imbolc, only to discover that people aren't 100% sure about the social evolution of just how these holidays all morphed together.

And I realized that we all appropriate... the secular culture now has no clue about the Feast of the Presentation, just as most Catholics don't know from Imbolc. Just as most of us don't know that fireworks were first used by the Chinese for their own holiday festivals... we consider them all-American and now use them for every occasion.

Still, as a ritual-junkie, I like to know where my rituals came from.

Every culture in the known world, but particularly frozen Europe, has historically marked this day, which is the exact middle point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox... I get ancient images of women lighting candles to make the sun return, in bitterly-cold stone temples throughout the wintry places of my ancestors. They lit those candles for the future, for us. Just as the Feast of the Presentation was a way to celebrate the bris of Our Lord, his official entry into His tribe and people.

If anything sums up our modern irreligious times, it is how we don't seem to feel connected to the future or the past; the whole of humanity. We do things for ourselves, right now. Who cares what the people of the past imagined for us? Who cares what future generations might think of us?

We have cut ourselves off from destiny and then we wonder why we get so depressed.

~*~

I was recently studying Chaco, a place I am trying to talk Mr Daisy into going, and how they have literally had to OUTLAW religious ceremonies. As far as I know, the first worldwide attention to Chaco came after Carl Sagan's influential TV show COSMOS (1980), in which he demonstrated the incredible astronomical knowledge of the Anasazi people, who designed these structures.

At left, the "Chaco Sun Dagger"--in New Mexico. (approx time period 1000 AD)

From LAPAHIE.com:

Shown is the "Sun Dagger" by which the Chacoans (Anasazi) were able to read the harvesting and planting seasons and recorded time's passage. At the Winter Solstice, rays of sunlight fell between the 2 huge stone slabs, neatly bracketing the spiral petroglyph on 443-foot Fajada Butte at the south entrance to Chaco Canyon. At the Summer Solstice, a single band of light bisects the center of the spiral. The spring and fall equinoxes were heralded by an additional light that fell on the smaller petroglyph, visible to the left of the larger one. This discovery was made by Anna Sofaer in 1977.

Now, I ask you, is that awesome or what?

At various times of the year, the moon settles into some of the "windows" of these structures (see last link for example). I am made dizzy by how many generations dedicated themselves to understanding these celestial patterns; I bow in awe of their heavenly awareness.

I feel strongly that I must go there...it's a bit reminiscent of Richard Dreyfuss playing in his mashed potatoes in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS; I am drawn to this location for reasons I can't readily comprehend. And then I read ((embarrassed)) that lots of people feel that way and have created something of a new-age ruckus out there in the desert, waiting for the moon and the sun dagger and everything. They ring bells and play instruments and such. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to restrain myself, if I saw such a thing in person, I would likely shed tears and sing, or something. But that isn't respectful of the people who believe this is part of their tradition. Although the Anasazi are long gone; the Pueblo and Hopi are their relatives, but they are no more THE SAME as the Anasazi, as I am THE SAME as the folks who originally designed Stonehenge. I don't see that they or anyone else should have the spiritual copyright. And then again, I also believe it would be somewhat disrespectful to whoop it up out there during the Solstice. So, color me confused.

And so, a ritual we cannot imagine and have lost... has this one thing left from it: the calendar they used. And as we see time pass, we also see Imbolc morph into Candlemas, into the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, and finally, it becomes the harmless commercial hoopla known as Groundhog Day, featuring Punxsutawney Phil. And it would appear that as the story has morphed into a fun secular tale, people have lost all sense of time, except for the "6 more weeks of winter" prediction that goes along with it.

Pennsylvania had many German settlers, which accounts for why Phil ended up there, of all places. The introduction of an animal into the story was their unique innovation. Some believe it was due to the candles of Candlemas, that the animal saw its shadow (or not) in the flickering candlelight. Other sources believe it was due to the (human) carnivorous habit of searching for the whereabouts of hibernating mammals, who might peek out to see if the weather was pleasant, then dart back inside. (And it was originally a badger or hedgehog, which also changed when Germans came en masse to the Western Hemisphere.)

And now, we have Groundhog Day... also the subject of a great movie which starred my favorite comedian of all time. The movie, fittingly, has a deeply spiritual message, for those who can appreciate it: You can keep on repeating yourself forever, or you can evolve. Just as the holiday itself, has evolved.

Keep on evolving, and happy Groundhog Day!

Monday, February 2, 2009

The Feast of the Presentation: Groundhog Day

The Presentation in The Temple (1342) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.





I was intending to write a cool post about how Groundhog Day was once the Feast of the Presentation in the Roman Catholic Church. Then I realized I would have to be fair and explain this was once known as Candlemas, which was unabashedly grabbed from Imbolc, only to discover that people aren't 100% sure about the social evolution of just how these holidays all morphed together.

And I realized that we all appropriate... the secular culture now has no clue about the Feast of the Presentation, just as most Catholics don't know from Imbolc. Just as most of us don't know that fireworks were first used by the Chinese for their own holiday festivals... we consider them all-American and now use them for every occasion.

Still, as a ritual-junkie, I like to know where my rituals came from.

Every culture in the known world, but particularly frozen Europe, has historically marked this day, which is the exact middle point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox... I get ancient images of women lighting candles to make the sun return, in bitterly-cold stone temples throughout the wintry places of my ancestors. They lit those candles for the future, for us. Just as the Feast of the Presentation was a way to celebrate the bris of Our Lord, his official entry into His tribe and people.

If anything sums up our modern irreligious times, it is how we don't seem to feel connected to the future or the past; the whole of humanity. We do things for ourselves, right now. Who cares what the people of the past imagined for us? Who cares what future generations might think of us?

We have cut ourselves off from destiny and then we wonder why we get so depressed.

~*~

I was recently studying Chaco, a place I am trying to talk Mr Daisy into going, and how they have literally had to OUTLAW religious ceremonies. As far as I know, the first worldwide attention to Chaco came after Carl Sagan's influential TV show COSMOS (1980), in which he demonstrated the incredible astronomical knowledge of the Anasazi people, who designed these structures.

At left, the "Chaco Sun Dagger"--in New Mexico. (approx time period 1000 AD)

From LAPAHIE.com:


Shown is the "Sun Dagger" by which the Chacoans (Anasazi) were able to read the harvesting and planting seasons and recorded time's passage. At the Winter Solstice, rays of sunlight fell between the 2 huge stone slabs, neatly bracketing the spiral petroglyph on 443-foot Fajada Butte at the south entrance to Chaco Canyon. At the Summer Solstice, a single band of light bisects the center of the spiral. The spring and fall equinoxes were heralded by an additional light that fell on the smaller petroglyph, visible to the left of the larger one. This discovery was made by Anna Sofaer in 1977.
Now, I ask you, is that awesome or what?

At various times of the year, the moon settles into some of the "windows" of these structures (see last link for example). I am made dizzy by how many generations dedicated themselves to understanding these celestial patterns; I bow in awe of their heavenly awareness.

I feel strongly that I must go there...it's a bit reminiscent of Richard Dreyfuss playing in his mashed potatoes in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS; I am drawn to this location for reasons I can't readily comprehend. And then I read ((embarrassed)) that lots of people feel that way and have created something of a new-age ruckus out there in the desert, waiting for the moon and the sun dagger and everything. They ring bells and play instruments and such. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to restrain myself, if I saw such a thing in person, I would likely shed tears and sing, or something. But that isn't respectful of the people who believe this is part of their tradition. Although the Anasazi are long gone; the Pueblo and Hopi are their relatives, but they are no more THE SAME as the Anasazi, as I am THE SAME as the folks who originally designed Stonehenge. I don't see that they or anyone else should have the spiritual copyright. And then again, I also believe it would be somewhat disrespectful to whoop it up out there during the Solstice. So, color me confused.

And so, a ritual we cannot imagine and have lost... has this one thing left from it: the calendar they used. And as we see time pass, we also see Imbolc morph into Candlemas, into the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, and finally, it becomes the harmless commercial hoopla known as Groundhog Day, featuring Punxsutawney Phil. And it would appear that as the story has morphed into a fun secular tale, people have lost all sense of time, except for the "6 more weeks of winter" prediction that goes along with it.

Pennsylvania had many German settlers, which accounts for why Phil ended up there, of all places. The introduction of an animal into the story was their unique innovation. Some believe it was due to the candles of Candlemas, that the animal saw its shadow (or not) in the flickering candlelight. Other sources believe it was due to the (human) carnivorous habit of searching for the whereabouts of hibernating mammals, who might peek out to see if the weather was pleasant, then dart back inside. (And it was originally a badger or hedgehog, which also changed when Germans came en masse to the Western Hemisphere.)

And now, we have Groundhog Day... also the subject of a great movie which starred my favorite comedian of all time. The movie, fittingly, has a deeply spiritual message, for those who can appreciate it: You can keep on repeating yourself forever, or you can evolve. Just as the holiday itself, has evolved.

Keep on evolving, and happy Groundhog Day!

Friday, August 8, 2008

STOP PARKSIDE!

Left: Anti-Parkside signatures were collected at Bele Chere, last month in Asheville, NC.

~*~


The people of Asheville, North Carolina, continue to battle the Parkside Condo Development, as I stated in my Bele Chere post. A day ago, protesters connected with the Mountain Voices Alliance received a notice from developer Stewart Coleman, that the blockaded Magnolia tree was coming DOWN within 35 days.

Meanwhile, the development continues to divide the community in Asheville.


Left: The entrance to Malaprops.

Emoke B’Racz, the owner of one of my favorite bookstores in the world (and the first place I go when I get to Asheville), Malaprops, tells Mountain Xpress she is worried her business may not survive the development:

“What I hear from our customers is that they love downtown Asheville because it’s different—because it doesn’t have high-rises, because it has small businesses you don’t see anywhere else in the country,” she says. “We’ve worked hard for 27 years to make [downtown] viable for the emerging artists, writers, musicians, galleries and bookstores. Why we think we’ll make Asheville better by having a Tiffany’s store is beyond me. If the small businesses can’t afford to stay downtown, we’re changing what this town is—and it’s not going to be attractive to tourists. Period.”

B’Racz doesn’t know whether Malaprop’s would still be in business by the time the Haywood Park construction finished. “I hope we could handle it, but I’m not 100 percent sure, in all honesty, that we would survive,” she notes. “Speaking from my experience of the six months we had construction on Haywood for the water pipes, that was a really hard time. This development is two years, and how much do you want to bet it’s going to take longer. No small business has the funds to stay open for three years without sales coming in—and why would [customers] come down here if there’s dust and explosions everywhere?”
And now, demonstrators against Parkside are preparing for the worst. Mountain Xpress reports:

Parkside protesters demand eminent domain, plan demonstration training

by Brian Postelle
Mountain Xpress, August 7, 2008
Responding to a letter from Parkside developer Stewart Coleman, protesters beneath the magnolia tree adjacent to City/County Plaza are planning “direct action” workshops and demanding that either the city of Asheville or Buncombe County declare eminent domain to return the property to public hands

“There is nothing left but eminent domain,” said Elaine Lite, one of several who spoke before a crowd of about 50 people at a noon press conference held at the site.

The conference was called in response to a letter delivered Tuesday to protester and Coven Oldenwilde high priest Steve Rasmussen in which Coleman spelled out his intention to cut down the tree “sometime after 35 days from today’s date.”

The magnolia and the Hayes and Hopson building stand on property sold by Buncombe County to Coleman in 2006. Over the past few months, Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners have each repeatedly appealed to each other to correct the situation. Meanwhile, it appears that Coleman is ready to move forward with his condominium project, saying in his letter that he is applying for a demolition permit to tear down the Hayes and Hopson building.

Rasmussen’s wife, the coven’s high priestess Dixie Deerman, is one of several protesters who has been camping beneath the tree for the past month. Reading from a prepared statement, she said that “we reject Stewart Coleman’s ultimatum and vow to peacefully prevent the destruction of Pack Square’s beloved magnolia tree and the historic Hayes and Hopson Building.”

As part of that protest, the activists announced a “Direct Action Workshop” on Sunday, Aug. 16, to train potential demonstrators, and will conduct nightly “Tree Watch Orientation” sessions.

The spokespersons were vague on actions planned for future protests.

“Coleman’s not revealing all of his strategies, so the less we say about that, the better,” Deerman said.

Tree Watch Orientations will take place at 7 p.m. nightly. The time for the direct-action workshop on Aug. 16 has not yet been announced.
Click here to view a video clip from the rally.

STOP PARKSIDE!!!

----------------
Listening to: Grateful Dead - Jack-A-Roe
via FoxyTunes