#zion crossroads

[3rdeyeblaque]

On May 8th, we also venerate Ancestor Robert Johnson on his 112th birthday 🎉

A renowned ICON of Hoodoo History, Culture, & Folklore, and a Delta Blue's legend, Robert Johnson's storied yet brief success has cemented him at the crossroads of Hoodoo Folklore & American History. He is known for his exceptionally eerie singing & masterful guitar play amid living a hard and fast life; after having struck a deal with the Devil to become one of the greatest Blue's musicians of all time.

According to Hoodoo Folklore, it was a cool October night when Robert Johnson walked alone with his guitar down a dark road in the Mississippi River Delta on a full moon night to the crossroads at Highways 49 & 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. As he walks he thinks about his sorrow. He thinks about the jeers & shouts for him to get off stage. In his misery, he cries out into the night. For his weakness, jealousy, fear, & the anguish of failure. But he’s not alone. Here, he meets the Devil. The Devil heard his cry & appeared, offering to fashion him a talent so he could play unlike any other in exchange for his soul. Thus Robert Johnson rose to fame as the King of the Delta Blues.

Robert Johnson was the eleventh child of his mother's children & born out of wedlock. He was born and grew up with his mother in Hazlehurst, Mississippi until he left to stay with his father for a time in Memphis,TN. His childhood is largely a mystery. Those that knew of him, claimed that he took up the diddley bow (a wire attached to nails sticking out of houses), as music was his life long interest.

As a teen, Robert Johnson met fellow Blue's legend Son House and Willie Brown. They became his musical mentors as they played in small towns throughout the Mississippi Delta. Thus began his showmanship & his iconic fusion of singing, guitar-playing, & songwriting. From then on he lived the life he sang about, the life a mysterious traveling musician. Though as the old folks of the era would say,  “The Blues was never meant to be taken seriously or reflectively. It was simply a force, expressing the deepest roots of their lives”. That there are only 3 known photos of him in existence only adds to his mystery.

By 1931 he was a popular name in bars and nightclubs throughout the region. While passing through Jackson, Mississippi in 1936, Robert Johnson caught the eye of a talent scout who'd go on to arranged his first recording session, which went on to selling 5,000 copies throughout the region. This was the very 1st time that  Robert Johnson's singing voice & guitar play was recorded. Despite his short life & career, he became a major influence on Blue's & Rock N Roll in the '60s & '70s. He'd go on to influence the likes of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, and Eric Clapton. In 1961 Columbia Records released, King of Delta Blues, which was a compilation of his early recordings; spanning just 29 cut between 1936-1938.

In 1938, a music producer at Columbia Records learned about his recordings & sought him out to perform at Carnegie Hall in NYC in front of an all-Black crowd. Unfortunately, Robert Johnson passed away the night before the show was set.

To this day, the cause of his death remains in dispute. Some say he was shot dead by the man of a paramour he'd messed around with. Others say it was a poison that killed him. His death certificate, however, officially states that his cause of death was Syphilis. Still, whether literally or figuratively, there are those who believe that the Devil did in fact collect his due.

At the time of his death, his grave remained unmarked thus no exumation effort could ever conclude with 100% certainty that the uncovered remains are his. Today, what has long-since been presumed to be his remains, is buried in Little Zion Baptist Church's cemetary, in Greenwood, Mississippi. 

"I pray that my redeemer will come and take me from my grave" - Robert Johnson’s final words

We pour libations & give him💐 today as we celebrate him for his legendary contributions to the art, history, and lore of Blue's & Black Culture. May we elevate him in light & healing.

Offering suggestions: listen to/share his music, play Mississippi Delta Blue's , & menthol cigarettes paired with dark liquor

*Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

15th October >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 22:1-14 for the Twenty Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle A: ‘The wedding is ready’.

Twenty Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Gospel (Except USA) Matthew 22:1-14 Invite everyone you can to the wedding.

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.” So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 22:1–14 Invite to the wedding feast whomever you find.

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. The king said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Reflections (5)

(i) Twenty Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

When I sit down with the family of a loved one who has died to plan the funeral Mass, together we try to find appropriate readings. One of the Old Testament readings that is often chosen is this Sunday’s first reading. There the prophet Isaiah has a wonderful vision of God preparing a rich banquet on Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem. This is no ordinary human banquet. It is a banquet to which all people are invited, where death is destroyed forever and where the Lord finally wipes away the tears associated with death. It is a banquet at which the deepest hungers and thirsts of the human heart are finally satisfied, especially the hunger and thirst for God. Those present will say, ‘This is our God, in whom we hoped for salvation’. It is easy to see why it might speak to those grieving the loss of a loved one. That image of the Lord hosting a wonderful banquet is also there in today’s responsorial psalm, which is often chosen for a funeral Mass, ‘The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want… You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes. My head you have anointed with oil, my cup is overflowing… In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for ever and ever’. There is an image here of God as a wonderful host, inviting people to dwell in his house and putting on a lavish banquet for them.

This is an image of God as a generous host, who wants us at his table, so that he can shower his hospitable love upon us, a love that destroys death and brings lasting and full life. This was one of the images that Jesus had of God. He often spoke of God as the host at the great banquet of eternal life to which all peoples are invited. On one occasion he said that ‘people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God’. That image of a banquet is there again in the parable in today’s gospel reading. Jesus declares that the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a banquet, and not just any banquet but a royal banquet, a feast given by a king for his son’s wedding. Jesus was the son of the heavenly king, and he often understood his whole ministry as like a wedding banquet, with himself as the bridegroom. On one occasion when people complained to Jesus that his disciples weren’t fasting, Jesus replied, ‘The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they?’ Jesus’ whole ministry was a celebration of God’s merciful, life-giving love for all humanity. It was a joyful time, like the wedding celebrations that often went on for days in the villages of Galilee. He wanted everyone to enter into the joy of his ministry. However, many refused to do so. On one occasion, comparing himself to children playing in the market place, Jesus said, ‘we played the flute for you and you wouldn’t dance’.

Jesus is now among us as risen Lord and he continues to invite us all to celebrate God’s hospitable love, to join in the heavenly dance. God is someone to be enjoyed. Our faith in the Lord brings us joy. It doesn’t mean we will be spared life’s troubles, but we face them with the strength that the Lord gives us. The second reading is from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Even though he wrote this letter from prison, it is full of Paul’s joy. His joy flows from his relationship with the risen Lord. As he says in that reading, ‘There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the one who gives me strength’. Paul had responded to the Lord’s invitation to come to his banquet of life. Paul had allowed himself to be touched by God’s hospitable love flowing through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. However, in the parable Jesus speaks in the gospel reading, people refuse God’s invitation to the wedding feast of his Son. ‘They were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business’, and even worse, many ‘seized the king’s servants, maltreated them and killed them’. God is always calling out to us through his Son, inviting us to taste and see that the Lord is good. God desperately wants to gather people around his Son. Even when we ignore his call, God keeps pursuing us in the hope that we will respond to his call. Like the king in the parable he wants the wedding hall of his son to be filled with guests.

When we do respond to God’s invitation, when, like Paul, we allow ourselves to be touched by God’s hospitable love flowing through Jesus, God then sends us out to share the love we have received with others. In one of his letters, Paul calls on us to clothe ourselves with love, with Christ’s love, which is our spiritual garment. In the parable, one of the guests who did respond to the king’s invitation didn’t go on to wear the right garment. God’s love wants to grace us abundantly through his Son but then he asks us to live graced and loving lives in response to all he has given us.

And/Or

(ii) Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We sometimes refer light heartedly to the person who makes someone an offer they cannot refuse. We are aware of the paradox in that statement. To make an offer implies leaving people free to take up the offer or not, to accept the invitation or not. An offer or an invitation that cannot be refused is not an offer or an invitation in any true sense of the word.

The parable in today’s gospel reading tells the story of a king who offered an invitation to his son’s wedding feast that was refused by many. In that culture people normally received two invitations to a feast, an initial invitation some time before the event, and a second invitation just as the meal was ready. To refuse the second invitation at the point when the meal was all prepared, having already said yes to the first invitation, would have been a great insult to the host. It is this second invitation that people decline in the parable that we have just heard. Those who had been invited and had accepted the invitation were called to the table just as the food was about to be served and they said ‘no thanks’, some of them in a very violent fashion. The equivalent experience today might be someone who had accepted an invitation to a meal in a friend’s house and then, just ten minutes before the meal is due to start, rings up and says he or she will not be able to come after all. The host might have second thoughts about asking that person around again.

In the parable, the king who invites people to the wedding feast of his son is an image of God who invites people to gather around his Son, Jesus. John the Baptist once referred to himself as the friend of the bridegroom. God invites all of us to become friends of Jesus, the bridegroom, to enter into communion with him, and then to live out our communion with him. This is the great Christian calling, the great invitation that God extends to all men and women. The fact that this calling is expressed in the terms of an invitation to a wedding feast suggests that there is a real celebratory element to this calling. It is a call to joy, the deep-seated joy that comes from knowing that God values us so much that he desperately wants us to be present at his Son’s great feast.

There is joy at the heart of the Christian life. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus give us something to celebrate, even when life is going against us. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection proclaim the good news that God’s mercy is stronger than our sin, that God’s life is stronger than our various experiences of death, that God’s power is stronger than our weakness. We can each say with St. Paul in today’s second reading from his letter to the Philippians, ‘there is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength’. Paul wrote that letter from his prison cell. He had been through great hardship, and he suspected that worse was to come, and, yet, that little letter is full of joy. Even though it was written out of a real Calvary experience, it radiates the light of Easter. We always live and walk in the light of Easter, even in our darkest moments. The Christian calling is always a calling to joyful and hopeful living.

That joyful, hopeful living that God calls us to is not a way of life that leaves us self-satisfied or smug. An authentically joyful and hopeful life will always overflow into service of others. In carrying the joy and hope of the gospel in our hearts, we are moved to bring joy where there is sadness, to bring hope where there is despair, to bring courage to the fearful, companionship to the lonely, acceptance to those who have experienced rejection. This is the significance of the wedding garment that is referred to in the parable of today’s gospel reading. Those who have accepted the king’s invitation to his Son’s wedding feast must dress accordingly, must live accordingly. The king who invites people to his Son’s wedding feast in today’s parable from Matthew’s gospel says to those same people in another parable a little later in Matthew’s gospel: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food… thirsty and you gave me something to drink… a stranger and you welcomed me…sick and you took care of me’. Paul in his prison could say to his beloved Philippians in today’s second reading: ‘It was good of you to share with me in my hardship’. The Philippians supported Paul in his imprisonment, stood by him in his weakness. They knew how to wear their wedding garment.

Each day we are invited to taste the joy and the hope of the gospel for ourselves, and to become messengers of that joy and hope to others. The Eucharist is a foretaste of the great wedding banquet of Christ in the kingdom of heaven to which God invites us. At the Eucharist, we renew our joyful hope, and we commit ourselves afresh to the joyful and hopeful service of others.

And/Or

(iii) Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

As many of you know, my own roots are here in Clontarf. My grandparents lived since the 1930s in a small house attached to a bigger house called Beechfield House off Oulton Road. After they died, their two daughters, my two aunts, who never married, lived on there up until 1998. My parents moved into that house in the 1940s after they were married and I was eventually born from that house. Even though I was only two years of age when we moved to a house in Cabra, I came back and forth regularly to visit my grandparents, and then my aunts. I remember playing in a field in front of Beechfield house where Sommerville now stands. I was put in mind of one of those aunts, whose name was Eve, by this morning’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. That reading contained what was probably her favourite verse in Scripture, ‘There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength’. The version of that verse she was familiar with was, ‘I can do all things in him who strengthens me’. Eve used to fall back on that verse when life was a struggle. Paul wrote his letter to the church in Philippi out of his own situation of struggle. He was in prison at the time, and was unsure whether he would ever leave prison alive. The Philippians did their best to support him in prison, even though he was at a distance from them. Paul expresses his appreciation for their support in this morning’s reading, ‘It was good of you to share with me in my hardship’. Yet, he wanted them to know that he had another means of support, the Lord himself. Because the Lord is his support, he can say in that reading, ‘I am ready for anything anywhere: full stomach or empty stomach, poverty or plenty’.

Paul certainly believed that the strength he experienced in his hour of weakness is available to all who believe in the Lord. The same Lord whose presence to Paul in prison gave him great strength, is present is all of us to strengthen us in our own times of struggle. As you are probably aware, Pope Benedict has declared this year to be the year of Paul, running from the feast of Saint Peter and Paul last June, to the feast of Saint Peter and Paul next June. More than any other letter, it is his letter to the Philippians that gives us an insight into Paul’s inner life, his own personal relationship with the Lord. His letter from prison to the Philippians can speak to our own experiences of weakness, to our own particular versions of imprisonment. Paul knew from experience that what he could not do on his own, he could do with the Lord’s help. For him, Jesus was not someone who belonged to the past, but someone who was powerfully alive, here and now. In fact, Paul never met the Jesus who belonged to the past, the historical Jesus. His only meeting with Jesus was with him as risen Lord. That is our only meeting with Jesus too. I should not say ‘only’, because to meet the risen Lord is to meet Jesus in all his power and glory, in all his fullness of life. The risen Lord is as present to us today as he was to Paul in his prison. Paul was just somewhat more aware of the Lord’s presence that we tend to be. Paul wanted the members of the Philippian church to be as aware of the Lord’s presence as he was. That is why, just before this morning’s second reading, he says to them, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always… the Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God’. The Lord is near; I can do all things through him who gives me strength. If we only had Paul’s awareness, what a difference it could make to our lives.

In a way, the gospel reading this morning is about people’s lack of awareness of the Lord’s presence. A king gave a banquet for his son and invited a number of guests. It is not everyday you get an invitation to the wedding of a king’s son! Yet, at the very last minute, when the meal was ready to be served, the guests who had been invited and had agreed to come suddenly made excuses and said they would not be coming after all – they had a farm to go to, business to attend to. Some of them beat up the king’s servants just for good measure. It is hard to imagine a greater lack of awareness. The Lord came knocking on their door and they said, ‘get lost. I said I was coming but I have changed my mind’. Even among the second lot of guests who were invited at the last minute, and who accepted the unexpected invitation, there was at least one who showed a lack of awareness by dressing down in a major way. He didn’t take seriously where he was or whose presence he was in. There is a real contrast between the lack of awareness of the Lord that people display in the gospel reading, and that wonderful awareness of the Lord that Paul gives expression to in the first reading. This morning we look to Paul as the one who shows us what it really means to live in and from the Lord’s presence to us.

And/Or

(iv) Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have a lot of weddings in this church. The majority of couples who marry here are not from the parish. They obviously like the church; it does have a certain atmosphere that lends itself to a wedding. One of the most challenging chores for any couple getting married is the invitation list. Who do you invite and who do you not invite? Having decided on the invitation list and having sent out the invitations, firming up on the numbers coming can be a challenge as well. Not every one that is invited replies to the invitation, and not everyone who replies in the positive turns up.

The story Jesus speaks in this morning’s gospel reading is about a wedding, and not just any ordinary wedding, but a royal wedding. It is a king’s son who is getting married. An invitation to a royal wedding is a serious matter. In the culture of the time of Jesus two invitations would normally have been sent out to such a wedding banquet, one when the wedding was still a long way off and the other on the day of the wedding banquet just as the meal was about to be served. In the story it was at the point of the second invitation, when the meal was ready, that those who said ‘yes’ to the first invitation began to make excuses. To say you were not coming to the royal banquet at that late stage when all was ready was, indeed, a great insult to the host. Some of those who said ‘no’ when all was ready not only made lame excuses but maltreated and killed the king’s servants. The king had every right to be furious. Yet, so determined was he to ensure that his banqueting hall would be full, even at this late stage, that he sent out more servants to bring in total strangers from the crossroads, what the parable refers to as ‘bad and good alike’. These people couldn’t believe their luck.

Things happen in the story world that Jesus creates that do not happen in real life. The story depicts a king who refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer, who keeps searching until he finds people who will say ‘yes’. Jesus is saying something to us about God’s persistence. God is determined that his Son, Jesus, who is often spoken of as bridegroom in the gospels, should have a wedding banquet where there are no empty seats. God is constantly drawing people to his Son; we are constantly being drawn by God to his Son. Even when we seem to show little interest because we have a farm to go to or business to attend or whatever God will keep searching until he finds people who are interested or until we have a change of mind or heart. God does not like empty seats and God’s banqueting hall for his Son is huge; in fact it is limitless; its height and length and depth are beyond calculation. God wants all people to share the table of his Son, to be special guests of his Son, to be in close communion with him. There is nothing selective about God’s guest list. The first reading describes a great banquet which embraces all people and all nations. As we gather around Jesus in response to God’s invitation, we will find ourselves surrounded by all sorts. The church is a funny mix; it is not a gathering of the pure and perfect. It is a gathering of what the parable this morning calls ‘bad and good alike’, and we should be very slow to decide who are among the good and who are among the bad because there is good and bad in all of us. I am reminded of another parable that Jesus spoke, the parable of the wheat and the weeds. They were both growing together in the one field and the farmer did not allow his servants to start separating them before harvest time for fear they should mistake the wheat for the weed. We are all good and we are all sinners in need of repentance; that is why we begin each Mass by acknowledging our need of God’s mercy.

That is where the last part of the parable comes in, concerning the wedding guest who was not wearing a wedding garment. At the baptism of a child the mother or the godmother is invited to cloth the newly baptized child with the wedding garment as the celebrant says, ‘You have been clothed with Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With family and friends to help you, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven’. We have been clothed with Christ at baptism; there is an onus on us to retain that clothing as we go through life. Even though, through baptism, we have been invited to the wedding feast of God’s Son, even though we remain on God’s guest list as we go through life, that realization should never leave us complacent. We have to keep dressing appropriately to our honoured status; we have to keep putting on Christ. We are called to keep growing into the person of Christ.

And/Or

(v) Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have all had the experience of receiving an invitation to something. Someone might invite us to join them for coffee some morning. We receive more formal invitations to some happy occasion, like a wedding. Parents know that their children are often invited to parties of other children. Nowadays with the ease of social communication, various invitations can come into our inbox to a variety of talks or events. We often have to sift through the invitations and decide which ones to respond to. If a family member or a close friend has a really significant celebration to which we are invited, we would want to respond.

That ordinary, human experience of receiving invitations is very much at the heart of our faith. When you look at the gospels, Jesus’ primary way of relating to people was to invite them to become his disciples. We often speak of Jesus calling people. We can just as easily speak of him as inviting people. He said to a group of fishermen, ‘Follow me’, or ‘Come and see’. Jesus did not compel people to follow him. He kept inviting. Even as he hung from the cross, he was inviting. When he rose from the dead and went out into the world through the Holy Spirit, he continued to invite. When Jesus’ invitation was rejected, it brought him great sadness. Once he turned to the city of Jerusalem, and lamented, ‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing’. ‘You were not willing’. The Lord needs our willingness. There can be no compulsion. He awaits our free and loving response.

That theme of the Lord’s invitation is central to this morning’s readings. In the first reading and the gospel reading there is an invitation to a great feast. There is a wonderful description of a banquet in that first reading, with its rich and juicy food and its fine strained wines, a banquet of life where death has no place. The wedding banquet in the gospel reading sounds just as good. ‘My oxen are fattened, cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding’. This image of the banquet is saying something about the nature of the Lord’s invitation to us. Sitting around a table is more than just sharing food, isn’t it? When we share table with people, at its best at least, it is an experience of intimacy, of friendship, of trust, even on occasion, of reconciliation. The Lord’s daily invitation to us is always an invitation to communion. He invites us into communion with himself and with all those who have received the same invitation from him as we have. His invitation is always a call to grow in our communion both with himself and with the church, other followers of the Lord.

That call to communion with the Lord and with others is there in all three readings this morning, more obviously in the first reading and gospel reading, but also in the second reading. In that letter to the Philippians, Paul is writing from prison. We would normally think of prison as a very isolating experience, and, of course, it is that for very many people today. Yet, it is clear from that very short reading that Paul had a wonderful experience of communion while in prison. He had a very strong sense of his communion with the Lord, which he expresses in that very powerful statement, ‘There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength’. He clearly also had a very strong sense of his communion with the church while he was in prison. He expresses his gratitude to the church in Philippi for the support they have given him in prison, ‘it was good of you to share with me in my hardships’.

It is that experience of communion with the Lord and with each other that we are all invited into. Yet, as we know, invitations can be refused. In the parable Jesus spoke, people started making excuses at the last minute, just as the meal was ready. ‘I have a farm to go to; I have a business to go to’. The host wasn’t put off! He just went out and invited others who were delighted to come along. The parable suggests that the Lord is not easily put off by human refusal. We can all fail to hear the Lord’s invitation. We get over absorbed by what is very important but is not of ultimate importance and, so, we miss something even more important. This is why, every so often, we just need to step back a little from everything, and allow ourselves to hear again the Lord’s invitation into that great communion with himself and his people. We are about to celebrate the baptism of Luke. It is a special day for him, his family and all of us, because it is the moment when he is formally invited into that special communion with the Lord and with his family, the church.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[dankusner]

THE BLOOD OF JESUS (1941)Best known for playing Andy on The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show, throughout the 1940s, Spencer Williams wrote, directed and starred in The Blood of Jesus. He was one of only a handful of African American filmmakers who made movies exclusively for Black audiences known at the time as “race films.”“These films were difficult to get made,” said Kitchens. “Suppliers wouldn’t sell a whole reel of film to Black filmmakers so they ended up shooting the movie on film ends--the leftover film--usually the two or three minutes at the end of a reel and would piece together the film to make a full movie. Since they were very limited on the amount of film stock, the scenes were limited to one, maybe two takes at the most.”What it’s about: The film tells the story of an atheist who accidentally shoots his godly wife. When she dies, she ends up at the fabled crossroads of Hell or Zion, where the devil tries to lead her astray.Texas Tie: The Blood of Jesus was lost for several decades. In the mid-’80s, prints of the movie, as well as several other “lost” films of the era, were discovered in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas. The film is now archived at Southern Methodist University as part of the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection.Fun fact:  In 1991 The Blood of Jesus was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It was the first “race film” to be chosen.

[whileiamdying]

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Ms. Lauryn Hill

Raw, profound, and era-defining, its mastery has never been duplicated.

Lauryn Hill’s debut—and only—solo studio album was a seismic event in 1998: a stunningly raw, profound look into the spiritual landscape not just of one of the era’s biggest stars, but of the era itself. Decades later, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill still counts as a life-changer, with the preternaturally talented Hill rapping with the confident ferocity of a woman in total creative control and singing with the gospel-hued richness of the soul canon. It was an expression of interior depth during a time in which Black women were often portrayed as one-dimensional archetypes, and Hill delivered her magnum opus of life’s triumphs and setbacks with such singular heart, sincerity, and specificity that it transcended from an album into a universal statement of being. Her fortitude was so powerful that new generations continue to discover an album whose specific mastery of musicality, lyricism, and frankness has not been replicated.

Miseducation was forged in emotional fire. After seven years as the voice of the politically cogent, critically acclaimed New Jersey hip-hop trio The Fugees—and in the aftermath of a protracted, tumultuous relationship with her bandmate Wyclef Jean—Hill set out to document a period of major life transitions, including the slow erosion of the group she’d been with since high school. With the trauma came new beginnings: Hill was also inspired by the physical and mental transitions of pregnancy and the birth of Zion, her first child with Rohan Marley, using her attendant spirituality as a guiding light. This potent emotional crossroads led to what remains one of the rawest albums ever created, a lasting artistic beacon for musicians across genre, and a moment in which the whole world recognized Hill’s talents.

Miseducation’s opening track, in which a teacher announces a classroom roll call only for Lauryn Hill to be absent, speaks to its thesis: that its lessons were of the sort that can only be learned through lived experience. As she weaved through painful eviscerations of an ex, which even at the time were understood to be directed at Jean, she redefined the way gritty, sharp rapping and lavish R&B harmonies could fuse together in an era of nearly catholic separation between the two genres. (Even three years after Method Man and Mary J. Blige’s “All I Need” remix, hardcore rap was largely still teeming with misogyny, and R&B was seen as a softer, more feminine pursuit.) Miseducation centered a young woman's point of view, in all her rebellions and vulnerabilities, amid terrain dominated on the hip-hop charts by a certain vision of hypermasculinity. But it also served as an entry point for a mainstream still inclined to denigrate hip-hop’s musicality.

The album was recorded, in part, at Hope Road in Jamaica, in Bob Marley’s home—a legacy reflected in Hill’s idea for the album’s cover art, which echoes The Wailers’ Rastaman Vibration cover. Yet the DNA of these songs, and a key to their endurance, draws on a classic Motown Records/Stax Records sound that showcases Hill’s immaculate vocal approach; the layered “Doo Wop (That Thing)” alone won her two of the five Recording Academy / GRAMMYs [awards] she took home in 1999, a validation of the freshness of her sound, as well as the way her music spoke to the emergent feminism of the Hip-Hop Generation.

The vulnerability in Miseducation’s singles is often discussed, but Hill’s concerns, and powers, were multivalent. Once a history major at Columbia University, Hill explored her upbringing in Newark New Jersey, with a sharp, subtle sociopolitical eye (“Every Ghetto, Every City,” featuring clavinet from Loris Holland, minister of music at the storied Brooklyn Pilgrim Church) and philosophized on the nature of growing up in a disenfranchised world (“Everything Is Everything,” whose classic ’70s soul sound comes courtesy of a backing band including a then-unknown pianist named John Legend).

Miseducation is also proof that pure intention and unflinching emotional truth can be a path to deliverance unto itself. As Hill raps on the politically charged koan “Everything Is Everything”: “My practice extending across the atlas/I begat this.” She was, and remains, a once-in-a-generation talent whose inspiration, and innovation, can be heard through the decades. Artists exhaust long discographies hoping for a cohesive piece of work resonant enough to reshape culture and inscribe its creator into the pantheon; Lauryn Hill did it in one.

“It’s interesting and very unique for an album to soundtrack your life but be so timeless. Every time you hear it, it feels like the first time…and it touches you in a different way and meets you at a different point in your life. If anyone was to have made one album and that be it, that’s it. That’s the pinnacle.”

— Dua Lipa

[cupiditasfm]

Skeleton #31: Chrysoprase

OPEN

- Odette Blaise Dupont (Adopted daughter of Pauline and Lucille, Actress and part-time Fashion designer for Dupont Couture) fc suggestion: Zion Moreno (must be a trans-woman fcoc!)

Brief description: Adopted by Pauline and Lucille from a Versailles orphanage, she was only three when they adopted her. Growing up, she would sit in front of the TV for hours watching movies and one day she turned to her mothers and said that she'd be in movies one day... and lo and behold, she was. She's traveled the world as an actress and she's set to be earning her first Oscar after being in an award winning movie. She mostly acts but she also lends her creative talents to Dupont Couture as a part time fashion designer. She loves what she does and she's very excited to possibly earn an Oscar this year. Millie however has other ideas for Odette as a fashion designer and there's been whispers around the company that she wants to hire her to be a full-time fashion designer with the company. Odette is at a crossroads with this piece of information... will she keep acting and going for awards or will she bow down to her family's needs and become a full-time fashion designer for Dupont Couture?

[sfppn]

#TimeShared - Day 6

Zion Crossroads, VA

Last night, Mindy spent some time putting together an itinerary for today, and we thought we were set.  But when we went down for hotel breakfast, we ran into another couple from yesterday's timeshare fracas.  We got to talking--we were planning to skip Monticello, because the website indicated that we could only get tickets for very late in the day.  The other couple told us they got in without any problem.  So, we decided to give it a shot--and indeed we got in, although we had to wait for awhile, walking the grounds on a gloomy day. 

Then it was a tour of Tom's home--I saw it as a kid, right around the Bicentennial.  The current program doesn't shy away from Jefferson's "enslaved people" as they did back then.  There's a multimedia presentation on Sally Hemings, who was, more or less, Jefferson's slave and mistress.  It was heart-wrenching.  On the other hand, the tour ran into Tom himself--you'd think he could retire by now.

We then drove into town and the Dairy Market food hall for Italian food.  We're fans of these upscale food courts.

After a drive around the UVa campus (at one point winding up in a private area we had to back out of), we went up the mountain (to be precise, Carter Mountain and their orchard).  It's well known for its scenic views, although the rain and mist took care of that.  We got some cider and donuts.

Speaking of the rain, we decided to head back to the hotel and take refuge for the remainder of the day.  Fortunately, we brought some provisions and snacks.

Tomorrow, we move on, with a decision to make--make a run for Skyline Drive or not (based on the weather, it's not looking good).

[miajolensdevotion]

September 19, 2021

Verse: Obadiah

Copy God’s word:

1 The vision of Obadiah. Edom Will Be Humbled Thus says the Lord God aconcerning Edom: bWe have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: “Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!” 2  Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.1 3  cThe pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock,2 in your lofty dwelling, dwho say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?” 4  Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. 5  If ethieves came to you, if plunderers came by night— how you have been destroyed!— would they not steal only enough for themselves? If egrape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? 6  fHow Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out! 7  All your allies have driven you to your border; those at peace with you have deceived you; they have prevailed against you; gthose who eat your bread3 have set a trap beneath you— hyou have4 no understanding. 8  iWill I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of jMount Esau? 9  And your mighty men shall be dismayed, kO Teman, so that every man from jMount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. Edom’s Violence Against Jacob 10  lBecause of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, mand you shall be cut off forever. 11  On the day that you stood aloof, oon the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates pand cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. 12  qBut do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; rdo not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; sdo not boast5 in the day of distress. 13  tDo not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; tdo not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; udo not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. 14  vDo not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. The Day of the Lord Is Near 15  For wthe day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. xAs you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 16  yFor as you have drunk on zmy holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. 17  aBut in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, band the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. 18  cThe house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau dstubble; they shall burn them and consume them, eand there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken. The Kingdom of the Lord 19  Those of fthe Negeb bshall possess gMount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess hthe land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of iSamaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20  The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as jZarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb. 21  kSaviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule gMount Esau, and lthe kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

Write your favorite verse:

11  On the day that you stood aloof, oon the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates pand cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. 12  qBut do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; rdo not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; sdo not boast5 in the day of distress.

Explain verse by verse:

The Hebrew name Obadiah means “Worshipper of Yahweh” or “Servant of Yahweh.” There are 13 “Obadiahs” in the Old Testament, and one of these may the Obadiah who wrote this book.

Lesson that you learned from these passages: (summary)

Obadiah’s prophecy is unique because he doesn’t deal with Judah or Israel much at all. His focus is on the sin of Edom and the judgment coming upon them. Who were the Edomites? The Edomites are the people descended from Esau, the son of Isaac and Rebekah and the brother of Jacob (Genesis 25:19-34). Esau was nicknamed “Edom” (which means, “red”) probably because he had red hair.

What will you do? I will eventually settled in the area of Mount Seir and absorbed a people known as the Horites

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Earlysville VA 22936 Free Union 22940 Ivy VA 22903 North Garden VA 22959

Madison VA 22727 Culpeper VA 22701 Warrenton VA 20186 Waynesboro VA 22980

Staunton VA 24401 Verona VA 24482 Fishersville VA 22939 Stuarts Draft VA 24477

Crozet VA 22932 Orange VA 22960 Palmyra VA 22963 Gordonsville VA 22942

Barboursville 22923 Zions Crossroads VA 22942

[dick-too]

riding in cars.154 I-64 near Zion Crossroads   10.09.2001

[lokrow]

There She Stood in the Doorway (LNY Raffle Reward)

Best enjoyed listening to your favourite version of the Eagles' Hotel California (here's mine)

Charon’s staff hit the depths of the Lethe with an almost hypnotic regularity. Zion stared into the cloudy waters of the river, the surface barely rippling even as the boat glided along the stream. There was no better example of still waters running deep than the Lethe, as Charon made sure to warn her again when she boarded.

Charon looked at Zion, the dull tolling of his staff on the depths had lulled her into stillness but he noticed her mechanical hand was still gripping a small backpack, the only thing she’d packed for the trip. Her other hand was absent-mindedly scratching at her scarred shoulder. 

Charon neither spoke or smiled but his empty eyes and heavy brow shifted slightly, there was concern in the old psychopomp’s face. Zion’s face was calm, apathetic even, the imp’s emotions were hard to discern. But to people who knew her well, and Charon was one, her inner turmoils were apparent, yet obfuscated. 

“We’re crossing.” he simply said, as darkness creeped along the banks of the river and lights from the city dimmed slowly. Zion wouldn’t have noticed it until she’d been in total darkness if he’d not called it out. 

She saw as shadows grew out of the flame in Charon’s lantern, as they did from everywhere in sight, until the flames emitted neither warmth or light and the sky exchanged clouds for an inky black void. Charon stopped, his staff standing upright in the river as he let go of it to walk the length of the barge to the lantern hung out in front, its lightless flame dancing slowly as if shaken by airless winds. Charon opened the panel of it and snuffed the flame with two fingers. The amber warmth of candle light returned, emitted from the lantern as if lit. Zion raised an eyebrow at this and Charon waited for a question.

“Are we there?”, Charon’s shoulders slumped imperceptibly, Zion would normally be more curious of this mechanism. “They are.” he replied, gesturing to the darkness enveloping them.  “We aren’t yet. Just a while longer.”.

Nagomi Meng was rollerblading through the halls of Hotel Umbra. Most rooms were unchanged from her routine check every morning, as most were still unoccupied. 

The carpet covering the wooden floor of the halls parted in front of her wheels to link back behind her as she passed, the sound of her wheels on the wooden floor almost soothing until it was interrupted by a ringing from the lobby.

“You could at least have made it sound nicer on the ear.” Meng grumbled to seemingly no one in particular before getting moving and rushing past the remaining rooms.

Meng spun to halt herself at the front desk right as the last ring of the newly installed machine on her desk rung out. The screen flashed with a simple message, the second time she’d seen it: Incoming Voicemail….

Meng pressed the single button on the answering machine and additional information flashed briefly on the feed before shutting off. 

Meng recognised both names and quickly pushed off the desk to skate to the Crossroads Café.

“Ren! Prepare a latte, please! I’ll check on Lottie, the call-up’s come in!” Ren was nowhere to be seen at the Café until a loud bang shook the countertop of the bar, promptly followed by a loud feline cry of pain and a hand rising up with a thumb up while three more grabbed the edge of the counter to pull him up. “I’m ok!! Will get right on that!”

Zion was walking through the dark jungle. “Walk straight forwards, never look back or you’ll get lost. She’ll find you.” Charon had said. 

The dirt under her feet felt soft and petrichor filled the air around her as she walked. Leaves she couldn’t see, she felt glide against her as she walked through dense, inky darkness. Her backpack was slung over her shoulder, dangling slowly and her tools jingling lightly as the only sound accompanying her.

Her foot caught on a root she couldn’t see and she fell to her front into the soft ground, just managing to get her hands in front of her to avoid a face full of dirt. Her backpack was flung into the darkness ahead of her, disappearing from sight as the shadows engulfed it.

“Off to a great fucking start here.” Zion grumbled, still lying prone with her head down. She brought herself onto her knees with a sigh and started feeling the ground around her for her backpack. Thankfully the noise of her tools made it so she knew it hadn’t dropped far.

Right as her fingers met the stiff and slightly abrasive nylon of her backpack, Zion noticed a light ahead, softly illuminating the ground around it. She looked up to find an old and imposing building which she wondered how she had not seen before.

The soft ochre light seemed to be cast by the building like shadows at sunrise or sunset, as if formed by the absence of shadows rather than the presence of any light source. 

At the foot of the building, a simple set of steps led up to a porch, which was otherwise dominated by engraved wooden double doors. Both had been swung open inwards.

There, stood in the doorway, was a figure Zion hadn’t seen in many years. Hair done up in a ponytail as she had always worn it, Meng seemed unchanged but for the length of her hair. It was as if she’d never cut it in as many decades since they last saw each other, the night Meng left the pitching mound seemingly never to return.

Zion picked herself up, slinging her backpack onto her shoulder once again and walking, her pace quickening as she got closer.

Zion ran the last metres, not saying anything and barely letting Meng brace as Zion almost tackled her into a hug. The sudden stop flung her backpack once again ahead of her, this time through the threshold of the doorway, the tools ringing and echoing in the large lobby.

“Nei hou fun jing.” Meng said, lightly hugging back after a beat. “It’s nice to see you again too, Zion.”. She smiled and now Zion could notice the details she had missed in her rush. The subtle fatigue lines on Meng’s face. Her eyes which had once held a permanent glimmer were now the same dense and impenetrable black as the shadows around them. Her smile looked like it strained to lift up the weight in her eyes. It was all barely there but to Zion, they were literally staring her in the face. 

“Your Cantonese got better.” Zion smiled back, pulling away slightly, the flash of worry and regret on her face quickly dismissed but not quick enough for Meng not to notice. 

“I’ve had a lot of time to practice.” Meng shrugs and smiles a bit wider, “Is that all you brought?”.

Meng turned to pick up Zion’s backpack on the floor. “I didn’t know how much I should pack. Figured I’d go light. Pack the essentials.” Meng lifted the backpack, it jingled and she suspected that Zion had only packed her tools and a handful of clothes, if even that. “The essentials, huh?” she smirked. Zion shrugged back “I figured you’d have clean clothes here.”.

“Yeah we do.” Meng chuckled, “Come on, Ren just finished making you coffee. His cantonese has not improved, let me tell you.” Meng joked. Zion smiled and thought to herself, maybe it’ll all be alright down here.

“Ren, the coffee will get cold.” Meng noted, matter-of-factly. “Oh, right. Yes, the coffee. Latte. As you like it.” Ren let go of Zion with all four arms and stood up, rising back to his full height, well above the two women. Zion straightened her clothes out after they got frumpled in the tight hugs, “Thanks, Ren, it’s good seeing you again too.”. 

Ren returned to his place behind the counter top of the Crossroads Café to make busy drying the same glass that had been bone dry for days and he’d never think to use for anything other than keeping his hands busy during the extremely common lulls between clients.

“I wasn’t incredibly sure how it was gonna be here, Charon wasn’t exactly the greatest guide. Just Walk Straight Forwards.” Zion lightly mocked the friendly psychopomp, “I am glad you two are the first people I met. It would be awkward enough talking to a shade at the front desk.”. They share a chuckle. “Meng always greets people at the front door. Even Famous.” Ren noted. 

“Not that they returned the favour. They called me bellhop and ordered the finest vintage of essential oils, stat.” Meng grumbled, “I asked Ren to serve them olive oil instead.”. Ren nodded quietly, reminiscing on the fairly recent memory. 

“And who was there for you?”. The question hung in the air off of Zion’s lips, Ren halted his drying of the dry glass and shot a look at Meng who simply shrugged. “The hotel was.” she sipped from her boba before continuing as Ren slowly went back to drying the glass, “Charon helped me get situated. Fearful brought me Hades’ cap, he was apparently adamant that I wear it. Prior incidents in the hotel and whatnot. Charon didn’t stick around but he used to check on me regularly. I don’t think he likes the Hotel too much.” Meng smiled a smile Zion could almost believe. But there still was something that lied under it which Meng wasn’t allowing them to see through. “It’s been quiet here otherwise, same as it ever was really. Well, outside of the ambushes. Don’t get me started on those, thank fuck Mummy was there because it was a mess that first one.” Meng took a sip of her boba, before finishing with a smile “Let’s just say I’m hoping it stays quiet while you’re here.”.

There was a beat of silence as both women drank and Ren nodded quietly, looking between the two with a vague air of concern. “I hope so as well.” he simply said. Zion set her empty cup down on the counter, “I hope so too. I hope I don’t stay here too long though… I’m still working on one of Hiroto’s arms and having my workshop would be nice for this.” Zion missed the twitch in Ren’s face before he could recompose himself.

“You can use the workshop here.” Meng simply said, finishing her boba, “It’s all kitted out.”.

“There’s a workshop?” Both Ren and Zion asked in unison. “Duh, Zion’s here.” Meng shrugged as if the answer was self-evident, “Plenty of room in Hotel Umbra, it’s nothing if not accommodating. I can show you after you’ve checked in and we drop your bag off to your room.”. Zion nodded, still slightly confused, Ren shook his head. “I guess the Café was there when I got here too.” he simply grumbled, setting the glass down. 

“Well, I’m off. Just gonna go check on Kirby and Dom.” Ren slung his towel over his shoulder and turned back through a swinging door into the kitchen. Voices could be faintly heard along with screeching and clattering. Meng shook her head as Zion looked at her confused. “Don’t mind em, Kirby’s trying to convince Dom to broaden its culinary horizons again. Let’s go check you in.” Meng said, grabbing the empty cups and tossing them in the trash. 

Zion followed her back except when she realised the route they had taken from the lobby had seemingly disappeared. She didn’t ask, figuring she simply hadn’t kept track properly and Meng seemed unfazed regardless.

“Just write your name and date of arrival.” Meng opening the ledger and turned it to face Zion at the front desk. Zion grabbed the pen and wrote her name, her eyes wandering around the page to see the names of all those who’d checked in before her. In one case, Famous’, the page included a checkout date. She didn’t realise she had been staring at the checking out date when Meng turned back, dropping a room key gently onto the paper. “Room 18. Waiting for you.” Meng smiled again but Zion couldn’t help to feel a shiver as she heard this declaration. 

“Zion, date of arrival please.” Meng’s voice was softer now and Zion finally shook the unease off. “Oh right sorry, I zoned out.” Meng smiled warmly as if to reassure her. “How about we go check out the workshop first, mmh?” she suggested as Zion finished checking in and closed the ledger with a resonant thud which brought another shiver to the imp’s spine, her wings shook subconsciously and her tail coiled tighter around her thigh. In the warm lobby, not far from a quietly crackling hearth, in the presence of an old friend, Zion felt a cold wind of finality. It was gone just a moment later as she nodded to accept the suggestion, picking up her backpack in quiet as she turned to follow Meng out of the lobby once again. 

The doors to the Hotel caught her sights as she passed them to leave the lobby into a hallway across from them. They were heavy, intricately engraved, of a dark and dense wood that would make them hard to move without a noise.

But most importantly, they were now shut.

“Is it alright if I sleep in the workshop?” Zion asked as she caught up to Meng. “Are you sure you don’t wanna sleep in a bed? Umbra can sort you out with one just for your tastes.” Meng asks but Zion shook her head hurriedly, not even entertaining the thought. They arrived to a door simply labelled Zion’s Workshop. Meng swung it open and stepped inside while Zion stopped to take the space in. It was arranged optimally, not lacking any tools, had safety reminders plastered on the walls. All that she could want. And there, she stood in the doorway. Eyes scanning the ideal workspace she could have designed. She thought to herself, “This could be alright.”

[juniper-tree]

The real flora of fake Zion

Fallout: New Vegas was a formative game for me. It gathered up and solidified a lot of disparate interests I’d had for years: desert life, survival medicine and ethnobotany (what Arcade does), being dumb and causing a ruckus. 

The botany really stuck with me. Still working on the desert life. I am an herbalist but not a botanist (yet—for now I just watch Joey Santore and vibe) but plant IDing is a fun hobby. And nothing’s more fun than looking at 10 year old brown pixels and figuring out what the hell they’re supposed to be. 

Continuing my “video game plants in real life” studies (here / here), and because I can’t stop myself from writing plants into my story, here’s a non-exhaustive list of the flora unique to FNV’s Zion Canyon in Honest Hearts.

Ephedra viridis (Mormon tea)

Mormon tea, as you may surmise from its scientific name, is a main source of ephedra, and it will fuck you up. This is trucker speed. As for its common name, well here’s a long post on some of the evidence for and against the idea that Mormon settlers used this as a coffee substitute. If you would like to imagine Joshua Graham and Daniel’s speed-fueled arguments carrying on into the night, I will certainly not stop you. By all accounts, it has a nice flavor.

(lots more behind cut)

Adiantum capillus-veneris (southern maidenhair fern)

Maidenhair fern clings to rock faces and overhangs in Zion, with no observable soil and sometimes very little water - a xerophyte. It tends to cluster and spread in crevices, as around the opening to Crossroad Cavern above. This fern is pretty prevalent in actual Zion, so it’s nice they included some climbing/vining vegetation to break up all the brown-red rock lumps.

Quercus gambelii (gambel oak)

The gambel oak is indigenous to Zion, and in the game—as well as in life—you’ll see it in various states of coloration: bright green, rust red, golden yellow.  It’s one of two tree species to remain in post-apocalyptic Zion, which is still rather lush and green compared to the surrounding wasteland. I imagine that without significant acorn-eating (and spreading) wildlife, the oaks don’t thrive the way they might, radioactive blight aside.

Datura wrightii (sacred datura)

Boy, they did a nice job rendering the sacred datura plant, didn’t they? Datura wrightii is as presented in-game: highly toxic, known to cause hallucinations and sickness (death, really, if you are not knowledgeable and skilled in indigenous peoples’ practices with it), and grows in individual green clumps in the desert soil. A poisonous little oasis with inviting, pretty white flowers.

I will tell you that seeing sacred datura in person for the first time (in Joshua Tree) gave me that “she is too fond of video games and it has turned her brain” feeling. I wanted to lightly pluck the flowers and have them disappear into my invisible backpack. I did not.

Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine)

It took me many go-rounds to decide whether the in-game tree above was ponderosa pine or douglas fir. Something tells me the design was more “generic conifer” and not as true to life as it might be. I’m fairly confident I picked the right one, and anyway, the ponderosa pine is much more interesting. Brachyptera is the subspecies which grows in the Four Corners area. It can grow tall and bushy like the digital ones up there at Ranger Substation Eagle, or it can grow spindly and bent with high elevation and wind.

Did you know ponderosa pines were used to test atom bombs in Nevada? They took a bunch of pines from elsewhere, planted them at Area 5, and then kaboom. The trees largely fell over (video of test). Seems like they could have guessed that.

Artemisia filifolia (old man or sand sagebrush)

The sages in Honest Hearts are very scraggly indeed, sharp, spiky silvery white shrubs without much soft leaf or fuzz, like real ones. They look a bit more like Artemisia cana (silver sagebrush), but perhaps they’ve just become hardened like everybody else in the Wastes. The sand sagebrush has tons of documented uses among the indigenous peoples of the west, including as toilet paper.

Others!

Unlike some of my other investigations into video game plants, because this is set in a real, identifiable place I can touch with my own hands and feet, I don’t have to make real plant analogues from fictional ones. Except in the case of broc flower and xander root. The wiki suggests broc plants resemble Sphaeralcea ambigua, desert globemallows, and while the flowers bear a similarity, I do think this is quite intentionally a fictional plant with fictional properties. As is xander root—essentially, a turnip. Turnips are very good for you.

Of course, there are other plants common to the Mojave Wasteland which I’ve not covered here: Yucca baccata (datil or banana yucca), prickly pear Opuntia cacti (the ones they’ve drawn look kinda like Opuntia polyacantha but Opuntia phaeacantha would be more correct for the region), Agave utahensis (Nevada agave - var. nevadensis wouldn’t be in Zion but var. kaibabensis would so I won’t be picky, and anyway who’s to say how plants spread after 2077).

[mhuntington7]

THE GRAVE OF BLUES LEGEND ROBERT JOHNSON - near Greenwood, Mississippi. The recognized grave of legendary blues master Robert Leroy Johnson (1911-1938) located in the Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery near Money, Mississippi (just north of Greenwood). An accomplished Delta Blues musician, Johnson is said to have made a Faustian pact with The Devil (he sold his very soul) to obtain the skills to master the blues. He was born in these parts, died near Greenwood, and is buried in this small country church cemetery on the banks of the Tallahatchie River. Part of the now-famous “Delta Blues Trail,” the Clarksdale Crossroads and Johnson’s Grave (along with dozens of other area blues history locations) are popular places of pilgrimage for multitudes of blues fans and musicians from around the World. Photo by Michael Huntington - May, 2019. @Huntington_Strange_Travels #StrangeTravels #MichaelHuntington #HuntingtonAdventures #RobertJohnsonGrave #TheCrossroads #TheDevilsCrossroads #ClarksdaleCrossroads #JohnsonCrossroads #RobertJohnsonsCrossroads #BirthplaceOfTheBlues #RobertJohnson #DeltaBlues #MississippiBlues #DeltaBluesTrail #BluesTourism #RoadsideAttraction #MississippiDelta #ClarksdaleMississippi #LittleZionMissionaryBaptistChurchCemetery #MoneyMississippi #GreenwoodMississippi (at Robert Johnson's Grave) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8zWflsFMzm/?igshid=16or7gho3vcp8

[dailybiblelessons]

Thursday: Preparation for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Roman Catholic Proper 21 Revised Common Lectionary Proper 16

Complementary Hebrew Scripture Torah Lesson: Numbers 15:32-41

When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation. They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp.” The whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.

Semi-continuous Hebrew Scripture from the Latter Prophets: Jeremiah 6:1-19

Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin,  from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,  and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looms out of the north,  and great destruction. I have likened daughter Zion  to the loveliest pasture. Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her.  They shall pitch their tents around her;  they shall pasture, all in their places. “Prepare war against her;  up, and let us attack at noon!” “Woe to us, for the day declines,  the shadows of evening lengthen!” “Up, and let us attack by night,  and destroy her palaces!” For thus says the Lord of hosts: Cut down her trees;  cast up a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished;  there is nothing but oppression within her. As a well keeps its water fresh,  so she keeps fresh her wickedness; violence and destruction are heard within her;  sickness and wounds are ever before me. Take warning, O Jerusalem,  or I shall turn from you in disgust, and make you a desolation,  an uninhabited land.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Glean thoroughly as a vine  the remnant of Israel; like a grape-gatherer,  pass your hand again over its branches.

To whom shall I speak and give warning,  that they may hear? See, their ears are closed,  they cannot listen. The word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;  they take no pleasure in it. But I am full of the wrath of the Lord;  I am weary of holding it in.

Pour it out on the children in the street,  and on the gatherings of young men as well; both husband and wife shall be taken,  the old folk and the very aged. Their houses shall be turned over to others,  their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand  against the inhabitants of the land,    says the Lord.

For from the least to the greatest of them,  everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest,  everyone deals falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,  saying, “Peace, peace,”  when there is no peace. They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;  yet they were not ashamed,  they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;  at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,    says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look,  and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.¹ But they said, “We will not walk in it.” Also I raised up sentinels for you:  “Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!” But they said, “We will not give heed.” Therefore hear, O nations,  and know, O congregation, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth; I am going to bring disaster on this people,  the fruit of their schemes, because they have not given heed to my words;  and as for my teaching, they have rejected it.

¹This passage is reflected in Matthew 11:28-30, where our Lord urges us to rest in him.

Complementary Psalm 103:1-8

Bless the Lord, O my soul,  and all that is within me,  bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits— who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Semi-continuous Psalm 71

In you, O Lord, I take refuge;  let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;  incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge,  a strong fortress, to save me,  for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,  from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. For you, O Lord, are my hope,  my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth;  it was you who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.

I have been like a portent to many,  but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise,  and with your glory all day long. Do not cast me off in the time of old age;  do not forsake me when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me,  and those who watch for my life consult together. They say, “Pursue and seize that person  whom God has forsaken,  for there is no one to deliver.”

O God, do not be far from me;  O my God, make haste to help me! Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;  let those who seek to hurt me  be covered with scorn and disgrace. But I will hope continually,  and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,  of your deeds of salvation all day long,  though their number is past my knowledge. I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,  I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,  and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and grey hairs,  O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might  to all the generations to come. Your power and your righteousness, O God,  reach the high heavens.

You who have done great things,  O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities  will revive me again; from the depths of the earth  you will bring me up again. You will increase my honor,  and comfort me once again.

I will also praise you with the harp  for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre,  O Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy  when I sing praises to you;  my soul also, which you have rescued. All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help, for those who tried to do me harm  have been put to shame, and disgraced.

New Testament Epistle Lesson: Hebrews 12:3-17

Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—

“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, ; or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.”¹

Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and ‘make straight paths for your feet’², so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled. See to it that no one becomes like Esau, an immoral and godless person, who sold his birthright for a single meal. You know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, even though he sought the blessing with tears.

¹Proverbs 3:11   Proverbs 4:26

Selections are from Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings copyright © 1995 by the Consultation on Common Texts. Unless otherwise indicated, Bible text is from New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV) copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Footnotes in the Hebrew Scriptures that show where the passage is used in the Christian Scriptures are based on information from the The Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) by David H. Stern, Copyright © 1998 and 2006 by David H. Stern, used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved worldwide. When text is taken from the CJB, the passage ends with (CJB) and this copyright notice applies. Footnotes in the Christian Scriptures that show where a passage from the Hebrew Scripture is used are from The New International Version Bible® ( NIV®), copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. When text is taken from the NIV, the passage ends with (NIV) and this copyright notice applies. Image Credit: Hands image by Gerd Altmann, downloaded from Pixabay, text added by Michael Gilbertson using Photoshop. Hands image used under Creative Commons 0 license. Combined image may be used under the same license. Please credit www.Lectionaryreadings.org.

Year C Ordinary 21, Catholic Proper 21, RCL Proper 16: Thursday

[sfppn]

#TimeShared - Day 5

Zion Crossroads, VA

Well, it's come to this--the rationale for the hashtag.  We partly came down here to attend a timeshare presentation (and get a cheap hotel, travel points, and a gift card in the process). 

We drove about 20 minutes from the hotel to the resort (where they chose NOT to house us--probably not the best way to ingratiate themselves with us).  After filling out a form basically saying we wouldn't slip out during the event, we sat in a conference room and got the spiel.  If you've never done the timeshare thing, you get handed from one smiling person to another, part of a battalion of salespeople.  There's videos, testimonials, talk about your dream vacation--and then comes the hard sell (which they swear isn't one).  Think about the last time you bought a car, and multiple the "what do I have to do to get you in this Corolla?" bit times ten. We got a quick tour, and the model homes seemed very nice.  The math just doesn't work, especially when a quick Google search shows people selling the same places for pennies on the dollar (if that), and a class action lawsuit underway.  So, we politely said nyet, got our stuff, and left.

On to lunch at the Well Hung Vineyard--an andouille crostini, a chicken sammich, and a flight of wine slushies.  It was all very good.

We had originally planned to go to Monticello on this trip.  I went there as a kid, but Mindy has never been.  Unfortunately, we discovered that a) you have to reserve a time weeks in advance to avoid being rushed through at the end of the day (which we couldn't do vs. an unknown time for our timeshare event) and b) someone decided to go the Disney route and charge you an arm and a leg.  With these in mind, we chose instead to go to Highland, just down the road from Tom's colossus, and the home of President James Monroe.  We walked in, paid a reasonable fee, and took a tour with a knowledgeable docent.  The grounds are lovely, and the whole place is well maintained.

Then back to the still-elevatorless hotel for a nap, followed by a trip back to Charlottesville (getting very used to the 15 mile trip) to visit the Downtown Mall , and the Citizen Burger Bar.  I had a huge burger, while Mindy had fries with burger on the side.

Enough for today--more from VA tomorrow.

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

YARNS

Since relocating from Belgium, his home country, to Ottawa, Martin Dawagne (aka YARNS), has been busy, releasing his first full-length album called Summer - Fall -, complete with songs named after cities and neighborhoods where he has travelled and composed. We touched base with Martin to discuss his musical background, his diverse influences, and his ideal “exclusively Belgian/Canadian” tour mates. Stay tuned for his next album, titled Winter - Spring -.

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Yarns.music/ 

Web: https://yarns.bandcamp.com/releases

Latest Release: Summer - Fall - (Album, March 2018)

Upcoming Shows: July 26th @ Jamari August 2nd @ Bar Robo August 28th @ House of Targ

SA: How did this project come to be? YA: After several years of touring and composing in a hardcore band (Now, Voyager), I felt the need to explore a different kind of music. Something connected to introspection, journeys, and widely opened to interpretation. Also, I wanted to try something where it would be 90% me creating, from the composing to the artwork, as well as the live performances. I always call Yarns my most “selfish project”, as it is highly autobiographical, and my main guideline is that all the creative ideas – or at least most of them – have to come from me. That being said, there has been some incredible artists involved in the project, such as the actress Megan Carty (the voice, and the main help in creating the proses), Mike Tompa (the producer), or my brother Bruno Dawagne (who created the logo).

Finally, I started Yarns when I was at an emotional crossroad in my life, and I decided to leave my native country, Belgium, to come to North America, and try to create in an environment far from everything I knew. All the proses on the album are based on places where I lived, which explains their titles.

SA: What bands or musicians would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? YA: Mainly some soundtracks and composer pieces. I am a huge fan of Jonny Greenwood, Max Richter or Arvo Part. I am also highly influenced by rock music, like Nine Inch Nails, The Chariot, Meshuggah, Gojira, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, Sigur Ros, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcade Fire, etc. I also love finding influences in music that is far from what I create (world music, kids shows, hip-hop, etc.).

SA: Thus far in your career, what has been the project’s biggest success? YA: Like I said, Yarns is a self-centred project for which I decided I would never try to please anyone but myself, and put my instincts and integrity before anything else. The fact that it resonates with some people is something I am really honoured by, as this project does not obey to any structure, genre, or need to please. Another one of my influences, Bjork, said that “the moment you try to satisfy others than yourself, you’re not satisfying anyone”, and I think there’s a lot to be learned here, musically speaking.

SA: Conversely, what is the biggest challenge you've faced, and how have you dealt with it? YA: Every performance is a challenge to me. Before I started Yarns, it was impossible for me to even conceive being by myself on a stage, and even less performing only with looping pedals (which can be quite punishing, when you mess up). No matter how many times I played a show, I always experienced stage fright, and thus every concert is challenging. The hour before playing, especially, is always nerve-wracking for me.

SA: How do you approach the song-writing process? YA: I always try to start with an emotion and with my hands first. For Yarns, I am not able to begin creating from scratch behind a computer. It needs to first be myself sitting with an instrument and my pedalboard, and search how I can express a specific emotion accurately. After hours of looping some stuff around, recording some jams with myself – and, also, going crazy – I only start editing on the computer. On parallel to that, I start writing a prose and edit/go deeper into the theme with Megan Carty. Once I have a first version of a song, I go to a studio to record it. After that “official” version is done, I go back to my instruments and figure out a way to perform the studio version live, or to re-adapt it.

It is a long and tedious process were you go back and forth between “this is awesome” to “I am a shitty musician, why am I even bothering?” all the time, and it’s exhausting. But Yarns is about introspection, and this process expresses it accurately, I guess. 

SA: I understand you are a transplant to Ottawa. What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? YA: I think there are some gems of venues around here, and people are really open-minded, especially the metal/punk/hardcore scene. I love the size of Ottawa, because it is not too big or overwhelming like Toronto or Montreal (great cities too, though). However, I think the city would benefit from having three or four more venues with a capacity somewhere between Mavericks and the Canadian Tire Centre, because apart from the Bronson Centre, that doesn’t really exist here and that’s too bad.

SA: What is your favourite show that you’ve played, and why? YA: I think that it was at Pressed, where the venue was packed because Nighttime in Kansas was playing. I felt I progressed from playing in front of such a filled-up room, and little by little taming my terror as the set went by. Also, I messed up big time at that show, and realizing that I was the only one noticing about it was quite rewarding.

Finally, pretty much any show at Ask a Punk is always a great time. That’s my favorite place to perform in Ottawa.

SA: Thus far, what is your favourite Yarns track, and why? YA: It’s one that is on my next album, and it’s called Fault Lines. It’s a track that mixes all the different looping techniques I learned while creating the other Yarns tracks. It also mixes all my influences, from metal to sinister soundtracks. It’s very doomy, scary and a little optimistic too. Unfortunately, this is the only song I recorded that I am not yet able to play.

Her Monster is also an important one to me, as it took me more than one year to write, and Yarns started with the two main chords of that song. I had just arrived in Montréal in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, and I was very unsettled and depressed. All I had to create was a tiny acoustic guitar, and these two chords came naturally out of it, and became the backbone of Summer – Fall -.

SA: A tour consisting of you, and only your favourite Belgian and Canadian acts. Who is on it? YA: If we have to go for Canadian, definitely The Arcade Fire, as they are my favourite rock band! A tour with A Silver Mt. Zion would be pretty dope too. For Belgium, I’d love to play with a band called Amenra, which is a sludge-hardcore band with some spooky imagery. Very twisted and meditative.

SA: What comes next for you in 2019? Good luck this coming year! YA: I have been postponing forever the release of Winter – Spring –, the sequel to Summer – Fall –, since I have been busy working on other creative projects, mainly some soundtracks for some theatre pieces. Releasing an album when you’re the only person in the band is a colossal work. So yes, this is what’s next, and having a proper merchandising, too.

Thank you very much for this interview, Pierce, good luck to you too!

[processservercharlottesvilleva]

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