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WELP. THERE GOES SUNDAY MASS THIS WEEK.

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Hey, parents!

Here’s the SCARIEST TBT EVER!

Right photo taken 10/23/2024.

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JUST A FLUTING REMINDER, SPORTS PARENTS!

⚽️🏀🏈⚾️🎾🏐🏉⛳️🥊🏏🥍🤸🏻‍♂️🏊🏻‍♂️🎳

Because International Day of Peace is EVERY FUDGING DAY, let’s remember that peace is also an inside job… 

To sports parents: relax, know it’s just a game, and just say nothing to your athlete kids post-match en route back home except those little 6 words:

I. LOVE. TO. WATCH. YOU. PLAY.

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Glitter Gulch, day & night, 1988

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Tuesday, July 30th, 2024

🌟 New

We added some deduplication logic to the activity feed. Now, if you get mentioned in your own post, or on a post you’re subscribed to, you will only see one notification!

We expanded the Community header when viewed on web in a desktop browser to take advantage of the extra available space!

🛠 Fixed

Tumblr Premium subscribers were briefly not able to use their monthly perks, this has now been fixed!

Tumblr Supporter subscribers were briefly not able to cancel their subscription, this has now been fixed!

Custom domains were briefly renewed with invalid SSL certificates, this has now been fixed!

🚧 Ongoing

We’re aware that some people in the Philippines are having trouble accessing Tumblr or images on Tumblr. We’ve reached out to the affected ISPs and their government regulatory agency, which is all we can do for something like this. While we can’t remove or circumvent any blocks placed on Tumblr by an internet service provider or a government agency, we are monitoring the situation and hope that it is resolved soon.

🌱 Upcoming

We’re working on a lot of things for communities! Up next are the ability to ban members permanently, which will allow us to open up the option to make communities free-to-join, no invite required. More discovery options and feed improvements to come along with that.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

Wanna support Tumblr directly with some money? Check out Premium and the Supporter badge in TumblrMart!

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Just flew back a couple of days ago from Hong Kong…

And being back in HKIA JUST unlocked a core memory:

Whatever you make of the mistranslation (the woman actually missed her flight to San Francisco), let this be a lesson. PLEASE arrive at least 3 hours before an international flight. And please check for any gate changes and arrive at the gate at least 30 minutes before the departure time.

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POV: you’re attending Midnight Mass at a Catholic church with a pipe organ that has at least 3 manuals and 50 stops. The brass ensemble, timpanist, and organist plays the fanfare. You, the choir (in whom some of the sopranos sing this SICK-BOOTY descant), and the congregation sing this hymn as the priest and altar servers make their way towards the altar:

Then, most of the kids in nearby pews sing the refrain of this hymn like this:

O come let us adore Him

O come let us adore Him

OH COME LET US ADORE HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMM

CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSTTT THE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRDDDD!!!

Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/while-shepherds-washed-their-socks-by-night

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Words had failed over the course of my Disney Cruise last week to describe how much I support my Jewish friends, especially those who were so fearful of decorating their homes for this Hanukkah. I wanna thank my fellow Tampa Bay Area Catholic sister-in-spirit, Jennifer Marshall, for co-creating Project Menorah, which gave me a silver-lined opportunity to combat antisemitism.

I also want to thank Disney Cruise Line for integrating the Jewish holiday’s traditions into this year’s Very Merrytime Cruise! Thank you for helping us make antisemitism disappear and make the holiday - and Christmas - merry and bright!

Photos taken 12/13/2023.

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Don’t worry, Virginias of Austria.

Should that St-Nicholas-isn’t-real pastor’s vacation to either one of your cities happen on December 5, and he flies out at least 2 days after December 6, I bet that Krampus would come by his hotel, whoop his Grinchy butt with birch branches, and leave twigs and coal in his bigoted boots that next morning.

That would be IF he pulls the same henious stunt in your Christmas markets AS WELL AS anywhere else JUST AS he did so at Westgate Mall in Amarillo stateside.

Photo taken 11/28/2023.

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A post shared by History@Disney (@historyatdisney)

Have a MAGICAL National Cake Day!

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No, the Philippines doesn’t widely celebrate Thanksgiving Day. If they do celebrate it, they’d likely have lechon, a spit-roasted suckling pig. But when I went to the village in Kalinga, I happened upon a turkey farm. It was a welcoming anomaly for a tropical archipelago nation.

Taken 2/5/2023.

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Above photo taken 9/18/2023.

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“It’s my hope that some of you will come home for good and retire in a much better Philippines — a Philippines with better airports, Philippines with better roads, better airports, better internet, better governance. That is my wish, and that’s why that is what my administration is working for.” - Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

Not a fan of the younger Marcos, but he does have a great point. In contrast to Tampa Bay, where the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment is $1.6K, one can rent the same for as low as $163, depending on location.

BRB as I continue to surmount my scoliodentosaurophobia (aka the irrational fear of mga butiki)…

Taken 2/2/2023.

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Here’s how I would respond if people would ask me to tell them that I’m in my 30’s without telling them that I’m in my 30’s:

Above photo taken 6/18/2023.

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Huey, Dewey, Louie, and a Magyar PM’s Demise

While touring Budapest during the Balkan Explorer Tour via Expat Explore in 2023, the free day coincided with Philippine Independence Day – also MY 34th BIRTHDAY. Being a Disney fan myself, the city’s sights brought up DuckTales.

And I do mean the original 1987-1990 run.

Photo taken 6/12/2023.

So what does a Disney animated series have to do with Budapest – or rather, the whole country of Hungary? Ask any resident who was between 3-12 years old and living in said country on December 12, 1993, and they’d likely tell you that something somber interrupted an episode of it.

Picture if you will being a kid watching Disney Sunday, the equivalent of America’s The Disney Afternoon in a post-Cold War Hungary (or a few other European countries) on that day. The theme song plays as normal.

“It will never leave,” said Doug Walker, the Nostalgia Critic. “it will never leave. It's like an addiction. You think you're over it. You think, “I only know a few lyrics of the song…’”

“Life is like a hurricane

Here in Duckburg

Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes

It’s a Duck blur

Might solve a mystery

Or rewrite history.

“DuckTales, woohoo!

Every day that I've been making

DuckTales, woohoo!

Tales so daring, do-bad and good

Luck tales.”

“D-d-d-danger lurks behind you

There’s a stranger out behind you

Gonna find you

What to do?”

“JUST GRAB ONTO SOME

DUCKTALES!”

“WOOHOO!“

“I mean once you hear it once, it will never, ever go away. And you wanna know what the creepy thing is? I think this show stayed on the air strictly because of the theme song! I mean think about it, what do you actually remember about this show?”

Many a Magyar ‘90s kid’s disturbingly thorough answer came to a head during Uncle Scrooge’s breakfast conniption in the Catch as Cash Can story arc episode, “A Whale of a Bad Time.” He was dismayed and enraged when he lost half of his fortune via the boat containing it being eaten by a sea monster. As Huey, Dewey, and Louie restrained him, every TV screen in every Magyar household open to DuckTales desaturated, changed to static briefly, and went black.

The Magyar Televízió logo appeared in a gloomy grayscale, accompanied by a track of the 3rd movement of Fredric Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 35. It signified to Magyars of all ages – even and especially the perplexed ‘90s kids trying to make sense of whatever abruptly interrupted their DuckTales fix – that someone very important had died.

That someone very important was József Antall, the first democratically elected prime minister.

Shortly after his inauguration in May 1990, Antall was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He underwent surgery that October, with him having an interview on the response to the taxi blockade in ihis sleepwear. His cancer recurred in May 1991.

Antall died in his sleep due to complications on December 12, 1993. Magyar adults and well-informed teens who knew and loved him were bereft of a strong leader in Hungary’s post-communist history, whereas befuddled kids wondered why the TV cared more of about a prime minister’s death over a Disney animated series.

Those children who grew up back then were dubbed the “DuckTales Generation.”

“I wanted to switch channels to see if there was another cartoon,” recalled one Magyar adult, “but my parents wanted to watch M1 because – unlike me – they knew who PM Antall was and why the news of his death was important.”

“As a result of the shock, I rushed to the bathroom,” recalled another, “but I could barely tell what had happened all the way through. My mom cried to my dad, ‘Antall is dead!’ And then they looked at me, over my head. The children watching DuckTales at the time experienced a minor trauma as they were torn out of the safe world of Disney magic – and the unknown, incomprehensible blackness came.”

“Chopin's funeral march and the deep blackness cast a pall over the country for just a couple of minutes.”

“I called my parents, ‘Dad, I think (Antall) had died,’” recalled the owner of conservative blog Meanwhile in Budapest.

The death announcement of Antall wasn’t the only kids’ show interruption in history. On June 2, 2020, Viacom-owned TV channels (including Nickelodeon) around the world interrupted TV shows with an 8:46 PSA.

The white text, “I Can’t Breathe,” faded in and out to the cadence of a sound effect of a human breathing. The duration matched the one in which Derek Chauvin held his knee down on George Floyd’s neck till he suffocated. Either a Color of Change text number or the Amnesty International website (depending on country) appeared alongside it.

The PSA scared some kids, which lead some of their parents to rant about it on the Viacom channels’ social media accounts, some with some political rebukes.

But whichever their political views, most Magyar children who grew up when a death of a beloved dignitary interrupted a Disney TV show in the ‘90s knew that their moment was a blindingly brighter lightbulb memory. Even a traveling exhibit by Magyar artists on the childhood children in Hungary spent between the late ‘80s and noughties was APTLY named after that episode of which doleful breaking news interrupted it.

As Walt Disney said, “Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality.”

Simply put, life HAS BEEN like a hurricane, anywhere in the world, whether kids and parents like it or not.

Especially in early ‘90s Hungary.

Photo taken 6/12/2023.

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That one 1990 car dealership ad (Click that link at your own risk, as it has JUST AS MUCH profanity as a Netflix show in just a minute.) SURELY comes to mind passing through Baltimore…

Taken 5/19/2023.

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Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe’s E-Ticket Organ

Most people don’t think of Central Florida as a place of basilicas. They generally think of Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, and other “fun” attractions. The last place most Catholic Guests under 18 would want to go is a Catholic church on Sunday in the middle of their vacations.

And make that a Catholic church with some of the well-crafted stained glass around, a choir wholly comprised of pro singers (mostly members and alumni of Voices of Liberty at Epcot), and the Schoenstein Opus 175 pipe organ that not only shakes the room, but makes its worshipers pack the sanctuary's eaves each Sunday with its varicolored, symphonic sounds.

Taken 4/15/2023.

As a prominent and well-known example of Catholic places of worship in Orlando, the Basilica of The National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe is a mission church as opposed to a parish church, the latter type where weddings and funerals are held. (One of the only funerals held at MQUS was for its founding rector, Monsignor Joseph Harte, in 2020, the first time it opened to the public after months of the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.)

In fact, it’s a church for the tourists, school groups, and business convention-goers who descend upon and the employees who work in Orlando.

For many general tourists, the purpose for going to the City Beautiful is to take a photo in front of a certain castle, right? For a lot of Catholic tourists, they need a place to observe Mass amid castles, coasters, and cartoon characters while doing so. MQUS does just that, alongside nearby churches.

Taken 4/15/2023.

Before the shrine was erected in 1993, Msgr. Harte started his Catholic ministry Mass on Wheels. He wanted the then 8 million estimated Catholics a place to worship and give gratitude to God through the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Thus he and his clerical team hosted Masses in hotel ballrooms and banquet halls, including the Luau Cove at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort at Walt Disney World. But that posed problems – Msgr. Harte sometimes found himself preaching in the barrooms! He really needed a permanent place for tourists to stop and observe Mass.

While praying on a trip to Lourdes, France, in 1977, God provided Msgr. Harte with a viable solution. And not without the intercession of St. Mary, who appeared there in 1858. It came to a head in 1979 when he purchased a tract – a swamp near SeaWorld – for the shrine. 5 years later, groundbreaking began for the Mother and Child Chapel and it was completed two years later.

The main church - a neo-Romanesque Revival, 2000-seat edifice, opened on January 31, 1993 and then dedicated on August 22 of that year, with a Vatican official (Pio Cardinal Laghi) attending.

On a personal note, one of my 3 wishes I made at age 7, when I first set foot in this 2000-odd-seat sanctuary one Christmas Eve in 1996, was for a pipe organ.

Taken 4/15/2023.

3 years later, my dream was set to come true. Msgr. Harte wrote, “As we make progress with the development of this Shrine in honor of the Mother of God, the time has come to consider the installation of a pipe organ, an instrument that will, for generations to come, lend inspiration and encouragement to our Liturgical celebrations.”

Or so – as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and other priorities attested – they thought.

For over 25 years of the minor basilica’s existence – and even when it was designated as such in 2009, the youngest one to receive the designation in the US at the time – a rented digital organ, mostly built by the Allen Organ Co. (Dunne Music supplied them as its dealer) accompanied Masses.

That motioned the music ministry to conduct a fundraising campaign in 2015, the Campaign for Sacred Music. In 2 years, enough money was raised for construction of a pipe organ, and they announced Christmas 2017 that the Schoenstein & Co Organbuilders would build their “dream machine,” their Op. 175. 

Taken 4/15/2013.

The tonal design of the organ was intended to be greater than even the Cathedral of St. James’s Wicks, with 8 diapason ranks (sets of pipes) in the major divisions and many 8′ string, flute, and chorus and solo reed ones. Though they and the percussion stops not normally found in Catholic pipe organs seem excessive to Guests used to their 3-manual Organ Reform Movement machines (and I do respect, pray for, and acknowledge them), the smorgasbord of timbres provide a wider spectrum of organ repertoire and accompanimental possibilities.

“Many organs do not even have the wherewithal to accompany congregational singing, which requires an especially strong and prompt-speaking pedal bass to maintain tempo, and a dominant 8' line to lead melody,” Jack Bethards, tonal director of Schoenstein, explained.

“Most organs fail to deliver the most thrilling choir accompaniment effect the organ has to offer: that of full diapason and reed choruses under perfect dynamic control to match the level of any ensemble. Service playing often requires certain special effects as well, such as the heroic Solo Tuba, the whisper-soft céleste, and quiet 32' tone.”

“These effects are not strictly necessary on an organ dedicated to solo repertoire, but they are vital in church work. Musical scope is also important in church work because the organ must maintain the interest of musicians, clergy and parishioners week after week and year after year.”

As mentioned, the wide range of 8′ string, diapason, flute, and chorus and solo reed stops in the MQUS’s Schoenstein Op. 175 allows the organists to play all works of the organ repertoire as well as transcriptions.

“The need for expressive flexibility in accompaniment is perhaps the most important argument in favor of the symphonic organ, but there are others as well that apply in both sacred and secular venues,” Bethards further elaborated.

“As a portrayer of the organ solo repertoire, the symphonic organ is obviously far more versatile than the repertoire-specific instrument. It is easier to fit pre-Romantic repertoire to the symphonic organ than it is to fit Romantic and Modern repertoire to the Classical or Baroque organ."

“With performers free to select (orchestral) music which translates best to the organ, transcriptions can be presented as an art-form in their own right. There are two good reasons to do this. First, hearing familiar music in a different medium is often enlightening. Sometimes aspects of the music are made more clear and benefit from a greater range of expression.”

“Second, the organ, being under the control of one artist, can often render a more convincing performance than can an orchestra. There are many pieces that I, for one, would prefer to hear in transcription.”

The Schoenstein Op. 175 was completed and blessed November 2019. It wasn’t - due to the pandemic - formally dedicated until 2022, with a recital by Peter Richard Conte.

The first photo shows how the front of the sanctuary at MQUS looked until the installation of Schoenstein Op. 175. Revisiting it while spending 3 days at Universal Orlando (and attending Mass in the process), I was thankful that one of my three wishes I made when I set foot and prayed in it at age 7 on Christmas Eve 1996 came true - and sounded as GLORIOUS as it looked. First photo taken 1/1/2014 and second photo taken 4/15/2023.

Coupled with a choir that selects members by audition, the various timbres of Florida’s very first Schoenstein organ plus – as the Musicam Sacram from the Second Vatican Council (VI, 62) has it – on its purpose as something “to be held in high esteem in the Latin Church, since it is its traditional instrument, the sound of which can add a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lift up men’s minds to God and higher things.”

Indeed, the Schoenstein organ made MQUS an E-Ticket attraction. For the Disney-illiterate, the designation is rooted from attractions, often big-name ones, listed in the E category when ticket books at Disney were issued at the time Msgr. Harte bought the land for the current church in 1979.

For all you organophiliacs, feel free to have a gander at the specs via The American Organist. Oh, and don't be alarmed by the inclusion of the Tibia Clausa in the Solo - after all, Robert Hope-Jones first used the flute pipes for churches before he made them into theater organ foundational tones.