Thursday, April 16, 2009

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The best friend I didn't meet






WFMU radio provides vertigo inducing free form radio. If you're a sound junkie, WFMU is the purest shit there is.

I turned on Irene Trudel's show this past Monday to hear John Goodman, Ed Haber and Kenny Kosek memorializing some dude named

'Citizen Kafka'.





I vaguely remembered hearing that name on WBAI radio but had never heard the show - Citizen Kafka having left years ago. I had always assumed it was a political show about loss of individual rights.

I was wrong. So very wrong. Citizen Kafka aka Richard Shulberg of Bronx and Brooklyn New York was a zany, brilliant genius who I would have adored following. As I listened to Irene Trudell's radion show, falling out of my chair laughing, I recognized a kindred spirit.

On March 21st, 2 days after Citizens's 'change in vibrations/transmigration' as his friends put it,
NPR's All Things Considered recapped Citizen Kafka's life.
If you enjoy these audio and video clips of Cit's work and are curious about who he was, I recommend a listen. It is cheesy, like most of NPR's All Things Considered, but it gives more info on the man.



Sleuthing around the internet for more traces of Citizen Kafka,
I came across this gorgeous hand stamp signed "Citizen Kafka"
I'm pretty sure it's the same person.





More views into the inside of Citizen Kafka's head can be found
at his Secret Museum of the Air



Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!


I found this email awaiting me when I turned to the 'puter after work. I love the tying together of myth and practice and also Roxana's inclusive writing. I hope you all enjoy it too.

Roxana writes through her yahoogroup: Roxanas_Reports


Easter, April 12, 2009
© Roxana Muise 4/12/2009
The religious holiday, Easter, which is also, inexplicably a secular celebration has the potential for being a unifying tool on Earth. This underscores the metaphysical/esoteric principle of Oneness. May we pause to explore this possibility?
Within our Universe, we live in a multidimensional mobiustrip, which is endlessly counted and recounted by our Earth in its spiral journey around our Sun.
We, inhabitants of the Earth enter and exit in fractal periods, guided by invariant concepts and laws, both collective and specific, either unconsciously or consciously, guided by mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, astrology, mythology, paradigms - through allegory – all in search of continuity and meaning. Bear with me through my philosophical ravings. I will eventually get to the historical observations that brought me to this point.
There is a constant blending, as individuals, families, groups, nations, ideals, and faiths travel this uncharted path. As individuals, and as groups, we are defined by birth, discovery, growth, and death. To make our lives meaningful, we band together, not always knowing that we all share that same cause.
We celebrate pause-points within each cycle – all leading to culmination and yet each providing commencement in the never-ending pathway of shared consciousness. Overlapping cycles keep us guessing about what comes next in linear sequence, the time/space framework of our manifested trips.
The fortunate who choose to serve as wayshowers (astrologers and other students of cycles), often themselves only slightly more aware of the cyclic interactions that we all share.

"The importance of the calendar for the groups was that it enabled them (early religions) to place themselves in relation to various important events of the past, moving ahead of them, and so predict what was coming along behind."

We all emerged from the same cradle, whether by intelligent design or evolution or a combination of both. It is no accident that Earth's three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arose from the middle-Eastern section of the globe, all early procurers of science through religion. They all celebrate the cycle of life correlated with the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and the Moon's around the Earth - through metaphors: their stories of creation, the birth of the light; and death, resurrection and ascension, and the processes in between. They all hold in common esoteric studies that parallel each other, based on the old testament – "In the beginning, God created…" these are mirrored in ancient studies of Pagans, which are unabashedly based on the natural cycles of life.
Muhammad Migrated from Mecca to Medina 427 years ago, which marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Islamic days begin at sundown the day before the full day of their new year at Ramadan. Islamic years are, however based on a purely Lunar calendar, which creates a very changeable year compared to calendars based on the Earth's orbit. Muslims do recognize Jesus as one of the prophets of the Old Testament, which they revere along with the Qur'an.
The Jewish calendar has four dates for new years, each for a different segment of their culture. Since September 29, 2008 we are in the Jewish year 5769. Their day begins at sundown and with a partial Lunar calendar their main new year is Rosh Hashana, the beginning of their 7th month, the festival of the sacred moon and feast of the trumpets. The Hebrew religion recognizes the prophets of the Old Testament, their link with Christianity. Jewish Passover coincides with the Christian Easter season.
Fear comes from and creates separation. Disagreement arises in what we do with creation, and where it leads – control of a common language – and who's in control of unity. All throughout history these groups have been at constant odds each other and with secular groups, whose purpose it is to control nature (human and otherwise), all finding it difficult to keep separate from politics. Overlapping cycles make for strange bedfellows. Would that we uncover the unity within.
Over time, the mystical and the scientific, originally joined and then separate, are now spiraling forward towards reunification. As Thomas Kuhn tells us, paradigms shift when those in control die off.
Disambiguity, the process of resolving ambiguity was brought to bear in the case of the terms: BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini – In the Year of Our Lord), when part of the Christian calendar was changed to BCE (before the common era, or before the Christian era), and CE (common era) to remove calendric computations from segregation within Christianity, thus embracing a religiously neutral alternative. The labels refer to the time of Jesus of Nazareth, and the Gregorian calendric system, which lends the question: who controls the beginning? The shift from BC/AD to BCE/CE seems to have its roots in the universities in the 1960s and 1970s, and was formally implemented in the beginning of the 21st century when changes were made in text books.
The western European Christian culture instituted the use of BC and AD to denote the beginning of the Christian epoch. Their ongoing argument was mainly concerned with how to demark the beginning of the year and the rules for determining Easter.
Prior to A.D. (or C.E.) 325, Easter was celebrated on various days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That year, the Council of Nicaea, in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey) was convened by Emperor Constantine. This is thought to be the first ecumenical (meaning world-wide) council of the Christian Church, as it was called to create uniform Christian doctrine, which at that time reached the limits of the Roman Empire. During the Nicaean Council, the Easter Rule was instituted, which states that "Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full Moon on, or after the Vernal Equinox.
Eventually, the Julian Calendar (used at the time) was untidy, and too long, causing the Vernal Equinox to drift backwards in the calendar year. This caused a considerable change in the holy days of Easter. Clearly, an adjustment was needed. A considerable length of time went on before that could be accomplished.
Aloysius Lilius (c. 1510 – 1576) is said to be the creator of the Gregorian Calendar, through his manuscript entitled Compendiuem novae rationis restituendi kalendarium (Compendium of the New Plan for the Restitution of the Calendar). His plan designated the beginning of the epoch defined by the life of Christ (the issuance of the year 1); the beginning of the year; the beginning of the week; the beginning of the day (midnight, sunrise, noon, or sundown); and the grouping and naming of the months, the days of the week, and special days (such as leap year). His system aligned religious and economic cycles with recurring astronomic phenomena. The crater Lilius on the Moon was named after him
The reform to the calendar occurred six years after his death, when Lilius' brother Antonio presented his manuscript to Pope Gregory XIII. The manuscript then proceeded to the Church's reform commission, and after some modification, on February 24, 1582, a Papal Bull ordered Christians to use the new calendar. The Easter Rule was maintained. Since the ecclesiastical "vernal equinox" is always on March 21, Easter has since been celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25. And so the date of Easter is, each year, always on a different date.
Even before the Christian rule for Easter, humans have celebrated the vernal equinox and the return of spring as a time of renewal, consonant with the meaning of Easter. Besides the reference of the word "resurrection" to Christian theology and "…Jesus rising from the dead after his death and burial", Webster's Deluxe Unabridged Dictionary also offers, "a coming back into notice, practice, use, etc.' restoration or revival…"
Symbology such as the Easter Basket dates back to pagan traditions and Oeastre, the Goddess of fertility, who was often depicted carrying a basket of eggs, symbolizing fecundity. In time, egg shaped candy has replaced eggs, and the holiday has become a commercial extravaganza for confectioners. The symbology of the rabbit denotes fertility, as rabbits reproduce in just 30 days.
The tradition of consuming the ham on Easter comes from the habit of eating the last of the cured meats that were prepared and stored during the winter from slaughtered domesticated animals that could not survive the winter. The vernal equinox: the equal length of days and nights marked the seasonal change, gave them reason to celebrate, which usually coincided with the end of their winter meat supplies.
As is quite often the case, the differences between Religious, spiritual, pagan and secular holidays seem blurred, and the principles underlying their meaning come through, as a possible symbol of the oneness of consciousness, and possibly a way to heal our differences. May this information bring you reasons to open your hearts to others during this season of hope.

May I wish you all a most happy and unifying Easter.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Time to choose the winner!





I have been playing with the eyebrow/styling wax for a week. I am having a blast!

Here is What it Does Best:

Humectant
It will attract humidity to the hair.

Styling Aid
The wax allows greater finesse to those that like to create interesting sculptural effects

Lightly coats Eyebrows, Moustache, Fringe areas of short hair styles to impart control or interesting shapes

So, I'm assuming all of you who posted are still interested! Pick a number between 11 and 99. Whoever comes closest will receive my little funsy wax.

Kisses and mucho love this FABULOUS April day. Gail
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