Another Death...

The first stirrings of Spring is supposed to be a time of life, instead, it seems the opposite. Another influential singer has died, though I doubt many of you have heard of this one. Any bonafide Gen X'er would recognize her music immediately.

Her name is Blossom Dearie. You would recognize her for her "Number Eight" song and many others on Schoolhouse Rock. She was actually a very talented traditional Jazz musician. Retro junkies like me are grieving the loss.

I do not know the details...

Secret History of Valentine's Day

Here we are once again, at the cusp of a holiday which most of us in our civilization have forgotten the meaning of. Sure, we all know what we do, but do we know why? Valentine's Day is that most universal celebrated holiday, which most people know the least about. It has become, for most people, simply an exercise in buying expensive chocolate, or the latest cartoon character inspired cards to give the children to pass out at school. What does it really mean? How did it get started?

It is believed that our modern holiday, now known as Valentine's Day, had it's beginning in ancient Rome. It was a fertility festival known as Lupercalia, widely known for the naughty antics of the Lupercals. These fellows would dress in goat skins and run through the streets, randomly striking all the young females they happened to come across with a long goat-skin thong. It was considered good fortune and a blessing to be struck by this thong, as it symbolically was intended to help bring about better fertlity for the girls. This being the case, the Lupercals did not really have to look hard to find girls to strike, in fact, they would willingly line up for it. Whether their clothes remained on was something else entirely. It was celebrated for an entire week, centered on February 13-15th, co-inciding with another festival dedicated to Juno. There were heavy romantic overtones for the whole festival. I am sure many guys willingly bellied up to the bar to become Lupercals for their favorite girl or girls.

This whole spectacle was a follow on to the Candlemas/Imbolg/GroundHog's day festivals. Where those festivals celebrated the first stirrings of spring, Lupercalia celebrated the first signs of rebirth from winter. In most Mediteranean climates, this was when things started to bud and show life. In more agrarian times, this sort of holiday helped the people connect with the circle of the seasons. When Rome later became Christianised, the feast of St. Valentine was placed in the middle of the Lupercalia festival, presumably to remind everyone to keep their clothes on, so that they would eventually forget the pre-christian holiday.

Nowadays, all we have to remember these flamboyant celebrations are lot's of hearts and little cupid's, who can be seen as socially acceptable representations of the original Pan of Lupercalian origin. It has become a celebration of love and romance, with no mention of the seasons (a loss no doubt contributed by our modern non-agrarian lifestyle).

Whatever it may mean to you, I cannot fault a holiday based on love.

The End of a Legend

Several days ago, we lost a legendary performer, who happens to be a favorite of mine. Lux Interior, front-man for the iconoclastic, scary, and just plain strange band; The Cramps. The Cramps were Punk Rock before there was a name for it. Their sound combined the sounds of surf and rockabilly, with the shtick of Roger Corman B-Movies. They made being Dead cool, and helped usher in the Horror Punk and Death Rock movements. Lux and his dominatrix wife, Poison Ivy, started the band as a side project to her Domina work. They were actually funded by this work in the early years. They did not just act or dress the part; they WERE the part. They were truly strange and different people. They were also a huge influence on me, being a guitarist and general weird person myself.

Lux Interior was known for being the most chaotic, unpredictable, and just plain scary weird singer you would ever see live. Everyone else are pale imitations. There is a bass drum in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame that he put his head through during a performance. How cool is that? He was known for wearing women's high heels, and lot's of latex. He played sort of an aggressive male tart, while Poison Ivy played the evil Succubus pulling the strings. The roles were definitely reversed from the typical "cock" rock of the era (and our era as well). Lux Interior was 62 and kept playing and touring to the bitter end; The Cramps being one of the few bands to have never broken up, ever. He fronted the band from 1972 until his death on February 4th, of a pre-existing heart condition.

This is a true loss for REAL MUSIC.

Read more here...

Where did Groundhog's Day come from?

Seeing as yesterday was Groundhog's Day, maybe a little history lesson is in order. It seems this holiday has been around for a whole lot longer than the 200 years we in the US have been calling it Groundhog's Day. It was originally named Imbolg, and was one of the pre-christian Gaelic holidays. It is tied to the Irish goddess Brigid, and the whole point to it was to celebrate the lengthening of the daylight and first stirrings of Spring in the deep of winter from the Sun having been born on Yule. After the Christianisation of Ireland, and the beatification of Brigid into St. Brigid, the Holiday became St. Brigid's Day or Candlemas (the return of the light). The day was changed to the first, of course, because a good Christian could not celebrate on the same day as his pagan neighbors. Then he would be just like them, and most likely revert back to his old ways.

The origin of the Groundhog remains a bit of a mystery. It is said that the German immigrants to the US had a belief that the Groundhog would come out on this day to see the weather. If he saw his shadow, he would go back in for a six week snooze and we would have more winter weather. Where this came from, no one knows, but it sounds very Amish.

There is an older belief that comes from the Irish, which is sort of similar. This has to do with the Hag Goddess Cailleach. According to the Irish legend, she gathers her firewood during winter. If the winter is to last longer, she makes certain she has a bright sunny day to gather her wood. If the winter is to end soon, she sleeps through Imbolg because she needs no more firewood. Likewise, the day is cloudy because she does not need the sun to gather her wood.

I guess somewhere along the way someone mistook a Groundhog for a Hag?

The Branding of a President...

I saw something the other day that got my brain juices flowing. It was a light-hearted news story about how President Obama is using different logos and items to brand himself with the American public. Very interesting, it was. It also got me thinking about the way his organization is setting up house. Mr. Obama, it seems, has people working for him the truly understand how the human psychology operates. It seems the Republicans have been completely outclassed in more ways than just the political arena, and may never catch up. The older generation from which they spring just do not function on this level.

What I am speaking of, is the spinning of the human mind. The unleashing upon the American public of carefully crafted memes, and the careful molding of attitudes by such things as colors, body language, and logos. It has reached so far into the mind of the public that even the children are now being affected. The other party may never catch up. This particular type of reality manipulation is a hallmark of the younger generations, and co-incides with the rise of the Internet; the ultimate psychological tool. Any modern black magician would be proud...

How do they do it? Easy. You carefully craft your intention and attach it to something (like a logo or a word), that appeals to the basic desires of your average human. Every time this image or object is then displayed, it goes straight into our collective unconsciousness. What then does our subconcious mind try to do? Guess what - it tries to make what it is told real. In order for this to work, it must be simple and direct. It must also appeal to a common want or need. Just look at the election "Change" logo for an example. Or in the way he presents himself to the public. He is actually so saavy in this respect, that he is making himself into a brand logo. His intent has been implanted so deeply, that in 12 months time, his face is what pops into most people's head when the word Change is mentioned. Very impressive, I must say. I only wish my own grasp of memetics and group dynamics was as thorough.

At this point, the Republicans can only look at him from the point of view as outsiders. Much of the dynamics this sort of thing is based upon goes against their very nature and beliefs. The question I really want answered is, did he understand all this before he ran or was it crafted in the background, silently awaiting a pretty face, for years in advance.

Very interesting. I am curious to see how the next 8 years go. I have a feeling I know what is going to happen, and I am not telling.

Remembering Mrs. Davis...

There are people in all of our lives which we always remember. Some for the right reasons, others for different reasons. I still remember the jerkwads that jacked me up in Dallas once when I was a teen, by the way, but this is a different kind of memory. This is about a lady I knew as a child. In a way, she helped set me off on my current journey of insanity, and I count her as being very influential on me in my early stages.

This all happened way back around 1980, at a time when my parents were just getting a divorce and things were kind of strained. I was a pre-teen youth, and spent most of my time being shuffled between both of them. My father was going to many different churches, trying to get back on his feet, and chanced upon a church that ended up being somewhat different than the others. I will not mention names, but suffice to say, it was not your standard church. 

I moved in with my Dad, and started tagging along with him. No big deal. Up until this point, our family had never really gone to anything like this except when my Mom drug us to a local Baptist church for about a month, before we could not take it any longer. They didn't really want us there either, if I remember correctly. To make a long story short, this place was very different than what I was used to. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I do now, having my eyes opened a bit by experience. This place was the first place I ever heard anyone refer to "God" as Mother. 

Mrs. Davis was their "Minister" for lack of a better term. However, she was more like a mother. This was totally new to me. I had never seen anything like it. Knowing what I now know, I can tell you she was no "Minister"(Maybe, if a "Minister" rode a broom).  This was back in the socially repressed early Reagan years, and that sort of thing was frowned upon. Most anyone who did anything like that was usually pretty well incognito. It is not so much the case anymore, with many millions claiming this sort of thing openly nowadays. 

There were other things about Mrs. Davis that stick out in my mind. She was always perfect. She looked perfect. She acted perfect. And everything always seemed to go her way. Even if it didn't go her way, she always benefitted from it. She would also give you anything you asked for, no matter how crazy. She also always seemed to know exactly what you were going to say, and had the perfect response every time. She was far different from the average "humanity" which she seemed to "mother" over. She was also a very supportive person for me, in many different ways, in some cases, doing things for me my own family would not do. She was a very unusual lady, and spread much peace and happiness amongst those who knew her. 

To this day, I find myself trying to be more like the qualities I remember her having. She made much of the old stories of "Masters" returning to teach the students when they were ready. My meeting her at the point I did was very influential on me, and I would have turned out very different had it not happened. I will always remember her and other like her. She was the first in a long string of similar persons, which seem to come along at certain points where I seem to need them. Yeah, it's hokey, but so is the world. 

I wish you luck Mrs. Davis.

The New Hunts...

There are lots of things we take for granted in this society. As much as we bitch, we are not hunted down for what we believe or do with our lives, at least not yet. It seems as far as society advances, it also takes several steps back. A man is being held in Nigeria right now for claiming to have killed 110 child witches.

It dawns on me, that many of us in this society would be in serious trouble if this sort of thing would happen in our American society, but fortunately, clearer minds normally prevail. What is happening right now in Nigeria, and by and large the entire African continent, in unfathomable in this modern age. Many child rights organizations claim that scores of children are being abandoned, seriously injured, or killed, because their families or neighbors believe them to be Witches. Much of what is being perpetrated is done by so-called Pastors who exercise the demons for a fee, which usually results in the disappearance or death of the child. In the web of interconnections, there also seems a very strong link to Human Trafficking, with the fears of the community being played upon so that modern slavers can have children to trade and abuse. These poor children suffer such fates as being abandoned, tossed into rivers to drown, chopped up with machetes, or forced to bathe in acid. It is sick that the church profits from the death of these poor souls.

While the phenomenon in Nigeria is a relatively new occurrence and seems to have it's roots in ignorance and poverty, this is also starting to occur more frequently in places closer to home, such as Mexico. In the last few years several murders have taken place there which seem related to this phenomenon, including the burning of a supposed witch. It seems religious and cultural fears are being played up to the already desperate among us.

How does this relate to us? Education. We must strive to ensure that ignorance does not overwhelm common sense. We must maintain our values and tolerance, and overcome the hate being spewed by those institutions which seek to gain from it. As people's lives get harder, they cling to hatred, religion, and eventually succumb to outmoded superstitions forced upon them by the powers that be. This is especially true as it seems the US is starting down a road to economic woes and people trying to pass blame on others. We must not let it happen to us.

Read more on this topic here...

Really scary stuff.