Me again.
Well, this is a relic of a few weeks ago, but I'm gonna finish it:
I'm listening to an episode of Coverville, a channel on Mixcloud, which I discovered via the excellent host of Rhythm Revue, Felix Hernandez. This episode is full of covers by and of Wilson Pickett and of Lady Gaga. Quite a lot of nifty stylistic riffs on Gaga, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Though I find that music impedes writing, even of chatty journal posts.
Anyhow, here's the ep: https://www.mixcloud.com/BrianIbbott/coverville-1118-its-the-land-of-1000-just-dances-with-cover-stories-for-wilson-pickett-lady-ga/
Back from vacation (a visit to Hepmom), which wasn't very active, but I have been kinda wiped out last night and today. Got home from the airport just before vertigo hit, so that was probably what had me wiped out today. Also, waking up around 4 pm (and also being awakened at some unknown hour by happy Elder Cat). It's been an exhausting couple or three weeks. as remarked on in my last post.
The night before I left for HepState was the final evening of a fascinating series, which has also been a pretty profound experience, and one that I happened on completely by accident. Early in March I realized it was election day, and I didn't know anything about the candidates in one of the 2 races (all local or state judges), apart from one of them really seemed to have some enemies with big money, because we got a full-color 81/2" x 11" attack ad in the mail pretty much every day. (Turns out he has been pursuing the John Doe investigation re our governor and his minions, so yeah, I voted for him.) The local grassroots org that pointed me to the info on the candidates also reported that there would be a 5-week series of talks called Welcoming Our Muslim Neighbors, sponsored by several local churches. Each week a Muslim speaker came from a nearby (if 45 miles counts) to talk about different facets of their faith.
First session was about misconceptions about Islam and fears about ISIS and other radical groups. I really enjoyed the speaker, who was from Libya, if I remember right. The second week was about the similarities between Islam and Christianity, which I probably learned when I took comparative religion back in college, but that WAS a little while ago. That speaker was from Sudan. I had sneaked in a little late, coming straight from work, and sat at the back. The first couple of sessions I was either too shy or too hungry to talk to the speakers, but after that I did every week. The third week was at the local library, and was a presentation of Islamic art/architecture, with a speaker from Egypt. I'm not sure where the speakers from the fourth session were from--there was a couple, both engineering professors (just looked them up--they're from Bangladesh), and a single UW student, speaking about Muslim family life. The female engineering instructor was the first woman speaker we heard. She and her husband were funny and personable, and I enjoyed talking with them after.
[That's where I ran out of writing juice. So to continue...] The last week was a group visit to the Islamic Center in the city. It's actually a rather humble building, no minarets or dome, but the traditional niche facing Mecca, and not surprisingly, nice rugs! I'm not sure how many of us there were who came--more than a dozen, I think. We kinda outnumbered the congregants, as it was a Wednesday around dinnertime, so probably most people were doing their prayers at home. It was just a prayer time, not very long, as the big day of worship is Friday. Before the prayers we had a couple of men talking and answering questions (we were upstairs but had a view of the main room), one was the man from Sudan and the other was Palestinian. After the prayers, we were introduced to a college student, a 4th-generation American. It was incredibly interesting to get his perspective. His mother's family actually came from Ireland, and she converted after doing some seeking, a couple of years (if I remember right) before she met his father, who is Palestinian-American. (The Palestinian side of his family has actually been here longer than the Irish, though both came around/over 100 years ago.) There was a young woman who helped set up some snacks, and they invited her in to meet us, but she seemed shy and didn't stay.
Everyone we met was so warm and welcoming of questions--even the hard questions. The man from Sudan had such love in his eyes as he spoke or listened to the other speakers, and I definitely felt it toward our group. (I gathered he was one of the leaders of the community, though there's no imam in the sense that the media portrays. The imam is whoever is leading the prayers during that service. The young American guy said he had done so at times.) The two older men said we were welcome to return any time (the young one had gone off to play basketball with his friends), and I told them I was really going to miss these gatherings. One said, "Oh, are you moving away?"
This really moved me. I feel like our two groups were peace mongers in our own small way. And the group was pretty neat. Pretty much middle aged and older. My friend L's 92-year-old father came to two of the regular sessions, and also to the mosque. He sat doing his breathing treatments during the program at the mosque. I loved his commitment and his interest in learning about other people. (He also had art cards made of paintings he did, and the proceeds of what he sells he's donating to aid Syrian refugees.)
All in all, it was a really profound experience, and I hope the people who organized it get us all together again.
___
I missed two sessions of my art group to go to the first and the last sessions of the series of talks, so I recently ran into one of the regulars out roaming around on garage sale day in town. I told her why I'd missed the two nights, and she proceeded to trash the religion and tell me not to get "sucked in" by their warmth and kindness. Arrrrrrghhhhh. Way to shit on something that was really profound. I really liked her, but damn. That's going to be hard to overlook. Weird, because she's generally progressive.
So anyway, that's What I Did with My Late Winter. I was really glad a relatively small rural town put on something like that, and it was gratifying to see how well received it was on both sides.
I'm listening to an episode of Coverville, a channel on Mixcloud, which I discovered via the excellent host of Rhythm Revue, Felix Hernandez. This episode is full of covers by and of Wilson Pickett and of Lady Gaga. Quite a lot of nifty stylistic riffs on Gaga, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Though I find that music impedes writing, even of chatty journal posts.
Anyhow, here's the ep: https://www.mixcloud.com/BrianIbbott/coverville-1118-its-the-land-of-1000-just-dances-with-cover-stories-for-wilson-pickett-lady-ga/
Back from vacation (a visit to Hepmom), which wasn't very active, but I have been kinda wiped out last night and today. Got home from the airport just before vertigo hit, so that was probably what had me wiped out today. Also, waking up around 4 pm (and also being awakened at some unknown hour by happy Elder Cat). It's been an exhausting couple or three weeks. as remarked on in my last post.
The night before I left for HepState was the final evening of a fascinating series, which has also been a pretty profound experience, and one that I happened on completely by accident. Early in March I realized it was election day, and I didn't know anything about the candidates in one of the 2 races (all local or state judges), apart from one of them really seemed to have some enemies with big money, because we got a full-color 81/2" x 11" attack ad in the mail pretty much every day. (Turns out he has been pursuing the John Doe investigation re our governor and his minions, so yeah, I voted for him.) The local grassroots org that pointed me to the info on the candidates also reported that there would be a 5-week series of talks called Welcoming Our Muslim Neighbors, sponsored by several local churches. Each week a Muslim speaker came from a nearby (if 45 miles counts) to talk about different facets of their faith.
First session was about misconceptions about Islam and fears about ISIS and other radical groups. I really enjoyed the speaker, who was from Libya, if I remember right. The second week was about the similarities between Islam and Christianity, which I probably learned when I took comparative religion back in college, but that WAS a little while ago. That speaker was from Sudan. I had sneaked in a little late, coming straight from work, and sat at the back. The first couple of sessions I was either too shy or too hungry to talk to the speakers, but after that I did every week. The third week was at the local library, and was a presentation of Islamic art/architecture, with a speaker from Egypt. I'm not sure where the speakers from the fourth session were from--there was a couple, both engineering professors (just looked them up--they're from Bangladesh), and a single UW student, speaking about Muslim family life. The female engineering instructor was the first woman speaker we heard. She and her husband were funny and personable, and I enjoyed talking with them after.
[That's where I ran out of writing juice. So to continue...] The last week was a group visit to the Islamic Center in the city. It's actually a rather humble building, no minarets or dome, but the traditional niche facing Mecca, and not surprisingly, nice rugs! I'm not sure how many of us there were who came--more than a dozen, I think. We kinda outnumbered the congregants, as it was a Wednesday around dinnertime, so probably most people were doing their prayers at home. It was just a prayer time, not very long, as the big day of worship is Friday. Before the prayers we had a couple of men talking and answering questions (we were upstairs but had a view of the main room), one was the man from Sudan and the other was Palestinian. After the prayers, we were introduced to a college student, a 4th-generation American. It was incredibly interesting to get his perspective. His mother's family actually came from Ireland, and she converted after doing some seeking, a couple of years (if I remember right) before she met his father, who is Palestinian-American. (The Palestinian side of his family has actually been here longer than the Irish, though both came around/over 100 years ago.) There was a young woman who helped set up some snacks, and they invited her in to meet us, but she seemed shy and didn't stay.
Everyone we met was so warm and welcoming of questions--even the hard questions. The man from Sudan had such love in his eyes as he spoke or listened to the other speakers, and I definitely felt it toward our group. (I gathered he was one of the leaders of the community, though there's no imam in the sense that the media portrays. The imam is whoever is leading the prayers during that service. The young American guy said he had done so at times.) The two older men said we were welcome to return any time (the young one had gone off to play basketball with his friends), and I told them I was really going to miss these gatherings. One said, "Oh, are you moving away?"
This really moved me. I feel like our two groups were peace mongers in our own small way. And the group was pretty neat. Pretty much middle aged and older. My friend L's 92-year-old father came to two of the regular sessions, and also to the mosque. He sat doing his breathing treatments during the program at the mosque. I loved his commitment and his interest in learning about other people. (He also had art cards made of paintings he did, and the proceeds of what he sells he's donating to aid Syrian refugees.)
All in all, it was a really profound experience, and I hope the people who organized it get us all together again.
___
I missed two sessions of my art group to go to the first and the last sessions of the series of talks, so I recently ran into one of the regulars out roaming around on garage sale day in town. I told her why I'd missed the two nights, and she proceeded to trash the religion and tell me not to get "sucked in" by their warmth and kindness. Arrrrrrghhhhh. Way to shit on something that was really profound. I really liked her, but damn. That's going to be hard to overlook. Weird, because she's generally progressive.
So anyway, that's What I Did with My Late Winter. I was really glad a relatively small rural town put on something like that, and it was gratifying to see how well received it was on both sides.