I've known about Podcasting for quite some time, but I've never really done it. One thing that's needed, obviously, is the proper audio equipment, which includes one or more mics, some kind of sound isolation product (ideally), and proper software. Audacity seems to be the most popular audio software for podcasting purposes, because it's free.
Podbean is one potential provider of hosting for podcasts, crowdfunding for raising the funds needed for ongoing operations, and so forth.
This is a link to a number of podcasts they offer, in relation to blues music:
http://theblueskitchen.podbean.com/?source=pb
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Monday, August 10, 2015
WHAT HAPPENS IN BAND OF BROTHERS
When I moved from Chicago to Bellingham, Washington, I was passionate about a vision I'd had in relation to an artists' colony for talented Christians: Musicians, actors, painters, photographers and videographers and so forth. It had been my experience that it was tough to find financial support needed in order to pursue one's artistic visions, so I thought that it might be more advisable to launch a ministry that would help artistic Christians to pursue their artistic passions while also giving glory to God, either directly or indirectly.
I'd been drawn to Bellingham by a statement to the effect that Bellingham had a lot of artists, on a per-capita basis. That statement was made by Everett Barton, with whom I stayed for nearly a year after moving here.
In order to launch my endeavor, which I had begun to call the Christian Artists' Resource Center, I knew that I would need to raise funds. No way could I afford to start such a center on my own! I'd moved here in the first place because I was close to homeless, and did not want to stay in a Chicago homeless shelter like the Pacific Garden Mission.
I attended church with Everett at Hillcrest Chapel, which seemed to have a connection with the Assemblies of God denomination, even though the church really had little or no interest in the charismatic underpinnings of the denomination.
However, I was aware of other Christian ministries in Bellingham, WA as well. One ministry that caught my eye was called Band of Brothers for Christ. It was sponsored by Christ The King, a church that had a nice building in the Cordata neighborhood, next to the DSHS office that dispensed food stamps and other government benefits. What I particularly liked about Band of Brothers was that it seemed to be a "transdenominational" group, not merely a group for people who attended Christ The King.
They had meetings there on Tuesday nights at around 6:00 p.m., lasting several hours. Each meeting began with a serving of either hamburgers or hot dogs, along with such things as salad, chips, and ice cream for dessert. It was decent food, but hardly anything to cause one to attend the meeting for the food alone. I attended because I genuinely wanted to make connections with fellow Christians, so that I could communicate my vision for the Christian Artists' Resource Center with the people there.
The group also had a Saturday meeting called Band of Business Brothers. That sounded to me like a great opportunity to connect with business men who had the kind of financial resources that my project would require.
The meetings for that business group were held at Cascade Pizza (2431 Meridian Street, Bellingham, WA 98225), on the second floor of the restaurant, which had decent pizza.
After attending the first meeting and getting to know others there, I decided that I knew them well enough to make a brief presentation regarding my vision and to ask them to pray for me, and hopefully offer some kind of tangible support, in relation to the vision.
They quickly squashed that idea. I was informed that Band of Business Brothers was NOT a group where one was free to share one's personal visions.
Never mind that my vision had been praised by artistic Christians as diverse as Anne Rice (a Catholic who had written The Vampire Chronicles before going on to write "Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt"), John Howard Sanden (former artistic director for Billy Graham), Ken Wales (executive director of the movie Amazing Grace, and also involved in secular projects like the TV show Cagney and Lacey).
At Band of Brothers, Raul Chavez told us that we could not even exchange our personal business cards with one another! All we could do was write our names on their little preprinted business cards for the group, which had no space for any of our personal contact information, and which had to be filled in with pens or pencils. What the point of that ridiculous rule might have been was hard for me to understand. It was as if Raul only cared if his own group prospered, but he did not care if any of us also prospered.
There was a time when we broke into small groups, each of which had a "table leader". We were encouraged to talk about any issues we were dealing with, and to solicit prayers about those matters. There was a time limit to our discussions.
They co-opted the old saying, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" (just as they co-opted their logo from a classic image of the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima by modifying it to substitute a big cross for the American flag). Was there ANY originality in this group? Any actual innovation? I began to seriously wonder.
What I needed was visionaries and facilitators. Instead, I realized that BOBFC consisted of obstructionists, whose perceived role was to kill innovation.
The group had no women. There was a parallel group called Squadron of Sisters. But it was clear to me that neither group cared much about SINGLE Christian men and women. How were such people supposed to meet one another and form relationships, if the only groups at Christ The King were for MARRIED people?
The "married people only" orientation was evident in their strong stance against pornography. It never seemed to occur to them that single people who were still VIRGINS, as I was, had good reason to want to experience sex vicariously, if they could not experience it directly.
Porn was and is a lousy substitute for actual sex, but it's better than nothing if one has not EVER been blessed with a spouse, and if one has refrained from fornication with prostitutes or others who might willingly engage in sex even in lieu of marriage.
I am not surprised, however, by the inability of Band of Brothers to identify with single people. I visited with Grant Fishbook, the main pastor at Christ The King, to plead with him and try to get him to consider hosting a fellowship group for single Christians who wanted to meet one another in a social setting similar to Band of Brothers and Squadron of Sisters. Why not a third group, called Squadron of Singles? They certainly had the facilities for that kind of thing.
I e-mailed Grant an attachment, designed to demonstrate why a local singles' group was badly needed in Bellingham. It concerned the vulnerability of lonely singles to online dating scams.
In response, Grant called me and threatened to file a restraining order against me if I ever sent him another e-mail message.
Words cannot express how unconscionable I considered that to be. Grant's attitude was obviously, "I've been blessed with a wife of my own. Who gives a (bleep) whether or not you are ever similarly blessed?"
If I ever visit a legal brothel like the Bunny Ranch or the Mustang Ranch because I have despaired of ever finding a woman of my own, Grant Fishbook and Raul Chavez will have no one to blame but themselves.
I'd been drawn to Bellingham by a statement to the effect that Bellingham had a lot of artists, on a per-capita basis. That statement was made by Everett Barton, with whom I stayed for nearly a year after moving here.
In order to launch my endeavor, which I had begun to call the Christian Artists' Resource Center, I knew that I would need to raise funds. No way could I afford to start such a center on my own! I'd moved here in the first place because I was close to homeless, and did not want to stay in a Chicago homeless shelter like the Pacific Garden Mission.
I attended church with Everett at Hillcrest Chapel, which seemed to have a connection with the Assemblies of God denomination, even though the church really had little or no interest in the charismatic underpinnings of the denomination.
However, I was aware of other Christian ministries in Bellingham, WA as well. One ministry that caught my eye was called Band of Brothers for Christ. It was sponsored by Christ The King, a church that had a nice building in the Cordata neighborhood, next to the DSHS office that dispensed food stamps and other government benefits. What I particularly liked about Band of Brothers was that it seemed to be a "transdenominational" group, not merely a group for people who attended Christ The King.
They had meetings there on Tuesday nights at around 6:00 p.m., lasting several hours. Each meeting began with a serving of either hamburgers or hot dogs, along with such things as salad, chips, and ice cream for dessert. It was decent food, but hardly anything to cause one to attend the meeting for the food alone. I attended because I genuinely wanted to make connections with fellow Christians, so that I could communicate my vision for the Christian Artists' Resource Center with the people there.
The group also had a Saturday meeting called Band of Business Brothers. That sounded to me like a great opportunity to connect with business men who had the kind of financial resources that my project would require.
The meetings for that business group were held at Cascade Pizza (2431 Meridian Street, Bellingham, WA 98225), on the second floor of the restaurant, which had decent pizza.
After attending the first meeting and getting to know others there, I decided that I knew them well enough to make a brief presentation regarding my vision and to ask them to pray for me, and hopefully offer some kind of tangible support, in relation to the vision.
They quickly squashed that idea. I was informed that Band of Business Brothers was NOT a group where one was free to share one's personal visions.
Never mind that my vision had been praised by artistic Christians as diverse as Anne Rice (a Catholic who had written The Vampire Chronicles before going on to write "Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt"), John Howard Sanden (former artistic director for Billy Graham), Ken Wales (executive director of the movie Amazing Grace, and also involved in secular projects like the TV show Cagney and Lacey).
At Band of Brothers, Raul Chavez told us that we could not even exchange our personal business cards with one another! All we could do was write our names on their little preprinted business cards for the group, which had no space for any of our personal contact information, and which had to be filled in with pens or pencils. What the point of that ridiculous rule might have been was hard for me to understand. It was as if Raul only cared if his own group prospered, but he did not care if any of us also prospered.
There was a time when we broke into small groups, each of which had a "table leader". We were encouraged to talk about any issues we were dealing with, and to solicit prayers about those matters. There was a time limit to our discussions.
They co-opted the old saying, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" (just as they co-opted their logo from a classic image of the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima by modifying it to substitute a big cross for the American flag). Was there ANY originality in this group? Any actual innovation? I began to seriously wonder.
What I needed was visionaries and facilitators. Instead, I realized that BOBFC consisted of obstructionists, whose perceived role was to kill innovation.
The group had no women. There was a parallel group called Squadron of Sisters. But it was clear to me that neither group cared much about SINGLE Christian men and women. How were such people supposed to meet one another and form relationships, if the only groups at Christ The King were for MARRIED people?
The "married people only" orientation was evident in their strong stance against pornography. It never seemed to occur to them that single people who were still VIRGINS, as I was, had good reason to want to experience sex vicariously, if they could not experience it directly.
Porn was and is a lousy substitute for actual sex, but it's better than nothing if one has not EVER been blessed with a spouse, and if one has refrained from fornication with prostitutes or others who might willingly engage in sex even in lieu of marriage.
I am not surprised, however, by the inability of Band of Brothers to identify with single people. I visited with Grant Fishbook, the main pastor at Christ The King, to plead with him and try to get him to consider hosting a fellowship group for single Christians who wanted to meet one another in a social setting similar to Band of Brothers and Squadron of Sisters. Why not a third group, called Squadron of Singles? They certainly had the facilities for that kind of thing.
I e-mailed Grant an attachment, designed to demonstrate why a local singles' group was badly needed in Bellingham. It concerned the vulnerability of lonely singles to online dating scams.
In response, Grant called me and threatened to file a restraining order against me if I ever sent him another e-mail message.
Words cannot express how unconscionable I considered that to be. Grant's attitude was obviously, "I've been blessed with a wife of my own. Who gives a (bleep) whether or not you are ever similarly blessed?"
If I ever visit a legal brothel like the Bunny Ranch or the Mustang Ranch because I have despaired of ever finding a woman of my own, Grant Fishbook and Raul Chavez will have no one to blame but themselves.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Lurrie and Carey Bell and Da' Blooz
In Chicago, while I was staying at the Lawson House YMCA, I had an opportunity to play my keyboard behind Lurrie Bell at a Christmas party. We got a standing ovation, although that might not have seemed very meaningful, since the residents were just a smattering of people just as poor as we were.
Soon thereafter, Lurrie came out with his "comeback album" on Delmark Records (owned by Bob Koester of the Jazz Record Mart). Lurrie took me to the Delmark offices, where I heard the album with him sitting there and grinning.
Lurrie's father, Carey, had once played harmonica behind Muddy Waters. Father and son later recorded an album together, called "Second Nature". Here's a link to the YouTube video of that album, which is available in the form of a CD-R "one-off" disc from Amazon.
https://youtu.be/dpGEMN94CcY
Soon thereafter, Lurrie came out with his "comeback album" on Delmark Records (owned by Bob Koester of the Jazz Record Mart). Lurrie took me to the Delmark offices, where I heard the album with him sitting there and grinning.
Lurrie's father, Carey, had once played harmonica behind Muddy Waters. Father and son later recorded an album together, called "Second Nature". Here's a link to the YouTube video of that album, which is available in the form of a CD-R "one-off" disc from Amazon.
https://youtu.be/dpGEMN94CcY
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Life Is Short for Many
Wikipedia contains a lot of fascinating biographical information. But reading the bios of famous people and not-so-famous people on that site is a really good way to be reminded of one's own mortality, especially if one combines that information with the calculator at TimeAndDate.com. Just enter any DOB and DOD, and one quickly gets the amount of time that elapsed between those dates. That could be fun when entering info found in the local cemetery, since one is seldom involved with those people to any great extent. But when it's people you fondly remember, and when you are already quite a bit older than the person was when he or she died, it can take on a macabre tone.
Lowell George, for instance, was one of the principal members of the band Little Feat. He died on 6/29/79. He was born earlier than I was, but not by enough for one to think that he'd been 57 when he died. (His birthdate was 4/13/1945, so he was 34 years and a couple of months old when he died.) Even Gene Eugene, from the excellent Christian band Adam Again, died at the age of 38.
Actually, you don't even need to use TimeAndDate.com to calculate the duration, in many cases. Wikipedia helpfully provides that information for you in many cases.
Of couse, there is no entry at Wikipedia for me. So I have to run the numbers for myself. As of today, I've spent 57 years, 6 months, 3 days on this earth.
Methusaleh is said to have lived "at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood". Wow! I'd hate to have to buy all of the candles for THAT cake!
Eubie Blake once said, "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." He died at 96. That quote was engraved on his tombstone.
Eubie was very old, compared to the average age when men die in America, but very young compared to Methusaleh.. Then again, we really have no idea how that thing about Methusaleh was measured, or how accurately it might have been reported.
We're told that the improvements in medical technology and expertise have extended the life expectancy of Americans. Still, when one sees one's contemporaries seemingly dropping like flies, it tends to be sobering. For some, it's seen as a call to "get right with God". For others, it's seen as an indication that they are running out of time in which to do things they've always wanted to do.
I got right with God years ago, when I was just 13. But I confess that I now find myself wishing that I'd gotten the chance to do a lot of things I always wanted to do. Particularly in terms of making love to a lovely woman.
Lowell George, for instance, was one of the principal members of the band Little Feat. He died on 6/29/79. He was born earlier than I was, but not by enough for one to think that he'd been 57 when he died. (His birthdate was 4/13/1945, so he was 34 years and a couple of months old when he died.) Even Gene Eugene, from the excellent Christian band Adam Again, died at the age of 38.
Actually, you don't even need to use TimeAndDate.com to calculate the duration, in many cases. Wikipedia helpfully provides that information for you in many cases.
Of couse, there is no entry at Wikipedia for me. So I have to run the numbers for myself. As of today, I've spent 57 years, 6 months, 3 days on this earth.
Methusaleh is said to have lived "at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood". Wow! I'd hate to have to buy all of the candles for THAT cake!
Eubie Blake once said, "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." He died at 96. That quote was engraved on his tombstone.
Eubie was very old, compared to the average age when men die in America, but very young compared to Methusaleh.. Then again, we really have no idea how that thing about Methusaleh was measured, or how accurately it might have been reported.
We're told that the improvements in medical technology and expertise have extended the life expectancy of Americans. Still, when one sees one's contemporaries seemingly dropping like flies, it tends to be sobering. For some, it's seen as a call to "get right with God". For others, it's seen as an indication that they are running out of time in which to do things they've always wanted to do.
I got right with God years ago, when I was just 13. But I confess that I now find myself wishing that I'd gotten the chance to do a lot of things I always wanted to do. Particularly in terms of making love to a lovely woman.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Irreconcilable Differences
Married couples often get divorced by claiming that they have developed irreconcilable differences. But some couples don't even get to the point in their relationships where they get married in the first place. Such was the case with me and my high school sweetie, Cheri Duncan. For years, I have felt guilty for having given her a hard time about a relatively trivial matter, involving a dramatic presentation in which she said the word "shit".
Now I am realizing that it's good that we did not get married. She's tolerant of both homosexuality and legal abortion. The first is something with which I strongly disagree, but the abortion thing is inexcusable in my opinion. Gay sex has few unwilling victims. Abortion, on the other hand, is nothing short of murder in the name of choice. Cheri was a good kisser, but I could get no joy from kissing a person who endorsed legalized murder.
Now I am realizing that it's good that we did not get married. She's tolerant of both homosexuality and legal abortion. The first is something with which I strongly disagree, but the abortion thing is inexcusable in my opinion. Gay sex has few unwilling victims. Abortion, on the other hand, is nothing short of murder in the name of choice. Cheri was a good kisser, but I could get no joy from kissing a person who endorsed legalized murder.
Abortion and the John Wesley Club
When I recently searched the Internet for the name of an old girlfriend, Cheri Duncan, I was thrilled to find her, working at the Public Defender's Office in Houston Texas. I entertained hopes of reigniting my loving relationship with her. I was even willing to cut her some slack when I learned that she was associated with a liberal group called the NALT (Not All Like That) Christians. (That group believes in tolerance of homosexuality.) But there are certain things which are so important to me that I consider them to be non-negotiable. Protection of the fundamental right to life, in relation to the abortion issue, would be one of those things.
On the web site for the John Wesley Club, of which Cheri is a member, I find a statement which strikes me as nonsensical gobbledegook; "We are pro-choice, often very reluctantly… in fact, almost all of us would describe ourselves as essentially pro-life — but from the legal and practical side, we are pro-choice. We understand the gravity, risk, and sometimes desperation in the choice to terminate a pregnancy. Many of us are conflicted about this issue, however, but we support Roe vs. Wade."
Excuse me, I've been hearing this kind of crap for years: Describing one's self as "essentially pro-life" while simultaneously defending a legal practice that has resulted in MORE THAN 50 MILLION DEATHS, is like saying that one is "essentially in favor of human freedom" while defending the legal practice of slavery!!! The mind boggles when one considers such a statistic. "Essentially" my ass. There is nothing essentially pro-life about the defense of such actions.
I am not "conflicted" about the abortion issue; nor was Norma McCorvey, the woman whose case made abortion legal in the first place. She repented of the role she had played in America's holocaust.
What a shame. Cheri was a great kisser when I dated her, but it's very clear to me that our thinking has developed along very different lines since that time.
On the web site for the John Wesley Club, of which Cheri is a member, I find a statement which strikes me as nonsensical gobbledegook; "We are pro-choice, often very reluctantly… in fact, almost all of us would describe ourselves as essentially pro-life — but from the legal and practical side, we are pro-choice. We understand the gravity, risk, and sometimes desperation in the choice to terminate a pregnancy. Many of us are conflicted about this issue, however, but we support Roe vs. Wade."
Excuse me, I've been hearing this kind of crap for years: Describing one's self as "essentially pro-life" while simultaneously defending a legal practice that has resulted in MORE THAN 50 MILLION DEATHS, is like saying that one is "essentially in favor of human freedom" while defending the legal practice of slavery!!! The mind boggles when one considers such a statistic. "Essentially" my ass. There is nothing essentially pro-life about the defense of such actions.
I am not "conflicted" about the abortion issue; nor was Norma McCorvey, the woman whose case made abortion legal in the first place. She repented of the role she had played in America's holocaust.
What a shame. Cheri was a great kisser when I dated her, but it's very clear to me that our thinking has developed along very different lines since that time.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Dan Savage and My Old Girlfriend Cheri Duncan
When I lived in Chicago, a column I often saw in the Chicago Reader was one called Savage Love. Written by a gay man named Dan Savage, it seemed to have been created for the express purpose of offending heterosexual people, particularly conservative Christians.
In response to politician Rick Santorum, who had compared gay sex to pedophilia and bestiality, Savage decided to "Google bomb" Santorum, by associating his name with the frothy anal substance associated with gay sex. I remember reading the specific column in which Savage wrote that, and I seem to recall that it so offended me that I send him an email, via The Chicago Reader, about that subject. (He replied that he couldn't imagine why any Christian would read his column at all. I sent him a reply saying that I thought that people should know their enemies intimately, on order to effectively combat their erroneous ideas.)
While one might have argued that Santorum's comparison was unwise, since sex with other men is neither sex with children nor sex with children, I thought that Dan Savage's retaliatory campaign against Rick was truly vile. Santorum was quoted as saying, "That’s Dan Savage. You know, it’s the lowest debasement of public discourse. It’s offensive beyond anything that any public figure or anybody in America should tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it." (To read more, click here.)
Recently, I was Google searching for an old girlfriend, with whom I was passionately in love before she broke up with me, named Cheri Duncan. Cheri appears in a YouTube video, speaking in support of a group calling themselves the NALT Christians. NALT, as in "Not All Like That". The group consists of Christians proclaiming their belief in full LGBT equality", and seems to equate bias against gay people bias against people based on characteristics such as skin color, height, gender and other things of that nature.
Wow! Talk about obtuse.
Essentially, such people are believers in biological determinism, and in the idea that sexual preference is a matter of genetic programming, not a matter of free will decisions. They argue that the biblical texts which refer negatively to homosexual acts are not talking about the kind of thing done by modern gays, since the gay rights movement is something that got its start only in the 1970s in America.
Like many of the things said by gays and their defenders, I find such an argument to be disingenuous and unpersuasive.
On the web site for the NALT Christians Project, 3 names are listed on the Contact Page, with email addresses: Wayne Besen (wbesen@truthwinsout.org), John Shore (john@johnshore.com) and Dan Savage (savage@thestranger.com). That's right, the same Dan Savage who demonstrated the limits of his tolerance of differing opinions by choosing to "Google bomb" Rick Santorum with an insulting and truly puerile round of name calling.
Cheri Duncan and I broke up because I had unwisely tried to be her conscience, by constantly bugging her about her decision to do a monologue presentation from the play (later turned into a movie produced by Paul Newman) entitled The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. In that monologue, she said the word "shit", which bothered me because I'd been taught that Christians ought to keep their speech free of profanities and crude words. (In hindsight, I have used words considerably worse in my life, including the "f bomb", in anger.) I should have dropped the matter, after expressing my opinion on the subject while talking with Cheri. But I was young, and I did not yet realize just how fragile relationships could be.
The issue of homosexuality never affected my relationship with Cheri. And I later came to deeply regret the manner in which I'd treated her with regard to her speech monologue. But I think that good relationships ought to be able to withstand disagreements about matters pertaining to morality, politics, etc.
I do not regard my opinions about homosexuality as nearly as important as my opinions about abortion. Abortion has millions of helpless victims. whereas homosexuality does not. But I do think that people ought to take responsibility for the choices they make, instead of speciously blaming genetic programming.
In response to politician Rick Santorum, who had compared gay sex to pedophilia and bestiality, Savage decided to "Google bomb" Santorum, by associating his name with the frothy anal substance associated with gay sex. I remember reading the specific column in which Savage wrote that, and I seem to recall that it so offended me that I send him an email, via The Chicago Reader, about that subject. (He replied that he couldn't imagine why any Christian would read his column at all. I sent him a reply saying that I thought that people should know their enemies intimately, on order to effectively combat their erroneous ideas.)
While one might have argued that Santorum's comparison was unwise, since sex with other men is neither sex with children nor sex with children, I thought that Dan Savage's retaliatory campaign against Rick was truly vile. Santorum was quoted as saying, "That’s Dan Savage. You know, it’s the lowest debasement of public discourse. It’s offensive beyond anything that any public figure or anybody in America should tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it." (To read more, click here.)
Recently, I was Google searching for an old girlfriend, with whom I was passionately in love before she broke up with me, named Cheri Duncan. Cheri appears in a YouTube video, speaking in support of a group calling themselves the NALT Christians. NALT, as in "Not All Like That". The group consists of Christians proclaiming their belief in full LGBT equality", and seems to equate bias against gay people bias against people based on characteristics such as skin color, height, gender and other things of that nature.
Wow! Talk about obtuse.
Essentially, such people are believers in biological determinism, and in the idea that sexual preference is a matter of genetic programming, not a matter of free will decisions. They argue that the biblical texts which refer negatively to homosexual acts are not talking about the kind of thing done by modern gays, since the gay rights movement is something that got its start only in the 1970s in America.
Like many of the things said by gays and their defenders, I find such an argument to be disingenuous and unpersuasive.
On the web site for the NALT Christians Project, 3 names are listed on the Contact Page, with email addresses: Wayne Besen (wbesen@truthwinsout.org), John Shore (john@johnshore.com) and Dan Savage (savage@thestranger.com). That's right, the same Dan Savage who demonstrated the limits of his tolerance of differing opinions by choosing to "Google bomb" Rick Santorum with an insulting and truly puerile round of name calling.
Cheri Duncan and I broke up because I had unwisely tried to be her conscience, by constantly bugging her about her decision to do a monologue presentation from the play (later turned into a movie produced by Paul Newman) entitled The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. In that monologue, she said the word "shit", which bothered me because I'd been taught that Christians ought to keep their speech free of profanities and crude words. (In hindsight, I have used words considerably worse in my life, including the "f bomb", in anger.) I should have dropped the matter, after expressing my opinion on the subject while talking with Cheri. But I was young, and I did not yet realize just how fragile relationships could be.
The issue of homosexuality never affected my relationship with Cheri. And I later came to deeply regret the manner in which I'd treated her with regard to her speech monologue. But I think that good relationships ought to be able to withstand disagreements about matters pertaining to morality, politics, etc.
I do not regard my opinions about homosexuality as nearly as important as my opinions about abortion. Abortion has millions of helpless victims. whereas homosexuality does not. But I do think that people ought to take responsibility for the choices they make, instead of speciously blaming genetic programming.
Sunday, November 03, 2013
Gary S. Paxton
One of the very first vinyl records I ever owned was a 45 record containing the novelty song "Monster Mash", which was recorded by Gary S. Paxton. It was a fun Halloween song, designed to appeal to kids or the style of music in which it was performed. For some reason, the version of that song which one can hear on Spotify was recorded by some guy named Don Hinson with a band named The Rigamorticians, which has an MP3 album at Amazon.com entitled "Monster Dance Party".
Later, when I was a young Christian studying at the School of the Ozarks (later renamed College of the Ozarks), I bought a Gary S. Paxton album entitled "Astonishing, Outrageous, Amazing, Incredible, Unbelievable, Different World Of Gary S. Paxton". (No one could claim that it was the most succinct or humble album title!) It had songs with titles like "There's Got To Be More To Livin' Than Just Waiting To Die," "Victim of The System," "Jesus Keeps Taking Me Higher and Higher," and "You Aint Smoking Those Cigarettes (Baby They're Smoking You)". The vinyl LP is obviously long gone, but one can still preview or buy MP3 versions of all those songs at Amazon.com, on this page. Paxton is best known as a country musician, but the album had elements of rock, pop and soul too.
Inasmuch as I bought that album before the Jim Bakker scandal, it was just a fun album to me, with some fairly good pop/rock Christian songs. Paxton was involved in the production of gospel albums by Tammy Faye Bakker, who was renowned for the ludicrously excessive manner in which she applied her mascara, which tended to run whenever she cried during the broadcasting of The PTL Club. (That seemed to be quite often, since her tears were apparently effective when used in order to persuade people to donate funds they could ill afford to donate.) Tammy Faye became obsessed with Paxton, which apparently played a big role in causing Jim Bakker to have a one night stand with Jessica Hahn (ostensibly because he wanted to make Tammy Faye jealous).
The reputation of Christianity, and televangelists in particular, was seriously tarnished by the shenanigans of Jim and Tammy Faye. (Not that Jerry Falwell was any better.) Every Halloween, I'm reminded of the Monster Mash, and of the scandal with which Paxton eventually became associated.
Later, when I was a young Christian studying at the School of the Ozarks (later renamed College of the Ozarks), I bought a Gary S. Paxton album entitled "Astonishing, Outrageous, Amazing, Incredible, Unbelievable, Different World Of Gary S. Paxton". (No one could claim that it was the most succinct or humble album title!) It had songs with titles like "There's Got To Be More To Livin' Than Just Waiting To Die," "Victim of The System," "Jesus Keeps Taking Me Higher and Higher," and "You Aint Smoking Those Cigarettes (Baby They're Smoking You)". The vinyl LP is obviously long gone, but one can still preview or buy MP3 versions of all those songs at Amazon.com, on this page. Paxton is best known as a country musician, but the album had elements of rock, pop and soul too.
Inasmuch as I bought that album before the Jim Bakker scandal, it was just a fun album to me, with some fairly good pop/rock Christian songs. Paxton was involved in the production of gospel albums by Tammy Faye Bakker, who was renowned for the ludicrously excessive manner in which she applied her mascara, which tended to run whenever she cried during the broadcasting of The PTL Club. (That seemed to be quite often, since her tears were apparently effective when used in order to persuade people to donate funds they could ill afford to donate.) Tammy Faye became obsessed with Paxton, which apparently played a big role in causing Jim Bakker to have a one night stand with Jessica Hahn (ostensibly because he wanted to make Tammy Faye jealous).
The reputation of Christianity, and televangelists in particular, was seriously tarnished by the shenanigans of Jim and Tammy Faye. (Not that Jerry Falwell was any better.) Every Halloween, I'm reminded of the Monster Mash, and of the scandal with which Paxton eventually became associated.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
About Chocolate and Sex
Traditionally, guys have given boxes of chocolates to women on Valentines Day (the symbol of which is a "heart" which in reality looks more like an actual vulva than an actual heart). There is a biological reason for that: In an article entitled Top 10 Reasons Why Chocolate Is The World's Most Perfect Food, it states that chocolate contains tryptophan (the ingredient which, in turkey, causes folks to fall asleep on Thanksgiving Day) and phenylethylamine, which "reaches peak levels during orgasm".
That reminds me of the dessert they used to serve at the Baby Watson's fast food place near Harvard Square in Cambridge, where I worked as a pizza and sandwich cook. (Our New York-style cheesecake was originally made by a company called D'Aiuto's Pastry Corp.) Dennis Saide, the manager (from Lebanon) had his own unique names for products sold there. As I recall, his butterscotch brownies were called "gay bars", and the chocolate cheesecake brownies (like the one I just ate at Starbucks) were called "chocolate orgasms". His slogan, printed in yellow silkscreen ink on our brown aprons, was "Baby Watson: The creamiest thing you've ever had in your mouth". Something tells me that cheesecake was not the first thing that came into a lot of people's minds!
Of course, if the sex-like excitement from normal chocolate (like my favorite brand Cadbury) is not enough, one can always buy a piece of chocolate molded to resemble a real penis, complete with a sugary cream meant to look like a man's ejaculate. Such products can be bought from United Indecent Pleasures. It's not an American company; rather, the address seems to be in the Mediterranean islands. But if you're willing to pay for your very own chocolate dick, they are always willing to accomodate you. Just email them at findways@unindencent.com.
That reminds me of the dessert they used to serve at the Baby Watson's fast food place near Harvard Square in Cambridge, where I worked as a pizza and sandwich cook. (Our New York-style cheesecake was originally made by a company called D'Aiuto's Pastry Corp.) Dennis Saide, the manager (from Lebanon) had his own unique names for products sold there. As I recall, his butterscotch brownies were called "gay bars", and the chocolate cheesecake brownies (like the one I just ate at Starbucks) were called "chocolate orgasms". His slogan, printed in yellow silkscreen ink on our brown aprons, was "Baby Watson: The creamiest thing you've ever had in your mouth". Something tells me that cheesecake was not the first thing that came into a lot of people's minds!
Of course, if the sex-like excitement from normal chocolate (like my favorite brand Cadbury) is not enough, one can always buy a piece of chocolate molded to resemble a real penis, complete with a sugary cream meant to look like a man's ejaculate. Such products can be bought from United Indecent Pleasures. It's not an American company; rather, the address seems to be in the Mediterranean islands. But if you're willing to pay for your very own chocolate dick, they are always willing to accomodate you. Just email them at findways@unindencent.com.
David Gilden and the Kora
Back in the 1980s, I lived for 7 years in Boston, Massachusetts, and I worked at the Harvard Coop in their record department. I'd moved there because I wanted to study jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music, which had alumni like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Gary Burton.
One of the things I really liked about living in that area was the proliferation of street musicians, aka buskers. One such musician was David Gilden. He'd studied at Berklee, and while visiting the Smithsonian Museum, he'd learned about a West African musical instrument called the kora, which he spells with a c at his website www.coraconnection.com. You can hear David play in a YouTube video at http://youtu.be/GjQJ1nn63Oc. The kora is a delicate sounding instrument, or at least it can be; but when it's played in a duo, featuring the percussion instrument known at a balafon, it can also sound quite vigorous.
Interestingly, David has even adapted the kora in order to play classical guitar pieces by Bach and others. That makes sense, since the strings of the kora are similar to the gut strings or nylon strings often used for classical guitar music.
One of the things I really liked about living in that area was the proliferation of street musicians, aka buskers. One such musician was David Gilden. He'd studied at Berklee, and while visiting the Smithsonian Museum, he'd learned about a West African musical instrument called the kora, which he spells with a c at his website www.coraconnection.com. You can hear David play in a YouTube video at http://youtu.be/GjQJ1nn63Oc. The kora is a delicate sounding instrument, or at least it can be; but when it's played in a duo, featuring the percussion instrument known at a balafon, it can also sound quite vigorous.
Interestingly, David has even adapted the kora in order to play classical guitar pieces by Bach and others. That makes sense, since the strings of the kora are similar to the gut strings or nylon strings often used for classical guitar music.
I Love Grilled Cheese
The phrase "government cheese" was used disparagingly by critics of the Reagan administration to imply that Reagan's administration did not care about the needs of the poor. In point of fact, the Wikipedia article about that phrase says that such cheese had been given to poor folks ever since the 1960s, which (news flash to Democrats) was way before Reagan ever took office.
Processed American cheese was generally the variety on offer. My family never received government cheese, to my knowledge, but I liked American cheese a lot. Often, that was what one got when one ordered a cheeseburger or a grilled cheese sandwich in a typical diner in the Midwest, where I was raised. I later learned that I tended to prefer other varieties, like cheddar, longhorn and similar types. I liked those kinds because the cheese got stringy, in a nice way, when it was melted between two slices of bread.
I was reminded of grilled cheese just now when I checked my email, which included a Yelp.com link to a review of restaurants in Chicago renowned for their good grilled cheese sandwiches.
When I first moved to the Lawson House YMCA in Chicago, my room there had no kitchen. So I was pretty limited in terms of my weekly menu. I could eat at fast food restaurants like McDonald's, but McDonald's had no grilled cheese sandwiches.
I liked cheeseburgers, but sometimes I was in the mood for a plain old grilled cheese sandwich, which I'd made for myself quite often when I was a young man in Missouri. Lawson House later put small microwave ovens in the rooms of each of the residents, but a microwave oven is a lousy way to make a grilled cheese sandwich. The cheese needs to be melted, sure, but the bread also needs to be toasted. Toasters were verboten there, as were hot plates.
When I did a temp job assignment in an office complex out near the OHare Airport, I discovered a small restaurant there that actually had grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu. So I could satisfy my craving for such sandwiches on days when I was scheduled to work there. (I hadn't yet seen the Yelp.com review of other restaurants that served such sandwiches, nor had I heard of the chain of restaurants, based in Ohio, known as Melt.)
I eventually bought a little electric skillet which I used for such things as making grilled cheese sandwiches, but I had to hide it out of view whenever they had one of their scheduled room inspections. How ridiculous! A grown man treated like a toddler and forbidden from cooking basic food items if they could not be microwaved. They said in their lease that we were forbidden from owning any appliances that produced heat (which presumably included toasters).
I guess they had never tried to remove a light bulb that had been on for a while. I guess they had never heard of the toy known as an Easy-Bake Oven.
To say that I am glad that I no longer live in Lawson House YMCA would be a mild understatement, not just because of their idiotic policies about such things as toasters, but also because they stupidly accepted donated mattresses infested with bed bugs. I often awoke with painful bed bug bites on my hands and feet (and even on top of my head a couple of times). It felt a bit as if I was living in hell.
Thankfully, when I moved from Chicago to Bellingham, Washington in 2010, I did not bring my bedbugs with me. I did have other difficulties here, including several ministrokes, which might have happened even if I had not been so poor that I had to live at Lawson House. But the bedbugs and the stupid rules about toasters were thankfully a part of my past.
Processed American cheese was generally the variety on offer. My family never received government cheese, to my knowledge, but I liked American cheese a lot. Often, that was what one got when one ordered a cheeseburger or a grilled cheese sandwich in a typical diner in the Midwest, where I was raised. I later learned that I tended to prefer other varieties, like cheddar, longhorn and similar types. I liked those kinds because the cheese got stringy, in a nice way, when it was melted between two slices of bread.
I was reminded of grilled cheese just now when I checked my email, which included a Yelp.com link to a review of restaurants in Chicago renowned for their good grilled cheese sandwiches.
When I first moved to the Lawson House YMCA in Chicago, my room there had no kitchen. So I was pretty limited in terms of my weekly menu. I could eat at fast food restaurants like McDonald's, but McDonald's had no grilled cheese sandwiches.
I liked cheeseburgers, but sometimes I was in the mood for a plain old grilled cheese sandwich, which I'd made for myself quite often when I was a young man in Missouri. Lawson House later put small microwave ovens in the rooms of each of the residents, but a microwave oven is a lousy way to make a grilled cheese sandwich. The cheese needs to be melted, sure, but the bread also needs to be toasted. Toasters were verboten there, as were hot plates.
When I did a temp job assignment in an office complex out near the OHare Airport, I discovered a small restaurant there that actually had grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu. So I could satisfy my craving for such sandwiches on days when I was scheduled to work there. (I hadn't yet seen the Yelp.com review of other restaurants that served such sandwiches, nor had I heard of the chain of restaurants, based in Ohio, known as Melt.)
I eventually bought a little electric skillet which I used for such things as making grilled cheese sandwiches, but I had to hide it out of view whenever they had one of their scheduled room inspections. How ridiculous! A grown man treated like a toddler and forbidden from cooking basic food items if they could not be microwaved. They said in their lease that we were forbidden from owning any appliances that produced heat (which presumably included toasters).
I guess they had never tried to remove a light bulb that had been on for a while. I guess they had never heard of the toy known as an Easy-Bake Oven.
To say that I am glad that I no longer live in Lawson House YMCA would be a mild understatement, not just because of their idiotic policies about such things as toasters, but also because they stupidly accepted donated mattresses infested with bed bugs. I often awoke with painful bed bug bites on my hands and feet (and even on top of my head a couple of times). It felt a bit as if I was living in hell.
Thankfully, when I moved from Chicago to Bellingham, Washington in 2010, I did not bring my bedbugs with me. I did have other difficulties here, including several ministrokes, which might have happened even if I had not been so poor that I had to live at Lawson House. But the bedbugs and the stupid rules about toasters were thankfully a part of my past.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Paranoia Will Destroy Ya
I remember hearing a tune on the radio with the memorable line "paranoia will destroy ya'". I had no idea of who had recorded that tune, so I just googled the phrase. http://alturl.com/fbo3v is the short URL for the page on which someone answers that question, and reprints the lyrics.
It would be hard to conceive of a better example of the destructive power of paranoia than Jim Jones. In an article at TheAtlantic.com, a survivor talks about what it was like to be a part of The People's Temple:
Do you think he really believed he was doing something good for the world?
It's hard to know the mind of Jim Jones. He was a very complex, confusing character. In some ways he was a good guy. He was passionate about interracial integration. The People's Temple built schools, built housing, built a health clinic, built a kitchen, cleared fields, harvested crops. His goal was to set up this utopian community where everything would be fair and equal.
At the same time, he was very paranoid. He could not accept the fact that one person would leave him, ever. He had us all sign papers -- Jim called them compromises. They were blank sheets of paper, or typed sheets of paper that he'd cover up while we signed our name. He had something he could blackmail all of us with. One guy tried to leave and Jim said he'd use his paper against him so he'd never see his children again. So he came back. The thing was, too, that Jim would not let children off the compound. So if you were going to leave, you were leaving your child. There was no way of getting a child out of Jonestown.
Scary, huh? Most pastors are not paranoid to that extent, or even close to it. But any time a Christian leader acts as if he or she is exempt from criticism, as have several pastors I have known, that person is showing that he or she has tendencies which are different from Jim Jones only in degree, not in kind.
Jim Jones apparently attracted a lot of racial minorities to the People's Temple, because he did seem to be their friends on some level. But black folks can be paranoid, too.
John L. Jackson wrote a book called "Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness". Jackson is black, so his words seem to be worthy of attention.
I'm sympathetic with blacks who have been victimized by genuine racism, but there are others (e.g., Barack Obama's former pastor) who have used charges of racism as a means of manipulating others to give them what they want.
It would be hard to conceive of a better example of the destructive power of paranoia than Jim Jones. In an article at TheAtlantic.com, a survivor talks about what it was like to be a part of The People's Temple:
Do you think he really believed he was doing something good for the world?
It's hard to know the mind of Jim Jones. He was a very complex, confusing character. In some ways he was a good guy. He was passionate about interracial integration. The People's Temple built schools, built housing, built a health clinic, built a kitchen, cleared fields, harvested crops. His goal was to set up this utopian community where everything would be fair and equal.
At the same time, he was very paranoid. He could not accept the fact that one person would leave him, ever. He had us all sign papers -- Jim called them compromises. They were blank sheets of paper, or typed sheets of paper that he'd cover up while we signed our name. He had something he could blackmail all of us with. One guy tried to leave and Jim said he'd use his paper against him so he'd never see his children again. So he came back. The thing was, too, that Jim would not let children off the compound. So if you were going to leave, you were leaving your child. There was no way of getting a child out of Jonestown.
Scary, huh? Most pastors are not paranoid to that extent, or even close to it. But any time a Christian leader acts as if he or she is exempt from criticism, as have several pastors I have known, that person is showing that he or she has tendencies which are different from Jim Jones only in degree, not in kind.
Jim Jones apparently attracted a lot of racial minorities to the People's Temple, because he did seem to be their friends on some level. But black folks can be paranoid, too.
John L. Jackson wrote a book called "Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness". Jackson is black, so his words seem to be worthy of attention.
I'm sympathetic with blacks who have been victimized by genuine racism, but there are others (e.g., Barack Obama's former pastor) who have used charges of racism as a means of manipulating others to give them what they want.
Church Abuse Is Not Always Sex Abuse of Children
Do a web search on the phrase "church abuse", and you will almost always find web pages pertaining to sexual abuse of children or minors. That is most likely because one of the most egregious examples of such abuse pertains to Catholic priests who have perpetrated such abuse. (And it's not just the Catholics. The COGIC denomination, aka Children of God in Christ, is Andrae Crouch's denomination, and there's a Facebook page related to the web site www.reportcogicabuse.com.)
The truth is that there are many different levels of abuse one can get from church leaders, as anyone knows who read the horrible story about the mass suicide committed by the followers of the delusional egomaniac Jim Jones. I still remember the news photos showing the bloated bodies of the members of the People's Temple in their compound in Guyana. Powers Boothe played the part of Jim Jones in a TV miniseries about that event.
Church abuse can rise (or sink, to be more accurate) to the level of Jim Jones or sexually abusive priests or pastors, but it very rarely does. More often, it takes the form of subtle abuses of power and authority of church leaders (often, but not always pastors) who arrogate to themselves the right to control aspects of a person's life that are frankly none of their business, like what college the person attends, what job the person accepts, what woman the person dates or marries, and so forth. Jeff Van Vonderen (www.jeffvanvonderen.com) has coauthored a book entitled "The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse", and he has his own web site (http://www.spiritualabuse.com/) specifically related to such abuse. I highly recommend the book, because Jeff and his co-author David Johnson clearly respect the authority of the scriptures, even though they do not equally respect all pastors.
Why do I care about such things? Because I have witnessed megalomania on the part of pastors far too often for my tastes, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Bottom line: I love God, but only God is God. When a pastor's behavior conforms to my understanding of what God requires, then I will be happy to treat that person as someone worthy of respect (if not unconditional obedience), but not when that is no longer the case.
The truth is that there are many different levels of abuse one can get from church leaders, as anyone knows who read the horrible story about the mass suicide committed by the followers of the delusional egomaniac Jim Jones. I still remember the news photos showing the bloated bodies of the members of the People's Temple in their compound in Guyana. Powers Boothe played the part of Jim Jones in a TV miniseries about that event.
Church abuse can rise (or sink, to be more accurate) to the level of Jim Jones or sexually abusive priests or pastors, but it very rarely does. More often, it takes the form of subtle abuses of power and authority of church leaders (often, but not always pastors) who arrogate to themselves the right to control aspects of a person's life that are frankly none of their business, like what college the person attends, what job the person accepts, what woman the person dates or marries, and so forth. Jeff Van Vonderen (www.jeffvanvonderen.com) has coauthored a book entitled "The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse", and he has his own web site (http://www.spiritualabuse.com/) specifically related to such abuse. I highly recommend the book, because Jeff and his co-author David Johnson clearly respect the authority of the scriptures, even though they do not equally respect all pastors.
Why do I care about such things? Because I have witnessed megalomania on the part of pastors far too often for my tastes, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Bottom line: I love God, but only God is God. When a pastor's behavior conforms to my understanding of what God requires, then I will be happy to treat that person as someone worthy of respect (if not unconditional obedience), but not when that is no longer the case.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
My Halloween Costume for 2013: I'm Going As Myself.
Here in Bellingham, in the Cordata neighborhood (right down the street from Christ The King church), there is a shop for a company named Spirit Halloween (www.spirithalloween.com). I went in there today for the first time. They have all kinds of products with which one can celebrate All Hallows Eve. From fake eyeballs and severed fingers to all manner of costumes, they have it in stock. They also sell pumpkin carving kits from Pumpkin Masters. (A guy working in the shop told me, however, that he'd be more likely to buy the Dremel pumpkin carving tool sold at Amazon.com, because that unit was powered from the wall outlet, whereas the Pumpkin Masters saws were battery powered.)
They also sell a lot of safety-oriented things like glow sticks, to protect kids from being hit by cars while they are out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. (See www.halloween-safety.com.)
Some Christians deplore Halloween, due to the roots of the holiday in a tradition going back to the Druids, who worshipped Samhain, the Lord of Darkness. To some Christians, that probably sounds uncomfortably similar to worshipping Satan!
But one doesn't have to dress like Samhain or Lucifer or Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies in order to frighten a Christian. Judging by the recent treatment I have gotten from a couple of Bellingham churches, one merely needs to threaten to tell the truth. You know, that thing that ostensibly sets people free!
Brad Howell, from Hillcrest Chapel, told me that I would be arrested if I dared to show up at that church, because I'd threatened to tell people that they had done absolutely nothing to help me when I'd pled with them to find a house sharing situation so that I would not have to stay at the Lighthouse Mission.
Needless to say, I did not appreciate getting that letter from Brad. But I still was a believer, so when Steve Loeppky did some practical things to help me out, I decided to attend his church, Mosaic.
Well, it seems that the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. The same old bullshit, I mean. Recently, I was banned from attending Mosaic, because I'd audaciously asked a woman to let me know if she would be interested in going out for a cup of coffee in order to get to know me. I mentioned that I was feeling in need of a female partner, and I found her attractive.
Ooooh, scary. NOT.
When I talked about this episode with Fred Sprinkle, who works at Logos Bible Software, he said that he thought my invitation might have seemed "weird" to that woman because I was somewhat older than she. OK, maybe it did. But she is presumably an adult, even if she is younger than I. Since she is capable of sending an email herself, all she had to do was to send me a message telling me that she was not interested, as another woman from that fellowship, Deborah Lutz, had done. (I was disappointed when Deborah did that, but I can take no for an answer and I stopped asking her.) Instead, like a baby, the aforementioned woman went running to Matt Atkins, asking for his protection. Hence, I got a text message on my cell phone, telling me that I would no longer be welcome at that church.
I always thought that Christian ministry was supposed to be about love and compassion. But I've encountered far too many power hungry pastors to believe that that is how everyone sees things. No wonder so many people have turned away from God altogether. They may rationalize the decision to do so by claiming that they can't deal with inconsistencies in the Bible, but really, I think it has a lot more to do with the inconsistencies they see in the lives of people who claim to speak for God.
P.S. In all fairness, I should acknowledge that I learned yesterday, from an email from a fellow believer, that the woman I'd asked out for coffee was only 19 years old. Holy cow! I knew that she was younger than I; that was obvious. But I would never have seen her as a potential partner if I'd been aware that the age gap between us was so large (nearly 40 years).
19 is not legally a minor, and that woman is only a couple of years younger than my parents were when I was born. So I still maintain that it was preposterous for Matt Atkins to call me a predator. (I have never "preyed" on anyone, man or woman, and I find such an accusation to be unjust and insulting.) But I guess that I can understand why she might feel that my written invitation to have coffee with me might have seemed a bit "weird" to her. In retrospect, it seems a bit weird to me too. I really have got to get better at estimating women's ages based on their physical appearances.
They also sell a lot of safety-oriented things like glow sticks, to protect kids from being hit by cars while they are out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. (See www.halloween-safety.com.)
Some Christians deplore Halloween, due to the roots of the holiday in a tradition going back to the Druids, who worshipped Samhain, the Lord of Darkness. To some Christians, that probably sounds uncomfortably similar to worshipping Satan!
But one doesn't have to dress like Samhain or Lucifer or Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies in order to frighten a Christian. Judging by the recent treatment I have gotten from a couple of Bellingham churches, one merely needs to threaten to tell the truth. You know, that thing that ostensibly sets people free!
Brad Howell, from Hillcrest Chapel, told me that I would be arrested if I dared to show up at that church, because I'd threatened to tell people that they had done absolutely nothing to help me when I'd pled with them to find a house sharing situation so that I would not have to stay at the Lighthouse Mission.
Needless to say, I did not appreciate getting that letter from Brad. But I still was a believer, so when Steve Loeppky did some practical things to help me out, I decided to attend his church, Mosaic.
Well, it seems that the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. The same old bullshit, I mean. Recently, I was banned from attending Mosaic, because I'd audaciously asked a woman to let me know if she would be interested in going out for a cup of coffee in order to get to know me. I mentioned that I was feeling in need of a female partner, and I found her attractive.
Ooooh, scary. NOT.
When I talked about this episode with Fred Sprinkle, who works at Logos Bible Software, he said that he thought my invitation might have seemed "weird" to that woman because I was somewhat older than she. OK, maybe it did. But she is presumably an adult, even if she is younger than I. Since she is capable of sending an email herself, all she had to do was to send me a message telling me that she was not interested, as another woman from that fellowship, Deborah Lutz, had done. (I was disappointed when Deborah did that, but I can take no for an answer and I stopped asking her.) Instead, like a baby, the aforementioned woman went running to Matt Atkins, asking for his protection. Hence, I got a text message on my cell phone, telling me that I would no longer be welcome at that church.
I always thought that Christian ministry was supposed to be about love and compassion. But I've encountered far too many power hungry pastors to believe that that is how everyone sees things. No wonder so many people have turned away from God altogether. They may rationalize the decision to do so by claiming that they can't deal with inconsistencies in the Bible, but really, I think it has a lot more to do with the inconsistencies they see in the lives of people who claim to speak for God.
P.S. In all fairness, I should acknowledge that I learned yesterday, from an email from a fellow believer, that the woman I'd asked out for coffee was only 19 years old. Holy cow! I knew that she was younger than I; that was obvious. But I would never have seen her as a potential partner if I'd been aware that the age gap between us was so large (nearly 40 years).
19 is not legally a minor, and that woman is only a couple of years younger than my parents were when I was born. So I still maintain that it was preposterous for Matt Atkins to call me a predator. (I have never "preyed" on anyone, man or woman, and I find such an accusation to be unjust and insulting.) But I guess that I can understand why she might feel that my written invitation to have coffee with me might have seemed a bit "weird" to her. In retrospect, it seems a bit weird to me too. I really have got to get better at estimating women's ages based on their physical appearances.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Memoir Crafters
Last week, I attended a meeting at the Bellingham Library, featuring a woman named Sara Geballe. Sara operates a business known as Memoir Crafters. She helps people to turn their memories into books.
For some folks, these books may fall into the category of "vanity books", traditionally published by vanity book publishers. They are mostly for the benefit of close family members and friends who care enough about them that they want to learn more about them.
That is a valid thing to do for some people. But other people are more interested in creating books which can actually be sold in traditional bookstores (or at least online stores), partly in order to make money, and partly in order to make a difference in the culture in which they live. Some may even aspire to be "literary lions".
I am in the latter category. For one thing, I have no family members who are close enough to me that they would be fascinated with my life. For another thing, I have goals which could conceivably be advanced by writing and publishing my life story, or at least aspects of that story.
The main trouble is that there's an open question regarding whether or not I can afford Sara's services. If I can't, then writing my autobiography may have to be a do-it-yourself project for me.
For some folks, these books may fall into the category of "vanity books", traditionally published by vanity book publishers. They are mostly for the benefit of close family members and friends who care enough about them that they want to learn more about them.
That is a valid thing to do for some people. But other people are more interested in creating books which can actually be sold in traditional bookstores (or at least online stores), partly in order to make money, and partly in order to make a difference in the culture in which they live. Some may even aspire to be "literary lions".
I am in the latter category. For one thing, I have no family members who are close enough to me that they would be fascinated with my life. For another thing, I have goals which could conceivably be advanced by writing and publishing my life story, or at least aspects of that story.
The main trouble is that there's an open question regarding whether or not I can afford Sara's services. If I can't, then writing my autobiography may have to be a do-it-yourself project for me.
Kezia Noble
I just saw a video at YouTube (http://youtu.be/mfLHrWntB_8) entitled How To Attract Younger Women. The video featured a very attractive woman (from the UK) named Kezia Noble (http://www.kezia-noble.com/about/).
Boy, that message really resonated with me.
I then learned that Kezia had written a book called "The Noble Art of Seducing Women: My Foolproof Guide to Pulling Any Woman You Want".
I am not a pervert, nor am I a "predator" like my FORMER pastor Matt Atkins would like you to believe. I'm just a normal (albeit slightly handicapped) man who has the same sexual desires as most straight men. But it would be a mild understatement to say that I've been "unlucky in love". I hope to change that, and the sooner, the better.
Boy, that message really resonated with me.
I then learned that Kezia had written a book called "The Noble Art of Seducing Women: My Foolproof Guide to Pulling Any Woman You Want".
I am not a pervert, nor am I a "predator" like my FORMER pastor Matt Atkins would like you to believe. I'm just a normal (albeit slightly handicapped) man who has the same sexual desires as most straight men. But it would be a mild understatement to say that I've been "unlucky in love". I hope to change that, and the sooner, the better.
A Robot That Flies Like A Bird
I'm watching a Ted Talks video in which a guy named Marcus Fischer discusses and demonstrates a robotic bird that can fly just be flapping its wings, just like a real bird. Here's the link.
Pretty cool. And the bird probably won't even poop on people walking beneath it.
Imagine how useful Fischer's flying robot would be for surveillance during wartime. The enemy would never suspect (unless the enemy was the wizard Gandalf) that the "bird" flying overhead was actually a spy, fully equipped with video cameras in its eye sockets. In an article about a device known as an "ornithopter", Wikipedia states that such devices have indeed been used for such purposes. The article can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ornithopter&printable=yes.
Pretty cool. And the bird probably won't even poop on people walking beneath it.
Imagine how useful Fischer's flying robot would be for surveillance during wartime. The enemy would never suspect (unless the enemy was the wizard Gandalf) that the "bird" flying overhead was actually a spy, fully equipped with video cameras in its eye sockets. In an article about a device known as an "ornithopter", Wikipedia states that such devices have indeed been used for such purposes. The article can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ornithopter&printable=yes.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Who Is Lord?
When I was living in Sioux City, Iowa back in the late
1970s, I attended a nondenominational church that met at Morningside College. I
liked many aspects of that church, as I have often liked aspects of churches I
have attended. But I found certain aspects of that church very troubling.
One pertained to the attitudes that I saw there, regarding
the arts and the importance of excellence. At a Maynard Ferguson jazz concert I
attended, I approached a brother from that church, inspired by the excellence
of Maynard’s music. I said to that brother, “I’d love to have a Christian group
that would play music that good.” “That could never happen,” he replied. I
asked him why not. He said, “Any true servant of Jesus would be so busy praying
and reading his Bible that he would have no time left over for practicing his
music.” I was appalled. In his mind, discipleship meant settling for mediocrity
in all other aspects of one’s life.
The other thing that troubled me was the fact that the
leaders there seemed to practice a type of control which was almost cult-like,
even though the church could not have been described as a cult in the doctrinal
sense.
I was told that people who became members of that church had
to agree to relinquish control over major life decisions to the church’s Board
of Elders. Decisions like what college to attend, what woman to marry and so
forth. Never mind that those elders might not be in possession of the relevant
facts that would come into play when making such decisions.
What was even worse was that they demanded unanimity. If
even one member of the Board of Elders voted Yes when all of the others were
voting No, then it was thought that they needed to pray more about it so that
every single brother would say Yes (or No, as the case might be). I found that
ironic in light of the fact that early church leaders like Paul and Timothy
often disagreed with one another.
Given the attitude I’d seen in relation to excellence in the
arts, I could see that the decisions these folks would make for my life would
be totally wrong for me. I fervently desired to create music and art that would
glorify God, and I couldn’t see how it would benefit the Kingdom of God for me
to create works of art that would impress no one.
I learned that that church’s policy stemmed from a doctrinal
movement called the Shepherding Movement. Associated with Bob Mumford and Derek Prince, the
Shepherding Movement was soundly repudiated by Pat Robertson, who (in spite of
the fact that he sometimes made flaky statements that were ridiculed by the
press) knew a cult when he saw one.
I found myself thinking about that church this morning,
because I read an article by Rob Walker, in the April 2013 issue of Atlantic
magazine (pages 88-89). Entitled “Putting the ‘I’ in IPO”, the article was
about a guy named Mike Merrill, who founded a webzine called Urban Honking. Merrill had heard about the concept of
crowdfunding, a valid concept which has funded many projects, like the creative
projects (e.g., the movie Blue Like Jazz) funded by Kickstarter.com.
Merrill hit on a plan to raise funds. It was one which many
people would regard as bizarre. In exchange for their “shares” purchased from
him, shareholders would get to call the shots regarding areas of his life which
most folks would regard as none of their business. They decided that he would
not get a vasectomy, that he would register as a Republican, and that he and
the woman he’d been dating would enter into a three-month “Relationship
Agreement”.
To his credit, Merrill did not require unanimity, the way
the Sioux City church did. A simple majority vote would do. It was downright
democratic. Not only that, but the people making decisions about how Merrill would live his life were people who were willing to tangibly invest in his life. It's not clear that churches involved in the shepherding movement were similarly willing to do anything to help those in their charge to achieve their life goals.
Still, I was reminded of the fact that I’d been attending a
church where they felt obliged to throw in their two cents about aspects of my
life pertaining to my intense desire to find and marry a compatible woman.
I've begged for help from my pastor and others in the church, in terms of matchmaking help, but I have seen scant evidence (despite occasional lip service) that they intend to help me in that way. (I would very likely change my mind in that area if I actually got a call or email message from a woman saying, "So-and-so suggested that I contact you so that you and I could have coffee with one another."
I was
told by my pastor, Matt Atkins, that he thought that I ought not to aspire to
marry a woman not very close to my own age. (In his words, he thought that if I
did so, I’d be “fishing in the wrong pond”; as if women were scaly fish
comparable to trout.) I wrote back to him to point out that compatible does not have to mean "born within four or five years of one another" or even "born in the same decade". It's worthwhile to read the Wikipedia article about Age Disparity in Sexual Relationships (also known as May-December relationships).
I was inclined to ask which "pond" was appropriate for someone my age. Should I now resign myself to the idea that I could only find a wife by visiting the nearest hospice?
I was inclined to ask which "pond" was appropriate for someone my age. Should I now resign myself to the idea that I could only find a wife by visiting the nearest hospice?
I was not blessed with marriage when I sought it earlier in
my life, but I still desire what I have always desired: To marry a woman who is
attractive to me, both physically and in terms of compatibility. Physically,
women older than I am are only rarely attractive to me. Raquel Welch, always
known as a sex symbol, is still very pretty (some might even say "hot"), and I would be fine with the idea
of marrying a woman that looked like Raquel, even though she’s at least a
decade older than I am. But very few women age as well as Raquel has aged.
I know that beauty eventually fades, but I’d like to at
least experience a few years of love (and yes, sex) with a woman to whom I
could honestly say, “I find you to be beautiful.” It seems to me that women like to hear that from the mouths of the men to whom they are married!
There are people who think that they are entitled, on the
basis of the fact that they are fellow Christian believers, to tell me who I
should and should not date. Given the fact that they do not seem to feel any
particular obligation to help me to find a woman, I cannot help but think that
they need to butt out and allow me to select women on the basis of what appeals
to me. If I ever do find a woman, it will not be those people who have to spend
every day of the rest of their lives with that woman.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
A Stupid and Unnecessary Bing.com Feature
I'm sick of web programmers who think they are clever imposing features on people who never asked for those features.
An example, seen recently on a number of web sites I've visited recently, is the Click to Search link placed atop web-based images. The screen shot shown below will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I saw it on the Wikipedia page about musician Barry McGuire, and fortunately, I have PDF Create software, so I can print web pages (at least at Wikipedia) as PDF pages. (Plus, Wikipedia thoughtfully offers the option of downloading an article as a PDF file.)
But PDF Create doesn't capture all web pages equally well, so I like to make screen shots (using the Microsoft Snipping Tool program) as an alternative way to capture information. The problem is that this idiotic Click to Search link (which doesn't even successfully guess what the search term should be in some cases, although it did so in the case of Barry McGuire) is totally unneeded, and it makes it impossible to make a good clean screen capture, as you can see from the graphic image below.
Hey, Microsoft, I know about Bing. I'm not an idiot. If I wanted to do a Bing search, I'd visit that web site. Personally, I tend to prefer to do searches with Google, although I do know that Bing offers certain features which are genuine improvements. But stay the bleep off of other web pages and sites!!!
An example, seen recently on a number of web sites I've visited recently, is the Click to Search link placed atop web-based images. The screen shot shown below will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I saw it on the Wikipedia page about musician Barry McGuire, and fortunately, I have PDF Create software, so I can print web pages (at least at Wikipedia) as PDF pages. (Plus, Wikipedia thoughtfully offers the option of downloading an article as a PDF file.)
But PDF Create doesn't capture all web pages equally well, so I like to make screen shots (using the Microsoft Snipping Tool program) as an alternative way to capture information. The problem is that this idiotic Click to Search link (which doesn't even successfully guess what the search term should be in some cases, although it did so in the case of Barry McGuire) is totally unneeded, and it makes it impossible to make a good clean screen capture, as you can see from the graphic image below.
Hey, Microsoft, I know about Bing. I'm not an idiot. If I wanted to do a Bing search, I'd visit that web site. Personally, I tend to prefer to do searches with Google, although I do know that Bing offers certain features which are genuine improvements. But stay the bleep off of other web pages and sites!!!
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