No Expects the Spanish Inquisition

I have heard a lot of people bemoan the fate of the world lately.  The world is a more violent and scarier than every before.  I don't think that is the case.  We are more televised than every before.  Every atrocity every act is beamed across the globe instantly.....pontificated on rabidly to fill the airwaves.  The goal, of course, to get you to catch the latest ad for the latest drug to treat erectile dysfunction.

The world is not more violent.  It may be just as violent as always but not more so.  It is an important distinction.  I don't want to be one of the many pundits to put the blame on the media.  If fact, I believe that it is the fact that we can see these horrors that we are moved to action.  Perhaps if the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition had been the subject of a reality TV show or Internet meme, it would have ended sooner.   There would have been a song written by Bob Geldof to raise money for its victims.

I think we are evolving as a species and are moved to action to ease the horrors in the world.  Here is a list of some of the things we have accomplished as species this year.  What is on your list?  What makes you say "Go US!"  Let me know in the comments.

Humans in Space

Merry Christmas ET!

I am terribly behind in everything Christmas prep and found this article while goofing off.   It poses an interesting theological question.  The Mormons being a recent religion have answered this for themselves and good for them!

I think that we will find a myriad of varied and rich spiritual traditions across the Cosmos.  But at their fundamental core we will encounter love, care for the poor, serenity, peace and good will toward our fellows.  They will have had their wars, their inquisitions,  their debates, and ultimately they will come to a place of dialogue and appreciation of one another.  At the end, they (and us) will finally have learned what the mystics and prophets of this planet have been trying to teach us since the dawn of conscious thought.   We are all on a journey up the mountain, many paths, one destination.

So whatever path you are on, walk it, study it, let it seep into your being.  Find the spiritual core at the heart of it's tenants and apply them to the here and now.  Don't worry about the paths others take.  Blaze your own path if you need to but keep climbing, keep your eye on the prize...The Divine Spirit at the heart of the Universe.  Meet me there with ET.  We will have some Egg Nog waiting for you.

Unless of course we meet the Klingons first....then we are totally screwed.

And God Bless us, Everyone!!!

From the NY Times
Do Aliens Know It's Christmas?

The Neutral Zone

I was going to write this overly dramatic post about depression but to be frank, it was drivel.  350 million people worldwide suffer from it.  There is help. See the link below.

I have discovered that my biggest problem is that I fear intense emotion... good and bad.  I have always stuffed them down, hidden them away, saved them for a "convenient time".   The heart of the matter is sometimes the depth of my pain scares me.  When I touch it, the pain flares up like a grease fire.  I was always afraid of getting burned.  But what I have learned from a life lived in the neutral zone is that when you push the feelings aside, they don't really disappear.  They collect and collect and collect until you are buried and have no room left for today.   Passion demands the moment, the now.  It screams for immediate attention.  That was never my first instinct, to demand attention now.   I would prefer to skulk around in the shadows.  You see, I'm not overly private but somewhere along the line I came to believe that my feelings didn't deserve attention, not even from me.

That's crap, it's all crap.  Today, I try to ride the rollercoaster of my emotions.  Today, I savor the ups and the downs.  Today, I touch the fire.  I let the grease fall out of me, burn me and it hurts.  But it's only just a moment, a flash in the pan really and only then I can burn away the clutter and live fully and passionately in the now.  That ...or I'm being cooked alive.  Either way, it's better than the icy frost that can only thrive in the Neutral Zone.  

http://www.adaa.org/

The Ultimate Halloween Playlist [Updated]

The fall has always been a time of magic for me.  Ghosts haunt my memory as the year slowly fades and dies away.  One of these ghosts is dressed in a gray polyester suit, sports a rockin jet black comb over and carries a well worn bible in hand.  You see, this was the time of year when a traveling preacher would come to my Southern Baptist elementary school to warn us of the devil hidden within the measures and bars of Rock ’n Roll music.  Every day for a week, we were dutifully marched into an assembly to hear him make his case. The week would culminate in a vinyl bon fire in which we would destroy the devil and save our very souls.

We were told that the very structure of the music, with it’s repetitive lyrics and syncopated rhythms, were designed to lull the subconscious into a hypnotic state.  (I remember wondering about how people could drive with their radios on and be hypnotized.)  Evil messages were implanted in the music which could be heard only when playing the record backwards. A technique everyone knows is the most efficient way to implant suggestions in the mind of the young.
However, sometimes those messages were explicit.   KISS = Kids in Satan’s Service .  Don’t Fear The Reaper…he is your friend.  I Write the Songs…..Yes, everyone knows that the devil was originally the angel of music before his spectacular Fall.  Yes, EVERYONE knows that Barry Manilow sings I Write the Songs because he is the devil. (Polyester Preacher may have been onto something with this one.)

By Friday, we were ready to do anything, burn any record to save our selves from this spiritual danger.  The preacher would mount the stage, position himself at the pulpit and call to us, red faced and teary eyed, to bring these instruments of damnation to the altar of God.  They would later be burned in order to destroy the evil spells housed within.

I watched as they filed up and laid the albums down.   I, however, did not have any records of my own to burn.  The only music my grandmother played in our house were 8 track tapes of Camelot, The Sound of Music, etc.  I, also, was the sole Roman Catholic in this school and as such it was common knowledge that I wasgoing to hell anyway.  In a rare moment of uncharacteristic rebellion, I quickly made a move.  I asked the girl next to me if I could have her 45 of Bat out of Hell since it was only going to get burned up anyway.  And just like that , it was spirited away, in my purse and my long love affair with Halloween and Halloween music began.  

So, in honor of the ghosts of fall and all things devil-y, I have compiled the Ultimate Halloween Playlist. Which ones would you add?  What songs thrill you as the chill in the air grows and the moon waxes full? What songs do you use to drown out the inane ramblings of the Polyester Preacher in your head?  I’d love to know.
 
1. Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
2. Sinnerman - Nina Simone
3. I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone
4. Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
5. Murder of Crows - Lindi Ortega
6. The Devil Went Down to Georgia - The Charlie Daniels Band
7. The Majestic Tale (of a Madman in a Box) - Murray Gold
8. Joan Crawford - Blue Oyster Cult
9. Burning for You - Blue Oyster Cult
10. A Night on Bald Mountain - Leopold Stokowski & The Philadelphia Orchestra
11. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
12. Devil’s in the Jukebox - Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs
13. The Headless Horseman - Bing Crosby
14. Hedwig's Theme - Harry Potter soundtrack
15. Dragula - Rob Zombie
16. Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie
17. Pet Cemetery - Ramones
18. I Put a Spell on You (feat. Screamin' Jay Hawkins) - Screamin Jay Hawkins
19. The Ghost of Tom Joad (Live) [feat. Tom Morello] - Bruce Springsteen
20. Enter Sandman - Metallica
21. This is Halloween - The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack
22. Hell Raiser - Ozzie Osbourne
23. Zombie Stomp - Ozzie Osbourne
24. Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers
25. Timewarp - Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack
26. Devil’s Dance - Metallica
27. Ghost Town - Shiny Toy Guns
28. Haunted when the minutes Drag - Love and Rockets
29. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
30. Thriller - Michael Jackson
31. Zomieland - T-Bone Burnett
32. Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party
33. Magic - Olivia Newton-John (yes....Olivia Newton - John....What of it!)
34. Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: In the Hall of the Mountain King
35. Carmina Burana: O Fortuna
36. Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
37. Imperial March - Metallica
38. Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
39. The Monster's Loose - Meatloaf
40. Fresh Blood – Eels
41. Helter Skelter – The Beatles
42 Beast – Nico Vega
43. Witch Doctor – Sha Na Na
44. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky – The Outlaws
 
Stay creepy, my friends.