We were at the opening of Aman Smith’s show at Gallery 14 last night. It was not very well attended when we got there. Except for the portrait of his daughters, and of the little girl with her hands across her face that he did for a charity that fights against human trafficking, all of Aman’s subjects/models are dead. They are iconic entertainers who died before their time. There are such notables as Jimi Hendrix, , Tupak Chakur, and other rappers, There was also a dead graffiti artist who looked for all the world like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Stephen’s favorite was the one of Jimi Hendrix, while Tegwedd’s favorite was the one of Billy Holiday. The one of Heath Ledger recreated his deeply dhasisturbing last role as the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” The one of the rapper with all the bling had eyes that seemed to follow you around the room.
In the 70s and again in the 90s and early 2000s, a whole passel of rockers and rappers died at age 27, a year before their 1st Saturn return. If you can get through your first Saturn return, the next hurdle is your 2nd Saturn return at age 56. Tegwedd was finally first published during her 2nd Saturn return. Saturn was popularly known as the great malefic, but Tegwedd thinks he should be known as the great manifestor because he sets limits. In order for you to manifest your Will/desires, you have to limit them as to form and bring them down from the realm of Spirit to the material realm of earth.
This is something that Aman has done very well. He even incorporates earthy substances such as art sand and and coffee grounds into his paintings. They give the portraits a dimension they might otherwise lack, almost making them sculpture-like. But his use of light and shadow adds to the dimensionality of the portraits. He does these portraits of these iconic performers because he feels that they should be immortalized. He did the one of his daughters just because they’re cute. He doesn’t want to part with that one; it’s NFS (Not For Sale). The others are definitely for sale at very reasonable prices.
Mr. and Mrs. Aman Smith are a pleasant looking black couple in their 30s. Aman’s been doing art since he was 9. He started with pastels, then graduated to acrylics and oils in his 20s. Tegwedd didn’t interview him. She found out this information from overhearing him talk to the other viewers. Stephen found him to be very congenial. Tegwedd liked his hat because it had a picture of a dragon on it. Julie was more than a little disturbed that the Smiths showed up to the show more than an hour late, nor had he sent her a price list so that she could label the paintings. When they finally arrived, he set up his laptop, and prepared a price list for Julie. The show runs through October 1st. If you fancy art that captures iconic dead entertainers, this is the show for you. Gallery 14 is at 3960 14th Ave.
We’re still searching for a house mate. Now if you are willing, able, and ready to to do some hard physical labor like Stephen is doing to get the house and yard in shape, $100 will be taken off your rent until the work is completed, then the rent will go back up to $400. So you will be paying only $300 until the work is completed. .
Our friend Caitlin ni Manannan has people bringing her wood from when they prune their trees in their yards. And we are shortly going to be making rune Rune and Ogham sets. So if you’re local, bring us your branches. They should be at least the thickness of your thumb.
All you hard-workin Pagans should stand solidly with labor and against the Tea Party. As James Hoffa Jr. said, “Recall those sons of bitches! Go to your ballot boxes and vote them out.” The 75,000 Verizon workers are on strike, and we stand with them. Solidarnosc! as the Poles would say. Verizon management, all Republicans, have made 100 unreasonable demands, and refuse to negotiate, but are paying scabs to cross the picket lines, and work for them. All the workers want, is to keep what they have, a small cost of living increase in wages, their health care, and their pensions. Management wants them to pay $100 per month for health care, while they get it free. If you were thinking of getting a Verizon phone and account, don’t, and do tell them why you aren’t, that you are boycotting them. If you have a Verizon account, close it, and go to another carrier, and tell Verizon why. If you want to piss off Stephen, abuse or oppress the workers. Tell Verizon that you refuse to do business with an employer who oppresses its workers.
Soon we may be selling pendants of the lady and the tiger worked in silver. If you reading this are a silversmith please call our toll free number 1-888-611-7982, and we’ll do business. Coming soon--prints of the Lady and the Tiger by Lizet. Rune and Ogham sets worked by Stephen. Tegwedd has started to crochet cellphone holsters of her own design. They are of acrylic yarn, in assorted colors. She is obsessed right now with making holsters for the Pagan Pride Harvest Festival, but she will make you one to order for a reasonable price. She has some right now in assorted colors for just $9.95+S&H. She is working with yarn she has on hand, so a custom one will cost more because she has to obtain the yarn to make yours. It will cost $14.95 + S&H The smallest container for US priority mail is $4.95.
We are offering a new service. For just $19.95, you can have spell-coaching. We will take you through the construction and performance of a spell. It’s very simple. If you want to perform a spell but you don’t think you know what you’re doing, hire us to coach you through it. The fee is payable to our PayPal accounts, to either abbotts_inn@yahoo.com or tezra.reitan@gmail.com .
We will coach you using strong ethics. Tegwedd has a couplet she will teach you which you can add to your spell that will ensure that it is ethical. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is over 40 years old, having been founded in 1970 in Berkeley, CA. It went cybernetic almost 9 years ago. Lizet has been helping us put the school on a more commercial footing, and with her inspiration, Tegwedd has started packaging the classes into manageable packets. Ms. Freeman did a 3rd website for us almost a month ago at http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com. From there, by clicking on two of the graphics, you can go to either of the other two sites: http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . You can also get to our network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . With her help, we also salvaged some things from his old website, including the mission statement: The Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick aims to provide a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and the specific tools of magick. Our research arm is called the Magickal Research Institute or MRI, not to be confused with the medical MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Image, which Tegwedd had on her right ankle about 10 months ago. Stephen and Lizet came up with the name almost 9 years ago. The three of us have become a very effective working team. Stephen has his cell phone, and we are both enjoying learning how to use our cell phones. His cell phone number is 916-467-6393. He’ll have access to the Internet on that phone. He says “I’m not very good at texting because of my glaucoma, so please be gentle with me.” Don’t forget to call 888-611-7982 for all your divination, learning class, and research needs.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Art for Pagans, a Natural Pairing
Welcome to Art for Pagans! We’re glad you could make it! This is a new group, so no clones as yet to check out, but soon there will be. Saturday night we went to a very interesting art show at our favorite art gallery, Gallery 14, 3960 60th St., Sacramento. It will be there until September 2nd, 2011. The name of the show is “Art by Ninja.” The art is both whimsical and gothic. She has lots of zombies in her art. Funny thing Stephen can’t stand zombie movies, but he seemed to like this art. We even found a picture that looked like what Stephen looked Friday night when he had a fever.
“Don’t tell Ninja that her art looks like that of Tim Burton. That only makes her mad, and any fool knows you don’t get a redhead mad,” according to the announcement cards we got early last week.
Her art is very much influenced by comics (she inks a comic herself), anime, and cartoons. When we saw the artist, she had dyed her red hair black and was dressed in a sundress that reminded Tegwedd of a ballerina’s tutu, except that it was longer, did not expose her well parts,
and had a comic type print that was a cross between goth and punk. She’s very tall, almost as tall as Stephen, who is 5’11”. Lizet, who was with us, bought Stephen a “putty card.” Ninja signed it with a silver pen, so now he has a signed piece of art.
Tegwedd was chatting with her friend Snoodlady, and described the art as having a “certain dark whimsy to it.”
Art, especially modern art, is an extremely subjective field. What we like, you may not care for, and art critics do nothing to enlighten the consumer. Many critics have built up a certain artist, now dead, and we view the art to discover that these “masterpieces” resemble nothing so much as the rags an artist might use to clean his brushes and hands.
Saturday night when the artist’s mother was describing how the critics had reacted to her daughter’s work, Tegwedd told her about the scene in Mel Brooks’ movie “History of the World, Part 1” where the first artist has finished a painting on a cave wall, then a guy comes along and urinates on the piece of art, thus becoming the first art critic. Getting to meet these artists, and asking them about their process has been very enlighening (or since she’s dark, should we say “endarkening?” for Tegwedd. She has found out about our friend Walter Rhoads’ artistic process, then interviewed each artist she’s met at the gallery about his or her process of creation. Julie and Walt actually had meat at the reception. It was pork fajita mix Walt had obtained from La Superior Mercado 2 blocks from us. They have a Mexican deli in the back of the store. Walt and Julie also had berry lemonade, fresh strawberries with whipped cream, mini-cinnamon rolls, macaroons, M&Ms--both plain and peanut, chocolate covered almonds, 3 kinds of sliced cheeses and crackers, uber hot salsa and tortilla chips, and watermelon chunks.
Stephen said about the art, “The art is very dark, I like it because I’m really dark.”
Ninja’s musical tastes are also very similar to Stephen’s; punk and goth rock. We both quit eating at 8 pm. It’s a discipline thing we do. The food was just there for the opening, it won’t be there when you come to look at the art. Next month there’ll be a new show, so we’ll keep you posted about that show.
How many here like Frank Frazetta’s and Boris Vallejo’s fantasy art? Both of us like both artists, and they both have very Pagan themes and motifs.
The 75,000 Verizon workers are on strike, and we stand with them. Solidarnosc! as the Poles would say. Verizon management, all Republicans, have made 100 unreasonable demands, and refuse to negotiate, but are paying scabs to cross the picket lines, and work for them. All the workers want, is to keep what they have, a small cost of living increase in wages, their health care, and their pensions. Management wants them to pay $100 per month for health care, while they get it free. If you were thinking of getting a Verizon phone and account, and do tell them why you aren’t, that you are boycotting them. If you have a Verizon account, close it, and go to another carrier, and tell Verizon why. Tegwedd used to be in favor of management like her father, who was a staunch Republican until he died, until she tried to live on the wages she got as a temp office worker. The she got in with Doc, who was a member of the SEIU Health Workers union. Stephen was a strong union man since he was 20. He’s a member of the IWW (International Workers of the World) aka the Wobblies. Janvier was a little Wobbly when she first started walking. If you want to piss off Stephen, abuse or oppress the workers. A very wise person once told Tegwedd years ago that you know you’ve successfully negotiated when nobody leaves the table happy. Tell Verizon that you refuse to do business with an employer who oppresses its workers.
Soon we may be selling pendants of the lady and the tiger worked in silver. If you reading this are a silversmith please call our toll free number 1-888-611-7982, and we’ll do business. Coming soon--prints of the Lady and the Tiger by Lizet. Rune and Ogham sets worked by Stephen. Tegwedd has started to crochet cellphone holsters of her own design. They are of acrylic yarn, in assorted colors. She is obsessed right now with making holsters for the Pagan Pride Harvest Festival, but she will make you one to order for a reasonable price. She has some right now in assorted colors for just $9.95+S&H. She is working with yarn she has on hand, so a custom one will cost more because she has to obtain the yarn to make yours. It will cost $14.95 + S&H The smallest container for US priority mail is $4.95.
We are offering a new service. For just $19.95, you can have spell-coaching. We will take you through the construction and performance of a spell. It’s very simple. If you want to perform a spell but you don’t think you know what you’re doing, hire us to coach you through it. The fee is payable to our PayPal accounts, to either abbotts_inn@yahoo.com or tezra.reitan@gmail.com .
We will coach you using strong ethics. Tegwedd has a couplet she will teach you which you can add to your spell that will ensure that it is ethical. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is over 40 years old, having been founded in 1970 in Berkeley, CA. It went cybernetic almost 9 years ago. Lizet has been helping us put the school on a more commercial footing, and with her inspiration, Tegwedd has started packaging the classes into manageable packets. Ms. Freeman did a 3rd website for us almost a month ago at http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com. From there, by clicking on two of the graphics, you can go to either of the other two sites: http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . You can also get to our network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . With her help, we also salvaged some things from his old website, including the mission statement: The Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick aims to provide a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and the specific tools of magick. Our research arm is called the Magickal Research Institute or MRI, not to be confused with the medical MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Image, which Tegwedd had on her right ankle about 9 months ago. Stephen and Lizet came up with the name almost 9 years ago. The three of us have become a very effective working team. Stephen has his cell phone, and we are both enjoying learning how to use our cell phones. His cell phone number is 916-467-6393. He’ll have access to the Internet on that phone. He says “I’m not very good at texting because of my glaucoma, so please be gentle with me.” Don’t forget to call 888-611-7982 for all your divination, learning class, and research needs.
“Don’t tell Ninja that her art looks like that of Tim Burton. That only makes her mad, and any fool knows you don’t get a redhead mad,” according to the announcement cards we got early last week.
Her art is very much influenced by comics (she inks a comic herself), anime, and cartoons. When we saw the artist, she had dyed her red hair black and was dressed in a sundress that reminded Tegwedd of a ballerina’s tutu, except that it was longer, did not expose her well parts,
and had a comic type print that was a cross between goth and punk. She’s very tall, almost as tall as Stephen, who is 5’11”. Lizet, who was with us, bought Stephen a “putty card.” Ninja signed it with a silver pen, so now he has a signed piece of art.
Tegwedd was chatting with her friend Snoodlady, and described the art as having a “certain dark whimsy to it.”
Art, especially modern art, is an extremely subjective field. What we like, you may not care for, and art critics do nothing to enlighten the consumer. Many critics have built up a certain artist, now dead, and we view the art to discover that these “masterpieces” resemble nothing so much as the rags an artist might use to clean his brushes and hands.
Saturday night when the artist’s mother was describing how the critics had reacted to her daughter’s work, Tegwedd told her about the scene in Mel Brooks’ movie “History of the World, Part 1” where the first artist has finished a painting on a cave wall, then a guy comes along and urinates on the piece of art, thus becoming the first art critic. Getting to meet these artists, and asking them about their process has been very enlighening (or since she’s dark, should we say “endarkening?” for Tegwedd. She has found out about our friend Walter Rhoads’ artistic process, then interviewed each artist she’s met at the gallery about his or her process of creation. Julie and Walt actually had meat at the reception. It was pork fajita mix Walt had obtained from La Superior Mercado 2 blocks from us. They have a Mexican deli in the back of the store. Walt and Julie also had berry lemonade, fresh strawberries with whipped cream, mini-cinnamon rolls, macaroons, M&Ms--both plain and peanut, chocolate covered almonds, 3 kinds of sliced cheeses and crackers, uber hot salsa and tortilla chips, and watermelon chunks.
Stephen said about the art, “The art is very dark, I like it because I’m really dark.”
Ninja’s musical tastes are also very similar to Stephen’s; punk and goth rock. We both quit eating at 8 pm. It’s a discipline thing we do. The food was just there for the opening, it won’t be there when you come to look at the art. Next month there’ll be a new show, so we’ll keep you posted about that show.
How many here like Frank Frazetta’s and Boris Vallejo’s fantasy art? Both of us like both artists, and they both have very Pagan themes and motifs.
The 75,000 Verizon workers are on strike, and we stand with them. Solidarnosc! as the Poles would say. Verizon management, all Republicans, have made 100 unreasonable demands, and refuse to negotiate, but are paying scabs to cross the picket lines, and work for them. All the workers want, is to keep what they have, a small cost of living increase in wages, their health care, and their pensions. Management wants them to pay $100 per month for health care, while they get it free. If you were thinking of getting a Verizon phone and account, and do tell them why you aren’t, that you are boycotting them. If you have a Verizon account, close it, and go to another carrier, and tell Verizon why. Tegwedd used to be in favor of management like her father, who was a staunch Republican until he died, until she tried to live on the wages she got as a temp office worker. The she got in with Doc, who was a member of the SEIU Health Workers union. Stephen was a strong union man since he was 20. He’s a member of the IWW (International Workers of the World) aka the Wobblies. Janvier was a little Wobbly when she first started walking. If you want to piss off Stephen, abuse or oppress the workers. A very wise person once told Tegwedd years ago that you know you’ve successfully negotiated when nobody leaves the table happy. Tell Verizon that you refuse to do business with an employer who oppresses its workers.
Soon we may be selling pendants of the lady and the tiger worked in silver. If you reading this are a silversmith please call our toll free number 1-888-611-7982, and we’ll do business. Coming soon--prints of the Lady and the Tiger by Lizet. Rune and Ogham sets worked by Stephen. Tegwedd has started to crochet cellphone holsters of her own design. They are of acrylic yarn, in assorted colors. She is obsessed right now with making holsters for the Pagan Pride Harvest Festival, but she will make you one to order for a reasonable price. She has some right now in assorted colors for just $9.95+S&H. She is working with yarn she has on hand, so a custom one will cost more because she has to obtain the yarn to make yours. It will cost $14.95 + S&H The smallest container for US priority mail is $4.95.
We are offering a new service. For just $19.95, you can have spell-coaching. We will take you through the construction and performance of a spell. It’s very simple. If you want to perform a spell but you don’t think you know what you’re doing, hire us to coach you through it. The fee is payable to our PayPal accounts, to either abbotts_inn@yahoo.com or tezra.reitan@gmail.com .
We will coach you using strong ethics. Tegwedd has a couplet she will teach you which you can add to your spell that will ensure that it is ethical. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is over 40 years old, having been founded in 1970 in Berkeley, CA. It went cybernetic almost 9 years ago. Lizet has been helping us put the school on a more commercial footing, and with her inspiration, Tegwedd has started packaging the classes into manageable packets. Ms. Freeman did a 3rd website for us almost a month ago at http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com. From there, by clicking on two of the graphics, you can go to either of the other two sites: http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . You can also get to our network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . With her help, we also salvaged some things from his old website, including the mission statement: The Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick aims to provide a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and the specific tools of magick. Our research arm is called the Magickal Research Institute or MRI, not to be confused with the medical MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Image, which Tegwedd had on her right ankle about 9 months ago. Stephen and Lizet came up with the name almost 9 years ago. The three of us have become a very effective working team. Stephen has his cell phone, and we are both enjoying learning how to use our cell phones. His cell phone number is 916-467-6393. He’ll have access to the Internet on that phone. He says “I’m not very good at texting because of my glaucoma, so please be gentle with me.” Don’t forget to call 888-611-7982 for all your divination, learning class, and research needs.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Showtunes for Pagans and Germany, Winter for Poland and France
This is our revenge for Ning taking away our nine networks. The one that hurt the most was the Putty Network, where we were going to expand upon the Necroputtycon, aka the Way of the Paw. Back to Show Tunes for Pagans. As I said in the description, neither of us is gay, but we love musicals. Doc loved musicals, and he wasn’t gay, either. We’ve had a lot of fun with Stephen’s creation of Vaudeville Occultism. The next time you’re in deep conversation with your friends, and someone utters a catch phrase, burst into song. We tried it last night. It’s not from a musical, but it worked. “Stop in the name of food, before I get more lewd, think it o-o-o-ver, think it o-o-o-over.”
It’s really unfortunate that in many people’s minds that musicals are associated with homosexuality. It’s only true for men, if at all. Stephen hates that stereotype, as he hates all stereotypes. He likes to explode stereotypes through the use of humor, so this is where vaudeville occultism comes in. Doc was very heterosexual, and extremely secure about his sexuality, and he loved musicals. We watched many musical movies together. Of course, my being female and when encouraged, of a rather romantic turn of mind, I loved musicals. A lot of this post has to do with Vaudeville Occultism. We’re old enough to remember the great musicals; Oklahoma, South Pacific, Flower Drum Song, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Carousel, The Music Man, Kiss Me Kate, Kismet, West Side Story, Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hair, and The Sound of Music. We also like some later shows such as Rent, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked. My current favorite is The Phantom of the Opera. Doc liked it too. I found it to be very romantic in a dark way. Doc too was very romantic in his dark, droll way. Which musical is your favorite?
We’ve had a lot of fun with Stephen’s creation of vaudeville occultism. Next time you’re deep in conversation with someone, and they utter a catch phrase, burst into song. “Stop in the name of food, before I get real lewd, think it o-o-over, think it o-o-ver.” “Every party needs a pooper, that’s why we invited you, party pooper, party pooper. “
A report just came in, Carol’s putty does 100th putty. She uses her paws to swipe one piece of food out of her bowl then eats it. We have reached critical mass, and 100th putty has reached all the way across the country.
What do Pagans do in ritual? “A candle in the wind.”
I was being interviewed by Stephen about musicals and show tunes, and said that I had loved show tunes and musical from the time I was a young girl, long before I knew about Paganism, and her started to sing the old Animals song “When I was Young.” Stephen’s favorite musical is the “Producers” because of the musical within a musical “Springtime for Hitler.” Carol’s favorite is “The Sound of Music.” Which is your favorite show tune? I have a lot of favorites. It all depends upon which mood I’m in. Currently it’s the “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera”.
Another good musical is “Grease”. John Travolta was in the stage production of “Grease”, but played the part of one of Danny’s friends, not Danny. But when they went to make the movie, they figured that John Travolta was a more bankable star. Ah, Hollywood politics. Jeff Conaway portrayed Danny in the Broadway production of “Grease.” By the way, Doc’s nickname for Olivia Newton-John was Olivia Neutron Bomb. Stephen just asked me which was my favorite performer in “Grease”, Athens or Sparta? Stockard Channing is our favorite performer in “Grease.”
“The Lion King, which was based upon the Disney film of the same name spent several years on Broadway, and is now touring the country. I suspected “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell” of being Jesoid musicals. You can get show tunes on Rhapsody and Pandora. I’m going to download “Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats”, and “Wicked” tomorrow.
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber composed 13 shows, with several lyricists as his collaborators. One of them, Tim Rice, he used for several shows. These shows included two of my personal favorites; “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera. Stephen also likes “Phantom of the Opera” for many of the same reasons Doc and I do. What do you think, folks? Should we include TV themes in this group? We think alike a lot. Every so often one or the other of us will say, “There’s an echo in here” because we’ll say something in chorus. Many times when we’re in the same room, our minds link up in weird ways. The reason I’m bringing it up now is that you may not have noticed it, but we often sing the same show tune at the same time. It’s crazy, especially since we didn’t arrange it this way, it just happens. “I dream of Libra with the black lace trim.” Carol has a friend named Libby, who is just as crazy as we are, and I made a Freudian teddy about her name, calling her Libra, and the black lace trim is about the teddy itself. Libby’s favorite musical is “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, and her favorite song/scene in the show is the one where they are eating Meatloaf. “What? Not Meatloaf again!”
Below are Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 13 shows:
The Likes of Us 1965 Aspects of Love 1989
Lyrics by Tim Rice Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart
Not shown until 2005
Sunset Boulevard 1993
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Book & Lyrics by Chris Hampton
Lyrics by Tim Rice Based on the 1950 Billy Wilder film
Jesus Christ Superstar 1970 Whistle Down the Wind 1996
Lyrics by Tim Rice Lyrics by Jim Steinman
Jeeves 1975 The Beautiful Game 2000
Revised as By Jeeves Lyrics by Ben Elton
Revised as Boys in the Photograph 2009
Evita 1976 Woman in White 2004
Lyrics by Tim Rice Lyrics by David Zippele
Tell Me on a Sunday 1979 Love Never Dies 2010
Lyrics by Don Black Lyricist?
Cats 1981
Lyrics by T.S. Eliot
Additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe and Trevor Nunn
Song and Dance 1982
Lyrics by Don Black revised by Richard Maltby for Broadway
Combination of Variations 1978 and Tell Me on a Sunday1979
Starlight Express 1984
Lyrics by Tim Rice
1st performed for Queen Elizabeth’s 60th birthday
The Phantom of the Opera 1986
Lyrics by Charles Hart Additional Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe
Based on Gaston Leroux novel
Other musicals; (These are NOT by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber)
La Cage Aux Folles, Jane Eyre, Wicked (Synopsis follows)
Mary Poppins, Blue Man Group, Young Frankenstein, 9 to 5,
Rock of Ages, The Lion King, Shrek the Musical, Dream Girls,
In the Heights, Billy Eliot, Jersey Boys
This is a chance for you to do some research. I did research on Wicked but you can do research too. Show tunes and musicals put you in a very serene meditative state.
Wicked Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman. Based upon best selling novel by Gregory Maguire. The musical celebrates its 7th anniversary October 30th 2010. It is the 17th longest running Broadway musical having logged over 2870 performances since its premiere in San Francisco at the Curran Theatre in May 2003, and in the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway October 2010. It has spawned productions in Chicago, LA, London’s West End, San Francisco, Japan, Germany, and Australia. The tours have visited over 30 cities in both the US and Canada.
The show opens as Oz celebrates the death by melting of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West. Then there is the rest of the story, which is an extended flashback. Elphaba and Galinda were roommates back in college at Shiz University. Elphaba is discovered to have magickal talent which the headshiztress promises to introduce her to the Wizard. Prince Fiyero Tiggullon arrives and the two women become rivals for Fiyero’s affections. Elphaba gets an audience with the Wizard, and soon takes off for the Emerald City. While there, Elphaba gives the monkeys the power of flight and discovers that the Wizard lacks any powers of his own. She runs, taking the Grimmerie with her, the palace guards after her.
A few years have passed. Elphaba’s exploits have earned her the title wicked Witch of the West. Glinda and Morrible (the headshiztress) hold a press conference to announce Glinda’s engagement to Fiyero. Elphaba flees for refuge to the governor’s residenve. Her sister, Nessarose is now the governor. She castigates Elphaba for not helping her. Guiltstricken, Elphaba enchants Nessarose’s jeweled shoes so that she can walk. Nessarose miscasts a spell from the Grimmerie on Boq, causing his heart to shrink. Horrified, Nessarose lays the blame on Elphaba. The Wizard attempts to win Elphaba’s favor by agreeing to set the flying monkeys free. Upon encountering the now speechless Dr. Dillamond, she rejects the Wizard’s offer and attempts an escape but runs into Fiyero. Confirming his love for her, he runs off with her. They declare their love in a forest, but are interrupted when Elphaba senses that her sister is in danger. She flies off to help, but arrives too late, just as Glinda sends Dorothy and Totoalong the yellow Brick Road Firyero surrenders to the palace guards who take him to a cornfield to be tortured until he gives them Elphaba’s whereabouts. Elphaba attempts to save him, but thinking she has failed accepts her reputation.
There is a Witch Hunt. They go to Elphaba’s castle, where Dorothy throws the water on her, and she melts, leaving only her hat and her vial. Glinda, unsure what has happened, takes the vial to the Wizard, who reveals that he is Ephaba’s father have had an affair with her mother. Glinda tells Wizard to take off in the balloon and puts Morrible in prison. We return to the beginning scene of the show. Fiyero whom Elphaba had turned into the Scarecrow, opens the trapdoor in her castle, and Elphaba steps out very much alive. The two are happily reunited. Glinda addresses the people of Oz saying she would like to be known as Glinda the Good as she will reform the government . Elphaba and Fiyero leave Oz forever. [from Wikipedia]
Remember you can get the soundtracks for these musicals on Rhapsody.
My blog at both Blessed Be UK and Avalon was removed because I was asking for sorely needed money. Apparently, unless you are rich enough to afford one of their exorbitantly priced pro-memberships you can’t ask for money. If I were rich enough to afford a pro-membership, I wouldn’t need to ask for money would I? The owners and administration of both these sites discriminate against poor people. If you have a presence one either or both of these networks, please write a blog protesting this grossly unfair and prejudiced policy.
Vandals removed the bench from the bus shelter by the Extra Storage lot on Lawrence and Stockton Blvd. This happened at least 4 months ago. . Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
We still need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks. This past month, the month of August, was the worst on Keen in the 10 years since Stephen (Frog) has been on the service. He made -$25 on KEEN in August. He owes $2000 in rent, and I owe $1000. What does it take to get you to open your pocketbooks?
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way. Stephen has a website through Yellow Book. www.abbottsinninternational.com is the link. The phone number is 1-888-611-7982. Call him sometime, and ask for a reading.
Stephen knuckled under and paid those greedy bastards at Ning.com to keep Abbottsinnian’s alive. The link is http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . He suffered a mortifying experience on Saturday night at Foods Co. He hadn’t had time to call and get his balance, so he ran out of money and had to put everything back except the putty food. He blames the Republicans and Schwarzenegger. I blame the fact the he doesn’t say no when someone offers him a sales pitch. You folks aren’t doing your part. Not one of you has called for a reading or a class. Do you WANT us to starve to death? Do you want us to die? Have you all suddenly turned into Republicans? I think you have. I think you just don’t care.
We are currently looking for legitimate get rich quick schemes. The condition is that it can’t cost anything. We have no money. If you have one let us know.
We are desperately looking for a house mate. We would prefer a Pagan woman, but will accept a male if he puts the toilet seat down. We don’t want dogs but will accept another cat.
The bus stop sign from Stockton and Roosevelt was taken away, so I missed the first 51. We don’t have enough bus stops for them to take one away is unconscionable. I had to hobble almost 2 blocks to the next so I got to my appointment late. Instead of doing what they should be doing and adding more stops, they’re eliminating them.
Stephen’s had to do 10 system restores since he got his computer 2 ½ years ago. One of our dearest friends, who has a Gateway, and she is very happy with hers. She says that is definitely what Stephen should do when he gets his next computer.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
We’re in survival mode here, subsistence living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. She just demands money from him. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed. We thought we were getting Frikki back, but the woman is holding onto her.
The new version of the Mind-n-Magick toolbar is available, so get it.
It’s really unfortunate that in many people’s minds that musicals are associated with homosexuality. It’s only true for men, if at all. Stephen hates that stereotype, as he hates all stereotypes. He likes to explode stereotypes through the use of humor, so this is where vaudeville occultism comes in. Doc was very heterosexual, and extremely secure about his sexuality, and he loved musicals. We watched many musical movies together. Of course, my being female and when encouraged, of a rather romantic turn of mind, I loved musicals. A lot of this post has to do with Vaudeville Occultism. We’re old enough to remember the great musicals; Oklahoma, South Pacific, Flower Drum Song, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Carousel, The Music Man, Kiss Me Kate, Kismet, West Side Story, Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hair, and The Sound of Music. We also like some later shows such as Rent, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked. My current favorite is The Phantom of the Opera. Doc liked it too. I found it to be very romantic in a dark way. Doc too was very romantic in his dark, droll way. Which musical is your favorite?
We’ve had a lot of fun with Stephen’s creation of vaudeville occultism. Next time you’re deep in conversation with someone, and they utter a catch phrase, burst into song. “Stop in the name of food, before I get real lewd, think it o-o-over, think it o-o-ver.” “Every party needs a pooper, that’s why we invited you, party pooper, party pooper. “
A report just came in, Carol’s putty does 100th putty. She uses her paws to swipe one piece of food out of her bowl then eats it. We have reached critical mass, and 100th putty has reached all the way across the country.
What do Pagans do in ritual? “A candle in the wind.”
I was being interviewed by Stephen about musicals and show tunes, and said that I had loved show tunes and musical from the time I was a young girl, long before I knew about Paganism, and her started to sing the old Animals song “When I was Young.” Stephen’s favorite musical is the “Producers” because of the musical within a musical “Springtime for Hitler.” Carol’s favorite is “The Sound of Music.” Which is your favorite show tune? I have a lot of favorites. It all depends upon which mood I’m in. Currently it’s the “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera”.
Another good musical is “Grease”. John Travolta was in the stage production of “Grease”, but played the part of one of Danny’s friends, not Danny. But when they went to make the movie, they figured that John Travolta was a more bankable star. Ah, Hollywood politics. Jeff Conaway portrayed Danny in the Broadway production of “Grease.” By the way, Doc’s nickname for Olivia Newton-John was Olivia Neutron Bomb. Stephen just asked me which was my favorite performer in “Grease”, Athens or Sparta? Stockard Channing is our favorite performer in “Grease.”
“The Lion King, which was based upon the Disney film of the same name spent several years on Broadway, and is now touring the country. I suspected “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell” of being Jesoid musicals. You can get show tunes on Rhapsody and Pandora. I’m going to download “Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats”, and “Wicked” tomorrow.
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber composed 13 shows, with several lyricists as his collaborators. One of them, Tim Rice, he used for several shows. These shows included two of my personal favorites; “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera. Stephen also likes “Phantom of the Opera” for many of the same reasons Doc and I do. What do you think, folks? Should we include TV themes in this group? We think alike a lot. Every so often one or the other of us will say, “There’s an echo in here” because we’ll say something in chorus. Many times when we’re in the same room, our minds link up in weird ways. The reason I’m bringing it up now is that you may not have noticed it, but we often sing the same show tune at the same time. It’s crazy, especially since we didn’t arrange it this way, it just happens. “I dream of Libra with the black lace trim.” Carol has a friend named Libby, who is just as crazy as we are, and I made a Freudian teddy about her name, calling her Libra, and the black lace trim is about the teddy itself. Libby’s favorite musical is “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, and her favorite song/scene in the show is the one where they are eating Meatloaf. “What? Not Meatloaf again!”
Below are Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 13 shows:
The Likes of Us 1965 Aspects of Love 1989
Lyrics by Tim Rice Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart
Not shown until 2005
Sunset Boulevard 1993
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Book & Lyrics by Chris Hampton
Lyrics by Tim Rice Based on the 1950 Billy Wilder film
Jesus Christ Superstar 1970 Whistle Down the Wind 1996
Lyrics by Tim Rice Lyrics by Jim Steinman
Jeeves 1975 The Beautiful Game 2000
Revised as By Jeeves Lyrics by Ben Elton
Revised as Boys in the Photograph 2009
Evita 1976 Woman in White 2004
Lyrics by Tim Rice Lyrics by David Zippele
Tell Me on a Sunday 1979 Love Never Dies 2010
Lyrics by Don Black Lyricist?
Cats 1981
Lyrics by T.S. Eliot
Additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe and Trevor Nunn
Song and Dance 1982
Lyrics by Don Black revised by Richard Maltby for Broadway
Combination of Variations 1978 and Tell Me on a Sunday1979
Starlight Express 1984
Lyrics by Tim Rice
1st performed for Queen Elizabeth’s 60th birthday
The Phantom of the Opera 1986
Lyrics by Charles Hart Additional Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe
Based on Gaston Leroux novel
Other musicals; (These are NOT by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber)
La Cage Aux Folles, Jane Eyre, Wicked (Synopsis follows)
Mary Poppins, Blue Man Group, Young Frankenstein, 9 to 5,
Rock of Ages, The Lion King, Shrek the Musical, Dream Girls,
In the Heights, Billy Eliot, Jersey Boys
This is a chance for you to do some research. I did research on Wicked but you can do research too. Show tunes and musicals put you in a very serene meditative state.
Wicked Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman. Based upon best selling novel by Gregory Maguire. The musical celebrates its 7th anniversary October 30th 2010. It is the 17th longest running Broadway musical having logged over 2870 performances since its premiere in San Francisco at the Curran Theatre in May 2003, and in the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway October 2010. It has spawned productions in Chicago, LA, London’s West End, San Francisco, Japan, Germany, and Australia. The tours have visited over 30 cities in both the US and Canada.
The show opens as Oz celebrates the death by melting of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West. Then there is the rest of the story, which is an extended flashback. Elphaba and Galinda were roommates back in college at Shiz University. Elphaba is discovered to have magickal talent which the headshiztress promises to introduce her to the Wizard. Prince Fiyero Tiggullon arrives and the two women become rivals for Fiyero’s affections. Elphaba gets an audience with the Wizard, and soon takes off for the Emerald City. While there, Elphaba gives the monkeys the power of flight and discovers that the Wizard lacks any powers of his own. She runs, taking the Grimmerie with her, the palace guards after her.
A few years have passed. Elphaba’s exploits have earned her the title wicked Witch of the West. Glinda and Morrible (the headshiztress) hold a press conference to announce Glinda’s engagement to Fiyero. Elphaba flees for refuge to the governor’s residenve. Her sister, Nessarose is now the governor. She castigates Elphaba for not helping her. Guiltstricken, Elphaba enchants Nessarose’s jeweled shoes so that she can walk. Nessarose miscasts a spell from the Grimmerie on Boq, causing his heart to shrink. Horrified, Nessarose lays the blame on Elphaba. The Wizard attempts to win Elphaba’s favor by agreeing to set the flying monkeys free. Upon encountering the now speechless Dr. Dillamond, she rejects the Wizard’s offer and attempts an escape but runs into Fiyero. Confirming his love for her, he runs off with her. They declare their love in a forest, but are interrupted when Elphaba senses that her sister is in danger. She flies off to help, but arrives too late, just as Glinda sends Dorothy and Totoalong the yellow Brick Road Firyero surrenders to the palace guards who take him to a cornfield to be tortured until he gives them Elphaba’s whereabouts. Elphaba attempts to save him, but thinking she has failed accepts her reputation.
There is a Witch Hunt. They go to Elphaba’s castle, where Dorothy throws the water on her, and she melts, leaving only her hat and her vial. Glinda, unsure what has happened, takes the vial to the Wizard, who reveals that he is Ephaba’s father have had an affair with her mother. Glinda tells Wizard to take off in the balloon and puts Morrible in prison. We return to the beginning scene of the show. Fiyero whom Elphaba had turned into the Scarecrow, opens the trapdoor in her castle, and Elphaba steps out very much alive. The two are happily reunited. Glinda addresses the people of Oz saying she would like to be known as Glinda the Good as she will reform the government . Elphaba and Fiyero leave Oz forever. [from Wikipedia]
Remember you can get the soundtracks for these musicals on Rhapsody.
My blog at both Blessed Be UK and Avalon was removed because I was asking for sorely needed money. Apparently, unless you are rich enough to afford one of their exorbitantly priced pro-memberships you can’t ask for money. If I were rich enough to afford a pro-membership, I wouldn’t need to ask for money would I? The owners and administration of both these sites discriminate against poor people. If you have a presence one either or both of these networks, please write a blog protesting this grossly unfair and prejudiced policy.
Vandals removed the bench from the bus shelter by the Extra Storage lot on Lawrence and Stockton Blvd. This happened at least 4 months ago. . Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
We still need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks. This past month, the month of August, was the worst on Keen in the 10 years since Stephen (Frog) has been on the service. He made -$25 on KEEN in August. He owes $2000 in rent, and I owe $1000. What does it take to get you to open your pocketbooks?
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way. Stephen has a website through Yellow Book. www.abbottsinninternational.com is the link. The phone number is 1-888-611-7982. Call him sometime, and ask for a reading.
Stephen knuckled under and paid those greedy bastards at Ning.com to keep Abbottsinnian’s alive. The link is http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . He suffered a mortifying experience on Saturday night at Foods Co. He hadn’t had time to call and get his balance, so he ran out of money and had to put everything back except the putty food. He blames the Republicans and Schwarzenegger. I blame the fact the he doesn’t say no when someone offers him a sales pitch. You folks aren’t doing your part. Not one of you has called for a reading or a class. Do you WANT us to starve to death? Do you want us to die? Have you all suddenly turned into Republicans? I think you have. I think you just don’t care.
We are currently looking for legitimate get rich quick schemes. The condition is that it can’t cost anything. We have no money. If you have one let us know.
We are desperately looking for a house mate. We would prefer a Pagan woman, but will accept a male if he puts the toilet seat down. We don’t want dogs but will accept another cat.
The bus stop sign from Stockton and Roosevelt was taken away, so I missed the first 51. We don’t have enough bus stops for them to take one away is unconscionable. I had to hobble almost 2 blocks to the next so I got to my appointment late. Instead of doing what they should be doing and adding more stops, they’re eliminating them.
Stephen’s had to do 10 system restores since he got his computer 2 ½ years ago. One of our dearest friends, who has a Gateway, and she is very happy with hers. She says that is definitely what Stephen should do when he gets his next computer.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
We’re in survival mode here, subsistence living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. She just demands money from him. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed. We thought we were getting Frikki back, but the woman is holding onto her.
The new version of the Mind-n-Magick toolbar is available, so get it.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Music for Pagans
Welcome to Music for Pagans! We’re glad you could make it! This is a brand new group, so we can’t recommend you consult its clones on other networks. There are no clones. But there will be. We plan to take this group to all the networks, especially the four biggies; PaganSpace.net, WiccanTogether.ning.com, Avalon, and BlessedBeUK.ning.com. As the description says, this group will discuss every kind of music except rap (because we don’t consider it music) and country. There’s a couple country & western singers I personally like, but they’re both dead, so it’s not worth discussing them. Stephen and I will discuss our favorite musical genres, then we’ll ask you to discuss your favorite musical genres.
For me, it pretty much depends upon what kind of mood I’m in, and what I’m currently writing. Right now, I’m watching “Rush in Rio”. Rush is a Canadian group I’ve been curious about for some time now. They are hard rock. They’ve been around at least since the ‘80s. All right, so it sometimes takes me awhile to glom on to a band. Another group I find interesting is Godsmack, especially since the lead vocalist is a Wiccan initiate. I love so-called “New Age” and world beat music. To my mind, this is the music of the future. There is a duo I very much enjoy listening to; Vas is its name. It also fits with much of what I write. When I’m writing, I like the music I play, either on my computer, or on my stereo, to set the mood of the piece I’m writing. I’ll give you an example: I’m presently in the middle of writing a novels about vampires from three different points of view. The mood I want to set is very dark, therefore, I play music I consider to be dark and brooding. It could be depressing, but when I’m writing, I’m too busy to get depressed. At quitting time, I change the mood by changing the music. The Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass do music that exactly fill the bill for what I want. But when I write about combat, I want good fightin’ music, and Wagner’s greatest hits are good for this.
Stephen wants you all to know about the Pagan Radio Network. We’re both members, and enjoy listening to it very much. They play top-notch Pagan music. Google it, or look it up on your browser. Then get the toolbar. It is stellar. You can listen to the music, no matter what else you’re doing on your computer. It’s 24/7 nonstop music. There are forums and online chats. Stephen’s handle is druidmaster. A major show on PRN is “A Darker Shade of Pagan.” The guy who runs this show is Jason, who also runs the site “The Wild Hunt”. He had a great tribute to Isaac Bonewits. PRN may have a rival. Stephen doesn’t know what its name is, but tonight after we’re done here, he’s going to find out. Stephen’s favorite genre of music is Celtic Pagan rock. A great example of this kind of music is Horslips, a band that he managed and was Druid for a number of years. If you have Rhapsody, you can download all their music. You can also join their mailing list at www.horslips.com. Another Pagan Celtic band is Waterboys, and their music is also available at Rhapsody. Still another group is the Wolftones, an Irish band. Now we’re going to ask you: what is your favorite music genre, and what are your favorite groups/performers within that genre? PRN has lots of Pagan bands.
Another genre I like is so-called “ancient” music. The furthest back they can trace it is the middle ages, and I don’t consider them ancient. I also like certain movie soundtracks. Now they are great for setting mood, since they set the moods of the movies they were composed for, so they are great for writing to. We will be watching “Quantum of Solace” tonight. I haven’t started it yet, but the soundtrack sounds pretty good. .The soundtrack was fantastic. It suggested the locales, and set the mood for the scenes. I’ve watched how the composer does it, but it never fails to amaze me how the composer does it.
Right now we’re watching “Beast Legends”, about creating a kraken, the sea creature that took hundreds of ships to the bottom of the sea, and thousands of sailors to their deaths. I’m noticing the background music, how it sets the mood. Don’t forget that the kraken was a major player in the three “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. I have all three soundtracks. I ordered them because of the pirate book I was writing.
Rhapsody is the greatest music service out there. Rhapsody has been showing more and more Pagan music. Also, let’s not forget Pandora. But we both feel that Rhapsody is the superior system. We’re now listening to “A Darker Shade of Pagan”, which is available on MySpace. There is a connection between Abbott’s Inn Bardic Circle and this one, you know. Music magick is a very strong kind of magick. Many Pagans are attracted to certain instruments. The first instrument is of course the harp. After that are all your favorite stringed instruments; the guitar, the lute, and in some cases even the banjo. Then there are the drums with the bodhran leading the pack for the drums. The bodhran is a Celtic drum. Another instrument popular with Pagans is the tin whistle. This brings to mind other popular wind and reed instruments such as the recorder. Add to all these instruments the bagpipes. Then you add your melodic voice. It’s especially effective if you happen to have a Celtic accent; Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Manx or Breton. The more melodic the voice the more you will send your audience into a trance state. In the old tales, Celtic bards were infamous for lulling their audiences to sleep with their melodic dulcet tones. If the bard were unscrupulous, he or she could walk through his or her audience and rob them blind. But for the most part, alas, this did not happen because s/he had both scruples and ethics. My daughter gave me a couple years ago a CD with French Celtic rap on it. I like rap as long as it isn’t in English. There was even a rap about the Druids. The reason for the scruples and ethics on the part of the Bard was the Bard’s high status in Celtic society.
At this point Stephen will describe the status in the form of a tree, with me filling in the gaps. You see this hierarchy as levels or branches on this ancient oak tree. The top of the tree is the Druids, the priests in this society. The next level are the Ovates, the lawgivers, masters of the Brehon law, lawyers and judges. The next level is the is the Bardic branch. They are the entertainers of the Druid tree. They were also keepers of the lore and keepers of the genealogies. They were also keepers of the magickal musical powers and poetry. The harper is a subset of the bards. Stephen is a Celtic Bard, He sings, writes poetry, and is a lore master. He responds well to being this function. His instrument is his voice. The next level down is the artificers. They are the craftsmen. They create Druidic magickal tools, weapons, and anything needed for ritual. They also create the ritual jewelry such as the torcs and the breastplate of the ArchDruid. If you can think of other branches of status, please let us know. The torcs’ metals correspond to their status. The ArchDruid would have a gold torc under him would be the chief bard with the silver torcs, copper torcs would go to the artificers. Steel ones would go to the warriors. What do you think of Stephen’s ranking of the Druids and the torcs? What is your favorite Celtic instrument?
Well, the Jesoids stole our music, so we’re reclaiming our music. The original “Lord of the Dance” was set to an old Shaker hymn, “’Tis a Gift to be Simple”. PRN played a different version of “Lord of the Dance” which takes completely off from that old tune. But I kind of like it set to the old Shaker hymn. I looked through “The Wheel of the Year” songbook three times, and “Lord the Dance” was not on it, despite Stephen’s oaths that it was. His copy of that book is damaged, so he wants a new copy. Can you find him a new one? It was published by Nemeton Press in 1995.
This paragraph is dedicated to the memory of Stephen’s dead friend and frequent business partner Gwydion Penderwen. The old time Pagan community of the San Francisco Bay Area of the late 60s, 70s and early 80s was very small and rather incestuous. I mean that. Everyone knew everyone else, and often in the biblical sense as well. I came into it in 1974, and met quite a few of the leading lights of neo-Paganism. I met Gwydion in either late ’76 or early ’77 at Chandria’s place. Glenn Turner brought him over. I didn’t spend much time with him because they wanted to be alone with him. I had this undeserved reputation of taking people’s lovers away from them. I was very much in awe of Gwydion. I probably would not have slept with him, even if the opportunity had come up. Stephen met Gwydion in 1970, shortly after meeting Robin Goodfellow and Isaac Bonewits. They had a fruitful relationship from 1970 until Gwydion’s premature death in 1982. They produced the Witches’ Ball in 1980 and the Midsummer festival in 1981, which had 600 attendees. Stephen was co-producer of both shows.. Gwydion was co-writer with Isaac of the aborted Hans Holzer ritual, and was a major figure in both bardic circles and the Order of Wizard Lore. Gwydion Penderwen was a major writer of Pagan songs. He built the Mushroom House one Annuvin at Greenfield Ranch in Mendocino county. I’ve been there. It was a great place. It’s been preserved as a shrine to Gwydion.
Stephen has a memory of Gwydion in the back of Rasty Bob’s truck going to Santa Rosa’s Green Day festival in ’79 or ’80 and Stephen asked Gwydion if they should have any tolerance for Christians after everything they’ve done to us, and he said “No.” They had a booth space where they did readings, and Gwydion performed and sold his music.
Gwydion was very disappointed by the showing at the Midsummer Festival, and was inconsolable. He thought there should have been more attendees. This depression could be what led to his death in ’82. It was an auto accident, but his emotional state could’ve had something to do with the accident. Stephen attended Gwydion’s funeral, a Christian affair in Oakland, CA, with a Pagan service following. Gwydion would’ve been nauseated by the Christian service his family of origin held for him. Even in death, they couldn’t accept his true religion. But they did begrudgingly allow a priestess to talk about him. The Pagans held a Pagan ritual for him that same day. They didn’t even let him carry out his final wishes of his ashes being scattered on Annuvin, but buried him in the family plot. Gwydion hit it off well with Jim Lockhart, and was at his birthday party, which Stephen held for him in his east Oakland house. We’ll have more about Gwydion in a future posting for either Music for Pagans or Abbott’s Inn Bardic Circle, because he is too important to Pagan music to just do in one fell swoop.
They took the bus bench away from the sidewalk in front of the Kmart parking lot. Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
A little more than two months ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..
Yes, August 20th was my surgery day. And it happened as I hoped it would. I don’t remember what I dreamed whilst being under anesthesia. I did admitting, answered verifying questions, got something to relax me, and then woke up in Recovery. I was still pretty out of it, and a little sore. I put my clothes on, and Carl caught up with me. I came home, and relaxed. Healing has already starting. I didn’t feel like having much of a supper. I found out, because the nurse weighed me, that I had lost 9 lbs. That was before the surgery, so I don’t know how much my gall bladder weighed, as full of gall stones as it was. Also I’m wearing a fiber glass cast, so I don’t know how much I’ll lose when I lose the cast, and can finally start TAKING SHOWERS!
Today I lost the eboot. I’m walking. I’m no longer using the wheelchair. Soon the Durable Medical Equipment people will come and take it away. I still have a bit of healing to do as far as my bones are concerned, but Dr. Van Voris says that walking will stimulate the bones to regenerate. I am thrilled. Stephen is thrilled too. He no longer has to fetch my dinner or drinks, so he is relieved. Also I can help him with cleaning chores, like vacuuming. I can also get to my medical appointments on the bus, so that is a big load off our friend Carl’s mind. I pushed the wheelchair into the house, up the steps, and over the threshold. Also I have clearance to eat most foods in small amounts to see how I tolerate them, but I’m still restricting my sugar intake severely. I want to lose even more weight.
Stephen got his Vampire deck from Llewellyn today. It’s another late birthday gift to himself. You should see it, it’s gorgeous. I want one, but my money is earmarked for more vitamins.
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks. This past month, the month of August, was the worst on Keen in the 10 years since Stephen (Frog) has been on the service. He made -$25 on KEEN in August. He owes $1800 in rent, and I owe $800. What does it take to get you to open your pocketbooks?
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
Stephen managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $1800 in the hole for the rent, and I am $800 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
We’re in survival mode here, subsistence living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. She just demands money from him. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed. We thought we were getting Frikki back, but the woman is holding onto her.
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For me, it pretty much depends upon what kind of mood I’m in, and what I’m currently writing. Right now, I’m watching “Rush in Rio”. Rush is a Canadian group I’ve been curious about for some time now. They are hard rock. They’ve been around at least since the ‘80s. All right, so it sometimes takes me awhile to glom on to a band. Another group I find interesting is Godsmack, especially since the lead vocalist is a Wiccan initiate. I love so-called “New Age” and world beat music. To my mind, this is the music of the future. There is a duo I very much enjoy listening to; Vas is its name. It also fits with much of what I write. When I’m writing, I like the music I play, either on my computer, or on my stereo, to set the mood of the piece I’m writing. I’ll give you an example: I’m presently in the middle of writing a novels about vampires from three different points of view. The mood I want to set is very dark, therefore, I play music I consider to be dark and brooding. It could be depressing, but when I’m writing, I’m too busy to get depressed. At quitting time, I change the mood by changing the music. The Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass do music that exactly fill the bill for what I want. But when I write about combat, I want good fightin’ music, and Wagner’s greatest hits are good for this.
Stephen wants you all to know about the Pagan Radio Network. We’re both members, and enjoy listening to it very much. They play top-notch Pagan music. Google it, or look it up on your browser. Then get the toolbar. It is stellar. You can listen to the music, no matter what else you’re doing on your computer. It’s 24/7 nonstop music. There are forums and online chats. Stephen’s handle is druidmaster. A major show on PRN is “A Darker Shade of Pagan.” The guy who runs this show is Jason, who also runs the site “The Wild Hunt”. He had a great tribute to Isaac Bonewits. PRN may have a rival. Stephen doesn’t know what its name is, but tonight after we’re done here, he’s going to find out. Stephen’s favorite genre of music is Celtic Pagan rock. A great example of this kind of music is Horslips, a band that he managed and was Druid for a number of years. If you have Rhapsody, you can download all their music. You can also join their mailing list at www.horslips.com. Another Pagan Celtic band is Waterboys, and their music is also available at Rhapsody. Still another group is the Wolftones, an Irish band. Now we’re going to ask you: what is your favorite music genre, and what are your favorite groups/performers within that genre? PRN has lots of Pagan bands.
Another genre I like is so-called “ancient” music. The furthest back they can trace it is the middle ages, and I don’t consider them ancient. I also like certain movie soundtracks. Now they are great for setting mood, since they set the moods of the movies they were composed for, so they are great for writing to. We will be watching “Quantum of Solace” tonight. I haven’t started it yet, but the soundtrack sounds pretty good. .The soundtrack was fantastic. It suggested the locales, and set the mood for the scenes. I’ve watched how the composer does it, but it never fails to amaze me how the composer does it.
Right now we’re watching “Beast Legends”, about creating a kraken, the sea creature that took hundreds of ships to the bottom of the sea, and thousands of sailors to their deaths. I’m noticing the background music, how it sets the mood. Don’t forget that the kraken was a major player in the three “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. I have all three soundtracks. I ordered them because of the pirate book I was writing.
Rhapsody is the greatest music service out there. Rhapsody has been showing more and more Pagan music. Also, let’s not forget Pandora. But we both feel that Rhapsody is the superior system. We’re now listening to “A Darker Shade of Pagan”, which is available on MySpace. There is a connection between Abbott’s Inn Bardic Circle and this one, you know. Music magick is a very strong kind of magick. Many Pagans are attracted to certain instruments. The first instrument is of course the harp. After that are all your favorite stringed instruments; the guitar, the lute, and in some cases even the banjo. Then there are the drums with the bodhran leading the pack for the drums. The bodhran is a Celtic drum. Another instrument popular with Pagans is the tin whistle. This brings to mind other popular wind and reed instruments such as the recorder. Add to all these instruments the bagpipes. Then you add your melodic voice. It’s especially effective if you happen to have a Celtic accent; Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Manx or Breton. The more melodic the voice the more you will send your audience into a trance state. In the old tales, Celtic bards were infamous for lulling their audiences to sleep with their melodic dulcet tones. If the bard were unscrupulous, he or she could walk through his or her audience and rob them blind. But for the most part, alas, this did not happen because s/he had both scruples and ethics. My daughter gave me a couple years ago a CD with French Celtic rap on it. I like rap as long as it isn’t in English. There was even a rap about the Druids. The reason for the scruples and ethics on the part of the Bard was the Bard’s high status in Celtic society.
At this point Stephen will describe the status in the form of a tree, with me filling in the gaps. You see this hierarchy as levels or branches on this ancient oak tree. The top of the tree is the Druids, the priests in this society. The next level are the Ovates, the lawgivers, masters of the Brehon law, lawyers and judges. The next level is the is the Bardic branch. They are the entertainers of the Druid tree. They were also keepers of the lore and keepers of the genealogies. They were also keepers of the magickal musical powers and poetry. The harper is a subset of the bards. Stephen is a Celtic Bard, He sings, writes poetry, and is a lore master. He responds well to being this function. His instrument is his voice. The next level down is the artificers. They are the craftsmen. They create Druidic magickal tools, weapons, and anything needed for ritual. They also create the ritual jewelry such as the torcs and the breastplate of the ArchDruid. If you can think of other branches of status, please let us know. The torcs’ metals correspond to their status. The ArchDruid would have a gold torc under him would be the chief bard with the silver torcs, copper torcs would go to the artificers. Steel ones would go to the warriors. What do you think of Stephen’s ranking of the Druids and the torcs? What is your favorite Celtic instrument?
Well, the Jesoids stole our music, so we’re reclaiming our music. The original “Lord of the Dance” was set to an old Shaker hymn, “’Tis a Gift to be Simple”. PRN played a different version of “Lord of the Dance” which takes completely off from that old tune. But I kind of like it set to the old Shaker hymn. I looked through “The Wheel of the Year” songbook three times, and “Lord the Dance” was not on it, despite Stephen’s oaths that it was. His copy of that book is damaged, so he wants a new copy. Can you find him a new one? It was published by Nemeton Press in 1995.
This paragraph is dedicated to the memory of Stephen’s dead friend and frequent business partner Gwydion Penderwen. The old time Pagan community of the San Francisco Bay Area of the late 60s, 70s and early 80s was very small and rather incestuous. I mean that. Everyone knew everyone else, and often in the biblical sense as well. I came into it in 1974, and met quite a few of the leading lights of neo-Paganism. I met Gwydion in either late ’76 or early ’77 at Chandria’s place. Glenn Turner brought him over. I didn’t spend much time with him because they wanted to be alone with him. I had this undeserved reputation of taking people’s lovers away from them. I was very much in awe of Gwydion. I probably would not have slept with him, even if the opportunity had come up. Stephen met Gwydion in 1970, shortly after meeting Robin Goodfellow and Isaac Bonewits. They had a fruitful relationship from 1970 until Gwydion’s premature death in 1982. They produced the Witches’ Ball in 1980 and the Midsummer festival in 1981, which had 600 attendees. Stephen was co-producer of both shows.. Gwydion was co-writer with Isaac of the aborted Hans Holzer ritual, and was a major figure in both bardic circles and the Order of Wizard Lore. Gwydion Penderwen was a major writer of Pagan songs. He built the Mushroom House one Annuvin at Greenfield Ranch in Mendocino county. I’ve been there. It was a great place. It’s been preserved as a shrine to Gwydion.
Stephen has a memory of Gwydion in the back of Rasty Bob’s truck going to Santa Rosa’s Green Day festival in ’79 or ’80 and Stephen asked Gwydion if they should have any tolerance for Christians after everything they’ve done to us, and he said “No.” They had a booth space where they did readings, and Gwydion performed and sold his music.
Gwydion was very disappointed by the showing at the Midsummer Festival, and was inconsolable. He thought there should have been more attendees. This depression could be what led to his death in ’82. It was an auto accident, but his emotional state could’ve had something to do with the accident. Stephen attended Gwydion’s funeral, a Christian affair in Oakland, CA, with a Pagan service following. Gwydion would’ve been nauseated by the Christian service his family of origin held for him. Even in death, they couldn’t accept his true religion. But they did begrudgingly allow a priestess to talk about him. The Pagans held a Pagan ritual for him that same day. They didn’t even let him carry out his final wishes of his ashes being scattered on Annuvin, but buried him in the family plot. Gwydion hit it off well with Jim Lockhart, and was at his birthday party, which Stephen held for him in his east Oakland house. We’ll have more about Gwydion in a future posting for either Music for Pagans or Abbott’s Inn Bardic Circle, because he is too important to Pagan music to just do in one fell swoop.
They took the bus bench away from the sidewalk in front of the Kmart parking lot. Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
A little more than two months ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..
Yes, August 20th was my surgery day. And it happened as I hoped it would. I don’t remember what I dreamed whilst being under anesthesia. I did admitting, answered verifying questions, got something to relax me, and then woke up in Recovery. I was still pretty out of it, and a little sore. I put my clothes on, and Carl caught up with me. I came home, and relaxed. Healing has already starting. I didn’t feel like having much of a supper. I found out, because the nurse weighed me, that I had lost 9 lbs. That was before the surgery, so I don’t know how much my gall bladder weighed, as full of gall stones as it was. Also I’m wearing a fiber glass cast, so I don’t know how much I’ll lose when I lose the cast, and can finally start TAKING SHOWERS!
Today I lost the eboot. I’m walking. I’m no longer using the wheelchair. Soon the Durable Medical Equipment people will come and take it away. I still have a bit of healing to do as far as my bones are concerned, but Dr. Van Voris says that walking will stimulate the bones to regenerate. I am thrilled. Stephen is thrilled too. He no longer has to fetch my dinner or drinks, so he is relieved. Also I can help him with cleaning chores, like vacuuming. I can also get to my medical appointments on the bus, so that is a big load off our friend Carl’s mind. I pushed the wheelchair into the house, up the steps, and over the threshold. Also I have clearance to eat most foods in small amounts to see how I tolerate them, but I’m still restricting my sugar intake severely. I want to lose even more weight.
Stephen got his Vampire deck from Llewellyn today. It’s another late birthday gift to himself. You should see it, it’s gorgeous. I want one, but my money is earmarked for more vitamins.
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks. This past month, the month of August, was the worst on Keen in the 10 years since Stephen (Frog) has been on the service. He made -$25 on KEEN in August. He owes $1800 in rent, and I owe $800. What does it take to get you to open your pocketbooks?
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
Stephen managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $1800 in the hole for the rent, and I am $800 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
We’re in survival mode here, subsistence living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. She just demands money from him. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed. We thought we were getting Frikki back, but the woman is holding onto her.
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