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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to
this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations,
birthdays and events.
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Bob Dylan
nicely exemplifies the consumer approach to religion. For 25 years Bob
(ne Zimmerman) has continued to browse through the spiritual boutiques
dabbing on a dash of Baptist "born-again," nibbling at
Hassidism before returning to his ole-time faith of sardonic reformed
humanism.
We can
laugh at this trendy shopping around for the custom-tailored designer
god, but behind the faddism we find a powerful clue.
Notice how
Dylan, for example, preserves his options and tries to avoid shoddy or
off-the-rack soul-ware. No "plastic christs that glow in the
dark" for Bob! The religion here is Evolutionism, based on the
classic humanist, transcendental assumptions:
1.God is not a tribal father nor a feudal lord nor an engineer-
manager of the universe. There is no god (in the singular) except you
at the moment. There are as many gods (in the plural) as can be
imagined. Call them whatever you like. They are free agents like you
and me.
2.You can change and mutate and keep improving. The idea is to
keep "trading up" to a "better"
philosophy-theology.
3.The aim of your life, following Buddha, Krishna, Gurdjieff,
Werner Erhart, Shirley, is this: Take care of your self so you can
take care of others. If any.
Shmun [Hermopolis]
under the feet of the majesty of this sublime god [Thoth] upon a
slab of upper Egyptian granite in the script of the god himself in the
tomb of ... Mycerinus, by Prince Hor-dedef. He found the spell when he was
engaged in inspecting the temples. The
Egyptian Book of the DeadSource
You shall separate the
earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, suavely, and with great
ingenuity and skill. Your skilful work ascends from earth to heaven and
descends to earth again, and receives the power of the superiors and of
the inferiors. So thou hast the glory of the whole world – therefore let
all obscurity flee from thee. This is the strong force of all forces,
overcoming every subtle and penetrating every solid thing. Hermes Trismegistus, The
Emerald Tablet
Now, O Lord, set Thy servant free. Last words of Copernicus, May 24,
1543
There is said to
have been a sect in Orissa some years ago who worshipped … Queen
Victoria in her lifetime as their chief divinity. Frazer,
Sir James George(1854
- 1941),The
Golden Bough, 1922Source
The Sixties were like a flying saucer. Everybody talks
about it, but nobody saw it. Bob Dylan
The
guilty undertaker sighs,
The lonesome organ grinder cries,
The silver saxophones say I should refuse you.
The cracked bells and washed-out horns
Blow into my face with scorn,
But it's not that way,
I wasn't born to lose you.
I want you, I want you,
I want you so bad,
Honey, I want you. Bob Dylan, born on May 24, 1941; 'I Want You'
Some. Bob Dylan, born on May 24, 1941,
when asked by a journalist how many children he had.
Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me
a son" Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61." Bob Dylan, born on May 24, 1941;'Highway 61'
Nat Hentoff: What made you decide to go
the rock 'n' roll route?
Bob Dylan: Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I start drinking.
The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I
wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table,
takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns
down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in
a dime store, and move in with a 13-year old girl. Then this big Mexican
lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns down the house. I go to Dallas.
I get a job as a "before" in a Charles Atlas "before and
after" ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili
and hot dogs. Then this 13-year old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the
house down. The delivery boy, he ain't so mild. He gives her the knife,
and the next thing you know I'm in Omaha. It's so cold there, by this time
I am robbin' my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble into some
luck and get a job as a carburettor out at the hot-rod races every
Thursday night. I move in with a High School teacher who does a little
plumbing on the side, who ain't much to look at, but who's built a special
kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything's
going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me.
Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first
guy who picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. After what I'd
been through, how could I refuse? Hentoff: And that's how you became a rock n' roll singer?
Dylan: No, that's how I got tuberculosis.
Bob Dylan interviewed by Nat Hentoff, Playboy, February, 1966
Source
Traditional music is based on hexagrams. It comes
about from legends, Bibles, plagues, and it revolves around vegetables and
death. There's nobody that's going to kill traditional music. All these songs
about roses growing out of people's brains and lovers who are really geese and
swans that turn into angels - they're not going to die. It's all those paranoid
people who think that someone's going to come and take away their toilet paper –
they're going to die. Songs like 'Which Side Are You On?' and 'I Love You,
Porgy' – they're not folk-music songs; they're political songs. They're already
dead. Obviously, death is not very universally accepted. I mean, you'd think
that the traditional-music people could gather from their songs that mystery –
just plain simple mystery – is a fact, a traditional fact. I listen to the old
ballads; but I wouldn't go to a party and listen to the old ballads. I could
give you descriptive detail of what they do to me, but some people would
probably think my imagination had gone mad. It strikes me funny that people
actually have the gall to think that I have some kind of fantastic imagination.
It gets very lonesome. But anyway, traditional music is too unreal to die. It
doesn't need to be protected. Nobody's going to hurt it. In that music is the
only true, valid death you can feel today off a record player. But like anything
else in great demand, people try to own it. It has to do with a purity thing. I
think its meaninglessness is holy. Everybody knows that I'm not a folk singer. Bob Dylan, ibid
We gazed upon the chimes of freedom
flashing. Bob Dylan, born on May 24, 1941, Chimes of Freedom
It's mighty funny. The end of time has just begun. Bob
Dylan, born on May 24, 1941, 1997
We live in a world of fantasy where Disney has won, the
fantasy of Disney. It's all fantasy. That's why I think that if a writer
has something to say he should say it at all costs. The world is real.
Fantasy has become the real world. Whether we realise it or not. Bob
Dylan, born on May 24, 1941, (The Rome Interview, July 23, 2001)
DYLAN: This next number is a song I once did with the Band. You remember the Band, don't you? It was on an album called
Planet Waves. It sold twelve copies.
CREEM: WHY?
DYLAN: Get this guy outta here. The Guinness Book Of World Records has officially given credit for the world's shortest Bob Dylan interview to CREEM regular Jeffrey Morgan for the above exchange between Dylan (on stage during a concert) and Morgan (who was sitting in the front row at the time).
Source
In the coffee room of Powell's bookstore, three teenage boys with spiky hair and skateboards were reading Interview magazine and discussing the current music scene. The conversation turned to Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan.
Said one: "I don't get why he changed his name from Zimmerman. All the coolest guys I know are named Zimmerman."
His friend: "Yeah, when I grow up I'm gonna change my name to Zimmerman." Gesher: A Journal of Outreach to Unaffiliated Jews, Fall 1995
Hermes is the patron of
alchemy and also god of boundaries, guardian of graves and patron of
shepherds, patron of thieves and bringer of good fortune. He carried the kerykeion (caduceus), a magical herald's
staff with two snakes twined around it, given to him by Apollo. He is the Greek equivalent of
Roman mythology's Mercury.
Hermes Trismegistus might also be explained in
Euhemerist fashion as a man who was the son of the
god, and in the
Kabbalistic tradition that was inherited by the
Renaissance, it could be imagined that such a
personage had been contemporary with
Moses,
communicating to a line of adepts a parallel wisdom, from
Zoroaster to
Plato.
A historian, however, would leave such speculation to the history of
alchemy and the nineteenth-century history of
occultism.
Both
Thoth
and Hermes were gods of
writing and of
magic in their respective cultures. Thus the Greek god
of interpretive communication was combined with the Egyptian god of wisdom as a
patron of
astrology and alchemy. In addition, both gods were
psychopomps; guiding souls to the afterlife.
The majority of
Greeks, and later Romans, did not accept Hermes
Trismegistus in the place of Hermes. The two gods remained distinct from one
another. Cicero noted several individuals referred to as "Hermes" (De natura
deorum III, 22, 56):
the fifth, who is worshipped by the people of
Pheneus [in
Arcadia?], is said to have killed
Argus, and for this reason to have fled to Egypt,
and to have given the
Egyptians their laws and alphabet: he it is whom
the Egyptians call Theyn [Thoth].
The Hermetic literature added to the Egyptian concerns
with conjuring spirits and animating statues that inform the oldest texts,
Hellenistic writings of Greco-Babylonian
astrology and the newly developed practice of alchemy (Fowden 1993: pp65–68). In
a parallel tradition,
Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized
religious
cult
practices and offered the adept a method of personal
ascension from the constraints of physical being,
which has led to confusion of Hermeticism with
Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously.
As a divine fountain of writing, Hermes Trismegistus
was credited with tens of thousands of writings of high standing, reputed to be
of immense antiquity.
Plato's
Timaeus and
Critias state that in the temple of
Neith
at
Sais,
there were secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for
9,000 years.
Clement of Alexandria was under the impression that
the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by Hermes, encapsulating all the
training of Egyptian priests. Siegfried Morenz has suggested (Egyptian
Religion) "The reference to Thoth's authorship...is based on ancient
tradition; the figure forty-two probably stems from the number of Egyptian
nomes, and thus conveys the notion of completeness."
The
Neo-Platonic writers took up Clement's "forty-two
essential texts".
The so-called "Hermetic literature", the
Hermetica, is a category of
papyri containing spells
and induction procedures. In the dialogue called the
Asclepius (after the Greek god of healing) the art
of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in statues with the help of
herbs, gems and odors, is described, such that the statue could speak and
prophesy. In other papyri, there are other recipes for constructing such images
and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to
enclose a
magic name inscribed on gold leaf.
"Hermes is credited
with writing 20,000 books by Iamblichus (ca. 250-300 BC), a Neo-platonic
Syrian philosopher, and over 36,000 books by Manetho (ca. 300 BC), an
Egyptian priest who wrote the history of Egypt in Greek, perhaps for
Ptolemy I.
"The combined myths of these gods report that both Thoth and Hermes
revealed to humankind the healing arts, magic, writing, astrology,
science, and philosophy. Thoth wrote the record of the weighing of the
souls in the Judgment Hall of Osiris. Hermes led the souls of the dead to Hades.
"The English
occultist Francis
Barrett in Biographia Antiqua wrote that
Hermes "communicated the sum of the Abyss, and divine knowledge to
all posterity"
"According to legend Hermes Trismegistus is said to have provided the
wisdom of light in the ancient mysteries of Egypt. 'He carried an emerald,
upon which was recorded all of philosophy, and the caduceus, the symbol of
mystical illumination. Hermes Trismegistus vanquished Typhon, the dragon
of ignorance, and mental, moral and physical perversion.'
"Surviving Hermes Trismegistus is the wisdom of the Hermetica, 42 books that have profoundly
influenced the development of Western occultism and magic."
Source
Hermes, the Caduceus and DNA
Hermes carried the caduceus, or kerykeion, when he flew through the
air on his messages and adventures. The medical profession took this
emblem, which is a staff with two snakes twining around it, as their
symbol, recognised internationally.
When the scientists
James Watson and
Francis Crick discovered DNA, a substance which will increasingly form a
key part of medical science, it was observed that like the snakes around
the staff, the form of the DNA model is a double helix, as illustrated.
Could it just be coincidence, or perhaps some snippet of genetic
knowledge, hidden deep within the collective unconscious, emerged in the
tales of the ancients and in the logo choice of the medical profession.
Hermes gives us our word "hermeneutics"
for the art of interpreting hidden meaning. Traditionally associated
with Western philosophy and Christian theology, the word in the 1980s
became ineradicably associated with postmodernist studies ('cultural
studies'), the academic study of Bewitched and Sex in the City.
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Meet me at Corrigenda
According to traditions, after the Crucifixion
of Jesus
Christ,
Mary Salome (wife of Zebedee and mother
of John the
Apostle and James the
Greater), Mary Jacobe (wife of Cleofas, mother of
apostle St James the Less,
and possibly sister of Mary,
the mother of Jesus), and Mary Magdalene
were cast adrift in a boat that arrived off the coast of what is now
France. (Also on board were Martha and
her brother Lazarus.)
Some say that the boat arrived in 42 CE, and they were
accompanied by St Joseph of Arimathea
and the Holy Grail. Sarah
was the black Egyptian servant of
Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe according to some, servant to Mary
Magdalene according to others. Sarah may be associated with the IndiangoddessKali.
Though it was traditionally believed that the Roma came from Egypt,
it is now believed that they came from India between the 8th and 14th centuries.
According to the novel The Da Vinci
Code Saint Sarah was the child of Mary Magdelene and Jesus.
"On foot they come.In cars,trucks,andcampeurs they come. Tens
of thousands of Gypsies flock to the Provençal town of Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
to keep their annual appointment with a black-faced wooden lady
who wears rhinestones and candy-pink satin. Hardly a bigwig on the
biblical social register, the woman now known as Saint Sara was
the Egyptian servant (so they say) of the Three Maries – Mary
Magdalene, Mary Jacob, and Mary Salome (Jesus' aunt). According to
legend, they all arrived here in a small boat (along with Saint
Lazarus and the Magdalene's sister, Saint Martha) soon after the
Crucifixion. While her fellow passengers went on to slay dragons
and such, Sara was never noted for any feats at all. And yet ....
"For some reason, her statue, enshrined here in a
pale stone church, is the object of passionate year-round
devotion. Rows of votive candles pulsate in the darkness of
Sara's crypt. Once in May and again in October, the Gypsies
come. They park their vehicles along the seawall. Then, in the
crypt, they convene with the statue, commencing a ritual that
was long scorned by Catholic officials and finally approved in
1933. The Gypsies fasten layer upon layer of satin raiments
around Sara's neck, and then with riotous veneration they carry
her down to the beach." Rufus,
Anneli, The
World Holiday Book: Celebrations for every day of the year, Harper
San Francisco, 1994
Khamoro - World Gypsy Festival
Czech
Republic (Prague)
"First held
in 1999, Prague's Khamoro festival brings the most vibrant gypsy
sounds, rhythms and culture from around Europe to the Czech
capital.
"The
travelling peoples of Europe – the Romanies or gypsies – have
a unique itinerant culture which the hard-and-fast geographical
boundaries of modern states have found it difficult to
accommodate. The ongoing purpose of this festival is to show
Romany culture from around the whole world, to create a better
dialogue and greater understanding between the gypsy minorities
and the majority of the Czech Republic's population, as the
country moves towards being assimilated into the European Union.
"Each year
there is a wealth of traditional music, classical music, gypsy
jazz, films, theatre, literature, dance, painting and
photographs, as well as workshops."Source
Thargelia was one of the
chief Athenian
festivals in honour of the Delian
Apollo
and Artemis,
held on their birthdays, the 6th and 7th of
the month
Thargelion (about May 24 and
May 25).
It was a purificatory festival, to avert pestilence.
From
Wikipedia:
Essentially an agricultural festival, the Thargelia included a
purifying and expiatory ceremony. While the people offered the
first-fruits of the earth to the god in token of thankfulness, it
was at the same time necessary to propitiate him, lest he might ruin
the harvest by excessive heat, possibly accompanied by pestilence.
The purificatory preceded the thanksgiving service. On the 6th,
a sheep was sacrificed to
Demeter Chloe
on the Acropolis,
and perhaps a swine to the
Fates, but the most
important ritual was the following. Two men, the ugliest that could
be found (the
Pharmakoi) were chosen to die, one for the men, the other
(according to some, a woman) for the women. On the day of the
sacrifice they were led round with strings of figs on their necks,
and whipped on the genitals with rods of figwood and squills. When
they reached the place of sacrifice on the shore, they were stoned
to death, their bodies burnt, and the ashes thrown into the sea (or
over the land, to act as a fertilizing influence) ...
The ceremony on the 7th, was of a cheerful character. All
kinds of first-fruits were carried in procession and offered to the
god, and, as at the
Pyanepsia (or Pyanopsia), branches of olive bound with wool,
borne by children, were affixed by them to the doors of the houses.
These branches, originally intended as a charm to avert failure of
the crops, were afterwards regarded as forming part of a
supplicatory service. On the second day, choruses of men and boys
took part in musical contests, the prize for which was a tripod.
Further, on this day, adopted persons were solemnly received into
the genos and phratria of their adoptive parents.
The
brothers' feast day can be a little confusing: they are commemorated on February 14
in the Western
Church, including Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Anglican
Church. The Eastern
Orthodox Church has a commemoration day for Cyril on February 14
and for both brothers on May
11. In the Czech
lands and Slovakia,
the two brothers were originally commemorated on March
9, but Pope Pius
IX changed this date to July
5. May 24, believed to be the date of the arrival of the two
brothers to Great Moravia in 863, is a national
holiday in the Czech Republic, a national
holiday in Slovakia and a
national holiday in Bulgaria. The day is widely celebrated by
Bulgarians; in Sofia people put flowers in front of the monument of
St Cyril and St Methody (Methodius) which is situated in front of the National Library.
Today is also known as the Day of Macedonian
Education and Culture and the Slavic Alphabet.
Born at
Antioch in 521, he died there on May 24, 597. Formerly his feast day
was September
3.
"Simeon's fatherdied when the boy
was five years old, and he became the ward of a monk named John who lived nearby.
When Simeon was seven, the two moved onto platforms at the top of
pillars in order to ensure their solitude. Word spread about the
sanctity and wisdom of the pair; they attracted so many pilgrims and would-be disciples
that at age 20, Simeon came down from his pillar to hide in the
mountains. Ten years later there were more would-be students, and
this time Simeon decided to help them; he built a monastery for them, and in it
placed a pillar for himself. Ordained at age 35; the bishop climbed onto the platform to
impose his hands. Simeon celebrated Mass on his platform, and the monks climbed a ladder to receive Communion.
Healer and miracle worker, he spent 69 of his 76 years living
off the ground."Source
Simeon the
Younger is not the same as Simeon Stylites the Elder, feast day January 5.
And another Simeon Stylites "Simeon Stylites III, another pillar
hermit, who also bore the name Simeon, is honoured by both the
Greeks and the Copts. He is hence believed to have lived in the
fifth century before the breach which occurred between these
Churches. But it must be confessed that very little certain is known
of him. He is believed to have been struck by lightning upon his
pillar, built near Hegca in Cicilia."Source
(Now celebrated
Commonwealth-wide on the second Monday in March.)
Formerly Empire
Day, today commemorates the birth of Queen Victoria, May 24, 1819.
Coincidentally, it's the birthday of Jan Christian Smuts (1870),
originator of the concept of the British Commonwealth. It is
observed in Canada on
the first Monday preceding May 25. Australia used to celebrate a
half holiday on which children (until approx 1965) came home from
school at lunchtime and customarily built a bonfire for that
evening's fireworks celebrations.
(Evans Wentz,
Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 116) "The late Lama Kazi
DawoSandup told me that, because Tibetans saw the likeness of Queen
Victoria on English coins and recognized it as being that of Dolma,
there developed throughout Tibet during the Victorian Era a belief
that Dolma had come back to birth again to rule the world in the
person of the Great Queen of England; and that, owing to this
belief, the British representatives of the Queen then met with an
unusually friendly reception in their negotiations with Lhassa,
although probably unaware of the origin of the friendship." Source
Almaniac Barbara Holmes writes:
Pip
As a child in the 1930's in England we celebrated Empire day on the
24th May. We had parades dressed as people from various parts
of the Empire and sang.
Empire Day is the 24th May
Empire Day is the 24th May
Empire Day is the 24th May
as we go marching by
Glory Glory Halleluiyea
Glory Glory Halleluiyea
Glory Glory Halleluiyea
as we go marching on.
Guess the tune?
We had tin cans and we used to
rattle them to collect pennies in the as the parade when round the
streets. Barbara
Victoria Day, Canada
On this date or the Monday before it. In Quebec, it is known as
Patriots Day (Journée nationale des patriotes). May 24 is
Canada's first long weekend of the summer season. It is tradition in
many places, especially Newfoundland and Labrador, to go camping
during this weekend, or celebrate by drinking. The holiday is often
referred to as 'the May Two-Four' – a 'two-four' being slang for a
case of beer (24 bottles or cans).
Clear Rain Day, in the Mansfield and Trinity areas
of Hawick, Scotland Celebrated on this day (and the weekend
preceding it). It is rumoured that two people found some unknown
power and were able to use it on many things, mental and physical,
on this night, and it also rained when it was clear (hence the
name).
Last Monday in May (Memorial Day), annual
Bobfest, Avon, Colorado, USA An annual gathering of men named Bob (those
who go by 'Robert' may not participate) in this town of fewer
than 4,000 population. It began in 1992; by 1995 the number of Bobs
at the meet numbered approximately 10,000. Competitive activities
include lawnmower racing and dashing to the refrigerator. Sydney Morning Herald,
'Stay in Touch' column, May 29, 1995
Crawfish Festival, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana,
USA, Memorial Day This is an annual
Memorial Day (last Monday in May) fest at Breaux Bridge, a Louisiana
town of 30,000. This is Cajun country, so the freshwater crawfish
(or, crayfish), which are similar to their Australian cousins,
yabbies (only much smaller), are cooked in a multitude of tasty
ways, to the delight of the many tourists who come.
The festival includes a crawfish eating competition - in 1994 the winner ploughed his way through
32 lbs of the clawed morsels. Visitors and locals alike also take
part in crawfish derbies and - this being America - a street parade (with human, not crustacean,
participants).
Source: NBC Today Show, May 29, 1995
Last Monday in May: Memorial Day, USA
Today is a public
holiday all states except South Carolina and Virginia.
On April 25, 1866,
not long after the Civil War's close, four young women from the
Southern States of the USA scattered magnolia blossoms on the graves
of the men they had lost in the war. They walked over to the other
side of the graveyard where the Union soldiers were buried and
decorated their graves as well. The gesture spread throughout the
United States.
Today
marks the start of the American Summer vacation season, and one may
expect a great deal of seasonal change around this time. Although a
solemn affair, commemorating Americans at war, Memorial Day is a
Spring festival (on the Monday most Americans have a day off work;
the atmosphere nationwide is more festive than, say, Australia's
Anzac Day – April 25 –, which is celebrated on the actual day
and is not part of a long weekend), which was 'needed' because
May Day was not transferred from Europe to America as a
coming-of-Spring commemoration. The British have not only an ancient
May Day tradition, they also have a bank holiday on the same day as
Memorial Day. It is a natural time in the Northern Hemisphere to
have a festival.
It
is noteworthy that there are earlier May commemorations associated
with honouring the dead, as pointed out by Waverly Fitzgerald (School
of the Seasons). The ancient Roman Lemuralia
(Lemuria), as well as the
Christian festivals of Pentecost (Whitsunday) and
Trinity
Sunday,
have similar overtones.
[Heard on May 29, 1995 on NBC
Today
Show: anchor man said that Memorial Day was his favourite long
weekend because people seemed to "spark up", and Winter changed
to Spring in a tangible sense.-PW]
1864George Washington Carver
(exact year of birth unknown), American scientist, teacher and
humanitarian, who advanced African-American education in the USA;
known for the development of peanut products
1870Jan Christian Smuts (Jan Smuts; d. 1950),
South African statesman, originator of concept of the British
Commonwealth of Nations, leader in establishment of League of
Nations and United Nations (NB his birthday is old Commonwealth Day)
"The 370-page autobiography [Beatles
Anthology] puts to rest the myth that American singer-song
writer Bob Dylan first turned the band on to marijuana in the
United States in 1964.
"George Harrison says, 'We
first got marijuana from an older drummer with another group in
Liverpool.'"Source
"In 1993, Dylan also discarded his
life-long eschewal of political endorsement – a fastidiousness
the young Bob Dylan had had the sense to maintain without a
moment's hesitation – and threw one of his silliest hats into
the ring to appear at the inaugural concert for President
Clinton, singing so risibly incomprehensible a version of his
magnificent 'Chimes of Freedom' that the whole First Family was
smirking and fidgeting through it while the oleaginous Tony
Bennett waited in the wings unable to believe his luck.
"In February 1996, Dylan and his band were hired to give a
private concert in Phoenix, Arizona, for 250 senior staff of
something called Nomura Securities International. It was to be
the first of several such demeaning occasions. The following
September, looking about as comfortable as he should have done,
Dylan performed three songs for Pope John Paul II: one of the
most pro-actively right-wing popes of recent decades.
"The 'pantyhose' soon followed. In 2004, an exclusive 9-track
compilation CD of Dylan's work was sold at lingerie retailer
Victoria's Secret – a division of Limited Brands Inc. – and that
April Dylan himself appeared in their television ads. The CD,
Lovesick, included a remix of the track 'Love called Sick'
unavailable elsewhere (slightly longer, and with a clearer sound
than the Time Out of Mind version), and its artwork
offered three previously unpublished Dylan photos. It could be
purchased for $10, but only with any Victoria's Secret item. The
year after, Dylan became the latest musician to sign up with the
Starbucks Corporation in an exclusive CD deal. If, within the
first 18 months of its release, you wanted to buy Live at the
Gaslight 1962, with its previously unreleased tracks (long
bootlegged but never circulated in this quality before), you had
to go to the coffee shop equivalent of Burger King to buy it.
"Dylan himself talks in the Biograph interview about how
'Sometimes you feel you're walking around in that movie
Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and you wonder if it's got you
yet, if you're still one of the few or are you "them" now.'
"Well, yes." Michael Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, Continuum,
London, 2006
Your family and friends will get a
kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!!
You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your
own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)
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1543The first copy of Polish astronomer Canon Nicolaus Copernicus's(1473 - 1543)
book on astronomy, De
Revolutionibus (On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), which claimed that the Earth and
planets revolve around the sun, was brought to him on his deathbed.
1738At the age of 35,John Wesley, although he had
already been a missionary to the natives of America, was converted to
Christianity (ie, he gained true belief) at about 8.45 pm in a meeting in
Aldersgate St, London, while listening to the reading of Martin
Luther's preface to the
Epistle of Romans. Thus it might be said that today the Methodist
Church was established.
1856 Five slavery advocates were massacred at Pottawatomie Creek by
Free-Staters led by abolitionist John
Brown.
"Most of the books written by members of the
abolitionist community in the years after Brown's own execution in 1859
downplayed this stain on the otherwise rich career of their holy warrior.
James Redpath, the first in a long line of biographers who 'martyred' Brown,
denounced the whole episode as a pro-slavery conspiracy to villify both the
Hero and the Free Soil cause."Source
1921 The beginning of the trial of Sacco and
Vanzetti, anarchist labor organizers, in Massachusetts, USA.
Their execution was
the culmination of a five-year government campaign to crush political dissidents
(particularly socialist and anarchist workers) in the US.
1968May 1968, Paris: By today – barely two weeks after the great
demonstration of May 13 – approximately ten million workers were on strike.
Immense demonstrations continued to occur, while the government planned to call
out the army. In the evening, battles broke out in the streets and on the
barricades near the Lyon Station in the Latin Quarter. In the provincial towns
brawls broke out. President Charles
de Gaulle addressed the nation on TV.
In Nantes, for the next week the city and
surrounding area was controlled by workers themselves. The old guardians of
power and authority looked on helplessly as workers controlled their own lives.
Also today, road blocks were set up around the city as farmers made a protest in
solidarity with the workers and students.Source
1988 Snow fell on the Syrian desert and
Damascus for the first time
in half a century.
1989 A British jury awarded a record
Ł600,000 to
Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter
Sutcliffe, in libel damages
against satirical magazine Private Eye. The magazine had said that Mrs Sutcliffe had sold to a
newspaper the story of her life with the sex killer.
Birthday boy Bob Dylan is known more for his genius with words and tunes, and for deadpan (once, asked by a journalist how many children he had, he said
"Some") than as a comedian.
However, he also has a fondness for silly wisecracks and is known among
fans as a real joker at gigs. Sometimes he's corny, but his cornball jokes are loved
by the audience. Here are a few of his quips, and if you have any more, I'm collecting them.
At one gig, Dylan apologized, saying that "I almost didn't make it
tonight ... had a flat tire. There was a fork in the road."
At Western Connecticut State University in 1997, when he introduced Bucky Baxter he said,
"When I first met Bucky, he didn't have a penny to his name. I told
him to get another name."
"I was born on the hill over there. Glad to see it's still there. My
first girlfriend came from here. She was so conceited I used to call
her Mimi."
He once (San Diego, 1995?) introduced the drummer with a big afro and said something like, "Some people say he looks like Ice T", then after a pause he said, "I don't".
February 13, 1999, in Normal, Illinois (Illinois State University campus):
"They said I'd never make it to Normal."
Irving Plaza, New York City, December 8, 1997, where the opening act was Joan Osborne. Dylan had just finished his first set and was introducing the band and thanking the opening act. Suddenly he said,
"And I'd also like to thank Joan Osborne;
Joan and I are gonna sing a song ..." Joan, up the back at the bar of the small venue stood up to return to the stage, when Dylan said,
"But not tonight."
At a concert in Tucson, Arizona, he introduced the backup singers as
"My ex-wife, my next wife, my girlfriend, and my fiancée".
He once made reference to how tired he and his band were: "We slept in a trailer park and didn't want to wake the sleeping bags".
After playing Lay Lady Lay, Bob said, "I don't have that brass bed
anymore ... I never did have one."
At a concert's end he said he had to "get a hammer and hit the sack".
Late show, Park West, 2002 (?): Bob introduced Kemper by saying:
"David Kemper on drums. David grew up on a farm and on Saturday
nights he used to take the cows to the moooooovies."
"Thanks everybody, you're too kind ... You know, I was talking to Neil Young yesterday [audience cheers] and he said to me, he said
'Bob, you just can't hear cool music on the radio anymore ...' and I says to Neil, I says
'sure, you just... [long pause] you just need to stick your radio in the refrigerator."
"Nice to be here. One of my early girlfriends was from Milwaukee.
She was an artist. She gave me the brush-off."
"I went to the Motown museum today." [cheers] "I was looking for the Smokey Robinson stuff ... I couldn't find it. This guy came up to me though and he said
'What did Clark Kent turn into when he got hungry?' I said 'What?' He said
'Supperman'. I never did find the Smokey Robinson stuff though."
(Referring to David Kemper on drums): "One of David's first jobs was
here in Chicago. He had a job as a waiter but he never took any
tips. He was a dumb waiter."
"Larry almost wrote a song today. He wrote a song about his bed, but
it hasn't been made up yet."
"Charlie went to see his cousin today at the Hamilton County Jail.
He brought him a cell phone ... He almost made it to the show."
"My ex-wife left me again. She's a tennis player. Love means nothing
to her."
"This is a love song. We love to play it."
"David Kemper on the drums. David's turning 21 tonight. David never
lies unless he's in bed."
"David [Kemper] and I drove here tonight in a car singing songs on
the way. We were singing cartoons."
"David swallowed a roll of film today. We'll see what develops."
"Dave is the only drummer that tried to make a slow horse fast, but
he stopped feeding him."
"David was going to be a doctor but he didn't have any patients."
Oklahoma City: "Dave must have thought he was playing golf today
because he wore two shirts, in case he gets a hole in one."
"Tony was here once before. He got a bicycle for his wife. Tony said
it was a pretty good trade."
"Larry hurt his foot today, we had to call a toe truck."
San Diego, at Golden Hall during his first mixed born again/secular tour. Dylan told a
story about a honeymooning couple next door to him at the hotel, and announced that he wanted to dedicate the next song to them. Then he played Ain't Gonna Go to Hell for Nobody.
Belo Horizonte, Brazil show, August 19, 1991: "Does Harry Belafonte
come from around here? He ought to, it rhymes with Belo Horizonte."
When Bob shared the bill with Joni Mitchell in Chicago, 1999, he introduced Make You Feel My Love by saying,
"This is a song I wrote for Garth Brooks. Regrets, I've had a few
... but then again, too few too mention."
A club show at Park West in Chicago, late 1999. Among the crowd along the stage was someone writing notes. Dylan, in great spirits all night, finally grinned down at the fan and asked:
"You writing a check for me?"
Brescia, Italy, Piazza Duomo, July 10, 2001. During Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again Bob introduced the band:
"I would like to introduce the band: On the guitar – Larry Cambell.
On the other guitar – Charlie Sexton. David Kemper on the drums. And
on the bass – I'm not going to tell you."
San Francisco, Oct. 13, 2001: Dylan introduced David Kemper as "one of the few drummers around better than no drummer at all".
During the band introductions at the Greek in Berkeley in October 2002, Tony stepped up to Bob and said something or other. Then Bob turned to the audience and said
"Tony says he actually went school here at UC Berkeley." Then, after
that Bob grinned and said, "Well, he must be in graduate school now." After that he said,
"I don't know what he majored in though ... maybe gourmet cooking."
Veteran guitarist Sexton, he proclaimed, is "the meanest man in the
band. When we played the Middle East, Charlie killed the Dead Sea."
"George is from Louisiana and he's got a lot of snakes. Every time
it rain's he puts one on his windshield and calls them windshield
vipers."
"Tony is so tough he shaves with a chainsaw."
"On the drums, David Kemper. In case you're wondering what are on
his shoes, those are his footnotes."
"Woman walks into a bar and said 'Ouch!' ... It was an iron bar."
Minneapolis : "David Kemper on drums, ladies and gentlemen … David
and I were in the Pickled Parrot this afternoon and David asked the
waitress if they served crabs ... She said 'Buddy, we'll serve just
about anybody.'"
reetings from Australia.
How it works
Feast day of Hermes
Trismegistus, ancient Greece
Hermes, the Caduceus and DNA
When the scientists
James Watson and
Francis Crick discovered DNA, a substance which will increasingly form a
key part of medical science, it was observed that like the snakes around
the staff, the form of the DNA model is a double helix, as illustrated.
Could it just be coincidence, or perhaps some snippet of genetic
knowledge, hidden deep within the collective unconscious, emerged in the
tales of the ancients and in the logo choice of the medical profession.
Feast day of St 
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