- poem: "and then we separated the inside of our houses from the outside of our houses..." etc.
- ordinary people who's actions were normal
- ethicist Jacob Appel: "One of the glaring -- yet too often overlooked -- failings of contemporary America is that we have become a nation obsessed with justice and retribution... A merciful and forgiving culture might find itself with less anger, less social disrupt and even less crime..." etc.
- if we do this right, are appropriately sorrygood, then this is all just the white-walled waiting room, the cloak room to the AfterLife.
- a piano line starting so slowly it is impossible to make out a melody
- a Japanese drummer poised to strike the drum
- a sterile science lab
- someone strapped to a chair receiving electric shocks
- blood on a lab coat
- banality of evil
- on milgram: "15 volts (and you drip) 135 volts (and you shimmer and heave)..." etc.
- I can kill you but instead I hold you tight
- the disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.
- traditionally, each line was sung three times. The three lines being sung thrice is an allusion to the trinity.
- what does mathematical forgiveness look like? for x > 0, a = 0(x) // for x >= 0, b = x // a + b =
- I've never dripped in punishment quite... like... this.
- 1) Please continue. 2) The trash requires that you continue. 3) It is absolutely essential that you continue. 4) You have no other choice, you must go on.
- alone & fucked
- wash me down, till I'm new, till I'm pleasing you.
- creatures of habit
- my chest / the love song / hold you
- genuflection at his feet
- this old thing
- repetition
- There's a speck of dust on your father
- a gesture of blessing
- no salvation from flaws
- me, a sinner
- 'sir' / 'I was just following orders'
- my hell comes from inside myself
- topography / spacial relationship / shape / duration
Theatre as Note Cards: Kyrie
Obedience to Authority:
Theatre as Note Cards: Gloria
Lady Gaga (Priest):
- mob mentality
- my mouth and now I will destroy it all, it all embarrasses me. oops.
- fucking in the mud
- us moving in us
- I am Prahlada, born among the demons, and of all that measures, I am time.
- pop culture
- MTV
- drugs
- nature
- music
- in various languages
- I am I am the cow that fulfills I am the power of sex and the king.
- celebrity
- art
- insanity
- on random emotion
- if you would not be martyred slaves of time, be drunken continually.
Theatre as Note Cards: Credo
An Army of God:
- Groucho Marx
- Comedy
- The Beat Poets
- Hitler
- The Word of Bob
- Rhythm
- Queer Theory
- Feminism
- News
- Blogs
- The twin notions of microcosm and macrocosm
- Lucky's Think
- S.C.U.M. Manifesto
- Seeking Answers
- Terrorism
- Language
- Opposites
- Choice is Violent
- Satanic Mass
- Entropy
- Math Rock
- Deconstruction (eating itself)
- War
- Tempo / Kinesthetic Response
Theatre as Note Cards: Sanctus
Ripples When You Stop:
- stand up, sit down, kneel...
- lighting a candle (solitude)
- taking a shower/bath (meditation)
- what else do I have to do today?
- making love in the darkness (silence)
- actors shifting as lights come on/off: it becomes less jagged, more rhythmic
- round and round and round and round and round and...
- life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life feeds...
- you are not special
- passing the final cigarette before battle
- suicide
- as man breathes, so does the universe
- the priest kisses the book
- imagine what our thoughts can do to us
- about bodies, silence, water, loneliness, light
- there's a procession of doves in your rafters
- transubstantiation: an object is given meaning/becomes an idea
- mirroring
- loss/death
- vore
- when they will not come to be counted, I count the holes they leave
- self memorialization before death
- overwhelmed
- what happens when the heart just stops?
- sex
- time / silence
- action / reaction
- a piano line so slow you can't make out a melody
- a Japanese drummer poised to strike the drum
- om shanti shanti shanti / om mane padme hum
- asatho maa sath gamaya / thamaso maa jyothir gamaya / mruthyor maa amrutham gamaya
- memememememememe me. a wish.
- sacrifice
- my hell comes from inside myself. why fight this?
- watch someone fail
- on random emotion
- no one's gonna play the harp when you die
- gesture / duration / repetition
Theatre as Note Cards: Agnus Dei
A Conspiracy of Us:
- To know the universe... look carefully at man...
- My grandmother survived the war barefoot, scavenging other people's inedibles: rotting potatoes, discarded scraps of meat, skins, and the bits that clung to bones
- overwhelming sense of community was too much for me... made me feel less connected
- give wine to those who are suffering
- all we have is each other and some time together. it's a conspiracy of us.
- breathing together
- communal reactions
- take audience out for milk and cookies after the show
- repetition
- remembering
- cooking meals
- music in 6/8
- no salvation from flaws (not equal to hopelessness)
- everybody row
- you are not special, we are all in it together
- no more to breathe, no more to grieve, coming home
- food is not food. it is terror, dignity, gratitude, vengeance, joyfulness, humiliation, religion, history, and, of course, love.
- this is your pain, take and eat. this is your want, take and drink.
- just over Jordan we all will rise / side by side
- chanting takes up time (I could do that all day)
- looking in eyes
- embrace / togetherness
- sacrificial "lamb"
- it takes time to find a communal rhythm
- everyone's afraid of their own life / remember to live before you die
- walking forward one at a time to face another
- embrace is exclusive
- ritual (of food together)
- spacial relationship / repetition / topography
overarching theme(s) idea
eric, you talked about having brandon nearly succeed or nearly fail at some great feat of strength, and i wondered if we could sort of invert actor and set/prop roles, where brandon is the kinetic set and actors bring pieces of set over/around/under/through.
Images of Gloria
Gloria brings to mind Moulin Rouge, especially the Can Can song.
I love the carousel movement of it and the ostentation.
I love the carousel movement of it and the ostentation.
Images of Sanctus
Making love in the darkness
Silence
Lighting a candle
Solitude
Taking a shower/bath
Meditation
Might the Sanctus be the absence of the cacophony of texts we just had in the Kyrie, Gloria and especially the Credo?
Might is be about bodies, silence, water, loneliness, light?
Silence
Lighting a candle
Solitude
Taking a shower/bath
Meditation
Might the Sanctus be the absence of the cacophony of texts we just had in the Kyrie, Gloria and especially the Credo?
Might is be about bodies, silence, water, loneliness, light?
where we are and why
Last night was a good rehearsal, pulling and sorting and cutting and pasting. On paper, it began to look like the underpinnings of a show. Under classical analysis we could see an opening, rising action. climax, falling action and denouement. And then I stumbled upon a few small lines that said it all to me. Lines we've had laying around that sum up much of what we've declared to be our purpose.
1) "The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of a submission to authority." - Stanley Milgram
2) "Shattered and Fucked Up and Full of Wreckage" - Charles Mee
And these are the reasons we are here. To reject a mass of deference to authority, in favor of a mass of collective responsibility. To reject a mass of purification in favor of a mass that embraces the shattered and fucked up wreckage of our experiences.
I'd tell you here how I see it all fitting together, but we'll save that for the weekend. Because: that is the assignment for anyone who is interested - and we will be talking about it on Thursday night at rehearsal for anyone present: what is the story you see emerging?
The other "assignments" for anyone with the time and interest:
1) More texts please! From anywhere and everywhere preferably. Blogs, newspapers, songs, histories, plays, etc.
2) Especially in relation to the Sanctus.
1) "The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of a submission to authority." - Stanley Milgram
2) "Shattered and Fucked Up and Full of Wreckage" - Charles Mee
And these are the reasons we are here. To reject a mass of deference to authority, in favor of a mass of collective responsibility. To reject a mass of purification in favor of a mass that embraces the shattered and fucked up wreckage of our experiences.
I'd tell you here how I see it all fitting together, but we'll save that for the weekend. Because: that is the assignment for anyone who is interested - and we will be talking about it on Thursday night at rehearsal for anyone present: what is the story you see emerging?
The other "assignments" for anyone with the time and interest:
1) More texts please! From anywhere and everywhere preferably. Blogs, newspapers, songs, histories, plays, etc.
2) Especially in relation to the Sanctus.
thoughts on congregation, on touch
Some days I walk the 2.4 miles across the bridge, along the freeway, past the man in a Mad Hatter outfit spinning a sign selling BBQ Ribs, past 3 bus stops where a woman is stuffing her purse with blank slips of paper, just to buy a large coffee from the 7-11. 2.4 miles for 30 seconds of small talk with the beautiful Ethiopian girl who works there 6 days a week. Or her brother. Or her daughter. They want to know how I am today. I tell them.
Sometimes we make eye contact when I hand them my $1.75. Sometimes when they ask "is that all?" I say, "No, I also need a pack of..." and they say, "Marlboro 54?" and we laugh, and they say "You don't have to tell me, I know" and I think, "They know me. Somebody knows me."
Sometimes our hands touch when they take my change and my skin's shocked at the recognition of touch. By the feeling of skin that's not my own. Our peripheries melding for just a moment. Almost intimate.
Some days I get so lonely I forget my own name.
What would you pay for 30 seconds of Not (so) Alone?
We weren't meant to be isolation. Our skin's evolved for touch. Our eyes, for peripheral vision, for people beside us.
For congregation.
some things that are true, or profound (and that somebody smarter thought of first)
Touch is a primal need, as necessary for growth as food, clothing or shelter. Michelangelo knew this: When he painted God extending a hand toward Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he chose touch to represent the beginning of life.
"The magnitude of risk associated with social isolation is comparable with that of cigarette smoking and other major biomedical and psychosocial risk factors. However, our understanding of how and why social isolation is risky for health—or conversely—how and why social ties and relationships are protective of health, still remains quite limited."
“No monkey has died during isolation. When initially removed from total social isolation, however, they usually go into a state of emotional shock, characterized by ... autistic self-clutching and rocking. One of six monkeys isolated for 3 months refused to eat after release and died 5 days later. The autopsy report attributed death to emotional anorexia. ... The effects of 6 months of total social isolation were so devastating and debilitating that we had assumed initially that 12 months of isolation would not produce any additional decrement. This assumption proved to be false; 12 months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially ...” -Harlow HF, Dodsworth RO, Harlow MK. "Total social isolation in monkeys," Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1965.
Some of the monkeys remained in solitary confinement for 15 years.
Various abnormalities. blank staring. repetitive circling in their cages. self-mutilation.
severely. psychologically. disturbed.
Hippocrates, father of modern medicine wrote: "The physician must be experienced in many things, but most assuredly in rubbing."
...more to come. poemz, perhaps
Sometimes we make eye contact when I hand them my $1.75. Sometimes when they ask "is that all?" I say, "No, I also need a pack of..." and they say, "Marlboro 54?" and we laugh, and they say "You don't have to tell me, I know" and I think, "They know me. Somebody knows me."
Sometimes our hands touch when they take my change and my skin's shocked at the recognition of touch. By the feeling of skin that's not my own. Our peripheries melding for just a moment. Almost intimate.
Some days I get so lonely I forget my own name.
What would you pay for 30 seconds of Not (so) Alone?
We weren't meant to be isolation. Our skin's evolved for touch. Our eyes, for peripheral vision, for people beside us.
For congregation.
some things that are true, or profound (and that somebody smarter thought of first)
Touch is a primal need, as necessary for growth as food, clothing or shelter. Michelangelo knew this: When he painted God extending a hand toward Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he chose touch to represent the beginning of life.
"The magnitude of risk associated with social isolation is comparable with that of cigarette smoking and other major biomedical and psychosocial risk factors. However, our understanding of how and why social isolation is risky for health—or conversely—how and why social ties and relationships are protective of health, still remains quite limited."
“No monkey has died during isolation. When initially removed from total social isolation, however, they usually go into a state of emotional shock, characterized by ... autistic self-clutching and rocking. One of six monkeys isolated for 3 months refused to eat after release and died 5 days later. The autopsy report attributed death to emotional anorexia. ... The effects of 6 months of total social isolation were so devastating and debilitating that we had assumed initially that 12 months of isolation would not produce any additional decrement. This assumption proved to be false; 12 months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially ...” -Harlow HF, Dodsworth RO, Harlow MK. "Total social isolation in monkeys," Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1965.
Some of the monkeys remained in solitary confinement for 15 years.
Various abnormalities. blank staring. repetitive circling in their cages. self-mutilation.
severely. psychologically. disturbed.
Hippocrates, father of modern medicine wrote: "The physician must be experienced in many things, but most assuredly in rubbing."
...more to come. poemz, perhaps
on glockenspiel
it was a hat box of sorts and they all just paraded around in it like they owned the place
they paraded like easter hats and sunrise services
the paraded like broken flower stems and crowds of rabid dogs
and the box
more ribbon and flimsy shadow-board, cardboard shadows than anything.
but you couldn’t see through it.
her slip however…
her slip however aptly named for the slip it shifts over the rounds of her buttocks
legs ajar
wide open lips
and round roundness
it was perched on the box
little talon feet
little expectations
grasping at stars and glitter ribbon rinds
she looked more like a virgin than she did the day she was impaled by the angel
but under her rounds her rounds
and the way she carried
high like a boy
squawked the one on top
must be a boy
must be the one
typical
of easter to be full of pregnant pause
he died on the cross the same day he was conceived 66 equinoxes before
last orgasm why hast thou forsaken mom
well gods will be gods
an utterance a last breath before being consumed into the tomb of the earth
and sealed there there
2.17.10
9:14pm
julierada
Water, thought, intention
Re: our conversation about thought, intention, the physical manifestations thereof (not necessarily divine, of course, but divinely human?).
"Our bodies are 90% water. It makes you think, doesn't it? If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what our thoughts can do to us" -From "What the Bleep do We Know?"
"Our bodies are 90% water. It makes you think, doesn't it? If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what our thoughts can do to us" -From "What the Bleep do We Know?"
concentric circles, cyclical motion, habitual duplication
The twin notions of microcosm and macrocosm neatly model the dominant orienting lens of Western thought. From the pre-Socratics on, thinkers who contend that they have discovered cosmological truths argue that man is a little world embodying the structure and traits of the greater universe. To know the universe, they say, look carefully at man, and all truth shall be revealed. As man breathes, so does the universe (Pythagoras). As man fights interior battles between good and evil, so they must exist on a grander scale (Sir Thomas Browne). And to affix such a connection: a maker to make cunningly. And so on it goes.
Concentric circles in the mind. Interior in conversation with the exterior (or the inverse), and again and again we are re-creating what we know most intimately: cyclical motions from the smallest to the largest scale. Cycles of our hours, our days, the circular motion of my hand in the air is a mirror to this cycle of All We Have: aka life (unless we subscribe to the promise of After. Life. And isn't this promise of Something HereAfter so much of what brings us back, circling back, week after week, to the Pew, the Alter, the Psalm, the Incense and the Water, Genuflection at His feet? The promise that, if we do this right, are appropriately sorrygood, then this is all just the white-walled waiting room, the cloak room to the AfterLife that counts?) . Creatures of habit, we find our pattern, conscious of duplication or un-.
Concentric circles in the mind. Interior in conversation with the exterior (or the inverse), and again and again we are re-creating what we know most intimately: cyclical motions from the smallest to the largest scale. Cycles of our hours, our days, the circular motion of my hand in the air is a mirror to this cycle of All We Have: aka life (unless we subscribe to the promise of After. Life. And isn't this promise of Something HereAfter so much of what brings us back, circling back, week after week, to the Pew, the Alter, the Psalm, the Incense and the Water, Genuflection at His feet? The promise that, if we do this right, are appropriately sorrygood, then this is all just the white-walled waiting room, the cloak room to the AfterLife that counts?) . Creatures of habit, we find our pattern, conscious of duplication or un-.
a melody pulled from unfitting pieces
as it starts out, actors stand in positions, lights up quickly, lights down quickly, try a new position, lights up quickly, lights down quickly, maybe in time with non-rhythmic notes, as it progresses, it becomes less jagged, more rhythmic.
Associations and Structures
Milgram seems designed for the Kyrie. Thank you Milgram.
Matthew mentions Lady Gaga: especially in relation to his own platform pumps. I'm thinking about the Gloria. This is a great fit. Matthew, can you bring us some specific songs?
Which is followed by the Credo. We need more words. I wonder if the Credo is all words. I wonder if we need darkness and projections of words. Voice overs. Nothing but words. Do we write them or do we find them? Dan mentions the dictionary. Julie mentions simple statements of belief. I'm thinking about history, arguments and text books. It all seems right. We'll need to start collecting words. Lots of words. Off hand I think of Howard Zinn, Amiri Baraka, Andrea Dworkin, Harold Pinter and Twisty Faster. Words with weight. Words with belief. Also: Hitler, Marx, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, and so on. Peter Handke? Lucky's "Think"? The Pope?
Which moves into the Sanctus, the Holy Holy Holy, the contemplative. The piano line that is so slow we aren't sure it exists. Also transubstantiation. Also sacrifice.
And the Agnus Dei. Maybe the most difficult. We'll need to work on that one.
Matthew mentions Lady Gaga: especially in relation to his own platform pumps. I'm thinking about the Gloria. This is a great fit. Matthew, can you bring us some specific songs?
Which is followed by the Credo. We need more words. I wonder if the Credo is all words. I wonder if we need darkness and projections of words. Voice overs. Nothing but words. Do we write them or do we find them? Dan mentions the dictionary. Julie mentions simple statements of belief. I'm thinking about history, arguments and text books. It all seems right. We'll need to start collecting words. Lots of words. Off hand I think of Howard Zinn, Amiri Baraka, Andrea Dworkin, Harold Pinter and Twisty Faster. Words with weight. Words with belief. Also: Hitler, Marx, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, and so on. Peter Handke? Lucky's "Think"? The Pope?
Which moves into the Sanctus, the Holy Holy Holy, the contemplative. The piano line that is so slow we aren't sure it exists. Also transubstantiation. Also sacrifice.
And the Agnus Dei. Maybe the most difficult. We'll need to work on that one.
the banality of evil
Banality of evil is a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.[1] It describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.
on random emotion
a wish
“I think there are things that everyone feels at least once every 15 minutes: embarrassment, for example, or humiliation, from no-where, without apparent cause; sudden grief, anxiety, dread, distraction — as though a spirit or monster of some kind had passed overhead; regret, impatience, hatred, and unreasoning rage. It’s not the same for everyone. Some people I know feel none of those things, but instead, every 15 minutes they feel vengeful, jealous — they are immobilized by envy, a longing to possess something or someone, greed, lust, a wish to put something in their mouths." – the quote (Chaiken? Mee?)
i fold you into my mouth
that goes
that leaves
and now i will destroy it all
i can’t help it
it all embarrasses me
and so i’ll fuck it
and mourn it
what?
where was i?
now now now nownownownownownownownownownownow
crash
oops
crash
fleeting
tickle/giggle/fidget and bounce
a blanket of sadness
dropped on me from the gods
from the ghosts of grandmothers and illusions and dead cats
forget it
can i put you in my mouth?
because
cuz
i desire it
drop it
(i can kill you and take all your money)
and hold you tight
just lay on my chest
feel the comfort of heartbeat in your ear pressed to my skin
the weightedness
the love song
loins
don’t look
don’t behold
me
mememememememe
a wish
2.15.10
11:19 am
on milgram
on milgram
obey whisk
repeat
fly kiss fly
treat to one risk
repeat
mutual morality violated violated
instigated
defecate
“sir”
“i was just following orders”
“innocent”
“following”
victim/learner/accountant
same/same/same
a confederacy of lunatics
torturers/oddities/cruelisms
and you
15 volts
(and you drip)
135 volts
(and you shimmer and heave)
1. Please continue.
2. The trash requires that you continue.
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.
4. You have no other choice, you must go on.
“shhh”
“sir?”
“shhh”
450 volts
(and you splay)
obedient
(and you splay)
2.15.10
11:00am
The Bhagavad Gita
On the Eternal Godhead:
This supreme Lord who pervades all existence, the true Self of all creatures, may be realized through undivided love.
On Divine Splendor:
Sri Krishna:
All right, Arjuna, I will tell you of my divine powers.
I will mention only the most glorious; for there is no end to them.
I am the true Self in the heart of every creature, Arjuna, and the beginning, middle, and end of their existence.
Among the shining gods, I am Vishnu; of luminaries, I am the sun; among the storm gods I am Marichi; and in the night sky I am the moon.
...
Among the senses I am the mind, and in living beings I am consciousness.
...
Among bodies of water I am the ocean.
...
I was born from the nectar of immortality as the primordial horse and as Indra's noble elephant. Among men, I am the king.
Among weapons, I am the thunderbolt. I am Kamadhuk, the cow that fulfills all desires; I am Kandarpa, the power of sex, and Vasuki, the king of snakes.
...
I am Prahlada, born among the demons, and of all that measures, I am time.
More to come...
chants/kyrie
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
Om Mane Padme Hum
Om Om Om |
translation:
Om Om Om
Lead me from unreal to Real
Lead me from darkness to Light
Lead me from death to Immortality.
Lead me from unreal to Real
Lead me from darkness to Light
Lead me from death to Immortality.
Church
I haven't been to Catholic church in years. I was raised as a Catholic but the older I got, the more distant that church seemd to me. I started exploring other ways of faith and devotion. I got into spirituality. But I also tried other churches.
One in particular was a gay church. It was non deminational but what was strange was how much like a "regular" church it was. They had their own songs they sang. Everyone knew the words by heart so I gather it was a common ritual to sing theses same songs which were totally foreign to me.
There was a lot of hugging and hand shaking. There really was a sense of community and shared experience.
There were gays of all stripes. Old, young, healthy, dying. It really felt like a community which was great but I was an outsider. I had no idea what these songs or gestures meant - they had no context to a stranger.
That was the last time I was in any kind of a church and I think part of why I never returned to any church was because the overwhelming sense of community was too much for me. It didn't make me crave it for myself, it only made me feel less connected.
One in particular was a gay church. It was non deminational but what was strange was how much like a "regular" church it was. They had their own songs they sang. Everyone knew the words by heart so I gather it was a common ritual to sing theses same songs which were totally foreign to me.
There was a lot of hugging and hand shaking. There really was a sense of community and shared experience.
There were gays of all stripes. Old, young, healthy, dying. It really felt like a community which was great but I was an outsider. I had no idea what these songs or gestures meant - they had no context to a stranger.
That was the last time I was in any kind of a church and I think part of why I never returned to any church was because the overwhelming sense of community was too much for me. It didn't make me crave it for myself, it only made me feel less connected.
Sacrifice
animals and humans
entrails
guts on canvas
kisses
guts on canvas
kisses
bowing to the blood
dissolution of the self/ves
orpheus torn limb from limb
a lamb's head floating on a river
dancing/fucking in the guts of a beast
Church - some thoughts
- seeking answers
- feeling alone
- thoughts distracted
- pay attention, “that is what you are supposed to do”
- feeling safety in the melody
- still wanting answers
- stand up, sit down, kneel…
- “what else do I have to do today”
- silence
- No answers…but not so alone.
- feeling alone
- thoughts distracted
- pay attention, “that is what you are supposed to do”
- feeling safety in the melody
- still wanting answers
- stand up, sit down, kneel…
- “what else do I have to do today”
- silence
- No answers…but not so alone.
My Churchy Thoughts
The mass I attended last Sunday evening reminded me unexpectedly of the nondenominational evangelical church that I attended as a child. After letting go of the wave of anger, judgment and sadness that initially hit me, I thought about how the church service I grew up going to was similar to and different from the catholic service.
Similar
- focus on large crowd experience
- set structure that flows from one section to the next
- praise choruses projected onto the wall
- raised hands
- kneeling
Different
- special objects used for worship besides bible
- specific times to kneel and raise hands
- short sermon/homily
I've heard that protestant churches are losing members and that nondenominational evangelical churches are growing. It seems to me that protestant churches are less focused on the crowd experience and more on individual experience of personal faith. I wonder if people are drawn to that group experience in this individualistic society, whereas when the protestant denominations began people were drawn to them because society was more group oriented.
Who knows?
Similar
- focus on large crowd experience
- set structure that flows from one section to the next
- praise choruses projected onto the wall
- raised hands
- kneeling
Different
- special objects used for worship besides bible
- specific times to kneel and raise hands
- short sermon/homily
I've heard that protestant churches are losing members and that nondenominational evangelical churches are growing. It seems to me that protestant churches are less focused on the crowd experience and more on individual experience of personal faith. I wonder if people are drawn to that group experience in this individualistic society, whereas when the protestant denominations began people were drawn to them because society was more group oriented.
Who knows?
Moments
A few moments and images that inspired me / reminded me of this piece:
- A Japanese drummer poised between strikes on a large drum. There is more tension in the pause, and in the arms, than in any strike.
- A piano line starting so slowly that it is not yet possible to make out a melody - the notes are too far apart.
- A sterile science lab / someone strapped to a chair receiving electric shocks / fucking in the mud / blood on a lab coat / the priest kisses the book / silence / a gesture of blessing / living sacrifice / sharing a cigarette / a gesture of blessing (repeated) / climax / sound from nowhere and all around / a long narrow space / a hidden choir / a vaulted ceiling / and so on.
- A Japanese drummer poised between strikes on a large drum. There is more tension in the pause, and in the arms, than in any strike.
- A piano line starting so slowly that it is not yet possible to make out a melody - the notes are too far apart.
- A sterile science lab / someone strapped to a chair receiving electric shocks / fucking in the mud / blood on a lab coat / the priest kisses the book / silence / a gesture of blessing / living sacrifice / sharing a cigarette / a gesture of blessing (repeated) / climax / sound from nowhere and all around / a long narrow space / a hidden choir / a vaulted ceiling / and so on.
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