| Saturday, July 19, 2003 |  |
| Tuesday, July 22 7:00PM THE PAGAN RITE OF MYRIAM OF MAGDALA-DIVINE SOPHIA |
 19 Jul 2003 @ 13:38I am the Knowledge of my Name" THE PAGAN RITE OF MYRIAM OF MAGDALA-DIVINE SOPHIA Tuesday, July 22 7:00PM Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach 5450 Atherton Presented by Catherine Wright Priestess of Mary Magdalene and the Temple of Isis/Los Angeles For information/directions contact Catherine at thearosa@earthlink.net The Rite is on July 22, the feastday of St. Mary Magdalen in Catholicism. On that day, a prayer service/Mass is celebrated in many Catholic, Episcopalian and other denominations, honoring Myriam of Magdala as the first of the Apostles, a pre-eminent leader of the Early Church. The Gnostic Mary Magdalene, however, is a manifestation of Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom. A Gnostic church in Palo Alto celebrates a Rite written/compiled by Bishop Rosamonde Miller, which celebrates the Sacred Marriage of Sophia/Logos and has much material from the early Gnostics that would be recognized by pagans and practitioners of the rites of Isis and Osiris. Now there are also pagan Gnostics, and we who find our spiritual home in the earth spirituality traditions celebrate the Divine as Goddess, and have spiritual knowledge ("gnosis") of Her in Earth, the Cosmos, the inter-connectivity of all things seen and unseen. We will gather in Long Beach to celebrate all that Myriam is and signifies. We will claim and honor Her as we know Her in the intimacy of our hearts. Let the Dance begin… (Event not sponsored by UUCLB) Catherine Wright is a Priestess of Mary Magdalen in the Fellowship of Isis and Temple of Isis Los Angeles (TOILA). TOILA is part of (http://templeofisis.org|Temple of Isis} in Geyserville, CA Catherine is also an active member of Feast2t Watch their website for upcoming events in the Fall. We hope you will come join us! |
| Adventures in Avalon |
 19 Jul 2003 @ 17:27Life is surreal at times. The phone rang last week just as I was getting out of my car to go food shopping. It was Julie calling from Glastonbury. So there I was in the healthfood store walking through the produce asile connected in to Avalon. Seems there is a group of people who wan to take a trip to a faerie forest just after I arrive. According to Jewels, "It is known as the "Morgana" line there." We will be traveling down to Boscastleand perhaps visit merlin's Cave I am very excited to be wisked away on this grand adventure! |
| Teacher's Anti-War Playing Cards Flying Off Bookstore Shelves |
 19 Jul 2003 @ 17:13By Kim Curtis Tuesday 15 July 2003 SAN FRANCISCO - A high school teacher, fed up with the Bush administration's popular playing cards featuring Saddam Hussein, "Chemical Ali" and other most-wanted Iraqis, is now selling her own deck, "Operation Hidden Agenda." Kathy Eder's 55 playing cards show pictures of President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others along with quotes, mostly from journalists, questioning the rationale for the U.S.-led war. The backs feature a 1983 photograph of Rumsfeld shaking Sadaam Hussein's hand. Eder said she first decided to create her own plastic-coated propaganda in March as a comeback to the "messages of hate" contained in the cards the Department of Defense issued to help U.S. troops identify suspected war criminals. Her "Hidden Agenda" cards, are "not hateful. They're factual," she said. OPERATION HIDDEN AGENDA Kathy Eder holds a deck of cards she designed in San Jose, Calif., Monday, July 14, 2003. Eder, a high school teacher, fed up with the Bush administration's popular playing cards featuring Saddam Hussein, ``Chemical Ali'' and other most-wanted Iraqis, is now selling her own deck, ``Operation Hidden Agenda.'' (AP Photo/John Todd) In Eder's version, Bush is the ace of spades with the title, "Dictator of the World," and the ace of clubs depicts Rumsfeld above the caption, "Donald Goes to Bagdad" - with the Iraqi city misspelled. The jokers carry quotes from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Eder used free, public domain DOD photographs (several of the same ones show up repeatedly) and collected the quotes from newspapers and magazines. She hired a designer willing to work for $15 an hour and 5 percent of the profits. But only one of the about 30 publishers she contacted responded at all, and itsaid it couldn't get to the cards for at least a year. "I knew this was something that had to happen immediately," said Eder, 42, who teaches social justice and morality at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose. She decided to self-publish, but then couldn't find a printer willing to do the job. Eventually, Texas-based Liberty Playing Cards, one of the companies that prints the government's "Most Wanted" cards, agreed. Once the product became available online and at a few bookstores, Eder said she sold 3,000 decks in three weeks. She's already placed a second order for 5,000 decks. At Bookshop Santa Cruz, people lined up outside the store the morning the cards went on sale, according to Don Gardner, who works at the store. With about half of the purchasers buying more than one deck, the store has sold about 1,100 copies of "Hidden Agenda," which "may be running neck-and-neck" with the latest Harry Potter book, Gardner said. "She imitated some of the best marketing minds in the country," Gardner said, referring to the U.S. government. "I don't think it's her intention to make a million bucks. I don't think it's her intention to attack individuals, but to expose the record of American leadership." But many retailers have refused to sell the cards and Eder said she's received angry e-mails and a death threat. She's not deterred. "My taxes paid for this war," she said. "I have an obligation to do something." Eder has pledged to donate half her profits to five nonprofit organizations that promote nonviolence and provide aide to Gulf War veterans and Iraqis. Eder said her mission is peaceful, not unpatriotic. She said she visited the site of the World Trade Center in New York last year. "I felt such a connection with the U.S.," she said. "This year, when we chose to go to war and cut off our relations with other countries, it seemed like such a tragedy that we had broken that sense of unity we felt around the world. I hope we can reunite around peace." © Copyright 2003 by TruthOut.org |
| Women Artists |
 19 Jul 2003 @ 15:08After nearly a year of brainstorming, interviewing and compiling we have launched... **fierce flora** An International Arts Forum and Source of Inspiration in Response to the Lack of Female Exposure in the Arts featuring: Acclaimed Photographer Roxann Arwen Mills Rina Cheung of Pixelsurgeon The Guerilla Girls of Los Angeles and introducing: DON'T YOU STOP: The Online Directory |
| August 1-2, 2003 African / Zimbabwean / Mbira / Shona music |
 19 Jul 2003 @ 14:40From Janet Planet: This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about Shona music from one of the top talents in the world. STELLA CHIWESHE The Mbira Queen of Zimbabwe “One of the most original and exciting artists on the contemporary Zimbabwean scene.” Folk Roots Stella Chiweshe will be available for workshops in the Los Angeles area after her free performance at the Skirball on Thursday evening July 31, 2003 on the following dates: Friday - Aug 1, 2003 - 1pm-4pm Saturday - Aug 2, 2003 - 11am-3pm Workshops will be tailored according to student's playing levels & interests & availability. Workshops: Shona mbira, singing, dancing, hosho, etc. Privates also available. If you're intersted please contact us ASAP! email - jplanet@j2k.com Stella Rambisai Chiweshe, Zimbabwe’s foremost mbira (a thumb piano with 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a hardwood soundboard typically placed inside a large deze or gourd resonator) player has, over the past 30 years, emerged as one of the most original artists in the contemporary African music scene. Known at home as "Ambuya Chinyakare" (Grandmother of Traditional Music) and around the world as “The Queen of Mbira”, her songs are resonant with the themes of liberation, spirituality and social justice. Wrapping her evocative vocals around haunting mbira lines, sultry percussion and call & response choruses, Stella creates warm dance grooves based on mbira rhythms and utilizes popular music forms and contemporary instruments to showcase the depth and power of the Zimbabwean spiritual tradition. She has introduced mbira music to a broader audience without sacrificing the instrument’s and her own relationship to their roots. In the process she has emerged as a Zimbabwe cultural ambassador. As the only woman in Zimbabwe who leads her own band, Stella Chiweshe is in control of her own equipment and transport, an achievement only those, who know under what kind of conditions female musicians normally work in Africa, can truly understand. She took a leading role in the formation of the Zimbabwe Musicians Union, and since 1993 she is director of the Mother Earth Trust Network of Female Artists in Zimbabwe. Stella Chiweshe has toured the world extensively since 1983 and has released seven critically acclaimed and internationally successful albums most recently 2002’s Talking Mbira: Spirits of Liberation. Last winter Stella completed a US solo tour with performances at this year’s Folk Alliance (February), Joe’s Pub (NY), The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Boston and New Mexico. Please contact Janet at jplanet@j2k.com or call 310-770-7370 for more information. Visit Janet's Website for more information about African Music and Events. |