I have a new iPod.

That's actually a lie, I don't have a new iPod.

I found it three years years ago when I was catching the 8 bus to the Orange line subway on my way home from school. It belonged to some girl named Hollee,who I never found, despite asking around. So I kept it.
Whoever Holee was, she had terrible taste in music: It was nothing but pop music* with some My Chemical Romance and Yellowcard and the more poppy songs made by Greenday on it. I never got to use it though, because my brother, loving and unselfish person that he is, promptly started using it without my permission, and he never gave it back. It somehow became his just like that. Well, he got a new one, so he let me have it back.

And so,for the past two weeks, I have proved my schizophrenia to myself by downloading every song that I love.
I say 'proved my schizophrenia', because on it, I'll have something like 'Total control' from The Clash immediately followed by a prelude from one of Widor's symphonies,with parts from five or six organ works. Then after a brief, quiet break with Elgar's 'Nimrod' from the Enigma Variations (With a lovely 32' string at the end of the crescendo) We go onto seven or eight songs by Cage the elephant, followed by some rousing Anglican hymns sung by a good English Cathedral choir. Then, onto some preludes and fugues by Bach, followed by some pieces from Vierne's 24 Pieces en Style Libre.

There's no sense to it at all, and it jumps all around the centuries and genres. The only common threads in it are the uses of Cavaille-Coll or Skinner organs in all the organ music, and the fact that all the choral music is sung only by English Cathedral choirs.(Whether Roman Catholic or Anglican.**)



*Have I told you guys about my seething hatred of the so-called genre of music called 'Pop'? Sorry, my older brother bred into me a dislike of it, which he got from my dad. I can't very well throw out a tradition, can I?

** James Orrel is probably the best chorister that I have ever heard. The closest thing we have to him in the U.S, I think, might be two of the soloists in Philly's Archdiocesan Boy Choir, James Corcoran and Tyler Maschio. Good clear, strong voices those two have. I'm not sure if the former of the two still sings with the choir, since his voice has probably matured by now. And I know, by liking someone from Liverpool, I'm probably betraying my beloved Westminster a little bit. I just wish more RC churches in the U.S. would keep up the tradtion of the choir of men and boys. There is no sound like it.

This is getting rather annoying.

If you don't mind me being selfish for a bit, after being out of the hospital for a week, my dad is back in again. His treatments were over quite a few weeks ago, but he kept getting persistent high fevers, so he had to stay until they found out what they were. A surgery or two later, and with the problem unresolved, he was home again.
Till he got a fever of 106 on Thursday, and was sent back in again.
So there goes Father's Day.

Of course, he's on permanent disability now, this being year two of his battle with the cancer, so he's not missing any work.

And now,

A musical interlude.

Just downloaded this one. <3

I have hit the jackpot AGAIN.

Today, out of curiosity, I went back to the house where I found last week's sports goldmine. And I found a music goldmine.Loads and loads of records from the 80's

It's loads of Punk rock and Old Skool rap, two of my favourite genres: Sugar Hill gang, Eddie and the hot rods, Alice Cooper,Jimi Hendrix, The Furious Five,  and two of my favourite bands, The Clash and Ramones.

I'm about to go back and see if I find more. :D

THIS IS THE MOST EPIC SONG EVAR. :D

THIS.

THAT IS TO TOTALLY EPIC I CANT BELIEVE I FOUND SOMETHING LIKE THAT OMG IM GOING TO DIE BECAUSE IT IS SO EPIC AND IT IS IN FACT SO EPIC THAT IT HAS REQUIRED ME TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS AND ESCHEW QUITE A BIT OF PROPER GRAMMAR BECAUSE THE WORDS AND THE MUSIC ARE SO COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY EPIC THANK YOU FOR READING THIS POST AND IF YOU HAVE NOT CLICKED ON THE LINK CLICK ON IT AND LISTEN TO THE EPIC-NESS. ;D

An Explanation

Okay, here's my explanation for the iconography in This drawing.(Though that isn't the finished version. I've made some changes.)

I took the traditional Old Adam/Old Eve as compared to the New Adam/New Eve as my theme. Adam and Eve here then, are types of Jesus and Mary respectively. With their skin color. I made Adam pale, but his face rather ruddy and red in accordance with Cant. 2:4 "My beloved is white and ruddy" Fr.Haydock says of this that " The divine and human nature, or the conception and sufferings of Christ are thus described.

Eve is dark all over, in accordance with Cant. 1:4 " I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon." Both Mary and the Church are compared in this verse. Mary typifies the church, little and of no account on earth, but now glorified in heaven because of her merits and perseverence. Fr.George Leo Haydock says of this:

"Though outwardly afflicted, the Church is inwardly fair"

Another commentary says:

"That is, the church of Christ founded in humility appearing outwardly afflicted, and as it were black and contemptible; but inwardly, that is, in its doctrine and morality, fair and beautiful"

The fruit which Adam eats is blue with red flesh, and red juice from the fruit flows down Adam's arm,as a type of Jesus,from whose riven heart flowed streams of blood which saved the world. Eve's fruit is ed with blue flesh. The streams which flow down from it are a type of Cant. 4:15, which says :"Thou art the fountain of gardens: the well of living waters, which run with a strong stream from Libanus" Jesus, who was the living water, of which a man may drink and never thirst (John 4:13-14, John 7:37.) John 7:38 says . Mary believed in in the Lord ( Luke 1:45 ) and thus, she was the fount, out of which living waters flowed for the salvation of all mankind. Of her flowed the streams which give joy the the city of God (The church, Ps.45:5; " The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyful: the most High hath sanctified his own tabernacle.")

Adam and Eve, having lost the original holiness in which they were created have dark halos, symbolising the death of the soul that their cooperation with sin has brought. They are not, however, totally black, because the image of God has not been totally destroyed in man. It has been tarnished, or disfigured.

Around the halos are words proper to each person. Around Adam's halo are the words "SICUT IN ADAM OMNES MORIUNTUR" from I Cor. 15:22. (The same theme is taken up in Rom. 5:12-21.) The end of this sentence continues "ita et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur." The Catechism (No. 402) says of Adam's sin:

"All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned."289 The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men."

Christ by submitting himself to his passion and death for all men reversed the sin of Adam. The Catechism (Nos. 410-411) says:

" After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall.304 This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium ("first gospel"): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.

The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the "New Adam" who, because he "became obedient unto death, even death on a cross", makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience, of Adam. Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the "new Eve". Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ's victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life."

Taking this same thought, around Eve's Halo are the words "Mutans Evae Nomen." These words, from the Marian hymn "Ave Maris Stella",from Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, refer to the Blessed Virgin, who by her obedience reversed Eve's disobedience. The Catechism (No 489) says of Eve and the Blessed Virgin:

"Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary. At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living."

S.Ambrose says: "It was through a man and woman that flesh was cast from paradise; it was through a virgin that flesh was linked to God."

S.Irenaeus said: " "The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosened by Mary's obedience. The bonds fastened by the virgin Eve through disbelief were untied by the virgin Mary through faith" (Against Heresies, 3:22)

S.Justin Martyr says: "For Eve,a virgin undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent, and bore disobedience and death.But the Virgin May received faith and joy when the the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the most high would overshadow her, for which reason the holy one being born of her is the son of God. And she replied: 'Be it done to me according to thy word."

On Adam's side of the garden grow roses and calla lilies, as in Cant. 2:1 " I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys." A commentary on this says:

"Christ professes himself the flower of mankind, yea, the Lord of all creatures"

On Eve's side grows roses and another type of lily, for Cant. 2:2 says "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters" The church sees in this verse a type of Mary,who, being Immaculate and without spot, was pure, like the pure lily among the thorns of sinful humanity.

S. Theodotus of Ancyra says of this: A virgin, innocent, spotless, free of all defect, untouched, unsullied, holy in soul and body, like a lily sprouting among thorns.

S. Hyppolytus says of this: "He was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt from putridity and corruption

S.Germanus of Constantinople also says:"Truly elect, and superior to all, not by the altitude of lofty structures, but as excelling all in the greatness and purity of sublime and divine virtues, and having no affinity with sin whatever."

While Eve lost her sinlessness and perfection by sin, Mary persevered even to death.

The tree and it's leaves are that of the olive tree. It was on the Tree of the Cross that Christ our Peace-Offering reconciled us to God, making peace by the blood of his Cross and Passion. ( Col. 1:20)

That's it for now. There are some other details, so check back because I may edit this post.

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

One of my particular devotions is that of the Sacred Heart. Right now, I'm going through the well-written book Love, Peace and Joy. I'd link to it but I can't find it online. You can also read Fr.George Tickell's similar book, Month of the Sacred Heart. June of course, is the month specially devoted to devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart, and, like a few others, I'll be observing it with an octave.At least, sort of. See, formerly, like many other feasts in the kalendar, the feast of the Sacred Heart had an octave. It was suppressed, but in the modern Roman rite, there's enough leeway to sort of observe it. You can say a votive office of the Sacred heart (the office of the Sacred Heart as in the breviary, but with the collect for the votive mass as found in the Roman Missal) on ferias and on optional memorials until the 'octave day' next week.

Anyway, the above image is my favourite image of the Sacred Heart. Formerly, I had a print of the same image above my home altar, but it was destroyed in the unfortunate fire I had a few years ago.

Today, I discovered a new manga.

My brother, who hangs out over at Sherdog*, was shown some MMA mangas in a thread. I don't really tell very many people, but I've been a faithful MMA fan for the past two or three years. I even planned to take some classes, just for fun**, but they fell through.

Anyway, the one pictured above is the one I'm talking about: All-Rounder Meguru. The art is breathtaking, and the plot is very good, though there may be one or two possible cliches in there. What really grabbed me was the writers knowledge of MMA. The fights are quite realistic, and he often shows that he knows his stuff by referencing little-known techniques or the perfect technique for a particular situation. I'm learning from it the same way I learned from Eyesheild 21 and Oofuri.

Anyway, it's been Scanlated over at Manga Fox.

Enjoy!

*On that note, I really need to get an account over at Sherdog.

**If you can really call that 'fun' per se.

I have hit the jackpot.

Well guys, it looks like my troubles are officially Over.

Because today, Joe hit the sports memorabilia jackpot.

Today, I went to Girard avenue, between 63rd and 62nd, to get a chair I saw thrown out.* It was gone, but I saw a pair of ice skates sitting in a box on the corner. There were about six large boxes. Anyway,I went to get the skates, and that's when the magic started happening. The skates were signed. They were signed by Bill Barber, who played on the Philly Flyers in both of their Stanley Cup championship wins. As any normal person would have done, I almost had a brain aneurysm.

As I went through the apparent junk in the boxes, I started finding gold: Signed photographs of individual players, rosters, posters (some signed) game programs,workout schedules,etc.I found things signed by Charlie Leach, Bob Kelly, Ed Van Impe, Gary Dornhoefer, and a program and an autograph book, both signed by the entire Flyers starting roster.There's also some sort of orange card with Bobby Clarke on it. It says "You were there!" and 100 points. It looks rather like a fake check, or a large fake bill. I also have a 1974/75 issue of NHL Action Players, the stamp album. It hasn't been filled out. By then, of course, I had had several heart attacks brought on by shock.

Oh, but it gets better. While I am certainly a real** Flyers fan, All of you who are sane know that I'm a Phillies fan to death. I would kill several people if needed, If I could own something signed by Greg Luzinski, or Ron Shcueler, or, by some miracle, Jim Kaat.

And guess what I found?

A 1972 Phillies yearbook, a 1976 Phillies Magazine,a ticket to the Phillies VS. Mets game of June 1,1981,  a press field pass for the same game, a small signed photo of Steve Carlton (My favourite pitcher from the 76' Phillies)  and two pages from some sort of sports magazine signed by most of the 1970 and 1976 Phillies starting rosters.                                       He's not a Phillie, he was a Met, and later a Cub (Where he had his best season in 1970), but I have a medium-sized signed photo of Jim Hickman.By then, I was  ready to pass out.

I have a large color photo of Larry Csonka, and some Iggles memorabilia too. (Mostly magazines) and some Sixers memorabilia. (Mostly programs.) I have one game program from 1973/1974, which has some signatures on the cover. I haven't read the signatures yet, so I don't know whose they are. I have a think book-sort of thing from Super bowl IX (1975) 

Now, some of this stuff absolutely cannot leave this house. It will stay here till I leave this mortal earth. I guess I could sell some of it, but I don't know what any of it is worth exactly, or who to contact about selling it. The Phillies stuff and two of the signed photos, I plan to keep unless I get a really good offer on it.

I also found (and fellow Star Trek fans will freak the same way I did) a signed photo of George Takei and DeForrest Kelly, signed by those two as well as  Majel Barrett.

So, uhh.....I don't know what to do, besides recover from the health conditions brought on by the finding of this stuff.

* It was nice. Sort of a dark cherry, and the style matched the furniture in my room.

**No bandwagon for me.

deviantART finally appreciates me.

First, I got my first badge! It's a Llama badge that I got from easydisplayname, one of the site developers.

Secondly, Marker Mania, one of groups that I'm in, has accepted one of my works to be featured in the member gallery! I was so afraid that It would be rejected, but it has'nt! Now thousands of Deviants are going to see it, and I might get comments and faves and new pageviews! I might get watchers! My many years of hard work may be paying off! And I'm finishing a commission that I hope will come out well. Unfortunately, as it measures 18' X 24', it's far too big for me to scan. I don't know how I'll upload it. D:

The News in In.

Somehow, I forgot to tell you all that as of last week, I've been accepted as a postulant for the Mercedarian Friars. I could leave home somewhere around the 20th of August.

Keep me in your prayers, since I have to find a way to tell my extended family that I'm no longer Thinking about doing this. I'm Planning on doing this. Dates have been set. Appointments have been made.

Ritual Notes. (Corpus Christi)

 (A photo of the procession form a few years ago.)

Music:

Entrance: Alleluia!, sing to Jesus!

Mass setting (Except gloria) Missa de angelis.

Gloria: Missa Secunda, Hans Leo Hassler

Alleluia: Mode 7, graduale simplex.

Credo: Credo III

Offertory: Ave verum corpus,W.A.Mozart,O food of exiles lowly. (Innsbruck.)

Communion: Proper chant, O sacrum convivium, Palestrina

During the procession:

Of the Glorious Body Telling

Fairest Lord Jesus

As thou at thy first eucharist didst pray

To Jesus Christ our sovereign king

Soul of my Saviour

Pange lingua gloriosi

Recessional: Holy God, we praise thy name! (Grosser Gott)

Today was an interesting day. And by 'interesting', I mean "It was nearly 100 degrees and we still did an outdoor procession in the blazing hot sun."

Things went well considering the circumstances. Nine servers who I was counting on didn't show up, which meant some improvising. We ended up with :Crucifer, two acolytes, thurifer, second thurifer, and four torchbearers.
The opening procession went the long way from the sacristy to the sanctuary . I expected the mass to be in English, facing the people, but it was said in Latin, ad orientem. After the collect, the readings (this year is always my favourite year of the lectionary cycle for Corpus Christi.) and the psalm, the sequence Lauda Sion was sung, and then the alleluia.Everything else proceeded as we normally do at solemn mass, including communion at the altar rail. After communion, the torchbearers went to the sacristy. After the ablutions, the thurifers went to the sacristy. After the postcommunion prayer was sung, the celebrant changed to a cope and stole, the torchbearers knelt at the communion rail, and the thurifers had incense laid on and blessed. The celebrant intoned the 'Pange Lingua', and the procession went out and around the neighborhood, with the blessed sacrament under the canopy and two girls scattering rose petals before it. There were three benediction stations, and a fourth at the church.It was kind of fun that the procession passed Holy Cross Baptist church, where some close friends of my family attend. Quite a few of the people stood outside and watched the procession, some took photos. 

Now, thanks to the Wonderful city of Philadelphia, mostly thanks to PGW, there are no corners on any of the blocks near the church. They've been dug up, and the sidewalks cordoned off. Which meant that after the benediction station at the parish school, we had a some trouble trying to get back to the church. After the final benediction and the recessional, I was too busy trying to remove the two extra layers of clothing that the cassock and surplice make to listen to postlude, but I did hear the chamades in the organ chorus and the 32' Double Ophicleide.

THIS.

This series, Kekkaishi  (One of my favourtie manga series. It's in the top ten) Is now going to show on Adult Swim/Cartoon Network. That's the good news. The bad news is that it airs on Saturday at 12:30 AM. Yeah, like I'll be awake then. My brother has promised to tape it or me, and since I have access to everything he loves and I have no problems with destroying his stuff/blackmailing him/holding his stuff for ransom, I'm sure he'll tape it.*

I do have a confession. I haven't actually seen the Kekkaishi anime. I've only read the first four volumes of the manga. And it's been a while since I read it. (Actually, it's been a while since I read any manga. The last I read was Reborn!, the chapter where they're fighting The Real Six Funeral Wreaths.(Hope that's not a spoiler for someone!) So I have to get back to it. Actually, there were a lot that I was reading before the INtraNETZ went out: Mr.Fullswing, Oofuri, Fairytail, Boichi, Rookies, Noora, Tegami Bachi, and Beck. I suppose I should get back to them. though admittedly, I can't remember exactly what chapter I was on in half of those series.Well, I know two for sure, maybe a third, but that's it.

The only problem I have is that, having seen screenshots, it looks like the versions of the characters in the anime are a bit uglier than the characters in the manga. Tokine's face seems too long, and they made Yoshimori's  eyes too far apart. And flattened his hair.

Anothe milestone

The kittens are no longer a secret. Mom knows, and she isn't mad, thank God.

Yesterday, four of them successfully used the litter box o the first time. The only one who hasn't is the small white one with striped spots (The hyper one)He hasn't gotten used to it yet. I've got them a new, larger play-pen to stay in. Dahlia is continuing to wean them, but she still pops in to feed them every now and again.

Meanwhile, they're beginning to show their personalities.The large, giant, fuzzy grey one is lazy. He sleeps most of the time and does'nt like excitement. He does,however, like to wrestle with his brother, the black one.The grey and white one is hyper.He plays, and wrestles, and runs around all the time.He doesn't like to stay still. He looks like his fathe, Tidus, but he acts nothing like him.The all-grey striped one hates being in the pen. He's been trying to get away since he could walk. He's a little better now that he has a pen big enough to run around and play in.The black one likes to wrestle with the grey one, and he seems to be developing the fastest. He only eats solid food, and was the first to use the litter-box. I don't know much about the black-and-white one, though. I know she's a girl, but that's all.

Here it is.

(Click or full size)

It is finished. Long, dramatic theological explanation of all the details with quotes from the fathers and scriptures soon to come.