User:	pangaia93
	Date:	2008-05-16 14:51
	Subject:	My shingle is up!
	Security:	Public

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	User:	sororbabylon
	Date:	2008-05-16 13:13
	Subject:	Saturday celebration - James' birthday
	Security:	Public

James is having a birthday on May 20th! To celebrate, I'm taking him out to dinner on Saturday night.

Any locals want to join? I am thinking we'll go to The King and I on Central Ave downtown.

	User:	shimmeringjemmy
	Date:	2008-05-16 09:28
	Subject:	Sesame Street: still subversive after all these years
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	amused

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	User:	kylecassidy
	Date:	2008-05-16 11:52
	Subject:	the friendly skies
	Security:	Public
	Music:	mad woman screaming

I'm in george bush international airport in houston waiting for a flight to phoenix and a rendevous with the beautiful sonoran desert. on the plane from philly I wrote an article for marie clairr, hong kong, only to get an email when I landed saying i'd missed the deadline.

there's a really large and really irate woman sitting across feom me who is providing regional entertainment to gate 43, shouting into her cell phone "JOSH IS GOING TO HAVE TO GET ON HIS @)!;@!!@ KNEES AND BEG #!@;!;?,!) FORGIVENESS!! HE IS GOING TO LAY ON THE OFFICE FLOOR AND WE ARE ALL GOING TO TAKE A @!#?$;@ @$#,?;@ ON HIM! IT'S THAT @$!#?!'@'RS FAULT WE GOT THE 1.2 RATING AND THAT #$()@",?ER IF GOUNG TO $(!#?!@ing BURN!!!"

she seems completely oblivious that everyone is canted about 20 degrees in her direction.

things went great in boston. it'll be months before you see photos. but when you do, they'll be good.

	User:	shepjoe
	Date:	2008-05-16 10:32
	Subject:	HElP NEEDED
	Security:	Public

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	User:	sororbabylon
	Date:	2008-05-16 10:13
	Subject:	Lane Bryant/Torrid Items for sale
	Security:	Public

My friend is selling awesome Lane Bryant and Torrid clothing here:

http://beerdrinkinlass.livejournal.com/73817.html

	User:	anubis75
	Date:	2008-05-16 06:28
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Happy birthday belladonna93!

	User:	fraterseraphino
	Date:	2008-05-16 00:44
	Subject:	Beware people who claim to be moral.
	Security:	Public

Oddly, Hypocrisy Rooted in High Morals

In the new study, detailed in the November issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers find that when this line between right and wrong is ambiguous among people who think of themselves as having high moral standards, the do-gooders can become the worst of cheaters.

The results recall the seeming disconnect between the words and actions of folks like televangelist and fraud convict Jim Bakker or admitted meth-buyer Ted Haggard, former president of the National Evangelical Association, an umbrella group representing some 45,000 churches.

"The principle we uncovered is that when faced with a moral decision, those with a strong moral identity choose their fate (for good or for bad) and then the moral identity drives them to pursue that fate to the extreme," said researcher Scott Reynolds of the University of Washington Business School in Seattle. "So it makes sense that this principle would help explain what makes the greatest of saints and the foulest of hypocrites."

	User:	agent139
	Date:	2008-05-16 03:29
	Subject:	Initiation: the Masks of Identity.
	Security:	Public

Working on a new chapter for Immanence of Myth. There are many projects afoot this summer and autumn, so I'm trying to get this project jump-started a bit before I have to shelve it for the others.

This is quite literally first draft (just hammered it out over the past couple hours, along with editing another chapter for a book on lit theory being published through an academic press that a friend is co-writing.)

CHAPTER 6 of The Immanence of Myth.
Initiation: the Masks of Identity.
By James Curcio.

There are many works available that systematically explore the vicissitudes of initiation within tribal and so-called primitive or archaic cultures. At the forefront of the works that deal with this subject within archaic culture is Mircea Eliade's Rites and Symbols of Initiation, which covers the various functions which initiation can serve, and provides elaborate examples of all of them, from the shamanic process of rebirth to that of the men's rites whereby a boy becomes a man. Though a sketch of these ideas will serve us in regard to dealing with the main issue of this chapter, I will avoid elaborate restatement for the sake of brevity.

That issue is initiation, its importance, and its relevance to our “modern” lives. Initiation is in fact such a constant in the cultural body that it is evident in one form or another in nearly every human culture that has ever existed before the industrial age, at which point it became notably absent. This absence has produced a very real psychological crisis, although as we will see in many ways the initiatory impulse has merely transferred itself, oftentimes to behaviors and beliefs which only shallowly fulfill that impulse.

This impulse is not merely the need to belong to a social group, although that is one of its exogenetic outcroppings. Lying submerged under such conscious needs is its prefiguring function: to forge our being, almost like a tool, for a specific purpose. For instance, one of the most common forms that the initiatory ceremony takes is that of the adolescent transformation. Before the ritual, whatever it might be, one exists in the world of childhood concern, and afterwards, the initiate is both individuated, in a specific, culturally prescribed manner, and consigned to the service of a particular role, offered by the symbolism of the ceremony. Such ceremonies are only truly effective when they make such a shock on the organism that the psychology is quite literally transfigured. In these cases, the symbolism usually involves death and rebirth: death to the old life, and the birth of the new. Children are ripped away from their parents, tortured, or otherwise terrified in the name of the transformation. This comes along with the archaic recognition of the sacrifice: the need to lose in order to gain.

Such transfiguration can hardly be a possibility for most modern individuals. For one, we are already individuated, and well aware of our self motivation, even at the expense of our own in-born needs. The initiatory ceremonies that persist are, by and large, pale imitations of those that came before. Modern baptism does not truly re-consecrate the individual, neither does the bar mitzvah or induction ceremony when joining an academy or a new career. Strangely, the closest thing that most Americans experience to the adolescent initiation are the bastardized rites of the fraternity. Yet, though they may approach the extremes requisite for psychological transformation, these pranks are so devoid of effective symbolism that at best they can only hope to enhance a feeling of belonging to the group, which as we already discussed is a mere outcropping of the initiatory complex.
( Read more... )

	User:	copia
	Date:	2008-05-15 23:10
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

This play looks interesting. My parents will be visiting this weekend. I wonder if they'd want to go.

We took 1500 digital photos in Italy. I have them on a couple of thumb drives and a few cds, and I've started labeling them. It's kind of a chore, but I need to go through them all before I forget what everything is and I start saving them as "pretty church 352". Of course I need to write about the trip, but so much as been going on nonstop since I got back. I haven't had much opportunity to reflect on the trip yet. I'm really tired. I've been eating like a maniac, too. I have to eat breakfast every day now. I actually lost a couple pounds in Italy, because we did so much walking. I climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (350 slick marble steps).

I've been in a major jewelry orgy as of late. I saw so many really interesting pieces in Italy, not just fine gold stuff, which was gorgeous and insanely unaffordable, but lots of beautiful things in boutiques and street stalls. I noticed many designs, styles, and materials that we just don't see in shops here. I fell in love with a shop that had what I'm calling "shirt necklaces:" very ornate necklaces with several small links together in rows, with different colored beads or gems, that would go all the way down the chest and you could really only wear properly if you didn't wear a shirt underneath, but they're still obviously necklaces. I could see them with just a jacket. (I wonder if I'm describing this very well; I tried to find a picture but was unsuccessful)
Anyway, since coming back I've been spending time thinking about unusual jewelry designs and weird materials and looking for examples online. I've got my eye on some new things. I'm not even thinking about bath products that much lately (though I still made sure to get things at the Venice LUSH shop), because I've got such a juice over jewelry right now.

My choir has a concert tomorrow night. I've got to get to sleep!

	User:	fraterseraphino
	Date:	2008-05-15 21:24
	Subject:	Seriously Inspirational Story Of The Week
	Security:	Public

Amputee swimmer qualifies for Olympics

Swimmer Natalie du Toit will make Olympic history in Beijing as the first amputee to compete at the Summer Olympic Games.

Du Toit, who lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident seven years ago, finished fourth in the 6.2-mile race at the open water world championships this month in Seville, Spain.

User:	omegabaphomet
Date:	2008-05-15 18:15
Subject:	"Technologic"
Security:	Public

	User:	al_qhadhulu
	Date:	2008-05-15 15:55
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Jewish Aramaic Incantation Bowls, more likely Mandaic magical bowls.

	User:	jessicamelusine
	Date:	2008-05-15 17:53
	Subject:	In Love? Would You Like A Free Portrait?
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	artistic

The amazing J.R. Blackwell (who did the portrait that adorns this journal) is offering free portraits to the first 8-9 couples to contact her and will also do portraits of poly groups (for the first group to contact, portrait also free!)

You must be able to get to Philadelphia.

Her work is amazing and utterly worth the trip (NYC folks, Philly folks, Baltimore folks, I'm especially looking at you:))You will be pleased.

Information is below.Drop her a line, if it is your will.

( Read more... )

	User:	christeos_pir
	Date:	2008-05-15 15:48
	Subject:	Just so I'm clear...
	Security:	Public

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	User:	sororbabylon
	Date:	2008-05-15 16:12
	Subject:	Goinked from chitinous
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	pleased

Thank you California! That's so gay!!

	User:	agent139
	Date:	2008-05-15 15:55
	Subject:	Y alpha
	Security:	Public

	User:	jessicamelusine
	Date:	2008-05-15 14:04
	Subject:	Yay California!
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	happy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage;_ylt=AmZijaPfE2eD1BprV2ReNOus0NUE

	User:	fraterseraphino
	Date:	2008-05-15 09:46
	Subject:	Same old, same old.
	Security:	Public

Via Instapundit.com: Credit where it's due

THERE is a certain familiarity to the concomitant series of actions and reactions when disaster strikes in the world. The US stands ready, willing and able to offer assistance. It is often the first country to send in millions of dollars, navy strike groups loaded with food and medical supplies, and transport planes, helicopters and floating hospitals to help those devastated by natural disaster.

Then, just as swift and with equal predictability, those wedded to the Great Satan view of the US begin to carp, drawing on a potent mixture of cynicism and conspiracy theories to criticise the last remaining superpower. When the US keeps doing so much of the heavy lifting to alleviate suffering, you'd figure that the anti-Americans might eventually revise their view of the US. But they never do. And coming under constant attack even when helping others, you'd figure that Americans would eventually draw the curtains on world crises. But they haven't. At least not yet.

So it was last week. The US stood ready to help the cyclone-ravaged Burmese people. It did not matter that Burma's ruling junta was no friend of the Americans. With more than 100,000 people feared dead and many more hundreds of thousands left destitute, US Air Force cargo planes loaded with supplies and personnel started arriving in nearby Thailand to begin humanitarian operations in Burma.

A US Navy strike group in the Gulf of Thailand sent helicopters ashore, ready to arrive in Burma within hours. Alas, Burma's military leaders left their people to die for 10 days before finally accepting help from the evil empire. Even if the Yanks are allowed to boost their assistance to Burma, they can expect a groundswell of criticism.

...

The need to paint Americans as a greedy, selfish, war-mongering superpower cannot be disturbed by facts. It matters not that, in the year before the tsunami, the US provided $2.4 billion in humanitarian relief: 40% of all the relief aid given to the world in 2003. Never mind that development and emergency relief rose from $10 billion during the last year of Bill Clinton's administration to $24 billion under George W. Bush in 2003. Or that, according to a German study, Americans contribute to charities nearly seven times as much a head as Germans do. Or that, adjusted for population, American philanthropy is more than two-thirds more than British giving.

There is a teenaged immaturity about the rest of the world's relationship with the US. Whenever a serious crisis erupts somewhere, our dependence on the US becomes obvious, and many hate the US because of it. That the hatred is irrational is beside the point.

	User:	kylecassidy
	Date:	2008-05-15 09:07
	Subject:	ny times
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	accomplished
	Music:	that danzig/shikira mashup

There's a brief article about my book in the New York Times today. On page F3 (in the "Home") section called "Stained Glass, With Shotguns".

"Mr. Cassidy, whose photos have a cheerful, American Gothic weirdness to them, does a good job of showing that “danger” and “safety” are in the eyes of the beholder."

A review in the Times is a wonderful thing.