tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-177320312024-01-10T01:26:39.435-05:00Enchanté: The Journal for the Urbane PaganMyth and religion and history and travel journal.Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-27455629623946098922012-09-03T16:12:00.000-04:002012-09-03T16:12:44.354-04:00How Jewish are the Jews? Reading an intriguing Israeli book (in translation of course), Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People, (Verso) a 19-week bestseller in Tel Aviv in 2009.
Sand examines a figure that has always puzzled me: The statement (often seen) that the population of the Roman Empire c. 100 CE was seven or eight percent Jewish, and the notoriously broad spread of Jewish communities throughout RomanBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-64022250617266318002012-05-06T17:58:00.001-04:002012-05-06T17:58:34.298-04:00Is It All Over? A response to Michael YorkThis is a response (which I have also posted there, to Michael York's "Being Upon the Brink of Catastrophe" on The Wild Hunt. (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2012/05/michael-york-being-upon-the-brink-of-catastrophe.html#disqus_thread).
Michael believes human history is approaching its end and is inclined to blame the egotism and ecological irresponsibility (and the faction fighting that Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-58640876040653664682012-04-26T23:30:00.000-04:002012-04-26T23:30:22.628-04:00Another chat with a foreignerAs you know, I collect foreigners. I enjoy being one in other countries, and I enjoy encountering them here. Encountering foreigners IN other countries where they TOO are foreigners - whoa.
This guy was a Turk, the chef in a restaurant called Pera Downtown that has evidently just opened in SoHo. I knew Pera UPTOWN (around the corner from Grand Central) but it's too pricey for me. Goes for the Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-58571048893685090542012-02-16T00:33:00.002-05:002012-02-16T00:39:50.490-05:00The Real Homosexual AgendaEveryone talks about the Homosexual Agenda, but no one has specified exactly what it might be. As I am a homosexual (out! as of right now! no one knew before this instant! except my three thousand-odd tricks and a few close friends and family!), I have decided to share my inferences in this matter. About time, eh?This is the REAL homosexual agenda:9 a.m. Espresso macchiato with the most adorable Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-18151588872562784442012-01-07T15:33:00.006-05:002012-01-07T15:52:07.426-05:00Permanently Single: Is This Where Our Society Going?My friend Diann, a single heterosexual not quite my age, living alone and loving it in a house in the Connecticut woods, recommends this article from Boston Magazine: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/single_by_choice_why_more_of_us_than_ever_before_are_happy_to_never_get_married/page1The article has inspired me (gay man not the least bit interested in marrying another gay man - or even a Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-28877909558524316442012-01-04T14:44:00.002-05:002012-01-04T14:56:39.437-05:00Trust. Even more than LoveIt's about Trust. Even more than Love.I am coming to realize that.Love without Trust is more trouble and complication than it is worth. (Though it's produced a lot of good opera, drama, novel, folk balladry.)Trust without Love is still valuable: You know that your friend/ partner/ relative/ whatever has enough self-esteem not to do you dirty, to look out for you, simply because it is necessary toBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-1912512085884684122011-12-28T00:18:00.003-05:002011-12-28T00:28:27.873-05:00Robot WarsArticles in many media lately trace the increasing use of drones and robots in America's wars. This sort of thing may save a few American lives, but enables those who manipulate our foreign policy to serve the military-industrial complex. Their thinking is very simple really: 1) American business makes a fortune from warfare, possibly couldn't stay afloat without it (since the rest of our Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-64346514934157241072011-10-13T18:20:00.004-04:002011-10-13T18:28:28.921-04:00The greatness of Alexander of Macedon - or as I call him, Sandy MacMary Beard (and who if not she?) has taken some writers on Big Al (or Sandy Mac) to task in the current New York Review of Books. (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/oct/27/alexander-how-great/)The conquests of Alexander of Macedon (note: hard "c") were so extraordinarily vast in large part because he did not conquer twenty different nations - the Persians (Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes) had Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-36942897392328685902011-10-12T14:20:00.002-04:002012-10-12T16:50:44.770-04:00Why I Celebrate Columbus DayI have the gall today to celebrate the 520th anniversary of the most memorable bump and grind in the history of the Bahamas, the landing of Cristóbal Colon, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, on his way over the edge of history. I may be the only pagan in the Americas who thinks this is something appropriate to celebrate.
Now, I know just what everyone is going to say. They’re going to say, How dare you Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-7003449340129489362011-09-25T11:33:00.002-04:002011-09-25T11:36:20.593-04:00The InvaderI dreamed an old woman said she had been assigned to live in my apartment. It was a social services department and if I didn’t like it, and I didn’t, I could argue with them. She said it wasn’t very clean here (well, it isn’t) and she put things away where I couldn’t find them. I screamed at her and she screamed right back, and neither of us could sleep. She tried to open a coffee bar in one of Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-49690873463971412582011-08-27T09:28:00.006-04:002011-08-27T09:56:50.924-04:00The Messiah's brother-in-lawHis name was "Adil" or something like that; his skin was swarthy but not black.
I guessed "Egypt."
He laughed. "No! But you are close!"
I guessed "Jordan," and all the other countries close to Egypt. None of them.
As you know, I only get a Point if I am right on the first guess.
"Mauretania," he said at last.
That was a first: a cabdriver from Mauretania!
"That's not close to Egypt!" I protestedBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-13863354267728641182011-07-28T15:10:00.003-04:002011-07-28T15:49:17.671-04:00Diagnosis III: The Mizrahic MystiqueWhen last we left our hero, he had nearly two weeks before a scheduled visit to a genuine oncologist, in this case Ron Blum at Beth Israel (date of appointment: July 28). So I went to the country to scream at the stars and read bits of novel to old friends, first Cat and Peter Bishop in Northampton, Mass., then Sue Arthen (and all the other Arthens) at Glenwood Farm in Worthington, Mass., the Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-71255724180034343562011-07-15T23:56:00.006-04:002011-07-16T00:54:52.571-04:00Diagnosis II: Say What You're ThinkingDr. Shastri cut off the red bleeding pimple on my small right toe. She has not yet removed the one in the angle of the two smallest toes on that foot, the older, slower-growing lesion that has yet to burst. I don't think it will prove, oncologically, very different from the other one, do you? That, I believe, was on June 24. On June 29, she called with the news that it was Kaposi's sarcoma. I Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-71420988496320854282011-07-02T11:17:00.006-04:002011-07-06T15:23:23.462-04:00Diagnosis, or The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the HeadSh'ma Yisrael!Do you remember 1981? I do, pretty clearly, though I was only ... never mind.1981 is when the CDC first noticed a lot of gay men in New York and San Francisco were getting diseases (and not getting cured of diseases) that did not suit their demo. No doubt this had been happening for years and doctors had merely been puzzled. But a cluster is a cluster. One of the two diseases was Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-72489637877324547892011-04-08T11:45:00.002-04:002011-04-08T11:52:34.223-04:00Dream Journal (on-going)I'd been appointed principal of a high school and I was agitated, nervous of ruining my job prospects, and wearing the wrong clothes (socks, jeans, plaid shirt, which made me even more self-conscious - at least I wasn't naked!) and I couldn't find my office, which was in another wing. Everyone told me Michelle would know, and evidently she was my secretary, but I couldn't find her either. I askedBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-58826349123619484432011-04-07T13:50:00.002-04:002011-04-07T13:53:28.268-04:00Kol Nidrei: A sort of a Jewish storyAs I believe all of you know, my ignorance on the subject of Jewish traditional practice is profound. For example: The Kol Nidrei prayer, which is recited on Yom Kippur. I knew nothing at all about it except that various cantorial opera singers had left recordings of it. Its function in the liturgical year I did not know at all (since I have never participated in the yearly round).My good friend Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-36900361784536811452011-01-15T15:03:00.003-05:002011-01-15T15:12:46.076-05:00How Honest Should One Be About HIV StatusThese are thoughts that came to me on reading an HIV positive friend's blog post for POZ magazine, about his affair with a guy who was HIV negative, about how frank to be, about the necessity of total honesty. He began by reflecting on telling truth to one's parents, as seen in an episode of Valerie c. 1981, where her son wanted a condom:How old was Valerie's kid supposed to be? and presumably heBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-70975120031137809852011-01-15T11:45:00.002-05:002011-01-15T11:50:35.053-05:00Hell (or, FML)What would Hell be for me?Being obliged to watch a very long movie (no refreshments, no intermissions, no potty breaks) of my life, my every move, my every moment, my every betîse, my every humiliation, working itself inexorably out. Not suffering the pains perhaps, but all the embarrassments and humiliations.Around me - silence, darkness? Emptiness? or - would this be worse - more Hellish - if Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-20227060016482887792010-12-20T11:49:00.003-05:002010-12-20T11:53:50.550-05:00A Seasonal Greeting for All Denominations (this means you)Send Pointless Greeting Cards Day!© John Yohalem, Yule 2010As you will no doubt recall, Send Pointless Greeting Cards Day, a moveable but semi-constant Feast of the Consumerist faith, commemorates the time when H.M. King Whicheversoever Ist sought the hand of Queen Comesedice in marriage. From afar – her throne in a neighboring kingdom – she had spurned earlier offers of matrimony and his variousBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-9283847911281720472010-11-08T16:03:00.002-05:002010-11-09T14:48:14.656-05:00Old is the new New! SalamancaThere are two stock figures from Salamanca in Spanish classic comedy: the Doctor (of law, usually, but of any academic study in practice) and the Student (ditto). The former is dry as dust, corrupt, greedy, lustful and pedantic to a fault. The latter is boisterous, poor, romantic and ready for anything except study. The former may be comprehended in the chapel of St. Barbara in the cloister of Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-29440406387456980652010-10-25T19:56:00.002-04:002010-10-25T20:06:52.418-04:00On the refusal of an actor, Zach something, to Come OutA Facebook (and other varieties of) friend recently posted an interview from the NYTimes with an actor named Zachary Quinto who is appearing in the Off-Broadway revival of Angels in America. I’d never heard of the guy, evidently well known for TV and film work that I have not seen because, well, I’ve given up TV (no longer have one operational) and I never go to new (post 1970) Hollywood movies. Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-78790707353708166292010-07-08T14:50:00.002-04:002010-07-08T14:59:32.177-04:00What World Cup Futbol has taught meFor the first time in my (long) life: A televised stadium sport that entertains me! I find all the others crashing, except maybe Olympic gymnastics.I've been going to restaurants and spending too much money to sit in air conditioning with other rowdy types and watch World Cup soccer, and it's been great fun, some very exciting matches of very well-matched teams. Sorry Ghana got gypped out of playBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-20904637920647425462010-05-13T10:10:00.002-04:002010-05-13T10:15:09.369-04:00Gays playing straight on (gasp) Broadway?Idly wondering if that guy, Seedy Ramin whosis, at Newsweek has any problems when Nathan Lane plays hetero leads in Guys and Dolls or The Producers or Forum, or when Ian McKellen or Derek Jacobi play Richard III, or when Tom Cruise and John Travolta (yes yes yes they're totally straight I know) play het leads in a film, or when David Daniels (or Mariusz Kwiecien) makes love to a woman in an operaBrightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-84511511753621341562010-03-13T13:38:00.001-05:002010-03-13T13:40:01.062-05:00A Goddess AppearsTo celebrate what would have been my mother's eighty-ninth birthday last night (had she not died on February 4), went to a play. She'd certainly have approved.The best new play I’ve seen in years: Venus in Fur. (by David Ives, a witty man.) A playwright (Wes Bentley) has made a play out of Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novel, the eponym of Sado-Masochism (which novel everyone knows about but no one seems Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17732031.post-518362413742052332010-01-27T00:11:00.001-05:002010-01-27T00:11:52.644-05:00Exposing MyselfI want to expose myself but I don't want anyone to look.No; I want everyone to look, but I don't want anyone to see.Or perhaps peek through their fingers and then forget all about it.Or not realize it was me, unless they think about it later. Much later.Or I want to expose myself completely but veiled.Or a photograph, but only the negative, so obviously not with a digital camera.Or just from the Brightshadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04839714759427606012noreply@blogger.com0