"Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?"

So, is it fair to say that a party band articulates something of our hopes and longings in this world. What role does humor and play take in our formation as adults? (These are the questions that keep me awake at night, or is just the catchy tunes? "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...")

Liturgy, as I am defining it in this blog series, is: "the articulation of our prayers and longings by a public persona or persons (e.g., a band)." There is something very powerful about having your own deepest hurts, sorrows, desires and joys articulated for you, especially in song. If there is a great beat or groove, all the better.

Queen is a great example of this. All throughout Jr. High and High School, the songs of Queen seemed to voice the angst and the playfulness of me and my friends. How many times did we sing "We will, we will rock you?" across a gym floor or at some kind of competition? Too many to count. The teenage angst of competition and the need to be noticed are not insignificant characteristics of the American adolescent. Now, you can argue whether or not this music is a liturgy that forms maturity or prolonged adolescence (an important conversation), but it is significant that when I randomly say to a group of people, "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?" that a wide range of people answer with the following line... (I know you are thinking it...)

What is that? Why are we so drawn in? Why do the words stay with us for years and years? And why is it so fun? And do you know how to do the fandango?

One last question: What does the music of a band like Queen say about who we are? An important question to ask.

With that, I thought I would share a video, for your enjoyment. This is Queen's "Bohemian Rapsody" within the context of the movie, "Wayne's World." I have to say that "Wayne's World" does beg the question: is my generation stuck in adolescence? Thought this is a sobering question, I still have to laugh, and laugh a lot. What does that say about me? Hmmm...

How About that Fremont Abbey?

So, I just noticed that Fremont Abbey was featured in the Seattle Times. A great place for faith and art! Check it out!

• Fremont Abbey

Liturgy and Popular Music

I was thinking that I would start a series on the liturgical role of popular music. I think I'll start with Freddy Mercury... man that guy had a voice...

Check out this video:

Another Class, Another Post

Welcome to 'The Artist's Way' class. I hope that this is a place and venue in which we can play. For now, I will offer up the poem by Michael O'Siadhail that I used on our first day.

Enjoy!

Music, always music. And when the violins tumble
a thief has entered me.
Come and gone.
A sneaking anarchy
leaving spoors of memories I never had.

Incognito. Whimpers through crevices and pores,
quick bowings of a violin,
furious pizzicato
of what hasn’t been
whinnies and hops beyond a future I imagine.
My vigilance breaks down. Rupture of being.

This  syncopation. Offbeat,
out of phase
with myself, I vibrate.
What’s this breathlessness I can’t catch up with?

That flight of thirds mincing up a treble
clef. Lines of joy.
Matrix of frontiers.
EVERY GOOD BOY
DESERVES FAVOUR. Silences are spelling FACE.

Endless glory of some muteness that eludes me.
Approach of another face,
tremolo of forsakenness
naked and homeless.
How can I fold and suckle all its orphanhood?

Music, always music. Neighbor, are you the face
of that thief breaking in,
Hollowing me out?
A tumbling violin
breathes its cries in me.
I’m womb and mother.

“Music,” by Micheal O’Siadhail, from A Fragile City