Cleopatra #2, Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor is the face most people think of when they think of Cleopatra

There's just nothing like a Cecil B. Demille epic scene with thousands of extras.


Fifth Degree: Elizabeth Taylor
Famous for her violet eyes and many husbands, Ms Taylor is an icon of the American cinema.  Her career was at its height in the 1960s when she appeared with.....
Fourth Degree: Burl Ives,
in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."  We already reckonned Burl Ives at 4 degrees from John Paul II in the post on Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Here's the trailer to "Cat".

"From the 1940s through 1960, Burl Ives was considered America’s most authoritative interpreter of American folk songs. A mainstream figure (better known than Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie), his penetrating, tenor voice with its unique timbre was recognized by millions." -Ellen Harold and Peter Stone

 
Ives is remembered for his novelty songs from the 1960s, but his impact on American music is much deeper than that.  For a great article on Ives, go to the Association for Cultural Equality site.  This Alan Lomax site is dedicated to Lomax' lifetime passion, folkmusic.  While I'm sure that Ives and Lomax met, I cannot find a picture of it or any quotes from a meeting.  So I'm going to link Ives to Lomax via...

Third Degree: Woody Guthrie
Guthrie and Lomax collected folksong together as we see in this photograph from the American South.

Woody Guthrie on left, Alan Lomax at the right
children unknown

Second Degree: Alan Lomax 

received the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan.

First Degree: President Ronald Reagan

A former McCarthyist, President Reagan turned over a new leaf when he awarded Alan Lomax the Medal of Arts in 1986.  During the time of McCarthyism in the United States, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and Alan Lomax were black listed. 

Saint Paul

Blast from the East: Metania (Metanoia)

Ronald Reagan once tried to end the professional lives of Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and Alan Lomax, but he changed completely by the time he became president.  He turned away from the sin of bearing false witness and praised those he had persecuted.  This is very much like what Saint Paul did, only Reagan never acknowledged as president, his former McCarthyist work.

We are in the season of Great Lent.  Many priests (Western) will be taking out their rusty Greek and using the word, "metanoia" in their sermons.  In the East, we live this word physically in prayer.  During Great Lent, we say the Prayer of Saint Efraim several times each service and during The Divine Liturgy.  Prostrations are called "metania" in the Eastern Church.  Crossing one's self is a form of prostration before God.  Add a bow and it's more of a prostration.  Touch the floor as part of making your cross, and you're making a metania.  Get on your knees and face on the floor and that is a "full metania."  

The word "metania" literally means to change direction 180 degrees.  To switch direction, to go the other way.  Spiritually we are turning away from sin and toward Jesus Christs.  See here as Orthodox priests and deacons do full metanias and recite the prayer of Saint Efraim during Great Lent.  

Bob Dylan

Reverently Greeting the Pontif

1 Degree

Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, tried to stop Bob Dylan and other rock musicians from performing for Pope John Paul II at the 1997 World Eucaristic Congress in Bologna (WEC 1997).  In an act of total fuddy-duddyness, Pope BXVI called rock music anti-Christian and labeled Dylan as a false "prophet."  Our pope loves many modern things, music is NOT one of them. 

John Paul II welcomed the rock music and gave a long sermon on "Blowin' in the Wind" as part of the WEC 1997.  For the original story by Malcom Moore, click here. 

At the event in Bologna, Dylan performed four songs, including Knockin' on Heaven's Door, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall and Blowin' in the Wind.

A visibly frail John Paul gave a long sermon based on Blowin' in the Wind.

He told the young Catholics: "On the road of music this evening, Jesus met you. A representative of yours said on your behalf that the answer is blowing in the wind.

"Yes, it is true. On the wind there is the voice and breath of the Holy Spirit."

He added: "You asked me: how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man? I answer you: just one. One only. It is the road of a man. And this is Jesus Christ, who said 'I am the way'."

After his performance Dylan went to greet John Paul on the podium to roars from the crowd. The conference proved a great success and John Paul's popularity with young people rocketed.

What do you think? I'm totally behind the Pontiff trying to make the music of church more reverent and more Catholic.  Latin seems to be abandoned in many parishes and with it, the ancient melodies.  It's tough for me to wrap my head around singing  second-rate jingle music from the 70s when we have mass music by Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Dufay, and Palestrina and more.  While there are loads of great rock and folk songs to sing for edification, they are not for mass.  What do you think?