Sunday, December 27, 2015

Late gift: Eye of the Tiger on Ukulele

RantWoman is fascinated by this video.

RantWoman does not play the ukulele and therefore feels it is completely inappropriate to comment about anything to do with ukulele technique. What completely charms RantWoman though: the ukulele is just not the first instrument that comes to mind when RantWoman thinks about an arrangement of Eye of the Tiger. That is unquestionably the point of this post.  Enjoy!



Friday, December 25, 2015

Weird Christmas presents featuring Franklin Graham, Christmas In The Ashram-Tom Prasada-Rao

RantWoman sat through all of Meeting for Worship feeling like Santa with a bag full of weird presents.

One of them involves evangelist Franklin Graham.

Brother Franklin has been having media snit-fits about how Muslims and Christians cannot possibly worship the same God because the God he worships has a son named Jesus and the God Muslims worship only has a prophet named Jesus.

The Franklin Graham-themed package in RantWoman's mind: RantWoman wonders what kind of families Brother Franklin hangs out with. RantWoman knows of PLENTY of families where different branches of the family have really different versions of who is whose parent, whether someone's "aunt" is really their mother or whether someone's "mom" is really their grandmother. Other families for any number of reasons have no idea one or more branches even exist.

So much as RantWoman can imagine Brother Franklin wanting to be certain in his viewpoint, RantWoman thinks it might be better to think about how we all have only one planet we are sharing and what are we called to do to share better?

RantWoman could think about all that, but RantWoman could easily also just get distracted with the interfaith musical tangle below.


Sunday, December 20, 2015

Fourth Sunday: Johann Sebastian Bach: Concertos For Oboe & Oboe D'Amore Advent and construction Crane

First some music




Now MAYBE RantWoman will get to her intended riffs on this photo of the construction crane nearest her Meeting including things tying centuries together and techno renditions of evergreens. Maybe.


How many photographing on a smartphone while blind elements can YOU find?
Construction crane
Blue boom
Christmas Tree
Lights zigzagging
up the pole

 



Monday, December 14, 2015

Email, aliens, present

...the aliens....

RantWoman, they don't want to know about the aliens, I'm pretty sure.

RantWoman actually does not necessarily want to know about the aliens either.

Ah, but...

Unwrapped
Unwrapped

Recently, RantWoman was being, um, plainspoken about aliens who seem to "help" someone write email.

RantWoman's counterpart in the conversation: RANTWOMAN, it's public record. Here's where to look! The aliens in his mother's head offed 3 of his siblings!"

RantWoman has not felt called to go look at public record.

RantWoman is really glad that so far, all this person's aliens do is "help" about email.

Bless us all oh Lord in this festive holiday season...

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Eighth Night Christmas overtaking? Ode to Joy in Yiddish




The only thing better than single holiday kitsch is joint holiday kitsch
Christmas Tree with a
Menorah on top

RantWoman, after the fact, thanks Jewish Voices For Peace for a WONDERFUL centered 8th Night vigil at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle. RantWoman's perspective as an ally with about the level of sophistication to say "Happy Hanukkah:" the event was just In Your Face enough to be clear about it's views and still very centered. Plus it was a nice follow-on to a #BlackLivesMatter event on Black Friday.


W. A. Mozart "Oboe Concerto" Moscow Virtuosi Um No, another rendition

Yeah verily, God has commanded RantWoman to provide oboe music for advent.

Bless the Lord for he / she / insert pronoun construction of choice. has not particularly gotten RantWoman to get her act together in time to riff on everything it comes to mind to riff on.

Cope.

And enjoy the music

Oops, um, no.RantWoman is still getting the hand of numerous copyright issues and apologizes for needing to substitue a different version.


Saturday, December 12, 2015

Seventh Night Cactus Menorah and Carmen

Now all you need is the bunuelos
Southwest Cactus Menorah

Dedicated to everyone whose family can suddenly go all telenovela on the situation around any holiday whatsoever.

Have some bunuelos and enjoy the thought of professionals in formal concert dress playing one piano, six hands.



Friday, December 11, 2015

Hamza Warsame: Say His Name

1. If Friends with a peace-loving interfaith bent do nothing else please offer prayers for the family of Hamza Warsame, a 17-year-old Somali Running Start student from Rainier Beach High School who was attending classes at Seattle Central Community College. Last weekend, Hamza fell from a 6-story building near the Seattle Central Campus and died of his i injuries later that same day.

RantWoman has been saying prayers rising from the #justice4Hamza  #SayHisName thread, prayers for Hamza’s family, for a homicide investigation arising after public #blacklivesmatter outcry based on concern from Hamza's friends about a beating, a hate crime, and him getting pushed to his death. Early in the tweet stream the radioactive word suicide occurred along with comments about Hamza not seeming suicidal. RantWoman apologizes for not chasing down exact details about family concerns or other most current details of the police investigation. RantWoman simply offers prayers for the dead youth, his sister Ikram and the rest of his family and friends, as well as for a thorough and effective investigation with particular attention to the possible hate crime issue.

2. In a spirit of Interfaith solidarity, RantWoman offers the following link as well. Faith Action Network interfaith Leaders' Council statement  RantWoman thinks it MIGHT have been nice to refer also to Hamza’s death, but that is RantWoman.

3. Meeting for worship last week featured NOT ONE SINGLE message about events in San Bernardino. RantWoman was seasoning a message about President Obama SO FAR not finding anything to bomb in connection with the atrocities in San Bernardino. Mercifully the message did not emerge from RantWoman’s mouth during worship.

4. Speaking of general community agitation, RantWoman found the #justice4Hamza thread while doing Twitter checking about different unexpected fuss.  RantWoman's journey home from Meeting last week came with unexpected fuss, unexpected fuss in the form of a car chase with a gun-brandishing soul who carjacked 3 different cars, led police on a car chase all over downtown, the University District and NE Seattle before departing to other realms in a hail of police gunfire. RantWoman happened to be leaving Meeting just as police cars and sirens were going every which way around her. RantWoman originally intended to walk a few blocks to a shorter bus ride home, but quickly grokked that she would probably be safer aboard the first bus going anywhere vaguely in the direction of home and better informed fishing on Twitter than trying to make sense of all the sirens and flashing blue lights.


Dear God, Santa Claus, the Great Pumpkin, whoever is available, PLEASE bring me a lot less gunfire and tragedy!

Sixth Night Love One Another


What can go wrong if we just line everyone up and sing?



Are these choristers or Hanukkah candles
Menorah with
Calico candles



Thursday, December 10, 2015

Happy Hanukkah Fifth Night. Conversions.

Fifth Night. RantWoman does not know about anyone else but by the fifth night of celebration, RantWoman's relatives might be getting, well, relative. RantWoman is not clear the item below will help. That would be part of the problem.
Colorful
Very multicolored Menorah
 
RantWoman's theme for this year for Hanukah is peculiar gifts images or music or stories that have some "peculiar gift" element. Peculiar gifts include the path to this leading and some surprisingly ferocious need still to riff on last year's "Nothing appropriate" theme but this year with new people.

Casting?

Stay tuned.

Please be advised. RantWoman does not promise tasteful. Nor does RantWoman apologize for laughing very hard.

Stephen Colbert posthumously circucises all dead Mormons. Yeah, you have to CHOOSE to click.

Stephen Colbert simultaneously converts all dead mormons to Judaism.

Dr. Laura. Pouring Rain. Holiday Venn Diagram




Actual Popcorn kernels
Nice Fresh PopCorn Kernels

Holiday popcorn kernel meditations upon the wisdom of Dr. Laura:

"Do not piss on my leg and tell me it's raining."

It IS pouring rain

And  people also keep pissing on my leg!

Bless us oh Lord....


And another random holiday offering, along with a link for more from the same source.

A red and green venn diagram featuring God, Santa Claus, Spider Man, The Spanish Inquisition. Get sighted Help


http://www.stephenwildish.co.uk/

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Fourth Night: Beautiful music not particularly to theme



What's the black background about?
Simple menorah, colored candles


Not very flashy menorah and some just gorgeous diva moments.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Birthday Presence: Gunnison, Charlie, Holiday Music


For people and things that
A poinsettia
 

In the realm of presents from Facebookistan, RantWoman humbly and very gratefully counts the Facebook mechanism for alerting one to one's friends' birthdays. Today Facebook alerted RantWoman to the 83rd birthday of someone who needs no nom de blog and therefore simply goes by Charlie.

Happy 83rd Birthday Charlie, and if you are no longer with us love and blessings to your family where you have lived since moving out of RantWoman's building.

Charlie has been blind since birth. RantWoman, morbidly always wants to know more detail but does not. Charlie grew up in Colorado and graduated from the Colorado School of the Blind with expertise in piano tuning.

Until a few months ago, Charlie lived in RantWoman's building and even occasionally still frequented the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. Charlie was still learning about technology and screen readers and all the new things the internet throws at people. He was not learning as fast as others but he was definitely still learning.


Here anyway, not particularly evocative of Charlie but still
Santa Claus

He also contributed great faith and centeredness, oh an occasional need fo conversational de-escalation when conversations with certain combinations of people veered too erratically around sex and religion and everyone's interest in talking--but not necessarily listening--about both.

Still another claim to fame: Charlie's interest in Norwegian, on account of which he has both travelled to Norway and left the Friendly Neighborhood Center braille embossing software enriched with options for output in Norwegian.

Charlie's dream trip to Norway

Article headline RantWoman finds cloying about trip







Look, it's Gunnison. It's winter. Who cares beyond that.
Gunnison, CO Winter
The other fascinating circumstance, the reason RantWoman has stuck a bunch of photographic allusions to childhood Christmases in the RantFamily household in with Charlie's birthday celebration: RantWoman and Charlie one day were comparing dates and places we lived. RantWoman is almost CERTAIN that her former neighbor Charlie is also the Charlie who came one time to tune the piano at the RantFamily household in ...Gunnison CO.



The Google is a great and glorious vehicle for time travel. The trim used to be green though
The Rant Family House 1966-1972
217 S Main
Gunnison CO
 



Ah, yes, and again with RantWoman's fixation about one piano six hands, and not even any nuclear family meltdowns.






Third Night: about darn time for some kind of prayer in words!


Blessing to have someone to read this prayer
Menorah with prayer



Sunday, December 6, 2015

Happy Hanukkah World

Happy Hanukkah World!

Candle crescendo
Happy Hanukkah  World
RantWoman does not exactly personally celebrate  Hanukkah except as an excuse sometimes to eat greasy food (Buneulos? Sweet potato latkes? Donuts?) or share other celebratory practices with people who do observe Hanukkah.

This year's hanukkah celebration theme will be surprise gifts. It is inspired by all the gifts that turned up in an annual act of memory, as well as some other gifts in RantWoman's media streams.

The world of blind geeks is not very large and the world of blind female geeks is even smaller. RantWoman and another blind female geek have a connection now mostly receded in memory. We have spoken on the phone but never met. We cross paths in various electronic streamsand sometimes somewhere in the flow kind of say privately "Oh, hi." 

This year, RantWoman looked in a stream where she had not previously looked. RantWoman found exactly one person with the expected name. The person is Facebook friends with some of the same blind geeks RantWoman is friends with. Sevral of RantWoman's Hanukkah gifts are other things RantWoman found, accompanied by RantWoman's usual selection of the kitschiest menorahs she can find.

Trick question to non-blind readers: Can you find RantWoman touches with the images?

Advent: week 2: Handel; Hanuukkah on the horizon

As RantWoman said last week, God has commanded her to welcome Advent with oboe music. RantWoman is used to holidays full of all sorts of musical endeavors and finds this command perplexing but not disagreeable.

But then God also has in the past, like somewhere in the depths of the last legislative session, commanded RantWoman to talk IN MEETING FOR WORSHIP about the capital gains tax. RantWoman's faithfulness was rewarded by encouraging and supportive conversations with two different newcomers to Meeting. Bless us oh Lord while we sort sense and future work from the holiday frenzy.



Menorah of Many Colors
Faux Stained Glass menorah
Hanukkah is on the horizon and RantWoman wound up with an extra graphic.

RantWoman assuredly has not been given to understand why this particular graphic showed up when RantWoman was asking her oracle, oops her search engine for Sponge Bob menorahs.

RantWoman is especially charmed by the colors , so in anticipation....

And now, as promised, the oboe, again. RantWoman has NO explanation for the visual oddities of this clip. RantWoman recommends just letting oneself get lost in the music. ON Planet RantWoman this 8 minutes is enough to leave RantWoman centered for hours.