My life has, over the last two weeks, gone completely pear shaped.
I will not be capable of producing content for this space until I can get things back on track, which is likely to take at least a few months, possibly longer.
But, I intend to be bakc.
May 8th is my (secondary) name’s day.
I haven’t been to the church since Pascha, so I don’t have a pic of the Menaion for today, but here are the main hymns for The Evangelist John the Theologian:
Troparion (mode 2)
Beloved apostle of Christ our God,
hasten to deliver a defenseless people.
He who allowed you to recline on His breast,
receives you as you bow before Him.
Implore Him, John the Theologian,
to disperse the persistent threat from the heathens,
entreating for us peace and great mercy.
Kontakion (mode 2)
Who shall declare declare your greatness,
O virgin disciple,
for you pour forth wonders and are a source of healings,
and pray for our souls as Theologian and friend of Christ.
I watched some YouTube tutorials recently to try to figure out why I am not getting enough snap. I assume/conclude I am not getting enough snap because near as I can tell my body mechanics are pretty solid, and because I can throw an ultimate disc just about as far as pretty much anyone you want to mention, so I know how to snap those just fine.
Also, I’ve been having some trouble with my right knee, stemming from an ultimate injury two summers ago, and so I want to make my run up as gentle and natural as I can.
So, I’ve made some changes to my wrist position during my drives, and I wanted to focus on keeping my arm on-line after seeing how badly I was arching it in that previous video.
Here’s the twelfth link at TC Jester from the short tee, about 300 feet.
Still not great arm motion, but better. There was a lot of wind and as soon as the disc cleared the tree line on the right side, the wind pushed it down early, but it was still reachable for deuce. Sadly, wind coming in around the left tree line pushed my putt up and over, so I ended up with a three.
After having seen this video and thinking about it a great deal more, I got things pretty well dialed in. Here’s number sixteen. Again, short tee, roughly 300 feet.
In this direction the wind produced more glide and drove the disc more or less right to the pole for a drop in deuce. As you can see the arm motion is better, but still not perfect. Between sixteen and seventeen actually stood there, rocking back and forth until I realized that it is the rotation of my hips backwards which pulls my arm up and then driving them back through which rocks it down through that arching motion. I spent the rest of the round battling trees which required awkward lines, but I’ll try to put my attention exclusively on this point starting today.
Just to give you a real sense of how bad the wind was, here’s number eighteen, short tee, roughly 400 feet.
As you can see, the wind got up under that almost instantly despite my awkward attempt to keep the throw unusually low.
On an only semi-related note, it was so great to see that the cedar trees weren’t as dead as I thought they were last Autumn/Winter.
How gorgeous is that?
I don’t know (or hope) that I resemble either Jamie or Adam, however there is a myth — or perhaps more correctly an urban legend — or perhaps even more correctly simple misinformation — which is persisted by pedantic, smug, know-it-all types (who are seeking to make some kind of point, and yet all too often miss the forest for the trees, you know, the sort who troll Hyperdox Herman not for the laughs, but to “straighten everyone out”) which returned to my mind when I noticed my own passing reference to Agni Parthene during my interview with Jeff and which I now feel compelled to try to illustrate the problem with.
The misinformation is that Agni Parthene (this is a bit more comprehensive)is basically just Greensleeves.
The value of perpetrating this misinformation seems to be to create an “Aha! I’ve caught you in hypocrisy!” moment with anyone who criticizes or condemns “Western music” but who likes Agni Parthene.
What’s odd to me is how persistent this misinformation is, given how easily dismissed it is.
Firstly, Agni Parthene is composed in Byzantine, sticheric, plagal mode one — also known as “slow five” — and is thus in something approximating a diatonic scale (and your choice of ethnically induced micro-tones) while Greensleeves is composed (at least in the oldest known settings) in the melodic minor scale which is quite different from the diatonic.
Lest you think it is merely a matter of changing the key signature, the rhythm of the two is also nothing alike. Greensleeves is syncopated while chant never is (it isn’t on a steady rhythm, either, strictly speaking, but is rather done to a natural “pulse” which is guided by the text, not the musical notation).
Lest you think it is merely a matter of changing the key signature and the rhythm, let’s look at the intervals of the melodies.
Greensleeves: 1 3 4 5 6 5 4 2 -7 1 2 3 1 1 -#7 1 2 -#7 -5 1
Agni Parthene: 1 1 2 3 3 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 -7 -7 1 3 2 1
Not even close. Not even similar, really.
Here‘s me singing both songs, with Agni Parthene omitting the refrain “Rejoice O Unwedded Bride” so the rest lines up, and singing the same lyrics to both melodies so that you can hear just how different they are.
Not content to run my mouth in public on the previous two occasions, I have had yet another wonderfully engaging conversation with Jeff Wisniewski on Ancient Faith Radio for his series Approaching The Wardrobe. We discussed liturgical calendar cycles and the human need for rhythm and apparent change to feel a sense of journey.
You can listen to me pretend to know something worth saying by clicking here.
April 30th is my (primary) name’s day.
From the Menaion
Troparion (plagal mode 4)
As a soldier of the Lord you were ranked among the choir of apostles.
Together with your brother, O James, you clung wholeheartedly to the Savior.
Armed with the power of the Spirit you preached him to all and were slain by the sword.
Therefore we sing your praises!
Troparion (mode 3)
You were a chosen apostle of Christ
And the only brother of the beloved Theologian.
Most praised James, ask remission of sins and great mercy
For those who sing hymns to you.
Kontakion (mode 2)
You heard the voice of God calling you
And turned away from the love of your father.
With your brother you hastened after Christ, O glorious James.
With him, you were counted worthy to behold the Lord’s divine Transfiguration!
So, Houston got some very impressive weather this past Saturday, April the 27th (2013). My neighborhood in particular seems to have been hit especially hard.
It started like this…
And then it got worse…
The hail got up to shooter marble size
And it started destroying tree leaves as well as my garden plants
Then it started piling up like snow
Quite a lot of it, really
Not just on paving
And the yard started to flood
Quite a lot
And the drive and the street
The entire intersection is under about a foot of water at this point
The hail came down so hard it blasted the mildew off the driveway
The only nearly ripe tomato I had (along with all the rest) was knocked clean off the plant
I’m ok, the house is ok, and all told, it could have been a lot worse for me and I’m sure it was much worse for others.
But the clean-up is going to be epic.
