Saints + Scripture: Pascha

Simplex Edition | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

'Tis the Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter (Latin: Pascha, meaning "Passover"): Pascha-link & Wikipedia-link Paschaltide.

The Popish Plot: vEaster
"Viking Helmets"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Goldfinger, "Superman" from Hang-Ups (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: "'Superman' (Quarantine Video)": YouTube-link.

Bonus! Song o' the Lord's Day: VI Pascha (Easter)

Fun, "Carry On" from Some Nights (St. Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"If you're lost and alone,
Or you're sinking like a stone,
Carry on!
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground,
Carry on!…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Kalles Kaviar, "Cast Away" from Probably the Next Big Thing (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"…As the train arrived,
Dark clouds were gathering round,
I heard the train's whistle blowing,
But she was nowhere to be found.

"So I am running and hiding away,
I'm still looking for a place to stay,
Yes, those days they are empty and gray,
I never meant for love to be cast away!

"To be cast away!
To be cast away!"

Saints + Scripture: Pascha

Simplex Edition | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

'Tis the Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Latin: Pascha, meaning "Passover"): Pascha-link & Wikipedia-link Paschaltide.

The Popish Plot: vEaster
"St. Matthias"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Death of Guitar Pop, "Ska Is the Bollocks" from In Over Our Heads (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: "Ska Is the Bollocks" tells the tale of how pursuing a career in ska music lead Silky & Top Kat to fame & fortune, as opposed to the usual ska story of social & economic marginalization. "Ska Is the Bollocks" is, of course, ironic.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Conquer Rocks, "Ska Haboob" from Birth of the Fourth Wave of Ska (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: As is typical of the songs of the compilation, "Ska Haboob" is instrumental. What's a haboob? I'm so glad you asked: Wikipedia-link.

Lies, Damned Lies, & the News

I am no fan of President Trump. I was already moving away from the Republican Party before 2016, but his nomination as candidate for the presidency was the final straw. But credit where credit is due, the man is a brilliantly effective communicator. He's not a great orator, his speeches do not call forth the best of the Western tradition & inspire us to listen to the better angels of our nature, but he knows how to work the crowd in a way that many more polished politicians do not. He knows how to speak to & harness the anger & disaffection that many Americans feel, had felt for a long time before Mr. Trump helped furnish the words to articulate those emotions. "Fake news" is a coarse but accurate way to describe the half-truths, outright falsehoods, & manipulations both subtle & unsubtle than have fatally undermined the credibility of once-dominant news outlets. As repulsive as Mr. Trump is, why should I believe anything C.N.N. says against or about him when they proffer obvious geographic & historical falsehoods? For instance:

Saints + Scripture: Pascha

Simplex Edition | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

'Tis the Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Latin: Pascha, meaning "Passover"): Pascha-link & Wikipedia-link Paschaltide.

The Popish Plot: vEaster
"The Virtues: Gratitude"

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXLIX

Operation AXIOM: The 40th Anniversary of the Mount Saint Helens Eruption
20 March-18 May 1980: Two months of earthquakes & phreatic blasts culminated in the explosive eruption of the volcano, killing fifty-seven persons, most famously stubborn old coot Harry R. Truman & U.S. Geological Survey vulcanologist David A. Johnston; ash blanketed eleven states, volcanic mudflows reached as far as fifty miles away, & the nearby lakes are still choked with fallen timber.

The State of The Secret Base
This is our nine thousand nine hundred fiftieth post (9,950) since the inception of The Secret Base of the Rebel Black Dot Society in February 2002. We'll have to think of some small way to commemorate the upcoming ten thousandth post, should the world perdure.

Project BLACK MAMBA: Call It a Comeback?

2019 was a terrible year for Project BLACK MAMBA, The Secret Base's daily "Saints + Scripture" post. There were too many demands on my time & too little time to meet them all, & as a result I fell further & further behind on the daily post. Trying to make up for the backlog put me further & further behind schedule until I finally had to cut my losses & content myself reluctantly (& temporarily) with keeping current, with not falling any further behind. It was all I could do to keep up, without catching up on any of the backlog.

2019 was not just a terrible year, but the worst in the five-&-a-half-year history of BLACK MAMBA. That was, at least until the Panic of 2020 shut down not just the political economy of these United States & the world entire, but even more astoundingly the sacramental economy of the Church. The food that fuels your humble narrator is not the cold pizza, chocolate chip cookies, & Red Bull in which I overindulge all too frequently, but the Bread of Life—the Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. In A.D. 304, as the emperor Diocletian's persecution raged, a certain Emeritus answered, to questions about why he & his fellow Christians had disobeyed the divine emperor's edicts, "Sine dominico non possumus" ("Without Sunday, we cannot live"); yet this is precisely what our bishops have ordered us to do, to live without Sunday, with the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, without the Body of Christ in the baptized gathered to worship & sacrifice. I am obedient to my bishop, even as I disagree (Matthew, 23:1-7).

But without the food which endures (John, 6:27, et al.), I was starving to death. I endured fifty-three days without the Eucharist before finding a courageous priest who heeded Pope Francis's call to be creative, "to be with the people so that the people don’t feel alone.” Since last Sunday, I've been coming back to life, feeling myself again after the numbness & apathy of the last two months, but such a resuscitation takes time & fuel (Mark, 5:43). I do not know what shape the reactivation of BLACK MAMBA will take, but I hope to find those answers sooner rather than later. Thank you, dear readers, for standing by The Secret Base throughout this crisis & torpor.

Code Name: CHAOS | In memoriam
I've not followed the National Basketball Association (N.B.A., seemingly a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party) since the heyday of the Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys" in the early 1990s; so, though I knew of the late Kobe Bryant (1978-2020) as a great basketball player, I had no idea he'd nicknamed himself the "Black Mamba"—& successfully so—'til the widespread journalistic coverage of his sudden & unexpected demise this past winter. Wherefore do I mention this? Simply to state that Project BLACK MAMBA was not so code named as a reference to the late, great Mr. Bryant, though upon learning of the Black Mamba's Catholic faith, I did smile at the coincidence.

Commentary: In memoriam Kobe Bryant (1978-2020). Requiescat in pace.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Alpheus, "Our Time Will Come" from the Rudies single (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"We're here under pressure,
But our time will come.
It's rough and it's tough,
But our time will come.
Good grooves will beat evil,
So our time will come, soon come!
Oh yeah-ah-ah, oh!

"Our strength is our wealth,
So me not gon' give up,
Put my best to the test, yeah,
Dem not gon' make me stop,
My shoulders to the wheel now
And I'll keep goin' strong!
Oh yeah-ah-ah, oh!

"From here and now
We'll fight 'til no end,
No fear, no doubt,
We'll comprehend,
And we'll walk proud
With fists held in the air!
Oh yeah-ah-ah, oh yeah!…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Interrupters featuring Rancid, "Got Each Other" from Fight the Good Fight (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The worst aspect of the plague is not the death toll—requiescant in pace—nor the deliberate impoverishment of millions, as awful as both of those things are, but the fear. The pandemic (remember, you literally can't spell "pandemic" without panic) & the response to the pandemic have encouraged us to be afraid of each other, to loathe community. Man is not meant to live this way, is not meant to hide behind walls & regard his neighbor with suspicion.

"If you are alone tonight,
You can come with us,
If you don't have friends or family
Or people that you trust,
We will be your confidants,
Yours sisters and your brothers.

"We don't have much, but we got each other!
We don't have much, but we got each other!

"Through all the heartache,
We find a way to smile,
And if you were in trouble,
I'd walk ten thousand miles,
And when that storm comes around,
Well, I will be your cover.

"We don't have much, but we got each other!
We don't have much, but we got each other!

"Hard luck and tough times
Always 'round the bend,
Without your love and friendship,
And a kind hand to lend,
Well, I'd be so lost,
At sea without a rudder.

"We don't have much, but we got each other!
We don't have much, but we got each other!

"Make your home in this sacred ground,
We've been here for years,
Solid in foundation,
The blood, the sweat, and tears,
Raise your voice, stand side by side,
And we will sing forever.

"We don't have much, but we got each other!
We don't have much, but we got each other!

"If you are alone tonight,
You can come with us,
If you don't have friends or family
Or people that you trust,
We will be your confidants,
Yours sisters and your brothers.

"You ready?
One, two, three, four!

"We don't have much, but we got each other!
We don't have much, but we got each other!
We don't have much, but we got each other!
We don't have much, but we got each other!"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Reel Big Fish, "Last Show" from We're Not Happy 'Til You're Not Happy (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: I find tremendous solace in "Last Show," in the potential for finality.

"This is the last show I will ever play with you,
This is the end of what you put me through,
The last show I will ever play with you,
It's the end of what we do!…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Dendrites, "No Money, No Sunshine" from the Lunchin' with the Dendrites E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: This is the rare Dendrites song with vocals. The lyrics continue in a fourth-wave context the third-wave's pattern of pairing lyrical darkness with melodic lightness, celebrating a romance that seems so obsessive & all-consuming in its nature that one cannot help but recall the too-late-to-be-useful wisdom of Admiral Ackbar.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXLVIII

Operation AXIOM: The 30th Anniversary of Disaster Transport
For a summer 1990 opening, Cedar Point's bobsled roller coaster Avalanche Run (1985-1989) was enclosed & revamped & reopened as Disaster Transport, within the ride's spaceflight storyline a contraction of "Dispatch Master Transport;" after three decades of neglected maintenance & closing down whenever rain fell (despite being an enclosed ride), Disaster Transport was demolished in 2012.

Commentary: Disaster Transport holds a curiously large emotional significance for all of us in the Blue Tree Whacking creative collective as the namesake of our second band, Murky Transport Disaster, & M.T.D.'s sole album, The Murky Transport Disaster Disaster Transport Transport Disaster.

Bonus! Song o' Disaster Transport
Blink-182, "Rollercoaster" from Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Lord's Day: V Pascha (Easter)

The O.C. Supertones, "Supertones Strike Back" from Supertones Strike Back (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The last eight weeks have been the worst of my life. I have no strength of my own, I am utterly dependent upon the Lord's strength, & the interdict against the faithful has been killing me; I've been dying without the Eucharist. But wallowing in misery has only made me miserable & as endlessly fascinating as I find myself even I have grown bored with my whining; joy is the choice, & henceforth I choose to be joyful.

"We want this whole band to be a big love letter,
So we play the ska and it makes you feel better,
God's got love for us, so we got love for you,
It's your life, so what you wanna do?…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Lies, Damned Lies, & the News
The Interrupters, "Outrage" from Fight the Good Fight (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Your eyes are glued, glued to the news,
They say there’s two sides, you better choose,
A civil war they want you fighting for,
The ones in power, who always want more.

"They put a mask on to speak their minds,
They need a veil to hide behind,
The mob is howling like wolves trapped in a cage,
This will go down in history as the age
Of outrage! Yeah!
Of outrage! Yeah!

"A house of cards, about to fall,
Where they go one, they go all,
People are hurting, they feel the burden,
They get from learning what's behind the curtain.

"They put a mask on to speak their minds,
They need a veil to hide behind,
The mob is howling like feedback from the stage,
This will go down in history as the age
Of outrage! Yeah!
Of outrage! Yeah!

Yeah!
(This is the age)
Of outrage! Yeah!
(This is the age)
Of outrage! Yeah!"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Interrupters, "Easy On You" from The Interrupters (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"But why, oh why, are you making it,
Making it so hard?

"Be easy on yourself,
Be easy on yourself,
Be easy on yourself,
'Cause nobody's been easy on you…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Skameleon, "Kung Fu Fighting" from Ska Makes Everything Better (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The friendly Germans of Skameleon just this very day released a quarantine-themed video for their ska cover of Carl Douglas's "Ku Fung Fighting": YoüTübe-link. A hearty Danke to Skameleon for a bit of cheer on what has been an otherwise awful day.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Reel Big Fish, "Don't Stop Skankin'" from Candy Coated Fury (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Melbourne Ska Orchestra, "The Best Things in Life Are Free" from Melbourne Ska Orchestra (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Love can come to everyone,
The best things in life are free…"

The Stars My Destination

Code Name: CHAOS
Alan Shepard initiated the tradition of American astronauts naming their spacecraft, his Mercury capsule's name Freedom 7 signifying American freedom in opposition to Soviet tyranny, & the seven astronauts of N.A.S.A.'s Astronaut Group 1, the "Mercury Seven" or "Original Seven." This tradition waned during Project Gemini, as we shall see in future episodes of "The Explorers' Club," but waxed again during Project Apollo, as we've already seen.

The reusable Space Shuttles were named, presumably by N.A.S.A. management, since those craft had multiple flight crews; it is unknown if the Orion capsules' names will be chosen by their crews or by N.A.S.A. management. Of course, N.A.S.A. has complicated matters by reusing names among multiple spacecraft: the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia & the Space Shuttle Columbia OV-102, the Apollo 15 Command Module Endeavour & the Space Shuttle Endeavour OV-105, & the Apollo 17 Lunar Module Challenger & the Space Shuttle Challenger OV-099. The aforementioned Orion capsule, which isn't a single vehicle but a class (of which several are currently planned) shares its name with the Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion.

We have yet to see if SpaceX's single-use Crew Dragon capsules, scheduled to begin ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station this month—27 May, three weeks from today, if all goes to plan—will be named; if so, let us hope they are better named than SpaceX's autonomous spaceport drone ships, which have profoundly unfortunate names. Boeing's reusable Starliner capsule set to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station beginning next year has been named Calypso.

I am charmed by the naming schema for Blue Origin's rockets: New Shepard for a suborbital booster & New Glenn for an orbital booster, referencing Alan Shepard's suborbital flight aboard the Freedom 7 & John Glenn's orbital flight aboard the Friendship 7.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXLVII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 3
5 May 1961: Mercury 3 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying Alan Shepard (1923-1998), U.S.N. aboard the Mercury capsule Freedom 7 atop a Redstone rocket; he became the first American, & the second man, in space during the suborbital flight; the Freedom 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean & was recovered by crewmen from the U.S.S. Lake Champlain.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' Mercury-Redstone 3
Foo Fighters, "Learn to Fly" from There Is Nothing Left to Lose (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Less Than Jake, "Richard Allen George… No, It's Just Cheese" from Hello Rockview (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"…Aye, aye, aye aye, Cinco de moustache!
The kids that are hip,
They grow hair on their lip,
They thrown down their razors
And don't give a shit!
Then grow and grow and grow,
So let your moustache show,
Oh yeah!"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Royal Oil" from Let's Face It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Royal oil, come on bubble and boil,
Stabs like a dagger, makes you stagger on the hot tin foil,
Mind your mind or it will surely spoil,
Then you sleep down in the soil.
Nothing comes from nothing, come on Royal Oil.

"When you smoke or poke the poison,
You loose the chance to be tomorrow,
(Don't lose your chance!)
Look out on the horizon,
See the sadness, the pain, and the sorrow…

"Royal Oil has cut many down to size,
Spikes gonna strike the weak and strong alike,
And then forever and ever close those eyes.
Make up your mind to keep your mind up and to your life be loyal…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Lies, Damned Lies, & the News
The Interrupters, "Media Sensation" from Say It Out Loud (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Land of the free, home of the slave,
The uninformed are digging their own grave.
Pacified with the mainstream media,
What's it gonna take? mass hysteria!
And that's fine ‘cause I'm not blind,
I'm ready for a fight of any kind,
And we're forming, trust me the drones are swarming,
Take this as a global warning!

Don't watch their T.V. stations,
It's all a fabrication,
And don't march in their formation,
A media sensation!
A media sensation!
A media sensation!
A media sensation!

They'll keep you suspended in fear,
Until your freedoms disappear,
I said it once, but you're not hearing me:
You're giving up liberty for security!
And that's fine, the sheep are blind,
Shepherds indoctrinate the minds
Of the masses, poor and middle classes,
All parading like a bunch of fascists!

Don't watch their T.V. stations,
It's all a fabrication…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "They Will Need Music" from The Magic of Youth (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"They will need music to uplift,
It'll be a Godsend, it'll be a gift,
And hope and glory to coincide,
They'll need the strength and warmth and comfort that the music will provide!…"

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXLVI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part XIII
1 May 1920: The May Day "Revolution"—U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer & J. Edgar Hoover of the Bureau of Investigation warned throughout April of a planned, violent May Day uprising by radicals aiming to overthrow the American government; police departments & even some state militias were mobilized to counter the threat; May Day came & went peacefully; Palmer was ridiculed.

Lest we forget.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "After the Music Is Over" from While We're at It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"After the music is over,
After the lights are all out,
After the damage that's been done,
Is something we don't think about.
What's left and what's not been forgotten,
We lose just a little each year,
Something went wrong and was rotten,
Some wish that they were never here.

"The wrath cut a path of such sorrow,
So sad and so abrupt,
Tell God we can't let it corrupt,
Any hope we have left for tomorrow.

"The final and the very last bastion,
Hold on tight to every shred that still exists,
Remember all the pain and all the passion,
Fight on with your hard head and fists!

"After the music is over,
When what needs to be's been said,
After the tears have all been shed,
When it's over, what is after that?…

"After the music's over, we will hear the music once again,
After the music's over, we will hear the music again."

Saints + Scripture: Pascha

'Tis the Thursday of the Third Week of Easter (Latin: Pascha, meaning "Passover"): Pascha-link & Wikipedia-link Paschaltide.

The Popish Plot: vEaster
"The 2nd Mass in the Bible"

Death without the Eucharist: Day 44
He was forty-four days dying & not yet dead.

'Tis the Optional Memorial of Saint Pius V, Pope, O.P. (1504-1572; A.K.A. Antonio Ghislieri, Michele Ghislieri), two hundred twenty-fifth (CCXXV) Bishop of Rome (1566-1572), Bishop of Mondovì (1560-1566); who implemented the reforms of the Council of Trent (1545-1563, the nineteenth [XIX] ecumenical council) & excommunicated the English queen Elizabeth I through the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis (1570); & who organized the Holy League that won the Battle of Lepanto (1571), which he celebrated by instituting the Feast of Our Lady of Victory: Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, Saint-link trēs, & Wikipedia-link; Pontifex-link & Wikipedia-link Pontifex, & Wikipedia-link Mondovì; Council-link & Wikipedia-link Trent, & Wikipedia-link Regnans in Excelsis; Wikipedia-link Holy League, Battle-link & Wikipedia-link Lepanto, & Wikipedia-link Madonna.

Commentary: Wayback Machine '18.

'Tis also the festival of Saints Amator, Priest; Ludovico; & Pietro of Córdoba, Religious; Martyrs (died 855), martyred in the reign of the Andalusian king Muhammad I, three of the forty-eight Martyrs of Córdoba: Martyr-link Alpha, Martyr-link Lima, Martyr-link Papa, & Wikipedia-link (List); Wikipedia-link Córdoba.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed William Southerne, Priest & Martyr (circa 1569-1618), martyred in the reign of the Anglo-Scottish king James VI & I, one of the Eighty-five Martyrs of England & Wales: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Martyrs-link England & Wales & Wikipedia-link England & Wales.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Marie of the Incarnation, Religious, O.S.U. (1599-1672, A.K.A. Marie Guyart): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Across the water in the Canadas, St. Marie's feast is an obligatory Memorial. Not to be confused with Bl. Marie of the Incarnation, O.C.D. [18 April].

'Tis also the festival of Saint Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo, Priest, T.O.S.F. (1786-1842), founder of the Little House of Divine Providence, nicknamed the "University of Charity:" Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Dedë Plani, Priest & Martyr (1891-1948), martyred in the reign of the Communist dictator Enver Hoxha: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link (List); Wikipedia-link Albania.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter eight, verses twenty-six thru forty;
Psalm Sixty-six (R/. one), verses eight & nine, sixteen & seventeen, & twenty;
The Gospel according to John, chapter six, verses forty-four thru fifty-one.

Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus declares, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." The bread is referred to as living. Bread is good, but it’s not alive. Instead, when we take it in, and it is turned by our bodies into fat or muscle or bone, then it comes alive.

But it is just the opposite with the living bread of Christ. This we take in and we become alive in a way that we were not before. And this is why Jesus says that he is bread come down from heaven.

What is heaven? St. Paul says, "Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love him." Paul’s pithy remark gives us a clue: "those who love him." Whatever heaven is, it is the realm of God, and therefore it is a realm of love.

What is the Eucharist, this heavenly food, but a participation in the love between the Father and the Son? In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ is made present, and the sacrifice of Christ is the fullest expression of the love of the Father and the Son.

Video reflection by Susan Timoney, S.T.D. (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.

Video reflection by Curtis Mitch (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology): Mass Readings Reflection.

Mass Readings—Optional Memorial of St. Pius V
The First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter four, verses one thru five;
Psalm One Hundred Ten (R/. four[b]), verses one, two, three, & four;
The Gospel according to John, chapter twenty-one, verses fifteen, sixteen, & seventeen.

Scripture Study—Day 91: Samuel's Summit, Day 4
The First Book of Samuel, chapter two, verses one thru ten.

Commentary: Hannah's Prayer (1 Samuel, 2:1-10).

Scripture Study—The 3:16 Project
The Second Letter of Peter, chapter three, verses fifteen & sixteen.

And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant & unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"Each of us can say: 'I hope, because God is beside me.'"
—Pope Francis (b. 1936, r. 2013-present)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"The original source of all that is good is the very act of God, who created both the earth & man, & Who gave the earth to man so that he might have dominion over it by his work & enjoy its fruits. God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favoring anyone. This is the foundation of the universal destination of the earth’s goods."
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, feast: 22 October)

Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day

"We hardly think about reparation any more. We seem to have dropped it in the Church. We have reparation in the human body. When I had my open-heart surgery, I was bleeding to death. I depended upon eighty people who gave me eighty pints of blood. The human body has only eight pints. Volunteers had to supply eighty pints to keep me alive. They were filling up the quota of my life. And just as we have a kidney transplant, even a heart transplant, so we have the transplanting of merits, of prayers, & sacrifices from one member of the Church to the other, to cure those members of their anemic condition. We're living in a decade that needs reparation more than any other decade in the past one hundred years. But we're failing to find it."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril X

The Skluttz, "Ska Police" from the Confidence Is Key E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: "Ska Police" lampoons the divisions & snootiness that afflict even the ska community. SKApril has always taken as broadminded a view of ska as is possible for your highly opinionated narrator. Over these ten years we've highlighted bands as diverse as Desmond Dekker & "Weird Al" Yankovic, The Specials & The A-OKs, Potshot & Sublime, not to mention Reel Big Fish, Prince Buster, Streetlight Manifesto*, The Specials, & The Interrupters.

"I always wonder why they want to run us out of town,
Like loving certain bands will make you better than the crowd,
If you love first wave, 2-tone, third wave, reggae, dub, ska-punk,
Just let the people have their music, like, who gives a fuck?

"Do you like ska?

"Oh, I love ska!

"So, what's your favorite ska band?

"I love Reel Big Fish.

"Ugh. Well, actually—"

"If there's a ska show, then you know I'm gonna wanna go,
It doesn't matter if there's horns or if it's northern soul,
But at the end of the night you know someone's gonna say,
'I bet Prince Buster must be rolling over in his grave!'

"Is this ska?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
Didn't reggae come first?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
You wear too many checkers!
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
What wave is this again?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
Now here come the Rudies and they look a little meaner,
If you like *Streetlight it's a Class A misdemeanor!

"So many people with so many tastes, can't please them all.
So many differnet sounds that all seem to unite in ska.
But all these different sounds they always seem to cause a furor,
Get at a ska revival feuding over who is right.

"Do they even have a horn section?

"Man, seven people and not one Fred Perry shirt!

"This, you know, this is, this is really more reggae than ska.

"The only good song they played is a cover.

"If we could come together, set aside our differences,
No one would have to feel ashamed about their preferences,
So have your first wave, 2-tone, third wave, reggae, dub, ska-punk,
The only thing that really matters is we pick it up!

"Is this ska?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
Didn't reggae come first?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
You wear too many checkers!
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
What wave is this again?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
Now here come the Punks and they look a little meaner,
If you listen to The Specials it's a Class A misdemeanor!

"Is this ska?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
Didn't reggae come first?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
You wear too many checkers!
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
What wave is this again?
(Ska Police are coming for you!)
Now here come the Mods and they look a little meaner,
If you like The Interrupters it's a Class A misdemeanor!

"Ska Police are coming for you!
Ska Police are coming for you!
Ska Police are coming for you!
Ska Police are coming for you!

"(Woah-oh-oh) Ska Police are coming for you!
(Woah-oh-oh) Ska Police are coming for you!
(Woah-oh-oh) Ska Police are coming for you!
(Woah-oh-oh) Ska Police are coming for you!

"This band is basically Smash Mouth."

Wow, ten years of SKApril! That's three hundred different songs by eighty-four bands. Stick around for the SKAfter Party, & here's to the next ten years of SKApril. Don't stop skanking, rude boys & girls.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day!: SKApril X!

The Aquabats!, "Pajamazon!" from the Pajamazon! single (Captain Thumbs Up!)

Skammentary: "Pajamazon!" is both an anthem of quarantine life ("Pajamazon" is a portmanteau of "pajama" & "Amazon," as in .com) & a welcome return of the ska sound to The Aquabats!' music!

YouTube-link

"Put my pajamas on,
I turn on Amazon,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!

"With a point and a click
I can order all of it,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!

"I just want to stay home
And never work again,
So I bought the best computer in the world.
And now I eat pizza, watch movies all day,
Download new video games,
Need more food? text delivery dude!

"Put my pajamas on,
I turn on Amazon,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!

"With a point and a click
I can order all of it,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!

"And if I don't like a package
I'll send it right back-age,
And get another package the same day.
And I never need to sweat it,
'Cause I'm buying it on credit!
Dude, yo, that's like free money anyway!

"Put my pajamas on,
I turn on Amazon,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!

"With a point and a click
I can order all of it,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!

"Why would you go outside anyway?
That's where all the guns and germs be.
I'd like to live like a stowaway,
In my bed, on my couch, in front of my T.V.

"Put my pajamas on,
I turn on Amazon,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!

"With a point and a click
I can order all of it,
Ain't never gonna go outside,
Go outside again!"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril X

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Unified" from While We're at It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"…And have the wisdom and wherewithal to call if you should break again.

"We're not here to misinform you,
We are only trying to warn you:

"We are with you, not against you,
We only hope you got the common sense to
Realize we're unified.
And realize we're here to back you
And not let anybody else attack you,
So you know, we're on your side
And we're unified.
We're unified…

"Classic, textbook, and it's typical,
Roll the boulder back on up the hill,
It gets to feeling like the ceiling's
Gonna drop just like a rock on you.
As the ceiling starts to drop in,
That's when you feel like your heart is stopping,
Your heart is stopping
And your head is on the chopping block there, too.

"It's not you signed on for,
What you were build for or designed for.

"We are with you, not against you,
We only hope you got the common sense to
Realize we're unified…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril X

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Wonderful Day for the Race" from While We're at It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: About two-thirds of the way through "Wonderful Day for the Race," the music trails off for a moment before bursting back into the boisterous finale. When performed live last August, that moment lasted half a minute or more as the Bosstones stopped & took a knee. To one unfamiliar with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones & their corpus of music, this gesture might be incomprehensibly strange. They were reverencing each & every precious member of the one human race. We so often dismiss each other, dismiss ourselves as inconsequential, as disposable. This is evil, an error so fundamentally mistaken as to be diabolical. This is so much of what Pope Francis means when he hammers away against the "throwaway culture." The answer to this folly is solidarity, the solidarity that has always been at the core of both ska & Christianity. We are all one, we are meant to be one.

"Now let me say this about that:
We might not know where we are at,
Where we have been, where we are going,
And it might not be worth it knowing.
We're unequipped for the comprehension,
How we tripped into this dimension,
That about this let me say:
For the race it's a wonderful day.

"What a wonderful day for the race
Everywhere it's taking place!
I swear you'll hear one wasn't run,
But I'm talking bout the human one.

"Is there a better understanding
Why it was we wound up landing
Where our feet are firmly planted?
Not so firmly we were granted
The permission and the clearance.
Let there be no interference
Anyhow, but either way
For the race it's a wonderful day

"What a wonderful for the race
Everywhere it's taking place!
I swear you'll hear one wasn't run,
But I'm talking bout the human one.

"What a wonderful for the race,
Every smile on every face!
Every day until it's done
I'm talking bout the human one…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril X

Kalles Kavier, "Emma Peel" from Volume 6 (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Everybody knows she's a genius,
And everybody knows that she kicks ass!
Everybody knows she's beautiful and cool,
And everybody knows I'm just a lonely fool.

"Oh, I want to be, oh, let me be,
Let me be your Agent Steed,
Oh, Emma Peel, Emma Peel,
Oh, this love you make me feel!…"