Everything That's Wrong with Religion in One Video (Russell Brand)

Here's about ten minutes of everything that's wrong with American Christianity and it comes from Russell Brand in an interview with two members of the Westboro Baptist Church:

Of course these publicity-starved and massively-deficient mutations of monkey flesh revel in the attention but Russell Brand handles it with good humor that I admire as I believe very much that fighting them only gives them what they want whereas ridiculing them shows them for what they are.

The focus of the discussion is homosexuality but that really isn't why I consider it significant as it's a safe bet they hate a great many things.  Anyone who can heckle a mother while she buries her kid is the same type of person Hitler could have easily manipulated to start killing people or gleefully support such killing.  All the while they speak of their great love.


This type of thinking is rampant in America and you can see that in how little people do to deal with what Westboro Baptist Church does.  It's commendable that various silent protests have taken place to prevent them from disrupting funerals but that's really not such a big effort when you consider the population of the United States is about three hundred million and the Westboro Baptists couldn't possibly number more than about a thousand.


What got me on this subject is that Monday is the Greek version of the Pentecost and it's a much bigger deal here than I have seen in America.  Cat was amused when I said it was the Greek version but Greek Orthodox has its view of things and there's a Catholic version with another.  The difference, it appears to me is that Christianity has not been marginalised by the creation of a blue million competing and conflicting versions as it has in America.  Greek Orthodox is the faith of, I believe, about 98% of the Greek people.

What I observe here is the same profound faith I see in my brother and it has nothing to do with converting anyone but rather living what is taught in the Bible and not by hammering on a few isolated phrases that condemn homosexuality or whatever other agenda you like.   Instead, as with Brand, the belief is in the greater message of love.  Note that Lotho is Baptist so what the Westboro Baptist Church is doing is not symptomatic of that faith.

There's a great deal one could learn from Greece ... or my brother ... but America continues to regard itself as the teacher.

More Scooter Blooter

The verdict from Babis is the problem is not electrical but rather mechanical and he doesn't have an explanation for why it would stop working and then miraculously start again.  I went out to try again to start it at least three times when it happened and the scooter was quite determined not to start.  But then it did and hasn't screwed-up since.  So I will hold off for a few days on leaving to see if it happens again.

Harry is trying to find the cost for getting insurance that will be valid outside of Greece.  I'm not convinced it would have any value in recovering anything but cops will be quite annoyed if I don't have it.  Scooter insurance is not expensive but every euro counts for rolling out so we shall see.  Monday is the Greek Pentecost so there won't be word on that until Tuesday.

Sorry about the delays but this stuff is mandatory.


Babis, the Scooter Doctor, doesn't only fix scooters as there are all kinds of bikes at the shop and he has quite an array of racing parts, all the way up to full-out racing engine replacements.

That's Babis in the background.  In the foreground is a bike that isn't even close to street-legal.  How he got it registered is anybody's guess.  You can see the license plate tucked way underneath there.  There's a tachometer up-front but that's all and no mirrors either.  The tires are as close to racing slicks as you can get which means they're very soft rubber and have to be replaced often at four hundred euros.  I have no idea what kind of bike it is but I do know it has one gorgeous exhaust note.

It has Soho on the side of it but who knows what that means.  It has one ferocious motor in it as it's definitely not a 250 pretending to be one of the big kids.  It has some serious muscle.  So, of course he brings it to Babis.

Laralette's Lane's Laugh Lights Up the MusikCircus

Laralette Lane has a very sweet laugh and you will hear it a lot in her shows.  The laugh also comes with a lovely singing voice so her shows are always a pleasure.

Ordinarily I will zoom in for the Hollywood close-up but Cat made a beautiful stage that suited Laralette perfectly and here you see it.

Her name is Laralette but everyone calls her Lara and she was quite concerned before she started that a cold she had developed would prevent her from playing the whole show.  She just got back from the Second Life London Jam where she had been performing so I suppose she must have caught the cold over there.  Watch out for the fish and chips!

You would never have guessed Lara had a cold once she started singing.  She has a beautiful voice and that combined with her cheerful attitude creates a lovely presence that was drawing more and more people as her show went along.  Mostly she sings cover songs in her performance and that usually won't go well at Cat's Art MusikCircus but Lara adds her own touch to them that makes them special.  There's no predicting which ones she will choose as some are English, some Dutch, and some German.

You can learn much more about Lara in her Artist Profile at the Cat's Art MusikCircus Web site than you can from me writing about her and it includes videos of her on YouTube.


And Cat and I danced ... until she got taken out by an electrical storm

I played after Lara and I don't have anything more to say about it that I didn't write already (Griefers, Goobers and Grape Nuts) but I have uploaded some more tunes from the set.  You can hear them now on the Ride the Dragon podcast.

Direct links:

"I Love Rats" - This was the second tune and I was still annoyed.

"Bombs Away" - This was after the set had been rolling for a while.

Freitag Kätzchen Bericht m/Bild

Alles ist noch mit Charlie sehr gut!

(Everything is still very good with Charlie!)

Charlie ist sehr hart zu finden aber keine Sorgen!

(Charlie is very hard to find but no worries!)

Liebt sie noch mich??  Vielleicht kann ich sie fangen und nehmen sie nach Italien mit mir!  Das wäre sehr niedlich aber eine Katze und ein Roller ist vielleicht nicht so gut!  Ich würde eine internationale Schmuggler Katze sein!

(She still loves me??  Perhaps I can catch her and take her to Italy with me!  That would be very cute but perhaps a cat and a scooter is not so good!  I would be an international cat smuggler!)

Remember That Guy?

No need for an editorial on this one!

Griefers, Goobers and Grape Nuts

Laralette Lane's set went really great and she has a bit of a cold so she wasn't sure she could pull it off but you couldn't tell it from her singing as it was beautiful.  She has a very sweet spirit and it comes through in all her songs.

Things didn't go quite so well for my set as the turnover was smooth and I was ready to play on the stage ... but that's when the griefers showed up.  There's no point in giving these goobers any attention as they're the same as with Jehovah's Witnesses:  they thrive on abuse and figure it's the fastest way to Heaven.  How grape nuts apply to griefers I leave to your vivid imagination.  I won't name them as griefers are a dime a dozen in Second Life.

I couldn't eject / ban them as Cat had already been blown out by a lightning storm but I was able to contact her friend and she took care of them.  What was strange was she said she didn't do anything.  Nevertheless the griefers were gone.

By that time I was hot and flustered but they say the show must go on and so it did.  I extracted the first thing I played from the archive of the show and that's now on the podcast.  I called it "Guitar Chaos" at the time but I believe I'll call it "Griefers, Goobers and Grape Nuts" instead!  I had planned on making up something up-tempo for Cat and I'm sure the griefers added some juice to it as well.

What was very, very cool was that people stayed through all the hassles.  Zoe, I'm sorry I didn't get your last name and thanks again for helping me get back into the circus each time those ridiculous griefers bounced me around and thanks also for staying for the show!  Riana stayed as well with Michalles and I'm sorry I didn't get more names but I was a wee bit scrambled (laughs).

You can hear "Griefers, Goobers and Grape Nuts" on the Ride the Dragon podcast now and of course it's still free!

Silas Scarborough - Live at Cat's Art MusikCircus at 1:00 pm - Updated

Update!  The times on the shows were wrong and have been corrected

This will be the third show in three days and I haven't done that in years but I love doing it.  The show will start at 1:00 pm SLT / PDT.

Laralette Lane will give the first show at 12:00 pm and hearing her sing is always a treat.  She doesn't do the same old covers but rather she performs a fascinating variety and she obviously has fun with her shows as she also brings a beautiful laugh.  She is back now in Holland after performing at the Second Life London Jam and this will be a lovely way to start the evening.

It suddenly got exceptionally hot here and the sun is ferocious as there are no clouds.  Fortunately there is always a nice wind blowing so opening the front and back doors keeps the air moving.

On with the show!

Donnerstag Kätzchen Bericht m/Bild

Ich habe die Kätzchen gefunden und sie sind mit die Kätzchenräuber, die Entführer!  Ja, sie sind ein älteres Ehepaar und sie sind Französisch.  Sie bestochen die Kätzchen mit viel Katzenfutter!

(I have found the kittens and they are with the kittennappers, the catnappers!  Yes, they are an old couple and they are French.  They bribed the kittens with lots of food!)

Die haben große Platten von Lebensmitteln!  Ich kann nicht mit diesem konkurrieren!  (lacht)

(They have big plates of food!  I cannot compete with this! - laughs)


Alles ist gut mit die Kätzchen.  Keine Sorge!

(All is good with the kittens.  Don't worry!)

Mutti ist zum rechts.  Die Kätzchen sind mit ein andere schwarze Katze.

(Mother is to the right.  The kittens are with another black cat.)

"Memories Always Stay"

I can see this horse
out there in the field
and sometimes I wonder
how can this be real
but I can see him run,
I can taste the air,
I can feel it in the sun,
and the love is everywhere.

Time flows forwards
and backwards in our lives
and all of it we keep
while our memories survive.
That something has left
doesn't mean it's gone away
as the dreams will always come
when the memories always stay.


I can see this horse
out there in the field
and sometimes I wonder
how can this be real
but I can see him run,
I can taste the air,
I can feel it in the sun,
and the love is everywhere.

Glückliche Geburtstag, Riana! Silas Plays a Birthday Party

Riana Magic has been a friend to Cat for years and she has come to be my friend as well so we wanted to do something special for her.  Cat suggested doing a show so, of course, let's play!  Riana has said she is my biggest fan but I'm pretty sure Cat is my biggest fan so we decided Riana must be my tallest fan!

Here's what it looked like from the stage:

It looks kind of sparse out there and that wasn't a surprise as it was a private party because we specifically wanted it to be all about Riana and that's her dancing on the left.  Cat is dancing on the right.  What surprise me was that more people started coming as the show went along and it was pretty cool to see Shady Forsythe as she doesn't usually come to the MusikCircus.  It was also very cool to see Jameela and Michi Renoir.

I wanted it to be more than just guitar playing so I set up the lights and even Cat didn't know I had done that.  The set started out soft and, before starting to play harder, I turned on the lights, hopefully to the delight of the crowd!

Riana dances with Michalles closest to the stage

The text at the top of the picture reads 'May your Heart and Soul always fly free.'  Cat didn't think long in coming up with that and right away she started thinking if she could do it better but I insisted on keeping it as the first thought out of your head is almost always the best one, anything after that is edited and that usually isn't good.  That became our wish for Riana and today it is our wish for everyone.

Cat had surprised me with the outfit and I love it!  So let's get a closer look at that!

It felt very good playing last night as I was much more confident the Internet access would not fail.  Some kind of network miracle happened a couple of days ago and it started working again after weeks of torment.  Things were kind of tentative on Tuesday night as I kept expecting to crash at any moment.  What was also cool last night was the next-door guy wasn't home so I left the doors open as it has got quite hot here (i.e. 30+ or 86F or so).  With the doors open it was quite pleasant.  I will probably do that again tonight as I don't use an amplifier for the guitar and I don't sing loudly so it really shouldn't bother anyone.

After I was through playing, I jumped on the Conga line so we could dance for a while.

CONGA!

From left to right, Shady Forsythe, Jameela, Riana Magic, Cat Boucher, Silas Scarborough

I wish I had better pictures of Cat as her outfit is incredible but there's no way to do that while I'm playing.  The clown outfits are so much fun and Riana looks very elegant in her birthday dress.


Happy Birthday, Riana, from Cat and I!

More Rooter Tooter Scooter Blooter

No, I have no idea what that means but you did as here you are!

The scooter doctor said the problem is not the ignition switch and I must return early tomorrow so he can go through it looking for electrical problems.  I'm not convinced that is correct but Sakis is a most excellent scooter doctor and he has a number of scooter doctors working for him.  I'm sure this is the right place.

The timing on this sucks ferociously but much better that this stuff arise where I have a place to sleep and know where I can get it repaired.  Electrical problems are your worst automotive nightmare and, assuming this happened on the road, there wouldn't be much choice except to take off the license plates and walk away.

Meanwhile, the Internet access is working better than it has in weeks and that has permitted performing twice.  That will do nothing for getting the scooter fixed but it makes life more entertaining until it's ready to roll out.

More scooter blooter as it happens.

The Tent Arrives!

Harry must have brought the tent over while I was playing last night as I never saw him and discovered it on the porch this morning.  From this you can see how it works as you take the tent out of there and shake it out to unfold it, no assembly at all.  To me, that is huge tent coolness!

However, that which is a foldable tent also looks like it could be quite an effective airfoil.  I have no idea how I can attach it to the scooter!  When I do figure it out then probably if I take the scooter over 80 kph the airfoil effect will kick in and it will turn into an aircraft!

If you see a scooter flying overhead, please do wave!


Since I will use bungee cords to attach the guitar along the side of the scooter, I'm hoping what will work will be to put the tent between the guitar and the scooter to secure it that way.  That doesn't create any additional hassle as I wouldn't leave the guitar attached to the scooter overnight anyway.  It will be an interesting experiment!