Untitled #4
I have come such a long way, but sometimes it feels like I am just chasing my tail.
Or...
If you decide to change your mind numerous times, try not to leave an electronic paper trail. It'll just jump up to bite you.
Or...
28 and still has a lot to learn.
posted by Arturo Vasquez @ 12:04 PM
5 Comments:
Superficially, you do have some possible contradictions--Marxist (well that is an actual and not superficial one), SSPX seminarian, Byzantine monk, Anglican (the anglican one doesn't make much sense either)
You also are Mexican American from the Barrio (and not Micklo from American Me nor Guilleremo the real coconut from Mi Familia--for some modern pop movie analogies)
but also seem well versed in Indian Music, Sufi poetry, and Classical (Latin and Greek) knowledge (not that it is a contradiction that a Mexican American can know all that but it was probably not California Public Schools)
You seem to be ecclectic and even syncretic as time passes and your recent (and even some past) on Shiva (still don't know how it plays into art and manicheniasm), Mysticism, Rumi, Sufism and getting drunk as union with God.
HOWEVER, all that being said (and it is not a criticism) you seem to be always centered on GOD and the search for GOD (even in your Marxist days or your relating them to us) and finding GOD in the person of JESUS CHRIST specifically and especially as found in the Church. The INCARNATION of JESUS CHRIST seems to allow the exploration of some good from Sufi poetry, dances of Shiva, or preChristian Incan or Aztec or other cultures and at least the last 2 mergers with Christianity.
Your almost academic knowledge and fondness for dance, classical music, sacred music, Hindu Ragas, etc--while being busy in a Byzantine Catholic monastery and SSPX seminary does beg at least one question: Where did you learn the rap? I can understand the Nortenos from your ethnic heritage and you can sing La Llorona or the Puerta Negra or other songs from your youth and still be the academic and hidden in Traditionalist seminaries or Eastern style Christian monasteries--BUT WHERE DID YOU LEARN THE RAP???
One would think that the SSPX would view rap as hedonisitic, secular, Novus Ordo, post Vatican II, overly sexual, maybe even with racist eyes, not the mathematical purity of polyphonic chant or Mozart, no redeeming value, violent, disrespectful to women etc. The Monastery--well is a monastery--so limited access to the outside world. So where did the rap come in.
Your amazing blog (and without contradictions as it is a search for Truth, God, Jesus, the Catholic Church, and a record of your travels and thoughts) has qouted:
TOO SHORT, perhaps the greatest mysogonist albeit the greatest playah of them all
alleged that His Eminence Bishop Williamson's favorite rapper is
JAY Z
you have posted SNOOP DOGGY DOG video specifically his best GIN AND JUICE
you have posted even recently posted the Texas based and psychologically profound
GHETTO BOYZ and their My Mind's Playing Tricks on me
This was before IPOD much of this music. Did you hide under the covers in the seminary listening to head phones? Did you and Bishop Williamson really jam out to JayZ in his office when no one was looking. Did some of the monk struggle like St. Jerome but gave in by listening to Too Short.
Are the Ghetto Boyz really the modern urban equivalent to San Juan de la Cruz??!!
I don't think you are chasing your tail. You are chasing God. Like many of us are. With all our faults, contraditctions, sins, errors, omissions, mistakes, bad things, good things--but not all of us blog about them.
You have an incredible Blog that has helped a lot of people.
It is inspirtational and thought provoking. Your blog is educational and goes to the edge of theory and speculation but remains orthodox.
So continue to chase your tail.
By doing so you help others learn about many topics and find God.
You have promised posts on:
1. Hieramonk and alleged saint by some Seraphim Rose.
and
2. Your thoughts (if changed) on Mexicans/Mexican Americans and the Day of the Dead (an interesting development is this Santa Muerte devotion)
Michael,
Thank you for the kind words. Long story short, I am a child of the rural barrio, but an adopted son of the ghetto. Mexican-American kids in this country must have the most ecclectic sense of musical taste since knowing two languages puts you in two different worlds. So I can easily listen to Vincente Fernandez, Maná, La Oreja de Van Gogh, oldies, modern rock, Too Short, Dr. Dre, and even some more contemporary hip-hop in one sitting. More specifically, however, I lived in the ghetto for two years when I was going to college the first time around so I was able to learn the intricacies of ghetto life (including the dialect).
Overall, I take hip-hop for what it is: an overly commercialized, exploitative kind of music. Whether it be Too Short, Biggie Smalls, Outkast, or even Tupac, this music hardly constitutes real music. At best, it can articulate the frustration of an entire oppressed section of the populace. However, I will just be blunt and say that I find most rap hysterically funny. I mean, how many rappers have actually "put in work". Answer, some. (Eazy-E was probably a certified thug.) But is Too Short really as big a "pimp" as he says he is? Probably, but because of his ability to flow and not for his natural prowess with the opposite sex. (By the way, in case you are interested, I have acquaintances who have known some genuine ghetto pimps, and they do not have a life even close to the most vulgar hip-hop songs.) In other words, hip-hop is and always will be hype. And I will always be laughing at it. If you act ridiculous, prepare to be ridiculed.
(I'm just keepin' it real, know what i'm sayin')
But this is the best video of all time.
"Out on bail fresh outta jail, California dreamin
Soon as I stepped on the scene, I'm hearin hoochies screamin"
Westsiiiiiide!
Representin' the 510
Does Bishop Williamson really prefer JayZ?
Was it harder to learn the intricacies of ghetto dialect in the ghetto or latin declentations in schismatic (or at least canonically irregular)seminary?
You did not include Carlos Santanna in your list.
That is quasi blasphemy from a Mexican American and being from California.
Now that is true music.
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