Memorial Day began as a consecration of war dead following our Civil War by recently freed people honoring their comrades who fought and died with the Union Army for their freedom. Its purpose was one of mourning, not celebration; it is only in this generation that it has become – in the mass culture of the United States of America, at least – a festival for commerce and pageantry, far removed from any context or awareness of battlefield casualties. Out of respect for those who died and for those whose lives were forever changed by war, we must not allow this to happen. We don’t need bumper stickers or parades; we need solidarity.
It is not the first time that capitalist society has hijacked the intended meaning of a holiday; we see the same kind of ahistorical interpretation of Mother’s Day, which was itself a product of 19th century anti-war movements. As veterans of America’s adventurism abroad, we reject the notion that Memorial Day should avoid the uncomfortable question of this nation’s longest-running conflict.
Since 2001, the United States has waged ceaseless, objectiveless warfare in the Middle East, Central Asia, North and East Africa, and the islands of Southeast Asia. We’ve been at war in Afghanistan for nearly seventeen years. A generation has been born into this unending conflict, and we will soon have service members who have never known a time when this country was not at war. As of today, we have lost 6,915 service members directly in battle or in support of hostilities abroad, the overwhelming majority of whom were working class. We have lost many more to suicide and the after-effects of military service, at an average rate of 20 veteran suicides each day. We have contributed to the deaths of over a million people worldwide by bombing their homes, destroying their livelihoods, and instigating a near-apocalyptic refugee crisis in the Middle East. We have spent more than $5 trillion at the expense of all else while we’ve allowed our nation’s infrastructure and schools to rot away. With no real tangible objective, the endless campaign to support American Exceptionalism abroad resembles a truck marooned in sand, spinning its wheels and churning, getting nowhere while digging itself into an even deeper hole.
Displaying flags and placing flowers on the graves of military members might be two of the more traditional Memorial Day methods of showing tribute to those who have fallen in battle; but perhaps a new tradition must be initiated – one that would constitute the highest form of respect. It’s time, beginning with Memorial Day 2017, to prevent any further unnecessary deaths by exposing the lies of the American empire in corporate and defense profiteering as the now-exclusive driving factors behind its push for war on all fronts.
Before jumping to assert this would somehow disrespect those who have died, understand it is precisely because the lives of U.S. troops are precious that we should not allow anyone to die for less than the most noble cause. And the imperialist goals of a crumbling empire simply do not embody a laudable reason to put lives on the line. Exposing mendacious pro-war propaganda for what it is could swiftly change the minds of future soldiers considering devoting their lives to military service.
Plenty of past examples of unabashed pro-war propaganda can be found in narratives invariably regurgitated by mainstream media acting as the government’s cheerleader.
The United States is the most militarized and jingoistic nation on earth. Its foreign policy is guided by imperialist militarism, neoliberal capitalism and racial xenophobia. For more than sixteen years now, three presidential administrations have carried out a so-called “War on Terror” (GWOT), a perpetual state of war that is waged globally, under the depraved reasoning that “the world is a battlefield,” to quote investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. As demonstrated by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the GWOT is conducted through conventional warfare. More often, however, it is executed through covert or “dirty” wars, against groups and individuals in many other nations.
The U.S. has the financial and logistical capacity to wage these illegal wars. Its bloated military budget is larger than the next seven countries combined. It is by far the largest operator of military installations abroad, maintaining nearly 800 bases in around 70 countries. The ever-growing military-industrial complex, which President Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address, permeates every facet of our society – from an economy largely dependent on the war industry, to military recruiting in our public schools, to police militarization. This toxic culture of war is underscored on different national holidays, particularly Memorial Day.
Memorial Day – a day originating in 1868 (Decoration Day), on which the grave sites of the Civil War dead were decorated with flowers – has morphed into a day that conflates the memorialization of killed soldiers with the glorification of war. The perennial flag-waving, ultra-nationalist speeches, garish street parades and hyper-consumerism of Memorial Day do not honor these soldiers. What might, however, is working to prevent future war and nurture peace – honoring their memory by not sending more men and women into harm’s way and to kill and maim in wars based on lies. To have any chance at being effective, however, this work must include efforts aimed at increasing public awareness about the many causes and costs of war.
The fervent pomp of Arlington [National Cemetery] to me always exudes desperation, as though we’re trying to suppress any acknowledgement that war’s the silliest thing people do. We sort ourselves into teams based on imaginary lines, dress up in costumes, pledge allegiance to pieces of cloth, and then mercilessly slaughter total strangers.
This reality – that waging war is both extremely unpleasant and fundamentally ridiculous, yet we keep doing it – indicates that it must serve some important purpose.
And all the history books I’ve ever read and all the history I’ve lived through suggests what that is: Wars are less about conflicts between societies than about conflicts within societies. Every country has a militaristic right-wing, and nothing helps that right-wing triumph over their domestic enemies more than a state of war. And just like a pharmaceutical company that doesn’t want to cure diseases when managing them is so profitable, their top priority is never bringing the war to an end, but maintaining and expanding their power within the country.
Amazing enough, Donald Trump recently told the National Governors Association exactly this, even if neither he nor they understood what he was saying. “We never win. And we don’t fight to win,” Trump declared. “$6 trillion we’ve spent in the Middle East … and we’re nowhere.”
But obviously Trump himself is somewhere: He’s in the White House. And lots of that $6 trillion is somewhere too, in the bank accounts of defense contractors. So if you understand who the real “we” are, we in fact have won the war on terror and are still winning. U.S. politics have been shoved hard to the right, making Trump possible, and since 2001 the value of Lockheed Martin stock has sextupled. The real we likewise have no interest in “fighting to win” in the sense Trump means — because that would require raising taxes on billionaires and drafting their children out of Stanford and Yale to go die in the sand, something that would quickly lead to the defeat of any president who tried it.
This perspective on the purpose of war was directly expressed by George W. Bush and his circle before he ever became president. Texas journalist and Bush family friend Mickey Herskowitz was hired to write a Bush biography for the 2000 campaign, and spent hours interviewing him. Herskowitz later said that Bush was already thinking about attacking Iraq — because, Bush said, “One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander in chief.” According to Herskowitz, people around Bush, including Dick Cheney, hoped to “start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade.” Why? Because, Bush told Herskowitz, that would give him “political capital” that he could use to “get everything passed that I want to get passed.”
In other words, the actual country of Iraq had little to do with the Iraq War. Its main purpose wasn’t beating Saddam Hussein, it was beating Americans who wanted to stop Bush from privatizing Social Security.
. . . What’s most surprising isn’t that politicians start wars to consolidate their own power, but that the people don’t always simply assume that leaders choose war for that reason. Of course, the main calculation for politicians when making decisions is whether or not those decisions will help tighten their grip on the levers of society. From prime ministers to dictators, anyone who doesn’t think about that first and foremost will be, evolutionarily speaking, selected against, and quickly find themselves outside the palace walls.
That’s why we need a Memorial Day, I believe, and so does seemingly every country on earth. At Arlington and at all the world’s solemn military cemeteries you can witness the endless ocean of young men and women who have been shot, gassed, incinerated, ripped limb from limb, shredded, driven to suicide. In the best of situations they died because of talented warmongers in other countries. In the worst it’s because we ourselves were so weak that we handed over power to killers who were delighted to see us die if it gave them a three week bump in their Gallup approval rating. We have to draw a veil of consecration across all of it, because looking at it directly is unbearable.
Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home.
That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and implacably held to account for their actions.
But an informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people, that fights rather than fuels terrorism.
Protecting this country requires us to be both strong against terrorism and strong against the causes of terrorism. The blame is with the terrorists, but if we are to protect our people we must be honest about what threatens our security.
Those causes certainly cannot be reduced to foreign policy decisions alone. Over the past fifteen years or so, a sub-culture of often suicidal violence has developed amongst a tiny minority of, mainly young, men, falsely drawing authority from Islamic beliefs and often nurtured in a prison system in urgent need of resources and reform. And no rationale based on the actions of any government can remotely excuse, or even adequately explain, outrages like this week’s massacre. But we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.
This evening I share a second batch of photos from this year's Mayday parade. As I mentioned in Part 1, on Sunday, May 7, I attended the 43nd annual In the Heart of the Beast Theatre's Mayday parade in south Minneapolis.
This year's theme, "Imagine, Heal, Resist," was all about coming together to "imagine a just and joyous future for all; heal personal, cultural and historical wounds; and to stand as a circle in resistance to false myths of separateness that perpetuate violence and inequality." Inspiring stuff, to be sure!
The words of wisdom and inspiration that accompanies my photos are excerpted from the Mayday 2017 program guide. Enjoy!
I am as quick as the hummingbird, watch me fly over your wall. I am as strong as the river current, you can't keep me in. I am as cunning as the dandelion, I will find the cracks and grow strong.
– Ramon Cordes and Serena Black
We have a symbiotic relationship to animals that goes beyond what we can comprehend in the physical world. In Clan systems we are related to animals and in this relationship they protect us in the spirit world in trade for us protecting them in the physical world. In societies and ceremonies we look to animals for lessons on how to live on this planet. And if they go extinct, so do we.
– Rory Erler Wakemup, Gordon Coons, and Frances Yellow
Section 2: Amethyst Souls: Luxuriate in Healing.
Divine Queer Ancestors! We Honor Your Resistance and Sweetness. This section pays particular homage to our queer, gender fluid and trans elders and ancestors of color, through antiquity and their radical spirits and influence. Our ancestors come from a vastness of genders and innate queerness that has been appropriated, abused, erased, closeted, and crushed. Yet there was still limitless resistance and sweetness. We luxuriate in our healing and that of our ancestors and investigate the trauma within our bodies and spirits.
We will no longer be punished or destroyed for being in alignment with our most soulful selves. For generations patriarchy, colonization, religion, racism, gender oppression, and objectification of our bodies has broken us from loving on ourselves and knowing the sacredness in our erotic and magic.
Luxuriant healing will be symbolized through cats, from kittens to pumas to panthers in shades of purple, lavender, and lilac, basking in their sacred sensuality. A giant lotus flower will allow you to give offerings for cleansing and healing while burning lavender and sage. Large amethyst crystals will radiate healing, love, and sweetness. We invoke the Black Joy experiences of Soul Train, The Wiz, disco, Black queer femmes, voguing, soul music, blues music. We honor Bessie Smith and Willie Ninja. We remember Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvester. We acknowledge James Baldwin and Moonlight. We proclaim limitless queerness has always existed within Blackness and always will.
We hold space for our ancestors' dreams. We hold space for all of the beautiful and sacred Black, Brown, and indigenous trans-women and cis-women who are missing, lost, and murdered. We love you. We face the wounds of our ancestors with grace, sensuality, and compassion, and love ourselves with radical acceptance.
– Junauda Petrus, Sam Van Tassel, and Madison Ballis
The speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don't miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.
– Audre Lorde (1934-1992) Feminist, activist, and writer
Section 3: Mni Wiconi – Can Wiconi (Water of Life – Tree of Life).
Water has a deep-rooted meaning for many different Nation of people from all over the world. The very translations for water, from tribal communities of Turtle Island, convey the sacredness and preciousness of blue gold.
Prior to the dual efforts to end the Dakota Access [oil] Pipeline in support of the Standing Rock Nation, Mni Wiconi – Water of Life was a foreign concept and idea [for many]. As different generations of Native people exist and descend, they bear witness to the cycles of destruction that colonize, capitalize, and bully to gain wealth, which then leaves Earth perpetrator's grandchildren in debt. The debt is not having clean drinking water and clean soil for plants to grow for both food and medicinal purposes. Standing Rock was not the first movement where we have seen Native people have their ancestral lands taken for profit for oil. This disease of the mind cycle started decades ago with the Lubicon Cree, who had their traditional hunting grounds taken by the Canadian government to benefit from the tar sands. The destruction since then is now visibly seen in tailing ponds that host toxic water that was used to separate bitumen oil from sands and gravel.
The constant abuse of Kunsi Maka (Grandmother Earth) from past colonization to modern day parallels the abuse of Native women. Native women are the backbone of the people. They are sacred; they bring life into this world just like the earth and the sun. They are the original water protectors, responsible for caring for the water. But like Kunsi Maka, they have been targeted with violence and abuse.
– Graci Horne, Jacob Ladda, and Angie Courchaine
Above: Artist and activist Jacob Ladda with an oil monster, which can be anything from "crooked politicians, everyday polluters, oil globs (with dinosaur bones sticking out!) to militarized cops."
Upon suffering beyond suffering; the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of humanity will gather under the sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again. In that day there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things, and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am that place within me, we shall be as one.
– Attributed to Tȟašúŋke Witkó
(also known as Crazy Horse, ca. 1840 – 1877) Lakota mystic and warrior
Section 4: Sanctuaries Adjust the Law: Sanctuary for All.
Throughout history the the enacted concept of sanctuary has enabled communities to adjust the law to exceptional circumstances.
Sanctuary cities recognize that in most cases, deportation is the wrong punishment for illegal immigration, which is a breach of civil, nor criminal, law. That tragedy makes it easy to attack the sanctuary movement. But sanctuary's enemies seem unaware of its venerable role in human history. It has long been an escape valve for society when the law can't meet the deeper demands of justice.
A group of worker puppets speaks to the work of enacting change, harkening back to the workers organizations that gave us social security,
the minimum wage, and the 40-hour work week.
Rosie the turtle represents the struggle that follows the enormous energy of our social media-driven resistance. Specifically she represents the long slow work of making good decisions and sustainable changes that lead to a more equitable world.
The groundbreaking TV show Twin Peaks which, among other things, writes Matt Zoller Seitz, was an unrelenting and mystifying meditation on grief and trauma, returns after 26 years.
The revered TV show Twin Peaksreturns tonight on the Showtime channel . . . 26 years after it last aired.
The series that begins this evening is considered the show's third, and takes place 25 years after the events of season two. In the last episode of that season, the murdered Laura Palmer tells FBI special agent Dale Cooper in the otherworldly Red Room of the Black Lodge that "I'll see you again in 25 years." . . . And so here we are.
(NOTE: For a 5-minute video recap of the Twin Peaks story so far, click here.)
As with the two original seasons, season three, also being called Twin Peaks: The Return, is created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It's a "limited series event," consisting of 18 episodes. Two episodes have been selected to be screened at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Above: The three different covers for the March 31, 2017 issue of Entertainment Weekly, featuring some of the returning Twin Peaks cast members. From left: Wendy Robie as Nadine Hurley, Everett McGill as Ed Hurley, James Marshall as James Hurley, Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer, David Lynch as Gordon Cole, Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper, Sherilyn Fenn as Audrey Horn, Mädchen Amick as Shelly Johnson, Dana Ashbrook as Bobby Briggs, and Peggy Lipton as Norma Jennings.
I was sorry to hear that one of my favorite characters in the show, Catherine Martell* (played by Piper Laurie [right]), won't be present in season three.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly earlier this month, Laurie said: "I did send a note to David [Lynch] that I would be delighted to return, but I think most of the material that I was in on the original didn’t really involve the darker aspects of the show, and I can guess maybe that’s where David and Mark Frost are going, but I really don’t know. My character was more on the silly, comic, fun side."
I don't get Showtime, so unfortunately I won't be tuning in tonight to watch the return of Twin Peaks. I'm definitely curious about it, though. For one thing, I have absolutely no idea what the plotline will entail. In fact, apart from those involved in the show's making, no one does – and the official trailers that have been released reveal very little (see, for instance, here and here). I must admit I have concerns about how good it will be. I mean, the original series ended so dismally (as is discussed here). And then there are the thorny but crucial questions that Melanie McFarland raises in her May 20 Salonpiece: "Can a classic succeed at being happening again? . . . Twenty-seven years after a series has broken ground, how can new storylines match the quality of all the shows it spawned?" I suppose I'll just have to wait for the new series to come out on DVD to find out.
In the meantime, Matt Zoller Seitz has a timely and insightful piece at Vulture in which he deftly examines why Twin Peaks is "not the series we’ve convinced ourselves it was."
One aspect of the show that Zoller Seitz explores and which especially interests me (given my current training in chaplaincy) is to do with how the original Twin Peaks was "a meditation on grief and trauma."
Following is that part of Zoller Seitz's article which explores this idea.
Twin Peaks was a meditation on grief and trauma that expressed itself in unrelenting, deliberately unreal, often mystifying ways. People tend to forget this when they talk and write about and remember Twin Peaks. That show did not go down easy. It was charming and weird, but it was also creepy and upsetting and sometimes genuinely horrifying. It gave you a spoonful of sugar, then it punched you in the gut. The gut punches had to do with the psychological effect of loss on individuals and their community.
Twin Peaks is often described as a mystery or a soap opera, and it was definitely both of those things. But it was also the story of a small town reeling in shock after a random act of violence, acting out in strange and terrifying ways, and purposefully and accidentally disclosing not just their naughty secrets (an element common to the soaps that Lynch and Frost emulated, as well as films like In the Heat of the Night and Anatomy of a Murder), but the persistent sadness, desperation, and dread that lurks under the surface of mundane reality. The deeper FBI agent Dale Cooper and his fellow investigators dug into the soil beneath those magnificent Douglas firs, the more ugliness they unearthed. There was incest, sexual exploitation, drug abuse, drug trafficking, domestic violence, smuggling, murder, and corporate crime happening in those cottages and hotel rooms and in the gloom of the woods.
But more impressive – perhaps more daring, considering Americans’ limited tolerance for sincerity – was the show’s willingness to plumb the emotional depths of its characters with the white-hot intensity of a 1950s melodrama or a 1970s Italian horror film, without distancing devices, and often without facetiousness or irony.
The latter was eerie and moving to behold and, for 1990 network TV, unexpected. But it was also upsetting and depressing and occasionally confounding for mass audiences, which is one reason why the show’s ratings, which were immense for the premiere, kept falling by the week, until it became clear a few episodes into season two that ABC was likely to cancel it. Twin Peaks wore the comedy mask and the tragedy mask with equal confidence, and sometimes it put them both away and put on a mask that had live worms in it and might have been made of human flesh.
The audience didn’t just reject the series over the long haul because viewers wanted closure on the question of who killed Laura Palmer, and Lynch and Frost seemed to be in no hurry to provide it. It was also a reaction to the series itself – all of its elements, but perhaps especially the intensity of its darkness. Twin Peaks was not just physically brutal (Leland Palmer’s murder of his Laura-look-alike niece, Maddie [left], is still hard to watch nearly three decades after its airing). It was also emotionally wrenching, in a way that was uncharacteristic of TV in the early ’90s. Supporting characters were forever weeping, sometimes wailing in grief as they remembered Laura. It was an open wound of a show, right up through the end.
The characters’ pain was hilarious if you were a callow teenager or college student who didn’t understand loss and the many, equally valid methods by which art can examine it. You have to permit yourself a certain vulnerability when watching Lynch, otherwise the simplicity of the characters’ needs and fears and the nakedness of their desperation will seem hilarious. Viewers over the legal drinking age had to decide to be okay with a certain level of emotional exposure while watching the original Peaks.
Twin Peaks was playful about everything except pain. It took pain so seriously that over time, an increasing proportion of its initially big viewership did not know how to process it, except to squirm, snicker performatively, or stop watching. Everybody who watches the new Peaks has to recognize this and not be surprised or upset by it. It’s going to be part of the package, because it’s an area of life that is of deep interest to Lynch, the director of such light and peppy movies as Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, and Inland Empire.
A 30-something friend of mine quit watching it after a few episodes because his mother had recently died of cancer; Twin Peaks made him feel as if he was reentering a space he never wanted to be in again.
* Following is how the character of Catherine Martell is described in Twin Peaks FAQ by David Bushman and Arthur Smith.
Catherine Martell is the sister of Packard mill owner Andrew Packard, and she runs the business after his apparent death, though the ownership passes to his "widow" Josie – and that arrangement is not a happy one for anyone involved. A fiercely proud, shrewd, forceful, and bitterly thwarted personality, Catherine vents her frustrations on her husband, Pete, a gentle former lumberjack and angling enthusiast bewildered by his wife's hostility.
Catherine is conducting an affair with Benjamin Horne and conspiring with him to defraud Josie out of the mill and surrounding land, not suspecting his intention to double-cross and do away with her, taking all the spoils for himself. Academy award winner Piper Laurie gives an effortless authoritative performance – Catherine is a formidable presence, and while she's no Girl Scout, there is also an affecting vulnerability (as seen in her poignant appreciation of the remnants of affection that remain between her and Pete, and in her jealous paranoia regarding Ben's affections) that makes her something more than a stock antagonist.
Catherine has no connection to Laura Palmer or the supernatural phenomena haunting Twin Peaks, serving instead as a linchpin in the show's soapier plot mechanics, and she is one of the series' more conventional characters – she is absent any bizarre tics or wardrobe eccentricities and feels like she could comfortably exist in a typical "straight" TV drama. That is, until she, after her apparent death (if you're gonna kill a Packard, make sure you see the body before you assume the job is done), disguises herself as a Japanese businessman [Mr Tojamura] to take her revenge on Horne. That was pretty weird.
[Roger Ailes (1940-2017)] was a bigot, with well-documented prejudices against people of color, Muslims, women, and LGBTQ people. The network he created ran on division and hatred, consumed by an unslaked thirst to oppress the oppressed and comfort the comfortable.
He was a conspiracy theorist, and so were the hosts he hired, channeling ridiculous accusations from fringe websites to the masses, creating for their audience an alternate reality in which dark liberal forces were ever ready to steal away their freedom.
Over the last two years, his network has been devoted to propagandizing on behalf of Donald Trump, an Ailes friend who shared his bigotry, misogyny, and spite.
For power and money, Ailes turned Americans against one another. He made the nation a meaner, less informed place. That is his legacy.
So have a little faith
in where we're going to
Don't ask me where,
you know I just can't tell you
All I know is I'm swept away,
taken by this undertow
The waves are crashing in
Don't let go
– From "In Too Deep"
by Rick Nowels
(recorded by Jenny Morris for her
1995 album Salvation Jane)
This evening for "music night" at The Wild Reed I share New Zealand-born Australian singer-songwriter Jenny Morris's "In Too Deep," a track from her 1995 album Salvation Jane. It's definitely one of my favorite tracks on a collection of recordings that comprise the fourth studio album of Jenny's illustrious career.
I first came across Salvation Jane in the (Australian) summer of 1996-97. I had just turned 31 and was home for the first time since relocating three years earlier to the U.S. in 1994. I'd admired Jenny and her music prior to my move; she had been an acclaimed and popular singer-songwriter since the early 1980s. And so I was excited to discover in a Sydney record store that she had a new album out – her first since 1991's Honeychild. (To hear "Break in the Weather," a track from Honeychild previously highlighted at The Wild Reed, click here.)
In many ways, Salvation Jane provided an appropriate soundtrack for that particular visit home to Australia, my first since coming out to family and friends. Take for instance the lyrics of "Digger," one of the album's tracks . . .
Don't need a thing
when you're running wild
No complication
All you can feel is the wind on your face
Loving the rush of the river
that opened and gave you your dreams
Brave and mighty is the man
with passion he can show
Wise the tall the boy with soul
as pure as driven snow
Don't need a thing
when you're running wild . . .
– From "Digger"
by Jenny Morris, Mark Cawley, and Bill Baker
(recorded by Jenny Morris for her
1995 album Salvation Jane)
Lyrically, "In Too Deep" doesn't reflect the same feelings and experience of liberation as conveyed in "Digger" and some of the other tracks on Salvation Jane. However, its call to have faith in the journey, despite not always knowing the path or even the exact destination, definitely resonated with me when I first heard it, and still does to this day. Also, musically, "In Too Deep" was, and remains, one of my favorite tracks on the album.
About "In Too Deep," Wikipedianotes the following.
"In Too Deep" is a pop song written by Rick Nowels and produced by Andrew Farriss for Jenny Morris's fourth studio album Salvation Jane (1995). It was released as the album's fourth single but was not successful, peaking at #143 on the Australian ARIA singles chart. The song was covered by American singer Belinda Carlisle, produced by David Tickle for her sixth studio album A Woman and a Man (1996). Her version was much more successful commercially, charting at #6 in the UK and #11 in Australia.
Wow! That must have been a bummer: to have someone else score a hit with (to my ears, at least) an inferior version of a song that you first recorded but which didn't take off. I guess it happens a lot, though, in the music world.
As you probably have gathered, I definitely prefer Jenny's more acoustic-sounding recording to Belinda's more poppy, sing-along one. I also prefer the music video made by David Nelson to accompany Jenny's recording of "In Too Deep" – even if the one made for Belinda Carlisle's cover does feature a handsome man splashing around in a bathtub!
I can't be sure, but it looks like Jenny's video was filmed among the wharves and warehouses of Sydney Harbour. I love the diverse group of people she assembled for the video, some of whom are members of her backing band, the psychedelic pop group Electric Hippies. (This group, which included members of the revered Australian hard rock band Noiseworks, also co-produced Salvation Jane.) There's even a famous (and quite elderly) Australian actor, Basil Clarke, thrown into the video's mix of eclectic characters.
For years, the only version of the video available on YouTube was a rather crappy one, quality-wise. I'm happy to report that that's no longer the case, thanks to "ohnoitisnathan75." True, it's not what you'd call top quality; it is, after all, clearly an uploaded home recording from the Australian TV music program rage. Still, it's certainly an improvement on what was once available.
So without further ado, here's Jenny Morris with "In Too Deep" . . .
So you may be wondering what Jenny Morris is currently up to. Well, unfortunately, she's no longer singing as in 2005 she was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a voice disorder characterized by involuntary movements or spasms of one or more muscles of the larynx during speech. Her last album was the sublime Hit & Myth in 2002.
She may no longer be recording but Jenny Morris is certainly not forgotten. Just this past Wednesday, for instance, Jenny was honored by the music industry at a special ceremony in Sydney. I'll close with the following piece by Iain Shedden from The Australian newspaper.
There was a lot of love in the room on Wednesday when singer Jenny Morris was honoured by the music industry at a ceremony in Sydney. Morris was the recipient of the Excellence in the Community award in recognition of her achievements behind the microphone and as a fundraiser for charities such as Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia and Support Act, the industry body that offers financial and other assistance to musicians in difficulty. Support Act was the host for the fundraising Music in the House event at the Ivy Ballroom on Wednesday and a star-studded roster of talent turned up to lend its support as well as to honour Morris. Actors Sam Neill and David Wenham were there, as was actress Rachel Ward, who hosted the event.
The large crowd got more than it bargained for when the supergroup of sorts accidentally performed the two songs on its set list — "You I Know" and "Tears" — together instead of leaving "Tears" for the finale. Suddenly aware of their mistake, the three musos had to scurry off to the green room and learn a few more tunes with which to finish off the show after Morris’s gracious, funny and emotional acceptance speech. That turned out to be a blessing that sparked a standing ovation, with Morris, who had to stop singing after being diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia in 2005, joining the three stars and members of her family for a spirited performance of "Piece of My Heart," before the trio closed the show with Crowded House’s "Don’t Dream It’s Over."
The auction part of the function, conducted with some aplomb by ABC broadcaster Simon Marnie, raised thousands of dollars for Support Act, including $2600 from the sale of a black-and-white portrait of Morris by photographer Tony Mott.
Above: Jenny Morris with fellow luminaries of the Australian music scene Jimmy Barnes, Mark Lizotte and Neil Finn – Sydney, May 17, 2017. (Photo: Adam Taylor)
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William
"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB
"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip
"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal
"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George
"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin
"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick
"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael
"Michael, your site is like water in the desert."– Jayden
