Buffy Sainte-Marie's Medicine Songs

.

Legendary singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie and her new album Medicine Songs have been getting a lot of good press since the album's November 10 release.

You may recall that in the lead-up to the release of Medicine Songs I did a special series of posts focusing on Buffy, her music, and her social activism. This series begins here and continues here, here, here, and here.

This evening I share Buffy's "artist statement" on Medicine Songs, along with highlights from a number of reviews, an insightful interview with Buffy, and a compilation of links to several recent interviews and articles. Enjoy!

[Medicine Songs] is a collection of front line songs about unity and resistance – some brand new and some classics – and I want to put them to work. These are songs I've been writing for over fifty years, and what troubles people today are still the same damn issues from 30-40-50 years ago: war, oppression, inequity, violence, rankism of all kinds, the pecking order, bullying, racketeering and systemic greed. Some of these songs come from the other side of that: positivity, common sense, romance, equity and enthusiasm for life.

I've found that a song can be more effective than a 400-page textbook. It's immediate and replicable, portable and efficient, easy to understand – and sometimes you can dance to it. Effective songs are shared, person-to-person, by artists and friends, as opposed to news stories that are marketed by the fellas who may own the town, the media, the company store and the mine. I hope you use these songs, share them, and that they inspire change and your own voice.

It might seem strange that along with the new ones, I re-recorded and updated some of these songs from the past using current technologies and new instrumentations – giving a new life to them from today's perspective. The thing is, some of these songs were too controversial for radio play when they first came out, so nobody ever heard them, and now is my chance to offer them to new generations of like-minded people dealing with these same concerns. It's like the play is the same but the actors are new.

I really want this collection of songs to be like medicine, to be of some help or encouragement, to maybe do some good. Songs can motivate you and advance your own ideas, encourage and support collaborations and be part of making change globally and at home. They do that for me and I hope this album can be positive and provide thoughts and remedies that rock your world and inspire new ideas of your own.

– Buffy Sainte-Marie
November 2017

When spinning singer/songwriter Buffy Saint-Marie’s 2017 album Medicine Songs, you’ll realize that the art of protest music is NOT dead – it was just waiting for Buffy to release a new album!

Mixing her early stark, acoustic Folk roots with Native American rhythms and a contemporary sound, this is an album that demonstrates her ability to remain true to her roots while also moving forward as an artist.

For those unfamiliar with Buffy’s career, here is a brief overview from the album’s press release, “Equal parts activist, educator, songwriter, performer and visual artist, Buffy Sainte-Marie is a champion for indigenous people and the environment through her music, art, education projects and by taking direct political action. One of the most enduring and popular Native American performers, her music has touched millions of people around the world. From her start in New York City’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s alongside Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, Buffy made a name for herself as a gifted songwriter, writing hits for Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. Her most well-known song is the Academy Award-winning “Up Where We Belong” from the film An Officer and a Gentleman, but her most acclaimed song is 'Universal Soldier,' one of the first anti-Vietnam war anthems to inspire a generation of activists.”

An artist that has been a part of Pop culture for over 50 years, you’d be forgiven to assume that Buffy’s Medicine Songs is an album stuck in the past. While the album consists of new songs and interpretations of classics from her back catalog, it is not an album that spends its time looking backwards. Good art remains relevant and timeless and songs like “Universal Soldier,” “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone,” and “Little Wheel Spin and Spin” are just as relevant today as ever. And then you’ve got this version of the lesser-known “Starwalker,” which absolutely comes alive on Medicine Songs. New compositions like “You Got To Run” and “The War Racket” prove that Buffy has not softened over the years.

Available on both vinyl and CD including a digital download that includes seven additional tracks, Medicine Songs is an album that we may not have expected but it certainly an album that we need!

– Stephen Schnee
"Featured Album of the Week:
Buffy Sainte-Marie/Medicine Songs
Amped
November 10, 2017

Buffy Saint-Marie could have rested on her laurels and toured past albums, keeping her name in the media and public eye by recreating many incarnations of a Greatest Hits record.

Instead, she's released a new, inventive, dynamic album.

Medicine Songs is the follow-up to the Polaris Music Prize, and JUNO Award-winning, 2015 album Power in the Blood, released November 10, 2017, through True North Records, a powerful, relevant, contemporary album, touching upon present-day issues with a sound that is simultaneously fresh and true to Sainte-Marie’s musical and artistic voice.

. . . Medicine Songs is a powerful follow up to Power in the Blood with inventive, stunning production, skilled musicianship, poignant songwriting, tasteful performances, and more heart than one expects from a modern rock/roots record. Power in the Blood and Medicine Songs are a powerful one-two combination, two rich and lush records that any artist would be hard-pressed to create once, let alone twice.

Medicine Songs is tough and empowered, non-apologetic and bitingly honest. The album is diverse in style and production while retaining Sainte-Marie’s voice; every song is sincere, unflinching, and poignant, displaying an artist who shows no intention of slowing down.

The diverse aesthetic of straight rock, acoustic folk, free jazz noise, techno-noir, and rebel rock proves Saint-Marie’s comfort as a multi-genre, multi-faceted composer and performer.

When many musicians and artists settle into their career, Buffy Sainte-Marie is as strong and relevant as ever, making her distinct voice rise over the clatter of conformity and apathy.

Listen to Medicine Songs and experience one of the best new albums of 2017!

– The Riz
Excerpted from "Review:
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Medicine Songs
Canadian Beats
November 12, 2017

Above: Buffy Sainte-Marie performs during the Canada Day noon hour show on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, July 1, 2017. (Photo: Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

While re-recording older material is a serious mistake for most artists, Sainte-Marie makes it work on Medicine Songs; with new arrangements and updated lyrics, she has brought the songs into the present day and given them new life while also reinforcing their continuing relevance. If anything, issues of the environment, economic injustice, and the rights of native peoples have become more relevant with the passage of time, and the passion and fire of Sainte-Marie's performances are very much of the here and now. Her vocals are miraculously clear and forceful on these recordings, and she sounds not so much like an elder statesman of conscious folk music than a fearless contemporary artist who fills these tunes with righteous anger toward the oppressors in our culture (and compassion for the oppressed).

The production and arrangements on these songs are thoroughly up to date, with elements of hip-hop and indie rock applied effectively and with intelligence; this doesn't sound like it's trying to be contemporary, it is contemporary, and in the right ways. While some older fans who haven't kept up with Buffy Sainte-Marie's work from 1992's Coincidence and Likely Stories onward might be surprised by the sound and spirit of Medicine Songs, this music leaves no doubt that she has no interest in aging gracefully; at 76, she's as fierce, aware, and committed as any artist a third her age, and these tunes speak to the madness of 2017 with a stunning clarity.

– Mark Deming
Excerpted from “A Review of Buffy Sainte-Marie's Medicine Songs”
AllMusic.com
November 2017

Sainte-Marie’s commitment to crusading against the follies of war and environmental degradation, for better treatment of Indigenous peoples and the lands stolen from them, against inequality and corporate greed and for human decency in general remains undiminished as she steers ever closer to her 80th year.

Her commitment to uncompromising artistry hasn’t waned at all over the decades, either. Rather than take the easy route with Medicine Songs and crank out a simple compilation album, Saint-Marie went back into the studio, tore apart her old songs and dressed them up with updated lyrics and ferocious new arrangements to better fit the tenor of the times. There are also a couple of mood-appropriate new tunes in the mix, a rousing duet with Inuk powerhouse Tanya Tagaq – with whom she connected after winning the Polaris Music Prize for Power in the Blood in 2015, a year after Tagaq took the same award for Animism – called “You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)” and a biting, electroshocked tirade against war profiteering entitled “The War Racket.”

“I could have put out a playlist but I didn’t want to do that. I mean, I sing ’em every night and I think I sing ’em better now than I did on the originals,” shrugs the Saskatchewan expat. “‘Universal Soldier’ and ‘Now That the Buffalo’s Gone,’ I did them exactly the same way as before because they were right the first time. Acoustic guitar and vocal. I don’t have a better way to do it and I think anything I added to it would be just detracting from it. But then other things, we did quite differently, we added things to.

“They’re my songs. I know what I’m doing. I looked at is an opportunity, really, not only to give them to my ‘classic’ fans but also to new generations who’ve never heard those songs because they are about important issues that people care about."

– Ben Rayner
Excerpted from “Buffy Sainte-Marie on
Her Fresh Dose of Old Medicine”
The Star
November 15, 2017

. . . Sainte-Marie is as passionate about addressing injustice in her own folksy way as she has ever been, and Medicine Songs is her attempt to corral all of her most riotous words – some brand-new, some, like “Bury My Heart My Heart at Wounded Knee,” updated versions of her classics – in one place. “This album has activist songs, not protest songs,” she says. “Protest songs spell out a problem, but activist songs spell out solutions.” In a post-Trump landscape of woke, politically minded young artists like Solange and Kendrick Lamar, her music has never sounded more relevant. On Medicine Songs, against a backdrop of crunching electronic rock, many of the lyrics are almost instructive in their messaging, centering on issues like the uranium conflicts between oil companies and indigenous Americans in, she says, the hopes that knowledge is power and will lead to change. “It’s passion, but it’s practical,” she says. “Even if somebody wanted to make a revolution, I don’t think they could pull it off. And I believe in nonviolence. It doesn’t do us any good to just hate on the oil people – we have to find ways to settle things, like convincing them to reinvest in clean energy. Aboriginal people are practical – that’s how we survived.”

– Alex Frank
Excerpted from “Buffy Sainte-Marie:
“Protest Songs Spell Out Problems.
Activist Songs Spell Out Solutions”
The Village Voice
November 15, 2017

It would be nice to believe that Medicine Songs might make a difference and fair play to Buffy for continuing the put her messages of hope out there. Vocally, she’s never sounded better, and the new arrangements – ranging from her acoustic troubadour roots (she hasn’t messed too much with “Universal Soldier”), to world music, indie rock, and even hip-hop – do more than just apply a fresh veneer to aging material.

The result is a thoroughly ‘modern’ album, and one that belies Sainte-Marie’s advancing years. In a somewhat unusual twist the digital version of the album features 20 songs, whereas due to capacity limitations the CD only features 13. But so those investing in the physical product don’t miss out, a download code card is included that allows you to get the rest of the tracks. Nice touch, Buffy.

– Pete Whalley
Excerpted from “Album Review:
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Medicine Songs”
Get Ready to Rock
December 7, 2017

UPDATE . . .

Buffy Sainte-Marie manages to shrink the gulf between past and future, employing a keen awareness of cutting-edge technology in the service of ancient wisdom. This retrospective set combines newer material with re-recorded versions of early Sixties protest classics such as “Soldier Blue” and “Universal Soldier”, in which she tackled issues of eco-consciousness and personal responsibility long before they became common discourse.

Since then, her protests have been articulate and specific: the systematic oppression of Native American culture (including the forced re-education of children) in Canada; the black-ops-backed mining of uranium on Native territory; the profit principle underlying “The War Racket”. Against these dark forces she posits the power of indigenous healers and wisdom keepers, underscoring her arguments with arrangements which combine rousing powwow chants in hypnotic collusion with cyclical guitar figures, mouth-bow drones and pulsing grooves. The result, in tracks like “You Got To Run” and “No No Keshagesh”, is uniquely uplifting, a powerful affirmation of steely spirituality.

– Andy Gill
Excerpted from “Album Reviews:
Craig David, Mary Gauthier, and Buffy Sainte-Marie”
The Independent
January 25, 2018

Following is an interview with Buffy backstage at the 2017 Juno Awards, where she was the recipient of the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award.





Related Off-site Links:
Music as Medicine: Buffy Sainte-Marie Talks Politics, Sex Scandals and Her Brand New Album – Rosanna Deerchild (CBC Radio's Unreserved, November 19, 2017)
Buffy Sainte-Marie Takes a Stand with Medicine Songs – ET Canada (November 30, 2017).
Buffy Sainte-Marie Makes Music for a New Generation of Activists – Tom Power (CBC Radio, November 17, 2017).
The Unbreakable Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Candid Conversation with the Resilient Songwriter and Activist – Whitney Phaneuf (Acoustic Guitar, January 18, 2017).

For The Wild Reed's special series of posts leading-up to the November 10, 2017 release of Medicine Songs, see:
• For Acclaimed Songwriter, Activist and Humanitarian Buffy Sainte-Marie, the World is Always Ripening
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: "I'm Creative Anywhere"
• Buffy Sainte-Marie Headlines SummerStage Festival in NYC's Central Park
• Buffy Sainte-Marie, "One of the Best Performers Out Touring Today"
• The Music of Buffy Sainte-Marie: "Uprooting the Sources of Disenfranchisement"
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Things Do Change and Things Do Get Better”

For The Wild Reed's special series of posts leading-up to the May 12, 2015 release of Buffy's award-winning album, Power in the Blood, see:
• Buffy Sainte-Marie and That "Human-Being Magic"
• Buffy Sainte-Marie's Lesson from the Cutting Edge: "Go Where You Must to Grow"
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: "Sometimes You Have to Be Content to Plant Good Seeds and Be Patient"
• Buffy Sainte-Marie's Power in the Blood


For more of Buffy Sainte-Marie at The Wild Reed, see:
• A Music Legend Visits the North Country: Buffy Sainte-Marie in Minnesota and Wisconsin – August 2016
• Two Exceptional Singers Take a Chance on the "Spirit of the Wind"
• Photo of the Day – January 21, 2017
• Buffy Sainte-Marie Wins 2015 Polaris Music Prize
• Congratulations, Buffy
• Happy Birthday, Buffy!
• Actually, There's No Question About It
• For Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Well-Deserved Honor
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: Singing It and Praying It; Living It and Saying It
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: Still Singing with Spirit, Joy, and Passion
• Something Special for Indigenous Peoples Day
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: "The Big Ones Get Away"

Opening image: Album cover showing Buffy Sainte-Marie performing in Calgary on July 24, 2011. (Photo: Lyle Aspinall/Calgary Sun/Qmi Agency)
Image 2: Buffy performing at the Big Top Chautauqua, Bayfield, WI on Saturday, August 27, 2016. (Photo: Michael J. Bayly)
Image 3: Matt Barnes.
Image 4: Justin Tang/The Canadian Press.
Image 5: Michael J. Bayly.
Image 6: Matt Barnes.

Vessels of the Holy

Earlier today a friend shared with me Daniel Wolpert’s insightful book Creating a Life with God: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices.

For Wolpert prayer is all about listening for the sacred in our lives; sensing God’s presence in those experiences that give us a hint of something at work in the universe that is “other” than ourselves, yet also, paradoxically, the deepest part of ourselves.

The part of Wolfert’s book that resonates most with me is his chapter on “body prayer,” in which Wolfert talks about the body and the spiritual life. Following is an excerpt.

Experiencing our bodies as vessels for the Divine transforms our relationship with our bodies, and we become aware of certain questions about our bodies.

What if we were to take our bodily relationships seriously as powerful gifts from God?

What if we were to take seriously the powerful feelings present in our bodies as positive reflections of the power and presence of God in our lives?

Wouldn’t we want to treat our bodies and our bodily relationships with reverence and care as vessels of the Holy?

As we begin to answer these questions, our attention is drawn ever more toward God. We see our every feeling as a pulse of the spirit of life within us, and our desire to treat these feelings with the attitude of prayer grows.

. . . Understanding that our feelings of love and desire can contain the love of God changes our attitude toward these feelings. We begin to treat them with the respect they deserve without shame or guilt. We realize that we can pray with and through our bodies.

– Daniel Wolpert
Excerpted from Creating a Life with God:
The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices
pp. 123-124

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Body: As Sacred and Knowing as a Temple Oracle
• Joan Timmerman on the “Wisdom of the Body”
• Real Holiness
• No Altar More Sacred
• To Be Held and to Hold
• An Erotic Encounter with the Divine
• Spirituality and the Gay Experience
• The Holy Pleasure of Intimacy
• The Many Manifestations of God's Loving Embrace

Image 1: “The Kiss” by Joe Phillips.
Image 2: Loïc Le Phoque Fringant.

Our Quiet Time

It is our quiet time.
We do not speak, because the voices are within us.
It is our quiet time.
We do not walk, because the earth is all within us.
It is our quiet time.
We do not dance, because the music has lifted us
to a place where the spirit is.
It is our quiet time.
We rest with all of nature.
We wake when the seven sisters wake.
We greet them in the sky over the opening of the kiva.

– Nancy Wood

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Winter . . . Within and Beyond
• Winter Beauty
• Winter Light
• Advent: A ChristoPagan Perspective
• Reclaiming the "Hour of God"
• Celebrating the Coming of the Sun and the Son
• Christmastide Approaches

Related Off-site Links:
At the Solstice, in Praise of Darkness – The New York Times (December 16, 2017).
The Long (and Short) of the Winter Solstice – Haley Brink (CNN, December 21, 2017).
What Indigenous People Celebrate During This Time Of Year – White Wolf Pack (December 18, 2017).
Winter Solstice: Honoring the Longest Night of the Year – T. Thorn Coyle (The Huffington Post, December 20, 2012).
Winter Solstice – The Leveret (December 21, 2009).

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Quote of the Day

Over the course of 2017, both in Congress and in the executive branch, we have watched the task of government devolve into the full-scale looting of America.

Politicians are making decisions to enrich their donors – and at times themselves personally – with a reckless disregard for any kind of objective policy analysis or consideration of public opinion.

A businessman president who promised – repeatedly – that he would not personally benefit from his own tax proposals is poised to sign into law a bill that’s full of provisions that benefit him and his family. Congressional Republicans who spent years insisting that “dynamic scoring” would capture the deficit-reducing power of tax cuts are now plowing ahead with a bill so fast that they don’t have time to get one done, because it turns out they can’t be bothered to meet their own targets.

Meanwhile, in the background an incredible flurry of regulatory activity is happening out of public view – much of it contrary to free market principles but all of it lucrative for big business and Trump cronies.

– Matthew Yglesias
Excerpted from "We’re Witnessing the
Wholesale Looting of America"
Vox
December 19, 2017

Related Off-site Links:
Senator Elizabeth Warren Slams GOP Tax Bill: "It’s Government for Sale" – Brandon Carter (The Hill, December 19, 2017).
Corporations Say Publicly They'll Pocket the Tax Cut, But Republicans Aren't Listening – Zaid Jilani (The Intercept, December 19, 2017).
Senator Bernie Sanders: Trump Tax Cuts a Barely Disguised Reward for Billionaire Donors – Ed Pilkington (The Guardian, December 16, 2017).
Trump's Tax Bill Has Nothing to Do With Economics. It's Brute-force Politics – Richard Reeves (The Guardian, December 18, 2017).
Trump, Tribalism and the End of American Capitalism – William G Moseley (Aljazeera, December 15, 2017).
How America’s Militaristic and Capitalist Culture Led to Trump – Charles Derber and Yale R. Magrass (Salon, December 17, 2017).
America Still Hasn't Reckoned with the Election of a Reckless Con Man as President – Ariel Dorfman (The Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2017).

UPDATES: Republican Tax Bill Passes Senate in 51-48 Vote – Thomas Kaplan and Alan Rappeport (The New York Times, December 19, 2017).
"Government for Sale": In Dead of Night, Senate GOP Passes Tax Bill Only Their Donors Can Love – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, December 20, 2017).
Congress Passed a Tax Break for the Rich, But Is Not Funding Health Insurance for Poor Kids – Matthew Rozsa (Salon, December 20, 2017).
A Tax Cut That Forgets the Forgotten – Matthew Rozsa (Salon, December 20, 2017).
Trump Will Personally Save Up to $15m Under Tax Bill, Analysis Finds – David Smith (The Guardian, December 20, 2017).
The True Lesson of the Tax Bill: This Country Is for Rich People – Jordan Weissmann (Slate, December 20, 2017).
Yes, America, There Is a Class War, and You Just Lost It – Juan Cole (Informed Comment via Common Dreams, December 20, 2017).
With Eye On 2018, Progressives Vow to Undo the Damage Done by the GOP Tax Scam – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, December 20, 2017).
They Cheered When This Tax Bill Passed: Always Remember That – William Rivers Pitt (TruthOut, December 20, 2017).
How to Make Lawmakers Rue the Day They Voted for This Scam of a Tax Bill – Sarah Anderson and Chuck Collins (The Nation, December 19, 2017).
The Simple Illogic of the Tax Bill – John T. Harvey (Forbes, December 20, 2017).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• With Republicans at the Helm, It's the United States of Hypocrisy
• A Profoundly Troubling and Tragic Indictment
• Quote of the Day – June 28, 2017

Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

One Divine Hammer

This evening at The Wild Reed I share The Breeders' song "Divine Hammer," from the band's 1993 album Last Splash.

I first heard "Divine Hammer" in 1994, which was the year I relocated to the U.S. from Australia. At the time I was very much focused on living authentically as a gay man after years of being in the closet. "Divine Hammer" seemed like an appropriate, if rather risque metaphor for the type of sexual experience/relationship I was seeking. The song also reminded me of the Marvel superhero Thor, who was well known for his big, er, hammer.

I was introduced to the character of Thor via a number of Marvel comics books of the 1970s. Marvel's Thor is a superhero based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name. He is the Asgardian god of thunder and possesses the enchanted hammer Mjolnir, which grants him various superhuman attributes, including the ability of flight and weather manipulation.

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth (who is clearly the inspiration for the image at right) plays Thor in a number of Marvel Cinematic Universe films. To date these are Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Doctor Strange (2016), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

Interestingly, singer-songwriter Kim Deal didn't have either Thor or allusions to male genatalia in mind when she wrote "Divine Hammer." Rather, according to an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, she was exploring and questioning her religious upbringing through the song.

It's not fair that folk singers preach a happy message and the goodness of living off the land and "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning." That doesn't exist. That's what I'm saying in "Divine Hammer." It's mainly about looking for something so hard through your life that people said was there. When I grew up and went to Sunday school, they said it was going to be really great . . . I believe everything everybody told me. And that's why I'm so pissed off now.

. . . I'm just looking for the divine hammer
One divine hammer
One divine hammer
I'm just looking for one divine hammer
I'd bang it all day

Hmm . . . I think I prefer my original interpretation which, if nothing else, leads me back to Thor . . . and another character from both Norse mythology and the Marvel universe: Loki.

In the comic books and films produced by Marvel, Loki is the adoptive brother and arch-enemy of Thor.

Tom Hiddleston portrays Loki (left) in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe movie series produced by Marvel Studios. To date, Loki has appeared in four films in this series: Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Hiddleston also filmed scenes for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), but these scenes were cut.

Earlier this year Michelle Dean had a fascinating and entertaining piece in The Guardian about author Neil Gaiman and his then recently-released book that retells Norse mythology. I like what he says about Loki . . .

Gaiman’s personal sensibility is apparent in the text. His affection for Loki, for instance, shines through: “Loki is very handsome. He is plausible, convincing, likable, and far and away the most wily, subtle and shrewd of all the inhabitants of Asgard. It is a pity, then, that there is so much darkness inside him: so much anger, so much envy, so much lust.”

Gaiman attributes his love of Loki to his novelist’s eye. “You always end up fascinated by who changed, and how they change, because the engine of fiction is who are you at the beginning of the story and who are you at the end. Thor, bless his heart, has no narrative arc: he is the same person all the way through. He is not the brightest hammer in the room, but he’s good hearted, and you know he will die at the end, but he dies the same person he’s been all the way through.” In contrast, Loki is both the devil and the saviour of the gods. “Almost every story where they’re in trouble, it’s because Loki got them into it. Also, an awful lot of the time, he’s the only one smart enough to get them out of it.”

He declares “a real joy in passing these things on. It’s like being given something that belongs to humanity and polishing it and cleaning it up and putting it back out there.”

Above: What's going on here, then? . . . I'll let The Wire's Alexander Abad-Santos explain this poster, one that actually appeared outside a Shanghai cinema in 2013.

While some people wouldn't be opposed to male-on-male romp and romance between Thor and Loki in Thor: The Dark World, it is (unfortunately?) not a plot point (yet). The poster is actually a fan-made, photo-shopped image — a practice that some culture lovers, both straight and gay, do for their favorite fandoms (movies, comics, books, tv shows, boy bands etc.).

Left: The original, less homosexually romantic, Thor poster.

Of course, as has been noted previously at The Wild Reed, in the always entertaining world of fan art, many popular superheroes are often depicted as gay. I guess it just goes to show how many gay superhero fans there are out there, and how strongly they want to see themselves represented in this particular genre.

Following are a few examples of fan art that depicts Thor and Loki as gay lovers.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Wolvie
• Season of the Witch
• What the Vatican Can Learn from the X-Men
• The New Superman: Not Necessarily Gay, But Definitely Queer

Related Off-site Links:
Thor: Ragnarok is Quiety the Queerest Superhero Movie Yet – Angela Watercutter (Wired, November 3, 2017).
Turns Out Marvel Cut a Gay Scene from Thor: Ragnarok – Nick Duffy (Pink News, November 1, 2017).
Valkyrie Isn't Bisexual in Thor: Ragnarok and This LGBT Erasure Is Getting Ridiculous – Eleanor Tremeer (Movie Pilot, October 26, 2017).
Thor: Ragnarok's Valkyrie Shows How Far We've Got to Go for LGBTQ Representation on the Big Screen – James Whitbrook (GizModo, November 8, 2017).
Film Review: Thor: Ragnarok – Peter Debruge (Variety, October 19, 2017).
Thor: Ragnarok Is a Hammer in the Face to the Alt-Right – John Semley (Salon, November 4, 2017)
Thor: Ragnarok Finally Does Loki Justice as a Character – Brock Wilbur (Polygon, November 2, 2017).

Yes! . . .

Related Off-site Links:
Trump Administration Bans Selected Words at Health Agencies – Reuters (December 16, 2017).
"Making America Stupid Again": Outrage Over Forbidden 7 Words You Can't Say at Trump's CDC – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, December 16, 2017).
US Health Leaders Alarmed by Report That Top Public Health Agency Has Been Told Not to Use Words or Phrases Including “Fetus,” “Transgender” and “Science-based” in Official Budget Documents – Associated Press via The Guardian (December 17, 2017).
The Trump Administration's Word Ban Extends to Other Federal Agencies. Its Ongoing Assault on Science Is Much Worse – Michael Halpern (The Equation Blog/Union of Concerned Scientists via Common Dreams, December 17, 2017).
After Trump Bans Words Including “Transgender” at CDC, Gay Rights Activists Predict Consequences for GOP – Eugene Scott (The Washington Post, December 18, 2017).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – August 16, 2017
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying "No" to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• The People's Climate Solidarity March – Minneapolis, 4/29/17
• Trump's Playbook

Quote of the Day

Once again the Trump administration has sided with big money and against the interests of the American people. The vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to end net neutrality is an egregious attack on our democracy. With this decision the Internet and its free exchange of information as we have come to know it will cease to exist. The end of net neutrality protections means that the Internet will be for sale to the highest bidder, instead of everyone having the same access regardless of whether they are rich or poor, a big corporation or small business, a multimedia conglomerate or a small online publication. At a time when our democratic institutions are already in peril, we must do everything we can to stop this decision from taking effect.

– Senator Bernie Sanders
via Facebook
December 14, 2017

Related Off-site Links:
U.S. Regulators Ditch Net Neutrality Rules as Legal Battles Loom – David Shepardson (Reuters, December 14, 2017).
FCC Repeals Title II Net Neutrality Protections Amid Uproar – Ryan Grenoble (The Huffington Post, December 14, 2017).
What Will an Internet Without Net Neutrality Be Like? – April Glaser (Slate, December 8, 2017).
Neutral No More: Three Ways the Net Neutrality Repeal Will Change How You Use the Internet – Noah Kulwin (Vice News, December 14, 2017).
Net Neutrality Killed as FCC "Hands Keys to Internet to Handful of Multi-Billion Dollar Corporations" – Julia Conley (The Huffington Post, December 14, 2017).
These Are the Women Who Tried to Save Net Neutrality – Lydia O’Connor (The Huffington Post, December 14, 2017).
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Shreds Net Neutrality Decision: The FCC Is Ignoring the Will of the People – S Nicholson (Revere Press, December 14, 2017).
FCC Commissioner: Net Neutrality Repeal Shows "Contempt" for Citizens Who Speak Up – Rebecca Savransky (The Hill, December 14, 2017).
"Last Gasp of the Open Internet" as Web Defenders Mobilize Against FCC's Final Move to Kill Net Neutrality – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, December 14, 2017).
The Fight for the Open Internet Isn’t Over: How the FCC’s Move to Kill Net Neutrality Will Be Challenged in Court – April Glaser (Slate, December 14, 2017).
Net Neutrality Repeal Is Only Part of Trump’s Surrender to Corporate Media – Reed Richardson (FAIR, December 14, 2017).
Fighting the Assaults on Net Neutrality and Our Economy – Harvey Wasserman (TruthDig, December 14, 2017).

UPDATES: We Can Get the FCC’s Decision to Kill Net Neutrality Overturned. Here’s How – Evan Greer (Common Dreams, December 15, 2017).
Killing Net Neutrality Has Brought On a New Call for Public Broadband – Zaid Jilani (The Intercept, December 15, 2017).
Is FCC Chairman Ajit Pai a Closeted Alt-Right Sympathizer? – Jacod Sugarman (AlterNet via Salon, December 18, 2017).

Image: A supporter of net neutrality demonstrates near the Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Getting Into the Holiday Spirit

Recently I and other members of the Spiritual Care Department at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis decorated a window for the holiday season. A number of other departments also got into the holiday spirit and creatively and colorfully decorated a window in one of the hospital's ground floor hallways.

Above: Fellow Spiritual Care colleagues (from left) Parker, Simeon, Verna, Chandler, and Hae – November 29, 2017.

Most of the windows were decorated in a light-hearted and fun way (above and/or left) which, of course, is fine.

We wanted the message on our window, however, to be a little more serious, to share something of depth in a simple yet powerful way. We also wanted our message to reflect the interfaith character of the Spiritual Care department. Accordingly, we went with the following . . .

Hope is the star that illuminates the dark, lifts your spirit, and nurtures your heart.

The original (uncredited) quote, which I found online, is slightly different, as you can see in the image below.

Above: My friend and fellow resident chaplain Hae, who was recently ordained as a Presbyterian minister.

Above: Chaplain intern Parker, expressing his artistic side!

Above: Verna, Ken, Parker, and Simeon.

Above: Simeon, Rev. Verlyn Hemmen, and Hae. Verlyn is Director of the Allina Health Metro Hospitals Spiritual Care and Pastoral Education Department and is a CPE supervisor at Abbott Northwestern.

Above: Chaplain intern Simeon, putting the
finishing touches on the Star of Hope!

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Interfaith Chaplaincy: Meeting People Where They're At
• Chaplaincy: A Ministry of Welcome
• Spirituality and the Healthcare Setting
• Christmastide Approaches

Quote of the Day

It's so refreshing seeing Doug Jones on stage with his supporters tonight, looking like America – brown and white, young and old, male and female, professional and blue collar – in stark contrast to those standing with Roy Moore – the Old South, nothing but pinched-faced, elderly white men, with that pasty look of Scots-Irish backwoodsmen gone to pot in old age, jowly and scowling, barking about a bitter and angry Jesus. Perhaps, finally, the Confederacy is dead – or at least overwhelmed.

– Ken Darling
via Facebook
December 12, 2017

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
Once a Long Shot, Democrat Doug Jones Wins Alabama Senate Race – Alexander Burns (New York Times,December 12, 2017).
An Upset in Trump Country: Democrat Doug Jones Bests Roy Moore in Alabama – Jessica Taylor (NPR News, December 12, 2017).
Trump, Bannon, and Roy Moore Rebuked as Doug Jones Claims Victory in Alabama – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, December 12, 2017).
Roy Moore’s Stunning Defeat Reveals the Red Line for Trump-style Politics – Richard Wolffe (The Guardian, December 13, 2017).
Doug Jones Rides a Perfect GOP Storm to the Senate – Pema Levy (Mother Jones, December 12, 2017).
Roy Moore’s Loss Signals a GOP Tearing Itself Apart Ahead of 2018 – Theo Anderson (In These Times, December 13, 2017).
African American Voters Made Doug Jones a U.S. Senator in Alabama – Vann R. Newkirk II (The Atlantic, December 12, 2017).
You’re Welcome, White People: Alabama’s Black Voters Just Saved America – Michael Harriot (The Root, December 12, 2017).
Just Say No Thanks to #ThanksAlabama and "Magical Negro" Narratives – Cynthia Greenlee (Rewire, December 14, 2017).
Sore Loser Roy Moore Lashes Out at Doug Jones’ Gay Son – Zack Ford (Think Progress, December 21, 2017).

Image: Democratic U.S. Senator elect Doug Jones speaks to supporters during his election night gathering at the Sheraton Hotel on December 12, 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama. Doug Jones defeated his Republican challenger Roy Moore to claim Alabama's U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Advent: A "ChristoPagan" Perspective

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent in the Christian tradition and as writer Katie Jenkins reminds us in the piece I share below, it is a liturgical season of waiting and a time to reorient ourselves to what it is we are waiting for: our recognition of the "in-breaking of God into our own personal lives and communities."

Advent was established by the early church at this time of year because of the many long-established pagan understandings and rituals to do with winter here in the northern hemisphere. Indeed, the Christian year, as Joyce and River Higginbotham note in their book ChristoPaganism: An Inclusive Path, is a combination of the pagan earth-centered yearly cycle and the church's own Christ-centered one. Both the pagan year and the church year begin in December – at the Winter Solstice and at Advent respectively.

I purposely opened this post with an image of Cernunnos, the ancient Celtic deity (or archetype) of nature, life and flourishment, as a way of honoring the pagan roots of the Christian church's Advent season, along with the shared understandings and symbolism of both traditions. It's an honoring rooted in a "ChristoPagan" perspective, to be sure!

I appreciate how Cernunnos is depicted, and how this depiction relates to a lot of the things associated with Advent. After all, in writing about Advent, Katie Jenkins talks about such things as humility, yearning, waiting, being still, connecting with our deepest self, discerning, and being present. I see all these things reflected in this particular image of Cernunnos. And, of course, Advent is also all about seeking and hoping to recognize God in, as Jenkins puts it, "small, daily, unforeseen ways." I dare say Cernunnos, in true pagan fashion, is recognizing the sacred in the beauty of the natural world around him, and, in particular, in those two birds perched together in the winter tree!

Yes, even in the dark and cold of winter the Sacred Presence is with us. Our task is to be constantly reorienting ourselves so that we recognize and embody this presence. That for me is what both Advent and the Winter Solstice remind us to do, especially in times that are bleak and seemingly lifeless.

Advent is a time to reorient ourselves to the world and to God. It is a humble time of recognizing one’s need and yearning for God’s presence to break into the world.

The waiting we are called to do during Advent is not the busy, numbing, frenetic kind of waiting, but the stilling, germinating kind
that connects you deeply with the present and your true self. . . . We open ourselves up to await the in-breaking of God into our own personal lives and communities here in the present. It is a time to connect with our hope and our desire.

It is a season for us to settle down deeply into ourselves – to hear our heart cry, to find that spark of life and hope deep within the darkness of unknowing. Desires unfulfilled. Hope unmet. Longing unsatisfied. It is a time of discernment, of waiting, of being present.

Because of this, it seems appropriate that in the northern hemisphere, this is the darkest time of year . . . and appropriate that the beginning of the church calendar would likewise begin in stillness and the dark, with us facing our deepest fears and desires, cultivating our hope for the light.

In the silence and the darkness, we hear our own heart’s cry, our own flame of desire, our own longing for God. . . . We are learning to look for God and hoping [to recognize] God . . . in small, daily, unforeseen ways.

– Katie Jensen
Excerpted from "Entering Advent: Journey Into Darkness"

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• An Advent Prayer
• Advent: The Season of Blessed Paradox
• Active Waiting: A Radical Attitude Toward Life
• No Other Time, No Other Place
• The Centered Life as an Advent Life
• Rejoice? (Advent 2012)
• Advent 2011: Thoughts and Reflections (Part 1)
• Advent 2011: Thoughts and Reflections (Part 2)
• Advent 2011: Thoughts and Reflections (Part 3)
• Advent 2011: Thoughts and Reflections (Part 4)
• Thoughts on Waiting . . . and a Resolution
• My Advent Prayer for the Church
• Advent: Renewing Our Connection with the Sacred
• Celebrating the Coming of the Sun and the Son
• Christmastide Approaches

Related Off-site Links:
What Is Advent About After All? – Paul Menter (Aspen Daily News, December 6, 2017).
Advent: Hearing God in a Female Voice – Joe Kay (Sojourners, December 4, 2017).
Second Sunday of Advent Invites Us to a Meta-dream – Mary M. McGlone (National Catholic Reporter, December 9, 2017).
Happy Holidays. Yes, All of Them – Thomas L. Knapp (Stanwood Camano News, December 12, 2017).
Look to the Coming Light to Refresh your Winter-weary Soul: Winter Solstice Can Be a Spiritual Experience – Andrea Thompson McCall (Press Herald, December 12, 2017).

Image: Artist unknown.