White Robes Research Articles

Maestro di Pico i iluminacije u inkunabuli De Civitate Dei (Nicolas Jenson, Venecija, 1475.) u samostanu Sv. Duje u Kraju na Pašmanu

Maestro di Pico i iluminacije u inkunabuli De Civitate Dei (Nicolas Jenson, Venecija, 1475.) u samostanu Sv. Duje u Kraju na Pašmanu

Coriolanus (review)

Reviewed by: Coriolanus Justin B. Hopkins CoriolanusPresented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company at Sidney Harman Hall, Washington, D.C. 2903– 1704, 2013. Directed by David Muse. Set by Blythe R.D. Quinlan. Costumes by Murell Horton. Lighting by Mark McCullough. Music and Sound by Mark Bennett. Fights by Rick Sordelet. With Lise Bruneau (Valeria), Diane D’Aquila (Volumnia), Nick Dillenburg (Titus), Philip Goodwin (Brutus), Reginald Andre Jackson (Aufidius), Aaryn Kopp (Virgilia), Patrick Page (Caius Martius, later Coriolanus), Steve Pickering (Cominius), Robert Sicular (Menenius), Derrick Lee Weeden (Sicinius), and Hunter Zane (Young Martius). Before the house lights dimmed, the citizens of Rome gradually gathered on a marble, monumental set, neither clearly classical nor contemporary. A cleaner emerged, running a broom over the paneled floor. Then another joined her, then men and women placing chairs, lighting fires, dressed in drab grays and brown, nondescript working clothes that rejected attempts to date them precisely. After a sudden blackout, the citizens had formed a semi-circle, while above them the senators and Caius Martius and his family sat and stood, impassively. Drums rolled, then silence. One by one, the citizens started to fidget, to fret. One kicked a chair and cried, “Corn!” A second repeated the word, and soon it sped from mouth to mouth, accompanied by clanging pipes, until it culminated in that same First Citizen shouting “…at our own price!” Martius, whose annoyance had visibly built with the clamor below, stalked off, his family and the senators close behind. A heated debate began between the citizens, only partially defused when Menenius interrupted. Robert Sicular delivered a charming rendition of the story of the revolting body—earning laughs with the silly [End Page 505]voice of the belly, and winking good-naturedly at a young woman on “the heart”—but the people were too hungry and too angry to keep completely in check. Most sided with the First Citizen—an enraged young man—who obviously hated the elites, especially Martius. Some sympathized with the Second Citizen—an older, calmer fellow—who defended Martius out of gratitude for his protection. In their arguments, I couldn’t help but recognize echoes of recent rhetoric from the Occupy movement about the 1% and the 99%, and from US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney about the 47% he claimed existed on welfare. However, after this initial scene, David Muse did not direct this production as a modern political statement so much as a personal portrait of an individual whose extremity couldn’t be expressed in percentages, and who inhabited an ambiguously designed world accented by periods past, present, and perhaps even future. Not quite the near-psychopath Ralph Fiennes portrayed in his 2012 film, Patrick Page nevertheless pushed all the appropriate social boundaries. Unreservedly delighted by battle, he shouted with pleasure at the prospect of war when he heard of the Volscian uprising. He protested vehemently against all praise—though he liked his new name, mouthing “Coriolanus” silently, and nodding in approval. Forced to stand for consul, he stumbled verbally and physically, tripping over his words and his white robe, wiping his hand disdainfully after shaking hands with each citizen, his request for “your voices” sounding like a mocking market-cry. Called a traitor, he ripped off his red robe and hurled it, swirling and furling, at the circling citizens, his face turning almost as scarlet as the fabric as he bellowed with rage. Furious, yes…but frightening? Maybe not quite. In his second entrance, Martius stormed on, slamming his hand on a drum to seize the citizens’ attention, and striding center stage, where he stamped and waved his riding crop—but it came across slightly more as blustery bark than bite. Though he was certainly the model of a modern major general, I was less convinced that Page was really a warrior. His movements were a tad stiff, not supple, and he was quite careful when his soldiers lifted him above their heads like a totem. Then again, perhaps his caution was well-earned. He did bear scars from nearly thirty wounds, as he vividly demonstrated when he bared his body—not for the citizens, but for his nemesis Aufidius. Despite that bare-chested...

Playing Life and Death in Provincetown:

Playing Life and Death in Provincetown:

Millenarians in the Pennines, 1800–1830: Building and Believing Jerusalem

FEW PHRASES RESONATE so widely in English national culture like the lines of William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ — the poem and hymn.1 For a corner of southern Lancashire, beneath the invariably clouded Pennines, these visionary verses have a more literal ring, their rhetorical questions an intriguing historical answer. In Ashton-under-Lyne, nine miles east of Manchester, a favourite legend of the mill-town’s past is of the time it was the New Jerusalem, when early-nineteenth-century inhabitants built gatehouses at the corners of their town, processed through the streets in white robes, and expected the messianic age among the actual ‘dark satanic mills’ where they worked. Aspects of the legend, and the life of the religious sect associated with the story, are better known beyond Ashton through modern fiction: Jane Rogers’s historical novel, Mr Wroe’s Virgins, subsequently a BBC costume drama.2 This provides an imaginative back-story to one especially piquant tale involving the charismatic leader of the Ashton sect, John Wroe (1782–1863): that he once asked his congregation for seven of their daughters to wait on him, then got them pregnant. While Rogers has asserted the fictional nature of her narrative, elements are based on historical fact. The real Wroe was a woolcomber and tenant farmer from Tong, near Bradford, who

Detection of dermcidin for sweat identification by real-time RT-PCR and ELISA

We evaluated the performance of real-time RT-PCR and ELISA assays for detection of dermcidin (DCD) in sweat and body-fluid stains. DCD, a small antibiotic peptide secreted into human sweat, was detected by real-time RT-PCR in 7-day-old stains containing as small as 10 μL of sweat, and the assay showed high specificity when testing 7-day-old stains containing 30 μL of other body-fluid. ELISA using anti-human dermcidin mouse monoclonal antibody detected DCD sweat diluted up to approximately 10,000-fold and could specifically detect DCD in 10 μL of body-fluid stains. The performance of the two assays was tested during winter on samples that simulated forensic case samples: an undershirt and a sock worn for 20 h, a handkerchief used to wipe the brow several times within 12 h, a cap and a cotton glove worn for 4 h, and a white robe worn at intervals for 2 years. The result showed that the former assay detected DCD in all sites of the undershirt examined (armpit, back, and breast), and the latter gave a relatively high OD value in the armpit among the three sites. For the socks, although the latter assay gave very high OD values in both the center and toe of the foot sole, the former could not detect DCD in both of them. These results indicate that highly damp conditions, such as inside a shoe, might promote the degradation of mRNA in samples such as socks. In the other case samples, sweat was adequately detected by both assays. This study is the first demonstration of the use of real-time RT-PCR to sensitively identify sweat among body-fluid stains, and it confirmed that dermcidin was an excellent marker for sweat identification. In addition, the usefulness of ELISA was also verified. Positive sweat identification using these assays is expected to assist forensic practice.

Yeast Infections — Human Genetics on the Rise

We lead inextricably mycotic lives: yeasts leaven our bread, ferment our wine and beer, and inhabit our skins, mouths, and gastrointestinal tracts; however, not all is harmony. Hippocrates reported aphthous ulcers consistent with thrush in patients with severe debilitation, but it was not until the 1840s that in the newly emerging field of clinical experimental medicine that thrush — as well as other mycotic conditions, including ringworm — was recognized as being caused by transmissible fungi. In 1923 Christine Marie Berkhout named what we now call Candida albicans, for the white robe, toga candida, worn by Roman senators and senatorial . . .

Largely Absent

Largely Absent John F. Shean Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture Gideon Nisbet . Bristol Phoenix Press, 2008. 208 pages; $24.95. Gideon Nisbet's book—a survey of selected mass-market films set in Ancient Greece—focuses on pictures made over the last fifty years for English speaking audiences, explaining why photodramas about the Greeks are largely absent from the American and British cinema. According to Nisbet, "One obvious reason for the relative scarcity of Hollywood films set in Ancient Greece is the difficulty of selling Greece to cinema audiences because audiences assume Greece is boring" (p. 7). Yet Nisbet also notes that Hollywood itself is partly responsible for this perception. In contrast to the bland treatment accorded to the Greeks, Roman-themed movies are often lavish productions, typically employing spectacular sets and casts of thousands: Ben Hur (1959), Quo Vadis (1951), Gladiator (2000), etc. Indeed, not only does the film industry favor Rome at the expense of Greece, but it even presents Achaean stories as Roman ones. Accordingly, many Hollywood films tend to reinforce stereotypical notions of antiquity and to say more about the contemporary audiences for whom they were produced, than about the ancient cultures they are purported to portray. Nisbet exemplifies this claim by comparing the depiction of Athens in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) with that of Rome in The Robe (1953). In Bill and Ted, ancient Athens is confined to intimate views of old, bearded men in white robes sitting about discussing philosophy. In contrast, in The Robe, sweeping, wide-angled shots are used to emphasize the spectacle and majesty of ancient Rome. The portrayal of 'So-Crates' in Bill and Ted, itself a parody, highlights the popular perception of the Greeks as intellectual and boring. In contrast with Rome and its public blood sports and chariot races, brainy Greece is not good box office. Nisbet notes that Hollywood tried to overcome this difficulty by turning to heroic figures drawn from Greek mythology as film subjects, thereby hoping to make Hellenic culture more exciting and 'Roman'. This led to a virtual cottage industry of films about Hercules that included children's cartoons and a popular TV series that is still in syndication (note: Hollywood uses the Roman, not the Greek (Herakles) form of the name). The popularity of Steve Reeves' Hercules films during the late 1950's spawned a series of screenplays based on Hercules-like heroes: Atlas (1960) and The Colossus of Rhodes (1961)) and even a reworking of Homer—Helen of Troy (1956)). Yet, even here, the success of the 'Hercules' brand did not carry over to other Greek themed movies which tended to be box office flops, resulting in their respective director's decision (Roger Corman, Sergio Leone, and Robert Wise) to swear off movies about 'men in skirts' altogether. The main problem with these films was that many of the background visuals and themes on display were actually Roman (amphitheaters, costumes, tyrannical rulers, slave revolts, etc). This presentation of Greek stories as Roman ones affected the audience's ability to appreciate the cultural uniqueness of Greece. Why does Hollywood insist on portraying Greek stories as Roman? Because Hollywood, "taps into and reinforces popular ideas about the ancient world" (p. xiv). In an attempt to make Greece seem more exciting to cinema audiences, it was portrayed as Roman, [End Page 85] resulting in the audience's inability to appreciate the Hellenic uniqueness. Greece is always overshadowed by Rome, and is often regarded as a bad imitation of it. The situation has not improved in recent years with Troy (2004) and Alexander (2004), two commercial and critical disappointments. Despite the popularity of the controversial screen adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 (2006), it is unclear whether Hollywood will follow this up with more ancient epics. Nisbet's main argument about why Greek-themed topics do not do well, however, could be characterized as tautological. That is, movies about Greece are not commercially successful because of the merry-go-round effect: audiences perceive Greece to be boring because Hollywood films—reinforcing the stereotypes audiences have about Greece—portray Greece as boring. Despite this small problem, the book makes many interesting points...

한국과 중국 문화색채 특성 - 전통극을 중심으로 -

The purpose of this study is to research the similarity and difference of color application in culture of Korea and China. The subject of this research is the costume color of Changgeuk and Beijing opera. First, a bibliographical inquiry includes the attributes of cultural color in Korea and China and the costume attributes of Changgeuk and Beijing opera. Second, this survey analyzes Munsell's 3 attributes(Hue, Value, Chroma), tone by extracted color data. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The cultural color factors of Korea and China are classified geographical factor, internal cultural factor and external cultural factor. 2. Changgeuk costume much more used high value and medium & low chroma for korean temperate climate. But Beijing opera costume prefers high-medium value and low chroma color, various ranges of color because of China huge land and various climates, as geographical factor. 3. Changgeuk costume much more used YR color(no-dyeing color) because of korean white robe preference. Beijing opera costume much more used R color than Changgeuk costume because of traditional preference of R color, as infernal cultural factor. 4. Changgeuk costume and Beijing opera costume show the practical use of ascetic cole. like as jade green. Ojungsaek much less used than Obangsaek by the theory of exponents of the five elements doctrine, as external cultural factor.

African American Literature as Spiritual Witness: The Poetic Example of Margaret Alexander Walker

Birthed during the watery baptism of the Middle Passage between Africa and the New World, African American literature is the product of hybrid cultures, hybrid worlds, and hybrid religions. The experiences and memories of traditional African religions, along with a brutal introduction to Western Christianity, created the cauldron in which African American literature was born. From the poetry of Ann Plato and Phillis Wheatley, to the novels of Toni Morrison and John Edgar Wideman, African American literature has been haunted by its religious birth-pangs, which produced both acceptance and contestation of its African and Christian origins. Using the poetry of Margaret Alexander Walker, this brief article simply argues that while there does appear to be a return to religion in the larger arena of literary and cultural studies, African American literature and literary criticism have never turned away from their spiritual roots. The revelation and contestation of spiritual truths is not a passing fad in African American literature; rather, the work of theology is at the heart of this canon of texts. Margaret Alexander Walker was the daughter of a Methodist minister and the granddaughter of a slave; she was born in Birmingham, Alabama, raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and spent all her adult life and academic career as an English professor in Jackson, Mississippi. Her life spanned most of the twentieth century (1915-1998), and her writing career began when she was just 19 years Perhaps best known for her 1966 novel Jubilee, Walker was a prolific poet and the literary foremother of several generations of African American writers, including Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni. Her many volumes of poetry interrogate Christian beliefs and employ sacred forms as she explores the conflicted nature of Christianity for many African Americans. have been believers believing in the black of an old land, believing in the secrets of the seeress and the magic of the charmers and the power of the devil's evil ones. And in the white of a we have been believers believing in the mercy of our masters and the beauty of our brothers, believing in the conjure of the humble and the faithful and the pure. Neither the slaves' whip nor the lynchers' rope nor the bayonet could kill our black belief. In our hunger we beheld the welcome table and in our nakedness the glory of a long white robe. have been believers in the Jerusalem. In the first three stanzas of her poem, We Have Been Believers, from her volume For My People (1941), (1) Walker establishes a collective memory that ties contemporary African American religious belief to the slave experience, and even prior, to a collective African religious heritage. Though millions may have perished on that Middle Passage journey, what did not die were the memories of gods of old. Africans and their descendants did not come to the New World as heathens or as empty, soulless vessels; instead they came with story, song, and memories of a sustaining faith. And in this land, Africans and their American-born descendants adapted to beliefs; there was the desire and the absolute need to believe in the mercy of earthly masters and the mercy of a heavenly master who would clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and provide for the least of these. And even when the whip, and the rope, and the bayonet attempted to destroy these nascent beliefs, they could not, because African Americans did not just adopt the beliefs of this land, they transformed the very core of those beliefs. Terms like chosen people and the promised land were adopted and recast; Abraham and Sarah, as well as Ishmael and Hagar, were claimed as kin folks. (2) A new Jerusalem becomes possible only by believing that this Christian God cared. And so Walker celebrates the spirit of a faith that always allowed for the radical possibilities of hope. …

Anglo-Saxon ‘Purgatory’

Since a countless multitude of misshapen spirits, far and wide, was being tortured in this alternation of misery as far as I could see and without any interval of respite, I began to think that this might be Hell, of whose intolerable torments I had often heard tell. But my guide who went before me answered my thoughts, ‘Do not believe it,’ he said, ‘this is not Hell as you think.’ … As he led me on in open light … [we came to] a very broad and pleasant plain … [where] there were innumerable bands of men in white robes, and many companies of happy people sat around; as he led me through the midst of the troops of joyful inhabitants, I began to think that this might perhaps be the kingdom of Heaven of which I had often heard tell. But he answered my thoughts: ‘No,’ he said, ‘this is not the kingdom of Heaven as you imagine.’

現代タイ上座部仏教における女性の沙弥尼出家と比丘尼受戒

In recent centuries, the religious authority figures of Theravāda Buddhism were only bhikkhu, fully ordained monks. However, during the Buddha’s time, women were allowed to be ordained as bhikkhunıī, fully ordained nuns at the status equivalent to bhikkhu. The female ordination lineage was disrupted some centuries later, and since then Theravāda Buddhist women have had to do their ascetic practice with the status of lay devotee, rather than the ordained status of bhikkhunıī. In Thailand the head-shaven female devotees who don the white robes are called māe chıī, and they are not given as much honor, support, or opportunity to play religious roles as male bhikkhu enjoy.

한.일 전통극의 색채문화 비교

The purpose of this study is to research the similarity and difference of color application in the culture of Korea and Japan. The subject of this research is the costume color of Changgeuk and Kabuki. This survey analyzes Munsell`s 3 attributes(Hue, Value, Chroma), tone, and 3D color analysis by extracted color data. And representative color according to Obangsaek is proposed. The results of this study are as follows: 1. High chroma red in Kabuki costume is more used as symbolic color(passion and luxurious) in order to show character`s personality than that in Changguek costume. 2. Low chroma YR color(no-dyeing color) in Changgeuk costume much more used because of Korean white robe preference and eco-friendly thinking. But high chroma yellow is restrictive color for symbolic color of emperor in Korea and Japan. 3. Blue is most frequently used in both costumes because blue is encouraging color by the theory of exponents of the five elements doctrine. 4. White in Korean Changguek costume is more used for white robe preference thinking, but black in Kabuki costume is much more used for symbol of power in Japan. The similarity of Korean and Japanese cultural color is to use much Obangsaek, less Ogansaek by the theory of exponents of the five elements doctrine, but the difference of Korean and Japanese cultural color is to use color differently according to preference thinking system.

Having an impact (factor)

A recently departed genome biologist discusses the impact factor of his life with St Peter at the Pearly Gates.

The Lover

The Lover Jill Hammer (bio) Who else would have thought to giggle as we navigated the slippery, sparkly floor of the canyon cut through the sea, while the rest of us were filled with fear and wonder? That was how I found her in the crush of Levites churning through a moonlight-streaked tunnel. Eleven other tribes skidded through tunnels of their own, meeting at liquid intersections amid wet clusters of sheep. There she was, my fearless Miriam, testing the fizzing sides of our God-made labyrinth with an elegant, playful finger, wanting to know if it made a noise. As I came up behind her she slipped and fell in a heap of skirts and lapping wavelets. Afraid she would be trampled by the frantically rushing Israelites, I picked her up in my arms and carried her to the next intersection. I could feel the joy leaping in her body. The tribes flowed past us, green and silver and white robes mingling. I set Miriam on my shoulders, and she craned her neck to look for Moses, somewhere at the head of the crowd, not far from the glassy bridge onto the sand. We were both laughing by then. Something was deliciously funny and wonderful, something fuller than Miriam's dark eyes and warmer than her feet clasped in my hands. I did not know what it was, but then Miriam began to sing, and suddenly I did. Jill Hammer Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is the director of Tel Shemesh, a website and community celebrating Jewish traditions connected with the earth (www.telshemesh.org). She is the author of two books: The Jewish Book of Days (Jewish Publication Society, 2006) and Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women (Jewish Publication Society, 2001). Her poems and essays have been published in many journals and anthologies. Rabbi Hammer is a celebrated adult educator, midrashist, and ritualist. She is currently serving as an instructor at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale, NY. She resides in Manhattan. Copyright © 2007 Bridges Association

Investigation into effects of clothing in Saharan regions

The dwellers in the hot Saharan regions wear black coloured robes instead of white ones. The present study discovered that ∼73% of the human body heat from the centre of the body was transferred outwards through the black robe to the surroundings, whereas only 29% of the human body heat was transferred outwards when a white robe was used.The wearer of black robe is more comfortable than the wearer of white one. Also it appeared that the 'private climate' increased with the wearer of black robe, reducing the solar radiant energy transfer to the human body. It decreased with the wearer of white robe and increased the solar radiant energy transferred to the body. This further added to the discomfort when the white robe was worn.

Fading into Innocence: Death, Sexuality and Moral Restoration in Henry Peach Robinson's Fading Away

Fading into Innocence: Death, Sexuality and Moral Restoration in Henry Peach Robinson's FadingAway Jannie Uhre Mogensen Pain melted in tears, and was pleasure; Death tingled with blood, and was Ufe. -Swinburne1 The arts . . . can provide an invaluable entrée into the diversity of the universal experiences of death, dying, grief, and loss. -Sandra L Bertman2 The business of art, L. Tolstoy wrote, Ues in this: "to make that understood and felt which in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible".3 The didactic element is certainly present alongside the aesthetic in the works of the Victorian art photographer Henry Peach Robinson. Translating sentiment into graphic forms, his work FadingAway (1858) makes ametaphysical concept of death accessible for scrutiny and comprehension. The composite work iUustrates the romantic vision of death by tuberculosis. Its subUminal element of sexual passion makes it an interesting study in relation to the nostalgic Victorian denomination of death as restorer of innocence. Rather than restricting its purpose to photographicaUy capturing the empty sheU of the fading body, it iUustrates a moraUsing , anti-sexual standpoint. Its admonitory ideaüsm aims subUminaUy at purifying the spirit of the beholder, playing on reUgious and moral strings of sentiment recognised and valued by a Victorian audience. It finds a uterary counterpart in some of the more gothic works of the Victorian Renew (2006) J. Mogesen period. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla in particular draws expUcitly on the aUegorical equation of sex with death, with the female vampire as a sexual but salvageable aggressor/victim. As Robinson and Le Fanu both conclude, innocence can indeed be regained for females who are victims of their passions. AU they have to do is die. As long as there has been art, death has been artisticaUy represented. Craftsmen of aU times have pursued the death-theme in various forms and Victorian artists were no exception. Were one to make a Ust of Pre-RaphaeUte and similar paintings from the period depicting beautiful women in their final pose, it would include Arthur Hughes's Ophelia (1852), SirJohn Everett Muíais' Ophelia (1852),John Atkinson Grimshaw's Ekine (1877), John WiUiam Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott (1888) and Ophelia (undated), and Holman Hunt's The Lady of Shalott (1886-1905) - to name a few. The dead ladies evoke the tradition of the classical female nude, going back at least to Cranach. With her languid passivity, the exposed muse has served her purpose of visual stimulation throughout the centuries with Utile change in appearance. Her horizontal figure always Ues manipulably 'open' before the spectator and her facial expression always bears witness to a resting inteUectuaUty. The tradition of depicting such females as desirable objects is reminiscent in the death portrayals. Certainly , females are at their most passive when dead. As Dijkstra has observed, "representations of beautiful women safely dead remained the late-nineteenth-century painter's favourite way of depicting the transcendent spiritual value of passive feminine sacrifice" (Ruby 37). The positive valuation of such images was a natural response given the Victorian ideal of self-assertion through selflessness - an ideal that was conspicuously EvangeUcal in its paradox and influenced many contemporary artists and men of letters. The dead maidens similarly evoke the tradition of 'innocent sleepers' in Victorian art. Sleep and death have long been equated; in classical Greece, the sons of night were Hypnos, god of sleep, and his twin Thanatos, god of death (Ruby 63). Lewis CarroU's photograph of young Xie Kitchen, covered in virginally white robes and smiUng in her sleep, is emblematic of the sighing of adult males over pasvolume 32 number 1 Fading into Innocence sive, aUegedly innocent female children at the time. From a superior position as observer, the spectator could ponder if the presence of Original Sin was indeed darkening the girl's spirits, or she was truly 'innocent.' For the dead girl, sleep has become eternal; but She occupies theUwisCarroll¡ XkKtcbinAsleep, 1873 same ethereal dreamland sphere as the sleeper. As Michael Bartram rightly concludes, many "photographs of sleeping children echo the formulae of the numberless paintings and drawings which assuaged the contemporary horror of infant mortaUty: the sick, dying, and dead young people...

The Use of Dialect in African-American Spirituals, Popular Songs, and Folk Songs

The presence of vocal works that use dialect in African-American culture has been a controversial and difficult area of inquiry for those investigating the phenomenon. Dialect songs were first heard in the minstrel shows that toured the United States and Europe before the Civil War (Mahar 1999). They continued to be performed after the war as well, although not as frequently by professional troupes. Textually, many minstrel songs presented derogatory caricatures of African-American and slave culture known from depictions of southern plantations. By the 1870s, African-American dialect was still heard, most often in minstrelsy, although probably in some sacred repertory as well. While spirituals and jubilees sung in churches may have used dialect, existing evidence suggests that touring college groups, such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Hampton Students, avoided the use of dialect when they performed spirituals as part of their programs. The Fisk Singers' book The Story of the Jubilee Singers (Marsh 1880) and their later recordings (after 1909) offer their repertory in standard English. Ditson's (1887) publication Jubilee and Plantation Songs likewise eschews dialect. Undoubtedly, the use of standard English in these publications and in public performances reflected a desire to demonstrate that African Americans were educated and could speak and sing in standard English. Toward the end of the 1880s, a number of African-American vocal quartets began to appear in various venues, including vaudeville, country fairs, and variety shows. One of the most famous was the Standard Quartet, which toured with the South before the War company. The group made a number of cylinders in the early 1890s, of which one, Keep Movin', also sung in standard English, has survived (Brooks 2004, 96-97). However, the popularity of the antebellum spirituals and jubilees influenced a number of black minstrels to write and perform sacred dialect songs in their shows. James Bland's Oh, Dem Golden Slippers (1879) and Sam Lucas's On My Long White Robe (1879) are two examples of this sacred genre that migrated from the church and concert stage to the minstrel show. Lucas's song has no derogatory sense. Rather, the dialect conveys an African-American perspective (similar to that heard in spirituals) on the voyage that follows death. De gospel Trumpet am sounding loud, Put on my long white robe. See all de children a slipping proud, up an' down de road, When dey get near de pearly gate, Put on my long white robe, You can go inside if you ain't too late, And den how happy you'll feel. Chorus Oh! wait 'till I put on my long white robe, My starry crown and my golden shoes, I pass through the gates of de golden city Den I carry de news. During the 1890s, the most controversial dialect lyrics, which harkened back to the early days of minstrelsy, were set to ragtime melodies; this new genre is usually identified as the song. It was sung in a multiplicity of venues--in the minstrel show, in vaudeville, and on Broadway. It is generally stated that Ernest Hogan's All Coons Look Alike to Me was the first coon song (Woll 1989, 2), but in truth, a number of coon songs predate his piece. (1) His song, however, together with the Bully Song, whose authorship was claimed by no fewer than five composers, introduced the new genre to Broadway, where mainstream theatergoers readily accepted and approved their catchy tunes, sung by May Irwin. The coon song's popularity led many African-American lyricists and composers to write vernacular songs that were sung by both black and white performers. While most of these songs had slangy lyrics in which final sounds were dropped (hangin', for example) and contractions were used (ne'er), they did not use dialect (dere and dem). A small group, however, did. Bert Williams and George Walker, for example, wrote several that were heard in their musicals between 1897 and 1902, as did Irving Jones, Will Marion Cook, and Bob Cole. …

How to Meditate

How to Meditate Brenda Miller Day One On arrival, huddle in the Volkswagen with your friends and eat aU the chocolate in the car. Chocolate chips, old KitKats, the tag-end of a Hershey Bar—do not discriminate. Feel deprived, then light up your last Sherman, pass it around. Watch your feUow retreatants flow into the meditation haU. Note how elegant they look, even in sweatpants and black WeUingtons. Wonder where they get such nice sweatpants. Look down at your baggyjeans, your dimT-shirt and say, I'm not dressedfor this, let'sgo home. Look beyond the meditation haU to the Navarro River, the cattails, the redwinged blackbirds. It wiU be raining, just a little. Remember that you've forgotten dental floss. Take a deep drag off the cigarette and wonder what you're doing here. Take a close look at your companions in the car: your boyfriend Seth, who is so much older than you, and your friends John and Marybeth. Remember how the four ofyou, just days earfier, wound up tangled in a bed together, a soft bed with a down comforter, lazily stroking each other's limbs. Feel ashamed. Feel superior. Say, Ready? A woman with bristled red hair leads you and Marybeth to the women's dorm. There wiU be a deck overlooking a marsh where the blackbirds clack and whistle in the reeds. Glance at the other women who are folding their extra pairs of sweatpants, their Guatemalan sweaters. Sit on the cot and pat it with one hand. It will be hard, unyielding, to help you obey the precept against lying in "high, luxurious beds." Scope out the meditation haU. Set up your pfllow, your blankets next to the wood-stove near the back door. Figure this wiU be a prime spot—easy in, easy out—and smugly wonder why no one else has nabbed it. Realize your mistake when, during the first sitting period, heat blazes from the 106 Brenda Miller107 stove, frying the hair on your shins. Slide away a little, quietly as you can, and bump the knees ofthe woman next to you. Irritation rises from her like a wave. Start to apologize but choke yourself off mid-whisper. Sit cross-legged on your pillow, your hands palm down on your knees. Breathe. Your teacher, who is from Burma, perches on a raised platform, his belly round, his knees hidden under his white robe. He speaks in a voice so deep it vibrates beneath your skin. He repeats the word: equanimous, equanimous . Invent a strange animal, an Equanimous, half-horse, half-dolphin, gliding through the murky sea of your unconscious. Feel where the breath enters and leaves your body just below the nostrils, like a fingertip tapping on your upper lip. Concentrate on this sensation. Within seconds find yourselfthinking about Marybeth s hand on your breast. Go back to your breath. Find yourselfthinking about pancakes, eggs, bacon. Go back to your breath. Spend your first hour of meditation this way. They caU it "monkey mind." Picture your brain swinging through the banana trees, its little hands clutching the vines. Feel the pain begin in your knees, between your shoulder blades. Shift a little and feel the pain travel up your neck, down into your hips. Open your eyes halfway and surreptitiously glance at the meditators around you. They look perfectly stiU, their backs straight, their zafus round and plump. Look at your own flat piUow spiUing from beneath your thighs. You don't have the right equipment for this. You'd better leave now, before you're paralyzed. Day Two Read the rules again: No talking, no reading, no sex, no drugs, no eye contact. Vipassana, they say, is the art of looking deeply. Be unsure about how deeply you want to look. Read the schedule six times—4 A.M.: waking bell, 4:30-5:00: chanting in the haU, 5-6: sitting, 6-7: breakfast, 7-9: sitting , 11:00: lunch, more sitting, nap time, more sitting, tea at 4:00, no dinner, Dharma talk at 7, more sitting. Add up the hours ofmeditation and come up with the number 16. Figure this must be a mistake and perform...

The Lunch Box

FICTION The Lunch Box Chris Wood BEFORE THE FINAL BELL RANG, EVERY STUDENT at George Rogers Clark Elementary in Belmont, Virginia, knew about the fight after school. Everyone except Dora Lund. The fight was between a couple of third-graders. Their names were Helen Shifflett and Dora Lund. The idea had been Helen's. As the biggest kid in her grade, she felt compelled to prove her physical prowess over her classmates by beating up on them. Dora Lund was the last one left. Truth to be told, though, Dora was unaware that Helen had saved her for last. Without admitting it to anyone, Helen had done this on purpose. There was something sad about Dora, the pudgy, pigtailed girl who always wore a dress to school. Dora was the middle child of three daughters. Although she had a cute chubby face with apple cheeks and dimples when she smiled, she was also heavy for her age, and that was how people saw her, including her parents. Dora was a quiet, obedient child. She always did what her parents told her to do, but her efforts always seemed to fall just short of their expectations. She was too softhearted. That was her problem. And like all softhearted people, she was gullible. He big sister, Nancy, was prettier like their mother, and little Anne was the son their father never had. The family ate their dinner in quiet, breaking the silence on occasion to ask for something to be passed. They ate formally. The girls remained in their school dresses, and Mr. Lund dined in the suit he'd worn at the men's clothing store that day. Mrs. Lund was always dressed up for some occasion, usually her own. She was a tall, elegant woman who kept her hair colored and permed and had her nails done once a month. She detested any show of bad manners at the table. One must push one's peas onto a fork with a butter knife, she said, or else a crust of bread, but never with the forefinger. That was what people with bad breeding did. Mr. Lund was a stooped, balding man with thick black-rimmed glasses. A devout Methodist, he enjoyed singing from a hymnal after dinner to his wife's accompaniment at the piano. He did all the cooking and cleaning at home and also knew how to sew. 55 During dinner one evening, and for no apparent reason Dora could think of, Mrs. Lund announced that Nancy had always been her favorite daughter. From his end of the table, Mr. Lund claimed Anne for himself. The two sisters looked at Dora for a response. But Dora continued to shovel peas into her mouth without tasting them, as though she hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary. Whenever her parents overlooked her, she just went into a little room inside her head and closed the door to them. After dinner that night, Dora dreamt she went to heaven. The only way to get there was to climb these steep steps that resembled the ones at school, only these steps stretched into the clouds. Dora had to pull herself up with the aid of a railing. There was nothing but sky on either side of her, so she didn't look down. A cold, damp wind howled down on her from the top of the stairs. They were wooden and uncarpeted, for they had been worn smooth by the feet of the dead. Each time Dora took a step the board beneath her foot creaked. The air smelled sweet and thick, like the attic where she liked to play. She kept walking up the stairs until she reached the gate of St. Peter's. Peter was a tall slender man with white, wispy hair and sun-dried tomato skin. He wore a long white robe that was frayed at the cuffs and had been patched in many places. His arms were folded, and he gave off a radiance like Mr. Clean. Clearly this was a mistake, Peter said, checking his long list. No one had called Dora's name. That wasn't supposed to happen for a long, long...

Celestial Lodge Above: The Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem as a Religious Symbol in Freemasonry

The hangings in the lodge room are blue, spread with golden stars. The Master and all the brothers wear a white robe as well as a blue headband with twelve golden stars on it, tied around their foreheads. The Master sits under a blue canopy on a throne, behind which is a transparent light that is sufficient to illuminate the whole lodge. Facing is a painting or image of a square city, or the celestial Jerusalem, descending from heaven, to crush the remains of the present Jerusalem. A Serpent or hydra with three heads representing the badness of the infidels remains there. This Celestial Jerusalem, elevated as on a cloud, has twelve gates, three on each side with a Tree in the middle that bears twelve different sorts of fruits. Under this is the ancient Jerusalem which is in ruins and overturned, along with the Serpent which is in chains and appearing crushed by the weight of the Celestial Jerusalem. There is a high mountain on one side toward which the candidate (for initiation) is directed by the Warden (the guide), who then retreats backwards, and after a moment of silence, the candidate takes three steps toward the three-headed Serpent and steps on each of the heads. He then advances in a special way toward the city and receives the secret sign, token, and password of the degree. He is also given a crimson sash with twelve golden stars on which hang a square jewel of gold from the right shoulder to the left hip, on one side the letter Alpha and on the other Omega.1