Bach • Schütz • Handel

July 28^th every year • Saturday 28 July this year

Here's the worship bulletin cover collage I designed in City of History for our weeknight liturgical celebration of The Fifth Evangelist, Johann Sebastian Bach; anchor image is Ben Shahn's portrayal of Bach based on Elias Gottlieb Haussmann's famous one. Formally and officially this commemoration's mostly – but not exclusively – a Lutheran thing. Long ago I heard of a novel about a (Roman Catholic, of course) Pope who loved Sebastian Bach's music so much he wanted nothing more than to canonize him as a saint of the RC church, but Bach's being protestant was more than a slight impediment. Only Bach for my collage? Always the liturgy geek, since I followed both Sunday and sanctoral lectionary propers, I kept saying, "Bach, Schütz, Handel" to the pastor, who kept insisting back, "Bach!" Finally I got we'd be officially celebrating only JSB that evening.

Prelude Music Planner observes, "In a delightful example of musical ecumenism, Schütz (a Lutheran) received funding from the Landgrave (a Calvinist) to visit Giovanni Gabrieli (a Catholic) at St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, where he studied organ, composition, improvisation, and probably substituted for Gabrieli at mass." These days that kind of flexibility and interchangeability is super-common, pretty much a given, but was close to unheard of until the papacy of John XXIII.

I suggested JSB's commemoration may mostly be a Lutheran thing since Bach himself was a Lutheran Protestant, yet The Wonder-filled Wikipedia tells us, "the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Bach annually with a feast day on 28 July, together with George Frideric Handel and Henry Purcell." Not sure if G.F.'s surname needs to be spelled Handel or Händel in which context?!

Porch Story :: Blogoversary 16

Sixteen Years

• It's Wednesday—Porch Story Day! Host Kristin Hill Taylor's about Adventuring Together; I'm writing about my 16 year blogoversary that happened on the middle day of July – the 16^th – but all of July is the anniversary. Beginning a blog at any time qualifies as open-ended adventure; even when I've been discouraged, I easily can admit I've written about a variety of ideas and events, posted excellent photographs and amazingly imaginative art. Every day is a theological, practical, and psychological watershed because {of course} every moment is a new beginning, but clearly I'm at a major intersection I can't keep ignoring or rationalizing. How. Some. Ever. This is about desert spirit's fire's Sweet Sixteen Year, so specifically during the past dozen months?



July 2017 – July 2018

• I've done something for each of my usual annual celebrations of World Rivers Day, World Water Day, Earth Day, the Day of Pentecost, World Oceans Day... check the links list at the end of this page! I've continued an illustrated activities summary for each month and meteorological season; I've blogged many of my Amazon book reviews.

• On 02 December 2017 I last played the Five Minute Friday free write—I never intended to quit FMF and still consider myself part of their community, but after 7 months? For a long time I used Kristin's own Porch Stories topic as an almost weekly writing prompt, but that declined, too. I realize those aren't obligations, contests, or competitions, but has my functional level declined so radically I cannot do those simple things, or have I subconsciously decided the effort's not worth the return? Both/and?

• #Write31Days2017 31 Days of Celebrating Place highlights year sixteen! I'd long wanted to blog more about places I've lived, visited, and loved, and I did it with thirty illustrated posts. There's one more guest post pending; when Malinda writes about Myrtle Beach, I'll create an eBook of the series.

What Else?

• Not directly blog-related but very bloggable, over the past five or six months I've been printing and organizing my notebook portfolio. I've loved creating a natural & botanical series that frames and presents my {natural, botanical, and related} art far better than a simple pdf of the drawing or painting. So what's the summer 2000 scrapbook-style page? You can't acknowledge what you don't change. Didn't I recently quote Eric Andersen's "It's not the time but just the dreams that die?" I constantly remind myself people have seasons; despite outward appearances, no one spends 24/7 optimally productive. I know what functional is, and this sure ain't it. What about the summer 2000 scrapbook page I've even printed to include in my current portfolio? Summer days, summer nights, blueberries, blackberries, a hint of real community, an overwhelming sense of a full future. I know the future holds more adventures, because that's always the style of journeying in trust with the God of Great Surprises... God of Resurrection. {Was "God of Great Surprises" one of Corita Kent's phrases?}

Two Naturals & Botanicals

• Pointillist Beach Scene – original is watercolor / crayon resist.


• Sky Horizon – this is the full original watercolor version of one of my signature suns.

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What Matters :: Words of Wisdom

• What Matters: Words of Wisdom by J. Philip Wogaman on Amazon

You've probably heard the phrase, "what really matters"? J. Philip Wogaman wrote and dedicated What Matters: Words of Wisdom, LIfe, and Love regarding "what can you and should you believe in?" (back cover header) to his grandchildren; I got a strong impression all eight grands are millennials or possibly Generation Z / Gen Zers.

You could describe chapter titles that each begins with a trait – Truth, Character, Religion, Politics, Community, Family, Vocation – and end with "Matters" as foundations to consider as one matures, essentials to continue refining as more decades pass. Needless to say, "Matters" carries a double meaning of the noun related to stuff and concerns, of the verb related to impact and importance.

The author has thought and lived through these matters. You can search and discover he recently renounced his ministerial credentials in the United Methodist Church, yet the easy, measured pace of his reflections reveals he still has the heart of a pastor.

There's nothing extraordinarily revolutionary about Wogaman's counsel, but settled stability is a large part of the book's value for a person of any age or stage. Although he didn't specifically mention the current concentration on learning STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) subjects, Dr. Wogaman told us many young people have no clue there's such an enterprise as critical biblical scholarship, so no wonder they think religion is silly and useless. I'll add many older folk don't know, either; everyone needs exposure to disciplines such as cultural anthropology, history, and humanities to help them live and discern What Matters.

What Matters would be an excellent gift for a graduate from middle school on, a good reminder for someone who's recently passed a professional exam, great to include in a care package for a scholar entering higher education, whether community college, university, or professional school. Why? Because life matters.

• My Amazon Review: Life Matters

Real Life Dinners :: Rachel Hollis

• Real Life Dinners: Fun, Fresh, Fast Dinners from the Creator of the chic Site by Rachel Hollis on Amazon

Rachel Hollis' main meal recipes truly are ready for almost anyone's real life prime time. Plus, what an altogether fresh, fun book design bound (and bound) to stay open on a table or recipe stand so you easily can reference where you are when preparing the current culinary delight. Each left-hand page features title, description, and an enticing portrait of the dish itself; right-hand page details ingredients, directions – "method" if you want to rock some pretension – and photographs of the recipe in progress.

Front of the book includes a narrative intro to Rachel's background and families, a revolutionary overview of table manners, a list of essential ingredients always to keep on hand, and a two-page spread of four of her favorite spice-herb blends. Chapters full of traditional Americana fare along with ethnically-inspired cuisine mostly relate to the usual evening meal of dinner, but of course you can flex time everything for your schedule and preferences.

Rachel has tested all these limited-ingredient, generally simple dishes on her family that's pictured throughout the approximately 200 pages. As soon as I started reading, I knew Real Life Dinners would be far more than an attractive shelf-sitter, though I don't yet know what I'll venture to make first. I love that Rachel lives locally to me in the city of Los Angeles, though she doesn't mention which neighborhood. The much MUCH too small type of the ingredients lists and the index is the only thing I'd revise for future editions of Real Life Dinners.

• My Amazon Review: prime time cuisine

Independence Day 2018 FB Status

Happy 242nd, USA!
Be free & brave!
Welcome the stranger.
Live justice.
Rock righteousness.