Isaias' coal

 from R. Toland Wright's Isaiah window in Broadway Methodist. Cleveland, O.

Et volávit ad me unus de séraphim, et in manu ejus cálculus, quem fórcipe túlerat de altári, 
And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. -- Isaias xi. 6.
-- from the First reading of the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Wright's windows are dense with color and lines. In the 1920s he made several windows for prominent Protestant churches of Cleveland, and its chief (only substantial) suburbs, Lakewood and Cleveland Heights. Some of these were of Old Testament prophets. If the prophets are not labelled, there is very little to differentiate them. Often they are identical, or interchangeable, in appearance in a group.

There are a couple of iconographic items for Isaiah:  a saw, the instrument of his martyrdom; and here, the live coal picked up by a pair of tongs. Isaiah describes his calling to be a prophet. He saw God and his seraphim in the temple. He heard them cry out the Sanctus prayer, that is sung at Mass. One of the angels touched his lips/mouth with a hot coal and Isaias is rendered fit for his office, which he accepts.

lightning flash

I have seen some fantastic (often black and white) of lightning flashes. Last Independence Day, just before dusk, an electrical storm was percolating. I was trying to catch a flash. I just kept snapping. I got very little. This one, was at the very beginning of a bolt.  It looks like the voltage between the two poles of a tazer (electric pistol).

driving with camera

Masonic Hall. Euclid Ave. Cleveland, O. 28 October 2009

Driving with a camera in the car allows you to, perhaps, snap off a shot before the light changes. Upper left is top of the car door.

Vineyard. Hough & E. 65. Cleveland, O. 9 January 2011

Chester Avenue. Cleveland, O. 13 January 2013

Lansing Avenue. Cleveland, O. 22 December 2010.

In America anyone can start and name a church.

near Our Lady of Mount Carmel-East by MLK, by Woodhill. 6 June 2010

music on glass

Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy) St. Mary. Berea, O.

Two great things together: Gregorian chant and stained glass. This sheet music does not fold into the pocket. Melody exists in chant, rythym does not. One syllable can span several notes.

Mr. Mister had a #1 song on the music charts March 1986. Its chorus starts:

Kýrie, eléison, down the road that I must travel...

Remember, the 1980s (in the US, anyway) was the greed was good time. The lyrics, by John Lang, are introspective and spiritual, while music is slick MTV electric rock. Lang sang Kyrie as a child in church (Episcopalian Phoenix). One can read the lyrics as a meditative exercise.

yeah, it was Falwell

There are few "blogs" i happen to read. Just breezed through one, it took a few days. She writes more than one, with great photographs. On the one she has put up over 1250 posts, back to 2007. On an early one she answers one of my questions. For quite some time i wondered why the pharasaic 'Christians' have so much contempt concerning the idea of climate change. The answer is 'Falwell'.

Well before Albert Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth 2006. Jerry Falwell (who was all over television for years) was on CNN's Inside Politics on 20 November 2002 talking over Ron Sider, President of the Evangelical for Social Action, who was attempting to make an argument of prudent stewardship of the earth* (Genesis ii. 15). During the programme Falwell said:

• I believe that global warming is a myth.
• But I can tell you, our grandchildren will laugh at those who predicted global warming. We'll be in global cooling by then, if the Lord hasn't returned. I don't believe a moment of it. The whole thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability. And I'm so glad that President Bush and 99 of the 100 senators have refused to sign the Kyoto treaty.
• Well, the global mythologists who are teaching global warming are part of that blame-America-first group. We create 25 percent -- I'm surprised they didn't say 50 percent of all the problems in the world.
• The fact is that there is no global warming. It is a myth.
• (and having his way, he had the last word) I urge everyone to go out and buy an SUV today.

I went to a few Catholic bible study events in 2008, and was appalled at the politics i heard in chit-chat. Early in the winter following, i went to a coffeehouse, and posed the climate question to a Republican type. "Could it not be, that opposition to the theory be based on economic interest?" He did not take that well. At that point, "conservative" Catholics proved not to be Catholics/Christians.

Some time later at work i posed the question twice, to two different fellows on two different work sites, separated in time, but in regards to the National Rifle Association/gun manufacturers, and again the anger, but even greater, past the point of madness.

I asked my nephew, he is over thirty, does he recognise the name 'Jerry Falwell'? Only vaguely. He died mid May 2007. He is gone and forgotten, but his loud mouth, huckstering, money love of politics lives. Falwell, could be affable, his descendants are virtually to the last one obnoxious beyond forbearance. What does this teach? The god that Americans worship is Mammon, and that he is a very jealous god.
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* And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.

Snowy Ohio

 these were from yesterday, northern Ohio has snow on everything

flag rock

 27 September 2010

Amherst, Ohio quarried stone. This spot became Rte. 2, and Rte. 6, and I-90. Here on two cut faces were painted flags, for the bicentennial (4 July 1976) with a superscript, "We the People" was an American flag. On the left face is the Red Cross flag. After the attack on the United States by Osama bin Laden's hijack assassins the flag was repainted with a new title "United We Stand".  A few days later, a generation of tree growth was cut down. Then a new script of "Support Our Troops" appeared, and a new growth of trees came, and were cut again.

 19 November 2010

19 September 2011 

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postscriptum: 9.11 am 5 February 2016.  In 21 hours Amherst politician Phil van Treuren (R) posted this as his picture on facebook, and it received in that short time -- 1377 'likes', and 511 'shares'.

St. Blaise

 These crossed candles on the altar means it is Saint Blaise's Day.

“Per intercessionem S. Blasii liberet to Deus a malo gutteris et a qouvis alio malo”, or in english, “May God at the intercession of St. Blaise preserve you from throat troubles and every other evil”.

also

Matt Talbot Inn

cleveland saloon paintings

 part of a mural over the long street side of a west side saloon

John Gilroy painted for Guinness, poster after poster, year after year, both clever and attractive subjects. Gilroy did his first beer poster in 1930, he continued for a over a generation. The weathervane toucan came in 1955. Yes, it is a lovely day for a stout. For some it is an acquired taste, but unlike 2,000 lagers it is something to remember.

I do not know whose inspiration this speakeasy, flapper Martini Girl is. 806 is the address.
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The 1st of February is the name day for St. Bridget of Kildare. There is a prayer/poem in her name that begins:  I'd like to give a lake of beer to God... 
An older better version is, more clearly, a prayer of Grace before meal:

I should like a great lake of finest ale for all the people.
I should like a table of the choicest foods for the family of Heaven.
Let the ale be made from the fruits of faith, and the food be for giving love.
I should welcome the sick to my feast for they are God's joy.
Let the poor sit with Sophia, at the highest place and the sick with the angels.
Bless the poor, bless the sick, bless our human race.
Bless our food, bless our drink, all homes, O God embrace.