#i thought it was only fitting to post this on maundy thursday

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

R.I.P., R.P.

In the late '70s, when I was in high school, I saw a production of Kennedy's Children at the Penn State/Behrend theatre. After the show the playwright, a hippie longhair type in bib overalls named Robert Patrick...

...gave a Q&A about life in New York's Off-Off-Broadway Theatre scene, of which he was a co-founder; he wrote prolifically for Caffe Cino and LaMama and other celebrated venues of the period. Kennedy's Children was his most famous play, premiering in London before opening on Broadway in 1975, where it won a Tony for star Shirley Knight.

I was already something of a theatre geek, but Patrick's talk made a big impression on me about the possibilities for doing theatre outside the mainstream, even though I didn't have the nerve to ask him a single question. A few years later, in the '80s, I was assistant director of another production of Kennedy's Children, and also appeared in it.

Decades after that, in mid-2021, I connected with Robert over Facebook. He was in his '80s and lived in L.A., in poverty, I think, but also in seemingly immense good cheer, still socializing, still walking and photographing his neighborhood, still performing with underground groups...

...and most certainly still writing. He seemed to devote himself mostly to pouring out poetry--witty, urbane, sophisticated, classically learned, allusive, ruefully romantic, gloriously rhymed poetry, posting large amounts of it almost every day. Sometimes he would post five or six poems at once, under the heading "Who Left the Poet On?"

The best of this stuff was, to me, stirringly beautiful, but as far as I know he never submitted it for publication, though I doubt I was the only person who urged him to. He was probably right that his style was too out of fashion for most bigtime rags these days, but I hoped that maybe his illustrious status as both a New York icon and a gay icon might persuade some of the big mags to make an exception and publish some poetry that was actually, you know, good.

In any case, I regularly commented and messaged Robert in the most effusive manner--quite sincerely, mind you; he may have been my favorite living American poet. And then, alas, Sunday I was jolted to learn that he was no longer a living American poet. He had a date for coffee with a friend, and when he didn't show the friend had the police do a welfare check on his apartment. They found that he had died in his sleep, at 85.

I'm more rattled by this passing than I would have expected. I realized that I had, for the last couple of years, nursed the daydream that I would stage Kennedy's Children or one of his other plays here in the Valley somewhere, and bring him out here to soak up some well-earned adulation. Like so many projects I think of, I wish I'd jumped on it a little sooner.

I can't claim that I really knew him, of course, but I spent a long time last night going through the many lengthy online chats I was lucky enough to have with him, discussing everything from the poetry of Catullus to the Oscars. I sent him a few of my own poems, about which he invariably gushed and even kindly posted a couple of them on his own page.

The Thursday before Easter I sent him a poem of mine called "A Prayer for Maundy Thursday," and on April 12 he wrote back to say that he read it ten times and found it "...more frightening with each reading. What a brave poem." I'm choosing to take that as praise; in any case the idea that Robert Patrick saw fit to read anything by me once, let alone ten times, is quite an If My 18 Year Old Self Could See Me Now sort of moment.

He then asked me if I had ever heard the story that Dante's neighbors called him "the man who's been to Hell." I replied that I hadn't heard that, and he asked "Do you think Milton's neighbors whispered about his trip to Eden?" This was his last message to me; I messaged that maybe Milton's neighbors thought that's why he was blind, but he never replied.

R.I.P., and peace and joy eternal on your own travels sir. Thank you for the encouragement, the example and all that abundant, exquisite verse.

#robert patrick playwright #kennedy's children #shirley knight #catullus #dante #john milton #off-off-broadway #caffe cino

[mashnotesofthemythopoeic]

Fic Masterpost

So, in the spirit of full disclosure - all the X-Files fiction I’ve ever written, as memory serves. And some thoughts on how this fine fandom has taught me to write. 

Starbuck (circa 1998)

I’m not kidding, this is really embarrassing, absolute beginner stuff, but we all start somewhere and it’s interesting in an evolutionary sense. I found these on  Zuffy's X-Files Homepage.

Without The Bee  -  I couldn’t bring myself to look at this one. That title says it all. 

Agents of Change: Return from Antarctica  -  Obsessions—the Scott Expedition and the X-Files—collide. Rough early days, but probably with hints of potential. A legit turkey of a title! 

Penumbra 1998 - 2009

(I’m not going to bother with Gossamer links.) Learning the ropes as I went. Oblivious to so, oh so many things. Rickety, untrained writing, but mindlessly in love with creatively inspired by the churlish charms of our two razzle-dazzle creatures of the night. 

Contact High  -  The last line was plagiarized, pure and simple, from one of Gerald Durrell’s books about his childhood in Corfu. It’s bothered me ever since, so the big thing I took from this experience: by all means steal the rhythm of something, but at least change a word or two. 

Vespers  -  Very stoned ramblings. Inspired by John Leonard’s X-Files essay in The Nation that I’d managed to extract off a microfiche in a university library. I have a soft spot for this fic, probably because Khyber picked it very analytically apart, which was like having Jonathan Galassi or someone suddenly pay attention to you. He introduced me to 'show, don't tell', a paralyzing concept if ever there was one, which I yet only fitfully grasp.

Black Hole Season  -  Still breakin’ all the rules. This one was hugely popular, and amidst all the ballyhoo, Punk Maneuverability emailed me and quietly said: ‘Please pick a POV and a tense and stick with it’—vastly important advice that I was probably too full of myself to heed. This one won a Spooky award, one of the greatest moments of my life that I had to keep completely to myself (therein lies the painful crux of fanfiction.)

Parabiosis  -  I was eating cereal and flipping through the dictionary, and there it was: parabiosis. Who knows what it means. I didn’t have a computer, and was working in the mountains, so I wrote the whole thing out on paper several times, unimaginable now. It flowed through my brain as I scrambled through the woods in the evenings. Nothing will ever be that easy again.

Honeymoon Video  -  Promising title, not much there.

Blue-Sky Conjecture  -  unfinished Scully/Kresge

The Cretan Paradox  -  Americana. JET sent me an ear of corn from a corn maze, because she’s thoughtful like that. 

Free Beer Night at the Astrodome  -  Cut years ago in despair out of Heuvelmans’; I think part of it went back in. 

Fathoms Five  -  In one of Gerald Durrell’s books about his childhood in Corfu, his brother steps in a swamp and says that his shoe is ‘full of fathoms five’, so that’s where I got that Shakespearean misquote. I resisted writing this for a long time, but it would creep into my mind as I was falling asleep. I think this is a pretty good story, but it could have used one more draft, so since then, I’ve resolved never to rush to post. Events of this year kind of date this story now. However, it’s rather pleasant to read about a careless, joint-passing, COVID-free 2020.

Fathoms Five Outtakes and gag reels - Sorry about the glitchy old site and bad font.

A random smut biscuit  -  Uncharacteristic, I know!

Octopods  - I loved this one, but it never fit in anywhere.

Maundy Thursday  

Untitled Snippet 

World’s Tiniest Zombie Fic

∩dsᴉpɐᴉsᴉnɯ -  Very flawed, because it was written and posted under a fund-raiser time crunch. I really should overhaul it. The X-Files was ending and I was so depressed when I wrote it, and that’s an unfortunate tincture to saddle a story with. 

The Inscrutable Pair  -  How The X-Files taught me to embrace ambiguity. Goreyesque nonsense à la Gashlycrumb Tinies that also troubles itself to rip off Eliot and Homer. 

(7-Year Cold-Turkey Hiatus From the X-Files)

Gave away DVDs, got some perspective, did a little growing up, tried and failed to write a screenplay, two novels, etc. Then they put The X-Files on Netflix. One lonely night, I thought: what could it hurt to watch Darkness Falls? 44 minutes later, with shaking hands, going for the hard stuff—Redux II. Lol, the hard stuff of ancient philes. 

The Mythopoeic*  2016  - 

Heuvelmans’ On the Track - The nearly suicidal heartbreak that surrounds this story—it was the first X-Files fic I got bogged down in and couldn’t finish, and it left me with a huge mental stigma—sweetens its completion. Under its shadow I tried to become a Real Writer, without success. Give things time, I learned. Just keep working hard. The initial failure of this story taught me stuff that I now wouldn’t trade for anything. 

*I came back just intending to hang out with Philes, and didn’t want to make a big deal, and had no intention of posting fic, so I gave little thought to the name. But, characteristically ostentatious name, check. Still keepin’ it real, pure and self-taught, a bit closer to what Chuck Palahniuk calls a ‘kitchen-table MFA’. Check.

But what I really want to say is this. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to try writing if I hadn’t been in this marvelous fandom, having the method and the means demonstrated all around me by wonderfully competent and encouraging writers for whom I felt such reverence that having them reach out or comment on stuff was earth-shaking. They showed the way, and I followed. Hands on my heart, friends, I owe you everything.

#reblogging because @perplexistan pointed out a snippet I missed #plus I remembered #Maundy Thursday #also #World's Tiniest Zombie Fic #and Blue-Sky Conjecture

[vincentvangodot]

I made a tweet thread about the Triduum earlier, and then some of the points I made were touched on in the sermon this evening, so I’ve been emboldened to crosspost it.

If you've met me in the past year and don't know how I get in Lent and specifically over the Triduum, good luck. I don't post THAT much religion here, generally, but this is the most important weekend of the year.

It occurs to me that G-d and wrestling are the things I care most about, and the most important weekends for both of them are in the same month this year, but that's weirdly close to sacrilege. It's just a thought.

But the Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) is vital for a deeper understanding of what Easter means, because without that culmination, Lent is just dreary. We have to focus on the journey, not only the destination.

(Keeping this in a thread for now so you can ignore it.) If we go from Lent to Easter, we run the risk of focusing on ourselves to the exclusion of G-d. Even donating what we save from cutting back can be self-centered, w/o the context of the last days.

Thursday teaches us to serve each other as we are served in turn, and also that G-d is someone WITH us, not merely above. G-d shares Their body with us, G-d washes our feet. G-d walks with us singing. Important for both theology and social reform, tbh. Care as you are cared for.

Thursday and Friday teach us that G-d has suffered as we have, in betrayal and injury and humiliations and state retaliation. G-d knows our experiences as G-d, of course, but it feels helpful to know They know them as human too. We're not alone, and Jesus calls us to His side.

(Noteworthy that Judas wasn't the only betrayal. Peter denied Him, Matthew ran in the Garden, no one was with Him at His trial. Judas' crime is seen as worst of all, but no one stayed with Him, and that's not better. My Judas thoughts are a whole other thread.)

I'm in the process of reading a book on the Crucifixion, so I have more to say about that than will fit in tweets and will simply refrain. I WILL say that, without attention paid to the Triduum, Lent can feel like a journey towards the Cross, and that isn't true.

The Cross is not the goal. It's a means to an end, but it's not the destination. We travel THROUGH the Cross, TO the Resurrection. The point is that G-d moved past death and brought us with Them. Jesus being killed is not the end, it's weird how that gets forgotten sometimes.

There's a lot of guilt abt humans being the ones who killed Jesus, and a LOT of antisemitism abt WHICH humans killed Him (Romans, it was the Romans, I have no time for that shit), but G-d used our actions for Their glory, so imo that guilt is misplaced. Focus on the goal.

This is why Holy Saturday is important. It's not just a blank day. It's the day when we don't know what happens. We travel through Thursday's agony, Friday's death, and Saturday's uncertainty to get to Sunday's triumph. The uncertainty is important.

Also important: the agony, death, and uncertainty are all love. Love for His disciples, love for His torturers, love for those left behind. This is done for love of us, and so that we know how to love each other. Not guilt, not damnation. All love.

But the uncertainty is vital - the waiting, the rest. Time between Cross and Resurrection to reflect. His followers weren't certain He'd return. We know He did, but we live our lives waiting for Him, and this one day makes that the focus. We wait, and pray. We trust.

And then, Easter. Countless books about Easter. I can't say anything new. But the Triduum is important so we don't rush from vagueness to joy. We follow Jesus' journey so we can appreciate His return. We can't understand it, but we at least have a context.

#seb's religion tag #reminder that i tag posts that so you can block them if you want

[thewahookid]

10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MAUNDY THURSDAY

10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MAUNDY THURSDAY Maundy Thursday was one of the most important days in all of history. It was a pivotal day in the life of Jesus Christ. Here are 10 things you should know about it and how we celebrate it today. Every single Mass, we hear the words "on the night he was betrayed." That night was Holy Thursday, and it is one of the most important nights in all of history. Here are 10 things you need to know. 1. What happened on the original Holy Thursday? An amazing amount of stuff! This was one of the most pivotal days in the life of Jesus Christ. Here are some of the things the gospels record for this day (including events that happened after midnight). Jesus: • Sent Peter and John to arrange for them to use the Upper Room to hold the Passover meal. • Washed the apostles' feet. • Held the first Mass. • Instituted the priesthood. • Announced that Judas would betray him. • Gave the "new commandment" to love one another. • Indicated that Peter had a special pastoral role among the apostles. • Announced that Peter would deny him. • Prayed for the unity of his followers. • Held all the discourses recorded across five chapters of John (John 13-18). • Sang a hymn. • Went to the Mount of Olives. • Prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. • Was betrayed by Judas. • Stopped the disciples from continuing a violent resistance. • Healed the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant, after Peter cut it off with a sword. • Was taken before the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. • Was denied by Peter. • Was taken to Pilate. It was a momentous day! If you'd like to read the gospel accounts themselves, you can use these links: • Matthew 26:17-75 • Mark 14:12-72 • Luke 22:7-62 • John 13:1-18:27 2. Why is Holy Thursday sometimes called "Maundy Thursday"? The word "Maundy" is derived from the Latin word mandatum, or "mandate." This word is used in the Latin text for John 13:34: "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos." Or, in English: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you." Holy Thursday is thus sometimes called Maundy Thursday because it was on this day that Christ gave us the new commandment--the new mandate--to love one another as he loves us. 3. What happens on this day liturgically? Several things: • The bishop celebrates a "Chrism Mass" with his priests (usually). • The Mass of the Lord's Supper is held in the evening. • At the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the priest (often) performs the washing of feet. • The Tabernacle is empty and the Eucharist is put in a place of repose. • The altar is stripped. • The faithful are invited to spend time in Eucharistic adoration while the Sacrament is in repose. 4. What is the "Chrism Mass"? According to the main document governing the celebrations connected with Easter, Paschales Solemnitatis: 35. The Chrism Mass which the bishop concelebrates with his presbyterium and at which the holy chrism is consecrated and the oils blessed, manifests the communion of the priests with their bishop in the same priesthood and ministry of Christ. The priests who concelebrate with the bishop should come to this Mass from different parts of the diocese, thus showing in the consecration of the chrism to be his witnesses and cooperators, just as in their daily ministry they are his helpers and counselors. The faithful are also to be encouraged to participate in this Mass, and to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist. Traditionally the Chrism Mass is celebrated on the Thursday of Holy Week. If, however, it should prove to be difficult for the clergy and people to gather with the bishop, this rite can be transferred to another day, but one always close to Easter. The chrism and the oil of catechumens is to be used in the celebration of the sacraments of initiation on Easter night. 5. Why is the Mass of the Lord's Supper significant? According to Paschales Solemnitatis: 45. Careful attention should be given to the mysteries which are commemorated in this Mass: the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood, and Christ's command of brotherly love; the homily should explain these points. 6. Is the Eucharist in the Tabernacle during this Mass? No. According to Paschales Solemnitatis: 48. The Tabernacle should be completely empty before the celebration. Hosts for the Communion of the faithful should be consecrated during that celebration. A sufficient amount of bread should be consecrated to provide also for Communion on the following day. 7. What does the rite of foot washing signify, and is it to be done for men only? According to Paschales Solemnitatis: 51. The washing of the feet of chosen men which, according to tradition, is performed on this day, represents the service and charity of Christ, who came "not to be served, but to serve. This tradition should be maintained, and its proper significance explained. The rite is optional. It does not have to be performed. Although the Church’s official texts use language that indicates only men (Latin, viri) can have their feet washed on Holy Thursday, the situation today is more complex. In 2004, the new archbishop of Boston, Seán O’Malley, was criticized for varying from the practice of his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law, and washing only the feet of men. He explained that this was what the law required but said that he would query the Holy See about the matter. In 2005 the Boston Globe reported: O’Malley promised to consult with Rome, and yesterday his spokeswoman said the Congregation for Divine Worship, which oversees liturgical practices, had suggested the archbishop make whatever decision he thought was best for Boston. “The Congregation [for Divine Worship] affirmed the liturgical requirement that only the feet of men be washed at the Holy Thursday ritual.” However, the Congregation did “provide for the archbishop to make a pastoral decision.” Cardinal O’Malley then included women in the foot-washing rite. This sequence of events created a situation that was significantly muddier than existed before. If the archbishop of Boston was allowed to make pastoral exceptions to the rule, it would be difficult to argue that other bishops could not do the same in their dioceses. This had the effect of creating a doubt as to what the law requires. According to the Code of Canon Law, “Laws, even invalidating and incapacitating ones, do not oblige when there is a doubt of law” (CIC 14). Until such time as the Holy See clarifies the matter, it appears that the law provides that only men are to have their feet washed in the ceremony but that the local bishop can choose to include women in his diocese if he deems it the best decision pastorally. 8. What happens at the end of the Mass of the Lord's Supper? According to Paschales Solemnitatis: 54. After the post-Communion prayer, the procession forms, with the crossbar at its head. The Blessed Sacrament, accompanied by lighted candles and incense, is carried through the church to the place of reservation, to the singing of the hymn "Pange lingua" or some other eucharistic song. This rite of transfer of the Blessed Sacrament may not be carried out if the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion will not be celebrated in that same church on the following day. 55. The Blessed Sacrament should be reserved in a closed tabernacle or pyx. Under no circumstances may it be exposed in a monstrance. The place where the tabernacle or pyx is situated must not be made to resemble a tomb, and the expression "tomb" is to be avoided. The chapel of repose is not prepared so as to represent the "Lord's burial" but for the custody of the eucharistic bread that will be distributed in Communion on Good Friday. 9. Is there to be Eucharistic adoration at this time? According to Paschales Solemnitatis: 56. After the Mass of the Lord's Supper the faithful should be encouraged to spend a suitable period of time during the night in the church in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament which has been solemnly reserved. Where appropriate, this prolonged eucharistic adoration may be accompanied by the reading of some part of the Gospel of St. John (chs. 13-17). From midnight onwards, however, the adoration should be made without external solemnity, because the day of the Lord's passion has begun. 10. What happens to the decoration of the Church at this time? According to Paschales Solemnitatis: 57. After Mass the altar should be stripped. It is fitting that any crosses in the church be covered with a red or purple veil, unless they have already been veiled on the Saturday before the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Lamps should not be lit before the images of saints. JimmyAkin