The greatest misconception that one person can have about another person’s religion is that the other person is somehow less informed or not as intelligent or more primitive to be taken in by the imagery in the representation of the godhead, or the creation story or the ethics of the religion in question.
Atheists sometimes imagine that believers are simpletons, while Monotheists tend to look down on Polytheism as being more primitive than believing in a single, centralized god for the entire universe.
Talking about religion
Recently Julia Hanna and I talked about some of the glaring misconceptions that stand in the way of mutual understanding between people of different faiths.
Here is a short list of things that might help us to understand others of a different faith:
Religion is not primarily about facts. That is the role of science. Religion is about feelings, preferences, values and culture.
When you want to know if someone worships a god, the question is not whether or not the god exists. The question is whether the god as depicted in the religion is loved by the worshiper.
Love is only in the mind of one who loves. The same is true of worship. It is entirely possible to worship without seeking a concrete form for the thing worshipped.
For a more detailed discussion, watch the video embedded below.
On Friday, December 17, Julia Hanna and I hosted a filksing with Mark Horning and Samantha Moore.
Mark Horning is a singer/songwriter from California currently living in Arizona. He has been active in the filk community from 1993.
Mark Horning
Samatha Moore is a singer/ songwriter who is also very active in SCA and creative anachronim. She lives in Florida.
Samantha Moore singing
Here is the list of songs with easy access to them in the video embedded above.
CONTENT 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:42 Mark sings Rudyard Kipling’s “Christmas in India” 00:08:41 Mark sings Dave Hatfield’s “Jewel in the Night” 00:15:56 Samantha sings “Another Man’s War” 00:21:18 Mark sings “Sword & Shield” 00:25:46 Samantha sings “I am Able” 00:30:21 Mark sings “The Arizona Sword” 00:37:45 Samantha sings “Grendel’s Song” 00:43:44 Mark sings “Quest Not for Glory” 00:52:09 Samantha sings “Who Serve the Soldiers” 00:57:05 Mark sings Joe Ellis’s “And the Sky Full of Stars” 01:04:24 Samantha sings “Melano’s Song” 01:10:33 Mark sings “Melusine 01:17:43 Samantha sings “True Love Never Dies” 01:22:23 Mark starts Cynthia McQuillin’s “Bring Me a Star” but technical difficulties ensue. 01:24:42 Mark sings J. Kare’s filk on C. Mcquillin’s “Fuel to Feed the Drive,” Fool to Feed the Drive”. 01:28:57 Samantha sings M. Lackey & L. Fish’s “Captain Sygny Mallory” 01:32:27 Mark sings J. Ecklar’s “Hero’s Song” 01:36:01 Samantha sings L. Fish’s “Chickasaw Mountain” 01:39:00 Mark sings H. Alexander and M. Lackey’s song “Like the River” 01:43:40 Aya reads the lyrics to Teri Lee’s “Time Winds Tavern” 01:48:00 Samantha sings “If Their Memories Fade” 01:53:49 Mark sings “Between the Fire and the Stone” 02:09:16 Samatha sings M. Lackey and L. Fish “Snow Magic” 02:14:54 Mark sings J. Hardy’s “The Tinker’s Coin” 02:32:01 Mark sings “Sing with Me”
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If you would like to order Samantha or Mark’s CDs, here is where to find them:
Birdseye view of shenanigans on Hometown Cha Cha Cha
What if everything that your small town had to offer you was lavished on your upbringing and education? What if from humble beginnings you were accepted into one of the best universities in the country? What if after graduation you kind of disappeared for a while, only to reappear in your hometown without any semblance of a career? How would everybody back home react to the return of the prodigal? You might think that I am referring to Rory Gilmore on her return to Stars Hollow in A Year in the Life. But no, I am reviewing the South Korean series Hometown Cha Cha Cha (갯마을 차차차).
Hometown Cha Cha Cha is directed by Yoo Je-won (유제원) and written by Sin Ha-eun (신하은). The show stars Kim Seon-ho as Hong Du-sik, and Shin Min-ah as Yoon Hye-Jin. Kim Seon-ho is the same actor who played Mr. Han in Start-up. He plays a very similar role in this series, except that this time he does get the girl.
Hometown Cha Cha Cha is a very successful romantic comedy. It first aired from August 28 to October 17, 2021 on tvN. It was the highest rated series on cable in television history — so far.
Hometown Cha Cha Cha reminds me of a lot of other shows. It’s a little bit like Northern Exposure, except with a female dentist instead of a male doctor and a male jack-of-all-trades, instead of a female pilot. Its storyline is a lot like Start-Up, except that instead of just one cute grandmother for our hero to dote over, there are actually three grandmothers!
Kim Gam-Ri, everyone’s favorite grandmother (played by Kim Young-Ok)
Hometown Cha Cha Cha has a multigenerational cast, including elderly people, small children, young adults and older adults in their thirties, forties and fifties.
Ju-Ri is the k-pop idol loving daughter of the musically inclined cafe owner.
Ju-Ri, who wants braces but decides against it when her idol recognizes her by her snaggle-tooth smile
Bo-Ra is the spunky daughter of the owners of the local supermarket, named after her. Yi-Jun is the math genius son of the divorced couple, whose reason for divorcing is a big mystery. There are actually three mysteries to solve in this series: 3. Why the divorce? 2. Who won the lottery? and 1. Why did Hong Du-sik return home to live on minimum wage as a jack of all trades, when he went to the best university and graduated with honors as an engineer?
A stylized rendering of “Cha Cha Cha” in the King’s Letters: 차차차
The small town supporting cast reminds me of Gilmore Girls‘ denizens of Stars Hollow. The fictional seaside town of Gongjin is actually based on Pohang, South Korea.
On the Left: Three grandmothers loved by our hero
Despite featuring a multigenerational cast, Hometown Cha Cha Cha shows us no intact three generation families living together in idyllic Gongjin. The grandmothers all have children and grandchildren who have moved away to the big city or to live abroad. The young couples with school age children do not appear to have any parents living in Gongjin. Our hero, Chief Hong, is an orphan who lost his parents and his grandparents, and who was raised by the village at large. Small town life in this series is almost a fractured fairy tale.
Hometown Cha Cha Cha has a lot of borrowings from many different shows, but it is not an exact copy of any of them. It is a pleasant romantic comedy with something for everyone. There is nothing in any part of the story that would offend anyone. It is fun to watch but not very deep.
Chief Hong is a Jack of All Trades
Watch my discussion with Julia Hanna for a more detailed analysis.
On Nov. 19, 2021 we held a filksing with some of filk’s greatest performers. Leslie Fish and Anne Prather are world famous filkers from the heydey of filking’s best. They were joined a little later by Mark Horning, another accomplished filker. You can watch the entire filksing in the video embedded below, or you can choose which song you wish to hear first.
💕The entire filksing from start to finish
The first song was Anne Prather’s “Death Song of a Fighter Pilot”.
The second song was Leslie Fish’s “Born Again.”
Mark Horning’s first song was “Wedding Rings of Steel.”
Mark sings Wedding Rings of Steel.
Below are the entire contents of the Filksing with time stamps for where each song can be found.
00:00:00 Intro, Anne Prather 00:00:42 Anne sings “Death Song of a Fighter Pilot” Lyrics here: http://www.aislinnthebard.com/highWin…00:06:06 Leslie Sings: “Born Again” 00:11:45 Anne sings “More Than Just a Dream” 00:15:58 Leslie sings “Rhododendron Honey” 00:20:47 Mark sings: “Wedding Rings of Steel” 00:27:30 Aya thanks Sparrow XIII for supporting this channel as a Donor Member! 00:28:14 Anne sings “Drunk Star Pilot” 00:32:53 A close-up of Julia 00:34:01 Leslie sings “Route 40” 00:43:29 Anne sings “Song that Brings the Generations Through” 00:49:32 Mark sings “Home is Where Your Stardrive Lies” 00:56:49 Leslie sings “Better than Who” 01:05:39 Mark sings “Fog” 01:11:42 Leslie sings”The Roots” 01:30:58 Mark sings “Darkness Rising” 01:40:55 Leslie sings “The Tiger in the Heart” 01:43:51 Mark sings “Sword and Shield” 01:47:57 Leslie sings “Ship of Stone” 01:54:14 Mark sings “Between the Fire and the Stone” 02:01:42 Leslie sings “The Freedom of the Snow” 02:08:07 Mark sings “At the End of the Tunnel” 02:22:06 Leslie sings “Welcome to Your Second Home” 02:30:29 Mark sings “Sands of Mars” 02:44:20 Leslie sings “Brother Christian” 02:53:20 Mark sings “Quest Not for Glory” 03:00:04 Leslie sings “The Squatter” 03:05:44 Mark sings “The Wander Light” by Henry Lawson 03:13:29 Leslie Sings “That Kind of Day” 03:27:59 Leslie sings “He was a Very Big Dog” 03:32:00 Leslie sings “My Virgin Mouse” 03:39:14 Leslie sings “Golden Eyes” 03:43:43 Leslie sings “Live and Let Live” 03:49:14 Leslie sings “The Wheel”
I have a ten acre hobby farm where I have lived for the past twenty years. Over the years, what used to be our pasture has become a wild, wooded area with many different species of trees. I did not plant any of them. They are all volunteers. And one of the tallest trees with the sweetest fruit is the persimmon tree. Bow and I love the wild persimmon fruit.
Bow enjoys the wild persimmon fruit
The persimmon fruit is loved by many of our wild animals as well. The deer, if they fins a wild persimmon on the ground, will eat it long before I can reach it. Even my free range chickens and ducks might eat of the fallen fruit.
The faen is unafraid
That is why I have had to devise a stratagem for getting the sweet fruit down from the tree before it drops. I use a dead branch from another tree. I shake the fruit with the long branch, and it drops down to the ground. Then I wash the fruit and bring it inside to share with Bow.
Watch how I harvest the persimmon to bring in to Bow
When Bow has eaten the fruit, he gives me the seeds. I do not plant them. I just throw them outside so that nature can decide where a new tree needs to grow. The secret to growing healthy trees is this: do not interfere. As long as you do not mow the grass or rake the leaves, enterprising trees will volunteer to grow. To me, that is the most sustainable option.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg is a co-author of the non-fiction classic Star Trek Lives, along with Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston. This book chronicles the success of Trek fandom in reviving Star Trek for one additional season. Lichtenberg is also known for her Trek fanfic series Kraith. Her Sime~Gen series is still being published, and new novels are in the works.
Interview with Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Jean Lorrah is Jacqueline Lichtenberg’s co-author on the Sime~Gen series. Lorrah is also known for Sarek and Amanda fanfic, Night of the Twin Moons and the Sarek Collection. She also has a fantasy series of her own, Savage Empire.
Interview with Jean Lorrah
This Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah pair up to talk about their writing together.
Interview with Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah
Her Private Life is a South Korean drama against the backdrop of the artistic life. Sung Duk-Mi is a curator at the Cheom Museum of art by day, and a fan of kpop idol Cha Si-An by night. She also runs a fan website called The Road to Si-An. But being a fangirl is a big secret. If her identity as The Road to Si-An were known, Duk-Mi would lose her job.
Si-An, Duk-Mi’s idol, is himself a fan of Lee Sol, a reclusive artist known to have produced only nine paitings before retiring. Duk-Mi tries to purchase a painting by Lee Sol for Si-An at an art auction, but she is outbid by Ryan Gold, a famous artist who lost his ability to paint when he first beheld a painting by Lee Sol.
one of Lee Sol’s paintings
Ryan Gold is a Korean adopted by Americans as a child. He returns to Korea and assumes the directorship of the museum where Duk-Mi works. Through a series of comical events Ryan Gold and Duk-Mi embark on a relationsip. The story of the relationship is the typical romatic comedy that Korean drama leads us to expect. To me, the art of Lee Sol was far more interesting. Each of the nine paintings offers a clue to Ryan Gold’s real identity and his relationship with the artist Lee Sol. They are intelocking puzzle pieces.
All of Li Sol’s paintings
When Ryan Gold eventually begins painting again, after a tearful reunion with his mother, I realized I never really believed in him as a painter. Whereas Lee Sol’s paintings told a story, Ryan Gold’s painting is just added splotches of paint to a portrait that was traced from a shadow of Duk-Mi.
Ryan Gold’s portrait of Duk-Mi
I enjoyed watching this series because of the way it addressed the question of art and of fandom. The love story, the childhood abandonment trope and the fact that everyone in the story seems to have met before when they were children are not what impressed me. But the story of Lee Sol and her art was intriguing.
Julia Hanna and I interviewed Jean Graham on our show on Oct. 22, 2021.
Jean Graham is a writer of short stories in both the horror and the science fiction genre. Her work is available on Amazon.
Before becoming a professional writer, Jean Graham was a member of many fandoms where she wrote, edited and published fanzines. Some of her work is archived at Archive of our Own.
The Rational Life is a Chinese drama that came out in March of 2021. It follows the life of a thirty-three year old woman, Shen Ruo Xin, who is working in the legal department of an automobile manufacturer called ZenPro. She becomes involved with her assistant, who is twelve years her junior. The series is both a workplace drama and a romance.
Dylan Wang and Lan Qin
The Rational Life is set in glamourous and glitzy Shanghai, and it features other minor characters who pursue their own dreams, rather than conforming to society’s expectation for them. There is an aspiring comic book artist who refuses to take a civil service exam in order to have a sheltered life as a government worker. There is Ruo Xin’s best friend, a woman her own age, who is married, but is floundering in search of a career, and who does not wish to have children.
The series seems to espouse western values of business success, competition in the marketplace and the pursuit of happiness in one’s personal life. It is unclear why the Communist Party and its values and goals are never even hinted at in this thirty-five episode long series. Since The Rational Life aired on Netflix, perhaps it is only intended for external consumption. But if it is also viewed in China, something seems a bit off. This is not the propaganda we expected!
A drawing of Dylan Wang, who plays Ruo Xin’s love interest
Below is a video that puts together many amazing sights I saw while walking on my ten acre property today. There are my chickens and ducks, of course. There are the twin fawns who show up to graze on my lawn. And there are also the butterflies!
Today is October 11, 2021. I saw so many monarch butterflies this morning! I was so surprised. The monarchs must be beginning their autumn migration on their way to Mexico.
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