Plain in the city

A plain Quaker folk singer with a Juris Doctorate in his back pocket, salt in his blood, and a set of currach oars in the closet, Ulleann Pipes under his arm, guitar on his back, Anglo Irish baggage, wandering through New York City ... in constant amaze. Statement of Faithfulness. As a member of the Quaker Bloggers Ad Hoc Committee I affirm that I will be faithful to the Book of Discipline of my Meeting 15th Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Dyske! I have a play day today!

I was supposed to testify in New Jersey today but the judge postponed... so I will around one more day before leaving for Mani Utenam. SO, I would love to get you the more recent edit of the CD, so drop me an email if you are going to be around this afternoon, with your contact info again... This time, I will remember to put your contact info in the computer rather than keeping the email where I can loose it!

Friday, July 22, 2005

What a nice day... : )

Well a really good day... I am now 8 tracks into the new CD, and finished recording Maili Dhonn - and may be finished editing it... not sure, have to listen to it a number of times. Really happy with how it is beginning to sound... of all my CDs, this seems like a sound track of my soul ( OK Dyske, don't reach for that keyboard, the soundtrack of my ego... ) If this is not enough, I coughed up the huge bit of plaque that has been choking me, so if the cycle holds, I will have a few weeks or more of easy breathing! And this and that and the other thing is making me unreasonably happy... ( you too Genie... you know you do!) And all of you out there in the dear little blogisphere, here the world is going to hell in a fascist handcart and I'm having a wonderful wee day... I found a wonderful recording of King Wenslaslaus that I thought was lost, and bumped it up to wonderful fidelity, what a joy to hear members of the band laughing, added to my joy and I hope to theirs if they choose to hear it...

How Bloody Stupid is the US press?

Every "expert" on terrorism on the mainstream news is asked, "why do these people do this to us"? Each speaks about the need to bolster their people's hope to cast us into fear... none of them say, they do this because we killed over one hundred thousand of them.

They all say we are learning so much from the English on how to deal with terror. I saw how they dealt with terror. They used the "shoot to kill" policy of murdering suspects, often the wrong person, killing wounded combatants, something the IRA and INLA never did... using terror to create terror in Ireland and at the end of the day it only prolonged a war that they wanted in order to keep NATO bases on the territory of a non aligned nation. It never stopped a single bombing campaign from the sixties to the present cease fire.

It is time we need to wake up before we turn our nation into Belfast in the seventies, Palestine today... we can't allow these people to use fear to give away rights we will never have again.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

An open letter to Deanielle Bean

In responce to:
JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS
Let us continue to pray for our president, our senators, and our judges. Click here to read Father Pavone's (of Priests for Life) opinion of Judge Roberts and his advice for all pro-life Catholics.


Posted 7/20/05 at 11:18 AM
Email Danielle | Link to this post
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Danielle Bean:
( http://www.daniellebean.com/sys/main )
I find it troubling that Mr Bush seems to use the term culture of life as easily as he does. He has been responsible for over one hundred and fifty seven thousand innocent men woman and children, more being killed as I write this, in Iraq under the remarkable theory that a nation can wage preemptive war. Many who support his successful attempts to subvert the balance of powers which protect us from dictatorship of the executive do so on the single issue of outlawing abortion. The vital issue in this choice is not choice, but if we will put more justices on the Court who believe that the president has powers unchallengeable by the courts. The notion of the imperial president was a dream of Richard Nixon after the Supreme Court stopped him from bombing Cambodia, a nation with which we were not at war. The present Court supports the notion that the president can imprison people in camps where members of the armed forces, acting under the unchallenged authority of the executive branch of our government can pass a sentence of death without judicial review. This violates both international law, and the very basic issues of rights which defined our partition from England.

I am not pro-abortion. That is a complex statement, which I will leave for the present. I work as a political scientist, working for the rights of marginalized cultural isolates in the United States and other nations. I am an Anglo Irish Quaker who risked my life for the right of Catholics to exercise equal rights in occupied Ireland, a cause I am proud to have served and one which cost me the life of several dear friends.. Dear friend, I know your beliefs are strong and heart felt, however, the politicians you depend on have been using this issue in order to transfer power away from the rank and file who support them for the benefit of the few mega wealthy they serve.

I hope you take some time to ask yourself, if, when we are attacked by men from Saudi Arabia, we attack Iraq. Paul Wolfowitz wrote about the need for a war in both Afghanistan and North Africa for the same reasons which Russia fought in Afghanistan, not for the rights of Afghani women, as the Russian stated, but to control the flow of oil to China. You may be surprised to learn ( public info, there for you to research ) that the permanent bases we are closing in Germany are not being moved to Iraq, but are being placed in a ring around China. Dear friend, you and your community of faith are being used at the expense of the wealth and security of the people of the United States and at the expense of over a hundred thousand innocent lives. Please, take time to think of the people blown apart by our bombs on the lie that this nation was going to attack us... an out right lie, which when exposed by a expert ... his wife was exposed as a CIA agent by the man closest to Mr. Bush. These are not Godly people, they are calculating killers who are placing in power a cabal of people who are robbing from the American people rights we had under Magna Carter, forget the Constitution.

We cannot have it both ways, freedom to exercise our faith while denying free will and free faith to others. This nation has cut so many out of the social contract that we have over two million people in jail, more people per capita than any society in the history of mankind.

Here is a web page with some evidence of the 36,000 innocent civilians killed in our invasion of Iraq. There are over one hundred thousand more, but these are the confirmed cases where one by one, researchers have identified the name and circumstance of their deaths. http://civilians.info/iraq/deaths_frameset.html There have been many profiles and photos of those killed in London and New York, that is very important. I have several faces to go with the losses in this war. My dear friend and mentor, Arthur Helton was killed when the US office was bombed in Baghdad. I also lost several friends in the World Trade Center. Rather than making me feel the need for revenge, it has made me more determined to witness for the end of war. If we trade basic civil rights for single issues that serve our own light, we hand the moral grounding of our nation to Godless murderers who kill for power and domination of other lands.

I am rather sure this email only adds to the further polarization of the communities of the US into which we both have been born. I write this to you in loving frustration. I was a combat photographer, in Ireland... after my conscientious objection to the Vietnam war. What I have seen of what war does to humans... I cannot find words to express. This administration is an administration of death, of cold mechanical death and we not made safer by this, we are made partners in the slaughter of innocents.

Yours in Christ's love

Lorcan Otway
Religious Society of Friends
New York, NY

The Wee Girl's Alright

Just finished the first recording of a new pipe air I wrote this morning, "The Wee Girl's Alright". Was going to call it the "Amazing Rutherford" - but there is something quietly happy about it... a sort of good wish on the pipes.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

There is a point you ask too much of God.

True story Friends...

A Romany ("Gypsy") friend told me that there was a fellow who was... well, not as... swift as many other Romany people in his community. He became a Christian Pastor. One day, a little girl was sick, and he was leading a prayer circle for her. Among those in the prayer circle was a Romany man who had lost a leg and was waiting for a new plastic leg.

"Pasture" ( the Romany pronunciation of Pastor... ) "Please ask God that the doctors will have my new fake leg for me soon..." the man asked the Pastor.

"I'll do you better than that!" He replied. "God, I have such faith... I know you can do it... I believe in you, Lord... grow our brother a new leg, not the fake one, but a real flesh and blood leg."

Friends... there are times you have to reach beyond that still small voice in your heart, in the heart of others, and put some trust in God's wisdom in professionals. That is also trusting in God. This is not in exchange for God. When, for example, an actor, recently said his faith was enough... that people who trusted in doctors did not have enough faith, well, God can also give us the strength to ask for help, the wisdom to the doctors, and the love of friends to support you in so doing.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Predicable luck...

Well, things are going as well as usual. I got a call that there is going to be an agent at a venue at which I play, and they would like me to play tonight... well... a rather primary member of the band has been absent for a week and not returning phone calls... so far, this looks like all the times opportunity came knocking of late... I've been home but can't get the door open.. Ce le vie, Sin e doigh, ah well... would have been nice. I was going to post about a wonderful concert I saw last night... I'll save it until ... oh I don't know... think I will go see a film.
Cheers
lor

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Is there a doctor in the house?

Well... my doctor never figured out what or why... but I am getting better and better at tolerating plaque in my throat... which is not a good thing. The cycles are getting longer as a result... a bad result on my singing... I have transcended the gagging a choking stage, the point that I can usually cough up the plaque, and have discovered the choking gagging and sharp hot pain stage. Hmmm... maybe I should feel a tinge of pride of discovery.

What IS nice is that I have found that physical pain without emotional pain is a piece of cake to deal with... well, apple cobbler with ice cream. I took Genie out to a micro restaurant with a huge reputation on 9th Street ... "the 9th street market" very posh. She has a deposition this morning, so I thought it would be nice to get all cooled out and shark-like. We had pecan glazed Catfish, I had the braised scallops for starters, and Genie had sweet potato thingees... and a delightful chardonnay from Longuedoc - a place Genie and I dearly love. By the way... if you are looking for a fine ( and expensive ) restaurant... good choice. Diet tomorrow...

Any one know a prayer for plaque? (Not that I think prayers of intercession make much sense... )

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Make Music

a jane1
  • Make Peace, Make Pirogis, Make Friends, Make Nice, Make Cake, ( don't make war... that is just an unmaker... )

  • Tuesday, July 05, 2005

    Work in progress...

    INTERSTI

    Sunday, July 03, 2005

    Photographs....

    Well there is a new Photo Annex to this blog... Pictures of a Strange Little Life... Lorcan's Rambles, the first link in the list of links below... Enjoy the photos!

    Saturday, July 02, 2005

    Call it "Interstice"

    Conflict and cross understandings blacken the skies like storm clouds
    We struggle to remember the sun light,
    and friends see us in anger or see us in pain
    and offer seemingly easy and proper advice and council.
    which...

    supporting our own view of the storm, thickens the clouds until
    the only light is the bright flashes of lightning that blast the good things
    built in the sunlit days.

    And then, we turn our faces to the storm, looking up in faith to the black sky.
    The clouds part, just a small bit, the features of the storm remaining, and yet
    the light of the perfect sky above shines through with such intensity
    that we know that the promise of perfect weather is real
    and all can be rebuilt in the glowing light of a day of calm fair weather.

    A smile, a word, a hope expressed...

    Call it "Interstice" - it is the promise of peace.

    Friday, July 01, 2005

    Early views of the band, starting with this one, Dick Cheney, Amanda Gareis, & Lorcan Otway - Dec. 2005 (Left to Right)

    aband1

    The early band... I played while Genie held the hat...

    anoldbn3

    Singing with and listening to a camera shy friend, who I hope may say you all can see the whole photo... eh, Rutherford?

    LOR

    Sorcah Dorcha at the Lower East Side Festival 2005 ( Aviram Levy, Kelly Wallace Barnhill, Lorcan Otway

    LESF

    The band... as if often is... ( with or without face hair...)

    1BAND1G