The (Not-Quite?) Departed

I have a Chinese calendar hanging in my kitchen (plus two ordinary ones), the ones where you tear yesterday away to reveal today's date.

Yesterday before I left home to head down to the Byron Bay Bluesfest, I tore away the 13th of April page to reveal the above page, which seemed rather an odd thing to find depicted on a Chinese calendar, I thought.

But apparently Christianity is big in China and projected to get bigger according to a recent documentary I saw a few weeks back on SBS television, where the English filmmaker visited a new mega-church over there.

China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years

"The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America."

I don't know if this is a good, or bad thing for the Chinese.

I guess as long as they don't swallow the dogma some of those churches serve up.

I prefer Buddhist and Taoist philosophy to Christian dogma any day, that's not to say I don't like Christianity, because I do think there is a special baby floating in that bathwater somewhere.

The new RFID impregnated
Bluesfest wristbands

I must admit that I'm a bit of a technophobe and those new Bluesfest wristbands I wasn't keen on, in fact I didn't buy any alcohol on Good Friday, whereas normally I will have one, or two drinks on the day I'm there.

Anyway, that's a rant for a future post, at least they aren't injecting a chip into your hand at Bluesfest ... yet;-)

Swedish Employees Agree to Free Microchip Implants Designed for Work

I saw Chris Knowles had written a post at his 'The Secret Sun' blog titled -

For the Faithful Not-Quite Departed

which was about the Western equivalent to Chinese "ancestor veneration" in a way, the way I read it anyway.

ANCESTOR WORSHIP AND VENERATION

I thought it was a good post as I fully believe "the departed" are far from dead in the terms an atheist would think of someone being dead, or a fundamentalist Christian (Roman Catholic, or Protestant) thinking the dead are sleeping, waiting for some bodily resurrection ... you could be waiting for eternity for that to happen, I think;-)

I'm one of these "I'm not a religious person, I'm a spiritual person" persons.

I have nothing against religions and think there is a lot to learn in most religions of the world and most provide a good community to support each other, and can be great social hubs to grow up in.

I just don't like it when so-called "religious" people start condemning people of other beliefs, religious, or otherwise, that should be left up to "God" I feel.
It doesn't mean you have to agree with the beliefs of those other people either or let them walk all over your own beliefs.

Sometimes we just have to agree to disagree, without trying to murder each other.

Anyway, enough of my rant on my personal beliefs on beliefs and what I believe others should do when it comes to their beliefs.

My Easter weekends are usually spent at pagan like music festivals, than in church, but it doesn't mean that I don't meditate on the meanings behind the Easter weekend.

Nature is my church, since everything I believe has its being in The Source/Force, or whatever you want to call it.

The trouble is though that in the southern hemisphere where we live by the northern hemisphere's seasonal traditions, everything is the other way round.

Easter is in Autumn (Fall as you Americans say) and Christmas is in our Summer and so on, right throughout the year.

It's a bit of a mind bender living in the south when the north call all the seasonal holidays of the Western calendar. 

Anyway, getting back to Chris Knowles's post -

For the Faithful Not-Quite Departed

I thought it was ironic that Chris wrote, "Martin Scorcese filmed parts of The Departed in my birth city, and cast Mark Wahlberg, whose family lives a block away from my old house", as I saw in the news that Martin's cinematographer on six of his films, including 'The Departed' and 'The Last Temptation of Christ' just passed away on either April 11th, or 12th, (depending on the news source of the death), which is pretty much right on the Easter Full Moon.

A Cinematographer Departs

Martin Scorsese pays homage to Michael Ballhaus

"LONDON, Apr 14: Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has paid tribute to his colleague and German cinematographer of his directorial

“The Departed”, Michael Ballhaus.
Ballhaus passed away on April 11 after a short illness at his home in Germany.
The 74-year-old director said that it was the cinematographer who reintroduced him to the sense of excitement he had for making films, reported The Independent.
“For over 20 years, Michael Ballhaus and I had a real creative partnership, and a very close and enduring friendship.
We started working together in the 80s, during a low ebb in my career. And it was Michael who really gave me back my sense of excitement in making movies. For him, nothing was impossible,” Scorsese said in a statement.
The legendary director adds that Ballhaus had a major influence on him and his filmmaking.
“He gave me an education, and he changed my way of thinking about what it is to make a film. He was a great artist,” Scorsese said.
The director-cinematographer duo had collaborated on six films such as “After Hours” (1985), “The Color of Money” (1986), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), “Goodfellas” (1990), “The Age of Innocence” (1993), “Gangs of New York” (2002) and “The Departed” (2006)."

Oddly enough, one of the stars of the movie 'The Departed' was trying to go undercover in Australia this week and avoid the local media blowing his cover, until this sting operation busted Matt and his family on a Byron Bay beach;-)
Sting, get it?

I'll bet Matt's daughter was Thor when she got back to the beach:-)

So now we know Matt and Chris Hemsworth are in Byron Bay, maybe they'll be hanging around Bluesfest over the

Easter weekend?

Jimmy Buffett on stage at Bluesfest
Good Friday and he nailed it, too, I think

I wrote about seeing Jimmy Buffett play Bluesfest on Good Friday and how he was born on Jesus's birthday of December 25th in an update in my Prawn/Shrimp post -
Plate of Shrimp/Prawns and the Raw Prawn/Trickster

Jimmy Buffett on stage at Bluesfest
Good Friday in the Crossroads tent

I'm not suggesting Jimmy is Jesus, or anything like that, but ... ;-)

Joan Osborne playing the Delta tent
at Bluesfest on Good Friday 

"Raised a Roman Catholic, Osborne distanced herself from that institution after childhood, particularly influenced by telling her parents that she wished to become a priest only to learn that tradition forbade it. 

As an adult, she regards herself as skeptical of large-scale organized religion and identifies as a "spiritual person" directly influenced by both Buddhism and Christianity."

Finding Your True North

Following the North Star?
Finding your True North?

I also saw some of Rhiannon Giddens's show on Good Friday and saw that she was signing her CDs at the signing tent, so I bought the above CD of hers because it had a tune called 'Following the North Star' on it.

Rhiannon Giddens playing Bluesfest on Good Friday

When I was at Rhiannon Giddens's gig, I heard the guitar riff of Cream's 'Sunshine of Your Love' blasting out from the Jambalaya tent, so I looked up the program to see who it was that was playing there.

Turns out it was a lady who played a mean guitar named Melody Angel.

Melody Angel playing the Jambalaya tent
 at Bluesfest on Good Friday

Listening to Melody's CD today I can say that here is one Angel with a message for the world and I think she is just warming up and has a big future ahead of her.
Melody did a cover of the recently departed Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B Goode', which I'm sure Chuck would have loved, too.

This is one Bluesfest act that I would have missed but was glad that I caught.

Crossroads tent with Patti Smith singing
Bob Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall'

Patti Smith on the Crossroads stage Good Friday
  playing to a packed tent

One food stand I can always rely on for a good cheap meal at Bluesfest is my old mate who has been doing this Pizza gig for years, and if Alex Jones is reading this post, no it's not a front for anything but pizza.
There's not even a ping pong table anywhere around here;-)
Trick or Treat: Was the PizzaGate Nightmare Predicted by 'Nightmare on Elm Street 4'?

The already waning Easter moon over
the Bluesfest site Good Friday

Nothing like watching a jam session at the Byron Music shop tent under a glowing Easter moon, while munching on a Byron Bay doughnut.

I even caught Nahko from 'Nahko and
Medicine for the People' chatting

The Byron Bay Bluesfest site takes on a magical feel when the sun goes down and the lights come on.

Bonnie Raitt on the Crossroads stage Good Friday

My American synch-head friend Andras Jones is a big fan of Bonnie Raitt, someone who I had never heard of before he mentioned her as one of his favourite singers, so I had to check out her set at the Crossroads tent, before heading home a little bit early, so I could avoid the nightmare jams in the carpark trying to get out and back onto the road to Brisbane.

Jimmy Buffett and Jake Shimabukuro
on the Crossroads stage Good Friday

The weather was good on Friday, so I'll be taking Jimmy Buffett and Jake Shimabukuro's advice from the 'Crowded House' song they played together 'Always Take the Weather with You'.

Let's hope Chris Hemsworth the god of thunder stays away from the Bluesfest site this year;-)

He'll probably be hanging at his house with Matt Damon until he departs Australia, I guess, so the weather should be good for the rest of the festival, I hope:-)