Now that’s Italian! We went to the Dancing of the Giglio (Italian for “lily”) today in Williamsburg. I’m not Catholic (or even Christian), but I knew it was a good excuse to go to a pagan-ish rite with lots of hunky Italians. A lot of them were a bit heavy to be representing the male beauty of Italians, but there were plenty that made up for those slackers. It has happened every July for over 100 years, celebrating St. Paulinus of Nola (near Naples), a Roman-era bishop.

The Official Web Site explains the festival this way:

The story, which is passed on through the generations on both sides of the Atlantic, is that around 410 AD, North African pirates overran the town of Nola. In the chaos, Bishop Paolino was able to flee into the countryside with some of the children. Upon his return, Paolino learned, from a sobbing widow that many of the young men, her son included, had been abducted into slavery. Moved to compassion, Paolino offered himself in exchange for the boy and was ferried off, a prisoner of the brigands. While in North Africa, word of the courage and self-sacrifice of Paolino spread and became known to a certain Turkish sultan. Taken with the tale of altruism, the sultan intervened, negotiating for the freedom of this holy man. Through the sultan ’s efforts, Paolino and his paesani, were freed.</p>

Overjoyed by his safe return, the entire town greeted him carrying lilies, symbolic of love and purity. </blockquote>
That explains the man dressed as a Turk that I saw as we first arrived. I think my favorite part was when an announcer said (in a classic Brooklyn accent), “we’re going to move it past the sausage stand over there now.” The band on the giglio played the theme from “Rocky” during this part. The singer they had was great. He did a very impressive national anthem, plus “New York, New York”.

It happens again next Sunday — info from Time Out.

Here is a gallery of the photos I took. I just couldn’t edit down any more!

Apparently there is also a documentary film about the festival, titled “Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July”.

Here is one more good web site on the festival.

Yesterday we celebrated the holiday by going to Central Park for a performance of Inverse Theater’s Washington: The American Revolution. They are an interesting theater company, specializing in contemporary plays in verse (more like Shakespearean blank verse). I was very impressed by the writing, and the cast was charismatic and talented. I was particularly impressed by Joshua Spafford as Benedict Arnold. Both the play and his performance provided a very nuanced look at one of the most famous but least understood Americans. Robert Laine was hilarious in several roles, especially the hangman. A few photos may be found here.

It will be at the Fringe Festival too. I think it’s worth seeing.

Forest Fires Burn In Northern Quebec
City Gets Canada Fires’ Smoke

The Guardian has a column by Shlomi Segall, a reserve staff sergeant in the Israeli paratroopers and a member of Courage to Refuse. The group refuses to serve beyond the pre-1967 borders of Israel.

Arkansas’s Supreme Court has overturned the state’s sodomy law. Note that this was not some holdover from the 19th century. It was passed in 1977 as part of the horrors of the Anita Bryant era.

Spending that “mission money” we all were asked to give back when I went to church, I presume. Great headline:

Giraffe ‘jumps to death after killing priest’

Lady Thatcher’s larger-than-life status as Britain’s most loved and hated prime minister since Sir Winston Churchill was confirmed yesterday when a man decapitated the marble statue of the former Conservative leader on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London.

I like Duncan’s take on the story.

Update: The BBC has pictures!

Choire has Dr. Faustus, Sam has Paul Lombardi, and I have Mark Morford. I don’t even know if he’s gay, but it doesn’t matter!

A sampling from a recent newsletter:

With the blast of an artillery cannon to mark the start, President Bush ran a three-mile race at a local Army base with hundreds of White House staff members Saturday to make the point for out-of-shape Americans that they should get off the couch and into exercise, but not so much that they actually get in shape and feel in any way reinvigorated and healthy and more mentally agile, more in tune with their bodies and their minds and hence more sensitive to the ongoing decimation of their civil liberties, more attuned to the power they actually have as individuals effect change, to rebel and resist and question, more aware of just how shockingly detrimental the Bush administration has been so far to the progress of the human species, from women’s rights to the environment to oily warmongering to ravaging the budget and annihilating the surplus to causing numerous global cringes just about every single time he speaks. “I feel great,” the leader of the free world said, as aides tied his shoes. “Everyone should do this. Well OK, not everyone. Some people. Mostly those who voted for me. But probably not even them.”

At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.

Courtesy of The Guardian.