John Janaro's Blog, page 124

¡Feliz Cumpleaños LAURA! (Tanti Auguri alla Regina del Pop!)

This is a fine example of Laura and her band in a music collaboration from different locations, connected by media, that looks and sounds really good.
Recorded last week in Italian. Click HERE to view video on Facebook.
My favorite Latin American popular singer is... Italian.
Wait, how does that work?

Laura Pausini is how that works. Never mind my opinion. Ask any of the 80 million people who have bought her records.
When I was living in Italy in 1993-1994, young Laura Pausini was just getting started as the celebrated winner of the San Remo Festival (though I didn't become a fan until much later). Now on May 16 she turns 46 years old, and is widely loved across three generations of Italians.

Tanti Auguri! Happy Birthday to the Queen of Italian "Pop," who toured (and sold out) stadiums in her native land as recently as this past year (2019).

Laura Pausini is also Italy's most successful international recording artist, having had the talent, drive, energy, multilingual capabilities, and largeness of personality to connect with much of Continental Europe while also becoming a mainstay in Latina music from Mexico to Brazil to Chile (i.e. throughout the Hispanic world) for over a quarter of a century.

I sometimes find myself forgetting she's Italian. In this hemisphere, Laura is the multi-Grammy-Award-winning Spanish language singer who covers a range from "pop melodico" to rock. She records an Italian version and a Spanish version of every album she releases (I actually prefer to listen to the Spanish). But she goes way beyond just singing in another language. Laura speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese, and has "written her own chapter" of Latin American music history to the extent that Hispanics count her as one of their own.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Laura!

She also speaks (and sings in) French, Catalan, and... oh yeah, English too. But English is like her fifth language. The Anglo music world in the USA and Britain knows her well and many musicians have worked with her. But, alas, in terms of fans, she is one of the "biggest-popular-music-artists-that-most-Anglophones-have-never-heard-of" (which, let's face it, is a misfortune for us! — well, not for me, because I love the musicality of Spanish even if I don't understand it very well

So Many Growing Things in the Middle of May

The Peonies are blooming in the neighborhood. These are bushes along my walk; there is nothing nearly so well-groomed on the property of Casa Janaro.


It's the time of year for Virginia's native Asian plants to show their colors. I'm always happy to see the unusual Rhododendron flowers burst out and our bushes that have remained patiently (even stubbornly) green all through the Winter.


Meanwhile our native North American Maple trees finally have full-grown leaves, just in time to give us plenty of shade from the long days and the high, bright, and suddenly warmer sun. Our house is somewhere back in those "woods"!

Mother Mary Comes to Our Aid

May 13 commemorates two great interventions in 20th century history of the one who bore Jesus our Savior in her womb, our beloved ever Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. 

The Catholic Church observes the memorial of “Our Lady of Fatima” today, in honor of her first appearance to the shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Today is also the 39th anniversary of an event I remember very well, a moment of great drama, when a professional assassin (hired, ultimately, by the communist leadership of the Soviet Union) fired a perfect shot in St Peter’s Square, and what should have been a fatal bullet pierced the abdomen of the bishop of Rome. 

Saint John Paul II confessed his faith with his blood on May 13, 1981, but he didn’t die. Doctors were amazed that the bullet passed through him by unusual paths without lethal damage to any of his major organs. The Pope was convinced that Mary had saved his life. 

Indeed I think she did, for the sake of the Church and the world. 

No matter how bad things may be today, no matter how many problems we face, we are unimaginably better off than we would have been if Mother Mary had not come to our aid. Therefore, with confidence in her maternal love which flows from the victory of the Cross and Resurrection of her Son Jesus Christ our Lord, the Lord of the universe and of history, we will not be discouraged. Let’s pray the Rosary, live in hope... and don't worry!

Christina Grimmie's Legacy 47 Months Later

I have been counting months in honor of Christina Grimmie for ... a long time. Months and years too. (Not every single month but most of them.) It's a kind of vigil that I keep for a spectacular "rising star" in the world of popular music, a sister in Christ, and one of the "faithful departed" whom I entrust to the mercy of God.

Indeed, I recall the immense faithfulness of her life right up to the moment of her departure from this world. Her witness of love — grounded on her intention to live "for the glory of Christ" — has endured beyond the violence that ended her earthly life on June 10, 2016.

Since then our society has become more violent, more troubled, more incomprehensible to itself. The year of Christina’s death was marked, in the USA, not only by other high profile shootings in the ensuing months, but also by a strange plunge in the capacity for civil discourse and a deepening of interpersonal fissures that rendered dialogue and mutual understanding much more difficult. The ensuing years brought more irrational murders and further “weaponization“ of discourse. During this time we have been enduring a crisis of communication and increasing social fragmentation.

Now the year 2020 has brought new kinds of painful and distincly bewildering troubles. Presently we are experiencing a kind of powerlessness, frustration, and anxiety as we struggle through the coronavirus pandemic. We mourn the dead, have sorrow for those still suffering, and support their caregivers and all other essential workers. Also, we are all trying to stay sane during the quarantine, not knowing what changes in our lifestyle may yet come or how long they will last, and not being able to understand this bizarre virus — the different ways it impacts people, its dangers (known and unknown), and what needs to be done to treat it effectively and to deal with the ongoing socioeconomic “collateral damage.”

Through all of this we have seen some return of a sense of social solidarity, but it remains fragile and indeed is already breaking apart.

How did we get to this point, from the Long Hot Summer of 2016 to the Lockdown of 2020, in the past four years (less one month)?

Christina Grimmie, we miss you. We really need you!

Of course, as you know if you read these articles, I believe she’s not really so “distant” from us. Interpersonal relationships do not end with death, even though — obviously — they change, taking on a modality that for us is empirically obscure, mysterious, and beyond our power to “conjure” or control. Knowing that our loved ones live on as real persons (beyond our sight and with God) sustains our hope and is occasionally comforting for our emotions even if it’s not a substitute for the long journey through all the “stages“ and indeed the inexplicable whirlwind of grief. Death remains a deep mysterious wound, even if — ultimately — it is a wound of love, a sharing in the wounds that remain open in the One who died and rose and lives forever, the One whose wounds heal us and draw us to our fulfillment in that same unending life.

Though we can't help missing her, Christina is not so far away from us. And in a certain respect we can “see” this as we begin to perceive the growth, flowering, and fruition of the seeds she sowed during her temporal life, and that great seed sown deep in the earth which was her whole life given in love.

Her legacy is already at work in the world, for the good. Her contribution to the constructive forces of freedom and love that are working in history is a reality that continues to grow in collaboration with the work of others. There is much that is good in the world, and really we should give more of our attention and efforts to building up the good. It should not surprise us that in the midst of the problems of the present moment, we can also find new initiatives of goodness  and a deeper awareness of the need for human relationships, especially in the realms of communications media and music.

During these 47 months, I have written much about Christina's commitment to her faith in Jesus, her beautiful personality, and her gifts for using communications media in a manner that I still believe — now more than ever — will continue to shape the ways these media platforms are used in the future, especially the ways artists relate and respond to their supporters in new kinds of creative environments.

The past couple of months have seen many artists take to live streaming — not only to promote their music and give their fans something (at least temporarily) to "fill in" for standard venue concerts, but also because the artists themselves are experiencing their own need for connection. Finding themselves “stuck at home” and less able to distract themselves from their own vulnerability, artists want to be with their fans and share music with them (and also to collaborate, "virtually," with one another) on a more personal level. This is a small phenomenon, not without its own ambiguous elements, and not guaranteed to last in its current form. But we have seen musicians spurred to be creative with a more "personal" openness, seeking to express their need (and everyone's need) for relationships and human community.

These days, perhaps, are leading us a little closer to the discovery that everything is personal, that relationships are the greatest treasures of life and that they are sustained by giving ourselves away.

Christina Grimmie had a spontaneous awareness of the possibilities and vitality of these virtual "new media" platforms ten years ago (when they were still "new"), and through them she built bonds with her frands and offered herself, making herself accessible to them in a special way. It was the very thing that set the intimate context for more direct one-on-one personal encounters after live concerts with people all over the world who felt "at home" with her.

She touched countless lives with this unique mode of "hospitality." And she held nothing back in giving herself, all the way to the last moment of her life.

Her giving-of-herself in this way has an ongoing “resonance,” I think, that reaches people today — and in this particular observation I am considering people who inhabit the deeply ambivalent realms of popular music and entertainment: realms so often dominated by greed, egoism, sexual abuse, psychological manipulation, and envy. Still, there is no doubt that God loves every single one of these people. The light that God shined, briefly, through Christina in those places, among so many people, was bright indeed (and they recognized it, as is clear from the tributes that poured in after her death). Even if many have since forgotten her, that light still shines and is passed on and is helping to enkindle new fires in the hearts of artists of the present and the future, and those who appreciate their work.

This is only one example of how Christina Grimmie's legacy continues to be important, and a small sign of the reality that she, herself, continues to accompany us and help us in these difficult times, four years later...

My Wife: Teacher and Mom

During last night's online fundraiser for the John XXIII Montessori Children's Center, Mrs. Janaro demonstrated a science work with "student" Raggedy Ann.

Today she's having a lovely Mother's Day with her own grateful children and husband. Happy Mother's Day, Eileen!

“Orange Horizon”

Wow, it's way after 8:00 PM in May, peeps. Far as I know, the big shiny thing will be back tomorrow! #DigitalArt

What's So "Super" About the Moon?

I saw the waxing moon in the sky Monday evening, which will be full by the end of the week. It is to be another instance of a full moon at a time when its peculiar orbit brings it closer to the earth than usual. We call this a super moon, not because it changes into something greater than itself, but because of the way it appears to us: larger in our sky, brighter, more fascinating.

Humans have traveled to the moon, walked on the moon, analyzed the composition of its elements, brought back samples we can see in museums. We know that it reflects the sun's light. We know many scientific facts about the moon, and we continue to research various scientific questions. There is much we could say about this important, interesting, and useful work.

But there is something else involved when, on a Spring evening, we see the moon in the sky and are captivated by its luminous figure.

We are suddenly struck: "what a beautiful moon!" It does indeed appear to be "super" at the moment, grander than all we know about it. We are surprised by beauty.

The heart lifts up. The heart cries out, "wonder-ful!" Where does this sense of wonder come from? Why can't we capture it, freeze it and hold onto it forever?
We want that, don't we? Beauty forever. Who would say "no" to that?

And yet it eludes us. The moon fades behind some clouds. The moment passes. We return to the house. Dinner is ready and it’s time to eat. Then it will be "time" for something else. 
The moon will move through its phases, the months and the seasons will change. Everything comes and goes with time. But the beauty of the moon on an evening like this reminds us that we are not satisfied with temporary things. The experience of life is always hinting "eternity"--it says to us, "this joy should last..." 
And our hearts respond, "I want forever." 
Is it a lie, a trick, a tragedy, this life of ours with its aspiration for a "super"-wonderful experience, an enduring ecstatic fullness? No. Something must be true in all of this. 
Obviously, we can't "capture reality" and make time stand still. The whole point anyway is that we desire something that is beyond us. We can't make it from ourselves. But we can ask for it...

Never give up! We have been made to seek the Beauty that reality points to every day. So go ahead: ask for the moon.

Amy Lee Does it Again With New Evanescence Track

Yes! What better time than now for NEW EPIC MELODRAMATIC music from Amy Lee and EVANESCENCE? (You know I love it!

May 2020: "When There Were Trees and Poetry..."

Here we are, in the beginning of the month of May in the year 2020. The trees are gloriously alive. They ask no questions. They have no fear of what's coming... They are all innocence on May 2, 2020.

I feel like I'm dating these entries in a dramatic fashion, expecting that this blog might be found by some post-apocalyptic survivor living in a wild technobarbaric dystopian future world.

...Indeed, humanity passed through chaotic times in the twenty-first century. After the Pandemic came the Economic Meltdown followed by the War and... what the heck, we'll throw in a couple of asteroid collisions.

Things will have become pretty strange on planet earth by the time that kid-who-is-a-geek-with-ancient-tech somehow finds this "data," no doubt by rebelliously hacking into a restricted virtual storage vault. This information is "protected" by The Guides (that's what we'll call our spooky dictatorial oligarchy that rules the future).

Of course, my future illegal reader(!) wants details about the mythical global (or galactic?) catastrophe that began long ago, in the year 2020, when the first of the Great Plagues put earth into a quarantine. No one back then expected the terrors to come. But the reader will have to bear with me. These pages are early in the story.

It might be months or years before I desperately narrate the horrors: 'That laboratory was supposed to be shut down! What did they... Nooooo!! MUTANT EIGHT-HEADED SNAKES! They're COMING! Arrrghh!!!...' and then... nothing. The blog abruptly ends. But not yet. We're not even close to that part.

Today, I'm still naive. I know nothing of the dreadful things to come. Today is a beautiful Spring day. Today, I will wax poetic about trees. Trees? Future reader, do you still have trees?...

Gosh, that all sounds interesting. Maybe I should try writing science fiction. Or maybe I've just seen too many movies. But never mind all that. Right now, there's plenty to do in the beautiful outdoors, in our naturally socially distant neighborhood. I will gaze upon the trees, and listen to their poetry. Why not?

Those noble white kings of the forest, the sycamores and birch — the ones that stand luminous and majestic against the Winter sky — are not yet clothed with the leaves of Spring.

In a mix of woodland trees alive with blooming color and fresh vivid green, they tower like giants reaching for the clouds with bright bare branches, awakening more slowly to the Spring sun, among the last to be vested in the great green coats that spread long shadows of shade through the Summer.

"Mother of the Church...Embrace Our Nation"

On May 1, at 12:00 noon Pacific Time, in the cathedral church of Our Lady of the Angels, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles - current President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - led the renewal of the consecration of the USA to Mary, especially under her title of "Mother of the Church," and asked her intercession in this time of pandemic. Bishops throughout the nation joined in this act of consecration in their own dioceses.

Thus the Church's ministers entrusted once again the people of this nation to Mary, just as Jesus from the Cross entrusted his beloved disciple John to her.

The image at the Los Angeles cathedral was a photo reproduction of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Here is the prayer used by Archbishop Gomez:

Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church,
you are the fairest fruit of God’s redeeming love;
you sing of the Father’s mercy
and accompany us with a mother’s love.
In this time of pandemic we come to you,
our sign of sure hope and comfort.
Today we renew the act of consecration and entrustment
carried out by those who have gone before us.

With the love of a Mother and Handmaid,
embrace our nation which we entrust and consecrate once again to you,
together with ourselves and our families.
In a special way we commend to you
those particularly in need of your maternal care.

Mary, Health of the Sick,
sign of health, of healing, and of divine hope for the sick,
we entrust to you all who are infected with the coronavirus.

Mary, Mother of Consolation,
who console with a mother’s love all who turn to you,
we entrust to you all those who have lost loved ones in the pandemic.

Mary, Help of Christians,
who come to our rescue in every trial,
we entrust to your loving protection all caregivers.

Mary, Queen and Mother of Mercy,
who embrace all those who call upon your help in their distress,
we entrust to you all who are suffering in any way from the pandemic.

Mary, Seat of Wisdom,
who were so wonderfully filled with the light of truth,
we entrust to you all who are working to find a cure to this pandemic.

Mary, Mother of Good Counsel,
who gave yourself wholeheartedly to God’s plan 
for the renewing of all things in Christ,
we entrust to you all leaders and policymakers.

Accept with the benevolence of a Mother
the act of consecration that we make today with confidence,
and help us to be your Son’s instruments
for the healing and salvation of our country and the world.

Mary, Mother of the Church,
you are enthroned as queen at your Son’s right hand:
we ask your intercession for the needs of our country,
that every desire for good may be blessed and strengthened,
that faith may be revived and nourished,
hope sustained and enlightened,
charity awakened and animated;
guide us, we pray, along the path of holiness.

Mary our Mother,
bring everyone under your protection
and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.