Smells and Bells

  Image by Gage Skidmore @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bruce_Willis_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg So after reading David Abram’s The Spell of the Sensuous, I came to find myself having a new perspective on a lot of things. In regards to the sixth sense specifically, I never really believed or looked into how it works. For the most part, the words “Sixth Sense” were always just a reminder of that one movie with the ghost and Bruce Willis. Or at least I think that’s the right movie, I still haven’t seen it yet but thanks to the internet I know how it ends so that kind of sucks. ANYWAYS, after reading this book, I got a whole new definition for the word sixth sense and what it can actually mean for both me and other people. Now instead of thinking about ghosts or actors, I can think about all the different abstract concepts that never really crossed my mind until now. In fact, the one concept that really stood out to me the most while reading this was the sections on time and spa...

Picture owned by Pravin475     https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goddess_Durga_statue_of_2018_Durga_Puja_festival_06.jpg  To start things off, I want to make it clear that I wasn’t able to read “ Seeing the Divine Image in India '' so I had to watch the three videos on Oncourse instead. In regards to those videos, I have to say I was quite impressed by what they had to offer in terms of both the sensory and idolatry interpretations aspects of it. First and foremost, Hindu practice not seeing idols as a bad thing didn’t really surprise me since I was already pretty aware of how casual they were about it. I was also fairly well aware of how NOT casual christianity, Judaism, and Islam were about the idea of putting Idols everywhere. Honestly I never understood the whole mentality of seeing idolatry as sin in the first place. I mean yeah, today you can’t really put up a bunch of depictions of Jesus or whoever for the sake of public tolerance but back then, it just didn’...

   Owned by Guy Cocker https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/hyperx-cloudx-stinger-core-wireless  The last time I wrote about sound, I put a pretty heavy emphasis on how music culture you grow up with can have some effect on your taste for what makes a good song. Although what I wrote about back then is no where similar to what Anne Rasmussen's "Women, the recited Qur'an, islamic music in Indonesia" brings up, I can't help but take some perspective from all the different themes, festivals, and ideas she put forward.  What Specifically caught my attention was the chapter that focused on Aurality,  the "taking to heart" or experiencing of sounds in a multi sensory or kinesthetic way. This experience can range anywhere between music, laughter, rain falling, whatever comes to mind. To me that's just fascinating because I think we've all had that feeling before but never really knew which word to use in order to describe it properly to other people. ...

   Image by Andreas Schalber https://www.bischoferhaus.at/en/ Much like Aroma of righteousness , Religion in the Kitchen was a new reading experience for me. And once again, that is far from a bad thing. While admittedly I could never really see myself or any of the people of color I know taking part in Lucumi, I could definitely see them being inspired by it's practices much in the same way I was. The book does an amazing job going over the history, beliefs, and origins of Lucumi as it made its way to the states.  What really got my attention though was the section in the book about kitchen roles and how in Lucumi, men handle the 4-legged animals for food while women handle the 2-legged ones. Switching the roles or having both genders do both types of work seems to be okay for some Lucumi communities but just flat out wrong sounding for others like that one cuban priestess named Elaina comes from. Afterwards, the section goes on in detail about all the different roles e...

  Image owned by: Marco Verch Well there's no denying the fact this book was a lot different from the ones I usually read but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. In fact, I found myself being quite interested through out a lot of the earlier sections of the book BECAUSE I've never read anything like it before so that was a nice experience at the very least. Towards the ending though, my feelings were a bit different but overall not that negative. On the plus side, I did like the ideas being presented and how Green gave the reader a chance to see how the rabbis back in the day thought while also dumbing down the stories for people like me who wouldn't get it. On the down side, apart of me couldn't help but feel like there was some serious repetition along the way and as a result the ending became a bit tough to get through in my opinion.  That being said, seeing how the rabbis chose to interpret these stories and how they relate to God, his relationship with Isra...

Image owned by Nicholas Raymond While Reading the hearing section in NHS, I couldn't help but notice how Ackerman highlighted the way different cultures have different beats. Specifically when she highlighted the different types of beats that kids would grow up with in places like Jamaica, China, and Africa.  This stuck with me so much because I also noticed the different beats that come with cultures back when I was much younger. Since both my parents are from Jamaica, I grew up living in a small Jamaican community while living on Nantucket. As a result, I heard a lot of Caribbean music growing up and noticed the unique beat that it had in comparison to all the American songs that I would hear on the radio. For me, it was like each Caribbean song was playing the same sort of traditional Jamaican tune while all the American songs felt like they were more varied in how they were played. I don't know, maybe it was just because I tuned out most of the music around me because it wa...

While Reading the First Chapter of NHS, I learned/realized a lot while flipping through the pages. The first that really stood out was just how little things had actually changed between back then and now. Specifically in regards to how we feel sensations and how they play a major role in our lives in ways that were barely aware of. I never really considered it before but whether it be 50, 60, or hundreds of years ago, people may have acted differently then we do now but almost all of them still feel the same sensations we do in regards to 5 senses and using them as a means to enjoy food or smell pleasant Aromas. Some also believed that certain nice smelling items could be used like aphrodisiacs which may seem ridiculous...until you remember we still have ads today about tons of people falling in love upon first sniff in all these perfume and body spray ads. This chapter actually got me to remember this one ad in particular for axe body spray that came out a loooong time ago where 1 gu...