Artful Cooking For The Flying Roman Catholic Boys For Art

Or, The Celebration of Unadorned Female in the Officer's Mess

Two recent inquires to Patum Peperium are the inspiration for this post:

Mr. P wrote: "How Catholicism fits in here I'm not quite sure." I take this remark as a hint that there is not enought "RC," and too much "B," in RCBA. It is a little harsh, considering some of the legitimate Art posted by the bloggers currently flying the RCBA banner, but the point is being made in Mr. P's usual clear way...

Fiendish

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Mrs. P, do you think you could manage roast guinea fowl with stuffing as the entree for the Annual Regimental Do of the Imperial Flying Corps?

Sqn. Ld. A.K.B. Cusack, the Earl Albatross, Viscount Herringbone, Baron Bisquick, Hereditary Keeper of St. Hepplethwaite's Fingernail, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Misplaced Spaghetti Spoon

****

Mr. Peperium, if I may blow his horn for a moment, is quite the Art fancier himself. His late mother was an artist of some local repute. Among her possessions that are now his, are her large studies of the classic nude. As many of these studies were done during WWII, the models are are not feminist ideals but masculine ones. The poses are very feminine with downcast eyes or heads and often with the model's 1940's high heels placed exactly where the model herself had left them; tucked behind her feet. For many years, the best of these classic nudes adorned the walls of the Peperium home. The arrival of Little Bertie caused them to be taken down and put away until he is enough of a boy to appreciate the classic nude in its proper Roman Catholic context.

Placing art in its proper context is what separates the Roman Catholic Boys For Art from all the other Boys for Art. Roman Catholic Boys understand the female form was meant to be appreciated otherwise God would not have made it so gosh darn attractive. Since being Roman Catholic is a higher calling than being a Pagan, or, these days a Protestant, smart and devout Roman Catholic boys have over the centuries worked out ways to appreciate the unadorned female while keeping within the teachings of the church. Marriage without birth control is the best and most preferable way as it allows for the full harvest of the individual Roman Catholic Boy For Art's appreciation and understanding of the classic nude. Art in a Church-approved museum with church-approved artists is another.

One of the earlier smart and devout Roman Catholic Boys for Art was a Florentine painter named Botticelli. Botticelli came of age at a very intellectually stimulating time for Catholics, indeed all Christians as the Reformation had not taken place yet. Platonic ideals and ideas were being infused with Christian ideas and truths. This is known as NeoPlatonism. Botticelli himself got into the NeoPlatonism fusion act with his depiction of The Birth of Venus. The Roman mythological goddess of love, Venus, was, before her NeoPlatonic fusion, the Greek goodess of love, Aphrodite. In Botticelli's The Birth of Venus , Venus is seen full-born and riding ashore in an open scallop shell with a Flying Roman Catholic Boys for Art ariel escort. On the shoreline is a waiting Roman Catholic Girl for Art, armed and ready to shield her from the Protestants and Pagans incorrectly oggling at Venus' glory. Botticelli's, The Birth of Venus, a theme so central and appropriate for the religion without birth control, has inspired millions of Roman Catholic Boys for Art to fly straight and make lots of children as well as generated both an aesthetic and savory respect for the lowly bottomfeeder among bottomfeeders; the scallop. Also, the delicious little, twisted ring of stuffed pasta, the tortellini, came about because of a very fortunate encounter a very naughty Roman Catholic Boy Chef for Art had with the goddess of love herself:

As one legend goes, Venus and Jupiter were to meet one night. After Venus had checked into the inn, she waited for him on the bed. The chef found out, went to her room and peeked through the keyhole, where he saw her lying only partially covered on her back. Overcome at seeing her navel, the chef was so inspired that he created a stuffed pasta resembling her navel..

So to to keep traditions alive, as well as remind to the Roman Catholic Boys for Art what they're flying for, the menu for the First Annual Regimental Do of the Imperial Flying Corps shall be drawn largely from Botticelli's, The Birth of Venus:

Proscuitto slices over very ripe melon

Warm Scallops on the Half Shell scented with Rosemary and Bacon

Tortellini Bellybuttons with Pink Shrimp and Cream

Pan-Roasted Breast of Guinea Fowl On A Bed of Wild Rice

accompanied by

Carrots Curls glazed with Onions

and

Broad Beans with Curly Endive

Monte Bianco: Pureed Chestnut and Chocolate Mound

With food like this who has time for loop-de-loops?

Mrs. P

Comments

[Wing Commander Basil Seal]

Good food, Good meat, Good Gawd, let's eat...Amen

[Old Dominion Tory]

Tally Ho, Mrs. Peperium! This menu tempts me to apply for membership in the RCBA and/or enlist in the IFC--whatever will get me to the table sooner.

[american erewhon-ist]

Venus was also, of course, a direct ancestor of the Julii.

[Steve M.]

Grand so. I am most particularly impressed by the fact that you would go to all this trouble for chaps who will undoubtedly, at the First Regimental Do, be celebrating their cheerful carpet bombing of Connecticut.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Old Dominion Tory, I'm not aware if IFC have a Vice Air Marshall yet or a chaplain, so you'll have to talk to the Wing Commander or Squadron Leader about signing up. Just tell them I said there is always a place at the table for for a Ace with a purple sash.

American ere-whonist, may I in the future just refer to you as a.w.e.? I knew you would know what you know.

Basil, glad to see you've still got a proper appetite after gorging yourself on fast ladies, I mean fast food Art like Louise Brooks.

Card's Wife, are you there? I need about 20 minutes and then let's chat...

[Card's wife]

I'm here. Let me put this stinger down first so I don't spill it on the keyboard. Card really gets annoyed when I spill sweet, sticky booze on the keyboard.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Steve M.? Wow! Longtime no posty huh? How have you been? Are you a RCBFA member too? Of the winged division as well?

Well, to be truthful, Mr. P would be the first one to say carpet bombing Connecticut is not a problem as my mother's cats have already ruined the family carpets...

[Mrs. Peperium]

Here the earlier Patum Peperium Party the Card is speaking of over at Basil's Seal's under You're Only As Strong As Your Drink (I believe that is the name of the post):

http://jacksonville.typepad.com/patum_peperium/2004/12/welcome.html

Here are the drink submissions to the WebGrog Awards:

http://jacksonville.typepad.com/patum_peperium/2004/12/the_2004_webgro.html#comments

[Mrs. Peperium]

Excuse me IWF, cancel the carpet bombing mission to Connecticut and set your sights on Google. It was brought to our attention today through our referrals that Patum Peperium is #1 on Google for "Stauffenberg was gay".

[Mandingo]

Mrs. P. says:
"Roman Catholic Boys understand the female form was meant to be appreciated otherwise God would not have made it so gosh darn attractive."

My example - it's clean so don't worry -

http://www.bvml.org/webmaster/grfx/BellyGirl.jpg

"Since being Roman Catholic is a higher calling than being a Pagan, or these days a Protestant..."

Thank you for saying that - have you ever spoken to a pagan lately, especially those smug gothic Wiccans? Most mainline Protestants, like Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presp, especially in the clergy and the elites have become somewhat or fully pagan as of late. Just go to Riverside Church to see what I am talking about - in their crazed ecumenical dialogue I woul not be surprised they are allowing satanists. Don't even talk to me about Unitarians - who are now welcoming lesbian wiccans into their fold.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Mandingo, thank you. I know that what I say about Protestants really offends some of them but reasonable ones will admit to it being true.

I'll have to dig up an old post on an art show at the Episcopalian Mecca, the haunt of William Sloane Coffin the Riverside Church to prove my point. Mother Mary holding a coat hanger, blood issuing out from under her dress (she had aborted Christ?) as well as another with a dog up her dress (so the Virgin who was overshadowed by the Paraclete in real life played around with Fido).

[Mrs. Peperium]

I'm sorry Mandingo. I always mix up Riverside Church with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine - and where William Sloane Coffin Jr fits in, who at this point knows? Anyhoo, my post still makes the harshness of my assessment of Protestantism true:

http://jacksonville.typepad.com/patum_peperium/2005/08/the_tie_that_bi.html

An excerpt:

There seems to be an unspoken bond among the religious and artistic Left. Whenever they transcend the bounds of Christian orthodoxy or decency, they say they are challenging us and our preconceptions about things. This rhetorical device is applied to not only stop all criticism of them but also place the priest, bishop, filmmaker, or artist on a higher level than the rest of us poor unenlightened slobs. The following three stories are a perfect illustration of this. (Note to readers; For the sake of time I will be painting with a broadbrush as my children are in the livingroom awaiting me to play with them in the tent they built.)

The Cathedral of St John the Divine prides itself for being like a medieval European Cathedral in New York City. They also pride themselves as being "a leading voice in the exploration of sacred arts and liturgical expression" for children. If the Cathedral truly is as they say they are a place for children to learn, don't you find it odd that they recently held a show, "Season South Africa" that required they "put a cautionary sign near some of the work indicating it might not be suitable for young viewers without explanation"? The Cathedral advertised this show as "challenging the frontiers of artistic expression both visually and intellectually" and unfortunately one local art teacher fell for the spin and took 43 children to see it. The art teacher was particulary outraged about a painting by Diane Victor, The Eight Mary's in which the Blessed Virgin Mother is depicted in one scene holding a coat hanger in one hand and blood cascading out from between her legs, another one has her with a dog under her raised skirt, and another one is the artist's re-interpretation of the Pieta, except that Mother Mary and Jesus are nude and Jesus' boy parts are front and center on his mother's lap. The art teacher wrote his dismay to the Reverend Tom Miller, Canon for Liturgy and the Arts and received this kind note in return from the good reverend;

"I was glad to hear that you oppose censorship and I agree with you that there will always be a place for art that "forces you to think." Diane Victor's Eight Mary's is certainly a case in point. It is an autobiographical critique of the way in which feminine imagery has been manipulated to suppress and control women in many cultures.

...these works are rooted in the artists' truthful engagement in South Africa's struggle and in their experiences not only of hope, but of suffering from which hope is revealed as grace upon grace.

...It is just such challenges that can upon reflection, deepen our faith."

If you believe that baked twaddle Steve M. will be happy to arrange for the sale of the Brooklyn bridge to you this afternoon. Please make the check out to me. The art magazine, Art in America, provides more details of the Season South Africa show. The writer describes The Eight Mary's painting as "funky". The show also featured the art of a Jewish crossdresser (a man who dresses as a woman and not a man who wears a lot of crosses) who, for the opening of the show, wore a working chandelier fashioned around his waist, like a tutu, and high heels and was hoisted high up on ropes in the Nave while a recording of Jewish chanting played in the background. This is certainly not intellectually challenging or artistically challenging art as a man in a tutu and heels is about as old as Milton Berle. He's been pushing up daisies for years now.

The second story involves that best-selling piece of fiction that lacks character development, has an all too predictable plotline, and is both theologically and historically unsound, The Da Vinci Code. The Da Vinci Code movie is in production in England right now. Now, to be truthful, it is the Telegraph that states that "the story challenges orthodox Christian thought". But I'm confident it would not take long to find an Anglican cleric who agreed with the Telegraph's accessment. The Da Vinci Code was to be filmed in Westminster Abbey however the clerics there had problem with Dan Brown's version of Jesus' life contained in the predictable plotline and said "No." The Dean of the Lincoln Cathedral, the Very Rev. Alec Knight, too had issues with the Da Vinci Code and declared "It's a load of old tosh". But he, unlike his colleagues at Westminster, was completely happy to take the 100,000 pounds director Ron Howard paid for the use of the Cathedral, because it's a "huge opportunity in secular terms" as this was "giving them the opportunity to preach the gospel". Another clear cut case of the end justifying the means. The question that needs to be asked of the Very Rev. Knight is, which gospel is Ron Howard planning on preaching in the Da Vinci Code film? The gospel of Dan Brown or the real gospels of the Bible?...

[mandingo jones]

Mrs. P.

The dreaded NCC comes in to play.

Riverside "church" is the headquarters of the infamous National Council of Churches (hiss, hiss) -that is where church lady Joan Brown (the red dress) Campbell preached from the pulpit - wearing a Roman collar - looking very butch -btw urging Americans to work for "peace and justice" and return a boy named Elian to demonic Cuba. Riverside is also where Fidel Castro has been celebrated and hosted in person - where he gave one of his infamous 3 hour speeches to the sounds of Afrikan conga drums and an orgasmic multicultural crowd. This was in 1999 or 2000 I think - as a thank you for all the work the NCC and the church-ladies (of both sexes) did to please their master in Havana and in Hades.
It was an experience - I was there protesting the event. The line to see the dictator was around the block - all of Harlem was there as well as tweed wearing bearded 50 something professors and their cute hot WASP Barnard / Vassar types student girlfriends. Cuban state security was also amongst the crowd - you could see them with their secret ear pieces - and the NYPD who was there to protect the anti Commie protestors even pointed them out for us. I am sure a multitude of unsavory un-Godly un-natural activities have taken place in the Riverside campus - the church and the theological seminary next door. God help us!

The Cathedral of St John the Divine is near by and equally anti American and anti Christian. I went their once in the summer - it was very "fay" if you know what I mean. First of all, it was stunning in a decadent manner with all these damn peacocks running around in the medieval village they have out back (they must have a sauna and hot tub deck somewhere for the liberated clergy who live there) - but the whole place had a perverse carnival - theme park feel like of the sensitive guitar strumming religious Left - yeah, like "left behind" in the 60s still. There was a wall where one could write letters to Jesus (how corny), and as I walked in the inside of the church I spied a room filled with cruncy progressive looking folk - it was some peace movement/anti nuke org. - they had their offices in the church! There was also this "monk" who roamed around the place and at the top of his lungs read something that sounded like a Gregorian chant - whether it was some type of meditation, or the guy just liking to hear himself talk - it was very "fey" in the end - if you know what I mean...just a really creepy place. They also had a big menorah and other symbols of other religions by the altar.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Here are some other religious 'things' the Episcopalians do in NYC. This for the wealthiest parish in the City as well as the entire country:

http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/resources/article.php?id=539

And this for the poorest people in the city:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_42063_ENG_HTM.htm

Then over in Tarrytown, there's a steel drum band playing the hymns on Sunday at Christ Church:

http://eny.dioceseny.org/0704/music10.jpg

Posted by: Mrs. Peperium | September 27, 2006 at 06:15 PM

[mandingo]

"It will likely be a surprise to see clowns inside Trinity Church"

I thought it was common to see clowns especially the Episcopal clergy at these churches during the regular masses. Bishop Tracy Griswold is a real big BOZO that comes to mind - look him up on Google for some of his clown antics like the cross dresser mass at the Episcopal church in Paris France - a scandal that was - but oh so fun - I love these wacked out church ladies - they keep it interesting even though they have a one way ticket to Hades. Thank you for this post Mrs. P. I told the folks at work about the clown mass a long time ago and they did not believe me at first.

Wow a hip hop mass officiated by a white "female" bishop. Why is it that women religious always look the same? How come there aren't any HOT female Protestant ministers? I don't mean nuns or anyone celibate but those mainline prots. pride themselves on being so progressive and liberated, you would think they would have a couple of babes up there in the pulpit instead of the short hair tom boy motorcycle riding brigade. I say this in jest though - I kid because I care. However, I did see a very attractive 20 something female rabbinical student once!

Wow, an all white steel drum band! Now that's progressive.