Zion Issue No. 4 is out in print

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Is this just a new "tourist" magazine or does it have something to do with the restaurant of the same name? It's got to be the former, right?

Either way, what's with all the stuff being called Zion lately? Does that word have some special meaning or history on the island?
 
I believe it refers to Eden...the Biblical Garden.

Also can refer to the land of the Jewish people.

Land now called Jerusalem. The fortress on the mount in the city of David.
 
Thanks Amy! I knew about the Jerusalem connection but not the Eden one.

Since Izzy is falling down on the job ( :laughing-cry: ) here are a couple Wikipedia entries more related to the Eden definition:

[h=2]Latter Day Saint[edit][/h]Main article: Zion (Latter Day Saints)
Within the Latter Day Saint movement, Zion is often used to connote a peaceful ideal society. In the Latter Day Saints belief system the term Zion is often used to determine a place of gathering for the saints. It is also often used to determine an area or city of refuge for the saints.


[h=2]Rastafari movement[edit][/h]
I say fly away home to Zion, fly away home...One bright morning when my work is over, man will fly away home...
— Rastaman Chant, The Wailers
In Rastafari, "Zion" stands for a utopian place of unity, peace and freedom, as opposed to "Babylon", the oppressing and exploiting system of the materialistic modern world and a place of evil.[SUP][18][/SUP]
 
There is also Zion Garden in Saline, which I have never found. (It would probably help if I actually looked for it...)
 
There is also Zion Garden in Saline, which I have never found. (It would probably help if I actually looked for it...)

Zion Garden is a private place behind the Grain de Sel, same family owners, it is sometimes used for parties, an occasional wedding, photo shoot etc.. mostly empty but often quite a few goats when nothing else is happening there...
 
Zion Garden is a private place behind the Grain de Sel, same family owners, it is sometimes used for parties, an occasional wedding, photo shoot etc.. mostly empty but often quite a few goats when nothing else is happening there...

. . . and an occasional concert — I remember being there for one (maybe more) Boubou music festivals.
 
Thanks Amy! I knew about the Jerusalem connection but not the Eden one.
Since Izzy is falling down on the job ( :laughing-cry: ) here are a couple Wikipedia entries more related to the Eden definition In Rastafari, "Zion"...

Eden and are different places/concepts with Zion coming after banishment from Eden.

In the narrowest sense, Zion is a location (e.g., the fortress that David captured, Jerusalem, the temple, the land of Judah, etc.). Some have contended that this location would have been within Eden but Eden seems understood by the original audience to have been eastward in Mesopotamia.

In a much broader sense, Zion is the Kingdom that is to come.

The Rastafarian Zion/Babylon juxtaposition reflects the captivity theme central to Psalm 137... the Melodians had a reggae hit... a great musical adaptation of the Psalm also came from a group with connections to your area...
 
For the Rivers of Babylon, I believe this is the original:
Rivers of Babylon by Boney M... .

Melodians first recorded their version in 1970. Boney M's recording came in 1978.

Given that this one has being "covered", adapted, and "sampled" for over 2500 years, a few years is not much of a difference though... one can strongly argue, btw, that the real nature of the psalm on which the songs are based but incompletely quote or reference is not evident in either version...
 
Melodians first recorded their version in 1970. Boney M's recording came in 1978.

Given that this one has being "covered", adapted, and "sampled" for over 2500 years, a few years is not much of a difference though... one can strongly argue, btw, that the real nature of the psalm on which the songs are based but incompletely quote or reference is not evident in either version...


Right you are.. and here's an interesting article in the Financial Times:
[h=1]Rivers of Babylon — Boney M’s hit has a history stretching back thousands of years[/h]
 

By the rivers of Babylon: Why a 2,500-year-old Hebrew poem still matters is an interesting short article by the author of this book about Psalm 137.

Some may want to play where have I heard that tune before with the Boney M version

The #1 answer probably references Irving Berlin.

Probably #2 is a hit 1967 arrangement of an old hymn (the Melodians would have been familiar with both).

The start of the finale to this from Beethoven is among other possibilities…

... a long, twisted course from from the banks of the Euphrates to Andy Hall along the harbor...
 
Another Psalm now circulating in pop movie culture.

You may want to see this in full context when the movie is realeased to theaters or on Netflix, shortly thereafter.

We saw it in a film festive last month and when I returned home, I downloaded the Thomas Savage book and read it in two sittings.


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More than 20 years ago I read a book by a fellow Long Islander, Nelson de Mille. It was a thriller about an Israeli Palestinian conflict called BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON. I have been a loyal reader and enjoyed so many of his stories.
 
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