Memorial 2013 On Instagram

I'm not sure if anyone out there actually keeps track of Jehovah's Witness Instagraming statistics, but if they did, I'd imagine they'd find that there are more posts made by JW's on the Memorial date than any other of the year.

Perhaps marketers could somehow use this information to their advantage in the same way Doctors Medical Center supposedly took out large billboards advertising their bloodless surgery program in the vicinity of the Cow Palace--a regular district convention location used still to this day in the San Francisco area.

For the rest of us non-marketers, Memorial night on Instagram is at least a reminder that everyone is commemorating the same most important moment of the year at the same time that they are. At most, it's an opportunity to see attendance numbers/statistics in different fields, stories, what's happening in Memorials across the world and perhaps more.

This isn't the first Memorial in the Instagram era, but it is probably the first in it's golden age.
Here's a quick glimpse of some of the posts.

Nicole posts an artistic shot of the emblems. 288 attended her Memorial in the New York City area.

Zihan from the Sacramento California in a picture with several of students from her school (UC Davis) coming to support her during the memorial. You may be able to make out the text below where she says "It's really a beautiful feeling when your student hands you the bread and wine."

Ida makes a post from the first ever Quichua Memorial in Queens, New York. There were 73 total in attendance 25 of which were bible students. Impressive considering they have only 12 publishers. If this ratio of publishers to attendants was the same every where, there would be over 40 million in attendance at the memorial worldwide--more than the population of all of California.

Above and below, the young Jessica posts photos from the Memorial in Pimentel. 250 were in attendance. There are 55 publishers in the congregation.

Above, Brealana posts a picture from the one of the tinier Memorial commemorations in Milan, Italy where the Japanese field had 18 in attendance, 4 of which were Bible Students.

Pre-Memorial preparations underway in the woodsy Kingdom Hall of Windsor, California (Above), and Yvonne snaps a leavenless-baking-prep-picture (Below).

227 attend a Memorial in Australia. Photo taken by Jay Symonds who is currently helping in the Chinese field there with his pregnant wife and daughter.

Above, a picture of the Memorial full moon in South Sweden.

Amara helps with last minute invitation placements just hours before the event.

Post Memorial wine and crackers for the enjoyment of Bjorn and his, presumably, 'other sheep' friends in Malmo, Sweden.

Ann Catherine with two children at a Memorial in Stockholm, Sweden. Ann Catherine was recently serving in the Bavaro, Dominican Republic. She returned home around a month ago, and not long after that, the Chinese group attached to Stockholm English Congregation which she belonged to became a congregation.

Daniel enjoys his first ever Memorial outside under a tent in Sosua, Dominican Republic. For the English, there were 69 in attendance, and for Creole, 93--nearly four times the amount of publishers.

Above and Below, two pictures of children from Violetta in Orlando, Florida. Sophia (the young girl pictured below) asked if she could take a sip of wine during the Memorial so she could go to heaven.

Zeke and Luz post a picture of some of their family members who joined the 188 in attendance in their Spanish congregation in the New York City area (Yonkers).

Above, Jessica Krebs (pictured on the right) from an English Congregation in Atlanta notes: "Sweet little Ms. Mary (center) came to the Memorial after about 15 consecutive years of being invited. Also, what a warm feeling when a coworker comes along too--last minute surprise."

Joanna Pool, an American sister from Portland Oregon serving in the ASL field in La Vega, Dominican Republic wrote: "This is Beligca. :) She is deaf and blind. I interpreted the Memorial for her. She was so happy to be there! Every time the bread and wine came, she would sign, 'Thank you Jesus, but I'm not eating it!' We are 24 publishers and had 93 in attendance."

Grace Park from Long Island, New York mentioned 3 attended with Memorial invitation tracts in their hands--coming as last minute invites to join the crowd of nearly 300.

Melissa Brooks from the San Francisco, California area posted a multiframe of the 117 attending in Reykjavik, Iceland--50 publishers in English and also a Polish group.

And last, but not least, my friends from Santiago Chinese, set up signs, clean up and participate in other preparations for the 31 that attended our Memorial--3 of which were Bible Students.

Hope you enjoyed checking out this post. The tract campaign and Memorial activities are over and it's back to normal ministry now. Look forward to more great posts on Instagram for the rest of 2013. Enjoy! :)

A Brief Review of 'Tiny Triumphs'

In order to properly describe "Tiny Triumphs," I need another album as a reference point. The first thing I was reminded of when I heard 'Tiny Triumphs' was Animal Collective's first album "Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished." (The second track "Rain" could easily be mistaken as a B-side from "Spirit")

Like early Animal Collective, 瘫滩疫 obviously wants to put more emphasis on originality than make music that is widely appreciated--'Spirit' is possibly Animal Collective's most difficult album to unpretentiously like.

Whether 'Spirit' was an accidentally good album or not, it was critically acclaimed, was the starting point of one of the most critically acclaimed indie bands of the last ten years and is one of my personal favorite albums.

Will "Tiny Triumphs" be 瘫滩疫's 'Spirit?'
I think the answer is, "No. And I don't think he was trying for that anyways. Yet, it is a good place to start."

Besides the droning repetitive concluding song and a couple others, most of the songs seem to finish right at the point where they could be taking off and it feels more like a mix of musical ideas than a finished album.

However, the ideas in themselves are interesting.
This album will hopefully be only a first step of what could be an interesting trip when 瘫滩疫 matures musically and develops the ideas from the strongest tracks such as my favorite song on the album, 'Seppuku,' and the two great subsequent songs.

It is a homemade album that was made on a zero-dollar budget, and, as the album's title suggests, 瘫滩疫 doesn't claim to have written a masterpiece.
That being said, I liked it enough, I love that 瘫滩疫 has completed an album and I'm now very curious to see if he will evolve into being an artist I will like even more.

To hear the full album, click on the link below.
http://tantanyi.bandcamp.com/album/tiny-triumphs

I'm always willing to review and/or plug your personal art projects on my blog.
Email me with your art projects at elihu0@gmail.com. :)

More original music posts to come! :)