Thanks to a tipster, we have Scientology’s announcement for the date when it pretends that New Year’s Eve is happening and gets the jump on the new year.
For some reason, an organization that believes we’ve all been around for 76 trillion years considers the beginning of yet another trip around the Sun to be a big deal. And for that reason, New Year’s Eve is one of the most holy stations on the Scientology calendar, along with founder L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday (March 13, which takes place in Clearwater, Florida) and the annual celebration of big donors in October in East Grinstead, England.
But because Scientology is a worldwide organization with people who all want to party on the same night, Dave has a couple of thousand of the most dedicated folks come to the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles a couple of weeks early. They then pretend that it’s a New Year’s Eve party so that video of the event can be shown on December 31 at Scientology’s orgs around the world.
After a break imposed by the pandemic, this tradition returned last year, and now again the early taping of the New Year’s Eve party will take place at the Shrine on Saturday, December 14.
Infinite expansion! A three-hour speech by David Miscavige! And likely high pressure tactics to get you to fork over a huge check before you leave!
Who could resist.
In other news from our tipsters, one of our eagle-eyed readers noticed that HBO/Max put out a teaser-trailer for projects that will be coming out in 2025, and in the middle of it, there was this shot of comedian Rachel Sennott flashing the Big Blue building in Los Angeles…
New York magazine says the series is the “It” pilot of the season.
Girls and Sex and the City walked so Rachel Sennott could run. According to Deadline, HBO has ordered a comedy pilot from the Bottoms star, which she will write, star in, and executive-produce. It’s about how “a codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition and new relationships have changed them.” It’s basically asking to have a codependent relationship with this show while we avoid our own personal problems. That is the societal role of an HBO show; she’s just following the steps others have paved for her.
Hey, and if she trolls Scientology, all the better.
Also in the mailbag, we actually heard something about the new Chicago Ideal Org.
Remember that? Big grand opening in March after being delayed for a few years. Seems like ages ago now, and of course we’ve been hearing nothing about it as the shiny new cathedral settles into irrelevancy.
However, if you were curious about what’s going on there this holiday season, here’s their December calendar!
Chris Shelton is going Straight Up and Vertical
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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
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I saw that HBO trailer and quietly enjoyed the criminal organisation known as the "church" of $cientology being reduced to an obscure joke.
The $cieno liturgical calendar is set in stone. A stone around the members necks. No matter what is being 'celebrated', the end result is always more donations, more children being trafficked to the Sea Org, more staff being drafted.
Do any $cientologists actually see the man behind the curtain and the scam for what it is? Most who did see those things have left, only the well programmed Clams remain. I see only a slow draining affecting Miscaviges 'stats' as long as the Duggans and their ilk remain.