A lawyer, who looked a bit like Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion), was sitting in his office, where his secretary, a young woman, was trying to convince him to take on the case of a recording artist whose stage name was Riff Raff the Rapper.
Riff Raff the Rapper wanted to sue the actor Ralph Fiennes for pronouncing his first name too much like Raff. The lawyer said there was no chance of winning such a suit, as the similarity between the two names was so slight.
The secretary then informed the lawyer that Riff Raff the Rapper also wanted to sue the State of California for appropriating the name of one of his albums, Sierra Nevada, and using it for a mountain range.
“This nudnick’s meshuggeneh!” the lawyer said. “Does he have any idea how old the Sierra Nevada is? The State of California should be suing him!”
Upon waking, I did a web search and discovered that there really is a rapper called Riff Raff, though he doesn’t use “the Rapper” as part of his stage name. He’s even Jewish, which fits with the lawyer’s use of Yiddish to describe him.
In terms of sync, I think the dream is related to “Caroline, times never had the effect you’d expect.” That post highlights the line “I’ll be Ozzie Smith, you be Sierra my wife” and notes that Ozzie Smith is also the name of an important character in Last Call, a novel set primarily in California and Nevada. That post also mentions the movie Hurt Locker, which has Ralph Fiennes in it. The rapper’s stage name may also be a link to “Hey, Mary, show me that riff.”
8 comments:
The comment about the the Sierra Nevada obviously being a name California adopted before Riff Raff used it for his album (which the lawyer rightly calls out), but Riff Raff thinking otherwise, directly brought to mind your story about Shem.
Shem in his hubris claimed that perhaps even God was named after him instead of the other way around.
Shem means "name", and Riff Raff seems pretty particular about his own name, given the suit he wanted to bring against Fiennes (a name that has to do with a Marsh/ Swamp) for mispronouncing it. This is pretty interesting, given that Riff Raff itself is a slang word for "Undesirable
I also thought that little bit about Fiennes supposedly pronouncing Riff like Raff must mean something. Seemed an important clue. As in, Raff Raff being an indicator to look at the word, since it is mentioned twice in row in succession in how Fiennes says the name. I looked to Elvish on this one, and think I found a good hit.
Raff in Elvish (spelled either Raf or Raph) means "to seize". You may remember a few nights ago I had a dream about Aragog the Spider saying "I will seize the Book!". Using that exact word, seize.
In fact, further supporting this focus on Raff, it looks like it is one of those rare words which can mean virtually the same thing in our language as in Elvish. Etymonline has this for Raff:
Second element from raffler "carry off," related to rafle "plundering," or from raffer "to snatch, to sweep together"
That word also ties directly to Jack (from your stamp message), since when it is a name that is short for Jacob, it means "Usurper", and to usurp means "seize".
This would tie Riff Raff to Jack and Aragog, potentially, and thus also you.
In my comments on your Caroline post, I linked Sierra with the Rose Stone. The Rose Stone I formerly called The Sawtooth Stone since it was found in the Sawtooth Mountains, and "Sierra" can be translated as that exact phrase. Joseph's comments (in my 2020 words) in relation to this Stone included a modified version of Isaiah's words in relation to crimson sins becoming white like snow, which gets to Nevada, meaning "Snow-covered, snowy".
Further, that Stone has been called VERY old - ancient - which gets to the lawyer's comment on Riff Raff's ignorance of this matter.
So, my own hypothesis remains that Sierra in these instances is a code name for the Rose Stone. What comes from that Stone, and is communicated through it, will be the Book of the Lamb. The original, genuine thing.
However, as discussed, there will be a "Cover" or copy of it, claiming to be the original thing instead, as Nephi observed in his vision. This, I think, gets to the Riff Raff album, and his lawsuit against California. The Riff Raff album would be the corrupted cover of the Book of the Lamb.
Thus, Riff Raff is directly responsible for publishing the corrupted Book of the Lamb at some point in the future, though claiming that his book is in fact the original.
By the way, California has no known etymology. It was an imaginary land from Spanish stories that were, I guess, variations of Arthurian legends. It makes for a very interesting, straight-forward Elvish translation, though (Cali-Forn-Ya): "The North Shine/ Light of Long Ago".
Riff Raff wanted to sue Fiennes for pronouncing his (Fiennes’s) own first name, Ralph, with a silent l, making it too similar to Raff, not for pronouncing Riff as Raff.
Ah, got it. I misunderstood.
I looked up Fiennes and his most recent film before 28 Years Later which just opened this past week was called “The Return” in which he plays Odysseus. That name has come up a bit - could be relevant.
Fiennes in fact pronounces his first name so that it rhymes with “safe.”
So, Riff Raff thought the real pronunciation of Fiennes’ name was too close to his own on purpose, meaning he dropped the L at some point to copy Raff?
That follow up question was me.
Right, he though Fiennes should have to pronounce Ralph to rhyme with Alph the sacred river, to avoid confusion with Raff.
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