tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59184948825816143082024-03-05T11:51:50.086-05:00It Was the Best of Blogs, It Was the Worst of BlogsSci-Fi! Philadelphia! Celts! The Middle Ages! Surely they must go together somehow, right?Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-19152442922670747882015-10-24T19:50:00.001-04:002015-10-24T19:53:06.787-04:00R.I.P. Maureen O'Hara<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<P>Growing up, I always wanted to look like Mary Kate Danaher.
<P>It's funny--I realized today that I've probably watched two of her movies every year since I was a kid--<em>Miracle on 34th Street</eM> and <em>The Quiet Man</em>. And of course I grew up with <em>The Parent Trap</em>. Her performances are as much a part of my memories, my cultural grounding, as Monty Python or the Replacements.
<P>O'Hara always seemed to play a woman who didn't need anyone's bullshit--you had to win her over. And I wanted to be that.
<P>I've seen <em>The Quiet Man</em> probably 36 times, which is as long as I've been alive. My great-grandfather came from the area where they filmed it (though he left by 1904), and when the film came out, it became a family obsession, in part because of that, because we looked at it and said "we came from there"--and it's true, because we've met our family who still live near there, still have the family farm.
<P>But not just my family--it was so popular in my neighborhood, that when I went to a funeral about ten years ago, I came across an old friend of my dad's, who, realizing he was one of the last of that crowd, sat there and told me about how he'd wished he'd moved away, and found his own White O'Morn. For some reason, it had a real hold on the men of my parents' generation, who grew up hearing about the Old Country from their fathers or grandfathers, treating the film like some sort of Irish-American Haggadah. I know people from Ireland hate this, because it can be patronizing--but it comes from a sincere place.
<P>She had a good death, which is more than can be said for most people, famous or not. But it's hard not to feel a little sad--as others have already said, there's so little of Old Hollywood still living, I guess it's only Olivia de Havilland now.
</div>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-83964585043079279142014-10-30T22:57:00.000-04:002014-10-30T22:59:47.984-04:00Tear Down Little Pete's? Sure, Can We Tear Down City Hall Too?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Philadelphia, I love you, but you’re bringing me down:
<a href="http://www.phillymag.com/property/2014/10/30/little-petes-meet-wrecking-ball/">Little Pete’s to Meet the Wrecking Ball</a>
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<blockquote>
Little Pete’s, a beloved Center City diner, will meet the wrecking ball soon in order to make way for a 300-room hotel.</blockquote>
South Street is a shell of its former self; the Boyd is being hollowed out into a shitty multiplex; Little Pete’s is going to be torn down for a goddamn hotel. Hell, they even want Frank Gehry to tear out the steps of the Art Museum.
<br />
<br />
One of the great things about Philly has been that it’s a place everyone could afford live; I don’t want it to be the “sixth borough” or SanFranEast.
<br />
<br />
But what else is new?<br />
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</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-22143145283702852482014-02-26T21:45:00.000-05:002014-02-26T21:45:02.219-05:00Sometimes Myths Are Real<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been a rough winter in the UK--storms and floods have devastated counties like Somerset. One small positive thing that's come of it all, though, is the <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140226-wales-borth-bronze-age-forest-legend/" target="_blank">curious reappearance of a submerged forest of the coast of Wales</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/769/cache/ancient-forest-wales_76909_990x742.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/769/cache/ancient-forest-wales_76909_990x742.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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Composed mostly of oak and pine, the forest is believed to date from the Bronze Age. It was buried under a peat bog 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, then inundated by rising sea levels until this winter's violent storms stripped away the covering of peat and sand. The high level of alkaline and lack of oxygen in the peat has preserved the wood in an almost pristine state. </blockquote>
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A walkway made of sticks and branches was also discovered. It's 3,000 to 4,000 years old and was built, it is believed, to cope with rising sea levels back then. "The site around Borth is one where if there is a bad storm and it gets battered, you know there's a good chance something will be uncovered," says Deanna Groom, Maritime Officer of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, who helped find the site. </blockquote>
But what's really interesting about this is the location of this submerged forest: Cardigan Bay, in the area of the fabled Cantre'r Gwaelod--the "drowned hundred" of Gwyddno Garanhir, a legendary king, who may (or may not) be the same as the historical 6th century ruler Gwyddno ap Clydno of Meirionydd.<br />
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The earliest account is found in the <a href="http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/bbc38.html" target="_blank">Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin</a>:<br />
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Seithenhin sawde allan.<br />Ac edrychuirde varanres<br />Mor. maes guitnev rytoes. </blockquote>
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Boed emendiceid y morvin<br />Aehellygaut guydi cvin.<br />Finaun wenestir mor terruin.</blockquote>
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<i>Seithenhin, stand thou forth,<br />And behold the billowy rows;<br />The sea has covered the plain of Gwydneu.</i> </blockquote>
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<i>Accursed be the damsel,<br />Who, after the wailing,<br />Let loose the Fountain of Venus, the raging deep.</i></blockquote>
<i><br /></i>
Briefly, a girl named Mererid fails at her duties of keeping the floodgates closed, and the land is subsequently drowned.<br />
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There are several Celtic legends like this: Ys at the bottom of Douarnenez Bay in Brittany, Lyonesse in Mount's Bay in Cornwall, and finally Cantre'r Gwaelod in Cardigan Bay, which, as it happens, is the same area as this newly-exposed forest that's been under water for five thousand years.<br />
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But this isn't the only lost land found again; a forest was found in Mount's Bay, Cornwall. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-26263856" target="_blank">As the BBC reported</a>:<br />
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Remains in Penzance, Cornwall, can be seen after sand was ripped from beaches by a series of storms which hit the coast in the new year.</blockquote>
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Geologists believe extensive forests extended across Mount's Bay in Penzance between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago.</blockquote>
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The shifting sands have also revealed wrecks, an iron age settlement in Devon and wartime explosives in Devon, Somerset and Dorset.</blockquote>
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Remains of ancient forests have also been seen on Portreath beach, Daymer Bay in Cornwall and Bigbury Bay in Devon.<br />...<br />St Michaels Mount in the bay is known in Cornish as Karrek Loos yn Koos - which means Grey Rock in the Wood.</blockquote>
This is the area often associated with Lyonesse, the drowned land that was home to Tristan.<br />
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On the one hand, we can't say for certain that the memory of these lost lands were carried down for thousands of years, but we do know that Britain has been <i>continuously</i> inhabited for at least ten thousand years, since the end of the last Ice Age. It's a leap, but not an entirely unreasonable one, to suggest that the stories later preserved by the Celts were memories of the culture that predated them, passed on, influencing their myths.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-10967031166698107842013-11-03T21:33:00.000-05:002013-11-03T21:34:06.768-05:00If you like Icelandic sagas (and I do), this is pretty cool.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">Chapter 18: Concerning Leia and the Sons of Dítú</strong><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">A woman was named Leia; she was the daughter of Beilorgana, king of the Aldiran Regions in Ireland. Relations were cool between Beilorgana and Falfadinn, for Falfadinn, King of Norway, claimed to be King of Ireland as well, and he raided widely in the Aldiran Regions.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">There were many chieftains in many lands who greatly disliked King Falfadinn, but did not like Jabbi, King of the Danes, either. Many went to new lands, to the Faroes or to Iceland or to the Hebrides or to the Orkneys or to the Shetlands. But the army of Falfadinn was great, and he had many large warships, and he raided the lands of those who would not acknowledge his absolute authority. He had many good men killed, and others he enslaved. He was a very unpopular king. And because King Falfadinn wanted to intimidate all who stood against him, he ordered to be built the greatest ship which men had ever seen upon the seas, and that ship held such a store of men and weapons that they could pillage an entire large city. And a name was given to that ship, and it was called Daudastjarna (Death-Star).</span></blockquote>
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--<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">from <span id="blog-title" style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #006a80; display: inline !important; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #006a80; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;" title="Return to front page">Tattúínárdǿla saga</a>: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #a8a8a8; font-style: italic; line-height: 21px;">Star Wars as an Icelandic saga, and other fun with Old Norse</span> </span></div>
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You know, every time I think I'm burned out on Star Wars, something like this happens, and it's very much up my alley.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-54350241852960584162013-09-04T20:50:00.002-04:002013-09-04T20:51:03.278-04:00Oh hey, so ancient Rome and China had some contact<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Which you maybe already knew (I did, but only in a vague sort of way, and the fact that Ptolemy's <i>Geographia</i> mentions China and Japan). But I haven't actually read the source text for the Chinese side, the <i>Weilüe </i>(<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px;">魏略), until today, <a href="http://io9.com/heres-what-third-century-china-thought-about-the-roman-1253007513" target="_blank">thanks to io9</a>:</span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Gentium;">The kingdom of Da Qin (Rome)<sup><a href="http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#11_1" style="color: purple;" target="_blank">1</a></sup> is also called Lijian.<sup><a href="http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#11_2" style="color: purple;" target="_blank">2</a></sup> It is west of Anxi (Parthia) and Tiaozhi (Characene and Susiana), and west of the Great Sea.<sup><a href="http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#11_3" style="color: purple;" target="_blank">3</a></sup></span></b></blockquote>
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* * *</blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: Gentium;">The ruler of this country is not permanent. When disasters result from unusual phenomena, they unceremoniously replace him, installing a virtuous man as king, and release the old king, who does not dare show resentment.<sup><a href="http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#11_18" style="color: purple;" target="_blank">18</a></sup></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Gentium;">The common people are tall and virtuous like the Chinese, but wear <i>hu</i> (‘Western’) clothes. They say they originally came from China, but left it.<sup><a href="http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#11_19" style="color: purple;" target="_blank">19</a></sup></span></b></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: Gentium;">They have always wanted to communicate with China but, Anxi (Parthia), jealous of their profits, would not allow them to pass (through to China).<sup><a href="http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/notes11_30.html#11_20" style="color: purple;" target="_blank">20</a></sup></span></b> </blockquote>
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--<a href="http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html#section11" target="_blank">John Hill's translation</a></div>
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There's a lot more to be found at the site (and the notes are <i>awesome</i>), but one thing I found interesting is that they called Rome Da Qin (or Ta-Ch'in)--meaning essentially that Rome, being the other large empire at the other end of the known world, was The Other China.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-38984214724426191352013-08-26T20:41:00.000-04:002013-08-26T20:41:03.144-04:00The Universe Wants Me to Listen to Foghat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm having one of those weird days of serendipity, and it's all about Foghat.<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Two different stations were playing Foghat this morning as I drove to work; </li>
<li>There was a reference to them on the lastest episode of the podcast <i>Pop Culture Happy Hour</i> that I listened to at work today; </li>
<li>I just now started watching MST3K episode <i>Pod People</i>, which also tosses off a reference to Foghat. </li>
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This is more Foghat in one day than in my entire life. I don't even own any of their records.<br />
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Yep, this has nothing to do with the Celts or Philly or anything else. It's just kinda weird.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-13549503229454876492013-07-25T20:12:00.001-04:002013-07-25T20:12:54.128-04:00Cernunnos: Looking Every Which WayCeisiwr Serith has adapted his article "<span style="font-family: 'Andron Scriptor Web', 'Andron Scriptor W1', Code2000, 'Caslon Old Face BT', Chrysanthi, Gentium, Garamond, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way" (from the <i>P</i></span><i style="font-family: 'Andron Scriptor Web', 'Andron Scriptor W1', Code2000, 'Caslon Old Face BT', Chrysanthi, Gentium, Garamond, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px;">roceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium</i><span style="font-family: 'Andron Scriptor Web', 'Andron Scriptor W1', Code2000, 'Caslon Old Face BT', Chrysanthi, Gentium, Garamond, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px;">) into a documentary, <i>Cernunnos: Looking Every Which Way</i>. This is the full-length version; he also has divided it up into eight parts, if that's more convenient for you. Check it out:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Andron Scriptor Web', 'Andron Scriptor W1', Code2000, 'Caslon Old Face BT', Chrysanthi, Gentium, Garamond, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3Ap3LEcfVig" width="459"></iframe>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-34312020797087163032013-04-03T20:16:00.002-04:002013-04-03T20:24:51.184-04:00On My 34th Birthday, I Am Given a Bow and Arrow Set<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Because I am a very mature, adult woman, my husband naturally gave me a bow and arrow for my birthday today. <i>How</i> he did it was fun.<br />
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Since I had the day off, and he didn't, he gave me my gifts last night: a new mess kit (very much needed), a pair of earrings, and a lego set (a very cool wizard and his pet dragon). So I wasn't expecting any other gifts tonight.<br />
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When we got home from dinner (sushi) tonight (about an hour ago), I went upstairs to change into something more comfortable--which, eh, is a sweatshirt, not what that phrase implies. Came back downstairs to watch last night's <i>Daily Show</i>, and Den says to me, "So, did you get everything you wanted for your birthday?"<br />
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"Yeah, I had a good one."<br />
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"Good." Looks behind me, to the bookcase. "What's that? What's behind you?"<br />
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So I whip around, and see, half-hidden behind the bookcase, a long package. "Huh--looks like Birthday Santa left an extra package!"<br />
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"Oh. My. God."<br />
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Because this should sound a little familiar, at least for Americans:<br />
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Yep--he <i>Christmas Story</i>'ed me. I couldn't be happier.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-83523744411057282652012-10-30T13:17:00.001-04:002012-10-30T13:18:40.851-04:00TWC drama--Hurricane Sandy makes people testy.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/drPUeiJodew?fs=1" width="480"></iframe><br />
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Saw this this morning on the Weather Channel; Steph and Mike are on shaky ground, guys...<br />
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(Video made by my husband. Hooray for working iphones.)</div>
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Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-24764044056757229482012-10-30T13:08:00.001-04:002012-10-30T13:09:01.972-04:00Aftermath of the storm? Not what I was expecting.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So after all that, getting through Hurricane Sandy, never losing power, what did I do? I dropped my iphone into the bowl of french toast mix I was making, to celebrate the hurricane being gone. And now it has no sound unless you plug in headphones--speakers aren't working, and I can't hear anyone if you call me. So it's sitting in a bowl of rice, and hopefully I won't have to buy a new phone, because apparently "liquid damage is not covered under warranty".<br />
<br />
And if I do have to buy a new phone, I need to wait two weeks before I'm eligible for the subsidized upgrade from Verizon.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-48410020491337888612012-10-21T20:26:00.000-04:002012-10-21T20:27:36.392-04:00New Resources Hit the Net<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The <a href="http://www.bl.uk/eblj/index.html" target="_blank">British Library <i>Journal</i></a> is now available for you to read; and lucky for anyone interested in Celtic subjects, there's a brand new article on <a href="http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2012articles/article3.html" target="_blank">Lewis Morris and the Mabinogion</a>.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-2306634938632316362012-10-20T13:25:00.003-04:002012-10-20T13:30:08.760-04:00New Chartres Tablets!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Via the <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/continentalceltic/message/7573" target="_blank">Continental Celtic language list</a>, I've learned that two new Gaulish-language tablets have been found in the city of Chartres. This is quite exciting--really, any new finding of Gallo-Brittonic, anything that can fill in the gaps, is worth celebrating.</div>
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P-Y. Lambert will be publishing a study on it soon; <a href="http://archeologie.chartres.fr/outils-et-services/actualites/actualites/article/des-chartrains-sous-lemprise-2/" target="_blank">this article looks like a preview</a> (unfortunately, I read it through Google Translate, because my French is pretty terrible). It's largely a list of names, and aparently might be a defixio, which is a magical curse tablet.</div>
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Here's a video--in French, unfortunately, but the only one I know of--about the new tablets:</div>
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Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-57626639830048502412012-10-08T21:53:00.004-04:002012-10-08T21:54:23.947-04:00A Crash-Course in the Druids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">J</span>ust in time for Halloween, the Radio 4 program <i>In Our Time</i>--a round-table discussion program that focuses on topics of history or the history of an idea--<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mqq94">spent the September 20th program on a subject dear to my heart: DRUIDS</a>.</div>
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Melvin Bragg's guests were Barry Cunliff, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, and Justin Champion. Cunliff, and Aldhouse-Green are well-respected archaeologists, the latter also known for her popular histories on the subject of the Celts, and Champion is a historian of early modern Britain, when the druids reemerged in the public consciousness.</div>
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The program itself sticks to an overview of the druids largely in the context of Greco-Roman records due, obviously, to the lack of contemporary records by the Celts themselves--though they did touch on the lingering of druid beliefs and myths in the bardic traditions of Ireland and Wales, a subject I wished they'd have gone into further. And unfortunately they really didn't speak much to the existence of druids in Ireland potentially into the seventh century; the program was largely focused on druids in Britain. </div>
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There was no sensationalism in the subject matter; lurid stories of bloody human sacrifices were treated as what they likely were-fairly rare, but also not abnormal (with the note that the Romans themselves only outlawed the practice in the 90s BCE).</div>
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Over all, it was a good, fluff-free introduction to the druids. The format itself is, by its nature, a bit dry (which <i>In Our Time</i> can often be), but the subject matter makes up for that.</div>
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Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-38629981785981728742012-10-07T22:14:00.001-04:002012-10-07T22:15:47.563-04:00Why I Fell Off the Face of the Earth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hile it's hardly the first time I went a long time without posting, I feel like I should explain that I'm having an incredibly exhausting year.<br />
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In February, my husband and I went to California, followed by a trip to Ireland in April. I was intending on posting about the trip to Ireland, since it's in this blog's wheelhouse. But then in late May, we suffered a tragedy: my stepfather, with whom I was very close, suffered a stroke. He'd been with us in Ireland, and the stroke came as a shock. He lingered for a couple of weeks in a coma before dying. And to be honest, I haven't been the same since.<br />
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Meanwhile, I started a new job--a full-time job at that--a week before the stroke, and that's taken up a large chunk of my time.<br />
<br />
I still intend to post about the trip to Ireland; aside from visiting places like Newgrange and Inis Mór, we also met my mom's cousins, who still live on the farm my great-grandfather left to come to the States. It was a wonderful trip, and I have some pretty cool pictures to post, but like I said, my heart hasn't been into it.<br />
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But I guess the depression is starting to lift, and I'll be able to start posting again.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-26676944981701756782012-10-07T22:02:00.001-04:002012-10-07T22:16:03.211-04:00Arthur, King of the Arctic?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span><i>he Heroic Age</i> points to an idea that I wasn't really familiar with before: that <a href="http://www.heroicage.org/issues/15/green.php">King Arthur was, at one point, credited with conquering the New World via Greenland</a>.<br />
<br />
According to Thomas Green, John Dee, when conjuring up precedent for a British Empire, relied not only on stories about Prince Madoc and St. Brendan, but also upon the idea that Arthur himself ruled the whole of the North. Now, Geoffrey credited him with conquering Scandinavia, but went no further--indeed, who knows what Geoffrey even knew of Greenland? Scholars believed that Dee had invented this story, but Green points out that apparently it does predate Dee:<br />
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§7. Mercator included a legend to his great wall map of 1569 that referred to Arthur in the following way:</div>
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Touching the description of the North parts, I have taken the same out of the voyage of James Cnoyen of Hartzevan Buske, which allegeth certain conquests of Arthur king of Britaine, and the most part, and chiefest things among the rest he learned of a certain priest in the king of Norway's court, in the year 1364. This priest was descended (in the fifth generation) from them which King Arthur had sent to inhabit these Islands</div>
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The article discusses whether this ultimately goes back to Geoffrey's Scandinavian conquest story, or whether it perhaps goes back to an even earlier tradition of a frozen Otherworld to the north. Of course, it's no surprise that anyone would connect a mythical conquest of the North with the Norwegian settlements of North America, and concoct a story of King Arthur doing the same, but earlier. And how irresistible the idea would be to an incipient British Empire.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-64216083989501945602012-02-20T22:57:00.000-05:002012-02-20T23:01:02.383-05:00This Could Be Gre--No, It's Probably Gonna Suck<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So I come across <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050444">this today</a>:<br />
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Michael Fassbender and screenwriter Ronan Bennett are developing a
feature film about the legendary Celtic warrior Cuchulain, with
Fassbender set to play the leading role.<br />
<br />
Cuchulain is the central character in the Ulster Cycle, an epic
series of Old Irish legends that date from around the 8th century.<br />
<br />
Set in the northern part of Ireland, the saga relates the story
of the Ulaid tribe headed by King Conchobar, and particularly its
conflict with the rival Connachta tribe led by Queen Mebh.<br />
<br />
The most prominent figure in the legends is Conchobar's nephew
Cuchulain, who has semi-divine ancestry and superhuman fighting skills.
In the most famous story, known as the Cattle Raid of Cooley, he is the
only man capable of resisting the vast army sent by Medb to steal
Conchobar's prize white bull.
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Now, this isn't meant to be a knock on Fassbender or Bennett, but it's not as if there've been many successful adaptations of mythology lately--not the dreadful remake of <i>Clash of the Titans</i>, nor the inexplicable <i>Immortals</i>, and especially not 2004's laugh-fest <i>King Arthur</i>.<br />
<br />
I'm always wary of adapting mythology--which ultimately was (and still is) someone's religion. Usually in these big-budget adaptations, the gods are an evil to be defeated by mortals (which is an ugly bastardization of the meanings of those myths), or they're written out altogether (as in the otherwise watchable <i>Troy</i>). I can easily see this as being a "defeat the gods" film, given that the Morrigan is an antagonist, while Lugh, Cuchulain's divine father, could easily be ignored or forgotten. Really, the only film that hasn't been automatically dismissive of gods was <i>Thor</i>, and they aren't exactly gods, but aliens with god-like abilities.<br />
<br />
And while ancient stories are all the rage, it's rare they aren't big, bloated, painful messes. I rather liked <i>Tristan and Isolde</i>--it wasn't a great film, but because the action was smaller and the conflict personal, it wasn't a terrible film, either. I dread to think of the Cattle Raid of Cooley being turned into <i>300</i>.<br />
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On the other hand, <a href="http://philadelphiapreservationsociety.blogspot.com/2010/03/searching-for-light-in-darkness-of.html">the last film I saw</a> that delved into Irish myth and history was the absolutely fantastic <a href="http://newvideo.com/secretofkells/"><i>Secret of Kells</i></a>, so it's not as if the task is impossible.</div>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-77060347288288591002012-02-20T22:27:00.002-05:002012-02-20T22:27:22.620-05:00New Link - Tairis Tales<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm adding a link to <a href="http://heelancoo.wordpress.com/">Tairis Tales</a>, a new(ish) blog by Seren (of the site <a href="http://www.tairis.co.uk/">Tairis</a>), which will<br />
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collate all of the tales, myths, legends, lore and more from the Gaelic
countries – those of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man </blockquote>
Already she's covering stories I've never gotten to, and will be linking to from my own site.</div>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-69070800942213792452012-02-20T21:49:00.000-05:002012-10-07T22:15:25.711-04:00The Road Goes Ever On and On<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>o this has been and will be a season of traveling. Last October, I drove up from Florida with my sister on an errand; and recently (as in last week) I was in California:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Why yes, California *does* know how to party</td></tr>
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In the spring, I'll be in Ireland with my family, and in September, I'll be down the shore.<br />
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This is my half-assed way of explaining the recent lack of posting, and upcoming lack of posting; not that it explains the overall lack of posting--that's mostly laziness mixed with a lack of inspiration.<br />
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If you're interested, some pics from my trip are over at my <a href="http://tlachtga.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-30879360807676995912012-02-03T20:56:00.000-05:002012-02-03T20:56:47.294-05:00STEPHEN COLBERT QUOTES THE CARMINA GADELICA!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
STEPHEN COLBERT QUOTED THE CARMINA GADELICA ON THE TRUE MEANING OF GROUNDHOG'S DAY--CANDLEMAS!!! <br />
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<a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/325992/the-colbert-report-the-meaning-of-groundhog-day">http://www.hulu.com/watch/325992/the-colbert-report-the-meaning-of-groundhog-day</a><br />
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THIS IS AWESOME.</div>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-5160156669972671382012-02-01T20:49:00.000-05:002012-02-01T20:50:55.885-05:00Rethinking Imbolc<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weaving St. Brigit's Cross from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justweaving/4538193756/">JustWeaving</a></td></tr>
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Today is the feast of St. Brigit, which coincides with Imbolc, a <span class="st"><i>Ráithí Fírinneacha</i> <i>na Bliana</i>--"One of the True Quarters of the Year" (along with Samhain, Beltane, and Lughassadh, and as opposed to the solstices and equinoxes). It's the first day of spring by the Irish reckoning, and given that it's in the mid-sixties here in Philly, it certainly feels like spring.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span><br />
<span class="st">Groundhog's Day is definitely related to Imbolc, and if that damned groundhog says we have six <i>more</i> weeks of winter, when we haven't had even one week, it's time to string up the rat.</span><br />
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Anyway, I wrote a paper on the Irish holiday of Imbolc; here's a taste:<br />
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<span class="notranslate"><span class="a" style="left: 796px; letter-spacing: 1px; top: 2160px; word-spacing: 1px;">While Imbolc is undoubtedly a feast of spring, and a feast celebrating Brigit, there is, I think, a third element to the feast which is sometimes overlooked—it is likely that Imbolc is a feast of purification, and perhaps represents a longer period of purification, analogous to several other Indo-European and even Christian festivals. Moreover, this feast of purification is intimately bound up with the holiday’s other meanings honoring spring and Brigit—that all three are important to understanding the origins of Imbolc. </span></span><span class="a" style="left: 531px; top: 3177px; word-spacing: -1px;"></span>
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...
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The four main feasts of the Celtic calendar—commonly known by their Irish names Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnassadh—when their themes are examined, form a series of corresponding concepts. Samhain is a feast of winter, death, and the ancestors, while Beltane is a feast of summer, sexuality, and fertility. <br />
<br />
If Hamp is right, and Imbolc is analogous to the February period of purification found in Roman and Christian tradition, then perhaps Imbolc, like Lughnassadh, was a period and not a single day. It is currently impossible to prove that the pre-Christian Irish observed Imbolc as such a period, but as we have seen, we have analogous ideas in neighboring cultures, and even a Gaulish month called “purification” which falls around the time of February</blockquote>
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You can read <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/72691428/Rethinking-Imbolc">the whole thing at Scribd</a></div>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-43962247889078581922011-10-29T17:41:00.002-04:002011-10-29T18:01:01.333-04:00The True Meaning of Halloween<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The scene out my back window right now. Yeah, that's snow.</td></tr>
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As I'm sure some of you know, Halloween has its origin in the Celtic festival held on November 1st; the Irish called it Samhain (and the Scots call it Samhuinn, which is essentially the same thing), the Welsh call it Calan Gaeaf; the former means "End of Summer" and the latter "The First Day of Winter". And while there are lots of associations with things like faeries and ghosts and a thin veil between this world and the Otherworld, it's also deeply associated with the harvest, with getting the food in for the winter.<br />
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Because the holiday we now call Halloween was originally the eve of the first day of winter, as evident in the names I listed above. This, of course, is why the winter solstice is called Midwinter--because it fell between the beginning of winter on November 1st, and the end of winter on February 1, called Imbolc in Irish and Candlemas in English (and surviving in the US as Groundhog's Day, which has its own tradition of predicting the coming of spring).<br />
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Halloween is the beginning of winter. We're far enough from the equinox to notice that the nights are getting longer, the weather is cold, the mornings have frost. It's not hard to see how this transition, this slide into the dark time of the year brought us associations with death; the plants are dying, the harvest is reaped, the animals are slaughtered* to be cured and eaten over the winter. It's only natural that death is on the mind, and from that closeness with our dying environment, we draw closer to our own departed. Both the Dead and Winter are integral parts of Halloween; in fact, I'd say they're inseparable.<br />
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So it's with no small amount of amusement <i>and</i> annoyance** that I woke up to see it snowing on October 29th. It's really unusual for us to get snow in October here in the Philly suburbs; I mean, we've occasionally gotten a few flakes, but so far we've got at least three inches, probably four, and it's not going to stop snowing until tonight. We're not ready for this kind of weather--none of us were. Our
decorations are getting blasted by the wind and snow; I hope that the
rubber bats and spider don't disappear on us.<br />
<br />
So my husband and I are spending the day watching Halloween cartoons, eating the food for a cancelled party, and drinking, and occasionally going out to shovel the walk. <br />
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We're getting the real meaning of this old Celtic holiday--<i>winter isn't coming, it's already here, kids</i>.<br />
<br />
Consider this Nature's Trick; the treat is... um... I guess it looks nice?<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*In fact, in Welsh the month of November is called <i>Tachwedd</i> meaning "slaughter"; compare with the Anglo-Saxon name for November,</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <i>Blōtmōnaþ</i>, "blood month".</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">**Annoyance, as it has resulted in me having to postpone my Halloween party for a week. At which point it's not a Halloween party, is it? I guess we'll call it a Guy Fawkes Party, or something.</span> </div>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-59099517111808804332011-10-19T20:07:00.000-04:002011-10-19T20:07:14.640-04:00My Husband Has Accused Me Of Being a Hobbit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A trip to the <a href="http://www.lansdalefarmersmarket.org/">Lansdale Farmers' Market</a> on Saturday gave me a chance to pick up some fresh mushrooms--in this case, portobello and shitake. Now, living in southeastern Pennsylvania, we are lucky to live in mushroom central, and so the mushrooms you pick up are often picked within a few days, unlike what you get at the supermarket. (This particular provider also picks local wild mushrooms, like Hen of the Woods, which I'll have to try next time--which means more soup!)</div>
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<br />
What does any of this have to do with the usual geeky content of this blog? My husband, seeing me so excited about the mushrooms, accused me of being a hobbit:</div>
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<i>Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing even the greediest
likings of Big People. A fact which partly explains young Frodo's long
expeditions to the renowned fields of the Marish, and the wrath of the
injured Maggot.</i></div>
</blockquote>
Yeah, there's a lot of eating in <i>Lord of the Rings</i>, and much of it involves mushrooms.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And so today I decided to try and make my own mushroom soup. See, one of the things I liked at my old job was the soup in the cafeteria--it was just Au Bon Pain, but the mushroom bisque was really delicious (if probably horribly fatty). It's simple enough, actually--especially since I cheated a little and used beef bouillon for the base. (Hey, after making navy bean soup from scratch, including boiling a ham bone for a couple of hours, bouillon feels like a cheat.) Also, a little bit of cream and a lot of roue works just as well (for me) as a lot of cream. I'm sure my doctor will appreciate that.</div>
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I also racked the mead I started in January; that will hopefully head out as Christmas gifts.</div>
</div>Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-78430218212247162742011-09-23T23:10:00.000-04:002011-09-23T23:16:57.546-04:00Into the Dark<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So autumn begins, though you wouldn't know it from the weather we're having here in Philly--it's warm and rainy, like most of August was. In fact, it's been raining so much that the foundations of the porch I share with my neighbors is about to wash away.</div>
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It was a bipolar summer, swinging between a dangerously dry July that seemed to stay somewhere in the low 100s, and an August and September that was beset by two hurricanes, floods, and on top of it all, an earthquake.</div>
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It's a rainy night, and from here on out--at least until the winter solstice--every night will be longer than the last one. Each day is darker.</div>
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Maybe it's just the mood of... well, the whole damn world. Not that long ago, London was up in flames; riots in Europe and an Arab Uprising that, despite real success in Tunisia and at least partial success in Egypt and Libya, seems to be stalling in places like Syria. No one seems to know whether the Euro is going to completely fall apart; whether the U.S. is going back into a technical recession (though, as someone who can't find a full-time job no matter how many resumes I send out and interviews I go on, I don't care if it's a technical recession or not, it feels like a depression to me). No one knows what's going on, only that it feels like the world is on the edge of a precipice.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But maybe that's just the Dark talking. This is the time of year when markets crash and seasonal depression sets in and all the promise of spring, well, it gave way to summer, but now summer is gone--no more trips to the beach, lazy afternoons by the pool or open fire hydrant, no more barbeques or picnics... Because it'll be cold and dark and wet and miserable...</div>
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Of course, autumn has wonderful things--arguably the best food (as someone who loves turkey and pumpkin pie and apple cider), and the best holidays (because yes, I'm already planning my Halloween party). And Oktoberfest--let's not forget that. But... but it's dark, and the cold sets in, and the anxiety of the holidays (and the bills that come after) are looming on the horizon.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But... But... It's temporary. All things are temporary. The darkness is temporary. The cold is temporary. The recession is temporary. That's why the year is a wheel--it all comes around again.</div>
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I keep thinking back to the Rally for Sanity last year, when Jon Stewart said <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PJ5hijen4A">"These are hard times, not end times."</a> There is an apocalyptic undertone to American culture, and probably always has been, since religious extremists in funny hats came here to build their shining city on a hill. But that's not how things actually work--we're not moving towards an endpoint, an Armageddon followed by Utopia. Everything is temporary, whether it's the darkness that comes from an axial tilt, or the lack of money in my back account, or even your life.</div>
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At least, that's what I keep telling myself. But in the meantime, it's going to get dark and cold, and we have to survive it. Everything's temporary, but we still have to get through it.<br />
<br />
Well, to leave on a happier note, go check out <a href="http://www.newgrange.com/loughcrew-sep11.htm">some pictures of this year's Loughcrew equinox sunrise</a>; like Newgrange, it's a chambered mound aligned with the sunrise, in this case with the equinoxes (Newgrange, course, is aligned with the winter solstice).</div>
</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-9122389582127612532011-09-22T18:40:00.000-04:002011-09-22T18:59:58.279-04:00Standing on the Shoulders of Giants<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>The Atlantic</i> makes the argument that R.E.M. was "<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/rem-americas-greatest-band/245525/">America's Greatest Band</a>":<br />
<blockquote>
Try naming another rock group without a traditional sex symbol on its
roster that released <i>only</i> very-good albums for its first
16 years of existence—albums that were willfully arty and seemingly
uncommercial and yet continually built the band's following. That's a
lot to do, for what amounts to an incredibly long time in the fickle
world of pop
music.
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I won't say they were the greatest band (though the article qualifies
this by adding up longevity of career, longevity of quality, and depth of influence--Nirvana? Wilco? the Decemberists? should I go on?--making
a good argument), but they were undoubtedly my favorite, and the first
band I became really obsessed with. When I got my first guitar, I spent
hours in the basement, trying to teach myself "It's the End of the
World"; and the absolute joy I felt when I figured out Peter Buck was
using droning string on "7 Chinese Bros." is probably never going to be
paralleled, at least in terms of playing music--so simple, but there it
was.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br _mce_bogus="1" /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNPK-xQ0vrek3U8RzPFCCniS619G42h3wQjwpAVqMiSTYTTgwCuWGHFMUQwndGsYe5RWBIzd8LF7YXhvrFnd58eP8MGuP5KpYPObhFEmVaypFw1zgd2GSld6l4t77-OaVRQKObVq32cl8/s1600/R.E.M.+-+Chronic+Town.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNPK-xQ0vrek3U8RzPFCCniS619G42h3wQjwpAVqMiSTYTTgwCuWGHFMUQwndGsYe5RWBIzd8LF7YXhvrFnd58eP8MGuP5KpYPObhFEmVaypFw1zgd2GSld6l4t77-OaVRQKObVq32cl8/s320/R.E.M.+-+Chronic+Town.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yeah, that's about how I'm feeling right now.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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There was this one Friday, in May of 1992, which changed my life. I was thirteen, and stuck in junior high. Now, my cousin gave me her tapes of <i>Green</i> and <i>Out of Time</i>, since she'd replaced them with cds. And so I played them, and loved them, but didn't really go beyond that. And then I saw R.E.M. on a rerun of <i>Unplugged</i>. Disregard the ultimate quality of the performance--me, I hate the sound of those amplified acoustic guitars that sound so nylon-y--because that's not what's important. I heard "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" for the first time.</div>
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And I was mesmerized by the rapid fire of words and images. The next day I took my allowance money, walked to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_Department_Stores_Inc.">Ames</a> the next town over--because this was all before Amazon and Napster, and hell, I lived in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, and the closest record store was a Sam Goodies at the Coventry Mall ten miles away--and bought a cassette tape of <i>Document</i>. This was the first album I ever bought. I spent an entire weekend trying to memorize the lyrics, constantly rewinding and replaying the song. Over and over again. Mesmerized. And because of that, I wanted to learn guitar, and I wanted to form a band. Music suddenly seemed like more than silly pop songs about love. Music had meaning, music could make you think, music was an overload. Music could promulgate ideas. From this song, I suddenly dived into the world of rock and roll, and my whole world, the old order, collapsed. Music was no longer a thing in the background , or something you have to sing in church. It was something that took you over, possessed you.<br />
<br />
And R.E.M. sang about a world that was, in some ways, familiar; rural Pennsylvania in the late 80s-early 90s was probably a little closer to the Southern Gothic (right down to Confederate flags, which were and are unnervingly popular in the area) they sang about than anything I heard coming from the radio in 1991 (with the obvious example of Nirvana's <i>Nevemind</i>, which hit home in a somewhat different way--but the twenty years since that album's release is something for another post). I can practically feel the humidity just thinking about long, hot summers walking around the small town I lived in, walkman playing <i>Fables</i> or <i>Reckoning</i>. And I think I'll always associate <i>Murmur</i> with autumn, not only because of that famous cover of kudzu, but because of when I bought it and played the tape until it began to warp.</div>
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It's a little weird to think about how much R.E.M. formed me: I started reading Faulkner because the band said <i>Fables of the Reconstruction</i> was greatly influenced by him, especially <i>The Sound and the Fury</i>
(which then became a favorite, if confusing, book). I started reading
the Beats for the same reason--because R.E.M. talked about Kerouac and <i>On the Road</i>
in interviews. I got into Big Star and the Velvet Underground and Patti
Smith and Television and hell, I even learned to look past the songs
about cars and surfing and girls to discover how awesome and sad and
gorgeous the Beach Boys songs really were, all because of R.E.M. I
bought the Replacements' <i>Let It Be</i> because Peter Buck played on
one track--"I Will Dare", which fourteen years later would be played at
my wedding--and was subsequently sucked into <i>that</i> band's mythology.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And yeah, I could talk about politics, because they were undoubtedly political, but I think I would have turned out a liberal anyway; I was already on that road. Besides, I think getting your politics from artists isn't always the best idea.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
So I can't help but ignore people who say "Well, they sucked now anyway." Because for me, R.E.M. aren't just the last few lackluster albums. They're the band I was listening to, thirteen and lonely and trying to figure out who I was. They're the band that introduced me to music and books and art, the band that made me who I am today.</div>
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<br _mce_bogus="1" /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, them and repeated watchings of the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises. But that's a different story.</div>
</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918494882581614308.post-54348802979515095482011-09-20T09:42:00.002-04:002011-09-20T09:43:42.345-04:00Signposts Near the End of the Road<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At some point in the near future, I'll write a longer post about the death of Borders (and of Atlantic Books, a small chain here in the Mid-Atlantic, mostly centered on the Jersey Shore). But in the meantime, enjoy these two signs I saw at the Montgomeryville Borders before it closed:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaZn1h8JEXjJ2ffOhyphenhyphentzbMq3KnmFERb73Dpz-gTXsI_uShYrLD_hXANHbaewgeTE5WsZ1Y5gp422GO6i_iIRghCCSuEx6qSDH6nqWiH6aOs5O1d6GJR4ue7c7oxtmiRZu70ktO3m7Rpht/s1600/IMG_0586.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaZn1h8JEXjJ2ffOhyphenhyphentzbMq3KnmFERb73Dpz-gTXsI_uShYrLD_hXANHbaewgeTE5WsZ1Y5gp422GO6i_iIRghCCSuEx6qSDH6nqWiH6aOs5O1d6GJR4ue7c7oxtmiRZu70ktO3m7Rpht/s320/IMG_0586.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPbuv7axYYETzvUqZXGhaCLceeVcruoFoHewOchSrtjWh3IgRMzvr-qefS__WtrpWVBb1p50qtVJ6wN0HPHBmyHOVVRczmV6ySDfL3X34fISWaad7skQ-vyz8rBe-Z7gDG4Tp_gzPdHCq/s1600/IMG_0587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPbuv7axYYETzvUqZXGhaCLceeVcruoFoHewOchSrtjWh3IgRMzvr-qefS__WtrpWVBb1p50qtVJ6wN0HPHBmyHOVVRczmV6ySDfL3X34fISWaad7skQ-vyz8rBe-Z7gDG4Tp_gzPdHCq/s320/IMG_0587.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
Indeed, my fellow bitter ex-booksellers, indeed.</div>
Tlachtgahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16109263709778871061noreply@blogger.com0