Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada "Of Interest To Me" Dec16 -- Dec31, 2003
Email: mike -at- mikecampbell dot net
The opinions expressed on this website are those of the author alone, and are not necessarily those of his employer or any organization with which he is affiliated.
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Friday, December 26, 2003
See you in 2004
Shutting down for a few days to recalibrate the dilithium reactor. Everyone have a happy, safe New Year celebration! Cheers!
Saw it last night ~ wow, I thought it was stunning. Great way to end the film trilogy, even if Jackson did remove the Scouring of the Shire (it didn't look to me that this was something that was going to be included in an extended version).
They did an amazing job with Shelob; Cirith Ungol was perfectly ghostly and gloomy, and the height perspective from atop the stairs was wild. One of my favourite scenes was the lighting of the watch fires between Gondor and Rohan. The aerial scenes of Gandalf riding up through Minas Tirith, the Rohirrim pulling out from Dunharrow, and of their engagement at the Battle of Pelennor Fields were stunning. The horses plowing through the field of orcs was wicked. Legolas downing the oliphaunt, so cool.
I was happy with how Jackson did the Paths of the Dead scenes, although those boys ended up kicking more ass than they should have. I don't really care if Elrond's sons are written out of the film; all the better to have more scenes with Hugo Weaving.
Just a few scenes that come to mind. I didn't find it too long; I didn't even find myself squirming in my seat as usually happens during longer movies.
Colby Cosh has thoughts
Metropolis's visuals still leave us winded, and its dramaturgy still brings us to our feet involuntarily, seventy-six years after it was shot. Jackson's trilogy ought to be good for at least as long. Among other things it is a decisive argument for the cinema as such, at a time when theatre economics are strongly encouraging us to remain in our hobbit-holes with our DVD collections. Someone finally made a movie that is really worth braving sticky floors, infuriating PSAs, and gabby theatregoers for.
I wasn't going to mention the elision of the Scouring of the Shire again--I don't want anyone to think I'm a monomaniac, as opposed to an ordinary maniac--but if you feel that the ending of Return of the King drags a little, you may want to think carefully about what the missing beat is. The conventional wisdom seems to be that the scene was desirable but would have been unfilmable: the people who say this seem to have forgotten that the whole trilogy was, similarly, deemed unfilmable until the night the first movie premiered. If Jackson had chosen to exercise his demonstrated talent for compressing the source material, he really wouldn't have needed more than about three or four more minutes--but I suspect most of us prefer our Lord of the Rings this way, fortified by a final reassurance that the returning hobbits haven't really been changed by their journey. It's no great matter: seeing Rivendell and Minas Tirith and the battles of Helm's Deep and Pelennor, which I wouldn't have known I had any great desire to do, is worth suffering some Hollywood molestation of literature in this case. On the whole Jackson's surgery has endowed Tolkien with a good deal more dignity than it takes away.
and links to Roger Ebert's review.
There is little enough psychological depth anywhere in the films, actually, and they exist mostly as surface, gesture, archetype and spectacle. They do that magnificently well, but one feels at the end that nothing actual and human has been at stake; cartoon characters in a fantasy world have been brought along about as far as it is possible for them to come, and while we applaud the achievement, the trilogy is more a work for adolescents (of all ages) than for those hungering for truthful emotion thoughtfully paid for. Of all the heroes and villains in the trilogy, and all the thousands or hundreds of thousands of deaths, I felt such emotion only twice, with the ends of Faramir and Gollum. They did what they did because of their natures and their free will, which were explained to us and known to them. Well, yes, and I felt something for Frodo, who has matured and grown on his long journey, although as we last see him it is hard to be sure he will remember what he has learned. Life is so pleasant in Middle Earth, in peacetime.
I enjoyed seeing Smeagol's descent into madness, but I can't say I was emotionally struck by his demise (and I thought his final moment in the magma didn't quite work [update: in a second viewing, I thought it looked fine]). Frodo's trials, yes. Maybe Ebert means Boromir. That was certainly touching, but I think was much more struck by Faramir leading that hopeless charge against Osgiliath (nice touch, putting the song by Pippin over that charge), even though Faramir didn't die. He almost did, and was ready to die, and all his companions did die.
I was struck by the deaths on the battlefield this time, perhaps more so than in The Two Towers. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that those who died had gone out to fight. Not that defending a keep is cowardly by any means, but these people were out on the battlefield, not just to fend off an enemy, but to ultimately destroy the enemy. They could have tried to find another way to get through it, but they risked it all. When the dragons were picking off riders, or the oliphaunts were stamping on people or just sweeping them away, I think I felt it.
Anyway, amazing film. Can't wait to see it again.
Now that the War of the Ring has ended, where to settle in Middle Earth? Lots of nice, peaceful places. Some nice cities in Gondor, but I think I'd end up in Rohan ~ the Rohirrim have much better theme music.
And, with the Lord of the Rings ended ~ waiting upon next year's extended version ~ and more tales from Middle Earth a few years away, the lidless, ever-watchful eye of the world's sci-fi/fantasy fan turns its gaze squarely upon Skywalker Ranch.
Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands.
(Just kidding George ~ good luck and give us a good final film!)
4:06pm
Santa brought a nice little demilune hall table this year, in a Thomas Sheraton design. An Englishman, Sheraton was born in 1781 in Stockton-on-Tees, later settled in London and died in 1806. He was trained as a cabinet-maker, but is noted for his design work, and his published works on cabinet and furniture design.
10:19am
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Merry Christmas, Everyone! Thanks for stopping by this blog during 2003. I'm enjoying the holiday season very much, had a great haul this morning and am looking forward to a relaxing time with Lori and my family.
10:39am
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Quotes a la Tim Blair, via Instapundit.
4:25pm
As I write, NORAD is tracking Santa (or some Santa-like Object) somewhere over central China, bringing Christmas presents to children of all the good Communist Party dissidents.
12:57pm Atlantic
And now over St. Basil's, Russia.
4:11pm Atlantic
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
I've blogged about this before, and I'm not quite sure why it's on my mind tonight, but, one of my favourite books is Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World". Was sad when I finished it, I recall. A wonderful adventure, wonderfully written.
Slocum, a native Nova Scotian, and the first to circumnavigate the globe solo, is famous for his narrow escapes rounding Cape Horn, but my favourite parts of his book are when he's alone at sea.
Being much fouled on the bottom by shellfish, she drew along with her fishes which had been following the Spray, which was less provided with that sort of food. Fishes will always follow a foul ship. A barnacle-grown log adrift has the same attraction for deep-sea fishes. One of this little school of deserters was a dolphin that had followed the Spray about a thousand miles, and had been content to eat scraps of food thrown overboard from my table; for, having been wounded, it could not dart through the sea to prey on other fishes. I had become accustomed to seeing the dolphin which I knew by its scars, and missed it whenever it took occasional excursions away from the sloop. One day, after it had been off some hours, it returned in company with three yellowtails, a sort of cousin to the dolphin. This little school kept together, except when in danger and when foraging about the sea. Their lives were often threatened by hungry sharks that came round the vessel, and more than once they had narrow escapes. Their mode of escape interested me greatly and I passed hours watching them. They would dart away, each in a different direction, so that the wolf of the sea, the shark, pursuing one, would be led away from the others; then after a while they would all return and rendezvous under one side or the other of the sloop. Twice their pursuers were diverted by a tin pan, which I towed astern of the sloop, and which was mistaken for a bright fish; and while turning, in the peculiar way that sharks have when about to devour their prey, I shot them through the head.
7:58pm
Mark Wickens reports on Bjorn Lomborg's difficulties with the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty ~ the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has now repudiated the claims of the DCSD that Lomborg was "objectively dishonest" or "clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice".
Wickens has info on how Lomborg detractors are behaving, and a roundup of links relating to the story.
7:43pm
Religious freedom in China is still elusive, at least as far as the government is concerned.
The sharp contrast between the crackdown and the Christmas festivities highlights Chinese authorities' desire to isolate religious dissenters, while exploiting the holiday's commercial potential.
"The central policy of the Communist party has never shied from good commercial opportunities," said Bob Fu, a U.S.-based monitor of the underground Chinese church.
"They can call it `Christmas with Chinese characteristics,"' Fu said, borrowing the party's language for China's interpretation of such western concepts as socialism.
China's government allows worship only in government-monitored churches, temples and mosques. But tens of millions of believers belong to unauthorized churches, whose clergy and members are frequently harassed and detained.
Still, economic liberty is on the rise as the government of China officially recognizes private property.
In part the change is symbolic, bringing the constitution up to date with China's market-driven reality. But it also is likely to strengthen the rule of law in a business environment where many common transactions go on without legal structure or regulation.
The lack of constitutional protection has not prevented millions from rushing into capitalism. Private business has fueled a surge in living standards for ordinary Chinese and has created the jobs needed by China as state companies slash payrolls in an effort to become profitable.
The government of Shanghai, China's commercial capital, says its economic output per person has passed $5,000 a year.
7:31pm
David Warren writes on Saddam's capture, beginning with a well-worn Churchillianism ~ The capture of Saddam Hussein marks "the end of the beginning" of the terror war.
Iraq and Afghanistan thus remain "fly traps" for the Jihadists. But the mission of converting them from bases for the enemy into fly-traps for the enemy is accomplished, even if it is impossible to kill all the swarming flies. By the accumulation of experience, the U.S. Army gets better and better at swatting them, however.
That "piece of garbage waiting to be collected" in Secretary Powell's colloquial phrase -- or rather, his final collection on the weekend -- puts the lid on the first phase of this very strange international, and partly civilizational war. The chartable part of the conflict is finished. We enter now the unchartable part.
Contrary to the general media assumption, the Bush people are not popping champagne corks. Saddam's capture is a breakthrough against the Iraqi terrorist underground, and comes with a trove of fresh intelligence leads. In the short time since the weekend, U.S. and Iraqi troops and police have uncovered over a dozen Baghdad cells (each with up to two dozen operatives), and pulled in various Saddamite fish around Tikrit, Fallujah and Samarra (including more than 70 in one Samarra raid that is breaking news as I write this). These are significant gains against an underground whose total membership is unlikely to exceed 10,000 persons, and which is having increasing difficulty recruiting from abroad, and buying its own cover.
But while the news from Iraq is incredibly good, there is a world left to conquer. It now becomes easier to see who the irredentist enemy is: not a man, nor a regime, but an armed "Islamist", Jihadist, religious ideology. In a sense, the preliminaries are over, and the real battle for the Middle East, and for the heart and soul of Islam, has begun.
7:08pm
The Flea decries Gondorian imperialism. Yes, those Gondorians had it coming. The world is not a safer place; yes, Sauron was bad, but Gondorian imperialism is the real threat to world peace.
Via Michael Demmons, 50 reasons why LOTR sucks. Fun-nee.
They switched Darrens on us!
Look closely in Fellowship and you'll notice the human member of their party is played by two different actors at different points of the movie (it takes a sharp eye to notice, but one of them has red hair, one black).
6:52pm
Joey is going crazy posting ALL EIGHT DAYS OF BOB AND DOUG's DAYS OF CHRISTMAS. The Carnival of the Canucks is up!
Great job, Joey!
6:43pm
What's that? You're short on lame Christmas jokes? Well, look no further.
Enjoy holiday favourites, like The Star Trek 12 Days of Christmas,
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the decks
Not a crewman was stirring, 'cept those having sex;
Their boots were all placed by the vent shafts with care,
In hopes that by morning they'd get some fresh air.
The Redshirts were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of stay'ng alive danced in their heads;
And Kirk in his gold shirt, McCoy in his blue,
Had just settled down for a nice Christmas brew-- ...
Then, there's that modern day classic,
The Politically Correct 12 Days Of Christmas
On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my Significant Other in a consenting adult, monogamous relationship gave to me:
TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming,
ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even though they will not be asked to play a note),
TEN melanin deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system leaping,
NINE persons engaged in rhythmic self-expression,
EIGHT economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk-products from enslaved Bovine-Americans,
SEVEN endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands,
SIX enslaved Fowl-Americans producing stolen non-human animal products,
FIVE golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domestic incarceration, (NOTE: after members of the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw red paint at my computer, the calling birds, French hens and partridge have been reintroduced to their native habitat. To avoid further Animal-American enslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.)
FOUR hours of recorded whale songs
THREE deconstructionist poets
TWO Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses and...
ONE Spotted Owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree.
6:34pm
Stop wondering about the history of that Klingon house that you love to hate, it's all here in the House of Duras timeline. A thorn in the side of starship captains from Archer to Picard, they appear to have given Kirk a wide birth.
While you're over there, here's some info (not complete enough for my liking) regarding the "Star Trek: Enterprise" opening credit sequence, all comments regarding the theme song aside.
4:53pm
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Charles Krauthammer writes on the impact of Saddam's ignominious capture.
It was a deeply important historical moment. More than the fate of a man is at stake here. At stake is the fate of an idea, an idea of singular malignancy that has cost the Arabs not just countless innocent lives but a half-century of progress.
Hussein was the most aggressive and enduring exemplar of a particular kind of deformed Arabism, a kind that arose in the post-colonial era, appealed to the greater glory of the Arab nation and promised a great restoration. Ironically, its methods and ideology were imported from the West, the worst of the West. The Baath Party was modeled on the fascist parties in early 20th-century Europe. Its economics were Western socialism at its most stifling and corrupt. Hussein then created the perfect fusion of the two, producing a totalitarianism of surpassing cruelty modeled consciously on Stalin's.
Hussein's destiny is important because he was the last and the greatest of these pan-Arab pretenders, though he gave it a psychotically sadistic character unmatched anywhere in the Arab world. This stream of Arab nationalism brought nothing but poverty, corruption, despair, torture and ruin to large swaths of the Arab world. The mass graves of Iraq are its permanent monument.
This is why it was important not just to capture Hussein but to demystify him -- and with him, the half-century spell that radical pan-Arabism had cast over the entire Middle East. It was important that the god-king of pan-Arabism be shown as the pathetic coward he was.
7:35am
The Washington Post reports that Libya's nuclear program was much more advanced than American and British inspectors had thought when they examined Libyan sites this fall. Gadhafi's (Michael Demmons asks, how do you really spell his name ... I recall this being the subject of a SNL news desk joke on 'other acceptable spellings', what, oh my god, 20+ years ago now??) decision to freeze his nuke program and allow inspectors provides the West with a major intelligence opportunity to find out which countries and companies were helping Libya.
Glenn Reynolds has a roundup on Libyan WMDs and reports that there is an Iranian connection to the Libyan program. On the NYT admitting that it was wrong and Bush was right, says Glenn, "It's another Festivus miracle!"
7:24am
The Washington Times reports that Saddam was directing the insurgency.
Despite the bewildered appearance of the deposed dictator when he was hauled from his hiding hole last weekend, he is believed to have been issuing regular instructions on targets and tactics through five trusted lieutenants.
This conclusion could have serious implications for his status in U.S. custody. U.S. officials have made clear that he will lose his rights as a prisoner of war if he was involved in the postwar violence. ...
... since the arrest and interrogation of guerrilla leaders identified in the paperwork, U.S. investigators now believe that Saddam was at the head of an elaborate network of rebel cells.
They have put together a detailed picture of Saddam's support structure while in hiding. This network enabled him to issue commands without the use of satellite phones that monitoring devices could pick up.
The Sunday Telegraph also has learned that millions of dollars to support the insurgency were recovered in raids on other suspected Saddam safe houses.
But I thought Saddam's capture was militarily meaningless.
Ralph Peters writes
The circumstances and images of Saddam's capture will reverberate for decades, with profound psychological and practical consequences in the Middle East and beyond. But the most immediate and tangible results have come from the documents he carried.
7:07am
We're going to see "A Gift to Last" this afternoon at Neptune. The play is adapted from the Gordon Pinsent teleplay from 1979. Should be a very nice Christmassy outing.
Neptune Theatre presents this heartwarming tale that will transport audiences from the frenzy of modern day gift giving to the wonders of Christmas as it was celebrated in the 1880’s. Join us as we celebrate the spirit of family tradition during the holiday season. A truly memorable Canadian holiday show, Gift is written for families of all ages and stages; it takes us into the lives of the Sturgess family and their journey to discover the meaning of Christmas.
As an added treat, this wonderful play warms the holiday spirit with the music of some of Halifax’s best and most melodious choirs who sing and perform the classic Christmas carols we know and love including Good King Wenceslas, Silent Night, O Christmas Tree and many more.
7:02am
Instaguy has more snow than me. Heh. Actually, we have zero. It's a green Christmas around here. The forecast for Christmas Day is +11C and rain. It's been a great year so far for the heating bill, though.
6:51am
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Poor, unsuspecting Americans.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
1:55pm
As its been suggested, the impact of the removal of Saddam continues rippling throughout the Middle East.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has agreed to dismantle his country's clandestine weapons of mass destruction program and allow international weapons inspections, a move President Bush said was the result of "quiet diplomacy" that will make the world "more peaceful."
I wonder if MG ever did any business with HS? Perhaps not, as they were regional competitors. I would think it most unlikely that Saddam would have sat back and watched Gadhafi (and others in the region) move to develop nuclear weapons and long range missiles without developing some nasty stuff of his own.
Libya reached out to the United States and Britain nine months ago, at about the same time that U.S. and British troops began their 21-day assault that led to the fall of Saddam's Ba'athist regime in Baghdad.
The Libyan news agency Jana Tripoli quoted Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam as saying Libyan experts had shown their U.S. and British counterparts "the substances, equipment and programs that could lead to production of internationally banned weapons." These included a "centrifuging machine and equipment to carry chemical substances."
The Brits believe Libya was close to developing nuclear weapons.
11:37am
Paul Greenberg explains Hanukkah's heritage of hope.
11:28am
Via Nealenews, Tony Atherton writes on how Canada has influenced the Christmas holiday season in North American and around the world.
11:12am
Soup nazi that I am, today's creation will be vichyssoise, which will be served hot (cold ~ yuck!).
This most art-deco-ish of soups was developed by Louis Diat, chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, sometime between 1910 and 1920. It was invented in the U.S., therefore, I won't have to change the name to 'freedom-soise'. 8-]
11:05am
Friday, December 19, 2003
I invented a new word today during a Christmassy luncheon, aided and abetted by copious quantities of red red wine.
Snoonaleep. After you've eaten your Christmas turducken (no, I would never have a turducken), accompanied by copious quantities of red red wine, you have a snoonaleep.
It's a snooze, stuffed inside a nap, stuffed into a sleep.
Snoonaleep.
May it guide you during your holiday celebrations.
4:43pm
Thursday, December 18, 2003
I recently snarled at the Bush administration's hypocrisy towards Taiwan's independence.
Today, George Jonas has similar thoughts (article not up at time of posting).
Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan have also taken Bush to task on his Taiwan policy, saying that last week's kowtowing to China was a sad spectacle and would have made Bill Clinton blush.
The facts in the Taiwan case are straightforward enough. Over the past few years, China has been building a vast arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles across the strait from Taiwan. At present some 496 of these missiles are ready to be launched at a moment's notice against the Taiwanese people. Chinese leaders, both military and "civilian," have repeatedly, and quite recently, warned that China is willing to use force if necessary to make Taiwan surrender its sovereignty and accept Beijing's rule. The Pentagon, both under this and the previous administration, has reported that Beijing's ability to launch a successful attack on Taiwan is increasing rapidly, while Taiwan's ability to defend itself is decreasing--and the ability of the United States effectively to intervene may be decreasing as well. [...]
Kristol/Kagan advise that the Bush administration should,
make clear the American view that China has no right to undertake or threaten military action in response to the referendum, and the American commitment to respond appropriately if China engages in any such threats--that we would "do whatever it took" to defend the Taiwanese democracy, to quote the president from a couple of years ago. This is the right course for two reasons: First, it honors rather than betrays President Bush's commitment to support democracy and democratic practices around the world. Second, it deters the Chinese from believing they can get away with military intimidation this coming spring or in the future.
7:58pm
We're not going to see Return of the King until Christmas night, as per our long-standing Lord of the Rings initial screen viewing tradition.
I know I'll love the film, and, as we've learned over the last two years, you really need to wait for the extended version for the 'real' film. Still, some of the problems with the theatre version are coming to light.
Read Ghost of a flea for perhaps the best description of the meaning of the book that you'll find, and some comments on the film.
Jonathan Last isn't hot on the 3rd installment. Sukhdev Sandhu is.
Peter Jackson is interviewed. On Christopher Lee's absence from the film,
Jackson shrugs his shoulders helplessly at the mention of Lee. "The reality is that The Return of the King was more than four hours long so we ended up cutting about an hour and five minutes out of the finished material so everyone had scenes cut," he says. "Christopher was in a seven-minute scene that was never part of The Return of the King. The irony is that the scene was shot for The Two Towers and Saruman, his character, was never in The Return of the King.
"It's a very good scene but when we tried it in Return of the King it felt like we were finishing off last year's film and I wanted to use the first seven or eight minutes at the beginning to establish the tension for this story. But the scene will be in the DVD."
Fine, but what about Bywater?; Jackson's talking here about the defeat of Saruman at Orthanc. Not in Return of the King??
On Tolkien's themes, Jackson seems to get it right (part of it, anyway; I hope he doesn't this is all it means),
Jackson rejects the widely voiced theories that Tolkien's Orc creatures were metaphors for Nazis and that the battle for Middle-Earth had its origins in the Second World War.
"Tolkien's themes are timeless," he says. "He wasn't writing about current affairs, even though the war was happening while he wrote the books. His themes are not related to current affairs, they are more fundamental than that: themes of friendship for the environment; themes of destroying the countryside with factories, of enslaving the population, chopping down forests to build townships to feed the factories with workers. The ring is the metaphor for the machine because Tolkien hated the way the machine had enslaved the population in England. He despised the way the machine had dominated our society. He was an environmentalist before his time."
Later: As others have been doing, I must post this interview with John Rhys-Davies (Gimli). Read it.
7:25pm
7:15pm
In recent years, I've owned a set of greeting cards that featured the paintings of John Duncan (1866-1945), a Scottish painter who sought to promote a Celtic nationalism in Scotland through his work.
...from 1892 he was mainly based in Edinburgh where he was closely associated with Patrick Geddes, biologist, town planner and prophet of the Celtic Revival. ...
He was a great experimenter with techniques and much of his work is in tempera. His subject-matter remained rooted in the Celtic Revival and the Pre-Raphaelite tradition, but he also painted 'straight' landscapes in Iona and elsewhere, and took a keen interest in the development of modern art.
A few of the paintings related to Bride (or Brigit; you'd have a soft-g sound in Gaelic with the "d") ~ the Christian saint and the figure from Celtic mythology. It made me curious regarding the connection for the Celtic Revivalist and Christian saints, Bride in particular.
As in most cases, the 'collision' of cultures doesn't result in the elimination of the existing culture in favour of the incoming culture. One seems to dominate and insinuate itself into the life of the other. In Celtic Britain, for example, Christianity didn't sweep away the Celtic culture that it encountered, but, rather settled over it as a veil.
Getting back to Bride, she is an interesting figure, and seems to have ties with Irish/Gaelic mythology from well before the time of Christ.
Bride is probably best pronounced as "Bridget" but without the "t" sound at the end. Her interchangeable name, Brighid, is pronounced not quite "bride" as in a wedding, and not quite "breed", but sort of in between, with a rolling of the "r". It is also spelled Brigid, Brigit, or Bridget.
Brighid was the Irish goddess of knowledge and life, the mother of the poets. In Gaelic mythology (and I use Irish and Gaelic interchangeably here), Brighid is also known as Dana, who was a goddess, the daughter of the Irish god Dagda. Brighid/Dana had a special interest in metallurgical skills, the arts in general, and flocks in particular. The ewes were said to begin to lactate on the feast of Imbolc, February 1st. This was traditionally the first day of spring and was strongly associated with Brighid.
In Irish mythology, when the Irish people first arrived in Ireland, they encountered a people already there, the Tuatha de Danann (the people whose mother is Dana). When they were defeated by the Gaels, the Tuatha de Danann retreated to the hollow hills of the underworld, or the Sidhe ('shee'). They are the faery people, and had great powers of magic. This tradition unfortunately became the stuff of Hollywood movies and cereal boxes, in the form of the Irish leprechaun. But, in Gaelic legend, the Tuatha de Danann remained proud warriors, and their knights could come to the aid of Irish warriors who fought for a noble cause (The Riders of The Sidhe).
In the Catholic tradition, St. Brigid of Ireland is the patron saint of scholars, and is associated/symbolized as being the mid-wife at the birth of Christ. She is also known as the "Mary of the Irish". Along with St. Patrick, she is the patron saint of Ireland. The following two paragraphs are taken from part of a website on Catholic saints:
"St. Brigid of Ireland was probably born at Faughart near Dundalk, Louth, Ireland. Her parents were baptized by St. Patrick, with whom she developed a close friendship. About the year 470 she founded a double monastery at Cill-Dara (Kildare) and was Abbess of the convent, the first in Ireland. The foundation developed into a center of learning and spirituality, and around it grew up the Cathedral city of Kildare. She founded a school of art at Kildare and its illuminated manuscripts became famous, notably the Book of Kildare, which was praised as one of the finest of all illuminated Irish manuscripts before its disappearance three centuries ago.
Brigid was one of the most remarkable women of her times, and despite the numerous legendary, extravagant, and even fantastic miracles attributed to her, there is no doubt that her extraordinary spirituality, boundless charity, and compassion for those in distress were real. She died at Kildare on February 1. The Mary of the Gael, she is buried at Downpatrick with St. Columba and St. Patrick, with whom she is the patron of Ireland. Her name is sometimes Bridget and Bride. Her feast day is February 1."
It is very interesting to me that St. Brigid is said to have died on February 1, as this is the same feast day of Imbolc of the figure Brigid from Irish mythology. Both are associated with the same virtues and ideals. Saint Brigid with scholarship, learning and the arts; also with life (mid-wife for Mary). The Irish goddess with the same name was the goddess of knowledge and the arts and life (first day of spring, flocks, ewes lactating). I wonder if the date of the Saint's death was really February 1; perhaps that date was recorded as that of her death due to the strong similarities of her image with that of the previous Brigid. I'm sure I could be wrong; still, it was probably decades or centuries later that she would have been canonized, then perhaps some licence was taken by the Church in associating her feast day with an existing feast day of a mythological figure of the same name and persona.
Another of Duncan's works, btw, featured on the greeting cards was "Ivory, Apes and Peacocks" ~ I had wondered about the title/subject matter, but this page explains things.
1:43pm
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
I'm having lyrics trouble over at Switching to Glide ~ see if you can help.
5:14pm
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Yes, this subject title is a bad homage to the "Festival! Festival!" cry from the original Star Trek "Return of the Archons" episode.
Peace, Joy be with you, Dear Reader. Are you not of The Body?
Get your $6.99 breakfast, compliments of Carnival of the Canucks over at Switching to Glide.
7:19pm
On the 2nd anniversary of his death, Big Country's Stuart Adamson is remembered at Switching to Glide.
7:08am