Adj. Relating to birds distinguished by feet that are adapted for perching. Includes all songbirds.
Ray of darkness, cloud of unknowing
Phrases used to describe mystical experience by authors such as Pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite.
The field grew dark with the blood of men after the sun,
That glorious luminary, God’s bright candle,
Rose high in the morning after the horizon,
Until the noble being [creation] of the Lord Eternal
Sank to its rest
- From the Battle of Brunanburgh, a poem inserted into the Anglo-Saxon chronicle celebrating Athelstan’s victory against the Irish Vikings and Scots in 937.
- “An interpreter of sacred mysteries and arcane principles.”
- Freedom from worry. A good thing? Or a bland emotional whitewash?
Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
- The god of art, dance, games, beauty, music and flowers in Aztec mythology. Known as the “Flower Prince”.
One may find a great deal of Pleasure in building a Palace for another; when one shou’d find very little, in living in’t ones Self
- John Vanbrugh, not only a wonderful architect, but a fascinating character.
Adj. Showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil; “devilish schemes”; “the cold calculation and diabolic art of some statesmen”; “the diabolical expression on his face”; “a mephistophelian glint in his eye”.
Please attend to my funky something with the gentlest of ministrations.
The Memory of ſome Men is like the Roſe and other odiferous Flowers, which caſt a ſweeter and ſtronger Smell after they are plucked: the Memory of others may be ſaid to be like the Poppy, and ſuch Vegetables, that make a gay and ſpecious Shew, while they ſtand upon the Stalk, but being cut and gathered, they have but an ill-favoured Scent. The worthy Perſsons examplified in theſe Records, may be compared to the firſt Sort, as well for the ſweet Odor of a good Name they had while they ſtood, as alſo after they were cut down by the common Stroke of Mortality.
Stephen Wren, from the preface to Parentalia or Memoirs of the family of the Wrens, a family history that concentrated on his illustrious architect grandfather, Sir Christopher Wren.
Stone age man took drugs. No real surpise there.
Emmett W. Lundy
Lundy was always an excellent musician, but never attempted to make a living with his music. He liked to play to entertain himself. For example, he got into the habit of taking down the fiddle after supper was finished, a practice he continued to enjoy into his old age. He worked mostly as a farmer, but by no means exclusively. He was also employed as a blacksmith, a violin and watch repairman, and a dentist, although he just referred to it as “pulling teeth.”
My friend picked up a recording of this fiddle player from a junk shop. It was recorded by the Library of Congress in the 1940s, but apparently it represents some of the oldest fiddle tradition on record, because Lundy was an old man by that point and rarely changed his repetoire. He had learnt the fiddle and his tunes from an older fiddler, Green Leonard, who was active in Grayson County in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. The record, therefore, is about as close as we’re going to get to hearing American folk music as it was played in that era.
That friend of mine has moved to Berlin, and I’d love to get a copy of these recordings. If anyone out there owns the record, “Emmett W. Lundy – Fiddle Tunes From Grayson County, Virginia”, it would make my year if you could record the LP to MP3 and send it my way. Or alternatively, if you’d be willing to sell the record, please get in contact with me.
A strange, surprisingly frequently occuring character in religions and mythologies. The “guide of souls” to the land of the dead, the Charon. According to Jung, the psychopomp archetype is the mediator between the conscious and unconscious realms. Thus a shaman can be regarded as a sort of living psychopomp.
I called them mad, and they called me mad, and damn them, they outvoted me.”
- Nathaniel Lee
Oilgae - making biodiesel from algae. Very interesting…
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
The Power of Nightmares - Adam Curtis documentary on the roots of the War on Terror. Who does it benefit, and is it really necessary?
A fantastic post over on The Growing Life about not becoming a “real person” – meaning a person burdened with all the crap we’re told we need, like mortgages and cubicle jobs.
It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
-(of light) flash or sparkle : the light coruscated from the crystal glass
Capitol Words displays the word most used in the U.S. Congress for any given day, generated by a program going through the Congressional Record.
A few excellent and humorous three line summaries of classic works of literature.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
-Ecclesiastes 1:18
The oldest songs in English for which the original settings survive are by St. Godric of Finchale, a medieval hermit.
Back in Oxford for the day – just for a bit of reading.
An rud is annamh is iontach.
– What is strange is wonderful. (Irish proverb.)
Nasreddin Hoja was standing in a field when a passerby quizzed him, asking what the people in the next village down the road were like.
“Well, what did you think of the people in our village?” he asked the stranger.
“Block-headed, lazy, stupid and rude, if you must know,” replied the traveler.
“That’s probably how you’ll find them in the next village, too,” said the Hoja.
A little later, another passing stranger struck up a conversation with Nasreddin Hoja. He too asked what the people in the next village were like.
“How did you find the people in this village?” countered the Hoja again.
“Warm-hearted, smiling, gentle and hospitable,” answered the stranger.
“Then that’s how you’ll find them in the next village, too.”
A good post at The Growing Life about cutting out all the useless cruft from your life and pursuing the few things you really want to do.
A useful article on novel uses for Photoshop’s “blending options”. Very handy for icon design…
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