This is kind of cool. While listening to Live Ireland radio, I heard familiar words set to an unfamiliar beat. Sean Tyrrell sings Louis MacNeice’s poem, “Bagpipe Music,” under the title, “No-Go,” on his album, Cry of a Dreamer. I suspect some readers here would enjoy “Bagpipe Music,” if you haven’t read it already.
It’s no [...]
Archive for the ‘Sigaliris’ Category
Quiverfull carnival
Posted in Family, Gods, Lifestyle, Man, Sigaliris, Woman, tagged Christian Right, die patriarchy die, quiverfull, war on women on November 4, 2009 | 9 Comments »
They’re having a blog carnival over at “No Longer Qivering,” a blog started by one of the women profiled in Kathryn Joyce’s book, “Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement.” “Qivering” is deliberately spelled without a u, because as Vyckie the blogger says, “there is no ‘you’ in Qivering.” The blog holds many great stories by [...]
sock puppet Guernica
Posted in Arts, Sigaliris, Technology, tagged human condition, Lego art on November 2, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Well, this is what happens when I decide I’m tired and need to lie around for a bit. My pal metanous was reading a back issue of the Times Literary Supplement that had a detail from “Guernica” on the cover. My idle fancy made this appear like a stuffed-animal version of the famous painting–a stick [...]
Oh my valve, it’s Alzheimer’s! Or, Sig’s Infernal Tour, Canto I
Posted in Family, Health Care, Self, Sigaliris, tagged all about me, alzheimer's, chest pain, gall bladder on October 28, 2009 | 6 Comments »
When your family is behaving badly, if you clutch your chest and cry “Oh, my heart! You people are killing me!” I imagine it might have a dramatic effect. Unfortunately, clutching your chest and exclaiming “Oh, my gall bladder!” doesn’t have quite the same impact.
Perhaps the best way to explain my absence (again) and what [...]
halfway through Purgatory
Posted in Arts, Family, Gods, Self, Sigaliris, tagged alzheimer's, books, Dante on October 21, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I’m trying to catch up, here, as you all continue to post your energetic and engaging thoughts about the course of the world. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and all hell has broken loose in my family of origin. That is, the flames that are always just below the surface, though sometimes banked [...]
Imbiss for der Fuehrer
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Culture, Sigaliris on October 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
One more version of the immortal Bruno Ganz im Fuehrerbunker meme. This time, Hitler denounces Vegemite. Warning: contains Hitler, Nazis, quite a lot of cursing for those who give a ****. For those who have Krautangst (fear of Germans), may trigger.
yes, he did walk on the Moon
Posted in Culture, Education, Science, Sigaliris, tagged buzz aldrin, moon walk on September 30, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Serendipitously, I ran across this video just in time to put it up as an addendum to John E.’s post, below. Of course, I don’t believe in unnecessarily exalting unnecessary violence–and wasted considerable time today arguing about it at that Time Sink From Hell, the Other Place–but my barbarian alter ego is cheering Buzz Aldrin [...]
Survivor Alexandria
Posted in Community, Culture, Education, Humor, Sigaliris, tagged Republicans, survivor on September 28, 2009 | 13 Comments »
A comment by lornakismet on DSL’s “This I Believe” has moved me to propose a new season of Survivor Alexandria, to be held on a desert island of Lorna’s choice. The impetus, here:
I somehow think that if you and Franklin were on a desert island, stranded and alone and hungry, you would miss this Republican [...]
mourning is the new black, goes with everything
Posted in Family, Self, Sigaliris, tagged all about me, alzheimer's on September 26, 2009 | 8 Comments »
My recent absence, if anyone noticed, now yields you, with some sighs, our explanation. (The reference being to “To R.B.”, by Gerard Manley Hopkins.) I drove to Michigan on Monday and returned yesterday. There has been much consternation of late among my three siblings and me because of my parents’ health problems. My brother, Mr. [...]
one for my baby and one more for the road
Posted in Community, Culture, Politics, Sigaliris, tagged I still hate Nazis and I know one when I see one so sue me, mad as hell on September 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
TeaBaggers and those who go low for the Limbaugh: this one’s for y’all. Make of it what you will.
lullaby for 9/11
Posted in Arts, Community, Nation, Sigaliris, tagged 9/11, loreena mckennitt, Music, William Blake on September 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Lots of voices in the air today. I was reminded of this poem by William Blake, which forms the lyrics to “Lullaby,” by Loreena McKennitt:
O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war! – When the senses
Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,
Who can stand? When the souls [...]
yeah yeah yeah
Posted in Arts, Culture, Media, Sigaliris, tagged Beatles, silly quizzes on September 10, 2009 | 1 Comment »
For your morning distraction, the Times Online reviews the remastered Beatles collection. In a sidebar, there’s a quiz–“Which Beatle Are You?” Wow! Flashback! This is a staid, print-type quiz, so there are no clicky boxes and I can’t publish the results. But you can take my word for it that I’m an “intense, idol-bashing John,” [...]
somewhere you feel free
Posted in Family, Health Care, Sigaliris on September 7, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Warning: contains personal stuff, so for those who despise personal blogging, please ignore. I’ve been distracted from my important daily work of discovering someone being wrong on the internet (this is sarcasm, people–in case you’re tone-deaf to my typed nuances) by family problems. “Family problems” should also be read in a sarcastic tone of voice, [...]
trigger happy
Posted in Arts, Community, Culture, Humor, Politics, Sigaliris on September 4, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I had the blues, the reds and the pinks (10 points to anyone who knows what song that’s from) after foolishly sipping yet again from the firehose of madness spewing forth you-know-where (well, it’s pretty much everywhere, not just over at what has temporarily (?) become crazycon) But after a good dose of Weird Al PLUS [...]
rainbows + unicorns = happiness
Posted in Arts, Culture, Sigaliris, tagged magic, my favorite things, rainbows, unicorns on August 28, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Swirling in a personal funk-maelstrom that subtracts most of the pleasure even from satire and collectible items of human folly, and makes any attempt at intelligent commentary on shop-soiled issues of the day seem insipid and perfunctory, I would like to remind you all that CORNIFY is a magic spell that will make almost any [...]
Old People Food
Posted in Family, Lifestyle, Sigaliris, tagged all about me, old people, parents, prunes on August 24, 2009 | 13 Comments »
I haven’t been around lately. That’s because my mother had to go to the ER last week and was thence admitted to the hospital for a few days. I drove to Michigan last Monday and just returned yesterday. I have not yet been able to contemplate saying anything intelligent about the state of health care [...]
when to step in
Posted in Family, Self, Sigaliris on August 12, 2009 | 14 Comments »
This is what I think the cool kids call a bleg–a blog entry for the sole purpose of asking for something. (Though I see that BLEG could also mean Bulk Leach Extractable Gold. But sadly, no.) I’m guessing that some of you out there may have confronted the problems of aging parents. I would be [...]
We are all Kenyans now
Posted in Education, Humor, Politics, Sigaliris, tagged BS on August 6, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Make your own Kenyan birth certificate! Easy and fun!
Storm Large is vagantic
Posted in Media, Sex, Sigaliris, Woman, tagged Music, Storm Large, vagantic on August 6, 2009 | 6 Comments »
But, not to be a total downer on this bright morning, here’s a little something to make you feel happy. ; ) Warning: anyone who doesn’t care for the word “vagina” may not enjoy this. And it’s definitely not worksafe blasting through your speakers, though it might make people get out of their cubicles and [...]
Department of Stop Killing Us, Please
Posted in Community, Culture, Man, Sigaliris, Woman, tagged brain dysfunction, death to the patriarchy, war against women on August 6, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Well, it’s about that time when conscience reminds me to earn my keep around here by tossing the spare change of my mind into the Alexandrian hat on the pavement. Certain gloomy statistics resurface periodically in my awareness. I had a link to a compendium, which I seem to have misplaced, so I’m just going [...]
Suomi go bragh
Posted in Culture, Humor, Sigaliris, tagged Finns, puukko, uncyclopedia on July 8, 2009 | 7 Comments »
DSL’s Morning Threesome has inspired me to join in the next Olympic sport of blog leapfrog, in which a reference to an earlier comment in one post leads to the commenter posting anew, in reference to the reference. Finns are my topic–for when life hands you lemons, you must make Lemminkainen. First, the lemon drop to [...]
left, right, left
Posted in Ethics, Family, Mind, Politics, Self, Sigaliris, tagged all about me, conservatism, reason/irreason, switching sides on July 5, 2009 | 12 Comments »
Our good Administrator of Alexandria posed a question for the Glorious Fourth that I thought merited a better answer than I had time for when it was stated. Although I plead guilty to being one of the region’s chief practitioners of the biographical anecdote, I’m also one of its operatives who prefers the deepest cover. [...]
Mark “King David” Sanford
Posted in Ethics, Gods, Politics, Sigaliris, tagged Mark Sanford, psychopathic narcissists, religion, Republicans on July 2, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Here’s what’s really interesting about Mark Sanford: he’s associated with the secretive and peculiar right-wing religious organization that calls itself “the Fellowship” or “the Family.” In himself, he’s just another idiot. But, as a type, he is a representative sample of psychopathic narcissism fueled by “faith.” In his own eyes, and those of the Family, [...]
How Not to Meditate
Posted in Mind, Self, Sigaliris, tagged all about me, meditation on June 25, 2009 | 8 Comments »
I will say this, it doesn’t help when a tick crawls out of your hair and goes down your arm while you’re trying to meditate. Yaaaarghh! Compassion for all living things, compassion for all living things . . . but I still killed the tick. I wonder what the Dalai Lama would have done! Personally, [...]
Fred’s Gateway
Posted in Arts, Community, Culture, Mind, Science, Sigaliris, tagged Frederik Pohl, science fiction on June 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Frederik Pohl has a blog–”The Way the Future Blogs.”
http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/
Do yourselves a favor and check it out. Fred is wise and wily, an old soul with a mind still young. If only immortality were available, Frederik Pohl would be one of those on whom it would not be wasted. And, as others have pointed out, he [...]
