Music: Soria Moria

Ok so, today is Monday, and Mondays are now my music day; 1. Because I need to post more often, and somewhat regularly and 2. More importantly, because I love music! I was going to call it New Music Monday, but I'm an old school sort of gal at times. So beware, this could be anything from Gregorian, to Beethoven, to the Beatles, to George Strait. Yes, I realize that makes me weirdly eclectic. Anyhow, now that I have established music on Mondays, be quite aware that I will probably not follow task ha! Also, I'm glad that I already had this song picked out because this morning I had (and still have) Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes" stuck in my head, and I wouldn't want to do that to you. I will thank William for this calamity, although his post had to do with another song completely; but you can't be born in the 80's and not think of the Dirty Dancing song when someone says "Hungry Eyes". You just can't.


Well, today is a song by Sissel Kyrkjebø, a Norwegian singer.  I first heard this song, and was struck by it, several years ago, when a roommate introduced me to her music.  Sissel has a really amazingly beautiful voice, pure and unaffected, especially in her early albums. This title song is from one of her earlier albums (1989 I believe), Soria Moria. Soria Moria is a common Norwegian fairy tale about an askeladden who searches out Soria Moria and becomes a great lord. A short version of the story is available here. I was always struck by this song because of its haunting melody and its beautiful story.  I would say that you don't even have to know Norwegian to understand the movement of the legend of Soria Moria. As it is, I only know one word of Norwegian.  Btdub, I find the English write-over in this video pretty annoying, but what can you do?



Anyhow, enjoy! I have to go write a paper on St. Augustine and his theory of peace. What joy fills my heart at the very thought. Or something.

Ha! I am constantly cringing when people use "literally" wrong. I hear it probably every day. It's that bad.

Kudos to xkcd.com, of course :D Oh, and welcome to all the new silly people: Pallav, Elisabeth, Vatche. Have fun! and check out other followers' blogs, but don't check out Stealing Fire; she is not a follower, albeit very, very silly. She probably should be tarred and feathered... I'm just sayin...

Dysfunctional Workshop, and then some.

A hilariously awesome and accurate post over at Ursprache today: Dysfunctional Workshop. Check it out!

And, for your general amusement, a little Calvin and Hobbes:

Google, Books, yeah.

"...If you care about the future of books, you need to understand the Google Book Settlement. It's a complicated legal document, but we've talked to some of its architects, detractors, and defenders - and break it all down for you. The Google Book Settlement could easily be the twenty-first century's most important shift in how we deal with copyright in the world of publishing. To understand it, you need a little back story on the previous giant shift in copyright law, which happened about twelve years ago...."

Personally I've used Google Books lots of times, especially when I didn't have the cash to buy books (read: always!) for my classes, or time to sit in a library.

However, I'm unsure about the implications of all this.  It seems there are both reprehensible prospects (point 4, having to do with censoring and restriction), as well as exciting prospects (point 5).  Furthermore, I sometimes find myself jumping from side to side on copyright issues, often angered at the Mickey Mouse laws and a proponent of open copyrights, yet at other times admitting that authors do have a right to their works and the meagre living which they sometimes provide. The idea that there would be a organization that acted like ASCAP in the literary world is NOT a happy prospect.  If only we were in ancient times when the poet was revered and had no need to eek out a living. The trouble here is in the very understanding of the nature and calling of the writer -- it has been lost.

Any thoughts on this article and the prospective laws?

A word on a word...

Some days I wake up with the weirdest words in my head. Today it was "defenestrate".  I literally become conscious in the morning with these words repeating over and over in my head, and usually it has nothing to do with the dream I had. As far as I can tell ha! That is weird!

According to the OED it first showed up in relation to the 1618 Defenestration of Prague "the action of the Bohemian insurgents who, on the 21st of May... broke up a meeting of Imperial commissioners and deputies of the States, held in the castle of the Hradshin, and threw two of the commissioners and their secretary out of the window; this formed the prelude to the Thirty Years' War." After that it only really shows up a few more times,  once in a letter by Robert Southey ("I much admire the manner in which the defenestration is shown [in a picture]."... Southey apparently had good taste! Ah yes, out of the mouths of...poets), and in 1915, only to mention that "there is no good authority for its use...". Well, Lit Digest of 1915, Robert Southey used it. So there.

I've never actually used this word, except to mentally correct a teacher just the other day. I'm resolved to do two things:
1. use the word in a poem or something publishable (and thereby gain admittance to the venerable OED ;) )
2. use the word in every day speech such as "do NOT defenestrate that gum wrapper, don't you love your country, you Benedict Arnold!"... ok, maybe that's going a little overboard, perhaps "go ahead and defenestrate that banana peel, it's biodegradable, and who wouldn't want banana trees in Idaho...wait, what?"

Btdub, I was looking for a picture of Russel Crowe defenestrating his desk in A Beautiful Mind, but I couldn't find one! The horror! It's such a great scene... anyway, I came across this picture over at Digging Driftless, and what a work desk! I want to run my hand across that wood! Beautiful.

Templates Yay!

 Finally! Some template functionality! Google announced that they are going to open up the Blogger Template. I've been goofing around with new templates for a while, but have been too lazy to go through it myself, without Photoshop etc. Imagine that, me, lazy! ha!... But I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes the narrowness of the blogger template (in both width and creativity) bugs me. Is that my American Individuality getting the best of me? Maybe, but that's ok :) Check it out!

Oh for a beaker full of the warm South!

Well, I happen to love poor Johnny Keats. I admit it. I embrace it. I breath it.  However, as I was much disappointed with the movie Bright Star, I won't speak of it here, just yet -- I'm leaning towards giving it another chance before forming a final opinion of the thing. Though, I will say that one good thing has come out of it: Ben Wishaw's reading of Ode to a Nightingale.  Give it a listen, I hardly think you'll be disappointed:

Good to know...

Great tip to know about: If you drop a book in water, freeze dry it! Check it out on LifeHacker : Freeze Dry Books, Docs, Photos...  In the comments they say it works for books that are moldy, or have insects or whatever as well.  Anyways, I've dropped books in puddles while getting into the car many times, so I'm glad to have come upon this ...

I suppose that's more accurately a hare dryer...

some funny (yes i just said "some funny") from xkcd.com, of course :)

five stars for the Calvin and Hobbes reference! :)

____

The Orchard

My favorite Clancy Brothers song -- for obvious reasons to some...



When I was nine, in harvest time, I crossed the orchard wall
The moon was bright, the apples ripe upon the garden did fall
We filled our sacks, we made our way back, more adventures for to find.

I crossed the orchard wall again when I was just thirteen
It was, I think, to be my first drink of cider and poitín
I remember well, it tasted like hell; I hoped the pain would end soon,
In an orchard green neath the Comeraghs in that sweet Dungarvan green.

When I was twenty-one years old I married my Annie there
The apple blossoms in the trees were better in her hair
And when the day was over there was a drunk for every tree
In an orchard neath the Comeragh by those sweet Dungarvan seas.

Now I'm forty-five, I am much alive and children I have four,
Three girls and one fine strapping son and I have hopes for more.
I'll teach them of what lies ahead, I have plenty to tell still
In an orchard neath the Comeragh in that sweet Dungarvan breeze.

Now I'm ninety-one, my days are near done, my Annie is long since gone.
Our days they were good as well they should, but it's time that I passed on,
And when I die, I want to lie in the air, land and foam
In an orchard neath the Comeragh by my sweet Dungarvan home.