Exactly 407 years ago today,on 5 November 1605, a group of English Catholics attempted to assassinate King James I of England and blow up the House of Lords during the state opening of England’s Parliament, an attempt known as the Gunpowder Plot. The plotters hoped that they could place Princess Elizabeth—James’s 9-year-old daughter—as the Catholic head of state.Though the plot was led by Robert Catesby, it was Guy Fawkes whose name became associated with the infamous day. Guy Fawkes had ten years of military experience and was put in charge of the explosives. On the evening of November 4th, the night before the attempt was to go off, authorities were warned of the plot and, while searching the House of Lords, found Fawkes and the gunpowder. Most of the other plotters fled, but Fawkes and the few others who stayed were arrested and executed.
After the event, a national holiday was put into place to celebrate the survival of King James I under the Observance of 5th November Act. Later, in the 18th Century, it became an anti-Catholic holiday, and eventually became known as Guy Fawkes Day. The meaning of the holiday slowly transformed as it worked its way into popular culture. At age seventeen, John Milton wrote a poem about the Gunpowder Plot, which later influenced his most famous work, Paradise Lost. Later, Guy Fawkes became a heroic and sympathetic character in William Harrison Ainsworth’s romance novel, Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason, published in 1841, as well as in penny dreadfuls and children’s books.
In the popular comic book series V for Vendetta—as well as in its film adaption—the protagonist wears a Guy Fawkes mask. Guy Fawkes is also mentioned in the Doctor Who Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Plotters, and in Harry Potter Dumbldore’s phoenix is named Fawkes.
Whether you’re watching fireworks or re-reading V for Vendetta, make your Guy Fawkes Day a good one!
Musical Musings - 16 October 2012
I wish I was more consistent with these music posts, but alas, here’s the next one.
Alt-J (∆) - “Breezeblocks”
Haim - “Forever”
Twin Shadow - “Run My Heart”
Echo & The Bunnymen - “The Killing Moon”
U2 - “With or Without You”
"21 Balançoires"
An installation in the Quartier des Spectacles in Montreal that returns every spring. The installation is actually a giant instrument made of 21 swings and offers a fresh look at the idea of cooperation.
Link: http://vimeo.com/40980676
Link: http://www.livingwithourtime.com/recent-work/21-balancoires/
"The Zahir" - Paulo Coelho
…..
"It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over. Slowly, I began to realize that I could not go back and force things to be as they once were: those two years, which up until then had seemed an endless inferno, were now beginning to show me their true meaning.
And that meaning went far beyond my marriage: all men and all women are connected by an energy which many people call love, but which is, in fact, the raw material from which the universe was built. This energy cannot be manipulated, it leads us gently forward, it contains all we have to learn in this life. If we try to make it go in the direction we want, we end up desperate, frustrated, disillusioned, because that energy is free and wild.
We could spend the rest of our life saying that we love such a person or thing, when the truth is that we are merely suffering because, instead of accepting love’s strength, we are trying to diminish it so that it fits the world in which we imagine we live.
The more I thought about this, the weaker the Zahir became and the closer I moved towards myself…I remembered the lines from a poem I had learned as a child:
'When the Unwanted Guest arrives…
I might be afraid.
I might smile or say:
My day was good, let night fall.
You will find the fields ploughed, the house clean,
the table set,
and everything in its place.’
It would be nice if that were true — everything in its place… But what if I could choose an epitaph? I would ask to have these words engraved:
'He died while he was still alive.'
…That night I went to sleep smiling. The Zahir was disappearing and Esther was returning, and if I were to die then, despite all that had happened in my life, despite all my failures, despite the disappearance of the woman I loved, the injustices I had suffered or inflicted on others, I had remained alive until the last moment, and could with all certainty, affirm: “My day was good, let night fall.”
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Musical Musings - 6 Sept 2012
A few tunes I can’t seem to get out of my head these days. Some are old, some are new, some have been heavily saturating the digi-verse for the past few months, but all are making me fall in.
Lord Huron - “The Stranger”
Shearwater - “Breaking the Yearlings”
Purity Ring - “Fineshrine”
Yeasayer - “Longevity”
Fleetwood Mac - “Dreams”
Neil Young - “Heart of Gold”
Cat Power - “Ruin”
The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck - Review
The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One thing I love about Steinbeck is his ability to take an incredibly simple situation, within a very limited setting (both in respect to place and time) and elaborate upon the many complexities of character among those he has placed within the setting. The characters in The Wayward Bus are infinitely simple, but at the same time have a limitless complexity that’s elaborated in Steinbeck’s descriptions of their inner thoughts and personal histories that define who they are.
These personal characteristics, prejudices and anxieties are magnified as the story’s characters all begin to approach a disorder in their situation as the bus that they expect and demand to be consistent, orderly and reliable is not at all that. As the character Camille Oaks enters the scene, these character flaws become even clearer and more difficult to conceal, especially among the men. The blonde’s presence symbolizes a counterbalance, parallel to the bus itself that causes confusion and difficulty with its habit of breakdown along with its unorthodox appearance.
The journey brings each character a personal realization with themselves as each are taken out of their environment of choice and placed among characters that strongly annoy, offend or arouse them. In the end, personal growth and triumph is expressed, along with a newfound trust in others that inspires hope for Juan and many of the other passengers as they are delivered from their momentary troubles and delivered back again to a calm road towards a new future.
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Paid respects to Ghandi’s ashes today. #lakeshrine #pacificpalisades (Taken with Instagram)
In honor of the London 2012 Olympic Games, a vintage photo of the Wellesley College Archery Team.
“If your relationship to the present moment is not right - nothing can ever be right in the future - because when the future comes - it’s the present moment.”
Eckhart Tolle
(via mymindfulpractice)
Here We Go Magic @Bonnaroo #ishotrock (Taken with Instagram)
Towards Transmedia? Or Newspeak?
Y’all don’t read anymore do you? It’s become quite apparent to me, particularly through my own subconsciously acquired behavior that even I don’t read much anymore. Is it simply due to my busy lifestyle? Or has this rapidly evolving photo-info culture engulfed me to the point where even I am communicating my thoughts more through snapshots on instagram and witty tweets than well-developed thoughts? Is this the first phase towards a truly transmedia culture? Or is it the slip towards a decline into an Orwellian Newspeak?
I have no answers, I can merely peek at my own Tumblr and Facebook wall to find clues. Methinks the possible conclusion would be that these types of social media are becoming more and more designed for photo-info, and less for elaborately communicated prose.
Maybe it’s just the audience my wall presently populates? Any thoughts?
More YRL Special Collections on display. The power of fear does horrible things. (Taken with instagram)
Immersion 101 (Taken with instagram)
Another year. (Taken with instagram)