Lesiëm
This is a music video from a German group known as Lesiëm. If you like Enigma and Era, you'll love these guys! They combine mediaeval chant and other choral styles with pop, new age, electronica, and ambient music to create a sound I've never heard before.
Lesiëm - Fundamentum
I just fell in love with their latest album, which includes female choral and solo singers.
Two Journeys (Part II)
This post, although it may not look like it, is a follow-up to an earlier post I had made in November, wherein I talked a bit about Rev. Ted Haggard's and my own spiritual journeys. Today I was taking a brief break from my research, and I was blog surfing when I came across a rather intriguing quiz on Beliefnet.com, a website whose mission statement reads:
Our mission is to help people like you find, and walk, a spiritual path that will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness.
Whether you're exploring your own faith or other spiritual traditions, we provide you inspiring devotional tools, access to the best spiritual teachers and clergy in the world, thought-provoking commentary, and a supportive community.
Beliefnet is the largest spiritual web site. We are independent and not affiliated with any spiritual organization or movement. Our only agenda is to help you meet your spiritual needs. (source)
The quiz I took is called, rather tongue-in-cheek, the Belief-O-Matic, and bills itself thusly:
Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic™ knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic™ will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.
Warning: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.
Basically, it's church-shopping just taken to its ultimate extreme ;-) Love the disclaimer :-) ...anyway, I was sufficiently intrigued to try my hand at the quiz questions, and here are my results:
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Apparently, I'd make a lousy Jehovah's Witness. And a miserable Catholic too. But what's interesting to me is how the quiz results actually match up withwhat I had already been thinking about myself and my spiritual beliefs. What I have been reflecting on for well over a year now is that the Unitarian Universalist church seems to be the best spiritual "home" for me
And then I had an idea: I would take the Belief-O-Matic test a second time, only answer each of the questions as I would have fifteen years ago, before I burned out of my job, before I came out of the closet, but after my separation and divorce. Results?
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Veeery interesting.... and again, it confirms something I already knew about myself. Over the past decade, I have undergone a near-complete transformation on what I believe. Which makes sense, given that most of my formerly firmly-held opinions were blasted out of the water by my later experiences. More on this later, in another blogpost.
Is handwriting going the way of the horse and buggy and the chalkboard?
I was flabbergasted when i read the article below (and trust me, it takes a LOT to flabbergast me as I get older and more cynical...but I disgress...). People under the age of 30 are losing their handwriting skills because everything they write and print is by keyboard! An excerpt of the Toronto Star article is after the jump.
I just may take up my handwritten journal again, purely as protest against this horror. And I just may force my nephews to hand-write their letters to their Uncle Ryan, instead of sending emails back and forth.
I mean, I am a super-geeky guy who spends a lot of time with computers--but the thought of losing my handwriting skills gives me a real chill. We may need to create a Society for the Preservation of Handwriting.
Handwriting is irrelevant
The Toronto Star, Dec. 5, 2006. 12:03 AM
JEN GERSONThey couldn't remember how to write the letter "I."Is it one loop or two? Does the pen start at the top of the squiggle or the bottom? "I forgot how to handwrite," says 18-year-old Kris Tofer Baker, as he mulls over the execution of a "w."Don't misunderstand. Baker is an intelligent young man. He just hasn't needed to use cursive script since Grade 4."I print out or type the majority of my school work."He's not alone. On the Ryerson and University of Toronto campuses, few students were able to handwrite naturally, when handed a black felt-tipped pen. After some moments of meditation, most remembered, sort of, how to script — although they couldn't remember the last time they needed to.Computers have turned cursive handwriting into an archaic and unnecessary form of writing. It has been relegated to an era of calling cards and heartfelt love letters crafted by candlelight and fountain pen."One of the comments I got back on a test was `I don't understand what you wrote.' The teacher had told us to handwrite, but you saw, I had trouble with the T. I don't remember what they're supposed to look like," says Ikram Abdi, 19.Her friend agrees. What need is there to handwrite? "Everything we do is on the computer," says Fatima Nuzhat, 19....But if an over-reliance on pixels and type is leading to the downfall of ink-connected letters on pulp, no one under the age of 30 seems to be weeping."Ninety per cent of my time, I'm usually on the computer," says Amin Khalat, 24, who last joined letters with a pen in Grade 9. "(Handwriting) is not mandatory. Just so long as your writing is legible, it's okay."Tara Bernard, 18, agrees. "I don't feel I need to handwrite. And when I try to, it doesn't work out."She can't write quickly enough, and the text turns to scribbles."I came here from Africa in Grade 6 and I was never taught how to handwrite," says Shehzad Khan, 17. "Is there any need to handwrite nowadays?"For note taking and grocery lists, printing seems adequate to the task.Though Ryerson English professor Jennifer Burwell says that even margin squiggles in notepads are doomed. "More and more students are taking notes on laptops. Writing and printing are becoming more and more irrelevant."Not that she minds. She only prints as well. "If I could have my students write on a computer and ensure that there is no cheating, I'd do that."But Toronto-based forensic document examiner Pat Girouard ponders this new trend and remains skeptical. Sure, computers dominate our writing lives. Sure, handwriting seems somewhat anachronistic, but still, cursive seems to be an ironic sacrifice in the digital age.After all, she says, "printing takes longer (than handwriting) because it's disconnected."ID@thestar.ca. But if you feel the need to write a letter in cursive, please send it to I.D. section, 1 Yonge St., Toronto, Ont., M5E 1E6
Christmas A Century Ago: from the Children's Book Illustrators Gallery
This illustration is by Charles Robinson, from the first edition of The Child's Christmas, a book published by Blackie press in 1906, exactly a century ago. This is one of over 2,000 images lovingly scanned and preserved online by Minh Lai, showcasing the work of classic children's book illustrators from the early twentieth century.
To see the whole gallery, go to the nocloo.com - Children's Book Illustrators website, and click on the Gallery tab. Be prepared to spend an hour or two browsing through the wonderful work on display, though. You've been forewarned, now...
Two more images, these by illustrator Kay Nielsen, created for the 1913 book In Powder and Crinoline, Old Fairy Tales Retold (click on the image for a larger size view):
Say Good-bye to the Screaming Cheese Lady
Here in Canada, the dairy farmers' association had been promoting the buying of cheese and cooking with cheese, running a series of TV commercials which I had talked about previously on my blog. The most memorable part from the commercial series, the crotchety granny screaming "Can't get your kids to leave home? Stop cooking with cheese!" (MP3 sound file, 114K, Warning! VERY LOUD), had already gone viral, as evidenced by these two fan-videos on youtube. But, alas, it looks like the Screaming Cheese Lady's days are numbered.
According to an article in Saturday's Globe and Mail newspaper, Canada's dairy farmers have halted their "Stop cooking with cheese" advertising campaign after a wave of complaints about their latest TV ad:
Canada's dairy farmers have killed their controversial "Stop Cooking with Cheese" campaign, saying the latest TV spot crossed the limits of good taste.Cossette Communication Group Inc., the agency responsible for the work, must now compete against other agencies for a chance to retain the account."We track everything we hear from the consumer. And sometimes you cross a line that maybe you should not," said Nathalie Noël, director of marketing for the Dairy Farmers of Canada.The marketing association will not go ahead with a planned spring rollout of the campaign. Instead it is looking for an agency that can take cheese marketing in a new direction.The initial campaign used crude reverse psychology to convince parents that the best way to get their adult children to move away from home is to not cook with cheese. Each commercial features a grumpy old lady who screams: "Stop Cooking with Cheese!"In the latest ad -- titled "Protection" -- parents sit down with their daughter's boyfriend to convince him that their daughter isn't good enough for him."How can I put this nicely? She's cheap," the father says. The daughter retorts: "I hate you."Then the pitch-granny chimes in: "Can't stop your daughter's boyfriend coming over? Stop cooking with cheese. Don't melt gouda on his vegetables -- he'll never dump her."Ms. Noël said she didn't expect the backlash that came both from consumers and dairy farmers, who saw the last ad as mean-spirited and anti-family....Nancy Vonk, creative director at Ogilvy and Mather in Toronto, said she winced when she saw the ad for the first time."It was really mean-spirited," she said. "I'm a big fan of dark comedy but that just crossed the line. . . . I felt so bad for the girl in the spot."She said the reverse psychology approach -- trying to sell more cheese by telling people not to buy it -- was a bold attempt to do something different, but didn't work in practice."The whole shtick with the old lady yelling at you to stop cooking with cheese. It's like: 'Shut up. Get out of my face.' "
Here's a link to the ad discussed in the article. The first time I saw it, I kinda went "What the...??" and didn't think it was terribly funny. Anyway, I expect someone's head over at Cossette Communications is gonna roll over this one.
They've already taken down www.cantgetyourkidstoleavehome.com :-) ...
Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me, i.e. my 5 secrets
I have Adam Lasnik to thank for tagging me with this Internet meme. And in return, I get it forward it to five other bloggers.
Anyways, here goes:
Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me
- I was born during the Beatles Invasion.
Some people tie their birth to significant world events, saying things like "I was born during the Great Depression", or "I was born during the London Blitz". Well, I was born during the Beatles Invasion :-) On Jan. 16, 1964, the Beatles' song I Want to Hold Your Hand became the No. 1 single in America, their very first hit (it would remain #1 on the U.S. charts for seven weeks).I did a quick search of the Historical Newspapers database and found this advertisement for the Beatle's first American concert, published in The Washington Post (Jan. 31, 1964, pg. B27), when I was exactly one week old.Before I would turn one month old, the Beatles would land in JFK airport to a horde of screaming fans, and appear on the Ed Sullivan show, breaking all previous audience records with 73 million people glued to their TV sets.You know, I always used to pull this out to emphasize to the Baby Boomer crowd how much younger I was than them. Now, I pull it out to remind the Baby Boom Echo generation just how much older I am than them. *sigh* - I am a chorister.
I sing tenor (first tenor, if the tenors split) for The Rainbow Harmony Project, Winnipeg's GLBT chorus. In fact, I am one of the original members of the chorus, which formed in September 1999. I had always wanted to sing in a choir since I was a kid, but I wasn't sure if I had the musical chops to do it. So I decided to take a chance, do something different, and I'm so glad I did.
Last Saturday, we put on our annual holiday concert, Many Gifts, before an appreciative audience at Knox United Church in downtown Winnipeg (click on the poster to the right to see a bigger version). And I should be at the Christmas party tonight, but I've got a nasty head cold and I'm blowing my nose every ten minutes, so I decided to stay home. I have been lucky to make many good friends among my fellow choristers over the years. If you would like to hear us, go to The Rainbow Harmony Project artist page on Last.fm, where you can listen to some 30-second samples. I will try to put up a few full-length MP3s over the holidays. - I have a very loud and distinctive laugh.
My laugh is indescribable. I have described it as "the laugh that can strip an oak at thirty feet". You can always find me in a crowded play or movie theatre if there's a comedy playing, no matter how big the theatre is. - I have a drag persona.
As far as I know, I am the first person on earth doing bird flu public-awareness skag drag. Meet Cora-Anne Tine, avian flu pandematrix and advice columnist to the flu-lorn.
Why? Because laughter is the best defense against the doom, gloom and pessimism of a potential influenza pandemic (I mean, aside from stockpiling food and water, practicing good hygeine and safe quarantine, etc. etc.). - I have written slash fanfiction and created Photoshop fanart for Brokeback Mountain.
The fanfiction, titled Chiron (rating: NC-17/Adult), only lasted nine chapters before it petered out, but my Brokeback Mountain fanart has been very popular. This is my most-visited picture, with over 10,000 views:
And as for the five people I am sending this on to, they are, in no particular order:
- !efatima (she's a superstar on Flickr, here's her Flickr profile)
- Aaron Edwards (and his Flickr profile)
- sbpoet (she's also on Flickr)
- chelejean, whose comments on my blog are always appreciated, and
- Pete (Alois), a contact from my Plain Layne days
...and I would have put Jeremy Wright on this list, but he's already been tagged (damn!) We actually met each other during the brief time he was living in (godforsaken, as I believe he called it) Winnipeg.
The Most F*cked-Up Christmas Card I've Ever Seen
Seriously, this is a real Christmas card, from the U.S. Citizens Committee to Keep and Bear Arms.
Whatever happened to gold, frankincense, and myrrh?!? I am absolutely appalled.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
UPDATE 3:30 P.M.: This was originally posted at metafilter last year, the comments thread is priceless.
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