Showing posts with label Greek Mythology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek Mythology. Show all posts

Sunday 8 August 2021

More Dreams and The Accidental Button Press


Yesterday I got my new contact lenses and there was a letter saying which lens went in which eye, which I duly followed. After giving my eyes hydration via and eye bath I put the lens in my left eye and it was very blurry but thought it will settle down. I prepared the right eye one but the left eye was still blurry , it wasn't going to settle down. Then I swapped the lens in my left eye to my right eye and I could see perfectly immediately. The letter had got the lenses the wrong way round , so now my sight is perfect.

I had a really odd dream , our work team were having a meeting in a classroom on the corner of the West Road and Clayton Street (it's a cake shop in reality so that might say something). There was my team and a Facebook friend Les who shares a love of Greek Mythology as demonstrated by this story

Ola by boss was writing in chalk on a blackboard and I was having real difficulty seeing , took my glasses off , no difference , but still had contact lenses in. Then walked out and visited a couple of record shops with another friend Sarah , who's birthday party I attended a couple of weeks back. Now there's only one record shop in that direction , Beyond Vinyl , although Vinyl Guru is the other direction  but there are the Amnesty Bookshop and Kazbats Den. I didn't buy anything and told Sarah that I needed to get back to work.

I then woke, washed , showered , and when I picked up my phone , the Marvin Gaye song "We Can Make It Baby" came on via YouTube. I have never heard before , it is quite good , but a sort of end to the dream sequence.

Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit in one of his songs wrote that and unusual thing in a dream would be going for a loaf of bread. in the song "San Antonio Foam Party" but all the lyrics are here and they are a literary treasure trove.


Saturday 27 March 2021

The Steppenwolf Coincidence

This has nothing to do with "Steppenwolf" as such (I am half way through "taraNtula" by Bob Dylan) , but I had recorded "Batman vs Superman" and "Justice League"  (although I and many still say "taped") and started "Batman vs Superman" and then thought is was not very good (I have a TIVO). I deleted it after ten minutes then realised that "Justice League" was the follow up, so recovered and started watching it.

Batman and Superman are not exactly paragons of virtue but Jeremy Irons as Alfred is worth the price of admission (many of his statements based on "Oh you screwed up again , so I will sort it out") , it turned out that it was more that watchable and I enjoyed it.

So don to the point of the post , in "Justice League" the main baddie is the Golden Steppenwolf , though he didn't look very wolf like and is just a standard devil figure intent on bringing the world to heel and into darkness based on some cod religious mythological configuration , and this reminds me of the text of "The Pentateuch of The Cosmogony" by Patrick Woodroffe  (art and text) and Dave Greenslade (music) . 

I enjoyed "Justice League" even more than "Batman vs Superman" and it comes out that Batman is really past it and the Justice League ends up consisting of Batman , Wonder Woman, The Flash , Cyborg , Aquaman and eventually Superman. Next up is "Aquaman" for me because it is available on Amazon Prime.

One of my favourite lines (and there are lots of those) is when Aquaman asks Batman "What's Your Super Power?", Batman answers "I'm Rich".

Growing up I loved Greek, Norse and Irish mythology as well as moving further afield and these have provided fertile fields for a lot of the DC and Marvel Universes, the most obvious being Thor and Wonder Woman's origins.

I wasn't sure what music to share , but given the Justice League scenario we will go for "End of the World" by Andy Mackay from his debut solo album "In Search of Eddie Riff".

Monday 13 May 2019

A Muse Ment


This is my thirteenth post on the thirteenth day of this month and is post number 1913 since I started this blog. That is quite a lot of 13s coming together and it was not contrived at all, I promise.

Still enjoying Stephen Fry's "Mythos" and one of the things that I love about it is that it reminds me of things I'd forgotten and expands my knowledge of something I know. Stephen Fry does make a very good teacher.

Again, going through the origins of Greek Mythology he points out the origins of the words and  you think "oh is that where THAT came from" or I didn't know that" or "I'd forgotten that".

He's  listing The Muses, and the first one on the list is Calliope. I know Calliope from the line in Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded By The Light":

".. the Calliope crashed to the ground"

I'd always imagined a Calliope being a circular ride and the image was of one coming off its axis and crashing down, but no, it's the steam driven fairground organ that we've all heard, so the image still works, and I now know that Calliope is the Muse of Epic Poetry.

Then there is Terpsichore and both Stephen Fry and I were introduced to this Muse via the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch:

O: Oh, I thought you were complaining about the bouzouki player!

C: Oh, heaven forbid: I am one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean muse!

O: Sorry?

C: 'Ooo, Ah lahk a nice tune, 'yer forced to!

O: So he can go on playing, can he?

C: Most certainly! Now then, some cheese please, my good man.

So it is a beautiful sunny morning, even though it's Monday, and I am looking forward to this week. The song has to be "Blinded By The Light" which features the line at the end of the first verse.


Sunday 12 May 2019

The End of The Weekend


I was apprehensive about reading Stephen Fry's "Mythos" mainly due to the number of pages and the small type after James O'Briens' excellent "How To Be Right" (both shorter and with larger type so easier to read for my ancient eyes).

That's one of the benefits of eReaders, you get to choose the size of the font, although the bigger the font the more pages / page turns you effectively get, but it really does put you in control.

Anyway I am a fan of all mythologies and in "Mythos" Fry takes on the Greeks and it is incredibly readable, dashing all my apprehensions. It's like having a lesson from a really good teacher or watching an episode of QI, and he illustrates the very beginnings of Greek mythology often using contemporary illustrations and more than a little humour. He also brings his ego to bear, but non of this is to the detriment of the book, which I am now looking forward to having a very enjoyable ride through.It really is that good.

Today also saw the culmination of the English Premier League with Manchester City pipping Liverpool who were 25 points ahead of Chelsea. Liverpool finished second with 97 points after losing only one match this season, a stunning achievement, but even more stunning was Manchester City taking the title. LIverpool now have a Champions League Final to play.

So a great end to the weekend, and tomorrow sees another visit to the Freeman Hospital for me, though this time it is relatively minor and nowhere near the extreme discomfort of last week's endoscopy.

So I hope your weekend has been good, and just to vaguely find a related song and thought I would go for "Pandora's Box" by Procol Harum, which I always found vaguely sinister with it's off kilter signature motif, though apparently their name is Latin for "Far From Things" so not Greek, although Greek and Roman Mythologies were always interchangeable.

Friday 9 September 2016

Elysian Feels


I love seeing new things and meeting new people. My friend Ruth hand invited me to an exhibition, Storytelling of The Ancients,  which I didn't realise was being put on by her daughter at the Assembly House on Westgate Road. I started well by going to The Assembly Rooms and then got directed across the road to the correct venue.

Jessica and Oedipus
The day was warm and the door was open and I walked in , impressed by what I thought were some very nicely executed murals. I then noticed a room with a fireplace, some books of Greek Mythology and a small image of Cerberus on the green wall , Cerberus being the guard dog of the Underworld, but maybe he is there to keep undesirables away.

I then saw that the murals were not murals , but diaphanous constructs that swayed in the breeze and cast shadows on the white wile under a ceiling decorated with greenery which I think was ivy but could have Bacchanalian grape vines.

Jessica then introduced herself and told me about the exhibition and her love of the subject. Apparently Greeks always  greet guests with food and wine, and although the wine was finished there was gorgeous vegan raspberry  cake , biscuits and soft drinks.




Her friend , possibly Fiona, was also taking photographs and I took some myself as well as a short video, so that I could create a slideshow.

The images included Pandora, Persephone, Oedipus and many others including a wonderful centaur. I've included the slideshow soundtracked by Tangerine Dream's "Sequence C" from Phaedra , so another Greek Mythological connection as Phaedra was the daughter of Minos (see here)  which I've used as the video here although you can hear my waffle on the instagram video here.

So a great strat to the weekend, but if you get the chance , do go and see it, and if you are lucky you will get cake.