Jaybird
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
Devcat is spending time with extended family right now. After some intermittent hiccups, our web host moved us to a new server. With any luck, performance will improve.
on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024Yes. "They're attacking us", full stop. Israel is a real country with all the normal bells and whist…
on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now ChargedAre we no longer a dystopian hellscape post-Heller? It's hard to figure out what the argument actual… on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now ChargedDepends on your zip code. on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now ChargedToday the image of the “typical gun owner” is a crazed nutter... That's the Left's point of view. Ot…
on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now ChargedSo, you're saying that America today is much more peaceful and law abiding than in recent decades, a… on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now ChargedSo all you have to do to make this approach successful is to get everyone to be eager to give up the…
on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024See Dark Matter above: "But this line of reasoning is stupid and pointless! Victimhood does not gran… on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024Well, the ICC has decided that criticism of this or that is likely to be tied to the whole "the buck…
on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024Endless military occupation isn't exactly a great alternative either. on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024Hey Saul, Philip and I were wondering where you heard that Trump "called the Democratic candidate fo…
The Days of Real Sport: The Hay Mow
September 6, 2024
September 5, 2024
Movie of an Amateur Poker Player Catching Four Aces
September 3, 2024
September 2, 2024
on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged
on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024
on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024 on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024
on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged on Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged
Continuing education: The Lamb and The Tyger really need to be read together in the same sitting, The Clod and The Pebble shows how deeply Milton was internalized by Blake, and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell will leave you gasping.Report
And it’s perfect for Monty Python.
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It’s a man’s life in the modern army.Report
In the summer of 2000, the Metropolitan Museum did a wonderful exhibit of Blake’s drawings and designs.
“Dark Satanic Mills” probably refers to the Albion Flour Mills, one of the first Industrial factories in England and the world. Probably the harbringer of the Industrial revolution. Blake was a pastoralist utopian at heart and he would have distrusted the sheet nature of the mill and what it was able to do. Since the poem is allegedly about Jesus visiting England, he wonders how such a holy place could be so close to such an evil thing. How did England descend from pastoral and green glory to something dank, dark, industrial and soul-crushing. This is not a poem as an ode to progress or markets.
If you did research, the Chariots of Fire refer to how Elijah entered heaven in the Old Testament. The narrator of the poem is being asked to be taken to Heaven or he is asking for a Chariot of Fire to help him destroy the Dark Satanic Mills of the Industrial Revolution.
I interpret the poem as an ode and urging to return to a rural and simple life.Report
That’s pretty much my interpretation. I don’t really see the “war,” but then I didn’t watch the embedded videos.Report
I always liked the Billy Bragg version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXEqFMFFsQo&feature=kpReport
But did Blake have a vision that he’d inspire a couple orchestral psychedelic jazz albums in the 60’s, which would go on to be sampled like mad in 90’s hip-hop & electronic music?
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Or a series of SF books? Or a novel about a serial killer?Report
Heh, I thought Red Dragon too (Hannibal tonight! This season has been AMAZING!)
And if he inspired those SF books, then indirectly we’ll just go ahead and credit him with this song too (that’s Ginger Baker on drums):
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ITYM “Ginger Blaker”.Report
Oh, and Blake also shows up in Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series, as a traveling storyteller nicknamed “Talespinner”. The first three or four books are quite good, though it appears to be yet another series Card has no intention of finishing.Report
That’s how absolutely insanely talented Blake was. His work will turn you upside down. If you’re a theist, you’ll have insights into God. If you’re an atheist, you’ll flash some moments of doubt.
I honestly have no idea why he isn’t more famous than he is. “He’s plenty famous”, I can hear someone say. “Not enough. Not to the point where he deserves.”Report
“Piper” is a song of “Bosco”. The lyrics are extracted from two William Blake’s poems (“Introduction” and “The Shepherd” from his book “Songs of Innocence and experience”). The audio is from one of the concerts they did in a tour around Ibiza. The video is made with footage from that tour.
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Sweet! Thank you!Report
here the video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2MTaKsR7FUReport
Also, there’s the Kinks’ 20th Century Man:
This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It’s the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem?Report
There’s a movement to make Jerusalem the National Anthem of England. Now, I mean, you can say that that is the equivalent of saying “there’s a movement to make ‘We Will Rock You’ the National Anthem of the USA” which is to say that just because the sentence is true doesn’t mean that it’s interesting but we’re not talking about a group of crazies out in the middle of nowhere.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9400486/David-Cameron-backs-Jerusalem-as-English-national-anthem.html
There’s a group of crazies out in the middle of London.Report
There was a vote for Australian national anthem in 1977, and Waltzing Matilda came in second with 28%. That would have been . ǝɯosǝʍɐ ǝɔɐdsReport