How About a Traditional St. Patrick’s Day?
March, 2010
St. Patrick didn’t drink. In fact, one of the things the Celtic chieftains admired in him was that he could get a good night’s sleep without the drink. Sausage and salted pork are traditional Irish meats; corn beef is American. Cromwell’s armies brought cabbage to [...]
Posts under ‘Culture’
How About A Traditional St. Patrick’s Day
Restoring Mayberry: Living in Rural Ireland, Watching the Global Transformation from a Distance (The Moment of Darkness, Dec. 23, 2008)
The following article by Brian Kaller appeared last year on the winter solstice on the wonderful site restoringmayberry.blog.spot.com. It is a beautifully written look at raising a child on an imperiled planet. It is a message of hope against the backdrop of global realities. The Restoring Mayberry blog provides excellent coverage of Ireland/ecology news and [...]
The Madeline Island Anishinabe Gathering
Traditional Values: Mooningwanekaaning-minis Anishinaabeg Maawanji’iding—Madeline Island Anishinaabeg Gathering
The Madeline Island Anishinabe Gathering on Friday, September 25, 2009, was a remarkable weekend of reunions and networking, serious talks, festive meals and a ceremonial dance on Friday night. The island’s first name was Moningwanekaaning-Minis, the place of the golden-shafted flicker, and was the place the Lake [...]
The Sedona Sweat Lodge Tragedy
American Indian Knowledge and Rituals: The Sedona Sweat Lodge Tragedy
As an activist-ally of the Anishinabe people since the 1980s, and in recent years working with Ben Yahola (Muscogee), Dona Yahola (Anishinabe, Oneida), and the Sacred Sites Run, I’ve had the honor of being invited to numerous Indian ceremonies over the years. In my experience, the [...]
Bad Art, Good Art: canon fusillade over the invincible bow of the royal ship of Modernist art
On June 7, 2001, Fred Ross chairman of the Art Renewal Center addressed a crowd of over 700 portrait artist and gallery owners at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. What followed was the first canon fusillade over the invincible bow of the royal ship of Modernist art.
His attack was a response to the “merciless [...]
On the Demise of Radio…finding blame.
Responding to: “I’m told by a media expert that listenership is down at night on ALL radio stations…” from someone on the SaveKUTAustin Committee…
OH YEAH! We are witnessing the slow, steady, seemingly irreversible demise of radio listenership in America. Blame it Clear Channel’s consolidation, a thousand+ stations! Blame it on Bill Clinton for the biggest [...]
Clint Eastwood’s 2008 thriller Changeling proves axiom: real-life stranger than fiction
Clint Eastwood’s 2008 psychological thriller, Changeling tells the true-life story of mistaken identity, political corruption, and the marginalization of women in 1920’s Los Angeles. A single-mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), is told by the police she will be reunited with her missing son, only to discover the boy is not really her son. He claims [...]
Star Trek (2009) captures the democratic impulse but misses the bigger picture.
While tremendous fun for both fans and the wider audience, the new Star Trek movie fails to satisfy on a deeper level, unlike the best of the franchise. The idea behind the movie was a clever one, taking us back in time to the period leading up to Classic Trek and giving many [...]