If you click on this thread you must post on it...

[Rath Darkblade]

You'll find all kinds of Americana round these parts. We're largely partial to such things.

Same here in Australia, bizarrely enough. We have Black Friday (which some companies extend to be a week or even a month), but I don't pay attention to it.

But I don't understand why we have Hallowe'en here in Australia. It has nothing to do with us. It's just an excuse to sell cheap tat to kids. Grumble.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

C'mon, Rath. You're falling down on the job as the guy that Googles everything. Halloween is an old Celtic thing carried by old Celts to new locations. They may've had to go through American before enlightening Aussies, but if all y'all have done with Halloween is use it to sell tat to kids, then you're not doing it right.

 

[JLT]

But I don't understand why we have Hallowe'en here in Australia. It has nothing to do with us. It's just an excuse to sell cheap tat to kids. Grumble.

The Halloween trick-or-treating comes from an old British custom called "A-Souling." There's a pretty good write-up here:

Souling: The forgotten Halloween tradition you need to know about

Souling is a tradition that goes all the way back to Pagan times, but has evolved into the 'trick-or-treating' practice that we know and love today

www.history.co.uk

Since Australia was originally a British colony, it doesn't surprise me that the colonists brought the custom with them.

I first heard about this from a Peter, Paul, and Mary tune. Here's the concert version, where Noel Paul has a hilarious introduction:

It took me forever to figure out what Paul was doing with the guitar. I finally realized the he could do the fingering because his hands were much bigger than mine. By putting the capo on the second or third fret, I could shorten the scale length to the point where I could do it, too.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Another fabulous day in Ireland. We’re in Killarney and it’s a very vibrant, happening town. Drove the Ring of Kerry today, with several stops. My brother and I are sharing driver duty and I drove a stretch of the most twisty turney road I imagine in the whole world (I think it was the N71) and man oh man was that a trip! In places there is a stone wall covered in vines right at the edge of the narrow road and you hit the branches as you drive by.

And it’s all posted 80 km/hr. Yeah right!!

 

[Homer Potvin]

It took me forever to figure out what Paul was doing with the guitar.

I'm not hearing anything crazy. Folk triads with some giddyup. What are you hearing?

 

[JLT]

I'm not hearing anything crazy. Folk triads with some giddyup. What are you hearing?

You'll have to try to play the guitar part yourself. There are two melody lines played simultaneously, and at first I thought that Paul and Peter were playing them as a duet. But when I saw them in concert, it was just Paul playing both lines, solo.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Capo up in second position according to this guy...

 

[JLT]

Another fabulous day in Ireland. We’re in Killarney and it’s a very vibrant, happening town. Drove the Ring of Kerry today, with several stops. My brother and I are sharing driver duty and I drove a stretch of the most twisty turney road I imagine in the whole world (I think it was the N71) and man oh man was that a trip! In places there is a stone wall covered in vines right at the edge of the narrow road and you hit the branches as you drive by.

And it’s all posted 80 km/hr. Yeah right!!

There are some road like that on the California coast. Maybe you could do 50 mph with a Maserati or a Jaguar, but not in a normal car. And to make it even hairier, the road is shared with swarms of cyclists, which you can't see until you turn the corner.

 

[JLT]

Capo up in second position according to this guy...

Oh, if we only had YouTube back in the 60s!

The trick part is where you're playing the run of G-F#-E on the low E-string at the same time you're doing the run on the high E-string. Without the capo, I just couldn't do it with my puny hands.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Drove the Ring of Kerry today, with several stops.

Stunningly beautiful part of the world, though a bit too touristy for my liking. We were once driving the Gap of Dunloe, gorgeous, and approached one of those lads driving the horse and carriages. I asked him about the opening hours of the nearby pub for something to eat. He asked was I renting a cart, to which I said no. He then just walked away without any further acknowledgement of my existence.

Both my father's parents came from Kerry, a bit further north from where you are on the Dingle Peninsula. If you throw a rock in Kerry, you'll hit someone with my surname.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Oh, if we only had YouTube back in the 60s!

The trick part is where you're playing the run of G-F#-E on the low E-string at the same time you're doing the run on the high E-string. Without the capo, I just couldn't do it with my puny hands.

Transposed up to D in this case. I've been doing mostly jazz the last few years. Kind of the antithesis of folk. Everything is open stings in folk, no open strings in jazz. Notes ring in folk, everything gets damped in Jazz. Straight diatonic for folk, modal mud pit in jazz. Neither one is easier or harder than the other. Really no music is. But folk simple at least in the melodic structure. Jazz you need a protractor, nanometer, and satellite GPS to follow the harmonies and registers.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I drove a stretch of the most twisty turney road I imagine in the whole world (I think it was the N71) and man oh man was that a trip! In places there is a stone wall covered in vines right at the edge of the narrow road and you hit the branches as you drive by.

And it’s all posted 80 km/hr. Yeah right!!

After my first two weeks in Ireland, I told one of our hosts that I reckoned it was about time for me to go home. He asked why. I said because I was beginning to drive with the elan of the native Irish without the guardian angels provided to the same.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

The Halloween trick-or-treating comes from an old British custom called "A-Souling." There's a pretty good write-up here:

Souling: The forgotten Halloween tradition you need to know about

Souling is a tradition that goes all the way back to Pagan times, but has evolved into the 'trick-or-treating' practice that we know and love today

www.history.co.uk

Since Australia was originally a British colony, it doesn't surprise me that the colonists brought the custom with them.

Oh, right! Now it makes more sense. I remember reading about soul cakes in, of all books, The Folklore of Discworld (where it's part of the discussion about the Soul Cake Duck, a parody of both the Souling Cake and the Easter Bunny. The Soul Cake Duck lays eggs sweeter than the usual duck eggs, and is also connected with a tradition called 'trickle-treating' or 'treacle-treating').

Souling was one in a family of traditions involving performing song, music, or small theatrical skits in return for food or money. On November 2nd, All Soul’s Day, 16th-century northern and western English revelers would go “a-souling” door to door. In return for their performance, their neighbors would give them soul cakes. The gift of a soul cake had three benefits: charity for the poor performers, the good work of giving charity, and the redemption of souls from purgatory, hence soul cakes.

One "souling song" went like this:

“Soul, soul for a souling cake
I pray you, missis, for a souling cake;
Apple or pear, plum or cherry
Anything good to make us merry!

Up with your kettles and down with your pans,
Give us an answer and we'll be gone.

Little Jack, Jack sat on his gate
Crying for butter to butter his cake
One for St. Peter, two for St. Paul
Three for the man that made us all.”

(Shropshire: Bye-Gones Relating to Wales & the Border Country (1889–1890), 253).

Soul cakes, by the way, were not as soft as cakes are now. Rather, they were dense and biscuit-like, with sweet spices like nutmeg. Here is a possible recipe.

November 2nd is also the second day of El Dia de Los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead.

In Poland, November 1st is the day when relatives visit cemeteries and bring chrysanthemums to decorate the graves. November 2nd is a more sombre day – a day to stay home and think of loved ones, perhaps looking through albums of photographs.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I clicked on the thread, must... follow... rules... but I got nothing worthwhile to add.

 

[GrahamLewis]

I clicked on the thread, must... follow... rules... but I got nothing worthwhile to add.

I'm looking for some deep hidden meaning in this post. But finding nothing.

 

[JLT]

November 2nd is also the second day of El Dia de Los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Every year, I make "the Bones of the Dead," a cookie that looks like bones. It's a traditional Italian cookie that originally was associated with All Souls Day, but which my family adopted as a Christmas cookie.

When I worked in a factory with some Hispanic fellow workers, I made a bunch and handed them out. The Anglos thought it was really weird, but the Hispanics were totally down with it.

I wrote about making these cookies here:

Making the Bones -- A Christmas Meditation

© 2014 by John LaTorre It is December, and as usual I am making “Ossi di Morte.” These little bone-shaped cookies come from southern I...

jayeltee.blogspot.com

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I spent a good portion of today sorting, repacking, and relocating fabric and art supplies. Nothing even appraoching order has been achieved, but I'm getting there. Doing something tactile and physical after a month of NWT has been remarkably relaxing.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I'm looking for some deep hidden meaning in this post. But finding nothing.

I haven't been doing deep hidden meanings this week. Try back on Monday.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I spent some of the day packing. I'm moving to my parents' house tomorrow (Monday) night, because they're going on holiday very early on Tuesday morning. I'll have to be there to take care of their garden and cat, although to be honest, there'll be very little for me to do.

I know nothing about gardening, so I was given the simplest task: keeping the herbs and lemon trees alive by watering them every two-three days. OTOH, I'm a cat expert ... but again, cats take care of themselves. All I have to do is feed it, water it, empty its litter (yuck), and give it as many pets as it wants. (That's cats for you. They know they're actually masters of the universe).

 

[Louanne Learning]

Stunningly beautiful part of the world, though a bit too touristy for my liking. We were once driving the Gap of Dunloe, gorgeous, and approached one of those lads driving the horse and carriages. I asked him about the opening hours of the nearby pub for something to eat. He asked was I renting a cart, to which I said no. He then just walked away without any further acknowledgement of my existence.

Both my father's parents came from Kerry, a bit further north from where you are on the Dingle Peninsula. If you throw a rock in Kerry, you'll hit someone with my surname.

Breathtakingly beautiful. We took the Skellig Ring too, out to St. Finian’s Bay. I love staring out to the ocean- listening to the power of the waves- and imagining I’m standing there a thousand years ago.

I’ve been in a few labourer/farmer cottages and I just like to sit in them and imagine scenes that took place in them hundreds of years ago. Really makes me feel connected to the people who came before.

We also continue to have wonderful conversations with local folks. We stopped at Hore Abbey in Cashel today and it was an amazing experience, not just the majesty of the ruins and the cows in the surrounding fields walking right up to you, but a wedding party was there for their photos, the bride in a flowing white wedding gown and we wished them long life and happiness, and then from across the field a local man with a long beard comes and we strike up a conversation and he had strong political opinions.

We were also at Blarney Castle today and I happened to be sitting alone on a bench when a sexy-looking woman with big hair came up to me, tottering ever so slightly. “Do you know the way out?” she asked me.

There was an exit sign 20 feet from us. I pointed at it. “Right there.” But I never let a new person I’ve just met on vacation get away without conversation. So we talked a bit and I found out she was from Manchester and after a bit I said, “I’m from Canada.”

“I knew it!” she cried, with a hoot. “You say boot and aboot.”

We talked some more and she was swaying quite a bit, especially as she turned around to make her way to the exit, and she waved her arms around, and called out, “I’m drunk, and I’m lost!”

My sister-in-law now wants to move here she loves it so much. I’d love to live in one of those little cottages as long as I can add on a modern kitchen and bathroom.