Another Steve Lee Winner

"She Don't Like Guns" is the third song from Steve Lee's I Like Guns album, for which he has released a video.  I love the age related pun and the guns as instruments scene.  I like seeing more of Steve's wife and her frequent smiles toward him.   And as with the Lee Family videos I've watched, they all seem to really enjoy what they do.

Apparently this song has a dual role, being featured in both the family album, Welcome Road, and in an acoustic version on the Guns album.  If you, too, like guns and haven't seen the original I Like Guns video, be sure to check it out.

S.N.A.G.

A certain facebook thread (you know who you are) inspired me to diddle away yet more of my "mom's day off" with a short post on the concept of the Sensitive New Age Guy.

I believe the term originated with a song by singer-songwriter Christine Lavin.  I first heard of her song in the early 90s.

A writer over on Article Base, Raiha_Evelyn wrote her own 10-step program to becoming a SNAG.

There's also an article over on askmen, but there's too much junky stuff in the margins to link it here.   The article actually was pretty entertaining, as far as I read before the kids came in the room.  Yes, that kind of marginal junk, not even "marginally" appropriate.

One of the Urban Dictionary's entries defined a SNAG thusly,

Sensitive New Age Guy (S.N.A.G). Similar to the Metrosexual, but more timid and sensitive.  Dense clusters of Snag's can be found at woman's issues rallies. Extreme examples have been known to experience regular menstrual cramps.

Phil Donahue (extreme example)

 So, since there are not really many articles I can link, and even the videos of Ms Lavin's song are not really that great...I'll just link her lyrics in here and stop tryng to be interesting.

But I will say that she doesn't mention pedicure's in her song, I think you're safe, my friend.

Where is Banbury Cross?

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes 

While searching for a certain folk song for another writing project I have going, I stumbled upon some interesting tidbits about the origins and history of this rhyme.  Which then led my poor, undisciplined mind to a few other pages, which led to this post.

I fear my other writing project will not get done today.

Banbury is in Oxfordshire, about 70 miles northwest of London, England, Europe, Earth.

From Banbury Town, 

The name Banbury may be derived from 'Banna', a local Saxon dignitary who is said to have built his stockade here in the 500's. By the time of William the Conqueror 'Banesberie' was mentioned in the Domesday book. In the 13th century it had grown to become an important wool trading centre bringing wealth to the local population.

 From Banbury Cross

Banbury stands at the junction of two ancient roads: Salt Way, still used as a bridle path to the west and south of the town, led from Droitwich, Worcestershire to London and the south east of England, its primary use being the transportation of salt; and Banbury Lane, which began near Northampton and fairly closely followed the modern 22-mile-long road before running through Banbury's High Street and on towards the Fosse Way at Stow-on-the-Wold.

In the year 913AD a band of Danes, who had settled in Northampton, travelled along Banbury Lane and ravaged north Oxfordshire. The Danes were known to be great traders who established market towns. The outcome of their attacks is likely to have benefitted Banbury by aiding the development of the town centre. This is reflected in Banbury's Market Place, its triangular shape being typical of the Danes.

There is apparently much debate over who the fine lady in the nursery rhyme is.  Some sources say, as I had heard, that is was Queen Elizabeth I.   According to Capella University Nursery Rhymes and Lyrics and Origins page

The words of the Banbury Cross nursery rhyme are often attributed to Queen Elizabeth I of England (the fine lady) who travelled to Banbury to see a huge stone cross which had just been erected. The words 'With rings on her fingers' obviously relates to the fine jewellery which would be worn by a Queen. The words 'And bells on her toes' refer to the fashion of attaching bells to the end of the pointed toes of each shoe - this fashion actually originates from the Plantagenet era of English history but was associated with the nobility for some time! Banbury was situated at the top of a steep hill and in order to help carriages up the steep incline a white cock horse (a large stallion) was made available by the town's council to help with this task. When the Queen's carriage attempted to go up the hill a wheel broke and the Queen chose to mount the cock horse and ride to the Banbury cross. The people of the town had decorated the cock horse with ribbons and bells and provided minstrels to accompany her - "she shall have music wherever she goes". The massive stone cross at Banbury was unfortunately later destroyed by anti - Catholics who opposed the notion of pilgrimages.

But from that same site, at least one source says

The woman in question was in fact Lady Katherine Banbury, wife of Lord Jonathan Banbury. Miss Amy Banbury, sub matron of Auckland hospital, New Zealand (my grandfather's cousin) recalled after World War I her grandfather, Squire of Burford near Banbury in Oxfordshire, telling her that he distinctly recalled the white horse on which the "fine lady" used to ride. Among Lady Banbury's jewels were many very beautiful rings of which she was very fond. The bells were the tiny bells often used in those days to trim the edges of a lady's velvet saddle cloth.

And yet according to  the above linked Banbury Cross page,

The "Fyne" lady is generally thought to be a member of the Fiennes family, ancestors of Lord Saye and Sele who owns nearby Broughton Castle.

And from the Banbury Town link above,

More likely it was a local girl who rode in a May Day procession.

And I've also heard and seen references to that woman being Lady Godiva, but nobody seemed to have any history of that claim.

I don't really care, who it was, but I found all the debate over a nursery rhyme interesting.  A few other interesting morsels

• The original cross was pulled down at the end of the 16th century. The present cross was erected in 1859 to celebrate the wedding of the then Princess Royal to Prince Frederick of Prussia.
• The town is famous for Banbury Cakes, a special fruit and pastry cake, that are shipped to fans around the world.
• Kraft Foods has the world's largest coffee processing plant in Banbury.

It's That Most Blah and Funky Time of Year.

Funky as in predisposed to bring on a funk.

It's also the time of year to start a new exercise program, right?  Unless of course you are a responsible type and exercise all year long.  I suppose you can read, too, but, well, forgive me if I don't offer you much.  My post is for the regular sort of us.  Those of us who struggle to stay motivated.

I've tried tickers and they worked until the novelty wore off.  Actually they worked very well for me for quite awhile.  But at some point, the inertia holding me in place outweighed (yes a pun) the desire to move that ticker.   So I've been considering since Christmas time a variety of motivational options.  I tend to hibernate during these long northern Minnesota winters if I don't have some sort of motivation.  Hibernation may be good for bears and skunks, and a variety of other mammals.  And I do think winter is a good time to slow down and refocus.  However,for me, too much of it can easily become a rut from which it is hard to climb out come spring.

Two of Joe's cousins are considering running a 5Ktogether.  I've always wanted to do one.  I ran cross-country during one of my college stints, but I've never run an "official" 5K..  During a facebook interchange on exercise, Joe's cousin, Steph, mentioned the possibility of me joining them.  When I answered with some amount of interest, my sister, Sara, recommended the Couch to 5K program.

The claim of the program: "to get just about anyone from the couch to running 5 kilometers or 30 minutes in just 9 weeks

Basically, it's a training program that is mapped out for you using the idea of alternating in small intervals, between brisk and slow movement, and sustaining this pattern for the duration of the workout.  The rate of fast to slow intervals gradually increases over a period of weeks.

But here's what I really like about this.  Many people have done this.  And because the internet is such an amazing place to share all sorts of information, these people have created all sorts of downloadable materials to which you can listen while you work out.  Many will tell you or indicate by a change in music style, when to slow down and when to speed up.  There are apps for phones and Christian themed podcasts; there are blank ones that just tell you when to switch your pace, and to which a more technologically inclined person than I can apparently add his or her own choice of listening material.

I like the look of this Podrunner: Intervals site.  It apparently includes musical cues to tell when to change pace.  The author has several varieties of plans depending upon whether you want to work toward a 5k, an 8K, a 10k or just bump up your pace. The accompaniments are based upon a certain number of beats per minute.

Now all I need is an mp3 player.  I did finally splurge and buy one when Louisa went to Hawaii.  She was supposed to read Great Expectations for school and was afraid she would not be able to muddle through it.  Since I am such an indulgent parent, (I'd get a major eye-roll at at that one) I allowed her to download it to listen to on the plane.  But since her mp3 player had been confiscated awhile ago, I bought one (for myself, with the winter exercise season in mind) and allowed her to borrow it. 

Unfortunately, it seems to have disappeared into the heaps of stuff I have waiting fro me to get to.  She says she gave it back and I have no reason to doubt her word...

Maybe if I just get up and start sorting all my heaps, I wouldn't need a training g program.  I'd probably get a pretty good workout, just dong that.

Hobbies, Old and New and Revisited

I love how one hobby can lead to another.

Or how about when you have something you enjoy, but really know little about, gradually your interest in this certain something wanes.  Then along comes a related thing 20 years later that connects somehow to that past interest.

Or what if your teen aged children show interest in some pop cultural phenomenon from your youth, or back further than that even.  And they begin to know more songs or music or groups from "back in the day" than you yourself do.  And so you join them in learning.

Now what if all these things collide.

OK, yeah, I have something specific in mind.  The story will probably end up longer than I want.  They always do. 

When I was young, I really was too busy playing to pay attention to culture.  My older sister was the cultured person.  She could draw and talk about books and historical places.

I envied her.

But not enough to take the time to learn any of these things myself.

She also followed pop music.  She listened to Casey Kasem's weekly top forty after church each week.

I only embarrassed myself if I tried to talk about such things.  I generally knew just enough to put my foot in my mouth.

When I progressed through my high school and college years, I discovered social life and that, pretty much was all I did.  Some of the youth knew about pop culture.  Some of the youth knew about historical culture.  I had a great memory.  I could I listen and soak things up, but I always felt a bit like a "culture plagiarist".  I could remember what others said and talked about, and I could spit it back out, but it wasn't my own.  I didn't really know anything about what I was repeating.

During my time at one of the several colleges I attended, I took voice lessons.  I loved the Italian arias I had to learn.  The melodies were beautiful and the tones that I could only dream of producing were haunting.

But that lasted only one short year.  I later studied Italian, in the hopes I'd be able to appreciate the songs and even opera itself someday.  But my study of Italian, too, it seems, was short lived.

Now pan forward in time, about twenty years.  I really like bonnet movies.  Yeah, those girl ones that have all the old time language and dresses and romance.  My two favorites are the BBC Pride and Prejudice and the 1995 Sense and Sensibility.  And in those two movies, the female heroines both sing lovely arias.  After a little research, I  found the vocal scores to Marianne's songs in Sense and Sensibility. These are both original vocal arrangements by Patrick Doyle, written specifically for this movie.

Later I discovered that the aria Lizzy sings at Pemberly, in Pride and Prejudice, is an older song.  It's from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, which you've probably heard of in it's English title, The Marriage of Figaro.  It's Cherubino's song, Voi che sapete, or "You Know what Love Is", or as it's translated for the movie, "You Who Have Tasted Love's Mystic Spell."  I found music for that in a 1913 collection of music we picked up used, The Ideal Home Music Library. This song is in Volume VIII, Songs from the Opera.



And so things come full circle.  An interest I had in college, but had no context in which to pursue, has now been revived because of a literary and even pop cultural interest in my adult years.

And on a final, kind of funny, tangentially related note, I found a piano book of pop songs in the same used bookstore.  The Very Best of the Superstars.  Abba, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Helen Reddy,...One of my favorites in there, "Bohemian Rhapsody", the rock opera by Queen.  I don't have it down pat yet; there are lots of key changes and accidentals.  But I'm getting better.  The harmonies and intricacy of the music touches me somehow.  And one of my great pleasures is when my son, Jeremy, who is a senior in high school, comes in and sings over my shoulder as I muddle through it.

A Few Moments of Pleasure

This video production of the Hallelujah Chorus by the fifth grade class in Quinhagak, AK, is worth the time it takes to load.   My friend, Sarah, posted this on facebook today and I wanted to pass it along.  It made us smile, chuckle, and even laugh out loud with the joy this few minutes brought.

Connie Delaney at Suite101 gives this commentary that expresses well some of the reasons the video is so pleasing.

Just What is it About Jane Austen?

A friend recently compared (the book) Pride and Prejudice, to a soap opera, that had entertaining dialog.

That got me thinking about the appeal of Jane Austen.  What is it that compels primarily women to read her books over and over?  Sometimes ripping through the entire collection on a yearly basis...Is it the soap opera quality?  I shuddered to think that might be it.  Is it the perpetually witty dialog?  Or some intangible facet of her writing?

After some thought and a new start on my next round through Jane Austen's titles, I have a ready reply.  It is most emphatically NOT the soap opera quality, if even such exists.  I'm not convinced of that aspect at this point.  Yes,  I love the dialog and the character typing.  I love the language that to our modern ears is so fun.  but to me, the most compelling aspect of an Austen novel is her profound grasp of human nature.  She hits time after time, page after page, the idiosyncrasies of various personality types and those foibles that the readers see in themselves and others.

Since I started my foray into this latest round of things Austen with Pride and Prejudice, I'll restrict my quotes to that book.  In fact I can think of several examples just from the first few chapters.  But each chapter of each title is a feast for study of human nature.

Her well-known opening line of P&P is a good place to start.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

This quote is perhaps not quite as poignant to us today, since our economic system and the freedoms women have today is so markedly different than it was when Jane Austen wrote in the early 1800s.  But it doesn't take much imagination to understand the point of the sentence.  And with a small amount of contemplation, most of us can even think of a person or two  who hold similar presumptions.  What do we consider an eligible bachelor today?  One who has a college degree or a stable job.  Better yet perhaps if he owns his own home, leases a nice car or has a boat.  Such a man certainly must be in the market next for a good wife, right?

On the trustworthiness and inevitability of idle gossip, Ms Austen has this to say.

...a report soon followed that Mr. Bingly was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly.  The girls grieved over such a number of ladies; but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing, that instead of twelve, he had brought only six with him from London, his five sisters and a cousin.  And when the party entered the assembly room, it consisted of only five altogether; Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, the husband of the eldest, and another young man.

In my book this is all of eight lines and yet Austen captures these aspects of gossip: people will gossip, we will get things wrong, and people will be affected to one degree or another by what is reported.

On the attractiveness of wealth and manners, (please keep in mind that Mr. Bingley, as opposed to his friend, Mr. Darcy, had a mere five thousand a year.)

Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien; and the report which was in general circulation within five minute after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year...the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large Derbyshire estate could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.

Firstly, the possession of wealth can effect an opinion of the one who possesses such wealth. Secondly, upon further acquaintance, we can get beyond the wealth to the person who possesses it.  And third, we hope to still find in such a possessor of great wealth, some redeeming personality trait.

And on the particular character trait of pride, and the prejudice against such pride Austen plays the entire length of the book.  But that's another post. Pride and Prejudice, after all.

On the different ways a man and women appreciate a social occasion, Mrs. Bennet, upon returning home, relates the highlights of the assembly to Mr. Bennet (male readers beware, just reading the following may vex you as it did Mr. Bennet),

Only think of that my dear; he actually danced with her twice; and she was the only creature in the room that he asked a second time.  First of all, he asked Miss Lucas.  I was so vexed to see him stand up with her; but, however, he did not admire her at all: indeed, nobody can, you know; and he seemed quite struck with Jane as she was going down the dance.  So, he enquired who she was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next.  Then, the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane again, and the two sixth with Lizzy, and the Boulanger--"
     "If he had any compassion for me," cried her husband impatiently, "he would not have danced half so much!  For [goodness'] sake, say no more of his partners.  Oh! that he had sprained his ancle in the first dance!"
     "Oh! my dear," continued Mrs. Bennet, "I am quite delighted with him.  He is so excessively handsome!  and his sisters are charming women.  I never in my life saw any thing more elegant than their dresses.  I dare say the lace upon Mrs Hurst's gown--"
    Here she was interrupted again.  Mr., Bennet protested against any description of finery."

Perhaps I'm taking too many liberties with my prejudice toward both men and women, but probably most married people can relate to this interchange.  We women prattle on and on about those details we enjoy and our husbands think to themselves, "Enough already!  I"m sorry I asked."

And I could go on and on with such examples of Jane Austen's brilliance in portraying these "truths universally acknowledged". But really, if you never have, just read the books.  Or even if you've already read them fifteen times, isn't' it time for another plunge?