“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”
― William Shakespeare
If y'all would rather read a traditional Hallowe'en blog post, this from 2009 might fit the bill - otherwise, for 2016 on a Music Monday... it's gotta be scary!
Finishing off off with:
May you have an ominous Allhallows Eve! I'd say that all of us in America are having a creepy run-up to the election. The thought of a wicked, Trump-Pence "leadership" is very spine-chilling to me.
ReplyDeleteI sure like the Disturbed version of "Sounds of Silence"...very powerful. Usually the original version of a song is the best, but every once in a while a group will completely remake a song into a uniquely separate production.
Not sure what drives evil in humans. As I've repeated a number of times here, Isabel Hickey stated that evil is simply live spelled backward. We are capable of heinous acts upon each other and so often in the name of our gawds or our skewed comprehension of good. We have a proclivity and fascination with the very dark side of our potential.
“Conservatives understand Halloween, liberals only understand Christmas. If you want to control a population, don't give it social services, give it a scary adversary.” Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
mike ~ Thanks - and to you too!
ReplyDeleteLOL - Trump/Pence the Ugly Brothers versus poor Cinderella and Buttons ya mean? :-D
I just wish the lot of 'em would turn into pumpkins at midnight, and a new cast of characters would emerge. ;-/
Welcome back, Twilight.:) And thanks for the Disturbed rendition of "Sounds of Silence". It's beautiful. I used to play the original over and over as a kid, but you know, I realized as I listened again this morning, I'd never really understood its meaning. Now I do.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I no longer enjoy or appreciate Halloween the way I once did. Instead, I see Halloween ~at least the way it's celebrated by many~ as a metaphor for our American way of life, another capitalistic opportunity to entertain the masses, keep us happy and spellbound, walking dead dressed up in costumes and content in our illusions. We fulfill our roles as dutiful 'consumers' who gobble up and spend BILLIONS of dollars on throwaway plastic and/or sugary *junk* without nutritional value.
We promote Halloween as a kid-friendly celebration. The irony is many of the products being consumed, for instance, *chocolate*, were probably produced using child-slaves and/or forced labor!
But they're not *our* children; cognitive dissonance and denial allow us to keep on buying even when we know. To be fair, some don't know.
Every purchase supports something, often a large corporation, like Nestle:
http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/10/water-human-rights-canadians-call-boycott-nestle-products/
Our choices say something bigger about what it is we value and how we've been conditioned to think/not think about our world. Chris Hedges addresses this in his most recent article on Truthdig, "American Irrationalism":
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/american_irrationalism_201610305
Now that I understand the song's meaning, I think Chris Hedge's article conveys a similar message as the one in "Sounds of Silence".:(
If I had kids, I'd use this day as a teaching opportunity (to talk about all the dark stuff nobody wants to talk about and how to face our fears), find a different way to celebrate. Maybe carve out a pumpkin and use the stuffing to bake a pie, invite a few friends over to play games and bob for apples, watch a scary movie and talk about it. Or something, I don't know.
LB ~ Hey there! You make some good and valid points, LB.
ReplyDeleteSome traditions have become - I dunno - ironic I guess, in today's world. They belong to a time now passed.
I felt much the same as you when I first heard the "Disturbed" version of S.of S.
It certainly brings out its meaning for today's world.
I haven't read Chris Hedges most recent article yet. Will do so.