Saturday & Sundries

At Free Will Astrology this week Rob Brezsny told Aquarian types that:

In 1938, a chef named Ruth Wakefield dreamed up a brilliant invention: chocolate chip cookies. She sold her recipe to the Nestlé company in return for one dollar and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Maybe she was happy with that arrangement, but I think she cheated herself........(etc.)

Ms Wakefield did the world a favour! In my opinion, though, choc chip cookies do not beat wonderful British Chocolate Digestives by McVitie. From the Wikipedia page on Digestive Biscuits in general - sc roll down:

Chocolate digestive biscuits also are available, coated on one side with milk, dark or white chocolate. Originally produced by McVitie's in 1925 in the UK as the Chocolate Homewheat Digestive....American travel writer Bill Bryson described the chocolate digestive as "a British masterpiece". The McVitie's chocolate digestive is the most popular biscuit in the UK to dunk into tea.

The Sartorialist website one day this week (a daily stop for me) inadvertently introduced me to another artist I'd not heard of: Ai Weiwei, when The Sartorialist's photographer and the artist decided to take photographs of one another at the same time.

Ai Weiwei, I discovered, once created a set of bronze sculptures representing the Chinese Zodiac
See Zodiac Heads
and The Meaning of Ai Weiwei's 12 Zodiac Heads

An interesting topic upon which to exercise imagination:

The Amazing Cloud Cities we Could Build on Venus by Adam Becker

Space scientists are pouring much time and effort into colonising Mars. But could we also live in the atmosphere of Venus? BBC Future investigates.

Snips:

It’s hot enough to melt lead, the acid rain will scorch the flesh from your bones – and it’s the perfect place to raise a family. Venus, not Mars, might be the off-world destination of choice for future space colonists..........

So how could we ever possibly hope to live there? The key is to avoid the surface. “The problem with Venus is that the surface is too far below the one-Earth-atmosphere [of air pressure] level,” says Geoffrey Landis, the Nasa scientist and science fiction writer who was among the first to propose the idea. “The atmosphere of Venus is the most Earth-like environment in the Solar System (other than the Earth).” Some 50 kilometres (30 miles) above the surface, Venus is surprisingly hospitable........

To live on Venus, then, just fill a balloon with nitrogen and oxygen, and live inside the balloon. A big enough balloon will have enough lifting power to support you and your supplies – and a really big balloon could do even more. “A one-kilometre diameter spherical [balloon] will lift 700,000 tons – two Empire State Buildings. A two-kilometre diameter [balloon] would lift six million tons,” says Landis. “The result would be an environment as spacious as a typical city.”.........

All of which brought to mind this ditty:

Hat-tip to Avedon's Sideshow (link in sidebar) for this -

Watching This Rare Color Film Of London In 1927 Makes You Feel Like You're There, by Emily Davis.

This wonderful short film was shot by early film pioneer Claude Friese-Greene in 1927, and is some of the first-ever color film footage of London.

Which, in turn, brought to mind that we've been watching a new TV series on NBC "Timeless" (mainly because it follows "The Voice", so we're already on TV rather than partaking of Netflix offerings).

We've seen 4 weekly episodes so far. The series is not awful, but it isn't great time travel fare either. The episodes need to be longer, dialogue needs more depth. To date the time travellers have tried: to stop a rogue time traveller from preventing the Hindenberg disaster; from preventing the assassination of Abe Lincoln, from something we hadn't quite worked out, and this week from preventing the Nazis using an atomic weapon on Belgium, and preventing Werner Von Braun from going to work in the USA. What the plot's characters are doing isn't travelling back to change stuff themselves, but to prevent a rogue traveller from changing stuff, and in the process causing numerous potentially catastrophic "butterfly effects".

As we told one another on Monday evening, "This theme, done this way, could get old quite quickly now!"

"All human life is there"

Here's a link to an oddity, passed on to my husband by a friend of his via the dreaded Facebook. Because there's no English translation available, it's up to each viewer to make of it what they will. The video was skillfully put together, for sure!

VIDEO

After I watched it, first words coming to mind were: "All human life is there". Where did those words spring from? I pondered. They were buried in files at the back of of my memory bank. A now defunct British Sunday newspaper, News of the World used to carry its motto, those words, under its banner header during the 1950s. Originally a broadsheet, later a tabloid, that newspaper was one of Britain's most disreputable, its focus was on scandal, celebrities, sex and sport - it was popular with the masses, and nicknamed "Screws of the World". The newspaper had borrowed its motto from a line in a 19th century short story by Henry James, The Madonna of the Future. Full text of the story can be read at The Literature Network.

Cats and monkeys — monkeys and cats — all human life is there!

The story is about art and artists, their illusions and delusions.

All of which has little to do with the video, apart from the fact that a lot of human life is there too.

Cats and monkeys... ring a bell also. These bells are a pesky nuisance! A little fable - recalled with the help of a blog HERE

...a 16th century fable entitled The Monkey and the Cat. A monkey and a cat are roasting chestnuts in a hearth. The monkey persuades the cat to let the monkey remove the roasted chestnuts from the fire and embers by using the cat’s paw, promising the cat a share for obliging. As the cat scoops them from the fire, one by one, burning its paw more and more, the monkey eats all the chestnuts. They are disturbed by a maid entering and the cat ends up with nothing except burned paws.

The fable has given rise to two expressions:
To do someone else's dangerous or unpleasant task is to pull the chestnuts out of the fire (for that person) or to pull (that person's) chestnuts out of the fire.

A person who is tricked into doing something dangerous or foolish for someone else
is a cat's-paw.

Coincidentally, accidentally, or serendipitously, mention of monkeys reminds me that in Chinese astrology the Year of the Fire Monkey is about to begin.

Monkey year begins on February 8, 2016 on the new Moon in Aquarius at 6:39 am PT. Chinese New Years Eve is the the second new Moon after Winter Solstice.

Those born in Monkey years 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004 can read about themselves briefly HERE, and elsewhere on Chinese astrology websites.

Year of the Sheep

We're entering
Year of the Sheep. There's plenty of information available about astrological matters related, I'll not add to the clutter. Instead, a couple of sheepish old photographs from husband's vintage stash, others from his camera; then a link and taster to a nice short story concerning a sheep herder's wondrous experience (no, not that famous biblical one).

Lucky Ewe

  2 from our collection of Artesania Rinconada animal sculptures

Short story. Are y'all siting comfortably? Then I'll begin....

"Lambing Season".

First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction,2002 (nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Short Story and a Nebula Award for Best Short Story), written by Molly Gloss (born November 20, 1944). Ms Gloss is an American writer currently best known for historical fiction and science fiction. The story is re-printed in Clarkesworld magazine, and available to read at the website HERE. There's an audio version available too.

SNIPS

.........She had about 800 ewes, as well as their lambs, many of them twins or triplets. The ferocity of the Churro ewes in defending their offspring was sometimes a problem for the dogs, but in the balance of things she knew it kept her losses small. Many coyotes lived on Joe-Johns, and sometimes a cougar or bear would come up from the salt-pan desert on the north side of the mountain, looking for better country to own. These animals considered the sheep to be fair game, which Delia understood to be their right; and also her right, hers and the dogs, to take the side of the sheep. Sheep were smarter than people commonly believed and the Churros smarter than other sheep she had tended, but by mid-summer the coyotes had passed the word among themselves, buen’ carne, and Delia and the dogs then had a job of work, keeping the sheep out of harm’s way......


..........When she had come about halfway down the hill she lost footing and slid down six or eight feet before she got her heels dug in and found a handful of willow scrub to hang onto. A glimpse of this movement—rocks sliding to the bottom, or the dust she raised—must have startled the dog, for it leaped backward suddenly and then reared up. They looked at each other in silence, Delia and the dog, Delia standing leaning into the steep slope a dozen yards above the bottom of the draw, and the dog standing next to the Sputnik, standing all the way up on its hind legs like a bear or a man and no longer seeming to be a dog but a person with a long narrow muzzle and a narrow chest, turned-out knees, delicate dog-like feet. Its genitals were more cat-like than dog, a male set but very small and neat and contained. Dog’s eyes, though, dark and small and shining below an anxious brow........

Grace & Fury in Myth and Dance

Last week we attended a performance by the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company at our local theatre. Dancers were cross-cultural: from China, Moscow, New Jersey, Korea, Cuba, Japan, and California , their choreographer and artistic director is Nai-Ni Chen who was a renowned traditional dancer in the Republic of China and served on several ambassadorial culture missions around the world. The show was a blend of traditional and modern dance.

Looking through the photographs my husband managed to capture with his pocket camera during the performance brought to mind an old post of mine featuring the Three Graces and The Three Furies. Dug it out, combined an edited version with our photographs.


One of Raphael's paintings depicts The Three Graces. In mythology these were goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, said to rule beauty and charm in nature and humanity. Aglaia represents radiance or splendor. Euphrosyne represents joy. Thalia represents fruitfulness or good cheer.


Which planets might the three sisters personify ? I'd guess Sun for radiance and splendor, Venus and Jupiter for the other two, not sure which is which though.

We all embody a potential for both grace and fury.


Here, with delicate grace the dancers performed Raindrops: Choreographer Nai-Ni chen drew inspiration from her childhood memory of the Taiwanese city in which she was born, Keelong, also known as the "Rain Harbor".



The exquisitely graceful and elegant Peacock Dance. The peacock is considered a sacred bird among the Dai people in the Yunan province. Movements derive from real actions of the peacock - drinking water, walking, running, grooming feathers.
Dancer was Min Zhou.





There was a lovely dance: The Way of Five - Fire which we didn't manage to capture. The photo is from the Dance company's website linked above.

A leaflet provided tells that this was Nai-Ni Chen's first exploration of the ancient Chinese theory that the cycles of creation and destruction correspond to the ever-changing phenomena of nature. the "Five" refers to the five elements: wood, water, fire, metal and earth. Each element as part of the forces of nature, creates another in harmony and destroys another in conflict.

(I wonder why Chinese elements do not include Air, as in astrological elements in western tradition?)




And so to The Furies:

Another trio - The Three Furies, the Greek Erinyes, daughters of Gaia (Earth) sprung from the blood of Uranus could be said to represent the shadow sides of the Three Graces. This painting is by W. Bouguereau Orestes and the Furies. Tisiphone (avenger of blood) Alecto (the implacable) and Megaera (the jealous one). Said to be merciless goddesses of vengance whose punishments continued after death. Which planets might carry the attributes of these three lovelies? Mars, Saturn, and what about "the jealous one"? The Moon, perhaps? I tend to give the Moon a positive interpretation, but in tarot,the Moon card isn't one of the true "goodies". The Moon is changeable, temperamental, could easily be jealous. Yes, I'll choose the Moon to represent "the jealous one".


In dance:
Lu Wen-Long, the Warrior. (A Warrior is nothing if not a symbol of fury!)
This dance is taken from the 500 year old Chinese Kunqu Opera. Legend goes that Lu Wen-Long was abducted from his Han military family by Manchurians, grew up among enemies of his family. After aiding the Manchrians in many victories he defected to become a famous general of his own Han people. The high platform shoes of his costume, and head dress of long bird feathers symbolise a courageous young general. The short white stick symbolises his white horse, and the double spears are his special weapons. Dancer: Yao-Zhong Zhang.





The Lion Dance (not exactly furious though) - Said to have originated in the Tang Dynasty 3,000 years ago. Seen as a prayer of peace because during the dance a child playfully leads a beast. Child and beast playing together symbolises harmony on earth. The Lion Dance is always performed at Chinese New Year. there are many different styles of the Lion Dance, this was the northern style.



The show finished with a colourful dance, Festival, based on the Dragon Boat summer festival. The spinning, floating ribbons symbolise prosperity of the village.

Predictions of Gin Chow & The Sexagenary Cycles

In The Best of the Illustrated Astrological Journal (1933-35), an old volume I picked up in an antique store some time ago, a brief article Gin Chow, Chinese Prophet of Lompoc -by Thomas F. Collison, caught my interest.

Gin Chow, an immigrant from China, lived in Lompoc in the Santa Inez River valley, Santa Barbara county, California. He gathered the reputation of being a sage and prophet due to an ability to accurately predict the weather and timing of earthquakes.


The article tells that Gin Chow made no claim to be clairvoyant, and denied that he was a soothsayer, yet his fame spread. He used Chinese astrological doctrine, "The Yellow Road zodiac", ancient lore touching on the "fates of men and the fates of nations, and the way of the rains and the droughts and the hot spells and cold spells and earthquake phenomena", using cycles of 60 years.

Gin Chow correctly predicted that Yokohama would quake in 1923 and that Santa Barbara would fall in ruins in 1925. He believed that the destiny of China and United States "They tied up together....China is old man, Amelica is infant, but wise baby. China not been wise. She pay too much 'tention to ancestors, by Amelica she benefit much if she help China".

Other predictions by Chow cited by Thomas Stroke in his 1958 book California Editor include a a 1932 prediction of a United States war with Japan that would end in 1946 (World War II ended in 1945).

Wikipedia has a page on Gin Chow, and records that
Chow's last prediction came in 1932. He had been seriously gored by a bull and doctors believed him to be on his deathbed. Chow assured them that he would die one year later. He died in June 1933.

Chinese Astrology follows the cycles of the Moon. A complete cycle of sixty lunar years is made up of five twelve year cycles. The twelve-year cycle is sometimes called "The Yellow Road of the Sun".

I searched online for more information and found this. I suspect some astrologers might argue with the first sentence!

All astrology derives from ancient Chinese philosophy developed between 4000 and 2000 BC. At its heart is the concept of complementary opposites, and the interaction between elemental forces within a 60 year cycle dominated by the Moon. No one force or element dominates another, but each requires the others for its existence. As time progresses through the cycle, life forces change, but are always held in balance by an opposing force.
The present 60 year cycle started in 1984 – the year which George Orwell foresaw as a new world dominated by what he believed to be the dark forces of information technology in an age of fearsome new weaponry – and will end in 2044.
http://www.myqualities.com/astrology/Chinese-Astrology.asp

Hmm. Using that 12-year count we are currently in the span 2008 to 2020, the third of five 12-year segments since the previous cycle ended in 1983. I feel no affinity at all to Chinese astrology, so am drawing a blank here. There's more detail on the Sexagenery Cycle in Chinese astrology at Wikipedia