Music Monday ~ Neat Tweets

I have a Twitter account, but don't use it much for its main purpose. I've recently been reading threads in the # hashtag menu where a kind of game is sometimes played using song titles, book or movie titles - there's almost always something to bring on a grin, and occasionally a LOL.

At the weekend a # "Songs with Lower Expectations" appeared. I decided to borrow a few Tweets from the long thread for this Music Monday. I feel sure there'd have been an easier way to copy Tweets than the way I did - ham-fistedly, but here are some I enjoyed, followed by a few I made up myself (but didn't Tweet).

My own ideas for Songs With Lower Expectations:

Fools Saunter In

Half an Hour in the Life

A Half Litre Bottle of You

Stranger in a Boring City

The Night They Invented 3.2 Beer

Send in the Cleaners

Free State & Bears

Good stuff seen this week : Free State of Jones at the cinema; and the bears on Bearcam. If that Bearcam link no longer works, a Google search for Bearcam will provide others. I find watching it to be nicely relaxing, the sound of the water as well as the visual treats.

Matthew McConaughey has lately been showing us that he's a serious actor. His early films used him as pure chick-flick bait, lightweight in acting demands. In recent years Matthew (I'll call him by his first name because I simply cannot remember how to spell his surname) has proved what he really can do given the opportunity: in Dallas Buyers Club, Interstellar, Season 1 of TV series True Detective; and The Lincoln Lawyer for example he's proved he's a lot more than simply Texas cheesecake. That pattern continues in Free State of Jones.

Free State of Jones is a deadly serious movie, unlike most others on offer at this time of year. It's really a history lesson made palatable by excellent performances, by Matthew and a cast of mostly unknown (to me) actors, both black and white.

Much that was relevant in the mid 19th century, when the movie is set, is still sadly relevant today, in different ways or contexts. I've read a couple of reviews since seeing the film, one applauding it, one not as keen. I understand there are some which really pan the film badly. To each their own! I'm very glad to have seen it, was never bored at any point during the 2 hours and 19 minutes of its run-time.

There's a very good piece at Smithsonian website outlining the long painstaking research period undertaken by Gary Ross, the film's director. Even for anyone not seeing the movie, I think this article's detail of the story would be of general interest .

In a nutshell, Free State of Jones, necessarily fictionalised in places, is the fact-based story of a poor white Mississippi yeoman farmer, Newton Knight (played by Matthew M), during the time of the Civil War and after. Knight discovered an unexpected "calling". He deserted from his nurse/orderly post in the Confederate army, during a bloody battle (the early scenes in the film had me covering my eyes), to return the body of a very young kinsman to his mother. Knight had become so disenchanted with the war, enough so that he was to remain a deserter, continually on the run. He threw in his lot with a group of runaway slaves. The group was joined, in time, by other local opposers of the war, runaway slaves and men and women whose homes and livelihoods had been destroyed by Confederate forces.

After many challenges, changes and much heart-searching there was established by Newton Knight and his followers, in Jones County within the state of Mississippi, the tiny "Free State of Jones". Within this Free State all, regardless of colour of their skin, were considered equal. There were some problems in that regard along the way, but it was due to Newt Knight's strong personality and leadership skills that most were smoothed.

 Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw)

There's little time for romance in this movie. Knight manages to keep both his original wife and family, together with a new black lover, Rachel, a slave from a nearby plantation who he first met in early scenes when she helped heal his son's fever. He has several children by her too, but that's not the main part of the film's story. Knight, by the end of the film, wills his property to Rachel, being unable to marry her under segregation law then in force.

Interspersed, in the 19th century action, now and then and rather oddly, but for a purpose, are scenes in a Mississippi courtroom some 85 years later, when a great grandson of Newton Knight is being tried for marrying a white woman. The great grandson looks just like any other white man, but it has been proved that he has one eighth black blood, from his great grandmother, Rachel - Newt Knight's black common-law wife. He is therefore sent to jail for marrying a white woman. Reviewers I've read are critical of these "inserts", but I felt they showed how, in spite of every effort, every good intention, every law, the insidious disease of racism persisted - and still persists now, a further 70 years on.

A scene I saw as important, though not mentioned in the reviews I read: after slaves were freed and eventually allowed to vote, Newt Knight saw to it that they all attended the voting place. They, along with Newt and his mixed group, were told that voting papers for Republicans had not arrived, only Democrats could vote. Knight stood his ground and demanded they be given voting papers , and eventually they were - and they all voted. However, when the results were declared and recorded they were as follows: Democrats - more than 400; Republicans - 2. (This in spite of the fact that the former slaves and Knight's large mixed group of followers had all voted Republican).

Memorable quotes from the movie:

Newton Knight: I'm tired of it. You, me, all of it! We're all out there dying so they can stay rich!

Will Sumrall: [referring to Knight's young kinsman, Daniel] He died with honor.
Newton Knight: No, Will, he just died.

Newton Knight: Somehow, some way, and some time, everybody is somebody else’s nigger.

Newton Knight: From this day forward we declare the land north of Pascagoula Swamp, south of enterprise and east to the Pearl River to the Alabama border, to be a Free State of Jones. And as such we do hereby proclaim and affirm the following principles.
Number one, no man ought to stay poor so another man can get rich.
Number two, no man ought to tell another man what you got to live for or what he's got to die for.
Number three, what you put in the ground is yours to tend and harvest and there ain't no man ought to be able to take that away from you.
Number four, every man is a man. If you walk on two legs, you're a man. It's as simple as that.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Canadian Painter Tom Thomson & His Mysterious Death.

This time, looking to discover whether astrology can help explain the mysterious and tragic death of a painter.

Tom Thomson, one of Canada’s most influential painters of the 20th-century, was last seen alive around mid-day, July 8, 1917, when setting out alone across Canoe Lake to begin a fishing trip. He was familiar with the area, having visited there a number of times – while working in the Park as a fire ranger, a guide for fishing parties, and of course, pursuing his painting. Within hours of his departure, his empty canoe was spotted floating not far from the dock he had left from, and more than a week later, his body surfaced in the lake. His untimely death helped transform the aspiring artist into a cultural giant. His paintings are now seen in galleries across Canada, and exhibitions of his work always attract large audiences. In the last few years, paintings by Thomson have fetched over a million dollars at auction.

How Thomson died, who found his body, its condition, and even its final resting place all remain mysteries. Some propose the cause of Thomson’s death was an accident resulting from plain bad luck, while others suggest suicide, and still others point to foul play resulting from a conflict over debt, a love interest, or opinions about the war effort. To add even more mystery to the affair there are serious questions regarding whether Thomson’s body was moved from its first resting place............

(More HERE)








From a piece on Thomson by Lee Parsons HERE

Tom Thomson grew up in a family of 10 children in the small town of Leith, Ontario, near the shores of Georgian Bay. Second-generation Scottish, his parents placed a good deal of importance on their children’s cultural education, encouraging them in the areas of literature, art and particularly music.........

Thomson suffered from a weak constitution as a child and at a certain point was taken out of school because of a chronic lung ailment. Consequently, he spent a good deal of time away from the social interaction of school and passed many of his formative years relatively isolated, often exploring the neighboring forests and fields where he developed a close affinity with nature. Though he could be highly focused when he set himself a task, he typically wouldn’t pursue any interest for very long and this aimlessness characterized his early adult years. He worked in various occupations—as a farmer and as a machinist, and at one point he attended business school in Chatham, Ontario, before he found a pursuit that brought him some satisfaction.

Thomson’s brothers had ventured out to Seattle when he was 20 to start a business school, and he followed them there and began working as a photoengraver for an advertising company. With some success under his belt, he returned to Ontario to continue as a photoengraver and during this time set about developing his skills as a graphic designer. It was at this point that he took to drawing, albeit in somewhat crude strokes, taking some classes in both drawing and painting for a time.

Little is known about his activities until 1911—about five years later. While in Seattle, there is some record of a troubled romantic episode that may have prompted his return to Toronto; his relations with women seem to have been problematic on the whole. It was during this time, however, that he began working for a prominent commercial art firm then known as Grip Limited where he met some of the men who were to influence his development as a landscape painter.

Noon chart for birth of Tom Thomson - 5 August 1877 in Claremont, Ontario, Canada.

Noon chart for 8July, 1917, possible date of death of Tom Thomson on Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada.

Any ideas? I see that transiting Uranus, planet of the unexpected, was opposing natal Uranus at the time of Thomson's death.

Natally, Jupiter in Sagittarius trined Uranus in Leo, while Pluto was in square aspect to Uranus.

On date of death the transiting conjunction of Saturn/Neptune/Venus at 1/3/5 Leo was in the general area of Thomson's natal Sun at 13 degrees, but certainly not close enough to be considered conjunct at that time - whether this is relevant I'm unsure.

The Uranus opposition seems most of interest.

Blogly

Today I got nuttin' - maybe some other extant bloggers have sumtin':




Kn@ppster - King of all Polemic
5th July post on Hillary caught my attention.

Tom Clark Blog
Just scroll down the photographs - always something of interest or delight.

Sentence first - an Irishman's blog about the English language.
Speaks for itself! Lots to pick at, if you enjoy words and stringing 'em together.

DARKBLACK - Steaks from sacred cows, cheap.
More and more fun with The Donald - scrolling down.

Women in Charge: Comparing May and Thatcher

I have some sympathy with the sentiments expressed in this brief piece:

Voter wishes we could just once have woman leader who didn’t openly despise us.

SNIP: “Unfortunately here in England we’re once again faced with a step forward for feminism being three to four steps back for humanity, whose rights Theresa May is actively campaigning on stripping away.”

I don't recall Theresa May from my time in the UK, though she must have been around. It's looking highly likely that she will succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister, but we won't know for sure for a few weeks, there are various stages of voting to be completed.

British astrologer Marjorie Orr took a quick look at Ms May's natal chart, along with those of other bright sparks hoping for "a leg-up the political ladder" during this oddly chaotic political season.

I'm inclined to compare Theresa May's natal chart to that of Margaret Thatcher - just because...

Margaret Thatcher: born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, at 9 a.m. according to Astrodatabank (A rating)..
Thatcher ought to have been more of a charmer, except for her Saturn in Scorpio rising - that is if 9.00am exact is really 100% accurate, if so with Pluto in trine to Saturn, from Cancer, the lady was likely to exude both power and....sexiness - really....Maggie Thatcher? (I do recall, though, reading that in her youth Maggie was something of a charmer among her male colleagues - pity it didn't extend to her "subjects!)

Moon at 28 Leo, if time were not 100% accurate could have been in Virgo, and I see that as not unlikely. She had only one planet in Earth - if born at 9 am on the dot: Jupiter in Capricorn, which is a good fit.

Theresa May born on 1 October 1956 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. No time of birth available - chart set for noon.
This lady is more earthy workhorse than charmer, I suspect. Without time of birth ascendant can't be known but, what a coincidence that at noon Saturn was in much the same position as in Thatcher's chart! Saturn would be in Scorpio whatever time May were born, but not necessarily on the ascendant, so the two have that in common, as well as natal Suns in Libra.

Astrologer Jane Harrison at always Astrology begins a piece on Saturn in Scorpio thus:

Saturn in Scorpio is impatient. They demand a lot from themselves and from those around them. They can be so intense that it can be overwhelming to those who are not as directed as they are. Full of willpower and energy, they are so determined to meet their goals it is hard for them to remain calm. They are not the type to stop and smell the roses. Instead of going gung ho for their goals, however, they are usually more subtle and calculating. Saturn in Scorpio can be secretive. When hurt, they can be unforgiving. They don't like to be treated unfairly. They may be cunning, resentful, jealous, or possessive. They are shrewd and like to come out on top of any type of deal............

May's Saturn is square Pluto in Leo, rather than in trine as in Thatcher's case, so still linked but not as harmoniously. Venus conjoins Pluto, perhaps even Moon too, but without time of birth it's not possible to know. Venus conjunct Pluto, in some charts might indicate a sex-goddess type, but here, because of the square to Saturn, I wonder if it reflects more her limitation in not being able to have children "for health reasons". Don't know. She has been married to her husband, a banker, since 1980.

I guess one could make a trio here and compare Hillary Clinton's natal chart - it's at Astrodatabank HERE should anyone wish to take a look. It might be a tad apples and oranges though, as life, customs, environment and political systems in the USA and the UK are not fully comparable. I'm not sure that, had Hillary Clinton been born in England, with the same natal chart, without connection to any of her US history, she'd have risen to a political position comparable to that of Thatcher and May. (Just speculation!)

GULP...

There's so much going on just now that it's not easy to focus on any single issue for long.

Brexit and the fall-out from that : who will be the new Prime Minister? How will she/he deal with what has to be dealt with in regard to the UK's exit from the EU, not forgetting that Scotland, and possibly Northern Ireland are likely to try (again) for their own independence from England/Wales, so that they could remain part of the EU. That internal UK tangle really needs sorting out first! Some establishment members of the opposition Labour Party want its current leader to stand down, but he, Jeremy Corbyn, is reluctant to do so - rightly, because his supporters, and the unions still believe in him. Then there's the Chilcot Report due for release this week; possibly fear of what the Report will reveal has been the driver of goings on in the previous sentence.

Nearer to home: Hillary Clinton's three and a half hour interview with the FBI on Saturday, result due in weeks to come. Bill Clinton's rather (ahem) opportune meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at an Arizona airport the day before Hillary's interview. Party Conventions later this month. What will Bernie do? Will Donald Trump ride out his storms with the RNC? Who will be chosen as Vice Presidents for the two nominees?

SCOTUS is still a Justice short of a full court. Republican congress is still being as obstructive as ever, if not more so.

Outside of the political, I'm still keen to know what caused the Egypt Air plane to crash into the Med. a few weeks ago, as well as being still bugged by the disappearance of MH370, 2+ years ago, presumably sunk deep in the Indian Ocean. Those matters have disappeared from news media.

And: ISIS, Olympics, climate change, Zika virus......PHEW!

Independence/Interdependence

“There’s a lot of things wrong with this country, but one of the few things still right with it is that a man can steer clear of the organized bullshit if he really wants to. It’s a goddamned luxury, and if I were you, I’d take advantage of it while you can.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, 1968-1976

“When it can be said by any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them, my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend because I am the friend of happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and government. Independence is my happiness, the world is my country and my religion is to do good.”
― Thomas Paine, Rights of Man

The USA's Independence from Britain in the 18th century is celebrated today, while Britain, or parts of it now strain for their own independence from the European Union. Hmm. I saved a comment found on a British-Ex-pats' discussion forum this week, as representative of the situation in the UK at present:

"So, let me get this straight… the leader of the opposition campaigned to stay but secretly wanted to leave, so his party held a non-binding vote to shame him into resigning so someone else could lead the campaign to ignore the result of the non-binding referendum which many people now think was just angry people trying to shame politicians into seeing they’d all done nothing to help them.

Meanwhile, the man who campaigned to leave because he hoped losing would help him win the leadership of his party, accidentally won and ruined any chance of leading because the man who thought he couldn’t lose, did – but resigned before actually doing the thing the vote had been about. The man who’d always thought he’d lead next, campaigned so badly that everyone thought he was lying when he said the economy would crash – and he was, but it did, but he’s not resigned, but, like the man who lost and the man who won, also now can’t become leader. Which means the woman who quietly campaigned to stay but always said she wanted to leave is likely to become leader instead.

Which means she holds the same view as the leader of the opposition but for opposite reasons, but her party’s view of this view is the opposite of the opposition’s. And the opposition aren’t yet opposing anything because the leader isn’t listening to his party, who aren’t listening to the country, who aren’t listening to experts or possibly paying that much attention at all. However, none of their opponents actually want to be the one to do the thing that the vote was about, so there’s not yet anything actually on the table to oppose anyway. And if no one ever does do the thing that most people asked them to do, it will be undemocratic and if any one ever does do it, it will be awful.

Clear?"
(mrken30, British Ex-Pats forum)

Booking It

If I'd read of this before it must have slipped out of memory! Ben-Hur (2016 film)

Wiki:

Ben-Hur is an upcoming 2016 American historical epic action film directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by Keith Clarke and John Ridley. It is based on the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace and has been termed a "re-adaptation", "reimagining" and "new interpretation" of the novel....The film stars Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi and Rodrigo Santoro.... The film is scheduled to be released on August 19, 2016 in North America in 2D, 3D, RealD 3D and Digital 3D.

Coincidentally, I'm currently in the middle of reading the 19th cenury novel Ben Hur, by Lew Wallace. I bought the book, an old library copy, at a book sale some weeks ago. I'm finding it, quite amazingly, a good read! It probably helps that I know the 1959 movie Ben Hur back to front and every which-way, it has long been my all time favourite movie. Ask me why and I don't know, because I'm not religious.

It's pleasurable to find the plethora of extra detail Lew Wallace included in his novel, most inevitably cut out from the film, due to time consideration. One difference in book and film I've come across are the ages of Judah Ben Hur and Esther. Esther is just 16 when he first meets her, well after his adventures in the galleys and in Rome. He is just a youth as the story begins, with the accidental fall of a tile - nowhere near as mature as Charlton Heston was depicted in the movie.

Wallace describes many scenes in intricate detail, his style reminds me, a bit, of Victor Hugo's in Les Miserables, and Frank Herbert's in Dune.

There's one location Wallace described in detail, The Grove of Daphne, which propelled me to Google to discover whether it was a figment of Wallace's imagination; it was not. The Grove wasn't mentioned in the 1959 movie, nor, I understand in the older 1925 version. Judah Ben Hur seeks out the Grove during a visit to Antioch (Syria), after his time in Rome. It is variously described in websites around the net, dedicated to Daphne a nymph changed into a laurel tree to escape the amorous advances of Apollo.

Here's one description

DAPHNE: A suburb of Antioch on the Orontes, according to Strabo and the Jerusalem itinerary, about 40 furlongs, or 5 miles distant. It is identified with Beit el-Ma' on the left bank of the river, to the Southwest of the city. Here were the famous grove and sanctuary of Apollo. The grove and shrine owed their origin to Seleucus Nicator. It was a place of great natural beauty, and the Seleucid kings spared no outlay in adding to its attractions. The precincts enjoyed the right of asylum. Hither fled Onias the high priest (171 B.C.) from the wrath of Menelaus whom he had offended by plain speech. To the disgust and indignation of Jew and Gentile alike, he was lured from the sanctuary by Andronicus and basely put to death (2 Maccabees 4:33-38). It sheltered fugitives dyed with villainy of every shade. It was the great pleasure resort of the citizens of Antioch; and it gained an evil repute for immorality, as witnessed by the proverbial Daphnici mores. In Tiberim defluxit Orontes, says Juvenal (iii.62), indicating one main source of the corruption that demoralized the imperial city. The decline of Daphne dates from the days of Christian ascendancy in the reign of Julian. The place is still musical with fountains and luxuriant with wild vegetation; but nothing now remains to suggest its former splendor .

From Lewis's descriptions I got the impression of a huge area of both cultivated and natural beauty, with fountains, statues, glades, etc, mystics, seers, and lots of erotic or sexy stuff going on; an ancient version of 1960's hippiedom, Summer of Love an' all that, but with a tad more erm...classical class.

Anyway, on I go, slowly relishing these old scenes. Next will come the horses and chariots, the excitement of the race with Messala, and hoped for vengance.

Awaiting the new movie version of Ben Hur, I'm not optimistic that it will improve on the 1959 version - in spirit - but it might correct one or two mis-representations and omissions I guess, or perhaps it'll just make a few more!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Signs that whisper ...

Just for a change this week I decided to try to equate the 12 zodiac signs with various art styles or arty -isms. Somebody has already been there, done that etc:

The signs as art styles

The signs as art movements.

One could find numerous ways of attempting a similar exercise, endless examples of the art to present. I decided to find a painting which, for me, could represent each zodiac sign, in content and/or "feel" and spirit - not necessarily related to any art style, art movement, or Sun sign of the painter.

Click on images for clearer views.


ARIES

First sign, Mars-ruled - I first think of military-related paintings - and as Aries is the first sign, let's go for a very early example:

 The Battle of Poitiers in 1356, in a manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles of c. 1410

TAURUS

First of two Venus-ruled signs - beautiful, earthy...John Constable:

 The White Horse by John Constable

GEMINI

First of two Mercury-ruled signs - deals in communication, words...as, often, did Dadaism:

CANCER

Ruled by the Moon, relates strongly to family, home, emotion, sentimentality - all frequently found in the work of Norman Rockwell:

 Coming & Going - Norman Rockwell

LEO

Ruled by the Sun - represents brightness, love of splendour and the spotlight. An old favourite painting of mine comes to mind - In years gone by (many years) I used to have a brooch, round, silver frame with a replica of this portrait embedded. I've always seen the portrait as bright, happy, warm and altogether splendid, just like the Sun-ruled sign.

VIRGO

Second Mercury-ruled sign - stickler for detail - has to be photo-realism:

 Ralph's Diner by Ralph Going

LIBRA

Second Venus-ruled sign, said to represent beauty, grace, charm, balance, tact. So...Michael Parkes always produces variations of those attributes:

 Concerti Vivaldi by Michael Parkes

SCORPIO

Ruled by dark, sexy and transformative Pluto in modern astrology.

 Death and Life by Gustav Klimt

SAGITTARIUS

Jupiter-ruled sign of exuberance, richness, excess, philosophy and luck.

 The Wedding Dance by Pieter Bruegel

CAPRICORN

Saturn-ruled, business-oriented, earthy, practical and structured.

By  Piet Mondrian

AQUARIUS

Ruled in modern astrology by Uranus, planet of the unexpected and all that is avant garde or a wee bit odd.

 On the 1st March Crows Begin to Search by Kay Sage

PISCES

Ruled by Neptune, planet of dreams, watery expanses, fog and illusion

 Coq Rouge Dans la Nuit by Marc Chagall

[Note re post title:
"Signs that whisper" is a phrase from the song "Signs" by Neil Diamond.]

Two Films

We watched Spotlight via Netflix this week. "The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core." It's an engrossing, well-done, well-acted dramatisation of investigations conducted by a team of 4 journalists in 2001, in and around Boston. Highly recommended!

We've also watched recently a DVD of Joy, another fact-based story, this one biographical. The movie's subject is Joy Mangano, a self-made millionaire who created her own business empire. From a humble and chaotic dysfunctional family background her rise to success and wealth began with her initial invention of a self-wringing floor mop! A decent movie. I'd have preferred a little less detail of her early struggles, and more on her eventual rise in business, which was rushed into the closing minutes of the film. Other than that, an entertaining couple of hours or so.

Zodiac Sign Cancer Considered

In his book, Astrology published 1964, Louis MacNeice, not an astrologer, but a poet and scholar, gathered together much of interest from a variety of sources, ancient and modern. On zodiac sign Cancer, through which the Sun now travels, he wrote the paragraphs below, quoting from a variety of professional astrologers. This extract was not copied and pasted from elsewhere, but copy-typed by my own fair fingers, by the way, with illustrations added.

 Cancer by Erté

In spite of its name, Cancer is a homey, motherly sign, but also perhaps the most vulnerable. It is the sign of the summer solstice, from which it will be nine months before Aries comes around again; it can therefore be regarded as a symbol of fecundation and conception. As with the other signs, Barbault makes much of its position in the year, forgetting that many other countries have their spring and summer at different times from his. But on the symbolism of this sign and the psychology of Cancer people, he is at his most eloquent and suggestive. Because it is a cardinal sign and the first of the watery signs, he treats it as symbolizing the primal water - les eaux-mères - in the same way that Aries symbolizes the primal fire. It therefore stands for our ancestral origins, all organic life being assumed to have begun in the waters. It also stands, like the sea, for both intuition and introversion. It is the one and only sign ruled by the Moon, so Cancerian qualities are very much the same as the lunar qualities. The Moon, it will be remembered, is Our Lady of the Waters.

 From illustration by Ronald Searle

In accordance with this watery character, Barbault says that the Cancer type tends to be un végétatif. [Huh?] And the Cancer man (it is easier to be a Cancer woman and work it out in motherhood and the home) is often unduly feminine; as Pearce puts it, "effeminate in constitution and disposition". Cancer people can easily become "drowned in their own insecurity": They are over-emotional and sub-active. But there is another side to the picture. In its earlier pictorial representations Cancer was drawn as a crayfish, a creature that can give one a terrible nip. And even crabs, however soft inside, have a very hard shell and are difficult to dislodge from their chosen crannies. So throughout the centuries this sign has stood for tenacity. Not only of purpose but also for tenacity of memory - especially memory of childhood. Which brings us around to the home again. "Cherchez la mère", writes Barbault "et vous trouverez le Cancer!"

This sign, however, stands for not only motherly people but mother-fixated people. Being extremely sensitive, it is in fact a sign of many colors and moods. Many astrologers consider that it makes excellent teachers (or actresses) and in it Barbault distinguishes what appear on the surface to be two quite different types: the stay-at-home, sufficient-unto-the-day type and the explorative, castles-in-the-air type. (Actually, he would not claim that these are more than subtypes.)

Earlier astrologers laid less stress on the profundities and sensitivities of this sign and more on its crab nature. According to Varley, Cancer tends to give "a crabbed, short-nosed class of persons, greatly resembling a crab in features, when viewed in front; these people resemble crabs, also, in the energy and tenacity with which they attack any object." And in spite of his shy and retiring nature a Cancer friend can be a social asset. Gleadow advises anyone about to give a dinner party: "If you want to know about food or wine ask Cancer." (He adds unkindly: "And if you want someone who will not object to whatever you do choose Pisces.")

Morrish, in his Ladder of Being (or more strictly speaking, of Becoming), makes Cancer the first of three rungs representing gestation and birth. (He suggests that the heiroglyph could stand not only for crab-claws but for breasts.) The Zodiacal opposite to Cancer is of course Capricorn, an earthy no-nonsense sign that does not suffer from hypersensitivity. The signs that Cancer gets on with are Pisces and Taurus; but in mundane astrology Cancer and Capricorn are bracketed together, not only because they are both solstitial signs (one summer, one winter) but because they are the traditional fields for world-wide disasters. A third-century B.C. astrological missionary from ancient Babylon to Greece named Berosus taught that, when all the planets are in conjunction in Cancer, there will be a universal conflagration (a summery type of disaster); when they get together in Capricorn, there will be a universal deluge.

So there is Cancer, the only sign ruled by the Moon. Water, water. everywhere - but also tenacity and patience, maternal love, understanding of others, extreme sensitivity, and introversion. And next door to it, with the usual dramatic juxtaposition, what should we find but the only sign ruled by the Sun?

Astrologers mentioned:
André Barbault
A.J. Pearce
John Varley
Morrish (L. Furze-Morrish?)
Rupert Gleadow

Easier to Blame the Faceless

A moving piece at The Guardian yesterday by Mike Carter bought tears to my eyes:

I walked from Liverpool to London. Brexit was no surprise.

Maybe the Brexit vote from the people living in areas Carter describes was inevitable - they needed to blame someone and to, at last, make themselves heard. I understand their pain and frustration, I do! Yet they were not aiming their wrath in the right direction.

Among the 2000+ comments under Mike Carter's article I saw one with which I 100% agreed, posted by another Annie: "Annie M"

As the fallout continues, this is another truth emerging: that it's much easier to blame "abroad" in the guise of the EU/faceless bureaucrats and those darn immigrants than it is to blame the home team. Consecutive governments on all sides from Thatcher on down to today, with their failure to serve the people who elected them, is the real reason for this disastrous Brexit vote. I've long been predicting that the working class will rise again, possibly through some new configuration of organised labour, but perhaps this referendum has been their single best weapon to stick it to the ruling class however devastating the outcome. (Annie M)

I'm both very sad, and very angry at the situation in which my old homeland finds itself now, with no strong leadership to steer it through the tangle ahead. Perhaps this is the fever stage, it'll continue for a short time, then break and a slow healing will begin, though it will be leaving the country weaker, for many years, than need ever have been the case. Will those people on Mike Carter's route be any better off though?

I voted in many General Elections during my 60+ years in England, I always voted Labour - always! Labour used to be the party of the working classes. Labour changed though, just as the Democratic party in the US has changed over the years. Both parties abandoned their roots long ago - and that is where the true rot is seated, both here in the USA and there in Britain - and where all the blame should rightly be aimed.

The EU isn't perfect, far from it, but it's being made the scapegoat for decades of what's now called neoliberalism in national governments - abandonment of the working classes by all political parties. Conservatives and Republicans never pretended to represent the working classes - how so many years under their rule have happened I shall never understand, but at least they never pretended to be something they were not. The poisoning of the Labour Party and the Democratic Party are crimes which will need to be accounted for at some point - perhaps not quite yet, it seems, but soon.

I let my keyboard cool down after typing the above, and moved on to read the day's offerings at The Smirking Chimp. I was happily surprised to find a piece by one of my favourite writers, absent for many months. Prof. David Michael Green's piece is an excellent commentary on the overall, worldwide situation which has directly brought about the results on which I've scribbled above. Prof DMG's article is titled:
How The West Was Lost and Other Joys of Greedy Sociopathy - do give it a read!

Movie Music Monday ~ Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Hermann, American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for motion pictures was born this week, on 29 June in 1911.

A look at his natal chart, to discover whether it was a good fit. On first glance, the presence of Neptune (film) in the same sign as his natal Cancer Sun though not close enough to be considered conjunct, is a good signature. Pluto lay just over the Gemini cusp at 27 degrees of that sign, on the other side of natal Sun, and conjunct Mercury at 1 Cancer. This was less expected, until I'd read more about the man. There's a T-square Neptune/Uranus/Mars and an almost Grand Cross (too loose at one point) formed by squares and oppositions between: Mars, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus, both formations indicate some difficulties, some innate scratchiness or hard edges.

Jupiter in Pluto-ruled Scorpio in harmonious trine to the Mercury (communication)/Pluto (occasionally explosive) conjunction reflects, perhaps the extreme (Jupiter) explosive temper he sometimes displayed according to reports (below). Pluto's link to a personal planet might also feed into the composer's frequent "Gothic and gaslight" music style, also mentioned below.

Natal Moon was likely have been somewhere in spotlight-loving Leo, along with natal Venus (the arts) making a nice connection to the showbiz vibe of the film industry.

Chart set for 12 noon (time of birth unknown) on 29 June 1911, New York City.

Some gleanings from reading further about the man and his personality as well as his career detail. The snips from linked articles uncover some of the personality traits reflected in Herrmann's natal chart, as well as giving brief detail of his best-known work. Highlights in both cases are my own.

Regarding his work -from a mini bio by Michael Brooke at IMDB:

The man behind the low woodwinds that open Citizen Kane (1941), the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960), and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver (1976) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a composition prize at the age of 13 and founding his own orchestra at the age of 20. After writing scores for Orson Welles's radio shows in the 1930s (including the notorious 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast), he was the obvious choice to score Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane (1941), and, subsequently, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), although he removed his name from the latter after additional music was added without his (or Welles's) consent when the film was mutilated by a panic-stricken studio. Herrmann was a prolific film composer, producing some of his most memorable work for Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he wrote nine scores. A notorious perfectionist and demanding (he once said that most directors didn't have a clue about music, and he blithely ignored their instructions--like Hitchcock's suggestion that Psycho (1960) have a jazz score and no music in the shower scene).....

For more about his personality The Trouble with Benny, by Matt Williams is enlightening:
SNIPS

To assess Herrmann’s success in the film world it is first necessary to understand the composer himself. Herrmann was a complex man whose perceived weaknesses — his explosive temper and intolerance of sub-standard musicianship, to name but two — often worked for rather than against him. Here was an outspoken, highly literate and intelligent man whose intense interest in film and the dramatic medium allowed him to write music rich in musical colour; and which, when carefully placed under a dialogue track, increased the import of the spoken word, lending dialogue a greater significance than it might otherwise have had.

Herrmann came from an era of ‘serious’ composers. He was still a young man when the Depression hit hard in America in the 30s; the rise of Nazism can’t failed to have affected the way he perceived people and their motives being himself of Jewish parentage. Consequently his film music has a distinctive weight and intensity often lacking in today’s scores.

Like the man himself, many of Herrmann’s most memorable scores are brooding and portentous in nature. Even the purportedly romantic music for films like Jane Eyre and The Ghost and Mrs Muir has an edginess and a sense of nostalgia and sadness which perfectly complement the films in question. As one critic observed, his was the music of ‘Gothic and gas light’.

Much has been written about Herrmann’s irascibility, his seemingly unprovoked rages and outrageous and opinionated views of others. Both his father and his grandfather shared his temperament, which at its worst led to a reddening of the face, a tensing of the facial muscles and a string of curses and insults — all apparently unprovoked. Herrmann was distrustful and intolerant of the musical opinions of others. To one unfortunate recipient he retorted: ‘Your views are as narrow as your tie’.

A 5 minute video-skip through some of Herrmann's best-known themes: