Author: Dan

Categories
Mythology and Folklore

Myth Podcast

I’ve been listening to a lot of Podcasts at work recently and feel compelled to recommend Myth Podcast.

This is a weekly podcast telling legendary stories as closely to the originals as possible. Some are incredibly popular stories you think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories that might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen.

These are stories of magic, kings, Vikings, dragons, knights, princesses, and wizards from a time when the world beyond the map was a dangerous, wonderful, and terrifying place.

Thanks to Myth Podcast I finally know the plot of the Nibelung. I have books of Arthur Rackham’s art, I know the influences on Tolkien, and I’ve seen What’s Opera, Doc? more times than I can count but I still didn’t really know how just how many characters have names that start with Sig and how they’re all related. It’s really good. I thought once Fafnir was slain (the one part I knew relatively well) that I might not be too fussed about how it went but it’s really good. And that’s just one episode arc.

It’s well researched and well told, Jason collects and tells stories and sagas from around the world so you get a nice mix of stories. Most episodes are 30-40 minutes, they have just the right amount of witty observation, and each finishes with a Monster of the Week. There are some 40+ episodes up already, plus if you want to get your hands on more content (and support Jason) for just $5 a month you can get bonus episodes and source texts.

Categories
Animals

Planet Earth II

I could not be more excited for this. I’ve already watched the trailer five times this morning.

Categories
Art

Bulls and Roosters

tips

– Generally speaking, paintings with light colors sell more quickly than paintings with dark colors.

– Subjects that sell well: Madonna and Child, Landscapes, flower paintings, still lifes (free of morbid props… dead birds, etc.), nudes, marine pictures, abstracts and surrealism.

– Subject matter is important: it has been said that paintings with cows and hens in them collect dust… while the same paintings with bulls and roosters sell.

– John Baldessari, Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell (1966-68).

via Swissmiss who says, “Let’s make a 2016 version of these tips by John Baldessari, shall we?” Would be interesting, no?

Categories
Film

Get Out

This looks brilliant/terrifying. I don’t usually watch horror but I may have to make an exception here.

Categories
Me People

If Britain were 100 people

So… pretty much everyone is white!

My parents are immigrants. But they’re the sort of immigrant that’s ok nowadays (there was a time they really weren’t): we’re white, English-speaking, our names aren’t too tricky to say or spell; there are plenty of ‘more foreign’ targets. Unless I point out to anyone that I’m the first generation to be born in Britain no-one is any the wiser.

My neighbours are Indian. Well, actually they’re not, most of them are British. There are three children all born in Britain, as was their mum, and their Dad is from Punjab. There are also a lot of retirees on my street. I used to talk to them when I was gardening out front or walking to the shop but I don’t any more. It turns out they aren’t happy that there’s a brown family on our street. Our street where virtually everyone is white (there’s a Colombian lass a couple of doors down and a black guy at the end of the street plus my neighbours). But apparently that’s too many. And because I’m white (and probably British, right?) I must agree with them. “They don’t belong here”, “they should go back to their mud huts”, “it’s not right”. They’re all smiles when they see my neighbours, but they must feel so sorry for me having to live next door to them, that’s why they feel the need to come over and utterly mis-empathize with me, right? When I tell them that I couldn’t disagree more they act like I have been outrageously rude to them.

All the nationalist, xenophobic shit the government is trying to pull at the minute is terrifying. Genuinely terrifying. That people can happily scapegoat immigration to the degree they have beggars belief.

When I was kid I loved learning history but back then I didn’t understand that you learned these things in order to avoid the mistakes of the past and to understand why the world is the way it is. I honestly don’t know what happens now, so many people in this country feel wronged or let down, and appealing to their most base, racist beliefs will work. It will always work. There’s no credible opposition. I don’t know what happens.

Categories
Music

Buddy Rich

My first encounter with Buddy Rich was at Uni after listening to Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. This is sublime.