It's that time again when we toast Mr Quill's & Robert Burns' birthdays, read "Cock up your beaver", speechify, eat vegan haggis, & drink scotch. This was the end of the night last year, about which I'll say no more:
Showing posts with label vegan haggis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegan haggis. Show all posts
January 25, 2010
Happy Robert Burns Day Twenty-Ten
December 23, 2009
The Cover of Jonathan Safran Foer's book "Eating Animals"
I accidentally bought a new hardcover copy of this book while attempting to Christmas shop for other people. It's a beautifully written book about vegetarianism, but sadly, I have to report, I don't think he's doing a very good job of including non-vegetarians within its ideal audience. Still, he's one lovely author, & it's lovely just to be curling up in the sun beneath my Christmas tree reading his words (Jonathan Safran Foer hasn't published anything since 2005's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, one of my favorite books.) And isn't the cover art kind of Christmasy?
September 25, 2009
Hindustani Vegetariani Doggerel
Behold the mighty Englishman
He rules the Indian Small,
Because being a meat-eater,
He is five cubits tall.
Gandhi quotes [this] 'doggerel of the Gujarati poet Narmada' that was popular 'amongst the schoolboys'. The doggerel captures the colonial nationalist understanding of the role of the body in the construction of political power.
February 16, 2009
Introducing Hip-Hop Legend William McGonagall with Gold Diamonds: "An Address to the New Tay Bridge"
Last Burns Night, after our second bottle of Scotch, & a full evening of Robert Burns' delicious poetry & veggie haggis, we got a hat-tip from Miss Williams that there was a 19th Century Scottish poet who had been voted "Britain's worst poet". We quickly found some of William McGonagall's work & ended the night with his amazing "An Address to the New Tay Bridge". We proposed several projects, including a McGonagall Night some other evening in the year, dedicated to the worst poetry, perhaps with absinthe & spam; & also a hip-hop version of McGonagall's poems. (The New Tay Bridge poem is oddly suited to the genre.) I'm proud to present Mr McGonagall's debut as a rap star, in his first collaboration with the great Gold Diamonds. I warn you, there is also at least one more setting of this poem to funky beats, & probably even more coming, I'm worried there might have to be an entire album of just New Tay Bridges. Any resemblance to the MC Pseudo-Dionysius is a zeitgeistical convergence. Presenting WILLIAM McGONAGALL.
An Address to the New Tay Bridge
BEAUTIFUL new railway bridge of the Silvery Tay,
With your strong brick piers and buttresses in so grand array,
And your thirteen central girders, which seem to my eye
Strong enough all windy storms to defy.
And as I gaze upon thee my heart feels gay,
Because thou are the greatest railway bridge of the present day,
And can be seen for miles away
From North, South, East or West of the Tay
On a beautiful and clear sunshiny day,
And ought to make the hearts of the "Mars" boys feel gay,
Because thine equal nowhere can be seen,
Only near by Dundee and the bonnie Magdalen Green.
Read the rest of the original poem here.
Download the mp3 here.
February 09, 2009
Biographical: & Tarot Investigating
WWW.ITWASLOST.ORG is a literary & arts blog, with unique fashion editorials, political commentary, movie reviews & prophecy (both about the weather & the coming doom.) However, sometimes it drifts into merely the biographical, like so many weblogs in the blogosphere, a public diary of the mundane & fabulous gossip in our sad lives. Today, we venture there. What did I do today? My housemate Jenny Ruth told me of a refrigerator magnet she saw in a gift store that reads "Sometimes I call in sick for work as if I had a job." Well, today, I took a day off, & all sorts of zany adventures ensued: -I faked my way into a fancy restaurant with an uptight Maître d'.
-I went to a baseball game.
-I jumped onto a parade float & got the whole town dancing along to "Shake it shake it shake it baby now."
-Taught my friends to be bold. In Cameron's words: "I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I'm going to take a stand. I'm going to defend it. Right or wrong, I'm going to defend it."
I've also vowed to finish what I have begun. Text message novels, folk hymnals, hip-hop albums, careers in aviation, & reading Thomas Pynchon's long book Against the Day. Saturday Night, Jenny Ruth threw herself a birthday party, which I was banned from, until I was asked to crash it after 11. The girls spread every art supply in the house across our dining room table & set in to make a beautiful deck of Tarot cards. My theosophic Lords, they're stunning, & I hope to get some scanned & displayed on this website when I can. Perhaps spearhead a new Department of Tarot. The Ace of Pentacles was made with broccoli from the crudité, I'm afraid that one will have to be redone before the deck is laminated. Our friend Dr Nelson, who has just finished writing a Symbological novel (think the Da Vinci Code & the works of Tom Martin), crashed the girls party with me at 11 & reminds us that there are no coincidences in Symbology; so I should hardly be surprised that the next day, when I turned to page 605 in Pynchon's Against the Day, there were references to both Tarot Cards & vegan haggis (the themes of my last two parties) IN THE SAME SENTENCE. I'll quote two short excerpts for the context:One morning Lew [Basnight] walked into the breakfast parlor at Chunxton Crescent to find Police Inspector Vance Aychrome, angelically revealed in early sunbeams thru the stained-glass dome overhead, relentlessly despoiling a Full English Breakfast modified for the Pythagorean dietary here, including imitation sausages, kippers & bloaters, omelettes, fried potatoes, fried tomatoes, porridge, buns, baps, scones, & loaves in various fomats.
Besides Mr Basnight using Tarot as an aid in his private investigating, which really isn't common enough in any symbological novel, I must say that Pythagorean Full English Breakfast sounds delicious beyond words.
[...]
Assuming he was not here to deliver another gentle suggestion from Scotland Yard to back off of the Gentleman Bomber case, Lew took from an inner pocket a Tarot deck thinned to the twenty-two Major Arcana & dealt them one by one onto the table, between the remains of a vegetarian haggis & a platterful of pea fritters, until Aychrome began to nod frantically & waveabout a finger dripping with what Lew hoped was only treacle. "Ggbbmmhhgghhkkhh!"
-Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day (2006), pg. 605-606
January 28, 2009
Burns Night 250 Review: “Cock Up Your Beaver”, From Peniston, England, to East Breast, Scotland
The Mimosas Witnesses Burns Night 2009 took place at Lake Tahoe, complete with silly hats, vegan haggis, copious amounts of good Scotch, dancing, many songs & cigars. Some unique moments in this year’s festivities, the mandatory reading of Burns’ epic “Tam O’Shanter” was sung to about two dozen different tunes, from “New York, New York” to 
“O Tannenbaum” to “Modern Major General”. It didn’t help comprehension of the great poem, but it was loud. Even tho I had made several of the speeches & toasts already, I lost the foot-roshambo & had to also do the “Address to the Lassies”, the contents of which I still feel shivers of remorse about (I believe the final declaration was “Why don’t you lose some weight?”) The Reply from the Lassies was done in every-other-word fashion from Miss Williams & Mrs Eley-Nelson, & turned out far more elegant & coherent.
The next day, The New York Times had an article about unfortunately-named places in Britain (& road signs that say things like “BUTT HOLE ROAD”), the meanings of which are on the wrong side of history. They provided this handy map. This is relevant to our favorite Burns Poem, which Mr Tomas recited at Burns Night, captured for posterity on YouTubes.
January 25, 2009
Burns Night 250 Preview: Neeps, Tatties, Vegan Haggis
We're throwing our annual Robert Burns Night supper, this year in Lake Tahoe. We spent the afternoon snowshoeing from in fresh powder. Burns was born in 1759, so this Robert Burns Day marks his 250th birthday. It is also Mr Quill's Birthday! Hoorah!
A full & glitteringly written itinerary for a Burns Night supper is provided by RobertBurns.org, I recommend it. I have several adapted versions of Burns songs which have developed over the years, including "Gorgeous Borges:" ("Borges was a Gorgeous Boy / Gorgeous Borges, Georgeous Borges..." &c., to the tune of Rantin' Rovin' Robin - - see video below for the original 2004 Burns Night performance), & one of the anthems for the Mimosas Witnesses, "Morning Mimosa", to the tune of "No Churchman am I" aka "Big Belly'd Bottle". We'll work our way thru all the standard poetry (Ode to a Mouse, Tam o'Shanter, et cetera) as well as a few personal favorites, such as Cock up your Beaver:
When first my brave Johnie lad came to this town,
He had a blue bonnet that wanted the crown;
But now he has gotten a hat and a feather,
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!
Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu' sprush,
We'll over the border, and gie them a brush;
There's somebody there we'll teach better behaviour,
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!
The recipe for vegan haggis I'm using this afternoon is here, it's basically a lentil loaf. Any complaints about not using proper haggis can be sent to the governor's office in Alaska: veggie haggis has a long & rich tradition in Scotland, & it's also damned near impossible to procure real haggis in California. Miss Williams & Mrs Eley-Nelson will be in charge of the Neeps & Tatties. (I learned, Mr Mary, that what the brits refer to as turnips are in this country called rutabegas, now we know.)January 26, 2008
Photos & Two Videos from Burns Night 2008
Remember Burns Night 2008? It was last night, &, let it be known, there was poetry recitation, singing of Scottish Songs, & the consumption of vegan haggis & that green faerie, Absinthe, a tradition at not a few Burns Night 2008s.
Here are two rather mysterious videos taken by Jenny Ruth of two of the songs. I apologize for the dark shaky quality of both the videos & the playing. Burns' immortal poetry combined with wormwood makes things dark & shaky.
And here are some photographs! Too bad Miss Jenny Ruth didn't take a picture of herself in her most pretty wig.
And the morning after, feeling fine:
Invitation: Burns Night 2008
Thank you to the ten people who attended our spectacular Burns Night last night. There was merriment, speechifying, songs & orated poems, vegan haggis on parade, absinthe, more absinthe, gay dancing, & a tribute to Jorge Luis Borges. Videos to be posted soon! Here's the invitation from Facebook:
Burns Night 2008 (On the Eventually of the Scottish Bard's 249th Year)
Come, bumpers high, express your joy,The bowl we maun renew it, The tappet hen, gae bring her ben!
Information
| Name: | Burns Night 2008 (On the Eventually of the Scottish Bard's 249th Year) |
| Tagline: | Come, bumpers high, express your joy,The bowl we maun renew it, The tappet hen, gae bring her ben! |
| Host: | James Welsch, Liam Joseph Olaf Worland Golden, Alaine Ball |
| Type: |
| Date: | Friday, January 25, 2008 |
| Time: | 7:30pm - 11:55pm |
| Location: | Hill of Virtue |
| Street: | _ Harold Ave |
| City/Town: | San Francisco, CA |
MapQuest
Microsoft
Yahoo| Phone: | 415.---.1965 |
| Email: |
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This event has 4 confirmed guests.
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