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November 04, 2023

Bring back Viking dining.

Viking dinners are awesome and rad. Let’s bring those back.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2023

Death Triad Day 3

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905)
The Day of the Dead, 1859

This is All Souls Day.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

November 2, 1939

Best book ever written about November 2.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2023

“Til I burn up.”

Speaking of Halloween and the musical occult. Cincinnati, Ohio. Saw my first live rock show here in summer of 1969. The late Dr. John. Was with my best friend Greg Fritz. We were 16. The Gris Gris man/Night Tripper was scary and loud and wonderful and strange. With his back up singers. Maybe 400 in the club, which had been a bank in Clifton. “Til I burn up.” Found out later Dr. John had been a session musician with The Beach Boys. Piano. Saw him again in San Diego in 2005.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)

‘The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs’

Fra Angelico, 1424, The National Gallery, London

Posted by JD Hull at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2023

Pantheon: Charlize Theron

Posted by JD Hull at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2023

The 3 days of AllHallowtide starts October 31. Get ready, y’all.

Allhallowtide is a Western three-day observance (or triduum, a word I learned today) between October 31 and November 2 when we remember and honor the dead. The days are All Saints Eve (Halloween) on October 31, All Saints' Day (All Hallows') on November 1 and All Souls' Day on November 2. Although a tradition associated with Christianity for the past 1000 years, Allohallowtide is hardly recognized outside the Catholic church, and even Catholicism seems to have increased its distance over the centuries. The observance, especially the first day of Halloween, a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening", seems to have deep pagan roots, with many of its celebration traditions like those of Celtic harvest festivals. Culturally, however, it's still a big deal with most Westerners, especially their kids. Little kids. Big kids. Those celebrating that first day of Allohallowtide seem to get older every year.

"Snap-Apple Night", Daniel Maclise, 1833. It was inspired by a Halloween party Maclise attended in Blarney, Ireland, in 1832.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)

Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, “Remains of the Temple of the God Canopus in Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli,” from Vedute di Roma, 1768. The print decorated the late Jorge Luis Borges’s apartment in Buenos Aires.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)

God on Stormy Monday.

But Tuesday's just as bad. Wednesday's even worse. Thursday's awful sad. The eagle flies on Friday, but Saturday I go out to play. Sunday I go to church and kneel down and pray. And I say, "Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me. Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me. Just trying to find my baby, won't you please send her on back to me."

--T.Bone Walker

Posted by JD Hull at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2023

Mr. Speaker

Speaker Mike Johnson’s a character out of a novel and all people can do is argue about which box he fits in.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)