Month: April 2004

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Ti Bon Ange (Temperance): Calm and restraint. Self-control, patience and tact in handling situations. The act of applying balanced spiritual and psychic forces to physical life.

Rada Hounsis (Page of Swords): The essence of air behaving as earth, such as a steady wind: The approach of an unexpected challenge, to be met with clear thought and just action. A person filled with an eager appetite for all matters of mind and logic. The gathering of information through unfaltering vigilance, careful examination, and subtle spycraft. The use of reason or eloquent speech to penetrate the veil of confusion and cut to the heart of the matter.

It’s all really inkblots, you know. Make of it what you will…

mythology

detritus

opinion

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When I was eight going on nine, I wanted to be a Muse when I grew up…

I have this weird recurring dream about San Diego. Not the real San Diego, but some squished, trucated version that only shows up in my subconscious, San Diego of my dream, like Van Morrison’s “Coney Island of The Mind.” In my version, the Hotel Del Coronado still has a bridge that goes to it, but it isn’t on an island, it is the island, and it’s surrounded by a swimming pool like moat full of various Sea World creatures that I (or sometimes my daughter) inevitably interact with (this time it was seals and polar bears, sometimes it’s whales…) On the other side of the bridge is basically Downtown Tucson in the transit center area, except with an ocean where the railroad tracks would be and lots of high rise apartments. For some reason, I always get lost in this part of my dream geography. The final component is this weird old dowtown full of shops and cafes and strange little grottos. I always want to spend more itme here and get called away. Sometimes there’s an interactive Sea World type place in the dream, with lots of escalators and staircases and water slides. One time all my living internal organs were on display there in an aquarium full of small sharks, abbreviated guts included. I actually saw what they must look like. So I think maybe the Sea Creatures aspect is somehow linked to the state of my bodily health. Maybe the transit center place is my brain and the downtown is my heart and soul. Maybe I’m stretching just a bit. Still, it’s just plain weird. Sometimes there is also an airport and soem kind of ominous flight involved, occasionally ending in either a crash or space travel, just depending. Yes I’m an odd bird. Thus is why I keep a dream journal. Duh.

Was just reminded at my work today of the Red Devil restaurant in Tempe. I’d totally forgotten it existed. We used to go there with an old boss of my dad and his wife and eat incredible varieties of pasta. I vaguely recall being introduced to Shrimp Diablo at this establishment, but I could wrong. Mostly I remember Cass (the ex-boss’s wife) making us clothespin dolls and dressing them up in napkins, and that the walls were wood and there were strikingly red curtains. Some of this blends in with related memories of Old Venice restaurant in San Diego. Yes, my mother had a weakness for small out of the way Italian restaurants whence vacationing, if you’d not yet caught on. Can’t think of anymore.

In the meantime, check out my review of Jersey Girl…

First off, this is not a Kevin Smith movie.
Yes it was written and directed by Kevin Smith, but it it is not a Kevin Smith movie. There are no scatalogical references, no perverse in jokes, even the pseudo intellectual humour is kept to a minimum. If there were more than a couple in jokes, I failed to notice them. It was unambitious and sweet as pie. Clever in bits, but equally maudlin and overwrought in places. There are parts where the mood music was seriously over the top. There were obvious tear jerker moments. But over all I liked it. It was clearly a labor of love. Still, if you’re looking for references to Walt Flanagan’s dog or the sex organs of superheroes, may I suggest a visit to your local video emporium…

So I was walking out of the movies yesterday, in need of reviving but not wanting to break my emergency $5 bill. This left me with about $1.50 for caffeine procurement. Lo and behold, I find myself in front of a Coffee Xchange stand that offers a medium iced tea for $1.35. Think to myself that it probably won’t be great, but certainly is an adequate option. Discover, to my amazed joy possibly the most full service iced tea experience on the planet.

First, you are given a choice of two tea bags from about nine different varieties. The tea is then brewed to your preferred strength and poured directly into a metal shaker of ice. From there the tea is poured back into an ice filled plastic cup, perfectly chilled and beautifully fragrant. The whole process took maybe 5 minutes at most. I very highly recommend it, and left my remaining change in the tip jar as a sign of my undying gratitude.

Eddi Reader apparently worked as arranger on the solo album of wunderkind Scottish fiddler John McCusker, whom I once met after a show when he was 18 and on his first tour with the Battlefield Band. We talked about our both having Claddagh rings (his mother was Irish) and joked around and he gave me his address and phone number in Scotland on a bar napkin. I kept it on my bulletin board in my room for years, but in the end I chickened out and never wrote. He kissed my hand in the rain and said goodbye and I was innocently star struck.

Thea Gilmore

Eddi Reader

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The Present:

Birch

A new beginning

You are in the midst of, or about to enter, a new start in the situation. While it is blessed with good luck, do be careful not to be rash or hasty! Expect change as a result, and prepare for it. The first of the Ogham trees, and traditionally the first to have Ogham carved upon it, birch symbolizes beginnings. As both a protector and a gateway to the Otherworld, it also indicates good fortune. There is some risk of hastiness and rashness as well; while good luck can compensate, foresight is also of benefit.

Color: White

Animal: Cow

Bird: Pheasant

The Present:

Ash

Linkages

The situation is a part of a wider whole, and your life is a part of a larger pattern. Remember that your actions are a part of a larger pattern, and affect all the others within it- make your decisions with this in mind.

Ash is a tree of great traditional magical significance. Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is an ash, and the ash is the fifth Ogham tree. Ash symbolizes the connection- and movement- between very different places and aspects of reality.

Color: Clear Green

Animal: Snake

Bird: Snipe

mythology

detritus

opinion

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