Out of the Darkness
09/04/2004 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIz has just completed the evil nasty journals assignment due next week. Actually it was rather interesting. Had to find stuff about various internet issues and have decided that Googlemail mightn't be such a good thing after all. Now I gotta work out how to get rid of google cookies. Being on a network - guess it makes things a bit different to a home computer.
Was hoping to indulge in a long Good Friday post. One very good thing about Good Friday is that it is just about the one religious festival that commercialism has left pretty much untouched. Most peculiar indeed;)
Iz agreed to meet the ma in the city. One of the churches was putting on a thing today at 6pm called 'Tenebrae' Iz had no idea what it was but figures it sounds suitably sinister and is probably a smells and bells Good Friday liturgy of some sort.
Many moons ago went to a Good Friday service in the evening at the dingy dreary dull grey Cathedral that is desperately in need of repairs and maintenance. But in spite of that, it was a beautiful atmosphere.. the Cathedral was in total darkness with the only light being that of the one Easter candle which was then used to light every one else's (This was one of those rituals where everyone has a candle) It was very impressive and atmospheric. And then when they were all lit and the place looked like a sea of candles - the buggers went and turned the lights on and ruined the whole thing.
Iz was so so peeved.
And today was sort of the same. No smells and bells but lots of beautiful chants and choral singing. The ritual involved a lot of singing and chanting of psalms by a small group of singers - seemed to be six of them. After each psalm, one of 14 candles in an inverted V shaped candle holder would be blown out until there was only one left. Then other interesting things would happen.
Sounds most impressive and interesting until Iz realized that they had no intention at all of turning out the rest of the lights in the church. Like I know the singers needed lights to read their words (Iz wonders how they did these ceremonies in the old days) but it really was not necessary for the rest of us to have them too.
It was exceedingly unmysterious and unmystical. So instead of being entranced and enchanted by hypnotic chants, Iz just followed the words in the booklet with the translations side by side and learnt copious quantities of Latin. While it sounds nice for singing, I'm of the opinion that it must be just about one of the ugliest languages ever in writing (up there with Dutch and Gaelic)It was sort of like a puzzle. In the end was able to get the general gist of most of it without the translations and also picked out a few pronouns and sussed out a few grammar rules. If there's a b near the end of the verb - a pretty good guess it's in the future tense and so on.
It was also a pleasant change to see words ending in 'o' instead of the utterly repulsive ( in Izzie aesthetics) 'us', 'um' and 'am'. Iz suspects that Latin may have six cases and thinks she spotted five of them this evening.
The whole thing finished about 8pm which was perfect timing for Iz to get the bus back here to the Min.
Earlier had decided that today was the perfect excuse to get a fix of Dorothy Sayers. Iz has always found the whole Jesus trial thing to be fascinating and her version is just so wonderful. And as for her Judas who is the best Iz has ever seen - incredibly Snapish and arrogant and not the usual whinging pathetic snivelling Peter Pettigrew sort at all. This guy's big problem is not greed or gutlessness but good old fashioned pride - the most wicked insidious vice of all.
If Iz had a squillion dollars she would love to get Peter Jackson, Denis Arcand and Mel Gibson to make a movie about the life of JC based on the Sayers play script and pick which one was the best.
Iz would insist on Alan Rickman being Judas. Or maybe Viggo could get that role. But the rest would be totally up to them.
Oh...Izzie is meddling again. Alexander Downer would make a great Herod and then there is John Howard who is an expert at washing his hands and is totally untainted by the concept of truth....And if Honest John comes on board - would not be fair to leave out Tony and George B either.
Oh...the possibilities are endless.
Was hoping to indulge in a long Good Friday post. One very good thing about Good Friday is that it is just about the one religious festival that commercialism has left pretty much untouched. Most peculiar indeed;)
Iz agreed to meet the ma in the city. One of the churches was putting on a thing today at 6pm called 'Tenebrae' Iz had no idea what it was but figures it sounds suitably sinister and is probably a smells and bells Good Friday liturgy of some sort.
Many moons ago went to a Good Friday service in the evening at the dingy dreary dull grey Cathedral that is desperately in need of repairs and maintenance. But in spite of that, it was a beautiful atmosphere.. the Cathedral was in total darkness with the only light being that of the one Easter candle which was then used to light every one else's (This was one of those rituals where everyone has a candle) It was very impressive and atmospheric. And then when they were all lit and the place looked like a sea of candles - the buggers went and turned the lights on and ruined the whole thing.
Iz was so so peeved.
And today was sort of the same. No smells and bells but lots of beautiful chants and choral singing. The ritual involved a lot of singing and chanting of psalms by a small group of singers - seemed to be six of them. After each psalm, one of 14 candles in an inverted V shaped candle holder would be blown out until there was only one left. Then other interesting things would happen.
Sounds most impressive and interesting until Iz realized that they had no intention at all of turning out the rest of the lights in the church. Like I know the singers needed lights to read their words (Iz wonders how they did these ceremonies in the old days) but it really was not necessary for the rest of us to have them too.
It was exceedingly unmysterious and unmystical. So instead of being entranced and enchanted by hypnotic chants, Iz just followed the words in the booklet with the translations side by side and learnt copious quantities of Latin. While it sounds nice for singing, I'm of the opinion that it must be just about one of the ugliest languages ever in writing (up there with Dutch and Gaelic)It was sort of like a puzzle. In the end was able to get the general gist of most of it without the translations and also picked out a few pronouns and sussed out a few grammar rules. If there's a b near the end of the verb - a pretty good guess it's in the future tense and so on.
It was also a pleasant change to see words ending in 'o' instead of the utterly repulsive ( in Izzie aesthetics) 'us', 'um' and 'am'. Iz suspects that Latin may have six cases and thinks she spotted five of them this evening.
The whole thing finished about 8pm which was perfect timing for Iz to get the bus back here to the Min.
Earlier had decided that today was the perfect excuse to get a fix of Dorothy Sayers. Iz has always found the whole Jesus trial thing to be fascinating and her version is just so wonderful. And as for her Judas who is the best Iz has ever seen - incredibly Snapish and arrogant and not the usual whinging pathetic snivelling Peter Pettigrew sort at all. This guy's big problem is not greed or gutlessness but good old fashioned pride - the most wicked insidious vice of all.
If Iz had a squillion dollars she would love to get Peter Jackson, Denis Arcand and Mel Gibson to make a movie about the life of JC based on the Sayers play script and pick which one was the best.
Iz would insist on Alan Rickman being Judas. Or maybe Viggo could get that role. But the rest would be totally up to them.
Oh...Izzie is meddling again. Alexander Downer would make a great Herod and then there is John Howard who is an expert at washing his hands and is totally untainted by the concept of truth....And if Honest John comes on board - would not be fair to leave out Tony and George B either.
Oh...the possibilities are endless.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 11:07 am (UTC)A happy-clappy friend invited me to a Good Friday "play". Suspecting an underhanded attempt at brainwashing, I simply said that there were more pressing matters at hand. In fact, the girlfriend was coming back after a 5-day business trip, and I needed to make her happy. Of course, she was late coming back, so I spent two hours in the bookshop holding a bouquet of carnations.
It was a good friday ;-)