It's been a quiet week here in Lake Back-of-the-Woods. I'm so hungry for spring that I can hardly stand it. The snow has almost melted away, but underneath, the lawn just looks brown and messy. We've had a few days of warmth and sunshine, but it's so hard when it chills back down again. One of the local weathermen said today, "Once people get a taste of those warm days, they want them to stay." So true.
Two things I discovered this week that have made me happy. I'm sure people much cooler and hipper than I am have heard about these long ago, but what can I say?
Anyway, the first thing is a music group called Bitter:Sweet. Itunes classifies them as "electronic", but I don't think that's quite accurate. They're kind of jazzy, trippy electronic.
My other discovery is a TV show called Flight of the Conchords. It's about a pair of clueless New Zealanders who live in New York, trying to make their band a success. It's very silly and full of goofy songs sung with complete sincerity. I'm also enjoying the New Zealand humor ("New Zealand...don't expect too much...you'll like it") and accents ("He may be dead." "He maybe did what?"). Here's a sample of their music; don't expect too much and you'll like it!
Last night in Italian class, we worked on possessives—mine, yours, hers, theirs. Pretty straightforward, right? Oh no, not in Italian. Like other romance languages, Italian assigns gender to nouns. Flowers are masculine; cars are feminine, and so on. So when you make something possessive, the possession has to agree with the gender of the noun.
Mio fiore (my flower) but mia macchina (my car)
And get this—if the noun is plural, the possessive has to agree in gender AND plural!
Mio fiore, but miei fiori Mia macchina, but mie macchine
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
When you use possessives, you ALSO have to use the article “the” in front of it, and THAT also has to agree in gender and plural.
Il mio gatto (my male cat) I miei gatti (my male cats) La mia gatta (my female cat) Le mie gatte (my female cats)
EXCEPT!!!
If you are discussing a family member, then you drop the article
Mia madre (my mother)
UNLESS
You modify the noun with an adjective
La mia madre vecchia (my old mother)
OR
You are talking about more than one family member
Mio zio (my uncle) Il mio zio alto (my tall uncle) I miei zii (my uncles)
Il mio cervello sta fondendosi. My brain is melting.
Well, I'm still on my first listening of the new album, so I'm not prepared to give my opinion yet. It always takes me a few listens to sink in to the music. Whatever you say about U2 (and I could say so much), they really force you to pay attention to their songs.
It occurs to me that I've really spanned the ages with this band. I was 17 years old when I saw my first U2 video (It was "Two Hearts Beat As One" from the War album), and I was hooked. I started out buying 45s and vinyl LPs, moved to cassette tapes, CDs, and now digital downloads. And it's all been outstanding.
"I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint [D]avy’s day."
--Shakespeare, Henry V
St David is the patron saint of Wales, and his feast day is March 1st. He was born in Wales, probably during the 6th century. He became a monk, and later a bishop, and helped spread Christianity throughout Wales and neighboring regions. Perhaps his best-known miracle is that, when speaking to a large crowd, he caused a small hill to rise beneath him, allowing those gathered around to better hear him.
As the shamrock is the symbol of Ireland and the thistle is the symbol of Scotland, the leek is the national symbol of Wales. According to legend, St. David suggested that Welsh soldiers wear a leek as a badge to identify themselves in battle against the Saxons. The daffodil is often used as another symbol. In Welsh, leek and daffodil share similar names (“cenhinen” and “cenhinen bedr”, respectively).
Both of my grandmothers had Welsh ancestry. In fact, my grandfather claimed that my grandmother, whose maiden name was Griffith, was descended from the last kings of Wales. If this book is true, he may very well have been right!
You’ve got to love a country that celebrates poetry and music with a national festival. I thought about posting a video clip showing two Welsh actors reciting Welsh poetry while sitting on a California beach, but a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) said that listening to Welsh was like “listening to someone gargling.” Some people have no appreciation for Welsh actors reciting Welsh poetry. However, if you’d like to see it, you can find it here.
Instead, I’ll share a video of one of Wales’s favorite sons. Although the video quality isn’t fantastic, I chose it because even at age 68, dude can still sing his heart out. Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Tom Jones…
