Overdue report and overused rant
So I'm back at the Smithsonian for Spring Break, and rather than actually being in the lab, we've been displaced because of stupid politics. So yesterday and today we're in the collections instead, playing with hippo skulls, which is also lots of fun, even if not as messy. Oh well.
I’ve been intending to post this for a while, but I’ve kinda been otherwise occupied. Like with all the other posts I’ve actually made. Again, oh well.
A week ago Thursday I went to the Dropkick Murphys concert at the Beaumont club. It was the second time I’d seen them, the first being here at Liberty Hall. I didn’t realize until getting there and seeing them the first time just how few of their songs actually utilize the piper, which was kinda disappointing.
Also annoying was getting a ticket for a friend, who bailed on me at the last minute. So I ended up going alone, but I knew I’d run into people there I knew. I’ve seen Flogging Molly at the Beaumont at least twice now (possibly three times, I really don’t remember anymore), and each time have run into other random people I know. So when I get there, I start wandering around, looking for anyone I recognize.
Near the back of the place, someone waves at me and says how she really likes the kilt, and asks the perennial question, to which I reply with my stock answer: “D’ye really wan’ t’ find oot, lassie?” I don’t remember what the next question was, but it was completely absurd, something to the effect of, “You’re not gonna smack me away if I check, are you?” What kind of question is that? Do people actually do that? (Though some of the more conservative among you may well be wondering if people really do perform kilt checks in the first place.) I responded with something along the lines of, why would I try to prevent a girl from going up my kilt? I wish it had occurred to me at the time to add that that’s the kind of behavior we want to encourage. So she checked, and then I got high-fives from her and her friends.
So the first person I find that I know is a friend and former student, from both Human and Comparative Anatomy classes, who I hadn’t seen or talked to in about a year. We hung out near the door and talked for a while, where it wasn’t as loud, and there was a bit of a breeze.
When DKM were finally about to come on, the lights dropped and they prefaced with a really slow version of Foggy Dew, which I’m sure most of the people there didn’t recognize, as they kept on yelling “Let’s Go, Murphy”. Aside from “For Boston”, which is kinda their anthem, they started off with a bunch of their traditional mock-ups, which I think are their best tunes anyway. But I’m biased. “Black Velvet Band”, “Finnegan’s Wake”, “Finn MacCumhaill”, “Rocky Road to Dublin”, and there may be another one in there that I’m missing. Later, they went back and did “Dirty Glass” (which is no contest my favorite one of their songs, though I have no idea whether that’s one of their originals or a cover) and “Captain Kelly’s Kitchen”, which I had no idea that they did, and got really excited when I realized which song they were doing.
At this point, I’ve also firmly established my niche relative to mosh pits. I like to hang out at the back edge, where there’s enough shifting and gaps in front of me that I can actually see the stage, but where I’m not being actively thrown around. Some jostling is fine, and I can get into that, but I especially don’t want to get actively involved in a mosh pit with a guy who has the word “Suicidal” across his hat. That position also gives me the role of helping other people up, and running interference for people who go down behind me, which I feel good about anyway.
After the show, I checked the CD I’d picked up beforehand, the only one that I knew I didn’t have much (if any) of, and sure enough, Captain Kelly is on there. I didn’t have a chance to look past that, so it was a surprise when, on the trip home, it hit on Green Fields of France, which I posted about a few days ago.
And while I’m talking about kilts and Irish music, and since today is St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll give my little rant. Given that we’ve got one day on which we honor a mass murderer, why don’t we have a Hitler Day or a Torquemada Day? They were Christian too. And they killed (or gave the orders for the deaths of) millions of people in the name of eliminating non-Christians. What makes St. Patrick so special?
Most people don’t even know why he’s famous, they just like to be able to go get sozzled on green beer. The legend is that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland, which is a nice story, but there’s no factual basis for it. There haven’t been any snakes in Ireland since before the last ice age. So what’s the deal?
The snakes were actually the druids, and Patrick gave them the choice of conversion or death. Of course, some took the unspoken third option of taking it underground instead, but it was still religious oppression and genocide. Go ahead, I dare you, look it up. There are Christian sites out there that tell (a spun version of) the true story, and are proud of it, as well as other more unbiased historical sites.
I’ve been intending to post this for a while, but I’ve kinda been otherwise occupied. Like with all the other posts I’ve actually made. Again, oh well.
A week ago Thursday I went to the Dropkick Murphys concert at the Beaumont club. It was the second time I’d seen them, the first being here at Liberty Hall. I didn’t realize until getting there and seeing them the first time just how few of their songs actually utilize the piper, which was kinda disappointing.
Also annoying was getting a ticket for a friend, who bailed on me at the last minute. So I ended up going alone, but I knew I’d run into people there I knew. I’ve seen Flogging Molly at the Beaumont at least twice now (possibly three times, I really don’t remember anymore), and each time have run into other random people I know. So when I get there, I start wandering around, looking for anyone I recognize.
Near the back of the place, someone waves at me and says how she really likes the kilt, and asks the perennial question, to which I reply with my stock answer: “D’ye really wan’ t’ find oot, lassie?” I don’t remember what the next question was, but it was completely absurd, something to the effect of, “You’re not gonna smack me away if I check, are you?” What kind of question is that? Do people actually do that? (Though some of the more conservative among you may well be wondering if people really do perform kilt checks in the first place.) I responded with something along the lines of, why would I try to prevent a girl from going up my kilt? I wish it had occurred to me at the time to add that that’s the kind of behavior we want to encourage. So she checked, and then I got high-fives from her and her friends.
So the first person I find that I know is a friend and former student, from both Human and Comparative Anatomy classes, who I hadn’t seen or talked to in about a year. We hung out near the door and talked for a while, where it wasn’t as loud, and there was a bit of a breeze.
When DKM were finally about to come on, the lights dropped and they prefaced with a really slow version of Foggy Dew, which I’m sure most of the people there didn’t recognize, as they kept on yelling “Let’s Go, Murphy”. Aside from “For Boston”, which is kinda their anthem, they started off with a bunch of their traditional mock-ups, which I think are their best tunes anyway. But I’m biased. “Black Velvet Band”, “Finnegan’s Wake”, “Finn MacCumhaill”, “Rocky Road to Dublin”, and there may be another one in there that I’m missing. Later, they went back and did “Dirty Glass” (which is no contest my favorite one of their songs, though I have no idea whether that’s one of their originals or a cover) and “Captain Kelly’s Kitchen”, which I had no idea that they did, and got really excited when I realized which song they were doing.
At this point, I’ve also firmly established my niche relative to mosh pits. I like to hang out at the back edge, where there’s enough shifting and gaps in front of me that I can actually see the stage, but where I’m not being actively thrown around. Some jostling is fine, and I can get into that, but I especially don’t want to get actively involved in a mosh pit with a guy who has the word “Suicidal” across his hat. That position also gives me the role of helping other people up, and running interference for people who go down behind me, which I feel good about anyway.
After the show, I checked the CD I’d picked up beforehand, the only one that I knew I didn’t have much (if any) of, and sure enough, Captain Kelly is on there. I didn’t have a chance to look past that, so it was a surprise when, on the trip home, it hit on Green Fields of France, which I posted about a few days ago.
And while I’m talking about kilts and Irish music, and since today is St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll give my little rant. Given that we’ve got one day on which we honor a mass murderer, why don’t we have a Hitler Day or a Torquemada Day? They were Christian too. And they killed (or gave the orders for the deaths of) millions of people in the name of eliminating non-Christians. What makes St. Patrick so special?
Most people don’t even know why he’s famous, they just like to be able to go get sozzled on green beer. The legend is that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland, which is a nice story, but there’s no factual basis for it. There haven’t been any snakes in Ireland since before the last ice age. So what’s the deal?
The snakes were actually the druids, and Patrick gave them the choice of conversion or death. Of course, some took the unspoken third option of taking it underground instead, but it was still religious oppression and genocide. Go ahead, I dare you, look it up. There are Christian sites out there that tell (a spun version of) the true story, and are proud of it, as well as other more unbiased historical sites.