tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10436354633846168162024-03-12T19:44:44.352-07:00celticgodsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger57125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-89032829994703885532021-09-02T13:23:00.004-07:002021-09-02T13:23:34.248-07:00 Sir Henry Morgan - Pirate or Patriot?<p> Sir Henry Morgan - Pirate or Patriot?</p><p></p><p>By Donald Callum</p><p>Arrrrrghhh! Shiver me timbers!!</p><p>Everybody and his brother’s cousin knows that Henry Morgan was a pirate or more correctly, a privateer, but not many know he was a patriot too.</p><p>There were differences between pirates or buccaneers, and privateers. Pirates were “loose cannon” (pun intended), in that they owed allegiance only to themselves and their comrades and their looting and pillaging was done strictly for their own benefit.</p><p>Privateers were raiders, usually merchantmen that were given a guise of legality by a letters of marque, or, lettre de course, in French(giving us the word “corsair”). These documents were issued by governments to vessels allowing them to attack and capture enemy vessels and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale, thereby disrupting their enemies’ sea trade. This practice dated back to at least the 1500’s.</p><p>The word ‘buccaneer’ itself comes to us as an Anglicization of the French use of a Taino word. Got that?</p><p>Please let me try to explain: The Tainos used wooden barbecues called “buccans” to smoke manatee meat on the beaches. These “buccans” became “boucans” (pronounced: boo-con) in French and those hunters in Hispaniola who practiced smoking beef and pork, were called “boucaniers”(boo-con-ee-ayr). When the Spanish chased them from what is now Haiti they fled to Tortuga and joined English, French and Dutch sailors attacking Spanish shipping through the Windward passage.</p><p>Now back to Morgan. Henry was descended from an old Welsh family of warriors called Morgan who owned estates around present-day Cardiff. He was born in</p><p>1635 in Llanrumney (in Welsh, Llanrhymny). Young Henry was said to be better with a lance than with a book so a life of action was early on indicated.</p><p>Henry did not reach the West Indies as an indentured servant as has been long-rumoured but was in fact a junior officer in Penn and Venables’ expedition sent by Cromwell to the Caribbean to damage the Spanish hegemony in the region.</p><p>This expedition was unsuccessful in capturing Havana in Cuba, and then Santo Domingo in Hispaniola. Fearful of the wrath of Cromwell the Lord Protector if they returned from this very expensive sortie with nothing to show, Penn and Venables attacked the lightly garrisoned island of Jamaica which having no gold, silver, or jewels was used as a provision depot for the returning Spanish treasure fleets.</p><p>By 1660 with the monarchy restored, Henry’s uncle was sent out to be the Governor of Jamaica. Henry who was still in Barbados followed his uncle to Jamaica where he was already famous from his exploits with Penn and Venables, married his uncle’s eldest daughter and two of her sisters married his closest friends.</p><p>Morgan apprenticed at sea one might say under Commodore Christopher Mings, sailing as one of his captains as they attacked and looted Santiago de Cuba, and a couple of years later in 1663 down the Mexican coast attacking Campeche’s two forts and coming away with 14 Spanish ships as prizes.</p><p>Hollywood glamourises pirate sea battles but the truth is these encounters were costly and therefore largely avoided. Most of Morgan and other buccaneers’ successes came on land. In 1663, Henry Morgan the leader of a small fleet of 6 ships that set sail to attack the Spanish Main and did not return until 18 months had past. Morgan must have possessed great leadership skills because time and again he rose to the head of joint efforts involving disparate individuals, possibility due to his background as a soldier. This expedition left Port Royal and headed to New Spain first to the Yucatan and down along the Central American coast landing at Frontera. Morgan’s force marched 50 miles to attack the town of Villahermosa only to find that after capturing and looting the town their own ships had been taken by the Spanish. This forced them to capture 2 Spanish ships</p><p>and several coastal canoes to carry them back against the currents to regroup at the Yucatan. They then set out again down the Central American coastline to what is now Nicaragua and again inland to surprise the wealthy town of Granada which was taken with the assistance of local Indian tribes.</p><p>In 1668, Morgan sailed with ten vessels to Cow Island off the coast of Hispaniola (modern Haiti). Here the Oxford, a warship sent out for the defense of Jamaica by the British government, found the French privateer ship Le Cerf Volant. The British master of a ship from Virginia had accused the French vessel of piracy so the Cerf Volant was arrested and condemned as a prize by the Jamaica Court of Admiralty. After the Oxford was blown up (in an explosion said to have killed 250 people) while Morgan dined in the great cabin, the Cerf Volant ultimately became his flagship, under the new name of Satisfaction. After cruising east along the coast of Hispaniola and attacking coastal towns along the way, Morgan turned south to sail across the Caribbean again, making for Maracaibo in the Gulf of Venezuela. This he took, together with the more southerly town of Gibraltar. On their return journey, the privateers were bottled up at the lake of Maracaibo by several large Spanish warships and a reinforced fort. Morgan had to use great ingenuity to escape and doing so added to his treasure yet again.</p><p>In 1670 he met off modern-day Haiti with his captains and with their 1800 men decided to attack Panama, the legendary city of the Indies. They landed at Chagres and had to fight their way through the jungle first before reaching the first of three fortifications. Remember this was attempted by the legendary Sir Francis Drake who failed miserably. Morgan succeeded in capturing Panama, during the siege the city caught fire and was burned to the ground. Morgan and his comrades returned to Port Royal with hundreds of slaves and chests of gold and silver and jewels.</p><p>As happened often in Europe during the 17th century, politics had taken a turn back in England, attacking Spanish ships and cities became for a time an embarrassment for the English government and Henry Morgan and his protector, the Governor, were summoned home, but not punished. After three years</p><p>England’s attitude toward Spain again changed and once again Morgan was sent to relieve the threat against Jamaica.</p><p>Morgan at the age of 45, returned as Lieutenant Governor organized the island’s defenses and survived political treachery, whilst expanding his estates and their value. He also still enjoyed the company of his former colleagues a bit too much in the rum bars of Port Royal and his once admirable physique became bloated and his pallor yellowed. Morgan was said to have been faithful to his wife from the day they were married, but they were never able to have children</p><p>He died on the 25th of August 1688.</p><p>For many decades, Henry Morgan’s name meant only the name of a romantic "pirate" of yore, but there are recent signs of a re-evaluation by scholars. As John Weston asserts Morgan is being looked at “as one of Britain's most successful military strategists and as a man with the leadership qualities of an Alexander. He gained the loyalty of the buccaneers, who followed him without question, and the respect of kings and princes”</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-74369331056236437802021-09-02T13:20:00.000-07:002021-09-02T13:20:52.584-07:00poems<b style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">'79<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Pontiacs perched on cinder blocks</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Weeds stubborn urban on the edges</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Ghosts of tenements loom in sorrow</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Glass shards embedded in the dirt</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">of the yards where the world streamed through</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Smack dead center yet pushed to the fringes</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">One country to the next, Que Paso?</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><b style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">'08<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Doormen flag taxis, grab shopping, pet dogs</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Westside replica brought complete</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Ethnic dinners presented safely</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Beers of the world, Banks of the world</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Hot real estate cold cultural state</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Place made uneasy by the ones that once scorned us</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Spanish heard only on Avenue D</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">MALL FOR THE RICH</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;"> </span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Manhattan now, is a mall for the rich</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">non-inclusive, vapid</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">as culturally vaKunt as the models it houses.</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Harlem's gone, Lower East Side too</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Where bums lay derelict</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">condos replace tenements</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">that housed your family</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Mick Black Kraut Wop Jew Rican</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Marx Brothers, Cohan, Cohen, Chan</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">5 Points, Chinatown, Bowery, Loisaida</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Only The Heights remain</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">and brother its days are numbered</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Chelsea Hotel is being gentrified</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">flop for Burroughs Ginsberg Kerouac Warhol</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">and my brother Brian</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">yet another boutique boite for yuppies and twats</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">oh they'll think its cool on thousand buck sheets, but none of them will create a damn thing, but Jeez it's sure handy if you're hanging in the meatpacking district</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Where do the tv whoors hang their meat now?</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">Disney's got Times Square, Trumps got the West Side, the Church and Columbia have the best</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">and NYU will take the</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">rest</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;"> birthplace, of my grandparents & parents & our son, place where Brian died</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;"> place where 2 young hearts first met</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">New York, NY was a helluva town</span><p><br /></p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-6387420645517425192021-09-02T13:19:00.000-07:002021-09-02T13:19:08.459-07:00More EV Downtown 81 musings<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">I remember walking to that market in Brixton down Electric Avenue past the Fridge from your flat in Clapham and Antoinette and I buying snapper and groceries to cook escoveitch fish, rice and peas and for fritters the next morning if my memory hasn't jumbled it all up. It was like a West Indian Eastenders or sommat and great fun.</span></p><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I also remember a pub you and i drank at at least once in Brixton's high street that was run by a Jamaican woman and they had a normal jukebox with a big as fuck speaker wired to it playing the classics. Magic.</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The footage of Basquiat walking around in the LES with all the rubble and individual building survivors looks exactly like Berlin and Dresden and London after WWII eerily uncanny even in the sunshine. Every doorway/overhang/nook/cranny that could possibly be used as a shelter from sun/rain/snow/cold seemed inhabited. From 1st avenue east to Avenue C from 14th down to Houston it was largely DMZ/freeforall/NoMan'sLand.....</div><p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3333px;">I had 2 people at different times ask me if I was John Lurie... In 1981/mid82 we were in Jamaica but was hanging there before we left (Brother Brian introduced me to Stromboli pizzeria, the cheap Uke and Pole restaurants and bars with terrific jukeboxes around TSPark where one Friday night we smoked a spliff and were literally the only people in sight) and right after we returned to NY. I used to see Basquiat sleeping in Thompkins and Madonna in limo and Richard Hell and I mentioned I believe that my brother Brian lived (and was killed) on 9th between B&C and his pals were the Fleshtones and that Brian hung out with some Swami that liked cognac and that Ginsburg was around him etc......Antoinette got pregnant right around the weekend Brian was buried and we were living at the corner of 23rd and Park Ave South (4th avenue always for me) with Bill Laswell on the floor below us and a Nautica model next door who sunbathed topless on our common roof terrace....the East Village is gone, long gone now but it was terrific for a good while - hippies, new agers, punks, skins, fags, Ukes, Poles, Russkies, Ricans, African Americans, Egyptian taxi drivers, man it was cool for while yes indeedy...I miss the intercourse out of it</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-76820881067638462542021-09-02T13:13:00.001-07:002021-09-02T13:13:27.668-07:00Doug's big day -out a short story<p> Doug couldn’t keep from wobbling no how hard he tried. Stiffening his muscles or relaxing them produced the same result on his attempts to normalize his walking, namely he resembled a small sailboat caught in variable seas with a strong starboard wind across its bow. The wide berth other pedestrians were giving him as he navigated westward across Broadway and towards 6th Avenue, served as further proof of this affliction.</p><p>One pint too many, or maybe the addition of the several Irish whiskeys to the pints poured him by the affable Dublin refugee barman (“drink-serving terrorist”) stood him in appreciation of Doug’s longtime custom (“fishing for larger gratuity”) and grateful for the company of Doug and his pals on a slow Saturday afternoon. They were all members in good standing of the Empty Leg Association, and fully paid up. After all, Doug hadn’t been back to his old neighborhood in quite a while and though the plan had been to rendezvous at O’Faolain’s with the fellas and then to repair elsewhere to have an adult lunch over which much shit would be shot, and then to head homewards in the early evening sporting a pleasant buzz. The rendezvous was successfully and punctually made but the action plan stalled there.</p><p>That original plan died pretty early in the afternoon and at a half-past three pm David the Englishman, was the first to fall by the wayside blaming his early exit from the festivities on the weekend train schedules up to Westchester where he was staying with the in-laws. I stepped outside to see him off and watched him careen his way up the street to the corner of Lafayette and hail a yellow cab heading uptown.</p><p>Jumbo (bless his poor sainted mother) was so-named by Doug for the size of his asteroidal noggin, and next to him at the bar Ian MacLeod (aka Mac, or Piss-Face or “MacLoud” no one ever called him Ian) also possessed of a sizeable bonce , were both made of sterner stuff and we three turned again united in purpose, towards the rail. After a few pulls at our jars, Mac and Doug took one of the many regular trips out to the sidewalk to indulge their nicotine habit.</p><p>Mac fired up a Winston with his Ronson and commented on Trevor’s recent departure, noting “He can’t put them down like he used to can he?”</p><p>Doug grunted a laugh in agreement, lighting his Marlboro from the proffered lighter. “Well, Mac… he’s married and trying to stay that way, certainly it’s not been so long that you’ve forgotten?” Mac produced a brittle laugh in response.</p><p>The foot traffic was constant in both directions, it being Saturday and we being in what’s now called the East Village. The demographics of the people passing had certainly changed since the years Doug had lived only a few short blocks away after returning to New York from Eire (yes, brilliant, right - he leaves NY and goes not to London, but Ireland) where he had tried to crack the music business in Dublin and Belfast and spent most of his time eking a living writing pop music criticism for pennies, tending bars or drinking at them. Doug’s own long-suffering patient wife had made the journey over and back with him all the while retaining her patient, pleasant demeanour and her affection for Doug in spite of his several, erm, imperfections, let’s call them. True to Doug’s uncanny sense of (bad) timing, Dublin and the Republic of Ireland were now booming, money was flowing like the Guinness at Hogans and the rest of the world now paid Ireland attention it had never received before. So of course, where was himself now</p><p>but back in the Big Apple, which had turned sterile and become yupped-out and expensive all the way from the Spuyten Duyvil down to Battery Park, and from Hell’s Kitchen to Loisaida. “Home sweet home -my ass”, thought Doug.</p><p>Jumbo joined them outside as they stood and smoked looking across at the few remaining brownstones on the north side of the block. Jumbo hated cigarettes but enjoyed a different type of smoke inhaling quickly one deep draught then bashing his lit number against the wall and turning back into the bar followed closely by the other two.</p><p>The fresh pint of porter stood waiting for Doug and Jumbo’s Bass Ale and Mac’s screwdriver had both been refreshed. Behind their glasses stood three empty shot glasses and barman grinned his evil little smile at them from the other end of the long bar as Doug (keeping his eyes fixed on the amiably malevolent, ginger-headed, pint puller) toasted his pals’ health and prosperity again and it was somewhere about this time he lost track of the time and count of the drinks he’d had, losing himself willingly in the pleasure of the good company that he had often missed when away from the place.</p><p>Mac related to them tales of his ex-wife who had mentally gone off the rails spectacularly in spite of his best efforts to help her and continuing this even after they had separated and Jumbo recently married mentioned his wife not at all, but as ever was keen to tell us about some book by minor talents like Banks or T.C. Boil he’d found at the Strand or at Shakespeare & Co. hailing it as “Groundbreaking!” or “Evocative” or “Seminal!” or some other overwrought adjective he liked to apply to books he enjoyed. Mac who followed recent fiction said he too had read it and as usual politely deemed it “All right, I guess”.</p><p>Doug too loved books of fiction but had a peculiar bent that he always felt he had missed too many great works from the past and was therefore un-interested in modern or current fiction until he had mastered the masters so-to- speak.</p><p>Darkness began to descend on the late summer Manhattan streets and the three stalwarts settled up their tab tipping the beverage banshee at a rate of about 60% for being so free with his boss’ liquor. They turned left out the door following the path Trevor had blazed some hours earlier. At Lafayette Mac bade the others farewell and headed south to catch the F train to Brooklyn and some bars nearer his flat as Doug headed west walking quickly and waving to Jumbo as he grabbed a cab to head uptown.</p><p>After a trek which felt like he had done the Rongai route up to the summit of Kilimanjaro but in fact encompassed only 2 avenues and 5 streets of the Manhattan grid on a pleasant late summer evening, Doug spied salvation in the form of the entrance to the PATH train and the promise of transport home.</p><p></p><p>The PATH train to Hoboken ratcheted and screeched into the sweltering station and Doug increased the pace of his weaving to get as far forward in the train as he could - his only thought was of a restorative nap on the train as it crossed northern NJ.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-18090612202763168742021-09-02T13:02:00.003-07:002021-09-02T13:02:24.480-07:00Hemingway on Fishing<p> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It has always seemed to me that golf was a game you played if your father or maybe both parents played it. The same went for fishing or hunting. If your dad fished or hunted chances are he would have at some point in your childhood, woke you up before the crack of dawn, dragged you still groggy into suitable clothes and off to a boat or a stream or the woods for your initiation into the ancient sport (s).</span></p><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />Ernest Hemingway, the celebrated American novelist was an avid lifelong fisherman and hunter introduced to both pursuits by his father Dr. Clarence Hemingway. Dr. Hemingway's meticulous methods in everything he did were passed on to his son via these pursuits and Ernest in turn later adapted them to his other passion, writing. The family purchased "Windermere" on Walloon Lake in Upper Michigan as their summer retreat in 1900 and the young Hemingway spent summers there for his entire childhood. The property remains in the family to this day.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />Hemingway fished anywhere he lived and he wrote about fishing in Michigan, in the middle of Paris, on the Rhone Canal, in Switzerland, Italy, Bavaria, Spain, Florida, Bimini, Key West, Cuba, Idaho, Wyoming, Canada, and Africa.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />Anyone familiar in the very least with Hemingway's most familiar works realizes the depth of his passion. In "The Sun Also Rises" he devotes an entire section on his side trip to the bullfights in Spain to describe trout fishing on the Irati River high up in the Pyrenees. This part of the book is for me the most resonant and enjoyable, more than the love interest, more than the bullfights (another Hemingway passion) more than the prodigious drinking and carousing in Paris, Pamplona or Madrid.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">"The gate was up and I sat on one of the squared timbers and watched the smooth apron of water before the rivers tumbled into the fall and was carried down. Before I finished baiting, another trout jumped at the falls making the same lovely arc and disappearing into the water that was thundering down. I did not feel the first trout strike. When I started to pull up I felt that I had one and I brought him, fighting and bending the rod almost double out of the boiling water at the foot of the falls and swung him out onto the dam."<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span>Much like his early story "The Big Two-Hearted River" his descriptions of the surroundings and the river itself put the reader right by his side as he fights to land the trout he loves. This is from that earlier story:<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />"From where Nick stood he could see deep channels, like ruts, cut in the shallow bed of the stream by the flow of the current. Pebbly where he stood and pebbly and full of boulders beyond; where it curves near the tree roots, the bed of the stream was marly and betweeen the ruts of deep water green weed fronds swung in the current. Nick swung the rod back over his shoulder and forward...."<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />Hemingway was introduced to marlin fishing after he returned from Europe in Key West and this drew his love of the Gulf Stream and the fish and the islands in it. From Key West he moved to Bimini to experience life and fishing fully in the Stream. A long passage about a day's fishing with his three fictional sons shows how deeply he was immersed in a relatively short time. In his ,Islands In The Stream, Hemingway's alter ego's boy "Davy" had hooked a big marlin and was intent on fighting the fish to the end.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />"The boy's broad back was arched, the rod bent, the line moved slowly through the water, and the boat moved slowly on the surface, and a quarter mile below the great fish was swimming. The gull left the patch of yellow weed and flew toward the boat. He flew around Thomas Hudson's head while he steered then headed off toward another patch of yellow weed on the water.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />"Try to get some on him now" Roger told the boy. "If you can hold him you can get some"<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />'Put her ahead a touch more," Eddie called to the bridge and Thomas Hudson eased her ahead as softly as he could. Davy lifted and lifted, but the rod only bent and the line only tightened. It was as if he were hooked to a moving anchor."<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />However it seemed that when he reached Cuba that Hemingway truly found his home. He was writing letters from Cuba on fishing and other subjects from around 1930. These were for publication in Esquire and Harpers and other magazines in the US and Canada. His passion for fishing echoed those for hunting big game and bird shooting. He learned everything about his prey and showed sympathy, no let's call it devotion or love towards them. His activities led to the beginnings of the IGFA. In "Marlin Off the Morro" and the later "Out in the Stream: A Cuban Letter" he shows his deep contemplation of his prey. He discusses the various types, their colours, their ages, their behaviour in the wild and once hooked. He is willing to do as much work as he can to further the body of knowledge so long as it doesn;t keep him from his drinks dockside and the sale of the fish to the waiting Cubans. Here's an excerpt where he describes the number of marlin taken in 1933:<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />"As an indication of how plentiful they are, the official report from the Havana markets from the middle of March to the 18th of July this year showed eleven thousand small marlin and one hundred and fifty large marlin were brought into the market by the commercial fishermen of Santa Cruz del Norte, Jaruco, Guanabo, Cojimar, Havana, ....etc"<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />That's just four months and are the official figures. One can only guess how much never got counted. Hemingway describes the biggest caught at that time:<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />"...But in July or August it is even money any day you go out that you will hook into a fish from three hundred pounds up. Up means a very long way up. The biggest marlin ever brought into market by a commercial fisherman weighed eleven hundred and seventy-five pounds with head cut off, gutted, tail cut off and flanks cut away: Eleven hundred and seventy-five pounds when on the slab, nothing but the saleable meat ready to be cut into steaks. All right. You tell me. What did he weigh in the water and what did he look like when he jumped?"<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">US Academy of Natural Scientists, Henry W. Fowler, headed the Gulf Stream Marine Test of 1934–35, and Hemingway, who had become an Academy member in 1929, jumped at the chance to assist.The research project studied the life histories, migrations, and classifications of Atlantic marlin, tuna, and sailfish. In August 1934, Fowler and Hemingway spent a month on Hemingway's boat the <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Pilar</em>, catching, measuring, and classifying numerous catches. Correspondence between Cadwalader and Hemingway after the trip illustrates that the latter party's assistance enabled Fowler to more accurately classify the marlin of the Atlantic Ocean.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" />If any of </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">this comes as a surprise just remember this is the guy that won the Nobel Prize for the story "The Old Man and the Sea". Papa Hemingway was a fellow that really loved to fish!<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-53966516739726116702021-09-02T12:56:00.002-07:002021-09-02T12:56:31.200-07:00Van the Man stories<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Right <span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>here's a couple of apocryphal Van Morrison stories. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>So, a pal of ours is a super Van the Man fan, I mean, loves him to death. Finally after waiting years for the chance, gets tickets to see The Man at The Beacon Theater on Broadway in Manhattan and is over the moon. The evening of the show comes, our pal gets tuned up in anticipation and arrives early and takes his seat. The band comes out vamps for a bit and out comes Van who does the first number for 20 mins then launches straight into 2nd number which goes 10 mins, and same with the 3rd song and as it winds down Van leaves the stage. Show over. No encore, no 4th song, no sorry i've got a pain in me bollix, not quite 40 minutes and finito! It's over.</span></span></span></p><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="x__1mf x__1mj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; direction: ltr; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Our pal is gobsmacked, vexed- literally steam coming out of his ears. He's unable to move for a bit but then goes up the theater into the lobby past the bar full of other dazed punters and instead of using Broadway main egress, he goes out the back fire door, and right there is the limo door open with the driver behind the wheel and Van bolts out the theater and scoots into the back of the limo now followed closelyby our pal intent on mayhem and who launches himself like a Van-seeking-Missile across the pavement into the back of the car grabbing the great star by the lapels while Van's eyes bug out of his head. Fortunately for Van the concert security boys saw this and latched onto our friend's ankles and dragged him out of the limo. Slam goes the car door as the big car tears away from the curb with the still-quivering Belfast Cowboy ensconced in the rear. </span></span></div></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-size: 18.6667px;" /></span><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-size: 18.6667px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-size: 18.6667px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></p><div class="x_UFICommentContent" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #f6f7f9; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16.08px; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Here's another story for ye. When they held the Bob Dylan 30th anniv. fest at Madison Square Garden with George Harrison, Tom Petty, Lou Reed, etc in 1992, they held the after-party @ Tommy Makem's Bar, a long time fixture in NY. My pal Brendan Cregan local Gaelic Football legend and barman, was hired to work the after party at Makem's. He told me Eric (recently sober) Clapton and man-of-the-hour Bob Dylan sat at a table in the restaurant, each picking at a plate of food, and never said a word to each other the entire meal. This, in a bar packed full of the top of the Rock & Roll royalty, celebrating one of their heroes.</b></span></span></div><div><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-63968991035418185712021-09-02T12:14:00.002-07:002021-09-02T12:14:40.852-07:00Rum diARY<p> Today, rum is produced literally all over the world: Africa, Asia & the Pacific, including India the number one consumer of rum in the world, Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, and North America.</p><p></p><p>The top 5 rum consuming nations in the world are India, USA, Philippines, France and United Kingdom and the top 5 per capita are Dominican Republic, Philippines, Canada, USA, and France. Of the top 5 countries globally, only France saw a rise in volume sales from 2011 to 2016. The world consumed 1.3 billion litres of rum in the year 2016.</p><p></p><p>The top 3 brands of rum globally are McDowells (India), Bacardi (Puerto Rico), and Tanduay (Philippines).</p><p></p><p>Rum is an alcoholic beverage distilled through fermentation from the byproducts of sugarcane such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice. In the United States, rum currently generates the third highest sales volume in the U.S. spirit industry, behind vodka and whiskey. As of 2016, consumption of rum in the United States was recorded to have exceeded more than 24 million 9 liter cases. In 2016, the sales volume of rum in the U.S. amounted to about 24.7 million 9 liter cases. There currently are several regional variations and grades of the alcoholic beverage which include: light rum, commonly used in cocktails, "golden" and "dark" rums, as well as premium rums. The latter two are typically consumed straight, with ice, or with mixers and can also be used for cooking. The leading rum brand in the U.S. as of 2016 was Bacardi. Other popular rum brands produced in the U.S. include: Captain Morgan, Malibu, Admiral Nelson (??) and Cruzan Rum. In 2016, Bacardi recorded over 17 million 9 liter cases in volume sales worldwide while Captain Morgan reportedly sold about 10.7 million 9 liter cases in that same year.</p><p>United States of America (USA) commercial rum export value amounted to around 65.8 million U.S. dollars in 2016 and the dutiable import volume of rum to the U.S.A. for that same year was approximately 7.6 million U.S. dollars, most of it coming from Mexico, Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad. The majority of the world's rum is produced in Latin America and</p><p>in the Caribbean where it plays a part in the culture of most of the West Indian islands.</p><p>·</p><p></p><p>India</p><p>There’s a good chance the first spirit distilled from cane sugar was made in India, sometime between 0CE and 500CE. Despite not being exactly world-famous for its rum, India is the biggest consumer of rum in the world, both in terms of rum drunk per capita and in terms of most rum drunk each year. Indian rums are molasses distilled, and dark. They tend to have a sweet nose and taste, with a thicker mouth feel even than other dark rums. Some reviewers recommend it as a before-dinner sipper, like Sherry. It’s also something of a currency: Soldiers in the Indian army still receive a “ration” or rum each week as part of their pay. Best bottles: Old Monk 12 Year and Khukri XXX Rums.</p><p>Haiti and Martinique</p><p>Both of these island nations have had plenty of weird history for the good and the bad. Both produce a style of rum similar to one another, but unlike rums made anywhere else in the world, Haitian and Martinique rums use a charentaise distillation method -- the same kind used in producing cognacs. A charentaise is a two-stage distillation method, meaning the first batch of distilled spirits is put back through the system to be distilled a second time. The rum is then aged in Limosin Oak Barrels, which gives it more tannin and spice than other oak varieties. The end result is acidic, with spicy notes of ginger and pepper on top of the honey finish. Best Bottles: St. James Fleur de Canne (Martinique) and Rhum Barbancourt (Haiti).</p><p>Jamaica</p><p>You think of rum mixers like Mai Tais when you think Jamaica and rum, but you’d be thinking wrong. . If you like that slight formaldehyde after-taste in Jamaican beer, you’re already a fan of hogo. Jamaican distilleries get their hogo profile by maintaining a culture of “dunder”, preserved yeast that continues to grow and mutate much like a sourdough batch and carry notes of previous batches into new brews. Best Bottles: Worth Park Single Estate and 98 Appleton Estate 21 Year</p><p>Cuba</p><p>Until recently, it’s been hard to get Cuban rum, but the lifting of sanctions by President Obama means they’ll probably be available starting this year. Before what we’ll call the Big Pissing Contest, Cuban rums were popular throughout the U.S.A. Their return might be the biggest thing in alcohol legalization since Repeal Day. Cuban rums are a Spanish-style spirit -- clearer, drier, and with a higher proof. This means a crisper mouth-feel and lighter flavors (often of honey or citrus skin). They’re a smooth drink best enjoyed neat or over a single chunk of ice. Fun fact: Cuban rum has been formalized since a royal decree in 1539, which standardized production and built a rum brand before branding was a word people used. Best Bottles: Ron Palma Mulata, Santiago de Cuba Extra Anejo</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-26091114146782038352021-09-02T12:13:00.000-07:002021-09-02T12:13:03.731-07:00EV Reveries<div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jukeboxes thoughtfully and tastefully curated - R&B, Chicago Blues, Jamaican music, Dylan, Band, Stones, Neil, Byrds....<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The first times I hung with my brother in the EV we stood in the Ave A side of the park and smoked a spliff and I noticed how quiet and peaceful it was, almost like not being in NYC<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the most pleasant nights ever spent out in Manhattan. Oh, and no cops to speak of, no homeless camps etc<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">AND there was no attitudes no </div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sneering smirking uptown slummers<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He then took me to a couple of bars now sadly long gone. The beer was cheap, the jukeboxes kicked ass,<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gem Spa I frequented several times a week. It was important to me because it sold Irish and English newspapers and music mags like the NME in the days it was taken over by Socialists. Plus they had motoring mags - I got the US ones for free at work but I would buy the English ones at the Gem<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></div><div dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /></div><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-55373275026766617352021-09-02T12:08:00.004-07:002021-09-02T12:13:38.897-07:00Poem<p> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">born the middle boy of five</span></p><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">apart from birth</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not the wished-for girl</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">separate from birth</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">five years younger </div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4 years older</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">feeling alone </div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">in a household of 8</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">strict Catholic patriots </div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">kept us in line </div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">kept us quiet</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">kept feelings in check</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">warned not to stand out</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">or Be noticed</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">excellence and achievement ignored</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">never good enough</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brian couldn't buy in but,</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">haunted, tried to find his way out</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">smarter than shrinks </div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">full of love, yet full of doubt</div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">looking for his way out</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-25530750035151542802016-02-10T10:01:00.001-08:002016-02-10T10:01:56.126-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5RBfL-3JdkNXgjmLVUqh7jrOuS63tLt4pjcQNM5wlKDcsc8qqmQ0zZzbGtNSOttgtRHkMpkZDMS0wdvEUbomqExKietLG4kG8QX_RryT0Y_5YxmRzm8BS0V4DLPAX_TCrkvce_0lidos/s1600/irieland+banks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5RBfL-3JdkNXgjmLVUqh7jrOuS63tLt4pjcQNM5wlKDcsc8qqmQ0zZzbGtNSOttgtRHkMpkZDMS0wdvEUbomqExKietLG4kG8QX_RryT0Y_5YxmRzm8BS0V4DLPAX_TCrkvce_0lidos/s320/irieland+banks.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. We in the USA have been similarly intercoursed by banks, lenders, developers, Wall Street etc. The way it now works is all over the world, the rich can gamble with immense stakes and if they win, keep their profits with no commitment to re-invest any percentage. If they lose their stake in any scheme, no matter how risky or hare-brained, they expect to be paid back in full, often in tax dollars, but it matters not, as long as they dont lose. Is this a childish expectation? Yes, like schoolyard baseball card flipping childish. Unreal? Yes, it is Star Wars death star unreal. Unfair? Well yes but dont ask me, I only lost my job due to Bush destruction of the economy and was forced to sell my house which my wife and I busted our ass to afford, and refurbish ourselves on weekends, but we were lucky, we sold in time at market value. Ask the people who could not sell in time or were turfed out into the street by the greedy, heartless banks and lenders, many of whom were re-paid for losses in Ponzi scheme investments by our tax dollars Ministers, Senators, Represntatives of any type in any country etc cannot be counted on to look out for us, in fact quite the opposite. They know cooperation will be rewarded by other fat cat criminals if not immediately, then certainly. down the line.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-86777189571478970602015-09-29T11:55:00.001-07:002015-09-29T12:10:50.769-07:00celticgods: Review: Keith Richards Documentary on NetflixEve...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-1ljN72BnQ7NmNwMEmJlbYcAs906IAwNwFRtr9OR09lnDiKLlvQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-1ljN72BnQ7NmNwMEmJlbYcAs906IAwNwFRtr9OR09lnDiKLlvQ" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Every
time Keef, in t</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: small;">his
recent nicely produced documentary, makes a joke that is not funny to any one but him, yet laughs his snuffly little laugh anyway, I
want to punch him, very hard right in his face. Then there,s the times
he,s bragging about stuff
which isn,t true (like reviving blues for Americans, for being the king
of R&R et cetera et cetera...), I want to punch him again, even
harder. Then there,s Keef in the
studio wiv ´is mates yeah, and well, they suck- they play badly and they
sing even worse. Steve Jordan and Keef
cant play reggae, and neither could the Stones, Waddy Wachtel seriously
is
Nosferatu with a Les Paul, and someone explain or enIighten me please, I
could never understand
the cult of Waddy or g. e. smith or Danny Kootch Kortchmar or any of
those soft rock guitar slingers for that
matter, and also embarrassing was Keefs gay man crush on the overrated
graham Parsons as well as ANY authentic AMERICAN musician, black
or white who gave him 5 minutes, who were the creators of a musical
generation and not just pale imitators like he and Mick
were.<br />I could feel recently deceased Gregory Isaacs spinning like a top in his grave as
Keef warbled Isaacs hit Love is Overdue, and the borderline racist definitely condescending stupid jokes to the Jamaican horn
section dragged in to lend some authenticity, and boy as a white man I was embarrassed.<br />I also lost respect for Tom Waits just for admitting he was Keefs pal.<br /><br />Lastly
I am so sick of overpaid pop stars and their ability to own VAST
numbers of guitars that they A) never, ever played and B) forgotten they even
own and C) They are able to afford a full time guitar concierge to change
their strings and Pledge off the sweat, beer, and pizza sauce on their vast catalogue of HUNDREDS of guitars.<br /><br />PS Macgregor, remember the Clapton show you
were nice enough to invite me along to @ Madison Sq garden? It dawned
on me that it was like Blues Beatlemania, a tribute act, the very best
Cover Band ever, right down to EC having the proper guitar for each
number and each artiste. Astounding but it had almost nothing to do with
blues shows Id attended previously.<br />The English are the Japanese of Europe.
They don,t create much but they study the excrement out of something and
then reproduce it impressively, and of course claim they do it better.</span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-37785654631762224202015-09-29T11:52:00.001-07:002015-09-29T12:04:51.040-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Part Three<br />
<br />
Antoinette had provided me with the entry into the world of Jamaicans - first in New York, then in Kingston Jamaica.<br />
<br />
<br />
As I have mentioned before, my brother Brian had early-on hipped baby brother Patrick and I up to Jamaican rock steady and reggae which possessed a huge variety and vitality away from Bob Marley who was OK, but we were always a little sceptical of the acts the US musical establishment selected for us to worship after all, they were the same hack journos that had shoved the Eagles, Rush and Fleetwood Mac down our throats for the past 5 or 6 years. We preferred to take advice from people we could trust like Lester Bangs.<br />
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<a href="http://www.cheese-magnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/lester-bangs-on-roof-bike1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.cheese-magnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/lester-bangs-on-roof-bike1.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
So while the hippies were digging One Love along with their Grateful Dead, we could see the Jamaican link to US blues and R&B in Toots,and John Holt, Lynn Tait & the Jets, the Techniques, Skatellites, etc.<br />
We were already well versed by the time the punks came along and busted reggae internationally, and the floodgates were opened. We knew the singers of songs and the players of instruments, likewise we knew the quality performers from those just making a joyful noise unto God.<br />
And just like when I tried to play my original Elmore James, Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf records for my school friends, they didn't understand why it might be better to check the Wailers over Clapton, or Tosh over 10CC. They had been left behind.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSo27_dYl0WYu5q2CfM4R9kGQ-gvgQnQhASe-USKSaDQ63OmertkHUhwg0RKwMIX3S1e6WGdtO7WSKMJhFNbQ7RZGinDBZf34LHlSWX9ZlxOLNn3AhuqDf_G6m-MlXehZ4lfgc7iW330wH/s400/peter%252Btosh%252B1960s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSo27_dYl0WYu5q2CfM4R9kGQ-gvgQnQhASe-USKSaDQ63OmertkHUhwg0RKwMIX3S1e6WGdtO7WSKMJhFNbQ7RZGinDBZf34LHlSWX9ZlxOLNn3AhuqDf_G6m-MlXehZ4lfgc7iW330wH/s400/peter%252Btosh%252B1960s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
So along with the music came for me an appreciation of other aspects of Jamaican culture -food, of course and clothes. Jamaican men all had immaculately tailored trousers, suits and waistcoats. I found out that bespoke tailoring still existed, nay thrived, in Jamaica and in Jamaican communities abroad. Those who are of the belief that Rastas only wear jeans and t-shirts with sandals, have never been to a big reggae show in Kingston, London or New York. Man those brothers really turn out! Antoinette lost no time in pointing out to me that sneakers or "booga" were not acceptable footwear if I was to accompany her out in public in New York City or anywhere nicer than the park for that matter.<br />
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<a href="http://largeup.okayplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/bmarley_wailers_gq_23jan12_getty_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://largeup.okayplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/bmarley_wailers_gq_23jan12_getty_b.jpg" height="194" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
So, adjustments had to be made and were, besides it always felt unseemly for me to wear shorts in a city and even today I put on some sort of trousers when visiting Kingston except perhaps on a weekend.<br />
<br />
At this time came the first ska revival which arrived on the back of the punks but wasn't driven from Haircut1000 punk-is-dying London but from the English Midlands where many West Indians had emigrated and now their sons (and daughters!) formed bands with their white English mates from places like Coventry and Birmingham<br />
2-Tone was born and Walt Jabsco the iconic image in a pork-pie hat became our idol.<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR-UC-AQ5OWampZub4sPrkVOfw31REwIcNrF2Z8buCV9hm9pJqCiw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR-UC-AQ5OWampZub4sPrkVOfw31REwIcNrF2Z8buCV9hm9pJqCiw" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
Jerry Dammers was the founder of the band the Specials and also 2 Tone the Record label which consolidated the whole movement. He was the chief songwriter arranger and keyboardist. Throughout the 80's Dammers and Shane MacGowan "the Toothless Twosome" were my heroes. I and countless others around the UK the USA and the world studied this album cover for fashion inspiration:<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQQV3qbi-nSJIWazBwvToGq9W6_ktw8A9rUas8c4FFOayQCKVnJVw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQQV3qbi-nSJIWazBwvToGq9W6_ktw8A9rUas8c4FFOayQCKVnJVw" /></a></div>
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</div>
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So off we went scouring the thrift shops and second-hand stores and the high street chancers who had sniffed a movement in the air and started selling cheap knock offs. Second-hand waistcoats, straight legged, flat-front trousers in wool, dacron, sharkskin, or silk, no cuffs. English-made tassel loafers with DM soles or if you had the cash, leather soled Loakes versions or perfed Brogues preferably in black or Oxblood . Stinge brims, narrow ties, narrow collars - anything 80's or even 70;s was out for us, especially if it said hippie, or LA or flash - there were 3 preferred colours: Black, white, or grey. Casual Fridays for me in my NY publishing offices were a Fred Perry, Levis 501s or thrift shop troosies, braces, tassled loafers and my dad,s harrington jacket, and I could do this because they were clueless. Canal Street and Lower Broadway as well as now-too-bridge-and-tunnelly St Marks Place. Nigel and I had our secret places like 99X which was on E7th down a steel staircase in an alley to a basement nirvana of Docs, and Freds and Bens and Harringtons.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-60458934228629300772015-09-29T11:37:00.000-07:002015-09-29T11:37:00.030-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Review: Keith Richards Documentary on Netflix</h2>
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Every
time Keef, in t</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">his recent nicely produced documentary, makes a joke that is not funny but no one but him, yet laughs his snuffly little laugh anyway, I
want to punch him, very hard right in his face. Then there,s the times he,s bragging about stuff
which isn,t true (like reviving blues for Americans, for being the king of R&R et cetera et cetera...), I want to punch him again, even harder. Then there,s Keef in the
studio wiv ´is mates yeah, and well, they suck- they play badly and they sing even worse. Steve Jordan and Keef
cant play reggae, and neither could the Stones, Waddy Wachtel seriously is
Nosferatu with a Les Paul, and someone explain or enIighten me please, I could never understand
the cult of Waddy or g. e. smith or Danny Kootch Kortchmar or any of those soft rock guitar slingers for that
matter, and also embarrassing was Keefs gay man crush on the overrated
graham Parsons as well as ANY authentic AMERICAN musician, black
or white who gave him 5 minutes, who were the creators of a musical generation and not just pale imitators like he and Mick
were.<br />I could feel recently deceased Gregory Isaacs spinning like a top in his grave as
Keef warbled Isaacs hit Love is Overdue, and the borderline racist definitely condescending stupid jokes to the Jamaican horn
section dragged in to lend some authenticity, and boy as a white man I was embarrassed.<br />I also lost respect for Tom Waits just for admitting he was Keefs pal.<br /><br />Lastly
I am so sick of overpaid pop stars and their ability to own VAST
numbers of guitars that they A) never, ever played and B) forgotten they even
own and C) They are able to afford a full time guitar concierge to change
their strings and Pledge off the sweat, beer, and pizza sauce on their vast catalogue of HUNDREDS of guitars.<br /><br />PS Macgregor, remember the Clapton show you
were nice enough to invite me along to @ Madison Sq garden? It dawned
on me that it was like Blues Beatlemania, a tribute act, the very best
Cover Band ever, right down to EC having the proper guitar for each
number and each artiste. Astounding but it had almost nothing to do with
blues shows Id attended previously.<br />The English are the Japanese of Europe.
They don,t create much but they study the excrement out of something and
then reproduce it impressively, and of course claim they do it better.</span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-72434614859914935882015-01-27T06:58:00.004-08:002015-01-27T07:00:06.904-08:00Now, I am sorely vexed!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/christian-extremists-steal-statue-of-celtic-sea-god-from-mountain-top-in-northern-ireland-30929777.html<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Christian extremists steal statue of Celtic
sea god from mountain top in Northern
Ireland </span></b></div>
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<a href="http://cdn2.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/article30929776.ece/d9479/ALTERNATES/h342/2015-01-23_new_6381164_I3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn2.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/article30929776.ece/d9479/ALTERNATES/h342/2015-01-23_new_6381164_I3.JPG" height="320" width="317" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: center;"><b>The artwork in all its former glory </b></li>
</ul>
</h3>
<br />
<br />
By Donna Deeney – 23 January 2015<br />
<br />
Christian fundamentalists are believed to be behind the theft of a statue of a Celtic sea god from a
mountain top above Limavady.
A 5ft cross emblazoned with 'Thou Shalt Not Have False Gods Before Me' was left behind after the thieves
took an angle grinder to the steel frame of the statue of Manannán Mac Lir.<br />
The statue was one of five
scattered across the Roe Valley as part of a Sculpture Trail aimed at boosting tourism in 2013. The remaining
four pieces of artwork were left unscathed.
Former Limavady mayor Gerry Mullan said the theft was premeditated and was not a random act of
vandalism.
He said: "Local people are extremely angry that this statue has been taken. It really enhanced what is
already a beautiful spot from which visitors and residents alike can sit and enjoy the view and I would
appeal to whoever took the statue to give it back."<br />
Police are hunting the thieves and have appealed for information.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-75789488039151314052014-12-17T11:10:00.000-08:002014-12-17T11:10:13.263-08:00After 25 years, Good Bye Black 47<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Black 47 eh?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">http://www.black47.com/</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"> I can't believe it's been 25 years but I remember when they started out playing bars on Avenue A in the East Village which was our neighbourhood. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Sinead who was a publican's daughter from Cobh, and was Antoinette's pal when they were both employed at Saatchi & Saatchi the ad agency, which was located on the corner of Hudson & Houston. Sinead was a backup singer and used to bang the tambourine for them. Her friend from Cork, Mary,the other banshee backup, was engaged to Tom Hamlin the drummer. One Friday evening Sinead comes home with Antoinette after work and has dinner with us @ our flat on East 3rd Street and afterwards we were sitti</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">ng around drinking beer and gabbing when Sinead stops suddenly and jumps up: </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">"Damn we've got a gig tonight!"., says she. So I says "Calm down" and I asked where and when this gig was, and she says to us "Some bar on Avenue A!"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_A_%28Manhattan%29</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"> She didn't know the name of the venue but I had a slight idea and Antoinette has me walk her over to find the place and make sure she gets in. T'was between 10th & 11th on the west side of A and upon reaching tried to persuade the bouncer fellas that Sinead was in the band whilst Sinead is hopping up and down between them trying to, and eventually succeeding in, catching pal Mary's eye, who had been wondering where she was and what she had been up to and wisely stood near to the front entrance. My contribution to music history thereby accomplished, I buggered off home.</span><br />
<img alt="Map of East Village Suites" src="http://images.travelpod.com/cache/accom_maps/East-Village-Suites-New-York-City.thumb.gif" /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-28606579095753108122014-06-01T09:52:00.001-07:002014-06-01T09:52:54.902-07:00celticgods: Remembering Grant Green<a href="http://celticgods.blogspot.com/2014/06/remembering-grant-green.html?spref=bl">celticgods: Remembering Grant Green</a>: I was fortunate to see Grant Green in person when I visited my brother Jim in the Bay area back in 1974. It was amazing and though I...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-8343934405281112882014-06-01T09:38:00.001-07:002014-06-01T09:51:51.188-07:00Remembering Grant Green<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".5.1:3:1:$comment10152415834748972_10152415837723972:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.359999656677246px;"><br /></span>
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".5.1:3:1:$comment10152415834748972_10152415837723972:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.359999656677246px;">I was fortunate to see Grant Green in person when I visited my brother Jim in the Bay area back in 1974. It was amazing and though I was already listening to George Benson and Kenny Burell seeing Green in a club setting was a mind-blowing experience for me.</span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".5.1:3:1:$comment10152415834748972_10152415837723972:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.359999656677246px;"><br /></span>
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".5.1:3:1:$comment10152415834748972_10152415837723972:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.359999656677246px;">Soulful, funky, rhythmic-he was all of these but was blue at the heart of it. Died at the way too young age of 44 years old.</span><br />
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<b>Biography</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Grant Green (St. Louis, Missouri, June 6, 1935 – New York, January 31, 1979; some sources erroneously give the birth year as 1931) was a </span><a class="bbcode_tag" href="http://www.last.fm/tag/jazz" rel="tag" style="background-color: white; color: #0187c5; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; text-decoration: none;">jazz</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"> guitarist and composer.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Recording prolifically and almost exclusively for Blue Note Records (as both leader and sideman) Green performed well in hard bop, soul jazz, bebop and Latin-tinged settings throughout his career. Critics Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn write, “A severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar … Green’s playing is immediately recognizable — perhaps more than any other guitarist.” Critic Dave Hunter described his sound as “lithe, loose, slightly bluesy and righteously groovy”. He often performed in an organ trio, a small group with an organ and drummer.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Apart from Charlie Christian, Green’s primary influences were saxophonists, particularly Charlie Parker, and his approach was therefore almost exclusively linear rather than chordal. The simplicity and immediacy of Green’s playing, which tended to avoid chromaticism, derived from his early work playing rhythm and blues and, although at his best he achieved a synthesis of this style with bop, he was essentially a blues guitarist and returned almost exclusively to this style in his later career. Green used a Gibson ES-330, then a Gibson L7 with a Gibson McCarty pickguard/pick-up, an Epiphone Emperor (with the same pick-up) and finally had a custom built D’Aquisto. George Benson said he would turn all the bass and treble off the amp, and max the midrange. This way he could get his signature punchy, biting tone.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Green was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He first performed in a professional setting at the age of 12. His influences were Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Ike Quebec, Lester Young, Jimmy Raney, Jimmy Smith and Miles Davis, he first played boogie-woogie before moving on to jazz. His first recordings in St. Louis were with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest for the Delmark label. The drummer in the band was Elvin Jones, later the powerhouse behind John Coltrane. Grant recorded with Elvin again in the early Sixties. Lou Donaldson discovered Grant playing in a bar in St. Louis. After touring together with Donaldson, Grant arrived in New York around 1959-60.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Lou Donaldson introduced Grant to Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records. Lion was so impressed with Grant that, rather than testing Grant as a sideman, as was the usual Blue Note practice, Lion arranged for him to record as a bandleader first. Green’s initial recording session went unreleased until 2001, however, owing to a lack of confidence on Green’s behalf.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Despite the shelving of his first session, Green’s recording relationship with Lion and Blue Note was to last, with a few exceptions, throughout the Sixties. From 1961 to 1965, Grant made more appearances on Blue Note LPs, as leader or sideman, than anyone else. Grant’s first issued album as a leader was Grant’s First Stand. This was followed in the same year by Green Street and Grantstand. Grant was named best new star in the Down Beat critics’ poll, 1962, and, as a result, his influence spread wider than New York. He often provided support to the other important musicians on Blue Note, including saxophonists Hank Mobley, Ike Quebec, Stanley Turrentine and Harold Vick, as well as organist Larry Young.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Sunday Mornin’ , The Latin Bit and Feelin’ the Spirit are all loose concept albums, each taking a musical theme or style: Gospel, Latin and spirituals respectively. Grant always carried off his more commercial dates with artistic success during this period. Idle Moments (1963), featuring Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson, and Solid (1964), featuring the Coltrane rhythm section, are acclaimed as two of Grant’s best recordings.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Many of Grant’s recordings were not released during his lifetime. These include Matador, in which Grant is once again in the heavyweight company of the Coltrane rhythm section, and a series of sessions with pianist Sonny Clark. In 1966 Grant left Blue Note and recorded for several other labels, including Verve. From 1967 to 1969 Grant was, for the most part, inactive due to personal problems and the effects of heroin addiction. In 1969 Grant returned with a new funk-influenced band. His recordings from this period include the commercially successful Green is Beautiful and the soundtrack to the film The Final Comedown. Grant was also a huge influence on guitarists, from George Benson to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Still to this day guitarists try to get his signature sound, Idle Moments is considered one of the top 100 jazz albums of all time.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Grant left Blue Note again in 1974 and the subsequent recordings he made with other labels divide opinion: some consider Green to have been the ‘Father of Acid Jazz’ (and his late recordings have been sampled by artists including US3, A Tribe Called Quest and Public Enemy), whilst others have dismissed them (Michael Cuscuna wrote in the sleeve notes for the album Matador that “During the 1970s he made some pretty lame records”).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Grant spent much of 1978 in hospital and, against the advice of doctors, went back on the road to earn some money. While in New York to play an engagement at George Benson’s Breezin’ Lounge, Grant collapsed in his car of a heart attack in New York City on January 31, 1979. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and was survived by six children. Since Green’s demise, his reputation has grown to legendary status and many compilations of both his earlier (post-bop/straight ahead and soul jazz) and later (funkier/dancefloor jazz) periods, exist.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-36258443007285417872014-04-14T04:57:00.001-07:002014-04-14T04:57:47.795-07:00celticgods: From the Independent: The Forgotten Irish Revoluti...<a href="http://celticgods.blogspot.com/2014/04/from-independent-forgotten-irish.html?spref=bl">celticgods: From the Independent: The Forgotten Irish Revoluti...</a>: Ireland’s forgotten revolutionaries: The Irish president’s meeting with the Queen was a landmark, but few acknowledge why peace took so ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-30565127979814369352014-04-14T04:51:00.001-07:002014-04-14T04:58:43.305-07:00From the Independent: The Forgotten Irish Revolutionaries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ireland’s forgotten revolutionaries: The Irish president’s meeting with the Queen was a landmark, but few acknowledge why peace took so long</h1>
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Irish revolutionary politics were nothing new, but revolutionary nationalism triumphed as British politicians saw off the alternative</div>
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<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/melanie-mcdonagh-8490629.html" style="color: rgb(184, 0, 0) !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><span class="authorName" style="font-weight: bold; outline: none;">MELANIE MCDONAGH </span></a><img alt="Author Biography" class="openBiogPopup" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/skins/ind/images/plus.png" style="border: 0px none; cursor: pointer; margin-left: 5px; outline: none; vertical-align: -1px;" /></div>
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Sunday 13 April 2014</div>
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<div class="column-1" style="outline: none; width: 620px;">
<div class="widget code html widget-editable viziwyg-section-507 inpage-widget-8674163" id="componentDiv_gig_containerParent" style="font-size: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 6px; outline: none;">
<div class="gigya-share-btns" gigid="showShareBarUI" id="componentDiv" style="float: left; outline: none; visibility: visible;">
<div class="gig-bar-container gig-share-bar-container" style="outline: none;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; color: #4d4d4d; float: none; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><tbody style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;">
<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><div class="gig-button-container gig-button-container-count-none gig-button-container-facebook gig-button-container-facebook-count-none gig-share-button-container gig-button-container-horizontal" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: inline-block; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: top; width: auto;">
<div alt="Share on Facebook" class="gig-button gig-share-button gig-button-up gig-button-count-none" id="componentDiv-reaction0" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; cursor: pointer; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" title="Share on Facebook">
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<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td id="componentDiv-reaction0-left" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction0-icon" style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><img alt="" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/assets/images/redesign/sharebtns/facebook.png" id="componentDiv-reaction0-icon_img" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" /></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction0-right" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td></tr>
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</td><td style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><div class="gig-button-container gig-button-container-count-none gig-button-container-twitter gig-button-container-twitter-count-none gig-share-button-container gig-button-container-horizontal" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: inline-block; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: top; width: auto;">
<div alt="Share on Twitter" class="gig-button gig-share-button gig-button-up gig-button-count-none" id="componentDiv-reaction1" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; cursor: pointer; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" title="Share on Twitter">
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<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td id="componentDiv-reaction1-left" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction1-icon" style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><img alt="" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/assets/images/redesign/sharebtns/twitter.png" id="componentDiv-reaction1-icon_img" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" /></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction1-right" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td></tr>
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</td><td style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><div class="gig-button-container gig-button-container-count-none gig-button-container-googleplus gig-button-container-googleplus-count-none gig-share-button-container gig-button-container-horizontal" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: inline-block; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: top; width: auto;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; color: #4d4d4d; float: none; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><tbody style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;">
<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td id="componentDiv-reaction2-left" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction2-icon" style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><img alt="" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/assets/images/redesign/sharebtns/googleplus.png" id="componentDiv-reaction2-icon_img" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" /></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction2-right" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td></tr>
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</div>
</div>
</td><td style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><div class="gig-button-container gig-button-container-count-none gig-button-container-reddit gig-button-container-reddit-count-none gig-share-button-container gig-button-container-horizontal" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: inline-block; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: top; width: auto;">
<div alt="Share on Reddit" class="gig-button gig-share-button gig-button-up gig-button-count-none" id="componentDiv-reaction3" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; cursor: pointer; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" title="Share on Reddit">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; color: #4d4d4d; float: none; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><tbody style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;">
<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td id="componentDiv-reaction3-left" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction3-icon" style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><img alt="" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/assets/images/redesign/sharebtns/reddit.png" id="componentDiv-reaction3-icon_img" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" /></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction3-right" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</td><td style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><div class="gig-button-container gig-button-container-count-none gig-button-container-linkedin gig-button-container-linkedin-count-none gig-share-button-container gig-button-container-horizontal" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: inline-block; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: top; width: auto;">
<div alt="Share on LinkedIn" class="gig-button gig-share-button gig-button-up gig-button-count-none" id="componentDiv-reaction4" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; cursor: pointer; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" title="Share on LinkedIn">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; color: #4d4d4d; float: none; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><tbody style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;">
<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td id="componentDiv-reaction4-left" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction4-icon" style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><img alt="" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/assets/images/redesign/sharebtns/linkedin.png" id="componentDiv-reaction4-icon_img" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" /></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction4-right" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</td><td style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><div class="gig-button-container gig-button-container-count-right gig-button-container-share gig-button-container-share-count-right gig-share-button-container gig-button-container-horizontal" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: inline-block; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: top; width: auto;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; color: #4d4d4d; float: none; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><tbody style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;">
<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td class="gig-button-td" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;"><div alt="Share" class="gig-button gig-share-button gig-button-up gig-button-count-right" id="componentDiv-reaction5" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; cursor: pointer; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" title="Share">
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<tr style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><td id="componentDiv-reaction5-left" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction5-icon" style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; zoom: 1;"><img alt="" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/assets/images/redesign/sharebtns/share.png" id="componentDiv-reaction5-icon_img" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;" /></td><td id="componentDiv-reaction5-right" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></td></tr>
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<span class="storyTop " style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: none;">Obviously, it was overshadowed by Prince George in New Zealand – never try to compete with babies – but apart from that, was there any state visit so suffused with the feel-good element as that of the Irish president, Michael D Higgins, to Britain last week? It was a love-fest from start to finish. The Queen – possibly relieved to be entertaining someone as modestly-sized as herself – beamed unrestrainedly at Michael D.</span></div>
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He beamed not only at the Queen but at everyone in sight. For such a very good talker as the president, having to make seven heavyweight speeches in four days must have been heaven. He’s a poet and a sociologist, so he’s good at the kind of mellifluous circumlocution that invests Anglo-Irish relations these days.</div>
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But the fly in the ointment – at least so far as Tory pundits were concerned – was the presence of Martin McGuinness in this company. The Sinn Fein man was in all the footage of the state banquet at Windsor Castle – chatting with every appearance of amiability with David Cameron and Enda Kenny, the Irish premier – and again with the Queen at Windsor for a meeting of Northern Irish politicians, and finally tucked away at the back of the royal box with the DUP leader, Peter Robinson, at the jamboree for the president at the Albert Hall, alongside Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. For people such as my old friend, Stephen Glover, of the Daily Mail, it was all too much. If the Queen keeps company with Martin McGuinness, he wrote, it’ll be al-Qa’ida operatives next.</div>
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What no one from this end of the spectrum ever does is ask why Mr McGuinness exists. I mean, not qua human being – that’s over to God. I mean, why the militant republicanism he represents was necessary; why the constitutional options for dealing with the Irish problem took so long; why Sinn Fein trumped the Irish parliamentary party in the first place; why – in short – we got where we are now.</div>
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For the answer to that, we need to go back exactly 100 years. Well, a bit more possibly, but a century would do nicely. Because that’s when the last chance for resolving the Irish question peaceably and in a unitary fashion was stymied. It’s when the Third Home Rule bill granting self-government, excluding defence, to Ireland was passed, but leaving out Ulster, first temporarily and then permanently.</div>
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It was the last time for resolving the Irish Question by peaceful means and it was vitiated by a terrifying combination of violence and the threat of violence, not from Republicans, but from Ulster Unionists bent on ensuring that Home Rule would not apply to Ulster, or at least to the “plantation counties” – what turned into the six counties of Northern Ireland. Two previous Home Rule bills from Gladstone had already been seen off, the second by being blocked by the House of Lords.</div>
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And just when it seemed that Home Rule might finally happen, after the House of Lords lost its power of veto, British politicians gave way to the revolutionary methods adopted by Ulster Unionists – chief of which was the formation of a paramilitary army intended to resist the writ of parliament, equipped with guns and ammunitions run from Germany. In their resistance they were backed to the hilt by the British Tory party as represented by Bonar Law, a Presbyterian minister’s son. It must be said, though, that most of the British players in these events, incuding Churchill and Lloyd George, were influenced, like him, by an instinctive antipathy to Roman Catholicism. And without that recourse to physical force; to violence (which Britons invariably associate with Irish republicanism), the state of Northern Ireland would never have come into being. At least not the way it was constituted.<span class="inline-image w460 leftAligned" style="display: inline; float: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; outline: none; width: 460px;"><img alt="Fine dining: the banquet at Windsor Castle" src="http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9257719.ece/ALTERNATES/w460/32-Irish-President-AP.jpg" height="345" style="border: 1px none rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none;" title="Fine dining: the banquet at Windsor Castle" width="460" /><span class="inLineImageCaption" style="color: #7d7d7d; display: inline-block; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 14px; margin: 2px 0px 9px; outline: none;">Fine dining: the banquet at Windsor Castle</span></span></div>
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Not many people talk about the revolution of 1914, do they? But that’s what it was. And the implications remain quite devastating for anyone inclined to complacency about Britain’s model of parliamentary democracy, which is why these events really should be remembered.</div>
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The Irish historian, Ronan Fanning, has subtitled his recent book, Fatal Path (Faber, £10.99), about the decade 1912-1922, as: “British Government and Irish Revolution”.</div>
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Except that the revolution wasn’t primarily Republican, but Unionist.</div>
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“The term ‘revolution’”, he writes, “is rarely ascribed to the Ulster Unionists’ successful resistance to the third Home Rule Bill. Yet, given their rejection of parliamentary authority as expressed between 1910 and 1914 through the government’s democratic mandate in the House of Commons, in the creation and arming of the 90,000-strong Ulster Volunteer Force, in the establishment of a provisional government in Belfast in September, 1913, and in the mutiny threatened by an elite corps of British Army officers... and endorsed by the British Conservative Party in March 1914, a revolution it undoubtedly was.”</div>
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The mutiny he refers to here was the Curragh Mutiny. In response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers and their successful shipments of guns and ammunition from Germany, the government decided to undertake a show of military force. But it ran into the flat refusal of British Army officers based in the Curragh to move against the Unionists, with whom they very much identified. The response of ministers was to capitulate. (The Army’s reaction was very different when Irish nationalists began their own gunrunning in response, on a much smaller scale: soldiers sent to deal with it fired on a crowed of Dublin civilians, killing four people.) George Bernard Shaw – a Dublin Protestant, and the single most articulate proponent of Home Rule and opponent of partition – was scandalised by the subversion of parliament. In the 1912 preface to his Irish play, John Bull’s Other Island (the one that amused Edward VII so much, he broke his chair laughing), he wrote about the shattering of his illusion that “Parliament... was still what it had been in the heyday of Gladstonian Liberalism, when it was utterly inconceivable that an Act of constitutional reform, which had been duly passed and assented to by the Crown, could be dropped into the waste paper basket because a handful of ladies and gentlemen objected to it, and the army officers’ messes blustered mutinously against it.”</div>
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Asquith, the Liberal prime minister, was not easily discomposed, but even he was perturbed by these events. In fact it is fair to say that by the time the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, ministers rather welcomed this chance to kick the Irish question into the long grass. Asquith wrote to his friend, Venetia Stanley, on 28 July: “What you say apropos of the War cutting off one’s head to get rid of a headache is very good. Winston [Churchill] on the other hand is all for this way of escape from Irish troubles, and when things looked rather better last night, he exclaimed moodily that it looked after all as if we were in for a ‘bloody peace’.”</div>
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The lessons of all this were not lost on Irish nationalists. The inevitable result of the success of Ulster Unionist tactics, and the capitulation of British ministers to the threat of force, was that the position of the constitutional nationalist leader, John Redmond, was terminally undermined. His Irish parliamentary party, which had held the balance of power in Westminster, was discredited even before the 1916 Easter rising.</div>
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Respectable parliamentarians looked increasingly ineffectual and were inexorably displaced by the revolutionary nationalists in Sinn Fein.</div>
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It’s interesting to speculate what might have happened to nationalist rebels such as Michael Collins, had the Third Home Rule bill passed. He’d probably have been a successful businessman. But it didn’t pass and the state of Northern Ireland came into being, as a “Protestant State for a Protestant people”. That was the context that created the politics of Sinn Fein and ultimately Martin McGuinness. Irish revolutionary politics were nothing new, but revolutionary nationalism triumphed because British politicians saw off the alternative. Yet, to a remarkable degree, these events have mostly passed over the radar of even educated Britons who take on board, in a Downton Abbey way, that Irish Home Rule and Ulster opposition to it was a big deal before the First World War.</div>
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Back to the present: during the Windsor Castle Banquet for President Higgins last week, the Queen promised, astonishingly, to her guest that “my family and my Government will stand alongside you... through the anniversaries of the war and of the events that led to the creation of the Irish Free state”.</div>
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Naturally, the centenary we’re thinking about this year is that of the Great War, but by rights, we should also remember what happened just before it. Sometimes, the recollection of history can be historic in itself.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-16134130345236263812014-04-07T22:03:00.001-07:002014-04-07T22:03:28.145-07:00celticgods: Céad míle fáilte<a href="http://celticgods.blogspot.com/2014/04/cead-mile-failte.html?spref=bl">celticgods: Céad míle fáilte</a>: Now that St Patrick's Day has passed by and the world has as per usual forgotten about Ireland, the Irish and their history I am putt...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-8610828293845767682014-04-07T21:57:00.002-07:002014-04-11T08:04:30.184-07:00Céad míle fáilte<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16pt;">Now that St Patrick's Day has passed by and the world has as per usual forgotten about Ireland, the Irish and their history I am putting this down as it has been on my mind for a while.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16pt;">My friend Jim Morrow the lover of Yeats and son of the West tells me there is a new history of Ireland he is reading and related to me how difficult it is to read about Cromwell's conquest. This from wikipedia:</span><br />
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The extent to which Cromwell, who was in direct command for the first year of the campaign, is responsible for the atrocities is debated to this day. Some historians<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland#cite_note-5" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[5]</a></sup> argue that the actions of Cromwell were within the then-accepted rules of war, or were exaggerated or distorted by later propagandists; these claims have been challenged by others.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland#cite_note-6" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[6]</a></sup></div>
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The impact of the war on the Irish population was unquestionably severe, although there is no consensus as to the magnitude of the loss of life. The war resulted in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Famine">famine</a>, which was worsened by an outbreak of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubonic_plague" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Bubonic plague">bubonic plague</a>. Estimates of the drop in the Irish population resulting from the Parliamentarian campaign vary from 15–25% to half and even as much as five-sixths. The Parliamentarians also deported about 50,000 people as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Indentured servant">indentured labourers</a>.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16pt;">This from Irish Central:</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-size: 21px;">http://www.irishcentral.com/news/entertainment/Irish-American-Stephen-Colbert-to-replace-David-Letterman.html</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16pt;">Clearly the "Lord Protector" was responsible for yet another of Ireland's "holocausts", perpetrated by the English over the ages. The English to this day don't understand why the Irish in particular do not wish to be maltreated and denigrated as second-citizens, to be cursed as "papists", etc by joining them in the "Greater Britain" which now seems to be devolving anyway. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16pt;">For me I have always been astounded by the virulence of the hatred the English developed for the Church in such a short time and for the most immoral and flimsiest of reasons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 29.81999969482422px;">Today the media in Europe, Canada and the USA never discusses a more complete Irish history which must include an honest look at all the nightmares visited on Ireland and the Irish by the English through power, greed and hateful racialism down through 800 years. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 29.81999969482422px;">In our time if it is discussed at all, it is as if Irish history begins with the Easter Uprising of 1916. The centuries before that occurrence - all of the complexity, characters progress, defeats, movements, and political discourse - is submerged below a sea of British history in which the Irish are viewed as ungrateful, contrary, bog-stomping, savages, quaint in manner and appearance when the English observer feels benevolent, and ugly, backwards, and violent when he's not.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 29.81999969482422px;">Just as Europeans, (who love to call the USA "racist") never seem to have a frank, open, serious debate on their parts in the African slave trade. These nations like Spain, Portugal, France, Holland and of course England that commenced, developed, profited immensely by, and in the end summarily abandoned all responsibility for the victims of what must be viewed as the worst single atrocity in the history of human interaction.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 29.81999969482422px;">When one looks back and compares it is easy to see that the English practiced for their future empire, on poor Ireland and its peoples, instituting all the hateful policies (rendition, deportation, partition, racialism, genocide, forced-labour plantations) that became so well known as Britannia ruled more and more of the world's peoples. When it became apparent there weren't enough Irish to man their outposts, they plundered an entire continent to staff their sugar, cotton, and coffee plantations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 29.81999969482422px;">They love to point fingers now, the Europeans, and perhaps that is a good thing, but at one time they countenanced no interference or showed any tolerance toward critics of their imperial will. I think it's high time for more serious re-evaluation and compensation if not reparations.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-63053145051677539082014-01-29T14:12:00.005-08:002014-02-07T19:12:05.440-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Part Two of <a href="http://celticgods.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-80s-or-ill-take-you-to-restaurant.html" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration: none;">The 80's, or I'll take you to a restaurant that's got glass tables, so you can watch yourself while you are eating</a></h3>
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Mirror in the bathroom, click click click - Part 2</div>
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Ok so we had our look down, right smart!</div>
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On our first visit to London together the dollar was strong against the pound the Christmas and post xmas sales were on sooooo, we went a bit nuts.To the West End we went where I found a peg-legged prince-of-wales checked double-breasted suit with tight pleats and small cuffs, and a pair of blue baggy trousers that tapered down very tightly to the cuffed ankle and were lined which made them very comfortable and warm during the challenging NY winters. I had bought these new in London on the King's Road across the street from where Vivienne Westwood's shop Sex had been..those,.plus a pair of patent leather dress lace-ups and a pair of pointy blue perforated shoes with Doc Marten soles further down the street. I wore those blue perfs or the black Loake's tassels often with those blue pants.</div>
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Antoinette had a really hot vintage black and white patterned crinoline dress, a Dior knockoff suit with the cutest miniskirt from Renaissance, plus in London we got her this hand tooled and distressed leather jacket w/ matching tapered trousers. The outfit was striking, she still has it, beautifully lined too, people used to stop her in the street in Manhattan.</div>
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We never left home without our shades, Ray Bans of course.....</div>
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So one payday I wandered down Broadway to Canal Jeans' location there and after drifting past the poseurs and poofters I hit the men's racks, half an hour later, for less than $50, I was leaving the shop with a pair of woolen, deep-pleated, big cuffed, subdued vertically striped, high-waisted trousers (like I had seen in a Madness video), a men's vintage white cotton broadcloth shirt with narrow button-down collar, and a men's waistcoat that complemented not only the shirt & trou, but the two pairs (1 pair black, 1 pair pale grey) of Italian-made men's lace ups i had found on W8th Street 2 or 3 door s down from the 8th Street Playhouse, the theater that MADE Rocky Horror Picture Show a classic, as well as being the only theater to show films by Jean-Pierre Melville and others.....</div>
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So we went out to Peppermint Lounge, Negril, Irving Plaza, Roseland Ballroom, The Ritz, The Palladium, CBGB, Bowery Ballroom, The World, The Hotel Diplomat, the Reggae Lounge and so on........</div>
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The East Village at that time was the epicenter for all our activities. There were a couple of restaurants and bars that existed on the fringe which did a great weekend business from the Bridge & Tunnel people who wanted to be cool but found the Lower East side a little too edgy and those places were as far as they went and their purpose in the world has now transferred to Hoboken NJ so the Jersey kids don't have to cross the big Hudson River to scary ol' New York any longer. I am sure their moms sleep more comfortably now.</div>
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But on St Mark Place and Avenues A or B or 7th street there were Ukranian & Polish restaurants at which we could all afford to eat-.pierogies, pot roast, mashed spuds, sauerkraut boiled green beans endless cups of coffee it was pretty much like what my German grandmother made at home and cost 4 bucks!</div>
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The Eastern European social clubs had pool tables and sold Heinekens for a buck-fifty and we would just nip out across the street to Tompkins Square Park to smoke our weed.and then back across again.</div>
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It really was like a big playground for the over-18 year-olds and the cops didn't care as long as you weren't violent or naked (before midnight at any rate, afterwards.....).</div>
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The paths through Tompkins Square Park were like the punk Champs Elysee and 5th Avenue where everyone paraded their take on style/fashion/politics/protest/hip/glam/flash personified by hippies/punks/goths/artists/mods/skinheads/... deep breath .... rockers/skateboarders/Rastas/New Romantics/club kids/greasers, etc.one not-so-grand faire de promenade of anarchists and wanna-be's....</div>
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.....socialists, communists, Hare Krishnas, born-againers, right-to-lifers, drug vendors,squatters, homeless et cetera, and on up St Marks they went. Sometimes though, in those days, you could find yourself alone in that park. Undistracted, peaceful almost bucolic.</div>
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Eventually the once vibrant vintage clothing sources dried up one by one, the cool clothes disappeared leaving vestments fit only for lumberjacks (grunge) and mental hospital refugees (hipsters) which is what you have seen the past 20 years. The new fashions were not what my very good mate, Nigel, or I could stomach- giant lapels, giant wide neckties, stupid contrasting collars and cuffs Yuuccchh!!! </div>
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So we took the bold step of visiting the Mohan Brothes in the Lincoln Building on 42nd Street directly across the street from Grand Central Terminal and the Pan Am Building and one block further up Vanderbilt to Conway's Bar our local.</div>
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The Mohan Brothers were Indian chaps who ran ads in the NY Post & the NY Daily News offering bespoke suits and shirts for the discerning New York Knicks, Nets, Giants, Yankees, etc...<br />
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Nigel and I met up one lunch hour and took the elevator up to visit the Mohans and were met by very nice fellas who showed us dozens of books of samples as we tried to explain that we were trying to re-create the 60's Brooks Brothers suits that were the mod formal dress - wool worsted, narrow lapels, 3 buttons, double side vents. Their offer was hard to refuse so we didn't - 3 bespoke suits, any fabric we liked, for less than $700 US dollars.</div>
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Even if they turned out just OK you couldn't beat $230 per suit anywhere, and to our delight they turned out pretty damned well.</div>
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Well, 2 fittings and one month later we were called to pick up our suits. I had ordered a plain dark blue suit medium weight, a charcoal gray cashmere, and a Glen Plaid replica of Sean Connery's suit in Goldfinger.They had your name sewn on a label on the inside pocket, fecking magic.</div>
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Matched up with our English and Italian foot wear, "Made In USA" Oxford dress shirts, narrow vintage ties, Nigel and I presented a very sharp contrast to the off-the-peg Italian made designer,suits we saw in the street and in our offices. I mean, bankers still wore only grey or blue baggy recent vintage Brooks Brothers (who had lost their way over the years) or department store knockoffs thereof. The "stylish" guys <span style="line-height: 1.4;">(Armani, Cavani, baloney)</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> had kipper ties, garish shirts, big braces, often in braided leather, and matching expensive designer- tasseled wing-tipped shoes.</span></div>
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Oddly, looking at the ads right now and how the men on tv like Don Draper in Mad Men or Michael Westen in White Collar, or the characters in the very aptly named "Suits" are dressed, fashion has only just caught up to us. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-15299423363685612482013-12-07T20:01:00.003-08:002014-02-07T19:19:02.270-08:00The 80's, or I'll take you to a restaurant that's got glass tables, so you can watch yourself while you are eating<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The 80's. The decade, not the age group Part 1<br />
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In 1980 my brother Patrick and I were obsessed with bands out of England, as punk, kicking and screaming lost steam, we followed the Clash, the Specials, the Beat, Madness, Selecter, Reggae.<br />
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Our dad had died in 1977 and without realising it the only person on this planet to which I felt I had to live up to was gone. Sorry ma, but that's the way it was.<br />
Suddenly I was free, young and open-minded and was living in Fort Lee NJ with the woman that I already knew was the love of my life and who would become my wife early the next year in Kingston Jamaica.</div>
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My new-found freedom was evident in several ways if anyone had cared to look: I'd cut my hair short into a flattop, I was clean-shaven, my dress had drastically changed - the cowboy boots had gone- so too had sneakers mostly, replaced by dress shoes and work boots. Calvin Klein jeans were banished in favour of a return to the classics namely Levis 501 shrink-to-fits which very conveniently were sold at The Gap where I worked up until 1981 (for $19.95) and then only in NY and SF as only the urban gay communities had kept 501's alive during the dark fashion night of the disco onslaught. I had a second-hand army jacket covered in badges from the afore-mentioned bands as well as Jamaican musical influences (note: NOT the Wailers).</div>
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The changes were largely intuitive and retroactive as I had grown up wearing similar stiff blue jeans Wranglers or Levis with turn ups, plus hand-me-downs from my older brothers or my dad 's yellow wind breaker.My haircut was from the 50's / 60's, the musical influences were also from an older time too. Eddie Cochran, James Brown, STAX, Buddy Holly, Studio One, yeah mon, rhythm come forward. I was re-discovering my mod youth and still young enough to pull it off a second time.<br />
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FAST FORWARD to 1983, 1981 & 1982 were spent in Kingston Jamaica and that story is for another time gentle reader.<br />
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Bam! 1983 Back in NY, working in schlock shop ad agencies ( Sleepy's mattresses, Crazy Eddies, B&H Cameras, The Wiz...) taking classes at School of Visual Arts with Antoinette as she was freelancing at type-shops and department store ad departments, saving what cash we could for the baby that was suddenly coming.<br />
Ronnie fucking Raygun was still in office sadly surviving Hinckley's bullet to return and accelerate the country's slide down the greasy Bat-Pole into the abyss in which we find ourselves 30 years later. His smug evil female counterpart Thatcher presided securely over the UK.<br />
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Guys like me wanted to look good but we couldn't afford tailors or the posh men's shops, besides they were all selling over-tailored, padded shoulders double breasted stuff with lapels you could land jets on. Orrrr they were all pastel coloured Don Johnson wanna-be's still wearing Capezios etc....<br />
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We shopped in the East Village at Trash & Vaudeville, 99X for our Doc Martens and Loakes and at another shoe store across the street on St Marks Place. I found really nicely made Italian lace up shoes on West 8th Street at reasonable prices, but for for just about everything else there were the thrift shops on lower Broadway and Spring Street in Soho like Canal Jeans and Hollywood Legend.<br />
For dress-shirts the button-down classic cotton Oxford shirts I shopped at Macy's or B. Altmans. Their store brands were nicely priced and the quality of the US made shirts was miles better than the Fred Perry or Ben Sherman dress-shirts.<br />
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Altman's on 5th Avenue was possibly my favourite department store. The polished wood floors, the understated classy layout of its departments, not to mention the Italian Renaissance style exterior designed by Trowbridge & Livingston the firm that did the Bankers Trust Bldg and the Hayden Planetarium all added to the pleasure of shopping there.<br />
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As one can see it was all a mix of the old and the new. We were cut off from the money and the political power at least during the day but at night time New York (or London) was ours. We might have been hungry, and 'self-medicating' with whatever we could lay our hands on, but we had energy, there was just a buzz, a vibe, a current that was felt as you stepped out onto the street. Yes the night was ours because we could stay up all night to take it, and while our lives existed in small clearly defined areas mostly on the geographic fringes, our influence was being felt in ever widening circles and digging away relentlessly at the center. Of course like the anti-war movement and the hippies it would all get co-opted eventually and the the same dickheads we hated just took our shit and sold it on main street. This happened because there was no organised political bonds between our splintered groups of punks, mods, hippies, rockers, skinheads New Romantics etc... Everyone would protest the closing of a neighbourhood green space or the ousting of squatters but when the cops moved in and cracked heads the outcry was fierce for a week and then the real estate investors did what they wanted in the first place.<br />
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At night you could see groups of people walking, skulking, shuffling, leaping - their clothes proclaimed their tribal affiliations and if you had no dosh, no readies, no play money this is what you did, you met up with yer pals, yer mates, yer crew and walked around the city and smoked cigarettes. Many just captured a park Bench in Tompkins Square Park that wasn't already been commandeered by one of the legions of homeless (or Jean Michel Basquiat) and watched the parade pass by.<br />
So for a while there was an art scene that fed off the music scenes, that in turn fed the fashion scenes and for a while it existed apart where it would thrive. What we wore when on our own anyway, what we went to see in galleries, or hear in nightclubs was unlike anything that was being worn/seen/heard uptown.<br />
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To be continued....</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-54161910607613001022013-11-21T04:49:00.001-08:002013-11-21T04:49:31.312-08:00celticgods: Port Antonio, Jamaica<a href="http://celticgods.blogspot.com/2013/11/travel-blurb.html?spref=bl">celticgods: Port Antonio, Jamaica</a>: PORT ANTONIO, JAMAICA - ONE OF A KIND Where else in one place does one find the intermingling of the histories of such dispara...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043635463384616816.post-64268663981844999782013-11-21T04:47:00.002-08:002013-11-21T04:55:53.303-08:00Port Antonio, Jamaica<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>PORT ANTONIO, JAMAICA - ONE OF A KIND</b></div>
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Where else in one place does one find the intermingling of
the histories of such disparate groups as the Tainos, the Maroons, the Spanish/French/British, American business and leisure, the birthplace of
Caribbean tourism, the start of the international banana industry, plus the
rich and famous of the entire 20<sup>th</sup> Century?</div>
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Why, Port Antonio Jamaica, of course!</div>
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The town of Port Antonio is situated in the northeast corner
of the island of Jamaica. It sits on beautiful twin harbours, guarded to the
south by the majestic high ridge of the Blue Mountains and the entire area east
and west of the town is dotted by coves and beaches carved out of the
primordial rock by the eternal caresses (or bashing) of the waves from the Caribbean. Lush
foliage fed by its numerous emerald mountain rivers and streams and plentiful
rainfall make Port Antonio and its environs the place you always dreamed about
in the Caribbean.</div>
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Jamaica’s original inhabitants the <b><i>Tainos</i></b> lived here and
traces of their ancient civilization have been found in the caves of the
limestone hills and along the plentiful waterways. </div>
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Columbus found Jamaica on his second voyage to the Americas
and <b><i>the
Spanish</i></b> named the port “Puerto Anton”
after the son of an aristocrat. The Spanish did little else in the area.</div>
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Jamaica was taken by <b><i>the British</i></b> in 1655 and they retained
the town’s name and made it the capital of the parish of Portland so-named for
the Duke of Portland, a favourite of the king. Captain Morgan during his tenure
as governor used the hills around Port Antonio for look-out posts due to it's strategic location on the passageway between Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica that scanned the
sea for the approaches of Spanish or French invaders. The British developed
agriculture mainly sugar, coffee, cocoa, coconuts, annotto and cattle ranches.
Fort George on the Titchfield peninsula and Navy Island across the inlet
dividing the 2 harbours was the base for the Royal Navy and the fort was manned
right up to the 1960’s.</div>
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In the early days of British occupation Port Antonio and in
fact all of the eastern end of Jamaica, were under threat of attack from within
by the Maroons. The Maroons (from the Spanish “cimarron”, for “wild”) were
released Spanish slaves later joined by slaves that escaped their British
masters and formed communities in the high Blue Mountains and were clever and
fierce opponents, eventually forcing the British to sign a peace treaty and
designate them as a separate nation within the colony, free from further
molestation. It was the Maroons that
developed the technique of cooking and preserving meat by cooking feral pigs
using low smoke (to escape detection by the British) on barbecues made from
pimento (allspice) wood which we now
know as Jerk. A yearly festival commemorates this uniquely Jamaican cuisine phenomenon
in Boston east of Port Antonio.</div>
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<b><i>Americans </i></b>began arriving after Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker made
his first visit to the island in 1871 looking to fill his empty freighter in
order to make his return trip to the US profitable. Baker found <b><i>bananas</i></b>,
and was soon back as were others as the “yellow gold” boom began bringing
exotic tropical fruits in quantity to US markets for the first time and making
Port Antonio the wealthiest town in Jamaica after Kingston. Dow’s Boston Fruit
Company eventually had 40 banana
plantations and this was the beginning of one part of what became the United
Fruit Company that grew bananas all over the West Indies, Central and South America which became known
as Chiquita years later.</div>
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So, how did <b><i>tourism</i></b> come to begin at Port
Antonio? Simple, the fruit steamers also had staterooms for passengers and the
steamship lines supplemented their earnings by advertising for holiday makers to
enjoy the salubrious climate of Jamaica, “Island in the Sun”. <br />
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Soon the grand Titchfield Hotel was build on a bluff
overlooking the harbour, the town and up to the highest peaks in Jamaica. This
brought the new <b><i>Hollywood royalty</i></b> of silent films, Broadway and the West End. Wealthy
and famous people from the arts, business and sciences began to arrive and some
built homes, such as the daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The world’s newspapers
followed their exploits and travels so that these style-maker’s holidays in the
tropics began to be lusted after by the wider public.</div>
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Fast forward past both World Wars and two similar visitors
from vastly different parts of the British Empire turned up, Ian Fleming and
more important for Port Antonio, Errol Flynn. Flynn sailed into Port Antonio
after being shipwrecked in Kingston and stayed off and on for 20 years. He
became part of the local scene and brought his pals from all over the globe
co-opting the banana rafts for their Rio Grande river excursion picnics and
giving an iconic activity to the visitors of the area which continues to this
day. </div>
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In the late 50’s Frenchman’s Cove resort was built on a
coastal plain east and an iconic beach east of Port Antonio which drew several
dynasties of European royalty, stars of stage and screen, business tycoons,
artists, musicians etc, in other words the jet-set had discovered Port Antonio.
Some people returned year after year and began to build vacation homes in the
hills and coves around Frenchman’s Cove, named San San, Alligator Head or the
Blue Hole.<br />
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Today the town is being renewed, infrastructure being renovated,
Trident Hotel and Castle has been re-imagined and the long promised investment
in Port Antonio appears to be close to reality, keep your fingers crossed!</div>
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Port Antonio has retained much of its original charm, and we
urge those who are curious to enjoy a real Jamaican Caribbean experience, so,
come catch Portie fever.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0