Out of Lascaux

Kung Fu: Season 3

I have been watching this for several days now, and after being suspicious about the order in which they were being shown, I finally realized it was completely wrong! The shows are listed by "air date" on the DVD package, but after having pulled out my trusty Kung Fu: Book of Caine I discovered that the air dates they have on these discs are completely bogus. I think even someone who had not seen them in '74/'75 would have realized that he had hair in one episode, none in the next, and hair again afterwards. I also knew that I would have remembered it being this screwed up if they had actually shown them in this order. I was a fanatic at 12. I was one of those kids who draw portraits of their idols and hang them on the wall. Yes, I had one of Kwai Chang Caine.

It's funny how forgiving and uncritical children can be of TV shows. I watch it now and realize:
a) how bizarre this stilted acting style is
b) how forgiving I was of this whole "Chinaman" thing - the only way you knew people thought he was Chinese was 'cause they kept calling him "Chinaman." Otherwise, David Carradine looks as Chinese as I do.
c) What's with that pouch of his? It must be magic, because over the years he has pulled out enough stuff to fill a sea chest. And every time a bad guy looks through it, he doesn't find "anything of value."

So last night, Kill Bill: Vol 2 was on while I was watching my DVD's. I dislike Tarantino's movies because they are just too violent, and lack story. But, I had to check out David Carradine, who is about 70 now. He has aged well, I have to say. He didn't look so great in that hokey '90's Canadian TV Show "The Legend Continues." NOT a show I would watch ever again. But I liked him in this - at least, the last scene he's in where she finally kills him. I haven't seen any other parts of the movie.

Anyway, I numbered the episode guide so that I will finish watching them in order. I will have to get up and change discs a few extra times, but at least I'll have peace of mind.

Pope Joan

Last night ABC had a special on Pope Joan, the mysterious female Pope. It wasn't the mystery that I found so mystifying - I've heard the story before - but the fact that ABC would send Diane Sawyer to Rome to research a papal legend. I guess it's the whole Da Vinci Code influence.

The story itself is pretty straight forward. Supposedly, a woman dressed as a man, who had acquired all sorts of church-learning, became pope in about 855. She was only found out 2 years later when she gave birth in a public street.

OK, I believe a woman could have become pope this way; many women have successfully dressed as men throughout history. You would be suprised how many we know about, and I bet we would all be really surprised at how many we don't know about. There's the stage coach driver Charlie Parker, and the the female pirates Ann Bonney and Mary Read, and lots lots more. And then there are the women who wrote about their adventures, like Loretta Velazquez a.k.a Harry Buford of the Confederate Army, and my personal favorite (and little known) Nadezhda Durova, author of The Cavalry Maiden set in the Napoleonic Wars. Now, one has to take these adventures with a grain of salt, because they were written to sell books, but I have little doubt that at least some of their exploits were true.

But, a woman who was as knowledgable and clever as Pope Joan just dropping a kid in the middle of the street one day? I have serious problems with that. And so do many people, who believe the whole thing is purely legend. However, there are clues that something happened in which a woman was accidentally made pope; the street's name of Via Papessa; many different chroniclers telling the story; the weird things we do accept, like the 12-year-old pope, and the corpse pope. But to me, the strongest evidence is the marble coronation chair which looks like a potty chair. Supposedly, the new pope would sit in this chair, and a deacon would reach underneath to make sure the new pope had all the right equipment. Now, this is not the kind of thing someone thinks up out of the blue. This is the kind of thing that only grows from actual events. Like the Mongolian tribes who love to wrestle. They wear these jackets that have sleeves and a back, but they leave their chests bare. It stems from an incident in which a woman disguised as a man kicked the asses of a bunch of wrestlers before they found out. Then they made sure it would never happen again.

I was watching a History Channel show on giants, and they talked about John Henry, the steel-driving man. Did you know he was based on a real person? Neither did I, but they have found all sorts of evidence about him. It just goes to show that any legend can have some basis in fact.

As for Pope Joan, go read the article and you can judge for yourself.

What I got for Christmas

Apparently, my husband and son are of the opinion that I spend too much time on the computer, because they bought me 4 different DVD sets. What better way to keep mom out of the fight for the computer than to plunk her down in front of the TV?

Kung Fu: Season 3 - to go with seasons 1 and 2. I'm working on that now.

Absolutely Fabulous: Series 1-3. If you have never seen Edina and Patsy you are missing out. Fabulously funny Brit TV.

Buffy: Season 5 - to go with seasons 6 and 7 (yes, I'm working backwords, but I just think Spike is the coolest character.)

Men In Black:II, from the boy, who was too intimidated to buy earrings like I asked. But, you can't go wrong with agents J and K.

And I bought Serenity, ostensibly for DH, to go with the Firefly DVD's.

So, I have plenty of TV watching time ahead, and a really big quilt to finish hand-quilting (no time pressures, though :-) And if DH complains that I haven't done anything but sit around watching TV, he has only himself to blame.

Arty Blogs

Blue Tea Wonderful art blog, lots of interesting things to look at. She recently found Escher creations made out of LEGGO's. But this had me entranced for a while.

Empress of Dirt, crafter, mom, photographer (not necessarily in that order.)

A Realization in Texture, Color and Movement... Beautiful photos of beautiful food and crafts.

Moon River. I don't think I've ever linked to an MSN space before, but this one has cool photos and art. Definitely a cut above the rest.

5 Quilts

So, I finally finished the 5 memorial quilts. They were made using some of my mother's dresses. Each quilt has the same design, but different colors and different quilting techniques. There are 5 for her 4 grandchildren and one childless son. I'm kind of proud of them, especially the red on on the end. That's the one that had such intricate hand quilting that I was still working on it the day I shipped them off (and it cost me an arm and a leg to get them there for Christmas because it took me so long to finish.) My son and I chose the purple one as the most reminiscent of my mom. The other children will have to fight over the other four in Connecticut. And yes, that's me.

Black American African

I've been thinking about this whole "African American" label we've got going now. Being of mixed descent, I suppose I should consider myself African American. But my family hasn't been from Africa in 200 years. I am not an African American. However, I had a friend in college whose family was from South Africa. He was white, and of Dutch descent, but his father was born in Africa (I think he was, too, but I don't remember). Doesn't that make him an African American?

If we have to give labels to a racial group, I have to say that "colored" is actually the most appropriate. Caucasians on the whole tend to range from white to pink, while black people have a much broader range of shades. Perhaps "shaded" people would work? Or "many hued?" The term "colored" has certainly gained enough notoriety that no one wants to use it. If you want to be really technical, you might say, "people whose ancestors were slaves." Maybe a bit too long, hunh?

The reason I've been thinking this is that my next quilt project will be a "Black American African Quilt." I've been looking at quilts made by southern black women, and there is some vestige of an African aesthetic in them. I'm going to use strips of many colors mixed with black in a very simple square block design. I'm still working out the design in my head, and will probably change it once I start piecing it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Spammed

Gah! I go away for a month and my one open post gets 96 spams in the comments. Does that seem right to you?