For better or Norse

Turns out everything old really is new again.

For the first time in 1,000 years a new pagan temple is being constructed in Iceland’s capital city that will house a shrine to the Norse gods Thor, Odin and Frigg.
“We see this as so much part of our heritage,” said Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of the Asatru religion.
The temple is ten years in the making and is currently under construction. The 4,000 square foot facility will overlook the Icelandic capital and be completed in 2016. It will give Icelanders the opportunity to publicly worship at the shrine to gods.

Norse paganism is very old, albeit younger than Greco-Roman mythology. But that's what's interesting about phemomena like this. The adherents face a different world from their literal and metaphorical answers, one in which faith and religion have been decentered. Which almost certainly means this religion will be very different in its new emergence from what it used to be. 

Flaky Friday* Random Ten

* Yes, on a Friday for the first time in... some time.

Over the past couple of weeks my workplace has had two snow days when we were closed, plus two late openings. There's a prospect of more snow Sunday going into Monday. I'm not sensing a lot of enthusiasm for another snow day. License to play hooky loses its appeal if it starts to eat into your vacation time.

1. Elton John - Son of Your Father
2. Dave Van Ronk - Lady Gay
3. New Pornographers - Born With a Sound
4. Fleetwood Mac - Walk a Thin Line
5. The Band - We Can Talk
6. Rasputina - Gingerbread Coffin
7. Aaron Neville - Over You
8. Sun Ra - Bassism
9. Fitz & the Tantrums - The End
10. David Bowie - Up the Hill Backwards

These little piggies

Having your feet go numb when they get wet and cold then having them gradually gain circulation again is an interesting sensation, albeit perhaps not for everyone. Just thought I'd share that.

The Real Thing

You never know with people,

The beard fits, but otherwise his look, in both the suit and the body language, suggest an overworked home insurance salesman. Not the way I'd picture PKD.

Of course what he's talking about and the deadpan way he addresses it? Yeah, that I would have figured.

Cycle

I like this post from a couple of days ago by Charlie Pierce on Jim Webb's sometimes bigfooted attempts to appeal to working class voters. This paragraph especially speaks to me.

Sooner or later, it's up to the voters to decide to stop being stupid about their own self-interest, and to stop falling for scams about how the Poors and Browns are the ones stealing all their money.

One of the frustrating things about politics - I'm not sure if it's specific to this country or just a general fact of life - is that if you want people to stop being stupid and you can objectively prove they have been , you still can't come out and say it. In fact elections in America often come down to who can more strongly affirm the innate wisdom of the voter. And all sorts of adjacent ass-kissing.

Treacherous Saturday Random Ten

It's quite the banner week for ice on the sidewalks. Many opportunities to slip and fall, if you're walking somewhere. So far I've managed to do just the former, not the latter, although some loud grunting has been involved.

1. Sun Ra - Where Is Tomorrow
2. The Who - Silas Stingy
3. Diana Krall - I Can't Give You Anything But Love
4. Rasputina - Sweetwater Kill
5. Fitz & the Tantrums - Last Raindrop
6. Dave Van Ronk - Long John
7. Mose Allison - Going to the City
8. Beck - Turn Away
9 Ernie K-Doe - A Certain Girl
10. Fleetwood Mac - Never Make Me Cry

Wood you?

Wooden Man from Justin Bolarinho on Vimeo.

Mysterious? Strangely evocative? Evocatively strange?

I do like the sense of homecoming here. The director made a nice choice of music as well.