Significance of MK's Bday 7/7

Significance of MK's Bday 7/7

I too am bored. Look what I found about the 7th day of the 7th month.

www.odysseymagazine.com/p...ory_02.php

The Sun God was sad. He wanted his daughter to be happy, but the work of the kingdom had to be done. So he ordered the young couple to separate. From now on, Chih-nu would live on one side of the river and tend to her weaving, and Ch'ieng-niu would live on the other and tend the oxen. <strong>They could meet only once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month.</strong> But how would they cross the river?

When the day finally came, as the princess and the herdsman waited on opposite sides of the river, they heard a faint whirring -- the sound of hundreds of wings flapping together.

It was a flock of magpies. The birds darkened the sky like a sudden cloud. They then circled down in formation until they nearly touched the surface of the water. They stretched from one side of the river to the other, forming a bridge.

The princess and the herdsman rushed to each other across the backs of the birds and were reunited for one wonderful day

<strong>Chih-nu and Ch'ien-niu still live apart. Every year, though, on the seventh day of the seventh month, the magpies form a bridge over the waters of the heavenly river</strong>. Often, people say, a gentle rain falls on the morning of that day -- it's the tears of joy of the lovers reunited after a year's separation.



another account of the weaving goddess story

www.allfiberarts.com/libr...chihnu.htm

One more

www.pantheon.org/articles/c/chih_nu.html

Re: Significance of MK's Bday 7/7

All right! Finally, you give me something I can sink my teeth into. Let’s see now... A birthday poem for Michelle...

Oh Shelly, my Vega
I’m eagah to see ya.
You’re good as a Degas
Or a fine Cuban Cee-gah
Or a song by Rod Seagah
-- This praise is too meagah.

Here in the Priori
I write in my diary:
“Michelle, Alpha Lyrae,
You’re spirit so fiery,
Your muscles so wiry,
Your hips are so gyrie,

We’d make quite a pair.”
(Signed) Fred, your Altair.

Freddy's journey from delicious delirious dreams to reality

Freddy

Here is a message from Mushu

Michelle is wiry, and gyrie
She is your honey
In your dream Freddy
You are not Vinny (Vincent V Gough)
You can only dream of Night starry starry
When will you return to planet reality?

Wing is Lyra, and Angelica
She is your Vega
In your REM mista
You are not Degas
You can only drown your brain in opiah
When wil you return to earth's centa?

Dreamer Freddy the Pig
In your symphony fantast<strong>pain</strong>e
Shan is Hariret and you are Hectah (Hector)
You will discover when you finally awike
Shelly is *Cockaigne
And you are Elgar

:rollin: :rollin: :rollin:

(*not to be confused with Freddy's prior reference to cocaine)

PS
Scroll down for Elgar's Cockaigne overture

www.kuringgai.net/kpo/programme_notes/
Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)
Cockaigne (In London Town) Overture, Op.40

Among the great composers there were perhaps few with such a complex personality as Sir Edward Elgar. While in his public role as Master of the King's Musick, baronet and holder of the Order of Merit he could be stand-offish and brusque, in his private life Elgar was insecure and tormented by self-doubt. On the one hand his major works were celebrated as an unsurpassed evocation of imperial Britain (in some cases, a disappointingly limited view of very profound music); on the other, he was capable of refusing a dinner-party invitation in the words "you will not wish your table to be disgraced by the son of a piano-tuner".

Every aspect of Elgar's character finds a place in his music: resolution, sometimes approaching bombast; a constant striving for nobility of expression; dreamlike nostalgia; not a little humour. All of this can be heard even in his early works. The concert overture Cockaigne (subtitled In London Town), though written in 1901 when Elgar was well into his forties, must count as one of these, for undeniable success had come his way only with the first performance of the Enigma Variations in 1899. In between the two Elgar's self-confidence, never very robust, had been shattered by the catastrophic, under-rehearsed premiere of The Dream of Gerontius. It was perhaps in a conscious attempt to overcome his depression at this failure that the composer embarked on Cockaigne.

London in 1901 was the confident and affluent capital of a prosperous nation. The South African war, though still in progress, was near its end, British victory assured. In the same year the lengthy and glorious reign of Queen Victoria had come to an end, to be succeeded by that of Edward VII, and the city had entered upon an age of splendour which was to last until the approach of the First World War. In a letter to A.J. Jaeger ("Nimrod" of the Enigma Variations) Elgar characterised Cockaigne as "cheerful and Londony - stout and steaky'"; to Hans Richter (first conductor of the Enigma Variations, Gerontius and the First Symphony) he wrote that the overture was "intended to be honest, healthy, humorous and strong but not vulgar".

Cockaigne begins with a rhythmic theme in the first violins, firm and confident but not, as is shown by the direction scherzando, to be taken too seriously. After just a couple of bars there is a sprightly continuation in the clarinets; the two ideas are shared among various instruments until, after a crescendo, the opening theme returns in the full orchestra. This soon leads to a new theme, marked nobilmente, vibrante, legato, which is generally understood as representing the citizenry of London and its calm confidence. A quieter, slightly slower section ensues. First strings, then wind enunciate a tranquil theme which is supposed to represent a pair of lovers strolling in a London park. Marked by typically Elgarian large melodic leaps, the first strain of the theme is succeeded by a second, less tranquil and more romantic. A slight accelerando introduces, first on clarinet and then on second violins, the nobilmente "citizens'" theme, doubled in tempo and marked scherzando so as to suggest the cheeky Cockney lads. Elgar evidently borrowed the idea from Wagner in Die Meistersinger, where the apprentices' music is just that of the masters but twice as fast. The music grows in activity, reintroducing the opening theme and the lovers' theme before relaxing again.

A rising arpeggio for the cellos introduces an extended quiet, dreamy section in which the nobilmente theme, now marked dolcissimo (very sweetly) and given an other-worldly atmosphere by its chromatic accompaniment, and the second part of the lovers' theme are combined with flowing woodwind arpeggios. The lovers are disturbed, at first only gently, by the distant sound of a military band (triangle and clarinet). Their reverie continues, but the band becomes closer and more prominent with the addition of brass, until finally it bursts onto the scene with trombones, cornets and percussion announcing a martial and festive theme over a sparkling orchestral background of woodwind, strings and percussion. The band theme is taken over with a more serious air by the strings before being given out, grandioso, by the full orchestra. This is joined gradually by the theme of the youngsters, who have evidently gathered in excitement to hear the band. The listener turns away and leaves the youngsters in the background, only to encounter another band whose steady tread of bass drum and tambourine, jaunty clarinets and "wrong" notes in the celli and bass make up Elgar's tongue-in-cheek version of the Salvation Army. This in its turn is left behind as the listener enters a more tranquil section sometimes glossed as a visit to one of the London churches, or perhaps to a quiet corner of a park. Once again, however, the mood is disturbed by sounds from outside (the youngsters' and the lovers' music), and trombones initiate the recapitulation of all the overture's principal themes in their original order, with the exception of the nobilmente theme. This Elgar saves for the climax of the work, where it is stated broadly and majestically by the full orchestra. A final reference to the opening theme brings to a close this brilliant and imaginative composition.

Re: Freddy's journey from delicious delirious dreams to real

Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky, is important in the history of astronomy because it was the first star whose distance from the solar system could be measured by the method of semi-annual parallax. It's about 25 light years away. It it also called Alpha Lyrae because it is the brightest star in its constellation, the Lyre.

Altair (Alpha Aquila) is the brightest star in the constellation "The Eagle." Both Altair (a corruption from the Arabic) and Aquila (Latin) mean eagle.

Together with Deneb (Alpha Cygnis, the Swan), Vega (pronounced Vee-gah, not Vay-gah), and Altair form the "Summer Triangle." Look for it this time of year in the East Northeastern sky about an hour after sunset. Vega is about halfway up the sky, Deneb about 24 degrees to the left and below it, and Altair will have just risen.

When all three stars of the summer triangle are visible at sunset, voila! it's July Seventh, Michelle's birthday, and summer is officially here!

Another thread killing post by...

Mathman

Summer

The seventh month of the year is the month of the lotus.