the land of sex and sinners
"For most of its past Ireland was notorious for possessing the most carefree moral outlook in Christendom. While current permissiveness is viewed as a completely modern phenomena in fact several millennia of unique and often shockingly broadminded attitudes form the core of Irish sexual history. The Land of Sex and Sinners traces the complete timeline of Irish sexual and gender development from the mysterious sexio-religious rites of pre-history to the all too blatant teenage coming-of-age rituals of contemporary life."
This is the intro to the excellent documentary made mostly in gaeilge (irish) directed by Jimmy Duggan and financed by TG4, irelands native speaking TV channel (only @ 8 years old)The documentary appeared in the stranger than fiction documentary festival in the IFI, Irish film institute. the screening was followed by an open panel discussion which was very wide ranging.The documentary will be screened in 4 parts by TG4 in the upcoming weeks.
what i gathered from the film and the discussion was roughly the following:
-In the past we lived in a healthy balanced age
-This changed into the unhealthy and unbalanced age we live in today
-A paradigm shift is happening in society, a REbalance is (re)emerging
5000 years ago Neolithic farming communities lived on this land and it is widely believed that there was balance between the masculine and the feminine in all aspects of the civilisation. The soil, the water, the earth being the fertile receptive motherlike deity and the sun with its life force energy being the direct masculine deity. When joined in union, the masculine and the feminine created life. Fertility was recognised, understood and celebrated.
the amazing architecture and buildings of the time give us best evidence to back up this theory
The Megalithic Passage Tombs of Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth, Fourknocks, Loughcrew and Tara are located in the present day County of Meath on the east coast of Ireland. The Boyne Valley Mounds at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth were built around 3200BC making them older than Stonehenge in England and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
The Winter Solstice sunrise illuminates the passage way leading into the burial chamber of the megalithic passage tomb at Newgrange on the 21st December 2003
so for only 1 day in the year the act of penetration is played out and demonstrated by the architecture, the shaft of light representing the penis enters the vagina and fills up the womb of the chamber (this is not meant in anyway to be rude, as some might find it, it is merely communicating the facts)
With the arrival of the bronze age came increased warfare and competition, more male charateristix. the architecture began to change from the round mounds to phalluss or standing stones
this more or less continued untill todays age we live in
where conflict and competition are at there most brutal highest
but something has changed
we are part of the Paradigm Shift
that is slowly affecting all levels of civilisation
as Fritjof Capra
states in the second edition of his best selling book "the tao of physics"(1975), written 15 years after the first one
i paraphrase
"the existing major problems of our time are all facets of one single crisis, a crisis of perception. An outdated worldview existed for several hundred years which included the belief that a society in which the female is everywhere subsumed under the male is `natural`. There was a need of radical revision and this revision is already happening in many areas of life. The new emerging worldview is an ecological worldview that is grounded in spiritual awareness. This `rising culture` is growing and becoming a powerful force of social transformation"
in his later book "the hidden connections" (2003) Capra states that the event that changed the "political landscape of the age" was the closure of the WTO (world trade organisation) talks in Seattle in 1999 by the global justice movement
you can watch Capra give a free archived "berkley lecture" webcast
at present in ireland the government is trying to build a motorway through one of irelands most sacred sites, the hill of Tara. This was the centre of government, the place where the high king of ireland ruled the land. in the film Queen Maoibh was depicted as being the ruler, the soon to be king having to have sex with her to sign the deal.
a campaign is underway to avert this crazy idea, it is gatehring momentum and perhaps could become the metaphor for our age
more speed, more roads, more cars, more wars
and who cares about that which is held sacred
or bring about a more sustainable balanced existence
After the discussion i was talking with the academic from Trinity, Mary Condren Th.D whom I was very impressed with. She is the author of the book "the serpent and the goddess" and is invovled with the The Institute for Feminism and Religion
So it seems theres a lot to learn about these dynamics that are affecting our society and left unaddressed could lead to full on destruction of our species and maybe the planet too.
After the discussion, and after getting distracted by bumping into old friends from years back i finally got to the table and had a bite to eat and a very livley chat about this and that with my housemate kate.
We were sitting there at a table for four and the two girls beside us got up and with that an elderly couple came over and asked if they could sit down, it was empty so they did. We said to them "are you going to see a film" they said yes that they were going to the next screening about chernobyl
because they support the charity, children of chernobyl, that is headed by ali hewson, bono from U2`s wife.
"Chernobyl Heart shows the invisible trail radiation leaves behind. The film opens in the exclusion zone, the most radioactive environment on earth"
so the conversation developed along lines of
us-fair play for supporting this, well done
them-its great to see young people like yourselves here
us-well its great that there is more and more things like this happening, that people are becoming politicised and with that taking action to try to improve things.
them-thats very encouraging
it was about this point that the lady said "by the way im Anne Madden and this is Louis le Brocquy i said "im duncan" and kate said "im kate".
Louis le Brocquy is one of irelands leading artists and even though i dont like a lot of modern art i do happen to enjoy his work. this is one of his paintings of Beckett, whom i believe he was friends with in france
(irish abroad, irish home, the land of saints and scholars???)
so the conversation continued and we got talking about how, roughly, theres bad things going on in the world but they can be overcome and indeed there is a growing body that is challenging injustices in todays world.
they are doing this because they are being informed by the emergence of more stories, documentaries, festivals, centres, spectacles....
but aswell as this it is not a case of "come here we know how all should live",as happened previously but of people from all backgrounds in society coming around the table as equals. to add to this people who had never been asked to the table before are being asked to give their views, and just maybe "jimmy" is the lad who sees things that others dont, maybe one simple bit of wisdom from him is exactly what is needed to solve the problem?
from there the idea that artistic creativity instead of violence was the way to change things was explored
anne was invovled with and knew many of the people involved in the "revolution" in paris `68 and one of her theories was that as a result of absolute barbarity the opposite is formed, that of absolute creativity
which is perhaps coincidental as that morning i had put a piece online on the architectural schools website
about the situationists who were heavily involved with `68
i gave the example i like and have participated in, the berlin love parade
in cold war 80`s berlin people protested, they were ANTI this, anti that but then in 1989, 150 people in berlin had a demonstration FOR tolerance, respect and communication between nations. not only that but they decided to be creative and they turned it into a little free techno party on the streets. 10 years later and there was 1.5million people dancing on the streets of berlin,
and it rocked
kate asked me would i have a drink and she asked them would they like something, instead they insisted on buying a bottle of wine for the table. So this fine positive conversation continued untill their film was starting when they had to run. it was a pleasure to have had such a livley discussion with such interesting, creative, interested people
during the conversation i also mentioned state of emergency and the fact that i am still banned from irelands architectural online community, archeire.
but thankfully i have started participating and working with, in my opinion, the most progressive global networks on the planet; indymedia and social forum
i had previously announced at the end of the post screening documentary that the second irish social forum was on this weekend
so thats about it
we are in the process of setting up the
dublin ECG (eco city group) node and from that helping develop the botanix spine and a healthier metro system, the interconnector than the one being proposed by the government at present
the IFI stuff has acted as a fine catalyst
Stranger Than Fiction is the only annual festival dedicated to celebrating the best of factual film and television in Ireland.
"For most of its past Ireland was notorious for possessing the most carefree moral outlook in Christendom. While current permissiveness is viewed as a completely modern phenomena in fact several millennia of unique and often shockingly broadminded attitudes form the core of Irish sexual history. The Land of Sex and Sinners traces the complete timeline of Irish sexual and gender development from the mysterious sexio-religious rites of pre-history to the all too blatant teenage coming-of-age rituals of contemporary life."
This is the intro to the excellent documentary made mostly in gaeilge (irish) directed by Jimmy Duggan and financed by TG4, irelands native speaking TV channel (only @ 8 years old)The documentary appeared in the stranger than fiction documentary festival in the IFI, Irish film institute. the screening was followed by an open panel discussion which was very wide ranging.The documentary will be screened in 4 parts by TG4 in the upcoming weeks.
what i gathered from the film and the discussion was roughly the following:
-In the past we lived in a healthy balanced age
-This changed into the unhealthy and unbalanced age we live in today
-A paradigm shift is happening in society, a REbalance is (re)emerging
5000 years ago Neolithic farming communities lived on this land and it is widely believed that there was balance between the masculine and the feminine in all aspects of the civilisation. The soil, the water, the earth being the fertile receptive motherlike deity and the sun with its life force energy being the direct masculine deity. When joined in union, the masculine and the feminine created life. Fertility was recognised, understood and celebrated.
the amazing architecture and buildings of the time give us best evidence to back up this theory
The Megalithic Passage Tombs of Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth, Fourknocks, Loughcrew and Tara are located in the present day County of Meath on the east coast of Ireland. The Boyne Valley Mounds at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth were built around 3200BC making them older than Stonehenge in England and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
The Winter Solstice sunrise illuminates the passage way leading into the burial chamber of the megalithic passage tomb at Newgrange on the 21st December 2003
so for only 1 day in the year the act of penetration is played out and demonstrated by the architecture, the shaft of light representing the penis enters the vagina and fills up the womb of the chamber (this is not meant in anyway to be rude, as some might find it, it is merely communicating the facts)
With the arrival of the bronze age came increased warfare and competition, more male charateristix. the architecture began to change from the round mounds to phalluss or standing stones
this more or less continued untill todays age we live in
where conflict and competition are at there most brutal highest
but something has changed
we are part of the Paradigm Shift
that is slowly affecting all levels of civilisation
as Fritjof Capra
states in the second edition of his best selling book "the tao of physics"(1975), written 15 years after the first one
i paraphrase
"the existing major problems of our time are all facets of one single crisis, a crisis of perception. An outdated worldview existed for several hundred years which included the belief that a society in which the female is everywhere subsumed under the male is `natural`. There was a need of radical revision and this revision is already happening in many areas of life. The new emerging worldview is an ecological worldview that is grounded in spiritual awareness. This `rising culture` is growing and becoming a powerful force of social transformation"
in his later book "the hidden connections" (2003) Capra states that the event that changed the "political landscape of the age" was the closure of the WTO (world trade organisation) talks in Seattle in 1999 by the global justice movement
you can watch Capra give a free archived "berkley lecture" webcast
at present in ireland the government is trying to build a motorway through one of irelands most sacred sites, the hill of Tara. This was the centre of government, the place where the high king of ireland ruled the land. in the film Queen Maoibh was depicted as being the ruler, the soon to be king having to have sex with her to sign the deal.
a campaign is underway to avert this crazy idea, it is gatehring momentum and perhaps could become the metaphor for our age
more speed, more roads, more cars, more wars
and who cares about that which is held sacred
or bring about a more sustainable balanced existence
After the discussion i was talking with the academic from Trinity, Mary Condren Th.D whom I was very impressed with. She is the author of the book "the serpent and the goddess" and is invovled with the The Institute for Feminism and Religion
So it seems theres a lot to learn about these dynamics that are affecting our society and left unaddressed could lead to full on destruction of our species and maybe the planet too.
After the discussion, and after getting distracted by bumping into old friends from years back i finally got to the table and had a bite to eat and a very livley chat about this and that with my housemate kate.
We were sitting there at a table for four and the two girls beside us got up and with that an elderly couple came over and asked if they could sit down, it was empty so they did. We said to them "are you going to see a film" they said yes that they were going to the next screening about chernobyl
because they support the charity, children of chernobyl, that is headed by ali hewson, bono from U2`s wife.
"Chernobyl Heart shows the invisible trail radiation leaves behind. The film opens in the exclusion zone, the most radioactive environment on earth"
so the conversation developed along lines of
us-fair play for supporting this, well done
them-its great to see young people like yourselves here
us-well its great that there is more and more things like this happening, that people are becoming politicised and with that taking action to try to improve things.
them-thats very encouraging
it was about this point that the lady said "by the way im Anne Madden and this is Louis le Brocquy i said "im duncan" and kate said "im kate".
Louis le Brocquy is one of irelands leading artists and even though i dont like a lot of modern art i do happen to enjoy his work. this is one of his paintings of Beckett, whom i believe he was friends with in france
(irish abroad, irish home, the land of saints and scholars???)
so the conversation continued and we got talking about how, roughly, theres bad things going on in the world but they can be overcome and indeed there is a growing body that is challenging injustices in todays world.
they are doing this because they are being informed by the emergence of more stories, documentaries, festivals, centres, spectacles....
but aswell as this it is not a case of "come here we know how all should live",as happened previously but of people from all backgrounds in society coming around the table as equals. to add to this people who had never been asked to the table before are being asked to give their views, and just maybe "jimmy" is the lad who sees things that others dont, maybe one simple bit of wisdom from him is exactly what is needed to solve the problem?
from there the idea that artistic creativity instead of violence was the way to change things was explored
anne was invovled with and knew many of the people involved in the "revolution" in paris `68 and one of her theories was that as a result of absolute barbarity the opposite is formed, that of absolute creativity
which is perhaps coincidental as that morning i had put a piece online on the architectural schools website
about the situationists who were heavily involved with `68
i gave the example i like and have participated in, the berlin love parade
in cold war 80`s berlin people protested, they were ANTI this, anti that but then in 1989, 150 people in berlin had a demonstration FOR tolerance, respect and communication between nations. not only that but they decided to be creative and they turned it into a little free techno party on the streets. 10 years later and there was 1.5million people dancing on the streets of berlin,
and it rocked
kate asked me would i have a drink and she asked them would they like something, instead they insisted on buying a bottle of wine for the table. So this fine positive conversation continued untill their film was starting when they had to run. it was a pleasure to have had such a livley discussion with such interesting, creative, interested people
during the conversation i also mentioned state of emergency and the fact that i am still banned from irelands architectural online community, archeire.
but thankfully i have started participating and working with, in my opinion, the most progressive global networks on the planet; indymedia and social forum
i had previously announced at the end of the post screening documentary that the second irish social forum was on this weekend
so thats about it
we are in the process of setting up the
dublin ECG (eco city group) node and from that helping develop the botanix spine and a healthier metro system, the interconnector than the one being proposed by the government at present
the IFI stuff has acted as a fine catalyst
Stranger Than Fiction is the only annual festival dedicated to celebrating the best of factual film and television in Ireland.
duncan, Tuesday, 21. March 2006, 20:37
we did
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it's only a question of doing the math right i'd say:
- 100.000 plus scotsmen (not the most sensible people in the world) supporting a team that was the lesser of the two
- 9.000 russians (also not widely known for their sensitivity when intoxicated) supporting the better team
- packed in a already overcrowded city center
- the team with 100.000 fans - by then fucked out of their heads on what not - losing...
anyway, next time something like this might happen i would put up some big screens somewhere on a pasture way outside of the city.
M
ps. how can your money be...
by das-horst @ 2008-05-15 18:38
A word of caution, some of the videos capture some brutal scenes, but i would recomend the film shot from a helicopter, though it focuses only around the town hall it gives an indication just how many people were in the city yesterday/last night. Consider that this is one of four screens that were erected.
news.bbc.co.uk
by chris - manchester @ 2008-05-15 14:48
Bad Buzz. Its a pain to lose a years work. I hope most people had files backed up externally. Its going to be interesting to see what will replace it.
by paddy_roche @ 2008-05-15 14:32
It's hard to imagine how many problems this is causing!
I hope you did a backup and had your models elsewhere.
I just had a lecture with Axel Killian from TU delft yesterday and after hearing about the fire I told him about it. He thought I was joking, and I felt like it was a joke. So we found pictures on flickr and he saw his office burning. Quite sureal.
Good luck! And se you in CPH erasmus students!
by nikolaj_dk @ 2008-05-15 14:25
well for most neutrals the game was dull, but late on justice was done with the Russians coming out on top.
Which left just a couple of questions, what would happen to the city now there were 150,000 (estimates keep rising) pissed up pissed off Rangers fans who essentially couldn't move due to sheer weight of numbers?
Today Manchester isn't quite the city it was. Personally I think it was handled well by the city and the mess/clean up is only to be expected for such numbers.
again here are some links to vids/pics and comment:
news.bbc.co.uk
news.uk.msn.com
www.telegraph.co.uk
news.sky.com
www.independent.co.uk
www.itv.com
by chris - manchester @ 2008-05-15 13:06
sorry guys. you did have a spectacular school..!
by kotryna_lt @ 2008-05-14 20:14
couldn't help it, but i trust in your ability to forgive me for the small little stab at ye ;)
i also am looking forward to a couple of weeks of nice
entertainment and sportsmanship and may the better team win,
both tonight and at the tournament and while i am not much of an UEFA fan, i do look forward for the CL final next week.
enjoy the night!
by sennahoj @ 2008-05-14 20:11
while I know the blog is not technically (most definately) the place for me to emphasise my football (religious) beliefs, I can't help but rise to the bait.
For me the only important European football match takes place on 21st May in Moscow. I, like most other United fans, live in the knowledge that United > England. As a pure football fan I can say Croatia did me a favour, it means this summer I can enjoy the games for what they are without distraction.
For the record my money is on Holland, but then again it has been since about Euro...
by chris - manchester @ 2008-05-14 20:01
while you still can ;)
i'll be having a beer or two during the
European Cup next month, cheering for my team,
that are actually playing...
by sennahoj @ 2008-05-14 19:20
Hi Ronan it's Ana Lukic from Macedonia.
We'll organize everything with our NC if we are coming as guests; i am intresed in the prize of the apartments you are renting in leterrfrack..how many peple are sharing it and the prize per night, and of course if there's still place available.
thank you in advance,
Ana
by ana lukich @ 2008-05-14 18:25
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
www.itv.com
www.iht.com
I think I'll be heading out amongst it all tonight. There was talk the council underestimated the interest and attendance. Should be interesting to find out how the city is coping with the influx of such numbers into a few key parts of teh city centre.
by chris - manchester @ 2008-05-14 16:04
in topic: off topic
Here is a link to BBC videos covering the cities build up to the UEFA cup final tonight. Its the second time in 7 years a major European final has been held in the city, but its fair to say that with the 100,000+ Rangers fans expected (today's wave started flooding in about 4am and promptly began the drinking session of a life time) it is a more rowdy affair then the all (classic) Italian European cup final at Old Traffod. Good luck to both Rangers and Zenit, here's to football and good natured banter!
news.bbc.co.uk
by chris - manchester @ 2008-05-14 15:45
Just saw it on our schools web. Hope everybody got out...
We will prepare for a Dutch erasmus invasion!
by sigurd-dk @ 2008-05-14 13:24
this is horrible, I am so sorry
by tikog @ 2008-05-14 10:29
this is a disaster,
I’ve spent some times there
Helping for a diploma
Watching a eclipse at the last floor balcony
Meeting old friends
Parting of course
So many perfect memories vanishing
the bouwkunde is gathering place for european architects
The easa1982 take place there, remenber it , new easians
As dunk said, be kind to yourself, be strong, be brave, be united,
by jerome @ 2008-05-13 22:41
sorry to see this happen. any ideas how it started. am sure along with the building is lots and lots of really important stuff belonging to students and i imagine that the stress of this loss will really hurt some people. look out for each other, expect that this will be very hard for people to get over. go for a walk, go to nature, take break, invite others for a stroll by a stream. be gentle....
time helps...
by duncan @ 2008-05-13 20:55
Seems we are now the 'generation before the fire'... building is now completely lost... its now 8pm and still burning: soon its gonna be the 12hr of fire. I think there's gonna be a lot of Dutch Erasmus students next year..
by jurnalism @ 2008-05-13 20:21
in topic: architecture
and we dutch take everything very serious.
so today the faculty of architecture of the TU Delft burnt down. life's a bitch.
www.dumpert.nl
by das-horst @ 2008-05-13 18:27
It seems that the Revolution is well and truly underway...
(Careful now, that has always been a fully loaded word) Judging by whats going on in the US these days, its seems that the eco-revolution has truly taken off with a Bang...
From this years upcoming USGBC GREEN BUILD EXPO
to
"George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Robert F Kennedy Jnr, and Al Gore, and the call for A NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION"
Which was the front cover of Vanity Fair's recent GREEN Issue
In it (or possibly another edition, not sure, as don't read the mag myself) there is the following 6 page interview with Bill McDonough:
Industrial Revolution,...
by duncan @ 2008-05-13 18:04
Wow, it looks really bad, hopefully nobody's hurt
Did you leave a cigarette lit Marten!
by ronan_mc @ 2008-05-13 16:59
shit! not a good way to finish the year...and not the first fire there either...I remember the pavilion went up in smokee not too long ago, ouch
by conor @ 2008-05-13 16:48
Well done SF - this result was a hard-fought one and deserves a hearty bout of cross border congratulation.
by hugo_irl @ 2008-05-12 15:18
We just got news from our Dept. of Foreign Affairs that they will grant free visas to our guests to attend easa008!
not only will this be of financial benefit to our guests but the accompanying support of the Dept. will be very useful should any problems arise. they will send us an official letter which we will scan and issue to all of our guests to add to their application documents. they will obviously inform the embassies/consulates directly too.
once we receive this letter we will begin to issue our letters of invitation, along with any other important information regarding...
by irish_sean @ 2008-05-12 12:54
yes, you are right.
I double checked every information available on the net about these issues and it resulted to me that our embassy is in Athens.
Can you please give me a hint about what visa category it's better to apply for ? At this step of the processing, this would be the most important information.
thanks,
Klejdi* :-)
PS. I used the name of the character of a wonderful book "Odin Modvalsen" when I signed up and have no chance to set it to my real name...
by odin modvalsen @ 2008-05-11 01:19
No, there is not an Irish embassy in Skopje. The one for the Macedonian citizens is in Bratislava, so we're going to send our documents there. I think you should ask in your ministry of foreign affairs in which country's Irish embassy you should apply for visa, I think it's not just any country..
Cheers :)
by nevenka_mkd @ 2008-05-10 17:53