Of Bierbaums, Balder and the Pogues

Well, it’s a perfectly miserable Sunday evening in the Bronx. Despite the poor ambiance today has been relatively productive. I’ve completed two statements of intent for grad school, bringing the grand total to 3 out of 4. It’s tough work, talking about yourself. After visiting Columbia Teachers College Thursday night, I’m certain that its my first choice.  It just felt right to me. What’s even better is that I got some hints from them about how to organize my statements of intent. They suggested a do some research about the program I’m applying to and find an academic who shares a research interest with me.  In working on the statements, I discovered that I’m concerned with literacy and media literacy. I’ve always thought they were important, but I found it very easy to discuss them and figure out how I would teach them. Some research into TC’s Anthropology and Education department shows that Dr. Lesley Bartlett researches literacy and its effect on society and individuals. I read two or three of her articles, which are very good, and wrote a little about her in my statement. Here’s hoping that works!

Saturday night was “The Festival of Approximately One Hundred Beers Appearing as a Tree” at Rosanne and Andrews.  Incredibly fun. I had a really good time and it was good to see some friends who I haven’t seen in over a semester.  Sentimentalism abounded. I have to say that Ro’ and Andrew know how to throw a good bash. There were gingerbread men, a really good bean dip (courtesy of Wil), various cookies and cakes brought by friends, festive dancing, beer, gin and more.  The centerpiece of the evening was the lighting of the Beer Tree, or Bierbaum, which was greeted with a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” to Jesus (or Mithras where applicable). The Tree was then then lit and greeted with a toast of Peppermint Schnapps. Which, incidentally, tastes like melted candy canes. There were also copious amounts of mistletoe scattered around the room. This lead to many interesting and provocative kiss combinations, but suffice to say I got a generous share.

Speaking of mistletoe, I recently discovered this charming myth about it and the practice of kissing under it. Basically, Balder (of the Norse Gods) dreamed he was going to die, so his mother, Frigg, asked everything in the world she considered harmful to her son to swear an oath to her that it would not allow harm to come to Balder. They agreed.  There after Balder was invulnerable to weapons.  The other gods would take turns throwing things at him (knives, spears, axes) and watching them bounce off Balder’s body. Loki, who was jealous of Balder, disguised himself as a woman and asked Frigg about her oath with the things of the earth. Frigg let slip that she forgot to ask mistletoe because it was too young a plant to give an oath. Loki went to the woods and fashioned a dart out of mistletoe (the legends disagree as to where it was a dart or a spear). Loki gave the dart to Balder’s blind twin brother, Hod, and told him to throw it at Balder.  Hod agreed only after Loki said he would help guide Hod’s aim. And so Balder was struck down by his own brother with a mistletoe spear. Odin was upset and sent his son Hermod to go speak to Hel and get her to release Balder.  He went and Hel said she would release Balder only if everyone in all the 9 realms would cry for Balder.  Odin and Hermod went around asking everyone to cry and they did, but Hel did not release Balder because a lone witch hidden in a cave did not cry. Little did they know that the witch was really Loki in disguise.  Hearing this news, Frigg ran into the woods weeping for her lost son. Hel took pity on her and restored Balder to life. Overjoyed by her son’s return, Frigg stood under the mistletoe bundle from which Loki took the wood that killed Balder and kissed every passerby.

That tale reminds me a lot of Osiris from Egyptian mythology. But that’s a story for another time.

So I found out on Friday evening that one of the songs on my Christmas playlist was misnamed. While it was by No Use for A Name, it was not infact an original song titled “Christmas Day.” In reality it is a cover of the Pogues, an Irish-American rock band, song “Fairytale of New York.” “Fairytale of New York” is apparently a very popular song and covered by many bands.  I updated the list below to reflect the discovery of the truth!  While I now proudly have the Pogues version in my library, I will still use the NUFAN version as the faster speed and harder sound mesh more with the mix I made.

And finally, I should be doing work on a paper about Second Life for a Communications and Technology class that I’m taking, but instead of I’ve been watching the YouTube videos of Jon Lajoie. Hilarious stuff. I went around posting some of them to my friends walls on facebook. It’s been a semiproductive day so far. Let’s see how the night goes.

Oh, and thanks to the good folks over at Zuda and the DC Comics message boards for doubling my hit counter in a day!

~ by praxjarvin on December 9, 2007.