Thursday November 30, 2023
– Full Moon Phase – illumination, realization, fulfillment, shadow, relationships, experience
– Moon in CANCER –
– Retrograde Planets 2023 –
R – Neptune – Jun 30 – Dec 6
R – Chiron – Jul 23 – Dec 26
R – Uranus – Aug 28 – Jan 27
R – Jupiter – Sep 4 – Dec 3
– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – November 30th – Brew Beer, Mow to Slow Growth, Can Fruits and Vegetables, Go Hunting
– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – Nov 29th – 30th – Start seedbeds and flower gardens. Good days for transplanting. Best planting days for fall potatoes, turnips, onions, carrots, beets, and other root crops where climate is suitable.
– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Kali – Goddess of Beginnings and Endings – Kamala – the Lotus Goddess Who Brings Transcendence of Limitations
– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Elias, God of the West
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in VIRGO SUN/MOON – 22 LIBRA: a child giving birds a drink at a fountain arena (EARTH – 22 ARIES: the gate to the garden of all fulfilled desires)
SUN – 09 SAGITTARIUS: a mother leads her small child step by step up the stairs
EARTH – 09 GEMINI: a quiver filled with arrows
Shane MacGowan RIP
Not many people here in the USA know about The Pogues. I cannot say that I am a fan, but I do know more than a couple songs. They somehow, in the world of the 1980’s were classified into the Alternative/New Wave category and would be played on KROQ in Los Angeles. How they got there when their band includes an accordion, a banjo, Irish flute and a horn section is beyond me.
As a category, they sing Irish folk music. Which sounds closer to American Bluegrass than anything else. It is kind of like how Led Zeppelin is considered to be “Heavy Metal” by many music critics. Robert Plant once remarked how he thought that was ridiculous considering that a third of their songs are acoustic. But who are critics anyway.
To find Irish Folk music here in the US, you are best to look in cities like Boston. Outside of that, the only times you will hear it unless you are really looking hard are Christmas, when you can hope to hear Fairytale of New York and the weeks surrounding March 17th.
So back in my formative years in the 80’s (when I was a teenager), I got to know them. And the Fairytale became one of my Christmas favorites.
When I moved to Pennsylvania in the early 90’s, I lost touch with the song. Maybe it was because radio in Pennsyltucky is spotty at best. The internet was only just beginning, and dial up not great for streaming. You could only really listen to CD’s. And I did not have the Pogues CD at that point. I think it was only after Napster came out, and you could fill an Ipod with Christmas songs, that I was able to reliably enjoy it each year. Now, with pretty much all music on demand, I always hear it. And more.
My point in this little walk down memory lane was that last night I was listening to Fairytale of New York on YouTube. I had heard that Shane MacGowan had been sick. Looking at him in any of his videos over the past 40 years, he always looked hard. I was shocked to see the tributes this morning.
His songmate for Fairytale of New York, Kirsty MacColl, died in 2000 in a tragic accident while diving in Mexico around Christmas. While the story in the song placed them together, it was just a story. A Fairy Tale in fact. But the song has endured.
With his passing, I feel the characters in the story have finally met their end.
It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I’ve got a feeling
This year’s for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
They’ve got cars big as bars
They’ve got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It’s no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me
You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night
The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing Galway Bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing Galway Bay
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas day
I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can’t make it all alone
I’ve built my dreams around you
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing Galway Bay
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas day