williamonthehill

I am the Anti-Christ... O, all right then just another flakey Hollywood has been

Hang on to your hat... I am about to publish a rather nasty little rant from some talentless little runt.

From This evenings London Paper, a freebie.

An Interview with Guillermo del Toro, Director of Pan's Labyrinth, Hell Boy, and future Director of the Lord of the Rings "prequel" The Hobbit.

" Mexican filmaker Guillermo del Toro is partial to a good fairytale. "People might think they're childish or fanciful" smiles the director, "but for me politics, religion and economics are far more so. They're bigger fairytales than the fairytales! And they destroy the Soul."

It's this idea that informs both Pan's Labyrinth, his 2006 Spanish-Language masterpiece, and his latest, the comic book picture Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

"I,ve always thought Pan's is very close to the Hellboy films,"...

"In both films there's the idea that you can listen to what the world tells you to do and be, or you can choose what you should be. In the words of Jesus christ or, perhaps better, Popeye: I am what I am!"

In the case of Hellboy, the hero is a demonic creature, who, despite his devilish appearance, fights for the powers of light....

"The director adds, "People should listen more to fairytales, not politics or religion." He laughs.

"Really, I mean, who wants to take advice from some old guy in a robe sitting in Rome who never got laid?"

Lauren Williams - The London Paper

_________________________________________________________________________________

One thing you can be certain about. Mr del Toro would never talk about Islam in the same way he disrespects the Church here. I wonder why that is?

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives there lies the other empty tomb. In the Abbey of the Dormition lies a Sarcophagus said to be for Our Lady. It is empty. She never lay in it in death. Indeed, Mary never died if Orthodox theology on the matter is to be believed. Instead she fell into a deep sleep and her Son, Our Lord sent an army of Angels down to her, who lifted her up and took her straight to heaven to be with her son. There she was crowned Queen of Heaven for all eternity.

Mary is our model for faith. She heard what God had to say to her; heard and obeyed. She was humble and she pondered what this might mean. She was Christ's first disciple ("Do whatever he tells you...") and stood firm at the foot of the cross. It was then that she pondered on that early riddle told to her in the Temple by Zachary... "And a sword shall pierce your own breast.." Sorrow, deepest savage sorry pierced her heart then but still she stood firm. This is why she is our model and why we should model ourselves on Mary, Queen of Heaven.

Hail Mary, full of Grace; the Lord is with thee

blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb; Jesus.

 

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death

AMEN

 

 

Ireland - The Midlands

The skies are wide in the Irish Midlands. Wide-open and scattering bright light even on this overcast day. We are motoring down the N4, following the signs for Athlone. Actually we are going to stop first at the small town of Clara. The town rises out of the bog which encloses the south of the town. The river Brosnan flows through Clara on its way to the Shannon, and the railway passes through, on its way to Athlone. Through but not stopping. The railway first came to Clara in 1854, the Midland and Great Southwestern being attracted by the huge industry of the town. Back then were three huge flour mills, and twenty four linen, flax mills, not to mention five distilleries and three brewerys. Clara was one of the most prosperous towns in all the midlands. Today, although it is still a commercial and manufacturing hub it is on a far smaller scale.

Clara is where my mother was born and so today we are on a kind of pilgrimage to see this place. I find it all rather sad and melancholy. I have no way of identifying the house where she was born. Her birth certificate says "Collinstown" which is a small settlement south of the station and the town. Approximately ten houses along a small lane. But which one? Don't know. Take them in with the eye as I turn the car around.

I have promised to show Liam what a bog is. We drive along the arrow straight road that flies south from the town centre and which goes out across the Clara bog, a part of the far larger Bog of Allen which extends thousands of square miles between here and the Mountains of Wicklow. We walk out into the bog, squelchy and rough. He takes photos of the cotton grass and the orchids. On the way back we recross the rickety bridge - which promptly collapses under my weight. I am in the bog up to my waist! A bit too close a view for my liking.

We drive into Athlone. A delightful town on the Shannon. Really far more pleasant than I had imagined. A lovely large bridge across the river, promenades. We check into our B&B - lovely, wacky interior and decorations. We have a walk about in the evening air which has become sunny and almost balmy. Our first day in Ireland is drawing to a close. Asking us about what we have been doing today our landlord describes Clara as a "desperately melancholy" place. I think I agree.

Pagan Britain

I have heard the United Kingdom described as a "Post-Christian society". This description relating to the general decline in the Christian religion post World War One and especially since the 1960's. I have pondered this term for many years trying to fit it with my own experiences and evidence. Actually I believe that it would be more accurate to call the United Kingdom "Pagan" rather than merely "Post-Christian".

"Post-Christian" seems to indicate a passive situation whereby the people of these isles have merely forgotten about their Christian roots and origins. While this may have been the case a few decades ago I no longer believe that to be the case today. Then it was fashionable to believe that their was nothing beyond the present life; no God in Heaven. Self regard became the dominant faith; in other words worship of the self, the Ego. This helps to explain the obsession with personal looks and good health as well as the love of Personality which we see on our TV screens and our newspapers every day.

While this is still the case today I do believe that a certain scepticism has crept into this mix. While most people would still accept that the self is the only "deity" with which we can manufacture certainty out of, some people harbour doubts. Where there is no God how do we explain "the Big stuff"? Death, illness, misfortune?

Some of this manifests itself in fashion statements like Tattoing. Now Tattoing is itself a Pagan form. It was what marked (literally) the barbarian from the Roman and thus anarchy from civilisation. The Germanic and Hunnish tribes tattoed themselves on the body and the face. Romans were clean-shaven and unmarked.

Tattoing has become really important. I am no longer surprised when I see a really rather respectable, well educated, middle-class and middle-aged woman with a tattoe on her arm or upper breast. It is not just the abstract or the pattered Tattoe of course. I believe that David Beckham encouraged the fad for having incantations and spells tattoed onto the skin. Now many people have inscriptions tattoed on their inner arms or other parts of the body. These incantations are sometimes Kabbalah incantations, or Chinese or Tibetan. You see them everywhere, on nearly everyone. They are usually incantations or spells to bring good luck to the wearer. None of this magical thinking is at all Christian and, indeed from the perspective of the Christian they must be viewed as evil and malign.

House Price Slump? Or Market regulating itself?

Reports today talk of a housing market 'slump' of 20%, with house prices falling by up to £15,000. Is this actually what is happening? Or is the market, at last belatedly correcting itself after what has been a near 18 year hyperinflated market place. Are house prices going to fall to the point where they actually reflect their real value? I.E structures of brick and mortar as opposed to pieces of financial equity? 

An example: in 1993 we bought a house in SE4. Two up -two down terrace house of the sort that would be called a "workingman's cottage". We paid £63,000, about 2 K more than the then market price but the sellers were a bit 'hard arsed' and we had fallen in love with the place. Today the same house is valued at £290,000, The same house with hardly a thing done to it other than a revamped kitchen. Ridiculous.

Governments need to break the link and change the culture regarding houses in this country. Over the past thirty years we have been educated to believe that a house, far from being a place where we live, is actually a piece of financial "Equity". Rather than a family home a house (or apartment, or whatever) is now a vital part of your pension portfolio. Indeed, we are in the financial recession we are in precisely because of bad borrowing and speculation on mortgages and property buying. The other side of the coin is that the idea of renting a property carries a bit of a stigma. Yet once upon a time, in 1871 to be exact, 97% of property was rented. Even quite wealthy people rented their houses. This is still the most common way of getting housing right across Europe, north America, Renting.

More and more people are being locked out of the housing market. Perhaps this isn't important right now, but; thirty years time? Where are the nurses, teachers, nursery carers, street cleaners, garbage collectors, etc, etc. going to live?

I predict that within the next twenty years shanty towns will start to appear around London, built to house the poor workers who service London and the middle class Londoners.

One way that the culture of houses as profitable piggy banks might be broken is if a future government were to actively encourage a situation where 50 % of all new homes were built for rent. This would almost certainly ruin the housing 'market'. It will never happen of course since no government ever elected to govern the UK will ever have the balls to challenge the city and other vested interests in this way.

I'm Back!!!

Well, Ireland was magnificent and interesting and almost rain free! I will say that again, barely a drop of rain for two weeks. We had a few grey, murky days that sent the odd spit and spat of rain on the car windscreen but that was it. In Kerry we had days when the clouds were nearly down on the ground and the mountains were totally wreathed in grey and white.

More on the holiday later.

I can truly claim that I know little of what has been going on in the world as a whole. The media in Ireland, especially the TV appears to be almost entirely parochial. So I can tell you that Monsieur Sarkozy got a thoroughly hostile reception during his trip to Dublin. If there were any doubt about the legitimacy of the recent 'NO' vote on the Lisbon treaty there could be none after Sarkozy stuck his oar in to the local debate. Hostile? You bet! Never a kind word for the man and his delightful wife and her charming beauty could not snatch the situation back. The response of Ireland to Sarkozy's suggestion that, perhaps, the recent Referendum Vote on the treaty had been a "mistake" brought about through ignorance was thoroughly demolished. It has to be said that Monsieur Sarkozy hardly helped his own case by appearing to patronise the Irish and seeming to infer that the Irish had lived up to their stereotype of being, really rather stupid.

Obama in Europe: I only picked up the 'flavour' of this news item. I am afraid that in Ireland it came across rather like a lap of honour for someone who already believes that he has won the Presidential election. This signal lack of humility on his part may yet prove to be his undoing.

I have returned recharged and reinspired and the novel is begun. Only 900 words yesterday but I already have a head spinning with words and phrases and plots and I have only been up an hour!

Check-In

As I have just checked in electronically I will make this my last post before Ireland.I intend to enjoy myself immensely and to enjoy Liam's company as well.

A busy day today. Lots of cleaning and tidying, changing bedding, laundry. Attending Mass obviously. Finished packing. I never am sure about the clothes I pack but, what is packed, is packed. Anything not there. Tough!. 

Cooking my dinner and will have a bath before going to bed. Need an early night as tomorrow will be a long day. I enjoy flying but I always get anxious about the airport side of things. The checks, Immigration and Customs and all that stuff. Then there will be the driving and a new car to get used to on foreign roads. 

Sea Sunday

Today is "Sea Sunday" in the Catholic Church. It is the day that we pray for the work of the Apostleship of the Sea, the Catholic Church's Mission to Seamen, ports and shipping. AoS is a part of a world-wide network of Catholic Chaplains, ship visitors and supporters who give spiritual and practical aid and succour to seamen all over the world.

The life of a seafarer is hard and very difficult. These days, when time is money and a modern Container ship can be loaded and unloaded in less than ten hours a seaman would be lucky to go ashore even once in a typical 12 month contract. Isolation and lonliness are the lot of many seamen, most of whom come from third world countries. The Philipines supply approximately 45% of the world's seamen. Some of the contracts of these seamen are little better than Indentured labour. Many seamen are working for much less than £1 a day. Accidents in port, at sea are common. Storms, badly maintained ships, Pirates are routine challenges for seamen. Away from home for months, even years at a time, with no chance to worship and receive Communion.

Back in February one may remember the terrible storms which swept around our coasts. There was a ship, a 50,000 Ton fruit ship, Registered in Dover which was making its way up the South Western Approaches to Dover. Near to the Scillies the storm struck. The weather was awesome and fierce. The ship was confronted by 60 and 80 foot waves. The Captain had never seen anything like this before and nor had the crew. A wave topped over the ship, may be 70 or 80 feeet high. The wave smashed over and onto the ship. The force of the wave ws so great that the wheelhouse was smashed. The watch, including the Captain were swept out of the wheelhouse and down the steps. The Captain broke his back. The ship nearly broached. Later Irish Coastguard helicopters managed to take the Captain and another injured crewman, off the ship. A few days later she was safely in Port at Dover and the Port Chaplain and his team of ship visitors were there to welcome her and to give comfort to the crew.

The AoS exists to do something about these situations. They help seamen to stay in touch with family. They give communion where it is possible, and pray for the crews. Prayer cards, Bibles, othewr spiritual reading, DVD's and music CDs are often given to crews by ship visitors, together with knitted woolen hats and mittens and gloves and scarves. They comfort distressed crews, aid the sick, visit the sick if they need to go to hospital. Please pray for their work and give generously to the cause today.

Map Reading

Nearly packed, just a few small things to put in the suitcase. About thirty hours before take-off now. Its all getting very exciting.

Yesterday I paid a visit to the excellent map shop, Standfords in Long acre. So now I have Irish OS maps of Athlone (47& 48), and the Killarney National Park and Central Dublin. I also have a map of Kerry. I love maps, especially 25,000 and 50,000 scale maps. I could read a map all day. One can discover such a lot abourt the topography, land use and history of a place just from studying a sufficiently large scale map.

While I was at Standfords and as they seemed to have the complete set of Irish OS maps (often not the case as they sell out so quickly) I looked up the maps for Galway City. I wanted to see if Renmore barracks was still extant.They are. Galway will not be a place we can visit this trip. However it is a city I want to visit because Renmore barracks was once the Regimental depot of the Connaught Rangers and the place where William, my grandfather enlisted and did his basic Infantry training. I would like to go and walk over the training grounds and the live firing ranges to get a 'feel' of the terrain over which William marched and ran and crawled and shot.

I intend to write to the Department of Defence to see if it is possible to arrange to see the old Victorian Barracks (if they still stand) and to walk over the training grounds.

What would Jesus do...

Although the implosion of the Anglican Communion is a private grief I have noted how the Secularists of the "chattering classes" can't help but have their say.

Like on today's "Any Questions" (BBC Radio 4) when one of the panel suggested that Jesus wouldn't care about the issue of women Bishops or civil partnerships for Homosexuals. He would be more concerned about the starving of the world and knife crime among Britain's teenagers...

This tendency to try and put words into the mouth of Jesus, or attribute certain actions to him is always a dangerous game to play. This is a game one can only really play if one is concerned not to read the Gospels ( or to read them like a Protestant).

Actually, we already know what Jesus would say because he has already said it.The reason that the Catholic Church has no intention to Ordain women is because Our Lord never did. No. Not ever. Yes, women played an important part in his ministry but they were not entrusted with the major mission of the Church. Mary and the others, they were not made Bishops.