25 January, 2008


Burns Night - and a' that

Hello folks, just a short note to say all is coming along fine with the movie (One Day Removals) and the last of the tweaking is nearly at an end. The imperious leader, Mark Stirton, is all ill just now with a nasty chest thing (not the thing from alien, or the alien's thing) and has been told to rest, but probably isn't, so the editing schedule is still on target.

I can't post any pictures or design work just now as all the stuff I was working on recently would pretty much blow the story of the movie, so instead I'll post a spooky night time scene of Scotland (Tam O' Shanter) and tell you about the Burns Night celebrations.

Robbie Burns is the national poet of Scotland. Even though he's been dead for a few hundred years Scots celebrate his life and works every January 25th by having a 'Burns Supper.' This is usually a formal affair in full tartan kit or evening wear - the main point of the evening is to eat heaps of haggis, drink whiskey and listen to somebody read Burn's poems (haggis and poetry are optional). Burns was also the bloke that wrote 'Auld lang syne.' I'll leave you with a short poem of the chap's called 'Fickle Fortune,' written in 1782.

Though fickle Fortune has deceived me,
She pormis'd fair and perform'd but ill;
Of mistress, friends, and wealth bereav'd me,
Yet I bear a heart shall support me still.

I'll act with prudence as far 's I'm able,
But if success I must never find,
Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome,
I'll meet thee with an undaunted mind.

8 comments:

Andrew Glazebrook said...

The only Burns I'm aware of are George Burns, Montgomery Burns and Carpet Burns !! :)
A mate of mine is up in Glasgow and has Scottish blood in his veins so I'm sure he'll be out celebrating !

AktoMan said...

Strange how people can look at a few pieces of his work and empathise with so much, even in today's much-changed society. Aye, a man's a man, for aw that.

Fiona-Jane Brown said...

Love the pic, Mike! Reminds me of when I had to learn Tam O'Shanter in school. Weel mounted on his grey mare meg... etc. My haggis supper was blogged on Friday.

Michael Grant Clark said...

I had some haggis from Morrisons, not really that much of a celebration, more of a dinner.

Robert Burns work was adopted by the soviet union as examples of socialist doctrine and his poems were taught in schools. Even in the height of the cold war high ranking soviets would come over and visit Burns birthplace in Ayrshire. Funny how art can narrow the divide between language and politics.

AktoMan said...

I suppose a comrade's a comrade, for a' that. An' a' that.

Lauren R said...

I hope you aree feeling better! I use just regular 300 dpi when I make stuff for print....that seems to work pretty well, but I might start using something higher if I need to blow the work up for larger prints. Hehe...blow the work up, lol :-)

Michael Grant Clark said...

I usually work at 300 dpi too, but recently I've started going 600 for line imports as I'm working on larger scale stuff.

Wow, that was too technical for me. Going for a lie down now.

AktoMan said...

sRGB?