I went to a civil Wedding On Sunday

Floyd? At a wedding?

I had "The Colony of Slippermen" at my wedding.

"Slubberdegullions on squeaky feet...."

(That was my brand-new Italian shoes.)

Nay, 'twas moving, I tell thee!

When it got to the "Continually pacing, with nonchalant embracing, each orifice disgracing" part, there were tears rolling down the bride's mother's cheeks!

"We, like you, have tasted love -- don't be alarmed at what you see...."

Ah, it was beautiful!

 An amusing concept: music (not necessarily prog) for weddings and/or funerals.

For a wedding (and thinking mainly of the title), one could enter the church/hall to the strains of "Close to the Edge." Walk slowly now!

For a wedding and/or funeral (depending on your beliefs re "true love" and "the afterlife"), you could select the Doors' "The End" or the Proclaimers' "I'm on My Way."

"I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today...."

The Damned's excellent "Under the Floor Again" could work for a punkish funeral:

"Under the floor again -- once I was up and in the air, but now I'm down. Goodbye to all my friends...."

(Just a thought -- sorry if such whimsy tends to hasten the demise of WESTERN CIVILIZATION....) 

Oh come on! Will I ever be able to live down that 'end of Western civilization' post?

But just for your information,Peter. The topic happens to be very much in debate at the moment in my part of the world and I took the cue from the British current affairs magazine "The Spectator" who have had many an article about it and who feel that we're on the verge of a second dark age,brought on not by religion this time,but the decline in moral and ethical values as a result of an increasing lack of appreciation and understanding of art,philosophy and the finer points of culture and a ferocious hedonism that seems to become the basis of Western "culture" in the 21st century. And I happen to agree with them. But there is the possibility that both they,and I,are wrong,of course. I don't regard it as particularly likely,but I'm willing to concede that it is a possibility. However tiny.

Pixel Pirate wrote: Oh come on! Will I ever be able to live down that 'end of Western civilization' post? But just for your information,Peter. The topic happens to be very much in debate at the moment in my part of the world and I took the cue from the British current affairs magazine "The Spectator" who have had many an article about it and who feel that we're on the verge of a second dark age,brought on not by religion this time,but the decline in moral and ethical values as a result of an increasing lack of appreciation and understanding of art,philosophy and the finer points of culture and a ferocious hedonism that seems to become the basis of Western "culture" in the 21st century. And I happen to agree with them. But there is the possibility that both they,and I,are wrong,of course. I don't regard it as particularly likely,but I'm willing to concede that it is a possibility. However tiny.

Ferocious Hedonism........Hedonists would not make good suicide bombers thus a far more stable group of peeps me thinks!

Pixel Pirate wrote: Oh come on! Will I ever be able to live down that 'end of Western civilization' post? But just for your information,Peter. The topic happens to be very much in debate at the moment in my part of the world and I took the cue from the British current affairs magazine "The Spectator" who have had many an article about it and who feel that we're on the verge of a second dark age,brought on not by religion this time,but the decline in moral and ethical values as a result of an increasing lack of appreciation and understanding of art,philosophy and the finer points of culture and a ferocious hedonism that seems to become the basis of Western "culture" in the 21st century. And I happen to agree with them. But there is the possibility that both they,and I,are wrong,of course. I don't regard it as particularly likely,but I'm willing to concede that it is a possibility. However tiny.

Okay, Pyx, I'll let it go -- it was just too strong a statement (and in the Mariah thread, no less!) to resist.

  Some final thoughts on the matter: I think that there are too many differing "currents" in Western society for things to go one (downward) way, as the theory suggests. I prefer to think of the pendulum analogy. I believe that there is so much ready access to information and "higher" culture these days (via Web, etc.) that any "downward" pressures can and will be countered.

I have done a lot of very diverse reading over the years, from ancient Greek and Roman "novels" (from around the 1st to 3rd centuries), to Chaucer, to Shakespeare and the Elizabethan period, to the Victorian era, to the modern day, and let me assure you, lamentation for the passage of the "good old days" of honour, culture, manners, respectful youth and less crime has been a recurring theme throughout. Every age seems to look wistfully back (through those fabled "rose-coloured glasses") to an earlier era that was supposedly the highpoint of civilization. I have read a Roman work (Apuleius - The Golden Ass) from around the year 150, that in part bemoans the roughness and ignorance of youth, increasing crime, a general decline in civility and a rise in hedonism.  It seems the older generation (which I suspect -- like it or not -- you and I are now part of) has ever complained about the behaviour and general uncivilized tenor of the younger.

So I tend to take doomsaying predictions of a general collapse (as if universities, artists, writers, etc. were powerless to "resist" ) with a huge grain of salt. The "end of the world" has always been just around the corner, it seems.

In my youth, the possibility of a massive war with Russia, and a nuclear holocaust, was so real that I had nightmares about it. That danger is almost non-existant now.

The Berlin Wall has fallen -- didn't see that coming (at least not so soon)!

There are many pressures and forces in society -- some push downward, some pull upward. I think there is always good to be found, and hope for better times. As a former highschool teacher (and now an educator of adults who are seeking to better their lives), I encounter many good people of all ages who are trying to improve their lives, and thus the lives of those around them. With my career, and in light of the fact that I have two wonderful young children, if I didn't think that people could still build a meaningful, cultured, and honourable future, I couldn't get out of bed each day -- much less go to work.

Sometimes we get down, and pessimistic (youth are especially prone to cynicism), but the next day, the sun does rise, the birdies do sing, the flowers do bloom, my daughter hugs me, my son makes me laugh, my wife and I share a tender moment and real companionship, and I help another in some small but significant way. (When you help another, you help yourself.)

The good is there, if you look for it, and we all have the power to add to it!

To always think otherwise is to give up.... 

I have one life -- I am determined to make it the best it can be.

Whew! That's today's pep talk/sermon -- now back to my usual levity and silliness!

I'll give you a fuller reply later but for now I don't have time.

The music for my wedding was so memorable we had to take a photo.

and, of course, the venue itself:

To balance the glitzy Vegas elements, we were married on the stroke of midnight on Halloween (not in costume, although I did wear a suit- does that count?) and immediately flew off to New Orleans to engage in unrestrained and shocking gothic hedonism...