John Scalzi

As part of my quest to reduce my pile of unread books (entering them on Library Thing as been showing me just how many there were...), I've just read two of my John Scalzi novels.

'Ghost Brigade' and 'The Last Colony'.  They're both sequels to the excellent 'Old Man's War'. Ghost Brigade is good (4/5) but 'The Last Colony' is excellent.  Although all three books would probably work as stand-alones, I really do recommend reading Old Man's War first.

Scalzi's series reminds me of Heinlein in some ways.  There's that important ability to tell a good story. We've got the future military and space travel and aliens and lots of good stuff, but none of that counts unless the writer can spin a good yarn that holds the reader's attention and makes them care about the characters and what happens next.  Scalzi does that, and I'll happily read more by him, whether it's in the same universe or not.

I think the vertigo is raising my standard required of books - they have to be good enough to hold my interest when I feel wobbly or queasy (but also means that I'm not yet ready to tackle those on my backlog that require serious brain cells).  I started 'Janissaries' by Jerry Pournelle, but gave up after the first chapter.  The idea (a group of stranded American mercenaries being rescued by aliens to fight in other times and places) is great, but the writing is dull and pedestrian and I had no interest in what happened to the characters. There was a time when I might have read it through, but I know that I have better books waiting in my pile.

Morris animals

Some morris sides are accompanied by hobby horses or other animals (I recall one giant bird, probably with Phoenix Morris).

A hobby horse in morris terms is not the child's broom stick with a head on one end, but a costume supported on the shoulders that allows the body of a horse to hang around the waist to give the illusion of a man riding on a horse.  There are a lot of variations on this original theme and many don't look much like horses at all. (the word 'hobby' originally meant 'small')

A friend just sent me this clip of White Horse Morris and you can see a hobby horse hovering in the foreground of some of the shots.  Note that with this particular horse, the focus is on the horse and not the rider - thus, the face of the operator is covered over - which makes sense given the name of the side.

(The dancers look a little tired, but they're dancing at the Solstice at Stonehenge, so they may have been up pretty early in the morning.)

Looking at this particular horse, especially its head, reminded me of my student days. In Norwich museum, they have several Snap Dragons.  Old Snap wasn't with a morris side, he was part of the mayoral procession for St George's day (and later St Margaret's day), but you can see the similarity even though Snap is designed to be worn higher on the body.  The page about the 'Snap Dragons' is very interesting and has some good photographs as well.

St George's day celebrations used to be very well-observed customs and many towns had a St George's Guild to raise money and organised the processions, etc.

English folk traditions are mobile and elements often move from one to another.  Hobby horses of various forms are just one example. 

The Minehead horse for example, might not even be recognised as such, unless you were familiar with the evolution of the species.  It looks a lot more like a boat.  Here, the horse is a processional animal, but with other local customs also attached.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on Hobby Horses.

I love folk traditions. They're endlessly colourful, inventive, and involve people enjoying themselves.  What more could you wish for?