The Mumpsimus Blog

Myth, storytelling and modern writing

25 julio 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in What I'm reading now, art, culture and reviews, Book & film reviews, Personal reminisence, Language use and abuse, Social values

Back in 1949, Joseph Campbell, a follower of Carl Jung, wrote a book called The Hero With a Thousand Faces. It traced the story of the 'hero's journey' through the world's mythology, showing how every major tale, regardless of culture, shared common elements and archetypes. It detailled 17 quintessential steps along the mythic...

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Tags: literature, novel, writing, mythology 1 Comments

Vintage ukulele music site online

31 mayo 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Music and ukuleles, art, culture and reviews

Finally finished my site for vintage ukulele music, a place where I can write a bit about the music, composers and performers from the 1920s and 30s. And it's a place where I can show off (and sell) my collection of song sheets and song books scanned to PDF. I have developed a real passion for the music of this era since I started playing the...

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Tags: vintage, ukulele, music 0 Comments

Community, culture and Collingwood's future

30 enero 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in art, culture and reviews, Music and ukuleles, Collingwood life, Collingwood's municipal m...

There's an old joke that goes, "What's the difference between (insert a city name here) and a cup of yogurt?" The answer is, of course, that a cup of yogurt has culture. I first heard this with Calgary as the city, back when I lived in Banff. Not very flattering, of course.

Collingwood, on the other hand, has oodles of culture....

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Tags: events, Collingw, Collingwood's Municipal Madness, art, culture 3 Comments

Music and demographics

26 enero 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Personal reminisence, Music and ukuleles, art, culture and reviews

ACCORDING TO THE 2006 CENSUS, the average age in Collingwood is 46. Almost 30% of residents are between 45 and 64, and just over 22% are 65 and over. More than half the local population in Simcoe County is older than 45.* That means we are locally, on average, a greying population.

So why do some local radio stations play music aimed at the...

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Why are the endings of some TV series so bad?

19 diciembre 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Personal reminisence, Book & film reviews, art, culture and reviews

The Sopranos was a great TV series, but the ending was, at best quixotic, at worst unfulfilling and frustrating. Lost was also a great TV series, but the ending was flaccid and annoyingly religious.

We just watched Flashforward (on DVD) and while we loved the series through 21 episodes, the ending episode was, like with so many other American TV...

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