4th Nor Cal Rabble Burns Night Supper (photos & videos)

[Tartan Hiker]

Overall a good performance, spoilt by the rather sad behaviour at the address to the haggis.

I don't know, Alex. I like the admonition that no Burns supper should be conducted in such a manner that Burns himself would not want to attend. He was a lover of good times, and I think that the "translations", while a bit Vaudevillian, were in keeping with the festive nature that such an event should enjoy.

It is not necessary to wear a fez to a Burns Supper btw.

But if the fez has become something of an icon to the group holding the event, why not? My guess is that if I were putting together a Burns Night event in Fiji, there would be some form of native garb in evidence.

I really don't think that the NorCal folks were attempting to ridicule Burns...quite the contrary!

[walkerk]

A presentation by Richard (way2fractious).

[Pour1Malt]

wow... takin' the piss oot o' Burns, the haggis, an Scotland?....

that 'address' is very offensive folks...

dinnae forget you arr makin' fun o' oor national hero, national dish, and country...

I dinnae think you would find it funny if we did the same aboot america and your national symbols...

[Pour1Malt]

sorry... I disagree completely... the Fez is not native Scottish headgear and it is not native american headgear- it is Turkish... and it is often used (in the usa and the UK) as a symbol of foolishness and stupidity... (which is pretty racist in and of itself)

Robert Burns was a patriot and IS a national symbol... do not fool yourself into thinking Burns would find it amusing to have him, his country, his country's symbols ridiculed...

I don't know, Alex. I like the admonition that no Burns supper should be conducted in such a manner that Burns himself would not want to attend. He was a lover of good times, and I think that the "translations", while a bit Vaudevillian, were in keeping with the festive nature that such an event should enjoy.



But if the fez has become something of an icon to the group holding the event, why not? My guess is that if I were putting together a Burns Night event in Fiji, there would be some form of native garb in evidence.

I really don't think that the NorCal folks were attempting to ridicule Burns...quite the contrary!

[David Dalglish]

I too was a little offended by the way the adress to the haggis was performed & I think it deserved a little more respect than you gave it.

[Panache]

David and Robertson,

I take full responsibility for this year's Address of the Haggis. I'm the MC and I'm in charge of the evening's activities. It was my impression that Burns' poem about a haggis was written tongue in cheek, a humorous poem. Now obviously Burns' uses the haggis as a symbol of simple honest highland virtues, but as I noted in my Immortal Memory speech, it is a poem about a sausage.

The grand ceremony that has been put around this poem about a humble dish in the Burns' Night Supper celebrations is something that happened well after Burns' death and is rather comic in itself if you think about it. Now translations of Burns' poem during the Address to a Haggis are nothing new. Here we took a visual one. Do you object to the posters? Those images are very much in the poem. I had the opportunity this year to go to a Scottish Society's Burns night Supper and listened to a very dry rendition of the Address. I will tell you that those in the audience not already familiar with the poem waited patiently and clapped politely when it was over.

Those words of Burns were as dead as he is

Each year our goal is not only have a wonderful party but to bring all the Burns' pieces to life for our group. You may not have liked this year's rendition, that is certainly your right. However all the folks that came to our event who didn't know about Burns or would have trouble with the Scot's dialect he wrote in left with an appreciation of the poet and they understood that poem. They laughed with it and with us. We will undoubtedly do something different next year, but you can be sure that we will always be approaching The Address to a Haggis and our Burns' Night Supper with the idea that Burns' words are alive and we will bring them to our group instead of leaving them bored and without understanding.

As for the fez hats, it is an in joke about the Nor Cal Rabble and how we do things in a humorous fun way, this was mentioned in the introduction. The pith helmet and the fez have become symbols of our group.


Sincerely


Jamie :ootd:

[Pour1Malt]

what your statements above seem to confirm is that you have no respect for Robert Burns or his works...

if you think the Address Tae a Haggis is a poem about a sausage you are frighteningly ignorant...

if a group of us in the UK got together on the 4th of July and had a 'usa independence ' party where we wore silly hats and did comic readings of your constitution or bill of rights or whatever documents are important symbols to the struggle of your people... and held up pictures of pigs vomiting and big arses during it... and lost our place and every laughed at how stupid it all was... I'm glad to know you would find it funny... but I doubt many people in the usa would think it was funny at all...

since this is 'Black History Month' in the usa- perhaps you should do a comic reading of 'I have a Dream' in Blackface...

then maybe you will understand what you just did to the Address Tae a Haggis.

[Arlen]

I'm afraid I have to disagree.
As Jamie said, the images used are exactly those from the poem.
I love Robert Burns, his work and what he did for Scotland. I think he should be rightly honoured for those things and Burns suppers are fitting tributes to him.

The address was written in a time where the French revolution, Scottish patriotism, the American revolution and many other things were either in full swing, brewing or just finished.
Most of the Burnsian Scholars I have spoken to agree that the Address was a way he showed patriotism and stood up for humble Scottish values and people; With that said, though, they agree that it is a light-hearted and sometimes comic piece.

I adore Robert Burns for many reasons, but I don't put him on a pedestal. Many of his works were serious works done under a comic prose and he himself described them as such.
At the same time as half of Scotland was lauding him while he was still alive, the other half was appalled at his excessive drinking, his consistent philandering and many other things.

I have seen people recite it as dry as cardboard and other give Brian blessed a run for his money with dramatic flair.
I think it neither racist not offensive that the NorCal group took his work and gave it a comic edge that helped those not familiar with him both understand the poem itself and feel included. That is how many people become converted to Burns and make the effort to learn such things as Lallans.

While I can certainly understand someone being offended that they took a poem so beloved by modern Scots and performed it in a more comic than grave manor, I find it a little wild to say that it is racist or xenophobic.
I think that's starting to run into Godwin's law territory.
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches"




As far as the headgear; I think it is well known on this forum that the NorCal rabble like to wear a fez or pith helmet. They even explained it in the first video. They even made a point of saying, and I paraphrase 'We love Robert Burns and having Burns suppers but we are a comic bunch and this is reflected in our hats and the way we present things.'

I simply don't understand why anyone would find it so terribly offensive unless they genuinely believe that Robert Burns himself was a perfect and Grave man and that Burns night is THE night of Scottish culture and heritage.


Now, if they were to do a comic rendition of the Declaration of Arbroath, THEN I would be very offended.

[Pour1Malt]

Arlen- please watch it again- can you honestly say they are laughing WITH Burns and not AT him? I cannot... maybe if he took the silly hat off... maybe if he didn't pretend to lose his place and then laughed... maybe if he even tried to say the poem with some degree of respect... maybe if he didn't keep turning around away from the audience to giggle like a buffoon... maybe if the images were not done comically... maybe if the images were not paraded around behind him- distracting from the poem...maybe maybe maybe... it would be what you are trying to say it was... but it wasn't...

this appears to be a very clear attempt to take the piss out of Burns, the Scots language, haggis (which is much more than just a food item- as you I both know), and Scottish patriotism...

oh.. and you lost me on one thing... no one said it was racist or mentioned Nazis but you.... I'm not quite sure where you are going with that one...

[macwilkin]

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