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

[Arlen]

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.

Robertson, I was referring to your statements above. Implying that what they did is similar to offending someone by blacking it up or by making fun of the U.S. Constitution: In short, being racist or xenophobic. If that was not your intent, fair enough, but that's how I read it.
What they did doesn't seem very similar to me at all.
And, lets be fair, the poem does talk about pig vomit and buttocks. And the cards explained in a humorous fashion what the words meant.

I think on this point we may have to simply agree to disagree. You have every right to feel like they were laughing at the works of Burns. I don't believe they were.

Perhaps it's time to just let it be.

[Panache]

The playwright William Shakespeare wrote some absolutely amazing works during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Now the language and meter he used in those plays can be difficult to a modern audience to understand. Yet his plays have been constantly performed in a varied manner since his death. With each generation and performance the actors and theater staff had to decide how to approach this text and make it live and breathe. Picture for a moment the the stereotype of the stuffy, black clad, skull bearing, snobbish Shakespearean actor sneering down at the masses that don't understand the Bard's works. Is this fellow truly serving the text by holding it in his iron-gripped reverence?

There is a lot of poignant incredible stuff in Shakespeare's work. However there is also quite a lot of bawdiness too. I used to go to the Shakespeare Santa Cruz productions every Summer and I loved how each cast and production would bring their own take to the work. Some I liked, some I didn't. But I appreciated that each one tried to make that story and those words live.


Now the question at hand is whether or not we approach this particular work as iconic where there are set traditional parameters required of it within the context of a Burns Night Supper celebration. Or is each group free to approach that work in their own way? Are Burns Night Suppers about Robert Burns or are they a Scottish Heritage celebration? When we look at Burns himself, do we do so as a Scottish Icon, or as a patriotic (though certainly flawed) poet and song writer?


Last year I wrote a script for Jake and I to bring a translation of this poem to our event. This year my lovely wife and good friend Jake did something different. Personally, I like mine better (but then again I wrote it ). Now all three of us know this poem and we completely understand and appreciate it. None of us meant this as an insult to any Scot and none of us meant disrespect to the memory of Robert Burns.

You know I remember Raphael posted a rap version of Burn's haggis poem last year. I absolutely loved that this group took these words and made them live for themselves and a new generation. I don't know what the Nor Cal rabble will do next year for our Burns Night Supper. It might be a well done though "straight" recitation. Maybe not. I can promise you that it won't be boring. And it will be done with respect for the Plowman Poet and the joy that exists in his works.

Cheers

Jamie