It's Saturday night, where did the day go?

It's not like I've been busy today, but I can't believe my weekend is half over already. Today I finished my 10-hour rotation on Rose Arbour. I'll upload the new scan of her on Monday as the scanner is at work. I think I made a lot of progress. I picked up some floss that was missing and filled in some holes. That was part of the reason I hadn't made progress lately. I can only stitch so much white and light blue before I need to move to another part of the design. I love her, but that's the way I stitch. I think some of the floss had migrated to another project. I rarely do that, but sometimes I do and even if I'm smart enough to write down where I used it I usually hide it from myself.

Interesting thread at the Mirabilia board. There's discussion about whether Nora plagiarized a work from 100 years ago. The work is of a fairy who is in the same pose as one of Nora's mermaids. The styles are completely different, as are the colors and subject matter. There has been an overlay and an assumption that it was traced. I just don't believe that it as traced. There are only so many positions a human body can be in. It's possible it was used as an inspiration, but I think that's as far as it goes. There have been a few people posting who have never been on the board before, and that usually doesn't go over well. Honestly, I know of no board where people LIKE when new posters start out by posting on controversial threads telling the mainstays of the board that they are wrong or attacking a person. Fair or not, it doesn't go over well. I don't believe the original poster meant any malicious intent, and she has been around the boards for a while. I admit I was taken back at first but I try so hard to give benefit of the doubt. It's difficult to truly understand what a person is saying when using this medium, since we cannot hear voice inflections, see facial expressions, etc.

We'll see how it progresses, but it doesn't change my mind about Nora's designs in the least, just as MLI's Emma's Garden/Amy's Roses thing didn't bother me except for the reaction she gave when asked about it. Of course, the reason I no longer buy her charts (will still stitch what I have) is because of some rudeness she showed somebody who founded a popular stitching charity. I have always defended the right of a person to be a watchdog over their own copyright issues, but the horrible attitude she started having toward people who didn't absolutely love every little thing she did and to others really started to turn me off. Luckily, I already had the charts of hers I want to stitch, although I may have to break my rule to buy Celtic Winter when it comes out. Depending on what she does with it, I may buy it. Otherwise I'll do my own conversions with one of the other Celtic ladies.

I guess it comes down to the question, "What is original?" Artists are inspired by other artists, musicians are inspired by other musicians and writers are inspired by other writers. Often you can hear new bands and can tell what bands influenced them. My favorite group is Rush, and only now, after 30 years, did they put together a cover album of some of their favorite tunes. Their other stuff has been original, although some of the lyrics have been taken from various sources. Their song Xanadu comes to mind, using the poem "Kubla Kahn" by Coleridge. However, if you listen to their early works (early to mid 70s) you can tell they were inspired by Led Zeppelin. Does that mean they plagiarized them? No. It means there are some similarities in the way they wrote and played.

If you care, here is the original poem: (If not, I have more posted below the blue stuff)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !


The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,

That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

And here are the lyrics to Xanadu

To seek the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honeydew
And drink the milk of Paradise...'

I had heard the whispered tales of immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book I took a clue
I scaled the frozen mountain tops of eastern lands unknown
Time and Man alone
Searching for the lost Xanadu

Xanadu...

To stand within the Pleasure Dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste anew the fruits of life
The last immortal man
To find the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
Oh, I will dine on honeydew
And drink the milk of Paradise

A thousand years have come and gone but time has passed me by
Stars stopped in the sky
Frozen in an everlasting view
Waiting for the world to end, weary of the night
Praying for the light
Prison of the lost
Xanadu

Xanadu...

Held within the Pleasure Dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste my bitter triumph
As a mad immortal man
Nevermore shall I return
Escape these caves of ice
For I have dined on honeydew
And drunk the milk of Paradise


Anyway, I'm going on and on. I think it also bothered me because so many of us on that board are true fans of Nora, her designs, and how she handles herself in a professional manner. Many of us have also been involved in hostility on other boards and the Mirabilia board has always been our safe haven. I mean, it's only one thread to it's not THAT bad. I guess I just don't expect it there.