Sarabande

I really like this Pentangle group from the Lai du Cor post below.

The most famous piece called "Sarabande" in the West is probably Händel's, although Bach did one as well.

The Western baroque forms are derivative of another form, the traditional zarabanda dance.

The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it in his Tratato contra los juegos públicos (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609) as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people". A character in an entremés by Cervantes alluded to the dance's notoriety by saying that hell was its "birthplace and breeding place" (in Spanish: origen y principio).It was banned in Spain in 1583 but was nevertheless still performed and frequently cited in literature of the period (for instance, by Lope de Vega).

 So in other words, a very good dance. Festive, one imagines. 

Lai du Cor

AVI found a great song by a group I'd not heard of before. In the comments I mentioned the source for the magical horn that reveals false lovers: it's a pretty neat Anglo-Norman Arthurian poem called Lai du Cor from the 12th century. There's a summary of the tale and its lessons here. 

It's not one of the better-known Arthurian stories in our time, but it was very popular in its day. 

That’s Not How It Works, Kristi

Secretary Noem says that US citizens “ should be prepared to provide proof” of our citizenship. 

First of all, we don’t even issue a “proof of citizenship” ID. The closest thing is a passport, which most Americans don’t have. If you’re in the Global Entry trusted travelers’ program, they issue an ID that mentions your citizenship too, but that’s by-the-way to the point of the program. Even fewer Americans are enrolled in that than are holders of passports. 

Your driver’s license definitely avoids mentioning your citizenship. Real ID compliance means that it’s on file somewhere, but not in a way you can carry around with you. A voter registration card should be proof of citizenship, but we all know very well that it isn’t. 

So is the idea that we should all be carrying notarized copies of our birth certificates everywhere? What is she even talking about?

Second, I’m old enough to remember when movies and television regularly featured police who demanded “your papers, please,” to people walking down the street. Sometimes these were East Germans; sometimes they were Soviets. Sometimes they were Nazis. In Casablanca, they were the police of occupied French territories collaborating with the Nazis. 

What they never were was the good guys. Even as the bad guys, they never wore masks. 

This isn’t how America works. However, how about a demonstration of American-ness in lieu of the nonexistent identification cards? I have a very clear idea of how an American would respond to such a demand. Nothing is more American than telling a government agent to stuff it and to mind their own business. Defiance of overreaching authority in the name of liberty should be sufficient evidence; if such a one isn’t an American, at least they have the right makings to be. 

UPDATE: On demands for identification in general.