So here's how it works...
1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on your iPod Shuffle or other MP3 player
3. Randomize sequence
4. Press play
5. For the first question, type the song that's playing
6. When you go to a new question, press the next button TWICE
7. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...just type it in, man!
8.
My movie seems to be unfolding like a medieval dream.
Opening Credits:
by Maggie Sansone & Ensemble Galilei
from Ancient Noëls
Nowell, Nowell - Tidings True - Riu, Riu, Chiu
Waking Up:
by Robert Shaw Festival Singers
from Rachmaninoff Vespers
O Serene Light
First Day at School:
by Loreena McKennitt
from The Book of Secrets
The Highwayman
Falling in Love:
by Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos
from Chant II
Angus Dei, Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi
Losing Virginity:
by Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos
from Chant II
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Fight Song:
by Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music, Cologne
from Edda - Myths from Medieval Iceland
Ragnarok (The End of the Gods)
Breaking Up:
by Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music, Cologne
from Hildegard von Bingen - Voice of the Blood
O rubor sanguinis, antiphon for Saint Ursula & her companions
Prom:
by Secret Garden
from Songs From A Secret Garden
Nocturne
Life:
by Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music, Cologne
from Edda - Myths from Medieval Iceland
Voluspá 3 (Prophecy of the Seeress) - Á fellr austan um eitrdala
Mental Breakdown:
by Robert Shaw Festival Singers
from Rachmaninoff Vespers
Glory to God in the Highest
Driving:
by Loreena McKennitt
from Share the Journey
The Lady of Shalott
Flashback:
by Loreena McKennitt
from An Ancient Muse
The English Ladye And The Knight
Getting Back Together:
by The Chieftains and Loreena McKennitt
from Tears Of Stone
Ye Rambling Boys Of Pleasure
Wedding:
by Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music, Cologne
from Hildegard von Bingen - Voice of the Blood
O ecclesia occuli tui, sequence for Saint Ursula & her companions
Birth of Child:
by Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music, Cologne
from Edda - Myths from Medieval Iceland
Hangakvæði Hávamála (Óðinn's Rune-verses) - Veit ek at ek hekk
Final Battle:
by Robert Shaw Festival Singers
from Rachmaninoff Vespers
Christ is Risen from the Grave
Death Scene:
by Loreena McKennitt
from The Book of Secrets
La Serenissima
Funeral Song:
by Maggie Sansone & Ensemble Galilei
from Ancient Noëls
Cantiga de Santa Maria, No.48
End Credits:
by Robert Shaw Festival Singers
from Rachmaninoff Vespers
Rejoice, O Virgin
"The need for some device to mark the place in a book was recognized at an early date. Without bookmarkers, finely bound volumes were at risk. To lay a book face down with pages open might cause injury to its spine, and the crease on a page that had the corner turned down remained as a lasting reproach." —A. W. Coysh in his work on the history of English bookmarks, Collecting Bookmarkers (1974).
Bookmarks were used throughout the medieval period in Europe, consisting usually of a small parchment strip attached to the edge of folio or a piece of cord attached to headband. The rotating bookmarks were attached to a string, along which a marker could be slid up and down to mark a precise level, to the row and column, on the page.
It was during the latter part of the 19th century that bookmarkers really took off as collector items in themselves. Bookmarks continue to be made of a wide variety of materials: linen, silk, satin, leather, paper, plastic, copper, gold, pewter, brass, glass beads, wood, ivory, bone, papyrus, vellum, paper, cardboard, and animal skins. 
Even children in Colombia's war-weary Caribbean hinterland hunger for the books that only Luis Soriano can bring them. Every Saturday without fail, Soriano loads up his two donkeys Alfa and Beto with picture books, dictionaries, fables, and tales of derring-do and heads off into the small villages clinging to steep hillsides. His home has hardly any living space because it's stuffed to the rafters with books. 
Diametrically opposite to this is Jay Walker's lavish Geek Library, a bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. The room occupies about 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels with artifacts, such as the Sputnik, books bound in real rubies, a 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London, and a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II. There's even a massive "book" by the window, which is a specially commissioned, internally lit 2.5-ton Clyde Lynds sculpture. 
By far more modest is my library...
Since ancient times, libraries and learning have reserved a revered place in human society and culture. Take for example: the 3rd century BCE Library of Alexandra, the Buddhist Nalanda University from 500 CE India, engraved oracle bone repositories of 1700 BCE China, Sumerian clay tablets from 4,000 BCE Iraq, and a 200,000-volume Library of Pergamum in the Hellinistic Age.
While I'm more likely to keep graveyard hours than those averred by an old Sumerian proverb: "He who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn," I'm in awe of the fact that women in early Mesopotamia learned to read and write just like the men, and there were libraries in most towns and temples. The ancients were rather modern in their outlook, wouldn't you say?
Speaking of modern, library building designs these days, range from odes to the Romans, like the Vancouver Library in B.C., to the high-tech space of Geisel Library on the grounds of the University of California in San Diego, and everything in between.
Now, here's a library I would looooooooove to have. Which is your Library of Drool?
Reading Mine Till Midnight and Seduce me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas, Gypsy Lord by Kat Martin, and A Dangerous Love by Brenda Joyce has been a great pleasure for my gadjo eyes. During my trip to India, I was privileged to run into the ancestors of these gypsies that Lisa, Kat, and Brenda write about.
For countless generations, the Rabaris have moved with the seasons, around the desert, and through the plains of northwestern India and parts of Pakistan, searching for green pastures, keeping up an age-old tradition as wandering cattle herders. It is a surreal sight when the savvy desert dwellers emerge on the barren horizon, their large turbans, colorful costumes, mystical tattoos, and striking jewelry evoking tales of far away lands and exotic people lost in the mists of time.
After years of enduring the merciless summer sun, sandstorms, and chilly winter winds, their chiseled faces are a testament to their lifestyle. Persecuted and prosecuted endlessly for their cultural mores and nomadic lifestyle, the Rabaris have retained their folk music and dance, their language(a mixture of the Marwadi and Gujarati), their wandering ways, and their independence.
They've succeeded in gaining recognition for their distinctive arts, especially embroidery, beadwork, and mirrored mud sculpture. Rabari embroidery, known as bharat-kaam, not only tells us much about their culture, but is also like a language in which the women express themselves. The compositions created by the women comprise specific motifs, each of which has a name and meaning. Many of these symbols represent elements intrinsic to Rabari everyday life and throws light upon how the community sees their world. Others have historical meaning and help to perpetuate the Rabari knowledge of their heritage.
The kediyun, a gathered jacket with an embroidered smock, worn by young Rabari men and children and the ghagro, skirts, kanchali , blouses, and ludi, veil, for the women and girls are all dexterously embroidered. The Rabari girl, completes over the years, her entire dowry which includes clothes as well as beautiful quilts or derkee. Much of the handiwork seen in their decorated homes is also by the women.
Kokulashtami, after the rains, is marriage time. The men are back from their wanderings for this all-important occasion. All marriages take place on this one day. Since child marriage is still very much in vogue within this tribe, outsiders are distrusted. Again, the Rabari marries only within the tribe and often into families which are closely located. Marrying outside the fold leads to social castigation and is very rare.
The Rabari believe that they are directly descended from Shiva, one of the Holy Trinity of Hinduism. However, their patron god is Krishna. They trace their ancestry back to Shamal, a mythical camel herder who punished a thieving goddess by making off with her clothes. Shamal later married the goddess and their descendants lived in the Indian state of Haryana. Rabaris are also ardent followers and worshippers of Parvati, the consort of Lord Shiva and known as the Mother Goddess. Each clan has its own tribal goddess as the patron deity, though their homes often have pictures of other gods and goddesses as well.
Friends and Romansistas, I'm honored and thrilled to be letting you in on a secret. 
And so today, I invite all lurkers and new visitors to my blog to leave comments and voice your opinions. You will find that I'm an attentive poster and commentator.