March 30, 2015; Weekend Recap "By Hovud and Gungnir"

The weekend is done and it happened as predicted.  We did end up going to HuHot again but that is the last time I will go, Horrendous service and very poor treatment.  I am fed up with chain restaurants and I am going to avoid all but certain fast food cravings.  Three major items of note happened this weekend.  First we came up with a toast which was our goal (at least one that works for Kalenar and myself).  Second we watched a very surprising Irish made Comedy/Horror/Sci-Fi named "Grabbers".  Lastly a whole bunch of the Lords ended up going to the Color Festival (NOT ME).

Hovud

Gungnir

In regards to "The Toast" we threw out a few as we tossed down some Miller High Life and Concannon and none of the early toasts are very memorable.  Then Kalenar stated "By Heimdall's Sword" and I quickly added "and Odin's Spear" (This is cool because as you all know Kalenar considers Heimdall his patron and I consider Odin mine)  and thus a toast was decided upon.  Now a day later I realized that the toast was kind of wordy so I had a brilliant brainstorm, both weapons are NAMED which means they are VERY POWERFUL RELICS and those names would be worthy to toast to.  Heimdall's sword is named Hovud which roughly translates to man-head.  Odin's Spear is named Gungnir which translates to swaying one.  So going forward the main toast at Kalehalla will be "By Hovud & Gungnir".

Now the true gem of the evening was the film Grabbers. Here is what IMDB says about it:

Peace officer Lisa Nolan comes to Erin Island, Ireland, to take charge during a colleague's two-week holiday. Simultaneously, blood-thirsty, sea-dwelling aliens arrive at the quiet island to propagate. As dead whales wash up on shore and people start mysteriously disappearing, officers and a few locals slowly discover their peril along with one sure defense - high blood alcohol levels, which the aliens can't stomach. As a storm approaches, enabling hungry hatchlings access to the locals, an open bar kicks off a desperate bid for survival as inebriated police and friends stagger to remain cognizant long enough to thwart the alien invasion. Written bystatmanjeff

Lord Darksteel and myself were quite pleased with this film and I
give a HUGE recommendation for you all to watch it.









Lastly, and I am did not go so I am just going to include some pictures, a number of the Lords went to the festival of color and it does look like they had fun.

March 27, 2015 Weekend Preview; Downtime, Low Funds & Damn Isn't It Time We Came Up With a Proper Toast?

Well another weekend is coming around and again I haven't any set plans.  It might seem that I have given up but that is not the case.  Life sometimes just needs to be taken as it comes.  Planning is good until plans come apart, not planning is good until you get into a rut.  March is the most intense month of my year and I am feeling exhausted.  Rest assured that I will have come up with an April agenda and hopefully find the correct mix of planning and improvisation.

Lord Darksteel is coming over tonight and I also have issued an impromptu invitation to the other Lords
to come over to Kalehalla to drink and brainstorm about what to do in April and May and any long term ideas.  I would like to make a drinking game out of it but we shall see, something along the lines of give an idea or take a shot. Another thing I would like to brainstorm is a proper toast. Now over the years we have done the simple toasts of "Cheers" and "Slainte" and "Fuck You" and many other inane statements.  We have also done more traditional toasts like the Irish Weekend Toast I gave "To another year of good friends, may we grow even closer and enjoy each others company for many more to come." Both of these types of toasts have been good over the years, but now I think we need one that is truly for the Lords of Kalehalla.  Recently on Facebook I saw that one of the many on my news feed asked about toasts and a person commented "The toast I have used for years is "Death To The Tyrant!" and I thought AWESOME!  I want the Lords to have a quote like that. Something meaningful and anarchic and angry and happy and awesome.  So we will brainstorm one this weekend.

If I had more money I would also go to Bad Religion who is in concert tonight but because I have mouths to feed and bills to pay Band Religion is not in the cards.  I am not to choked up about missing the show, I like and appreciate Bad Religion but they are not my end all.  I will never miss a DKM, Flogging or Mahones show because they are my passion.  Bad Religion have just fought the fight and deserve respect because of it and they are a great band
so if you can go see them do it.

That is all I really have to write about today.  Look for the recap on Monday March 30 and please share this with all of your friends.

March 24, 2015 Weekend Recap "Selfies" and The Grey Knight's Birthday.

Well as predicted I had absolutely no clue what I was doing this weekend, however that worked out just fine.  Friday night I stayed home watched the last episode of Deep Space Nine (which still disappoints me) and made a chef's salad.  Saturday however was a very different story.  On Saturday I slept in and then decided I was going to take a "selfie" Now I Chadivus do not take pictures of myself so one might ask, how do you take a selfie Chadivus?"  The answer is I take a "selfie" of the booze I am drinking and the pipe I am smoking and 

Selfie 3/21/2015

Selfie 6/4/2014

that is that.  In addition I listened to Celtic Punk for the ENTIRE DAY and it was wonderful.  I truly love the Mahones and enjoy the sounds they make.  I will include pictures of past selfies including the one I took Saturday March 21. The other thing I did Saturday was go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Kalenar and Les Morgan.  I have been craving prime rib so we went.  I was not overly impressed with the restaurant but it did fulfill my craving.  Then we ended the night talking and I had a good honor discussion with Les Morgan based on things I wrote down in the preview.

Selfie 6/6/2014

Churchwarden Pipe

One last note, today is my 2nd son's birthday and he is 16.  I will call him
The Grey Knight.  He has a very sarcastic sense of humor and I rather enjoy his company, I just wanted to make sure that I wrote about his 16th birthday so I can remember it in the context of life. 

One favor I would like to ask of all of you readers, I am doing music Top 5s on my page here, check it out and if you happen to have a top 5 of your own, sign up and leave it in the comments or shoot me an email at chadivus@gmail.com.

March 20,2015 Weekend Preview and Thoughts on Honor

With all the hubbub over St. Patrick's finished and I am going into a weekend where absolutely NOTHING is planned out.  I am not even sure about what is happening tonight when I go home.  So as far as a weekend preview is concerned this post is woefully lacking.  Rest assured it will include a few drinks, going out to eat and sleeping.

Now that the preview is out of the way,  I am going to throw out some thoughts I have had concerning the Lords of Kalehalla and what I would like to see us evolve into beyond a group of friends.  I would like to see us live an ideal that guides our everyday actions.  One that will help us all overcome our individual fears and insecurities and set an example of honor to the world.  I have recently read and watched some entries concerning honor from one of my favorite blogs The Art of Manliness.  These articles discuss honor in the historical sense and why the concept of honor has been lost in our modern world.  The series is titled Manly Honor and is worth reading. 

I see the Lords as an Honor Group.  We live a certain lifestyle and ideal that is almost a code of conduct, ideas that dictate how we drink and how we associate, how we dress, how we hold ourselves and how we treat each other.  As it is now these ideals are vague and have not really been put forth as a cohesive concept but it is important that they become more defined because we need to set an example that self enforcement of a society is much better than just enforcing rules and regulations.

Currently I propose the following Ideals that the Lords should strive towards.  This is not a code of conduct in a formal society but it will be a framework that we can discuss and use to establish our society.

1. Honor the Traditions, History and Legacy of The Lords of Kalehalla.  With St. Patrick's just finishing up, I realize we have Traditions that we as a group hold dear.  It was very interesting because one of the newer members did not understand that what we were doing was tradition and we all enforced it without explaining the why but each of us who have participated in the past felt strongly that it was something that needed to be done.  We need to better understand these traditions and explain them so the how and why helps establish the tradition and create the legacy.  Current traditions include;

• The St. Patrick's Shot of VERY OLD WHISKEY to toast the new year, restate the bonds that hold us together and welcome the new Lords to the Pantheon (if any)
• The Monthly Feast to celebrate and strengthen our bond and to honor the Lords who were born in the month
• Open Hospitality anyone wanting to feast with us is welcome and offered hospitality to partake of our meal and libations within reason.
• Propose and establish new traditions that bring us together as a cohesive family.
2. Take care of and look out for the Intellectual, Physical, Financial and Emotional health of each other. This is not currently done as much as it should be and this would be something that I would like to see happen a whole lot more.
• With regards to intellectual health each member needs to make sure they are pursuing a course of action that makes them mentally and intellectually strong.  Each member needs be moving forward in life through pursuits that add to the collective knowledge of the group.  The members also need to encourage each other in those endeavors.  Intellectual health will help us become healthy in the other areas as well.
• Physical health needs to become more of a priority because I for one am needing to focus more and more on taking care of myself so I am here longer.  I want all members to work towards becoming physically stable the world is going to become a harder place to live in and we will need to prove ourselves in the long run.
• Financial health is an even more intense subject because a great number of us have too much personal pride and are ashamed that our finances are not where they need to be.  We need to lose that pride and ask for help from each other. Most of us do not have families that we can rely on and trust with our financial dealing plus we have vices that drain our finances, but I am of a mind that The Lords becomes our family and we utilize the skills of each to get our individual houses in order.  Procrastination in this will only cause us to have future problems and be at the mercy of society.  In addition I would like the Lords of Kalehalla itself to be a financially sound institution so that we can have greater feasts and travel and go see shows and invest to become a true force.
  
• Lastly and most importantly for our continued success and growth is Emotional Health.  We all suffer from mental and emotional issues caused by our lives.  We need to encourage each other to be mentally healthy.  For to long we have seen friends deteriorate from mental issues and addictions,  we force ourselves to feel inappropriate guilt and punish ourselves and each other because of it.  It is important that we treat this area as seriously or even more so than any of the previous because emotional well being is the true measure of success.
  
  
3. Involvement in Society is the third key ideal that I will bring forth.  As a group the Lords of Kalehalla must benefit the society we live in to set an example to the rest of the world.  If we are to be a truly honorable organization we need core involvement in the world around us.  Now I am not getting that we will be a huggy-feely charitable organization but we will support that which we feel is important to support. Here are a few ideas;

• Signs of Love which was started by a core member of The Lords and many Lords have participated in.
• Support the Local Salt Lake music scene through going to concerts and supporting local bands and venues.
• Adopting a campground to clean which we then use for some summer activities.
• Become involved more with local politics by identifying candidates that support what we support and working on a local level to mandate the changes we want to see.  Keep the Focus Locally because that is where one makes a difference.

Now these are just ideas as of now.  The Lords shall discuss this at length and over then next while we will implement and evolve.  It is time that people stop being on the sidelines and become involved.

March 17, 2015: 6th Annual Chadivus Irish Festival Recap

To paraphrase Lewis Carrol;  So the time has come again where we must speak of many things, of whiskey shots and Boondock Saints, of cabbages and green.  The favored holiday of Kalehalla has come and gone.  We have paraded and drunk and feasted and car bombed and fought and such and such and such....

On Saturday the parade happened in downtown Salt Lake City at the Gateway and it was the first time that one of my children participated.  The Wee Dancer was so cute in her Irish Dance Costume and her fairy wings and she danced her jig along the route.  I on the other hand was very stressed and very angry at the chaos of the preparations (mostly too many cars and people all around without much order)  So I dropped her off, walked to our traditional area and found that I was the only Lord of Kalehalla to attend the parade this year. So in true Chadivus fashion, I downed my Irish Coffee and made quick work of my flask of Concannon.  The parade ended and the Raven Queen picked up the Wee Dancer and I headed upon the road to Piper Down to hold court.

At Piper I enjoyed brunch and Regimental Red Ale until Lord Darksteel joined me then we did an Irish Car Bomb and steadily drank ourselves to a nice mellow buzz before Les Morgana joined us.  From here we had dinner (The fish and chips which I have written about and bangers and mash which are heavenly as well)  Now before Lord Darksteel arrived I found myself in a curious position of being the only patron who knew ALL of the Irish songs being performed by the house band.  Normally this is a dubious honor, but on St. Patrick's Weekend, it becomes an aphrodisiac of wondrous power giving Chadivus the portfolio of Deity of Celtic Virility for the moment at least.  This was all that was needed for me to catch the attention of the fair maiden Lady Carson of Park City.  I was quite full of myself in that as she left I called her up and she stood upon the bench I was feasting at and gave a wonderful hug and kiss and I felt that all was right in the world.  Those of you who have a hard time understanding this power have need only to corroborate it with Lord Darksteel and Les Morgana for they witnessed it.  Later in the evening after her own recovery of a night of intense revelry, Sessa Bob-Omba appeared with Vladymir.  Then even later Kalenar arrived, we ate, drank and fulfilled a night that will be heralded in our mythology as it should be.

The next evening we had the traditional Celtic feast at Kalehalla involving corned beef and cabbage and the drinking of the Middleton toasting the year we have lived and the year before us.  Then we watched Boondock Saints and drank like the gods we are (I know I cleaned up all of the bottles at 2:00 AM for Chadivus is not one to have a handmaiden (although I would like one)).

I am not sure why but our year does seem to revolve around a different calendar than the Christian liturgical.  I am truly a believer that St. Patrick's heralds our new year, with the next big event being the end of May with Memorial Day.  Later we enjoy a consistent number of drinking weekends followed by the Harvest Festival and the honoring of the working class.  Next during All Hallows Kalenar journeys to the East and returns not until the birthdays of our treasured couple (Bomba and Vlad whose union is legendary and needs to be named as a separate entity in addition to themselves).  This period is followed by Yule which involves the Tuba Yule, and the feast with gifts.  Then we move again to Thorblot to rid ourselves of winter and lastly the feast of the vines before it starts all over again.  I am glad that the stories are being written now of what we  are doing and the bonds we are creating.  Every culture creates it own mythology whether they think they are doing it or not, I have just decided to be active in the creation of mine and my friends.  I truly love them all as I also love my children and family and these are the stories I want to have.

March 13, 2015 Weekend Preview: The Beginning of a Busy 5 Days

This is the time of year where what I live daily catches up to the rest of the world.  St. Patrick's Day is upon us and I am feeling a bit hectic this year.  Having my daughter with me full time and having the bright idea to get her involved with Irish dance might just be the death of me.

Let's get this started then.  Today there is nothing much to be done, I just have to get the Wee Dancer to her rehearsal so that she is ready for tomorrow's Salt Lake City St. Patrick's Day Parade put on by the Hibernian Society of Utah. I once played in the parade with an impromptu marching band for many years and the parade has been a family tradition since 1990.  This is the first time one of my kids gets to march in it so I am way excited.

Saturday is the Parade and Bar Crawl (although this year it might just be a bar sit because I think we are doing brunch at Piper.)  We will arrive early and get our standard spot near the end of the parade, the The Raven Queen will pick up the Wee Dancer and we shall begin the debauchery. This year I am very excited to go to Piper Down because I have not been able to go over the last few years. They are having a huge St. Patrick's Event planned and Saturday is a great party night this year.

Sunday will be the Traditional corned beef dinner at Kalehalla and it will include the watching of The Boondock Saints along with much drinking.  Nothing simpler than that.

Lastly on Monday and Tuesday The Wee Dancer's school Acadamh Rince is putting on "An Irish Evening" at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.  Tickets are $15.00 and can be purchased at Artix Click the name of the event for details.



Event of the Week

An Irish Evening

Eatery of the Week

Kalehalla (corned beef dinner)

Booze of the Week

Irish Whiskey, Stout, Irish Cream and Beer

The Lazy, Do Nothing Weekend.

So this weekend was exactly as advertised, lazy, minor drinking, minor eating, major sleeping and D&D.  Nothing special but sooooo needed.

Jim McCann

First we took shots to honor Jim McCann one of the members of The Dubliners who passed away last week.  The Dubliners are truly amazing Irish musicians who influenced generations of Irish Folk, Irish Rock and Celtic Punk musicians and I have spent many a fine evening smoking my pipe, drinking whiskey and beer and listening to many of their songs.  The latest Top 5 List is made up of my favorite Dubliners' songs with a Spotify playlist.



Then we drank a bit more and after The Wee Dancer was picked up by the Raven Queen we headed over to HuHot Mongolian Grill for some stir fry.  It is a place we will go back to because it is close and affordable for an all you can eat grill.  Plus there are mussels, clams, crab and squid in addition to the beef, pork and chicken.  You also get a ton of vegetables and can use a pre-posted sauce recipe (which for the seafood is great) or create your own (I had a ginger/garlic/teriyaki for my pork and sausage stir fry).  Do not order booze though because the wine is not that good of a selection and they just have Utah micro brew beers which I have to be honest I like and don't like with dinner. Price is $13.99 for dinner.

Saturday we did absolutely nothing except watch TV and play video games (we being Lord Darksteel, Kalenar and myself).  One of the shows we watch was a New Zealand TV show called The Almighty Johnsons which is about a group of New Zealanders with Norse heritage being reincarnated as the Norse Gods.  Kind of cool you should all check it out.  This led me to thinking about how I have named our group and how we follow our take on Norse/Pagan rituals and feasts in our house with Kalenar feeling strong attachment to Heimdall (the God not the Dog) and myself veering towards Odin.  I think we have kind of created our own pantheon and I would like the members of the group to lay claim to what they represent to the world. Here is what I think so far.

Chadivus Maximus;  Patron of the Kalehalla Deities & Deity of Wisdom & Family

Kalenar;  Deity of Games & Vigilance, Keeper of Kalehalla, The Grim One

Lord Darksteel;  Deity of Science & Technology, Subtle Humor & Understatement

Sessa Bob-Omba;  Deity of Romance, Wine, Cats & The Pursuit of Art

Vladimyr;  Deity of Aspiration, Dreams, Nature (herbs) & Tardiness (he has to get ready)

Les Morgan;  Deity of Youth, Beauty & Adventure

Monsieur OneTrack;  Deity of Poetry & Idealism

Madame Gnarly;  Deity of Comfort & Bonds between Friends

This is the main group and I as a rule do not tell my children what they represent that is up to Regina Elsa and The Wee Dancer to discover their own portfolios.  Also these are as I see it and can change as time goes on or if the individual chooses a different representation.  Plus there are faults represented like Naivete in some and Arrogance in others (like myself at times after all I just made me and my friends into Gods) and Vanity in others.

Lastly Sunday was D&D and then Corned Beef and Cabbage which was delicious and that is that.

Watch for the new Top 5 List and The Weekend Preview later this week.