Demeter

Demeter (Ceres) is the sister of Zeus.

Demeter is the goddess of corn.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 04, 2010

Tatami

Straw matting used as a floor covering especially in a Japanese house.

Tatami mats are woven straw mats closely associated with Japanese culture, where they have been an enduring feature for centuries. The densely woven mats are traditionally used as a floor covering, and a number of traditions surround their use. The classic size of a tatami mat is three by six feet (one by two meters), although a wide assortment of shapes and sizes are available in addition to custom mats. This standard size is often used as a room measurement, much as square footage is used in many parts of the West. Thus, one may hear a room described as “four and a half mats.” Many Japanese import stores stock tatami mats, and they can also be ordered directly. The early roots of tatami mats were probably simple rushes strewn on the floors of rooms to keep them more dry and clean. Gradually, rushes were replaced with woven mats, which evolved an inner layer of stuffing such as straw or rice bran. Tatami mats are traditionally edged in fabric such as brocade to keep the layers together. Today, the filling for tatami mats is often a synthetic material, designed to resist wear.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 11, 2011

Ska

Jamaican R&B artists developed their nation's first indigenous music genre when they began to incorporate jazz, African and Calypso rhythms into their songs in the late 1950s. The result was Ska, a fusion of the unique Jamaican mento rhythms with R&B. In Ska, the drum comes in on the 2nd and 4th beats, while the guitar emphasizes the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th beats. Ska bands usually consist of a strong rhythm section, guitars, keyboards and brass. The early Ska music of in the '60s and '70s spawned later revivals. The first was in the U.K. in the '80s, giving rise to bands like Madness and the Specials. The next, known as Third Wave Ska, struck the U.S. in the '90s.

Ska: Laurel Aitken, Don Drummond, Lord Tanamo, No Doubt, Mustard Plug, Hopalong Knut, Reel Big Fish, Skadaddyz, The Toasters, The Skatalites, Less Kro, The Busters, One Cool Guy, The Selecter, RX Bandits, The Planet Smashers, Desmond Dekker, The Specials, The English Beat, Madness, Operation Ivy, Big D And The Kids Table, Bim Skala Bim, Catch 22, Buck-O-Nine, Streetlight Manifesto, The Suicide Machines, Troy's Bucket, Bad Manners, The Forces Of Evil, Go Jimmy Go, Upstanding Youth, Skarface, The Pietasters, Mad Caddies, Save Ferris, Suburban Legends, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The O.C. Supertones, The Scofflaws, and Hepcat.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ February 04, 2010

Nirvana

"Cooled" or "quenched," the unconditioned state of liberation, release from the cycle of rebirth-redeath; Pali: Nibbana.

When someone reaches nirvana, it means that he or she has broken free of samsara, the cycle of reincarnation and suffering which characterizes all life on Earth. In addition to being free from suffering, the individual is also beyond obsessions and earthly concerns. He or she has a high level of wisdom and compassion, and has reached a state of perfect peace with all life. For Buddhists, nirvana is the highest state one can attain, and it can take a very long time to reach this state. The term “nirvana” literally means “to extinguish,” although the term refers to the extinction of life as one knows it, not to a final end. Buddhists strive to attain nirvana by following the Eightfold Path and other precepts of their faith, and many believe that they have no way of knowing how long they have been on Earth, working towards eventual nirvana. It is also believed that people must achieve enlightenment in order to reach nirvana, but that enlightenment is not necessarily an automatic ticket to nirvana.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ September 15, 2010

Sureños

Sureños (Spanish for "Southerners") are a group of Mexican American street gangs with origins in the oldest barrios of Southern California. There are hundreds of Sureño gangs in California, and each has its own identity on the streets. Although they are based in Southern California, their influence has spread to various parts of the U.S. and other countries as well. The term “sureños” describes gangs professing allegiance to a gang set in southern California. The term was first used in the 1970s as a result of a California prison war between the Mexican Mafia (La EME) and Nuestra Familia (NF). This war resulted in a territorial division between gang members from northern California (norteños = northerners) who aligned with NF, and those from southern California (sureños = southerners) aligned with La EME.

Sureños emblems and clothing are based on the color blue. A typical Sureño outfit might include, blue, silver, and white and their favorite sports team apparel that shows their affiliation. Sureños use the number 13 in tattoos and graffiti. It is sometimes written as "X3” or in Roman numerals as "XIII" (Sur13 or Sur XIII). Some Sureños will tattoo themselves with three dots. Sureños derogatorily refers to a Norteño as a "Buster" or "Chap" (Chapete).

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ December 29, 2009

Shogun

Shogun was the ultimate rank one could achieve in Japan. The Shogun was the Supreme Military Dictator. Only one Daimyo (feudal lord) at a time could obtain the title. And only the His Imperial Highness, the reigning Emperor, the Divine Son of Heaven, who lived in seclusion with the Imperial Families at Kyoto, could grant the title. With the appointment of Shogun went absolute power: the Emperor's seal and mandate. The Shogun ruled in the Emperor's name. All power was derived from the Emperor because he was directly descended from the gods. Therefore any daimyo who opposed the Shogun were automatically in rebellion against the throne, and at once outcast and all his lands forfeit. The reigning Emperor was worshipped as a divinity because he was descended in an unbroken line from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami, one of the children of the gods Izanagi and Izanami, who had formed the islands of Japan from the firmament. By divine right the ruling Emperor owned all the land and was obeyed without question. But in practice, for more than six centuries real power had rested behind the throne.

A Shogunate was the government, office, or rule of a Shogun. There was three shogunates in Japanese history.

1) Kamakura Shogunate (1192–1333)
2) Ashikaga Shogunate (1336–1573)
3) Tokugawa Shogunate (1603–1868)

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ May 12, 2011

Purgatory

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the souls of God’s people may go to a place called "purgatory" after death, which is a half-way house between Heaven and Hell. They teach that it is a place of purging, in which the soul will suffer for a while before being fit to gain salvation into Heaven. The prayers, candle burning, and financial gifts to the church of a person and his friends is supposed to shorten the length of time that the soul suffers in purgatory.

Purgatory is the place where the soul is purged after death for past sins and thus becomes fit for Heaven.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 28, 2010