#macdougall

[walkingphotos]

Today's Walking Photos: Arrrrgh...today I got my pupils dilated for an eye exam, and after a first go-round the doc decided to turbo-boost the proceedings and put in those extra-strength dilation drops on top of the initial dose. Sure hope he saw everything he needed to, because the result was that I was like a freegin’ vampire the rest of the day, shrinking away from the faintest light sources and hiding in the shadows whenever I could. Suffice it to say I was in no condition (yes I’m being hyperdramatic) to go out in the sun and walk today.

So what is all this then? Well, it seemed like a good day for a Scotland throwback. See, it turns out that one of many lodging options in the pleasant northern town of Inverness is a place called the MacDougall Clansman Hotel. When I was planning our trip, my eyes alit on this hotel and I believe I said aloud (to an empty room), “Well, clearly we’ll have to stay there!” But alas, I checked their website and was crushed to find that they were booked up on the dates we were visiting. It was so important to me that I actually picked up the phone and called the place, just on the off chance that there’d been a cancellation or something and maybe the website wasn’t up to date. I was lucky enough to get the proprietor of the hotel on the phone, a gentleman named Ian MacDougall – like my son! Ian was incredibly pleasant and he made a very thorough effort to see if there was any way he could fit us in, but it just wasn’t to be. Still, our conversation was so pleasant that I told him we’d be sure to pay him a visit while we were in Inverness. So one morning we walked to a shamefully tasty pancake restaurant for breakfast, and then headed a couple blocks further to the MacDougall Clansman Hotel. Notes on the photos:

Here’s the entrance, and as you can see – NO VACANCIES. But as you can also see, my lovely wife and son were with me! 

Ian the proprietor showed us around a bit, and I took quite a shine to the breakfast room. No Cheerios dispenser or drippy waffle machine here! Nope, you’ve got tea, oatcakes and a grand bowl of marmalade! (Other lovely jams available to the rear, and of course I’m just fixated on oatcakes and marmalade but a full cooked Scottish breakfast is included with your stay.)

On prominent display in the breakfast room is this framed print of Dougall, barefoot founder of the Clan MacDougall. The same print hangs in my living room! Coincidence? I think not! Dougall’s father was the great warrior Somerled, who is thought to have driven the Vikings from the Scottish isles and was ultimately dubbed King Of The Isles.

The MacDougall crest, rendered in splendid embroidery and bearing the clan motto Buaidh No Bas – conquer or die.

A pair of Ian MacDougalls! The son isn’t normally an eager photographic subject, but he really enjoyed this visit and was happy to pose with his namesake. Doesn’t left-side Ian just look the part of the kind-faced innkeeper you’d want to have greeting you after a long day seeing the sights of Inverness? His dad started the place in 1959.

When we go back to Scotland, if Inverness is on our itinerary, I’m going to plan much further in advance and secure a room at the MacDougall Clansman Hotel. That way my man Ian can be prepared and stock up on the marmalade.

[aryburn-trains]

Ithaca local

Ten-Wheeler 1819 with train 128, Geneva–Ithaca (N.Y.) local, at MacDougall, Sept. 21, 1948.

[detournementsmineurs]

"Quelques Minutes après Minuit" de Juan Antonio Bayona - d'après le roman éponyme de Patrick Ness sur une idée originale de Siobhan Dowd (2012) - avec Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones et Sigourney Weaver, janveir 2017.

[walkingphotos]

Update: Scotland is a mindbending experience so far. I thought I’d be posting regular photos…but while my walking is at an all-time high (9 miles yesterday, 7 the day before, etc.), and I’m taking tons of photos, there has just been no time to sort through the photos, choose worthy ones, edit and tweak as necessary, etc. So I just wanted you to know I haven’t forgotten my whole thing over here.

The photo shows Dunollie Castle, built by the Clan MacDougall many hundreds of years ago and bearing testimony to our might, perseverance and ingenuity even today.

More to come, friends.

[almostlookedhuman]

[lajinahossain]

QMJHL season preview: What can Moncton Wildcats' MacDougall do for an encore?

Gardiner MacDougall’s first full season in the major-junior coaching ranks proved the longtime University of New Brunswick bench boss could have just as much success at another level. Now, the Moncton Wildcats coach has a new challenge — keep his team in elite status in the QMJHL after capturing the league title in dominating fashion last season. Although the OHL’s London Knights seem like one…

[psicovisioni]

IL PESO DELL'ANIMA

L’anima, comprovarne l’esistenza qualora ci fosse e determinarlo attraverso un metodo, Il Dottor Duncan Macdougall fece la prova, una prova di peso. Nel 1907 sulle pagine del New York Times comparve la notizia straordinaria…Continua la lettura dell’articolo, visita il 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐝𝐢 𝐏𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢 Click to access il-peso-dell-anima.pdf

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[exploremovies]

Gandhi's Children. Mac Dougall movie.

From the first scene, we see the Indian children in some institution which reminds the prison. As Mac Dougall writes in "Environments of Childhood", it is a juvenile detention center in New Deli, the Prayas Children’s home for Boys. The first minutes of the movie introducing us to the life of the children in this institution. However, it is not clear from the beginning that is it an orphan or juvenile prison. We observe how the children built their daily routine in this institution, but we never see the adults. In line with the inside of institution representation we able to see the surroundings, neighborhood with rats, poor housings, toxic canal, where the balcony from the center opens the view. These utopic landscapes can bring only anxious feelings when you dream to blink eyes and open them in a better reality.  We see the tight relationship between these boys, it more like brotherhood with the hierarchy of elders ones, who still can control the attitude and discipline of the youngest. Mac Dougall with his camera managed to film the most intimate scenes in this center, how children sleep and making their beds, how they use the toilet and shower, how they eat and communicate with each other. Through this observation lens, we are introduced to their routine which does not have any privacy. At some point, I  perceived that these children more adults than I or my surrounding. Their communication and responsibilities sharing reminds me of a machine in some big production factory. I imagined if something goes wrong with one of them they are all in trouble until they do not fix it. This correlation between the boys established also patronage and hierarchy when the oldest one or most respectful one can decide how to attitude with others so they do what he needs. Until the part with children interviews, the conversations we do not perceive acting to the camera, the director managed to be an observer with this lens without provoking acting. As we know later most of these children or lost their parents, get lost on the chaotic streets or were working on the streets doing some “illegal” jobs to support their families. It also can explain that their attitude in the household is more adult than childish, they became independent much earlier than children should be, they lost their childhood. Through the movie, we start to be introduced to the adults in the center, who provides the food to the children, register newcomers, doctor, and hairdresser. Two scenes cached my attention, communication between children with doctor and hairdresser. Both scenes show that even at doctor and hairdresser visit, boys do not have any privacy. However, the doctor's approach was more individual, he remembered the injuries and sicknesses of children, he shoes also more care towards them. He even calls one of the new comings boys son, taking care of him and calming him so he can check up him properly. The scene with the hairdresser is the opposite. It reminds me of the sheep shaving on the farm when sheeps just standing in a line and the shepherd approaching them to finish his job as soon as possible.   The movie also shows the private conversations between children and filmmaker, when their share stories about their families, what is important for them and how they would like to run from this place. There is no one protagonist in the movie, few of the boys tell their stories and we follow them in the movie. I have bias feelings towards the people who work in this center, from one side they seem rude to children. In the final scenes, we see how they carefully checking the documents of people who came to take back children, not only to be sure that they give children back to family members but also to be sure that children will not be again on the streets, working and supporting their family members. They are trying to prevent child labor and be sure that they will be safe. The film has a happy ending when one of the protagonists happily able to return back home or becoming Homewala. He trusts to cameraman and he shares with him his feelings after the court, he felt that it is jail and he wanted to run from there, and now he is planning to study after returning home.  It is probably one of these rare scenes when we observe the childishness and happiness on the face of the boy, we see him again as a child.