Ou
• Sunday, June 20th, 2010
ou
- (phon.) glyph for the sequence ou
- (n.) hawk
- (n.) any bird of prey
Ou… Ou… Fuila katavaka… Fuila katavaka…
“Bird of prey… Bird of prey… Flying high… Flying high…”
Notes: Am I going to die…?
That’s the Doors’ “Bird of Prey”. The Doors are one of the least deservedly dismissed bands of the late 60s and early 70s. And even then, those who appreciate the Doors often fail to recognize that Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger—you know, the Doors that weren’t named Jim Morrison—were excellent musicians. I think what they did with Jim Morrison’s spoken-word pieces in An American Prayer was outstanding, and well worthy of attention.
This post, though, was inspired by one of the silliest movies the 1980s ever produced: Iron Eagle. In this ridiculous movie, an airforce-brat’s father is captured by a wildly-stereotypical Middle Eastern nation, and when the US government is too “wimpy” to go in and save him (they want to engage in “negotiations”, a character playing a general says derisively), the man’s 18 year-old son goes in and save him himself. He and his friends manage to steal two airplanes off an airforce base, steal military intelligence reports, defraud the American government, and disobey direct orders—and, of course, the 18 year-old that isn’t even an airforce pilot goes into Stereotypistan and rescues his father, destroying an oil refinery and a whole lot of Middle Eastern soldiers in the process.
And what does he get for it? Jail? The death penalty? Nope. He’s accepted into the Airforce Academy—the college that had previously rejected him because his grades were so terrible—all in exchange for his silence about what he did.
Two words: Hi. Larious.
Back to Kamakawi, the ou is one of the three sacred animals of Kamakawi culture. It’s gone through a process of amelioration so that now it just means “hawk”, but originally it referred to a flying beast so powerful it could eat a bowl of habaneros and still feel cold. So it goes.
This is the second in my highly irregular three sacred animals of Kamakawi culture series. You can expect the third installment at an unexpected time (to be precise: five months prior to this, the last installment!).
Oh, and, of course, when it’s used as a phonological glyph, it doesn’t have the line determinative beneath it. I decided not to include both versions since I apparently forgot to do that on several other posts that have come recently. Oops.
