Gaelic Language

Every summer, the Augusta Heritage Center of Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va., opens its doors to American "traditionalists" eager to study their heritage in music, folklore, crafts, cooking and dance. There are Cajun weeks and Celtic weeks and sessions devoted to Appalachian, African American and Swiss cultures--the list goes on and on. In fact, if it tastes good, looks great or sounds snappy, and has been around for a while, it's probably on the program here.

Set in AD 140, "The Eagle," which opens Friday, revolves around a young Roman centurion (Channing Tatum) stationed in a desolate English outpost who attempts to discover what really happened after his father disappeared with a legion of men in the north of Britain some 20 years earlier. With the help of a British slave (Jamie Bell), the two cross over Hadrian's Wall into Caledonia, now known as Scotland, to retrieve the legion's gold eagle standard and to clear his father's tarnished name.

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. While the traditional way to celebrate involves a visit to a pub to imbibe a dram or two of Irish spirits, there are at least 10 other ways to "go green" in Southern California. 1 ATTEND AN IRISH PARADE: * Hollywood's annual St. Patrick's Day parade, 1 p.m. today at Hollywood and Vine. Led by Grand Marshal Ed McMahon, the parade will proceed west on Hollywood Boulevard to Sycamore Avenue.

The notion that the Irish--the real Irish--turn St. Patrick's Day on March 17 into a drunken orgy is pure blarney. That never was and never will be true, says Donal Patrick O'Sullivan of Costa Mesa, who looks like a leprechaun and talks in a thick Irish brogue. "Why, until recent years," O'Sullivan said, "pubs in Ireland were closed on St. Patrick's Day and you couldn't legally buy a drink."

Customers quietly browse through George Kubiskie's record shop, where fresh flowers often grace the counter, a Rudolph Valentino poster hangs on the wall and classical music plays softly over the radio. "There are no loud noises in this store," Kubiskie said. Nor is there any rock music. Or jazz. Or pop. Or country. Kubiskie's Classical Record Shop in Beverly Hills sells only classical. It is one of a smattering of specialty music stores in Los Angeles. Unlike chain stores, these shops do not follow the whims of Top-40 musical tastes.

A look at the initial pop concert offerings for 1998 in Orange County and environs suggests that promoters channeled the ghost of an 18th century Scottish poet in deciding what to book. That would be Robert Burns, of "Auld Lang Syne" fame. As it stands, pop fans will have little choice but to renew old acquaintances in the months ahead. Do promoters assume that folks here want the comfort of the familiar? Or do rising and cutting-edge acts not care to play here anymore?

The legacy of a modern phenomenon, "The Lord of the Dance," will intersect with a village seemingly transported here from medieval times this weekend at the 25th annual Irish Fair and Music Festival at Santa Anita Park racetrack. About 1,200 Irish step-dancers will compete on six stages and a quarter of the fair's real estate will be occupied by Tara Village, a simulated medieval hamlet brimming with historical reenactments of battles, music and crafts people.

For the Cassidys, music has been a family business from the very beginning. "One of my brothers has said that our earliest experience was hearing an O'Carolan concerto in the (crib)," Feargus Cassidy said by phone from Philadelphia. Feargus is one of six Cassidy brothers--along with Odhran, Seathrun, Aongus, Ciaran and Siontan--who are performing together on a national tour that includes a stop today at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

At first they were pretentious. Later they were painfully naive. And they always had rotten luck with bass players. But the three musicians who form the core of Fullerton rock band Trip the Spring have stuck with it for seven years while their songs improved, their bruises from business setbacks healed, and their search for compatible sidekicks progressed.

Double-decker buses that have been converted into B&Bs on wheels will take guests on tours of the English countryside and Yorkshire. Five-day tours are available year-round. The buses are fully equipped with four twin cabins, bunk beds, showers, restrooms and a dining room. Passengers will tour the coastal towns of Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay, and the walled city of York and Castle Howard. Cost: $468 per person, double occupancy, including cabin and breakfasts.