February 17, 2020
Yes, we're making this for us, and we're inviting you to come in
"When Perth Festival's incoming artist director Iain Grandage announced that his first edition would open with a week of exclusively Indigenous work, it was a big deal: this has never been done before in Australia."
Excellent long review by arts editor Dee Jefferson at the ABC. [more inside]
Rest In Peace, Lone Swordsman
Famed British DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall passed away today. He was 56. Coverage from The Gaurdian, The BBC, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, and Optimo’s JD Twitch. Weatherall is best known as the producer of Primal Scream’s Screamadelica and a key launcher of the acid house scene in the UK, one-third of The Sabres of Paradise, and one half of Two Lone Swordsmen.
Embroidery tattoos: needle work of needlework
People Are Getting Colorful Tattoos That Look Like Embroidery on Skin (My Modern Met): "From thread painting to freestyle, stitchers have a lot of choices when it comes to making images with thread. Embroidery tattoos feature two predominant methods that are inspired by the ancient practice: cross stitch and crewel. The cross stitch tattoo, first made popular by Eva Karabudak, has designs formed by tiny "X" marks, while the crewel approach mimics the satin stitch on the skin." Brazil's Duda Lozano is the the master of the patch tattoo. [more inside]
Adios AMIGO and Watch Out for the FLORR
Charles Portis, an Arkansas native best known for his 1968 novel True Grit, died on Monday at a Little Rock hospice facility. He was 86. [Arkansas Online] [more inside]
hungry for a change
The Man Behind The Counter In an iconic photo from 60 years ago, four young African American men sit at a Woolworth’s lunch counter and stare resolutely back at the photographer behind them. Behind the counter is a young busboy. His name was Charles Bess. Here is his story. By Sayaka Matsuoka
Don't click the "Culinary Horrors" link, tho
Who's the, uh, guy with the thingamabob, the... fuck!, I can't think of... Smith? No, it's not-- John Locke! That's who I was thinking of. LOL. Sorry for the tartle.
Landscapers save moose
What it says on the tin (slyt) Come for the moose, stay for the people
Those are some big pipes
Jonathan Scott plays In the Hall of the Mountain King on the organ of Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. [more inside]
“How about a nice game of chess?”
The Best Board Games of the Ancient World [Smithsonian Magazine] “Long before Settlers of Catan, Scrabble and Risk won legions of fans, actual Roman legions passed the time by playing Ludus Latrunculorum, a strategic showdown whose Latin name translates loosely to “Game of Mercenaries.” In northwest Europe, meanwhile, the Viking game Hnefatafl popped up in such far-flung locales as Scotland, Norway and Iceland. Farther south, the ancient Egyptian games of Senet and Mehen dominated. To the east in India, Chaturanga emerged as a precursor to modern chess. And 5,000 years ago, in what is now southeast Turkey, a group of Bronze Age humans created an elaborate set of sculpted stones hailed as the world’s oldest gaming pieces upon their discovery in 2013. From Go to backgammon, Nine Men’s Morris and mancala, these were the cutthroat, quirky and surprisingly spiritual board games of the ancient world.” [more inside]
Ashe Juniper, aka Cedar, the tree Texans love to hate
In winter months, many Texans come together to share hatred of a specific tree: the cedar (Texas Monthly, 1997), or more specifically Ashe Juniper (Juniperus ashei) (Native Trees of Texas). To some, it's an evil tree that attacks people with its pollen, drinks all the water and is a fire hazard (Texas Monthly, 2018). To others, it's a forager's dream, with medicinal and edible qualities (Foraging Texas), and long prized for their resistance to rot (Central Texas Gardener), mountain cedars were valued for fence posts, telephone poles, and homesteads. Elizabeth McGreevy, a Texan ecologist, challenges the myths about cedar, Texas’ most hated tree (Reporting Texas). You can read more at her website.
crude gospel
"In this episode of [the podcast] Horns of a Dilemma, Darren Dochuk, associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, discusses his new book, Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America. Dochuk explores how oil grafted itself to the soul of the United States and became part of its identity. He uses the term “wildcat Christianity“ to describe the actions of oil prospectors who used the profits from their ventures to support Christian missionary endeavors around the world and traces how the religious identity and cultural identity of the United States are intertwined with this natural resource. "
"I was a bad influence on the Beatles"
Musical icon James Taylor (previously) has released an audio memoir, Break Shot, and has a new album, American Standard, dropping this month (excerpts available from NPR). In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardians's Jenny Stevens, Taylor talks about overcoming childhood trauma and heroin addiction, his musical and personal relationships, and his life as a songwriter.
Signed, Sealed, & Undelivered
In 1926, a seventeenth-century trunk of letters was bequeathed to the Dutch postal museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The trunk belonged to perhaps the most active postmasters and post-mistresses of the day, Simon and Marie de Brienne, a couple at the heart of the European communication networks. The chest contains an extraordinary archive: 2600 "locked" letters sent from all over Europe to this axis of communication, none of which were ever delivered and many of which have never been opened.
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