>And it’s very much rooted in a franchised version of a white Southern rural reality.
indeed.
and there is a similar franchised version of urban reality: every small city in the US eventually ends up with a version of things that started or were popularized in the very large cities (NYC especially, but also LA, ATL, etc). all of the hipster trends, food trends, drink trends, aesthetic trends, music, art, even ways of speaking and thinking get copied. go into any small- or medium-sized city in the US and you will find the same kinds of stores and styles, with people talking about similar things in similar ways.
it seems natural that rural culture should be similarly homgeneous.
One piece of economics related to the Civil War, and being from Illinois Lincoln was very much aware of it, was shipping on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. By 1860, farmers from Ohio through the eastern parts of Iowa produced large amounts of excess grain. The bulk of the excess went down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the ports around New Orleans, and by ship from there. Those farmers were very much afraid a separate Confederacy would impose large transit fees and ruin their business.
During the debates in Parliament on whether Britain should enter the American Civil War -- and on which side -- much was made of exactly how dependent Britain was on grain imported from those states, and that there were no alternate sources.
Animism is also at the heart of circumpolar shamanism. As a Dark Green Religion, biocentric type, I lean that direction, at least as a narrative for living ethically in the world. It's the story I allow myself to live by whenever and wherever physics starts to slide towards metaphysics.
I think it's healthy to treat everything as a fellow creature wherever possible. It maximizes empathy and guards against hubris.
At vrious points in my brilliant code monkey career I contemplated offering bribes to the machines, but I could never figure out what they would take as currency.
Threats usually resulted in some technological version of "Oh yeah, well watch *this*!".
russell: For folks heading out to No Kings tomorrow, stay safe and to whatever degree you can bring joy to it. I’m sorry to say I won’t be out there
No worries, russell -- I filled in for you. I even managed to wear a yellow shirt and cobble together a sign:
There were many, many signs, almost all hand-made. My favorite one was "STOP TRUTH DECAY". Lots of people, all ages from toddlers to geriatrics. Perfect weather here in Watertown, and a festive atmosphere. No unpleasantness of any sort, just 3-4 cops directing traffic through the tangled intersection that is Watertown Square. Some of the hardier souls headed into Boston for that rally, afterward.
For serious animism, one of my favorite memories is still Faith healing for computers:
Operations called Systems Programming because a (mainframe) disk drive was misbehaving. Walked in to the machine room and over to it. Laid my hands on top of the box.
Problem solved. Never did anything else to it. But Ops said that the problem had gone away.
Laying on of hands. Don't see how it could work on inanimate objects, so ...
I've had MANY experiences of threatening computers/printers/projectors with impending demise, after which they stop messing about and behave.
At least for a while. One was just last week.
Now, perhaps it's just Loki doing his thing. But I think I'd know if that was happening. Maybe. So instead I chalk it up the "the inherent perversity of inanimate objects".
Thank you JP for the article about Shinto. I have no religion but the closest thing that really resonates with me is petroglyphs. Why? Clearly animistic but there's no words. It seems to me that as soon as people start talking about spiritual matters, we take the wonder and awe out of it and substitute in stories that reflect humanness. I have the same attitude about Mass: much better in Latin so I can't understand what is being said.
I believe Michael Cain has also been known to talk to (or taunt) computers….
More threaten than taunt. Most famously, in a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan at 2:00 in the morning. Did it work? All the demos worked for the new board of directors later the same day, in significant part because the computer I threatened did all of its jobs properly :^)
I don't know about other professions, but I suspect everybody in IT spends some work time cursing when, inevitably, things don't go smoothly.
Whether they are talking to the software, or maybe the hardware. Or if they are appealing to a higher power for help. (Or maybe retribution on said recalcitrant software.). Hard to say. Possibly it varies from one individual to another.
I know they aren’t but that doesn’t stop me from saying “Excuse me” when I stub my toe on the coffee table, or shouting, “Not one chance, asshole!” at the computer cord that tries to trip me.
I believe Michael Cain has also been known to talk to (or taunt) computers....
Thank you for posting! I hope we get some tales of the weird. That draft has some typos that I forgot to correct.
I've always treated objects as if they were animate--I mean some objects, not all of them. I know they aren't but that doesn't stop me from saying "Excuse me" when I stub my toe on the coffee table, or shouting, "Not one chance, asshole!" at the computer cord that tries to trip me. When I turned my old car in for the two hundred dollar trade in value, I actually cried. It was such a betrayal, felt like I was turning an old dog in to the shelter.
I'd like to know more about the Shinto concept. I have a strong feeling for certain landscapes which includes thinking of the landscape as holy but not in a Christian way. Holy more as in a place where spirits would reside if there were any.
This first article on this page might be of interest for folks wanting more
Ai, rumba!! Allow me to digress.
Rumba in its various forms is / are kind of folkloric root and base of Cuban music. This right here is guaguanco, one of the three traditional rumba styles, and the one most commonly still performed, played here in pretty much it's traditional form.
Another guaguanco, with the great Orlando "Puntilla" Rios, grand old man of the Cuban / New York rumbero community. The clave is easier to hear here, it's more even eighth notes, where the more traditional players tend to elide the difference between a duple and triple time feel. This is *rumba* clave, a little different to the "Bo Diddley" "shave and a haircut" clave - called *son* clave - shown in the reggaeton in two minutes clip.
This is one of my favorite videos in the world. When they break into the call-and-response thing at about 4:30 and the dancers get up the joy of it all is palpable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnBN_AXfkvk
Salsa is more of a popular, dance club style, mostly based out of New York. Here is the great Ruben Blades performing "Pedro Navaja", which is basically the Spanish version of "Mack the Knife". This has son clave, which you can hear pretty clearly at the beginning of the tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqCC-zWQfdI
Clave is the key (literally) to a really broad range of musical styles and traditions of the Spanish-speaking African diaspora. It's one of many similar rhythmic patterns found in Africa, all of which turn out to be Euclidean rhythms, which I will not get into because we'll be here all night.
Thanks so much for the guestpost wonkie! I waited a bit to get it closer to Halloween. Other writing eagerly sought.
The idea that inanimate things have 'something' is one that I would like to believe, but feel a bit strange about. There is something vaguely comforting to me about a Shinto view of the world, where everything is imbued with something, but it always feels like a short distance from that to thinking that vaccines are trying to kill us.
Fun stuff everyone. Just to pull out a few things I miss salsa. At least that gives you both sides of the clave.
My playing experience has been classical and 'big band' jazz (by which I mean the size of the ensemble, rather than the swing bands that people think of) so my Latin experience is pretty minimal, but I did have a section in the post about the clave's evolution to reggaeton, but it is 1) hard to explain about rhythms and 2) I'd probably screw it up. This first article on this page might be of interest for folks wanting more https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y00/jun00/12e9.htm
Yonaguni, as a feminine coded island holding of Japan
I wasn't able to find any interviews with BB talking about the song and how it came about, so I imagine it was a mélange of reasons.
one could really capture an international audience and maintain a US presence all without ever having to make a single move to acknowledge the US mainstream.
I've recently been getting youtube videos titles [Indian journalist/Singaporean minister/Chinese author] destroys [Western journalist/politician/pundit]. and one of the lines that always seem to score points is the first person calmly pointing out that the West is about 15% of the world while Asia is about 60%.
This life brought to you by The Algorithm.
I wonder if there is a chicken-egg thing going on here. The trends mentioned by nous have been in popular music since the 50s, before the tech-bros had gotten their hands on the internet. I don't want to absolve them of their responsibility, but I don't want to give them too much credit for the idea, more of the shitty implementation.
I also think that these Weekend Music threads, because of my own interests, are going to lean into how so much music is blended and remixed. It's not new, classical music has a long tradition of taking folk melodies and rhythms and repackaging them, but I'm beginning to think that this is really foundational. So if that sounds boring, guest Musical weekend threads are solicited!
MAGAs do not want to share the world with anyone else. Not sharing is the point of the movement
They are in for a big disappointment, because the rest of the world isn't going away. And it's true, they're trying to make the US their own private homogenous playground, but there are too many other kinds of people here already. A lot of us were born here.
A lot of the brown Spanish speaking people were here before this country was.
I don't know what it's gonna take for these fuckers to get it through their heads that white skin and blue eyes just ain't that big of a deal.
There’s also, though, the antifa types who see themselves as mutual aid groups, who are there to offer medical support and protection to other groups they are in solidarity with.
I can affirm this.
A former minister of mine was at the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" calamity - she lived there at the time and was present as a peaceful protestor. Her own account of the day gives a lot of credit to antifa (by whatever label) for providing a buffer between the quite violent right wing folks and the folks there to protest peacefully.
In my own direct expeience, I've seen "antifa" folks present at demonstrations who were there to provide medical or trauma help if that was needed (thankfully it was not). Carrying a simple trauma first aid kit, and they were clearly marked with red crosses on their kit and on armbands.
My comment was really toward the folks who come deliberately to fight, specifically. I more or less understand the impulse - I think most of us feel anger at the stuff that goes on - but I'm not sure it accomplishes anything useful. It just gives the Andy Ngo and "Based Stick Man" types of the world something to look forward to.
I was standing in the grocery the other day when I heard Mick Jagger wailing, “You’re enough to make a dead man come!” And I thought, “In about ten years, that will be nursing home music.”
LOL.
I have expanded by learning new artists, but the sound is all in the country/rock/folk/blues range.
It sounds like our tastes are quite similar, wonkie, (even down to those same albums among others) although I admit I came to country pretty late, and still not to the same extent as the other categories. Folk was probably first, then rock, and of course the latter was heavily influenced by blues. I have never been able to get into rap, and this post is the first I've heard of reggaeton; I'm not crazy about it.
Similar to Mike's Math Tape, I wrote most of my dissertation while playing a mix of albums from A Beautiful Machine, which was all washed out, ambient, shoegaze-y sounding post-rock. It was noisy enough to drown out distractions, flowy enough to not get monotonous, and indistinct enough that the lyrics wouldn't interfere with whatever complex thought it was I was trying to work out in words.
https://abeautifulmachine.bandcamp.com/album/home
It was my most played music for three years and for 247 pages worth of obsession, stress, and isolation.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “The South shall writhe again”
>And it’s very much rooted in a franchised version of a white Southern rural reality.
indeed.
and there is a similar franchised version of urban reality: every small city in the US eventually ends up with a version of things that started or were popularized in the very large cities (NYC especially, but also LA, ATL, etc). all of the hipster trends, food trends, drink trends, aesthetic trends, music, art, even ways of speaking and thinking get copied. go into any small- or medium-sized city in the US and you will find the same kinds of stores and styles, with people talking about similar things in similar ways.
it seems natural that rural culture should be similarly homgeneous.
"
One piece of economics related to the Civil War, and being from Illinois Lincoln was very much aware of it, was shipping on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. By 1860, farmers from Ohio through the eastern parts of Iowa produced large amounts of excess grain. The bulk of the excess went down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the ports around New Orleans, and by ship from there. Those farmers were very much afraid a separate Confederacy would impose large transit fees and ruin their business.
During the debates in Parliament on whether Britain should enter the American Civil War -- and on which side -- much was made of exactly how dependent Britain was on grain imported from those states, and that there were no alternate sources.
"
Thanks nous!
On “What’s up, doxx?”
They're saying almost 7 million at No Kings today.
that's a lot of people
On “The South shall writhe again”
Gift link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/opinion/columnists/tennessee-house-nashville-shooting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uk8.b5T9.3bVhxDrcFsH7&smid=url-share
On “The Return of the Boat Hook”
Animism is also at the heart of circumpolar shamanism. As a Dark Green Religion, biocentric type, I lean that direction, at least as a narrative for living ethically in the world. It's the story I allow myself to live by whenever and wherever physics starts to slide towards metaphysics.
I think it's healthy to treat everything as a fellow creature wherever possible. It maximizes empathy and guards against hubris.
"
At vrious points in my brilliant code monkey career I contemplated offering bribes to the machines, but I could never figure out what they would take as currency.
Threats usually resulted in some technological version of "Oh yeah, well watch *this*!".
On “What’s up, doxx?”
russell: For folks heading out to No Kings tomorrow, stay safe and to whatever degree you can bring joy to it. I’m sorry to say I won’t be out there
No worries, russell -- I filled in for you. I even managed to wear a yellow shirt and cobble together a sign:
There were many, many signs, almost all hand-made. My favorite one was "STOP TRUTH DECAY". Lots of people, all ages from toddlers to geriatrics. Perfect weather here in Watertown, and a festive atmosphere. No unpleasantness of any sort, just 3-4 cops directing traffic through the tangled intersection that is Watertown Square. Some of the hardier souls headed into Boston for that rally, afterward.
--TP
On “The Return of the Boat Hook”
For serious animism, one of my favorite memories is still Faith healing for computers:
Operations called Systems Programming because a (mainframe) disk drive was misbehaving. Walked in to the machine room and over to it. Laid my hands on top of the box.
Problem solved. Never did anything else to it. But Ops said that the problem had gone away.
Laying on of hands. Don't see how it could work on inanimate objects, so ...
"
I've had MANY experiences of threatening computers/printers/projectors with impending demise, after which they stop messing about and behave.
At least for a while. One was just last week.
Now, perhaps it's just Loki doing his thing. But I think I'd know if that was happening. Maybe. So instead I chalk it up the "the inherent perversity of inanimate objects".
"
Thank you JP for the article about Shinto. I have no religion but the closest thing that really resonates with me is petroglyphs. Why? Clearly animistic but there's no words. It seems to me that as soon as people start talking about spiritual matters, we take the wonder and awe out of it and substitute in stories that reflect humanness. I have the same attitude about Mass: much better in Latin so I can't understand what is being said.
f
"
I believe Michael Cain has also been known to talk to (or taunt) computers….
More threaten than taunt. Most famously, in a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan at 2:00 in the morning. Did it work? All the demos worked for the new board of directors later the same day, in significant part because the computer I threatened did all of its jobs properly :^)
"
wonkie, check this out
https://aeon.co/essays/shinto-shows-the-debt-to-animism-of-organised-religions-today
"
I don't know about other professions, but I suspect everybody in IT spends some work time cursing when, inevitably, things don't go smoothly.
Whether they are talking to the software, or maybe the hardware. Or if they are appealing to a higher power for help. (Or maybe retribution on said recalcitrant software.). Hard to say. Possibly it varies from one individual to another.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
Absolutely
On “The Return of the Boat Hook”
I know they aren’t but that doesn’t stop me from saying “Excuse me” when I stub my toe on the coffee table, or shouting, “Not one chance, asshole!” at the computer cord that tries to trip me.
I believe Michael Cain has also been known to talk to (or taunt) computers....
"
Thank you for posting! I hope we get some tales of the weird. That draft has some typos that I forgot to correct.
I've always treated objects as if they were animate--I mean some objects, not all of them. I know they aren't but that doesn't stop me from saying "Excuse me" when I stub my toe on the coffee table, or shouting, "Not one chance, asshole!" at the computer cord that tries to trip me. When I turned my old car in for the two hundred dollar trade in value, I actually cried. It was such a betrayal, felt like I was turning an old dog in to the shelter.
I'd like to know more about the Shinto concept. I have a strong feeling for certain landscapes which includes thinking of the landscape as holy but not in a Christian way. Holy more as in a place where spirits would reside if there were any.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
Russell, if it is ok, I'd like to lift up your comment as next week's music thread?
"
This first article on this page might be of interest for folks wanting more
Ai, rumba!! Allow me to digress.
Rumba in its various forms is / are kind of folkloric root and base of Cuban music. This right here is guaguanco, one of the three traditional rumba styles, and the one most commonly still performed, played here in pretty much it's traditional form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOQvzI1A2P0
Another guaguanco, with the great Orlando "Puntilla" Rios, grand old man of the Cuban / New York rumbero community. The clave is easier to hear here, it's more even eighth notes, where the more traditional players tend to elide the difference between a duple and triple time feel. This is *rumba* clave, a little different to the "Bo Diddley" "shave and a haircut" clave - called *son* clave - shown in the reggaeton in two minutes clip.
This is one of my favorite videos in the world. When they break into the call-and-response thing at about 4:30 and the dancers get up the joy of it all is palpable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnBN_AXfkvk
Salsa is more of a popular, dance club style, mostly based out of New York. Here is the great Ruben Blades performing "Pedro Navaja", which is basically the Spanish version of "Mack the Knife". This has son clave, which you can hear pretty clearly at the beginning of the tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqCC-zWQfdI
Clave is the key (literally) to a really broad range of musical styles and traditions of the Spanish-speaking African diaspora. It's one of many similar rhythmic patterns found in Africa, all of which turn out to be Euclidean rhythms, which I will not get into because we'll be here all night.
I pretty much love Latin music.
On “The Return of the Boat Hook”
Thanks so much for the guestpost wonkie! I waited a bit to get it closer to Halloween. Other writing eagerly sought.
The idea that inanimate things have 'something' is one that I would like to believe, but feel a bit strange about. There is something vaguely comforting to me about a Shinto view of the world, where everything is imbued with something, but it always feels like a short distance from that to thinking that vaccines are trying to kill us.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
Fun stuff everyone. Just to pull out a few things
I miss salsa. At least that gives you both sides of the clave.
My playing experience has been classical and 'big band' jazz (by which I mean the size of the ensemble, rather than the swing bands that people think of) so my Latin experience is pretty minimal, but I did have a section in the post about the clave's evolution to reggaeton, but it is 1) hard to explain about rhythms and 2) I'd probably screw it up. This first article on this page might be of interest for folks wanting more
https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y00/jun00/12e9.htm
Yonaguni, as a feminine coded island holding of Japan
I wasn't able to find any interviews with BB talking about the song and how it came about, so I imagine it was a mélange of reasons.
one could really capture an international audience and maintain a US presence all without ever having to make a single move to acknowledge the US mainstream.
I've recently been getting youtube videos titles [Indian journalist/Singaporean minister/Chinese author] destroys [Western journalist/politician/pundit]. and one of the lines that always seem to score points is the first person calmly pointing out that the West is about 15% of the world while Asia is about 60%.
This life brought to you by The Algorithm.
I wonder if there is a chicken-egg thing going on here. The trends mentioned by nous have been in popular music since the 50s, before the tech-bros had gotten their hands on the internet. I don't want to absolve them of their responsibility, but I don't want to give them too much credit for the idea, more of the shitty implementation.
I also think that these Weekend Music threads, because of my own interests, are going to lean into how so much music is blended and remixed. It's not new, classical music has a long tradition of taking folk melodies and rhythms and repackaging them, but I'm beginning to think that this is really foundational. So if that sounds boring, guest Musical weekend threads are solicited!
"
MAGAs do not want to share the world with anyone else. Not sharing is the point of the movement
They are in for a big disappointment, because the rest of the world isn't going away. And it's true, they're trying to make the US their own private homogenous playground, but there are too many other kinds of people here already. A lot of us were born here.
A lot of the brown Spanish speaking people were here before this country was.
I don't know what it's gonna take for these fuckers to get it through their heads that white skin and blue eyes just ain't that big of a deal.
On “What’s up, doxx?”
There’s also, though, the antifa types who see themselves as mutual aid groups, who are there to offer medical support and protection to other groups they are in solidarity with.
I can affirm this.
A former minister of mine was at the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" calamity - she lived there at the time and was present as a peaceful protestor. Her own account of the day gives a lot of credit to antifa (by whatever label) for providing a buffer between the quite violent right wing folks and the folks there to protest peacefully.
In my own direct expeience, I've seen "antifa" folks present at demonstrations who were there to provide medical or trauma help if that was needed (thankfully it was not). Carrying a simple trauma first aid kit, and they were clearly marked with red crosses on their kit and on armbands.
My comment was really toward the folks who come deliberately to fight, specifically. I more or less understand the impulse - I think most of us feel anger at the stuff that goes on - but I'm not sure it accomplishes anything useful. It just gives the Andy Ngo and "Based Stick Man" types of the world something to look forward to.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
I was standing in the grocery the other day when I heard Mick Jagger wailing, “You’re enough to make a dead man come!” And I thought, “In about ten years, that will be nursing home music.”
LOL.
I have expanded by learning new artists, but the sound is all in the country/rock/folk/blues range.
It sounds like our tastes are quite similar, wonkie, (even down to those same albums among others) although I admit I came to country pretty late, and still not to the same extent as the other categories. Folk was probably first, then rock, and of course the latter was heavily influenced by blues. I have never been able to get into rap, and this post is the first I've heard of reggaeton; I'm not crazy about it.
"
Similar to Mike's Math Tape, I wrote most of my dissertation while playing a mix of albums from A Beautiful Machine, which was all washed out, ambient, shoegaze-y sounding post-rock. It was noisy enough to drown out distractions, flowy enough to not get monotonous, and indistinct enough that the lyrics wouldn't interfere with whatever complex thought it was I was trying to work out in words.
https://abeautifulmachine.bandcamp.com/album/home
It was my most played music for three years and for 247 pages worth of obsession, stress, and isolation.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.