Displaying post 1 to 50 of 79
from
mefi
Home Movies.
A 1975 documentary by a young academic folklorist, exploring what it was that people were doing when they made home movies: remembering selectively, creating a "golden age."
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 8:52 PM on July 21, 2008
(20 comments)
In a time before the Prius, the custom conversion van ruled the roadways.
Pushing the
boundaries of the airbrush form, testing the limits of
mobile interior design, featuring the latest in
automatic pink leather bed,
compact toaster, 8-track, and
love machine technology, the 70s van was celebrated in
song and
cinema. You started with
a factory model, new or used, and ended at a place limited onlyby your creativity, your budget, and your
old lady's patience (NSFW). Ford could
make you a man.If push came to shove, you could even
live in your van. It was fantasy on wheels:
van-tastic, man.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 9:14 PM on July 18, 2008
(41 comments)
They are members of the
olive family, among the
earliest flowering plants imported to the United States. Planted near the front doors of flat, bare early Colonial house facades, they helped to create "
dooryard gardens," which softened and brought beauty to a rough-hewn early America.
Jefferson planted them; at Monticello, some of those bushes still bloom.. They gave
Pan his pipes. They are employed as evocative symbols in
American literature,
song,
and poetry, where they symbolize the
sensuousness of love in its earliest stages.
Festivals celebrate their
blooming, and
NOAA tracks the earliest leaves and flowers for evidence of climate change. The inability to smell it may be an
early indication of Alzheimer's disease. No wonder people like to
steal them.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 12:46 PM on May 23, 2008
(31 comments)
Sacred Steel
is a
pedal-steel guitar style that evolved in the African-American Pentecostal denomination
The House of God, Which Is the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth. Brothers and lap steel players
Willie and Truman Eason, inspired by the electric blues and Hawaiian steel guitar of the 1920s and 30s, brought the sound to two branches of the church, the
Keith and
Jewell dominions. Its hallmark: "talking guitar," in which the sliding steel
emphasizes and mimics the words of preachers and
singers. In the 1970s, a new "
Motor City" tradition began, featuring the more complicated pedal steel guitar. This body of music was known mainly in church circles until two things happened: first, folklorist
Robert Stone became interested in the music and relased several
CD collections. And then, church player
Robert Randolph (and his
Family Band) began taking Sunday morning's music out on
Saturday night.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 12:10 PM on April 8, 2008
(19 comments)
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
is one of the most wide-ranging and literate public radio shows in the US, a two-hour "radio salon" featuring leisurely exploration of weekly themes like
No Smoking,
Identity Crisis,
Weekend, and
The Mind, Music, and Math. Host
Jim Fleming approaches these big ideas through the works of authors - journalists of all stripes, memoirists, poets, fiction writers, essayists.
Five years' worth of shows are available on audio archives; you can also search the impressive list of
authors by name, or
subscribe to the podcast.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 9:13 AM on February 27, 2008
(17 comments)
New England's Lost Ski Areas.
The Northeast used to be littered with mom-and-pop-size ski areas, many of which have been consolidated into huge resorts, while others fell to development or just passed out of existence. This site serves as a repository for
information,
images, and reminiscinces. Links to other region's lost ski area sites, too.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 3:47 PM on January 20, 2008
(26 comments)
Puzzled about what to get the history buff, throwback or Luddite on your holiday shopping list? Explore the sutler's wares in the world of historic reproduction clothing! Strut your eighteenth-century style with
Jas. Townsend & Son, or dress for the Lewis & Clark expedition with
Smoke & Fire.
USHist.com provides the finest in
Mexican War and
Cavalry/Indian War apparel, as well as fashion to end all wars in the
WWI collection. Don't forget the ladies (and weak-minded gents) left at home -
Blockade Runner offers fine Civil War civvies.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 9:20 AM on December 11, 2007
(22 comments)
Beginning with Slow Food in 1986,
the idea of rejecting the "
cult of speed" has gradually spread from a focus on food into other fields. In his book
In Praise of Slow,
Carl Honore explores the spread of the worldwide
Slow movement, urging greater attention to all aspects of daily life, human relationships, and the quality of experience. Meanwhile, on the web, witness the spread of Slow. Slow down your stuff with
Slow Home,
Slow Travel,
Slow Fashion,
Slow Art,
Slow Craft,
Slow Design. Relax with some
Slow Reading; check out a
Slow Read from a
Slow Library. Plan for
Slow Cities governed by
Slow Leadership. Use
Slow Schooling,
Slow Research, and the
Slow University to explore
Slow Science and
Slow Math. Bank with
Slow Money [PDF]. Explore the world with
Slow Travel, using
Slow Fuel for
Slow Transportation. What's the rush? Come on. Take it easy.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 7:42 AM on November 26, 2007
(60 comments)
Voice Thread
Now the online world can lend support in your family argument about what
really happened on your fifth birthday.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 4:05 PM on November 5, 2007
(6 comments)
King of Fruits,
Tempter of Adam, Prize of Paris: It's
apple-picking time. The apple's
origins reach into prehistory. Thanks to tremendous
genetic variance in each new generation, humans have cultivated a
dizzying number of
named varieties, as many as
17,000, of which
7500 are available as growth stock. In the past,
different apples were prized for particular strengths:
cider pressing,
storage,
cooking,
drying, or eating out of hand. Despite this bounty,
just 15 shelf-stable, shiny,
easy-to-pick varieties account for 90% of apple sales today. But
heirloom apple growers are
working to preserve the old flavors of the
Roxbury Russet, the
Westfield Seek-No-Further, the
Fallawater, the
Limbertwig, the
King Luscious...
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 1:59 PM on October 2, 2007
(58 comments)
HONK!
is a showcase and annual festival for a "new kind of street band": motley, theatrical, activist protest groups working within the
marching band tradition. From this central site, link to
video and
audio from
twenty bands currently playing in the "honk" genre, from New York's
Rude Mechanical Orchestra to to Atlanta's
Seed and Feed Marching Abominables to Portsmouth, NH's
Leftist Marching Band. Heavy on the brass and percussion, rousing, raucous, and fun, these bands form part of a
worldwide musical phenomenon.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 12:00 PM on July 30, 2007
(19 comments)
The Dreaded Half Worcester
warning: music is just one of the possible vexing configurations
players encounter in
candlepin bowling, a regional variation on traditional bowling that's unique to northern New England and maritime Canada.
Developed in Worcester, MA, around 1880 (warning: more music), the
game is played in
gorgeous antique alleys dotted around New England and Nova Scotia, and features a
4 1/2" wooden or rubber ball, three rolls per frame or "box," and 15 and 3/4" narrow, cylinder-shaped pins that are the devil to knock down -- even though you can use the
dead wood to knock other pins down, a score over 200 is extremely rare.
Find some lanes and
play or just
take the quiz - like so many regional quirks, this one's undergoing
a bit of a revival.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 7:43 AM on July 19, 2007
(55 comments)
"Give your children a program that Jesus could join.
Why not step beyond a politically correct scouting program in which a Christian might not feel completely comfortable at activities, or with the materials furnished by a central committee? Are you tired of pretending to be neutral?" Keepers at Home and Contenders for the Faith are Bible-based alterntives to traditional youth scouting groups. Keepers at Home features
lessons to prepare girls for their future roles as help meets, mothers, and keepers at home," while Contenders for the Faith learn "
everything a Christian boy needs to learn to prepare him to be a man." Just like traditional scouting, Keepers offers
uniforms,
badges, and handbooks. girls. Keepers is just one of many Christian approaches to scouting; others include
American Heritage Girls,
Awana, and
Mpact.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 11:27 AM on July 9, 2007
(142 comments)
Summer of Love: 40 Years Later
, a series of articles appearing this week in the San Francisco Chronicle, revisits the fabled, far-out, semi-spontaneous happening of 1967 in the
Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Videos and oral history interviews help tell the story of a utopian vision which created a pivot point for American social values, before going a bit rancid around the edges. For more consciousness expansion, see PBS'
The American Experience episode on the same topic. Check out that summer's
San Francisco Oracle. Oh, and the
Diggers are still around.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 7:24 AM on May 23, 2007
(59 comments)
This is Our Slaughterhouse
"I never thought of making a documentary. It took a friend to convince me that not everyone grew up working in a slaughterhouse. I realized the slaughterhouse I had worked in all those years was bizarrely entertaining enough that it might make an interesting documentary..." 22-minute short film on a
small-scale poultry processing plant.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 8:27 AM on April 16, 2007
(34 comments)
Mother Roads.
You can now customize Google maps to add commentary, photos, audio, and video. creating your own annotated maps. The linked example is a collection of oral histories of Route 66; look around for
Olympic Host Cities,
Monster Sightings, and more.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 11:07 AM on April 5, 2007
(22 comments)
Lost Cause
[
WaPo, bugmenot] History museums are a repository for public memory, but also a nation's mirrors, reflecting self-image. When our views of history shift, museums that fail to change are likely to fail in general. Today's Washington Post reports on the struggle and decline of the
Museum of the Confederacy, contrasting it with the
American Civil War Center, nearby geographically, worlds away in philosophy.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 9:48 AM on April 4, 2007
(18 comments)
Embrace the Suck.
Intensive military activity creates an incubator for slang. By bringing together people from geographically diverse backgrounds, putting them into stressful circumstances, and teaching them
a new language of jargon and acronym, the armed forces create fertile ground for new idioms - many of which return home in civvies when the conflicts are over. In the
Civil War,
World War I and
World War II, in
Korea and in
Viet Nam, servicepeople created or popularized now-familiar terms like
shoddy, hotshot, cooties, tailspin, fleabag, face time, joystick, SNAFU, FUBAR, flaky, gung ho, no sweat, flame-out, and many,
many others.
Now, the
GWOT brings us
a new generation of
'milspeak'. Military columnist
Austin Bay has published an early collection of
neologisms from Gulf War II. On NPR,
Bay explains what The Suck is, how to identify a
fobbit, and why Marines look down on the attitude of
Semper I.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 1:47 PM on March 31, 2007
(66 comments)
Waffle House Family
and other classics are now available for listening in the comfort of your own home via online jukebox. No longer must you drive the darkness of the American Highway seeking that 24-hour beacon of yellow squares; no longer suck your sweet tea from the straw as you seek out original Waffle House tunes while waiting for your hash browns (
scattered, smothered, and covered, of course) to arrive. Mary Welch Rogers, wife of House founder Joe Rogers, is one of several artists who recorded Waffle House-themed songs for the fast-food chain's jukeboxes. Most were penned by Buckner and Garcia of Pac Man Fever. While you're at it, visit the shrine, and enjoy David Wilcox's song about feel the peace that's cooked in grease.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 11:45 AM on February 18, 2007
(15 comments)
Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Loud, Loud Music
Photgrapher
Henry Horenstein's
Honky-Tonk: Portraits of Country Music, 1972-1981 captures a sound in transition. This evocative collection of informal, black-and-white portraits of country musicians and fans in bars, backstage, and on the road illustrate a decade when smoky roadhouses and
venerated venues began to give way to the more mainstream
Countrypolitan or "Nashville" sound. Seminal artists like
Mother Maybelle Carter and
Bill Monroe mingled backstage with shinier newcomers like
Dolly Parton and
Anne Murray. But even as the commercial sound was dominating, youngsters mixing with old-timers sparked
the first wave of old-time/bluegrass revival, and some of the artists who got started then still
carry the
torch for a non-Nashville sound today. In this online exhibit you can watch it all unfold.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko
at 6:33 AM on February 2, 2007
(30 comments)
