A decade after the death of renowned folklorist Alan Lomax, his vision of a "global jukebox" is being realized: his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February. NYT article
here.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jan 30, 2012 -
39 comments
The American Festivals Project takes you along on two guys'
National Geographic-funded 2008 tour of the "small, hidden, and bizarre"
festivals celebrated all over the United States. Through photos,
video, and a
blog, discover
Rattlesnake Roundup,
Okie noodling, an American
Fasnacht, the
Idiotarod, and
plenty more.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Feb 17, 2011 -
23 comments
This Christmas Eve spare a thought for the Chrildren of Iceland, who will be suffering a traumatising visit from
Kertasníkir, or "Candle Beggar", the thirteenth and final of the strange and somewhat sinister Icelandic Santas, or Yule lads, who are the childre of the ogress
Gryla. Most of them don't seem to care if you've been bad or good - mainly they want to steal your food and wreck stuff.
[more inside]
posted by Artw
on Dec 24, 2010 -
27 comments
Nearly three decades ago, folklorist
Alvin Schwartz published
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the first of three horror anthologies that would go on to become
the single most challenged book series of the 1990s. But most of the
backlash was against not the stories themselves (which were fairly tame), but rather the illustrations of artist
Stephen Gammell. His bizarre, grotesque, nightmarish black-and-white inkscapes suffused every page with an eerie, unsettling menace. Sadly, the series has since been
re-issued with
new illustrations by Brett Helquist, of
A Series of Unfortunate Events fame. Luckily for fans of Gammell's dark vision, copies of the old artwork abound online, including in these three image galleries:
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones. Interested in revisiting the stories themselves? Then don't miss
the virtual re-enactments of YouTube user MoonRaven09, or
the dramatic readings of fellow YouTuber daMeatHook.
posted by Rhaomi
on Oct 29, 2010 -
48 comments
The 12th-century English chronicler
Ralph of Coggeshall relates a
strange story: two lost and distressed children appeared in a local village, speaking a language no-one could understand, and, most strikingly, with strangely green-coloured skin.
[more inside]
posted by Catseye
on May 16, 2010 -
41 comments
The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley is a "compilation derived from a collection of folkloric stories recorded with children from the Moyross and St. Marys Park areas of Limerick City between 2004 and 2005. The work serves to highlight how folklore is constantly added to, and how it is linked to memory and occasion, fiction and interpretation."
posted by minifigs
on Mar 23, 2010 -
12 comments
Argentine folklore composer, pianist and director
Ariel Ramírez died last night after a long illness. Those who know of him abroad probably do so for his Misa Criolla. This is just the (deservedly famous) tip of a giant iceberg of Argentine music, as he was teacher to many, collaborator to a lot more, cataloguer and promoter of traditional folk music and dances, and defender of local composers rights since his early years of fame.
[more inside]
posted by Iosephus
on Feb 19, 2010 -
6 comments
"If I thought, had any idea, that I’d ever be a slave again, I’d take a gun and just end it all right away."
Audio recordings from interviews with former slaves, conducted by WPA folklorists and others, including the Lomaxes and Zora Neale Hurston. Only these
twenty-six audio recordings of people formerly enslaved in the antebellum American South have ever been found.
posted by Miko
on Feb 7, 2010 -
16 comments
In 2000, the Library of Congress celebrated its 200th birthday by inviting representatives and members of the public from each of the 50 American states to nominate folk traditions, local customs, and special places to a "century's-end time capsule" called the
Local Legacies Project. A nice little introductory catalog to points of local pride, like
Fountain Green, Utah's Lamb Day, Oakland, CA's Black Cowboy Parade,
Kentucky's Bourbon tradition, and
Binghamton, NY's Spiedie Fest, and plenty more.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Feb 5, 2010 -
7 comments
“We got a bit excited because we realized that people have
collected lots of
dybbuk stories, but
our fragment describes a real event, where you see how they come together and pray in order to exorcise the ghost from a widow,”
[more inside]
posted by ServSci
on Dec 21, 2009 -
11 comments
"Common images are bearded, goblin-like demons laughing or whispering sinister speech, a faceless girl (usually covering her face with hair, moving around in bed moaning and feeling my body), hands appearing from the wall and attempting to strangle me. A hung man talking in the corner of the room, and some of the most bizarre experiences may include up to a dozen 'critter' entities (think Gremlins movie) laughing and talking about me. The environment tends to feel like a holographic dollhouse, the experience peaks and then the hallucinations mysteriously vanish when I regain control of my body."- The bizarre world of
sleep paralysis, a form of
hypnagogia and root of many folkloric figures such as succubi or incubi and the
night hag.
posted by Artw
on Oct 5, 2009 -
80 comments
Jon Klassen is an illustrator and designer, with a
blog and a lovely
website full of artwork, including
The Miser (3:53, 2004, made with
Kyle McQueen and Dan Rodrigues),
An Eye for Annai (5:27, 2005,
previously, also made with Dan Rodrigues,
.MOV video link),
an interpretation of
a Mayan folktale (available in full in
Flight vol 4,
previously),
The Adventures of Ship,
a family art project,
visual development and drawings
for sets and props for the movie adaptation of
Coraline (
a couple previous), amongst other bits and bobs. Illustration Mundo had an
interview with Klassen earlier this year.
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 4, 2009 -
3 comments
Home of the Double-Headed Eagle is a short film by Ali Colleen Neff and Brian Graves, featuring the kaleidoscopic work of visionary architecture created by Reverend H. D. Dennis and his wife, Margaret Dennis.
posted by hermitosis
on Apr 28, 2009 -
2 comments
Inauguration 2009 Sermons and Orations Project The Library of Congress invites you to submit digital audio or video recordings of speeches made between January 16 and january 25, 2009 on the occasion of Barack Obama's inauguration. The speeches will be archived in a collection for future scholarship, much like the
Day of Infamyand other collections capturing signifcant American moments.
posted by Miko
on Dec 24, 2008 -
4 comments
In an intriguing blog entry the mysterious jasminembla muses about the man in the moon, and his relationship with thorns, linking finally to a most remarkable collection of sourced and footnoted Victorian
Moon Lore authored by a Rev. Timothy Harley, 1885. In the "
Man in the Moon" section, we learn that, indeed, the man in the moon has been traditionally linked with thorns, variously being exiled to the moon for stealing a bundle of brambles, strewing brambles on the path to church to hinder the pious, or cutting wood on the Sabbath, among other infractions - and that this folktale has existed since at least 1157, when an English abbot asks, in Latin, "
Do you not know what the people call the rustic in the moon who carries the thorns? Whence one vulgarly speaking says,
"The Rustic in the moon /
Whose burden weighs him down /
This changeless truth reveals /
He profits not who steals."
Furthermore, no less a personage than Shakespeare has mentioned the thorny situation of the poor man in the moon... and most interesting, perhaps, the rather convincing theory that the bramble-burdened man in the moon may very well be an older "Jack" of Jack and Jill fame, who did not steal, but was stolen by the moon, along with his sister.
[more inside]
posted by taz
on Jun 26, 2008 -
19 comments
You've got just over two weeks to make it to the
John Henry celebration in Leeds, Alabama, where some folks believe the legendary steel driving contest actually took place. Maybe you already made it to
John Henry Days in Talcott, West Virginia (or read a
fictionalized account), where some more folks claim the same. John Garst, Scott Nelson, and other folklorists weigh in
here, supplemented by a wealth of links and resources on the subject. While you think on it let
Mississippi Fred McDowell,
The Boss,
Ralph Stanley,
John Jackson,
Merle Travis, and
Jason Isbell tell their own versions.
John Garst and his research mentioned
previously.
posted by Roman Graves
on Aug 28, 2007 -
17 comments
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, but do you know
Stekkjarstaur,
Giljagaur,
Stufur,
Thvorusleikir,
Pottaskefill,
Askasleikir,
Hurdarskellir,
Skyrgamur,
Bjugnakraekir,
Gluggagaegir,
Gattathefur, Ketkrokur and Kertasnikir? They're the
Jolasveinar, the impish "
Yuletide Lads" of
Iceland, and those are only some of their many names. During the thirteen days before Christmas, legend says that
they do their best to monkeywrench the celebrations with
hijinks like stealing sausages, milk, and candles, and peeping into windows and up skirts. The children of gruesome child-eating trolls
Gryla and Leppaludi, who were known for
snatching naughty children, the elves got their start in the 17th century. In the years since, their image has apparently mellowed, and now they leave children presents in their shoes and limit themselves to mild pranks.
posted by Miko
on Dec 22, 2006 -
21 comments
Steppin' is an hour-long documentary on an African-American dance tradition, most closely associated with
historically black fraternities and
sororities (though it's also found in
high schools,
clubs, and
professional dance companies). Combining footwork, hand-clapping, chanting, singing, use of props, and changing configurations of dancers, it's a tightly coordinated dance form in which teams vie for honors in
competitions nationwide.
posted by Miko
on Dec 7, 2006 -
20 comments
Wade in the Water In 2004,
Smithsonian Folklife Festival featured the maritime cultures of the Mid-Atlantic region, from Long Island to North Carolina. Now, this site gives a home on the web to the cultural documentation gathered for the festival --
music,
recipes,
stories and oral history,
an interactive map,
the occupational folklore and natural history of regional fisheries,
photos, video, and more. The material, ably compiled by folklorists and educators, creates a lasting and very accessible archive of festival highlights as well as an excellent overview of the distinct coastal culture of the Mid-Atlantic. Don't miss the great menhaden net-hauling chantey
Help Me to Raise 'Em (links to mp3).
posted by Miko
on Mar 27, 2006 -
7 comments
The Pearl A journal of voluptuous reading for discerning readers, hosted in a
larger collection of bawdy books, dirty ditties and assorted salacious songcraft.
Thrill to cousin-fucking in Sport Among the She-Noodles. Puzzle over endless lashings by old women in Ms. Coote's Confession. Giggle over the protagonist of Lady Pokingham. Note for edification the blasé treatment of homosexuality, both male and female. Memorize limericks that provide both racial and sexual offense for your next social gathering. And learn obscenities you can sneak past all but the most agile editor!
Main site also contains hours of mp3s and reams of naughty toasts, drinking songs and folk stories. Other highlights include the ability to compare
American ribaldry with earlier
British off-colour humour.
Some engravings arguably NSFW.
posted by klangklangston
on Feb 10, 2006 -
21 comments
