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Johan Huizinga -- Homo Ludens
Homo Ludens is a book originally published in Dutch in 1938 by Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. It discusses the importance of the play element of culture and society.
Mystery voice/instrument in Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall 1938
On Benny Goodman's famous Carnegie Hall 1938 recording, there is occasionally a voice or sound that sounds like someone going "yehhehehhh," most often during vibraphone segments. Who is this person/goat/recording artifact?
Everybody knows her by the nickname of la Chona
The catchy 1995 Norteño/pop hit song
"La Chona"
by Los Tucanes de Tijuana has been
covered
hundreds
of
times
by
both
professional
and
amateur
musicians.
There are
also
remixes
and
parodies.
Of course, one can also
just
dance
to
it.
The brave may choose to dance with moving vehicles by participating in the La Chona
Challenge, which is
risky but can be
glorious.
On
occasion,
it
may
become
a
little
bit
silly.
Journeys of the Heart
"World Journey of My Memory or Journey of the Heart (世界わが心の旅 , Sekai Waga Kokoro no Tabi) was a travel program that was broadcast on NHK BS2 Television from 1993 to 2003. The series featured celebrities from various fields visiting places that shaped who they are as individuals. [...] [Two episodes] featured Studio Ghibli cofounders Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. In the first program, Miyazaki visits France and the Sahara Desert to follow the footsteps of the famous early French aviator, poet, and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The second episode centers around Takahata's visit to Canada to meet the late Frédéric Back, the Oscar award winning animation film maker of The Man Who Planted Trees."
The Three Kichis
The first western documented1 Japanese to visit Washington State, in 1834, were three ship wrecked sailors.
Zapatistas set sail across the Atlantic to discover Europe
We will set sail and journey once again to tell the planet that in the world that we hold in our collective heart, there is room for everyone. (...) We’re ready to wait there in front of the European coast and unfold a large banner that reads “Wake up!” We will wait there to see if anyone reads the message, then wait a little longer to see if anyone wakes up, and then a little longer to see if anyone does anything.
How Safe Are You From Covid When You Fly?
To understand how risky it may be to board a flight now, start with how air circulates in a plane...
It’s Going to Be Weird, but We Need to Learn to Live With Germs Again
From the NYTimes:
Scientists "say that excessive hygiene practices, inappropriate antibiotic use and lifestyle changes such as distancing may weaken those communities going forward in ways that promote sickness and imperil our immune systems. By sterilizing our bodies and spaces, they argue, we may be doing more harm than good."
A Monarch Named Henry
Meet Henry, "an unexpected guest."
Make that "an early, unexpected guest who was given a warm welcome and an even warmer send-off."
Henry is a Marin County winter monarch butterfly.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
With Europe and the United States taking strict measures to keep out migrants and asylum-seekers, finding safety abroad had become more difficult. But a few South American countries had relatively lax entry requirements, busting open a route through the Americas. Unlike the passage across the Mediterranean, few images existed on the internet of migrants who had drowned or been murdered crossing the Darién Gap. Benita decided to fly to Ecuador. On a layover in the Istanbul Airport, she found some Cameroonians who told her that after Ecuador, they were planning to go to the U.S. “I asked them, ‘Can you walk there?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Huh? So after Ecuador is the United States?’ They said, ‘Yes, you will just walk. You pass through the river, you enter the United States.’”
Chicken? Ok. Duck? Sounds good. Seahorse? Maybe not.
The Thermopolium of Regio V, a Roman-era fast-food stall, has been fully excavated at Pompeii and its well preserved frescoes are amazing.
In and around the solar system this week
Humanity and its machines have been busy finding stuff in space.
The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program's Chang'e 5 landed in the Oceanus Procellarum, looked around, collected samples, and fired off a sample-laded return rocket towards an orbiter. (previously)
Writers of MeFi Represent!
I often see AskMeFi requests for book recommendations, especially now that so many people are in Lockdown. I'm often in a bind because I think my own books would be a good fit, but it seems spammy to recommend them :) How about we create a thread here where the writers of MetaFilter can showcase our books?
Mention what kind of books we write, and put a few links in to where they can be bought or downloaded. Sound like a plan?
Mention what kind of books we write, and put a few links in to where they can be bought or downloaded. Sound like a plan?
Kids Books where Character Needs to Find Series of Things to Reach Goal
These may not even exist. I'm looking for examples of kids books where the character needs to pick up a series of things in order to ultimately meet some sort of goal. Especially interested in examples where the things are revealed one at a time. I realize this is vague...see the more inside.
A Pilgrimage to Eighty-Eight Places
88Kasyo Junrei (八十八ヶ所巡礼) is a three-piece Japanese rock band. The band’s name refers to a Buddhist pilgrimage that involves visiting eighty-eight temples on the island of Shikoku. Their music videos can be spellbinding but also kind of weird. Their songs deal with afterlife disorientation, the tenuousness of sanity, and, apparently, demons living in a Kowloon arcade. The band has a mascot, o-henro-san, who graces their album covers and appears in one rather trippy video.
"a fascinating and uncelebrated ancient people the world has forgotten"
In the Land of Kush
by Isma'il Kushkush, with photos by Matt Stirn, is an essay about the kingdom on the Nile that was the southern neighbor of Pharaonic Egypt. If you want to see more photos, Valerian Guillot has put pictures from his 2016 trip online. The Kushites spoke Meriotic, which had two scripts. Ibrahim M. Omer's Ancient Sudan website has a wealth of information about the history, people and the land of Kush. Archaeological excavations keep unearthing new material. Charles Q. Choi wrote about a recent find of Meroitic inscriptions and in 2009 Geoff Emberling wrote about the race to explore sites which were submerged when the Merowe Dam was constructed.
The little sculpture affixed to your house
Hungarian-American metal artisan Anton Fazekas (1878-1966) designed and patented illuminated house-number signs with ornate metal housings that were the rage in San Francisco in the first half of the 20th century, and were promoted by a campaign by the San Francisco Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
"She was left to wander the hills and play at being an alchemist."
Matthew Gleeson (LA Review of Books, 6/26/2020), "... Remembering Amparo Dávila": "She made a name for herself as a writer in Mexico in the 1950s and 1960s, then fell out of sight sometime after the 1970s, only to be rediscovered and lauded, at the beginning of the new millennium, as one of the country's great masters of the short story." Several of Amparo Dávila's stories are available online: "The Houseguest" (audio in Spanish), "The Tomb Garden," "Oscar" (related waltzes), "The Breakfast" (related song), and "The Cell." Interviews with the author in Spanish and the translators in English. Relevant 2018 Worldcon panel on women writing horror in Mexico (plus the free Mexicanx Initiative SF anthology, A Larger Reality, still at Dropbox).
Japanese Firemen’s Coats (19th century)
Japanese Firemen’s Coats (19th century)
"Each firefighter in a given brigade was outfitted with a special reversible coat , plain but for the name of the brigade on one side and decorated with richly symbolic imagery on the other."
Infinite Information in a Finite World
"But information is physical. Modern research shows that it requires energy and occupies space. Any volume of space is known to have a finite information capacity (with the densest possible information storage happening inside black holes). The universe’s initial conditions would, Gisin realized, require far too much information crammed into too little space. “A real number with infinite digits can’t be physically relevant,” he said."Physicist Nicolas Gisin is seeking to describe a physics that doesn't presume infinitely precise knowledge of initial conditions. (Atlantic)
Sunday is a good day for railway history
Can I interest you in TEE luxury? A tale of two alpinists and their railway posters? Travel for foreigners across the Soviet Union? Spend your Sunday delving into the history and design of Europe's railways with https://retours.eu/.
Tall, tan, young, lovely - and strange
Composer Adam Neely looks at how the world's second most covered song came to be seen as a national cultural icon, as kitsch elevator music and as a work of daunting harmonic complexity - all at the same time (and as to why it matters culturally whether you play it in F or D flat): The Girl from Ipanema is a far weirder song that you thought.
Hoppy
Jumping Hoppers in SLOW MOTION!
“ Leafhoppers, treehoppers, planthoppers, and froghoppers are all insects in the order Hemiptera that are some of the fastest jumping animals on earth! They are also super-common, so I collected a bunch and filmed their jumps in slow-motion!”
Cozy mysteries not in English
I'm looking for cozy mysteries that were originally written in languages other than English, to read either in the original or in translation, depending on if I know the language ;-)
Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
Itch.io's bundle for racial justice and equality ($5+)
already includes 1000 projects at the time of this post, with more to come, with all proceeds being donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund.
Not only does it includes indie heavy-hitters like Night in the Woods, Cook Serve Delicious 2, Minit and Oxenfree but it also includes a selection of LGBT friendly games like A Mortician's Tale, Highway Blossoms, EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER and Serre; tabletop rulebooks like Glitter Hearts, Blades in the Dark and Lancer; along with many many other games and software. (Previously)
Gnats From the Far-Off “Western Ocean”
As China comes into greater conflict with the West, and the United States in particular, now is a good time to consider the long arc of this relationship. In the West, Chinese history is commonly framed as having begun with the first Opium War, giving the impression that European powers always had the upper hand. But from the first direct contact between East and West—the arrival of the Portuguese in south China in the early 16th century—the Chinese were dominant. When China Met the West by Michael Schuman, from his forthcoming book Superpower Interrupted
Rediscovering one of the wittiest books ever written
If you're looking to decolonize your canon, this is a hell of a place to start: Funny, wholly original and unlike anything other than the many books that came after it and seem to have knowingly or not borrowed from it. There’s also a long hallucination involving a hippopotamus.
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is a 19th century novel by Machado de Assis, the greatest writer of Brazilian literature and “the supreme black literary artist to date” according to some. There's a new English translation by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux just out! (Machado previously)
Pelada
Pelada
(90 mins youtube) is a 2010 documentary/travelogue in which two American collegiate soccer players who couldn't make the leap to the professional level investigate the culture of pickup football around the world across 25 countries.
“For those with a taste for the peculiar”
The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
is the blog of curator and art historian, Dr. Chelsea Nichols. The collection includes such treasures as sexy weasels in Renaissance art, how to scare children in the 1920s, and hidden mothers in Victorian portraits. There are also occasional guest posts, on topics including Ivan Bilibin’s Illustrations of Russian folklore by Claire Atwater, Robert Liston, a surgeon and a showman by Mike Crump, and a make-your-own-bat-colony activity sheet by Alice Fennessy.
Spinoza on the move
Benedict Spinoza has been triggering intense response for centuries. Now his moment to shine has come.
Jazz in 1960
It has become common knowledge that 1959 (previously) was an outstanding year for jazz: but it was no freakish outlier, as a quick perusal of the music produced in any of the neighbouring twelvemonths will show. For no better reason than it’s 60 years since 1960, why not sit back, relax, & take time to enjoy some slices of the jazz released in that year, starting with five ‘essential’ albums picked by Matt Micucci for Jazziz Magazine: Giant Steps by John Coltrane (the title track); Blues & Roots by Charles Mingus (“E's Flat Ah's Flat Too”); Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis (“Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)”); The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (“West Coast Blues”) and Soul Station by Hank Mobley (“This I Dig Of You”).
Attack of the Attacus lorquinii! Trapped with hundreds of giant moths
Bart the other Mothman is in lockdown with hundreds of giant atlas moths.
Farmed moths from the Philippines, meant to be shipped to customers, they've now hatched all through his house. Come for the chaos, stay for the delightfully furry moths and conservation behind collecting and breeding winged butterflies and moths. Also disco. Bart's website breeding butterflies will help turn you into the lepidopterist you've always hoped to be.
Hat-tip to vacapinta who posted an earlier moth science project by another Bart.
"Deep in rococo imagery of fairies, princesses, diamonds and pearls"
Terri Windling (03/2020), "Once upon a time in Paris...": "As the vogue for fairy stories evolved in the 1670s and '80s, Madame d'Aulnoy emerged as one of the most popular raconteurs in Paris ... she soon formed a glittering group around her of nonconformist women and men, as well as establishing a highly successful and profitable literary career ... So how, we might ask, did Perrault become known as the only French fairy tale author of note?" Elizabeth Winter (12/2016), "Feminist Fairies and Hidden Agendas": "the term contes de fées ... was coined by ... d'Aulnoy in 1697, when she published her first collection of tales." Volker Schröder (2018-2019): this collection "is often described as 'lost' or 'untraceable'" and its "sequel has become just as scarce"; but d'Aulnoy's tales are available online, and mixed reviews such as those of the Brothers Grimm may call to mind her childhood marginalia: "if you have my book and ... don't appreciate what's inside, I wish you ringworm, scabies ... and a broken neck."
It's a helluva thing, the gift of walking the world.
“Let me emphasize that this is not a guide, but it's also not not a guide. It's a collection of notes, tips, and, I guess, "travelogue" entries about walking the Ise-ji route of the Kumano Kodō. I wrote this because I love the Ise-ji, and want you, also, to think: Damn, that looks like a fine hike.
So consider this a persuasion or seduction, a thing to bookmark and return to, for when you decide to give this walk a go. Consider it a playful dare, for when we can all go out and walk again.”
Craig Mod (previously 1, 2, 3) walks along, photographs, and records ambient sounds from the mountain/coastal Ise-Ji pilgrimage route. (via Kottke)
Living in a Ghost Town
The Rolling Stones have released their first new song for eight years.
It's rather good.
"that's what Handel would've done, but not Bach"
J.S. Bach’s “Twisted Hacker Mind”
is a lecture by violinist Kathleen Kajioka about the strangeness of Bach's music. She plays two of his pieces and explains what is so odd about them.
Voleflix, a public domain movie site
MeFite malevolent trawled some lists of public domain movies (lots of great film noir) and put together a new, improved, or at least free version of Netflix. Behold: Voleflix! Includes films featuring Ed Wood, Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Vincent Price, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant, Stanley Kubrick, Boris Karloff, Frank Sinatra and more… It also has daft Voleflix Originals and rates your taste in movies from your watchlist. [via mefi projects]
It's Fantastic Fungi Day!
Fantastic Fungi: The Magic Beneath Us
, a new film about the beauty and possibilities of mushrooms, will be released online today instead of in theaters. Visually gorgeous time-lapse cinematography, plus interviews with Paul Stamets, Michael Pollan, and Eugenia Bone regarding mushrooms' medicinal, recreational, and many other uses. Here's the trailer! 3 live Q&A sessions are offered today as well, featuring the filmmakers and mycology experts.
How might coronavirus impact a vacation to Japan?
I am planning an April trip to Japan from NYC. Will coronavirus likely have any impact on a vacation to Japan, at that time?
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Medicare For All
The first episode of Season Seven. Republicans claiming Trump's impeachment "changed him" (hint: it absolutely didn't), US Prosecutors steping down in protest over Trump's terrifying interference with the Roger Stone case, And Now: Another Installment of "Coming Up On 'The Doctors'," and the main story: Medicare for All, not the politics of whether it can pass, but what it is. Psst! You want a link to a metric TON of LWT clips? CLICK THROUGH FOR OVERKILL--
Somebody said it three times, didn't they?
Betelgeuse is also known as alpha Orionis because it is usually the brightest star in the constellation Orion. Right now, though, it is at its lowest recorded brightness, and getting dimmer. This is of particular interest since the difference is obvious to the naked eye, and observers familiar with the constellation of Orion will find that it looks odd indeed.
Oh, and also because Betelgeuse is the closest star to Earth that might go supernova...
Site finances update, 1/15/2020
Hey folks, time for a quarterly update on how the site's doing financially, and a reminder that the direct financial support of MetaFilter's membership and readers is fundamental to keeping this place operational. Your help supporting this community is vital, and appreciated.
Translating a Person
Whom do we become when we inhabit another language?
Discussed: The Gringo, Alimentation, A Couple of Brads, Spanish-from-Spain Translations, Operating with the Words One Has, Wickerby, An Infinite Series of Texts, An Arduous Game of Literacy, This Little Art, My English, The Most Interesting Person on the Planet
Happy New Year, MetaFilter
It's 2020 pretty much everywhere now, if I've done my timezone math right, so: here's to the new year, and to all of us in this weird old online community keeping on together and seeing what we can make of this next year.
Who will Winalot today? A European country votes.
Today, the bit of Europe between France and Éire takes walkies to vote in a General Election. There are pictures of large queues and important visitors and surprise visitors at polling stations. Final campaigning has occurred. How the results will come in, and live updates from the Guardian and BBC online coverage. Wikipedia page on the election. For political balance (previous).