An amazing treasure trove of 8,000 Afropop tracks. The British Library just released this archive as part of their first online sound project within their Endangered Archives Programme (EAP). The recordings are from the state-supported Syliphone label and were released between 1958 to 1984.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 2:30 PM on March 8, 2016 (24 comments)

Songs of the Victorians is a website about four songs composed in Victorian England. The history behind them reveals forgotten details of the era: Juanita was composed by Caroline Norton, a pioneering feminist; The Lost Chord was a poem by Adelaide Anne Procter first published in a feminist journal, then set to music by (yes that) Arthur Sullivan; a part of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Maud, which employs the cryptographical language of flowers, is set to music by Michael William Balfe and Sir Arthur Somervell, the former allowing performers to disguise or emphasize the disturbed emotions of the original, the latter makes the mental distress plain. The website was designed by digital humanities blogger and professor Joanna Swafford as a prototype for Augmented Notes, a system for highlighting sheet music visually while playing a sound file.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 4:06 PM on March 4, 2016 (10 comments)

"Chris Evert once stepped off Centre Court at Wimbledon after a tough defeat, and her first comment to Collins in the postmatch interview on NBC was, 'Nice pants, Bud.' The clothes did not make the man, though. With Collins, it was all about the words — spoken, printed or the interpretation in between." Bud Collins died at his home today in Brookline, Massachusetts.
posted to MetaFilter by Melismata at 9:43 AM on March 4, 2016 (13 comments)

Remember this scene in Ferris Bueller's Day off? Those were the open outcry commodity trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade, which were founded in 1848 and finally shut down last July, replaced entirely by computers. These were four guys (and one woman) in the funny coloured jackets: An oral history of the pits. (Compiled by John McDermott for MEL Magazine, a medium publication)
posted to MetaFilter by Diablevert at 8:29 AM on March 3, 2016 (10 comments)

I spent much of 2015 interviewing musicians for my new book Unprepared To Die: America’s Greatest Murder Ballads & The True Crime Stories That Inspired Them. Now I’ve used the audio from those interviews to make an hour-long radio guide to these gory, facinating songs. Contributors include Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey, Dave Alvin, The Kingston Trio’s Bob Shane, Laura Cantrell, Jon Langford of The Mekons, Ralph Stanley and his son Ralph II. Resonance FM here in London gave the show its first airing last week, and has now archived it for your listening pleasure on this Mixcloud page.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by Paul Slade at 6:52 AM on February 1, 2016 (5 comments)

In The Gyms of Holmes County, Matt Tullis explains that, "In Holmes County, they get this idea of teamwork. And it starts with the Amish and Mennonite communities that call the county home." In Higher Education, Gary Smith writes, "Berlin's new basketball coach, the man with the most important position in a community that had dug in its heels against change, was an unmarried black Catholic loser. The only black man in eastern Holmes County."
posted to MetaFilter by MoonOrb at 7:18 PM on March 1, 2016 (1 comment)

Xtreme Now began while the Larson sisters were living on a black metal utopian commune on Vȫrmsi, a remote island off the coast of Estonia during the summer of 2012. There, Taraka had a near death experience ... which sparked a recurring sense of time-schizophrenia, or the physical sensation of existing in multiple time periods simultaneously ... “In the year 2067, I witnessed an aesthetic landscape where art museums are sponsored by energy drink beverages and beauty is determined by speed. I saw a vision of ancient tapestries stretched across half-pipes and people base-jumping off planes with the Mona Lisa smiling up from their parachutes. I saw art merge with extreme sports to form a new aesthetic language of ‘Speed Art.’ I realized that time travel was possible via the gateway of extreme sports, and I wanted to make music that would provide the score.”

Mantra-obsessed, freak folk, ghost-modernist former skate-punk Krishha commune kids Prince Rama return with their most direct pop artifact yet, the extreme-sports inspired Xtreme Now (review). The album, due for official release on 4 March, can be streamed in its entirety on Stereogum.
posted to MetaFilter by Sonny Jim at 11:25 AM on March 1, 2016 (13 comments)

The internet is full of interesting ebbs and flows, and a current push-pull started with Beyoncé's video for 'Formation' (previously), which she also featured in her Super Bowl show. Then came the much-derided acoustic covers. Those covers inspired Nathan Zed to do a trap cover of 'Hey Jude', and the #TrapCovers really took off from there (more on Twitter)
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 7:03 PM on February 28, 2016 (57 comments)

Seventy years ago this month, U.S. Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard, recently discharged after having served in the Pacific during World War II, boarded a Greyhound bus in Georgia. What happened during his trip outraged the country.
posted to MetaFilter by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 9:45 PM on February 28, 2016 (16 comments)

As of recently I've been really into non-fiction about the Internet, computers, hacking, or any combination of those things. I like the behind the scenes look at these technologies and the cultures surrounding them, but also that they're presented in layman's terms. Some books/articles that I've enjoyed and fit this bill have been: Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick, How Music Became Free by Stephen Witt, The Dark Net by Jamie Bartlett, and this Wired article about The Silk Road (Part 2). Could you direct me to some more books and articles like these?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by holmesian at 5:53 PM on February 27, 2016 (16 comments)

Ya Momma So Black...
posted to MetaFilter by cashman at 7:42 AM on February 28, 2016 (11 comments)

The bombshell accusations left anyone who'd ever worked with Thompson wondering if he'd scammed them too. It's a tricky question to untangle, noted Josh Marshall, the editor and publisher of the liberal online publication Talking Points Memo, which had published one of his essays. "One of the dirty little secrets of fact-checking," Marshall wrote in an editor's note, "is that it is quite difficult to uncover a determined effort to deceive." Juan Thompson Wrote About St. Louis for the National Media. But Were Any of His Stories True?
posted to MetaFilter by Rustic Etruscan at 10:32 AM on February 26, 2016 (12 comments)

After many months, Something Awful (and now also The Bad Guys Win) comedy/insanity writer Zack Parsons (previously) has finally confirmed the long-promised finale of his and Steve Sumner's series of Call of Cthulhu 1990's Handbook campaigns starring Kurt Cobain, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Eazy-E as they battle forces beyond human ken: the custom module Hard Ticket to Baghdad. (He also eventually finished the Tooth Tooth series because word is bond, god.) Beneath the fold: the entire story so far, including the recent 'solo project' campaigns.
posted to MetaFilter by BiggerJ at 5:09 AM on February 23, 2016 (16 comments)

In a 'sick' society, sanity is relative - "Is it good to be 'well-adjusted' to rapacious capitalism and consumerism? What defines 'mental health' (or illness) in such a culture?" Is Humanity Getting Better?[1,2] (via)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 10:40 AM on February 21, 2016 (23 comments)

dinner DATE
(You didn't need that, and, trust me, you don't need more, but incase you want more, there's more.)

posted to MetaFilter by cjorgensen at 10:34 AM on February 19, 2016 (16 comments)

Brazilian businessman Zero Freitas owns over six million records, a collection which he intends to catalogue for public use and transform into a vast listenable archive. Writer and cultural sociologist Dominik Bartmanski visited Freitas’ São Paulo warehouse for a rare interview with the man himself.
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 12:40 PM on February 19, 2016 (10 comments)

Fifteen years ago today, Bad-CRC made a flash video from a techno song and a bunch of forum shops, and posted it to the Internet (youtube copy). [Warning: blinky lights.] The rest is history.
posted to MetaFilter by effbot at 1:01 PM on February 15, 2016 (241 comments)

An aspiring documentary filmmaker records the post-college struggles of her best friend...sorta. (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by divabat at 8:31 AM on February 18, 2016 (2 comments)

This Speech Was Written For President Nixon To Deliver If The Astronauts Didn’t Make It To The Moon. (slClickhole)
posted to MetaFilter by Kitteh at 4:48 PM on February 18, 2016 (31 comments)

There’s nothing about Young Thug that’s not a paradox. He wears women’s Uggs but travels with AR-15’s everywhere he goes. He calls his friends, the same ones carrying the AR-15’s, “babe” and “lover” yet is from one of the toughest parts of Atlanta—the south side—where he is at once a hero and an outsider and a leader of the psychedelic fashion movement of rap hippies. Devin Friedman chases music’s most colorful enigma around the streets of Atlanta to answer one question: Exactly what planet is Young Thug from?
posted to MetaFilter by gucci mane at 2:45 PM on February 17, 2016 (39 comments)

W E A T H E R - I S - H A P P E N I N G | BOSTONS SOURCE 4 NO NONSENSE WEATHER NO GAMES PPL THIS IS IT THIS IS DEFINITELY IT | ABOWT. |
posted to MetaFilter by robocop is bleeding at 1:06 PM on February 17, 2016 (29 comments)

Ever since August of 2013, first Laurent Fintoni (“And This One Time…”) and then Miles Bowe (“Pay What You Want”) have traveled to the farthest reaches of Bandcamp to find its best content (at least, by the slightly outré lights of FACT Magazine). While twenty-six of the releases have disappeared, more than one hundred remain. They are linked within, for your sampling pleasure. (Not included: “It made quite a splish” by The Fish Was Delish)
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 11:27 PM on February 16, 2016 (21 comments)

Why Hamilton—Not Jefferson—Is the Father of the American Economy - "How we can better energize America's economy, create more jobs, and provide more fulfilling lives for our citizens?" By Stephen Cohen and Brad DeLong (previously; [unfinished] book preview)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 6:28 PM on February 16, 2016 (23 comments)

Kanye West is set to release his 7th studio album today.
posted to MetaFilter by R.F.Simpson at 11:07 PM on February 10, 2016 (49 comments)

Studio Heads Of The Classic Era Ranked In Terms Of Personal Awfulness -by resident Hollywood expert The Whelk [via mefi projects]
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 9:05 AM on February 9, 2016 (25 comments)

Enjoy this animated webcomic about Mozart's early exploits ... up to age nine, along with those of his sister Nannerl.
posted to MetaFilter by immlass at 9:14 AM on February 7, 2016 (8 comments)

Do you feel like you need more culture in your life? Well, then you should head down to The Tiny Gallery on Twitter! Brought to you by emoji, ASCII, and @deer_ful.
posted to MetaFilter by ignignokt at 11:21 AM on February 3, 2016 (2 comments)

A Colleague Drank My Breast Milk And Other Wall Street Tales I kept the conversation light. I shared a funny story about my first day on Wall Street, when I opened up a pizza box to find condoms instead of pepperoni slices. Unwrapped. I was “the new girl,” and the guys just wanted to see me blush. I did blush, and I lived. “It’s not that bad anymore,” I said with a laugh.
posted to MetaFilter by triggerfinger at 8:38 AM on February 3, 2016 (38 comments)

I would like to take my YouTube playlist, shuffle it, and save the results of my shuffling on YouTube. How do I do so?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by divabat at 1:42 AM on February 1, 2016 (5 comments)

The Philosophers
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea at 3:28 PM on January 31, 2016 (16 comments)

Brittany Howard On Small-Town Life, Big-Time Music - "Howard was raised on her father's junkyard in the small town of Athens, Ala. 'It was a really interesting way to grow up', she tells Fresh Air."
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 1:08 PM on January 30, 2016 (14 comments)

Rabbit Female Wearing Ladies Dress Walking And Jumping , Drinking Milk From Injection Nipple. [SLYT]
Does what it says on the fuzzy wuzzy tin.
posted to MetaFilter by Room 641-A at 7:14 AM on January 29, 2016 (23 comments)

DylanTube
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 8:07 AM on January 29, 2016 (9 comments)

The 6-Pack Band, a collaboration between Bollywood composer Shamir Tandon and Indian tea brand Brooke Bond Red Label, consists of 6 women from the hijra community in India. They have two singles out: Hum Hain Happy, a remix of Pharrel Williams's Happy, and Sab Rab De Bande (with playback singer Sonu Nigam) based on a central Sikhism tenet of "we are all children of God".
posted to MetaFilter by divabat at 1:02 AM on January 28, 2016 (15 comments)

I am casually aware of the idea that some people experience some works of narrative fiction by identifying with the protagonist of the story, and by experiencing the protagonist's story as if it were their own. What is the formal name or definition of this idea, and what are some canonical writings about it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by dan_of_brainlog at 3:34 PM on January 24, 2016 (7 comments)

Whatever happened to television’s most famous couples?
posted to MetaFilter by crazy with stars at 12:10 PM on January 21, 2016 (70 comments)

Comedian H. Jon Benjamin (Archer, Bob's Burgers) has released his first experimental jazz album. He can't play the piano.
posted to MetaFilter by BungaDunga at 11:43 AM on January 21, 2016 (112 comments)

“I’ve heard about people gripping the rails of their deathbed, thinking the void awaits them. But that can’t be it, can it? (SLWAPO)
posted to MetaFilter by PussKillian at 10:00 AM on January 19, 2016 (2 comments)

'Silver Fork' or Fashionable Novels are the largely forgotten English popular novels of the 1820s and 30s which depicted aristocratic life and scandals as a how-to guide for rising middle-class readers while also exploring growing political and class anxieties in the post-Regency. Advice on how to romance, eat, party and raise children like a member of the upper class from Silver Fork novels via Bizarre Victoria (previously).
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 11:22 PM on January 15, 2016 (7 comments)

Like many others, Connie Converse was a struggling musician in New York in the 1950s, trying to secure a record deal. She never did, and in 1961 she left New York and music behind. For 13 years, she lived a conventional life in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Then she disappeared, sending letters to her family and friends saying that she was leaving to start a new life. She has never been heard from since. Years after her disappearance, her music has been rediscovered, with fans calling her a pioneer of the singer-songwriter style that came to prominence in the decades after she stopped making music. How a 90-year-old missing person became a hit on Spotify.
posted to MetaFilter by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:47 AM on January 15, 2016 (16 comments)

"Marcia Zug is an associate professor of law at the University of South Carolina who specializes in family law. She is writing a book due out in May 2016 on the international marriage industry, called 'Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches.' The reason that mail-order brides continue to be popular, she tells me, is that conditions for women in some countries remain bleak, and as long as women have few prospects for a good match at home, they will look elsewhere for someone to start a family and life with.
posted to MetaFilter by josher71 at 8:49 AM on January 15, 2016 (33 comments)

Robbie Judkins visits Tanzania to witness first hand the attempt to save a quarter of a century of musical history from oblivion. Listen to an exclusive mix of tracks newly digitized by the Tanzania Heritage Project
posted to MetaFilter by infini at 8:45 PM on January 13, 2016 (5 comments)

Please tell me about bands (or one-off projects) who have one or more animal members, or composers who use animals in their compositions. Especially interested in animals performing/touring live, but purely recorded animals are okay too.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by hapticactionnetwork at 9:35 AM on January 13, 2016 (16 comments)

Over the past year, the [Boston] Globe spent time with an East Boston heroin addict as she struggled through recovery and the prospect of losing her children to the state. Nearly every key moment was witnessed by a Globe reporter or photographer. Brave, broken, loving, at a loss, this is Raquel and her story.

Warning: Does not end terribly, but does not end well.
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 7:14 PM on January 11, 2016 (47 comments)

The Best Rapper Alive, Every Year Since 1979
posted to MetaFilter by alby at 10:21 AM on January 11, 2016 (117 comments)

"Why don't toddlers help the family financially?" (SYTL) "The dad discovers why toddlers don’t help the family financially, and the real reason little Amalah can’t sleep through the night."
posted to MetaFilter by ramix at 8:24 PM on January 7, 2016 (21 comments)

"In an age when the line between childhood and adulthood is blurrier than ever, what is it that makes people grown up?"
posted to MetaFilter by flex at 3:52 PM on January 6, 2016 (216 comments)

Late last year, Australian telecoms company Optus removed signs written in Arabic from a Sydney storefront (in an area with 10% Arabic-speaking population) after threats from angry store patrons and complaints it was “inappropriate” after the Paris attacks.
posted to MetaFilter by travellingincognito at 5:43 AM on January 6, 2016 (58 comments)

"For most of us, thread is something we think about only when it breaks — a lost shirt button, a ripped hem, a dangling end waiting to be trimmed. But for Natalie Chanin, thread is the tie that binds her to Southern textiles and to the relatives who worked at Florence’s Sweetwater Mill during the industry’s heyday." Kristi York Wooten writes about the history and resonances of Alabama Chanin, a "homegrown fashion line," for The Bitter Southerner.
posted to MetaFilter by MonkeyToes at 6:47 AM on January 5, 2016 (19 comments)

Linda Rodriguez at The New Republic: “Roland, court minstrel to 12th century English king Henry II, probably had many talents. But history has recorded only one.” (Originally posted with a few additional pictures on Atlas Obscura.)
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 11:47 PM on January 4, 2016 (24 comments)