And for now, to tide you over until real blogging begins, a little tribute to America by Charlie from It's Always Sunny:
2.12.08
29.6.08
WOW it's been a while.
Exams are over, thesis is turned in (and defended with flying colors), I am an official Bachelor (of arts) and summer is here !
And we all know that summer in America means some very specific things:
1) Food Network, especially Rachel Ray, won't shut up about it ...
You guessed it: BBQ !
Slate writer David Plotz did a whole study on it !
Check out what about.com has to say about it
3.4.08
An interesting day in American history
On April 3...
1) 1860: "the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California...It debuted at a time before radios and telephones, when California, which achieved statehood in 1850, was still largely cut off from the eastern part of the country..."
Read More:
LINK !!
2) 1882: Jesse James is betrayed by one of his cohorts - shot in the back for a handsome reward.
3) 1868: Martin Luther King delivers his last speech, "Ive been to the mountaintop." Watch it here:
LINK !!
1) 1860: "the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California...It debuted at a time before radios and telephones, when California, which achieved statehood in 1850, was still largely cut off from the eastern part of the country..."
Read More:
LINK !!
2) 1882: Jesse James is betrayed by one of his cohorts - shot in the back for a handsome reward.
3) 1868: Martin Luther King delivers his last speech, "Ive been to the mountaintop." Watch it here:
LINK !!
29.3.08
roadtrip !
No, not the awful movie.
The proverbial American "To the West" imperative !
See the travelchannel's guide to the Mother Road: classic Route66.
"Completed in 1926, Route 66 winds 2,448 miles from Chicago to L.A. Through most of the Western states, Route 66 follows Interstate 40, which eventually replaced much of the Mother Road. In some areas, the remnants of 66 parallel the interstate as a frontage road. In others, the old road still goes directly through town..."
Read more:
LINK !!
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And of course it's impossible to think of road tripping without acknowledging Jack Kerouac's On the Road
Check out NPR's special on Kerouac - & be sure to explore the multimedia !
LINK !!
The proverbial American "To the West" imperative !
See the travelchannel's guide to the Mother Road: classic Route66.
"Completed in 1926, Route 66 winds 2,448 miles from Chicago to L.A. Through most of the Western states, Route 66 follows Interstate 40, which eventually replaced much of the Mother Road. In some areas, the remnants of 66 parallel the interstate as a frontage road. In others, the old road still goes directly through town..."
Read more:
LINK !!
--------------------
And of course it's impossible to think of road tripping without acknowledging Jack Kerouac's On the Road
Check out NPR's special on Kerouac - & be sure to explore the multimedia !
LINK !!
28.3.08
PLAY BALL
How to even begin paying homage to America's greatest pastime - the only sport to really have an official anthem ? [Listen to the original 1908 phonograph version here.] Here are a few baseball-related internet snippets. More to come later !
--------------
Thank God - August Anheuser Busch Jr. was born this day, 1899.
If that's not worth celebrating, I dont know what is !
Read about his baseball brew:
LINK !!
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--------------
Thank God - August Anheuser Busch Jr. was born this day, 1899.
If that's not worth celebrating, I dont know what is !
Read about his baseball brew:
LINK !!
--------------------
On April 2, Slate.com's photo of the day section feature a collection of baseball-themed photographs from Magnum
-----------------
Ever actually read the poem Casey at the Bat ?
The Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game ...
Read the rest here:
LINK !!
------------------
You can't think of baseball without thinking of The Sandlot - if you're part of my generation, at least. Remember the insult scene ? What a great movie.
Ever actually read the poem Casey at the Bat ?
The Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game ...
Read the rest here:
LINK !!
------------------
You can't think of baseball without thinking of The Sandlot - if you're part of my generation, at least. Remember the insult scene ? What a great movie.
27.3.08
TODAY in American history !
America is spotted for the first time by Ponce de León in 1513 ...
... only he mistakes it for another island. Woops.
[Unless, of course, this theory is true.]
... only he mistakes it for another island. Woops.
[Unless, of course, this theory is true.]
26.3.08
A Salinger Short Story
It's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish."
"THERE WERE ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost two-thirty to get her call through. She used the time, though. She read an article in a women's pocket-size magazine, called "Sex Is Fun-or Hell." She washed her comb and brush. She took the spot out of the skirt of her beige suit. She moved the button on her Saks blouse. She tweezed out two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole. When the operator finally rang her room, she was sitting on the window seat and had almost finished putting lacquer on the nails of her left hand..."
Read the rest of Salinger's story online here:
LINK !!
"THERE WERE ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost two-thirty to get her call through. She used the time, though. She read an article in a women's pocket-size magazine, called "Sex Is Fun-or Hell." She washed her comb and brush. She took the spot out of the skirt of her beige suit. She moved the button on her Saks blouse. She tweezed out two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole. When the operator finally rang her room, she was sitting on the window seat and had almost finished putting lacquer on the nails of her left hand..."
Read the rest of Salinger's story online here:
LINK !!
25.3.08
Must love Buster :
If you've never seen a Buster Keaton film, the time has come !
Born into a vaudeville family, Buster was a master of silent film & silly straight-faced stunts.
Watch the full-length video of One Week at google.
But watch out for Handy Hank !
LINK !!
Born into a vaudeville family, Buster was a master of silent film & silly straight-faced stunts.
Watch the full-length video of One Week at google.
But watch out for Handy Hank !
LINK !!
TODAY in American History:
Condé Nast, founder of VOGUE magazine was born in 1874.
pierre balmain & ruth ford from library of congress
See the Library of Congress's cool article on the early development of fashion in America !
LINK !!
pierre balmain & ruth ford from library of congress
See the Library of Congress's cool article on the early development of fashion in America !
LINK !!
For your pleasure :
24.3.08
"Fat Folk"
Taken from showhistory.com:
Images from the American "encyclopedia of novelty & variety performers & showmen: "encyclopedia of novelty & variety performers & showmen: sideshow, freakshow, circus, vaudeville, medecine show, carnival, grindshow, dime museum, girlshow, etc."
Check out this link to a photo gallery of large historical humans !
LINK !!
Historynet.com's Pic du Jour !
"Harry Houdini -- born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1874 -- was a struggling young magician when he abandoned tradition and began to concentrate on escapes. Houdini's fame as the "King of Handcuffs" was assured on January 7, 1906, when he escaped from the Washington, D.C., jail cell of President James Garfield's assassin, Charles Guiteau. For the next 20 years, Houdini astounded worldwide audiences with illusions such as the "Upside-Down Water Torture Cell" and straitjacket escapes. Houdini died on October 31, 1926."
Photo: Library of Congress
ALSO check out PBS's page on the great Houdini:LINK!!
MOONSHiiNE [waiting for a love that never comes]
From Spike Jonze directed vbs.tv, I give you an Americana special:
Moonshine:
LINK!!
"A QUEST FOR WHITE LIGHTNING IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The Gullah people are the descendants of slaves in South Carolina's Sea Islands who earned their freedom by being immune to malaria and therefore able to survive in the depths of the coastal swamps where the white man couldn't go. A hundred years ago they were still safe in their own little world, speaking a unique mix of English and the languages their West African ancestors spoke and practicing all sorts of zany African folk customs.
Then modernity crashed in on them. Now the few clinging to the tattered shreds of their traditions are basically nothing more than field-trip fodder for local students. The rest have faded into the woodwork of general poor black culture, with a couple interesting vestiges of their glory days. For instance, they can still bang out a mean batch of moonshine.
Two of the guys from the Black Lips used to travel up from Atlanta to help build houses for the poor folks in the area and had met a couple weathered old Gullah partiers who turned them on to the local brew, which they claim kicked their asses and then some. When we found this out, we decided it was imperative to head down and sample this hooch before it was gone for good.
Much like John Voigt and those other Atlanta guys in Deliverance, we arrogantly assumed it was going to be a cakewalk. We'd waltz on in there with our cameras and fancy sneakers, dazzle them with our refined speech and genteel bearings, then blow their asses off with the most off-the-chain swamp party moonshine has ever fueled. What actually followed was a Southern odyssey of epic proportions. We were taken to the porch of a million-year-old distiller who just left the biz, ferreted away to a terrifying compound in the middle of the woods where the black version of Buffalo Bill makes his own shine, fed chicken feet and a variety of other delicious Southern treats, chased off a farm by a truck full of angry rednecks, and abandoned by our local guide.
Left to our own devices, we wound our way down twisty back roads in the Lips' rickety old tour van, stumbling upon unforeseen wonders like a two-story skate park, ginormous trees, ginormous spiders, and a perfect juke joint so untouched by time you'd expect to see zombie Robert Johnson tumble out of the bathroom with a needle in his decaying arm...
And somehow, magically, in spite all of the insanity, in the end it all worked out. We left the islands blind drunk on some of the roughest tasting hooch any of us had ever gulleted.
THOMAS MORTON"
Moonshine:
LINK!!
"A QUEST FOR WHITE LIGHTNING IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The Gullah people are the descendants of slaves in South Carolina's Sea Islands who earned their freedom by being immune to malaria and therefore able to survive in the depths of the coastal swamps where the white man couldn't go. A hundred years ago they were still safe in their own little world, speaking a unique mix of English and the languages their West African ancestors spoke and practicing all sorts of zany African folk customs.
Then modernity crashed in on them. Now the few clinging to the tattered shreds of their traditions are basically nothing more than field-trip fodder for local students. The rest have faded into the woodwork of general poor black culture, with a couple interesting vestiges of their glory days. For instance, they can still bang out a mean batch of moonshine.
Two of the guys from the Black Lips used to travel up from Atlanta to help build houses for the poor folks in the area and had met a couple weathered old Gullah partiers who turned them on to the local brew, which they claim kicked their asses and then some. When we found this out, we decided it was imperative to head down and sample this hooch before it was gone for good.
Much like John Voigt and those other Atlanta guys in Deliverance, we arrogantly assumed it was going to be a cakewalk. We'd waltz on in there with our cameras and fancy sneakers, dazzle them with our refined speech and genteel bearings, then blow their asses off with the most off-the-chain swamp party moonshine has ever fueled. What actually followed was a Southern odyssey of epic proportions. We were taken to the porch of a million-year-old distiller who just left the biz, ferreted away to a terrifying compound in the middle of the woods where the black version of Buffalo Bill makes his own shine, fed chicken feet and a variety of other delicious Southern treats, chased off a farm by a truck full of angry rednecks, and abandoned by our local guide.
Left to our own devices, we wound our way down twisty back roads in the Lips' rickety old tour van, stumbling upon unforeseen wonders like a two-story skate park, ginormous trees, ginormous spiders, and a perfect juke joint so untouched by time you'd expect to see zombie Robert Johnson tumble out of the bathroom with a needle in his decaying arm...
And somehow, magically, in spite all of the insanity, in the end it all worked out. We left the islands blind drunk on some of the roughest tasting hooch any of us had ever gulleted.
THOMAS MORTON"
Are you afraid of the Alabama dark ?
"From Alabama comes the story of a deadly swimming hole."
SKULL LAKE: The first installment of a series of American ghost stories from themoonlitroad.com.
"Written by Craig Dominey
Back where I grew up in central Alabama, there's an old rock quarry deep in the piney woods, abandoned long ago by a mining company. Ask a local, and they'll direct you to an overgrown dirt road just off the highway past the old Reece Service Station. Follow that road till the end, and you'll wind up at the edge of a deep, jagged crater. At the bottom of that crater is one of the best swimming holes you're ever likely to see. Clean, deep, blue water, just waiting to cool you off on a hot summer day..."
LINK !!
Edward Hopper: A Photo-essay
Slate.com's photo feature on Edward Hopper, 20th-century painter/printmaker & part of Ashcan School of American Art.
LINK !!
Do you speak American ? Words & Dialects:
All from PBS's speak project:
browse the site for more cool links & articles ...
Listen to these twelve audio samples. Match them to the area of the country that you think the speaker is from.
LINK !!
-----------------
Listen to radio stations from across the states to hear different accents.
LINK !!
--------------------
"Track That Word:" An index of American-isms.
LINK !!
--------------------
browse the site for more cool links & articles ...
Listen to these twelve audio samples. Match them to the area of the country that you think the speaker is from.
LINK !!
-----------------
Listen to radio stations from across the states to hear different accents.
LINK !!
--------------------
"Track That Word:" An index of American-isms.
LINK !!
--------------------
The Presidential Top 10
The top 10 words invented or promoted by presidents, in presidential order are:
- administration
(Washington)
- caucus
(John Adams)
- lengthy
(John Adams)
- lengthily
(Jefferson)
- belittle
(Jefferson)
- muckraker
(Theodore Roosevelt)
- lunatic fringe
(Theodore Roosevelt)
- bloviation
(Harding)
- normalcy
(Harding)
- misunderestimate
(G. W. Bush)
- embetterment
(G. W. Bush)
Source: Presidential Voices, Metcalf, Allan. Houghlin Mifflin, 2004.
Neon graveyard - Neat-o Flickr site !
1) A cool Flickr site of photographs taken in a Las Vegas neon sign graveyard.
2) Official website for the Neon Graveyard itself.
Pistols at dawn !
"Like many early American customs, dueling was imported. Starting in the Middle Ages, European nobles had defended their honor in man-to-man battles. An early version of dueling was known as "judicial combat," so called because God allegedly judged the man in the right and let him win. In an era known for its bloody encounters, judicial combats probably prevented men from killing in the heat of passion. Still, numerous authorities, including heads of state and the Catholic Church, banned dueling -- with little effect..."
LINK !!
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