Posts by Jake Pollock
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Not difficult. Impossible. One has to accidentally drop a jar in ones bag before leaving New Zealand, and forget all about it until clearing customs.
Marmite is available at places like Whole Foods, but it's the tacky English version.
On the subject of hoodies, I note that if they are signifiers of the less wholesome aspects of Hip Hop culture, no one told the students at the University of Pittsburgh, who seem to wear them as if they were warm clothing with space to emblazon the name of their university, high school or home state.
-
There was a guy (who is a music critic) in the apartment above mine in Pittsburgh last year who saw Bailterspace at CBGBs. He said it was the loudest gig he ever heard, and everyone went and stood out on the street to listen to it.
That might explain why you didn't see many people there.
-
I can't help but feel that that last comment was directed at me, so I will expand on what I said.
In the context of a discussion in which the race- and gender-bias both of contributors here (in the form of gendered insults, for instance) and in the much broader political discussion has been an issue, I find it interesting that Christopher Hitchens should use an undergraduate sociology thesis written by Barack Obama's then-21-year-old future wife in 1985, in which she uses a definition of separationism developed by a black activist in the 1960s, and who, after Michelle Obama wrote her thesis, gave a speech at the same conference in which another black activist made inflammatory comments about Jews, to buttress claims that Obama is a black nationalist, or at least that there are radical elements within his cohort who will further black nationalist goals in spite of his own professed moderateness.
It is interesting because 1) Hitchens is the last person on earth who should be doing anything like that, given the evolution of his own political ideas since he was an undergraduate student 2) it furthers the fear-mongering surrounding Obama's ancestry by not only politicising his skin colour but also, through the extremely tenuous connection to Louis Farrakhan, reminding us all of the 'Obama is secretly Muslim' meme and 3) crosses the race/gender divide that has characterised much of the discourse surrounding this primary election by painting Michelle Obama as a Lady Macbeth figure, manipulating her husband for her own political ends.
Again, the evidence for this claim is one paragraph in an undergraduate thesis (Hitchens doesn't mention that it's the work of an undergrad, btw), which is trying to find a working definition for one aspect of how the author might conceive of African-American experience at Princeton in the 1980s. He doesn't, for instance, mention the following paragraph in which she develops a definition of integrationism, nor does he accuse her of ideological associations with Websterian philologists when she commits the classic undergraduate error of using a dictionary definition of 'comfort'.
The point is that, in the to-ing an fro-ing over race, gender and class that has made this primary race so unique and long-lasting, Hitchens appears to have found a novel way of combining all three (once you add the 'Princeton' thing, which, given the number of typographical errors the type-written thesis, has already gone on to complaints about Affirmative Action). I have no doubt that these Lady Macbeth claims will continue as time goes on, so that, even if, contra Hitchens, we're not getting a 'two for one' in the White House, we're certainly getting a two-for-one in the race and gender politics.
-
The thing about Obama, of course, is that you can blame his wife for the links to black nationalism, and thus get the 'ooh blacks are scary' and 'oooh wives are manipulative' sexist/racist two-fer.
-
Don't worry, the food at Outback Steakhouse isn't really Australian, so it makes sense that the guy on their commercial isn't either.
-
In light of another thread, I should qualify 'the pub' with 'a sportsbar'. It's the only place in town you can watch the Champions League, and besides, there are no pubs in Pittsburgh.
-
Further research (asking a guy at a pub) has turned up the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African-American group that is reviving the traditions of the 20s and 30s, right down to the name. So, it's new music, but it sounds pretty old. There are some links on the site to downloadable tracks. If nothing else, it will be a good test of Bob's ear for the authentic.
-
Which, naturally, has been archived elsewhere.
-
Very pleased to help, David. And still amazed that a baby could have such specific, and extremely obscure, taste. I guess it bodes well.
And, as Bob (Munro, not the baby) says, the French stuff is from Louisiana. It didn't occur to me, but that would explain the dialect. From googling around a bit, it looks like almost all of it is by one family, the Breaux, who recorded the first Cajun music. One of the songs on that compilation is called Acadian One-Step, which I'm sure The Band knew, as the Anthology was very influential on the folk revival of the 50s and 60s that brought another Bob to New York (he recorded See That My Grave Is Kept Clean on his first album).
-
Glad to help, even if I can't figure out the enigma of a New Zealand infant's obsession with American folk music.
Unfortunately, banjo music lies a little outside of my range as a dilettante. Nevertheless, a search on archive.org reveals a small trove of banjo tunes recorded on 78s. You could probably follow those 'Old Time Appalachian' tags to find more in that vein.
The other thing to do would be to have a look at the Smithsonian Folkways catalogue. You might find something he will like there, and a lot of it is available through emusic subscription.
He might also like something like Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads; no banjos, but the lyrics are suitably bleak. I listened to that one on a train going through the Appalachian foothills in Pennsylvania last weekend. Different parts of the country, but the themes of rural poverty and the cruelty of the winds of capitalism and big business were resonant. Although Bob probably won't be too concerned.
Anyway, early country and folk music is a rich cultural tradition that I don't really know a lot about, like I said (did you notice the songs in French on the Anthology? Now that's something that has dropped out of the narrative of American ethnogenesis). But I know people who do, so I'll ask around next week and see what else I can come up with.
**REPLY:** Thanks so much for those suggestions, Jake. That's given me a whole bunch of other good leads. I'm going to play Bob the sample tracks and get his opinion (although I might buy the Woody Guthrie for myself anyway). And yes, we certainly did notice the French -- but what dialect is it? Nothing like I learnt at school that's for sure. P.S. The archive.org tip has already been a lifesaver. I've just this moment halted a full-on screaming jag by playing the first banjo tune that came up on your search.