A Cedar Suede Perform "No Hay Agua," "Chan Chan," "Toucan Sings," & "La Selva"

From Seattle.

Gold and White, or Blue and Black?

A professor at "the only M.S./Ph.D. program in color science in the United States" explains — RIT color scientists explain the dress that went viral.

Necrotizing Fasciitis Comes Home

Flesh eating bacteria cases confirmed at Rochester General Hospital.

Henny Vrienten, Theo Sieben, & Monique Lansdorp Perform "Nooit Iets Anders Dan Dit," My Baby Perform "Uprising," & Henny Vrienten Featuring My Baby & Xander Vrienten Perform "Het Gaat Niet Over"

I ♥ Camille Paglia

A conservative blog for peace, who got me into this whole blogging thing twelve years ago, links to this must-read Jebbie interview — The Catholic Pagan: 10 Questions for Camille Paglia.

You have to respect someone who says, "I... strongly support the sexual revolution," but who rightly acknowledges that "when the Catholic Church trims its doctrine for politically correct convenience, it will no longer be Catholic."

Steve Earle Peforms "Ain't Nobody's Daddy Now," "You're The Best Lover That I've Ever Had," "King Of The Blues," & "Copperhead Road"

Michael Pollan Speaks

The LRC Blog posts two videos — The Government At Your Dinner Table and Start Cooking Again.

Just Another Snake Cult Perform "The Spell Of Platonic Reversal" & "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key"

Live from the Toppstöðin Power Station! The second number is one I learned to play, too, for the guitalele, from Mermaid Avenue, Wilco and Billy Bragg's album of previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs.

Dark Triad Be Damned

Practical advice on dealing with "the most predatory members of our society" (some of whose characteristics seem to apply to me) — How to Spot the Sociopath in Your Midst.

Twee

A review of a book on "the most powerful youth movement since Punk and Hip-Hop" hailed as "a mark of a slow evolution toward a better, kinder, humbler, more politicized and ‘so pure’ human race... or at least one with a better record collection" — The Twee tribe.

Sam Lee & Friends Perform "Over Yonders Hill" & "Blackbird"

Gypsy quadroon that I am, here's some music of my cousins the Romanichal and Irish Travellers.

America's Pastime, Time, and the End Times

The imposition of the clock into our ancient pastoral game spells the end of the sport and country that produced it — Major League Baseball announces new pace of play rules.

Cursed be the comish who promulgated these "new policies aimed at reducing game times by shortening the breaks between innings [and time to take a leak and fill up your beer], the time required for instant replay [itself a travesty not more than a year-old], and the quirk-filled out-of-the-batter’s-box moments between pitches [one of the best parts of the game]."

Let us pray that Minor League Baseball does not follow suit.

ISIS, True Islam

The Atlantic's Graeme Wood exposes the "well-intentioned but dishonest campaign to deny the Islamic State’s medieval religious nature," explaining that "much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse" — What ISIS Really Wants. An excerpt:

Muslims can say that slavery is not legitimate now, and that crucifixion is wrong at this historical juncture. Many say precisely this. But they cannot condemn slavery or crucifixion outright without contradicting the Koran and the example of the Prophet.

Hard Left Allies Against H+

"The sudden bumper crop of sociopaths is an evolutionary vanguard set out to emulate machine-implacability," writes CounterPunch's Norman Ball — Transhumanism: the Ultimate Annihilator.

Brock and the Brockettes Perform "The Old World," "My Old Hometown," & "Angel Band"

Dutch folk performing American music.

The Great Millard Fillmore

The "Peace Whig" whom Her Most Britannic Majesty Queen Victoria pronounced "the handsomest man she had ever seen" and "the most courtly American it had ever been her pleasure to meet" (something must be in our waters) is sadly under attack in his hometown — Buffalo NAACP Urges Elected Officials Not to Support Millard Fillmore Legacy.

10 Things You Should Know About Millard Fillmore is a good place to start learning about a man who "rose up out of extreme poverty," "got his political start as an Anti-Mason... opposed to Democratic President Andrew Jackson," "attempted to reduce tensions between the North and South" (which is why the colored people's association opposes him), "personally fought a fire at the Library of Congress," and, most nobly, "disagreed with Abraham Lincoln’s policies."

The Book of Mormon as Literature

A review of a book that sees "the Mormon scripture as a Great American Novel, or, failing that, as a priceless artifact from the Old, Weird America—a uniquely American product, like jazz music and superhero comics, that deserves our attention" — In Search of the Great American Bible. That "scripture" was written just down the road in the Burned-Over District, described in the review thusly:

Early nineteenth-century America was a time and place peculiarly receptive to new prophets and their books. Two lively cultural currents combined to make it so. One was the drive, in the heady early decades of the Republic, to create a uniquely American literature. The other was a national religious mania known as the Second Great Awakening, whose epicenter was western and central New York State. Between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, countless revivals and new religions flared up from the Finger Lakes to Niagara Falls.

Many of the newer sects flamed out. The Shakers’ demise was no surprise, given their celibacy. The Oneida Community taught free love but lives on today only as a silverware company. Others persisted in new forms. The Millerites believed that Christ would reappear on October 22, 1844; their faith was severely challenged when that day passed without incident, though a version of Millerism survives with the Seventh Day Adventists. The most impressive and unlikely survivor from New York’s religious bumper crop is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A hundred and fifty million copies of its central scripture have been printed since its first edition, in 1830. The Book of Mormon is where the literary and spiritual ambitions of the antebellum age most tenaciously converged.

Patricide in Pittsford

A local story of interest, in which an accused father-killer has been hailed as "a strong, supportive, friendly member of the Pittsford community" — 'Honor thy father' haunts Charles Tan case.

Árstíðir Performs "Someone Who Cares," "Nú Gleymist Ég," "Moonlight," "Things You Said," "You Again," & "Shades"

Ásatrúarfélagið

Before learning that my mother's maiden name, McCaskey, was Norse before it was Scottish before it was Irish, this story, linked to by VDARE.COM's John Derbyshire, would have been of little interest to me — Iceland to build first temple to Norse gods since Viking age.

VDARE.COM's Stephen McNallen reminds us, "Representative government, limits on the powers of rulers, the right to bear arms, rights of women, trial by jury, Anglo-Saxon Common Law–all these were features of our ancestral society long before Christianity was known in the Northlands" — An Odinist Reader (Aargh!) Surfaces To Reprove Tom Fleming.

White Stag

Seneca White Deer, Inc.'s "goal is to preserve the world’s largest herd of all-white deer," a local ecological treasure — What will come of the Seneca Army Depot white deer?

White stags, Wikipedia tells us, have been seen as "messengers from the otherworld" which "would appear when one was transgressing a taboo" as well as "a symbol of peace or a truce." One of the first books I remember loving was The White Stag, before I learned that my Hungarian ancestry was actually Romany. The White Doe is the symbol of VDARE.COM.

Mediæval Rhode Island

The mystery of the Newport Tower may have been solved — Ancient Lime Kiln found at Newport, RI. From the article:

Extensive Internet research regarding lime kilns, masonry styles, and arches in Colonial America and Medieval Europe confirms the probable time of construction for the Old Stone Tower as being the late 14th century. The masons were most-likely Norman-Scottish – that is, they were trained in masonry traditions of Northern Scotland (which at the time was still regarded as a Nordic Province). Between 1365 and 1410, agents of Denmark and the Kalmar Union were involved in the resettlement of refugees from the Eastern Settlement of Greenland. The Settlement was a Western Province of Norway (and hence also of the Kalmar Union that consisted of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Western Province of Landanu – that is, the “New Land”).

Naturally, Queen-Regent Margaret Atterdag and her successor, Erik of Pomerania, were deeply concerned about the welfare of their distant Christian subjects; and their care and protection were under the direct responsibility of the current Earl of the Orkney Islands – Prince Henry Sinclair. About 4,000 farmers were desperate to escape from the Arctic onslaught of the Little Ice Age. As they had no suitable oceangoing vessels to carry their belongings to new homes in the southern territories along the Eastern Seaboard, they were entirely dependent upon Norman-Scottish merchants, or perhaps Hanseatic sea captains, for ferry service. As the owner of a merchant shipping company, Sinclair was in a position to provide ferry service – which was probably done with the condition that farmers pay for their transport by turning over a portion of future earnings from goods – such as stockfish and turkey corn – that were produced for transport to the markets of North European ports.

Giovanni Verrazano’s Report in 1524, which mentions “a white Native Tribe” and residents of Narragansett Bay who were “inclined to whiteness” suggests that one of the destinations of refugee farmers included the shores of Narragansett Bay. Doubtless, Nordic refugees who were transplanted to this region soon lost their ethnic and racial distinctions by merging with the local Narragansett and Wampanoag People. Legends or reports concerning the presence of a hybrid Native-European Colony in this region were probably a factor in the decision by Gerhard Mercator to identify “Norombega City” as the Capital of a European Colony alongside the shores of Narragansett Bay on his World Map of 1569. Other new settlements included Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New York, and the Carolinas. Thus, Colonial settlers reported numerous contacts with “White Indians,” Welsh, Irish, and Nordic residents who were eager to trade furs and fish for coveted iron tools and fabrics from Europe. These early European settlers in the New World provided a “cultural bridgehead” that facilitated the survival of new immigrants from the Old World.

Makes me want to crack a Narragansett Beer, now brewed locally by the Genesee Brewing Company.

Ziggy Marley Performs "Dragonfly," "Love Is My Religion," "One Love," & "I Don't Wanna Live On Mars"

John Reilly & Friends Perform "It's Never Too Late," "Wayward Traveler," "Rock Of Ages," & "Blues Stay Away From Me"

This "home-brewed acoustic affair" performs some "church and porch tunes from America's past."

The Erie Canal, Politics, Engineering, Nature, Spirit, and America

The contrast between the divisive behavior of the politicians and the extraordinary achievements of the engineers is the most remarkable feature of the whole story of the Erie Canal. While De Witt Clinton and his opponents were knee-deep in political battles, construction on the canal moved merrily along. It was as though Albany had no reasonto exist except as a city that happened to be located at the junction between the canal and the Hudson.

America had no trained civil engineers when construction began. No one could have predicted how men with such little experience could overcome the succession of obstacles lying in their path, especially as they had no canal of comparable size and complexity as a model to guide them. They were going to confront broad rivers, chasms, fissures, precipitous cliffs and thunderous waterfalls, deep and narrow valleys, squishy sandstone on which to base great piers and supports, and through it all the dense wilderness, generously populated by wild beasts and barely populated with human beings.

Perhaps the philosophical motivation embedded in the entire project drove the engineers to high success. Here nature was less an enemy to be subdued than a than a gift from God to be joined in the larger struggle of building a great nation. The wilderness, the waterfalls, the deep valleys were proof of the country's grandeur, which the canal would neither destroy nor remodel. As the engineers perceived it, the canal would only enhance the splendor and dignity of God's gift.

A visit to the canal today is a spiritual experience, even though much of the old canal is in ruins or has disappeared. The marvelous blend of engineering and respect for nature along the route could have been achieved only with rare imagination in the planning and astounding skill in the execution. In an era when technological change was accelerating at an astonishing pace, this beautiful work by amateurs would become one of the wonders of the world in the first half of the nineteenth century.

From Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation.

Rochester Public Market

Renovations a-coming to one of my favorite local places, sketched above in 1838 — Big changes coming to Rochester Public Market.

The Female Form Redux

T'other day we blogged about "an evolutionary explanation for the shape of the female body [that] raises as many questions as it answers" — The Female Form.

Today, Chateau Heartiste blogs a reminder that "[t]he shapes of female figures have real world consequences, for both men’s capacity to experience pleasure and willingness to commit, and for women’s ability to leverage the sexual market to snag a winner man and fulfill their romantic needs" — The Five Female Body Types (And One Is The Very Best).

While I recognize his very best, I have always preferred his second best. Perhaps it is that I have always been among those "men with a keen future time orientation who are also seeking relationships" as he says of those who prefer this type. Or perhaps I never stopped being an ephebophile.

Am I Having an Identitarian Crisis?

The Derb reviews "the first specimen known to me of Identitarian fiction" — White Identitarianism. The synopsis:

The action of the novel takes place from March to August of 1998 in Chicago. The four principals are coevals, aged about 21. Three of them are students at the university: roommates Ethan and Logan, and Logan’s friend Prudence. The fourth is Mark, who works in a stonemason’s yard. Prudence is American-born of Korean ancestry, while the other three are all white gentiles.

Mark meets Prudence in a bar and they fall for each other. A love affair commences, and the novel’s main storyline follows the trajectory of that affair.

The way the book is structured, though, only the first and last thirds of it are properly narrative. The middle third is a dorm room debate between Logan and Ethan that took place a year previous to Mark’s encounter with Prudence. The title of this middle section is “Universalism vs. Nationalism.” Logan takes the universalist position, Ethan the nationalist one.

So this is didactic fiction, a novel with a lesson. That debate in the middle third of the book provides an intellectual underpinning for the Identitarian drama played out between Mark and Prudence.

[....]

Mark, the protagonist of the novel’s narrative part, is thoughtful and bookish, or at any rate not un-bookish, in spite of having no college education. He is subject to “periodic fits of intellectual agitation”; but until Prudence enters his life he has no idea how to organize those fits in any one direction.

Prudence is Korean by blood, but not otherwise. Her tastes are all Western: concert music (she plays the piano), Shakespeare, ancient Greece. She is something of an improver, and draws Mark into her interests. They read Euripides together “with fury and passion” and visit art galleries. All this has the unintended effect of awakening Mark to his racial identity.

The awakening process gets a boost from another quarter, too. Mark’s boss at the stonemasonry yard, a Lithuanian, has a daughter whom he brings in to do secretarial duties in her summer vacation. This daughter, Kristina, is an idealized North-European female, a long-boned blonde beauty. Mark is smitten by her, though not sufficiently to detach his affections from Prudence.

Kristina’s sudden departure—she is hired by a modeling agency—precipitates a psychic crisis in Mark. Although he still loves Prudence, he now sees her as “an outsider, an observer who soaks it [i.e. Western culture] up like a connoisseur, she is not of it.”

Like the reviewer, "I can’t be an Identitarian, though; I was born too soon." Still, I can relate.

But only so far. I might share the protagonist's "love of the Greek life, admiration for the determination and might of Rome [not really], and respect for individual heroes of Western history," these do not "fill [my] heart with white pride." That's just far too abstract an idea. The "American-born of Korean ancestry" is closer to home than the Lithuanian daughter.

Better the reviewer's call to return to "Western nations of my childhood, which guarded their ethnic identity and kept immigration to a trickle, not out of Identitarian pride but from simple, commonsensical ... prudence."

Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem, Performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus, the BBC National Chorus of Wales, the London Philharmonic Choir, Marina Poplavskaya, Mariana Pentcheva, Joseph Calleja, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, Directed by Semyon Bychkov