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highlyeccentricLike everyone else on the internet, I am this week Into Sea Shanties. Of course, if you know me, this is a regular phase of my music consumption anyway.
Also like everyone else I am very much enamoured of The Wellerman (the versions TikTok is singing are based on The Longest Johns arrangements, which is great; link here goes to the Wellington Sea Shanty Society, who are under-rated. Another popular version is out there by the Norfolk Broads, but I'm less of a fan - it's got a less cool set of lyrics).
The important thing is, this has introduced me to The Longest Johns. Behold, my new favourite not-traditional shanty:
And, proving Spotify is good for something, listening to the Longest Johns brought me, via algorithim, to The Misbehain' Maidens, whose more recent albums... comic filk-folk? Songs with titles like 'Dumb ways to con' and 'Slytherins are Misunderstood'. Their first album is more comic-indie-folk though:
I'm rather iffy about 'Cathouse Tragedy' on the same album - seems to be a folkie cover of a song by one Aurelio Voltaire? But idek there's a bit much 'you better check under that skirt' and jokes about albinos and so on in there for me.
Podcasts:
Magnus Archives: Finished S2! I didn't resent the plotty final episodes as much as I did those at end of S1, either. I'm taking a good break now, to catch up on other things, but I suspect I'll be back.
Other fiction: Picked up a Lightspeed Magazine episode at random, and can heartily recommend The Bone Stag Walks, by KT Briskie: I suspect it listens better than it reads. Meanwhile, I'm up to 'The Devil in the Sunlight' with The Penumbra (Second Citadel), about halfway through the second episode. Quanyii manipulating little innocent Olala is distressing to me!
Literary: Some more puttering progress on Paradise Lost; listened to the Spouter Inn bonus episode for The Tempest; and am partway through the Odyssey episode of same.
Historical: Listened through both parts of Forgotten Australia's The Plague of 1900 double parter. I really respect Michael Murray's archival work, and enjoy his storytelling style, but just occasionally - in this case, as he's describing New Year's Day 1900 in Sydney, and the headlines and the mood of the town, vis a vis the Boer War - he's not nearly as critical of the glories of Empire as he ought to be. I know he CAN report historical mores without ventriloquising them, because he pulled that off when describing The Australian Star's advance finger-pointing at 'filthy Chinese and poor whites', so I'm left with... he doesn't think our role in the Boer war is WORTH problematising. Ulp. NEVERTHELESS, in terms of pandemic logistics, public health policy, and so on, this is a timely pair of episodes.
Some links:
Anne Connolly (ABC News, Aus), Thousands die waiting for already approved home care packages. My grandfather just had an excellent experience with dying at home with a home care package; I am sad, but somehow not surprised, that this isn't the dominant experience.
Katie Heaney (The Cut), The Controversy Behind the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. I actually didn't realise there was anything modern behind this, I thought it was all recycled Freud. Alas, no.
Alison Wishart (Provenance issue 9, 2010, web version 2020), The turbulent history of 'Our Cookery Book'. TL;DR successful career domestic arts teacher publishes cookbook in early 20th century, ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.
Jeff Sparrow (Overland), The Atrocity Exhibition (re Australian war crimes)
Amanda Mull (The Atlantic), Is Quarantine giving you headaches, back pain and more?
Christine Hume (Electric Lit), 10 feminist retellings of mythology
Hari Nef (Art Forum), Openings: Nash Glynn. A trans femme reviewer reviews a trans woman's art. The art is pretty damn neat.
Traci Brimhall (Guernica), The Grief Artist. Part review of a project involving dried flowers from a funeral, part memoir.
Roni Horn (The Paris Review), The cold blood of Iceland.
Rosa Boshier (Guernica), The loneliest city. On the photography of Laura Aguilar.
Elsa Sjunneson (Uncanny Magazine), Burlseque and the lens of rewriting. Apparently Sjunneson's MA thesis was on burlesque and obscenity law, and I am disappointed it doesn't exist anywhere cite-able, only in fragmentary Twitter threads.
Joseph Osmundsson (Guernica, May 2020), The Future in Catastrophic Times.
Also like everyone else I am very much enamoured of The Wellerman (the versions TikTok is singing are based on The Longest Johns arrangements, which is great; link here goes to the Wellington Sea Shanty Society, who are under-rated. Another popular version is out there by the Norfolk Broads, but I'm less of a fan - it's got a less cool set of lyrics).
The important thing is, this has introduced me to The Longest Johns. Behold, my new favourite not-traditional shanty:
And, proving Spotify is good for something, listening to the Longest Johns brought me, via algorithim, to The Misbehain' Maidens, whose more recent albums... comic filk-folk? Songs with titles like 'Dumb ways to con' and 'Slytherins are Misunderstood'. Their first album is more comic-indie-folk though:
I'm rather iffy about 'Cathouse Tragedy' on the same album - seems to be a folkie cover of a song by one Aurelio Voltaire? But idek there's a bit much 'you better check under that skirt' and jokes about albinos and so on in there for me.
Podcasts:
Some links: