NPR: Blake Shelton: Out Of The Ordinary, A Country Everyman by Ken Tucker (mp3)

Pistol Annies, "Hell on Heels"

Hell on Heels - Pistol Annies - Pistol Annies Videos

Some sad news

Please pray for Fr. Luis Ruiz, S.J. who passed away this morning in Macau. Requiescat in pace.



The other parts.

From 2007, a review of The Children of Hurin in Asia Times by "Spengler" (David Goldman): Tolkien's Christianity and the pagan tragedy  (via JM)

I still have to get a copy of the book. Is the account of Tolkien's work and project correct?

With the reconstruction of the young Tolkien's prehistory of Middle-earth, we discern a far broader purpose: to recast as tragedy the heroic myths of pre-Christian peoples, in which the tragic flaw is the pagan's tribal identity. Tolkien saw his generation decimated, and his circle of friends exterminated, by the nationalist compulsions of World War I; he saw the cult of Siegfried replace the cult of Christ during World War II. His life's work was to attack the pagan flaw at the foundation of the West.

Tribal identity is the tragic flaw of the pagans? Not an obvious vice? Maybe this is a correct understanding of Tolkien's project, but it seems incorrect.th

Items of Interest, 25 July 2011

Richard Heinberg, Conservation: There Is No Alternative


What a waste! The scoop on poop and ecological wastewater management- Part 2 of a 2 part interviewAudio
Jill Cloutier, Sustainable World Radio

Have you ever wondered why we poop in fresh water? In Part 2 of an interview author Carol Steinfeld, we talk more in-depth about human waste as a resource. Carol, co-author of The Composting Toilet System Book and Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling, shares her extensive knowledge about human waste management practices around the globe, how to clear human waste of possible pathogens, and different waste-composting systems for the home.

(mp3) [Part 1]

Surviving the heat when the power or the A/C is out
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon's Book

New Evidence for the Teutonic Order’s Bavarian Origins: Fragments Found

“3 Gun Nation” Launches Second Season With Mark Wills As Host (3 Gun Nation, FB)

Why Barefoot Running is Good For You

Inferiority complex... in Japan?

The J-drama Jin marks the anniversary of TBS;

Chinese have an inferiority complex of sorts can be associated with the Chinese; the actions of the government can be explained as an attempt to reclaim past glory and wash away national shame for having been overwhelmed by foreign powers in the 20th century. But the flip side of an inferiority complex is a superiority complex, and both are rooted in pride. The common root is why someone can swing from one to the other?

Something comparable can be found in the Japanese psyche -- losing World War 2 may not have helped? The drama seems to be an opportunity for the Japanese to indulge in a fantasy of sorts - what if Japan somehow was ahead of the West in medicine. The main character, having traveled back in time from contemporary Japan, "invents" modern surgery practices and techniques in order to work as a doctor during the Meiji Restoration. In ep. 6 of the final series, the main character demonstrates his skills to a bunch of foreign visitors, and astounding them with his capabilities. How will the drama be resolved, and will his introduction of advanced medicine have anything to do with it?

Joel Salatin Lunatic Farmer Video

Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund:


His lecture at the Woodstock Farm Festival.

Alan Jackson, Long Way to Go

Long Way to Go - Alan Jackson - Alan Jackson Videos

Another movie about Sun Yat-Sen

A Twitch post about Jackie Chan's 1911. The other movie of which I was thinking is Bodyguards and Assassins, which was released in 2009. (Twitch review)

Shooting Industry Academy of Excellence 2011 Award Winners: Benchmade Knife Company Wins 2011 Knife of the Year
Model 915 Triage™ Captures Third Straight Knife of the Year Award

Benchmade
Gear Buyers Guide video

TAC's Summer Program Blog

Here

April Verch - The Colebrook Chronicle

Dream: A motley group of men (including one or two gangsters) who go off on a retreat to learn how to sing, taught by a unorthodox singing coach who is pursuing a young woman who wants to become a pop singer. For what reason? I don't woke up.

The cast was tendingg Korean at first (because of a recent episode of 1 Night 2 Days), but then it picked up some Russians?

Tomas Tallis, Spem in Alium

An excellent piece from Jeff Culbreath

Creating a family identity

Kevin Carson, Jehu Eaves' Critique of My Work . He mentions his thesis that "state's indispensible role in the primitive accumulation process and the rise of capitalism." Distributists would agree with this historical account. Read his blog (and book) for more?

Edit. Something related: The Austrian Version of the English Enclosures by Christopher Ferrera

Doing period pieces right? No more.

BBC must advance the liberal, progressive agenda. The may not be able to rewrite Austen yet, but the recent "original" works are meant to be subversive in reflecting contemporary moral ideals.

Peter Hitchens, The BBC can't recreate 1956 - because it loves our selfish, grasping present too much

There's Romola Garai...

The Hour


The Hour: BBC’s Mad Men?
The Hour's take on 50s fashion
BBC’s The Hour: Mad Men comparison is way off

"I see dead people."

For some of the same reasons as Dmitry Orlov: Dead Souls

Prester John

Medievalists.net

More from Medievalists.net:
TO TAKE OR TO MAKE? CONTRACTING FOR LEGITIMACY IN THE EMERGING STATES OFTWELFTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Women Religious Virtuosae from the Middle Ages: A Case Pattern and Analytic Model of Types
Prayer Bead Production and use in Medieval England

Tim Kennedy is in Muscle and Fitness. Some photos and video.

Anders Behring Breivik

I'm surprised some have not try to characterize him as sexually frustrated single white male, and thus explaining his actions that way. Will the sheep use the power of the state to put down the wannabe sheepdogs because they are a potential menace to society? What sort of pushback is this? Could he not find like-minded individuals in Norway to form some sort of community which would give him some solace?

Some discussion at VFR and CHT.
Why the European Right Can't Be Blamed for the Tragedy in Norway by Joshua Foust

Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival

August 12-14, 2011 in Tres Pinos (near Hollister). Anyone want to go?

more info


Jerry Logan:


Angel's Wings
How Many

Alone Again

another

Nostalgia bites again

Anthony Bourdain at Google in 2007

I generally enjoy No Reservations; it's generally good, clean escapist fun, despite the bleeped out expletives. You can read and listen to his criticisms of celebrity chefs and Food Network (and food tv in general) as being "food porn" -- enabling viewers to live vicariously and settling for mediocrity, not getting their duffs off the couch to try their hand in the kitchen or experimenting with new and difficult recipes. He may be right as a cultural critic in this regard. (I'll have something to say about this in connection with Bear Grylls.) He is also an ardent defender of culinary tradition/traditional cuisines at the very least, and his desire to understand other people extends to their cultures as well. Is he a cultural relativist, thuogh?

Alan Richman Takes Eric Ripert to Costco