Evenk shamaness heating her drum over fire. Photo by A. Slapins, 1975
Heating the drum before use was necessary because the heat tightened the drum skin and changed its pitch. Basically, the shaman used the fire for tuning his/her drum.
The Evenks are native to Asia, particularly southern Siberia, and their culture predates Russia – it’s been traced to neolithic times.
Great performance by The Band, 1969. So let’s go retro to a great bluesey holler.
Janis Joplin did what other blues singers couldn’t do – get attention in the U.S in 1967. So what about 1965?
Barry McGuire gravelled his way through P.F. Sloan‘s “Eve of Destruction” without knowing what he was singing about almost 5o years ago. Turns out he may have been right for the wrong reasons, but it’s still a classic song.
If you agree with the Barry McGuire of 1965, believe that things are falling apart in 2014 and have the right to vote, please use your vote wisely… and whenever in doubt, abstain or vote NO.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for the cool stuff.
Tuba Skinny on a hot, steamy New Orleans day, playing James Scott’s “Climax Rag” from 1914. Pay attention to the girl on cornet – she knows exactly how to do it right – and before you assume that the girl on bass drum is only there for eye candy, check this out:
That’s Erika Lewis & Tuba Skinny performing at The Louisiana Busker Fest in Abita Springs 21 April 2013. BTW, the band is from Tasmania. Now, how ’bout some Leon?
Church became the first stewardess to fly (though not the first flight attendant, as German Heinrich Kubis had preceded her in 1912). On May 15, 1930, she embarked on a Boeing 80A for a 20-hour flight from Oakland/San Francisco to Chicago with 13 stops and 14 passengers.
That works out to a potty break about every 90 minutes en-route. In those days, synchronization was everything.
Anyone know who these guys were? I’m guessing mid-late 1920s, tried to identify the trumpet player with no luck. The clarinet/baritone sax player is the only one wearing spats, so he may be the band leader.
Mountain of Dinosaurs [Rasa Strautmane, USSR 1967] was an anti-soviet propaganda film. Watch it for the nuances before you read the following.
The short warns about what happens if powerful stewards meant to care for individuals actually stifle those they are charged to protect. Dinosaurs didn’t die because of climate change, the short says, but because their eggs became so thick-shelled in response to colder temperatures that the baby dinosaurs couldn’t hatch. The shells (yes, the eggshells speak) mindlessly drone that they are doing their “duty,” but by growing thicker and thicker they kill the nascent sauropods. The scene is the saddest dinosaur cartoon I’ve ever seen, and it seems to be a metaphor for the Soviet government suppressing the rights of individual citizens. Indeed, the death of dinosaurs was not only used by Americans to issue dire warnings — they are an international symbol of extinction.