One theory . . .

HOW IRISH DANCING appeared. Makes sense.

Remind you of anyone?

Click image to enlarge.

The old order passes

INTRODUCED IN 1935, KODACHROME IS DEAD. Last week, I discovered that Kodak ceased the manufacture of this wonderful film this year, after 75 years, but will support its processing until the end of 2010. Sad, but inevitable, for a number of reasons: in the 1990s, other colour emulsions finally caught up with it for sharpness, and then with the advent of digital photography, the silver era is ending. But as Dan Bayer observes on his site, The Kodachrome Project,

Kodachrome is a very unique film that has played a major roll documenting much of the last century of our world's history. It has encapsulated many important eras preserving them safely in the cradle of its superior archival properties. As a result, Kodachrome's 75 year lifespan will have become an era in its own right; an era deserving of its own preservation effort.

That the film exists at all, is amazing. It was invented by two New York city musicians, Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes.  Like Dan says, Kodachrome is unique:

Kodachrome is fundamentally different from other transparency and negative color films that have dye couplers incorporated into the emulsion layers. Kodachrome is unique because it has no dye couplers in the emulsion; these are introduced during processing.

That makes its processing much more complex, compared to other emulsions, except the Technicolor 3-strip dye transfer process. That's why, except for the U.S. (because of antitrust concerns) Kodachrome was sold with processing included, with a mail-pouch to put the used cassette in to send to the Kodak lab.

So why was it important? Well, it was originally introduced as 16mm movie film, but soon afterward, some bright soul in Kodak authorized its manufacture in 4x5" sheets, for the big view cameras and Speed Graphics used by serious photographers.

When WW2 came along, the U.S. Government put a corps of photographers out in the field to capture America at war — using 4x5 Kodachrome.  To the delight of archivists, as decades passed, it was discovered that if processed Kodachrome transparencies were stored in darkness, there was virtually NO colour degredation, unlike other colour film, which would start to deteriorate rapidly.

And this brings us to SHORPY, a delightful web site that is a compendium of all manner of photographs. They have a great number of these 4x5's to display — and they are awesome. Great saturated colour that is 70 years old, but looks as fresh as today. Anyway, go visit Shorpy for some colorful history.

Notice the subtle, non-fried, non-faded 70 year-old skin tones in the photo below, of workers on lunch break at North American Aviation's Inglewood, California factory:

Grammys Won't Be Rolling Out the Barrel Anymore . . . .

Per the CBC today:

Grammy board axes polka category to stay 'relevant and responsive'

Thursday, June 4, 2009 | CBC News

Canada's polka king Walter Ostanek won't be able to add another golden gramophone trophy to his existing trio haul after organizers of the Grammys announced the elimination of the best polka album category.

The U.S. Recording Academy, which administers the prestigious U.S. musical honour, revealed a number of category changes and new additions to its board of trustees in a statement issued Wednesday.

Along with axing the polka trophy, the academy also decided to fold the best Latin urban album category into the best Latin rock or alternative album one, creating an omnibus new trophy.

The board also voted to split the best contemporary folk/Americana album award into two separate prizes and rename the entire folk field "American roots music."

The decisions were made to ensure "the awards process is pertinent within the current musical landscape," academy president and CEO Neil Portnow said.

"The board of trustees continues to demonstrate its passionate commitment to keeping the Recording Academy a relevant and responsive organization in our dynamic music community."

Guess we'll not be seeing 'Ole Walter and his spiffy dressing-audience anytime soon.

Pity . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Steve and Kory and their box of hammers crowd

G&M : "Administered by the Department of Heritage, Trade Routes, valued at about $9-million annually, helps cultural groups such as Hot Docs and the Canadian Independent Record Production Association export and sell products abroad."

A program to promote Canadian culture abroad. The Cons have axed it, naturally, with KornKobKory muttering something about docs being "ideological" - Take that, Avi Lewis! - and thus saving every taxpayer less than .30¢!

Woo woo. .30¢ The Con base must be just ecstatic.
Let's have a quick look at the comments under that G&M article to see how they're doing ....

Bluer than You from Canada : "Exactly, we need a majority to re-educate these sinners. Just wait until the CPC has a majority and then we'll see some real fundamental changes...."

Bluer than You from Canada again : "We are embarking upon a new age....
A new crusade led by great men like George Bush and Stephen Harper. They share the same values and ideas with the majority of Canadians."

Bluer than You from Canada again again ! : "It's about time! I urge all readers to save yourselves and follow the real Conservative values, learn what you must do and thank S.Harper.
I urge you to view our site which has the support of many CPC politicians including S.Harper.
Hopefully he will begin funding our efforts as promised by the CPC.
http://www.familyaction.org/index.htm "

Family Action Coalition ? Our site? Oh. Wow. I. mean. just. lol.
Note to Bluer than You : Actually, Harper is kinda trying to keep any CPC association with anti-choice anti-gay anti-immigrant religious nutbar groups on the qt, otherwise he'll never get a shot at that moral majority of yours. Just sayin'.

Now I'm guessing that Blue just might be a satirical troll and is foolin with us.

Who else we got over there?

Green Konstantin from Canada : "When you lefty parasites scream and moan like this, it proves we're doing the right thing. Go soothe yourself with a nice round of gay sex with a piece of furniture or whatever you're into."

Tom Robinson from Not from muslim Toronto : "Real Canadians hate Toronto... How do you know that Native Canadians were not immmigrants at one time in this country. No-one knows for sure, so I could be right. How many muslims, asians, pakistanis, indians, or any other Torontonians serve in the military?"

Yup, that's them alright : Steve's box of hammers crowd - anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-FN, plus the obligatory reference to something or other military .... in a discussion about the arts.

Not exactly "happy as ..." though, are they?

Cross-posted at Creekside

"Batter Up . . . . "

From today's Globe and Mail:

Report: Clemens had relationship with country star

Associated Press - April 28, 2008

NEW YORK — Roger Clemens had a decade-long relationship with country star Mindy McCready that began when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and the pitcher was a Boston Red Sox ace, the Daily News reported.

Clemens's lawyer, Rusty Hardin, confirmed a long-term relationship but told the newspaper it was not sexual.

"He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her," Hardin said. "He's considered her a close family friend. ... He has never had a sexual relationship with her."

_______________


The newspaper said Clemens sent cash to McCready to help her with legal issues and reached out to her when she was in jail last year in Tennessee.

The 32-year-old McCready was sentenced last September for violating probation from a 2004 drug arrest and was released from jail last Dec. 30. The violation occurred in July when McCready was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Fort Myers, Fla. She still must serve two years' probation.

McCready had a No. 1 single in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time." (No reference to the above photo of Clemens and unknown playmate, we're assuming. - Ed.)

Sounds like there's lyrics to a hit country song in there somewhere . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)

Would you like to ask the same question here?

Britons, it appears, are letting their own history slip through their fingers. Or go in one ear and out the other.

23 per cent of respondents to a recent survey thought Winston Churchill was a fictional character while 58 per cent thought Sherlock Holmes had been a real person.

The survey, commissioned by British cable channel UKTV Gold, polled 3,000 adults and came up with some surprising results on the nation's perception of its past.

Forty-seven per cent of Britons thought the 12th-century Crusader king, Richard the Lionheart, was a mythical figure – exactly the same percentage who thought Eleanor Rigby of the eponymous Beatles song was a flesh-and-blood person.

The study noted a marked change in how people acquire their historical knowledge. Fully 77 per cent admitted to no longer reading history books. Three out of five people said they never watched historical programs on television and 15 per cent said they rely solely on the history they learned at school.

Which meant a lot of them weren't paying attention when they were being taught about the Crimean War, because 23 per cent thought nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale was a figment of some writer's imagination. And in an odd twist, 3 per cent thought one of Britain's greatest writers of fiction – Charles Dickens – was fictional himself.

Jeebus. British TV must have gotten a whole lot better than it used to be if people aren't watching the historical programs. That, or a whole lot worse.

Asking those same questions in North America might produce some surprizing results too. Of course, we would have to include a harp-playing chicken, living in a bag in a castle in any such survey.

Cultural faux pas

This moment of cultural insensitivity has a familiar ring to it.

A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.

The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.

The footballs were dropped from a helicopter in Khost province.

You'd think the people who organized such things would do, oh, I don't know, perhaps 15 minutes of research. Saudi Arabia has been complaining ever since the Saudi flag first made an appearance on World Cup souvenir balls. Surely the community affairs offices of the US military in Afghanistan have some grasp of the culture. OK. Maybe not.

Afghan MP Mirwais Yasini said: "To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country around the world."

A spokeswoman for the US forces in Afghanistan said they made "significant efforts to work with local leaders, mullahs and elders to respect their culture" and distributing the footballs was an effort to give a gift the Afghan children would enjoy.

"Unfortunately," she added, "there was something on those footballs we didn't immediately understand to be offensive and we regret that as we do not want to offend."

Yes, it does remind me of something.


Tell me you didn't know that was coming.

Culture Online: Made In Canada

If you haven't visited this site, it's probably because it's not getting enough recognition and, well, you're not getting enough culture.

I took a look and ran into what can only be described as one helluva shock. We are listed on Canada's Cultural Gateway.

There, under Blogs, Etc. was The Galloping Beaver. (scroll down when you get there)

We are under c.u.l.t.u.r.e. Gather that in. The Banff New Media Institute, an organization I highly respect, gave us a nod.

That's like winning an award!

So, what makes us so cultured? Well, the list could go on forever, and I can only speak for two of the five contributors, but here are a few things:

- We make our own wine. When we run out of that we like to sample the variety out of the Okanagan Valley. We like the new decorator boxes and the fancy new spigots.

- We snowshoe. Unlike skiing it gives one the ability to propel oneself uphill. And, as it's rather slower than skiing, there's actually more to see... like skiers going down the hill and the tree the skiers don't see until the last second. Did I mention you can go uphill in snowshoes? No lift passes hanging off our winter duds. Which means, it's also very cheap.

- We like to watch light shows... like this one.

- We occasionally encounter wildlife. There are these, these and, of course, these. Often, they appear nearby our house. The bighorn sheep like to spend their time in the fast lane of the highway, the beavers keep trying to harness hydro power on the river and the bears, well, tend to do whatever they want and seem to be addicted to apricots.

- We dress in traditional Canadian cultural clothing.

- We like to travel. It's easy in Canada. You start at one end of the country and just go to the other end on the same road. There are a couple of spots where keeping your eyes glued to the road ahead and a death grip on the steering wheel really pay off.

- We go for avant-gard. And we go in for fun.

Culture. It kind of grows on you.