jabel

Roadside shrine near Medora, IN

A friend recently said that he identifies more with his grandparents than his parents. I agreed, and with some more thought I think I know why. A brief overview of the four turnings model of Anglo-American history, if you’re not already familiar. Quotes are taken from the book, focusing on the last two cycles. I suspect historians would hate the four turnings idea, but it’s been a very useful mental model for me. First Turning: High an upbeat era of strengthening institutions and weakening…

Patrick Joyce, Remembering Peasants: The dwelling is also a constitutive part of the relationship between past and present generations, between the living and the dead. Something handed on, or hoped to be handed on, something to be received. When the dead have a foundational role in human life, as is the case with peasants, then the house takes on a cosmological significance. But the house remains eminently material at the same time. There is also that other house, the one where the dead dwell,…

Me and Dad Me and Darcy

Still trawling the archives. I used to have a Buttondown newsletter. The following—a themed issue rather than the usual “what I read this week” format—is the only thing I’ve found worth saving from that era. Reading The Magic Mountain every morning over that winter of 2018-2019 remains as a happy memory. Welcome, friends. You can only come across so many references to a novel before you decide you need to read it for yourself. That’s why I started reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It’s…

I continue to come across some old drafts as I clean out my Dropbox. Here is a poem that I can’t date exactly–maybe a couple of years ago? I listened to a podcast today about rare earth minerals. It didn’t help my mood. As the rage built inside me, I imagined writing a poetic diatribe. But I’m tired. And my tooth hurts. And I’m just so sad about everything. What good would it do, artfully arranging words while the earth is cracked open and the bodies of the poor are broken and we here in…

“A company man for USA, Inc.” I had an old draft that ended with that line but apparently I deleted it a couple of nights ago. Oh well! Feel free to use it for a folk protest song.

Patrick Joyce, Remembering Peasants: The means of survival is land. Peasants do not see land like we do. We see land in terms of ‘nature’ , something separated from the artificiality of humankind’s creations, or, if these creations are included, then the natural, the supernatural and the unnatural are distinguished one from another. ‘Nature' does not convey peasant reality, though we like to think it does. It is for peasants a semantically empty category, and there is little iconic or verbal…

I’m moving stuff out of Dropbox so I can stop paying for it. I found this in a drafts folder but I have no memory of it. So I post it here, contextless. Time is a stalking beast, Watching, waiting to bring you down. But we are distracted, Unconscious of the danger.

Still listening to the new David Benjamin Blower while cranking through month-end closing today. Where there are feet upon the earth there is a village hall Where there is prayer there is a temple and a gathering This is an event This is a happening God dwells in tents where the beasts sing God dwells, God dwells here with everything

Everyone knows about child development; adult development is less appreciated. One aspect of adult development is the maturation of long-term love. Young Love This is the period characterized by looking long and deeply into the lover’s eyes. The world disappears and the only thing that matters is what is seen in those scrying orbs. This period is well documented (see the pop music charts of the last seventy years) and, unfortunately, grasped too tightly by people who do not realize it is meant…

Made pimento cheese for a gathering of friends tonight. I’ve always loved pimento cheese but this is the first time making it. So simple. 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (shred it yourself; it’s cheaper!) 1/2 cup mayo (added a little at a time until you get to the desired texture) 4 oz diced pimentos 1-2 tsp mustard salt and pepper small amount of grated onion, to taste a few or many dashes of hot sauce Mix together and chill for at least 30 minutes. Eat with Ritz crackers. Or with bread. Or by…

I’m not sure how I heard of David Benjamin Blower or when I followed him on Bandcamp but I’m glad today that I did. His new album is great. “Apocalyptic folk,” he calls it, and that certainly got my attention. 🎵

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather, Grass and greenworld all together ; Star-eyed strawberry-breasted Throstle above her nested Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin Forms and warms the life within ; And bird and blossom swell In sod or sheath or shell. All things rising, all things sizing Mary sees, sympathizing With that world of good Nature’s motherhood. From “The May Magnificat” by Gerald Manley Hopkins

Wonderful episode of The Emerald: “Carry That Weight: On Mythic Burdens and Cosmic Supports.” If you’re feeling the weight of the world—and you’re open to an animist view of the world—I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This is the sort of bread Rachel turns out on a random Thursday. She’s gotten so good over the last couple of years.

A quick search of my posts reveals that I am excited at this time every year when the tree frogs start their ruckus. Dear reader, it has begun.

Great segment from John Oliver on the continuing dangers of AI around mental health, suicide risk, and plain old delusion–and the absolutely sociopathic responses of the AI CEOs.

A really interested tidbit from Joel Salatin about how North America before the Europeans actually produced more food than it does today, even with the various chemicals.

CNBC newsletter: Musk’s Tesla is beta testing an in-vehicle version of xAI’s Grok chatbot. First rolled out last year, it allows drivers to give voice commands to their car’s navigation system. Meanwhile, my thirty-year old pickup truck has no power windows, locks, mirrors, or seat. The radio/cassette player doesn’t work–and I may not fix it. It doesn’t get in a hurry to go anywhere, which is increasingly to my taste.

The Louvin Brothers, “Dying from Home, and Lost.” The harmony on this one really reminds me of my childhood church, which I wrote about here. That album, by the way, is one banger after another.

It’s ridiculous, really, that I haven’t read any of the Foxfire books yet. I’ve checked out from the library an ebook edition of The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cooking to get me started and I’m going to keep an eye out for used copies of the main series.

This might interest a cross-section of folks here: A Greek Orthodox priest has released “Paradise Metal.” From the review site: “microtonal Byzantine modes with DIY electronic modernism,” “sublime new age ambient to shoe-gazy basslines and mountaintop guitar shreds to techno incantations.” Bandcamp

Patrick Joyce, Remembering Peasants: We do not easily remember peasants. The realities of their lives are a dim presence in the historical record. We catch only glimpses in the great obscurity that is the centuries-old peasant past of Europe. The first is from the Poland of a century ago: Every field knows its owner, the Earth is indignant at every crime committed on its face. The moon watches and prayers are still said to it. The stars answer a woman or man who knows the right way to ask them.…

It’s clean sweep week here in town—the time of year when the city will, free of charge, pick up anything you put on the curb. Rachel said she’s already seen a couple of pickup trucks roaming the neighborhood trying to beat the city to some treasures. That will absolutely be me someday.

Thinking about Johnny Cash this morning brought to mind this from Over the Rhine: “Earthbound Love Song.” 🎵

Johnny Cash, “Satisfied Mind” 🎵

Finished reading Sacasus’ “AI as Christian Heresy.” His final paragraph clarified something that’s been banging around in my head: What would it mean to render to the machine what is the machine’s? To regain a sense of what it is to be a person, coupled with a subversive practice of the same, within a techno-economic system whose default settings incline us to forget this vital fact about ourselves and our neighbours? To reclaim a confidence in what we can do ourselves and for one another in…

Excellent quote on Todd’s blog on how the rich (and genAI users!) are harmed by lack of pushback.

Robin Sloan’s magic postcards are cool. I’ve always thought QR codes are a great technology for the interface of physical and digital. Once I homebrewed a beer and attached a label with a QR code linking to this hidden page on my site and gave them to friends. Turns out no one noticed!