Friday, January 29, 2010

Raccoon Dogs


Inspired by the wonderful book Monarch of Deadman Bay: The Life and Death of A Kodiak Bear By Roger Caras.
The raccoon dog is native to China, Korea, Japan, and Northeastern Russia. Here is the wikipedia. Soundtrack provided by the Korean Psych guitar hero Shin Jung Hyun.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Ghana Brass Band



Thanks to Spencer for sending me the photo that inspired this linocut. Audio accompaniment provided by an Ethiopian High Life band. For more great African music head to Awesome Tapes From Africa.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Antler Attic



Inspired by an actual photograph of an attic full of antlers which I took in Eden, Wyoming. Audio accompaniment provided by myself and Davey on banjo (tuned down to a low D Dock Boggs tuning) and guitar (respectively). It is an instrumental interpretation of Ed Sturgill's song '31 Depression Blues (famously covered by the New Lost City Ramblers).

Monday, January 18, 2010

The A.L. Lloyd Treehouse



A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Lloyd was sent to Australia as a youth and began collecting folk songs while there. Lloyd was a communist and pioneer in the field of collecting and recording "Industrial Folk Music". You can download a great album of his here. Audio accompaniment provided by the 70's Norwegian folk rock band Folque.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Sam Strom's House



Sam Strom was a Norwegian immigrant who was an early settler and miner in Monte Cristo, WA. According to this website as constable, Sam took on the "entire Darrington contingent of the Ku Klux Klan at least twice. Once when they tried to lynch a young Indian boy and another time when they tried to burn a cross in the yard of a Catholic schoolteacher there. He was said to be involved in something like 14 to 17 shootouts during his life" and was a proud member of the Western Federation of Miners. Audio accompaniment provided by Stanley G. Triggs from his Folkways album Bunkhouse and Forecastle songs of the Northwest.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Monte Cristo Structures and Stumps



Partially inspired by the book The Coffee Chased Us Up: Monte Cristo Memories by Elof Norman and also from photographs I took of Monte Crsito while hiking there with my Dad. Monte Cristo, WA was a mining boom town in the 1890's but that all ended with the Panic of 1907. John D. Rockelfeller's syndicate Colby and Hoyt took over the mines in 1891. The road to Monte Cristo washed out in 1980 and it is now a ghost town. Audio accompaniment provided by Alan Mills. Here is the Monte Cristo Preservation Society.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Czolgosz is Recovered!



A charcoal drawing I did 2 years ago somehow wound up on the streets of Seattle and was found a couple days ago by Lindy West of the Stranger. Here's the post on the SLOG about it. I'm still trying to figure out how the picture got to the sidewalk on 11th and Pine- I suspect it flew out of my car. I will also use this incident to post one of my favorite songs about the Mckinley assassination. The song is called Zolgotz and is performed by Bascom Lamar Lunsford. To download all the variations of this song head here.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Treehouses of Cad Goddeu



Audio accompaniment for this post provided by Robin Williamson from his magnificent (and out of print) 1981 album Songs of Love and Parting (on Flying Fish Records). The song is Gwydion's Dream and you can hear it here. Gwydion was a magician in Welsh Mythology and appears in the poem Cad Goddeu, which appears in the ancient Welsh manuscript, The Book of Taliesin (also the name of an awesome Deep Purple record my sweetie gave me for Christmas). In the Poem, Gwydion brings the trees to life to fight as his army.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

The KGB in the Third World


Inspired by the book The World Was Going Our Way :The KGB and the Battle for the Third World
Here is a review of the book
Audio accompaniment for the post is a Russian Pagan Folk Song and you can hear it right here.