kitchen tunks

"Kitchen dances used to be a common part of life in rural New England. With no television and few movie theaters, the local dance was often the only entertainment around. Although most towns offered occasional large public dances, most dancing took place at the kitchen junkets; also called kitchen tunks.

The kitchen was used because it was generally the largest room in the house. All the furniture would be removed —including the stove in summer —and the fiddler would be placed out of harm’s way, maybe in a doorway or even the sink." -New England Fiddles.

"The men chipped in to pay the fiddler, and the women brought the lunch—sandwiches, cake and coffee. After barn chores, around 9, everyone arrived and threw their coats onto a bed, which usually also had a few sleeping children on it... The dancers filled the kitchen, and sometimes spread out into other rooms, dancing until way past midnight, when they would pile back into their sleighs for the ride home." -via Old Stone House

A few years ago I picked up a fantastic documentary (on VHS no less) called The Unbroken Circle which traces traditional and country (not C&W) music in Vermont, from radio cowboy bands to contemporary square dancing and callers. The producers followed up by releasing a great cd, Kitchen Tunks.

"Recorded from 1984-86 in homes and at community events by folklorist-musician-educator Mark Greenberg, "Vermont: Kitchen Tunks and Parlor Songs"... Many of the songs provided home-made evening entertainment for rural Vermonters before the dominance of mass media, while many of the tunes provided the music for Saturday night kitchen tunks, farmhouse parties with friends and neighbors dancing to old-time tunes played live by local fiddlers, harmonica players, and other musicians." -via Mutlicultural Media.

The selections reflect Vermont's Yankee and French-Canadian traditions as well as the impact of Southern styles and popular music... fiddlers, harmonica, sing songs ranging from childrens ditties to comic tales to hymns, whistling, a foot-operated piano "rig," and square-dance calls.

Listen here. (try 37, 39, 40, and 11, 12, 13)

More on kitchen tunks in the Dictionary of American Regional English (killer resource btw).

bookshelf -the alphabet book

Rodney Peppé is author-illustrator of over eighty children's books but is now more into toymaking. He specializes in mechanical/moving toys and has exhibited the automata in one-man shows, including the V&A Museum of Childhood and the National Theatre.

Tough to find good info on this chap (think he may be British, this book v hard to find in the States), but I like the mixed/collage in this early work of his The Alphabet Book (1968). Not wild on his later stuff (Angelmouse/Huxley Pig) but the boys are liking this ABC book. Used to be mine. Rescued this from a box in the barn; take that kindle... (Found a similar one of his we don't have; Circus Numbers.)

hanon

Omil keeps sending me links to this e-shop Hanon based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Some old faves (Penfield, Pendelton, Stussy, Eastpak, Adidas, Clarks, Levis) and a bunch of brands (Wood Wood, Folk, more) I don't know too well. Data mining...

quiz -jt lancer or nick

Greaser or Soc' is a classic quizzer, but a bit extreme. How about JT Lancer or Nick?
There are so many great bits in The Big Chill. Goldblum is on freekin fire...

mortonhall crematorium -edinburgh

Built in the 1960s, this functional and modernist building in Edinburgh's Braid Hills area was designed by the Scottish architect Sir Basil Spence, (who had also designed a house in the Scottish Borders in which we were lucky to live for over 10 years, Broughton Place). We held the remembrance service for my Scottish grandmother at Mortonhall a few years ago and I loved the simplicity of it (service and building). Mortonhall serves a non-denominational purpose but the modern style is frankly in keeping with the older Church of Scotland ethos of less, less, less, then simplify.

Elaboration by Mark Chalmers describes Mortonhall thus; "The calm Modernism is a fitting backdrop for loss and grief in our Age – compared to say the High Gothic which was the Victorians’ funerary style. One is the product of a rational humanism, or a gentle pantheism; the other reflects the psychopomp of the later 19th century, with its elaborate ceremony and ritual."

I would agree with this decription; "...white Corbusian buildings in rolling parkland setting: the crystalline chapel's interior feels Scandinavian." -via e-architect

Photo via National Gallery Scotland"Mortonhall Crematorium was one of the many commissions which Spence [Sir Basil Spence] received following the success of Coventry Cathedral. The building comprises a main structure with two large chapels, the crematorium and services block, a separate private chapel, a garden of remembrance and staff residencies.

All interior fixtures and fittings were kept simple to allow for quiet reflection. The interior of the chapel is lit naturally with the only colour coming from stained glass windows, which project coloured patterns onto the white interior." -via National Gallery Scotland.

"Spence insisted that all the interior fixtures and fittings were kept simple. Pine pews set into concrete blocks allow for quiet reflection; a white concrete and bronze platform supports the coffin; and dark grey concrete slabs comprise the flooring. The only colour within the chapels comes from the stained glass windows..." via the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project.

Photo courtesy of Richard Cross
More at Edinburgh Architecture.

nobody's fool

The scene with the watch is pretty touching, for any parent types out there... I want that hat. The Iron Horse Bar in Hudson NY was formerly the State Grill, but kept the sign after the movie crew left town. And nothing to do with motorcycles, is named for the nearby train yard I believe. Anyone?? In Richard Russo's book Nobody's Fool it was called the White Horse Tavern, don't have the story on why it changed (maybe too many actual White Horse Taverns in reality?) Will I be as crotchety as Sully at that age... half way there. [age or crotchety? -ed.]

Photo via JosephA on flickr