northeastwestnancy-blog

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No BS! Brass Band + Quest Love and The Roots + The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon = soul shakin’ goodness!  Universe - MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

TONIGHT SHOW MUSIC PREMIERE

No BS! Brass Band: “Brass Knuckles” 

Kick off your Thursday morning with this jam from No BS! Brass Band! The Richmond, VA natives have been hailed as “one of the best live band of 2013″ by the Wall Street Journal. They’ve been busy this Summer, performing with Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver! 

Be on the lookout for their upcoming album “Brass Knuckles” dropping November 20th. 

And check out No BS! Brass Band on tour this Fall! 

Happy Thursday, pals! 

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New promo photos for the band by Common Spark Media.  

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images from the latest study guide.  

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Actor Seth Rogen gives his opening statement before a Senate hearing on Alzheimer's Research. From C-SPAN3 coverage, watch the complete hearing here: http://...

Seth Rogen speaks about something that has also touched my family - Alzheimer's and dementia.  

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All Aboot Canada ends - Musiking begins

My Canadian history class was only for 4 weeks, so unless I pick up the textbook again to mine it for more insanely interesting Canadian history, which is a loooong shot, I'm putting "All Aboot Canada" on the shelf.

However - I have an ethnomusicology* class this semester that is looking to become pretty post-worthy.  I'm working on one now about West African music traditions and D&D Bard class.  ...and by working on, I mean thinking about.  

* - AKA World Music

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My friends had a baby last night. "Oh brave new world that has such people in't!"

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Running & knitting. Interesting cross-training

Get your funny fix here!

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Aurora moving on earth

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All Aboot Canada - The Doukhobors

The Doukhobors were also known as Ruthenians.  There were from the geographical region we know as Russia and Ukraine.  They actually occupied an area of central Europe that existed both in Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire.  

But, let me back up a little bit.  It is the mid- to late-nineteenth century and a man named Wilfrid Laurier is Prime Minister of Canada.  In 1910, Laurier signs the Naval Bill with Britain.  This gives Canada autonomy from the Empire, until such time as Britain needs it.  Not a great deal, but definitely momentum in the direction of independence for Canada.  

Wilfrid Laurier

Anyway, Laurier is one of the great historical leaders of Canada and remembered in all the history books for the Naval Bill and for his legacy of westward expansion.  It was great to claim all that empty land between Ontario and British Columbia, but you had to put PEOPLE in it to farm it, build on it, and generally make it do something other than sit there.

Laurier - so famous, his face is on money. 

So, in 1871, Canada passes the Dominion Lands Act (modeled after the Homestead Act of 1862), and starts to actively attract settlers to Canada with the offer of land for free!  Everyone is welcome!* As long as you can farm and promise to live and improve the land for 5 years, Canada wants YOU!!

This leads us, in a roundabout way, to the Doukhobors.  Canada's westward expansion is happening at the time before things get really ugly over in Europe and explode into World War I.  Countries want to hold on to their populations and keep their young, draft-age men close, where they can keep an eye on them.  Just in case.  This is especially true in the case of the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary,  They both made it illegal for their citizens to emmigrate anywhere.  Except, when the Doukhobors requested permission, both Austria-Hungary and Russia couldn't hand them over fast enough!

The Doukhobors were Byzantine Catholics.  They gave the bible all moral and legal authority in their community and believed that all people were capable of interpreting the bible.  They were very religious and very tied to one another as a community.  And, best of all, they were traditional FARMERS!  They were EXACTLY what Canada was looking for, right?

Right?

Well, the Doukhobors weren't murderous cannibals or revolutionary terrorists or anything.  But they had some quirks.  Instead of living on the 160 or so acre parcels that the government was handing out, they wanted to live in a communal village with the farmland ranged out and around the village.  

They also refused to sign any oaths of allegiance - their only allegiance was to God.  And when you keep their deeply held religious belief in mind, this last quirk seems all the more quirksome.  

You see, these simple, community-driven, deeply religious farmers from central Europe also believed in peaceful public protest.  Specifically, protest in the form of stripping naked and marching around the public square shouting about what you disagree with.  For hours.  Sometimes all day.  

Saskatchewan - 1903

As you can imagine, this deeply miffed the very conservative, very protestant, very Tory Canadians.  Those ol' sourpusses.

*by the early 20th century, Canada begins to get pretty racist about who they are going to let in.  But that's another story for another time.  

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Listen to Moossa / Told You So | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.

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oh man.  when you can't find me...I'll probably be here.

Norway (by Anton Baklashov)

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this is pretty damn cool.

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All Aboot Canada - Canada and the Civil War

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, after America had successfully fought and won independence from Britain, Canada was also fighting for better representation and more individual freedoms.  They were tired of being led by appointed Governor-Generals from London, and they were tired of not having an equal voice in their own representation.  Canadiens, Late Loyalists from America, and immigrants from the British Isles and Europe all struggled against Crown soldiers to win a more representative governing body.  They fought with words in stump speeches and newspapers.  They also raised the flag of Liberalism inspired by the Enlightenment movement that sparked the same flame in the Thirteen Colonies, France, Haiti, Ireland, Latin America, and in Mexico in the late 18th century.  

In 1834, Louis-Joseph Papineau and the Parti Patriote (formerly the Parti Canadien) passed the Ninety-two Resolutions that outlined the problems in Lower Canada which could be traced to the lack of power in the elected assembly.  The Resolutions were sent to London to be reviewed by Parliament, but there is no response and no change.  Papineau then creates the Societe des Fils de la Liberte (Society of the Sons of Liberty) - a paramilitary organization that attacks British forces in Lower Canada.  They had early successes, but ultimately failed to win against the British soldiers.

By 1837 there was rebellion in Upper Canada.  William Lyon Mackenzie called for government reform in the form of a republic modeled after the newly formed United States.  On July 4th of the previous year, Mackenzie begins publishing his own newspaper called The Constitution.  He reprinted texts by Thomas Paine and other radical views of Republicanism.  The 1837 attack on Toronto, lead by Mackenzie, also failed, and many rebels in Upper and Lower Canada were shipped off to the British penal colony in Tasmania.  Mackenzie, who had fled to the U.S., became an advocate for the annexation of Canada by the U.S.  This was fine and dandy by the Americans, who were flush with the idea of controlling the entire Western Hemisphere in their dreams of Manifest Destiny.  

The Monroe Doctrine advocated the absence of European Empires in the Western Hemisphere, and called for all of the Americas to be independent from Europe.  To show Canada their support, America enacted the Canadian-American Reciprocity Agreement in 1854.  This agreement allowed raw goods to cross the border between America and Canada without being taxed.  After the loss of The Corn Laws in 1846, numerous rebellions, a cholera outbreak, the Fenian raids, and a general malaise of death, fear, and political mistrust - Canada welcomed the help from their neighbor to the south.

However, the amiable relationship between the U.S. and Canada was fragile.  It only took one raid into St. Albans, Vermont to shatter it completely.  Canada is a big place, and the whole world was watching the very young Republic of America come again and again to the brink of war with itself over the issue of states' rights and slavery - that "peculiar institution" of the Southern states.  Some people in Canada supported the fight for states' rights and allowed a group of Confederate soldiers to attack the Union from Canada.  The Confederates crossed the border, pretending to be Canadian hunters, robbed the local banks of St. Albans of about $200,000, tried to burn down the town, and killed one person.  When the soldiers were captured on the Canadian side of the border, it caused a diplomatic issue.  The U.S. wanted the men to be extradited to the states in order to bring them up on criminal charges.  Canada, however, recognized the men as soldiers following orders during a war and they would not release the men to the U.S.

And that was it.  The Union rescinded the Reciprocity Agreement and Canada returned to the ever-present fear that, at any moment, the United States would look to the North and swallow them either whole or piecemeal in the name of Manifest Destiny.  The event also led credence to the idea that Britain supported the Confederacy, even though they were publicly neutral.  

As we know, the U.S. did not conquer Canada, and the separate regions in Canada eventually became one nation, under the Crown.  What would have changed if this had turned out differently?  After the Civil War, the Union army was strong - much stronger than the Canadian military.  Britain was much more interested in sending soldiers to Egypt and India and was tired of fighting with its colonies in the West.  

Perhaps it was the siren song of the emerald shores of the Pacific Northwest and the lure of undiscovered gold in them thar hills that kept these two nations separate.  Or, perhaps, they each recognized in the other the struggle against an Empire that once used them as a source for raw materials and gave very little in return.  Perhaps the U.S. and Canada, under all the political rhetoric, saw each other as comrades in the same fight for the Enlightenment ideals of Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality.  

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Italian animator Rino Stefano Tagliafierro creates beautiful animations with classic paintings.  

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If I had cool facial hair, I could be RDJ's TWIN!  ;o)

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All Aboot Canada - Battle of Quebec

So, way back in The middle 1700s, the British set out to capture the city of Quebec. The French outnumbered the Brits 13,000 to 3300, it took the Brits 3 months to GET to Quebec, the old city was WAY fortified, but the French managed to lose the battle in 15 minutes.

15 minutes. And we give them crap for WWII. Should’ve known our history.

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Can you have a kick-starter to finance a dye job?

Rainbow Hair Porn

(fromsmallviletosuperman-the third picture)