#Michael D. Coe

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #11 – The Maya (10th Edition) by Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston

My second proper history book of the year, and significantly better than the first! This existed on the happy intersection of ‘the r/AskHistorian’s big list of recommenced works on Goodreads’ and ‘stuff my public library inexplicably has a copy of’. It’s dense and more than a bit dry reading, enough that I read it over the course of a week as a side-dish to more digestible fiction. Still, fascinating read, and a book that left more far better informed about the subject than when I started it.

The book is more or less what it says on the tin – a survey of the history of the Maya (or at least the current state of what’s known about it). The book opens with an explanation of the Maya language family, the relevant geography, the characteristics of the high- and lowlands, and the division into northern, central and southern area the field seems to use generally. The better part of it is then arranged chronologically, beginning with the Archaic Period, through the Pre-Classic and Classic, then then Collapse and the Post-Classic. The Spanish Conquest and history since gets a very abbreviated epilogue, ending with a few micro-anthropologies of different contemporary villages and then a five-page travellers’ guide to the most important sites and how to access them.

It’s all, as I said, quite dense – the sort of book where every paragraph adds at least one new important fact and very little time is spent on repetition or review. Combined with the usually very dry, expository tone, it feels much more like a textbook to be read with a lecturer or group to break down and dig into each section than something that was really written to be read alone and for pleasure. Which you know, makes sense, given that this is the tenth edition of a book originally written several decades before I was born.

Now, I say this is a history book, but that’s honestly a bit of a kludge – better to say it’s an archaeology book or, failing that, about anthropology and historiography. There is very little narativizing, and it is very much told from the point of view of the present. That is, the sections are organized chronologically, but within them the unit of analysis is the archaeological site, with every supposition explained as emerging from the analysis of some ruin or artifact or fragment of text. Far more time is spent on the architecture and layout of Mayan cities than the people who actually lived within them, simply because the author’s have so much more to say about them.

It’s only really in the chapters on the Classic (and, to a much lesser extent, post-classic) periods that the book goes from theorizing about building and pottery styles to speaking more confidently about royal courts and high politics and dynastic grandeur, and above all the attempts to give specific particular people a sense of personality and personal biographies that you generally expect out of a pop history book. Which does make sense, given that those are the only periods where we really have enough textual evidence to confidently name and ascribe significance to any particular people – overwhelmingly dynasts and war-leaders, because of course those are the (almost invariably) men who constructed stelae and covered the walls of temples with testaments of their own greatness.

This means that you do get more of a look into nuts and bolts of knowledge production that you do in most histories – a passage about the development of chocolate drinks as elite consumption is framed with the discovery of cocoa residue on preclassic ceramic vessels, one about human sacrifice by the discovery of skeletal remains in cenotes near major architectural sites, that sort of thing. Similarly, just about every single discovery or theory is credited to one or a few specific academics who initially made it. Which will be either incredibly interesting or the dullest thing in the world, depending on one’s tastes.

The text is mostly incredibly dry and expository in tone, which makes the points where a real sense of personality and subjective opinion leaks through interesting. And endearing, at least to me, but I just find there to be something instantly likeable about the sort of academic myopia which considers human sacrifice and mass famine from the point of view of the universe but is roused to passionate rage by suburban sprawl building over unexamined archaeological sites.

I knew little enough about the specifics of Maya civilization going into this that just relaying everything that struck me reading this would turn this review into a novella. But the way that lowland urbanization and agriculture were based around, not rivers like just about every other culture I’ve read on, but cenotes (and artificially constructed simulacra thereof) in the limestone to capture enough rainwater to last through the dry season was just fascinating. The fact that, the region’s reputation for inexhaustible lushness notwithstanding, the soil the Maya relied upon was very thin and in most cases totally degraded after just a few years of agriculture as well. (Speaking of, the theorizing about how diet changed over the ages and how this related to population movements and density was just fascinating).

The book really wasn’t that interested in the specifics of mythology or divine pantheons beyond how they showed up on engravings and ornamentation – there’s no bestiary of gods or anything – but there’s enough of that ornamentation for it to be a recurring topic anyway. I admit I still find the fact that there’s this great primordial pre-classic god-monster which in the modern era is just called ‘Principle Bird Deity’ deeply amusing.

The book is deeply interested in the Maya calendar and time-keeping. Along with the monumental architecture it’s pretty clearly the thing that the authors find most impressive and awe-inspiring about Classical Mayan culture. There’s enough time dedicated to explaining it that I even pretty much understood how the different counts and levels of timekeeping interacted by the end of the book.

One beat the book kept coming back to (which I admit suits my biases quite well) is that there’s just no sense in the Maya were ever isolated or pristine. Cultural influence coming down from the Valley of Mexico waxed and waned, but on some level it was constant – Mesoamerica was a coherent cultural unit, and the similarities in philosophy and culture (not to mention material goods) between cultures within it are too blatant to ignore. The book theorizes that the population levels reached in the Yucatan before the Spanish Conquest really couldn’t have been supported by local maize agriculture, and instead cities were probably sustained by harvesting and exporting from the salt flats (among the best in the Americas) they controlled access to.

Even beyond trade, there’s several points where ruling dynasties were toppled or installed by armies ranging down from Mexico. The Olmecs and Toltecs make repeated appearances. Even the conquistadors conquest of the Highlands was really only possible because the few hundred Spaniards who got all the credit were marching alongside several thousand indigenous allies.

Speaking of – it’s really only an aside to an epilogue, but given I mostly know the Anglo-American history here, it did kind of strike me how...traditionally imperialist the Spanish were, compared to the more-or-less explicitly genocidal rhetoric I’m used to. If you were an indigenous potentate or ruler enthusiastically selling out to the Spanish Crown was significantly more likely to actually work out for you than trusting a treaty with the US of A, anyway (well, for a while. Smallpox comes for everyone),

Then again, the book does mention that the newly independent Mexican and Central American states in the 19th century were actually significantly worse for the Maya than the Bourbons had been (with things reaching their nadir with the genocidal violence of the 1980s in Guatemala), so maybe that’s it.

Anyway, the book is illustrated, and absolutely chock full of truly beautiful photography and prints on just about every other page. Even if you never actually read it, it would be a great coffee table book.

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Spotify Tracklist below the cut due to length.

0.002 • Nobody Makes Money Anymore • Stephen Chicken • How Many Friends Have You Bought In Your Unsigned Band • 2 be or not to be • I'm In With The Soundcloud • 2 noble kinsmen • Johnny Ramone Joins The Beatles • Mojo Mojo Why Don't You Go And Review This Album Instead Of Another REM Blowjo • Noel Gallagher Is Jealous Of My Studio • My Royalty Statement • YouTube Are Fleecing You • I Wanna Be The New Ed Sheeran • Happy (Un) • Drop That Bridge Like Taylor Swift • The Great Sync Deal In The Sky • Liam Gallagher Is Jealous Of My Clever Turn Of Phrase • Dappy Versus Zombies vs The Pocket Gods • NME NME You're History • Nobody Makes Any Money Anymore • Adele • EMI • Synch • Steve Blacknell's Near Fatal Asthma Attack • Best Of Joe Rogan • Rock N Roll • Modern Music Is Boring Me • Mariah The Pariah • All About The Bass & Not Being Paid A Fair Amount • Neil • We Love Gideon Coe • 0.007 • the bbc will introduce you as long as you're under 25 • this is the end of the music business • Nowhere Left To Play • The Orchard Versus Sony • 6 Music Is The New Radio 1 • youtube are fleecing you outro • we don't need another nero • tory wet dream • Stars On MP3 • Racist Seaside Town They Forgot To Close Down • Starbuckers • Corporation Lax • Grotify • Brexiteers of The World Unite (ironically) • Penny Arcade Jukebox Scam • The Weak Spine Of Mr Cameron • Exit Brexit For Xmas • I Hate Hipsters • Ballad Of The Lonely Fruit Picker • Absent Smelly Stick Your Pay To Play Up Your Bottom • Shazam Kazam It's All A Mystery To Me • Peter Doherty's Quest For A Mythical Albion • Deezer Geezer • Brown Nose Brexit • A&R Pervert Man • Steve Jobs • Why Did I Write This Album With 1000 Songs On Now I have No Social Life • Shoddy Waddy • Best Of Boris Johnson • Pusher • Disinformate the Disinformators • Radio 2 Is Cool • It's The Brits • Lawyer V Liar • blah blah the music industry ceo goes • Folsom Prison Jism • The Forumla To Work Out My Royalties Is More Complicated Than The Superstring Theory Of Everything • Country Chaos • 45 Rip • John Peel's On The Phone • Another Generic Pop Song • Cesspool Karaoke • Bait Oven • Lucy Fux Cowell • Precious Electro Pop Indie Band Change The World • Minceyments • Zx Spectrum Soundtrack • Why Did I Write This Album With 1000 Songs On Now I have No Wife • Alan Mghee and the Pink Raincoat • The Monkees Gave Good Head • Michael Jackson Vs The illumati • The Sound Of The Future AI Bot • Mac Book Ho • Shabby Road • I.will.Iam Shakespeare • Feed Me Seymour • Auto Tune Loon • Reality TV Killed The Video Star • Madame Jo Jo's • Modern Music Is Boring Me • Small Town Musos • Medusa • Pledge • Ex Tractor • Jarvis Said Send Me Your Christmas Album • I'm A D List St Albans' Musician Get ME Out Of Here • Santasucker • Who Knows Who The F*ck Is Number 1? • Joe Meek • Pay To Play • Dodgy London Promoter • He's A Local Music Star • You Can't Shoplift MP3s • 2nd Biggest Band In The Village • Tedious day Job Rescue me me universe • The End Of The Mean Times )LOA) • The End Of The Pocket Gods? • Odd one out (just for the cd remember them?) • Premier • 2016 • 2379 • A Fool On The chill • Ac • Ag • Living On Top Of A Porno Cinema • ahura mazda • Al • White Noise Christmas • Albany • Alexi (not Sanchez) Put The Grunge Into Soccer! • all in all it's just another prick in the wall • All Things Must Pass • all you need is love and money • Always Look On The Norman Whiteside Of Life • Am • And Your Bird Can Sing • ANOTHER BLING FOOTBALLER • Another Blue Plaque • Another clown on the ground rolling around • APOCRYPHA • A&R Talking • Watch Out Lockdown is Coming • As • When BJ Apologies All I Hear Is This • Au • AVATAR • Sue's Redacted Report • Silence (sound of lockdown) with Tinnitus • ballad of blackfriars tavern • ballad of the lonely people again • Banksies dodgy beer • Bard For Life • Bard Rock Cafe • Bardify • Be • Beatles Wives Can't Sing • Beatles On A Tinny Tannoy (Ode to Shay) • Beatles On Spotify • BEST player not have played at a World Cup

Best Tattoo • better part of valour • Better Than The Stones • Beware The IDS of March • Bi • Big Willie Style • Bigger Than Jesus…but Jesus Never Toured (the US) • Bight the Apple That Feeds • billy fury • Billy Preston (was the 5th beatle) • Spent Too Long Watching Get Back • Blind Hope • blisters on my fingers • Bond Girl • Bono Is Bigger Than The Beatles • Br • dead tod • bring me the head of francis bacon • Bud Miser • Had Enougth Of Politics • C • Ca • Cardenio • Cathrine • What Party? • I wasn't there honest guv • Deffo A Work Event • Christ as Stoichkov • christmas in cricklewood • chuck berry we stole his riffs • Church Of Merch • Nothing to See here • Cm • Co • CONTE VERDE • Cornwall • Cr • Crap World Cup Mascot • Cs • cu night twelfth • Cu • Cygnus • Cynthia v Yoko • David Bowie v Shakespeare • day 1 of lockdown oh my god • day 2 of lockdown be good to get our • day 3 of lockdown wtf? • day 4 of lockdown jim jams • day 5 of lockdown call docs • day 6 of lockdown bed head • day 7 of lockdown not getting out of bed • day 8 of lockdown st albans' wine & cheese extravaganza • day 9 of lockdown grateful we don't live in a flat in london • day 10 of lockdown another day • day 11 of lockdown locked out of the playground • day 12 of lockdown thank god for nomansland • day 13 of lockdown project fear being ramped up • day 14 of lockdown 3 word phrases • day 15 of lockdown take away take away • day 16 of lockdown blah • day 17 of lockdown it's like picadilly circus outside my house • day 18 of lockdown slobs days • day 19 of lockdown knock more tracks off • day 20 of lockdown still waiting for my EMDR treatment god what is going on? • day 21 of lockdown phoned the mental health emergency helpline and got cut off after an hour on hold it's pretty desperate • day 22 of lockdown need my freedom need to escape need to get out can't stand being trapped inside (childhood memories) • day 23 of lockdown at least I don't drink anymore though quite tempted to start again • day 24 of lockdown I'm certain that when we look back after the pandemic has finished we will see that lockdowns caused more harm than good • day 25 of lockdown driving to the next village will we get arrested? • day 26 of lockdown another day another walk so glad we live in the country • day 27 of lockdown working at home zoom freak out • day 28 of lockdown not much to say today • day 29 of lockdown got another idea for a world record • day 30 of lockdown is this the right person to be leading us and what is it all really about, still no word on EMDR • day 32 of lockdown not sure what day it is • day 33 of lockdown just keep going and still waiting for Psychiatrist to call • day 34 of lockdown spring is here shall I have an alcohol free beer? • day 35 of lockdown so many 3 word phrases quite frightening • day 36 of lockdown life is now all online what a drag • day 37 of lockdown right said fred are speaking out against lockdown what does it mean • day 38 of lockdown is more tedious than this album • day 39 of lockdown cheese and toast is the new rock n roll • day 40 of lockdown one day hats will be eaten • day 41 of lockdown survived the wicker man • day 42 of lockdown long way to go when will it end • day 43 of lockdown life is an online barbie fashion show • day 44 of lockdown run run run fat boy • day 45 of lockdown May 6th 2020 • day 46 of lockdown I bet they're having parties in Downing Street • day 47 of lockdown there's a reason why this is played in morse code • day 48 of lockdown this is morse code for why don't Spotify and Apple pay us more money • day 49 of lockdown If I Can Get Through Lockdown and finish this album of 1000 tracks then that would mean something • day 50 of lockdown May 11th 2020 • day 51 of lockdown bet there's been another party in Downing Street • day 52 of lockdown anyone still listening? • day 53 of lockdown we're all in this together? • day 54 of lockdown I can't wear a mask it triggers my PTSD what am i to do?

day 55 of lockdown cross it off my bedroom wall and the walrus was paul • day 56 of lockdown gonna have to go off sick can't cope with lockdown and having no treatment • day 57 of lockdown gp signed me off still no sign of EMDR oh well let's go for a walk • day 58 of lockdown no comment today • day 59 of lockdown we are putting our trust in a corrupt government let's all focus on making our own world a better place • day 60 of lockdown hospitality hospitality they've all got it in for hospitality • day 61 of lockdown The Rose And Crown • day 62 of lockdown longing to be back in Kessingland • day 63 of lockdown toast toast toast • day 64 of lockdown taking up metal detecting shame it's illegal in lockdown • day 65 of lockdown does Ed Sheeran fancy a track on this album? • day 66 of lockdown yeah that kind of sucks • day 67 of lockdown Our cat Minty has Pohms and he likes you to smell dem • day 68 of lockdown this album is like a musical filibuster • day 69 of lockdown i used to be a socialist now i just prefer colouring in • day 70 of lockdown ah might be starting my EMDR soon online of course would be nice to do it in person but there you go • day 71 of lockdown spell dem • day 72 of lockdown that's me in the corner • day 73 of lockdown smile and be happy • day 74 of lockdown amazon and on • day 75 of lockdown boot noot • day 76 of lockdown can i just sit it out this great reset thing • day 77 of lockdown june 7th • day 78 of lockdown june 8th 2020 • day 79 of lockdown june 9th 2020 • day 80 of lockdown june 10th 2020. • day 81 of lockdown june 11th 2020 • day 82 of lockdown june 12th 2020 • day 83 of lockdown june 13th 2020 • day 84 of lockdown june 14th 2020 • day 85 of lockdown june 15th 2020 • day 86 of lockdown june 16th 2020 • day 87 of lockdown june 17th 2020 • day 88 of lockdown june 18th 2020 • day 89 of lockdown june 19th 2020 • day 90 of lockdown june 20th 2020 is there another party? • day 91 of lockdown june 21st 2020 i quit! • day 92 of lockdown june 22nd 2020 • day 93 of lockdown june 23rd 2020 • day 94 of lockdown june 24th 2020 i'm 50 should have been playing the 100 club but i'm having fun in the garden pook with the family • day 95 of lockdown june 25th 2020 • day 96 of lockdown june 26th 2020 • day 97 of lockdown june 27th 2020 • day 98 of lockdown june 28th 2020 • day 99 of lockdown june 29th 2020 • day 100 of lockdown june 30th 2020 • day 101 of lockdown july 1st 2020 12 weeks my arse • day 102 of lockdown july 2nd 2020 summer mask implosion • day 103 of lockdown july 3rd 2020 • day 104 of lockdown july 4th 2020 independence day ha! • day 105 of lockdown july 5th 2020 • day 106 of lockdown july 6th 2020 ooh i need your maths babe • day 107 of lockdown july 7th 2020 • day 108 of lockdown july 8th 2020 the cues watch the queues • day 109 of lockdown july 9th 2020 • day 110 of lockdown july 10th 2020 • day 111 of lockdown july 11th 2020 pants • day 112 of lockdown july 12th 2020 • day 113 of lockdown july 13th 2020 only 1/3 way through yikes • day 114 of lockdown july 14th 2020 • day 115 of lockdown july 15th 2020 • day 116 of lockdown july 16th 2020 • day 117 of lockdown july 17th 2020 • day 118 of lockdown july 18th 2020 • day 119 of lockdown july 19th 2020 • day 120 of lockdown july 20th 2020 • day 121 of lockdown july 21st 2020 • day 122 of lockdown july 22nd 2020 • day 123 of lockdown july 23rd 2020 • day 124 of lockdown july 24th 2020 • day 125 of lockdown july 25th 2020 • day 126 of lockdown july 26th 2020.wav • day 127 of lockdown july 27th 2020 • day 128 of lockdown july 28th 2020 • day 129 of lockdown july 29th 2020 • day 130 of lockdown july 30th 2020 • day 131 of lockdown july 31st 2020 • day 132 of lockdown August 1st 2020 • day 133 of lockdown August 2nd 2020 • day 134 of lockdown August 3rd 2020 • day 135 of lockdown August 4th 2020.wav • day 136 of lockdown August 5th 2020 • day 137 of lockdown August 6th 2020 • day 138 of lockdown August 7th 2020 • day 139 of lockdown August 8th 2020

day 140 of lockdown August 9th 2020 • day 141 of lockdown August 10th 2020 • day 142 of lockdown August 11th 2020 • day 143 of lockdown August 12th 2020 • day 144 of lockdown August 13th 2020 • day 145 of lockdown August 14th 2020 • day 146 of lockdown August 15th 2020 • day 147 of lockdown August 16th 2020 time for a pizza party • day 148 of lockdown August 17th 2020 • day 149 of lockdown August 18th 2020.wav • day 150 of lockdown August 19th 2020 ya ya • day 151 of lockdown August 20th 2020 • day 152 of lockdown August 21st 2020 • day 153 of lockdown August 22nd 2020 pass me the port • day 154 of lockdown August 23rd 2020 • day 155 of lockdown August 24th 2020 • day 156 of lockdown August 25th 2020 • day 157 of lockdown August 26th 2020 • day 158 of lockdown August 27th 2020 • day 159 of lockdown August 28th 2020 • day 160 of lockdown August 29th 2020 • day 161 of lockdown August 30th 2020 • day 162 of lockdown August 31st 2020 • day 163 of lockdown September 1st 2020 • day 164 of lockdown September 2nd 2020 • day 165 of lockdown September 3rd 2020 • day 166 of lockdown September 4th 2020 • day 167 of lockdown September 5th 2020 • day 168 of lockdown September 6th 2020 • day 169 of lockdown September 7th 2020 • day 170 of lockdown September 8th 2020 • day 171 of lockdown September 9th 2020 • day 172 of lockdown September 10th 2020 • day 173 of lockdown September 11th 2020 • day 174 of lockdown September 12th 2020 • day 175 of lockdown September 13th 2020 • day 176 of lockdown September 14th 2020 • day 177 of lockdown September 15th 2020 • day 178 of lockdown September 16th 2020 • day 179 of lockdown September 17th 2020 • day 180 of lockdown September 18th 2020 • day 181 of lockdown September 19th 2020 • day 182 of lockdown September 20th 2020 • day 183 of lockdown September 21st 2020 • salami danger man • napoleon hill • joey ramone • john altman was in star wars • the trumpton diets • bono was quite good in that kids film • dave spud is the new rock and roll • bj is trump lite or NWO • blaze tv • Howard Hughes And The Unexplained • the mighty terriers (god loves) • hogan v rogan • i'd cancel myself but no-one would notice • i always preferred bonehead • holiday inn syncs • day job knobhead • qi • If I Get Back On H&J I Will Buy Them Cake • NFT NFT they've all got an NFT • Ricky Gervais Is My Hero • This Album Is Sponsored By….. • Let's Dance Is The Best Bowie Album • Can't Get A GIG in our own town (st Albans) • we don't talk about bruno (fernandes) not scoring anymore • Frank • one day I will duet with dua lipa • help me rhondda witht he LOA • private eye knows the truth about prince andrew • you can advertise here • the science of getting rich is just get people to buy your books • putin never misses a trick • i'm visualising going on the one show to talk about this album • graham norton guest yes that would be fine • i feel real change coming and people will start to value music more imagine life without it • imagine if that $100 million that rogan was paid was instead invested in new music just imagine • since napster and the wild west days of the internet people expect to get it for free - musicians, songwriters and artists all deseve to be paid a fair amount • all we are asking for is a level playing field and transparency • the music industry is eveloving record companies must embrace change and respect the music creators • we all need to come toegther • da doo ron ron aldo • middle of the road all musicians are walking down at the moment expand your minds • the masked singer • should i change my name to elvis • my god the hollies were crap • clement stone • is instagram just for shallow people • the mind can achieve whatever it can conceive • 52 and still wearing my old band t shirts is that ok Mr Robert Crampton? • looking foward to playing this song on Jool Holland • rolling stone are going to do a feature on this album • frank skinner go on give this track a play it's only 30 seconds long and it's for a good cause

attitude of gratitude • are the DSPs having a competition to see who can get away with paying the least amount of royalties • day 237 of lockdown November 14th 2020 • day 238 of lockdown November 15th 2020 • day 239 of lockdown November 16th 2020 • day 240 of lockdown November 17th 2020 • day 241 of lockdown November 18th 2020 • day 242 of lockdown November 19th 2020 • day 243 of lockdown November 20th 2020 • day 244 of lockdown November 21st 2020 • day 245 of lockdown November 22nd 2020 • day 246 of lockdown November 23rd 2020 • day 247 of lockdown November 24th 2020.wav • day 248 of lockdown November 25th 2020 • day 249 of lockdown November 26th 2020 • day 250 of lockdown November 27th 2020 • day 251 of lockdown November 28th 2020 • day 252 of lockdown November 29th 2020 • day 253 of lockdown November 30th 2020 • day 254 of lockdown December 1st 2020 • day 255 of lockdown December 2nd 2020 • day 256 of lockdown December 3rd 2020 • day 257 of lockdown December 4th 2020 • day 258 of lockdown December 5th 2020 • day 259 of lockdown December 6th 2020 • day 260 of lockdown December 7th 2020 • day 261 of lockdown December 8th 2020 • day 262 of lockdown December 9th 2020 • day 263 of lockdown December 10th 2020 • day 264 of lockdown December 11th 2020 • day 265 of lockdown December 12th 2020 • day 266 of lockdown December 13th 2020 • day 267 of lockdown December 14th 2020 • day 268 of lockdown December 15th 2020 • day 269 of lockdown December 16th 2020 • day 270 of lockdown December 17th 2020 • day 271 of lockdown December 18th 2020 • day 272 of lockdown December 19th 2020 • day 273 of lockdown December 20th 2020 • day 274 of lockdown December 21st 2020 • day 275 of lockdown December 22nd 2020 • day 276 of lockdown December 23rd 2020 • day 277 of lockdown December 24th 2020 xmas is cancelled well probably not for BJ and crew • day 278 of lockdown December 25th 2020 • day 279 of lockdown December 26th 2020 • day 280 of lockdown December 27th 2020 • day 281 of lockdown December 28th 2020 • day 282 of lockdown December 29th 2020 • day 283 of lockdown December 30th 2020 • day 284 of lockdown December 31st 2020 • day 285 of lockdown January 1st 2021 • day 286 of lockdown January 2nd 2021 • day 287 of lockdown January 3rd 2021 • day 288 of lockdown January 4th 2021 • day 289 of lockdown January 5th 2021 • day 290 of lockdown January 6th 2021 • day 291 of lockdown January 7th 2021 • day 292 of lockdown January 8th 2021 • day 293 of lockdown January 9th 2021 • day 294 of lockdown January 10th 2021 • day 295 of lockdown January 11th 2021 • day 296 of lockdown January 12th 2021 • zero hours hero • i'm going to sell this album for $48 million • day 299 of lockdown January 15th 2021. • penistone • heaven • fleximusicarian • uri made me do it • ey up it's the hispanic atmosphere of huddersfield town centre • holiday chalet • pleasure beach • i am banksy • no i am banksy • day 309 of lockdown January 25th 2021 • i think there's more than 1 banksy • bad mj style • encanto v frozen • i got invited to join the priory of sion once • beanie boo • gary neville and his moral high ground • paris st germain • day 317 of lockdown February 2nd 202 • day 318 of lockdown February 3rd 2021 • day 319 of lockdown February 4th 2021.wav • davos • what shall we do with the drunken norman mailer • ernie • yvette fielding • total dramrama • wooj • sandi on qi • st albans' people • stream queen • david wagner • my tps reports are wrong again • ctr alt del • ai bot but • Jay Z • LMFAO • Omari West • shawn carter • chicken soup for my rock n roll soul • i thought i was the best rapper in the world • day 339 of lockdown February 24th 2021 • vision it first • thoughts become things • vegasversary • let's gor crazy beep beep • loa part 2 • mystery pohms • coked up interns in the bog • nme • protest too much • another miracle • galaxy quest • chris warburton is a decent chap • under the surface • IT man Noel • badminton iggy pop style • day 355 of lockdown March 12th 2021

day 356 of lockdown March 13th 2021.wav • just chopsing • caiman show • thank you to all our fans • karma • day 361 of lockdown March 18th 2021 • day 362 of lockdown March 19th 2021 • day 363 of lockdown March 20th 2021 • day 364 of lockdown March 21st 2021 • my god get back is longer than this album • day 366 of lockdown March 23rd 2021 • day 367 of lockdown March 24th 2021 • the family madrigal • day 369 of lockdown March 26th 2021 • day 370 of lockdown March 27th 2021 • day 371 of lockdown March 28th 2021 • day 372 of lockdown March 29th 2021 • day 373 of lockdown March 30th 2021 • day 374 of lockdown March 31st 2021 • day 375 of lockdown April 1st 2021 • day 376 of lockdown April 2nd 2021 • day 377 of lockdown April 3rd 2021 • day 378 of lockdown April 4th 2021 • day 379 of lockdown April 5th 2021 • day 380 of lockdown April 6th 2021 • day 381 of lockdown April 7th 2021 • day 382 of lockdown April 8th 2021 • day 383 of lockdown April 9th 2021 • day 384 of lockdown April 10th 2021 • day 385 of lockdown April 11th 2021 • day 386 of lockdown April 12th 2021 • we love haulix • We love hotpress! • Rodney Of The Rock • Daniel Ek The Visionary • day 391 of lockdown April 17th 2021 • one falls they all fall • day 393 of lockdown April 19th 2021 • Lazar 111 • day 395 of lockdown April 21st 2021 • guess that official spotify playlist isn't going to happen now • day 397 of lockdown April 23rd 2021 • day 398 of lockdown April 24th 2021 • day 399 of lockdown April 25th 2021.wav • day 400 of lockdown April 26th 2021 • day 401 of lockdown April 27th 2021 • day 402 of lockdown April 28th 2021 • day 403 of lockdown April 29th 2021 • day 404 of lockdown April 30th 2021 • day 405 of lockdown May 1st 2021 • day 406 of lockdown May 2nd 2021 • day 407 of lockdown May 3rd 2021 • day 408 of lockdown May 4th 2021 • time walker • are we there yet • day 411 of lockdown May 7th 2021.wav • day 412 of lockdown May 8th 2021 • day 413 of lockdown May 9th 2021 • day 414 of lockdown May 10th 2021 • day 415 of lockdown May 11th 2021 • day 416 of lockdown May 12th 2021 • peace piece • talk about the nice time • define • froota • going viral • theses • munching carrots • new gwr • the beatles used the law of attraction • new machine • tct • more plinky guff • anyone bored yet? • fatman jogging (me) • urgent letter • mike errico thank you • day 433 of lockdown May 29th 2021 • columbo • bbq • bar mexe • may your dreams come • rolling atone baby baby • arts and dafts • afters • v is for • misquote • day 443 of lockdown June 8th 2021.wav • hungary • french fries • yo t l • level 42 met mark king in a pub • dinosaur • dance youself dizzy • no score • gritter splitta • jools • bombs • penalty • spurs • day 456 of lockdown June 21st 2021 • db • dear losers • Dear Losers still on repeat sorry • demons • dg • Dino Zoff • Dreaming Of THat Perfect Goal • Drowsy • DUA LIPA • Dull & Bottom • Dy • el mundo gira • elegy • Er • Es • Eu • noel ed • EVERY CRAP INDIE BAND SHOULD RECORD AT LEAST ONE FOOTY SONG • Every Nation Has It's Golden Generation • Exit (pursued by a bear) • F • Facist Football Hater • Faerie Queen • farewell part 1 • farewell part 2 • Farewell parts 1 and 2 • FAST RED MAN • Fe • feedback at the start of i feel fine • FIFA Sutherland • Food of Love • Fr • Franz • french got the funk on • from russia with hetero love • FUELLED UP ON ENERGY DRINKS • Full Fathom 5 Live • Full Time • Ga • Gaberdines And Pantaloons • Garincha Stryder • Gary Lineker • Gazza'a tears • Gd • Ge • george harrison didn't write his 2 biggest hits • gethsamane • give ringo another crap country song • glass onion • glitter on my carpet • GROTESQUE • H • Half Time • Hamlet • Happy Camper • Happy Dagger • have love will louis louis • He • He's A Sticker Licker • Heart's Content • HELL MONEY • helter skelter pissed in the bus shelter • Henry IV part 3 • Henry V's Doorbell • Her Majesty Was The First 30 second song • here come's the sun • HERRENVOLK • Hey Ho Nonny Nonny • Hf • Hg • High Time

Ho • Holographic Beatles On Tour • home • Homeward Bound • Hungary 10 El Salvador 1 • I don't give a flying folio malvolio • I Feel Fine • I got 3 years solitary for bringing my own beer • I ME ME RONALDO! • I ONCE AUDITIONED FOR A BAND CALLED MEXICO 70 • i wanna hold your hand but I'll ask you first • I wanna Hold Your Hand While YOu Sign My A Cheque For a million pound • I Wish The World Cup Was In Brazil Again says lonely sports reporter • I WROTE AND RECORDED 100 SONGS ABOUT THE WORLD CUP IN 2 DAYS, CAN'T YOU TELL • i.am will.i.am shakespeare. • I • I'm a Pal a Salah • I'm Going TO Make you A VAR • I'm Leaving On an standard class Aer Lingus. • I'M SUPPORTING PUSSY RIOT • I'm The Only Person Who Wants Iceland To Get Knocked Out Early.wav • If Prince had written a World Cup song it wouldn't sound like this • If Shakespeare Was Alive Today He'd Be Writing For Youtube • if the beatles were an 80s band • If this album doesn't get me an interview on Hawksbee & Jacobs I'm Going to stop listening to Talksport • If you Listen To The beatles backwards it says thyhtnkks • If You Play THis Song Backwards It Will Sound Crap. • Inv • INTER STELLAR CUP. • introducing the beatles • Ir • It gets a bit messy when you try to rhyme with Messi. • It is music with her silver sound • it's juck a fucking xebra crossing • It's Not even a realy country anyway • Jeremy Corbyn As Julius Ceasar • john lennon v the fbi • joey ramone joins the beatles • jose chungs from outer space. • Josimar comeback • Jules Rimming. • Julian Lennon PLayed THis Piano Once. • JUMPERS FOR GOAL POSTS. • Just Don't Let Spain Win Again • K • KADDISH. • KGB V FBI WORLD WAR 3 COMING SOON • King James 46 • King John's Rant • Kingdom For A Stage. • Kr • La • Lark • Larry O • leonard betts. • Let Music Sound • Letchkov not Letcho • Li. • live and let die is the best bond theme. • Living On Top Of A Porno Cinema • Love Is Blind. • Lr • Lu. • magic alex • man from the motor trade. • Manna • Marying A Punk. • MAX. • mcartney's ego trip part 2 • McCartney's Ego Trip • MEMENTO MORI • Mg • Mn. • Mo • MOOY JOY • Motley Coat • mr kite • Mr Trump • Much Ado • musings of a csm • N • Na • Nb • Nd • Ne. • nems • NEVER AGAIN. • Ni. • NO SCORE…NO DRAW. • none more white. • Not Many Beatles Songs Start in A Minor Key • Not Many Foootball Players Like Punk! • Np. • Oberon Kenobi. • On Shakespeare's Grave • on the field where i died • Ophelia • Os. • Oyster. • P. • Pa • paper hearts • Patti • paul's first acid trip • Pb • Pd. • PELE • Pet Sounds • Pete Best • Pick (ford) Of The Pops - Numba 1 • pickles the dog • PIPER • Play On. • Playing For Penalties. • Pm • Po • Pr • Pt • Putin hot • Pursued By A Bear • Pusher • QUAGMIRE • Hall Of fame • Quickly • ra ra poohtin • Ra • Rain • Ray Wilson • Rb. • Re • Redux 1. • Redux 2. • Revolution number 9 was way ahed of its time • rf. • Rh • Ringo's Replacement • Ripping Off The Beach Boys • Rn • Rocky Racoon as a Trump Type tycoon • Rome • Romeo & Juliet • ronnie scott • Ru • rubber soul was the greatest • Russian Bear • S • sanguinarium • Sb • Sc. • scrambled eggs. • scurvy politician • Se. • sergeant pepper seeks lady madonna to form lonely hearts club band • Second Best Bed (In Da House) • Shake It Off • All Over? • Shakespeare In Time • Shakespeare The Commuter • Shakespeare v Aliens. • Shakespeare v Spotify • Shaking Speare Stevens • Shaquiri V Shakira • She's A Woman • shitter's full. • Si • silent night • Slave Labour Stadiums • Sm • Sm1 • SMALLPOTATOES • Sn. • Sonic Youth Play The Beatles • world cup widows • Sounds Of Music • Spot the player on Coke • Sr • Stadium Inferno • Stage Craft Beer. • Star Of England • Stop Calling It The White Album - It's The Beatles! • Suicide In Shakespeare. • corned beef curry (not my idea) • Larry O • SYNCHRONY • SZYGY 4 • Ta • TALITHA • TAX CHEATS • tb or not tb • Tb • Tc. • when does art become pretension? • Teliko • TEMPUS FUGIT • TERMA • TEsos dos bichos 2 • the very best of Boris Johnson

The Ballad Of The Poisened Referee • The Beatles Gave Us Backwards Guitar • The Beatles Meet Elvis and Play Bass. • The Beatles Meet The Queen • THE BEST ONE YET • The Blue Samurai • the catcher in the rye. • The Charnocks. • The Curse Of WS • The Day I Met George Martin • the death of good duke humphrey • the doors took more drugs than the beatles • The First Twitter World Cup • The Globe • the hamburg days • The Life Of Brian • the long and winding road to get this album finished • The Maradona OF The Carpathians • The Middle Class Wives Of Windsor • The Miracle Of Bern • the missing chord • The Old Boys Of Panama • the people that don't get the beatles. • The Ringo Button • The Seven Moons • the trembling wilburrys • the usual suspects • The Water Carrier • THe White Album • There are 3 Gary Stevens But Only one of them caught a glimpse of Maradonna flying by • japan • this is a northern song • when does sound become music • Time Doth Waste Me • soundaries • white noise symphony • to die to sleep no more. • Tomorrow Never Knows Is The First Techno Track. • Tongue In Your Tail. • TOO MANY WHITE LINES • Tosspots. • Trident Studio Jam • Trump Town • TUNGUSKA • Turn Turn Turn in a Cruyf Style • U • unbeaten keepers • UNREQUITED • UNRUHE • V is for Vacumn • W • Was it Bobby or Roger Moore that was the towel thief. • WE ALL HATE WHEN ITV HAS THE MATCHES • We All Know Sexie Sadie Was About The Maharishi.wav • We All Live In A Yellow Submarine • We All Love Football Guff. • WETWIRED • WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO HALF TIME ORANGES • whatever happened to 442 • When i'm Pissed I'll Shout • When Shall We 3 Meet Again • when we were fab. • While THey Play The Bombs Keep Dropping • why were wings so • will anyone get close to Klose • Willow Willow Willow • World Cup Snacks • WORLD CUP WIDOWS • World Cup Winners Aftershow Party • World Cup Winners Hangover • World In Motion Was So Over Rated • World Of Leather • Xe • summer jesus • Y • Yb • you can't burn streams • zero sum • didn't think I would make it to 1000 • ok thanks to all involved and peace and love • 3000 streams just for a pint • time to go it's chicken time

[tombraiderhorizons]

Do you have a passion for Maya archaeology and fancy learning how to read Maya glyphs? While there are a number of books you can buy – such as Michael D. Coe and Mark Van Stone’s Reading the Maya Glyphs – you might also want to check out these 5 useful and completely free online resources, especially if you’re on a tight budget.

Click to read “5 Fantastic Free Resources for Learning Maya Glyphs“

[ivanseledkin]

Yuri Knorozov was a Soviet linguist who deciphered the Mayan script in 1953. He had a habit of listing his Siamese cat Asya as a co-author to many of his works; however, his editors would always remove her. Knorozov would also use this photo with Asya as his official author photo and would get upset whenever his editors would crop her out. Deciphering the Mayan script was extremely challenging because there was no Rosetta Stone to provide translations into other languages. The only clues that remained were from Mayan stelae (stone monuments) that were scattered throughout several different ruins. Knorozov worked in isolation in the Soviet Union and was able to make major advancements without ever stepping foot in Central America. His breakthrough was rejecting the notion that the Maya glyphs were based on an alphabet but rather a syllabary (a set of written characters representing syllables). When Knorozov published his work, he was attacked and dismissed by several prominent academics, most notably, J. Eric S. Thompson, a British scholar who believed that the Mayan script was anti-phonetic and based on ideographic principles. It also did not help that Knorozov published his research during the height of the Cold War when Western scholars were quick to dismiss the works of Soviet scholars as being tainted by Marxist ideology. It took decades for Knorozov to finally receive the recognition he deserved. One of Knorozov's earliest supporters was an American Anthropology professor at Yale by the name of Michael D. Coe who would later go on to write, "Yuri Knorozov, a man who was far removed from the Western scientific establishment and who, prior to the late 1980s, never saw a Mayan ruin nor touched a real Mayan inscription, had nevertheless, against all odds, made possible the modern decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing."

[dentalcaring]

It’s also unfortunate because for many years, his work as an epigrapher and Mayanist was ignored. He was lambasted publicly by the prominent Mayanist and Archaeologist Eric Thompson (much of whose work has ended up being deeply flawed and generally incomplete/not great), who resulted in a lot of people in the field ignoring his work. He identified syllabic signs in glyphs, which was a massive step forward.

Largely his shunning had to do with his disagreement with Thompson, but the fact that he was a Russian in the Soviet era at the height of the Cold War also made things difficult for him. Some claimed that there was Marxist-Leninist propaganda in his work (there wasn’t). It wasn’t until years after his theories were published that he was fully recognized for his work.

So! Important epigrapher and cat owner who suffered much academic hardship but it now well recognized for his contributions to cracking Mayan written script.

Michael D. Coe’s work references him plenty and I highly recommend the documentary or book, Breaking the Maya Code

[de-temple]

Yuri Knorozov was a Soviet linguist who deciphered the Mayan script in 1953. He had a habit of listing his Siamese cat Asya as a co-author to many of his works; however, his editors would always remove her. Knorozov would also use this photo with Asya as his official author photo and would get upset whenever his editors would crop her out.

Deciphering the Mayan script was extremely challenging because there was no Rosetta Stone to provide translations into other languages. The only clues that remained were from Mayan stelae (stone monuments) that were scattered throughout several different ruins.

Knorozov worked in isolation in the Soviet Union and was able to make major advancements without ever stepping foot in Central America. His breakthrough was rejecting the notion that the Maya glyphs were based on an alphabet but rather a syllabary (a set of written characters representing syllables).

When Knorozov published his work, he was attacked and dismissed by several prominent academics, most notably, J. Eric S. Thompson, a British scholar who believed that the Mayan script was anti-phonetic and based on ideographic principles. It also did not help that Knorozov published his research during the height of the Cold War when Western scholars were quick to dismiss the works of Soviet scholars as being tainted by Marxist ideology.

It took decades for Knorozov to finally receive the recognition he deserved. One of Knorozov's earliest supporters was an American Anthropology professor at Yale by the name of Michael D. Coe who would later go on to write, "Yuri Knorozov, a man who was far removed from the Western scientific establishment and who, prior to the late 1980s, never saw a Mayan ruin nor touched a real Mayan inscription, had nevertheless, against all odds, made possible the modern decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing."

[ulkaralakbarova]

After reckless young lawyer Gordon Bombay gets arrested for drunk driving, he must coach a kids hockey team for his community service. Gordon has experience on the ice, but isn’t eager to return to hockey, a point hit home by his tense dealings with his own former coach, Jack Reilly. The reluctant Gordon eventually grows to appreciate his team, which includes promising young Charlie Conway, and leads them to take on Reilly’s tough players. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Gordon Bombay: Emilio Estevez Hans: Joss Ackland Jack Reilly: Lane Smith Casey Conway: Heidi Kling Mr. Ducksworth: Josef Sommer Charlie Conway: Joshua Jackson Greg Goldberg: Shaun Weiss Adam Banks: Vincent Larusso Fulton Reed: Elden Henson Tommy Duncan: Danny Tamberelli Connie Moreau: Marguerite Moreau Jesse Hall: Brandon Quintin Adams Terry Hall: Jussie Smollett Les Averman: Matt Doherty Guy Germaine: Garette Ratliff Henson Philip Banks: Hal Fort Atkinson Frank Huddy: Steven Brill Judge Weathers: George Coe Mighty Ducks Fan Scenes: Ryan J. Gilmer Principal: Claudia Wilkens Gordon at 10 Years Old: Brock Pierce Gordon’s Father: Robert Pall Lewis: M.C. Gainey Peter: J.D. Daniels Dave Karp: Aaron Schwartz Tammy: Jane Plank McGill: Michael Ooms Larson: Casey Garven Science Teacher: Mark Bradley Paramedic: Peter Syvertsen Film Crew: Screenplay: Steven Brill Director of Photography: Thomas Del Ruth Editor: Larry Bock Producer: Jordan Kerner Producer: Jon Avnet Original Music Composer: David Newman Editor: John F. Link Director: Stephen Herek Costume Design: Grania Preston Co-Producer: Lynn M. Morgan Set Decoration: Julie Kaye Fanton Casting: Renee Rousselot Production Design: Randy Ser Key Hair Stylist: Angela Nogaro Key Makeup Artist: Jeanne Van Phue Art Direction: Tony Fanning Co-Producer: Martin Huberty Stunts: Jeannie Epper Stunt Coordinator: Ronnie Rondell Jr. Stunt Coordinator: Manny Perry Second Unit Director: Michael D. Moore First Assistant Director: Douglas E. Wise Set Designer: Jack Ballance Second Assistant Director: Randy Suhr Stunts: Danny Weselis Stunt Double: Kim Robert Koscki Stunts: Catherine Petra Villalobos Chief Lighting Technician: Danny Buck Chief Lighting Technician: Michael Katz Camera Operator: Buzz Feitshans IV Movie Reviews: r96sk: Very good. ‘The Mighty Ducks’ is a film that I’ve heard about for a long, long time but this was my first time watching. I enjoyed it, in short. Satisfying sports story, a solid message, decent humour and a serviceable cast. Emilio Estevez is fine in the role of Gordon, he’s definitely the best actor on display here. The numerous child actors are all alright, Shaun Weiss (Goldberg) is the one who stands out in my memory most. A nice little film about a local, youth ice hockey team, one for the family.

[nathanalbright151]

Book Review: Angkor And the Khmer Civilization

Angkor And The Khmer Civilization, by Michael D. Coe There are at least a few notable aspects of the Khmer civilization that are worthy of attention, and the most obvious of them is the enigmatic set of religious ruins popularly known as Angkor Wat (though this is but one of the many, many parts of a sprawling set of ruins devoted to four different religious traditions). While the beautiful and…

[connors-chocolate-history-blog]

WORKS CITED:

Chocolate in the Underworld Space of Death: Cacao Seeds from an Early Classic Mortuary Cave (Keith M. Prufer and William Jeffrey Hurst) Chocolate: Cultivation and Culture in pre-Hispanic Mexico Author(s): Margarita de Orellana, Richard Moszka, Timothy Adès, Valentine Tibère, J.M. Hoppan, Philippe Nondedeo, Nezahualcóyotl, Nikita Harwich, Nisao Ogata, Quentin Pope, Fray Toribio de Benavente, Motolinía, Guadalupe M. Santamaría and Daniel Schechter Source: Artes de México, No. 103, CHOCOLATE: CULTIVO Y CULTURA DEL MÉXICO ANTIGUO (SEPTIEMBRE 2011), pp. 65-80 The Power of Chocolate Author(s): Blake Edgar Source: Archaeology, Vol. 63, No. 6 (November/December 2010), pp. 20-25 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Tasting Empire: Chocolate and the European Internalization of Mesoamerican Aesthetics by MARCY NORTON CHOCOLATE II: Mysticism and Cultural Blends Author(s): Margarita de Orellana, Quentin Pope, Sonia Corcuera Mancera, José Luis Trueba Lara, Jana Schroeder, Laura Esquivel, Jill Derais, Mario Humberto Ruz, Clara Marín, Miguel León-Portilla, Michelle Suderman, Marta Turok, Mario M. Aliphat Fernández, Laura Caso Barrera, Sophie D. Coe, Michael D. Coe and Pedro Pitarch Source: Artes de México, No. 105, CHOCOLATE II: Mística y Mestizaje (marzo 2012), pp. 73- 96 The Introduction of Chocolate into England: Retailers, Researchers, and Consumers, 1640- 1730 Author(s): Kate Loveman Source: Journal of Social History, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Fall 2013), pp. 27-46 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43306044 Encomienda, African Slavery, and Agriculture in Seventeenth-Century Caracas Author(s): Robert J. Ferry Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Nov., 1981), pp. 609-635 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2514606 Accessed: 12-07-2019 16:34 UTC The Cacao Economy of the Eighteenth-Century Province of Caracas and the Spanish Cacao Market Author(s): Eugenio Pinero Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Feb., 1988), pp. 75-100 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2516221 Accessed: 12-07-2019 17:03 UTC Establishing Cacao Plantation Culture in the Western World - Timothy Walker The Ghirardelli Story Author(s): Sidney Lawrence Source: California History, Vol. 81, No. 2 (2002), pp. 90-115 Published by: University of California Press in association with the California Historical Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25177676 The Evolution of Chocolate Manufacturing Rodney Snyder, Bradley Foliart Olsen, and Laura Pallas Brindle The Emperors of Chocolate - Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars by Joel Glenn Brenner (Random House, 1998) Bitter Chocolate by Carol Off (The New Press, 2006) "Cocoa's child labrorers", Whoriskey, Peter; Siegel, Rachel, The Washington Post, June 10 2019 The Harkin-Engel Protocol (Chocolate Manufacturers' Association, 2001) "Role of Trade Cards in Marketing Chocolate during the Late 19th Century", Virginia Westbrook "Chocolate at the World's Fairs, 1851-1964", Nicholas Westbrook Edible Ideologies by Kathleen LeBesco (SUNY 2008) Cosmopolitan cocoa farmers: refashioning Africa in Divine Chocolate advertisements Author(s): Kristy Leissle Source: Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 (December 2012), pp. 121-139 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42005280 Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa by Orla Ryan (Zed Books, 2011) Cocoa by Kristy Leissle (Polity, 2018) How Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms, vowed to make its chocolate green. And failed. Mufson, Steven . The Washington Post (Online) , Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post. Oct 29, 2019.

[notapaladin]

hi you've activated my trap card HERE'S SOME AZTEC HISTORY BOOKS

Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Berdan, Frances F., and Michael E. Smith. Everyday Life in the Aztec World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2020.

Berdan, Frances, and Patricia Rieff Anawalt. The Essential Codex Mendoza. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Coe, Sophie D.. America’s First Cuisines. N.p., University of Texas Press, 2015.

Hassig, Ross. Mexico and the Spanish Conquest. London: Longman, 1994.

Townsend, Camilla. Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs. 2019.

What are some good beginner books for learning about Aztec history

The classic is typically The Aztecs by Michael Smith (who I don't care for as a person)

[literary-illuminati]

So I was vaguely aware of this whole colonialist myth about how in Aztec theology Quetzalcoatl had taken ships off to the east and would return ahead of the apocalypse and a) the aztec's thought Cortez et al were him returned and b) something something Quetzalcoatl=Jesus?

Anyway I kind of assumed it was 100% bullshit so very funny to me that this book very strongly implies that the mythology about Quetzalcoatl sailing off was about a historical Toltec prince/lord who used a lot of winged serpent heraldry and lost a power struggle then did in fact sail off - specifically down to the Yucatan, where he conquered a nice little empire for himself centered on Chichen Itza.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Fruits, Nuts, & Flakes

No, not the denizens of California. Though a lot of fruits and nuts have been grown there since the 1800s. I’m talking about local and not so local cuisine. What’s available in the supermarkets today is vastly different from what was available two hundred

or even fifty years ago. A little-known but constant thread through history are the quiet efforts of oddball explorers, wanderers, and farmers on the quest to find - or breed - new things to eat. The Perfect Fruit by Chip Brantley goes into the history of the pluot, and plum and fruit exploration and breeding centuries before it was ever imagined. You might also look at books like The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe, Death in the Garden: Poisonous Plants and Their Use Throughout History by Michael Brown and The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms by Naoko Abe. In 1800s England, for example, peaches were rare and expensive, and pumelos and kiwis unheard-of.

And yet a lot of fantasy and SF stories ignore the fact that 1) edibles are not the same everywhere and 2) lifetimes of adventures could be had chasing after one more odd plant no one else knew much about.

Which is a shame. It may not be dragon-hunting directly, but there’s no reason dragons (or aliens) can’t be involved. Just look at the Apples of the Hesperides that Hercules had to steal, the gold, silver, and jeweled forests in the Twelve Dancing Princesses, or the legendary Peaches of Immortality. Heck, check out the herb of immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh for a plant only achieved by great hazards.

(They don’t have to be god-level hazards. In the first episode of the historical drama The Three Musketeers (Korean: 삼총사; RR: Samchongsa), our young hero Park Dal-yang ends up facing “road closed due to tiger”. When’s the last time you saw that as a story hazard?)

You could make whole stories out of hunting, breeding, and stealing plants from far-away places, hidden gardens, and mad wizards’ greenhouses. The poison maiden of Rappaccini’s Daughter could be one foe; the police and army of an entire empire devoted to hiding one particular secret, another.

Even if you don’t want to write a story about plant-hunting, it can make an excellent subplot, character background, or reason for adventurers to go on a rescue mission. We need the Archmage to stop the onslaught of the terrible undead typhoon! ...But he’s up in the mountains looking for a lily that only blooms once every hundred years under full starlight, and you’re going to have to go get him....

Poke some plant history! It might get your story growing in a different direction.

[sleepsonitsaxis-blog]

My photos

Mayan waterlily vessel, 750-800 CE, Art Institute of Chicago,

Creating Our Own Alternate Realities?

 I recently finished reading “Breaking the Maya Code”, by Michael D. Coe, which I very much enjoyed. Throughout the book, I had visions of intrepid explorers, hacking back the jungle to reveal glorious Mayan monuments. Don’t laugh, my preconceptions of the region are probably based on vintage photographs and colourful documentaries of lush forests and colossal ruins that I saw years ago.

While much of the book details the discovery and publishing of the Mayan glyphs, and then determining the role that they played in relation to the Mayan languages, as ideograms, logograms, or a syllabary, I was struck by the many academic disputes that this process generated. These are to be expected when encountering, and trying to analyze, unfamiliar phenomena, but they prompted me to think about these controversies generally, and their repercussions in science, the humanities, and in the world outside academia.

In the story of the Mayan glyphs, for example, a very influential archaeologist, Eric Thompson, actively resisted attempts by others to decipher the glyphs using linguistic methods, and he bitterly attacked his adversaries. As an eminent professor, he was able to effectively stifle research in this field, at least in the west. With our 20/20 hindsight, the reader knows that many of Thompson’s own theories were incorrect, and we cheer on the efforts of the underdogs. This made me think of more contemporary, but less dramatic, instances of academic disputes.

Sometimes, there can be technological advances that lead to new methodologies being used by scientists in their research. In one case, a professor that I knew, used a relatively new technique to estimate the age of the samples in a study. When the paper was completed, and sent by the selected journal for peer review, its publication was blocked by an older scientist, who dominated the field in that country. While this was a frustrating experience, the paper was simply published in another journal, based in Europe, where perhaps they were more up to date with technology.

These two cases show the resistance that there can be to new ideas, especially amongst the “old guard”, who have spent their lives, and built their reputations, holding certain preconceived ideas or biases. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that a novel, unfamiliar, approach must have strong reasoning and data behind it in order to contend with older theories.

In my book, “Resurrection: Recalled to Life”, I mention Alfred Wegener, and the difficulties he faced with his theory of continental drift. Unhappily, it took several decades after his death before his ideas were accepted, but, at least in my view, other factors came in to play as well. I certainly agree that much of the negativity that he faced was due to the long-established beliefs of influential geologists, but in his case, I think that perhaps there was still just not enough evidence. After all, Wegener’s theories were not new, several scientists in the 1800’s had also suggested that the continents could move. It was not until the spreading mid-oceanic ridges were detected, and research could show the changing orientation in magnetic polarity of the rocks laid down in the ocean beds, that geologists were faced with overwhelming evidence. As those scientists, the ones who had built their reputations on an earth with fixed continents, retired, younger researchers could embrace the new ideas.

There does sometimes seem to be considerable bias against new theories. Researchers may face a lot of resistance when presenting their ideas, especially if they counter long-held beliefs. However, this sort of prejudice is not unique to the world of academia, it exists everywhere.

We can see bias clearly displayed in academic disputes, but what about everyday life? Thomas Gilovich, in his book, “How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life”, writes that we are subject to “the tendency for our expectations, preconceptions, and prior beliefs to influence our interpretation of new information”. Unfortunately, we often fail to realize this. In “The Bias Blindspot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others” (Pronin, Lin, Ross, 2002), a group of Stanford researchers did some studies that showed that while people are able to recognize prejudices and preconceptions in others, they often fail to see them in themselves. In addition, even when the subjects were aware of how they could be influenced by their biases, they continued to believe that they were unaffected.

Gilovich, a professor of Psychology at Cornell, points out that sometimes humans will go to a great deal of cognitive effort to find arguments, right or wrong, that support their point of view when they are faced with information that contradicts long-held beliefs. This last idea is well supported in the case of Eric Thompson, the archaeologist I mentioned above. Apparently, he went to great lengths to, item by item, counter the findings of opposing researchers, rejecting all the evidence laid out carefully in the publications. Gilovich writes that, like Thompson, ordinary people, also, will “resist the challenge of information that is inconsistent with their beliefs not by ignoring it, but by subjecting it to intense scrutiny.” This scrutiny, however, does not change their beliefs, even when they are later proved incorrect. Take, for example, that 9 game winning streak that delights baseball fans and disgusts their opponents (Samuel McNerny, 2011). The fans and sports commentators can come up with multitudes of different reasons to explain why the team seems to be performing better than expected. Fans of their competitors, however, often closely analyze the data, too, however, their own explanations are often quite different, ranging from numerous questionable calls made by umpires during this streak (the league is against them), or the possibility that somehow their team’s signs were stolen (cheating). It does not occur to either side that, statistically, a 9 game winning streak in a long season is an outcome that can occur randomly, given the nature of the game and the players.

Maybe the answer to correcting our biases is to gather more information about a subject. You would think that if we did some fact checking we might correct this tendency. Unfortunately, today, there are so many sources of “facts” supporting almost any point of view, found in magazines, social media, and news networks, that we often end up merely bolstering our prejudices. As a result, everyone assumes that our own beliefs concerning religion, politics, economic theory, or our sports teams, are correct, and our opponents are wrong.

Does this mean that we are all individually stuck in our own alternate realities, our own fantasy worlds, walled in by our prejudices and preconceptions?

The key seems to be individually recognizing our susceptibility to bias and trying to make changes to the way that we live and think. Perhaps we need to recognize our fallibility. Some biases and preconceptions can seem relatively harmless, like my impression of the Yucatan, but when it comes to more important issues, it is necessary to solve our differences and make accommodations.

 Catherine Ward

 Note: I did some reading on this that I have not included in my article. The subject is simply too vast, and I am not a psychologist, so I may not present the ideas properly. These are merely some thoughts that occurred to me after reading “Breaking the Maya Code”. I am attaching some references that you can use to read further if you are interested.

 Accepting Threatening Information: Self–Affirmation and the Reduction of Defensive Biases. David K. Sherman, Geoffrey L. Cohen (August 1, 2002) https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00182

The Bias Blind Spot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others. Emily Pronin, Daniel Y. Lin, Lee Ross, (March 1, 2002) https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202286008

How we know what isn't so: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. T Gilovich,  1993. https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-What-Isnt-Fallibility/dp/0029117062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=G5XG2RCUVRSK&dchild=1&keywords=how+we+know+what+isn%27t+so&qid=1635094006&s=books&sprefix=how+we+know+what+isn%27t+so%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C133&sr=1-1

Pushing the Limits: Cognitive, Affective, and Neural Plasticity Revealed by an Intensive Multifaceted Intervention. Michael D. Mrazek*, Benjamin W. Mooneyham*, Kaita L. Mrazek and Jonathan W. Schooler, Front. Hum. Neurosci., 18 March 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00117

Cognitive Biases in Sports: The Irrationality of Coaches, Commentators, and Fans. Samuel McNerny, 2011. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/cognitive-biases-in-sports-the-irrationality-of-coaches-commentators-and-fans/

[axismundienarei]

Search For Answers - Mushroom Pillars of Göbekli Tepe

The monuments of antiquity are connected with ancient humanity’s deep rooted interest in the Spirit of Nature, they are coded messages in stone, recording this sacred knowledge for posterity. 

The worship of animal spirit companions and the concept of human-animal transformation is so ancient, that the origins of these beliefs appear to predate the development of agriculture. The encoded images of hallucinogenic mushrooms associated with feline deities and the Tree of Life are found in both the Old World, and the the New World, where a common motif in Olmec art represents the mushroom's effect of jaguar transformation and the soul's mythical underworld journey. 

Archaeologist Michael D. Coe (1972) demonstrated a long-standing Mesoamerican association of the jaguar with rulership, royal lineages, and power, having an intimate relationship with the sun in the underworld, the Jaguar Sun God (John B. Carlson 1981, p.125).

[xhxhxhx]

I removed some books today.

I think of myself as a minimalist, but that doesn’t happen to be true. I have acquired more books than I will ever read. They still sit, stacked and unreachable, in piles by the walls, two dozen books tall and sometimes two books deep.

I don’t think I know where they all came from. I think more came from online than from any physical store. I bought them from Abebooks, the sales search platform that Amazon owns now. Abebooks tell you the names of the sellers, but they seem unconnected to any real place.

From Better World Books. From Thrift Books and Bookbarn. From Silver Arch Books, Motor City Books, Free State Books, Sierra Nevada Books, Yankee Clipper Books, and the Atlanta Book Company. From Green Earth Books and Housing Works Books. From Goldstone Books and Powell’s Books and Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries. From Satellite Books and the Orchard Bookshop. From Blue Cloud Books and Hippo Books and Wonder Book.

They’re from all over, from places you’ve never been, places you’ll never be. They’re names on a box. But then there are the books from more intimate places, intimately connected

From library’s old bookstore, which sold paperbacks for fifty cents, hardcovers for a dollar. From the basement of the old independent bookstore down on Front Street, where they sold remaindered and overstocked books marked down with red-orange tape. From the thrift store across the street, which charged too much.

From the Chapters at the mall in your hometown, or the Chapters and Indigo in the places you’ve been to, from the shelves of marked-down items where you looked for bargains, for the books you knew you should read, and all the books you never would. Places where you could drink sweet cream and coffee and pretend to read.

From the Borders in Syracuse, where you idled while the family went to the fair, where they always said they were going to build the largest mall in America, but never did. There was another Borders in South Florida, where they were stripping fixtures from the walls because the books had not sold, and so the Borders had to be. They still have bookstores. I’m not sure what they sell now. Postcards, I think.

The books still in my room had postcards from people I will never know, dedications to people I will never see, business cards from people who have moved on to other work. But their spines are unbroken, their pages unmarked. I guess I wanted them that way. I bought them like that.

I sometimes worried they would break through the floor. I would wake up to the collapse of everything I have ever owned as I plummeted a few short feet to my death. I guess it would probably take longer than that. I would have to wait for them to crush me. That mass of books would fall on me, blotting out the light. Crushed beneath nearly everything I have ever owned.

That’s what happened to the clerk Toshiko Sasaki in John Hershey’s Hiroshima, who was seated at her desk on August 6, 1945, in front of a couple of bookcases from the factor library:

Everything fell, and Miss Sasaki lost consciousness. The ceiling dropped suddenly and the wooden floor above collapsed in splinters and the people up there came down and the roof above them gave way; but principally and first of all, the bookcases right behind her swooped forward and the contents threw her down, with her left leg horribly twisted and breaking underneath her. There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.

Miss Sasaki made out alright, although not so well as to not ask the question “If your God is so good and kind, how can he let people suffer like this?” But then, I have more books than she did.

I removed some books today. I still have more I want to remove. I just don’t have the boxes for them. I took the boxes I did have in the back of my car to a mass-market thrift store, where they will end up on the shelves by the leather jackets. 

Perhaps they will end on some other shelf, like a postcard from somewhere unknown, in someone else’s memory. But I don’t think they will. I don’t think they’ll sell. There aren’t enough people here who spend money pretending to read.

I don’t know what will happen to them. I suppose they will pulp them. Or perhaps they will end in a landfill, crushed beneath their own weight, suffocating beneath the earth we have made for them until life reclaims them.

I wrote out a partial list of the books I threw out. I don’t know what it says about me. There’s a double significance here: These are books I bought, for some amount of money, but these are also books I am throwing away, because I asked the question the woman told me to ask, which was whether they sparked joy, and I answered no.

Those books in the photo are the books that have not yet been thrown away. Here, below the fold, are the books that have:

Judith Fitzgerald’s Sarah McLachlan: Building a Mystery

Mordecai Richler’s Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!

Jonathan Coe’s The Rotter’s Club

Misha Glenny’s McMafia

Joinville and Villehardouin’s Chronicles of the Crusades

Michael Ignatieff’s The Lesser Evil

Russell Dalton’s Citizen Politics in Western Democracies: Public Opinion and Political Parties in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and France

Richard Finn’s Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan

Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi

Fox Butterfield’s China: Alive in the Bitter Sea

Anthony Sampson’s The Changing Anatomy of Britain

Masanori Hashimoto’s The Japanese Labor Market in a Comparative Perspective with the United States

Donald Keene’s Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Poetry, Drama, Criticism

Andrei Shleifer’s Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia

Peter Newman’s The Secret Mulroney Tapes

Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital

Lesley Downer’s The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan’s Richest Family

Harold Vogel’s Entertainment Industry Economics

Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers’s Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector

Donald Harman Akenson, Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus

Philip Ziegler’s King Edward VIII

David Wessel’s In FED We Trust

Robert Dallek’s Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961--1973

David Halberstam’s The Reckoning

David Bell’s The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It

Kevin Phillips’s The Cousins’ Wars

Yirmiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics: The Adventures of Immanence

Michael Oren’s Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Lawrence McDonald’s A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Richard Posner’s The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy

William Chester Jordan’s Europe in the High Middle Ages

William Cohan’s House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Linda Lear’s Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

Allan Brandt’s The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America

Garry Wills’s Head and Heart: American Christianities

Sarah Bradford’s Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain’s Queen

Andrew Gordon’s The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853--1955

John Ardagh’s France in the New Century: Portrait of a Changing Society

Bob Woodward’s The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House

John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium: The Early Centuries

Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963--65

Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker

Tim Blanning’s The Pursuit of Glory: Europe, 1648--1815

Robert Fagles’s translation of Virgil’s The Aeneid

Karl Popper’s The Poverty of Historicism

P. D. Smith’s Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon

Richard Rhodes’s Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race

Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street Years

Alistair Horne’s Harold Macmillan, 1957--1986

Taylor Branch’s The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President

Ian Kershaw’s Hitler, 1936--1945: Nemesis

David Grossman’s To the End of the Land

Sean Wilentz’s The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

Philipp Blom’s The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900--1914

Jacob M. Schlesinger’s Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Postwar Political Machine

Peter Jenkins’s Mrs. Thatcher’s Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era

Martin Lawrence’s Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien

Marin Lawrence’s Chrétien: The Will to Win

Alastair Campbell’s The Blair Years

Tony Blair’s A Journey

David Kennedy’s Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America

Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End

Kate McCafferty’s Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl

Martin Wolf’s Why Globalization Works

Charles Fishman’s The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works -- and How It’s Transforming the American Economy

William Easterly’s The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good

Karel van Wolferen’s The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation

Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime

[slyke25]

2009-2011

Below are the shows I covered from ‘09-12.

(v) = Video included in review

(p&s) = photos were taken with a point & shoot camera (early concerts)

2011 Favorite Concert Photos (Review)

12.12.2011  White Dress (TT the Bear’s Place)

12.12.2011  Gary Clark Jr. (TT the Bear’s Place) (v)

12.8.2011  Ryan Adams (Orpheum Theater) p&s (v)

12.1.2011 Jocie Adams (Cafe 939) p&s

12.1.2011  The Barr Brothers (Cafe 939) (v)

11.20.2011  Active Child (House of Blues)

11.20.2011  M83 (House of Blues)

11.19.2011  Chris Robinson Brotherhood (Somerville Theatre) p&s (v)

11.17.2011  The Tosspints (Paradise Rock Club)

11.17.2011  Dropkick Murphys (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

11.14.2011  Earthquake Party (Lansdowne Pub)

11.14.2011  Surfer Blood (Lansdowne Pub)

11.6.2011  H.W. (O’Brien’s Pub)

11.6.2011  Adeem (O’Briens Pub)

11.6.2011  Astronautalis (O’Brien’s Pub) (v)

11.5.2011  Nikki Lane (Paradise Rock Club)

11.5.2011  Noah and the Whale (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

11.1.2011  Tall Heights (Johhny D’s)

11.1.2011  Darlingside (Johnny D’s)

10.25.2011  Double Ghost (Brighton Music Hall)

10.25.2011  Fanfarlo (Brighton Music Hall) (v)

10.24.2011  Thief Thief (Charlie’s Kitchen)

10.24.2011  Celestial Shore (Charlie’s Kitchen)

10.24.2011  Fat History Month (Charlie’s Kitchen)

10.21.2011  Joe Pug (Somerville Theatre) (v)

10.21.2011  The Low Anthem (Somerville Theatre) (v)

10.7.2011  Old Jack (TT the Bear’s Place)

10.7.2011  Matrimony (TT the Bear’s Place)

10.7.2011  Langhorne Slim (TT the Bear’s Place) (v)

9.30.2011  Grace Woodruffe (House of Blues)

9.24.2011  2011 Life is Good Festival Canton MA (Barefoot Truth, Dwight and Nicole, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Tristan Prettyman, Martin Sexton, The Hold Steady, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Ingrid Michaelson, The Avett Brothers

9.20.2011  Nick Lowe (Wang Theatre)

9.20.2011  Wilco (Wang Theatre)

9.19.2011  Polica (Paradise Rock Club)

9.19.2011  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Paradise Rock Club)

9.10.2011  Jeff Mangum (Jordan Hall) p&s (a)

9.9.2011  Yo La Tengo (BOA Pavilion)

9.9.2011  The National (BOA Pavilion) (v)

8.14.2011  Neko Case (BOA Pavilion)

8.14.2011  My Morning Jacket (BOA Pavilion)

8.11.2011  Winter Gloves (Brighton Music Hall)

8.11.2011  The Naked and Famous (Brighton Music Hall) (v)

7.30.2011  2011 Newport Folk Festival Day #1 (The Wailin’ Jennys, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, The Felice Brothers, Typhoon, River City Extension, Freelance Whales, Gogol Bordello, Delta Spirit, Tegan & Sara, Gillian Welch, The Decemberists

7.31.2011  2011 Newport Folk Festival Day #2 (Brown Bird, David Wax Museum, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Trampled By Turtles, Justin Townes Earle, Middle Brother, Elvis Costello, M. Ward (v)

7.28.2011  The Submarines (Paradise Rock Club)

7.28.2011  The Eels (Paradise Rock Club)

7.27.2011  The Flaming Lips (BOA Pavilion) (v)

7.19.2011  Flow Child (Great Scott)

7.19.2011  Moonface (Great Scott) (v)

7.18.2011  Lower Dens (TT the Bear’s Place)  

7.18.2011  Cass McCombs  (TT The Bear’s Place) (v)

6.1.2011  The Secret Sisters (BOA Pavilion)

6.1.2011  Brandi Carlilie (BOA Pavilion)

6.1.2011  Ray Lamontagne  (BOA Pavilion)

5.21.2011  Earthfest 2011 Boston, MA (Atomic Tom, Sponge, OK Go, Ed Kowalczyk)

5.17.2011  The Cave Singers (Orpheum Theatre)

5.17.2011  Fleet Foxes (Orpheum Theatre)

5.11.2011  Voxhaul Brodcast (House of Blues)

5.11.2011  Airborne Toxic Event (House of Blues)

5.10.2011  O’Brother (House of Blues)

5.10.2011  Cage the Elephant (House of Blues)

5.10.2011  Manchester Orchestra (House of Blues)

5.5.2011  Two Man Gentleman Band (Brighton Music Hall)

5.5.2011  The Infamous Stringdusters (Brighton Music Hall)

4.19.2011  Iron & Wine (House of Blues)

4.14.2011  Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (Brighton Music Hall)

4.14.2011  Sharon Van Etten (Brighton Music Hall)

4.13.2011  Pretty and Nice (Great Scott)

4.13.2011  Handsome Furs (Great Scott) (v)

4.12.2011  Jaggery (Middle East Upstairs)

4.12.2011  Callers (Middle East Upstairs)

4.12.2011  Wye Oak (Middle East Upstairs) (v)

4.6.2011  Township (Brighton Music Hall)

4.6.2011  Hacienda (Brighton Music Hall)

4.6.2011  The Greenhornes (Brighton Music Hall)

4.4.2011  Holy Ghost (House of Blues)

4.4.2011  Cut Copy (House of Blues)

3.24.2011  Faces on Film (Villa Victoria Center for the Arts) p&s

3.24.2011  Richard Ashcroft (Villa Victoria Center for the Arts) p&s (v)

3.10.2011  Mynabirds (House of Blues)

3.10.2011  Bright Eyes (House of Blues)

3.4.2011  The Low Anthem (Old South Church)

3.3.2011  Dawes (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

3.3.2011  Deer Tick (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

3.3.3011  Middle Brother (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

2.21.2011  David Gray (Wang Theatre) p&s (v)

2.11.2011  Scott Hutchinson (House of Blues)

2.11.2011  Josh Ritter (House of Blues)

1.18.2011  Static Jacks (Great Scott)

1.18.2011  Young the Giant (Great Scott)

1.16.2011  Camper Van Beethoven (Middle East Downstairs) (v)

1.16.2011  Cracker (Middle East Downstairs) (v)

1.13.2011  Mean Creek (Brighton Music Hall)

12.10.2010  Marissa Nadler (Tremont Temple) p&s

12.10.2010  Andrew Bird (Tremont Temple) p&s (v)

12.2.2010  The Luyas (Paradise Rock Club)

12.2.2010  The Antlers (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

12.1.2010  Justin Jones  (Paradise Rock Club)

12.1.2010  Badly Drawn Boy (Paradise Rock Club)

11.22.2010  Kuroma (Paradise Rock Club)

11.22.2010  Stardeath and White Dwarfs (Paradise Rock Club)

11.22.2010  Tame Impala (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

11.11.2010  Sufjan Stevens (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

11.2.2012 Black Mountain (Paradise Rock Club)

11.2.2010 Black Angels (Paradise Rock Club)

11.1.2010  The Shining Twins (Great Scott)

11.1.2010 Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield (Great Scott)

11.1.2010 Juliana Hatfield (Great Scott)

10.29.2010 The Phantom Band (Paradise Rock Club)

10.29.2010 Plants and Animals (Paradise Rock Club)

10.29.2010 Frightened Rabbit (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

10.28.2010 Adam Haworth Stephens (Brighton Music Hall)

10.28.2010  The Felice Brothers (Brighton Music Hall)

10.15.2010  Dean Wareham (Wang Theatre) p&s

10.15.2010  Belle and Sebastian (Wang Theatre) p&s (v)

10.7.2010  The Walkmen (Royale)

10.7.2010  A.A. Bondy (Royale)

10.4.2010  Pete Yorn  (Pearl Street)

10.3.2010  Roger Waters (TD Garden) p&s (v)

10.3.2010  Neon Indian (Power Plant)

10.2.2010  S. Carey (Somerville Theatre)

10.2.2010  The Tallest Man on Earth (Somerville Theatre) (v)

9.28.2010  Sleigh Bells (Orpheum Theatre)

9.28.2010  LCD Soundsystem (Orpheum Theatre)

9.26.2010  Mean Creek (Middle East Downstairs)

9.26.2010  Dead Confederate (Middle East Downstairs)

9.25.2010  Ed Harcourt (Paradise Rock Club)

9.25.2010  James (Paradise Rock Club)

9.22.2010  Boxer Rebellion (Middle East Upstairs)

9.22.2010  Amusement Parks on Fire (Middle East Upstairs)

9.22.2010  We Are Augustines (Middle East Upstairs)

8.18.2010  David Gray (BOA Paviion) p&s (v)

8.18.2010  Ray Lamontagne (BOA Pavilion) p&s (v)

8.2.2010  Arcade Fire (BOA Pavilion) p&s (v)

8.2.2010  Young Galaxy (BOA Pavilion) p&s

7.31.2010 Newport Folk Festival (Low Anthem, Blitzen Trapper, Brandie Carlilie, O’Death, Horse Feathers, Andrew Bird, Dawes (p&s) (v)

7.25.2010  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (Pearl Street) p&s (v)

7.16.2010  Chris Warren (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

7.16.2010  Ha Ha Tonka (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

7.16.2010  Langhorne Slim (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

7.11.2010  The Mools (Port City Music Hall) p&s

7.11.2010  Wolf Parade (Port City Music Hall) p&s (v)

6.26.2010  Passion Pit (Royale) p&s (v)

6.23.2010  These United States (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

6.20.2010  James Taylor (TD Garden) p&s (v)

6.20.2010  Carole King (TD Garden) p&s (v)

5.30.2010  Drew O’Doherty (TT The Bear’s) p&s

5.30.2010  Land of Talk (TT The Bear’s) p&s (v)

5.30.2010  Besnard Lakes (TT The Bear’s) p&s

5.21.2010  The Punch Brothers (Orpheum Theatre) p&s

5.21.2010  Josh Ritter (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

5.17.2010  Pearl Jam (TD Garden) p&s (v)

5.12.2010  Pete Roe (First Church in Cambridge) p&s

5.12.2010  Smoke Fairies (First Church in Cambridge) p&s

5.12.2010  Laura Marling (First Church in Cambridge) p&s (v)

5.8.2010  Suckers (Great Scott) p&s

5.8.2010  Local Natives (Great Scott) p&s (v)

4.30.2010  Horse Feathers (Cafe 939) p&s (v)

4.29.2010  Bad Veins (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.29.2010  Maps and Atlases (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.29.2010  Frightened Rabbit (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

4.17.2010  David Allen Coe (The Coach House, CA) p&s

4.4.2010  Wilco (Lupos, RI) p&s (a)

3.28.2010  Bachlorette (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

3.28.2010  Beach House (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

3.4.2010  Joe Pug (Great Scott) p&s (v)

3.4.2010  Justin Townes Earle (Great Scott) p&s (v)

2.20.2010  Jason Boesel (Great Scott) p&s

2.20.2010  Corey Chisel & the Wandering Sons (Great Scott) p&s

2.20.2010  Dawes (Great Scott) p&s

2.3.2010  Arletta (Great Scott) p&s

2.3.2010  The Candles (Great Scott) p&s

2.3.2010  Evan Dando (Great Scott) p&s (v)

1.19.2010  Dawn Landes (Club Passim) p&s (v)

1.8.2010  Tanlines (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

1.8.2010  Julian Casablancas (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

2009 Favorite Concert Photos (p&s) Part I

2009 Favorite Concert Photos (p&s) Part II

12.3.2009  Josh Ritter (Calvin Theatre) p&s (a)

12.3.2009  Low Anthem (Calvin Theatre) p&s (a)

12.1.2009  The Big Pink (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

11.30.2009  Dave Godowski (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

11.30.2009  Bowerbirds (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

11.30.2009  Elvis Perkins in Dearland (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

11.4.2009  Dave Gutter (Wang Theatre) p&s

11.4.2009  Ray Lamontagne (Wang Theatre) p&s (v)

11.3.2009  Monsters of Folk (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (audio)

11.1.2009  Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop (Somerville Armory) p&s (v)

10.18.2009  Echo and the Bunnymen (Great Scott) p&s (v)

10.17.2009  Dawes (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s

10.17.2009  Langhorne Slim (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s (v)

10.17.2009  Boy Crisis (South Boston) p&s

10.17.2009 The Antlers (South Boston) p&s

10.3.2009  Sufjan Stevens (Port City Music Hall, ME) p&s (v)

9.22.2009  Little Joy (Orpheum Theatre) p&s

9.22.2009  Regina Spektor (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

9.8.2009  Mike Fiore (Great Scott) p&s

9.8.2009  Willy Mason (Great Scott) p&s

9.8.2009  A.A. Bondy (Great Scott) p&s (v)

8.31.2009  Stardeath and White Dwarfs (BOA Pavilion) p&s

8.31.2009  Explosions in the Sky (BOA Pavilion) p&s

8.31.2009  Flaming Lips (BOA Pavilion) p&s (v)

8.22.2009  The Horrors (Bowery Ballroom, NYC) p&s

8.22.2009  Nine Inch Nails (Bowery Ballroom, NYC) p&s

8.5.2009  MGMT (Fenway Park) p&s

8.5.2009  Paul McCartney (Fenway Park) p&s (v)

8.3.2009  Drew O’Doherty (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s

8.3.2009  Jessica Hoop (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s

8.3.2009  Langhorne Slim (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s (v)

2009 Newport Folk Festival Day #1 (Langhorne Slim, The Avett Brothers, Gillian Welch, Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists (a) (v) (p&s)

7.30.2009  Kristen Diable (Showcase Live) p&s

7.30.2009  Gin Blossoms (Showcase Live) p&s (v)

7.26.2009  Zee Avi (House of Blues) p&s

7.26.2009  Pete Yorn (House of Blues) p&s (v)

7.6.2009  Cinnamon Band (Great Scott) p&s

7.6.2009  DRI (Great Scott) p&s

7.6.2009  Handsome Furs (Great Scott) p&s (v)

6.14.2009  Tallest Man on Earth (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

6.11.2009  Witchies (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

6.11.2009  Elfin Saddle (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

6.11.2009  Sunset Rubdown (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

6.10.2009  Ida Maria (Skellig Pub) p&s (v)

5.19.2009  Pattern Is Movement (Somerville Theatre) p&s

5.19.2009  St. Vincent (Somerville Theatre) p&s (v)

5.14.2009  Animal Collective (House of Blues)

5.11.2009  Bon Iver (Cape Cinema) p&s (v)

5.10.2009  Ben Harper & Relentless 7 (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

5.6.2009  These United States (Harpers Ferry) p&s

5.6.2009  Papercuts (Harpers Ferry) p&s

5.6.2009  Vetiver (Harpers Ferry) p&s (v)

4.26.2009  Travis (Newbury Comics) p&s (v)

4.22.2009  Bruce Springsteen (TD Garden) p&s

4.21.2009  Fire Zuave (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.21.2009  Sugar and Gold (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.21.2009  Of Montreal (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

4.19.2009  The Dead (DCU Center, Worcester) p&s

4.2.2009  Josh Ritter (Avalon Theatre, MD) p&s (v)

3.31.2009  Ida Maria (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

3.31.2009  Glasvegas (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

3.15.2009  Pete Yorn (Majestic Theatre) p&s (v)

3.14.2009  Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

3.14.2009  A.C Newman (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

2.26.2009  Alena Diane (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

2.26.2009  Blitzen Trapper (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

2.21.2009  Ryan Adams & the Cardinals (Orpheum Theatre) p&s

1.30.2009  Andrew Bird (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

1.18.2009  Frightened Rabbit (Great Scott) p&s (v)