More Yuletide Folklore Link Dumping

Last night I was surprised with a message that Pete Seeger is following me on Twitter.   At least the PR person in charge of his account is following me.   And he already follows thousands of people, so I don't feel that special.   But it still gave me a kick in the pants.

Here's what's going on in the Folklore neck of the woods:

• The American Folklore Society has a new Fellow, Burt Feintuch of the University of New Hampshire.   
• Call for papers at the "Music, Identity, and Culture in the Caribbean" conference in Dominican Republic this coming April.   Topic of conference: "Caribbean Musical and Dance Folklore in the Age of Globalization."   More info here.
• Jack Zipes and Riki Salzman won this years's Wayland Hand Award.   
• The AFS has a call for proposals for 2013 Oral History Association Annual Meeting.  Deadline in just over a month (Jan. 18th).
• More awards!   It's like the Oscars and Golden Globes up in here!   Envelope says: The Benjamin Botkin Prize went to Robert Gates and Ethel Raim.
• Another interneational conference: this one dedicated to honor the work of Lauri Honko.   It's called "The Role of Theory in Folkloristics and Comparative Religion"  and it's in Finland! 
• Do you Tumblr?   You should, some cool stuff there.   Here's some Russian Folklore!
• And we are probably all interested in the role of Slavic rites in Polish Hip Hop, right?  Might just be me.

Happy Yule!

Wishing you all a nice stack of folklore books under your Christmas Tree, Yule log, Hannukah Bush, Festivus Pole, Kwanzaa thingy.   Whether you believe in Krampus, St. Nick, Hannukah Harry or Schwartzer Peter - enjoy the holiday season with any of these new folklore releases:

• Stranger Magic: Charmed States & The Arabian Nights - Marina Warner.  Vintage Books.
• Appalachia Mountain Folklore - Michael Rivers.   Schiffer Publishing.
• First Timers and Old Timers - Kenneth L. Untiedt, ed.  Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, University of North Texas Press.
• Folk Tales of the Maldives - Xavier Romero-Frias.  Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
• Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions - Raphael Patai and Haya Bar-Itzhak, eds.  M. E. Sharpe.
• Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System - Katrina Hazzard-Donald.  University of Illinois Press.
• Embracing Fry Bread: Confessions of a Wannabe - Roger L. Welsch.  Bison Books.
• Trickster and Hero: Two Characters in the Oral and Written Traditions of the World - Harold Sheub. University of Wisconsin Press.
• Barbecued Husbands: And Other Stories from the Amazon - Betty Mindlin.  Verso Books.
• Irish Myth, Lore and Legend on Film - Dawn Duncan.  Reimagining Ireland; Peter Lang.
• The Conscience of the Folk Revival: The Writings of Israel "Izzy" Young - Scott Baretta.  Scarecrow Press.

FLFOT! (Folklore Friday on Thursday!)

My Fridays are usually kind of busy - and I sometimes forget about Folklore Friday.  All right, I may have forgotten for many months.   Here are some links updating what is going on in the wonderful world of folklore studies!

• The Boiled Down Juice is collecting stories about Sulphur Springs, Arkansas.   Check them out here
• I saw a guy on the train reading Nancy Marie Brown's new book "Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths."   When I got to work I immediately looked it up and discovered the author's blog God of Wednesday.   Add this one to your reading list!
• Mr. Proverb - Wolfgang Mieder - is the winner of the AFS Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award
• Couldn't make the AFS meeting in New Orleans last month?   Read the report here.
• Indiana University - home of America's premiere folklore program - is looking for a lecturer
• .In more IU news: Professor Portia Maultsby was the Charles Seeger Lecturer at the Society for Ethnomusicology's meeting in New Orleans.
• Another blog to add to your blogroll:  Living Ethnography.   Now this is how to do a blog!
• New issue of JAFL!  

First of Tha Month

On the first of the month, to ensure good luck, you should say the words "rabbit rabbit rabbit" when you wake up.

I always forget.

But I never forget to sing these timeless lyrics:

"Wake up, wake up, wake up it's the 1st of tha month
To get up, get up, get up so cash yo checks and get up."

Here's some folklore books coming your way this month, two of these books I would love to see under my Festivus pole:

• Folk Culture in the Digital Age - Trevor J. Blank, ed.  Utah State University Press.   The last book on this topic by Trevor Blank was pretty good!   I told him so on Bookface.   It's called Folklore and the Internet.   People, read them both.   Might even inspire me to do some real folklore writing instead of this terrible blog.
• Appalachia Mountain Folklore - Michael Rivers.  Schiffer Publishing.
• Signs, Cures, and Withcery: German Appalachian Folklore - Gerald C. Mines.  Paperback version.   University of Tennessee Press.   I'm a squarehead who used to live in Appalachia!   And this book is now in an affordable paperback edition.   I hope my mutti reads this blog.
• Dictionary of 1,000 Chinese Proverbs - Marjorie Lin and Leonard Schalk.  Hippocrene Books, revised edition.
• Legends of the Scottish Saints: Readings, Hymns and Prayers for the Commemorations of Scottish Saints in the Aberdeen Breviary - Alan MacQuarrie, ed.  Four Courts Press.
• Adonis: The Myth of the Dying God in the Italian Renaissance - Carlo Caruso.  Bristol Classical Press.
• Voodoo Priests, Noble Savages, and Ozark Gypsies: The Life of Folklorist Mary Alicia Owen - Greg Olson.   Missouri Biography Series, University of Missouri.

Online Illustrated Guide to the American Folklife Center

The above picture is from the Illustrated Guide to the American Folklife Center.   It is from a Cambodian wedding ceremony as documented in Lowell in 1987.

The Illustrated Guide serves as a great introduction to the Folklife Center.   If you have ever had to answer the question about what exactly folklorists study, you would be well served to point the questioner to this site.

Octoberfest of Folklore Books

I am wearing my pumpkin colored sweater, drinking a Pumpkin spiced latte, full of Knockwurst and Munich Gold from this weekend's Octoberfest revelry in New Hampshire.

I am afraid all my updates are only lists of books.   But, you know, lists of books are kinda cool.

• Diana - Fay Glinister.  From the series "Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World."  Routledge.
• When Women Held the Dragon's Tongue: And Other Essays in Historical Anthropology - Hermann Rebel.   Berghahn Books.
• Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology - Arthur W. Frank.  University of Chicago Press.
• Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions - Raphael Patai and Haya Bar-Itzhak, eds.   M. E. Sharpe.
• Media, Myth, and Society - Arthur Asa Berger.  Palgrave Pivot.
• Warrior Ways: Explorations in Modern Military Folklore - Eric A. Eliason and Tad Tuleja, eds.   Utah State University Press.
• Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship - Jo Eldridge Carney.  Palgrave MacMillan.
• Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liar's Club - Christopher B. Teuton.  The University of North Carolina Press. 
• The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry - Daniel W. Patterson.  Richard Hampton Jenrette Series in Architecture and Decorative Arts, The University of North Carolina Press. 
• Passing It On: Folklore of St. Louis - John L. Oldani.  2nd Edition, Revised and Updated, Reedy Press. 
• Where is My Home?: Slovak Immigration to North America (1870-2010) - M. Mark Stolarik.  Peter Lang.
• Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms - Kay Turner & Pauline Greenhill, eds.  In Fairy Tales, Wayne State University Press.
• Tales of Magic, Tales in Print: On the Genealogy of Fairy Tales and the Brothers Grimm - Willem de Blecout.  Manchester University Press.
• South Central Pennsylvania Legends and Lore - David Puglia.  The History Press. 
• The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures - Karl Bell.  Boydell Press.
• Americo Paredes: Culture and Critique - Jose E. Limon.  University of Texas Press.
• Traditional Stories from Binandere in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea - Anita Tago.  Buai Series 3, University of Papua New Guinea Press.

Folklored: A Don Cossack "kurenj" hut. Quick notes.

Evgenia Samsonova has a very informative blog about Slavic folklore over at Folklored.   I encourage you to check it out!


Folklored: A Don Cossack "kurenj" hut. Quick notes.: The photos below show typical examples Don Cossack hut "kurenj" architecture seen around the southern regions of the Russian steppes. Mov...