Festivus Folklore Finds!

Happy Festivus everyone! Hope you all had some quality time to grab the Festivus pole, air your grievances and display great feats of strength. Here is the stuff that filled my folklore folder during the holiday weeks:

• Google introduced a brand new toy: Google Books Ngram viewer. It's a sharp tool that lets you track the use of set words and phrases in Google's collection of millions of scanned books. Jason Baird Jackson has already played with it some. I did too. The Boston Globe discusses the possibilities for scholars. The New York Times, however, is more cautious in its optimism. I think that there is great potential here for the patient scholar - I wish I had this tool when I started my work back in the dark ages of the late nineties :)
• Our sisters and brothers over in the anthropology world are having some sort of brouhaha over their self-definition (as folklorists, we can more than relate). Anthropology in Practice as a fuller recounting of the imbroglio.
• Boing Boing owns the intranets. Here they discuss Wade Davis & drugs, and here they discuss British Oral Histories.
• And the Hindustani Times has an introduction to the study of folklore!

Try not to eat too much figgy pudding and Kwanzaa cake this week!

The Quail-a-day Diet

From the good folks at Snopes, an investigation into the belief that it is impossible to eat quail for thirty days in a row. This is the kind of bet I would happily take.

Cleaning Out My Folklore Bookmark Folder

I have months-worth of folklore bookmarks to share with you wonderful people. Consider these my early Festivus presents. Warning: not all of these are timely.

• How exactly do Russians celebrate Christmas? Don't turn to the Internet for answers: they usually tell you how Russians used to celebrate Christmas. Instead, read this. (This reminds me of a headline I saw on Vesti.ru the other day: "Ded Moroz does not like letters that start with 'Gimme.")
• Folklorist Dan Barnes was feted at the AFS meeting. Since retirement he spends a lot of his time tickling the ivory, quite an accomplished chap. Congrats on the award.
• Are you a folklorist looking for a tenure-track job? Apply here! These jobs don't grow on trees, you know.
• The estimable Jason Baird Jackson recounts his adventures at the AFS conference. Prof. Jackson is one of the folklorists behind the Open Folklore project - which just might be the greatest thing to hit folklore since the Aarne-Thompson Tale Type Index. I order you to subscribe to his blog right now.
• Vance Randolph's "Pissing in the Snow" is a major influence on my folklore career. But there was way more to him than collecting obscene folklore - here's a bio on the influential writer.
• My advisor wanted me to submit a chapter of my dissertation to The Journal of Folklore Research. I got lazy and never revised it. Now it is way out-of-date. But here is the new issue for your enjoyment. (I don't subscribe to Project Muse, but the articles look interesting, especially the "Undoing of of an Encyclopedia" and "Slovenian Folk Culture" articles).
• I am sure I have discussed my love for the works of Henry Glassie before. Meeting him at a talk at the University of Virginia was a highlight of my folklore life. Here he is discussing creativity in the context of winning the AFS award. Here's the press release about the award.
• The Boiled Down Juice is another folklore blog I demand that you read. Here she reviews a book on the life of Hazel Dickens.
• The Chicago Folklore Prize this year goes to . . . .David Delgado Shorter of UCLA for his book "We Will Dance Our Truth: Yaqui History in Yoeme Performance."

The Unibrows of Tajikistan

This article proves that conceptions of beauty are definitely culturally influenced. Personally, I find it more pretty than collagened lips.

"Where the Unibrow Reigns."

Your Folklore Festivus Gift Guide

Sorry for the dormancy! Let me welcome myself back! I will start it off with a holiday guide of new folklore books:

• The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth - Wendy Doniger. Columbia Classics in Religion.
• Chicano Graffiti and Murals: The Neighborhood Art of Peter Quezada - Sojin Kim. Folk Art and Artists Series. University Press of Mississippi.
• The Demon at Agi Bridge and Other Japanese Tales - Haruo Shirane, translated by Burton Watson. Columbia University Press.
• Hungarian Classical Ballads and Their Folklore - Ninon Leader. Cambridge University Press.
• Folklore and Folklife in the United Arab Emirates - Sayyid Hamid Hurriez.
• Wyoming Folklore: Reminiscences, Folktales, Beliefs, Customs, and Folk Speech - Federal Writer's Project; James R. Dow, Susan D. Dow and Roger Welsch, editors. Bison Books.
• Myth, Ritual and the Oral - Jack Goody. Cambridge University Press.
• Mulan's Legend and Legacy in China and the United States - Lan Dong. American Literatures Initiative.
• Santeria Garments and Altars: Speaking Without a Voice - Ysamur Flores-Pena and Roberta J. Evanchuk. Folk Art and Artists Series. University of Mississippi Press.
• Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece - Lee E. Patterson.
• Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives - Joseph Sciora, ed. Critical Studies in Italian America. 3rd edition. Fordham University Press.
• Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from Around the World - Mineke Schipper. Leiden University Press.

See you soon!

August Folklore Book Releases

Here are some of the exciting new titles in folklore studies arriving in a bookstore near you:

• An Ethnographic Study of Papadjab, an Afro-Caribbean Devil Dancer: The Christmas Street Festival in St. Lucia - Benjamin Wintersteen.
• Hungarian Classical Ballads: And Their Folklore - Ninon A. M. Leader.
• Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures - Susana Sloat (ed.)
• Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity - Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix.
• The Uncoiling Python: South Africa Storytellers and Resistence - Harold Scheub.
• Princes, Frogs and Ugly Sisters: The Healing Power of the Grimm Brothers' Tales - Dr. Allan Hunter.

Open Folklore is Open!

This is very exciting! The Open Folklore project - still in its infancy - is online here. This is exactly what folklore studies needs to thrive in the next century.

Summer of Folklore Books!

New month, new collection of folklore books. Buy me some!

• Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives - Joseph Sciorra. Must be a good book - it has my favorite euphemism for folklore in the subtitle! :)
• Heroism and the Supernatural in the African Epic - Mariam Konate Deme. In Routledge's series "African Studies."
• Myths and Legends of the Second World War - James Hayward.
• When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East - Carolina Lopez-Ruiz.
• Pandora's Senses: The Feminine Character of the Ancient Text - Veren Lev Kenaan. Wisconsin Studies in Classics.
• Travel Narratives in Rabbinic Literature: Voyages to Imaginary Realms - Tziona Grossmark.
• Koasati Traditional Narratives - Geoffrey D. Kimball. Studies in the Anthropology of North Ame.
• London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of The World's Most Vibrant City - Steve Roud.
• Introduction to African Oral Literature and Performance - Bayo Ogunjimi & Abdul Rasheed Naallah.

Cleaning the Cupboards!

Time to clean out my aggregator of folklore links!

• The American Folklore Society newsletter for Folklore and Education is out and worth a browse.
• Librarian Amy writes about the benefits of using folktales as a literacy tools in libraries servicing Latino communities.
• Two of my favorite scholars - Bill Ellis and Gary Allan Fine - have collaborated on a book on rumor and terrorism. The new book is called "The Global Grapevine" - and everything these two fine writers do is worth reading.
• Bruce Jackson recently presented the Botkin Lecture on the boundaries between photography and folklore as represented in photographs from Cummins Prison, where he did much fieldwork.
• This is only tangentially folk, but it is super cool! Video of song Kostroma by Ivan Kupala!
• The Huffpo passes along a fake book cover as a real Russian fairy tale book. I won't need to translate - the word 'caca' is universal!
• Aktuellen has an article by Richard Kuehnel and Rado Lencek on the motif of living waters in Slavic folklore.

Folklore Books for May

If I ever get the time, I intend on doing a post about folklore books available for the Kindle and the iPad. Right now we are sticking with new releases of books printed on actual paper.

• Classical and Contemporary Mythical Identities: Construction of the Literary Imagination - ed. by Amina Alyal and Paul Hardwick.
• Warlpiri Dreamings and Histories: Newly Recorded Stories from the Aboriginal Elders of Central Australia - Peggy Rockman Napaljarri and Lee Cataldi. Sacred Literature Trust Series.
• Mystical Oldham: Superstitions, Marvels and Mysteries Around Oldham and Saddleworth - Janette Quinlan.
• "The Inside Light": New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston - ed. by Deborah G. Pliant.
• Historical Residues in the Old Irish Legends of Queen Medb: An Expanded Interpretation of the Ulster Cycle - Diana D. Dominguez.
• Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decorations in the Southern Appalachians - Alan and Karen Jabbour.
• Culture and Customs of Portugal - Carlos A. and Rhonda Cunha. Part of the Series Culture and Customs of Europe.
• Aphrodite - Monica S. Cyrino. Part of the Series Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World.
• Delmarva Legends and Lore - David Healey.
• Traditions of the Osage: Stories Collected and Translated by Francis La Flesche - Garrick A. Bailey.

April Books

About a week late, here are some books coming out this month of interest to those of the folklore persuasion:

• Understanding Beowulf as an Indo-European Epic: A Study in Comparative Mythology - Earl R. Anderson.
• Werewolves, Magical Hounds, and Dog-Headed Men in Celtic Literature: A Typological Study of Shape-Shifting - Phillip A. Bernhardt-House.
• Vampires, Burials and Death: Folklore and Reality - Paul Barber. Reprinted with a new premise of what may be my favorite study of vampirism.
• Warlpiri Dreamings and Histories: Newly Recorded Stories from the Aboriginal Elders of Central Australia - Peggy Rockman Napaljarri and Lee Cataldi. From the Sacred Literature Trust Series.
• Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages: Their Origin and Influence on Literature and Art - H. A. Guerber. Classic reprint.
• The Myths of Israel: the Ancient Book of Genesis: With Analysis and Explanation of Its Composition - Amos Kidder Fisk. Classic reprint.
• Celtic Myth and Legend: Poetry & Romance - Charles Squire. Classic reprint.
• How Belief Stories Matter: An Approach to Myth - Marcelline Krafchick.
• The Mudville Heritage: Baseball in Folklore and Fiction - Tristram Potter Coffin and Craig Breslow. This book is immediately going into my queue.
• Mythology, A History of the Fabulous Deities of the Ancients - Madame Monsigny. Classic reprint.
• Myths and Legends of the Great Plains - Katharine Berry Judson. Classic Reprint.
• The Oglala Sioux: Warriors in Transition - Robert H. Ruby.

March Madness of Folklore Books

Not that many books coming out this month - but it's all about the quality and not the quantity here at The New Vernacular Culture! Might even have time to catch up on the reading!

• The Glens of Antrim: Their Folklore and History - Michael Sheane.
• Traveler's Accounts as Source Material for Irish Historians - C. J. Woods. Maynooth Research Guided for Irish Local History.
• Georgia Through Its Folktales - Michael Berman. The country Georgia, not the state.
• Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature - John D. Niles. This paperback is going on my wishlist!
• Lore of an Adirondack County - Edith E. Cutting. You have to sit in an Adirondack chair to read this.
• Mysterious Celtic Mythology in American Folklore - Bob Curran.
• Legends and Folktales: Eighteen Fairy Tales from Romania - Mite Kremnitz. From the nineteenth-Century German collector.
• The Oral Tradition of the Baganda of Uganda: A Study and Anthology of Legends, Myths, Epigrams and Folktales - Immaculate N. Kizza.
• Legends and Landscape: Plenary Papers from the 5th Celtic-Nordic-Baltic Folklore Symposium, Reykavik 2005 - edited by Terry Gunnell.
• Spectacle and Sacrifice: The Ritual Foundations of Village Life in North China - David Johnson. Harvard East Asia Monographs.

Folklore in the News

• Pictured above is Dr. George Lewis, Texas folklorist and English professor who recently passed away. Fitting tribute from one of his students.
• Fr Pavel Stefanov of Shoumen University in Bulgaria reviews the book Ariadne's Thread.
• A long, interesting and ancient (already in it's tenth year!) thread on the song Lakes of Ponchartrain. Also from Mudcat, a discussion the song Down in the Willow Garden.
• Mental Floss has a brief gloss on the practice of bloodstopping through bible verse.
• I can not overstate how much of an influence Chuck Perdue was on my work and my graduate school life, I am saddened to hear of his passing. I am proud to have his signature on my dissertation. Look for a more full posting about his influence on my approach to folklore (I stole the title of this blog from him)!
• Speaking of Chuck's legacy, check out the Virginia Archive of Traditional Culture, named after Chuck and Nan Perdue's sons: Kevin and Kelly.
• The American Folklore Society annual meeting is in Nashville this year in October, here's an invite.
• Report on the project Folktales and Facets by Kathryn La Barre & Carol Tilley at the University of Illinois.

What's Going On in the Folklore-o-verse?

Folklore just keeps on happening all around us!

• The Crooked Road heritage music trail in Virginia has been named a distinctive destination by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
• A transcription of a radio program broadcast in China about the Lomaxes. (in English)
• Paul Wagner - a c-villain and documentarian interested in folklore and American culture - has a new film about thoroughbred horses in Kentucky.
• Musings by The Embodied Movement about distress and some of it's pertinence to folklore.
• More urban legends about the Super Bowl. Who dat?
• I can watch videos of pretty Russian women singing all day long.
• Another weird list of phrases with the word folklore in 'em!
• Dark Raven has some lovely pix of Russian woodwork on his blog.
• When folklore and fantasy/romance novels collide.
• An interesting message-board convo on what it means to be a contemporary slavic pagan.
• Ok, about halfway through this rather amateurish video about the Domovoi, a message popped up: "If you would like to hear more about the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party go to www.nazi.org." A true WTF!!!!! moment.
• That crazy video did get me to this amazing video of Traditional Slavic Beauty.

It's Friday - Folklore Friday!

In an odd twist of fate, Folklore Friday this week actually falls on a Friday. Good times, good times.

• The American Folklife Center announces the Parsons Fund Award - you have until March 12th to apply for the grant!
• Molly's Country Memories discuss an example of American Folk Art I have yet to encounter: the bottle tree.
• Steve Vockrodt ties folklore studies into the Super Bowl. Who Dat?
• If you find yourself in Tarpon Springs, Florida, next week, give a visit to a talk from a contributor to the WPA Florida Writer's Project, Stetson Kennedy.
• Long bio of Zora Neale Hurston.
• Great collection of myths associated with the Super Bowl.
• Again, don't know if this is legal, but a pdf edition of Dundes' Interpreting Folklore.
• A long list of phrases with the word folklore in 'em. I have no idea what this means or where it is from - it reminds me a bit of the yankee foxtrot hotel radio stations.
• Only eight years late - but Google has alerted me to the passing of Lauri Honko in 2002.
• Introducing Alex Enkerli - linguist, anthropologist & folklorist.
• Texas Devil in Russia visited Mandrogi - a Russian mix of Storyland and Sturbridge Village - and was left unimpressed.
• Angry Russian explains Maslenitsa.
• Every few years someone writes an article or book about dying languages. Here's this year's article.
• Abstract for an article about the Chudes in Norwegian and Russian folklore.

February Folklore New Releases

A bunch of interesting titles are coming out this month - we should try for twenty-eight titles in twenty-eight days!

• Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Case Study in Local Folklore - David Waldron & Christopher Reeve. Amazon has no information on this title, but I doubt it was written by Superman.
• Narrative and Narrators: A Philosophy of Stories - Gregory Currie. Narrative study from a philosopher's point-of-view.
• A Concise Companion to Postcolonial Literature - edited by Shirley Chew and David Richards. Part of the series "Concise Companions to Literature and Culture."
• The Hausa of Nigeria - Frank Salamone.
• The Renaissance Literature Handbook - edited by Susan Bruce and Rebecca Steinberger. Part of the series "Literature and Culture Handbooks."
• Warlpiri Dreamings and History: Newly Recorded Stories from the Aboriginal Elders of Central Australia - Peggy Rockman Napaljarri and Lee Cataldi. Part of the "Sacred Literature Trust Series."
• The 1926 Miner's Lockout: Meanings of Community in the Durham Coalfield - Hester Barron. From "Oxford Historical Monographs."
• Sacred Play: Levity and Humor in South Asian Religions - edited by Selva J. Raj and Corinne G. Dempsey.
• Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology - Jennifer K. Stuller.
• Islam, Politics, Anthropology - edited by Filippo Osella and Benjamin Soares.
• The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America, 30th Anniversary Edition - Michael Taussig.
• Komiks: Comic Art in Russia - Jose Alaniz. Oh yeah, right up my alley.
• Toying With God: The World of Religious Games and Dolls - Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norris.

Pholklore Phriday on Saturday

The woman sitting across from in the coffee shop is watching cartoons on her laptop. Why can't I be satisfied just watching cartoons. Instead I delve into the depths and pits of the internetted community oyster-diving for these pearls.

• Google alerts sometimes throws me some material that is older - but interesting nonetheless. Questia has a preview of an article about Joe Magarac. It's behind a paywall - but if you subscribe it's worth a read.
• BCLEAR - that's the Bloomfield College Library Electronic Academic Resource, to those not in the know - has a link to the manuscript collection from the WPA. C'mon Obama, where's our WPA?
• In addition to outlawing cigarettes, the good people of the country of Bhutan is doing it's best to preserve oral lore.
• Not having spent much time in lady's rooms, I appreciate this study of latrinalia at Reed & Oberlin.
• The Director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival - Diana Parker - is retiring. Congrats on a great job!

Folklorin' On a Wednesday Afternoon

Fueled by coffee and an unrequited love for folklore, I find myself again sitting in a coffee shop in Worcester culling the Internet for interesting folklore tidbits to share with you.

• A Veteran's Group from St. Louis is employing recently returned vets to work with archeological artifacts that would have otherwise been collecting dust in boxes. I hope this program receives continued funding in the future.
• Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Huddie Ledbetter!
• There once was a feral man who lived in Haverhill.
• What is America's favorite singing folklorist up to these days?
• Addicted to Jersey Shore? I refuse to watch - I grew up around self-professed 'guidos' and 'guidettes.' Fordham University press has a list of book recommendations tailored to act as the antidote to Snooki and The Situation's poison, including a book on Italian-American vernacular culture.
• There is a bounty of folk films available for streaming at Folkstreams. Amazing and overwhelming. Just watched a great short film about Cajun fishermen who catch catfish with their bare hands. Date movie!
• The writer may hate the word, but an interesting post about how a word has traveled from African folklore into American sports cliche: the story of mojo.
• Ice dancing is awful, just awful.
• The Russian duo Velena specialize in what they call ethnotronic music: incorporating elements from both folk and electronic.

Another Week, Another Roundup of the Foklore-a-verse

Between holding down a real job and keeping abreast of the late-night wars, I am only able to devote a few hours a week to reading about folklore. Here are the updates of what has come across my browser this week:

• Alex Prior - the precocious teenage conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra - has more than a passing interest in American and Slavic folklore.
• Alan Jabbour - folklorist and fiddler!
• Songs and folk art about Dock Ellis - Pirates pitcher who once threw a no-hitter while tripping his balls off on LSD.
• Indigenous Studies Portal Research Tool has many folklore links.
• A pair of articles that argue for the influence of African-American folklore on hip-hop; to continue how about some more articles on how hip-hop is folklore.
• Great blogpost by Dusk in Autumn about the lack of contemporary kissing games among the youths of America.
• The wit and witticism of Alan Dundes.
• Speaking of Alan Dundes - there are a bunch of YouTubes of the professor! Here's him talking about folk history.
• The Folklore Society is seeking help in transcribing The Ordish Archive.
• Folk Computing! This article makes me happy.
• This page needs some cleaning up, but here is an article on folklore at the Smithsonian.
• I have no idea what this is from, but it is endlessly intriguing.
• Oh, this is right up the alley of some people I know!
• Editor's preface to the collection of Indian tales "A Flowering Tree."
• The Anthropology Song - a funny song about coming out as an anthropologist. We are all deeply in love with Malinowski!
• Karen Chace, whose blog that I am now following, has a post about storytelling on the Intranets.
• A Russian folklorist has gotten himself into some trouble with J.K. Rowling's lawyer for his book "Tanya Grotter and the Magic Doublebass."
• Birds in Russian folklore.
• A shout-out to Perk!
• What is it with White Supremacists and slavic folklore?

World Wide Web of Folklore

Another roundup of interesting Folklore posts from around the intertubes:

• First time author's workshop announced for the next AFS meeting.
• A number of colleges are offering classes on The Simpsons. Woo Hoo!
• Did you know that the Trix Rabbit was originally modelled after Disney's interpretation of B'rer Rabbit? Thanks to the fine folks at The Wren's Nest, you do now!
• Collaborative article on Helium about What is Folklore?
• January 8th was the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, which gave us the wonderful song by Johnny Horton. Walter Russell Mead has an article about the battle's importance to American Culture.
• Somebody posted the Kathy Neustadt article "The Folkloristics of Licking," not sure how legal this copy is and how long it will be up there. Never stumbled across this article before, but glad that I did.
• Iceland Review has an interview with folklorist Terry Gunnell.
• My advisor - the wonderful Natalie Kononenko - has an article in SEEJ about the history of Slavic Folklore studies in America. The article is from a few years ago, but for some reason my aggregator just picked it up today. A must-read.

First Folklore Friday of the Year!

Actually, it's the second. But I was in no shape for folklore last Friday.

• The New England Folklore Blog has an article about the regional food item Anadama Bread, and a picture.
• Ukrainian-American scholar Ihor Sevcenko has passed away. Among other achievements he was responsible for the first Ukrainian translation of Orwell's Animal Farm. His impressive obituary can be found at that rag the New York Times.
• The Chinese Folklore Forum has posted a transcript of Alan Dundes's 2004 AFS Presidential Plenary Address. Like almost all Dundes, it is obligatory reading.
• Lumberjack Blues posts about the Wisconsin beast, the Hodag.
• Yesterday was the 119th Anniversary of the birth of Zora Neal Hurston! You go Zora!
• Through Jason Baird Jackson's indispensable blog - a large repository of open-source journals for the study of Indian folklore.

New Year and New Folklore Books!

Happy New Year, everybody! Here are some of the new books coming out this month for your folklore pleasure:

• Tales of the Samurai: Stories of Old Japan - Roald Knutsen.
• God's Gateway: Identity and Meaning in a Hindu Pilgrimage Place - James Lochtefeld.
• Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History - John Cort.
• Alexander the Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality - Daniel Ogden.
• The Idea of Iambos - Andrea Rotstein.
• The Problem of Ritual Efficacy - edited by William Sax, Johannes Quack and Jan Weinhold. Part of the Oxford Ritual Studies Series.
• Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor - Henry D. Spalding.
• Mysteries and Legends of Georgia: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained - Don Rhodes.
• Mysteries and Legends of Nevada: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained - Don Rhodes.
• Oregon Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities and Other Offbeat Stuff - Harriet Baskas.
• Aphrodite - Monica S. Cyrino. Part of the series Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World.
• Japanese Mythology: Hermeneutics on Scripture - Junichi Isomae. From the series Religion in Culture: Studies in Social Contest & Construction.
• The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 14: Folklife - Glenn Hinson & William Ferris (eds.)
• Spectacle and Sacrifice: The Ritual Foundations of Village Life in North China - David Johnson. Harvard East Asian Monographs.
• Power and Marginality in the Abraham Narrative - Hemchand Gossai. Princeton Theological Monograph.