I’m not sure how I heard of David Benjamin Blower or when I followed him on Bandcamp but I’m glad today that I did. His new album is great. “Apocalyptic folk,” he calls it, and that certainly got my attention. 🎵
"May is Mary's month"
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather, Grass and greenworld all together ; Star-eyed strawberry-breasted Throstle above her nested Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin Forms and warms the life within ; And bird and blossom swell In sod or sheath or shell. All things rising, all things sizing Mary sees, sympathizing With that world of good Nature’s motherhood. From “The May Magnificat” by Gerald Manley Hopkins
Wonderful episode of The Emerald: “Carry That Weight: On Mythic Burdens and Cosmic Supports.” If you’re feeling the weight of the world—and you’re open to an animist view of the world—I cannot recommend it highly enough.
This is the sort of bread Rachel turns out on a random Thursday. She’s gotten so good over the last couple of years.
A quick search of my posts reveals that I am excited at this time every year when the tree frogs start their ruckus. Dear reader, it has begun.
Great segment from John Oliver on the continuing dangers of AI around mental health, suicide risk, and plain old delusion–and the absolutely sociopathic responses of the AI CEOs.
A really interested tidbit from Joel Salatin about how North America before the Europeans actually produced more food than it does today, even with the various chemicals.
CNBC newsletter:
Musk’s Tesla is beta testing an in-vehicle version of xAI’s Grok chatbot. First rolled out last year, it allows drivers to give voice commands to their car’s navigation system.
Meanwhile, my thirty-year old pickup truck has no power windows, locks, mirrors, or seat. The radio/cassette player doesn’t work–and I may not fix it. It doesn’t get in a hurry to go anywhere, which is increasingly to my taste.
The Louvin Brothers, “Dying from Home, and Lost.” The harmony on this one really reminds me of my childhood church, which I wrote about here. That album, by the way, is one banger after another.
It’s ridiculous, really, that I haven’t read any of the Foxfire books yet. I’ve checked out from the library an ebook edition of The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cooking to get me started and I’m going to keep an eye out for used copies of the main series.