Ben Sisario

Monday, May 18, 2009

bog people, n.

[< bog n.¹ + people n. In sense 2 after Danish mosefolket (1965, in source translated in quot. 1969 at sense 2).]

With pl. concord.

1. Collectively: the inhabitants of a boggy area. rare.

1878 Times 29 Jan. 4/6 The old troglodytes, pile-villagers, and bog-people prove to be quite a respectable society. 1988 Toronto Star (Nexis) 29 Nov. W10 Chevrier and other bog people...are appealing to citizens to join a city-wide movement to convince Mississauga city council that the picturesque wetland is a chunk of local natural history that is worthy of preservation.

2. Collectively: the bodies, typically belonging to pre-Christian Germanic cultures, found in a well-preserved state in peatbogs in northern Europe. Cf. bogman n. 2.

1969 R. Bruce-Mitford tr. P. V. Glob (title) The bog people: Iron-Age man preserved. 1988 Paleobiol. 14 334 The so-called ‘bog people’ from the peats of northern Germany, Scandinavia, Britain, and Ireland...have been mistaken for recent murder victims. 1996 A. Michaels Fugitive Pieces ii. 221, I had discovered the perfectly preserved bog people in National Geographic, and derived a fascinated comfort from their preservation.

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Blue Demon’ (2004)

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Purves Street, Long Island City

‘Roman France’

Great travel piece in the Times today by Elaine Sciolino:

Over the years, I have discovered traces of Roman civilization throughout the country, from Arras in the north to Dijon in the center and Fréjus in the south. My hunt for Roman Gaul has turned up treasures in the oddest places, including the middle of wheat fields, the foundations of churches and the basements of dusty provincial museums.

Then I asked Patrick Périn, the director of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales just west of Paris, which houses the country’s finest Gallo-Roman collection, the best way to explore Roman France. He said he had two words for me: “Go south.”

Set aside for a moment images of Provence’s lavender fields, the Riviera’s beaches and Marseille’s bouillabaisse. The southeastern swath of the country seems as crammed with ancient Rome as Rome itself: temples, theaters, amphitheaters, aqueducts, roads, arches, monuments, mosaics and every sort of object from daily life.

Monster-about-to-chomp-babe poster of the day: ‘Frankenfish’ (2004)

Friday, May 15, 2009

More tours by Cuban musicians?

Billboard has an interesting piece today:

Encouraged by President Barack Obama’s remarks in April that he’s seeking a “new day” in relations with Cuba, U.S. promoters have quietly begun planning stateside concerts by Cuban artists for as early as June, pending their ability to secure permission from the U.S. Department of State to perform in this country. Washington, D.C., hasn’t authorized such visits since 2003...

Cuban music enjoyed a boom in popularity in the United States after Washington exempted Cuban recordings and other “informational material” from the trade embargo in 1988 and later allowed Cuban artists to perform stateside. ... By 2000, hundreds of musicians from the island had performed in the States, most prominently the Buena Vista Social Club, whose 1997 Ry Cooder-produced album on Nonesuch went on to sell more than 1.8 million U.S. copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“It became the opportunity to share a rich culture that was previously forbidden,” says Scott Southard, director of International Music Network, who adds that his company may try to bring back some of the surviving members of Buena Vista Social Club for U.S. performances later this year. The George W. Bush administration subsequently reduced the number of Cuban artists allowed to perform stateside and stopped issuing such visas altogether after 2003.

Musicians from Cuba were not the only ones who had visa troubles during the Bush administration, of course.