The Book Women.

A group of “book women” on horseback in Hindman, Kentucky, 1940. Kentucky Library and Archives.

They were known as the “book women.” They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities.

The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression, during which, by 1933, unemployment had risen to 40 percent in Appalachia. Roving horseback libraries weren’t entirely new to Kentucky, but this initiative was an opportunity to boost both employment and literacy at the same time.

“Sometimes the short way across is the hard way for the horse and rider but schedules have to be maintained if readers are not to be disappointed. Then, too, after highways are left, there is little choice of roads,” c. 1940. Kentucky Libraries and Archives.

Another fascinating article at Atlas Obscura, with absolutely splendid photos! Click on over and see.

Revitalizing Detroit.

Charles McGee, Unity. Photo by Sal Rodriguez. All images courtesy of Library Street Collective.

In 2014, when the City of Detroit threatened to sell many of the Detroit Institute of Art’s prized artworks to help the Motor City exit bankruptcy, the question of art’s role in the city’s future came front and center. Ultimately, the museum raised nearly a billion dollars to preserve the city’s cultural heritage—and its Picassos. Two years before, in what has become known as a “grand bargain,” local residents, husband and wife duo Anthony and JJ Curis, decided to open the Library Street Collective on a once-barren stretch of land. The Collective is a gallery with a traditional artist roster and a mission to revitalize the city by commissioning artists from the city and around the world to make public art in the streets of Detroit.

“Me or JJ don’t have an art background,” says Anthony Curis to Creators. “At the time, I was redeveloping a building in downtown Detroit that was meant to be a restaurant.” Back then, downtown Detroit’s state of near-total abandonment led him to open a gallery instead, at the suggestion of his wife. “The model wasn’t focused as much on the brick and mortar as it was on what kind of change we can make in the city.” He explains, “When we opened the gallery, we were really focused on public art and how could we change the landscape, making the community a little bit more vibrant and interesting. We are very interested in and keen on our mission to engage the public and reach people. That’s where the gallery was born.”

You can read much more, and see more about this project at The Creators Project.

Mushroom Hunt: Panther Cap.

From Charly, who notes: Getting into a dangerous territory here, this one is poisonous and dangerous. Allegedly also called false blusher in English. Indeed it could be sometimes theoretically mistaken for a blusher, if one were to forget that blushers blush when cut. There is more similar edible mushroom around here (grey spotted Amanita – Amanita excelsa var. spissa) which I did not see this time around. However I do not collect the grey spotted Amanita not for the fear of confounding it with this one, but because I think its taste is rather inferior and it is never trouble to find enough better quality mushrooms when they grow at all – like blushers. Click for full size!

Chris Ford: Affinity &emdash;

Chris Ford: Affinity &emdash;

© Charly, all rights reserved.

A Satanic Frequency Changes Your DNA!

Self-styled ‘prophet’ Mark Taylor is at again, resurrecting all the old shit, Illuminati, Freemasons, and so on. He seems to favour the ultra-lurid flavour of bullshit, while his colleagues in christianity are busy placing the finger of “god” blame for Hurricane Harvey mostly on Houston’s Mayor. That would be a serious case of overkill, but that would be Jehovah’s style. [one, two.]

“I believe what happened on November 8 is the enemy has literally sent out a frequency,” Taylor said, “and it agitated and took control, basically, of those who have their DNA turned over to the enemy. That’s what’s happening. The Illuminati, the Freemasons, all these people, their main goal is to change the DNA of man and they’re doing it through these frequencies.”

So boring. I recently read The Ritual by Adam Nevill, which early on mentioned the Goat of Mendes. I hadn’t heard that particular appellation before, so I looked it up, only to be so disappointed it was only Baphomet, a creation of bloodthirsty christians in their hatred of Muslims back in the good ol’ days, y’know, crusades. (Still a good book, guaranteed to give seasoned hikers one fit after another). This current crap being pitched by Mr. Taylor, it’s so old, and still moronic nonsense. Even the satanic frequency silliness isn’t new. I didn’t listen to the show, but I am curious as to how this particular frequency is being beamed out. Maybe it’s Facebook! Twitter! The evil internet itself! Cell phones! Music! Fox News! It’s Fox News! Uh oh, those electricity poles look suspicious… lock yourself in your closet, now.

Taylor claimed that he is getting “bombarded with emails” from Christians who are being isolated by their friends and families because of their support for Trump and that is “because their DNA is being controlled by the enemy.”

Someone needs to be kind enough to send an extremely basic biology primer to Mr. Taylor. He doesn’t seem to understand how all that biology stuff works. Does the mere mention of DNA still scare christians? I thought that went the way of old nonsense quite a long time ago. Christians who adore Trump aren’t being isolated because “friends and families DNA is being controlled by some nebulous and nefarious enemy” – you said it yourself, Mr. Taylor, it’s their support for Trump that’s doing the trick. You’re the bad guys. That’s why people are turning away. That, and listening to idiots drool adoration of the Tiny Tyrant is nauseating. Easier to wander off and not pay much attention to Uncle Chuck anymore.

Taylor said that the media is broadcasting its audio at 440 Hz, which has been found to “damage your body organs” and “also changes your DNA, which is the goal of the Freemasons, the Illuminati; they want you part of that Illuminati bloodline.”

:falls over laughing: This idiocy is near as old as the hills, I expect Mr. Taylor will soon try to get in on that luscious tinfoil hat money. Although I expect the usual “solution” to Luciferian switched DNA is the usual: prayer. Maybe exorcisms, there’s money to be had there by the ever unscrupulous. I would like to know just how DNA is being changed. What changes are being wrought? Will people start poofing into archangel form, perhaps? Or will they become Overlords, a la Childhood’s End? I imagine Mr. Taylor doesn’t know about those who deeply desire transhumanism and the singularity. I’m sure if he finds out, he’ll manage to work it into his current shtick.

Via RWW, where you can listen, if you so desire. You might want to put a tinfoil cap on first.

Chess As A Comic Book Trope.

Charlton Comics, Vol. 1, No. 36. Strange Suspense Stories (March 1958) (courtesy World Chess Hall of Fame).

Hyperallergic has a great article about The World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis, and chess as a comic book trope. Chess was a very common trope in much of pulp fiction, also. There are so many awesome images, I would have agonized over which to include here, so just the one. Click on over to see them all, and do some reading, too.

ST. LOUIS — “Chess and comics are a natural pair,” Shannon Bailey, chief curator of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF), told Hyperallergic. “The concepts of battle, the struggle of good versus evil, strategy, and speed, have always played a central role in both chess and comic book themes.”

Bailey organized POW! Capturing Superheroes, Chess & Comics now at WCHOF, a nonprofit institution that explores the connections between art and chess in its programming. Founded in 1986 by the United States Chess Federation, WCHCOF opened in St. Louis’s Central West End neighborhood in 2011, following the closure of its Miami museum in 2009. Recent exhibitions range from Designing Chessmen on the imagery of chess, to chess during World War II and the games designs of Michael Graves. WCHCOF is active as a collecting institution, and since POW! opened in March, collectors Floyd and Bernice Sarisohn — whose memorabilia and ephemera form the foundation of the exhibition — have decided to donate their comic books and related sets.

[…]

POW! Capturing Superheroes, Chess & Comics continues through September 17 at the World Chess Hall of Fame (4652 Maryland Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri).

You can read and see everything at Hyperallergic.