Still happens all the time, but few people know about it. The US and Canada have such dead, sterilized cultures that most people aren’t even aware of old time, bluegrass, Quebecois, Métis, or Irish and Cape Breton music beyond thinking they’re just something quirky for a half-dozen rural people. There are public jams in even the biggest cities, and there’s usually at least one person either there or walking by who dances a silly little dance.
Not surprised, in Ireland the Dance Halls Act was literally designed to kill music in people’s homes so that they couldn’t gather in the same way and could only do so while being watched by the English. You kill off community cohesion and you kill off its ability to fight back.
Their brains weren't pure, they were thoroughly pickled in various distilled liquors. Which since most transportation of the day knew its way back home, that was fine.
Same. I go to weeklong medieval reenactment events twice per year, and I generally rarely check my phone. I'd rather walk around merchants, chat with friends, working on projects in camp, or just chilling doing nothing.
America! I started digging around in that sort of music after seeing a local-ish band play a song described as 'metal meets eastern European' - I knew what metal sounded like, had to look up some euro folk.
Lead me down a rabbit hole, learned I love the energy of Romanian folk.
Imagine being so starved for intellectual stimulation that you'd stand and watch a seven-hour Presidential debate. I might possibly be able to do that today, but I would have eaten my own eyeballs by hour three.
I really loved Thud! and it's up there with my favorites!
This is my first ever read through, and on one hand I'm kicking myself for waiting so long, but also now I'm taking breaks in between books because I'm afraid of getting to the end.
Wintersmith has been a pleasant surprise for me, because while I like Tiffany and the Feegles, the stories feel more small scale compared to many of the other book, but this one is really going into the in-and-outs of what being a witch in this world is all about, and I'm loving that. In the whole series, I have liked how while the wizards have real magic, most of it is much more trouble than it's worth, while witches are more about the headology where they're more just being exceptionally good neighbors 90% of the time and then the last bit is some of the most badass stuff in the entire series.
Pratchett just puts such a great spin on any expectation in each story and always keeps me surprised and laughing.
Pratchett was incredibly wise… and incredibly angry at injustice. But such a deep deep understanding of human nature - I think the best examples are Nobby and Colon. They are so incredibly and completely human.
I have on single piece of advice, take it as you will: Do not sleep on Shepherd's Crown when you get there. I cried most of the way through it. Not because it was a polished novel - it was clear with the last 2-3 or so that he wasn't able to put as much editing time in - they feel more like he was writing/dictating the stories and not able to go back and edit them well - but it was still absolutely worth the read, and clearly his goodbye to us.
Every time I read them - and this is probably around my eighth complete re-read - I catch new things and grow more and more fond of them. They are old friends and visiting them is comforting.
For being fiction, there is a rather lot of wisdom in them. Headology is a case in point. And being someone making those hard decisions - that may not be right, but someone has to choose. It's hard to have to be that person.
I've been a bit stunned that Discworld doesn't seem to have quite the following as Lord of the Rings, other than that it doesn't take itself as seriously. The world building and character development has been so wonderful. And that one could really pick up nearly any book as their first read and not be lost while there is so much referential content really highlights how natural the world feels. And what you read has such actual value in real life. I'm affirmed some thoughts and feelings that I've had, but it's also gotten me to think about things I hadn't given much thought to or how to process some things I couldn't come up with words for expressing.
Nobby and Colon are great examples of both character building, not just for themselves, but Vimes as well. Night Watch and Thud! showed how far they had come since Guards! Guards! and it's not that they're written differently to make them less useless, it's that Vimes has taken account of what he has to work with and has become such a great leader that he can turn what would be a disadvantage to most into just the right thing the situation needs.
The other character that I really love that I wouldn't have anticipated is Detritus. From when he temporarily gains intelligence from the cold weather to when he defends Cheery in front of all the dwarves, he's become so much more than he started as. The vampires, golums, and zombies all shine too and bring so much to the stories. No one feels like a throwaway character.
I do want to see how it all wraps up. I don't expect everything to end up all neatly settled, but that kind of thing, the books have shown me, is for stories, but the Disc is alive and likely won't have a storybook ending. Or maybe it will. I love that I still don't know what to expect after nearly 40 books.
The good thing about getting to the end is that you can start again from the beginning, and see them all differently with the foreknowledge of the whole thing.
Man, I generally object to film adaptations of books because they never get it right, but I would so love to see him taking control of the robot army in Interesting Times get put to film.
Kinda how I felt about a lot of social stuff growing up. I didn't end up getting diagnosed with autism until I was in my 30s. I played football in highschool and just remember feeling really alienated during huddles.
There were kids shaking and almost foaming at the mouth with excitement and I was just standing in the circle thinking "huh the guys are really excited, man blake is really invested in this game", "I don't think I've ever had so much fun I've gotten angry about it?"
I guess because typical refers to the majority? But yeah, I guess it's fairly normal for young men to be ruled by hormones and ideations of violence and grandeur.
I don't understand why that's a surprise, tho have you seen the dance style at the time! I swear it was the birth of krumping, it looks fun as fuck. (Source, some old westerns or something)
I'd really hate if a fiddle ingested any piece of music ever created and then churned through electricity and potable water like no tomorrow, all the while making awful noise and heating its surroundings before outputting a worse version than the input with zero soul or originality.
Nowadays, nobody moves a muscle unless the music is not only electrically amplified, EQed and compressed for maximum loudness but also Autotuned. Technology has spoiled us.
66 Comments
NotSteve_@lemmy.ca · 102 pts · 2d
That genuinely sounds great even in
Soup@lemmy.world · 60 pts · 1d
Still happens all the time, but few people know about it. The US and Canada have such dead, sterilized cultures that most people aren’t even aware of old time, bluegrass, Quebecois, Métis, or Irish and Cape Breton music beyond thinking they’re just something quirky for a half-dozen rural people. There are public jams in even the biggest cities, and there’s usually at least one person either there or walking by who dances a silly little dance.
Not surprised, in Ireland the Dance Halls Act was literally designed to kill music in people’s homes so that they couldn’t gather in the same way and could only do so while being watched by the English. You kill off community cohesion and you kill off its ability to fight back.
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 1d
Exactly. No solidary and you get modern day USA
chaogomu@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 1d
1880?
Their brains weren't pure, they were thoroughly pickled in various distilled liquors. Which since most transportation of the day knew its way back home, that was fine.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
The laudanum helped.
pr06lefs@lemmy.ml · 33 pts · 2d
I mean, the music is made for that. Some people are still into it!
Check out this one
Almacca@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 1d
The best thing to come out of Appalachia is the music. Let's go clogging!
ripcord@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1d
I mean why does that seem weird, I could totally see that happening today
ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 1d
Hang out with punks or hippies and it's the norm
ripcord@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Or if you have a soul
sundray@lemmus.org · 25 pts · 1d
Hmm...
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 1d
Cocaine was legal in the United States until 1914…
protist@retrofed.com · 15 pts · 1d
Late 1800s was also peak alcoholism in the US, if I recall correctly
Malyca@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 1d
I wonder if Trump's golden age (robber barrons) had anything to do with that?
Soggy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
"Legal" does not mean "widely available"
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1d
But it still was…
confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 1d
My brain ain't pure but a fiddle and a campfire work for me. Compared to staring at a computer screen my brain will hit that reward signal so hard.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 1d
Same. I go to weeklong medieval reenactment events twice per year, and I generally rarely check my phone. I'd rather walk around merchants, chat with friends, working on projects in camp, or just chilling doing nothing.
MunkyNutts@feddit.online · 20 pts · 1d
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
I was going to say you can dance if you want to but he seems to be wearing a hat
chremylus@pf.imontheweb.net · 2 pts · 1d
Home home get em home He's had too much to drive
aeiou@piefed.social · 17 pts · 1d
okay but
PartyAt15thAndSummit@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 1d
Amazing sax and violins.
I like to imagine that when the band formed, they played really slow and each time they practiced, they picked up more speed.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
okay my fingers felt slow before watching that, now they feel really slow
Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 1d
Can I ask where are you from? Not often I see people mentioning traditional romanian music
treesapx@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1d
I live in the US and I love the band Csokolom.
Almacca@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 1d
I live in Australia and love the band Monsieur Camembert.
aeiou@piefed.social · 5 pts · 1d
America! I started digging around in that sort of music after seeing a local-ish band play a song described as 'metal meets eastern European' - I knew what metal sounded like, had to look up some euro folk.
Lead me down a rabbit hole, learned I love the energy of Romanian folk.
Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 1d
Thats gold ahahaha, nice
pr06lefs@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1d
bad ass! that eastern european fiddle music is awesome
decolo@piefed.social · 1 pts · 1d
Sick!!
jnod4@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1d
Is this Manele?
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1d
Imagine being so starved for intellectual stimulation that you'd stand and watch a seven-hour Presidential debate. I might possibly be able to do that today, but I would have eaten my own eyeballs by hour three.
ICastFist@programming.dev · 3 pts · 23h
When one of the "debaters" is trump or any other politician like him, enduring even fucking 10 minutes is a torture
ech@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 1d
You can dance now, too. This isn't footloose.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1d
I dunno, I'm reading Wintersmith from the Discworld series, and doing that started a whole heap of supernatural trouble!
daychilde@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
I'm on Thud! on this readthru :)
anon6789@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
I really loved Thud! and it's up there with my favorites!
This is my first ever read through, and on one hand I'm kicking myself for waiting so long, but also now I'm taking breaks in between books because I'm afraid of getting to the end.
Wintersmith has been a pleasant surprise for me, because while I like Tiffany and the Feegles, the stories feel more small scale compared to many of the other book, but this one is really going into the in-and-outs of what being a witch in this world is all about, and I'm loving that. In the whole series, I have liked how while the wizards have real magic, most of it is much more trouble than it's worth, while witches are more about the headology where they're more just being exceptionally good neighbors 90% of the time and then the last bit is some of the most badass stuff in the entire series.
Pratchett just puts such a great spin on any expectation in each story and always keeps me surprised and laughing.
daychilde@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Pratchett was incredibly wise… and incredibly angry at injustice. But such a deep deep understanding of human nature - I think the best examples are Nobby and Colon. They are so incredibly and completely human.
I have on single piece of advice, take it as you will: Do not sleep on Shepherd's Crown when you get there. I cried most of the way through it. Not because it was a polished novel - it was clear with the last 2-3 or so that he wasn't able to put as much editing time in - they feel more like he was writing/dictating the stories and not able to go back and edit them well - but it was still absolutely worth the read, and clearly his goodbye to us.
Every time I read them - and this is probably around my eighth complete re-read - I catch new things and grow more and more fond of them. They are old friends and visiting them is comforting.
For being fiction, there is a rather lot of wisdom in them. Headology is a case in point. And being someone making those hard decisions - that may not be right, but someone has to choose. It's hard to have to be that person.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
I've been a bit stunned that Discworld doesn't seem to have quite the following as Lord of the Rings, other than that it doesn't take itself as seriously. The world building and character development has been so wonderful. And that one could really pick up nearly any book as their first read and not be lost while there is so much referential content really highlights how natural the world feels. And what you read has such actual value in real life. I'm affirmed some thoughts and feelings that I've had, but it's also gotten me to think about things I hadn't given much thought to or how to process some things I couldn't come up with words for expressing.
Nobby and Colon are great examples of both character building, not just for themselves, but Vimes as well. Night Watch and Thud! showed how far they had come since Guards! Guards! and it's not that they're written differently to make them less useless, it's that Vimes has taken account of what he has to work with and has become such a great leader that he can turn what would be a disadvantage to most into just the right thing the situation needs.
The other character that I really love that I wouldn't have anticipated is Detritus. From when he temporarily gains intelligence from the cold weather to when he defends Cheery in front of all the dwarves, he's become so much more than he started as. The vampires, golums, and zombies all shine too and bring so much to the stories. No one feels like a throwaway character.
I do want to see how it all wraps up. I don't expect everything to end up all neatly settled, but that kind of thing, the books have shown me, is for stories, but the Disc is alive and likely won't have a storybook ending. Or maybe it will. I love that I still don't know what to expect after nearly 40 books.
Almacca@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 1d
The good thing about getting to the end is that you can start again from the beginning, and see them all differently with the foreknowledge of the whole thing.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
I sometimes have to remind myself they aren't real people because I do feel proud of how far many of them have come.
No matter who you are, you can probably find a character you can relate to that overcomes what has been holding them back.
Almacca@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 1d
I've always had a soft spot for Rincewind, personally. The inveterate coward that gets shit done anyway just because no-one else seems to want to.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Once he can no longer run away, the only option left is to be awesome! 😁
Almacca@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 1d
Man, I generally object to film adaptations of books because they never get it right, but I would so love to see him taking control of the robot army in Interesting Times get put to film.
And he invented Vegemite!
Almacca@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 1d
We don't talk about the Dark Morris.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 1d
Kinda how I felt about a lot of social stuff growing up. I didn't end up getting diagnosed with autism until I was in my 30s. I played football in highschool and just remember feeling really alienated during huddles.
There were kids shaking and almost foaming at the mouth with excitement and I was just standing in the circle thinking "huh the guys are really excited, man blake is really invested in this game", "I don't think I've ever had so much fun I've gotten angry about it?"
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1d
I get this is the opposite of what you were going for, but why the hell are these people the ones held up as "neurotypical"?
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 1d
I guess because typical refers to the majority? But yeah, I guess it's fairly normal for young men to be ruled by hormones and ideations of violence and grandeur.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 9 pts · 1d
That could happen even in 2026. Especially if the fiddle player busts out a sick rendition of Devil Went Down to Georgia.
LavaPlanet@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 1d
I don't understand why that's a surprise, tho have you seen the dance style at the time! I swear it was the birth of krumping, it looks fun as fuck. (Source, some old westerns or something)
electric_nan@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 1d
Damn I'm sorry to anyone who can't relate!
Psythik@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
This isn't wholesome, it's depressing. Gotta put in so much effort into distracting ourselves these days, just to not feel miserable.
Zephorah@discuss.online · 5 pts · 1d
It’s not like he could pull up songs whenever he liked. He had to take advantage of those random opportunities to dance.
glimse@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Music lost it's ability to make people dance in 1881
Zwiebel@feddit.org · 3 pts · 1d
That's when youtube was invented afterall
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1d
According to AI.
quarkquasar@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Well, Cher is doing that to me right now.
She does transcend time, though.
Manjushri@piefed.social · 3 pts · 1d
Sounds great to me!
nieceandtows@programming.dev · 3 pts · 2d
Did people hate the fiddle slop back then?
Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 1d
I'd really hate if a fiddle ingested any piece of music ever created and then churned through electricity and potable water like no tomorrow, all the while making awful noise and heating its surroundings before outputting a worse version than the input with zero soul or originality.
But that might just be me.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1d
Do you want Shai-Hulud? Because this is how you get Shai-Hulud.
DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 14h
I would settle for 56 cable channels, FM Radio, and a Sega Genesis levels of stimulation.
Now I've gotta have 3 screens simultaneously (phone, laptop, and TV) and a 20 oz Red Bull to feel anything
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space · 1 pts · 1d
Nowadays, nobody moves a muscle unless the music is not only electrically amplified, EQed and compressed for maximum loudness but also Autotuned. Technology has spoiled us.