Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Noble merchant (representative of the Grand Sherif) with his Circassian slave.


Gatekeeper of the Ka‘ba [Ka‘bah] (from the Shebah family [Bani Shaybî], who have held this office since pre-Islamic times) [1888-1889] | found at NY Public Library, Rare Books Division


It is commemorated on the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas.

In June 2021, Stepford Biden made Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, a forced federal holiday.



Condoleezza Rice: Juneteenth Is Our Second Independence Day

Also note that this date in 1865 was not the freeing of the last slaves after the Civil War. Many American Indian tribes, like the Choctaw, continued to own slaves in to 1866.

Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.


You can view Lange photos/prints in high resolution at Shorpy American Historical Photo Archive

“After de War I was what you call a freedman. De Indians had to give all dey slaves forty acres of land. I’se allus lived on dis land which jines dat of Ole master’s and I’se never stayed away from it long at a time.” Thus did Frances Banks, a formerly enslaved African American, describe herself and the situation for other formerly enslaved people in Indian Territory when interviewed by a Works Progress Administration (WPA) field worker in 1938.

Banks was born on a farm near Doaksville in the southeastern corner of the Choctaw Nation before the Civil War. Her parents belonged to the Wright family, whose prominent members included Allen Wright, principal chief of the Choctaw Nation from 1866 to 1870, and later a judge by the same name in the state of Oklahoma. Her short interview—which, like many conducted with former slaves, was transcribed using stereotypical Black speech patterns—offers a provocative glimpse at slavery, the Civil War, and emancipation, all familiar subjects in American history, but from a less familiar vantage point: Indian Territory.

Although the term “enslaver,” for most Americans, is likely to conjure up the image of a white plantation owner, Native tribes such as the Choctaw also enslaved people of African descent and had done so for more than a century before the Civil War. European traders and settlers introduced the Choctaws to enslaved Africans as early as the 1720s. By 1831, a federal census conducted in preparation for removing Choctaw Indians from the Mississippi River Valley to Indian Territory enumerated 17,963 Indians, 151 white persons, and 521 enslaved people. Just eight years later in 1839, there were approximately 600 enslaved people of African descent living among the Choctaws. And by 1860, enslaved people of African descent made up 14 percent of the population in the Choctaw Nation...

Choctaw Confederates

Alan J. Pakula's political assassination conspiracy thriller THE PARALLAX VIEW was released 50 years ago today. Freelance graphic designer Scott Saslow created this awesome anniversary poster!



In 2021, the film was reissued in a deluxe Blu-ray edition by the prestigious Criterion Collection. If you’ve seen the film, you know the sequence. It is the mind-blowing four-and-a-half-minute tour de force of "visual material" that is screened by the diabolical Parallax Corporation for Joe Frady (Beatty) to determine if he has assassin potential. Film Comment later called it "an ingenious montage of primally evocative images...with astutely manipulative music scoring."

Here's the "visual material" clip:




PARALLAX VIEW Reviews...

Several years ago, I began researching the history behind this extraordinary piece of filmmaking. I obtained copies of some of the production records and I interviewed one of the key people behind its creation. In addition to reading the original novel and screenplay adaptations, I also reviewed numerous articles, reviews and book excerpts.

This post presents what I have learned about THE PARALLAX VIEW Test Film.

“SOUNDS A LITTLE CRAZY”

If you want to learn the finer details behind "Test sequence" see this blog post:

AMERICAN BAROQUE: A HISTORY OF THE PARALLAX VIEW TEST FILM

More pride poster art for the 30th anniversary this year of "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". Never seen it, but I like the poster art:


Two drag-queens (Anthony/Mitzi and Adam/Felicia) and a transgender woman contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. They head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla. En route, it is discovered that the woman they've contracted with is Anthony's wife. Their bus breaks down, and is repaired by Bob, who travels on with them. Starring pre-Matrix Hugo Weaving, it has a rather high score on IMDB. A road-trip through the desert, filmed at "Alice Springs" + agent drag Smith just got itself added to my must watch list. A few screen caps for your pleasure...




The digger archivist folks over at Government Attic just posted a successful FOIA'd material from a FEMA dirty bomb and Black Plague exercise in 2002-03. Threat Level Red!


Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Top Officials Exercise (TOPOFF) After Action Reports (AAR) 2003-2007... over 1,000 pages.
TOPOFF 2 (T2) After Action Summary Report (PDF)


Praise be, endless sunshine!!




Unity in strange places? Scotland the Brave & Amazing Grace (André Rieu live in Bahrain)