FYI: The Western United States...

...is really bumpy.

That is all. As you were.

Data visualization by @cstats:
https://www.instagram.com/cstats1

 
Tee shirts available on Redbubble:
https://www.redbubble.com/people/cstats/shop

The True Size

UK climate data scientist Neil Kaye has animated a map of the world that shows the distorted sizes of countries due to the Mercator Projection, and then their true sizes. For example: in reality, Greenland is not larger than Africa...

https://twitter.com/neilrkaye/status/1464874387698552832

The Average Colors of the World

Erin Davis creates data visualizations to, as she puts it, "express my weird arty side and cold analytical side in one nice package." And this is a fascinating visualization: she used satellite imagery from the Sentinel-2 satellite to average out the colors it sees in various countries and continents around the world. It sure is easy to see where the dry regions are...

https://erdavis.com/2021/06/26/average-colors-of-the-world/

"Born This Way" by Orville Peck

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Lady Gaga's uplifting anthem "Born This Way" (and to celebrate Pride Month!), Gaga has created "Born This Way The Tenth Anniversary" special edition album, which will be released on June 18 via Interscope. And to cover the title song, she asked none other than the marvelous gay country artist Orville Peck...what an honor. And his "Country Road Version" is a hoot. It actually pays homage to the original while being utterly Orville.

"I am so honored and excited to be a part of the iconic legacy of this song and album. Thank you @ladygaga for askin me and Happy Pride y'all !!" the Canadian masked country musician tweeted.

Love it!

https://www.orvillepeck.com/
https://bornthisway.ladygaga.com/

11 Nations Inside The United States

I've been saying this very thing for decades. Having lived (relatively) in the corners of the United States at different times in my life, I can attest to the truth of this idea. There are definitely nations within the United States, with wildly varying cultural/societal/psychological viewpoints. And for the last decade and a half, I have been saying that the conservative places are getting more conservative and the more humanistic places are becoming ever more inclusive. As a proud Left-Coaster, I see that there is a clear culture war going on in this country and it manifests itself in our increasingly ugly and out-of-control politics. The more conservative areas naturally see this as some kind of highly organized plot on the part of the freer areas to "take over," and we see it as a last-gasp of bigotry, fear, and intolerance (fueled by engineered poverty and damaging, repressive religions) on the part of the conservative areas.


This map shows the US really has 11 separate 'nations' with entirely different cultures
MATTHEW SPEISER

Jul. 27, 2015, 2:17 PM

In his fourth book, "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America," award-winning author Colin Woodard identifies 11 distinct cultures that have historically divided the US.

"The country has been arguing about a lot of fundamental things lately including state roles and individual liberty," Woodard, a Maine native who won the 2012 George Polk Award for investigative reporting, told Business Insider.

"[But] in order to have any productive conversation on these issues," he added, "you need to know where you come from. Once you know where you are coming from it will help move the conversation forward."

Here's how Woodard describes each nation:

Yankeedom
Encompassing the entire Northeast north of New York City and spreading through Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, Yankeedom values education, intellectual achievement, communal empowerment, and citizen participation in government as a shield against tyranny. Yankees are comfortable with government regulation. Woodard notes that Yankees have a "Utopian streak." The area was settled by radical Calvinists.

New Netherland
A highly commercial culture, New Netherland is "materialistic, with a profound tolerance for ethnic and religious diversity and an unflinching commitment to the freedom of inquiry and conscience," according to Woodard. It is a natural ally with Yankeedom and encompasses New York City and northern New Jersey. The area was settled by the Dutch.

The Midlands
Settled by English Quakers, The Midlands are a welcoming middle-class society that spawned the culture of the "American Heartland." Political opinion is moderate, and government regulation is frowned upon. Woodard calls the ethnically diverse Midlands "America's great swing region." Within the Midlands are parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Tidewater
Tidewater was built by the young English gentry in the area around the Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina. Starting as a feudal society that embraced slavery, the region places a high value on respect for authority and tradition. Woodard notes that Tidewater is in decline, partly because "it has been eaten away by the expanding federal halos around D.C. and Norfolk."

Greater Appalachia
Colonized by settlers from the war-ravaged borderlands of Northern Ireland, northern England, and the Scottish lowlands, Greater Appalachia is stereotyped as the land of hillbillies and rednecks. Woodard says Appalachia values personal sovereignty and individual liberty and is "intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers alike." It sides with the Deep South to counter the influence of federal government. Within Greater Appalachia are parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, Illinois, and Texas.

Deep South
The Deep South was established by English slave lords from Barbados and was styled as a West Indies-style slave society, Woodard notes. It has a very rigid social structure and fights against government regulation that threatens individual liberty. Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina are all part of the Deep South.

El Norte
Composed of the borderlands of the Spanish-American empire, El Norte is "a place apart" from the rest of America, according to Woodard. Hispanic culture dominates in the area, and the region values independence, self-sufficiency, and hard work above all else. Parts of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California are in El Norte.

The Left Coast
Colonized by New Englanders and Appalachian Midwesterners, the Left Coast is a hybrid of "Yankee utopianism and Appalachian self-expression and exploration," Woodard says, adding that it is the staunchest ally of Yankeedom. Coastal California, Oregon, and Washington are in the Left Coast.

The Far West
The conservative west. Developed through large investment in industry, yet where inhabitants continue to "resent" the Eastern interests that initially controlled that investment. Among Far West states are Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

New France
A pocket of liberalism nestled in the Deep South, its people are consensus driven, tolerant, and comfortable with government involvement in the economy. Woodard says New France is among the most liberal places in North America. New France is focused around New Orleans in Louisiana as well as the Canadian province of Quebec.

First Nation
Made up of Native Americans, the First Nation's members enjoy tribal sovereignty in the US. Woodard says the territory of the First Nations is huge, but its population is under 300,000, most of whose people live in the northern reaches of Canada.

Woodard says that among these 11 nations, Yankeedom and the Deep South exert the most influence and are constantly competing with each other for the hearts and minds of the other nations.

"We are trapped in brinkmanship because there is not a lot of wiggle room between Yankee and Southern Culture," Woodard says. "Those two nations would never see eye to eye on anything besides an external threat."

Woodard also believes the nation is likely to become more polarized, even though America is becoming a more diverse place every day. He says this is because people are "self-sorting."

"People choose to move to places where they identify with the values," Woodard says. "Red minorities go south and blue minorities go north to be in the majority. This is why blue states are getting bluer and red states are getting redder and the middle is getting smaller."


Original article by Matthew Speiser on Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-nations-of-the-united-states-2015-7

Author Colin Woodard
http://www.colinwoodard.com/

Snow: City, Town, Country

CITY

TOWN

COUNTRY

Masterpieces Of Pop: "Ode To Billie Joe"

It has been my intention for many years now to write an essay called “The Masterpieces of Pop” and explore the songs that I consider to be seminal moments or highlights in pop music. Now, my definition of pop for this exercise is quite broad; it includes music from genres such as country and western, and soul/ R&B. For my purpose here, “pop” means any music, after the start of rock n’ roll, that was “popular.”

My list of songs covers many decades, from the 50s to now. They are not in chronological or alphabetical order. They are not arranged by genre or preference. So with that in mind, I’d like to start with an absolutely haunting song by Roberta Lee Streeter, better known as Bobbie Gentry, called “Ode to Billie Joe.” She wrote and recorded this masterpiece in 1967. With its spare instrumentation—just Gentry on guitar backed by a string section—and Gentry’s measured, plaintive voice, it skyrocketed to number one on the Billboard 100.


This chilling Southern Gothic song has a literary feel, playing more like a Flannery O’Connor short story or a William Faulkner novel. Indeed, the structure is far less like a pop song of that period and more like prose. The compact story concerns itself with a typical farming family in the southern part of the United States receiving the news of the suicide of a young man in town. They continue on with their normal, daily activities while dispassionately discussing the suicide, thus building a sort of damn against the flood of real emotion that would normally be felt in such a situation. This denial seems to be part of a willful effort to play dumb about any possible connection between the dead young man and the daughter in the family, the narrator of our song. Let’s look at the lyrics.

"It was the third of June,
another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was balin' hay.
And at dinner time we stopped,
and walked back to the house to eat.
And mama hollered at the back door
'Y'all remember to wipe your feet.'
And then 'I said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge.
Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.'

Papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas,
'Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense,
pass the biscuits, please.'
'There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow.'
And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow.
'Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge,
and now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.'

And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show.
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
'I'll have another piece of apple pie—you know it don't seem right.
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge,
and now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.'

Mama said to me 'Child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite.
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today,
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday. Oh, by the way…
he said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
and she and Billie Joe was throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge.'

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe.
Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.
There was a virus going 'round, papa caught it and he died last spring,
and now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything.
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge,
and drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

As we can see, secrets and mysteries abound in this family and in this song. And like any good short story, we are given a glimpse into a life or lives other than our own, and it is up to us to make something of it.

It is clear that everyone in the family knew Billie Joe. In such a small rural area, everyone knows everyone. But our narrator knows more than she can say—and possibly more than the rest of her family knows. Why is she so shaken at the news of Billie Joe’s death? Was she talking to him after church recently? And was it actually her that Brother Taylor saw throwing something off the bridge with Billie Joe? And if it was, what did they throw? None of these questions are answered and if they were, the power and brilliance of this song and its narrative would be destroyed. The contrast between and the colliding of the mundane, dreary, disconnected lives of the family and the enigma, the unspoken secrets and grief, gives this song its tension and is the source of its genius. The domesticity hides enormous pain and grief.

Another brilliant contrast is found in the music itself. At the top of the song, we are introduced to the main texture of the song with Gentry’s lazy guitar sound, invoking scenes of sitting on a wooden porch in sweltering heat, drinking lemonade. But that lull is broken immediately by the haunting moan of the strings. Twice in a row they let out a sickening, mournful, keening yet restrained howl, establishing an undertone that lets us know this is no ordinary country song. The strings are effectively the Greek chorus throughout the song, giving us a sense of anguish, of foreboding, even of horror. When we catch up to our narrator a year after the news of Billie Joe’s suicide, we find that a lot has changed in her family. She tells us that he brother got married and moved away, and that her father caught a virus and died. That alone is fairly shocking considering that we live in an age where people do not die from a simple virus. So the two women are left alone, our narrator and her mother. You would think that the common experience of loss might join the two of them together, but we sense that this is not the case. They seem estranged, even more separate then they were before. Our narrator is totally isolated now, and tells us that she spends her time picking flowers on Choctaw Ridge and then dropping them into the river from the bridge where Billie Joe killed himself. As soon as she sings, “…and drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge,” the strings come in with an eerie, startling whirling sound, a dizzying descending noise that imitates the falling flowers plummeting down to join Billie Joe in the water where he ended his life. And the strings finalize this mystery, closing the book on these lives. Listening to this song is an extremely full, rich experience.

Watch Bobbie Gentry singing a live version of “Ode To Billie Joe” on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in 1967. Her guitar playing is perfect, the strings are still there, and her interpretation of the song is nuanced and lovely. She performs in front of a set that shows a kitchen much like the one in which the song takes place, occupied by plaster figures of a mother, father and son… an apt metaphor for the stiffness and denial the family lives in. And at the end of the song, our flesh and blood narrator moves to take her place at the table with her inanimate family… a ghostly act that is a perfect way to visually end the song.

http://bobbiegentry.org.uk/