"Old weird America" blogging

Greil Marcus is a pompous self-mythologizing bozo (whose Lipstick Traces seems to me to be overblown and self-indulgent speculation w/out much original insight) but he did come up with a wonderful phrase for the re-titling of his Invisible Republic: The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes: he called it Old, Weird America. Nick Tosches and various other American-studies people have worked this same vein, to emphasize the degree to which, prior to radio/movies/TV, American culture was far more localized, far more diverse, far more isolated, and far more "weird" than since then. It's the world that the early cylinders, 78s, and Vita-phone films just hint at--artists whose performances and performance rhythm were aimed at the medicine show and the vaudeville stage, with the audience and performer in the same room, not the objectification of electronic media.

Well, here are a few shots from the "Old, weird America" as represented by the 4th of July celebrations in my home town. Dig:














Porta-Sans and kiddie-carts









Trying to fill the sippie-cup








and...








Church O' the Rock Corn Dogs (sold out by noon, in case the Rapture hits later on)