overlycriticalspice

[overlycriticalspice]

[overlycriticalspice]

delightful

1965 French Floral Crepe Fabric From Flower Power prints from the 1960s, Tina Skinner, 1998.

[overlycriticalspice]

Nice enthusiasm

1111

let your dreams be what they are, as big and expansive as possible. don’t hold yourself back, and don’t discount your desires as impossible. nothing is out of your reach, the only limits are those you haven’t found a way around yet. let yourself explore freely, without fear or hesitancy. you are creating your own life, why not do so with endless excitement, with boundless joy, with the deepest love?

[overlycriticalspice]

‘The Pop Art traffic plan,’ Seventeen magazine, January 1965

[overlycriticalspice]

punishment basement?

Interior design influencers are already predicting a strong year for images of dogs printed on a towel hung over the only window in a wooden room.

[overlycriticalspice]

Late-Arriving Protestor Has No Idea What He’s Chanting

Something Like ‘Darf The Yannum’ Or ‘Garf To Yaddum’

“Wait, am I supposed to be against the florff, or are we supporting it?

lol

[overlycriticalspice]

more info on the singers here

lyrics here

[overlycriticalspice]

self-love

Self-love is not about narcissism. Self-love is not about staring in the mirror or taking a thousand selfies and admiring how super cool and superior to others you are. Real self-love is about truly loving and appreciating yourself as a human being. Real self-love means becoming your greatest supporter and your very own best friend. Real self-love is about recognizing the divine within you.

Self-love is not selfish, it’s necessary. You give love to so many people, why wouldn’t you give some to yourself?  Why wouldn’t you show yourself respect and kindness? You are with yourself 24/7, you might as well love the very essence of yourself. You can love your personality. You can love your strengths and weaknesses. You can love the person you see in the mirror.

You deserve your own love. The relationship you establish with yourself is the most important one because it automatically affects every other relationship in your life. Lack of self-love will draw to you toxic people. Self-love is one of the highest vibrations. When you cultivate this powerful mindset, when you love yourself, when you love the beautiful, cool, amazing person you are, you become a magnet for magical experiences and opportunities.

✨IG: @nikasholistic✨

[overlycriticalspice]

adorbs

From @breemelissa92: “🎤🎶” #catsofinstagram

[source: https://instagr.am/p/CIIxV4xFJk0/ ]

[overlycriticalspice]

good reminder

[overlycriticalspice]

chill time

Baby otter climbs aboard kayak

(via)

[overlycriticalspice]

veggies, pasta, garnish . . . perfect

Dinner for one

(via)

[overlycriticalspice]

helpful reminder

Thoughts.

Books - https://debbietung.com/books

[overlycriticalspice]

watermelon rind hats are the best headgear

Perfect fit

(via)

[overlycriticalspice]

fantastic

Work Songs and Sea Shanties

There’s been a lot of posts making the rounds discussing the ties between industrial union songs, folk songs, and sea shanties (since there’s been a rise in sea shanty popularity because of tik tok.) But I have yet to see one making the direct connection from African American work songs. Which is a little disheartening, as a black person who has always liked and enjoyed the genre.

Work songs have existed lonnnnnggg before shanties. But the distinct lyrical and instrumental form of what we immediately think of as “sea shanty” had antecedents in the working chants of international maritime traditions. Mainly those sung while loading vessels with cotton in ports of the Southern United States, during the 18th and 19th century. And you know what also rose in the 18th and 19th century? 

Answer: Chattel Slavery. 

“In the first few decades of the 19th century, White European-American culture, especially the Anglophone—the sailors’ “Cheer'ly Man” and some capstan songs notwithstanding—was not known for its work songs. By contrast, African workers, both in Africa and in the New World, were widely noted to sing while working. The fact that European observers found African work-singers so remarkable suggests that work songs were indeed rather foreign to their culture.” Source

Slave music has many distinct qualities. In early captivity, drums were used to provide rhythm, but they were banned in later years because of the fear that Africans would use them to communicate in a rebellion (they were, and also used as escape codes.)  Slaves then resorted to generating percussion, using other instruments or their own bodies. Another quality is the call-and-response format, where a leader sing’s a verse or verses and the others respond with a chorus. There’s also field hollers, shouts, moans, etc.

As slaves were forced into christianizing, their work songs evolved into Spirituals. Other measures to prevent slave rebellion included making sure that slaves from the same tribe were intentionally scattered, so that they could not share the same language. The forbiddance of practicing indigenous religions and speaking anything other than English meant that eventually, the large groups of slaves were once again able to communicate with each other. 

Spirituals were largely informed by the colonial hymns and folk songs of the time. They had the multitudinous purpose of 1.) keeping everyone working 2.) imparting Christian values 3.) describing the hardships of slavery, and 4.) hiding codes to escape.  Famous Spirituals include “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Wade in the Water” and they were a significant part of navigating the Underground Railroad. 

The switch to steam powered ships by the end of the 19th century gradually made sea shanties obsolete as work songs, so they are largely preserved as folk music. But because African Americans were still forced into the labour class, their work songs continued to evolve. Here are some chain gang songs for example.

Work songs > Spirituals > Gospel Music > Blues > Every Modern Black American Musical Genre That we Know Today

Not only that, but the root genre of work songs still exist across the globe, distinct to the agricultural and industrial work force of each culture. These videos were all posted within the last 5-10 years, from Tasmania, South Africa, The Philippines, and Tanzania. You can hear the connection between them being the tremendous labour they do.

[overlycriticalspice]

[overlycriticalspice]

yesss