Busójárás
During February in the small Hungarian town of Mohács, the townspeople dress as horned monsters, wander the town swilling spiced wine and homemade pálinka, and make as much noise as humanly possible.
Lasting for approximately one week, and ending the day before Ash Wednesday, Busójárás is a celebration and affirmation of life for the Šokci, the ethnic Croatian minority population living in Mohács. During the penultimate night of the festival, a man made of straw is carried by cart into the center of town and then burned in a bonfire while the townspeople hold hands and dance the kolo in a circle around the blaze.
Busójárás has much in common with other carnival festivals that celebrate the end of winter. However, according to the official story, the roots of the festival date back to the Battle of Mohács in 1526. As legend has it, the villagers dressed up as fearsome monsters and drove away the invading Turkish army.
The male busos wear a traditional sheepskin cloak, women’s wool stockings under men’s pants, and a carved monster mask. As master buso mask-maker Engelbert Antal believes, the buso’s mask isn’t to simply change his outer appearance—instead, it is to alter the person behind the mask. As such, each mask is crafted specifically for each buso. The woolen stockings are part of a carnival pagan tradition embracing the duality of male and female. Although there are now a few female busos, women who participate in the festival typically dress up in clothing reminiscent of female Ottoman Turks. During Carnival time, all rules are ignored and everything is permitted, and some claim that the excesses of the celebration were key to the small Šokci population’s survival in Mohács, as no one could question the parentage of children conceived during Busójárás.
During the festival there are numerous traditional music performances, costumed folk dancing, buso parades, and in between scheduled events, general mayhem. Like every Carnival celebration, alcohol is consumed in abundance, and the busos are often very, very drunk. Visitors to Busójárás should be warned that it’s nearly impossible to witness the carnival without somehow being dragged into it. It’s common for adult spectators to have flour thrown on them, be offered drinks from large flasks of spiced wine, and to be groped and/or dry-humped (albeit for comic effect) by the busos.
Admission to the festival is free, although it’s best to arrange a place to stay ahead of time. Although it is possible to stay in Mohács itself, many visitors to the festival prefer to stay in one of the pesions available to rent in the nearby wine region of Villány.
Long Time Coming
One day I was out milking the cows. Mr. Dave come down into the field, and he had a paper in his hand. ‘Listen to me, Tom,’ he said, ‘listen to what I reads you.’ And he read from a paper all about how I was free. You can’t tell how I felt. ‘You’re jokin’ me.’ I says. ‘No, I ain’t,’ says he. ‘You’re free.’ ‘No,’ says I, ‘it’s a joke.’ ‘No,’ says he, ‘it’s a law that I got to read this paper to you. Now listen while I read it again.’
But still I wouldn’t believe him. ‘Just go up to the house,’ says he, ‘and ask Mrs. Robinson. She’ll tell you.’ So I went. ‘It’s a joke,’ I says to her. ‘Did you ever know your master to tell you a lie?’ she says. ‘No,’ says I, ‘I ain’t.’ ‘Well,’ she says, ‘the war’s over and you’re free.’
By that time I thought maybe she was telling me what was right. ‘Miss Robinson,’ says I, ‘can I go over to see the Smiths?’ — they was a colored family that lived nearby. ‘Don’t you understand,’ says she, ‘you’re free. You don’t have to ask me what you can do. Run along, child.’
And so I went. And do you know why I was a-going? I wanted to find out if they was free too. I just couldn’t take it all in. I couldn’t believe we was all free alike.
Was I happy? Law, miss. You can take anything. No matter how good you treat it — it wants to be free. You can treat it good and feed it good and give it everything it seems to want — but if you open the cage — it’s happy.
– Former slave Tom Robinson, 88, of Hot Springs, Ark., interviewed by the Federal Writers’ Project for the Slave Narrative Collection of 1936-38
via Long Time Coming.
F. Scott Hess | EMPTY KINGDOM You are Here, We are Everywhere
F. Scott Hess is an oil painter originally hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, but is currently based out of Los Angeles, California. Hess has exhibited his work internationally from Austria, France, Germany, and all throughout the United States. Clearly, Hess’ work truly speaks for itself, as he explores themes that “magnify and reveal human frailties” depicted through intriguing narrative scenes.
via F. Scott Hess | EMPTY KINGDOM You are Here, We are Everywhere.
Leonor Fini at Weinstein Gallery
“Berenice“, Leonor Fini
Oil on paper on canvas 18 5/8 x 15 1/2 inches 1992
Snake handling – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Snake handling or serpent handling is a religious ritual in a small number of Pentecostal churches in the U.S., usually characterized as rural and part of the Holiness movement. The practice began in the early 20th century in Appalachia, spreading to mostly coal mining towns. The practice plays only a small part of the church service of churches that practice snake handling. Practitioners believe serpent handling dates to antiquity and quote the Book of Mark and the Book of Luke to support the practice:
And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Mark 16:17-18″
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19
Branded For Life
Hostgator.com, formerly known as Billy Gibby. Photo by Stephen Nigl.
Wherever Joe Tamargo goes, people stare at his forearms. He likes it that way. Years ago, Tamargo, a resident of Rochester, New York, auctioned off space on his arms, transforming himself into a human billboard. “I just thought that would be the most visible place possible for people,” he told me. Today, they’re covered in tattoos bearing the logos of 15 different websites.
“When I tell them the story, they’re like, ‘Yo, that’s pretty cool. I’m going to check out those websites,'” Tamargo, 38, says of people who see him in public. “And then they get there and there’s nothing on the website.” Tamargo is not just a walking advertisement. He’s a walking advertisement for businesses that no longer exist.
Energetic dot-coms flush with startup cash were known in the late 1990s and 2000s for their marketing stunts. Of course, many of those businesses imploded. But unlike their expensive Super Bowl ads, tattoos aren’t so ephemeral. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people out there with the domain names of defunct websites etched prominently and permanently on their skin, the walking detritus of zombie websites’ marketing campaigns.
Os erros de Einstein | questões da ciência | Blogs [revista piauí] pra quem tem um clique a mais
Físicos profissionais e jornalistas de ciência são procurados com espantosa regularidade por indivíduos que afirmam ter descoberto furos na teoria da relatividade ou na mecânica quântica e que juram de pés juntos serem capazes de desmascarar as fraudes de Einstein e outros ícones da ciência.
São em geral físicos amadores – homens na maioria dos casos – que não têm vínculo com qualquer universidade ou centro de pesquisa. Ao abordar cientistas e jornalistas, eles buscam um atalho para apresentar as ideias que eles não encontram espaço para divulgar nos fóruns comumente usados pelos pesquisadores para apresentar suas ideias – as revistas e congressos científicos.
Um exemplo típico dessa fauna é o autor do cartaz retratado na foto abaixo. Por ocasião de um simpósio internacional no Rio de Janeiro, ele confeccionou um cartaz e passou o dia ao lado dele na frente do Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF), onde o evento era realizado.
“Preciso de ajuda e estou sendo discriminado”, dizia a introdução do cartaz, endereçado aos cientistas do CBPF e ao ministro da Ciência. “Fiz uma importante descoberta científica e tecnológica, e não me deixam mostrá-la. Ninguém acredita em mim. Descobri a maior fraude científica da história do conhecimento moderno. Preciso ser ouvido, avaliado e ajudado por estudiosos. Toda fraude um dia vem à tona e a de Einstein chegou ao fim.”
O texto seguia com mais detalhes dos “erros primários” de Einstein, numa caligrafia cada vez menor à medida que diminuía o espaço disponível no cartaz. O autor elencou as promissoras perspectivas de aplicação do seu achado na exploração espacial e concluiu com um apelo dramático: “Inteligências do Rio, onde estão vocês? Preciso de ajuda”.
Hugh Hefner comes out in support of gay marriage
In 1965 Indiana police arrested Charles Cotner and charged him with an “abominable and detestable crime against nature.” His offense? Consensual anal sex with his wife. He faced 14 years in prison. When I first learned about Cotner’s case—his attorney wrote to PLAYBOY to seek our assistance—I was appalled. His wife, who signed the complaint after the couple had argued, changed her mind and asked to have the charges dropped. But the judge refused, and Cotner served nearly three years in prison before the Playboy Foundation was able to free him.
While working to strike down absurd sex laws like the one that landed Cotner behind bars, I learned a lot about the people who want to control what goes on in American bedrooms. Those who oppose us have always had one thing in common: They are on a crusade to eliminate sex not intended for the purpose of procreation.
You might think this story has nothing to do with you or your life in America in 2012. But sadly you would be wrong. The forces that put Charles Cotner in jail are the same forces at work right now. If you want a perfect example, take a look at the controversy that continues to dog the rights of gay men and women to marry. The fight for gay marriage is, in reality, a fight for all of our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time.
I remember that time. When I wrote The Playboy Philosophy in the early 1960s, both oral and anal sex were illegal in 49 of the 50 states. In 10 of those states, sodomy—which was variously defined but could, in some states, include oral sex—carried a maximum sentence of 20 years. Citizens in Connecticut who engaged in oral sex faced 30 years in prison—60 years for people who lived in North Carolina. In Nevada it could mean life behind bars. It was a time when 37 states outlawed sex between unmarried people and 45 criminalized adultery. Two states even banned heavy petting.
This is the oppressive world some would have us return to. These moralists say that if sex doesn’t beget children, it’s a sin. Your sex life, your privacy rights and the rights of men and women everywhere are casualties of this belief. In Arizona, under a proposed bill women who hoped to have their health insurer cover birth control would have been forced to provide their employer with proof they were taking the pill for a medical condition—not just for the purpose of avoiding pregnancy. A new Kansas law allows a pharmacist to refuse to sell someone contraception on the grounds that such a sale could violate the pharmacist’s religious beliefs. Similar laws already exist in Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota. Lawmakers in Michigan are pushing one of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in decades, while in Texas and Pennsylvania people continue to demand the defunding of Planned Parenthood centers, which provide health care to countless women. Across America these conservatives continue to assault the rights of gays, whether by denying them the right to marry or, as in Kansas, by attempting to empower landlords, business owners and employers to discriminate against gays on religious grounds. And earlier this year, when a Republican legislator in Virginia told CNN “sodomy is not a civil right,” I thought of Charles Cotner and wondered how much time we have left before we lose all the advances of the sexual revolution.
Nearly 50 years ago in the pages of this magazine I warned that “when religion rather than reason dictates legislation, do not expect logic with your law.” Today, in every instance of sexual rights falling under attack, you’ll find legislation forced into place by people who practice discrimination disguised as religious freedom. Their goal is to dehumanize everyone’s sexuality and reduce us to using sex for the sole purpose of perpetuating our species. To that end, they will criminalize your entire sex life.
This is a religious nation, but it is also a secular one. For decades the American people have found a way to balance religious beliefs with secular freedoms. We have enjoyed freedom of religion as well as freedom from religion. These need not be incompatible. No one should have to subjugate their religious freedom, and no one should have their personal freedoms infringed. This is America and we must protect the rights of all Americans.
ULTRAMASSA 