FEELING ALRIGHT

Incredible early footage of the Jackson 5. Live in their home state of Indiana, 1971.

ANATOMICAL HORROR

Images from a new book called simply The Anatomy of Japanese Folk Monsters by Shigeru Mizuki.

via Pink Tentacle.

VERBOORT SAUSAGE FESTIVAL

Every year, on the first Saturday of November, a small Dutch-Catholic farming community 40 minutes west of Portland holds a fund-raiser for the local parish school. Manifesting itself as an all-you-can-eat dinner, craft fair and bake sale, the real reason to go- the reason my father has been taking me here all my life- is the bulk sausage and sauerkraut.


Visitation Parish in Verboot, Oregon

Made on-site and available for sale exactly once a year, the smokey Verboort sausage and fresh, crisp kraut draw hungry people from all over the northwest. The sale begins at 9:00am, but the line begins to form around 6. Shivering and damp, people wait for hours beneath towering century-old sequoia trees to buy a year's worth of meat: the sausage holds up incredibly well in the freezer. My dad came here as a broke college student, and he and his friends would line their pockets with plastic bags so as to better capitalize on the low price of the all-you-can-eat dinner. There's even a beer garden, accessible only by climbing up onto the flatbed of an old farm truck and wishing for the best.


Those massive sequoias framing a sea of automobiles


Another shot of the line


Glory is the bulk sales counter at Verboort

SAM COOKE & THE SOUL STIRRERS: I NEED YOU NOW

IRIS DEMENT: OUR TOWN

ROY DECARAVA: 1919-2009

Jamaican American photographer Roy DeCarava was known for his photography of Harlem life and his collaborations with Langston Hughes. He died on Tuesday in New York.

More here and here.

DUCK STAMPS

These are "duck stamps," which aren't used for actual postage but instead to generate income for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Apparently, $0.98 of every dollar goes directly to purchasing wetlands and other endangered habitats. The program began in 1934, and the stamps above (top to bottom) are from 1944, 1959, and 1977 respectively. I'm no philatelist, but there's something very nostalgic about these. They remind me of a sign my dad has: it's a painted plywood cut-out of a snow goose emblazoned with an "Open Season" message and riddle with buckshot.

More here.

Hat tip to MAWOI.

A NEW YORK ART

The Velvet Underground: A New York Art is a new book that collects the promotional detritus used by the legendary band during their early days in 1960's NYC. A jumble of handbills, press clippings, and hand-scrawled lyrics, the book is the first of its kind and presents a pretty comprehensive snapshot of the greatest NY band ever as it figures itself out.

It even comes in a special edition featuring a fancy binding and 7" signed by Lou Reed and Mo Tucker.