PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR MAY 29

[Mark Thibodeau]

POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS ALERT! On this day in 1733, the right of
Canadians to keep slaves is upheld in a Quebec City legislative
assembly. 100 years later, in 1833, slavery would be abolished
throughout Canada. In fact, it is a well kept secret that the only
Canadian population to ever enthusiastically practice slavery... were
the natives! TheHaida were particularly vicious enslavers and
slave-traders, venturing as far south as California on kidnapping
raids. As for the European side of things, historian Marcel Trudel has
documented precisely 4,092 recorded slaves throughout Canadian
history, of which 2,692 were native peoples owned by the French, and
1,400 blacks owned by the British, together owned by approximately
1,400 masters. There can be no accurate accounting of native
enslavement of other natives, but it surely totals in the millions,
over a much longer time span.

***

Happy Birthday to para-political heavy-weight philosopher Oswald
Spengler, who was born in Germany on this day in1880! Spengler's
hugely influential book, The Decline of the West, put forth his
fascinating Civilizations Model, which posits that every epoch goes
through a cycle of seasons, from Spring to Winter, after which comes
an ultimate and unavoidable collapse. Cheerful stuff.

***

On this day in 1913, the Paris premiere performance of composer Igor
Stravinsky and choreographer Vaslav Nijinski's ballet The Rite of
Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia provokes a riot when detractors and
supporters of the gloriously asynchronous, poly-rhythmic music and
primal, violent dancing begin fighting each other in the aisles.
Despite the ruckus, which spilled out into the street, the 33-minute
ballet was performed in its entirety. Stravinsky's score remains one
of the most important and impressive pieces of Modernist music ever
composed - an "it's all there" key to understanding where serious
composition was headed in the 20th century - and, as a well-rounded
human being, you really do owe it to yourself to take the time and
give this horizon-expanding, mind-blowing, eardrum-pounding creationan
uninterrupted listen with your complete and undivided attention.
"Farewell la Belle Epoch, welcome the New Age."

***

In another defining moment of the Modern Age, it was on this day in
1919 that scientists Arthur Eddington andAndrew Crommelin conducted
the first-ever real-world test of Albert Einstein's theory of General
Relativity. They set up camp on the island of Príncipe, near Africa,
and prepared to watch a solar eclipse. According to general
relativity, stars with light rays that passed near the Sun would
appear to shift due to their light curving through the Sun's
gravitational field - an effect only noticeable during eclipses, since
otherwise the Sun's brightness would obscure the affected stars. They
discovered that Newtonian physics could only account for half the
shift that they recorded - a shift that was accurately predicted by
Einstein's theory. All of a sudden, the Universe seemed like a whole
lot stranger place, indeed... especially to those elite few with minds
capable of grasping the physics of it all.

***

On this day in 1954, at the Hotel de Bilderberg near Arnhem in the
Netherlands, the first ever Bilderberg Conference is held. The whole
ball of wax got rolling when several people, including Polish
politicians Józef Retingerand Andrew Nielsen, became concerned about
the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe. They proposed an
international conference at which leaders from European countries and
the United States could come together and promote a better
understanding between the cultures of the United States and Western
Europe and foster cooperation on political, economic, and defense
issues. That's the official line. For a more accurate take on the
goals, activities and origins of every conspiracy theorist's favorite
honest-to-gosh actual global conspiracy, check out SourceWatch's
excellent Bilderberg dossier. You'll be glad you did. Or not...

A Picasso of Stravinsky - it doesn't get much more Modern than that!
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l