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The 42nd annual Folklife Festival on the National Mall takes place this week through Sunday, June 29; and again from July 2 through July 6. Programs are: “Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon;” “NASA” Fifty Years and Beyond;”and “Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food, and Wine.”   To get an up-to-date schedule for this weekend’s events at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, click here.

(Photo courtesy of Jennifer Endick, Smithsonian Institution

The 42nd annual Folklife Festival on the National Mall takes place this week through Sunday, June 29; and again from July 2 through July 6. Programs are: “Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon;” “NASA” Fifty Years and Beyond;”and “Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food, and Wine.”    

BHUTAN

Bhutan Kitchen: 11 a.m. Dragon Drinks: Tea and Alcohol; Noon Cattle God’s Gifts: Butter and Cheese; 1 p.m. Taste of Bhutan; 3 p.m. Buckwheat Noodles; 4 p.m. Festive Foods

Four Friends Narrative Stage: 11 a.m. The Eight Lucky Signs; 11:45 a.m. The Art of Bhutanese Postage Stamps; 12:30 p.m. Monarchy and Democracy; 1:15 p.m. Texas-Bhutan Connections; 2 p.m. Looking at the Stars; 2:45 p.m. Bhutan in the 21st Century; 3:30 p.m. Ghos and Kiras 4:15 p.m. Home Altars and Rituals; 5 p.m. Storytelling

Tsechu Stage: 11 a.m. Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance; 12:00 p.m. Ritual Monastic Dance; 1 p.m. Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance; 2 p.m. Teaching; 3 p.m. Ritual Monastic Dance; 4 p.m. Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance; 5 p.m. Closing Ritual; 6 p.m. Evening Concert: Music and Dance from the Land of the Thunder Dragon

NASA

Exploration Stage: 11 a.m. NASA Pioneers; 11:45 a.m. Moon Bound; 12:30 p.m. Astronaut Adventures; 1:30 p.m. Mysterious Universe; 2:15 p.m. NASA and Popular Imagination; 3:15 p.m. Sun-Earth Connections; 4 p.m. Astronaut Adventures; 4:45 p.m. International Space Station 

Food Lab: 11 a.m. Planning for the Moon and Mars; 12:00 p.m. Creating Menus for Space; 1 p.m. Packaging Food for Space; 2 p.m. Planning for the Moon and Mars; 3 p.m. Creating Menus for Space; 4 p.m. Packaging Food for Space

Galaxy Stage: 11 a.m. International Space Station; 11:45 a.m. High Flight; 12:30 p.m. NASA Pioneers; 1:30 p.m. NASA in Second Life; 2:15 p.m. NASA and Nation; 3:15 p.m. NASA and Popular Imagination; 4 p.m. Probing the Planets; 4:45 p.m. Mysterious Universe

TEXAS

Dance Hall: 11:30 a.m. Los Texmaniacs with Augie Meyers; 12:30 p.m. Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys; 1:30 p.m. Little Joe y la Familia; 2:30 p.m. Gillette Brothers; 3:30 p.m. Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys; 4:30 p.m. Los Texmaniacs with Augie Meyers

Lone Star Kitchen: 11 a.m. Polish Texan Cooking; 12:15 p.m. Cowboy Cooking; 1:30 p.m. Cheese and Chiles: From Texas to Bhutan; 2:30 p.m. Southern African American Cooking; 3:30 p.m. San Antonio Tex-Mex Cooking; 4:30 p.m. Vietnamese Cooking

Opry House: 11 a.m. Les Amis Creole; 12:00 p.m. Little Joy y la Familia; 1 p.m. Texas Johnny Brown; 2 p.m. Joe Ely and Joe Guzman; 3 p.m. Jones Family Singers; 4 p.m. Gillette Brothers; 6 p.m. Evening Concert: Texas songsters Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines. Joe Ely and Joel Guzman

Texas Talk: 11:15 p.m. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning; 12:15 p.m. Lubbock on My Mind; 1:15 p.m. Sustenance in the Black Church; 2:15 p.m. Tex-Mex Food and Tex-Mex Music; 3:15 p.m. Accordions: Texas Style; 4:15 p.m. Cowboy Grub and Gab

(Photo of prayer flags and monks in Bhutan is courtesy of Larry Stuebing) 

The 42nd annual Folklife Festival on the National Mall takes place this week through Sunday, June 29; and again from July 2 through July 6. Programs are: “Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon;” “NASA” Fifty Years and Beyond;”and “Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food, and Wine.”   

BHUTAN

Bhutan Kitchen: 11 a.m. Dragon Drinks: Tea and Alcohol; 12:00 p.m. Cattle God’s Gifts: Butter and Cheese; 1 p.m. Taste of Bhutan; 3 p.m. Buckwheat Noodles; 4 p.m. Festive Foods

Four Friends Narrative Stage: 12:30 p.m. What’s in a Name?; 11:45 p.m. Movie Making in Bhutan; 12:30 p.m. Cultural Identify; 1:15 p.m. Prayer Flags and Prayer Wheels; 2 p.m. Protecting Bhutan’s Environment; 2:45 p.m. Birth, Death and Rebirth; 3:30 p.m. Crops: From Farm to Family; 4:15 p.m. Natural Resources Used in Art; 5 p.m. Storytelling

Tsechu Sta ge: 11 a.m. Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance; 12:00 p.m. Ritual Monastic Dance; 1 p.m. Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance; 2 p.m. Ritual Monastic Dance; 3 p.m. Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance; 4 p.m . Teaching; 5 p.m. Closing Ritual

NASA

Exploration Stage: 11 a.m. Mysterious Universe; 11:45 p.m. NASA and Popular Imagination; 12:30 p.m. Why We Explore; 1:30 p.m. Astronaut Adventures; 2:15 p.m. Science Update; 3:15 p.m. NASA and Popular Imagination; 4 p.m. Rocket Scientists; 4:45 p.m. Astronaut Adventures

Food Lab: 11 a.m. Packaging Food for Space; 12:00 p.m. Planning for the Moon and Mars; 1 p.m. Creating Menus for Space; 2 p.m. Packaging Food for Space; 3 p.m. Planning for the Moon and Mars; 4 p.m. Creating Menus for Space

Galaxy Stage: 11 a.m. Moon Bound; 11:45 a.m. NASA Pioneers; 12:30 p.m. NASA and Popular Imagination; 1:30 p.m. What on Earth?; 2:15 p.m. NASA and Nation; 3:15 p.m. Space Shuttle; 4 p.m. Probing the Planets; 5 p.m. Mysterious Universe

TEXAS

Dance Hall: 11:30 a.m. Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines; 12:30 p.m. The Jones Family Singers; 1:30 p.m. Los Texmaniacs with Mingo Saldivar; 2:30 p.m. Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys; 3:30 p.m. Texas Johnny Brown; 4:30 p.m. Little Joe y La Familia

Lone Star Kitchen: 11 a.m. Southern African American Cooking; 12:15 p.m. Polish Texan Cooking; 1:30 p.m. Cowboy Cooking; 2:30 p.m. Vietnamese Cooking; 3:30 p.m. San Antonio Tex-Mex Cooking; 4:30 p.m. Cowboy Cooking

Opry House:  11 a.m. The Jones Family Singers; 12 p.m. The Gillette Brothers; 1 p.m. Les Amis Creole; 2 p.m. The Gillette Brothers; 3 p.m. Los Texmaniacs with Augie Meyers; 4 p.m. Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys

Texas Talk: 11:15 p.m. San Antonio Sounds; 12:15 p.m. Ethnic Restaurants in Texas; 1:15 p.m. Family Bonds; 2:15 p.m. Remembering the Duke Peacock Record Label; 3:15 p.m. Becoming a Winemaker; 4:15 p.m. Texas: French Style 

(Image Courtesy of NASA)

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival gets underway today on the National Mall with music, song, dance, crafts and story telling. Featured programs are: “Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon;” “NASA: Fifty Years and Beyond;” and “Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food, and Wine.”  The opening ceremony is at 11a.m. in the Dancehall.

Bhutan

Bhutan Kitchen: Noon Cattle God’s Gifts: Butter and Cheese; Taste of Bhutan 1 p.m.;  Buckwheat Noodles 3 p.m.; Festive Foods 4 p.m.

Four Friends Narrative Stage:  Four Friends Story 12:30 p.m.; Life of Monks and Nuns 1:30 p.m.; Understanding Art in Bhutan 2:00 p.m.; Gross National Happiness 2:45 p.m.; Images of Bhutan 3:30 p.m.; Passing on Traditional Arts 4:15 p.m.; Storytelling 5:00 p.m. 

Tsechu Stage: Noon Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance; Ritual Monastic Dance 1:00 p.m.; Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance 2 p.m.; Traditional Bhutanese Music and Dance 3 p.m.; Ritual Monastic Dance 4 p.m.; Closing Ritual 5 p.m.

NASA

Exploration Stage:  Noon Space Shuttle; Why We Explore 12:30 p.m.;  NASA and Nation 1:30 p.m. ; Astronaut Adventures 2:15 p.m.;  Moonbound 3:15 p.m.; Astronaut Adventures 4:00 p.m.; What on Earth? 4:45 p.m.

Food Lab:  Noon Packaging Food for Space; Planning for the Moon and Mars 1 p.m.; Creating Menus for Space 2 p.m.;  Packaging Food for Space 3 p.m.; Planning for the Moon and Mars 4 p.m.

Galaxy Stage: Noon High Flight; NASA and Nation 12:30 p.m.; Sun-Earth Connections 1:30 p.m.; Rocket Scientists 2:15 p.m.; Mysterious Universe 3:15 p.m.; Leading the Greening 4:00 p.m.; International Space Station 4:45 p.m.  

Texas

Dance Hall: Opening Ceremony 11 a.m.; Texas Johnny Brown 12:30 p.m.; Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines 1:30 p.m.;  Little Joe y la Familia 2:30 p.m.;  Les Amis Creole 3:30 p.m.;  Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys 4:30 p.m.

Lone Star Kitchen:  San Antonio Tex-Mex Kitchen 12:15 p.m.; Polish Texan Cooking 1:30 p.m.; Cowboy Cooking 2:15 p.m.; Vietnamese Cooking 3:15  p.m.; Southern African American Cooking 4:30 p.m.

Opry House: Noon The Jones Family Singers; Los Texmaniacs with Fiddlin’ Frenchie Burke 1 p.m.; Texas Johnny Brown 2 p.m.; Los Texmaniacs with Mingo Saldivar 3 p.m.; Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines 4 p.m.

Texas Talk:  Talking Terroir 12:15 p.m.; Making Wine for Texas Tastes 1:15 p.m.; Fiddles, Fiddles, Fiddles 2:15 p.m.;  Eating in San Antonio 3:15 p.m.; Tejano Music  4:15 p.m.

(Photograph of Bhutanese builders working on the construction of the traditional Bhutanese Buddhist temple on the National Mall, courtesy of Jennifer Endick, Smithsonian Institution) 

Despite a long, illustrious history of viewing animated film, I’m hard-pressed to recall any that feature American Indians, let alone films made by them. Disney’s “Pocahontas” immediately springs to mind. But that musical blitzkrieg and its irresponsible historiography does nothing but make this native Virginian’s eyes roll. Consequently, I met news of the National Museum of the American Indian’s “Animation Celebration!” series of short subject animation with excitement. (What’s your favorite animated short? Might I recommend the simply sadistic “Billy’s Balloon” by Don Hertzfeldt?)

The selection of films, however, makes for a jarring movie-going experience. Instead of focusing on one tribe or geographic region, films from different parts of the U.S. and Canada are represented. In addition, some films preserve indigenous tongues while others ply their storytelling craft in English. Work from high school students is screened alongside that of more experienced animators, inviting unfair comparisons.

Noteworthy were the two films, “Maq and the Spirit of the Woods” and “Wapos Bay,” mainly because of their association with the National Film Board of Canada. (The NFB encourages the filmmaking endeavors of indigenous peoples, and in 2001 it co-produced the live action film “Atanarjuat,” the first to be written, directed and acted by Canadian Inuit.)

“Maq” is an interesting extension of oral storytelling traditions. Told by a narrator, the animation is not the primary means of conveying the story. Instead, the visuals are ornamental and meant to enhance the listening experience. “Wapos Bay” is a Canadian television series that has enjoyed past screenings at the Museum of the American Indian.

Detailing the lives of a Cree family in Saskatchewan that tries to blend cultural traditions with modern living, it was refreshing to see stereotype-free representations of American Indian characters take center stage. (And fans of Art Clokey—the animator who gave us Gumby, among other things—will appreciate the show’s visual style.)

More animation from the National Film Board of Canada can be seen here. (For additional American Indian-themed animation, check out “The Owl Who Married a Goose;” Also be sure to check out the NFB’s work with aboriginal filmmakers.)

“Animation Celebration!” continues at the National Museum of the American Indian through June 30. Screenings are held daily at 12:30 and 3:30 and are free to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served.

(Still from Maq and the Spirit of the Woods ,Directed by Phyllis Grant, Produced by Michael Fukushima, Kent Martin © 2006 National Film Board of Canada. All rights reserved)

Something about the way of life during the Cold War era always strikes me as simple—simple in all senses of the word—plain, uncomplicated, even naïve. I mean, why would children learn to “duck and cover,” as if crouching under your school desk could save you from a nuclear blast?

Earlier this week, as news of the death of 84-year-old Tony Schwartz, the creator of the famously frightening 1964 Daisy Ad crept across the airwaves, tens of thousands logged onto YouTube to view again the iconic political commercial of a small girl in a field counting petals on a daisy just moments before a countdown to the big blast. The horrifying message of the film was driven home with plain, uncomplicated and direct precision. The commercial, which was pulled after airing only once on September 7, 1964, likely clinched the election for Lyndon B. Johnson.

Schwartz, himself, was not a simple man. He suffered from agoraphobia and feared leaving his home. And yet, while he tended to rarely stray from his Manhattan digs, his list of accomplishments includes: radio host; sound designer; college professor; media theorist; author; art director; advertising executive; and significantly, urban folklorist, producing several albums for Folkways Records.

Here at the Smithsonian Institution, where the vast collection of Folkways Records are housed, re-recorded and sold through the online download center, Global Sound, Schwartz is sadly mourned. 

“None of us here ever got to see or meet him,” says Folkways archivist Jeff Place, “he basically did everything from his own apartment. He was fascinated by sound in all of its manifestations, and he collected and analyzed sounds of all kinds—kids playing on the playground and sounds from the street corner.” 

His recordings reflect that age of simplicity. They allow us to linger in a time when life wasn’t zipping around us at 24-7 speed. All complexity melts away while savoring one simple, isolated sound. Take for example, the sound of a coke bottle being opened and slowly poured, a classic soundscape that Tony Schwartz created for one of his commercial clients, Coca-Cola. 

Schwartz, says Place, was a unique individual, just the sort to hit it off with the eccentric Moses Asch, the founder and original owner of Folkways. “Asch was the only guy who would put out commercially released albums of the kinds of ambient type sounds that Schwartz recorded.”

At Global Sound, check out 1,2, 3 and a Zing Zing Zing (1953), a collection of children’s playground rhymes, or his classic New York 19 (1954), recordings of speeches, conversations and songs heard on city streets—hear Schwartz interview an elderly woman, the grocer and a plumber in the track, “Music in Speech.“

A personal favorite of mine is An Actual Story in a Dog’s Life (1958), which aired on the CBS Radio Network that year. From the album, you’ll learn about Tony, his wired-hair terrier Tina, and his dog’s mother and father, Fanny Fishelson and Chip O’Hara. “I recorded all the sounds of all the situations that ‘Tina’ led me into,” Schwartz writes in the liner notes.

This from the guy who scared us near half to death with a daisy.

(Daisy girl image courtesy of Conelrad. Album cover courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways.)

So, why didn’t I think of that? When Art Fry did invent an adhesive-backed note card in 1974 and created the ubiquitous Post-it Note, it took more than just a little ingenuity. It took chemical know-how and some major backing from his employer 3M. “We realized that what we had was not just a bookmark,” says Fry, “but a new way to communicate or organize information.” Hear Art Fry explain how and why in a podcast created by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. What’s your favorite thing you do with Post-it Notes? Tell us in the comment area below.

(Photograph Courtesy of Art Fry.)

Having made more than 1,000 skydives, some 600 with a camera, daredevil adventurer Andy Keech has hot-dogged it with the best of  adrenaline junkies. He’s photographed skydivers boogie boarding and diving through hula hoops mid-air; jumping from single-seat cockpits, having been crouched inside with the pilot; launching from standing positions on the wings of a plane; and forming aerial configurations known, creatively, as the caterpillar, horny gorilla and the Starship Enterprise.

Keech started skydiving in 1959, when the sport was just taking hold in his native Australia and became the first in his country to make contact with another jumper in a free fall. Keech went on to become a national champion parachutist and a top scorer for his team in a world competition.  When he came to the United States, he continued skydiving, resumed piloting (which he started at age 17) and became one of the world’s top freefall photographers, earning assignments with Sports Illustrated, Time and other publications. He has compiled his work in a three-book series, Skies Call. Keech recently spoke at the Air and Space Museum, where he volunteers when not setting records (in his autogiro, a 16.5-foot, engine-in-front plane—another hobby). “Behind each picture is a half-hour story we could talk about,” he said. And so he transported me back to 1976 in the drop zone above a North Carolina airport, where he orchestrated the photograph above. Here’s what he told me.

“During the decade of producing the three Skies Call books, I found images would come to me while asleep.  I kept a writing pad next to my bed where I would sketch the image that came to me. Over time I had as many as a dozen images that had not yet been translated into photographs.

Generally, I had no solution as to how to prepare the scene and get the camera to the position. This was one such image. [It was] four years before the solution came to me. 

I traveled about 400 miles to North Carolina with my equipment and my close buddy Paul Reed, who is a masterful technician and expert jumper. We had a dozen subjects—a mixture of civilian and military weekend jumpers (the really jump-hungry ones who never got enough jumping during the week)—who were keen for the picture.

We also had the ideal aircraft, the Lockheed 10E. It had very docile characteristics while on the verge of aerodynamic stall. It would mush downward with the engines at idle. This allowed jumpers to climb outside the airframe without strong airflow blowing them off. It was sufficiently calm in the bubble of air on the top of the wing so that people could talk to each other.

There was a thin overcast at 7,000 feet. So I set the camera exposure for blue-sky brightness above that layer, and we proceeded with the briefing, rehearsal and loading for take-off. At 7,000 feet, we climbed through the light layer and found, to my alarm, that there was another layer at 25,000 feet. Therefore, lighting was significantly subdued, over two stops in exposure terms and almost certainly beyond the latitude of the film. We had no way to reset the exposure and were therefore committed to proceed. 

The jumpers began to climb out onto the wing. In perhaps 15 to 20 seconds all were on the outside of the fuselage, and I had just begun to trigger the camera when the nose began dropping. The airspeed began slowly to increase and quite rapidly we were all going down.

As we reached 120 mph, the first jumpers began being blown off the aircraft, and by the time we reached 140 mph, all the jumpers had departed like rag dolls in a windstorm. The pilot regained control and returned to the airport. On the ground, I was most concerned until all the jumpers reported in. I was relieved that no one was hurt.

In the debriefing, I went over the possible causes of loss of control. By popular vote (or guess), it was agreed the weight shift forward was the cause. I also mentioned the unfortunate under exposure and that almost surely the pictures would come to nothing. All immediately insisted on doing it again. So, we went ahead with the retake.

The second run-in involved putting less people on the wing and more up astride the fuselage near the center of gravity. As soon as people were in position, the loss of control event repeated itself, but with a more rapid onset. People were blown off the aircraft. Rag doll time again.

Our revised view of the dynamics was that blocking air from the elevator is what caused the nose to drop. Much wiser now, we called off any further attempt. As it happened, the exposures from the first attempt were just inside the limit of the film and were the most suitable for composition. This image was the best on the roll.”

Keech prefers to keep the logistics of where he was when he shot the photo a secret. Any guesses? Tell us in the comments area below. 

(Photograph courtesy of Andy Keech.)