Tag: History

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movies + tv

Vive la révolution, Vive Les Oscars!

Emma Stone stars as Michelle in director Yorgos Lanthimos' BUGONIA, a Focus Features release. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Let’s talk about a revolution. 

In 2023, Christopher Clark put out an incredible survey of the revolutions that gripped Europe in 1848. This has always been a bit of a blind spot for me, slotted right in the middle of the two pillars of modern European history: the French Revolution and the World Wars. And while a sprawling history of the social and political upheavals that rocked villages and metropoles from Dublin to Bucharest over the span of two years has a lot of opportunities to be a disorienting snooze-fest, Clark manages to wrangle together the disparate strands of this international moment and create an immersive look at how 1848 played out.  

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Categories
Miscellaneous Musings

Confessions of a Plastic Paddy

Christy Moore is a living legend. For five decades now, Christy has been a leading voice in the Irish Folk scene, guiding the genre through a renaissance and reinvention. In 2007, he was named the Greatest Living Musician by RTE, and since then he has put out five new albums. An indefatigable legend at that. 

So, during this special time of year, as people across the country are scrambling to put on some Real Irish MusicTM during their pre-games and pub crawls, I think it’s a good time to talk about Christy and his music. But, before we get there, we’ll have to talk about the proverbial green elephant in the room: the Irish.

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Categories
Music

An Ode to Shanties

The guy who invented sea shanties, probably.

I had a friend text me a few weeks back asking “Pete, what do you think of Sea Shanty TikTok?” As a longtime lover of the shanty, the question was well warranted. I’ve gotten some version of this meme sent to me, unironically, every year for four years straight during Spotify Wrapped season. So what happens when your niche interests explode into internet superstardom? Let’s explore the journey of the humble shanty.

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