The Great Awakening

I had once been told that the American Revolution began with a Baptist Revival. That is somewhat true, I think it was the pre running of the Methodist. While in our history books we're told that religious persecution was the primary factor in the migration of Europeans to the New World, and how we came to promote religious tolerance on account of it; this is not entirely so. A man named George Whitefield caused quite a stir in New England and eventually as far down as Savanna. Jonathan Edwards was another. The Puritans of new England didn't take well to them and they had the political power, having laws passed to prevent them from spreading their view of the Gospel. But Whitefield was a charismatic preacher. Benjamin Franklin went to hear him preach out of doubt about the size of crowds that the man drew. He would preach to 25,000 people without a microphone. Ben Franklin had to see it for himself. After which Franklin and some other men raised money to have a meeting house built to house the Revivals or any other religious event. Many of the people in the Great Awakening did not want to pay taxes to a church that they disagreed with, and resisted at risk of being jailed and fined. These were seeds of Revolution, another chemical in the mix. "The Age of Enlightenment" rising.

I'm now reading a book on Ethan Allen. If you don't know who Ethan Allen was, he was a major player in the American Revolution. . He was the leader of The Green Mountain Boys, which was not a backwoods militia as you would think. He,rather easily, captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. The British Garison knew nothing of the events at Concord Green due to word being sent around Nova Scotia and down the St. Lawrence.

Here is where I wanted to go into talking about another man in the bloody history of Lake Champlain, Robert Rogers. I had read a great book about his life earlier this summer. But, these two men are a complicated history.

The Appalachianist

Hemlocks of Carolina

The Middle East is not like anywhere else. Everything, other than the base needs and desires is different than anything we Americans grew up with. To me everything here is "flimsy". Flimsy designs, flimsy in every sense. Flimsy in a way that I don't think I can get you to understand. Honestly, a few people that I know back in Eden have expressed an accuracy to me in their comprehension of this world. Usually those people are Transplantavanians that came back to the ground they knew as home.

I call there Eden, but, I know full and well it ain't. Other than the fact Eden was abolished with the advent of sin, home is a place of turmoil, confusion and drama. It's a culture war back home, it's fought every day, it never rages, just simmers in the summer heat and glows on winter nights. At times, it appears we've had the lick, and then at others we're hanging on better than ever. It's not waged as much as outsider versus insider as much as it is the new with the old.


There's a biological war as well. The hemlocks have taken a bad bad beating. They stand like skeletons, once proud and now sad old snags. Taken down by a little insect, the Wooly Alleged. Someone here before me had a subscription to North Carolina Wildlife and I picked one up and read an article on the Hemlocks struggle. I remember leaving to Iraq, those few years ago, seeing the green of the Hemlocks and coming home to see them standing without a needle on them.



Just a few years before a beetle had killed many of the pines. Where did these damn insects come from? The orient or just somewhere they should have stayed? You stomach that sight, there's no anesthesia for that pain. You accept that it's happening and pray for an answer...Then you hear some bright fellar is trying to find one. Who is this masked man?

Counter insects have been brought in, they've sprayed the trees...And have crossed some Asian trees to try to build immunity. That last one takes a long time...

Though I'm not one to lament, this ain't the first time I have lamented on this subject and it won't be the last.

The Appalachianist

Swedish Rockers

As I was packing up for this deployment I packed a case full of CD's. I've always been a lover of music, and I had every intention of hearing what I wanted. The trouble with CD's is, they are bulky. I was slow to catch onto CD's. I held onto to vynal and cassettes as long as I could. I still don't like to just down load music, I like album art and notes. I also appreciate lyrics. Well, all of the cases are back at Appalachia central. And, all of my CD's are on the ocean somewhere. Why are they on the ocean? That's why I was rambeling, listen, or in your caase read, the ramble and know why. Because, CDs are bulky, I can only pack so much on a plane and personal items were put in tough boxes that went into overseas containers and onto a ship...As I sit and think about it, they have gone quite a trip. They flew from Asheville NC, to Atlanta, to Seattle and were then put into a tough box that went into a container that went to Texas that eventually went to Charleston SC. It was almost like a loop around the nation just to end up in this...I'll put it nicely...Barren land.

At the time I live in a big open bay room with over a dozen other Senior NCOs. We all like different kinds of music, or we talk with folks back home (mostly over Skype) and work different hours. As a result, all hours are quiet hours. So, if we listen to music, it's on headphones. I had enough music to survive short terms of boredom. And, with wireless internet working in the "not too shabby" zone, I can listen to allot of stuff off of Youtube. I was explaining all of this to a girl the other night that suggested I watch Kiss sing the Beatles. Kiss, after all, are boomers, and were not all about Metal.

Now, I've lost allot of readers. That's cool. But most everyone that has hung around since the days I went to Iraq know, I get into the Swedish Garage Rock band, The Hives....Tick Tick BOOM! Yeah...

I love their stuff. It's my prerogative so I don't need to explain why. You like it or you don't. But if you were to ask me, I'd tell you why. Because I'm that kind of guy. Ok...I'll tell you why, because they ROCK. It's simple, then complex, hard hitting and, they're real. They are also nuts in a Euro-cocky kind of way.

So, have a dose of The Hives on a bootleg video!


That's not enough...


You danced didn't you? How do you dance to that? Well, you just kinda shimmy and shake.

I am/was also a fan of the mid 90's band The Refreshments, they were a good time light hearted all around good band. They're stuff was funny.

So, the other night I was doing something and picking tunes off of Youtube...I did some Replacements, so I got to thinking Refreshments and I came across two different Refreshments. Turns out one is Swedish. And these guys play the stuff your Grand Daddy rocked too. Just like this. Rolling across the hot and humid South to three chords!

Not enough...They've got friends, check them out with Albert Lee, they guy with the crazy hair.

Variety is the spice of life, is it not? Well, one of the spices, only one spice and there would be no variety. So, does it beat the coperate stuff you get pushed on you in the US market?

Just saying...
The Appalachianist