Facing Backward Podcasts

History of Japan Podcast, Criminal Records Podcast, and more

[facingbackward]

I am about to cover the most Scottish crime ever committed.

[facingbackward]

I am researching yet another totally normal guy.

[chromolume]

[facingbackward]

Fun fact of the day

I just learned that nobody knows for sure where the name Idaho comes from, and it was probably created by an abortion doctor/prospector/con artist who coined the name after a girl he knew named Ida, then made up a fake Shoshone etymology to pitch the name to the US government.

American history is so much stupider than you could ever possibly imagine.

[guerrillatech]

[videntefernandez]

Is this why women aren’t allowed to have pockets anymore?

[photosthatarensfw]

God forbid women do anything

[facingbackward]

I did an episode on the Forty Elephants a couple years ago! I love a girl gang.

[facingbackward]

There are two wolves inside me. One doesn't want to read any more about communists arguing amongst themselves. The other understands that communist arguments always lead to the absolute funniest crimes.

[facingbackward]

Why cover normal witch trials on my weird historical true crime podcast when I can get deep in the weeds of 17th century cursed penis law

[toofrenchtofunction]

@facingbackward: the only podcast network inadvertently making content perfectly tailored to the tumblr market

[facingbackward]

Small but very important correction because I fucked up the timeline, Overbury drops dead after the cursed penis marriage annulment is finished, just before Frances marries a new guy with an uncursed shlong.

The reason he dies so suddenly is that Frances put poison in his enema.

[facingbackward]

Why cover normal witch trials on my weird historical true crime podcast when I can get deep in the weeds of 17th century cursed penis law

[facingbackward]

Isaac let me handle all the network branding and by god I will make him regret it

[facingbackward]

Setting up this youtube channel is going great

[facingbackward]

Isaac let me handle all the network branding and by god I will make him regret it

[facingbackward]

I was in the process of developing a fever when I was finishing up the Section 28 show notes and forgot to include the Chumbawamba song that is the most late-80s experience imaginable. I deeply regret this omission.

[facingbackward]

Big news (and a big part of the reason I’ve been forgetful about posting on this Tumblr): We’re finally getting transcripts for History of Japan live! This is something Isaac has been wanting to do for ages, and having his transcripts in a searchable format opens up the possibility of fun future projects like building some interactive maps so you can pull up relevant episodes and let Isaac be your virtual tour guide if you’re planning a trip to Japan.

While I’m fiddling around with his site, I’ll also clean up the way images display on his posts and make some other formatting tweaks for a more accessible user experience. Give me a shout if you notice anything displaying oddly. I’ll do my best to clean up typos as I spot them, but I’ve never studied Japanese so my ability to proofread Romanized Japanese names and words is pretty limited.

I’m starting with Isaac’s most recent episodes and working backward. His notes for the first 200-ish episodes were lost when his university did a purge of old student accounts, so that’s going to be a fun thing to try to reconstruct using only the audio files recorded on his old Blue Snowball mic.

[3liza]

Meiji period fashion was some of the best in the world, speaking purely from an aesthetic standpoint you can really see the collision of European and Japanese standards of beauty and how their broad agreement even in particulars (the similarity between Japanese and Gibson girl bouffants, the obi vs the corset, the obi knot vs the bustle, the mutual covetousness for exotic textiles, the feverish swapping of both art styles and subjects) combined and produced some of the most interesting cultural exchange we have this level of documentation for. Europeans were wearing kimono or adapting them into tea gowns, japanese were pairing lacy Edwardian blouses with skirt hakama and little button up boots. haori jackets with bowler hats and European style lapels. if steampunk was any good as an aesthetic it would steal wholesale from the copious records we have in both graphic arts and photography of how people were dressing in this milieu.

[3liza]

[3liza]

«The botany professor,» from Kkokei Shimbun, October 20, 1908. she's wearing a kimono blouse or haori, edwardian skirt or hakama, gibson girl bouffant, a lacy high-collar blouse with cravat and brooch, and a pocket watch with chain

1910-1930 (Taishō era, right after Meiji, which I should have included in my OP) men's haori with western lapels

[applesforhela]

I have a love for both kimonos and bustle dresses, so I love seeing how the two fashions influenced each other over this period.  And thanks to Pinterest, I have pictures!

Victorian tea gown that clearly started as a kimono.  It still has the long furisode sleeves, but now they’re gathered at the shoulder and turned around so that the long open side is facing the front instead of the back.  Similarly the back is taken in with curved seams to fit the torso and pleated below that for the skirt.

Woodblock of a woman in a a bustle dress made with colorful patterned fabrics and examples of how a woman could style her hair with it.

More prints to showcase hairstyles, two women wearing western wear and two women wearing kimonos.

This next one’s modern, but it involves hoopskirts so I’ll add it in because it makes me so happy.  There’s been different styles of wedding fashion that take kimonos and give them a more modern look.  Often this involves taking a kimono and then cutting and resewing it into a new dress.  Very pretty, but it can’t ever be worn like a traditional kimono again.  But now there’s another trend where the bride wears a hoopskirt with a white skirt, then you take the kimono and drape it on.  The back of the kimono covers the front of the dress, the long sleeves fall across the sides or the back, and you still wear an obi with it.  The result is pretty and the kimono itself doesn’t have to be altered at all.

And because you mentioned steampunk, I have to add in these two:

[nonasuch]

Personally I’m a big fan of Taisho Meisen kimono, which are what happen when the Japanese textile industry abruptly gets access to aniline dyes, new spinning and weaving technology, and the concept of Art Deco:

[facingbackward]

One of my favorite parts of history to research is people who were just absolutely terrible at assassination.

[facingbackward]

I opened the Criminal Records folder to add a new script and found Isaac’s very serious crime reporting

[jewish-kulindadromeus]

`

Are Prehistoric Animals Kosher? The paper! Here in stunning Crappy Tumblr Photo - Definition 

Transcript of the entire paper below the cut. 

Keep reading

[facingbackward]

Found this extremely good tombstone design during podcast research. Imagine being so good at fighting that one of the most famous artists in history designs your grave as a monument to you beating the shit out of Death. (Image source)