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LEILA HOUSTON

Looking forward to collaborating this year with andrew johnston

4/27/2018

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Revisiting collage next week

4/24/2018

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Revisiting collage next week - starting with techniques I was using with news paper in 2007.

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Leila Houston's Open Studio Clear out. SALE TODAY. April 21st

4/21/2018

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SALE/ DISPLAY . Studio clear out. One day only. TODAY. (april 21st '18') 12- 6pm 2 Queen St, Leicester LE1 1QW http://leilahoustonart.weebly.com/to edit.

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April 17th, 2018

4/17/2018

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The tune appears to have begun as dance music, to which words were later added. A music sheet acquired by the British Library in 1853 describes a dance, "Pop! Goes the Weasel", as "An Old English Dance, as performed at Her Majesty's & The Nobilities Balls, with the Original Music". It had a tune very similar to that used today but only the words "Pop! Goes the Weasel".[1][2] The dance became extremely popular, and featured on stage[3]as well as in dance-halls.[4] By September of the same year the title was being used as a scornful riposte[5] and soon words were added to an already well-known tune.[6] The song is mentioned in November 1855 in a Church of England pamphlet[7] where it is described as a universally popular song played in the streets on barrel organs, but with "senseless lyrics": the use of alternative, more wholesome words is suggested. The following verse had been written by 1856 when it was quoted in a performance at the Theatre Royal. Additional verses related to both traditions are:

0:00
Tune for Pop Goes the Weasel by Nicolas Gasparini (myuu)

Problems playing this file? See media help. The song seems to have crossed the Atlantic in the 1850s where U.S. newspapers soon afterwards call it "the latest English dance", and the phrase "Pop! goes the weasel" soon took hold.[8] The remaining words were still unstable in Britain, and as a result some of the U.S. lyrics are significantly different and may have an entirely different source, but use the same tune.[8]The following lyric was printed in Boston in 1858:

In 1901 in New York the opening lines were:
The most common recent version was not recorded until 1914. In addition to the three verses above, American versions often include some of the following:

Contemporary verses in the United States include these, the first three being sung one after the other with the third getting the 'closing' version of the tune.

There are numerous American versions[10] as printed in Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Volume III, pp. 368–369. Randolph's #556, the A text. Collected 1926 from Mrs. Marie Wilbur of Pineville, Missouri.

The Eagle pub in City Road, London, with the rhyme on the wall Perhaps because of the obscure nature of the various lyrics there have been many suggestions for what they mean, particularly the phrase "Pop! goes the weasel", including: that it is a tailor's flat iron, a dead weasel, a hatter's tool, a spinner's weasel used for measuring in spinning,[8][11] a piece of silver plate, or that 'weasel and stoat' is Cockney rhyming slang for "throat", as in "Get that down yer Weasel" meaning to eat or drink something. An alternative meaning involves pawning one's coat in order to buy food and drink, as "weasel" is rhyming slang for "coat"[12] and "pop" is a slang word for "pawn".[13]
Spinner Charlene Parker with weasel (on left) and spinning wheel (on right) at Knott's Berry Farm "Pop goes the weasel" meant pawning a coat. Decent coats and other clothes were handmade, expensive and pawnable. The monkey on the table was the rent collector. A spinner's weasel consists of a wheel which is revolved by the spinner in order to measure off thread or yarn after it has been produced on the spinning wheel. The weasel is usually built so that the circumference is six feet, so that 40 revolutions produces 80 yards of yarn, which is a skein. It has wooden gears inside and a cam, designed to cause a popping sound after the 40th revolution, telling the spinner that she has completed the skein.[11][14][15][16] Other than correspondences, none of these theories has any additional evidence to support it, and some can be discounted because of the known history of the song.[1] Iona and Peter Opie observed that, even at the height of the dance craze in the 1850s, no-one seemed to know what the phrase meant.[1] The "Eagle" in the song's third verse probably refers to The Eagle freehold pub at the corner of Shepherdess Walk and City Road mentioned in the same verse.[17][18] The Eagle was an old pub in City Road, London, which was rebuilt as a music hall in 1825, demolished in 1901, and then rebuilt as a public house.[19] This public house bears a plaque with this interpretation of the nursery rhyme and the pub's history.
In Britain the rhyme has been played as a children's game since at least the late 19th century. The first verse quoted above is sung, while several rings are formed and they dance around. One player more than the number of rings are designated as "weasels", all but one standing in the rings. When the "Pop! goes the weasel" line is reached they have to rush to a new ring before anyone else can. The one that fails is eliminated and the number of circles is reduced by one until there is only one weasel left.[1] This is basically the American game of musical chairs: music is played as players circle a row of chairs, one fewer chairs than players, while music plays. When the music stops, the players vie for the available chairs, and the player left standing is "out".
A pop version of the song was recorded in 1938 by The Merry Macs on Decca Records (Decca 64413-A) and again in 1961 by British singer Anthony Newley, also on the Decca label (Decca F11362), and reached number 12 in the UK singles chart. Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961). The tune is prominently used in numerous Three Stooges episodes.

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POP GOES THE WEASEL

4/17/2018

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https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/pop-goes-the-weasel.html

Pop goes the weasel Other phrases about: Animals What's the meaning of the phrase 'Pop goes the weasel'? The name of the nursery rhyme and song. What's the origin of the phrase 'Pop goes the weasel'? Like most nursery rhymes, this has some very odd imagery, which has led to much debate as to the meaning and origin of this rhyme. The origin is perhaps the easier of the two. The earliest known published version is as the title of a dance tune. A version of the tune was published in the USA in 1850 - Pop goes the Weasel for Fun and Frolic. The text accompanying the article calls it "an old English dance lately revived". References in US newspapers soon afterwards call it "the latest English dance", so it's reasonable to believe it originated in Britain. "Pop goes the weasel" is a simple tune and there are several English/Irish/Scottish country dances that are similar.
There's no doubt that Pop goes the Weaselwas a dance, popular in England in the 1850s. In 1853, The Times included a piece describing various dances that were in vogue at the time: "La Napolienne, Pop goes the Weasel, and La Tempête... the original music of the above three celebrated dances." The dance was popular enough in early 1853 for a Mr. Moutrie, in the fashionable location of Bath, to have considered it worthwhile to place an advertisement in the Bath Chronicle, offering "instruction the the highly fashionable dances" of 'Pop Goes The Weasel', 'La Tempete' and 'Coulson Quadrille'.
A newspaper advertisement by Boosey and Sons in 1854 suggests that Queen Victoria was influential in the popularity of the dance: "The new country dance 'Pop goes the weasel', introduced by her Majesty Queen Victoria." The dance didn't have lyrics as such. It was a jig and "pop goes the weasel" was shouted out at significant points to accentuate the dance. There's no real evidence to suggest that 'Pop goes the weasel' was anything other than the nonsense name of a dance or that the meaning of 'pop' and 'weasel' merit any further investigation. People do like to speculate though so here's the most commonly repeated 'explanation' of the meaning of the phrase, that is, that it derives from the meaning of the well-known nursery rhyme. Rhymes of this sort are repeated word of mouth and it's entirely plausible that it existed in oral form as a children's rhyme for many years before 1850. This 'Chinese whispers' repetition is also the reason for the many variations on the rhyme. Whatever version is picked as the original, it isn't easy to determine the meaning of the words. The version most commonly used in England goes like this: Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel. Up and down the City road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel. Every night when I go out
the monkey’s on the table.
Take a stick and knock it off
Pop goes the weasel. A penny for a ball of thread
Another for a needle,
That’s the way the money goes,
pop goes the weasel. All around the cobblers bench
the monkey chased the people;
The donkey thought ’twas all in fun,
pop goes the weasel. Some of the US versions of the rhyme are significantly different and may have an entirely different source, but using the same tune. It could be that 'money', 'monkey' and 'donkey' that appear in many of the versions are mishearings of the same word. The important words are obviously 'pop' and 'weasel'. The phrase soon gained hold, in the US especially, although it didn't have a specific or fixed meaning; it appears to have been used just to indicate a sense of occasion - something like 'just like that'. There's an example of that in a newspaper advertisement for groceries from The Hudson North Star newspaper, April 1856 (including 2000 lbs of Extra Family Butter, whatever that is): "All Selling Cheap. To Close Out Within Sixty Days Or Pop Goes The Weasel" Of the different meanings of the word weasel, the most commonly used today is as the name of the small carnivorous mammal. Weasels do pop their heads up when disturbed and it is quite plausible that this was the source of the name of the dance. 'Popping' is a slang term for pawning, that is, depositing articles with a pawnbroker in return for money. Weasel may be a corruption of whistle - in cockney rhyming slang 'whistle and flute' that is, suit. It could also be from another example of CRS, that is, 'weasel and stoat' -> coat. The Eagle was a London pub, near the City Road, and a later Eagle pub still exists on the site. The lyrics of the rhyme - Up and down the City Road,
in and out of The Eagle,
that's the way the money goes,
pop goes the weasel describe spending all your money on drink in the pub and subsequently pawning your suit to raise some more. The pawning and popping explanation seem to fit the meaning of the song and the rest of the lyrics (of the English version at least), so many like to believe it is the origin. For that even to be considered there would need to be a citation that pre-dates 1853 and there's no sign of that at present. Just for completeness, there's also a theory that the weasel refers to a weaver's shuttle, which makes a popping sound when the loom is in use. Again, this is mere speculation and there's no supporting evidence for it.

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Looking forward to collaborating this year with andrew johnston

Revisiting collage next week

Leila Houston's Open Studio Clear out. SALE TODAY. April 21st

April 17th, 2018

POP GOES THE WEASEL

Leila Houston

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