Best Of MetaFilter

"The Maison du Pastel shop, off rue Rambuteau, opens only on Thursday afternoons. In this small window of time, Isabelle and Margaret serve their customers like they are selling elixirs for the soul."

... If you missed it, this post on La Maison du Pastel, the Parisian shop selling handmade pastels since the18th century, is -- like their wares -- just lovely.

We have music.

Recently on Mefi:

"the well of leftist funk runs deep"

Virtual crate digging through diverse music from Africa

The Afghan Women's Orchestra

30 Years of Acid on Wax

Smells Like Teen Spirit x1000

Sounds of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

Pitchfork's 50 Best IDM Albums of all time

WC [toilet facilities] by State Records NSW

History pals!

Enjoy some newly-animated historical city photos, plus barnacles on the history of Australian public bathrooms "in case you're the sort of person that wants to see 115-year old survey sketches of toilets and urinal blocks".

Or listen to the meticulously recreated ambient sounds of 1700s Paris.

How about Marie Duval, 19th century woman cartoonist called 'one of the forgotten wonders of nineteenth-century art .. the bizarre dreamlike distortions of her comic world look like some steampunk 21st-century version of Victorian London."

Or the re-discovered ancient Chinese texts that rewrite the early history of Taoism and Confucianism.

Speaking of, what are some examples of historical events that are commonly misunderstood?

Did you catch teponaztli transcribing some diary pages from 1799-1804 New York City? "The most I've seen her write about anything was how much she hates games, which I love for its being an angry rant from 200+ years ago."

Or enjoy the brief video on the baseball fan Wild Bill Hagy, which is a time capsule of 1979 Baltimore.

Harking back to 1979, share some sense-memories in what was it like when everybody smoked?

Or looking further back - what was sugar like in 1631?

Finally, what are the best history nerds on Youtube?

shackle_originales_07 by carmela alvarado art (cc by-nc-nd)

Aw yeah! The results of the Mefi Music challenge for May/June, with the theme City Songs, are queued up and ready to play! The MetaTalk thread discussing the effort and the tunes that emerged from this 77th (!) MeMu Challenge is here. Enjoy!