Lightnin' Hopkins

I love this man

The forager Evan Strusinski

Check out this article about Evan Strusinski, a wild food forager in the U.S.

This guy makes a living by foraging for wild food, apparently top Manhattan chefs love this shit. I need to get into that business! I've been foraging all year, I will need to get some of my finds up on this blog, watch this space!

...symphony of science...

"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself" - Carl Sagan

What a thought!

Hamza El Din...

I'm adoring this right NOW

beautiful street tiles

Tegels from johan rijpma on Vimeo.

...troubled water...

Words are beautiful...

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

75 years without the Thylacine...

"Thursday marks the 75th anniversary of the death of what is believed to have been the last remaining thylacine, named Ben. The animal was kept at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania."

I just came across a BBC article reporting findings from a scientific investigation into the jaw-strength of the extinct Tasmanian Tiger which found the carnivorous marsupial's jaws to be too weak to have killed sheep (Europeans' fears over losing their livestock to the Thylacine was the main reason behind the extermination of the animal). It's a sad finding, but I still like to believe that a small but sustainable Tassie Tiger population still exists in the remote wilderness of Tasmania, far away from us terrible humans.

"The terrible loss of the thylacine signifies unjustified, negligent destruction of our native flora and fauna. It is a cautionary reminder of what we have lost, and that without urgent intervention other species will suffer the same fate."

Listen...

Alan Watts

"The essence of your mind is intrinsically pure..."

Please vote for my zine (finals)...

The third issue of a zine ("Samizdat #3) which a friend and I published last year has made it to the finals in the 'Golden Stapler Awards' in Australia!

Please take the time to vote for 'Samizdat #3' in the collaboratively produced zine category, it would be greatly appreciated.

I see no God up here

Recreation of the first spaceflight




Watch the full-length HD version HERE.

Be cool man...

what a ripper of a clip :)

Squares and handkerchiefs...

On the theme of fashion, I do love a good pocket-square, but rarely get the chance to flaunt one. Here's a brilliant page on different folds for a pocket square.

"How to fold a pocket square"

There are so many different styles, I think I've only ever donned the one, two and three-point squares. Check out the 'Dunaway Pocket Square Fold':

Imagine if pocket-squares were like a more cultivated form of Handkerchief Code:

Tan: wants to smoke a cigar while having sex
Apricot: chubby chaser
Sand: using tears or sweat as lubricant for intercourse
Chamoise: indicates the wearer is looking for sex involving a motorcycle as a prop

Put this on...

I have been watching a web-series on male fashion called 'Put This On'. I'm furiously enjoying it because it's all about how to look good, be masculine, look after yourself and NOT be a metro-sexual. It includes wonderful tips that everyone man should know, like matching your belt with your shoes, and not over-dosing with cologne. I've embedded the first episode (on denim) below, be sure to watch the whole series through.

Put This On, Episode 1: Denim from Put This On on Vimeo.

The featured jeans company in this first episode, 'Rising Sun Jeans', has a post on their website about vintage summer work shirts. At my grandfather's place under the sink in the laundry there's a pile of old King Gee work shirts, I took one every time I visited in the summer. They were soft from years of work and sweat under the sun, and were patched and sewn together in places, and they were the most comfortable shirts I have ever worn.

Debt...

I keep on hearing all these financial know-it-alls going on about debt-ceilings and deficits and all that stuff..... it's a bit hard to put it into perspective, so here are a couple of brilliant demonstrations to blow your friggin' debt-laden mind...



AND

"WTFnoway.com : A visualization of United States debt"

Svjata Vatra...

Saw these guys last night....monster of a gig...

Mykonos...

Arkaroola win...

"SA to ban mining in Arkaroola" - AAP

The South Australian government will move to ban mining in the environmentally sensitive Arkaroola region of the state's Flinders Ranges.

Premier Mike Rann, who travelled to the region on Friday, said the area would be protected for all time.

Image source

I always knew table tennis was this cool...

Like a magnet...

I have always been confounded and fascinated by space and space exploration. As a child I would sit on my cool doona cover and read through old musty-smelling second-hard books on space flight and the cosmos, entering a world so amazing and spectacular. I know scores of kids dreamed of being an astronaut, but I liked to think I was different from them. I wanted to be strapped into that hard seat, feel the cords and cables and fabric wrapping my body as a complex life-supporting space suit, see the sparkle of oceans through a riveted port-hole, float around in that small capsule soaring through that magnificent vacuum, and come back to earth having experienced something so unfathomably sublime. It's true, space is fucking awesome.

Skateboarding in India...

I've never really been a big fan of skateboarding videos...but I make an exception with this one.

Samizdat #3: Mixtape (Side B)

MIX TAPE (SIDE B)

"It's pretty easy to do a reggae cover of a song I reckon. It doesn't take too much imagination to strum a guitar on the 2nd and 4th beats and put on a shitty Jamaican accent and pretend you're free-spirited and that you're cool with dirty hair. What takes balls is doing a reggae cover of a song and doing the original some justice, kicking some Rastafari pride into that mofo and taking it to town.
When pressed with the task of coming up with half-a-dozen or so good reggae covers, I found it difficult, to tell you the truth. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of reggae and most of its manifestations, but a good deal of reggae cover versions just don't cut the grade. Firstly, the original song has to be able to stand up to the abuse put to it by reggae's sometimes foolhardy ways and then the cover version has to bring something new to the table, something unique.
The reggae cover is a fickle creature, it can produce amazing results (reggae made me enjoy a John Denver song) but can also fall to the dank depths of yuck (UB40's 'Can't Help Falling In Love'). My co-editor and I were in a band once which recorded a reggae version of a traditional Latvian folk song; we certainly thought we were being pretty cool, but I'd recommend you listen to these instead. -MM"

The Tennors - Weather Report (cover of Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Only Living Boy in New York')




Jackie Opel - You Send Me (Sam Cooke)




Easy Star All-Stars - Exit Music (For a Film) (feat. Sugar Min-not) (Radiohead)




Toots and the Maytals - Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver)




The Mighty Diamonds - Lay Lady Lay (Bob Dylan)




Tony Tribe - Red, Red Wine (Neil Diamond)




Blood Sisters - Ring My Bell (Anita Ward)




Easy Star All-Stars - Money (Pink Floyd)

Samizdat #3: Mixtape (Side A)

This is from the last (third) issue of our zine. My co-editor and I each came up with one side of a mix tape, his was folk-metal themed, and mine was reggae covers. Enjoy.

MIX TAPE (SIDE A)

"Making a mix tape of folk-metal is harder than I thought. Since the genre boomed in the 1990s, the folk music larder of almost every country has been ravaged by metal bands who were sick of hitting power chords and trying to come up with meaningful lyrics. Despite the stereotype, however, there is still a bunch of folk-metal bands throughout the world comprised of seriously talented musicians who are very much aware of their respective musical and cultural histories.
The following list could have stretched on and on, but I’ve tried to give you a small sample of bands who play some amazing music and a broad taste of the genre. It includes distorted pan pipes from Peru, lap-harps played like metal guitars from Latvia, pirate metal sea shanties from Scotland, hurdy-gurdys, mandolins, drums, flutes, bag-pipes, melodic harmonies and death growl battle screams.
Whilst I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of metal, there is something that definitely draws me to many of these songs. Perhaps it’s because lots of the melodies and instruments from which the songs are created have stood the test of time. In some cases, they’re songs that in one form or another have been played for many hundreds of years. So... revolutionary twist or sacrilegious rubbish? Look up some of these tracks on YouTube (they might not be at your local mu-sic shop!) and decide for yourself. - KS"

Heidevolk (Netherlands) - Het Gelders Volkslied




Ch’aska (Peru) - Nymph Of The Lake




Korpiklaani (Finland) - Tuli Kokko




Equilibrium (Germany) - Blut Im Auge




Månegarm (Sweden) — Hemfärd




Metsatöll (Estonia) — Ma Laulaks Seda Luguda




Eluveitie (Switzerland) - Uis Elveti




Alestorm (Scotland) — Keelhauled




Skyforger (Latvia) - Migla Migla, Rasa Rasa

Please vote for my zine...

http://goldenstapler.tumblr.com/

Please vote for Samizdat #3 for the Golden Stapler Awards at the link above. It's a zine my friend and I made. Read it below (click on 'full-screen' to read)!

It would be greatly appreciated if you could help. Thanks :)

Samizdat Issue 3

...be happy...

Samizdat #3

Here's the third issue of a zine a friend and I occasionally publish. Read it in full-screen.

Samizdat Issue 3

Graceland...

I was listening to the Graceland album last night on repeat...that's all

summer...

by crooked arm

Megafaun...

DeGrasse...like a boss...

Stemming nature loss...

"Ministers bid to stem nature loss" - Richard Black, BBC

"The government has published proposals aimed at curbing loss of nature across England and strengthening links between people and the wild."

SMH [sic]

Not bad for the front page of a leading Australian paper's website.

Yeah, he's good...

Truth for a Friday morning...

Read the PostSecret blog for hours of emotional browsing.

Cassettes...

Check this out: "An Ultimate Audiotape Guide"

makes me yearn for my stacks and stacks of old tapes I left back in Australia

Calgary...

First single....waiting for the album.

27 square-meter carbon neutral home

brilliant!

"Rustling up the roadkill"

Her you go, read this article on wild food foraging.

"Rustling up the roadkill" - The Telegraph

The Necks for a Friday...

Jazz trio, The Necks, are superb. Here's their eighth album, Aether, in its entirety, which is one hour-long track. Put it on in the background as you read the paper, make dinner, or just nap in a sun-beam.

"Even urban Latvians live off the land..."

A wonderful insight into Latvian cuisine and food culture:

"Riga Revisited: A Latvian homecoming reveals how a family's culinary traditions endure."

Hilarious analogies...

"56 worst/best analogies of high school students"

These are hilarious. Some favourites:

• "From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30."

• "She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up."

• "Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever."

• "He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at asolar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it."

Symmetry...

Gorgeous...



It reminds me of the photography from the brilliant blog (and recently published book) '52 Suburbs'.

Street art...

Here's some awesome street art for you guys.

Homeless...

This will always turn my sad tears into happy tears...

Saturday morning...

The first song is a favourite Russian folk song of mine, the first time I heard it was by the male vocal group 'Peresvet'; I've posted their version below. The second song in the first video is also magnificently melancholic. I only wish I had a good-enough command of Russian to understand what they are singing about.

Foraging Fling I: Coltsfoot

My first forage find of the season was unplanned really, and I only collected one type of plant. But I thought I would post it here nonetheless. Over the Easter weekend we had gloriously warm weather and I decided to go for a toddle through the forest. Spring is only just starting to burst into life and there is still somewhat a lack of colour, this is probably why these Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) jumped out at me as I was walking along the forest path.


I didn't know if they had any use but I picked them anyway because they were rather pretty and smelled like honey. I later found out they can be eaten and are used to treat coughs and other lung ailments like asthma and bronchitis. Apparently the roots can be eaten but it has gone out of favour since the discovery of toxic alkaloids in the plant which may cause liver damage (see video below). The flowers come out a while before the leaves develop, which, of course, can also be used against chest and throat irritations and, according to the informative video below, as a substitute for salt...rad. I'll have to remember to go back for the leaves, but in the meanwhile I'll dry these bad boys up and keep them for some anti-cough tea if I ever need it.

I found some photographs...

Several years ago I was looking through a box of 35mm cameras in a second hand store and bought a camera for 2 dollars purely because there seemed to be an undeveloped film still in it. I took the film to get developed thinking I would be really lucky if anything of interest could still be salvaged from the old roll of film. I got lucky:

Not sure if this is a wedding, or maybe it's a confirmation.

Who's nervous?



Grandma with dog.



Grandma with pigeon.

My fling with foraging...

Here we go. I've been wanting to start writing about a subject which I have become increasingly interested in since moving to Latvia; the culinary and medicinal uses of wild foraged food.

I guess I've always been a bit of a forager; I gain delight in gleaning fruit from local neighbourhood trees, find eating a self-caught fish to be mighty satisfying, and had an ear-to-ear grin as a kid as I munched on sour-sobs in the schoolyard.

My interest in foraging has burgeoned recently due to several factors. Firstly, a winter in Latvia can be subtly depressing, there is a lack of colour which is so abundant in all other times of the year, and one craves to see a flower, a bud, a leaf, even a weed. So I guess I'm currently, as nature is starting to wake up once again, ready and eager to burst forth and embrace the bounty that it has to offer.

Another reason for my heightened interest in foraging is the wonderful attitude and relationship Latvians, and many Europeans in general, have towards nature and what it can provide. I was ill last year and as I waited in line in the pharmacy I noticed that natural remedies (which Australians would class in the 'alternative medicine' category) were just as common, if not more, as processed drugs which the Western world is more accustomed to. As I asked for my pain-killers an old pensioner next to me asked for mushroom juice (Phallus impudicus), and as the pharmacist pulled open a draw full of natural tinctures and teas and poultices I thought how in Australia I would have to go to an alternative medicine store which reeks of sandalwood incense and over the drifting sounds of some generic world-music album have to ask for a silly thing like 'Marge's mystic monk-balls' or something in that vein. Here, in Latvia, there exists a practical culture where many people still may prefer natural remedies over 'conventional' medicine, and, as it turns out, much folk medicine is becoming scientifically backed up.

I started looking at literature regarding natural medicine and subsequently discovered the tantalising world of wild food. I have grown up in the suburbs and been fed from grocery stores and packaged foods all my life (except for the odd neighbourhood feijoa or a trout while camping) and I have come to discover that in nature there is very little which actually cannot be consumed. Latvians know this very well and foraging is very popular here (although they don't see it as something out of the ordinary, for them the outdoors is more or less a larder and an apothecary).

Armed with the internet, some wonderful books I have purchased (I would recommend 'Food for Free' by Richard Mabey), some local knowledge, and a general appetite, I am hoping this year to discover and experiment with wild foraged food, medicine, and possibly a few beverages.

I'm not a herbalist or a hippy or a pioneer. I'm not doing anything new, I'm just a 20-something guy who writes financial news for a crust and has an interest in all sorts of subjects. I definitely don't want to be associated with blogs like "The Herbalist's Path" *shudder*.

I originally had big plans for a completely separate blog where I can write these foraging articles, but partly out of laziness I decided to keep it all in this old blog. I hope you enjoy my foraging as much as I will.

-M.

My city..

I know I wasn't alive when this move was made, but very little has really changed...is that comforting or lamentable? I'd like to think it's comforting.

Reach for the stars...

Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин (Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin) made the first manned journey into outer space on this day 50 years ago. It still astounds and inspires me.

searching...

I feel like going for a long drive, how about you?

Very interesting things to be doing with the air...

I've been enamoured with Tom Waits and his music and his poetry for a while now. I think the moment I was hooked was listening to the following song:

Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight,

And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the marquees weren't weeping, they went stark-raving mad,
And the cabbies were the only ones that really had it made
And his cold trousers were twisted, and the sirens high and shrill,
And crumpled in his fist was a five-dollar bill
And the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins,
And the raconteurs and roustabouts said "Buddy, come on in, 'cause
'Cause the dreams ain't broken down here now, they're walking with a limp
Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight"

And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the burglar alarm's been disconnected,
And the newsmen start to rattle
And the cops are telling jokes about some whorehouse in Seattle
And the fire hydrants plead the Fifth Amendment
And the furniture is bargains galore
But the blood is by the jukebox on an old linoleum floor
And what a hot rain on Forty-Second Street,
And now the umbrellas ain't got a chance
And the newsboy's a lunatic with stains on his pants, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And no one's gone over to close his eyes
And there's a racing form in his pocket,
Circled "Blue Boots" in the third
And the cashier at the clothing store didn't say a word
As the siren tears the night in half, and someone lost his wallet
Well, a surveillance of assailance, it that's what you want to call it
And the whores hike up their skirts and fish for drug-store prophylactics
With their mouths cut just like razor blades and their eyes are like stilettos
And her radiator's steaming and her teeth are in a wreck, and nah,
She won't let you kiss her, but what the hell do you expect?
And the Gypsies are tragic and if you want to buy perfume,
Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June, but
But Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And his headstone's a gumball machine,
No more chewing gum or baseball cards or overcoats or dreams
Someone's hosing down the sidewalk, and he's only in his teens, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And a fistful of dollars can't change that,
And someone copped his watch fob, and someone got his ring
And the newsboy got his porkpie Stetson hat
And the tuberculosis old men at the Nelson wheeze and cough
And someone will head south until this whole thing cools off, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight, yeah,
Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight,
And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the marquees weren't weeping, they went stark-raving mad,
And the cabbies were the only ones that really had it made
And his cold trousers were twisted, and the sirens high and shrill,
And crumpled in his fist was a five-dollar bill
And the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins,
And the raconteurs and roustabouts said "Buddy, come on in, 'cause
'Cause the dreams ain't broken down here now, they're walking with a limp
Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight"

And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the burglar alarm's been disconnected,
And the newsmen start to rattle
And the cops are telling jokes about some whorehouse in Seattle
And the fire hydrants plead the Fifth Amendment
And the furniture is bargains galore
But the blood is by the jukebox on an old linoleum floor
And what a hot rain on Forty-Second Street,
And now the umbrellas ain't got a chance
And the newsboy's a lunatic with stains on his pants, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And no one's gone over to close his eyes
And there's a racing form in his pocket,
Circled "Blue Boots" in the third
And the cashier at the clothing store didn't say a word
As the siren tears the night in half, and someone lost his wallet
Well, a surveillance of assailance, it that's what you want to call it
And the whores hike up their skirts and fish for drug-store prophylactics
With their mouths cut just like razor blades and their eyes are like stilettos
And her radiator's steaming and her teeth are in a wreck, and nah,
She won't let you kiss her, but what the hell do you expect?
And the Gypsies are tragic and if you want to buy perfume,
Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June, but
But Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And his headstone's a gumball machine,
No more chewing gum or baseball cards or overcoats or dreams
Someone's hosing down the sidewalk, and he's only in his teens, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And a fistful of dollars can't change that,
And someone copped his watch fob, and someone got his ring
And the newsboy got his porkpie Stetson hat
And the tuberculosis old men at the Nelson wheeze and cough
And someone will head south until this whole thing cools off, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight, yeah,
Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

Waits, in his acceptance speech, mentioned an inspirational moment in his childhood involving a Lightnin' Hopkins gig...Hopkins happened to open my eyes a little too, but I won't get into that great blues-master here, another time I think ;)

It's not dark yet (but it's getting there)...

ooh...and there's this one too

People are crazy and times are strange

I discovered this song after listening to the soundtrack for the film 'Wonderboys'. The soundtrack is top-notch, check it out.

The ruins of Detroit

Found this today. It's not that the photography is brilliant, but the subject matter is just so photogenic. Check it out:

"Captured: The Ruins of Detroit"

The only living boy in Riga

In my dreams last night there were two girls, each playing a guitar, performing for me a rendition of Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Only Living Boy in New York'. It's one of those songs which sounds so melancholy but is so sublime at the same time that it makes you smile. This quality has to some extent been transferred over into this lovely rock steady cover:

Types of jobs

The blog/website Thought Catalog has some mediocre articles, but most of it is above par. I was just reading 'The Different Types of Jobs You Can Have' and the second one - 'a job that is unsatisfyingly similar to what you ideally want to be doing' - is unnervingly close to describing me. Check it out.

Misuse of question marks?

I've noticed an annoying misuse of the question mark recently, and its becoming more ubiquitous. It seems many people are using it in place of an exclamation mark. I'm not sure if this is being done on purpose or whether it's just a sign of the illiterate times. And it surely can't be by accident as the respective keys on the keyboard could hardly be further apart from each other. But, maybe it's an Australian thing; we have been known to inflect the ends of our sentences to sound like we're asking a question. In any case, this misuse in writing reaaally pisses me off.

Tommy McLennan

I discovered Tommy McLennan today. I love his powerful hoarse voice... kinda like Howlin' Wolf with less volume and more hoarseness.

Freight hopping

"Two men caught riding freight train in South Australia" - AAP

Two young men were busted trying to hitch a ride on a freight train from Adelaide to Melbourne. Ever since I read an article in a zine along the lines of 'D.I.Y. Freight Hopping' I've wanted to do this. I've read on the topic and researched a little about the trains which make the trip from Adelaide to Melbourne. The biggest factor stopping me is the danger which is inherent in the activity. If I ever meet someone who's experienced in freight hopping I will seriously consider it. Imagine rocking up to a party in Melbourne and telling everyone you got there by sitting your caboose between two containers on an interstate freight train.

These are the Days

"No white man sings like Van Morrison...

It is at the heart of Morrison’s presence as a singer that when he lights on certain sounds, certain small moments inside a song—hesitations, silences, shifts in pressure, sudden entrances, slamming doors—can then suggest whole territories, completed stories, indistinct ceremonies, far outside anything that can be literally traced in the compositions that carry them."

-Greil Marcus

Ukraine

I went to Ukraine in August for a weekend, driving through Belarus. It was an experience to say the least, and friggin' brilliant to say a little more. I had a camera with me but it died on the first day in Kharkhov and I had forgotten the battery-charger of course. The photos are a tad random and most are considerably blurry or out of focus. I like the fact that I don't have many photos of that wonderful trip through Belarus and into Ukraine and back again, it makes me try harder to retain the memories IN MY HEAD! Here are the images that bring back the feeling of that particular voyage into Northern Ukraine.


That cream/green block is the 'Hotel Tourist' where I stayed. There's a pokie hall in the foyer, a security guard that looked like he wanted to roll me, no hot water (despite an assurance that there would be for about 2 hours in the morning), a COMPLETE lack of English knowledge among all staff members, toilet paper seemingly derived from cardboard, and a beautiful view to some form of supermarket which turned out to be pretty much half full of vodka (see below). I wouldn't have wanted to stay anywhere else (honest).

Dumpster Diving

Great video about this commendable past-time.

Dive! Trailer from Compeller on Vimeo.

I think I might have to have a scout around behind my local supermarkets.

Bagpipes are 'in'

I like bagpipes. I do. I play them myself and even wrote a fan-piece on them a while ago for a zine (which you can read here). But something's been bothering me recently; their apparent new-found popularity in Latvia.
As you may know, or will find out if you read my zine article, the bagpipe is native to most, if not all, Indo-European cultures. Although you may (no...probably definitely) associate the instrument with Scotland, the history of the bagpipes among the Celtic peoples is in fact relatively fresh. So don't even try to imagine the Latvian manifestation of the bagpipe to be like the Scottish version; it's different. Anyway, after bagpipe playing (and making) traditions all but died out in Latvia, the last several decades have seen somewhat of a revival.
Bagpipes, bagpipe playing, and bagpipe music were, for a while, pretty much strictly confined to folklorists, neo-folk geeks and the like but sometime in the last year, or maybe two, bagpipes have squeezed (get it?) their way into the public eye.
I don't have a television at home but when I do find myself at a friend's house I like to indulge in a touch of guilty box-watching. If it's not an old Russian slap-stick film or an incredibly boring Latvian fishing show it's usually a terrible concert with families singing together or pseudo-pop stars. During these small windows of weekend television viewing that I've managed to enjoy (I'm so glad I don't have television at home) there have been many a concert where bagpipes have been the instrument of choice in accompaniment to either a single vocalist, a band, or even a large combined choir. At first I enjoyed hearing and watching these performances (even though most of them are singularly forgettable). This was because I was glad to see traditional bagpipes being played to a wider audience - on television no less! But after a dozen or more of these performances and seeing posted videos on YouTube, I was tiring of it to be honest. I wasn't tiring of the bagpipes themselves, but the way they were being used; they'd become 'just another instrument', like the guitar or saxophone playing in the backing band. I now sigh, and cringe just a little, every time I see a performance with bagpipes. It's almost become the 'in' thing to have bagpipers, or several, accompanying some extraordinarily mediocre vocalists.
It's curious, because I always pushed for greater awareness of the instrument, and now that they are becoming more recognised in popular culture in Latvia, I find myself cringing and shuffling nervously in my seat. Is it similar to the I-hate-it-that-the-underground-band-I-like-has-become-'mainstream' syndrome? Possibly a little, probably not entirely.
I saw a video on YouTube today which was the impetus for this blog post. It's of a band called 'Instrumenti' accompanied by the bagpipe-and-drum band by the name of 'Auļi'; both groups are Latvian. Instrumenti is a pop group which has achieved reasonable success here in Latvia, and Auļi has been at the forefront in the recent bagpipe 'revolution', if you will. Anyway, here you see Instrumenti trundling through a song, and then suddenly...bagpipers with Panda heads! It kinda sounds okay to the tell the truth, but I still can't help feeling that bagpipes have become a bit of a novelty - I mean, panda heads!?

Etran Finatawa

Listening to Etran Finatawa...feeling tremendous

How to dance to dubstep

Jean Claude has got the moves

Australian of the Year

I was reading through the list of nominees for Australian of the Year awards and I came across the biography of Adelaide-based radio presenter Peter Goers. Wanting to find a little more information on Mr. Goers I, naturally, headed off to Wikipedia.
I was amazed to see that almost the whole introduction for Goers in Wikipedia had been lifted and inserted into the Australian of the Year biography:

Australian of the Year website:

"Peter Goers is an actor, director, reviewer, former academic and host of the ABC Local Radio program, The Evening Show, which broadcasts throughout South Australia and into New South Wales. His career has spanned over 35 years in the entertainment industry, across a range of different mediums including television and theatre."

Wikipedia entry:

"Peter Goers is an actor, director, reviewer, former academic and current host of the radio program The Evening Show on 891 ABC Adelaide, which broadcasts throughout South Australia and to the city of Broken Hill. His career has spanned over 35 years in the entertainment industry across a range of different mediums and formats including television, print, radio and theatre, and he is frequently engaged as a guest speaker."

Come on, is it that hard to put it in your own words? If you're going to be lazy then at least put it in quotation marks!

Australia Day

HAPPY COLONISATION DAY!

Extinct Animal of the Week X

Aurochs

"The aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius), the ancestor of domestic cattle, was a type of huge wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627."


This will probably be the last 'Extinct Animal of the Week' post for a while. To finish things off here's footage of the last known Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) to have existed:

'Riot' photo shoot

The gringos from Vice magazine headed out to the student protests in London recently to take photographs for a fashion shoot. What a tremendous idea.

'RIOT GIRLS, LITERALLY'

The high lonesome sound

When I get weary of jazz or sick of classical or just plain tired of indie, I sometimes find myself turning to bluegrass and American folk. That's what I've been doing for the last several days anyway, humming 'Blue Moon of Kentucky', considering a second-hand purchase of a guitar and seeking out videos of The Stanley Brothers. Heck, I'm even watching a documentary about the Appalachian mountains. Here's a little taste for you:

I came across this splendid voice while I was still in high school I think. Roscoe Holcomb knows what real music is; it's got nothing to do with record sales or pleasing anyone, it's about sitting on your Kentucky porch, plucking the banjo and washing it down with a jar of moonshine. This is my favourite Holcomb number:




Speaking of moonshine, here's a Stanley Brothers piece. The vocals are so pure and clean - the 'high lonesome sound' which Holcomb possessed - and I've been listen to this song on repeat for a while now. 'I'll hush up my mug if you fill up my jug with that good ole mountain dew!'

Extinct Animal of the Week IX

Caribbean Monk Seal

"The Caribbean Monk Seal or West Indian Monk Seal (Monachus tropicalis) is an extinct species of seal. It is the only seal ever known to be native to the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Mexico."

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Ray Charles

Last night I watched the 1987 film 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles'. When I was growing up we had a VHS copy of this at home and I watched it numerous times, enamoured with John Candy's character and getting a strange sense of 1980's roadhouse Americana. Anyway, whenever I think of this film I'm immediately reminded of this tremendous scene:

Line-o

'Handball Nation'

dunce, jack, queen, king, line-o, grubber, grass-cutter, serve, bitumen, re-starts, body-lobs (grrrrrrrrrrr).....sweet sweet handball, probably the best game ever invented for the schoolyard.

oh oh ohhh...remember when you were late out to lunch and didn't get squares and handball-on-the-wall had to suffice??

Milo and Otis

I watched The Adventures of Milo and Otis last night for the first time since I was quite young. You know sometimes when you have wonderful memories of a childhood film and then when you re-watch it in adulthood those memories are shattered? Well....they were just reinforced with this film :)

"Just let your heart lead and your feet will follow, and we'll bound and leap like a gentle breeze. Bound and leap like a zephyr set free. Bound, and, of course, leap." - Deer

Extinct Animal of the Week VIII

Bulldog Rat

"The Bulldog Rat (Rattus nativitatis) was a species of rat endemic to the Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The rats lived on the higher hills and denser forests of the island."

Marina Oswald Porter

During my morning perusing of the internet I was reading about Lee Harvey Oswald (as you do). I hadn't realised he had travelled to the USSR for a while, and married this lovely young pharmacy student...Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova (Марина Николаевна Прусакова).

I wonder what she's up to these days...I doubt she's a pharmacist.

out out out

I need to get rid of some energy

wow indeed...

this hasn't happened to my roof yet, but i do have icicles of monumental proportions hanging above my doorway (i mean BIG)