Remember, pain is not a test. Knowledge is not enough.
The piper at gates of dawn has resumed his or her ritual after taking most of the summer off. Now from just before the first light hits the high meadow with its benediction of the new day ’til several minutes later when it’s reached Kinrowan Hall which the sunrise glistens on the moss covered slate roofing tiles up there, the piper plays on. Some say the instrument is great medievelipes but I doubt that as I’ve never seen them here; more likely is that they border pipes or uilleann pipes.
I’m now inside our Kitchen this morning as it’s bone numbing cold this morning. No not just chilling but rather a brutally cold damp with the promise of rain and strong winds later today. Autumn’s not even here but the weather’s giving us an early taste of eatlu September can be like when the weather turns nasty. Even the Estate felines and canines who like going outside are sticking close to the fireplaces and other warm spots inside Kinrowan Hall today.
In between lots of coffee and setting up my ‘office’ which is myself, a large mug of Blue Mountain coffee and my iPad, in the sitting corner of the Kitchen, I’ve been editing this Edition which what Gary put together which is say most everything.
Donna got quite wrapped up in Tasha Alexander’s A Poisoned Season. ‘It’s a decent mystery, sufficiently challenging, with just enough red herrings tossed about to keep the reader wondering until the last few pages who did what and why. At just over three hundred pages, it’s also a bit longer than is typical of this genre. Of course it ends happily, but there was never any serious doubt about that.’
Richard took on an interesting challenge in reviewing Bull City Summer: A Season At the Ballpark and Beyond, about the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. ‘A gorgeously crafted coffee table book, it’s a collaborative effort between a series of photographers and writers, many of them with ties to the Durham area. Together, they document a single Bulls season – 2013, the 25th anniversary of the film that made the franchise famous – from multiple angles.’
Rebecca took an in-depth look at Ursula K. LeGuin’s classic Earthsea Trilogy for young readers. ‘LeGuin’s simple, unostentatious writing style is perfect for these novels. It conveys triumphant serenity and a sense of balance shaken but never destroyed. Earthsea is a place to be visited again and again to find hope for our real world.’
Robert found Ursula K. LeGuin’s YA novel Gifts a little grim. It’s a tale, he says, of people known as Highlanders who live in mutual suspicion, wary of each other and their somewhat supernatural gifts. ‘I’m not going to tell you what I think of this book because I don’t know what I think of this book. LeGuin is a subtle and powerful writer, and that, to be sure, comes through in full measure. Her own gift for storytelling is here, and after a rocky start I did find myself drawn into the story. I just don’t know if I liked it.’
Stephen kept an open mind while reading Marie Brennan’s The Other Side Of The Rainbow, about the Clannad vocalist’s journey of music and faith. ‘How Brennan managed to personally resolve her newfound faith with that of her ancestors, and her vision of a modern “Celtic Christianity,” surprisingly make for some of the most satisfying parts of the book. She recounts her feelings of apprehension and fear before one of her first large-scale “Christian” gigs, in a church in a Belfast “Loyalist” stronghold.’
Steven shared some insights from his reading of Tony Hillerman’s Hunting Badger. ‘Hillerman’s stories tend to be less about the mechanics of mystery story-telling than about the atmosphere and character — if the Navajo elements were stripped away from the novel, not much would remain. This is far from a negative aspect — Hillerman’s Navajo mysteries really should be read for the characters and the settings, rather than the plots, moving beyond the mechanics of things into the spiritual and emotional interconnections.’
Gus the Estate Gardener chimed in with a rare write-up, reviewing The Mushroom Hunters, a book about professional fungus finders. ‘Along the way we learn both the natural history and lore of fungi, in a narrative that reads like all written fiction. Without elaborating further as you should enjoy this book for yourself as it’s a really great read.’
David delived into Terry Zwigoff’s biographical documentary of Robert Crumb, called simply Crumb. ‘Zwigoff is a friend of Crumb’s and had known him for 25 years, played in Crumb’s band the Cheap Suit Serenaders, and worked together on a screenplay. That intimacy paid off in spades! OK, it may have cost Zwigoff his health, and a substantial amount of money, and even his friendship with his subject, but you will never see a documentary that lays its subject as open as Crumb does.’
Gary watched Lost in La Mancha, a movie about the disaster that befell Terry Gilliam when he tried to shoot a Johnny Depp movie that was to be called “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” ‘Documentarians Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe were filming the action for a “making-of” feature that would eventually be included in the DVD. So they were there, from the early production meetings until the end, as the project disintegrated in slow-motion agony.’
Robert had slightly mixed feelings about the first four seasons of the TV series Haven. ‘While the characters are well developed and the interpersonal relationships develop along with them, the series doesn’t devolve into melodrama/soap opera, at last on that level, and manages to sail along for most of three seasons as an interesting and engaging mystery/thriller with supernatural elements.’
David enjoyed a graphic treatment of the life of Franz Kafka, by Robert Crumb and David Mairowitz. ‘Kafka is a concise look at the Czech writer’s life and work. Robert Crumb provides the illustrations while David Mairowitz tells the story in text. The text is well-informed and blends biography with Kafka’s literary work, placed in context. This is a clever and eminently workable format. Especially if you believe, as these collaborators do, that Kafka’s fictions were images of his own life.’
David delivered a review of One Voice, a tribute to a Canadian singer songwriter. ‘Norm Hacking is a big man with a big heart and a lot of friends. Many of them gathered in the last year to put together this collection of some of Hacking’s best songs, performed with affection and skill.’
Deborah tells us about two related releases by Danny Carnahan and friends, one a Grateful Dead tribute, one an extended CD single of singer-songwriter material. See what she has to say about Wake The Dead’s Blue Light Cheap Hotel and Camogie’s Celtic Americana.
Gary enjoyed the cumbia and vallenato music on Very Be Careful’s album Daisy’s Beauty Shop. ‘The song titles, lyrics and simple melodies all speak to this music’s origins as a working class dance music. The Daisy of the album’s title is the Guzmans’ mother, who owned the eponymous beauty shop and who also wrote a lot of these songs.’
Kathleen praised a folk song collection that surprised her with its depth. ‘Old Wine, New Skins is the sort of almost anonymous album we all listened to when we were young, memorizing every nuance of the performances, so we could go out and wreck them at Renaissance Faires. (Most of us weren’t very good, but that’s not the music’s fault.) It remains the best way to hear music, especially folk music — sitting down and letting the voices and the music just cascade over one and fill one up.’
Kim was highly impressed by the work that went into three Nordic Roots collections from NorthSide. ‘Not only are the artists working here a great representation of some of the most creative artists in any traditional folk genre today, but the production values are extremely high, with sophisticated arrangements and judicious use of what the studio has to offer.’
Richard gives us an in-depth review of the careers of the various members of the Waterson and Carthy clans in his review of Waterson:Carthy’s Broken Ground. ‘I would not want to give the impression that there is anything banal or predictable about this recording, but anyone who is familiar with Martin Carthy’s work will expect some token of his political engagement. On this CD, it comes, somewhat unexpectedly, with Norma on lead vocals, in the form of “We Poor Labouring Men,” a defiant assertion of the importance of the working masses.’
Our What Not is a conversation with Charles de Lint held at the FaerieWorld Convention in 2013. You can hear the entire delightful affair here. We’re busy reworking and updating our last edition on him and his work for publication sometime this coming Autumn. Right now he, his lovely wife MaryAnn and their canine companion Johnny Cash are summering for a few months at their lake cottage. May they all have a wonderful time!
Speaking of the piper…
Autumn for me is when I start craving the sound of certain performers, one of which is Kathryn Tickell. She to me is one of the more interesting sounding of the Northumberland performers that risen up in the past almost sicty years in the years since Billy Pigg was active.
So let’s listen in to her performing ‘The Magpie’, ‘Rothbury Road’ and ‘The Cold Shoulder’ which is from an outstanding soundboard recording of a performance at the Washington D.C. Irish Folk Fest from the 2nd of September, twenty years ago.
