Nothing happened. We stitched in silence. At least we stitched without words. Having nothing else to listen to, I began to hear needle points puncturing cloth, threads drawn through, again and again, as rhythmically as breathing. Our breaths mingled with the sound, as though breath became thread, air became fabric. I stitched another corner carefully, thinking of other corners: in doorways, at field gates, walls joining at the edges of a house. My stitches pulling them together, reinforcing them… knowing how it was done, whatever it was they were doing, would be knowing how it could be undone… — Patricia A. McKillip’s Solstice Wood
Finch ‘ere. I’m filling in as Reynard, our Barkeep, is off travelling with his wife Ingrid, our Estate Steward, this week.
Care to have a pint of our new All Hallows Eve Ale? It’s quite good. I’ve been getting stellar comments about it from those who’ve had a few pints. Bjorn, our Brewmaster, always seems to enjoy creating new Autumn libations more than those he does for the other seasons. And he’s hinting that he’ll be doing an authentic Octoberfest beer very soon but he’s kept everything a secret from even me.
Iain is running through the tunes that Red Robin will be playing later this evening in the Sanctuary as he’s the caller. Two violinists, one smallpiper plus a mountain dulcimer player — all from Ashville, North Carolina — and it should be quite tasty to dance to.
So here’s some genre and mystery novels of set in India.
Cat leads us with alternative history novel, The Peshawar Lancers, in which the British Empire decamps to India: ‘The much more Indian than English culture is a brilliant re-visioning of British history that reads like vintage Poul Anderson, particularly his Dominic Flandry series. It features rugged heroes — male and female — vivid combat scenes, exotic locales, and truly evil villains. Hell, it even has Babbage machines, the great analytical engines that Sir Charles Babbage never built but which also play an important role in William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine.’
Cat also looks at a rather interesting audiobook: ‘Golden Age is the story of Torchwood India and what happened to it. It is my belief that the best of all the Torchwood were the audio dramas made by BBC during the run of the series. Please note that it was BBC and not Big Finish that produced these despite the fact that latter produces most of the Doctor Who and spinoff dramas. This is so because the new Doctor Who audio dramas were kept in-house and these productions were kept there as well, though Big Finish is now producing the new Doctor Who adventures as well.’
Donna leads her reviewing off with four novels in a murder mystery series set primarily in India (The Last Kashmiri Rose, Ragtime in Simla, The Damascened Blade and The Palace Tiger): ‘These books by British writer Barbara Cleverly form a murder mystery series. Although I have read other serial fiction and other murder mysteries, this is my first encounter with this particular combination. I found the first two books in a recent remainder catalog at prices much reduced from their original suggested retails. They were sufficiently enjoyable to prompt me to seek out the next two, which are readily available from the usual on-line sources. They are probably also available in the mystery section of any relatively large bricks-and-mortar bookstore, if you prefer to shop that way. They all run about 300 pages in length and are relatively quick reads — probably good fare for summer travel.’
The novel Gary looks at is set in a richly imagined future India, Ian Mcdonald’s River of Gods. And it’s a bloody good read as well: ‘You can hold whole universes in your hand, between the covers. And as with those old faery tales, you need to pay attention to books like River of Gods. They contain important truths, hidden inside entertaining stories.’
Gary now looks at a story by a master storyteller: ‘The world is groping for a new mythology, one that makes sense in a world that has seen nuclear devastation and sent humans to the moon; a world that encompasses both communications satellites and children starving to death in the midst of plenty. Perhaps the new mythology will be found in the multiple collisions of cultures, histories, arts and religions; maybe it will be birthed through the agency of pop culture, which has supplanted classical music and art. Or so Salman Rushdie seems to be saying in his sprawling, entertaining and challenging novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet.’
Tammy Moore has a review particularly worth noting if you read River of Gods: In Cyberabad Days, author Ian McDonald returns to the technologically brilliant, parched and i-Dusty India of 2047, an India first visited in his award-winning novel River of Gods. The seven stories collected in this volume follow the rise and fall of this new India, from the luxurious, robot-monkey guarded palaces of the super-rich to the slums where the robotwallahs rule like tinpot gods.
Iain has a rather special treat for us as he interviews one of favorite authors: ‘We here at Green Man remember the winter afternoon that Elizabeth Bear carefully tended a pot of turkey stock that many hours later would become one of the most tasty turkey veggie soups ever encountered by anyone ‘ere. Later that week, I got to interview her about all things culinarily that interested here ranging from her ideas picnic basket and what make a great winter hearty meal to the perfect brownie.’
Richard brings us Bend It Like Beckham, a film about ‘…Indian cooking, cultural absurdity, family love, and an abiding desire to play what the English call ‘the beautiful game’…’ That game, of course, would be football; what we in the States call soccer. What happens when a young Indian girl dreams of playing football like English football star David Beckham? Culture clash, among other things — but Nathan says that ‘[t]he underlying theme of culture clash is better because it is underlying, rather than politicised and angry. Instead of favouring either the Indian or the English culture, the writer shows how the two manage their uneasy coexistence.’
Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak’s Brundibar gets a review from Rebecca: ‘Pepicek (very small) and Aninku (his sister, even smaller) have a problem: their mother is very sick. The doctor told them to go to town to get milk, but how can two children who have no money buy milk? And how can they get money when they have nothing to sell? They could sing for money … except that Brundibar (Czech slang for bumblebee) can sing much louder than two small children, and he chases them off. With the help of three talking animals, three hundred schoolchildren, and eventually the whole town, they chase off bullying Brundibar, get money and milk for their mommy, and so are happy again.’ M
Brendan enthusiastically reviews Mimi & Richard Fariña’s Pack Up Your Sorrows. ‘There are many reasons to get this CD: as a remarkable record of time past, when a substantially large group of very talented musicians converged on New York City and forged their own memorable sound; as the record of someone who was bound for greatness and died way too early. But clearly the most important is that it is just great music …’
David says that Stephen Stills’s Turnin’ Back the Pages, a compilation drawn from his Columbia recordings of the mid-70s, changed his mind about that period of Stills’s career. ‘Stills’s perfectionism, his juxtaposition of rock with Latin beats, his rich harmonies and his fiery guitar playing make me sit up and take notice.’
He also reviewed the soundtrack album from the U.S. Civil War film Gods and Generals. ‘An altogether useful package then, is this Gods and Generals soundtrack. A couple of fine tunes by artists whom we here at Green Man are fond of; some moving and evocative orchestral pieces; the involvement of Mark O’Connor and Paddy Moloney and a collection of video material to add to our collection. Not an everyday listen, but one I am glad to have in my library.’
Peter gives us his usual thorough coverage of four albums of English folk and folk rock: Assembly Players’ A Kynaston Ball, various artists’ Strange Coincidences in Speciality Tea Trading, Mary Humphreys & Anahata’s Sharp Practice, and Tickled Pink’s Terpsichore Polyhymnia. ‘These four CDs represent things you might hear around the folk clubs, sessions and festivals this summer. There are plenty of people around telling you what you should read this summer, so think of this as your summer listening.’
Rebecca dug into a clutch of diverse recordings: Patrick McGinley & Family Style’s Patrick, Family & Friends; Bob Neuwirth’s Havana Midnight; and Graham Parker’s Deepcut to Nowhere. Regarding the latter, she says, ‘Personally, I find this a very accessible collection of music. The tunes are lively and easy to follow, and the lyrics are interesting and comprehensible. The overall mood is discontented, rueful, sometimes even angry.’
Our What Not this week is a collectible from Guardians of the Galaxy, namely a figurine of Rocket Raccoon and Groot. Says Cat: ‘Accurate representations of Rocket Raccoon, best known from the two Guardians of the Galaxy films are difficult to find without spending a lot of cash on the accurate one-sixth scale models costing in the hundreds of dollars. I wanted one such figure largely because I thought that Rocket and Groot were the most interesting characters in those films.’
Let’s finish this edition off with a tune by Clannad, a band often derided by Irish trad music lovers as just a New Age band because of their later recordings but give a listen to ‘Down By The Sally Gardens’ and I think you’ll agree that they do Irish trad rather well.
