A Kinrowan Estate story: The Wood

 

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Hi there, it’s Robert. Here, come sit with me under this oak tree here. I was just remembering the other night at the Pub. It had gotten late and we were all sitting around swapping stories, and of course I can never think of a story when I need one, but I just remembered one that Kit, the woodsteward, told me. That’s what he calls himself, ‘woodsteward,’ although forest warden or ranger might be just as accurate. He takes care of the Wood behind the GMR building (as much as it needs caring for — it’s a self-sufficient sort of place, when all is said), and he’s quite an interesting character. He’s quite striking, sharp-featured, great bones, tall and slim, but with broad shoulders, well-knit, of no particular age, with a great mane of fox-red hair that he wears in a tail down his back most of the time. And of course he knows all about the animals and trees. He always seems to have a little smile hovering around his lips, but it’s his eyes that hold you — strange eyes, golden, watchful like a cat’s, tilted like that, with a sparkle to them that says good humor and maybe just a touch of mischief.

At any rate, we’ve gotten to be friendly over the years — I spend a fair amount of time in the Wood. And it’s definitely ‘the Wood,’ and not any sort of common old ‘woods,’ Kit made that clear early on. He says it’s part of the First Wood, but that’s all he’ll say about it. It’s a nice place to be when I’m too restless to settle down in my office or my reading room, quiet but not too quiet and always something interesting to watch. And of course, Kit spends almost all his time there. He does have a little room down by the kitchen where it’s warm in the winter, but he only uses it during the worst weather — he says everyone needs a nice cozy den sometimes, but he’d rather be under the trees. So, I guess it was inevitable we’d start spending time together, and he’s even invited me to visit him in his room. It really is a snug little place to spend a long winter night. Uh, ‘evening,’ I meant to say. ‘A long winter evening.’

Sorry, where was I? Oh, right, Kit’s story. I was out walking down the Road one day about this time of year — maybe a bit later in the Summer, right about First Harvest — Lughnasadh, they call it around here — and I happened across Kit. He greeted me warmly, and suggested we take a walk into the Wood. ‘I want to show you something,’ he said, ‘and you might as well not waste your time on this Road. It only goes from here to there, since it’s not really part of the Wood at all, and I suppose that’s good enough for most times, but today is special.’ And he led me off into the Wood, along a path I had never noticed before, guiding me along by the hand, and putting an arm around to help me over the tricky parts. He’s certainly nimble, for such a big man — and very strong, too.

The Wood was wonderful that day, warm and a little sleepy, and every once in a while we’d hear the buzz of a greenbottle or see a butterfly glowing in a shaft of sunlight, the trees and bushes all leafy and green, and every so often we’d cross a small clearing where summer flowers had found a place to bloom, asters purple and white, and sunflowers and rattlesnake weed and swamp lilies (the Wood does have some wet parts) and all sorts of things, all like little bits of sunlight themselves. I have to confess, I was surprised to see some of them in the woods, although I suspect Kit does as much gardening as stewarding, and even more surprised that some were blooming this time of year, but we had crossed the Border, I think, so I guess time wasn’t that much of a consideration.

Well, we eventually got to a clearing around a great, ancient oak, a really massive old tree. Kit says he thinks it might be as old as the Wood, or almost. We found a fallen log to sit on, all mossy, just like a storybook log, and Kit made sure I was comfortable — he was being particularly nice that day — and produced a little hamper with some lunch for us, and a flagon or two of ale.

‘It was right here,’ he said, ‘where the Lord and Lady of the Wood tied the knot. Just this time of year, at the First Harvest, High Summer, as the poet says, when —

our days are long and sleepy,
our nights too brief for rest,
summer’s bloom is sweetest now
and summer’s pleasures fullest.

I looked at him, and he blushed, just a little. ‘I do know some things besides woods and beasts, you know.’ He seemed quite pleased with himself.

Oops, look at the time. On this side of the Border I have to pay attention to it, I’m afraid, and I’ve really got to run. Will you be around for a while? Good. Why don’t you meet me back here later, and I’ll finish the story for you. It’s quite the tale. Wonderful! Later, then.

Raspberry divider

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What’s New for the 19th of March: Rough Guides, Brian Vaughan’s The Escapist, Douglas Adams considered, Pamela Dean’s favourite ballad, Woodie Guthrie, Turkish Coffee, A big review of books about music, Red Molly Live

A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, my hat’s off to you
It’s a Vincent Black Lightning 1952
And I’ve seen you at the corners and cafés
It seems, red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme, and he pulled her on behind
And down to Boxhill they did ride

Richard Thompson’s ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’

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That song that’s playing? It’s SJ Tucker’s take on the girl in the garden in Catherynne Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden interwoven stories. Quite lovely, isn’t it? 

It’s almost Spring and we’re getting one of those rare days where the temperature is over twenty Celsius, there’s full sun and not a hint of a cooling breeze. So Ingrid, our Steward, has declared there shall be an outside feast in the late afternoon  followed by a contradance in the slate-covered Courtyard with Chasing Fireflies being the band and Gus the caller.

Reynard’s staff has set up the outdoor taps – I see a cask of Spring Peeper Ale, another cask of the Shut Up and Dance IPA, and yet another of a three-year aged cider that Bjorn, our Brewmaster, calls it Cheddar Cider as its got a nice sharp bite like an aged cheddar. Join us if you can as it’ll be a lovely time indeed!

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Jack cleared up his to be reviewed pile  more or less, briefly, with a big review of books about music in one way or another, from Irish traditional to Gilbert & Sullivan, to the Grateful Dead. ‘Yes, you heard me right: an annotated bibliography of the Grateful Dead, the folk rock band that sliced and diced traditional American folk music into a long, strange trip. This type of reference is long overdue.’

He also reviewed some more typical music guides, including a couple of musicHounds and a couple of Rough Guides to World Music. What was his verdict? ‘I recommend you take your spare halfpennies and buy both of the musicHound guides. Skip the two volumes of The Rough Guide to World Music unless you’re seriously into studying world music from a genre or regional basis. But do buy these volumes if you are seriously interested in knowing everything there is about traditional and sometimes not so traditional world music, as these are the best general overviews of the subject on the market today.’

And he finished off with, and he knows about such things, wit’s some very positive things to say about Fintan Vallely’s Companion to Irish Traditional Music. ‘This book is the ideal reference for the interested aficionado and musician, but it is the serious musician who will learn best from this book as understanding the history of Irish traditional music will require a well-developed grounding in the music itself. What the casual fan will get out of the Companion to Irish Traditional Music is a great resource for expanding her knowledge of those artists she encounters, either in recorded form or at a concert. And it does a great job of giving a sense of the tremendous scope of the Irish traditional music scene.’

‘It isn’t often that a new book of tunes comes along that could successfully change the whole way we look at Irish music, but this book has that potential,’ Jo said about Hugh Shields’ Tunes of the Munster Pipers: Irish Traditional Music from the James Goodman Manuscripts. ‘Over 500 tunes are compiled in it, as recorded by James Goodman beginning back in the 1840s and spanning two decades. The collection has long been regarded as a holding ground of Irish traditional music but was never published due to the onerous task of editing the manuscripts into a format recognizable today.’

Jo also had high (but not unqualified) praise for John G. Gibson’s Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping 1745 – 1945. ‘Overall, this book is an outstanding contribution to the history of piping, and perhaps to the history of Scotland as a whole. While focusing on the aspects of history that relate to the bagpipe, Gibson’s in-depth study of the Disarming Act, emigration, and highland culture give a hearty course for anyone interested in Celtic history.’

Mia took a long, fond look at the books of Douglas Adams, including the whole Hitch-Hiker’s Guide series, the two Dirk Gently books and the posthumous The Salmon of Doubt. ‘By far the best two books in the series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe are works of silly brilliance, or perhaps brilliant silliness. The late Douglas Adams was a genius, with a knack for pointing out stupidity in all of its myriad manifestations. His Monty Pythonesque humor (indeed, he was both a fan and a friend of the Python troupe) was deliciously suited for the pointed and tart jabs he aimed at religion, politics, advertising, governmental bureaucracy, the military, and the mass of humanity as a whole.’

Rebecca spoke from experience when she said The Rough Guide to Scotland will tell you about what you’ll see, but not about what you’ll experience and feel. ‘It tells you why the Kingdom of Fife is still designated a kingdom, and what historic sites you can see there: the Cathedral, St. Andrews, the oldest golf course in the world, etc. But you won’t hear the solemn voice of the bus driver/tour guide telling you so many lurid tales of witch-burnings and ludicrous royal deaths that at last you find yourself laughing helplessly, wondering if anyone on Fife ever died in their bed.’

Richard reviewed another book by the late Douglas Adams, a nonfiction one at that, dealing with animals around the world that are facing extinction. ‘Last Chance To See is, sadly, a short book. It covers a wealth of locales, starting in Indonesia and swooping from Africa to New Zealand to China and beyond, and does so with grace and wit and economy. These are short expeditions, after all, and even the lengthy tango with customs in Zaire is a tale of weeks, not months. Adams and his crew go in, track down the beast in question and the locals working to preserve it, and move on. It’s a dilettante approach, but Adams made no bones about the depth (or lack thereof) of his approach. He was there to observe, not to immerse, and to see what, perhaps, Everyman should see.’

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Gary spent some time with a documentary film about the great American folk singer Woody Guthrie. What did he think of  Stephen Gammond’s Woody Guthrie: This Machine Kills Fascists? ‘Forests of paper have been printed with words about Woody Guthrie, and tributes recorded by the dozen. And this is not the first film that has documented his life, but it may be the most extensive. Which makes its weaknesses all the more frustrating.’

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Zina has a story for us about something quite wonderful: ‘For me, the inky little cups of Turkish coffee are exactly that — it’s not so much the coffee itself that’s so wonderful, but what tends to happen over the cups of it, even if I’m drinking it alone. I was in a tiny, tiny village in the pastoral English countryside visiting friends a bit ago, and after dinner we had Turkish coffee, some tunes, and a great deal of talking and laughing, in the lovely, warm, hospitable dining room of that unbelievably old house.’christmashollyApril thoroughly enjoyed  ‘The Escapist is an original comic creation springing from Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. And though it’s not at all necessary to have read that marvelous novel to enjoy The Escapists, readers should, because this graphic novel takes both its heart and inspiration from Chabon’s work.

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Jo takes us on a tour through The Rough Guide to World Roots. ‘From lesser-known Asian countries to tropical provinces off the coast of South America, this Rough Guide offering provides a wide array of samples of music from places still in touch with their native roots. The recording especially explores the vocal talents of a number of outstanding female vocalists, but doesn’t limit itself to that exclusively. Many exotic instruments are represented, from latinhas to doira to Italian bagpipes.’

No’am had mixed feelings about fiddler Kevin Burke’s In Concert CD. ‘Although I do like violin music (Dave Swarbrick, Ric Sanders and Eliza Carthy immediately spring to mind) and I do like Irish music, I am not too comfortable with solo Irish violin music; a little goes a long way. My interest rises a notch when guitarist Aiden Brennan joins in on the medley of “Up Sligo/The Rollicking Boys Around Tandaragee/Out With The Boys,” providing a restrained but interesting harmony. Brennan adds another dimension to the music, which makes it come more alive.’

Patrick had lots of good things to say about a collection of Gaelic song from Green Linnet Recrds. ‘Gaelic Voices – the sequel to Green Linnet’s Celtic Voices – is like opening a history book on the Celts and jumping into the pages to catch a first-hand glimpse of the past: a wedding on Rathlin Island; a dance in the Hebrides; the weaving of a tartan in the Highlands. But the album is more than a look at what has been. It’s also a chronicle of what is and a source of hope for what has yet to come.’

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Our What Not comes courtesy of Pamela Dean, who was asked what her favourite ballad was: ‘As I went through all the Child ballads when I was trying to think of a frame for Juniper, Gentian, & Rosemary, and the only other remotely feminist ballad I could find was ‘Riddles Wisely Expounded,’ which is not nearly as active for the young woman as ‘Tam Lin’ is. Well, there is the one where a young woman ransoms her guy and says, ‘The blood had flowed upon the green afore I lost my laddie,’ which is nice, but all she does is take all her money and hand it over.’

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Now lets finish off with ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’, a Richard Thompson penned song as covered by the all female Red Molly band. It was assumed when this song was released by them as there’s a red haired Molly in the song  that they’d named the band after this song but instead it’s because there’s a red headed Molly in the band. We’ve reviewed several of their recordings including Love and Other Tragedies.

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A Travel Abroad story: Moonshine

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Yes moonshine, or white lightning as it’s often called by those who make and drink it. I’ve been reading a book on moonshine,  Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine by Max Whitman. I’ve been interested in it as it shows up often in the Appalachian mysteries. I confess that I did try moonshine once while traveling in the Smoky Mountains some years ago. It was offered up by a fellow musician, while I was sitting up on his back porch, in the proper serving vessel – a mason jar. You do know that over it’s a hundred proof or even higher? That’s fifty percent alcohol!

It’s sort of akin to drinking pure ethanol – it has no taste, burns all the way down, and (at least to me) really, really packed a kick. One jar, well maybe two, was enough for me.  Though I admit that sitting on that back porch looking over the mountains while my fiddler host and a banjo player played some tunes with me on my concertina might have heightened my appreciation of it just a bit.

Moonshine’s a corn, rye and/or barley based liquor and indeed is made like whisky or vodka. In terms of the distilling process, it’s very similar to Irish whisky, which is to say a single pot is used for brewing. Bootleggers during the era of American Prohibition made shitloads of money and to this day do easily distill it in those hollows where federal agents still tread very carefully, if at all.

You can now buy legal moonshine, which is fine but really defeats the myth of it, as I figure the allure is like that of absinthe, which too has become legal:  the thrill of getting away with something that the authorities don’t approve of. I certainly am not planning on stocking legal moonshine in our Pub.

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What’s New for the 5th of March: Books about Celtic music, some sff and mysteries too; some Celtic music reviews; Mouse Guard, Two Fat Ladies, ice cream, and more

I am an archivist. I am a librarian. I collect words because words are the truest and longest-lasting craft in the world.  – Seanan McGuire’s Indexing

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Have I mentioned that we get some of our nastiest weather this time of year? Thus it is this weekend with sleet, freezing rain and high winds keeping all save the staff that tend to our livestock inside. Which is why I’m in the Robert Graves Memorial Room sitting next to a roaring fire writing this update up for you. I’ve got a pot of Darjeeling first blush which needs no cream, so I’m as content as Hamish, one of our resident hedgehogs, who’s sleeping in a quilted basket near the fire. So let’s see what we’ve got for you this week…

But before we start, some words from one of our favourite people, Ellen Datlow, on why she likes Spring better than any other season: ‘I love spring in New York – even if it only lasts a few short weeks. I celebrate spring by trying to view the very few magnolia trees in bloom around my neighborhood (they’re in full bloom for only a few days so it’s quite easy to miss them completely).’ The rest of her reasoning for this choice is thisaway.

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Cat found a lot to like in Seanan McGuire’s Indexing books: ‘I’m re-listening right now to one of those things that Seanan McGuire does so ever well: she takes a familiar story and make it fresh … I first read it as novels when they came out some six years ago and then listened to it a few years later. Now being home confined due to three knee surgeries, I’m doing a lot of audiobooks and this was a series I wanted to revisit while working on other things.’

Turning from fantasy, he has a rather nifty space opera in Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven’s The Mote in God’s Eye which he say of that ‘Until the likes of Iain M. Banks with The Culture series and Neal Asher with the Polity series came along, quite possibly the best Space Opera of all time was this forty year-old novel that took the Space Opera novels of the 1930s and 1940s and very, very nicely updated them.’

Chuck was disappointed with the poor writing and editing in P.J. Curtis’s Notes From the Heart: A Celebration of Irish Music. ‘There are some interesting pieces of trivia in the book. For example, John Lennon’s grandfather, Jack, was born in Dublin and immigrated to America around 1900, where he performed as a blackface singer in The Kentucky Minstrels, before crossing back over the Atlantic and settling in Liverpool – and if you miss this in chapter 2, it’s mentioned again in chapter 3. But tidbits like this are hardly enough to justify this mess of a book.’

Lis has a look at a nifty collection: ‘Falling in Love with Hominds is a collection of Nalo Hopkinson’s short fiction, and the variety and depth is amazing. Horror, fantasy, magic realism, and science fiction. A story or two that I’m sure mainstream editors might buy without noticing it’s not mainstream, the touch of the fantastic is so light and gentle, and yet absolutely there. In that way, and in no other way than being an excellent writer, Hopkinson resembles Le Guin. Go find this book and read it.’ 

Jack Merry, who knows about such things, had very positive things to say about Fintan Vallely’s Companion to Irish Traditional Music. ‘This book is the ideal reference for the interested aficionado and musician, but it is the serious musician who will learn best from this book as understanding the history of Irish traditional music will require a well-developed grounding in the music itself. What the casual fan will get out of the Companion to Irish Traditional Music is a great resource for expanding her knowledge of those artists she encounters, either in recorded form or at a concert. And it does a great job of giving a sense of the tremendous scope of the Irish traditional music scene.’

‘It isn’t often that a new book of tunes comes along that could successfully change the whole way we look at Irish music, but this book has that potential,’ Jo Morrison said about Hugh Shields’ Tunes of the Munster Pipers: Irish Traditional Music from the James Goodman Manuscripts. ‘Over 500 tunes are compiled in it, as recorded by James Goodman beginning back in the 1840s and spanning two decades. The collection has long been regarded as a holding ground of Irish traditional music but was never published due to the onerous task of editing the manuscripts into a format recognizable today.’

Jo also had high (but not unqualified) praise for John G. Gibson’s Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping 1745 – 1945. ‘Overall, this book is an outstanding contribution to the history of piping, and perhaps to the history of Scotland as a whole. While focusing on the aspects of history that relate to the bagpipe, Gibson’s in-depth study of the Disarming Act, emigration, and highland culture give a hearty course for anyone interested in Celtic history.’

Rebecca spoke from experience when she said The Rough Guide to Scotland will tell you about what you’ll see, but not about what you’ll experience and feel. ‘It tells you why the Kingdom of Fife is still designated a kingdom, and what historic sites you can see there: the Cathedral, St. Andrews, the oldest golf course in the world, etc. But you won’t hear the solemn voice of the bus driver/tour guide telling you so many lurid tales of witch-burnings and ludicrous royal deaths that at last you find yourself laughing helplessly, wondering if anyone on Fife ever died in their bed.’

Warner has six reviews to see us out with the first being of ‘Death of Mr Dodsley is a mostly forgotten John Ferguson novel. Being the last in a series, and the latest in the British Library Press reprints, the investigator McNab finds himself in an interesting position. He has to solve a murder that seems to Center entirely around books.’

Next is the latest in the Bess Crawford series, Cliff’s Edge: ‘In this latest Mystery by Charles Todd, the experienced nurse has to navigate Yorkshire murders and a post World War 1 life. While intending to stop merely passing through, an elderly woman’s health and a suspicious death collude to keep Bess there longer.’

Max Gladstone’ss works are usually a treat: ‘Dead Country represents the return to his Craft series. Listed as the first of a Trilogy in the sub “Craft Wars” line, the book looks a little at the cyclical nature of life. Tara returns to her hometown, reflecting upon her own failures and try to find a place in the world.’

Marina J Lostetter’s The Helm of Midnight ‘made quite a splash a while back. Her follow-up The Cage of Dark Hours is a quite interesting volume in its own right. Fascinating new details are given as to the the world these stories take place in, ranging from the magic system to day-to-day life.’

He says that ‘Deborah Crombie’s A Killing of Innocents is the 19th entry in her Dunkin Kincaid & Gemma Jones series. With a long-standing series like this, it is as much the characters as the mystery itself which are likely to grip a reader, but this one will grab from the first page.’

Finally he has a very nice treat for us:  ‘The Scarlet Circus is a nice look at Jane Yolen when her stories touch upon romance of one kind or another. Featuring stories ranging from nights in castles all the way to mermaids, it is once again quite an eclectic collection with the circus tent mystique.”

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Our video review this time is of a decidedly different culinary nature. If ever there was a series that felt like it was British to the core, it is the one Kathleen and her sister Kage wrote up, Two Fat Ladieswhose series documented that they were brilliant British cooks who rode a motorcycle with a sidecar, drank excessively, smoked whenever they pleased and cooked using bloody great hunks of meat, butter and anything else that isn’t ‘tall good for you. And funny as all Hell as well which indeed the review is as well.

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Richard looks at a chapbook that covers a favored treat here at the Kinrowan Estate: ‘Ask anyone waving around a Drumstick cone or Klondike Bar where ice cream comes from, and you’re lucky if you get a smart-aleck response like “the freezer.” Ice cream may be near-universally loved (there’s an ice cream truck going down my block as we speak, and it’s not being shy about it), but it has an oddly shrouded history. Admittedly, most consumers of ice cream wouldn’t care if the first ice cream cone sprang, fully formed, from the forehead of Zeus, but for those who are actually curious about where their double-dip hot fudge sundaes originated – and who don’t want to read a tome the size of a cinderblock – there’s Ivan Day’s slender Ice Cream.’christmasholly
Robert delved into a set of spinoffs from a popular and well reviewed GN series. ‘Given the popularity and critical acclaim of David Peterson’s Mouse Guard series (as witness our own very positive review of the first book, Mouse Guard: Fall 1152), it was almost inevitable that there would be spin-offs. And indeed, Peterson has brought us one himself, with the aid of a number of collaborators: Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard.

christmashollyAlistair wrote up five CDs of Celtic music, finishing up with a various artists’ collection called A Highland Journey in Music. ‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a collection of old favourites, but A Highland Journey in Music plays it excruciatingly easy-listening safe, plodding along to “My Heart’s in the Highlands,” “Loch Lomond,” “Highland Cathedral,” “Sky Boat Song,” and others.’ He liked the others better, promise!

Iain was very enthusiastic about this a CD called The Kilmartin Sessions: The Sounds of Ancient Scotland, a project of the Kilmartin Museum. ‘The Kilmartin Sessions CD has 35 tracks and is accompanied by a glossy 23 page booklet with lots of information about Scotland’s ancient musical past. This is a CD that has to be heard to be believed. The CD is divided into six sections: Bones and Stones, Skin and Bone, Horn and Bronze, the Bronze Age Orchestra, The Sound of Battle (which is where the carnyx is heard), Hearing Pictish Stones, and the Cry of Prayer.’

Jack reviewed a massive pile of CDs of Breton folk music, music that includes pipes, squeezeboxes, fiddles of course, and hurdy-gurdys. ‘I’ve touched upon but a few of the Breton bands that one can find on CD these days. But what if you want a broader sample of what’s going on in Breton music these days? The answer is quite simple – get a collection, or better yet, get two! As luck would have it, Keltia Musique has produced two fine collections, each distinctive enough to require purchasing.’

Three independent Celtic music releases caught Jack’s ear, particularly one called Blow Hard by a Texas-based band: ‘Poor Man’s Fortune is a raggedy rawney sort of band well suited to this music. Serge Laîné is a native of Roanne, Central France, who sings in French, Occitan, and – conveniently – Breton, and plays accordion, lowland pipes, bass, and dulcitare. Larry Rone plays wooden flutes in D, bombardes, and whistle. Heather Gilmer plays the Irish fiddle; Mark Stone is a vocalist and plays both bodhran and keyboards. Wolf Loescher has been a member of several of Texas’s better known Celtic ensembles, including SixMileBridge, Silver Thistle Pipes and Drums, and Two O’Clock Courage; he is a first-rate vocalist, highland bagpiper and percussionist.

Jack also reviewed Kathryn Tickell’s The Gathering, which was a comeback album of sorts. ‘The Gathering was recorded after a break of almost four years — the longest break from recording she’s ever taken. On this album, Tickell is joined by Ian Carr on guitar and Neil Harland on bass. These two fine musicians provide a fitting musical texture for Kathryn’s lively fiddle music and ever-so-haunting piping.’

Kim reviewed the reissues of a couple of early albums by Tickell, The Kathryn Tickell Band and Borderlands. The former, she said, ‘is a well balanced album, an absolute pleasure to hear and savor. Tickell balances between the jaunty (“The Desperation”) and more contemplative numbers (“Roly Gentle,” “Hot Rivets,” “Tarter Frigate,” “Closed Face Reel”), both within sets and between them. Her own expertise is evident in every song, although she allows the skill of her fellow musicians to show through.’ While of the latter, she said ‘Borderlands has a more traditional feel, although it displays the same fine sense of musicianship Tickell’s other albums have. This is a collection of mostly traditional works, with a few originals scattered throughout.’

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Our What Not this outing is a Folkmanis Mouse with Cheese puppet that got overlooked when it came in so Reynard gives it a review now: ‘I’ve no idea when it came in for review, nor do I know how it ended up in the room off the Estate Kitchen that houses the centuries-old collection of cookbooks, restaurant menus and other culinary related material, but I just noticed a very adorable white mouse puppet holding a wedge of cheese in its paws there. Somebody had placed it in an oversized white mug on the middle of the large table so I really couldn’t overlook it.’

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I’ve been reading Charles de Lint‘s ‘The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep’ story, which is collected in Dreams Underfoot which has the following lovely passage about old hag tunes:She looks like the wizened old crone in that painting Jilly did for Geordie when he got into this kick of learning fiddle tunes with the word ‘hag’ in the title: ‘the Hag in the Kiln,’  ‘Old Hag You Have Killed Me,’ ‘The Hag With the Money,’ and god knows how many more. Just like in the painting, she’s wizened and small and bent over and … dry. Like kindling, like the pages of an old book. Like she’s almost all used up. Hair thin, body thinner. but then you look into her eyes and they’re so alive it makes you feel a little dizzy.’

Okay, let’s see if there’s any Old Hag tunes on the Infinite Jukebox, our digital media server. I’ve got one by the Bothy Band whose Old Hag You Have Killed Me is one of best Irish trad albums ever done, and we’ve audio of them performing ‘Old Hag You Have Killed Me’ which we’ll share with you as it’s very splendid.

No idea when it was done, though about fifty years ago is the most common guess among those who speculate about such things, or where it was recorded for that matter. But here it is for your listening pleasure.

Dreams Underfoot is now available from Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo and all of the usual suspects.

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A Kinrowan Estate story: Mrs. Ware Prepares an Eventide Meal

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That man is going to drive me mad some day.

What did you just say? ‘Perhaps he already has?’ If it wasn’t so close to the truth I’d swat you for that.

Honestly, Mr. E. is a fine man to work with most of the time, but he has his peculiar ideas. ‘Mrs. Ware,’ he says, ‘have you ever thought about how versatile chocolate is? Savory or sweet, main course or dessert – but always heavenly. I’m sure a fine chef like yourself could make us a whole meal where every dish contained some chocolate.’

And me nodding along like a ninny. The first thing I knew, I was thinking of recipes I’d eaten or heard of or dreamt up. The sly boots had me hooked on the challenge.

Then again, feeding the inhabitants here at the estate which houses Green Man Review and Sleeping Hedgehog is a challenge any day, and thank all the Powers I have such a good staff. Access to the best of ingredients, too, and a reference collection of recipes going back centuries. There are advantages to working for such a place as this one.

Of course, I work for Kinrowan Hall. Did you think Mr. E., or anyone else, could own the Kinrowan Hall? Not in the slightest. It brings people (and others) here to serve it in various roles. Some stay for a few days or months, some for years without number. Liath our Archivist has been around, off and on, for centuries, they tell me. And who are ‘they’? Why, house elves and brownies who’ve been here even longer than she has. Anyway, I’ve been here a long time. When I arrived here as a sous-sous-chef I promised Kinrowan Hall I’d stick around till I got bored, and I’ve never been bored. I’ve worked my way up through the ranks, met and married Mr. Ware (may he rest in peace), raised three daughters and a son and dozens of bouvier des Flandres puppies, trained chefs who now work in the best establishments on both sides of the Border – and never been bored.

Yes, I suppose little challenges like Mr. E.’s must contribute something to the lack of boredom.

Anyway, I suspected he was really dreaming of endless desserts when he set my mind thinking on his little challenge, so I drew up my menu with care. Simplicity and quality were my watchwords.

We started with a mixed green salad drizzled with raspberry vinaigrette, made with the finest in produce from Gus’s gardens and raspberries from a little patch in a clearing just inside Oberon’s Wood. Where was the chocolate? Infused in the vinaigrette. I make my own, of course, and I soaked some cocoa beans in it overnight.

Then we had a hearty, all-in-one main course – tamale pie. It’s basically a thick chili (I had to make a batch each of con and sin carne) cooked under a cornbread crust. Plenty of peppers, plenty of meat (or plenty of beans), plenty of tomatoes – and a healthy dose of powdered cocoa. I found a container in the back of the east pantry that looked like it may have come from an artisanal co-op in Aztec territory (possibly pre-Conquest, though I wouldn’t like to say for sure). I told you Kinrowan Hall gives me access to the best of ingredients.

For dessert, I kept it simple. People had a choice between Mrs. Cormier’s dark chocolate cake with fudge icing, made the day before so that the fudge could melt just a little everywhere it met the cake, and homemade chocolate ice cream. Every staff member I could get my hands on had to take a turn at the churn. I promised those who did that they could have both cake and ice cream if they so chose.

When it came to the beverages, the other obsession around here besides chocolate, I consulted with Reynard. I needed cold and hot, alcoholic and not. Dear Reynard! I can always count on him. He found me a couple of barrels of Sam Adams’ Chocolate Bock and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, and a selection of chocolate liqueurs (including every sort of Godiva under the sun) to add to coffee or pour over the ice cream. I had hot and cold chocolate milk, too, of course – must fight osteoporosis whenever we can.

Was it a success?  That comment I will swat you for! What meal of mine has ever been less than a success? Kinrowan Hall wouldn’t allow it, and neither would I!

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What’s New for the 19th of February: Pipes, pipes and more pipes; hot cocoa;r Baker’s favorite folk take; guides to Celtic music and sf; graphic adaptations of classic YA novels; a live-action Alice in Wonderland; new music from Spain and a box set from the ’90s

Pretty soon we had four pipers, maybe not good but loud. … A tyro practicing can set your teeth on edge — it sounds and looks as if he had a cat under his arm, its tail in his mouth, and biting it. — Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers

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It’s over two weeks past Candlemas and I can easily feel that Spring is coming out as there’s both longer days and shorter nights, but it more importantly feels in my bones as if Winter’s truly passing and Spring’s now actively thinking about arriving. Mind you that also means the skiing is difficult as the snow’s melting on the surface and the Mill Pond has to be checked twice daily to see if if it’s still safe for wandering onto.

Despite the turning of the season in my bones, I’ve been just a wee bit tired this week as the Council of Shadow Libraries met here for the last fortnight. Fascinating conversations, lots of whiskey imbibed and friendships renewed and made. What shadow libraries are is something I’ll discuss another time, but now let’s turn our attention to this edition…

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Denise got her money’s worth from Jonathan Cowie and Tony Chester’s Essential SF: A Concise Guide. ‘Essential SF packs a lot of information into 268 pages. But it doesn’t feel swamped by excess nor is it uselessly brief. It’s a handy reference guide that can be picked up and leafed through any time you need information about the most popular aspects of science fiction fandom. It’s also useful if you’re just looking for an interesting book to read or film to watch.’

A novel full of music and myth should make great Summer reading and Grey has a recommendation: ‘Charles de Lint dedicates The Little Country to “…all those traditional musicians who, wittingly or unwittingly, but with great good skill, still seek to recapture that first music.” A traditional Celtic musician himself, de Lint has peopled The Little Country with musicians and filled it with music. All of the chapter titles are titles of (mostly) traditional tunes, and there is an appendix of tunes written by Janey Little, the book’s main character — tunes actually written by de Lint himself. (‘Tinker’s Own’ on their Old Enough to Know Better CD recorded de Lint’s “The Tinker’s Black Kettle,” one of the tunes in this novel.) Any readers who are at all musically inclined may find themselves itching to reach for their instruments and try out the tunes.‘

She also says of Medicine Road that ‘I suppose it’s fitting, for a story about twos, that the creators are two Charleses. Charles Vess’s illustrations make this not-so-simple fable deeper and richer. Vess combines line drawing and painting in a way that makes his pictures simultaneously vividly life-like and fairy tale-remote.’

Jack dove head first into a couple of books, Kenny Mathiesen’s Celtic Music: Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion, and June Skinner Sawyers’s Celtic Music: A Complete Guide. ‘So what I have is two books purporting to tell you, the person with a strong interest in Celtic music, what you should be listening to. I’m assuming that you already know a lot more than the average punter about Celtic, so I won’t bore you with stating what Celtic music is, or why it’s so hot right now. Methinks that what you want to know is how good these two guides are at suggesting what there is out there for Celtic music that you wouldn’t know existed.’

Jo’s first review is of Hugh Shields’ Tunes of the Munster Pipers: Irish Traditional Music from the James Goodman Manuscripts: ‘It isn’t often that a new book of tunes comes along that could successfully change the whole way we look at Irish music, but this book has that potential. Over 500 tunes are compiled in it, as recorded by James Goodman beginning back in the 1840s and spanning two decades. The collection has long been regarded as a holding ground of Irish traditional music but was never published due to the onerous task of editing the manuscripts into a format recognizable today.’

She also says ‘One Northumbrian musician, Billy Pigg, deserves further study. Billy Pigg played the pipes for the love of it, not for fame or fortune, and that seems to be what made him such a great success. His fiery speed and innovative style has greatly shaped the nature of Northumbrian piping today. The recent publication of A.D. Schofield and J. Say’s Billy Pigg: The Border Minstrel, gives us an excellent opportunity to learn about the personality behind the greatest influence on Northumbrian piping.’

Michael looks at Holly Black and Ellen Kushner’s Welcome To Bordertown collection: ‘A generation ago, Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold introduced us to Bordertown, an abandoned American city sitting on the Border between the “real world” (The World) and Faerie (The Realm). A place where science and magic both worked, if equally unpredictably, it became a haven and a destination for runaways and outcasts of both worlds, a place where humans and the Fae (aka Truebloods) could mingle, do business, eke out a living, and find themselves. It was a place where anything could happen.’ Need I say that a goodly number of women writers are present throughout the course of these books?

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A while back Will was so unimpressed with a movie that he just had to tell us about it. Well, he tried to, but … he kept getting in his own way. The movie? A live action film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. ‘This would make an excellent movie for a home-editing kit. You get 129 minutes, and you could cut it down to a fun 90. Hint: Start by cutting the voice-over. I don’t always think voice-overs are a mistake, and it’s true there are a few clever bits in these voice-overs, but there aren’t enough to justify them.’

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As cooler temps become the rule of the day, Denise takes a look at Trader Joe’s Organic Hot Cocoa Mix. She found it a lovely way to start the day, and perhaps even enjoy the evening; “…if you’ve a mind, a splash of Kahlua and/or Bailey’s wouldn’t be amiss.” Now go see what she thinks cocoa lovers should give this one a try.christmasholly
Elizabeth reviewed three graphic adaptations of classic novels published by Puffin Graphics – Red Badge of Courage, Black Beauty, and Frankenstein – with mixed results. ‘Of the three graphic novels reviewed in this omnibus, Gary Reed and Frazer Irving’s vision of Frankenstein is the best. Far from simply putting Mary Shelley’s words to images, the excellently adapted narrative by Gary Reed and cover art for Frankenstein the graphic novelgorgeously creative illustrations by Frazer Irving turn it into high art.’

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Gary reviewed a new release by Arar, a duo from Spain. ‘Marina Tomás Amado and Maria Cruz Millet are two very busy and creative young artists. But somehow they’ve found the time and inspiration to record this album of music that joyously celebrates youth, love, connections, and the act of creation itself. They make music under the name of Arar, which in Catalán means plowing – turning over the earth to sow. Fans of intimate acoustic music can reap the benefits of their sowing in their self-titled debut album.’

Gary also reviewed a new box set of a cult favorite indie rock band from the ’90s, The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel. ‘Neutral Milk Hotel was sometimes basically a solo project and sometimes a full band. [Frontman Jeff] Mangum only released two full-length album as NMH, 1996’s On Avery Island and 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. If you were into indie rock in the mid to late 1990s, chances are you had and loved those albums. The latter one is sometimes touted as the best indie rock album ever. Listen to indie rock of the 2000s – The Decemberists, Beirut, Typhoon, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw come to mind – and you’ll undoubtedly hear Neutral Milk Hotel’s influence.

Jack Merry covered a large handful of bagpipe CDs from traditions other than Scottish, including Latvia, Spain, Bulgaria and France. ‘Not surprisingly, my CD collection holds much more than just Irish, Scottish, and English music! In preparation for the next Wild Hunt festival, I’ve been looking at piles of CDs from bagpipe-based groups from ’round the world. ‘Tis amazing how much good piping music there is even when one avoids the standard Irish and Scottish schools of music!’

Our reviewer John O’Regan wrote up an omnibus review (as was his wont) of three Celtic related CDs: Chris Stout’s First o’ the Darkenin’, Freeland Barbour’s The Black Water, and James Thurgood’s Handy Little Rig. ‘Solo instrumental efforts by band members or ex-band members sometimes start out as a one-person venture, but the end result is often a conglomeration of ideas and influences suggested by fellow musicians that have come on board. In this review we look at three essentially solo albums by noted instrumentalists who play very distinctive instruments – fiddle, accordion and harmonica. All are well known in their chosen circles, but only one of these records is truly a solo album in every sense of the word.’

John also reviewed a couple of contemporary pipe band releases, The Scottish Power Pipe Band’s Cathcart, and Manawatu Scottish Pipe Band’s The Calling. ‘These are good examples of the winds of change blowing through the piping world and how bands are adapting to them. Some go into the realms of experimentation with a full knowledge of the possibilities therein, while others tread carefully in their initial moves towards incorporating a wider sphere of influences to their music.’

Another of John’s reviews covered a very large selection of Celtic music, ranging from harpists to singer songwriters to Christmas albums and some Nordic-Irish contradance music. Do check out his overview of music from the likes of Wendy Stewart, Gordon Duncan, Ben Sands, Mary Coogan, Dirty Linen, Patricia Brady and more.

Did you say piping? Another of John’s reviews was this massive omnibus review of Scottish piping CDs. It features three discs from the Glenfiddich Piping Championships, several years’ worth of programs from the Dr Dan Reid Memorial Solo Piping Competition, The Pipes and Drums of British Caledonian Airway, and lots more.

‘I was a little intimidated when a package of seven bagpipe CDs arrived at my house,’ Tim said. ‘Now, I love bagpipes in all forms as much as anyone who doesn’t actually play them can, but a stack that size is a powerful amount of droning. I took the plunge, turning my house into Drone Central for a while.’ What CDs is he droning on about? Willie Clancy’s The Pipering Of Willie Clancy Volumes 1 & 2, Tommy Martin’s Uilleann Piper, Brian McNamara’s A Piper’s Dream, Kevin Rowsome’s The Rowsome Tradition, and various artists’s World Pipe Band Championships 2000, Volumes 1 & 2

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Our What is one I found in the Archives. It is a this piece of writing by writer Kage Baker who was asked what her favourite folk tale was…

‘Hmmm… When I was a child, it was ‘The Tinderbox’. To analyze why: Starts out with an adventurer wandering the world free– I liked that. Meeting with a supernatural person who sends him off on a treasure hunt– good. Heaps of money encountered, in a way a child can readily appreciate: a heap of pennies! A heap of silver coins (maybe dimes? Or even quarters!) A heap of GOLD (so cool as to be mythical).

And a Tinderbox? What was a Tinderbox? I wondered for years. Three immense magical dogs with successively bigger eyes, all of whom can be rendered tame by use of a magic apron. I was scared to death of big dogs, so I liked the idea they could be tamed this way. Plus the recitation of their eye size (‘big as saucers.. big as cartwheels… big as millstones’) in its repetition appealed. Hero uses his money to buy fine clothes, a nice house, and the best food– seemed sensible to me, just what I’d do. Falls in love with a princess who can only be got at through magical means– yay! A love interest! Magic dog outwits spy by running all over town chalking Xs on all the doors– funny image, that. Hero gets caught eventually anyway– oh no! suspense! But sensibly gets a child to fetch his tinderbox. And then the giant dogs, each with their particular eyes, save the day.

On growing up, I have discovered that this was a Hans Christian Andersen story originally– and in the original version the soldier doesn’t get doublecrossed and left in the cave by the witch, as I was told. In the original, she keeps her part of the bargain and pulls him out of the cave, but he gets greedy and kills her to keep the tinderbox for himself. I would have disliked that immensely, had I heard that version. Heroes should play fair. It would have undercut the entire premise of the story if he were actually a bad man. Children love justice.

I also liked Beauty and the Beast, especially once I’d figured out it was the same story as Eros and Psyche, and it’s a bit more profound in terms of life lessons. So that one followed me into adulthood. But when I have to tell a story to a child, I’ll usually start with the Tinderbox.’

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Now for your listening pleasure, the 2015 Førde Traditional and World Music Festival 25th Anniversary Sampler edition offers us up  the String Sisters playing ‘The Champagne Jig Goes To Columbia and Pat & Al’s Jig’ which they performed at that festival. Isn’t it simply amazing?

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A Kinrowan Estate story: Fireplaces in Kinrowan Hall

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Let’s discuss fireplaces. Or more precisely why there’re only scattered open fireplaces left in all of Kinrowan Hall these days: one in the Library, one in the Pub and in the senior staff residences (RHIP).  Why this is so is what led to us getting rid of open fireplaces save these ones.

Centuries ago, there were more fireplaces here than I’d care to detail. Suffice it to say that it was a major undertaking to cut the firewood, chop it into the proper sizes and dry it properly, haul it in to be used, remove and dispose of the ashes properly, and keep fireplaces and chimneys cleaned right.

Now understand I like an open, roaring fireplace crackling and warming the room with both its light and heat. Well forget the last part — fireplaces lose at least ninety percent of their heat up the chimney! That’s why Kinrowan Hall, like similar buildings of its age and size, was cold in the winter even with all the fireplaces roaring away. Even the sleeping rooms that had fireplaces in them, and not all of them did so, would have their inhabitants wake in the morning to really cold rooms and a thick coating of ice on their wash basins. Only the landed gentry (which we are most decidedly not) who could afford servants could expect to have hot water delivered to their rooms. And even their bedrooms were fucking cold most of the year. So in the Sixties, we started to install a central hot water heating system here that ran off a boiler in the basement.  Yes, it was costly to purchase and extremely difficult to install but it made an amazing change for the better in the comfort of everyone here. We use the latest wall mounted flat heating units and, at the same time, installed triple glazed windows. We’ve since updated the system, again with noticeable improvements.

There’s still the really big fireplace in the Pub, though there’s an ingenious flue system there that recovers eighty percent of the heat that usually goes up the flue; and there’s the one in the Robert Graves Memorial Reading Room in the Library that also uses the same technology.

There’s a few other places we use wood such as in the Kitchen for fueling one of the ranges, for heating the saunas, and even in smoking salmon and pork, and drying fruit for winter use though the latter’s now done using solar driers more and more.

Fortunately the new electrical heating system runs on a combination of low-head hydro, Mill Pond turbo wheels, and, on sunny days, solar power, and on windy days, wind power using low-impact turbines up in the High Meadow where the wind I swear is always really strong.

So if you want the ambiance of a fireplace roaring strong, have a drink in our Pub while you enjoy listening to the Neverending Session, or go read a book in one of the comfy chairs in our Reading Room. Otherwise just enjoy that this centuries old building is actually warm this time of year!

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What’s New for the 5th of February: Time travel stories, Fairport and related music, a desert island disc, graphic classics, an Alice in Wonderland adaptation, and lots of chocolate

Ravens bring things to people. We’re like that. It’s our nature. We don’t like it.― Peter S. Beagle’s A Fine and Private Place

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Breakfast was waiting for me as I came down the stairs. Canadian bacon sizzlimg in its pan, cheddar buttermilk biscuits warm in their basket, eggs ready to be cooked however I want them, bread sliced and ready to be toasted, and coffee standing ready to poured. Mind you it was noon when I sort of graced the Kitchen staff with my presence but it’d been a long night, as we’re hosting a curling tournament and they do love to drink so I assisted Reynard and Finch, his associate Pub manager, and we all worked late into the night.

I accepted the offer of a shot of Pappy Van Winkle straight up with my breakfast. The Coyotes, an American band that played here a few months back, had sent the Estate Steward several bottles of this superb bourbon in appreciation for the time they were here, along with a note that both I and Reynard should have one of the bottles. Though a whiskey drinker by choice, that particular bourbon is damn fine!

christmashollyEmily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility eventually overcame Gary’s doubts, he says. ‘I love a good time travel book. I wasn’t sure this was going to be one of those, but it eventually won me over. Emily St. John Mandel has followed up two best sellers – the 2014 post-apocalyptic dystopian sf novel Station Eleven and 2020’s crime thriller The Glass Hotel – with a best selling speculative fiction novel that explores two currently popular sf tropes, time travel anomalies and the simulation theory.’

Lis reviewed Jodi Taylor’s Doing Time (The Time Police #1): ‘Three new recruits have joined the Time Police, at what turns out to be a critical, and dangerous, moment in its own history. Jane Lockland finally had enough of being her grandmother’s unpaid servant. Matthew Farrell is the son of two leading historians at St. Mary’s, the Time Police’s nemesis organization. He wants to work on the Time Map. Luke Parrish is the son of a billionaire, who has tried his father’s patience too far, and been coerced into the Time Police. They are definitely Team Weird. They can’t even do their first “gruntwork” assignments in the approved way, and the fact that they do them anyway really ticks people off. This puts them in the line of fire of the traditionalists in the Time Police, who want to throw out not just them, but the reformers who are bringing in all this change, like being more conservative about use of shoot to kill orders against Time Police officers they disagree with…’

She continued with Alastair Reynolds’ Eversion: ‘Doctor Silas Coade is the Assistant Surgeon, i.e., the ship’s doctor, on a sailing ship in the 1800s, on an exploratory expedition to a previously inaccessible inlet in Norway, where there is believed to be an Edifice of remarkable character. Or is he on a steamship in the late 1800s, searching for a similar inlet, much farther south. Or an airship in Antarctica… Or is it something else? He’s writing a novel, a fantastic adventure, which is starting to track far too closely with the expedition(s), and every time, the voyage ends in terrible disaster. What’s really happening? And why are some of his companions also starting to remember alternate versions of events?’

She finished up with Anthony Weir’s Project Hail Mary: ‘It’s hard sf, a scientific mystery. It’s one man alone, on a one-way mission he never really agreed to. And it’s a first contact story. It’s the hard sf adventure I loved in the sixties and seventies, without the latent and sometimes blatant sexism. Ryland Grace is a scientist who found happiness as a middle school science teacher, and finds himself hijacked back into research to save our species from extinction, and into a one-way journey to Tau Ceti.’

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A while back Will Shetterly was so unimpressed with a movie that he just had to tell us about it. Well, he tried to, but … he kept getting in his own way. The movie? A live action film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. ‘This would make an excellent movie for a home-editing kit. You get 129 minutes, and you could cut it down to a fun 90. Hint: Start by cutting the voice-over. I don’t always think voice-overs are a mistake, and it’s true there are a few clever bits in these voice-overs, but there aren’t enough to justify them.’

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Peanut butter chocolate cups are I think the best nibbles out there are and April has two great ones for us: ‘Founded by Paul Newman’s daughter Nell in 1993, and once a division of Newman’s Own, Newman’s Own Organics has been a separate company since 2001. Its focus is, unsurprisingly, on certified organic foods. The company provides a limited range of organic snacks, beverages, olive oil, vinegar and pet foods. Up for review are three of the five varieties of chocolate cup candy available: dark chocolate with peanut butter, milk chocolate with peanut butter and dark chocolate with peppermint.’

Reese’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups is next up for her: ‘I have a confession to make. Yes, I have a problem. And that problem’s name is Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. I’m the person at Hallowe’en who looks at the bowl of candy designated for trick or treaters and asks, plaintively, “Could we hold the Reese’s in reserve? Or at least hide them on the bottom of the bowl?” and who will blatantly pilfer from the bowl throughout the evening. And if there’s any left over? Bliss!’

Denise does something she never thought she’d do; review a confection made with – GASP! – milk chocolate.  The dark-chocolate-or-bust member of GMR dug into Justin’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, and didn’t mind them in the least. ‘The combination of smooth milk chocolate and that gritty, chewy, substantial peanut butter makes me reconsider my ennui over milk chocolate in general.’

She also digs into Lily’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups – 70% Cocoa, and seems to like what she’s found. ‘…this is about as guilt-free as you can get when you’re digging into a cheat day treat. Or an “I deserve this” treat. Or a “screw it I’m doing this” treat. You get the idea.’

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Elizabeth reviewed three graphic adaptations of classic novels published by Puffin Graphics – Red Badge of Courage, Black Beauty, and Frankenstein – with mixed results. ‘Of the three graphic novels reviewed in this omnibus, Gary Reed and Frazer Irving’s vision of Frankenstein is the best. Far from simply putting Mary Shelley’s words to images, the excellently adapted narrative by Gary Reed and cover art for Frankenstein the graphic novelgorgeously creative illustrations by Frazer Irving turn it into high art.’

christmashollyWe all know the phrase “desert island disc,” right? Gary reviews an album by two Barcelona musicians on accordion and violin by that very title, more or less: Clavellina d’Aire’s Músiques Per Emportar-Se A Illes Desertes (Music to take away to deserted islands). ‘For just two players and two instruments, Clavellina d’Aire packs quite a bit of entertaining variety into this well played, produced, and sequenced album. A strong set of folk-based music from Catalán.’

I tripped through the Archives looking for any Fairport Convention (and related) foundlings, and as you might expect turned up quite a trove.

Debbie conducted an email interview of our staffer in Australia, Michael Hunter, who was founder and editor of an antipodean Fairport Convention fanzine called Fiddlestix. It eventually grew into quite an enterprise, which included promoting Fairport shows in that country, and more. ‘It still amazes me to think that, over time, a fanzine which started life a little unsure of itself and its purpose has managed to achieve more than just the issue of a quarterly magazine. It has engendered the release of rare Fairport-related material with the Attic Tracks series, and indeed the Fairport compilation album Fiddlestix which was compiled by John Penhallow is effectively the CD of the magazine! More recently (with the Adelaide leg of Fairport’s 1999 Australian tour) the impressively titled “Fiddlestix Promotions” came into being.’

Lars gave mixed reviews to a couple of albums by the Derbyshire band Cross o’th Hands. The first, Handmade, was by a band still finding its way, he says. ‘The second album Maidens Prayer shows a band that has matured and grown. They have found their direction and have put more work into the arrangements and recording. There are only four instrumentals among the eleven tracks. “Danby Wiske/Drops Of Brandy” starts off in a traditional manner and makes you expect one of those Irish-inspired albums with stompy instrumentals mixed with slow ballads. But this is only a trick.’

Lars was favorably impressed by an album called Secret Orders by a couple of English folk musicians. ‘Claire Mann and Aaron Jones are both English by birth, Mann from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Jones from Poole on the south coast. Both have been playing for many years with various groups and musicians, and have gained a reputation for their musicianship. Mann plays flute and fiddle, Jones guitar and bouzouki, and both sing, though Jones takes all the lead vocals here, with Mann providing harmonies. … Throughout, the musicianship and singing are impeccable, and Mann and Jones have a gift for picking good songs and tunes. A quite remarkable debut album by any standard.’

And Lars was very pleased with a solo album from English folk singer Bob Fox called Borrowed Moments. ‘I like this album very much. It may not be as instantly appealing as Dreams Never Leave You, and there is no “Big River” or “Guard Your Man Well” here, but what you get is 11 good songs treated by an expert. Let the album take its time to grow on you and you will not be disappointed.’

Michael reviewed an unusual album. Percy Grainger’s Pleasant & Delightful is a collection of folk songs played on piano in classical arrangements. ‘Following the path of Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles et al, he travelled widely, collecting tunes from the older singers in various communities. Where Grainger differed from other collectors was in his rearrangements of the songs for orchestra rather than more “humble” arrangements. “English Country Garden” is probably his best known piece and the one most associated with his name.’

Michael thought there should be more live albums from Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol, so he was very pleased to review Another Fine Mess. ‘Throughout, Swarbrick plays with the expected fire and gusto when necessary, and with obvious sensitivity on the airs and ballads. His only lead vocal work is on “Rosie” though his backing vocals blend well with Nicol’s performance on the other songs. On the instrumentals, it is apparent Swarb is often improvising around a tune and enjoying doing so, but the intrinsic understanding between his fiddle and Nicol’s guitar ensures it all stays well and truly on track.’

And he gave a splendid overview of three solo-ish Swarbrick releases, Lift The Lid And Listen, The Ceilidh Album, and In The Club with Simon Nicol, the latter previously available only on cassette! ‘These three very worthy albums fill in a noticeable gap in the issue of Dave Swarbrick’s work on CD. Recent years have seen the reissue of albums from most aspects of his long and hugely influential career in English folk, from his early ’60s work with the Ian Campbell Folk Group and his duo recordings with Martin Carthy, through his many years as mainstay with Fairport Convention to his albums with Whippersnapper and plentiful session work.’

Peter gave a rave review to Martin Simpson’s The Bramble Briar, and he wasn’t wrong – it’s gone on to be one of Simpson’s most beloved releases. ‘This album will go down in history. You won’t believe how good it is! If ever there was an album that makes me, and probably loads of others, want to go out and burn my guitar, this is it.’

Richard was quite fond of an album of songs Alan Lomax collected from the Norfolk singer Harry Cox titled What Will Become of England? But he says it’s not for everyone. ‘To ears more accustomed to studio recordings, to sophisticated musical arrangements, to the packaged words and music of Tin Pan Alley or even to the relatively polished work of today’s folk and folk rock singers and musicians, this is rough-hewn, down-to-earth stuff. It is not for the faint-hearted. And it could never be played as “background music” but requires close and unflagging attention.’

 

 

Graphic fiction from Europe often gets overlooked in the states. With the wide variety of material published across multiple cultures that is quite a shame. New York Review of Books Press has been helping to close that gap a little, and Warner’s first entry of the day illustrates that. Nicole Claveoux’s The Green Hand and Other Stories brings a number of fascinating, originally French language, pieces to readers , most of them seeing the material for the first time. While not always the most comfortable work, the quality of the material is hard to deny.

The Johansenss, Roy and Iris, have been working in the crime and thriller genre for some time. On their own each has produced a respectable amount of work, and together they have released a number of entertaining volumes as well. The latest of these is More Than Meets the Eye, a sequel in their long-running Kendra Michaels series. Beginning with a serial killer leading the authorities to victims, a bomb going off quickly triggers a new direction in this plot. 

Cy _Borg is a new compact role-playing game, but also an excellent example of using rules and their written expression as both art and narrative. With artistic design that is somehow both meticulous and often eye-straining, it fits the classic bill of cyberpunk to a T. While some manuals for games feel like they are strictly there to facilitate playing, works like this remind readers that occasionally a book comes up which is arguably better seen and read.

 

One new release comes at an unusual time, with the late January 2023 published All Hallows. The latest novel by experienced strange fiction hand Christopher Golden, it features a local street dealing with personal problems and more in the 1980s. This is a popular decade in horror at the moment, meaning it relies even more than normal on the author to give the book a specific feel and identity.

 

Another International piece of old school literature comes from the New York Review of Books press as well. That is Ernst Jünger’s On Marble Cliffs. This book, and its author, represent a fascinating conundrum for those examining literary topics during the second world war, particularly those focusing on figures from within the german sphere. With not only a fresh translation of the text, but a fairly detailed biographical sketch of the author included, readers will walk away understanding the difficulty in examining these topics all the better.

Finally, something more sequential. The Cradle of Ice is a sequel to last year’s The Starless Crown moves forward. With that volume leaving a number of very careful cliffhangers, this book had a lot of promises to live up to. How well it succeeds at these  and how it expands the world, are testaments to Rollins’ skills.

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What Not

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All songs are stories and Steve Goodman’s ‘City of New Orleans’ is certainly one of the better told ones. As recorded by Arlo Guthrie at a Stanhope, NJ performance on the eighth of August, twenty nine years ago, it tells the melancholy story of a train as it’s headed to New Orleans one night. Arlo, son of Woody as you most likely know, is in particularly fine voice here.

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A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Rooms

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Kinrowan Hall’s a vast sprawling estate going back far longer than one would suspect and it’s been added onto more often than perhaps was for the better. What that means is that we who are staff here each have private space that’s unique.

The rooms here used as living space are eclectic to say the least. Myself and Catherine, my wife who’s a musician, have rooms on the fourth floor that consist of a bedroom, living room and a third room that’s our library and her office space. What, no bathroom or kitchen, you ask? Well there are shared bathrooms on every floor and of course the Estate Kitchen is second to none in terms of feeding everyone here.

What’s interesting about our rooms is that they were completely renovated for us before we moved in some twenty years ago. The heating system was upgraded to the latest forced hot water compete with the flat wall radiators which are amazingly effective and keep us comfy even in the coldest weather. The trade-off for this is that we don’t have the fireplace that was here as it, like all such fireplaces, was really horrid at both heating a space and being energy efficient.

The bedroom is small and tidy but has a lot of built-in storage which is great for us. It looks over a near-by apple orchard, which of course means amazing smells in the spring. We’ve got a cozy sitting area with built-in bookcases, a comfortable couch and chair, reading lamps and a Turkish rug that’s centuries old. Again it looks out upon Oberon’s Wood. The third room I mentioned is actually the largest room which is how it can be both her work space and our personal library.

The rooms are up on the fourth floor which means it’s a quiet enough space. Reynard and his wife have quarters here as they moved into the space occupied by the former Steward when Ingrid took that position over.

It’s particularly nice during one of the fortunately rare blizzards we get as the storms are awesome from this viewpoint — you can see the walls of snow coming across the landscapes!

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What’s New for the 22nd of January: Lots of mysteries; ambient music, jazz, Norwegian Americana, and lots of English folk rock; live yoiking; and comfort food

Happiness, in the land of Deals, is measured on a sliding scale. What makes you happy? A long white silent car with smoked-glass windows, with a chauffeur and a stocked bar and two beautiful objects of desire in the back seat? An apartment in a nice part of town? A kinder lover? A place to stand that’s out of the wind? A brief cessation of pain? It depends on what you have at the moment I ask that question, and what you don’t have. Wait a little, just a little. The scale will slide again. — Sparrow in Emma Bull’s Bone Dance: A Fantasy for Techonophiles

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We’re really in the harshest part of Winter on this Scottish Estate, so the residents of Kinrowan Hall, save the staff of Gus, our Head Gardener, who have livestock and buildings to tend, are quite content to stay inside. There’s always something to stave off boredom, be it reading or needed Estate chores, at which everyone on this communitarian Estate lends a hand.

So it comes to pass that we’ve been cleaning out the under the eaves spaces and no, unlike at Evenmere Hall, we didn’t precisely find a dragon there – though we did find the plans for a stonking big stone one. There was a lot of stuff to be moved or discarded as The Steward has an intent to create more staff housing in part of it. The spaces are heated already to keep ice from building up on the slate roof, so extending plumbing and power will be no big deal.

What kind of stuff? A crate of botantical books that Gus claimed for his workshop; a model of Kinrowan Hall wonderfully detailed with real glass windows and tiny roof slates, that will be displayed in the Library for everyone to see; maps of the Estate dating back centuries, which went to our Steward; dark green glass pickling jars more than big enough for whole cabbages and which had something odd in them; hand written copies of The Sleeping Hedgehog from the mid-eighteenth century; a crate of whisky laid down centuries ago for later consumption and didn’t Reynard, our Pub Manager, claim that fast; and some seelie impression balls of Elven performances of Elizabethan music which the Winter Court left here very long ago; and so forth.

Now let’s see what I found for you this time …

christmashollyLis first looks at Ben Aaronovitch‘s Foxglove Summer, a Rivers of London mystery: ‘Peter was just taking a quick trip  to Herefordshire to interview a retired wizard who’s a fellow veteran of Nightingale’s unit in WWII, in regards to a case he most likely has no involvement with anyway — two missing 11-year-old girls. He’s quickly satisfied that the elderly, frail man has no connection to the case, but he can’t walk away from two missing children. He asks to be assigned to the case in any capacity in which he can be useful. Which is how he winds up confronting carnivorous unicorns, ghost trees, bees, and faeries who aren’t at all nice or friendly. Oh, and inseminating a river with Beverly Brook. Yes, their relationship has progressed a bit!’

She next looks at Anna Elliott and Charles Veley’s The Crown Jewel Mystery: ‘An American actress has come to London, seeking her unknown father who funded her education. She knows the money is sent from a particular bank, but she only has the account number, not the name of the account holder. Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Inspector Gregson are on the trail of a major bank robbery that will happen today. It’s the same bank, and what goes down will be dangerous, even deadly. If the actress and her friend survive, it will be due to her intense, careful attention to detail, and her ability to reason out what those details mean.’

She finishes up with two books by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the first short story collection, the  second a novel about mysteries set on science fiction fandom.

The first she reviews is The Early Conundrums: A Spade/Paladin Collection:  ‘Spade is a SMoF, a “Secret Master of Fandom.” He travels the country helping fan-run conventions run successfully. Mostly that’s in his area of expertise, staying out of financial and tax trouble. Sometimes, something more obviously dangerous comes up. For instance, an unexpected dead body. In the first of these five adventures, Spade is on his own in solving the case while preventing a PR disaster for the convention. In the second, he meets Paladin. She’s somewhat of a rogue detective, also very much a part of fandom. They do not mesh easily at first. Or ever, really, but they do tackle cases together, pooling their skills.’

Next up she says in Ten Little Fen that ‘Spade has agreed to step in as program director of SierraCon, held at a fairly isolated hotel in the Sierra Nevada mountains, on the California/Nevada border. Soon he finds himself and the whole convention snowed in, while one by one, prominent attendees are having terrible “accidents.” Fortunately, Spade, Paladin, and their joint ward, Casper, are also there. They’ve dealt with dangerous crises at cons before. But can they solve this one before one of them falls victim?’

Warner has a few treats for us. In The Girls Who Disappeared Claire Douglas deals with a cold case set in today’s world. And Tove Alsterdal’s You Will Never Be Found by contrast stays in relative modern days, dealing with bizzare incidents of violence and death from a police point of view.

Anthony Horowitz’s A Line to Kill is another entry in the series where a fictionalized version of him solves crimes. Whereas Ella King’s Bad Fruit deals with the disturbing mysteries and crimes that can come from damaged childhoods.

S.C. Lalli’s Are You Sara? is a story featuring the great concern of mistaken identity that can add an extra twist to a thriller. And he finishes off with Martin Edwards’ Guilty Creatures deals with classic crime stories that feature an animal in a leading position.

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David (and SPike) were left feeling unsatisfied with Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of Cold Mountain. ‘I looked forward to this film. I wasn’t thrilled with the casting of a Londoner as a Blue Ridge Mountaineer; or an Aussie as a Georgia Peach, but I looked forward to the film. The opening sequence was thrilling, but as the odyssey came closer to its end, and the inexorable tragedy of the reunion neared, I found myself becoming more uncomfortable, shifting in my seat, finding holes in the story.’

christmashollyWe have down the years out of sheer curiosity asked a goodly number of folks we encounter here this question: ”Is it a bowl of your mother’s fish chowder? Or a warm doughnut dusted with powdered sugar? Comfort food is as individual as each of us. We here at Sleeping Hedgehog (the in-house newsletter of our Estate) are interested in your story!’ Jennifer, a Winter Queen who’s responsible for the best Winter Solstice story ever, gives her answer here.christmasholly


April was pleased with Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants. ‘This slim, whimsical YA novel is Neil Gaiman’s contribution to World Book Day 2008, one of nine £1.00 children’s books made available for this event. Though written for a younger audience, Odd and the Frost Giants is an entertaining read for adults as well, as it’s intelligent and clever.’

christmashollyGary says this new release grew on him. ‘The New York psychedelic ambient trio numün’s sophomore release is, for me, a grower. I like it more each time I listen to it. Their debut Voyage au Soleil was one of my favorite albums of 2020, and on the first couple of listens I didn’t think I’d like Book of Beyond nearly as much. The more I listen to it, though, the better it gets!

‘I was unfamiliar with American reed player Buddy Tate until this recording crossed my path, and now I know what I’ve been missing,’ Gary says in his review of Buddy Tate & White Label’s Tate’s Delight. ‘This archival release from Storyville presents a superb live set recorded in Denmark in September 1982.’

Norwegian Americana band Buster Sledge’s EP Dreamer intrigued Gary. ‘This band is kind of hard to pigeon-hole. They’re a trio of fiddle (Michael Barrett Donovan, who also does the songwriting and lead vocals), guitar (Jakob Folke Ossum) and banjo (Mikael Jonassen), and both Ossum and Jonassen sing as well. The way they describe what they do is that bluegrass is their “hardware” and many other kinds of music are the “software.” Musically they play a blend of old-time, bluegrass, and country, with lyrics and harmonies from everywhere else including pop, rock and jazz.’

Gary was quite enthusiastic about a new jazz record, JohnBailey’s Time Bandits. ‘New York trumpeter John Bailey’s third outing fronting a quartet is such a stellar outing in every way, I might run out of superlatives in this review. Time Bandits sees Bailey ranging over a wide range of jazz styles from numerous eras, from early bop to modern post-bop jazz, with sashays along the way into Latin, New Orleans second line, and more. He’s assembled yet another superb quartet for this set including master pianist George Cables, in-demand bassist Scott Colley and drummer Victor Lewis …’

Jo Morrison turned in an omnibus review of several early recordings of the American folk instrumental duo Linn Barnes and Allison Hampton. ‘Beginning as a pair of lutenists specializing in Renaissance court music, Barnes and Hampton’s interests have expanded instrumentally and musically over the years. In the meantime, their musicianship and cohesiveness as a duo has blossomed into something well worth the time for listening.’

Lars wrote up an omnibus review of the first three albums by English folk rock group Shave the Monkey. ‘Shave the Monkey is a six-member English group. They started out in 1988 as a five-piece, but added a drummer after their first CD. Shave the Monkey has a broad repertoire with traditional music from the 11th century and forward as well as their own songs, mixing instrumental music with songs.’

He also reviewed their next release, just as cryptically titled as their previous albums – Good Luck, Mr Gorsky. ‘As a whole, the instrumental pieces are wonderful. Shave the Monkey are masters in that field. The songs are not bad at all, but most of them pale when compared to the tunes. Maybe that reflects the band. To me they are all very good instrumentalists, but there is no real vocal front man or front woman. They are musicians who sing as well, not singers with instruments.’

Michael Hunter, our man in the Antipodes, did a thoughtful interview with then rising Aussie country singer Kasey Chambers, in which she talked about personal songwriting among other topics. ‘You know, it’s funny because when I write the songs I never think about the fact I have to play it to strangers after that. I just write it and it comes out and I’m really kind of honest with myself when I’m writing songs which is a scary thing for anyone to do (laughs), ’cause it’s not always good things I’m saying about myself! Later on then, to play them to my family and then go in and play them in the studio and then at the end, having to play them to people, like five hundred strangers in a room, it is a hard thing to start with certain songs.’

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What Not is of a musical nature this time. The late Josepha Sherman, a dear friend of ours, was once asked what her favourite tune to play was: ‘OK, my dear: I play the folk harp a wee bit (I’m sadly out of practice) and of the older songs, I like ‘Sumer is icumen in,’ ca. 1260 or so, by our old friend, Anonymous. I like it both for the melody and the words, which are cheerful and alive with the image of animals jumping about for the joy of it. It also makes for a cheerful round for several voices. For the earliest songs, though we don’t have the melodies, alas, I love some of the Ancient Egyptian love songs, which are downright modern — such as the one about the girl who sees her boyfriend and rushes out to meet him with half her hair still undone!. She went on to note The Ancient Egyptians had our concept of romantic love, btw, clear in their songs. There’s even a sadly fragmentary one of a wife undressing her husband, who’s passed out after what was clearly too much drinking at a party, and how she loves him even so.’

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I’ve got a real treat for you in the form of ‘Mojas Katrin’,  which is from an FM broadcast of Mari Boine Persen performing in Schauburg, Bremen, Germany, May 23, 1992. She’s yoiking, which originally referred to only one of several Sami singing styles, but in English the word is often used to refer to all types of traditional Sami singing. And she has a charming explanation in English of what the song’s about.

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