Friday, August 20
An article I wrote for the Almaty or Bust! site, entitled "Central Asia in Words and Pictures," is the featured article on Stylus Magazine this week. Go here to read it for yourself. I'm very proud of the article; I think it does a good job introducing the music of that part of the world to a larger audience. I just hope someone actually reads it (besides my wife and Todd Burns, the Stylus editor).
Friday, August 13
Did anyone watch the opening ceremonies for the olympics in Athens? If you did, did you check out the olympic torch? The guy carried the flame up some steps to...a gigantic, tightly-rolled doobie! All I could think was...there goes Jamaica's chance to get the olympics; their symbol has been usurped!
And speaking of pot...England! Yes, England is a lovely country, provided you're not actually at Heathrow or staying in a hotel near King's Cross Station. Damn, that London place is crowded, but damn are the crowds worth it most of the time. There are more interesting things to see and do in London than in any big city in the world. The British Museum alone took about 3 days to cover (and we missed big chunks). Actually, we would have covered it in 2 days, but during our second visit, while we were wandering around the Roman artifacts, loud sirens started to wail and everyone was evacuated (false alarm, apparently). So we left and came back another day and saw the rest. Great stuff, unbelievable stuff litters that gigantic building, including the Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra's mummy, more gold and priceless artifacts than I could possibly remember to remember, and one of the best bookstores I've ever seen. I was a book hound in London. I planned to buy two books while I was there (books that had yet to be published or were out of print in the US). I got those books, but then I kept looking. That was my downfall. I think I came home with about 20 or so books (or it seemed that way), including this wonderful book on Alechemical and Mystical art (you haven't lived until you've studied alchemy--it's the freakiest discipline the world has ever taken seriously, and that includes pop music).
What else did we do besides the museum? Well, we got to hang out with a gigantic parade of hare krishnas who walked from Picadilly to Trafalgar and then served vegetarian dinner to several thousand onlookers (my wife and I had a steak instead--ha!). We went to the other touristy things like the Tower of London (very fascinating place), the Globe theater (where I got this very cool plague rat hand puppet; when we were on the tube later, these two Japanese girls kept staring at the puppet, as if it were speaking to them), the really, really tacky London Dungeon, the National Gallery (where I wanted to get this wonderful book on illustrated manuscripts, but it was so big and heavy that I decided against it; I bought it when I got home instead), the Portrait Gallery (where I got a portrait of Evelyn Waugh for a colleague of mine), the Cabinet War Room, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, yadda and all that. Boring, probably, but my wife had never been to London before and I'd only visited for about 24 hours back in 1994.
Ah, but then there were some really cool activities. First, we went to a local pub and watched England play Croatia in the European Football Championships. That was excellent, as I was able to introduce my wife to the insanity of football in Europe. I decided against going to that pub again when England played Portugal, as I had a sneaking suspicion that England was going to lose. They did. I was watching the game from our room, located in the Camden section of London, right near King's Cross, and when the penalty shoot-out ended with Portugal's goalie kicking it past England's goalie, I heard this loud, unbelievable groan escape from every single direction around me. Oddly enough, I was in Ireland in 1994 during the world cup; I watched the Irish play Mexico in a pub in Cork. The Mexicans won, but the Irish, while disappointed, weren't deterred: they partied anyways. That's the difference between England and Ireland: the English expect to win and are devastated when they lose, while the Irish expects to lose so they find a way to make losing fun. Then again, I'm American, and Americans expect to win everything and (sad to say) usually do win everything. But I never bought into the whole American patriotism thing (because it isn't patriotism--it's nationalism, the belief that your country is better than all others). So I cheer for Canadians and the Irish and the Scottish (I'm 1/2 Scottish) and the Icelandic. I'm 1/2 German, too, but I can't cheer for Germany; they're just too much like Americans.
Other cool activities included visiting the coolest science fiction and comic book store in the world, Forbidden Planet. One thing I wanted to get while in London was a toy Dalek, as I'm a big Doctor Who fan. I figured they would be everywhere. This store was the only place that I could find that was selling them. I got one that winds up and zooms around. It's really cool. I also got one of the most amazing science fiction novels I've ever come across, Daniel F. Galouye's Dark Universe, a book about a world without light. After finishing this book, I realized that I have to revise the beginning of my book (Listening to Electricity, an examination of how listening has changed with the advent of electrical appliances and machines and other noisy things).
My wife and I also took a day trip down to Battle, where the Battle of Hastings was fought. Yes, there's actually a town called Battle. How's that for clever? It's about 5 miles from Hastings and 60 or so miles from London. There's nothing left of the actual battle (which, for those who don't read much, took place in 1066, and which basically altered the course of English, not to mention world, history), but there are the remains of an ancient abbey (called--what else?--Battle Abbey) and you can tour the grounds where the battle took place. It's an amazingly beautiful place, with rolling hills and beautiful trees and a pond and river and forest nearby. We walked the perimeter of the battle site; it was wonderful and peaceful and all good stuff--a very welcome respite from the noise and crunch of London.
Finally, on our last day in London, we went to the British Library, located just across the street from our hotel (well, actually down the block a ways, but still...). Unbelievable place. I don't know why we didn't just go there on the first day, but we didn't. This is the most amazing museum I've ever been to: ancient, beautiful illustrated manuscripts, the Magna Carta, original papyrus fragments of some of the gospels, original Mozart manuscripts, an original notebook Joyce used in the creation of Finnegans Wake. As a scholar and student of literature, this place was heaven. On top of that, there was a wonderful exhibit on silk road artifacts that was so rich and so detailed that I couldn't take it all in. If and when my wife and I return to London, I'm going right back to the British Library.
Our trip to Europe was wonderful, as I hope you figured out from my little narrative. But the flights going to Europe and returning home were horrible. I can't even begin to explain the problems we had in Toronto, so I won't try. Let me just warn you: never, ever travel from the US to Europe via Canada. Just trust me on this one!
And speaking of pot...England! Yes, England is a lovely country, provided you're not actually at Heathrow or staying in a hotel near King's Cross Station. Damn, that London place is crowded, but damn are the crowds worth it most of the time. There are more interesting things to see and do in London than in any big city in the world. The British Museum alone took about 3 days to cover (and we missed big chunks). Actually, we would have covered it in 2 days, but during our second visit, while we were wandering around the Roman artifacts, loud sirens started to wail and everyone was evacuated (false alarm, apparently). So we left and came back another day and saw the rest. Great stuff, unbelievable stuff litters that gigantic building, including the Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra's mummy, more gold and priceless artifacts than I could possibly remember to remember, and one of the best bookstores I've ever seen. I was a book hound in London. I planned to buy two books while I was there (books that had yet to be published or were out of print in the US). I got those books, but then I kept looking. That was my downfall. I think I came home with about 20 or so books (or it seemed that way), including this wonderful book on Alechemical and Mystical art (you haven't lived until you've studied alchemy--it's the freakiest discipline the world has ever taken seriously, and that includes pop music).
What else did we do besides the museum? Well, we got to hang out with a gigantic parade of hare krishnas who walked from Picadilly to Trafalgar and then served vegetarian dinner to several thousand onlookers (my wife and I had a steak instead--ha!). We went to the other touristy things like the Tower of London (very fascinating place), the Globe theater (where I got this very cool plague rat hand puppet; when we were on the tube later, these two Japanese girls kept staring at the puppet, as if it were speaking to them), the really, really tacky London Dungeon, the National Gallery (where I wanted to get this wonderful book on illustrated manuscripts, but it was so big and heavy that I decided against it; I bought it when I got home instead), the Portrait Gallery (where I got a portrait of Evelyn Waugh for a colleague of mine), the Cabinet War Room, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, yadda and all that. Boring, probably, but my wife had never been to London before and I'd only visited for about 24 hours back in 1994.
Ah, but then there were some really cool activities. First, we went to a local pub and watched England play Croatia in the European Football Championships. That was excellent, as I was able to introduce my wife to the insanity of football in Europe. I decided against going to that pub again when England played Portugal, as I had a sneaking suspicion that England was going to lose. They did. I was watching the game from our room, located in the Camden section of London, right near King's Cross, and when the penalty shoot-out ended with Portugal's goalie kicking it past England's goalie, I heard this loud, unbelievable groan escape from every single direction around me. Oddly enough, I was in Ireland in 1994 during the world cup; I watched the Irish play Mexico in a pub in Cork. The Mexicans won, but the Irish, while disappointed, weren't deterred: they partied anyways. That's the difference between England and Ireland: the English expect to win and are devastated when they lose, while the Irish expects to lose so they find a way to make losing fun. Then again, I'm American, and Americans expect to win everything and (sad to say) usually do win everything. But I never bought into the whole American patriotism thing (because it isn't patriotism--it's nationalism, the belief that your country is better than all others). So I cheer for Canadians and the Irish and the Scottish (I'm 1/2 Scottish) and the Icelandic. I'm 1/2 German, too, but I can't cheer for Germany; they're just too much like Americans.
Other cool activities included visiting the coolest science fiction and comic book store in the world, Forbidden Planet. One thing I wanted to get while in London was a toy Dalek, as I'm a big Doctor Who fan. I figured they would be everywhere. This store was the only place that I could find that was selling them. I got one that winds up and zooms around. It's really cool. I also got one of the most amazing science fiction novels I've ever come across, Daniel F. Galouye's Dark Universe, a book about a world without light. After finishing this book, I realized that I have to revise the beginning of my book (Listening to Electricity, an examination of how listening has changed with the advent of electrical appliances and machines and other noisy things).
My wife and I also took a day trip down to Battle, where the Battle of Hastings was fought. Yes, there's actually a town called Battle. How's that for clever? It's about 5 miles from Hastings and 60 or so miles from London. There's nothing left of the actual battle (which, for those who don't read much, took place in 1066, and which basically altered the course of English, not to mention world, history), but there are the remains of an ancient abbey (called--what else?--Battle Abbey) and you can tour the grounds where the battle took place. It's an amazingly beautiful place, with rolling hills and beautiful trees and a pond and river and forest nearby. We walked the perimeter of the battle site; it was wonderful and peaceful and all good stuff--a very welcome respite from the noise and crunch of London.
Finally, on our last day in London, we went to the British Library, located just across the street from our hotel (well, actually down the block a ways, but still...). Unbelievable place. I don't know why we didn't just go there on the first day, but we didn't. This is the most amazing museum I've ever been to: ancient, beautiful illustrated manuscripts, the Magna Carta, original papyrus fragments of some of the gospels, original Mozart manuscripts, an original notebook Joyce used in the creation of Finnegans Wake. As a scholar and student of literature, this place was heaven. On top of that, there was a wonderful exhibit on silk road artifacts that was so rich and so detailed that I couldn't take it all in. If and when my wife and I return to London, I'm going right back to the British Library.
Our trip to Europe was wonderful, as I hope you figured out from my little narrative. But the flights going to Europe and returning home were horrible. I can't even begin to explain the problems we had in Toronto, so I won't try. Let me just warn you: never, ever travel from the US to Europe via Canada. Just trust me on this one!
Sunday, August 8
Well, I've been back from Europe for well over a month, and I still haven't contributed anything for Liner Notes. So here you go.
What did I do in Europe? Well, if you read the previous note, you'll know that I attended the International James Joyce Symposium in Dublin, Ireland. This particular conference coincided with the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, the day Joyce's famous novel, Ulysses, was set (June 14, 1904). The stuff in connection to Bloomsday was interesting, if a bit scary. My idea of a good time usually doesn't involve dressing up in circa 1900 garb and pretending to be a character in a novel. That's just a little too close to war reenactments. Instead, my wife and I did a lot of sightseeing. We saw the book of Kells at Trinity College, Dublin Castle and the remains of the Viking walls that used to enshroud Dublin, Phoenix Park, the Guinness brewery (and the wonderful view of Dublin it affords on their observation deck), the General Post Office (think Bloody Sunday), cool bookstores, and the overall general ambience of being in a major city that has exactly one skyscraper and exactly no pretention. Dublin's fantastic, really. We also got out of town and saw a bit of the Irish countryside as we took trips to Kilkenny Castle, the Irish National Stud, the Hill of Tara, and Newgrange. My favorite part of Ireland was Newgrange and the surrounding area known as the Boyne Valley. Newgrange is a 5,500 year old passage tomb; it's older than the pyramids and Stonehenge. It's a marvel of primitive engineering and construction, sitting atop a beautiful hill within view of the Irish Sea. My wife and I got to actually go inside the passage tomb and see where those ancient people would deposit the remains of their dead--as well as witness the Winter Solstice sunlight shining through (the grave is a calendar of sorts, too, like Stonehenge). I also got to see lots and lots of petroglyphs, as well (a particular fascination of mine). But even more than all these things, I loved just being in this wonderful, quiet, ancient place, watching the Boyne river bend and sway through the valley, watching birds float along and cows graze in pasture lands that adjoin the tomb and other, smaller tombs that are visible nearby. It's just one of the most peaceful places in the world. If I had a choice, I'd probably live the rest of my life there, playing with goats and taking naps by the river.
Oh, the conference? Yeah, I was supposed to be attending a conference. Right. Well, I actually hate academic conferences, as I find the vast majority of them to be utterly boring. I especially hate listening to people give bad (often dreadfully bad) papers to audiences who would (quite frankly) much prefer to be doing something else. But, of course, I came to attend this conference, so I did have to attend it for a little while, just to make it look official. I went to a few panels (some good, some bad) and I did, of course, present my paper, which was well received. But the conference was my excuse for being there, and I tried to avoid it whenever possible.
We spent a week in Dublin and environs, and then we flew to London to spend another week. I'll talk about our London adventures next time!
What did I do in Europe? Well, if you read the previous note, you'll know that I attended the International James Joyce Symposium in Dublin, Ireland. This particular conference coincided with the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, the day Joyce's famous novel, Ulysses, was set (June 14, 1904). The stuff in connection to Bloomsday was interesting, if a bit scary. My idea of a good time usually doesn't involve dressing up in circa 1900 garb and pretending to be a character in a novel. That's just a little too close to war reenactments. Instead, my wife and I did a lot of sightseeing. We saw the book of Kells at Trinity College, Dublin Castle and the remains of the Viking walls that used to enshroud Dublin, Phoenix Park, the Guinness brewery (and the wonderful view of Dublin it affords on their observation deck), the General Post Office (think Bloody Sunday), cool bookstores, and the overall general ambience of being in a major city that has exactly one skyscraper and exactly no pretention. Dublin's fantastic, really. We also got out of town and saw a bit of the Irish countryside as we took trips to Kilkenny Castle, the Irish National Stud, the Hill of Tara, and Newgrange. My favorite part of Ireland was Newgrange and the surrounding area known as the Boyne Valley. Newgrange is a 5,500 year old passage tomb; it's older than the pyramids and Stonehenge. It's a marvel of primitive engineering and construction, sitting atop a beautiful hill within view of the Irish Sea. My wife and I got to actually go inside the passage tomb and see where those ancient people would deposit the remains of their dead--as well as witness the Winter Solstice sunlight shining through (the grave is a calendar of sorts, too, like Stonehenge). I also got to see lots and lots of petroglyphs, as well (a particular fascination of mine). But even more than all these things, I loved just being in this wonderful, quiet, ancient place, watching the Boyne river bend and sway through the valley, watching birds float along and cows graze in pasture lands that adjoin the tomb and other, smaller tombs that are visible nearby. It's just one of the most peaceful places in the world. If I had a choice, I'd probably live the rest of my life there, playing with goats and taking naps by the river.
Oh, the conference? Yeah, I was supposed to be attending a conference. Right. Well, I actually hate academic conferences, as I find the vast majority of them to be utterly boring. I especially hate listening to people give bad (often dreadfully bad) papers to audiences who would (quite frankly) much prefer to be doing something else. But, of course, I came to attend this conference, so I did have to attend it for a little while, just to make it look official. I went to a few panels (some good, some bad) and I did, of course, present my paper, which was well received. But the conference was my excuse for being there, and I tried to avoid it whenever possible.
We spent a week in Dublin and environs, and then we flew to London to spend another week. I'll talk about our London adventures next time!
