Country Bizarre Issue 4
16 February 2010 // Country Bizarre
Plane Days
15 February 2010 // Miscellany
I just enjoyed watching this trailer for a documentary film called ‘Plane Days‘. made by Benjamin Kracun & Ewan McNicol for Lucid Inc and sent in by Jonathan Newdick.
Feedback
15 February 2010 // Miscellany
These two letters were gratefully received by us last week. Thank you gentlemen, it means a lot.
Andy, I’ll be picking your brain about Richard Boston. We have recently bought a set of Vole magazines but I had no previous knowledge of Richard Boston. He sounds like our kind of guy.
I really love your web-site and everything associated with it – an oasis of
sanity and real pleasure. Thank you for introducing me to The Country
Bizarre as well – as a music fanzine editor in the early 70s (Fat Angel and
then Zigzag) I can appreciate the love and care that went into its making. I
wish now that I’d come across it at the time. I did buy every issue of Vole
magazine though, edited by the late, great Richard Boston who I know would
have have thoroughly approved of what you are doing. I’m sure you know of
Richard Boston’s work – he almost single-handedly brought the Campaign For
Real Ale to the attenion of a wider public through his articles in The
Guardian. I have a lot of his very amusing Guardian articles in scrapbook!
Anyway, please keep doing what you do – it’s much needed.
All The Best
Andy Childs
Matt’s Mysterious Bird of the Week Identified
14 February 2010 // Matt's Bird of the Week
Thanks to everyone who wrote in to help solve the issue of Matt’s unidentified bird.
It seems that Matt was wrong to doubt it being a Redstart. Both Ceri Levy and Jim from Birdlife International came back with Black Redstart, pointing out that it would definitely be in Hove at this time of the year. Craig Chambers chipped in with Female Eversmann’s Redstart (Phoenicurus erythronotus) but I think the final word should come from Gemma Rogers and Richard James at the RSPB. Gemma was contacted by cbtr reader Cathy Olmedillas, from Anorak magazine, and they kindly sent us this reply;
Hello Cathy, your email has been passed to me by Gemma Rogers.
I think this is a female black redstart. I know this was considered and
didn’t quite match in the bird books but this is the closest to the
picture. The only other two similar birds we could get in the UK are
nightingales and redstarts but they are only here in the summer. Black
redstarts are often found along the south coast in towns. They are also
robin like in shape so the description and picture are a good match.
I can’t really explain the pinkish feathers though. This could be due to
wear and tear or just down to the light they were seen in. Any
artificial light or shading could make it look different to the books.
Best wishes
Richard James
Wildlife Advisor
On behalf of Matt, I thank you all and on behalf of Big Chief I-Spy, I award you 50 points.
One More Gear
13 February 2010 // Miscellany
“In an ill-advised moment of madness, I agreed to enter a stupidly difficult cycle race in France. Now with only six months remaining before the 3 July start, I need to get my act together and get my training regime under way. This blog will chart my agonisingly slow progress and give you the chance to marvel at my unerring self-belief as I edge ever-closer to two-wheeled oblivion.”
Fans of Ben McCormick’s inspired ‘Beer Advent Calendar’ are strongly advised to check out his latest blog, One More Gear, ” a chronicle of cycling suffering in the run-up to La Marmotte”.
We enjoyed the advent calendar so much that we invited Ben to become a contributor to our new Pint by the River column. He kindly took up the offer and made his debut last week. Click HERE if you missed it.
The Ten Rules of Rock And Roll by Robert Forster
Book review by Bill Black.
Given that the former Go Between – and half of one of the greatest songwriting alliances ever – has chosen to take as the title of his first collection of rock writing his own Ten Rules of Rock And Roll, it seems only fair that I should repeat them here:
1. Never follow an artist who describes his or her work as ‘dark’.
2. The second-last song on every album is the weakest.
3. Great bands tend to look alike.
4. Being a rock star is a 24-hour-a-day job.
5. The band with the most tattoos has the worst songs.
6. No band does anything new on stage after the first 20 minutes.
7. The guitarist who changes guitars on stage after every third number is showing you his guitar collection.
8. Every great artist hides behind their manager.
9. Great bands don’t have members making solo albums.
10. The three-piece band is the purest form of rock and roll expression.
Interestingly, with the possible, albeit tangential, exception of Number 4, he makes no mention of the Rock and Roll Rule that states “Bands featuring music journalists in their ranks are to not to be trusted”. This old chestnut is not a hard and fast one – think of the still relevant contributions made by Chrissie Hynde or Lenny Kaye, Nick Kent or Mick Farren. But it holds sufficiently well that I’m surprised it doesn’t make it to at least sub-clause status here.
And what does any of this have to do with the price of peonies? Well, I could say that with this book Robert Forster has strayed on to my patch. (more…)
Matt’s Mysterious Bird of the Week
11 February 2010 // Matt's Bird of the Week
After a month of nowt but gulls, my lack of spotting has really been starting to get me down. But I forgot sometimes the world is a magical place and even a stroll to a suburban corner shop is a voyage of discovery.
Yesterday afternoon I was on my way to the post-office to send off a screen-print when I was alerted to a rustling in a rose bush and this little startled fellow popped out. Straight away I knew I had never seen one before and my mind raced to the bird book enclosed deep within its chasms… page 241 Redstart? No! 242 female Black Redstart? Close but this one is pink! Erm, Nightingale?? nope!! Wow. So I know reckoned he was a foreign soul blown off course and since I’m now living by the sea, Hove was his first resting place from France. So maybe he thought I was Frenchman carrying a baguette and came to me for help before realising I was northern-bird-nut and started chasing him down the street to get a better look. Poor sod. Realising he was already probably quite tired enough after his flight and needs as much strength as he can to get past all the bloody cats round here, I got one last look and let him be.
He definitely looked like he was from the Robin family and similar to a Redstart but bigger, though it was completely brown with pink tail feathers. I’m back off to the post-office in a mo, this time I’m taking my binoculars.
I’m quite sure somebody reading this blog will know what it was, so if any birders or twitchers could get in touch and let me know that would be great (contact via info@caughtbytheriver.net). I know it will probably be something local and I’ll be rightly put in my place and feel like a chump but I am willing to take it on the chin. I once found a “penguin” bedraggled and confused on Brighton beach. So I called up the RSPCA and protected it from dogs and locals, even roping in my girlfriend and her best mate too. After a few hours the navy uniformed worker turned up and taking one look at him the “penguin” leapt spritely into the sea and I was told it was a guillimot from up the coast. So yeah I’m used to this sort of thing.
Competition Winners
11 February 2010 // Miscellany // Music
Thanks to everyone who entered the Danny & The Champions of the World competition.
The correct answer was “Wandsworth”. Congratulations and a copy of the bands new album go to; Mathew Ashby, Matthew White and Duncan Fletcher.
BBC 2 Tonight – The Natural World
(watch it on the BBC i player)
BBC2 8pm this evening. This from the website;
Multi-award-winning writer Robert Macfarlane sets out on a journey to explore the unexpected landscapes and natural history of Essex, revealing that there is far more to the county than the stereotypes of white stilettos and boy racers.
Macfarlane spends a year travelling the county’s strange and elemental landscapes of heavy industry, desolate beaches and wild woods. He encounters massive knot flocks over the Thames, peregrine falcons at Tilbury Power Station, water voles within sniffing distance of the municipal dump, deer rutting in earshot of the M25, barn owls, badgers and bluebells in Billericay as well as a large colony of common seals.
thanks to Alan Tyler for bringing this to our attention.
Waterlog
10 February 2010 // Books // On Water
Caught by the River