I had the rare opportunity of an evening out last night and headed down to Fibbers (one of York’s most palatial and salubrious night spots) to see Blackbeard’s Tea Party. Anyone who lives in York will probably have seen them busking in town; but this was one of the first chances to see them headlining– …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
London 2012 Opening Ceremony
I watched the Winter Olympics opening ceremony a few weeks ago. A typically brash and overblown celebration of the culture of the host nation. Obviously my thoughts now turn to what delights the London Olympics opening ceremony will deliver, and what aspects of British culture will be involved (cardigans? pot noodles? mild disappointment? out-of-town shopping …
Nick Griffin – folk music fan!
Last weekend’s Guardian had a fun piece about the music favoured by dictators and political villains (Robert Mugabe is apparently a fan of Cliff Richard whilst Mahmoud Ahmadinejad favours Chris de Burgh). However, there was little bit of the article that mildly pissed me off. Amongst the pantheon of bad hats and loonies was Nick …
Woolworths and Leylines
The Guardian’s always excellent Ben Goldacre strays into the world of archaeology with a nice piece on the latest claims about the sacred geometery of the prehistoric world – also worth reading for the comments below. The work in question claimed that prehistoric monuments were so arranged as to form a network of triangulated points …
Imagined Village
Very excited about the new Imagined Village album- the first album was one of my picks of 2007. Of course, although there is a tour, they are not playing anywhere I can get to…
Setumaa
Whilst searching something for entirely different I’ve just come across this old picture report from the BBC news website about the Seto people who live in the south-east border of Estonia and the neighbouring area of Russia . We went to Estonia in 2004 and spent some time in Setumaa (the land of the Setos) …
Mumming Plays
It’s the time of year for mumming plays. I got to see one performed in Wantage on Boxing Day this year- the text of the play is actually recorded from my parent’s village of Steventon (which is just down the road). Fortuitously, whilst I was working on archives at the Museum of English Rural Life …
Armistice Day
Today is the first time Armistice Day has been remembered without any World War I veterans attending the ceremony at the Cenotaph. The last two British veterans of the war, Harry Patch and Henry Allingham, died earlier this year. As a child I remember watching the Remembrance Parade on television, and enjoying the march past …
Archaeology and the BNP
Interesting piece of comment arising out of last week’s Question Time in today’s Guardian Having been poking around some of the seemier (politically) ends of the internet over the weekend, it’s interesting to see what use the BNP/Far Right is using of archaeology. Particularly, they appear to have picked up on the work of Stephen …
More on Norman churches…
The first blast of the beginning of term is now over, so I’ve finally found time to have a bit of a think about the results of my initial fieldwork in Western Normandy which I’ve blogged about previously. Essentially, I’m interested in exploring the development of early Christianity in the Cotentin peninsula in West Normandy; …
Outlandish Knight 