Byron Bruin Baer is a gentle giant, a clarinet player, a jazz musician and….a real, live bear. He likes to play his clarinet (“real good, for free”) under a cherry tree outside a flower shop opposite a tall-steepled church. He plays jazz for passing people all day, and sometimes in the evening too. The flower… Continue reading Stylin Byron and the Hepcat Five – A Jazz Rhyme
“Across the diocese from tower to tower, The church bells ring compelling power” It may seem unconscionably lazy to review an architectural field guide from an armchair, but a well-ordered, beautifully illustrated compendium of facts can make for compelling reading in its own right. W.E. David Ryan’s English Medieval Church Towers: The Northern Province[i] is… Continue reading Book Review: English Medieval Church Towers: The Northern Province by W. E. David Ryan
“You're going to Norway?” they all gasped with barely concealed incredulity. “Ooh, it's awfully expensive there!” - they added with a sharp intake of breath. Moreover, I’d heard this reaction so often prior to departure from Edinburgh that I began to have night sweats worrying I’d be bankrupted by my trip to the land of… Continue reading Oslo On a Budget – Making Your Kroner Go Further in the Norwegian Capital
The Guardian newspaper's testament that ‘comment is free’ only holds so much water when you consider that we are already awash with so much ephemeral, ill-informed, and unsolicited opinion that it is eating up our valuable time and pushing it 'into the red'. This is possibly because there are more far too many commentators and… Continue reading A Creative Surge – Music Writing (2012-2017) by Michael Stephen Clark
There is at Mo I Rana in northern Norway the most extraordinary facility built into the mountainside overlooking this modest, regional town. It looks like something James Bond might break into, only to get caught within two minutes of breaching its impressive exterior. Yet, even 007 could enter freely by appointment and everyone would tell… Continue reading Real to Reel – Two Different Approaches to Sound Archiving from Scotland and Norway
