Music for a rainy day

Its been a while since we posted some music. I've been indoors today writing and staring out my window at the rain falling hard over Sheffield. These are some of the songs that have got me through so far: Click here

A History of the World in 100 Objects

As part of a thrilling 100 part series, Neil MacGregor, the director at the British museum and the perfect (gentle)man, takes us on a journey through human history. Using 100 objects or 'things' selected from the British museum, he takes listeners on a journey through human development from the first stone axe, a primary indication of human's desire to produce things that aided survival, to the credit card, an object that has played a crucial role in our social structure today.

The series begins to offer us a really interesting insight into early production, art and migration but is a constant reminder of our fellowship as human beings, and the superficial nature of our discrimination and our constant determination to find ways of separating ourselves. It reminds us, as does MacGregor's approach to the British museum's curation, that the land is ours to share and prosper and the product of our history are ours to enjoy.

Click here to listen back to the first in the series from Radio 4's morning slot.

A land that flows with milk and honey

There are key rules when navigating a busy bar that will reduce the amount of time you will wait to be served. It is important to find yourself somewhere that you are likely to catch the tender's attention. Most successful bars will split their bar into working sections from which tenders will usually follow a strong navigational path behind the bar between ice station, spirits and fridges. Pay attention to where they are and exploit this. Heavily avoid areas with beer taps as they prevent eye contact with the tender.

It is good to remember, a tender is at work. They are neither your friend nor servant, but attempt to chat with them, if you can catch their name, its a bonus. You may have the money, but they are much more powerful than you are as the consumer. The three key elements of success are: be patient, it is a virtue and will be rewarded. Secondly, have manners. This means no heckling and avoid being inappropriate to other customers, especially females. Instead, make eye contact and have your money at the ready. Thirdly, always tip first time around! By doing this, you are reducing your wait for every other visit throughout the evening.

The bar is a stage, or thats what Wilde would have said were he writing this post. Ordering drinks that offer your host the opportunity to show their skill is encouraged. Sazeracs, Old Fashioned or Manhattans (served dry) are always a good choice. Be assertive, suggest you know the ins and outs of your chosen drink, but never be cocky. This will encourage the tender to make the best possible drink he can.

A good read...

I have just finished reading The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane; in it the author embarks on a number of journeys around Britain and Ireland in search of wilderness which he explores both geographically and intellectually.

One of the chapters that stood out for me was about Holloways, ancient tracks or roads that cross our country; Macfarlane explores the Holloways of Dorset in the company of Roger Deakin (more on Roger in a future post). Macfarlane talks about how these tracks would follow contours, ancient field systems, valleys and rivers; they followed the grain of the landscape and worked with in it. Primarily this would be because of the logistics of actually constructing these roads, rudimentary tools, if any, would be used, equally the way in which people travelled, on foot, by horse and cart would necessitate where possible keeping to the natural shelter of valleys and woods.

The motorways and A-roads of today don’t have a dialogue with the landscape they pass through; hills have been blasted through, ancient forest felled, archeological sites concreted over. The way we travel has also changed, the landscape is all too often something observed from the window of a speeding car, just as our roads are not sympathetic to the landscape they run through, our connection with the landscape as we travel is also almost non existent. Walking these ancient tracks, following ridges, streams and contours helps us gain a greater understanding of the landscape we live in, a world away from observing the world from our air conditioned cars.

One of they key themes of the book is cartography and the way we map the landscape. The AA road atlas is but one way of mapping our country – Macfarlane travels to the wild places of our lands, islands, woods, ridges, valleys and estuaries and creates a new map, a geological map, a philosophical map, a historical map of the wild places that remain in our country.

In short it’s a call to the wild and for us city folk a reminder that we need space, that we are, at the end of the day, rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. A humbling and rather beautiful book.

Whiskey tango foxtrot is a phonetic alphabet? Lima oscar lima.

What we think of as a phonetic alphabet is actually far from a traditional International Phonetic Alphabet, a complex system of phonetic transcriptions, that offers us a wider understanding between symbols and sounds that orthography cannot. For example, "bough" and "trough" do not rhyme and are pronounced extremely differently in the English language. However, dialect and phonetics aren't what I am particularly getting at. Instead, I have been thinking about the importance of knowing a "phonetic alphabet" otherwise known as the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet.

Much like the shipping forecast, ask somebody to name as many areas as possible, and the chances are they could tell you three or four, most likely to including Dogger and Fisher. The same goes for the phonetic alphabet, namely Whiskey, Tango or Foxtrot. Ask people why they know these things, and you're likely to receive a distant gaze or the confused response of, "err... I dunno, really."

The fact is, this coding has been a vital part of not only military operation, but civilian industry. It shows us an interesting progression in the expansive network of communication through trading. With a constantly evolving international network, the NATO phonetic alphabet, originally devised for information transmission between allied forces, still has a language relevance. We are at a point where we are becoming divided, we have visual communication through email and SMS and the more primitive telephone conversations. There are points in time where technology cannot serve us efficiently, where human interaction is essential. The possibility that dialogue across language barriers will propose the use of an internationally recognised code because there are letters, words and phrases which sound extremely alike.

If it is true that the phonetic alphabet no longer has a relevance in our technophile society, then perhaps it has a nostalgic quality, a reminder of a time before we could hide behind the comforting secrecy of email, where human interaction was essential and we fought one another with sticks in the local park rather battling interactive dwarf princes in Elwynn Forest. But most importantly, it has accompanied most of us from childhood, a constant, unchanging cultural reference point that goes back further than Coronation Street, Smash instant potatoes and even the Rolling Stones. Very few of us know it, have ever learnt it, but it should be there... somewhere in the back of your subconscious. Just in case!

Unlikely Champions.

A discussion of what it is to be masculine, echoing many of Manual's ideals, came from two unlikely sources coming together a couple of weeks ago, when James May of xenophobic misogynistic idiot-fest Top Gear appeared on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. May was talking about reclaiming what it means to be a 'Bloke' from the image of a useless loutish beer guzzler to one who attempts to do things of worth. He says of modern male culture: "It's become fashionable to be useless, if you do something that is creative/constructive...its said to be your gay/effeminate side...'Blokes' are supposed to be good at something or at least give it their best shot...It's time for a male backlash, which is not against women but against men who are doing the rest of manhood a disservice by portraying us wrongly . We don't want useless men."

Have a listen, a lot of it is pretty spot on.

D

A worthy cause...

An interest in our history and heritage is something my fellow Manual bloggers share, we are all interested in skills, techniques and customs that have shaped the people we are today – to this extent we will be bringing to your attention causes, charities and groups which we feel are worthy of your support.

The Vulcan to the Sky Trust

I think somewhere there is a moral question to be asked about keeping alive a piece of machinery that was produced with the sole aim of complete destruction but equally there is a counter argument that we shouldn’t brush aside anything embarrassing or because of our sensibilities today.

The Avro Vulcan was the main stay of Britain’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the V – Force, for almost 20 years. With the begining of the Cold War, the West and East at logger heads, Britain began to develop an airborne nuclear capability, aircraft that would be able to deliver nuclear weapons into the heart of the Soviet Union. The Vickers Valiant, the first V Bomber, entered service in 1952, it suffered from lack of power and fatigue problems and was withdrawn from service in 1965. The Vulcan was the most striking and enigmatic of the 3, a huge delta wing bat of a plane, powered by 4 Bristol Olympus engines; it went in to service with the RAF in 1956. At full strength in 1964, 70 Vulcan's equipped various squadrons based in the UK; bombers were kept on quick reaction alert (QRA) around the clock, at just a few minutes notice. Thankfully they were waiting for a call that never came and as Britain’s strategic nuclear deterrent fell to the Royal Navy with their Polaris armed submarine force, the noisy and charismatic V Bombers were slowly wound down and retired, the final Vulcan’s being retired from service in the early 1980’s. The Handley Page Victor was the last of the 3 to see front line service operating in the air–refueling role up until the early 1990’s, seeing action in the Gulf. The Vulcan saw combat only briefly, carrying out the long range “Black Buck” raids on Port Stanley airfield during the Falklands war.

There are certain machines, and I think especially aeroplanes, that capture the imagination, they become more than just metal and wood, they have a personality and a charisma, the Supermarine Spitfire, the Avro Lancaster and Concorde would be up there. The outpouring of grief after the fateful crash of an Air France Concorde in 2000 was remarkable because there was also an immense sadness at the loss not just of the passengers but of the plane, something like this couldn’t happen to Concorde – Concorde wasn’t just a plane, it was an idea an escape and a piece of engineering genius. The Avro Vulcan, along with perhaps the English Electric Lightning are both products of a similar period and mind set and are both classics. Sadly no airworthy Lightning’s survive today.

The Vulcan to the Sky Trust’s aim is to preserve and fly Vulcan B2 XH558, the last airworthy example in the world as a reminder of our Cold War past, as a tribute to the men and women of our armed forces and to a time when Britain was at the fore front of aviation technology.

I was lucky enough to witness the Vulcan flying last year, what struck me more than the display, and in fact has stayed with me was the huge interest, the anticipation, the spell it held over the spectators, not just plane buff’s like myself, but normal, everyday people, captivated and enthralled by it. The Vulcan was the star of the show.

As you might imagine keeping a large military aircraft in airworthy condition is not cheap, old airframes and jet engines are complex things. Keeping a Spitfire airworthy is relatively easy, prop engines are not as complex, the speeds lower, thus stress and strain on the airframe lower – the 4 engine Vulcan is another story.
The Vulcan to the Sky campaign is the story of a dedicated bunch of volunteers trying to raise large amounts of money, in difficult economic conditions, to keep a small (but very noisy) part of our heritage alive. If you have a spare few pounds please send them their way. To put it in context you managed to cough up a few quid between you to put Rage Against the Machine at number one, (lining the pockets of already rich Sony executives) for no real discernable reason apart from the cause of “Real Music” (whatever that is?). So please support this if you can, it’s a great cause and you will be helping preserve a important part of our heritage. Just click one of the links to go to their website where you can donate.

B

English Whisky.

It seems as though virtually every county in England produces either beer or cider, but amazingly The English Whisky Co. have become the first people since the 19th Century to produce whisky (at least in commercial sized batches) in England. I can't seem to find an explanation as to why whisky production stopped in England for over one hundred years, but now it's being produced in a corner of Norfolk, it might be a worth a visit to the distillery as they do tours Monday - Sunday. According to people who know about whisky it's supposed to be pretty good, each batch is called a Chapter, their 3 yr old Chapter 6 has already sold out.

I'm interested to see how it compares to the big Whisky producing countries, Scotland, Ireland, America and Japan.

D