tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post8032604311682268342..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Digital v. Duct Tape, BaltasoundUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-14124944452192687982013-03-15T17:18:13.679-07:002013-03-15T17:18:13.679-07:00Thanks for this, Tom. Beautiful playing, reminisce...Thanks for this, Tom. Beautiful playing, reminiscent of Cape Breton fiddling. I bet my dear friend Brendan Mulvihill is familiar Gibbie. I will inquire. tpwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05909239000589253931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-90388216973475384722013-03-15T14:01:45.576-07:002013-03-15T14:01:45.576-07:00Terry,
For all we know there may well be a spirit...Terry,<br /><br />For all we know there may well be a spirited reel called Pigs in the Snow.<br /><br />This region is known for its traditional fiddlers. Here is a 1973 recording of a man who was a legend among them:<br /><br /> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zUrwls7YyA" rel="nofollow">Gibbie Gray (1909-1989), Shetland Fiddler of Unst</a>.<br /><br />"Gibbie, as he is affectionately known, had too small a croft to be able to support him and consequently spent most of his life at sea. At the age of fourteen he worked at inshore halibut fishing in fourareens -- and when this fishing failed he joined the merchant service and travelled around the world.<br /><br />"He lost his best fiddle when he was torpedoed while serving on The Highlander in World War II.<br /><br />"On D-Day his vessel was blown up by a mine just outside Aberdeen. There were fourteen Shetlanders amongst the crew and five were lost.<br /><br />"When war ended he worked for a time in salvage operations in England for five years before again trying his luck at fishing, this time for herring on board a seine-netter based on Burra Isle. After that he worked until retirement at the RAF camp in Unst and spent his spare time fishing for lobsters around the entrance to Baltasound.<br /><br />"He learned his fiddling from his father, who also played, and from his mother who was among the few Shetland women who played the fiddle. If for most of his working life he was away from Unst, he nevertheless preserved a distinct Unst style from his boyhood days.<br /><br />"His father played with his fiddle held low on his left arm but in 'just the same' style as his son, although whilst Gibbie was used to being accompanied by a piano, his father never played to accompaniments."<br /><br />-- Peter Cooke: The Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland IslesTChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-5210433050103664372013-03-15T13:17:54.117-07:002013-03-15T13:17:54.117-07:00Great photos. "Pigs in the Snow" is a tu...Great photos. "Pigs in the Snow" is a tune waiting to be written.tpwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05909239000589253931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-50248431137265728472013-03-15T12:05:07.216-07:002013-03-15T12:05:07.216-07:00(By the by, the recycling bins that go largely unu...(By the by, the recycling bins that go largely unused because there's so little junk to recycle -- could there be any better advertisement for a place inhabited by humans?)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-89163757610953715552013-03-15T12:03:17.933-07:002013-03-15T12:03:17.933-07:00Donna, well, it's the one form of travel I can...Donna, well, it's the one form of travel I can manage any more -- and relatively safe, at that. <br /><br />No one was ever felled by a speeding picture. And too, as you suggest, work of the imagination does not leave a carbon footprint.<br /><br />("You call that work?")<br /><br />Steve, yes, West Marin -- if West Marin were to detach from California overnight, and by morning relocate northward to the Bering Straits.<br /><br />(The statistics for number of hours of sunshine per month are pretty staggering for Baltasound -- something like 15 minutes, for the entire month of December, if I remember correctly.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-46659556936020289402013-03-15T10:28:22.906-07:002013-03-15T10:28:22.906-07:00Tom,
Incredible pictures from one Mike Pennington ...Tom,<br />Incredible pictures from one Mike Pennington and yes, about as close to being as far away from everything as one could get -- a bit like West Marin don't you think, until we get to all that snow (lovely to think such a place is still there).<br /><br />3.14<br /><br />light coming into fog against invisible<br />ridge, bird slanting toward pine branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> physical out of which, that<br /> is not primarily what<br /><br /> distance, moment in balance,<br /> levels light and dark<br /><br />silver circle of sun rising above ridge,<br />fog on horizon to the left of the point<br /><br /><br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-64307925381291896762013-03-15T08:16:26.308-07:002013-03-15T08:16:26.308-07:00Thank you, Tom. I travel through your images to pl...Thank you, Tom. I travel through your images to places I've never been, and probably never will be. It's ok. It's another kind of travel you offer anyway. The kind that doesn't pollute. Sorry to hear that accident still, of course, in you. – Donnadfleischerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15131508201970439938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-827816428675149782013-03-15T06:42:24.406-07:002013-03-15T06:42:24.406-07:00Many thanks Curtis, Colin and Duncan.
Coincidenta...Many thanks Curtis, Colin and Duncan.<br /><br />Coincidentally, during the eight and a half months I have now spent on meditative nocturnal excursions to Baltasound, in search of peace and quietness of mind far from the madding traffic roar, it did become plain that there is one feature of Baltasound which has made the place -- yes, and this is no lie -- a global tourist destination.<br /><br />And that is Bobby's Bus Shelter, so-called because in 1n 1996, at the age of seven, young Bobbie Macaulay -- one of (then) two regular users of the bus shelter -- became the poster lad for a local campaign to save the shelter from demolition; and over the years this led to much outside-world publicity attendant upon the colourful annual thematic refurbishings, each involving the introduction of a fresh mass of amenities that might make it the world's only five-star bus shelter.<br /><br />All that led up to the making of this second Baltasound post. <br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/glass-box.html" rel="nofollow">Glass Box</a><br /><br />That was due to go up yesterday, but for a wobbly moment upon my automobile-damaged underpinnings, a nasty household fall and a day of bleeding, bandaging and grumbling.<br /><br />In any case... in this "companion" post (can a bleak evocation of remoteness and solitude be said to have a companion really?), I've deliberately left out much of the impression of cuteness and adorability given in several of the annual bus shelter thematics, the bright yellows and purples and computers and tv sets and mini-library and stuffed animals and adorable hamsters & c., all hinting of a brightness and cheer belied by the view through the glass.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61205877716326803212013-03-15T00:25:41.033-07:002013-03-15T00:25:41.033-07:00Cheers for the tip off, Dalriada.
That's wha...Cheers for the tip off, Dalriada. <br /><br />That's what I call a bus shelter!Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-18707800698429341622013-03-14T15:35:14.385-07:002013-03-14T15:35:14.385-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Dalriadahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12004167335881293080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-72055812396778296012013-03-14T10:26:15.826-07:002013-03-14T10:26:15.826-07:00These images moved me very much.
An isolation fos...These images moved me very much.<br /><br />An isolation fostered by sensible neglect. <br /><br />Jeremy Grantham believes we're in the biggest historical bubble in history, one that will leave human populations in scattered remote desolation, not unlike that suggested by these broad wasted landscapes. I should not say "wasted" since there was never very much to sustain human development in the first place. It reminded me too of this picturesque little BBC drama Doc Martin in a tiny British seaside village, where the shrinking populace finds itself braced against the rumbling encroachments of a larger reality. <br /><br />We always feel as if we're on the "edge" of something. And being "on edge" too.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-21755668784485118252013-03-14T01:26:03.087-07:002013-03-14T01:26:03.087-07:00The photos are great - he knows the environment in...The photos are great - he knows the environment intimately, all the changes in the weather. That big red Sun is beautiful.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-65084051667612529122013-03-13T12:12:05.227-07:002013-03-13T12:12:05.227-07:00A brisk day in Baltasound.<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNo6SD4rCAM" rel="nofollow">A brisk day in Baltasound</a>.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-44336055077575514642013-03-13T12:05:05.388-07:002013-03-13T12:05:05.388-07:00Well, this seemed about as close as one could get ...Well, this seemed about as close as one could get to being about as far from everything as one could get.<br /><br />(Should it go without saying that I think Mike Pennington, who took all these photos save the "establishing shot" at top, is a marvelous photographer?)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-25531565890616691642013-03-13T09:38:20.895-07:002013-03-13T09:38:20.895-07:00I've never been to the Shetlands but have long...I've never been to the Shetlands but have long been fascinated by them.<br /><br />I suppose there's nowhere wholly apart now.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.com