Life Is Short…

The commercial may have been banned but I’m pretty sure the message still stands.

Play this if you’re man enough!

Or woman enough …… before I get a wave of female e-mail.

So goes the cry from the makers of the Pikasso, a 42-string guitar that was borne out of a challenge to make a guitar with “as many strings as possible.

A custom-made instrument created by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer, the guitar has four necks and two sound holes. Interestingly, the guitar makes use of a design element called “the wedge,” which tapers the size of the guitar so that it’s thinnest where it presses up against the guitarist’s body. This gives the guitarist a better look at the fret board so he knows what he’s doing. I’m sure that once you’ve gotten the hang of playing a 42-stinged, four-necked guitar you can probably pick and play anything. Me? I’m still struggling with my $45 four string, nearly always out of tune ukulele..

I wish you everything you wish for yourself.

Lots of luck……

Lots of it…..

Lots of laughs……

Have fun,kick off your shoes….

Have a great time but don’t drink as much as you did last year…..

or if you do don’t drive…..

You know where you’ll end up…..

And like the news, at the end of the year, it’s always good to finish with a  cute animal story…..

On that note…………..

HAPPY NEW YEAR…………….

HAPPY NEW YEAR……….

A Very Merry Chistmas to all…..

Wherever you are

whatever you are doing

and whoever you’re doing it with…

Have a “Folkin good time”

and a trouble free holiday….

Most obscene photo?…you choose.

That Jolly season’s here again…… and as people buckle under pressure to provide I can’t make my mind up which one of these is the most obscene.

This one……

or this……………

My best friend is my worst enemy!

I read this wonderful story of feuding neighbors who hated each other with a passion not knowing  online they were “Zoragg”  and  ” Trollslayer” defenders of the truth and sworn brother’s in arms……..
I guess that’s the uniqueness  of the internet… You could be anyone from anywhere.

Pretending to be someone completely different…

or that state of the art set up you boast of…….

in reality is not quite so complicated……

Or your penthouse suite …………

may get a few unexpected callers…….

You still meet all sorts of people…..

with all sorts of interests……

and all types of occupations……

Fascinating eh?…………..

You never see much of these guys now!

It was in tune when I bought it!

Made by Dustin Carr and Harold Craighead of Cornell University’s Nanofabrication Facility, each of the six strings are 50 nanometers wide, about the width of 10 atoms.

If you haven’t struck oil in your first three minutes…..stop boring.

For many years I’ve looked at sites that hold forums and now a number of Vlogs (videoblogs) are appearing with rising popularity, along with the web-cams ……….  There’s all sorts out there…..full of handy hints from helpful tipsters on how to do “Everything!”….. From dating to divorce, from raising kids to goat farming and anything in between…. (just Google ‘Forums’ and you’ll see what I mean). There are forums that are run by old school thinkers who resent newcomers with fresh ideas, and young hip types who would like nothing more than for the ‘Boomer Brigade” to roll over and die. There are people looking for second hand car parts and some who are looking for second hand love lives ……………and then there are the battlefields.

I love these ones ….really enjoy sitting back and watching things develop, occasionally join in . It all leads to a great debate don’t you think. Some do get heated but that’s good too. Healthy debate they call it I believe.

The most surprising things turn up on the way. I have a friend who has started a chicken blog and joined a chicken type forum and the moment he posted he was flooded with posts of welcome. He was totally overwhelmed and then thought of the people who kept chickens and it all made sense. Welcoming sort of people. A bit like folkies. Then  I was drawn to a  folk thread which held no surprise for me when people started getting all snotty with each other. Someone had started a thread which was calling out for trouble.

Would you not like an Irish tune played by someone who is not Irish ?
Would you enjoy an Irish Song if sung by an American with an American accent or even just a couple of words that has wrong pronunciation?
Do you enjoy American Country Music sung with a false accent ?
Should American Fiddle music only be played on a fiddle?
Do you enjoy a Opera singer singing Folk Music?
Should a Copper Song be only enjoyed if sung with a Sussex accent?
Should music of other countries only be performed or recorded by musicians from those countries?
I would be interested in your comments.

Let the party begin!!

There were immediate posts…..

This will raise many voices and much dissent. I do find your questions limiting though, as they are much too specific.

This one will surely spark some great debate.

I thought it would . There’s plenty of strong feeling how a folk song should be sung.

(apologies to  Andreas Scholl fans but they could have a point)

But no, like Jake Thackery’s song they went “On again, on again” not nutting out the topic at all but picking and pulling at each other. (120 posts later) ….this.

Just what are you really upset about that you decided to post a whole string of leading questions with unstated and rather paranoid presuppositions?

zzzzzzzzz ……..I hope it’s nobody I know.

There’s nowt so queer as ‘folk’….

“Has there ever been a musical genre as prickly and suspicious of mainstream success as English folk?” asks Alexis Petridis of the Gaurdian. He continues.. “Battered by decades of public mockery, folkies understandably pulled up the drawbridge and developed a fiercely protective siege mentality long ago. The merest hint of wider interest in one of their artists and they’re filling their pewter tankards with bile and singing sell-out in harmony.”

When someone claimed as a folky crosses the line of purity the backlash is biting.No matter what dues the individuals have paid to folk; their duty, for some, is to avoid at all cost the temptation to become popular, or even different. Seth Lakeman has just made the mistake of getting an album into the charts and suffered a lashing  from the lot up at the Mudcat Cafe folk forum as is the norm whenever a folk musician does something that brings a hint of commercial success. At the last count, there were 290 messages on the thread, from the gushing opener “great news for folk music” through to “he’s crap” variations, including this classic putdown:

“Seth Lakeman has sold over 100,000 CDs to people who mostly don’t give a toss about folk music.His songs are currently heard by several million listeners tuning in to Radio 2.
multiply the figures by ten (or more) and you could be talking about Kylie!  Cor, what a recommendation!

Coming to his defense by way of a lengthy posting was none other than Eliza Carthy, who has had her fair share of bleatings from the purists. You can read the whole shambles here, but for now an excerpt where she firmly points out:

“The man is from a folk music-playing family,writes in a modern folk music style, on acoustic instruments, about the area where he is from-why on Earth isn’t it folk music? What the hell else is it? Why are some of you people so narrow minded about this? Honestly, why and how do you think to define him out of “your” chosen arena simply because you don’t like what he does? What precious, horrible arrogance.”

She has just signed up again with Topic and already her new self penned C.D. release ‘Dreams Of Breathing Under Water’  have caused those toxic tongues to wag. Here’s a clip and interview snip