(To any sax players out there: yes, my fingers should never be that far from the keys – one of many bad habits I’m trying to break)
Last week I gratefully received, from my friendly postman, the book of tunes for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Jazz saxophone grade 3 exam. Despite my doubts about jazz education – about its usefulness in producing spirited jazz players, and also about the usefulness for me in particular of an exclusive focus on jazz – I think I can still benefit from it hugely. What I want, and what it promises to give me, is an objective measure of progress; some structure and discipline; and goals.
And besides, the program … read on »
World Class Breakfasts, Trees, Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Breakfasts, People, Coffee, Steak, Corn and Breakfasts – but let's not mention the pancakes
It has been many weeks since I returned from Canada, and whilst it was full of some of the most stimulating experiences of my life, I am painfully conscious that I still haven’t blogged about it, and my several hundred photographs languish unseen. It’s perverse.Of course, it’s the very richness of the trip that makes it so overwhelming to think about putting together a blog entry. Not to mention that we moved to a new flat a few weeks ago, and that we have no internet connection. The answer is to fire it all out in isolated little bullets of wonderment and fascination, rather than in one big indiscriminate bombing raid. We were in Canada for over three weeks and … read on »
Roger Scruton on Conceptual Art & JAR on Music
Last September, I had a debate with Brian Rowan in the comments of one of my blog posts. The debate was about music: whether you can say, for example, that Stravinsky is better than James Blunt. I said yes, you can, and Brian said no, you can’t. Well, I saw this article in the American Spectator a few days ago, by Roger Scruton, an interesting thinker who has appeared on this blog twice before. It’s mainly about visual art rather than music, but I believe the argument stands for any kind of art. He says it so much better than I do. Here’s an excerpt:
Increasingly, many teachers of the humanities agree with the untutored opinion of their incoming students, that … read on »
Obsessional Equilibrium, Or How to Juggle a Saxophone and a Canoe While Suffering from Gas
Such has been my obsession with saxophone practise over the past few months that I’ve badly neglected my blog, so here I am with a new post…about my obsession with saxophone practise.
Obsession
I’ve been working in Edinburgh since March, and the main benefit has been that I’ve had time to practise the sax almost every day, for one or two hours. Some of you may remember my burning enthusiasm in March last year, which died because owing to awkward circumstances I couldn’t feed it. This time I’ve kept it well stoked. Soon after I took out my horn again I felt the familiar old obsessiveness begin to consume me, and part of me worried that it was just another example of … read on »
Hillwalking Crisis and a Walk up Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin
A serious disagreement threatens to bring to an end the very successful hillwalking duo of the Robinson brothers (Stu and me). We’re both passionate, committed people, so it’s no surprise that it happened; and it’s more of a challenge to resolve it than it is to struggle up a steep slope of scree or navigate over boulder fields in thick cloud.
I won’t explore the ins and outs of the argument on this blog, but the whole thing is quite interesting. The crux of it is that Stu is an arrogant, selfish little – no, just kidding. The real crux of it is that my photography can slow us down sometimes, and on two recent walks (not our most recent walk, … read on »
Springtime Walk on the Blackmount
Not for us the richness of the lowland countryside in the throes of the climactic consummation of spring. Upwards!
On a warm and beautiful day such as yesterday, only at the top of a mountain would we get the chance to experience miserable weather, cold winds and physical hardship. Only in the alpine zone would we escape the thick masses of hawthorn blossom, the acrobatics of the newly-arrived swallows, the frolicking lambs, the pervading air of promise, and the excitement of a holiday weekend as a whole people comes out of hibernation.
Tell me again, why do I do this? Let’s see…
Stu, my brother, and I stayed at the Kingshouse Hotel on Friday night and set off at dawn to tackle two … read on »
The Great Man-Made River Project and Libyan Democracy
UPDATE 21st Feb 2011: Despite the general tone of this post, in which I show admiration for the achievements of the Great Manmade River Project and sympathy for Gadaffi’s political philosophy of direct democracy – I have no illusions about the real nature of the regime, and I FULLY SUPPORT any revolutionary pro-democratic action that is now taking place, and ABSOLUTELY CONDEMN the violent actions of the government.
I listened to a Radio 4 programme on the Great Man-Made River project in Libya. For the moment at least, you can listen to it here. It’s the mother of all water engineering projects, and as I’ve said before in this blog, I have an odd fascination with this kind of thing. Apart … read on »
Starlings, The Flocking Algorithm and Avian Beatboxers
Just as the starlings are becoming noticeably active, at the peak of their breeding season, is a good time for this post. In fact, I can hear them right now as I write this.
These thoughts have been waiting in the wings now for a long time, since about a year ago, when I became fully enamoured of sturnus vulgaris, the European starling. People don’t give much thought to the lowly starling. Even those with a positive interest in wildlife often ignore these commoners among birds, favouring romantic rarities such as golden eagles.
I’ve seen golden eagles and they are indeed magnificent. The first time I saw one was with Stu on Ben Cruachan, our first munro. We had stopped for a … read on »
Easter Egg-rolling
Laura and I rolled eggs last Sunday for Easter. Any available slope in Holyrood Park was littered with egg remains. I didn’t know it was still so popular. Anyway, I rose to the challenge set by Laura – who does this every year – and painted my egg with great application, but not with food colouring and crayons as suggested, but with acrylic paints. I’m very proud of one of my efforts (we had two eggs each), which can be seen above. It’s such an ephemeral thing, because soon afterwards you destroy your artwork and eat the contents. But I couldn’t help capturing it forever with my camera.
And in case anyone wants to pull me up on my lack of … read on »
Saturn's Existence Confirmed
My brother Stuart, who appears in these pages from time to time as a hillwalker and hearing-aid expert, is also an amateur astronomer. He always had the interest but hadn’t done much about it, until his wife Michelle had the brilliant idea of buying him a telescope for a Christmas or birthday some time ago. When I was round at their house last night we had a look at Saturn, which is in a good position for viewing at the moment.
Stuart took only a few seconds to locate it with his naked eye. It looked just like any other bright star, but when we finally got it in our sights…
(Picture courtesy of Mike Brough, 24th February 2005 – http://www.scholarshome.org.uk/astro/saturn.htm)
What we … read on »
©2010 Alistair Robinson