This past Sunday at Come Down and Meet the Folks was one of the best Folks evenings I've had in a long time. The headline act was the Rosinators, who play a good mix of bluegrass, gospel and Cajun. We've seen quite a lot of them (including a recent performance in Haltwhistle) and they keep getting better.

I also enjoyed the short opening set from Silver Saddle. Their sound fits well into the "alt-country"/"Americana" vein, quite reminiscent of Uncle Tupelo, Ryan Adams and the like. I wasn't completely bowled over; something about their performance came across as Tupelo-lite. But maybe I'm being hard on them because I was so impressed by someone else who followed immediately after them:

The highlight of the evening came from one man and a guitar. Cam Penner was over from Canada, playing a floorspot here and there. He only played a few songs, but what songs. I was quite impressed, and I've been waiting to be impressed by someone new for a while. Looking for a description of the music? Why not pick a few words from the "Write your own review" sample below, stir and bake until golden?
blue-collar gritty blues "trad" country suffering dust-bowl acoustic
(I left out "Canadian" but feel free to add it if you'd like to make direct reference to prairies, long roads, etc.

The Fiddlers Elbow can be a tough audience, especially where solo floorspots are concerned, but not in this case.... I wasn't alone in being seriously impressed. I managed to get the last copy of his CD (with band), Get Up and it's just as good. I hope he manages to make it back to the UK; I'd go out of my way to see him again.

Other saints share March 17 and perhaps it's unfair that St. Paddy gets all the glory. I nominate St. Gertie (Nivelle, Brabant) as an alternative:

A virgin of noble birth. Because she despised the world, and during her whole life practised all kinds of good works, she deserved to have Christ for her spouse in heaven.

St. Gertie's day is celebrated by staying out of pubs, harrumphing at revellers, picking up litter, and going to bed alone.

The previous entry refers, of course, to the Shqip language, more known to non-Shqip speakers as Albanian. My shame in failing to identify it is somewhat reduced, because it is not closely related to any other language: although Indo-European it appears to be "the sole modern survivor of its subgroup". The comment by bdw is probably correct, as Albanian has quite a bit of Latin influence (although more closely related to Romanian). The Albanian alphabet has a lot of extras (despite having a similar appearance to English); the Wikipedia entry (linked above) lists these:

vowels: A, E, Ë, I, O, U, Y.
consonants: B, C, Ç, D, Dh, F, G, Gj, H, J, K, L, Ll, M, N, Nj, P, Q, R, Rr, S, Sh, T, Th, V, X, Xh, Z, Zh.

This, however, says little about Albanians in London. I took a confusing diversion into transport history with Albanian Coaches Ltd. (incorporated 1934). Quite early indeed; however, few of the residents of St. Albans at the time were Shqiptarë.

News coverage of Albanians in London tends to be heavy on the Albanian mafia, people trafficking and prostitution, both from sources that seem rather propagandistic as well as those that are less so.

As it turns out, however, most of the Albanians in London are not from Albania but instead from Kosovo, where Gheg (the northern dialect of the Albanian language) is spoken. Suddenly it makes a lot more sense, given Milosevic's efforts to expel ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. The resulting humanitarian crisis led to a UK commitment to accept refugees from Kosovo, and in 1999 more refugees came to the UK from the former Yugoslavia than from any other nation (PDF link) (second rank: Somalia). This site gives an indication of the geographical clustering of Kosovan refugees/evacuees and some of the issues raised by their arrival.

Once again it's related to local government, this time the free publication Haringey People. At the end of the current issue is an offer "Do you want to access this magazine in your own language?" followed by several format options (large print, on disk, on audio tape, Braille) and several language alternatives. The previously-mentioned Turkish and Somali are included in the list, as well as Bengali, French, Kurdish and today's mystery entry, labeled Shqip). Below I copy the Shqip entry (in its entirety):


Of course it would probably be easy to figure out the entry using Google, just plugging in one or two of the words in the entry (or the name Shqip). Much more difficult to try and solve the puzzle without "external resources" but simply my own knowledge about the area (quite limited, I must admit, having only lived there for six weeks), and possibly aspects of the language sample as well. For the moment I am stuck, but I will let some time pass before admitting defeat and googling "shqip". I'll eventually stick a solution in the "comments" section.

Many years ago, a small, bedraggled paperback found its way into our family home. Not a particularly unusual occurrence as hundreds (if not thousands) of small, bedraggled paperbacks have appeared in similar manners over the years. But one in particular had a great impact upon our family: Scoundrels, Fiends and Human Monsters by Cliff Howe (pub. 1958). 

It didn't look like much; in fact, the first few chapters were torn out (so we were able to learn that Thomas Dun had his limbs sawn off with jagged knives, etc. as punishment for his crimes, but not what those crimes might have been). But the first full chapter remaining was that of Sawney Bean(e), notorious cannibalistic murderer of the __th century (a remarkably similar text to that chapter can be found here; more on this source later).

In our home, the vicious character of Sawney Beane became a less frightening but more pervasive evil influence, taking over the role of bogey-man from an assortment of imaginary wolves, mice, and undifferentiated ghosts and spirits who had previously carried scare-duties on their own but had lost their spark for one reason or another. Beane mostly hovered around the dinner table (and occasionally communion service at church) in case reference to cannibalism was appropriate for the given meal (surprisingly often, I found), although sometimes he was invoked to scare younger children when our usual range of bogey-men (Rick James, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael Jackson) wasn't enough.

Unfortunately, it may have been too good to be true. A recent piece in the Fortean Times is rather dismissive of the whole tale; a host of other sources join in a solid and robust debunking of the most important details of the whole matter. The title tells the story in Urquhart's "Sawney Beane: Myth or Myth", "The reaction of any serious historian... to the Sawney Bean myth should be polite incredulity at least, and outright denunciation at best...." and more information of a debunking nature (along with a snippet of information about films inspired by the Beane legend) can be found at Mysterious Britain. Not everyone is a debunker, however; those with strong stomachs (especially with regard to unwanted sound effects/midi music on web pages) may enjoy this site which offers not only a full complement of dripping blood effects, skulls and the eerie like, but also your own Sawney Beane email address!!!1!111!!

To me, perhaps the greatest disappointment was not the debunking of the Beane legend (after all, certain elements just didn't ring quite true), but the discovery that Mr Cliff Howe's extensive historical research could be found, nearly word-for-word, in a slightly older text: the Newgate Calendar.

As described at exclassics.com, "The Newgate Calendar was one of those books, along with a Bible, Foxe's book of Martyrs and the Pilgrim's Progress, most likely to be found in any English home between 1750 and 1850. Children were encouraged to read it because it was believed to inculcate principles of right living -- by fear of punishment if not by the dull and earnest morals appended to the stories of highwaymen and other felons."

To think, the great historian from whom I learned about these important historical figures (fiendish though they might be) was merely a fan of the Newgate Calendar.  I guess my search for his other seminal work (Lovers and Libertines: World's Greatest Lovers, 1958) is not so urgent...

I took a brief trip to Saarbrücken this week to present a paper at a small conference. I managed to make a small detour to see the 13th century gothic church of St. Arnual:


As described in remarkably identical wording on quite a few Web sites,


I queued up among the masses and shuffled my way along the designated tourist route, peering for my designated twenty seconds at the tomb of Elisabeth. Or more accurately, I walked into the empty church and inspected its contents at my leisure, undisturbed by anyone. Perhaps the most impressive was the tomb of Count Johann III of Nassau-Saarbrücken (d.1472), depicted along with his two wives (Johanne von Loen and Elisabeth von Württemberg) as illustrated on this page (scroll down to section "Saarbrücken, Landeshauptstadt. Evangelische Stiftskirche St. Arnual).

Some more historical information about the church can be found here (with photos) and here (timeline) (both in German only, although if you do not speak German, they can also perhaps use automated translation aids, as Google translate, if you are ready to employ a certain level from immutability to).

Who was St. Arnual? Not clearly listed in the register of Catholic Saints but apparently he is also known as St. Arnulf which matches up to the timeline also linked above. Arnulf seems to be a popular name, or at least a saintly one as there are six other St. Arnulfs listed in the register at catholic.org.  This particular St. Arnulf doesn't seem to be a particularly exciting saint; a cynic might even say he's only a saint thanks to royal patronage of King Theodebert II of Austrasia (who gave him the village of Merkingen as a gift & changed its name to St Arnual by royal decree) More biographical detail can be found here.

Comparing him to the other saints who share July 18 (as described here) he's definitely low on the list of impressive criteria for sainthood. Here's my own ranking of the July 18 saints (all descriptions cribbed from the breviary.net site linked above).


The miracles are only vaguely stated, although the hermitage moves him up from the very bottom of the list. Without death, misery and suffering it's hard for a sainthood to impress me.

Not an insult to the prodigal but the title of the latest album by my favorite local band, or perhaps more correctly, my favorite band who, to my delight, are from the local area (broadly stated, and in contrast to "The Local" as established in my last post.

Last night we went to London's swanky 100 Club to see the Broken Family Band. It was their 'official' launch party for Welcome Home, Loser (Now available on limited edition colored flexi-disc cassingle).

What makes them my favorite band? It's a not-so-easy-to-get-a-handle-on question. Or one with a complicated answer at least. (I should also note here that I'm tiresomely fickle when it comes to "favorite band" and anyone fool enough to ask is likely to get a sequence of bands from the recent period, all of whom I considered my favorite at least for a brief moment in that period [quite parallel to my response to the question "Where are you from?" which also evokes a sequence of locations {and perhaps a whole life story told to someone who's just making polite conversation /sorry about that/}]).

In short (ha!) they have a good combination of consistently good songs (both musically and lyrically), a musical style I can appreciate (and now that I've written that, I need to label them. Take a few of these words & jumble.  INDIE     ALT     GUITAR      IRREVERENT       COUNTRY      LOW-FI        CRASS. Now see how many other bands also fit that description. Repeat and serve warm.), and, well, I like listening to them. A lot.

Maybe it's also got something to do with having a snarky attitude that plays well with me. Nicely characteristic is from the FAQ on the band's website (linked above, you guess which one.):

What time are you on?

usually we're playing in venues that open around 7/8pm and close at 11pm/12am so its advisable to get to the venue between those times. If we're headlining you could get there later, if we're not then simply get to the venue early. Usually we try to play with people we like and would therefore recommend, so we'd advise seeing the whole show. There's no point asking us what time we're on, ever

And with that, once again I've run out of time before I have made much of a point. Sorry about that. I will try to return to the Broken Family Band love-fest in the future.

One important consideration upon moving to a new neighborhood is the new local. I refer in particular to the Oxford English Dictionary's sense B.2.h. "The public house in the immediate neighbourhood. colloq.(Usu. the local.)"

Our old neighborhood had a rather impressive range of dismally rated pubs, but eventually we settled upon the Faltering Fullback.  "Student union theme pub for middle-aged ex-students" ? Fair enough, but it ticked all the boxes

(x) walking distance
(x) decent beer selection
(x) reasonably priced food that didn't make us sick
(x) non-aggressive clientele

But now we've moved beyond walking distance and it's hard to call it our local when it's now 7 bus stops away. Fortunately we have an easy decision. Although the Woodbury Tavern is technically closer and (apparently) reasonably well-regarded, the Oakdale Arms is a clear winner.

As card-carrying members of the Campaign for Real Ale how could we not choose a pub that chooses to emphasize traditionally-brewed real beers? The pub itself, inconveniently located in a mostly-residential area, is nothing special, somewhat ramshackle, cavernous, and (still) a bit too brightly-lit. It's never very busy, but for a small cluster of the most regular of regulars (among whose numbers I cannot count myself). But it's the drinks that are the most convincing: a good range of real ales mostly from Milton's range (8 hand pumps on the bar), real cider, bottled Belgian and German beers. They may stock a run-of-the mill commercial lager or two like Stella Artois or Foster's, but if so they are well-hidden.

At the moment they are putting on a small Beer Festival, about which more later.

Something happened; this statement is the one in which i explain how user error and/or technical issues contributed to the disappearance of a rather lengthy entry, optionally including some ranting. Rather than attempt to reconstruct the original entry (an impressive scholarly effort on the linguistic diffusion of the All Your Base phenomenon), I shall instead highlight a new resource, The Eggcorn Database. Eggcorns are described in much more detail in this Language Log entry (and many subsequent discussions on the Language Log). In short, they are errors of usage (as in "egg corn" in place of "acorn") -- "linguistic errors" in which the erroneous form makes some sense -- perhaps more sense than the original form in this day in age (~10,600 Google hits vs. ~662,000 for "in this day and age", and only 3 for "in this dane age").

An interesting flyer appeared through our post box recently, titled "Spruce It Up!" and announcing a local event "Celebrating environmental achievements". Although the activities didn't interest me so much (plant potting, bird boxes, lantern making, ecological crafts, face-painting and badge making), the multiple languages did. The flyer contained text not only in Turkish ("TEMİZ GÖRÜNÜŞ", with no exclamation point) but also a mystery language ("Isku dubba rid!").

I was especially curious about this mystery language; not only was it unfamiliar (and had an awful lot of double letters, e.g. "U dabbaaldegga horumarinta bii'adda Ee mandaqadda NDC") but also I failed to think of any immigrant community that might speak this language (although we've only been living there two weeks). Although I had my own Rosetta Stone in the form of the English translations, it didn't get me very far;

Sabtida = Saturday
Waalidiinta/Daryeelayaasha = Parents/Carers
Cunto iyo cabbitaan lacag la;'aan ah = Free food and refreshments

I tried to put off the temptation to use Google but eventually I gave in.  The word "XUSUUSNOW" ("Note", I think) did the trick (do it yourself if you'd like the answer). And as it turns out, by remarkable coincidence, the same language provided the basis for an audio Language Quiz 2 over at the Language Log.

So now I know some more about the ethnic composition of our neighborhood (as it turns out, also fairly prevalent in our old neighborhood, although you don't see many _________ restaurants or ___________ shops).

When we moved house a couple of weeks ago, like so many people we chose to travel into a lovely industrial estate and brave the crush of IKEA (on a weekend no less) in order to collect a few cheap pieces of furniture. At least we did try a range of second-hand shops first, but no dice. We ended up with a pleasant enough dresser and desk chair, and weren't sucked into purchasing too many fripperies. We were witness to only one instance of IKEA RAGE on this occasion (it's so charming to hear a fellow american shouting "How Dare You" at full volume in a crowded environment).

But now we thank our lucky stars we didn't wait until IKEA opened a store a little closer to home. Perhaps best described in IKEA's own press release, which begins

"At 00.42am on Thursday 10th February 2005, the new IKEA Edmonton store outside London in the United Kingdom closed after several people were tragically injured during the midnight opening event. The ongoing celebrations were cancelled, and the store will remain closed until further notice."

The Guardian article adds additional details including the brandishing of wooden mallets, while the SUN (sorry, this link has now expired) calls it the "Battle of Ikea" and includes DRAMATIC PHOTOS FROM THE SCENE (including one image (caption: "Terrified ... a toddler is lifted over people's heads to escape the crush") which reminded me a little too much of Michael Jackson dangling "Blanket" over the balcony.

All the fuss about the IKEA riot has totally distracted the press from the news of the upcoming marriage between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, which to date has received only a single mention in the press. I am pleased to see the UK press are finally over their obsession with the royals.