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Category: Americas and Eurasia and Africa

Revelatory covers (#16 in series): Rhiannon Giddens sings “Calling Me Home”

Published May 5, 2021 by Pelidoug

Revelatory covers (#16 in series): Rhiannon Giddens sings “Calling Me Home”

If the almost-titlepiece of Rhiannon Giddens’ new album were new to your ears, you would probably assume it was a venerable “traditional” song, probably from Appalachia.

Listeners who already knew many traditional Appalachian songs would likely be mightily surprised that they could have hitherto missed such a superb, particularly haunting one.

In fact, Calling Me Home was authored by Alice Gerard; it was titlepiece of her 2002 album, issued in the year of her 68th birthday. (An even better album is Follow the Music, which Alice Gerrard recorded – mostly “live” – in her 80th year)

read moreRevelatory covers (#16 in series): Rhiannon Giddens sings “Calling Me Home”
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Word power: Arundhati Roy excoriates Narendra Modi

Published April 30, 2021 by Pelidoug

Word power: Arundhati Roy excoriates Narendra Modi

 

Direct quote from Indian Prime Minister Modi, crowing, in January 2021:

Friends, it would not be advisable to judge India’s success with that of another country. In a country which is home to 18% of the world population, that country has saved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona effectively.

Arundhati Roy, describing India’s ghastly pandemic reality in April 2021:

The system hasn’t collapsed. The government has failed. Perhaps “failed” is an inaccurate word, because what we are witnessing is not criminal negligence, but an outright crime against humanity.

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Word Power: Ratty, post-COVID-19

Published February 10, 2021 by Pelidoug

Word Power: Ratty, post-COVID-19

 

The rodent pictured above – well-rounded, petite, and “out in the wild”  – quite probably strikes you as “cute”, maybe even “adorable”.

But how about the longer-toothed, urban-invading ranks of Rattus norvegicus?

Allegedly, they are currently making themselves ever more “at home” inside our cities’ offices, shops and homes…

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Word power: previously banned, now compulsory

Published February 4, 2021 by Pelidoug

Word power: previously banned, now compulsory

On 22 October 2019,  in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai, China, I met an obviously-ambitious sheep-owner.

Clearly, he was “improving” his flock, probably with help from Australia.

Some of his sheep greatly surprised me – very evidently, some of their “bloodlines” were merino.

The prosperous grazier’s mask was entirely appropriate to his dusty task.

However, wearing it would have been expressly forbidden in some other places/contexts, even in the much more open/democratic land of Oz…

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Yeniuguo/ Wild Yak Valley (#5 in “Tibetan Plateau” series)

Published January 24, 2021 by Pelidoug

Yeniuguo/ Wild Yak Valley (#5 in “Tibetan Plateau” series)

This sequel to the immediately-preceding post shows the magnificent landscape which surrounds and towers above the valley’s floor.

From Budongquan (see #4 in Tibetan Plateau series) we set off in darkness.

We breakfasted two hours later, overlooking a brushy, sandy section of the valley floor…through which we then walked.

The featured image (all photos copyright Doug Spencer) was taken at 8.11 am, during breakfast.

 

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Living on a high, dry “floor” (#4 in “Tibetan Plateau” series)

Published January 23, 2021 by Pelidoug

Living on a high, dry “floor” (#4 in “Tibetan Plateau” series)

The featured bird is very tiny, very hardy.

“His” valley’s sparsely vegetated floor – the “low ground”, locally – all sits within 200 metres either side of 4000 metres above sea level.

If transplanted to the Tibetan Plateau, New Zealand’s highest peak would fail to reach this valley’s lowest point.

 

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October Song (#86 in “a shining moment” series)

Published October 28, 2020 by Pelidoug

October Song (#86 in “a shining moment” series)

I took the photo on a glorious autumn morning almost exactly one year ago – 10.26 am, 29 October 2019, Labahe, Sichuan, China.

In Scotland, more than half a century earlier, Robin Williamson wrote my favourite autumn song.

Allegedly, October Song was the first song he ever wrote, as a teenager.

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Wild asses: #4 in “western India” series/ #2 in “Tibetan Plateau” series

Published October 24, 2020 by Pelidoug

Wild asses: #4 in “western India” series/ #2 in “Tibetan Plateau” series

Asia’s wild asses are different from Africa’s, and larger too.

All but one kind are generally reckoned subspecies of Equus hemionus, the Asiatic wild ass or onager.

Pictured above and below is the khur or Indian wild ass, Equus hemionus khur.

Once widespread, in large numbers, khur now only number several thousand individuals, most of them in the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, western India.

read moreWild asses: #4 in “western India” series/ #2 in “Tibetan Plateau” series
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