Post by Traditional Music Forum on Mar 8, 2021 15:40:16 GMT
A weekly two minute catch-up for members from the
TMF Director's desk
These are some of the things that have caught my attention this week.
Sad to get the news that the Ram Club, run since 1983 by Scottish couple Bob and Maggie Wood (among others), in Claygate in Surrey and latterly Thames Ditton, has decided to close its doors. It was always a great gig with an enthusiastic, friendly audience and excellent hospitality from Bob and Maggie. Bob and Maggie had planned to step down anyway but the pandemic has led the club to question the viability of 'small, intimate, indoors, live music venues'. Hope it's not a straw in the wind.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Parish Maps project that TRACS is piloting in three parishes. One of those is Hoy in Orkney, which is being led by ace fiddler and Poozie, Sarah McFadyen. Sarah has set up a lively Facebook page to gather in thoughts and feelings about the place.
Interesting article in the New Yorker this week by time management and work-flow guru, Cal Newport, titled 'Email is Making us Miserable'. Newport writes, 'Many in the business community tend to dismiss the psychological toll from e-mail as an incidental side effect caused by bad in-box habits or a weak constitution. I’ve come to believe, however, that much deeper forces are at play in generating our mismatch with this tool, including some that get at the very core of what drives us as humans.' We're hard-wired not to ignore social interactions, and subconsciously get stressed when we do. Emails piling in exposes us to this stress, as we're generating social interaction faster than we can keep up. The article is a chapter in a new book, 'A World Without Email'. I've ordered it.
Coincidentally a report has just come out from environmental group, Digital For Planet, that lays out the environmental cost of information technology. 20 emails a day per user over the course of a year, create the same amount of CO2 emissions as a car traveling 1,000 km. Every hour more than twelve billion emails (including this one - I know, I know) are sent, representing more than 4,000 tonnes of oil.
Delighted to see that Scots singer and TMF trustee, Iona Fyfe's campaign to get Spotify to include Scots in their list of languages has paid off.
Speaking of Spotify, I'm still in the midst of trying to get my head round how the digital streaming environment works, as I'm working on a feasibility study on whether there could be a streaming platform for trad/folk/Scottish music. The main issue is one of scale, but there have been one or two attempts at ethical, co-operative alternatives to the big guns, notably Resonate and the Welsh streaming service, ApTon, which seems to have foundered.
The TMF convened a Festivals Forum last weekend, which was attended by almost all of the trad and folk festivals in Scotland, from Shetland down to Newcastleton. It was good to hear about the festivals sharing how they have coped with the difficulties put in their way by the pandemic, and to hear that, despite everything, people are determined to find solutions to the challenges.
The Scottish Community Alliance is currently carrying out a census of community groups in its membership (which includes us). I've collated a list of TMF members who I think come under that broad heading. One of the things that they want to get a sense of is the constitutional form of groups (SCIO, voluntary organisation, company limited by guarantee) as well as geographical spread and internet presence. I can answer the last two but not the first. To ensure my list is accurate could you drop me a line if you think you are a 'community group' (as opposed to a business, or an individual) and let me know how you're constituted?
I've just been listening to Hannah Rarity's new single, her version of Davy Steele's 'Scotland Yet', which was released today. Well worth checking out.
Unexpected earworm. Haven't heard much from Paolo Nutini in the past two or three years, but I came across this clip of him performing at T in the Park back in 2009, backed by Phil Cunningham and a team from the RCS. Some familiar, youthful faces in there.
All the best
DF
David Francis is Director of the Traditional Music Forum
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