Thanks, Alan.
Just putting on my beautiful MacLeod tartan argyle kilt socks knit in about 48 hours in New Zealand in 1993 when my parents were on sabbatical in Auckland for 6 months, to play my Scottish small pipes' gig (kind of in solidarity too with the pink hat protests erupting around the world) almost on Burns' night, but a wee bit early.
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See, too - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2017/01/pacific-remote-islands-marine-national.html
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Wow, Alan - you look quite dashing in your photo! I wonder what the difference between a Montrose tunic and a Prince Charles doublet is - perhaps it has to do with the number of buttons and where they're located. There's a picture of my kit here part way down - http://scottmacleod.com/
My mother found someone to knit these beautiful unique socks on the outskirts of Auckland back in 1993 when I was visiting and when my father was on sabbatical there. (I had sent her from SF the colors of my kilt, snipping this from its fringe beforehand, at her request). It was kind of an "old lady who lived in a shoe" who knit them - living in a kind of ramshackle New Zealand abode with about a zillion cats (and smelling of cat pee as well :) ... kind of charming too - and what a powerhouse, precise knitter - an old "way" and skill.
My Scottish small pipes' gig went well for this "Scottish Night" in Marin county. It's a good venue/hall with an unbroken view of the north SF Bay, 2nd year in a row. I could play what I like - lyrical pipe music of a wide variety - while people were eating a very nice dinner. Thanks to F.D.H., son of people who were "wee folk" in Scotland, and kind of Glaswegian himself, for this opportunity.
As aye, Scott
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"Pipe dreams" is an interesting expression, Alan! What is this "piping energy" beyond a series of tones from a variety of specific double-bladed reeded identity-emerging Scottish instruments?
Hare are some "tartantry" or "tartanry" and tartan histories:
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Have had my same kilt since about 1975, and it still fits - and I continue to wear it for gigs and to go Scottish Country Dancing ! - although I had to put in longer leather straps some years ago. It's got a moth hole or two, and is certainly a bit thinner in the warp and woof, I'd say ... and I'm due for another ... an interesting possible business network possibility - and with kilt makers in India if one could define / design the kind of quality one wanted via a series of online courses at a price one wanted - and over decades ... Hmmm ...
Maybe World University and School students could help figure out how to commercialize Scottish kilt and tunic making (via Industry-oriented CC MIT OpenCourseWare in its 7 languages, but not yet in Hindi, Punjabi or Urdu), and you and I could become the guinea pigs for trying experiments out? Tartantry extended - hoping to post some interesting references to this history of "tartantry" for tourism, identity and heritage in Scotland emerging 100-150 years ago, which I learned a bit of in 2003-2004 studying at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Celtic and Scottish Studies - and about St. Kilda, I.T. networks/the Internet, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and nascent online "place" in multimedia ( which might have been a little ahead of its time for that department ) ... but you'll find a reference to the paper I wrote about this here - http://scottmacleod.com/
Cheers, Scott
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Hi Alan,
8th-9th centuries ...
"Falkirk" tartan, dates from the 3rd century AD
and from before this too -re the above articles.
"The tartan as we know it today is not thought to have existed in Scotland before the 16th century. By the late 16th century there are numerous references to striped or checkered plaids. It is not until the late 17th or early 18th century that any kind of uniformity in tartan is thought to have occurred.[21] Martin Martin, in A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, published in 1703, wrote that Scottish tartans could be used to distinguish the inhabitants of different regions."
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Scott – can I share with you my sincerest ‘pipe dream’ --- one I’ve carried with me for some time now? Truthfully, I’m tired of the rat race, listening to people’s stories, and trying to intervene in their lives as their therapist. I’ve had 10 years of that --- and I think I’m done. I was a Forester in BC, Canada for 18-20 years prior to shifting to Aussie; and then coming to NZ 6 years ago for my own sanity and my wife’s sake. I’m looking for a decidedly different direction in my life. I guess what I’m trying to say is --- I’d like to start ‘afresh’ --- all over again! Even at age 61...
I’d love to enter into the realm of pipe-making (becoming a fully recognized fettler)... but every piper I’ve spoken to in Aotearoa has pointed that it takes heaps of $$$ to get trained, in the first instance. Sadly, my finances just barely keep me and my family of five alive today, let alone pay for any in-depth training. I approached about 15-20 established pipe makers world-wide for an Apprenticeship, moving towards something I know I’m keenly passionate about. I don’t really know what qualities bode well with established pipe makers who might be considering training someone (say, like myself) to become an accomplished SSP or Border pipe-maker. What do they look for in prospective APPRENTICES? Teachability? Passion for piping and music? Someone who is a master at an instrument already? A love for all things Celtic? A loyal, dedicated and honest person --- with heaps of integrity? All the the above? Without sounding too pompous, I’m some of these things and more (I played trumpet for 7 years back in the late 1960’s – early 1970’s; but haven’t read sheet music since then). I consider myself a fairly “handy”bloke --- but have little actual wood-turning experience. although I just bought a used wood lathe recently and am planning to train myself watching You Tube vids.
By-the-by, I really liked your idea of becoming guinea pigs for trying out experimental kilts!! Where do I sign up? LOL...
That’s a kewl term.... “tartantry”. I have never heard of this word before now. I’ll have to Google it. Is this possibly what M. A.C. N. studied in Aberdeen before setting up his own business making kilts? He apparently began back in 2004/2005 and fancies himself as a Tartan Scholar & Kilt Historian. Is this the same thing? I wonder....
Blessings, Alan
In the coffee house called CoHo at Stanford in Tressider at 2, 3, or 4 ?
I've begun to sing in the UU choir of Palo Alto twice a week, and tomorrow there's a choir party at 6 nearby. Singing 2x + piping/keyboard on Mondays at SCD = music making x 3 :)
Want a Stanford :) coffee adventure tomorrow?
Scott
Oh - so you're not coming to Stanford's Tressider .... wail, nash and
moan ... grittings of teeth, and mournful laments ... (and hello from
Tressider :)
Back with our Scots' thread and re music-making ... Unitarians have
been in Scotland for many centuries (http://www.sua.org.uk/ and
http://www.ukunitarians.org.
Unitarian congregations, in some of Scotland's main cities -
http://www.ukunitarians.org.
Edinburgh tribe looks like -
https://static1.squarespace.
(kind of looks like the unprogrammed Quaker tribe I was a part of
there back in 2003-2004) - and Unitarians are likely still singing.
But Scottish Unitarians didn't go the Unitarian Universalist route
that Americans did in 1961 -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
When I was in Scotland in 2003-2004, I walked by the dour-looking,
with its very austere stone facade, Unitarian Church in Edinburgh -
https://edwildgeese.files.
http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/
... https://www.google.com/maps/
- which is right under the amazing Edinburgh Castle (one of four
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Scotland, of which St. Kilda, about
which I wrote my M.Sc. dissertation in Edinburgh was also one) with an
address on Castle Terrace. Wondering what the history between this
Church and the Castle are through the centuries - when Edinburgh was
under siege, for example (by the English most likely). St. Marks was
built in 1835, so there may not be much of such a history.
(My parents met and married in the Unitarian Church in Cincinnati Ohio
in 1957, so maybe I'll meet my wife/mom to be either in the circles of
the UUCPA - Palo Alto - or within the sphere or wonderful, diverse,
excellent Stanford :)
Harbin's waters are much softer that Edinburgh -
https://twitter.com/HarbinBook ...
http://www.scottmacleod.com/
music there too! - - and my Harbin book is selling! :)
And wail, nash and moan ... grittings of teeth, and mournful laments
that you're not here ... (and hello from Tressider :)
Happy coffee at the Wooly Pig,
Scott
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Great news for WUaS: Glad the Swiss Alliance for Data Intensive Services will likely help with World University's web site ...
We should be talking with Switzerland next Friday :)
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The Swiss "language problem" includes Italian :) (but not Japanese :( )
Happy coffee-ing, :)
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Thanks, Scot T
And yes, Ants, thanks too - my shoulder is nearly better ... playing
for an almost Robbie Burns' night (a week or two early) in Marin as a
gig ... went well again ... and didn't set my shoulder back any ...
But wanting now to amplify my Scottish small pipes, after a few gigs
in the past year ... and for mobility ... speakers on the lapels of my
Prince Charles' doublet .... and how loud? Is there an MIT innovation
making small speakers very loud without the size of speakers needed
for the woofers, I wonder?
Appreciating too this MIT Twitter post re international students -
https://twitter.com/MIT/
well, just posted this to - https://twitter.com/
a number of my other Twitter feeds.
A blue-tooth pickup from my chanter (and possibly drones) to loud
lapel speakers, with a not too large battery too? Sounds
contraption-able ... or hack-able of innovatable .... or creatable ...
Happy coffee in the Woolly Pig, now over since it closed at 3 (haven't
yet met my wife / mom to be here in this Stanford cafe, that I know of
:)
And yes, Ants, thanks too - my shoulder is nearly better ... playing
for an almost Robbie Burns' night (a week or two early) in Marin as a
gig ... went well again ... and didn't set my shoulder back any ...
But wanting now to amplify my Scottish small pipes, after a few gigs
in the past year ... and for mobility ... speakers on the lapels of my
Prince Charles' doublet .... and how loud? Is there an MIT innovation
making small speakers very loud without the size of speakers needed
for the woofers, I wonder?
Appreciating too this MIT Twitter post re international students -
https://twitter.com/MIT/
well, just posted this to - https://twitter.com/
a number of my other Twitter feeds.
A blue-tooth pickup from my chanter (and possibly drones) to loud
lapel speakers, with a not too large battery too? Sounds
contraption-able ... or hack-able of innovatable .... or creatable ...
Happy coffee in the Woolly Pig, now over since it closed at 3 (haven't
yet met my wife / mom to be here in this Stanford cafe, that I know of
:)
Nicola Sturgeon
For those asking my view on US State visit: would be wrong for it to go ahead while bans on refugees & citizens of some countries in place.
*For those asking my view on US State visit: would be wrong for it to go ahead while bans on refugees & citizens of some countries in place.— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) January 29, 2017
Two portable wee bluetooth speakers ...
https://www.amazon.com/JS-
https://www.amazon.com/
Don't see yet how to add a microphone to these ... hmmm ... like the
acorn look of the first one ...
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Thank, Ants ... I hope WUaS begins to grow financially (and re a
number of recent developments) ... and then getting SSP gigs won't
matter so much financially ... but there was at least one gig
recently where I piped in multiple spaces for guests outside in a
winery, and their speaker with woofer, or my speaker with woofer (loud
bass with SSP isn't really an issue however anyway), wouldn't have
worked very well because I was walking around as well while playing
... ah, for portable speakers ... on the lapels or an acorn around the
neck above my jabot ... hmmm ... thanks :)
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Thanks! Yet SSP gigs for pay aren't coming my way very often these days, which is fine (except financially), and fun when they do come my way, so developing WUaS income is (and has been) imperative!
Thanks, Scott
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...
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