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25 new of 154 responses total.
other
response 104 of 154: Mark Unseen   Oct 24 02:02 UTC 2002

You were probably a victim of increased latency as a cascading result of 
the coordinated DDoS attack on the 13 root DNS servers yesterday.
krj
response 105 of 154: Mark Unseen   Oct 24 03:00 UTC 2002

I'm not sure what problem you're addressing.  The link problems 
yesterday were, I think, claims from the BBC servers that the 
Radio Scotland live Real Audio 
link did not exist, and that error wouldn't involve the DNS attack.
I had no trouble getting text pages from the BBC site; I didn't
try any of their other audio streams, though.
 
The bandwidth problems have been ongoing for two months now;
the campus here has throttled back some of the residence hall 
traffic and we should have available bandwidth, but something 
else between me and the BBC is choking in the afternoons.
This has been an ongoing problem -- continuing even today --
and I don't see the DNS attack having any role in it at all.
krj
response 106 of 154: Mark Unseen   Nov 1 20:37 UTC 2002

Very nice Travelling Folk show yesterday, with Fiona Ritchie substituting
for the regular host Archie Fisher.  There was yet another great track
from Irish singer Eilis Kennedy, who's had three tracks on various 
BBC folk shows in recent weeks, and whose CD seems to be somewhat scarce.
Also a live track from bagpiper Susana Seivane and her band, offered
as a teaser for a longer live set from a recent festival, to be 
played in next Tuesday's "Celtic Connections" show.
krj
response 107 of 154: Mark Unseen   Dec 13 06:39 UTC 2002

BBC Radio 3, the home of Lucy Duran and "Late Junction," is offering 
"World Music Day" on 1 January, with 12 hours of concerts 
originating around the globe.  If we're really lucky, some of this 
will be available for later streaming, like the Womad sets.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/wmdhome2003.shtml
 
-----
 
In non-programming news:  The Guardian reports that private British
publishers (including the Guardian itself) are complaining about 
the BBC's extensive online presence, which is subsidized with 
the license fee/tax money.   The BBC is spending about 100 million
pounds per year on its Internet operations, which are much 
bigger than the folk/world music stuff that Mickey and I soak up.
 
"BBC Online face inquiry" is the headline.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,858003,00.html
dbratman
response 108 of 154: Mark Unseen   Dec 13 20:31 UTC 2002

Bigger than the classical, too, I bet.

If that great stuff in their archives goes away, I shall be very 
sorry.  But not a bit surprised.
micklpkl
response 109 of 154: Mark Unseen   Jan 3 15:58 UTC 2003

Here's something some of you classic rock fans might appreciate --

Radio 6 has a programme called "Dream Ticket" ... The premise is that 
the host assembles a fantasy festival line-up, using the BBC's 
extensive archive of live shows. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/bbcsessions/dream_ticket.shtml
micklpkl
response 110 of 154: Mark Unseen   Jan 7 22:15 UTC 2003

BBC Radio Scotland is gearing up for the 10th Celtic Connections 
Festival, beginning 15 Jan 2003 and running until 2 February.

From the looks of this page -
http://www.celticconnections.co.uk/whatson/broadcasts.htm
there will be a motherlode of broadcasts from the festival (and, no 
doubt, many sessions recorded live for broadcast throughout 2003).

It's the next best thing to being there, I suppose. One of these 
years....
krj
response 111 of 154: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 23:02 UTC 2003

Andy Kershaw (Radio 3) is presenting two shows from Mali.
Today's show (available for a week in the "Listen Again" archive)
is from a music festival in or near the Tuareg desert, near
Timbuktu.  Around 40 minutes into the show -- you can skip forward --
is a nifty cover of Led Zepplin's "Whole Lotta Love."
 
More from Mali next week.
krj
response 112 of 154: Mark Unseen   Jan 21 21:27 UTC 2003

Radio 3's Late Junction had an excellent show Monday, with lots 
of recordings Fiona Talkington had brought back from the Kaustinen
Folk Festival in Finland.  I'll have to key in some names after 
the BBC gets the play list up; they were mostly artists unknown to 
me.  Lots of good accordion work, and three songs from a group of 
women who were from the same village (in the Karelia area?) as 
Varttina.  

I have got to make some time in my life for Late Junction, even 
if I don't have 8 hours a week to be a completist about it.
 
"Celtic Connections" today played something I liked; turned out it 
was a Sheila Chandra track from A BONE CRONE DRONE, compiled on her
MOONSUNG album which I think I already have.  Sigh.
krj
response 113 of 154: Mark Unseen   Jan 23 18:56 UTC 2003

Here's an article which quotes a top BBC executive appearing at a 
European music conference:
 
  http://musicdish.com/mag/?id=7375
 
The article discusses the BBC's "... renewed concentration on transforming
radio from a one-way broadcasting to a two-way 100% interactive medium.
And through online tools such as chatrooms and instant messaging, the 
BBC has high aspirations on building a vibrant community around BBC 
programming which will then, in turn, be completely influenced by 
the online community."  

You can see the early wisps of this happening now on the BBC web site,
and when you hear the DJs respond to listeners around the world.
 
Ah, around the world...  the DJs seem thrilled at the foreign audience,
but the BBC exec sees us as a cost problem:  "... domestic BBC Radio
is heavily financed by licensing fees paid by UK listeners as opposed
to advertising revenue.  Needless to say that Mr. Kimber ((BBC exec))
has not been very keen on the idea of non-UK BBC listeners taking
advantage of the streaming audio without being a license payer
while further augmenting the streaming cost to the BBC."
 
I can see his point, and I do stand ready to offer the BBC some money for
the radio programming when they demand it.  On the other hand, if 
the Beeb did not want US listeners, they didn't have to put a major 
network node in New York, with ties to several major US backbone 
carriers, as described in the "support" section of BBC's web pages.

(The BBC license fee is, I think, about USD $100.   UK grexers in 
party tell me it is charged to television owners only; there is no 
attempt to bill radio owners, and BBC radio is funded from the pot of 
money generated by the TV licenses.  The whole BBC structure comes up
for reauthorization in 2006, again if I remember correctly.)

(The BBC license fee is comparable to what I would pay to become a 
XM customer, and it's pretty clear that, for my tastes, the BBC on the 
net has pre-empted XM and Sirius.)
krj
response 114 of 154: Mark Unseen   Jan 31 00:03 UTC 2003

BBC Radio's coverage of Glasgow's Celtic Connections music festival
(resp:110) has exceeded my expectations, and probably Mickey's as well.
When it's done we'll probably have heard about 15 hours of music from
the festival, spread across four of the shows we listen to.
 
But today the BBC outdid itself -- today, at least for this folkie, 
might have been the best day of the entire 10 months of BBC listening.
The second hour of Radio Scotland's "Travelling Folk" show was a 
concert divided among English harmony singers Coope Boyes & Simpson;
singer-songwriter Maria Dunn (just OK); and Scottish instrumental band
Diamh (pronounced "dive").  Just glorious.
 
Then, Late Junction, the Radio 3 night time show, had live appearances
from Mary MacMaster (harp player in Sileas, The Poozies, and Shine)
and some live recordings from Altan, and they were winding up
with a live appearance from Swedish/British fusion band Swap
-- when the stream crashed and wouldn't come back.
 
These shows should be available on the BBC Radio Player for a week
and they are most highly recommended.
micklpkl
response 115 of 154: Mark Unseen   Feb 18 03:00 UTC 2003

I thought I might mention this here before I cleared my paste buffer :)

"Performance on 3," The BBC Radio 3 live classical music programme will 
be broadcasting performances of Beethoven's piano sonatas in March. 
Here are the details from:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/pizarro.shtml

(NOTE: all times are GMT)

Renowned Portugese pianist Artur Pizarro will shortly be commencing an 
epic 8-concert cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas, all performed at St
John's Smith Square, London. Radio 3 will be broadcasting the cycle 
on 'Performance on 3' throughout 2003-4 (more details below).

Details of the first four Performance on 3 broadcasts are:

Tuesday 6 March, 7.30pm
Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1
Sonata in C minor, Op.13 'Path tique'
Sonata in G major, Op. 14 No. 2
Sonata in B flat major, Op. 22

Tuesday 13 March, 7.30pm
Sonata in C major, Op. 14 No. 1
Sonata in E flat major, Op. 7
Sonata in F major, Op. 10 No. 2
Sonata in C major, Op. 2 No. 3

Monday 19 May, 7.30pm
Sonata in D major, Op. 10 No. 3
Sonata in G major, Op. 31 No. 1
Sonata in E flat major, Op. 27 No. 1
Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 'Moonlight'

Thursday 22 May, 7.30pm
Sonata in G minor, Op. 49 No. 1
Sonata in G major, Op. 49 No. 2
Sonata in D major, Op. 28 'Pastoral'
Sonata in C major, Op. 53 'Waldstein'
Sonata in F major, Op. 54

micklpkl
response 116 of 154: Mark Unseen   Feb 21 23:42 UTC 2003

I arrived home just in time to hear the last song played on Andy 
Kershaw's world music programme, and I'm so thankful I did.

It was a new song from Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi, 
called "Deb" from a NEW CD that will be released in the U.K. at the end 
of March.

Yay!
krj
response 117 of 154: Mark Unseen   Feb 24 17:21 UTC 2003

My recollection is that Souad's first album was fairly light instrumentation,
and when we heard her live stuff on BBC this summer she was singing with
a large band.  Am I remembering correctly?  If so, what's the style on 
the new track?
micklpkl
response 118 of 154: Mark Unseen   Feb 24 19:25 UTC 2003

I think you are remembering correctly, Ken. Souad Massi's first album, 
RAOUI, was a very light sound --- some electric guitar, but mostly 
flamenco guitar, Arabic lute and other acoustic instruments.

This new song, "Deb" is one that we heard her play live on BBC this 
past summer. The song begins with samples of birds singing & something 
that I think of as a jazz scat, except in Arabic. The sound is still 
mostly acoustic, but there seems to be more percussion than there is in 
most of the songs on RAOUI. 

It's a beautiful song, one that I remember missing when I finally got 
RAOUI ordered from the U.K. and discovered it wasn't on that CD.
krj
response 119 of 154: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 19:02 UTC 2003

Wow, that new Souad Massi track *is* really good.  I don't remember 
feeling this enthusiastic about her first album, though I did like
her live WOMAD appearance from the summer which we heard on the Beeb's
festival coverage.
 
I liked a lot of the rest of last week's Andy Kershaw programme too.
(I just finished listening to it, it gets erased from the BBC's 
"Listen Again" archives in about five hours.)  I was much more positive
about this year's session by the Be Good Tanyas; maybe they've grown
as musicians in the last year?  And there was also a 1990-era 
guitar-based track from Kaba Mane, from Guinea-Bisseau, which 
wrapped up everything which originally drew me to African pop.
 
Next week will be our one-year anniversary of listening to all 
these wonderful shows.
Hooray for socialist radio!   :)
krj
response 120 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 18 21:28 UTC 2003

Great world music selection on today's "Celtic Connections" show.
Grab the replay from Radio Scotland if you are so inclined.
 
Tomorrow, Wednesday March 19:  BBC Radio 3 is scheduling a 
huge show, 19:30-00:00 UK time:  "A Place Called England," an 
"examination of the state of English folk and traditional music."
Live sets from the Oysterband, Jim Moray, Boka Halat, Spiers & Boden, 
Waterson:Carthy.  Interview and chat segments with June Tabor, 
Tony Engle (Topic Records), Ian Anderson (FRoots magazine) and 
Shirley Collins.  This conflicts with Mike Harding on Radio 2 but 
it sounds like it is not to be missed for me.  The web page says the 
live music segments will be available for later listening.
anderyn
response 121 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 19 13:06 UTC 2003

What time is that here?
micklpkl
response 122 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 19 14:36 UTC 2003

Those times are from 2:30pm Eastern (1:30pm Central) until 7:00pm 
Eastern. 

Might be good to check, though. I'm often wrong.
anderyn
response 123 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 19 15:05 UTC 2003

I don't know If I'll get to listen, but I'll try.
krj
response 124 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 20 18:20 UTC 2003

The "Place Called England" show was rather too massive to absorb
in one go, all 4.5 hours of it; I'm going to have to replay the 
recordings at about one hour per shot.  Highlight of the night
for me was the introduction to a new band, Boka Halat, who 
play English trad folk songs with some African drummers.
Most of the other live tracks were at least worthwhile, though I 
thought Waterson:Carthy were maybe a little dull.   The live Oysterband
set was fine.

Host Fiona Talkington promised some followup English folk stuff on
today's Late Junction show on Radio 3.

Notes for Mickey, via the new issue of FRoots Magazine:
Portugese singer Mariza is featured on this Saturday's "World
Routes" show with host Lucy Duran.  (March 22)    And, in 
September, Andy Kershaw's world/rock/roots show is moving from
Friday nights to Sundays.

Question for Mickey: what do I have to remember about the UK change
to Summer Time, vs. the USA change to Daylight Savings?
micklpkl
response 125 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 20 19:05 UTC 2003

Thanks for the info about Mariza on World Routes, Ken. 

British Summer Time (BST) begins 30 March at 1:00am, one week before 
the United States begins observing Daylight Savings Time. So, the UK 
schedules will be an extra hour ahead of us for the first week of April.
krj
response 126 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 20 21:38 UTC 2003

Mickey and I found BBC radio streams to be unusable today.
We abandoned our efforts to listen to Archie Fisher's show,
and my later attempt to get Radio 3 also failed.  My best guess
is that the BBC websites are overwhelmed with people seeking
war news.
krj
response 127 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 26 20:21 UTC 2003

Mike Harding just announced a special program for Wednesday, 23 April,
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sandy Denny's death.  
Interviews with her British folk-rock contemporaries, and music.
krj
response 128 of 154: Mark Unseen   Mar 27 21:21 UTC 2003

BBC Radio 3 has put up a new stack of live gig recordings of 
world music artists.  Most of these shows seem to come from the 
London Jazz Festival last November.  I'm unclear about the origins
of the shows with a March date, though.

Highlights for Mickey and I will be a 60 minute show by Mariza
(Portuguese fado) at 44K, and a 100 minute show by Mari Boine (Sami singer)
at the tasty 64K speed.  Also included in this:  Orchestra Baobab, 
Faudel, Oliver Mtukudzi, Bembeya Jazz and Ketil Bjornstad.
 
I'm listening to the Mari Boine right now.  Very nice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/ljfgigs2002.shtml
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