In my recent search for any new albums by the funky Finnish band Gjallarhorn, one of my favorite finds from the resurgence of tradition-inspired Nordic roots music, I came across one of those great blog/resource sites that combines enthusiasm and eclectic taste to bring lesser-known world music to a wider audience. CD Roots: music from the road less traveled is run by one guy, Cliff Furnold, and provides a source not only for world music CD purchases, but also Furnald’s thoughts and opinions of music as it emerges.

“I like the music I carry and I hope to offer you a crack in the window on the world,” says Furnald. “The CDs you will find here are often personal favorites, unusual music that often defies a simple naming of genre. Some is very traditional, from places you hear little about, and ought to hear more. Some is extremely avant garde, making its own rules as it goes. My favorites combine deep traditional roots with wild and innovative energy. What they all share is a human touch, a personality that goes beyond the mere making of music and into the very heart of art.”

His current collection achieves this goal, offering works from American jazz combined with Swedish traditional, to guitar music from a classical music-trained African family, to a group using ancient Sicilian Arab poetry for their base. This is better than getting your feet wet in world music — it’s diving in fully clothed. Furnald’s blog covers some really random releases, including, recently, a Norwegian percussionist using instruments formed out of ice.

Funky indeed.

There are plenty of reasons to visit this friendly Midwestern city that straddles the Kansas/Missouri border, but three of the best are clustered together in the historic 18th and Vine district.

**  A great meal at the Peachtree.      For a fabulous Southern cuisine dinner (”Soul Food with Elegance”) don’t miss the food, ambiance and live music at the Peachtree Restaurant.  My daughter and I had to wait in line for a little while, but it was well worth it. I had some terrific catfish with black-eyed peas and collard greens, and my teenager had the meatloaf.  The sweet potato rolls were divine.  We were a little underdressed since we hadn’t planned on ending up there, but the staff made us feel most welcome. 

**  Jazz at the Museum.      The live music venue Blue Room is attached to the American Jazz Museum and it’s just up the street from the Peachtree.  Minors are allowed with an adult, so it’s also a good place to take older kids to hear live jazz performances four nights a week.  This coming Saturday, November 3rd 2007 is a Katrina benefit concert featuring the Midnight Blue Quartet, led by the American Jazz Museum executive director Greg Carroll, a highly accomplished vibraphonist. 

**  Play (segregated) Ball.     The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is also located in this historically black section of town. Anyone who likes baseball should pay a visit to this tribute to players who had ”a league of their own” until U.S. baseball was finally integrated, when Jackie Robinson was recruited from the Kansas City Monarchs to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The Negro Leagues actually lasted until the 1960s before they folded.

Coastal urban centers like New York and San Francisco certainly have their many charms, but little gems like Kansas City will amply reward your visit.  

Technorati tags:  travel, Kansas City, jazz, Negro Baseball Leagues

Sometimes things happen to remind me what a tin-pot little country this is.

The United Kindom is awash with news that “a minor member of the royal family” has been the victim of an attempted blackmail plot concerning cocaine and alleged oral sex with an aide. Apparantly the two would-be blackmailers have been arrested and the case first came to court in secret weeks ago. There is apparantly a gagging order (no pun intended) which effectively stops anyone in the UK from finding out the identity of the errant royal.

This appeared to be earth-shattering news with speculation running wild, until the Palace stepped in pointing out that it was a minor royal and one who could not claim to be HRH (His or Her Royal Highness). This effectively ‘outs’ the person in question: there are only around 30 members of the Royal family, and if you take of those who should be addressed HRH, then the short list is, well, short!

The court order prevents me from actually naming the guilty party, but by now, international publications will be naming them to choruses of “who?”, “oh yeah!” and “big deal!”

Now I don’t buy into the hysteria on drugs, or sex for that matter. I couldn’t give a stuff if a member of the royal family is allegedly caught face down in a pile of nose-bag after copping off with a member of staff. My real beef is the difference in the way that rules are applied to Them and the rest of us!

When working-class icon and party girl Kate Moss was allegedly photographed ‘powdering her nose’ the pictures were all over the UK press. There was outrage in the home counties (our version of the US bible belt). She lost lucrative modelling contracts, was threatened with a child welfare investigation and interviewed by the police. All on the strength of a photograph, which would never be evidence in court and only proved that she sniffed an unidentified white powder.

What I can’t understand is why the ‘unidentifiable royal’ should not face the same Spanish Inquisition. If you are blackmailed, does that make you less guilty of the ‘crime’ that you were alleged to have committed? Why should their identity be protected where “Cocaine Kate’s” was not? If she had been blackmailled over the pictures, would she now be protected? Will the police be investigating the underlying claims of royal cocaine abuse?

In reality, this is a case of the privileged position the British Royal Family. I use the phrase British loosely. Our lot are in fact all German, except the Queen’s husband Phil the Greek, who is Greek! The current queen is a descendent of the German House of Hanover, who took over the British monarchy from the Scottish House of Stuart in 1741. The House of Hanover became the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha after the death of Queen Victoria. It imaginatively changed it’s name to the House of Windsor during the First World War, when the British, didn’t want to be ruled over by German monarchs! Their surname effectively changed from Battenberg to Windsor after their favourite castle!

There is a perception in the Union (of England, Scotland and Wales) that the English dominate, yet the last English monarch was Elizabeth 1. After she dies in 1603, the throne passed to James IV of Scotland and England became a subjugated nation under the Scots, until the Germans took over!

Why does all of this matter? Well the United Kingdom labours under a system called Constitutional Monarchy, where we get to hold a democratic vote for the House of Commons, the second house, the House of Lords is appointed (until a few years ago it was hereditary, with the ruling classes appointed by past monarchs having a major say in the laws of the land) and the monarch has to give Royal Assent to any laws, and has the power to dissolve Parliament.

Monarchists cite that the last time this actually happened was in 1708, but the fact is that this power exists, and it means that a member of the German Royal Family (which was part of the Austrian and Russian dynasties, whose family spat started the First World War, which led to the Second World War and the Holocaust, the formation of Palestine and arguably the rise of Islamic Terrorism) has the power to overule the elected Parliament of Great Britain!

Remember that when the British governemt claim to have gone into Iraq to bring democracy. We do not have true democracy in the United Kingdom, and what I find truly offensive is that the vote of an Iraqi insurgent means a little bit more than mine.

My recent Family Travel blog post on 10 reasons to visit Rhode Island, plus a little brisk fall weather, inspires me to tell you about a culinary tradition in the U.S. northeast:  the New England church supper.  

A long-time fundraiser for local churches, they are held year-round but seem to peak along with the foliage in the autumn months.  Volunteer fire departments, service organizations (Lions, Kiwanis) and the Grange, a rural social organization, also hold these suppers. 

If you travel in the New England states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut) just ask at your lodging, check the local newspaper or look for the hand-written signs posted around town.

Meals are often “ham and bean” or “spaghetti and meatballs,” but the hardcore foodies look for a “bean-hole bean supper.” 

To make these baked beans, you basically dig a big hole in the ground, burn a fire in it for awhile, then put your pre-prepped bean pot with your secret recipe in to bubble deliciously for hours until you dig it out.  It’s somewhat analogous to the method for a beach clambake.

The Maine Folklife Center tells the history of bean-hole cooking, and All Recipes has a pretty good recipe for it.  You only need, oh, about 12-13 hours to get it all done.

There’s a cookbook for devotees:  the Church Supper & Potluck Dinner Cookbook published by Yankee Magazine.

Alternatively, look for the pancake breakfast, another standard fundraiser, and local variations on that may mean cranberries or blueberries added to the batter, or johnnycake, a kind of cornmeal pancake.

Want only the real deal?  Get Johnny Cake Corn Meal from The Kenyon Corn Meal Company’s gristmill on the Queen’s River in miniscule Usquepaugh (”Us-kwe-paw”) Rhode Island. 

Of course, if you can, it’s yummier to visit in person.

Technorati tags: travel, New England, bean-hole bean supper, church supper, pancake breakfast

The Perceptive Travel Blog post 6 ways travelers can use social media was featured in two recent blog carnivals around the Web, so I wanted to give a quick shout-out to:

**  Australian entrepreneur Kathie Thomas at Soho-life.com;  she hosted the very first blog carnival for members of the LinkedIn social media networking site.

Also fun to read at this carnival was Vikram Deo’s Rafting, Trekking and Leeches in India, and Michael’s announcement of the Fall TSM Travel Writing Contest at Traveling Stories online magazine.

**  The Just Linux blog hosted the Carnival of Tech News, where I also found 15 Gadgets to Turn Your Car Into a Mobile Workstation, for you geek road warriors out there.

Feel like more geek?  I wrote a guest post for Aussie Darren Rowse and ProBlogger about Why Twitter Isn’t a Waste of Time.  You are welcome to learn more by following my tweets at http://twitter.com/SheilaS.

Finally, how can I resist telling you about a 90-year-old blogger, Anthony McCune, who featured my blog post Halloween family travel: the witches of Salem (Massachusetts) in the latest Carnival of Cities.  There are links about Oslo, Bangkok, Helsinki, London and more….check it out.

Technorati tags: travel, blogging, blog carnival