Only in NZ

Deregulation of industries in our country over the last 20 years has led to a mixed bag of pros and cons. Truck-drivers can drive goods around the country and the railways struggle to stay afloat, you can watch the news on three or four or five different channels delivered by pairs of news announcers, one talking, one looking knowingly at the camera while a wallpaper of irrelevant video clips rush around in the background. With telephones, you get to choose your cellphone provider at least, while your 111 emergency calls get answered by someone in Auckland who thinks the Octagon in Dunedin is some kind of mosque. We have led the western world through Adventures in Deregulation and I have discovered two great deregulated activities that set New Zealand apart. One of them is distillation.

Look up stills, whisky, “how to make” on Google and New Zealand comes up all over the place. Why? Most of these sites have the disclaimer “Illegal in this country, information provided for citizens of New Zealand” (yeah, right) – where it has been, since the mid 90’s, legal to distill alcohol for your own consumption. God bless the good ship Deregulation and all who sail in her!

Another area where New Zealand comes up is in the relatively new field of “micro-broadcasting”. In the setting up and tendering of frequencies on the FM band, the NZ regulators saw fit to make several frequencies at the very top and the very bottom of the FM band available for anyone to use under the provision of the General User Licence. There are restrictions, the main one being that your transmitter is capped at the awesome output power of half a watt. The most common use of these frequencies seems to be for the likes of “hospital radio stations”, in-house conference coverage and the even smaller iPod-to-car-radio transmission, but if you tune your radio to these nether regions you’ll find plenty of interesting stations beaming out as hard as they half-watt can. In the world of micro-broadcasting, the first three principles of real estate are king: location, location, location. High is good, higher is better. Cities like Dunedin and Wellington are ideal.

So what?

So, for less than $3000 you can purchase a transmitter and aerial and set it up in your bedroom or garden shed, then with some old discarded 486 computer with a bit of free software and a couple of thousand mp3s on the hard-drive, you’ve got yourself a 24 hour radio station. Imagine – true folk radio: new releases, last week’s floor spots at the folk club, featured artists, nasty buskers and gossip… And you don't even have to log on to the internet!

Mike Scott Edits Himself

From the nz-folk list: Interesting piece in the Guardian Online from Mike Scott of the Waterboys who looked up his entry in Wikipedia and tried to correct errors, only to be re-corrected...

Beware of Fake Shure Mics

From the Trademe site, a reseller points out the salient differences between the real SM58 and the typical fakes that abound.

"Be aware that there have recently been quite a few fake Shure SM58's on trademe, if you buy one of these you may as well just go down to Dick Smith and buy a $20 mic as that's all it's worth.

"If you have bought a SM58 on Trademe and are concerned that it's a fake then have a look at the pictures on this auction. In all these pictures the one on the left is genuine, the one on the right is fake. If yours is not identical to the one on the left in all aspects then you've got a fake.Take a look at the metal ring under the grille, if it is flat then it's fake. If it is contoured like the one on the left it could be real but it's still not gauranteed. And yes they even copy the warranty card too although this is different to the genuine one.

"If your mic comes with a cable packaged in the box then it is also sure to be a fake as real ones don't come with a cable. Most of the fakes are of the switched version so if you have a bought a switched one then be even more careful.Lets face it if it seems too cheap then it's likely to be a fake, no-one in their right mind is going to be selling a real SM58 for less than $180 unless it's stolen or fake, just look at the cheapest price you can buy in the US, add on the shipping and do the maths!!"

Other references:

http://www.electromusic.co.uk/Shure_SM58.html

reviews.ebay.com/Fake-Shure-Listings-Zero-tolerance-for-thieves...

reviews.ebay.co.uk/Fake-Shure-Mics-SM58s...

Shure Shuts Down Counterfeiters

Matthias Loibner: tiny hurdy gurdy concert

From the nz-folk list: Jimi Hendrix of the 'gurdy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oZKQf-JIvRU

Something from Okinawa

From the nz-folk list:

I particularly like the indigenous music of Okinawa, whose culture is quite distinct from what we recognise as "Japanese". (There are several Okinawan languages. The region has, in historical times, variously paid tribute to China or Japan and was, at one time, an independent kingdom.
The traditional music is central to the local sense of identity in the way that the music of Brittany, Scotland, Galicia or the Basque country is.)

Among the bands that have popularised Okinawan traditional music in Japan, Hawai`i and elsewhere are Shjoukichi Kina and his band Champloose. Here's a video of a slower song. It's played at a live gig, and the band includes the Chieftains and Ry Cooder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmeJJiXc5oo

Here's something more typically traditional:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWkgWg4-6kw

Marcus Turner

==================

Hi Marcus

Recently, I heard (and was really taken with) some Okinawan folksongs by a singer called Choki Fukuhara, who started his own record-label in Osaka, Japan in the 1930s and released 78s. The Okinawan instrument he played, called the 'sanshin' (similar to the Japanese 'samisen') sounds really like a banjo.

I found this site with a sound clip of Fukuhara: http://rca.open.ed.jp/web_e/music/cards/list/fukuhara.html

And I also found some information here: http://www.pref.okinawa.jp/bunshin/english/con2/06_7shin.html

Cheers

Mike (Michael Brown)

Ceol Aneas - June 2007

http://www.ceolaneas.org/ Nelson, New Zealand - 1st to 4th of June
Held each year in Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand, the workshops are modelled on the Irish Summer Schools held in Miltown Malbay, Tubbercurry and Drumshambo. The workshops offer a series of master class and performance opportunities to attendees to enhance their own music practice as well as the cultural and artistic landscape of New Zealand with its strong Irish links.

Welcome to Ceol Aneas 2007

This year we have the legendary Kevin Burke of "Bothy band", "Patrick Street" and "Nightnoise" fame, Jon Sanders also from Ireland and Fred and Claire from Australian group Tulca Mor, plus a host of well known New Zealand tutors.

We invite you to 'Ceol Aneas' (music of the south) a weekend of Irish Traditional Music Workshops being held in Nelson, New Zealand between 1st and 4th June 2007.

We are delighted to offer a spectacular line up of special guests for the weekend, which will be the eighth weekend of music organised by the Celtic Flute School of New Zealand.

Our intention with these workshops is to provide tuition in traditional Irish music in an informal environment and to give participants an experience similar to that found at summer schools in Ireland.


Registrations

Early Bird: $130 (until 30th of April)
Regular: $150

Register online or print the online form and register via the post.

Featuring
Kevin Burke - Fiddle
Fred Graham - Fiddle
Jon Sanders - Guitar
Claire Fitzpatrick - Free Reed
Brendyn Montgomery - Flute
Alex Davidson - Flute
Pat Higgins - Whistle
Kath McDonald - Set Dancing

www.ceolaneas.org

YouTube - The Loudness War

YouTube - The Loudness War - An interesting look at how recording engineers and companies are fooling our ears, pushing up the perceived volume of tracks at the expense of the quality. This is considered 'necessary' to make your track 'radio friendly'.