Studio 64 (Kimberley) Spring 2022 Jazz and Blues Concert Series – Melody Diachun Quartet. (2022/04/16)

When starting out on a new project it is always a good idea to have a clear goal in mind. It provides stimulus and focus. Last time round (2017) the Nelson musician Melody Daichun zeroed in on the music of Brazil and the Beatles. It informed the program for a brilliant concert held on October 28,2017 at the Studio 64. This time round the goal of choice for Melody and her quartet was the music of Sting. Now, Sting is best known as the front man for the band The Police. This loud, powerhouse trio of Sting (Bass, vocals), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (percussion) dominated the international pop scene in the years 1977 through 1986. While, I always thought that Sting was a bit of a poser, the band’s mixture of Punk, Reggae and Jazz appealed to me. Once I overlooked the abrasive loudness and hype of the band I realized their music had substance. Maybe it was just the jazz influences that appealed to me.  Post-Police, with his strong song writing skills, Sting emerged as a solo performer with musicality and an uncanny ability to form brilliant collaborations with musicians from across the musical spectrum. At one stage he was fronting “the best jazz band in the world”. An exaggeration perhaps but not by much. That band included saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist Kenny Kirkland and they definitely had solid jazz credentials. Their performances provided a whole new sophisticated way of presenting the music of Sting. In light of this new perspective it is no wonder that Melody Diachun (vocals) Doug Stephenson (bass), David Restivo (piano) and Tony Ferraro (drums) chose a program of Sting’s music. Originally, the intent was to go into the studio and record the material for a new CD. Of course, the Covid pandemic put that on pause for over two years. We are slowly emerging from the shadow of the last two years and the recording project is back on track. This concert was a preview of the CD that will be released later this year.

The first tune of the evening was the reggae inspired Walking on the Moon. Originally recorded by The Police in October 1979 the title is a euphemism for walking on air i.e.. “falling in Love”. The second song was The Shape of my Heart, a song that reveals Sting’s nice gift for crafting words.

I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that’s not the shape of my heart

Fragile is my all time favorite song by Sting and the 5/4 bass intro by Doug Stephenson took the performance to another level. Don’t Stand So Close to Me, also from The Police repertoire, is a rumination on the mixed feelings of lust, fear and guilt. Roxanne is one of those songs that lends itself to a myriad of interpretations. From a soft bossa nova to ear numbing power house rock. The songs and the brilliant interpretations rolled on through the evening with sparkling instrumental solos on bass, piano and drums interspersed among the lyrics. It was nice to hear David Restivo on the Centre’s grand piano and, of course, the Kootenay’s “go to drummer” Tony Ferraro with all his tasty licks, fills, punctuations and sonic shadings.  Other songs included When we Dance, Tea in Sahara, Love is a Seventh Wave (with some great brushwork by Tony Ferraro), Consider Me Gone (based on Shakespeare’s Sonnet #35 and featuring a great bass line explored on the piano), We Worked the Black Seam, I Burn for You and Fields of Barley. The song lyrics for  Russians, written in another time, in another place and in a different set of circumstances are  so appropriate for today that they could have been written any time in the past month.

There is no monopoly on common sense

On either side of the political fence

We share the same biology, regardless of ideology

Believe me when I say to you

I hope the Russians love their children too

The audience participation on the final line “I hope the Russians love their children too” was a nice touch.

The evening had some touches of humor. Melody gave up on her high, high, training heels and opted for gym shoes in the second half and we thought we had lost her for the rest of the evening when she accidently locked her self out of the performance area when the musicians were taking extended solos on a tune.

The audience for the evening was small. That was a shame because it was a stellar performance and if the musicians decide to come back and do a repeat show then it should not be missed. The numbers of patrons  may have been low because of pandemic hesitancy or just the fact that it was Easter Saturday.

Thanks must go to the Kimberley Arts Council and the organizing Committee. In keeping live music, well “Live”, they stepped up to the plate in these difficult times. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You. And thanks Ray for the excellent sound and lights.

I am looking forward to the release of the CD later in the year. In the meantime here are some images from the evening………….

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POSTSCRIPT:

Rick Beato’s interview with Sting –

Fragile – The Jazz Baltica 2003 Performance –

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Shortly after this concert Melody and a crew of musicians went into a studio in Vancouver and recorded the album Sumners Tales – The Music of Sting that will be released in October 2022. This is Fields of Barley from the album.

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I knew it as “The Bower”, short for Fairy Bower, a right hand reef break off the headland just beyond the south end of Manly Beach in Sydney Australia.  In days gone bye, as the story goes, the bush land trails there about was notorious as a meeting places for gays.  But that is another story. The break was not often in good condition but when the swell was up and coming from the right direction it was a magnet for aspiring “hard men”. There were a number of ways to get to the break. You could walk the promenade from Manly beach to the Milk Bar mid-way between Manly and Shelley  Beach and hop the sea wall to a  convenient launching spot for the short paddle across the bay.. Alternatively one could drive to the side road that lead down to the Milk Bar and that adjacent launching spot. Because of the lack of parking that was not usually advised. The final route was to drive to the parking spot on the top of the Fairy Bower headland, unload your surf board  and walk down through the bush or down by Shelley Beach  to find a convenient launching spot at the base of the cliff. The surf was the stuff of legends. The take off spot was as close to the cliff as one dared to go. The idea was to  jockey for the ideal take off spot, paddle in, drop down into a bottom turn, climb up the wave high enough to navigate around Surge Rock then settle in for The Race Track out into the channel. In days before leg leashes it was inevitable that at some time during the day you would take a tumble and have to swim out into the middle of channel to retrieve your surf board. It was always a little unsettling to look down as you swam over the reef and watched it drop away below you into the deep dark water of the channel. I often wondered who or what actually lived down there.

A lot depended on the tide and the direction of the swell to create a quality wave but when the quality arrived the  spot had its legends and heroes. In the mid-1960s “Nipper” Williams, Glenn Ritchie and Robbie Lane were the acknowledged masters.  There was one very famous photo of “Nipper” Williams taking off way “inside” and navigating around the top of Surge Rock. One day, in a monumental breach  of surfing etiquette I made the mistake of “dropping in” on “Nipper” Williams as he came roaring out of the inside take off area. At the end of the ride he reminded me of my breach of etiquette. No harsh words,  just a gentlemanly reminder to do the right thing in future.  Those were kinder, gentler days and in modern times it might have lead to a punch up in the water or a later altercation on the beach. Over the years surfers started pushing the boundaries of what was possible by moving into more dangerous take off spots closer and closer to the cliff face.  Warren Smith opened up one such spot that became known as Winky Pop. At the time we thought he was insane.

I did have one monumental day. I think it was an early morning session before heading off to work.The surf was up, way, way up. I drove to the Milk Bar and parked the car. There were lots of available parking spaces. That should have been my first clue. Even though it was very early in the day it was still unusual for so many parking spots to be available. I looked across the bay and it did look big. That should have been my second clue.  I paddled across the bay and further and further out to what I assumed would be the take off spot. I was getting more nervous by the minute. The swell was absolutely massive. Probably fifteen foot plus and thick, thick, thick…….. and the roar of the breaking waves that filled the air was thunderous.  Eventually, I realized I was the only surfer in the water and maybe there was reason for that. That was clue number three. In the past I had ridden beach breaks of over ten feet or so and I thought maybe I could handle this. But on reconsidering the situation I realized that this swell was way out of my league. If I got into trouble it would be big, big trouble and I was out here all alone. In the end I chickened out, counted my blessings and paddled back across the bay to the Milk Bar. I can’t remember if it was the same day, same weekend end or even the same storm swell but around that time there was a photo story in the local surf magazine of a big surf day at the Fairy Bower. It featured a photo of  Billy Hannah racing across the bottom of a massive twenty foot face that hovered over him like the “hammer of doom”. He took a pounding and lost his board. It was last seen being swept out to sea. It was never recovered. For all we knew it could have ended up in New Zealand.

That was then and this is now. We are fifty years further on into April 2022 with big storm swells hitting the East Coast of Australia. There are many YouTube videos of a surf spot called Deadman’s at Manly Beach in Sydney Australia. I had never heard of this spot but after viewing the videos it became evident to my eyes this was the old surf spot I knew as The Fairy Bower. Somewhere along the way the prissy name had been replaced with the more threatening Deadman’s. Considering the size of the waves, “the do or die” take off spot right in front of the cliff it is a very apt name. Over the past fifty years big wave riding has evolved to the point where surfers are attacking giant swells in a manner that in former times would have been considered suicidal. This is a big wave surfing spot almost in the middle of big city suburbia that rivals some of the legendary big wave spots in Hawaii and California. Check out the following video of a big day at Deadman’s ………

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Well, the reputation of tuckers has recently taken a pounding so it is good to read some novels that portray these knights of the road  in a more pleasing light. Better  yet, these are Canadian stories written by the Canadian author  R.E.Donald. This series of six stories is called The  Hunter Rayne Highway Mystery Books.

” Ruth E. Donald was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She worked in the transportation industry in various capacities for 25 years (from 1972 until 2001) and draws on this experience, as well as those of Jim Donald (her late husband), in creating the realistic situations and characters in her novels. She went to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., where she studied creative writing and languages (French, Russian, and German) to get a Bachelor of Arts degree. Ruth’s always been an avid reader and has been especially attracted to murder mysteries. She loves the puzzle and loves the satisfaction that comes with solving the crime and seeing justice done. ” The novels in the series include:

• Slow Curve on the Coquihalla (2011)
• Ice on the Grapevine (2011)
• Sea to Sky (2012)
• Sundown on Top of the World ( 2015)
• White Liners (2015
• Yellowhead Blues (2019)

Ruth’s debut novel, called “Slow Curve on the Coquihalla”. In this novel a well respected truck driver and owner of a family trucking business, is discovered dead in his truck down a steep embankment along the Coquihalla highway which winds through the mountains in British Columbia, his distraught daughter wants to know how and why his truck left the highway on an easy uphill curve. This compels Hunter Rayne, a fellow trucker and retired RCMP detective with daughters of his own, to help her find answers. As he uncovers signs of illegal cross border activity originating in a Seattle warehouse, Hunter recruits an old friend, an outlaw biker, to infiltrate what appears to be an international smuggling ring. But while Hunter follows up clues and waits for critical information from his old friend, the wily biker starts to play his own angles. Finally, putting all the pieces together, there in the dark on the same uphill curve on the Coquihalla highway, Hunter risks it all to confront the murderer. Slow Curve on the Coquihalla is the first in a traditional mystery series featuring “semi-” professional sleuth, Hunter Rayne. After serving over 20 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and becoming a skilled detective, Hunter resigned from the force and took to the road as a long haul trucker. His ex-wife is convinced he is running away from the personal tragedy that made him leave a job he loved. Hunter himself doesn’t know why, he only knows he has to keep following the white lines. ……… Amazon Books

Ice on the Grapevine – “On a warm July morning in L.A. County, a frozen corpse turns up at a highway brake check just south of the Grapevine Pass. Ex-homicide detective Hunter Rayne, who now drives an eighteen wheeler, is persuaded by his irascible dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, to help clear two fellow truck drivers who are arrested for the murder. His job is made more difficult by the fact that the suspects, a newlywed couple, won’t speak up in their own defense. The circumstantial evidence is strong, and a rookie detective from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is eager to score a win. The investigation crosses the Canada-U.S. border when the victim is identified as a second rate musician from Vancouver, and it turns out there were more than a few desperate people happy to see him dead, including the accused couple. Hunter has to use all his investigative skills to uncover the truth.Hunter’s ex-wife maintains that by taking to the highway Hunter is running away from his past, but he believes that the solitude of days on the road is helping him to heal from guilt over the failure of his marriage and the suicide of his best friend. Tangled relationships and multiple suspects emerge throughout the novel, as Hunter butts heads with more than one officer of the law to solve the crime”………… Amazon Books

Sea to Sky – “ During what was supposed to be a few days of skiing at the Whistler Mountain resort with an attractive female acquaintance, former homicide detective Hunter Rayne finds himself the prime suspect in the RCMP’s hunt for “The Chairlift Killer”. Hunter has no choice but to get involved in the investigation in order to clear his name.Scheduled to haul a load of freight to Northern California, trucker Hunter calls up his old friend, biker Dan Sorenson, to take his place behind the wheel. What connects the badass biker from Yreka, California to the most prolific female serial killer in US history? And what happens when dispatcher El Watson ignores Hunter’s warning and sends the biker on a search for clues to the motive behind the murder? In the midst of the investigation, Hunter’s life gets complicated when the progress of his new relationship is hampered by the appearance of a woman from his troubled past. ………. Amazon Books

Sundown on Top of World – ” Former homicide investigator Hunter Rayne follows the white lines north on the Alaska Highway, but a truck breakdown forces him to take an unscheduled stop in Whitehorse, Yukon, where he started his career as a rookie cop. While his Freightliner is awaiting repairs, Hunter takes a side trip to bush Alaska where a chance meeting with a young Alaskan woman reawakens his interest in a baffling cold case. A reclusive trapper and his young girlfriend disappeared from a bloody cabin in 1972, leaving their sled dogs chained outside. Riddles from the past coupled with a recent murder find Hunter back in investigative mode with the blessings of Whitehorse RCMP boss Bartholomew Sam, son of a shaman and Hunter’s old friend. He finds himself searching the banks of the mighty Yukon River for a tough old bush woman who may hold the key to more than one bloody death. It’s a vivid reminder that the breathtaking beauty of the northern wilderness camouflages its brutal indifference to human life. What readers are saying about ‘Sundown on Top of the World’ and the Hunter Rayne Highway Mysteries: “Very good continuation of a strong series, and the best so far.” “I have read and enjoyed all of the Hunter Rayne series. This is the best one to date with more intriguing characters and lots of action” ………. Amazon Books

White Liners – “Love a good mystery? Three short stories introduce the three main characters from R.E. Donald’s Highway Mysteries series, traditional mysteries featuring Hunter Rayne, a former homicide detective turned long haul truck driver. His boss is Elspeth Watson, also known to her drivers as Big Mother Trucker. In spite of being a woman in a man’s world, she has no trouble keeping her drivers in line. Hunter also has a friend and sometime co-driver named Dan Sorenson. He’s a garrulous biker who sometimes has difficulty with impulse control. Meet these three characters for free (in Kindle eBooks) and if you like spending time with them, you might just have found yourself a favorite new mystery series.” ………. Amazon Books

Yellowhead Blues – “Just west of the Rocky Mountains, a frightened horse with a bloody saddle is found running loose on the Yellowhead highway. Former RCMP investigator Hunter Rayne is on the road in his eighteen-wheeler when he’s flagged down to help calm the horse and find its missing rider. The horse with the bloody saddle leads Hunter and a good-natured French Canadian cowboy into a complicated murder mystery. The police are none too happy with his interference, but Hunter strongly believes the RCMP has arrested the wrong man and sets out to uncover who stood to gain from the death of a wealthy ranch owner. His belief in the suspect’s innocence is shared by a rookie female RCMP constable who joins him in the search for the truth. She befriends the dead man’s young fiancé in an effort to get answers, and discovers that the vulnerable Texas beauty is not who the victim’s family believes her to be. This is the fifth novel in a unique mystery series set on the highways of North America.What readers are saying about the Highway Mysteries:“Love the author’s books. Excellent characters and settings. She is now on my short list of current favorite authors.” “This series is beautifully researched, vividly written, and always captivating. It respects the nobility which resides in everyone while portraying some unforgettable characters.”“… great writing, excellent pacing that sucks you in right away and makes you forget about the world around you, characters you like and who talk and act the way real people do, set in a place that makes it feel like an adventure, and best of all– a wicked smart plot.“I love the way the main character, Hunter Rayne, thinks, interacts with people, and in general would put him into the lofty echelons with Adam Dalgliesh, Morse and the Hon. Det Lynley. Great and satisfying series.“ Hunter is the man. Donald has written a super story that would make a good movie. I think we have another Harry Bosch character.” …….. Amazon Books

Ruth lives on a ranch in Lone Butte, BC, where she and Gilbert Roy (her partner) enjoy their Canadian Horses and other assorted animals.

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We, British Columbians  that is, have a knee jerk mental response to think of other places and situations in the wider world as “Exotic”. Yet when we realistically look around at our immediate environment we are actually the  “Exotic”. It is not some far off land. It’s right here. Just take a look at the scenery outside our window. Snow capped mountains and glaciers; forests as far as the eye can see; deer and elk in the front yard; cougars, black bear, mountain goats etc just down the road. All of this populated by citizens as varied and exotic as anywhere else in the world.  Each morning I look out the window and I say to myself “another rotten day in paradise”. So when I pick up a novel, or in this case a series of novels that celebrates the “exotic” of my day to day world I am entranced. And when they are just good reads to boot then I only think it is fair to spread the news far and wide. This series of novels may not be monumental literature but they are good reads so go ahead and visit our “Exotic” world. So treat yourself, pick up one up today.

Also, do not let your opinion of truckers be colored by the political nonsense of recent days in Ottawa. That was an aberration and has little to do with the day to day life of your average trucker.

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In my youth I was never a big fan of Murder/Mystery/ Crime fiction. Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie were never on my reading list. But in my late middle age something must have changed because that particular genre of literature is almost my preferred recreational reading. My wife being Scottish may have had something to do with it. She introduced me to the Scottish writer Ian Rankin.  It was only a short hop to the Swedish novels of Henning Mankel  and a whole plethora of Nordic Noir. So now that I am hooked,  I am always on the look out for new writers in the genre and the latest one to come to my attention is B.M. Allsop. She is  an Australian writer of The Fiji Island Mysteries. She lived in the South Pacific islands for fourteen years, including four in Fiji where she worked at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. She now lives in Sydney with her husband and tabby cat. All of the key ingredients of the genre are there in the series. There are good plots with an unexpected twist here and there, peopled by believable, sometimes flawed, characters, all set in a specific geographical location that invests the  novel with a unique atmosphere. On the requirements of plot, personalities and character development The Fiji Island Mysteries scores top marks. In the series there are five novels that feature two main characters, DI Josefa (Joe) Horseman – a washed-up rugby player and DS Susie Singh  a driven Indian woman who has to deal with familiar gender issues as well the racial and feudal issues of Fijian society.

• Death of a Hero: Fiji Islands Mysteries is the prequel to the Fiji Islands Mysteries series. Set in 1990s Suva, the young Horseman’s first case is not only a twisty whodunit that will have you reaching for your thinking cap, but a sensitive coming-of-age story that will touch your heart…..  Amazon.  This is  the rugby playing Josefa (Joe) Horseman in his youth at the University of the South Pacific (USP). Like most Fijians the motivating force in his life is Rugby and to this end he was on the University rugby team while studying for a business degree. All that changed when the team captain was murdered and he became a prime suspect.To clear his name he became involved in the investigation and in the process his academic focus shifted from business to policing. That’s how it all began.
• Fijian Island Mysteries: Book one – Death on Paradise Island.  Joe had left University behind him and chosen a career in the police. The chance to play on the police rugby team was a  motivator. Rugby is a brutal game and he suffered some career ending injuries that required treatment and rehabilitation in the USA. On his return to Fiji he is immediately back on the job investigating  a murder on a resort island. Tourism and environmental concerns are big issues on the islands and the murder in a resort setting poses significant challenges and difficulties.
• Fijian Island Mysteries: Book Two – Death by Tradition. “Only 5 more days… Horseman can’t wait for his American girlfriend, to join him in Fiji. So, when a young activist is murdered in the remote highlands, Horseman sets a deadline to crack the case. But he knows nothing of the dangers looming through the mountain mist.” ….. Amazon Books. Fiji must be one of the few feudal societies left on the planet and as such it creates some of the unique challenges that are explored in this story.
• Fijian Island Mysteries: Book Three – Death Beyond the Limit. “DI Joe Horseman stares into the eyes of a severed head fished out of a shark’s gut. Did the tiger shark kill Jona or was he already dead when it clamped its teeth around his neck?” ….. Amazon Books. The novel explores the political and environmental complexities of industrial fishing and how a small island nation has to deal with the big political and commercial international players in the industry.
• Fijian Island Mysteries: Book Four – Death Sentence. “Everyone in Fiji hates Dev Reddy, in prison for horrific abuse of his own son. When he is released after serving only half his term, the Fiji media whip up a public outcry in Suva. As protest escalates to riot, DI Joe Horseman fears Reddy’s parole may prove to be a death sentence. But Horseman defies the court of public opinion. He must even battle his new boss to protect Reddy just like any other citizen under threat. Together with DS Susie Singh, he pursues blind justice through the streets of Suva and the rural back blocks. Can he unearth a killer the public applauds?” …. Amazon Books.

The series has been a wonderful way to explore the geography and culture of a location that is tucked away from public view and allows one realize that despite the remoteness of the islands there are certain themes and issues that are universal. The place names and the Fijian language might be a bit of a challenge but the rewards are well worth the small effort required.

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Highlands and Islands Detective Thriller Series by G.R. Jordan

This box set collection contains the first six books in the Highlands and Islands Detective Thriller series which have already been published as individual books:

• Water’s Edge
• The Bothy
• The Horror Weekend
• The Small Ferry
• Dead at Third Man
• The Pirate Club

When we think about Scottish Murder/Mysteries the author Ian Rankin and his chief protagonist John Rebus comes to mind. His stories are generally in the urban settings of Edinburgh and we forget that there are are two Scottish realities.  One, the modern urban Scotland that is a land of modern cities similar to the rest of the world albeit with a Scottish accent. Two, the other part of Scotland,  the wilder more primitive  regions of the  north and west – The Highlands and Islands. Ian Rankin’s urban world is much the same as the rest of us, a little grittier perhaps  but with a Scottish accent.  G.R Jordan’s world is a Scotland  where the “Wee Free Church” and a Calvinistic mentality  still has some hold over the minds and manners of men and women. Sunday in that part of Scotland is the Sabbath with attendance at  two Church services and the rest of the day is spent in prayer and contemplation. Nothing moves or is pursued in that part of Scotland on Sunday. Just try and get a restaurant meal on Sunday in the Western Isles. Things are changing but on the Isle of Skye  in 1972 we found that just getting a meal on a Sunday was a challenge.

In this collection of six novels the author invites you to join stalwart policeman  DI Macleod and his burgeoning new DC McGrath as they look into the darker side of the stunningly scenic and wilder parts of the north of Scotland. From the Black Isle to Lewis, from Mull to Harris and across to the small Isles, the Uists and Barra.  This mismatched pair follow murders, thieves and vengeful victims in an effort to restore tranquillity to the remoter parts of the land. MacLeod is very, very  old school and is trying to come to terms with his traditional view of things and the political, cultural and professional changes taking place around him. His new partner, McGrath, is a very modern miss who has to deal with the macho male mentality of her chosen profession but is very much in tune with the changing world around her..

Become a observer of these tales of a surprise partnership, amid the foulest deeds and darkest souls who stalk this peaceful and most beautiful of lands, and you’ll never see the Highlands in the same light ever again.

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I do most of my reading on Kindle. By and large I have nothing but high praise for the device. I particularly like the bright screen and the  instant availability of the dictionary. The only time I find Kindle  less than satisfactory is when the reading material has a lot of graphics. I also subscribe to a service called BookBud that sends me daily listings of budget priced e-books. It has been a wonderful avenue for finding new and interesting books. All at a low cost.  The Fijian Island Mysteries and the Highlands and Islands Detective Thriller Series are two collections that I would not have found otherwise.

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Australia. “The Land Down Under” and the last great discovery in “The Golden Age of Exploration”. An island continent perched  on the edge of nothing. Below Australia there is no significant land mass until Antartica. To the East there a lots of scattered Pacific islands but no major land mass until until you eventually hit South America. To the west, provided you steer ever so slightly north there is Africa but if you veer just a little bit south there is nothing until you hit the east coast of South America. Once again, to the north of Australia there are lots of island nations but no major land mass until you hit the Asian mainland. Australia is a long, long way from everywhere, including the Balkans.

The Balkans. Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia of the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria  Albania, Macedonia and Greece are a collection of small nations that are the buffer states between Christian Europe and the Islamic states of Asia and the Middle East. If it were only as simple as a  case of East meets West then maybe the history of the region would have been different. Within the Balkans there is a hoge-poge mixture of ethnic and religious animosities. Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians, Hungarians, Romanians, Macedonians, Muslim, Orthodox Christians, protestant denominations and  Roman Catholics all intent on pursuing their own agendas.  On first glance one would be forgiven for discounting the Balkans as a region of world wide significance. And yet what happened in the Balkans in 1914 precipitated World War I and impacted the whole world. Australia is a long way from the Balkans and yet the activities there eventually resulted in Australian and New Zealand troops fighting the Turks in the Dardanelles. That campaign became a monumental military disaster and gave birth to the ANZAC mythology that has became ingrained in the culture of both of those countries. How is that possible?

The author Tim Butcher was obviously puzzled by notion of how could the assassination of two Austrian Royals in a nondescript  Balkan city in 1914 lead to a World war. After all Arch Duke Ferdinand wasn’t the first assassination in that part of the world. What was so different about the circumstances of that particular event? Tim explores the event and then  goes onto explore the ongoing pivotal role of the Balkans in the history of the twentieth century.

“A splendid book, part memoir, part history,” about the teenager who killed Archduke Ferdinand and sparked World War I.

“Sarajevo, 1914.  On a June morning, nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip drew a pistol from his pocket and fired the first shot of the First World War, killing the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Princip then launched a series of events that would transform the world forever. Retracing Princip’s steps from the feudal frontier village of his birth to the city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, journalist and bestselling author Tim Butcher discovers details about the young assassin that have eluded historians for a century. Drawing on his own experiences in the Balkans covering the Bosnian War in the 1990s, Butcher also unravels the complexities and conflicts of this part of the world, showing how the events of that day in 1914 still have influence today.” –  Amazon Books……

For history buffs this is a good fast read and I highly recommend it as a companion to Balkan Ghosts – A Journey through History by Robert D. Kaplan (1993). To have some understanding of the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s this is an essential read. I have read it several times and I will probably read it again.

Most books on the Balkans point back to the 1938 travel book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by novelist Rebecca West. Although it is listed as a classic I found it heavy going.

On a tangential subject Why Angels Fall – A journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo by Victoria Clark (2000) is also an excellent read. Back in the heyday of the Soviet empire there was a belief that the empire was evil because the communists had lost religion. It was thought that once they found religion again the world would come back into balance. That has turned out to be a pretty naive assumption. The Soviet empire has gone and Putin’s Russia is once again Orthodox and yet nothing much has changed.  Victoria Clark’s book is an exploration of the impact of the various Christian Orthodox religions on modern Eastern Europe. Unfortunately it is a book that is hard to find. My edition I picked up in a second hand book store in Sydney Australia.

(2022//01/03 – I have just discovered that Why ANGELS Fall is now available from Kindle for $9.99)

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Postcript: Growing up in Sydney,  Australia any notion of the Balkans was intimately linked with the the local football (Soccer) clubs. The growth of the sport was linked to post war immigration from Britain and Southern Europe. Local clubs conformed to ethnic origins with such teams as Yugal, Croatia, Pan-Hellenic, Macedonian and Italian based clubs. Fans were divided along ethnic lines and often reflected old loyalties and divisions in the home countries. This often led to tensions off the field. If I remember correctly this lead to the renaming of some clubs to diffuse ethnic tensions. Also, if I remember correctly, in the 1960s it was not uncommon to read in the newspaper of bricks thrown through the window of the Yugoslav Consulate in Sydney. At that time ethnicYugoslav tensions in Australia were high off and on the soccer field.

Migrants continued to boost interest in the sport in the 1970s and 1980s, especially from the Middle East and the former Yugoslavia.

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About ten days ago I was standing by the kitchen window drinking my morning tea and it just caught my eye. The unmistakable tint of dead needles in one of the huge trees just downhill from the house. It was a surprise because earlier in the summer the trees by the house were healthy. This one must have died very quickly and very silently over the summer. The was no lightning strike no catastrophic event. It just died of old age I guess.  I walked down and checked it out and it was dead. A tree dying in the forest is not a remarkable event, however this was a huge tree and if it should come down it could take out our power, telephone, the sun deck and a significant portion of the house. There was no need to panic. A dead tree could stand for a couple of years before mother nature and gravity brings it down but eventually it would come down.

I contacted a local tree service run by Don Johnson. He came in, confirmed my fears and arranged to come back with a crew in few days and take it down. As mother nature would have it,  a tremendous storm blew through the province and Don was delayed as he dealt with clients with more urgent needs. A few days later he showed up with a crew, three trucks , Cherry picker, flat bed trailer, a huge chain saw, tools and a chipper. They formulated a plan: Stage 1 – Decide where to fall the tree and clean out the landing area; Stage 2 – Bring the tree down; Stage 3 – Remove the branches; Stage 4 – Cut up the log and remove; Stage 5 – Clean up

Here is  photographic record of what ended up as a  2-3 hour job………..

Preparing the landing site

Bark removal & the first cuts :

Working it with Wedges

And down she comes, on target  right between the trees…….

On the ground and the clean up

Counting the rings

Portrait of a Logger – Don Johnson

The Job’s done – The final paragraph: The tree  came in at around 80-90 feet and was probably around 200 years old. That means it germinated around the time Queen Victoria was born (1819) and was a mature tree by the year of Canadian Confederation. A tree of that maturity and magnitude deserves to have a name and Ol’ Vic would seem appropriate.

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There is nothing like a pandemic to whet ones appetite for a good post-apocalyptic novel. These days it seems that there is whole genre of science fiction that ruminates on what-if-end of world scenarios. There are plenty to pick from but a good place to start is to go back to the classics and that would include  THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS by John Wyndham. Written in 1951 it is probably his best known work and is a classic of the genre. His other famous novels  include the Midwich Cuckoos (1957) otherwise known as The Village of the Dammed. Readers today may find the writing style a little to old fashion but for me they are still page turners.

The Amazon synopsis of  The Day of the Triffids goes something like this……….