Morning Songs

Late Bloomer: a brilliant folk album by Allie Moss

I have worked alongside Allie Moss for nearly a year and heard her new album, Late Bloomer, around the end of last year. The album opens with a familiar song, Corner, which was featured on the BT Infinity advert in the UK last year. Her beautiful voice, combined with her gentle acoustic songs, makes it an amazing album that any folk enthusiast can enjoy.

Love and Theft by Andreas Hykade

Traditional folk music was distributed by word of mouth, with musicians trading songs and making other people’s melodies their own. There was no such thing as copyright law. These days, all sorts of media follow the same model, and this video by Andreas Hykade illustrates how the contemporary culture maker can make beautiful new things out of old, recognizable images.

Mihaly Dresch

I heard the Hungarian jazz and folk saxophonist — Mihaly Dresch — in Budapest one Christmas and I fell in love completely. I put the CD on and straight away his tone, control and dexterity was enough to make me get up out of my seat and turn the volume way up. I wanted to just be immersed in this music. But aside from his playing, his compositions are breathtaking. Read more

Irina Werning’s Back to the Future photo series

Argentine photographer Irina Werning has complied this beautiful and poignant collection of portraits of adults re-enacting images of themselves as kids. From what I gather, she has asked people to submit photographs of themselves and then returned with them to these same spots at the same times in their lives. She’ll take this project round the world, from Baghdad to Eurodisney, and is looking for willing participants. Read more

Bug fighting in South East Asia

Of all the little idiosyncratic activities I’ve come across since living in Southeast Asia, this nears the favourite. The bug fights are held in a cemetery about half an hour outside of Chiang Mai late in the year when the stags are at their randiest. It pulls an impressive crowd who bet some hefty dollars on the winner, claimed by the beetle who throws its opponent off the revolving log and struts (or crawls) to victory. Read more

What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner

All hail the magic 8-ball of cooking; the answer to those painful moments of indecision that plague every shopper at around 6pm on a hectic Monday evening. It’s not the nagging voice that questions every decision you make, but the blunt, obnoxious hollering of an online Gordon Ramsay. The kitchen abides.