A familiar voice was coming from the radio on Sunday afternoon – but something was not quite right.
Yes – it was Charlotte Green.
But on Classic FM, not Radio 4
Links
Charlotte Green's Great Composers
BBC Radio 4's Charlotte Green to join Classic FM
Related post
Stories of science
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Monday, April 15, 2013
Thursday, April 04, 2013
Funny old week
It’s a funny old week.
For the most part there has been lots of blue sky & sunshine, but the clouds have been racing the wrong way – to, not from, the west, driven by a biting, gusting east wind. The temperature has barely risen above freezing in the day time; patches of snow still lie on the hills, & even low down in places where the sun don’t get to shine. One of the most lonely high roads is still closed because of ice & snow.
Tuesday saw queues practically out of the door at the bank – not a panic, in the conventional sense, just the end of the financial year & the first day they were open after a long holiday weekend.
Just to add to the disorientation, the clocks went forward to Summer Time, many familiar Radio 4 fixtures came to the end of their season, so some familar audio landmarks are lost; & BBC World Service, which takes over the frequency at 1am, sticks resolutely to GMT, so their programmes have moved their slots on our clock.
No wonder it is hard to remember what time of which day of which season it is
For the most part there has been lots of blue sky & sunshine, but the clouds have been racing the wrong way – to, not from, the west, driven by a biting, gusting east wind. The temperature has barely risen above freezing in the day time; patches of snow still lie on the hills, & even low down in places where the sun don’t get to shine. One of the most lonely high roads is still closed because of ice & snow.
Tuesday saw queues practically out of the door at the bank – not a panic, in the conventional sense, just the end of the financial year & the first day they were open after a long holiday weekend.
Just to add to the disorientation, the clocks went forward to Summer Time, many familiar Radio 4 fixtures came to the end of their season, so some familar audio landmarks are lost; & BBC World Service, which takes over the frequency at 1am, sticks resolutely to GMT, so their programmes have moved their slots on our clock.
No wonder it is hard to remember what time of which day of which season it is
Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Sir Arthur Sullivan & the Black Cowboy
In an intriguing programme for BBC Radio 4 Sarfraz Manzoor looked into the story of real-life black cowboys in America. He also secured an interview with Herb Jeffries, still alive at the age of nearly 100, who starred as a black cowboy in films made in the 1930s for showing to black audiences in the segregated cinemas of those days.
But Jeffries – who had sung with Duke Ellington & Earl Hines – is white, Manzoor asserts, son of an Italian father & an Irish mother; although therefore quite dark complected he used Max Factor make-up to darken his skin for the screen.
Some internet sources do not mention this fact, others claim that his father had mixed African & Sicilian blood.
I am particularly intrigued by this story because of the way it mirrors claims about the background of Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame), who was, according to Arthur Jacobs, his most authoritative biographer, also of mixed Italian/Irish descent.
Just goes to show how tricky it can be to put people into the right box.
Link
YouTube: Herb Jeffries – 1950
Herb Jeffries 'The Bronze Buckaroo'
BBC Radio 4: Forgotten Black Cowboys
Oakland Black Cowboy Association
Texas Black Cowboys
Related post
The Black Irish
Jackie Kay: Red Dust Road
But Jeffries – who had sung with Duke Ellington & Earl Hines – is white, Manzoor asserts, son of an Italian father & an Irish mother; although therefore quite dark complected he used Max Factor make-up to darken his skin for the screen.
Some internet sources do not mention this fact, others claim that his father had mixed African & Sicilian blood.
I am particularly intrigued by this story because of the way it mirrors claims about the background of Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame), who was, according to Arthur Jacobs, his most authoritative biographer, also of mixed Italian/Irish descent.
Just goes to show how tricky it can be to put people into the right box.
Link
YouTube: Herb Jeffries – 1950
Herb Jeffries 'The Bronze Buckaroo'
BBC Radio 4: Forgotten Black Cowboys
Oakland Black Cowboy Association
Texas Black Cowboys
Related post
The Black Irish
Jackie Kay: Red Dust Road
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Grammar school dames
Yesterday’s especially interesting guest on Radio 4’s Life Scientific was Sue Ions, nuclear engineer.
It was an unusually challenging interview by Jim Al-Khalili – probably better that way; Dame Sue was more than capable of giving a spirited & persuasive defence of the need for nuclear power, & the dangers of relying on wind for a supply reliable enough to keep our lights & computers ready to obey our commands.
The aspect of her career which especially intrigued me however was her education at a girls-only state school, where two inspirational male teachers – in chemistry & physics – motivated both her & her classmate & fellow Dame, Nancy Rothwell (Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester) to take up careers in science.
Yet another example to set one pondering the part which luck plays in the life chances of us all.
Links
Penwortham Girls High School
Penwortham Girls High School Alumnae
President and Vice-Chancellor for The University of Manchester
Related post
Clever clogs
It was an unusually challenging interview by Jim Al-Khalili – probably better that way; Dame Sue was more than capable of giving a spirited & persuasive defence of the need for nuclear power, & the dangers of relying on wind for a supply reliable enough to keep our lights & computers ready to obey our commands.
The aspect of her career which especially intrigued me however was her education at a girls-only state school, where two inspirational male teachers – in chemistry & physics – motivated both her & her classmate & fellow Dame, Nancy Rothwell (Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester) to take up careers in science.
Yet another example to set one pondering the part which luck plays in the life chances of us all.
Links
Penwortham Girls High School
Penwortham Girls High School Alumnae
President and Vice-Chancellor for The University of Manchester
Related post
Clever clogs
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Blue blood
An absorbing new series on Radio 4 talks to people who must listen – intently- for a living.
It was while cardiac surgeon Jonathan Pitts Crick was talking about de-oxygenated blood returning to the heart – the blue blood – that it suddenly occurred to me to wonder why we use the phrase blue-blooded to mean aristocratic. What can be good, admirable or desirable about not having enough oxygen?
It seems unlikely that it could really be a dig, suggesting a class which is effete & decadent (in contrast to more lusty red-blooded types), since I always understood blue blood to be admired.
The Phrase Finder suggests that it a literal translation of the Spanish 'sangre azul', attributed to some of the oldest and proudest families of Castile, who claimed never to have intermarried with Moors, Jews, or other, darker skinned peoples. Their skin was whiter than white, fair enough for you to be able to see the blue in their veins.
The OED does not give us an etymology, but does include a quotation from Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies (published in 1863): Like an old blue-blooded hidalgo of Spain.
Yet another word to be careful about using.
Link
BBC Radio 4: The Listeners
Phrase finder: Blue blood
Related post
Passing white
It was while cardiac surgeon Jonathan Pitts Crick was talking about de-oxygenated blood returning to the heart – the blue blood – that it suddenly occurred to me to wonder why we use the phrase blue-blooded to mean aristocratic. What can be good, admirable or desirable about not having enough oxygen?
It seems unlikely that it could really be a dig, suggesting a class which is effete & decadent (in contrast to more lusty red-blooded types), since I always understood blue blood to be admired.
The Phrase Finder suggests that it a literal translation of the Spanish 'sangre azul', attributed to some of the oldest and proudest families of Castile, who claimed never to have intermarried with Moors, Jews, or other, darker skinned peoples. Their skin was whiter than white, fair enough for you to be able to see the blue in their veins.
The OED does not give us an etymology, but does include a quotation from Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies (published in 1863): Like an old blue-blooded hidalgo of Spain.
Yet another word to be careful about using.
Link
BBC Radio 4: The Listeners
Phrase finder: Blue blood
Related post
Passing white
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