"That Little Room -The Story of Erin's Pub" documentary...

Erin's Pub - "...a place where music matters...where this music is treasured and preserved." Bob Hallett co-owner of Erin's Pub from the documentary "That Little Room - The Story of Erin's Pub- Newfoundland".

This is an amazing documentary full of great characters with wonderful stories, music and photography.

The image is from the Twitter account of Chris Andrews Congrats @CatsEyeCinema great job! @erinspub @ bobhallett @markganock @alanthomasdoyle @shanneyganock @greatbigsea
 

If you are not taking a flight in the near future and have not seen this fabulous documentary a copy is available on the Cats Eye Cinema YouTube site.

'That LITTLE Roomb' -:

Russell and the Anzac bicky...

“Eating Anzac biscuits links Australians to what is regarded as the birth of the Australian nation: the landing at Gallipoli in 1915…The biscuits have come to represent the courage of the soldiers at Gallipoli and signify the importance women played on the homefront.” (Supski date unknown).

Information has been circulating on social media about Russell Crowe and his movie the Water Diviner, and in particular his souvenir tins of the Aussie favourite Anzac biscuits. With over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, Russell has the power to promote a lot of things and fans jump on board with many of them including Australian culture. Despite their good intentions their interest often leads to cultural and social misunderstandings and perpetuated stereotypes through no fault of their own.

The Anzac biscuits in the lovely The Water Diviner tin are made in Australia by an Australian owned company Modern Baking with part of the proceeds going to the RSL who support veterans and their families since 1916. There is a story and tradition behind the tin and the biscuits inside. Some fans have even been making Anzacs and posting pictures on Russell Crowe’s Twitter account.

Being one never to miss an opportunity to research, I decided to go in search of the great Aussie myth sounding the creation and origins of the Anzac biscuit. (For those overseas fans who don’t know what ANZAC means. ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. This question seems to be raised by new fans every ANZAC day when Russell makes a post).

I remember my mother making Anzac biscuits when I was growing up with a recipe from the CWA cookbook. I loved Anzacs because they contained one of my favourites, coconut. They are made from oats, coconut, flour, sugar, bi carbonate of soda, butter, boiling water and the magic ingredient golden syrup. Ingredients most Australian households would have in the pantry. The dry ingredients are measured and mixed with the wet (bi carbonate of soda and golden syrup) plus butter then spooned into little balls onto a greased tray and baked in the oven until golden brown. The recipe seemed to make enough to feed an army and never spoilt. Today the homemade Anzac biscuits are replaced with a commercially made packet (made in Australia with part proceeds going to the RSL) and still part of the pantry.

In my research about the little Aussie biscuits we hold so close to our hearts I found out that my interpretation of the myth was challenged. The myth I always believed was that Anzac biscuits were made for soldiers fighting at Gallipoli with love from the women and families they left behind in Australia. The research completed by Supski titled “ANZAC Biscuits – A Culinary Memorial” at the Australian Research Institute of Curtin University of Technology investigates the importance of the Anzac biscuit, the role they have linking women on the homefront and celebrating Anzac Day. The author writes…

… ‘The biscuits have come to represent the courage of the soldiers at Gallipoli and signify the importance women played on the homefront. However, within this narrative is also a sleight of hand: Anzac biscuits link Australians to a time past, to a time that is regarded as “the birth of our nation”. In this sense, Anzac biscuits link Australians powerfully and instantly to a time and place that is regarded as the heart of Australian national identity. In the words of Graham Seal, ‘Anzac resonates of those things that most Australians have continued to hold dear about their communal sense of self’. Importantly, women are at the centre of the story of Anzac biscuits…

In a recent radio program — Radio National’s Saturday Morning Breakfast (23 April 2005) — Alan Saunders interviewed Kirsten Wehner about Anzac biscuits. Along with other writers, Wehner suggested that the recipe for Anzac biscuits was developed from a Scottish oatcake recipe. As with oatcakes, Anzac biscuits do not use eggs to bind the ingredients. However, unlike oatcakes, the originality of Anzac biscuits is the use of golden syrup. Eggs were not included because of the need to keep the biscuits fresh on the long journey. The packages sent to troops at Gallipoli and the Western Front took several months to arrive because of the slow-moving Merchant Navy ships….

The ANZAC Day webpage page explains their understanding of the origins of the Anzac biscuit … “During World War 1, the wives, mothers and girlfriends of the Australian soldiers were concerned for the nutritional value of the food being supplied to their men. Here was a problem. Any food they sent to the fighting men had to be carried in the ships of the Merchant Navy…

A body of women came up with the answer - a biscuit with all the nutritional value possible. The basis was a Scottish recipe using rolled oats. These oats were used extensively in Scotland, especially for a heavy porridge that helped counteract the extremely cold climate.

At first the biscuits were called Soldiers’ Biscuits, but after the landing on Gallipoli, they were renamed ANZAC Biscuits…

 As the war drew on, many groups like the CWA (Country Women’s Association), church groups, schools and other women’s organisations devoted a great deal of time to the making of ANZAC biscuits. To ensure that the biscuits remained crisp, they were packed in used tins, such as Billy Tea tins…

Other sources dispute this claim although it is commonly accepted Anzac biscuits were not the same biscuits made for the soldiers at Gallipoli but rather for those in World War 1 and renamed after the campaign. In an article on the Australian War Memorial webpage Anne-Marie Conde wrote in 2008…”The biscuit that most of us know as the Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit made from rolled oats and golden syrup. These must not be confused with that staple of soldiers' and sailors' rations for centuries, the hardtack biscuit.

To deal with these rather unpalatable objects first, hardtack biscuits are a nutritional substitute for bread, but unlike bread they do not go mouldy. And also unlike bread, they are very, very hard. On Gallipoli, where the supply of fresh food and water was often difficult to maintain, hardtack biscuits became notorious. So closely have they been identified with the whole Gallipoli experience that they are sometimes known Anzac tiles or Anzac wafer biscuits. Hence the confusion with the sweet biscuit…

The origin and invention of the sweet Anzac biscuit is contested. Conventionally it is an eggless sweet biscuit made from oats and gold syrup but these sweet biscuits are not the same rations that were supplied to soldiers in Gallipoli…

The Unibic Anzac Biscuits (who make the Anzac biscuits in The Water Diviner tin) official webpage describe the history of the Anzac biscuit and the history of their recipe… “Our recipe is based on a competition run by The Australian Women’s Weekly more than 40 years ago that aimed to come up with a definitive recipe for the iconic biscuit. As such ours have the traditional taste and crunchy texture that generations of Australians and New Zealanders have grown up with. Wholesome oats and coconut, and with a warm sweetness from golden syrup and brown sugar”.

It is difficult to prove the origins of the Anzac biscuit. The recipe may be different than those biscuits sent to the front in World War 1. However, I do believe the women of Australia sent food parcels to their loved ones on the front.  The Anzac biscuit serves the same purpose in my view for World War 1…“The biscuits have come to represent the courage of the soldiers at Gallipoli and signify the importance women played on the homefront”.

References

Anzac Day, 2014, Anzac Biscuits. At http://anzacday.org.au
Conde, M. 2008. Anzac Biscuit History. The Australian War Memorial at http://awm.gov.au/anzac/biscuit

Supski, S. (date unknown) “ANZAC Biscuits – A Culinary Memorial” Australian Research Institute of Curtin University of Technology.

The Water Diviner, 2014, ‘Support veterans with The Water Diviner Anzac Biscuits’, 10 November 2014 at http://thewaterdivinerfilm.wordpress.com
Unibic Anzac Biscuits, 2014, About Anzac Biscuits at http://unibivanzacbiscuits.com




 (unibic ANZAC biscuits picture heraldsun.com.au)

Rick Goes Cod Jigging...Legal YouTube video link

Please don't believe the rumours started by @lyndahere (to justify her piracy and to encourage people to visit her site and view videos) that this content not can not be viewed legally outside of Canada.

Help support the creation of content legally, either by viewing on CBC or the official content distribution sites like this one on YouTube.

Here is the link to a legal copy of Rick Goes Cod Jigging from the Rick Mercer Report YouTube site which can be viewed by anyone inside or outside of Canada.

I hope you enjoy Rick Mercer and Alan Doyle and the people of Petty Harbour, Newfoundland as much as I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJlHTTQ-3fA&feature=youtube_gdata_player




CBC Look who's hanging out with Rick Mercer tonight....from Twitter
(No copyright infringement intended)

Despite the acknowledgement of a legal copy of the Rick Mercer Report with Alan Doyle in Petty Harbour @lyndahere has known for over two weeks that the comments she made on her Facebook page that the video could not be seen legally outside of Canada were not true, she has made no attempt to remove them and continued to collect hits for YouTube site approximately 2263 hits she was not entitled to for content she did not create.

On her Facebook page she wrote on 6 November 2014 “Alan post this link for an online clip and Rick Mercer’s Petty Harbour fishing (and eating and singing) trip for CBC’s Rick Mercer Report.

It’s gorgeous…and only can be seen inside Canada (and provided the link).  

Slightly less gorgeous – but considerably more accessible to all – is this recorded-from-the- broadcast (sorry, non-HD) version (and provided the link).

Canadians – Be smart (an as Alan’s Mom would say Be Good) and watch the CBC clip Alan shared. Not only is the quality better, the website traffic should go to CBC from the people CBC is letting see the clip”.

Lyndahere and more piracy...revised

@Lyndahere from Twitter

Hard Rock’s Loving Son’s @alanthomasdoyle @rickmercer on a Petty Harbour fishing boat on CBC’s Rick Mercer Report cbc.ca/player/shows 5 November 2014

@alanthomasdoyle @rickmercer And the recorded (sorry, non_HD) version of the clip that can be seen outside Canada 5 November 2014

Note: This interview is available on CBC Canada for overseas fans and I have just watched it. However, the links provided by @lyndahere are not correct. When I accessed the link she provided by mobile phone the contact with CBC disconnected my phone for over 30 minutes. When I accessed the link via a computer the link lead me to a blank CBC page. After entering search terms for Alan Doyle and Rick Mercer I found it and viewed overseas beautifully.

The RMR Rick Goes Cod Fishing interview with Alan Doyle is available on the Rick Mercer official YouTube site and available overseas. This copy was available a day before  a pirated copy by @lyndahere.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJlHTTQ-3fA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I have been trying consciously not to write anything about @lyndahere’s piracy and bootlegging out of respect for Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea and their friends. I am sure there will be consequences for me for saying this as they validate her activities even more. But I am going to say it anyway. @lyndahere has moved up in status as a big name fan as Alan Doyle acknowledges some of the questions she asks, the information she finds as well as a couple of bootlegged videos she made earlier this year. He has encouraged and rewarded her presence at concerts, events, taking photographs and finding information but not her bootlegging and piracy.

@lyndahere just seems to be waddling on taping and recording whatever she wants and distributing via her YouTube account Between the Rock. This is done without much thought to the morals or ethics of what and when she records or the wishes of the content creators. There is no thought that her endless bootlegging and piracy may derail projects like movies, an audio book or an album from the people we love and affect the creation of future content. The list of @lyndahere pirated content in opposition to professionals is long indeed and mentioned in previous posts.

@lyndahere has made an assumption if there is a pirated copy and a legal version then people will watch the legal version (if the correct links are provided). Most of the legal CBC content is available overseas even if for a short while. But pirated content with @lyndahere is easier for fans to find than finding a direct link and waiting for a commercial. Often @lyndahere doesn’t provide the correct full links to content advertised and leaves fans to find it for themselves as I did with this interview. The commercial that is on the official site of this Rick Mercer interview helps fund content at CBC Canada and her pirated copy takes away viewers as they go elsewhere to watch it, whether in Canada or overseas. Of course she is not the only pirate in Canada pirating content from CBC Canada. The lack of viewers of the commercials on the content in these circumstances will impact on the future of content creation. There is no doubt about that.

Perhaps I am the only fan who is not happy if there is a pirated copy available. If there is no legal copy of content outside of Canada then that should be that. If we don’t want to live in Canada (as glorious as that country is) then fans are going to miss out on content. Part of life is missing out and as an adult we should be able to deal with it. (Although missing out on anything Alan Doyle is obviously not for her). The answer to address the lack of available content isn’t piracy. Neither is taking whatever content we can get our hands on and doing with it what we want. Because @lyndahere gets away with piracy and bootlegging doesn’t make it right. While she thinks her illegal activities will promote Alan Doyle and others, piracy is not a victimless crime as she indicates. Piracy will impact on content creation now and in the future.

Alan Doyle...So Let's Go Tour Poster revised

The new poster for Alan Doyle's So Let's Go Tour beginning in January, 2015. Beautiful photography (hense the post all on its own). (No copyright infringement intended.)

Please note I try and acknowledge all of my sources including photographs and articles. Please note the words no copyright infringement intended.

'Music and Friends' a music evening in St John's NL.

A community in Newfoundland comes together to help one of its own.

'Magical' fundraiser held for music mainstay Gord O'Brien by CBC Canada published 4 November 2014

A who's-who of Newfoundland and Labrador's traditional music scene turned out Sunday night for a man whose store helped launch their careers.

About a thousand people crowded into the ballroom of Delta Hotel in downtown St. John's for the event, which raised money for Gord O'Brien, the proprietor of O'Brien's Music Store.

The small but venerable Water Street business closed last month due to bankruptcy.

"Last night was just magical," said Shanneyganock's Mark Hiscock, who helped organize the benefit to help cover some of O'Brien's bills.

Emceed by Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle, the concert featured Ron Hynes, the Masterless Men, the Navigators, Ray Walsh and numerous other performers, with the concert closing with songwriter Bud Davidge leading the crowd in a singalong of Music and Friends — the title of which was borrowed for the concert itself — and The Mummer's Song.

"The roof went off the building," Hiscock told the St. John's Morning Show Monday morning as he described the finale.

O'Brien did not attend the event, which also included a silent auction.

'Everybody donated everything'

Organizers are not releasing totals, on request of the O'Brien family.

"We made sure that every cent possible went into Gordon's pocket," Hiscock said. "This show cost us less than $1,000 — everybody donated everything."

Angela O'Brien said the outpouring of support for her father has meant a great deal to the family.

"It's absolutely amazing and incredible and heartwarming to see everything come together and see all the people come out for it," she said.

"Words can't express how much love we feel from the music community. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."


While the store will remain closed, O'Brien plans to continue the instrument repair part of his business, albeit from his home.

(from the Twitter page of Iceberg Quest Tours 2 November 2014 No copyright infringement intended)

 

Where I Belong by Alan Doyle...Interviews and book reviews...

This post is a collection of my favourite Alan Doyle interviews, newspaper articles and book reviews from the book tour to promote “Where I Belong”. There have been plenty of interviews on radio and television, newspaper articles, writer’s festival appearances, meet and greets in book stores, fan stories and photographs. My favourites have been professional interviews either on the radio or in the newspapers where he has spoken for himself and/or with his family and are included here. These are from the east coast Canadian section of the tour.

“When the job came for the some dude to sing in a band like Great Big Sea, it turned out I was ready…you know…all the other stuff I loved doing and worked hard doing…it turned out that I was the right guy for the job, one of the right guys for the job… and I had no control over the opportunity that came my way and when it came I was ready…that was luck…” Alan Doyle to Shelagh Rojers at the Writers of Woody Point Festival.

My favourite interview is the Alan Doyle and Shelagh Rojers radio interview from the Writers of Woody Point Newfoundland. This was Alan’s first appearance as an author in his home province of Newfoundland. Alan provides a beautiful description of Petty Harbour and some of the changes that have occurred there since he was a child. He talks affectionately and with humour about friendships, first kisses, Catholic and non-Catholic girlfriends, the characters of Petty Harbour, working in the fishing industry and his early years in Great Big Sea. The interview was a long wait for fans between the actual event and the airing on radio but well worth it. This interview is available as a mp3 podcast from TheNextChapter website.

(From cbc.ca Canada.No copyright infringement intended.)

Adam Walsh @adamfwalsh @alanthomasdoyle “Mom; When he quit his job to go with the band I thought “Oh my god” #doyleAM

Another favourite was the radio interview on the SJ Morning Show on CBC Radio, St Johns which also featured his family including his mum Jean, dad Tom and his sister Kim on the 10 October 2014. As I live overseas I couldn’t find the links to access the interview, however, the radio station provided one of the most brilliant social media Twitter feeds with comments and photographs as the interview occurred. There were lots of laughs and love as the family shared stories from their days in Petty Harbour, raising children and growing up. There was Jean Doyle’s famous home-made bread and preserves.

(From @sjmorning Twitter #AM Doyle tweets. No copyright infringement intended.)

There was the professionally filmed interview between Alan Doyle and a well-respected Canadian journalist Peter Howell. The interview was conducted in front of a packed house at the Toronto Library on the day the book was released October 14 2014 and was exceptionally good. The interview is approximately an hour and twenty minutes long and is available on the Toronto Library official YouTube site soon after the launch. 

“Usually the smell of something roasting in our oven started in the late afternoon. By five, we’d all be salivating at the thought of that roast and the gravy Mom would make from it to pour over boiled potatoes and some canned peas or corn”. Alan Doyle in the Globe and Mail.

Throughout Alan Doyle’s book tour there have been a number of newspaper reviews and articles. There was an article in a national Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail titled “A hot, buttered slice of fond memories from Alan Doyle” published on 27 October, 2014. The review was a section of the book about food and meal times, his mother and a wonderful conversation between a son and his mother about making bread. There is a lovely black and white photograph of Mrs Doyle in her kitchen in St John’s cooking. The article has been copied with permission from the publishers.

 

 

(from www.theworldofgord.com at the Toronto library. No copyright infringement intended.)

“I miss how busy Petty Harbour and other fishing towns like it were in the later ’70 and early ’80s. With fishing boats coming and going, processing plants running two shifts, six days a week, trucks humming in and out of town, the place was bustling. I loved the energy of so many people in a tiny place all working on the same thing”. Alan Doyle, National Post, The Afterword Reading Society: Where I Belong by Alan Doyle. 29 October 2014

In the Canadian National Post Alan Doyle answered questions submitted by the readers about growing up in Petty Harbour, how being a child is different today than it was back then, his music idols, what to do if you find yourself in Newfoundland and future projects including acting and music. When asked about providing advice Alan suggested young people should figure life out for themselves. However, he also said young people should be ”good” and “be ready…you’ll love yourself if you are”. Great advice.

 

Meet and greet at Chapters book store in Dartmouth Nova Scotia Canada on 21 October 2014

(I didn’t watch any bootlegged videos. Alan Doyle has stated he is making an audio book. In my opinion bootlegged recorded read passages without permission from the book tours are in direct competition to this. They also may breach the copyright  act. ‘Where I Belong’ is copyright to Skinner’s Hill Music. The copyright notice on page 6 and states “All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher-or reprographic copying, licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.”).