Dragon Day!

As everyone knows July 14th is Dragon Day! 

That is because, as everyone knows, a dragon landed in a cowfield in Henham, Essex, on this day in 1669. This incredible event was reported widely via pamphlet (the Huffington Post of its day) and became the foundation of a glorious drunken fair in which copious amounts of cider and beer (in the same glass) were consumed in honour of this fiery visitor.

So, like those villagers of old (or university students out on the razz) raise a glass of Snakebite to the Dragon and roar!

Saint Peter's Day - Paint your Boat and Change your wife!

On Saint Peter's Day it was said that fishermen would repaint their boats and change their mate.

We are not entirely sure why changing a partner would be a celebration of Saint Peter. 

Tidying up your boat made a lot of sense, of course, as that would please the piscatorial chap. 

This might just be slander.

Or it might be true...

Pay Your Bills! It's Pied Piper Day!

Today is Pied Piper day.
According to "The Mystical Year" this is the day that the Pied Piper visited Hamelin and exacted his terrible revenge for non-payment of bills...
A lesson for us all methinks...

Avoid the Devil's Porridge!

This Midsummer Day if you are approached by the devil with a steaming bowl of delicious porridge.
Ignore him.
Blank him.
Do not eat the porridge.
If you do not eat the porridge you will be safe from his wicked ways and he will briefly be at your beck and call.

Please note this only seems to happen at Chanctonbury Rings...

Spectral Fields - Mix 4 - Join us one last time...

The Kalendar Host has been reading.

He has found himself lost in “A Year in the Country - Wandering Through Spectral Fields” by Stephen Prince. This incredible work has inspired a new journey out of the Kalendar Heath and across these Spectral Fields to discover music, ideas, stories, folk horror jaunts, hauntological treats and nostalgic terror.

This is the third of four mixes dedicated to this new book. This mix explores chapters 40-52 through music, sound and key extracts, acting as an accompaniment or, if you will allow, an aural appendix.

Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Year-Country-Wandering-Pastoralism-Hauntology/dp/0957400721

Discover the delights of Tristram Carey, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Olan Mill. Paper Dollhouse, The SoullessParty, The Bulgarian State and Television Female Vocal Choir, Field Trip England, Jugg, Jane Weaver, Beautify Junkyards, Johnny Flynn, Matt Berry, The Wombles, Sproatly Smith, The Woodbine and Ivy Band and many more...

Black Meadow: Mark Barton - In Memoriam

Black Meadow: Mark Barton - In Memoriam: We were very sorry to learn that Mark Barton passed away yesterday. Mark was an exciting and unique music reviewer whose eccentric and ...

Review of Wyrd Kalendar - Album and Book - The Sunday Experience

In his review of the Wyrd Kalendar  project Mark Barton describes the Wyrd Kalendar album as "an immaculate set that gathers together thirteen like-minded alchemists operating in the disciplines of folk, psych and hauntology". 

He praises the various wonderful artists throughout for example describing Wyrdstone's track as "touchingly drifting n’ dreamy" and Rowan Amber Mill's track as"utterly beguiling."

Of the book he says: "a collection of ghostly prose recanting tales of bewitchment and sorcery from an ancestral past long forgotten yet whose ancient hand still reaches from the shadows to today, captivating and creepy..."

You can read the two part review here and then the second part here...

You can still buy the digital album and book. All profits for the album go to Cancer Research. Profits for the book go to Wildlife Trusts.