Cultural Geography Blog

The last few years have seen several of my musical heroes passing away, particularly the drummer  Neil Peart of Rush, who I saw many times in a period spanning 30 years and the keyboard player Lyle Mays , who I saw many times playing with Pat Metheny. A piece of music composed by Lyle has just been posthumously released, paying tribute to the bassist Eberhard Weber , who I have also seen play numerous times with Jan Garbarek. He had a stroke in 2007 and has been unable to play since. I remember a solo bass concert at Norwich Arts Centre, where he said "so, you are here to watch a German man play with himself". Check it out here. More information here.

I'm grateful to Thomas Larsen for this really wonderful review of my book, which was published in the US in the 'Geography Journal'. If you are quick, this link will take you to a free PDF download of the whole review - although it can be read on this page too. I am really delighted that Thomas has really 'got' what I was aiming at when writing the book. Check out Thomas' website as well for more of his work and reviews. The book is still available to purchase of course. Imagine reading it on a beach this summer. "Parkinson enters into a personal dialogue with the reader. Reading Why Study Geography? feels like receiving practical life advice from a veteran."

One of the most exciting personal musical discoveries of the year has been Crown Lands . The duo are inspired by Rush and Led Zeppelin and other similar bands, and their name references the land which was illegally taken from the indigenous people as North America was colonised and they were marginalised in their own country, and worse... Cody Bowles is the drummer and vocalist in the band. He is half Mi'kmaq, an Indigenous tribe from Nova Scotia. The luxuriantly bearded Kevin Comeau plays guitar, bass and keyboards - including a double-necked Rickenbacker. They have produced a number of tracks which link back to their origins , and protest about the forced changes that took place for many as well as exploring the violence against indigenous people - continuing to this day with recent discoveries of unmarked bodies at former schools for indigenous children. They also explore the murder and disappearance of thousands of indigenous women and girls, which was the subject of a nat...

  Worth exploring a little more... Consider how these areas build the culture of a place...