Cultural Geography Blog

Warning: includes a rude word....

I've been following Keir Clarke since the early days of Google Earth and he has always shared fascinating map links, many of which I have shared here and on my other blogs. His latest (ish) is a game he has been developing called Scrambled Maps. Go here to give it a go.

  Nick Drake committed suicide fifty years ago this year.  This month in fact. Mackenzie Crook has released a picture book which is called 'If Nick Drake came to my house'. In a couple of weeks' time I am going to the Cambridge Union to hear him speak about it. I'm looking forward to it very much. Mackenzie was on the One Show a few days ago talking about the book and his love of Nick Drake's music. Listen to this Nick Drake track to get a flavour of his particular melancholy tone...

Encountering cultural differences  is one of the benefits of attending overseas events. When in Rome (or Palermo or Helsinki) and all that.... I've been fortunate to have that opportunity due to ERASMUS+ - I sincerely hope that the UK will reconsider the decision to  One of the aspects of visiting cities is to explore them culturally. Last week, I had the chance to go back to Europe to attend the Practical Pedagogies Conference. I've blogged more about that over on the LivingGeography blog. These markings are important in German beer cellars. This one was called the Schreckenskammer. The beers are served in small 20cl glasses with plenty of froth. As each one is placed on the table, a mark is made on a beermat. The glasses are called stange glasses. Unless you say otherwise, a new glass will be placed on the table to replace any empty glass. Once you've had enough, place the beermat on top of the glass to signal you are ready to pay. It's also worth bearing in mind tha...

A cross-posting from my LivingGeography blog. I was heading for London on Wednesday to stay overnight so that I could get an early Eurostar train to Brussels. In the evening, I was due to go to an EXPLORE session as part of the RGS's exploration festival. I noticed that the Irish band  Clannad were playing at the Royal Albert Hall . It was to be their final concert. I was introduced to Clannad by their singles Newgrange and Theme from Harry's Game, from the album 'Magical Ring'. I also played their first few albums quite a lot including Dulaman (seaweed). In 1983-4 they produced the music for an essential series for me at the time: 'Robin of Sherwood'. Michael Praed played Robin, and a second series saw him replaced by Jason Connery.  The album has just been rereleased onto Spotify with a whole extra album of 'lost' music, which is mostly excellent. I saw Clannad quite a few times during the early to late 1980s when they were touring following this peri...