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Alex Kapranos recommended Greek Music From The Underground by Various in Music (curated)

 
Greek Music From The Underground by Various
Greek Music From The Underground by Various
2006
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"There are many compilations of Greek Rembetiko music, but I chose this one because it has some classics on it that I’ve been aware of for a long time. In the early 20th-century, after the First World War after Kemal Atatürk came to power in Turkey, there was an exchange – to put it politely – an exchange of population between Greece and Turkey and was extremely unpleasant at the time for both countries. At that time, a lot of Greeks who had lived in what’s now Turkey for a really long time, moved over and came to Piraeus as refuges and brought this music with them which was a mixture of Greek central European and Asian or western Asian sort of music and it evolved into this form of street music played by these guys called Mangas – the wide boy, gangsters, hoodlums of Piraeus in the 20s. It’s funny in Greece still today; some people don’t like to be reminded of that side of Greek history. It’s seen as anti-bourgeois – it’s the only way I can put it. The songs were about whores, smoking dope, stabbing your mates or being done over or sticking up for your mates – these classic themes – but because they were sung not only in Greek but in an impenetrable dialect that most modern Greeks would find hard to get their head around, though it didn’t really get that far past Greece itself. The history is fascinating but the music is like nothing else that I know. Also, even though I grew up in Scotland, I still feel this strong connection to the Greek side of my background, and when I listen to this music I feel I can connect with this history that I know preceded me and I don’t have a direct contact with myself, it’s a way I can understand a little bit of where I came from."

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ClareR (6037 KP) rated The Burning Chambers (The Burning Chambers #1) in Books

Jan 26, 2021  
The Burning Chambers (The Burning Chambers #1)
The Burning Chambers (The Burning Chambers #1)
Kate Mosse | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Romance
9
8.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book is an immersive experience! I found myself drawn in to the world of 16th Century France - and to be fair, it was all pretty exciting stuff! Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, one of my ‘go-to’s’, and this did not disappoint one bit. It’s a story of religion, conflict, ambition, with a bit of a love story thrown in for good measure.

It’s all history that I know little about - my history education being that of the carefully selected English type. I’ve always tried to find out more about European history (ahem, German degree) and further afield if I can, and historical fiction makes it a bit more interesting than a dry history book. This book taught me a lot about the tensions between the catholic majority, and the Huguenot minority.

Minou is the 19 year old daughter of a bookseller, and lives in Carcassonne with her family. She meets Piet, a Huguenot convert, and helps him to escape from the town. Later, in Toulouse, they meet again in far more dangerous circumstances. They become trapped in a city at war - Catholic against Huguenot - and someone that Piet believes is a friend is very far from that. In Puivert, the chatelaine of the castle has a secret that she wants to keep hidden, and the only way to do that is for her to find Minou.

First, the most obvious thing: this is one big book. It’s the kind of book that I would buy on my kindle, because at 600+ pages, it definitely won’t fit in my handbag! The Pigeonhole is great for these circumstances!

Secondly, although this book is a serious whopper, it didn’t feel that way when I was reading it. It’s an exciting, fast-paced, delight of a read. It has it all: action, history, romance. Everything that makes for a compulsive read! The heroes and heroines are good, and the villains are thoroughly bad, and I loved them all!