Scotland’s Independence: Final Thoughts

Yesterday, Scotland voted on its independence from the United Kingdom. Early this morning, the ballots were counted. By a margin of 400,000 votes, Scotland voted 55-45 to remain within the UK. I collected my tweets from last night, which showed history as it happened — the vote totals as they came in (retweeted from theContinue reading “Scotland’s Independence: Final Thoughts”

History As It Happened: Live-Tweeting the Scottish Referendum

Yesterday, Scotland voted on its independence from the United Kingdom. While I plan on having a longer post with my thoughts on the historic event and its results, for the moment I want to share with you — and preserve for history — my live-tweeting of the results as they came in last night alongContinue reading “History As It Happened: Live-Tweeting the Scottish Referendum”

Scotland’s Independence: My Thoughts

On Thursday, Scotland will vote on whether or not it should remain in the United Kingdom. While I have no say in Scotland’s future and my opinion won’t matter, I do have some thoughts on the issue. The romantic in me wants to vote Yes. The romantic in me wants to see an independent Scotland.Continue reading “Scotland’s Independence: My Thoughts”

On the Demise of a Band I Liked

Sunday evening I learned a band I liked had broken up. The band is Aerials Up. Unsurprisingly, they’re from Scotland. When I wrote about Aerials Up originally, I wrote that “there’s a certain similarity to Arcade Fire in the sound of Aerials Up; there’s a similar instrumentation, a similar mixture of male and female voices.Continue reading “On the Demise of a Band I Liked”

On Christmas Songs New and Old

Ah, Christmas music. How I love it! How I will listen to it year-round! Unless it’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” which I think is all kinds of dire. (And I didn’t find Doctor Who Magazine‘s rousing Twitter-version of it this morning any sort of inspiring.) This week, I’m participating in one of the FacebookContinue reading “On Christmas Songs New and Old”

On This Week’s Scottish Musical Discovery

Every few months, I’ll discover a new and interesting band on Vic Galloway’s Scotland Introducing podcast for the BBC. While the main point of interest this week for me was two live tracks by The Seventeenth Century from Ally McCrae’s BBC Introducing in Scotland show, the podcast kicked off with a track from Aerials Up,Continue reading “On This Week’s Scottish Musical Discovery”

On The Scottish Enlightenment’s “St. Thomas”

A year and a half ago, I began listening to the BBC’s Scotland Introducing Podcast, a fifteen minute survey of the latest and greatest from some of Scotland’s best unsigned bands. Every Friday morning, I look for the link in my RSS reader, and I’ve discovered some very good music this way, bands like WashingtonContinue reading “On The Scottish Enlightenment’s “St. Thomas””