“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”

I am all set to record the Twilight Zone episode titled “Five Characters in Search of an Exit”, set to air on July 4th, 2009 at 11:00 AM EST on the SciFi channel, on my local cable carrier. This episode features a Bagpiper as one of the 5 characters looking for that elusive exit.

This episode was originally aired in 1961 and I remember seeing it when I was a kid, but I wasn’t into bagpiping then !

After becoming aware of the episode again when researching Bagpipes in the Movies, I have tried to remember to record the show when it airs on TV again over the last couple of years, but I always missed it. There is a Twilight Zone Marathon this 4th of July Weekend, Check you local TV Listings !

Opening Narration:
Clown. Hobo. Ballet Dancer. Bagpiper. And an Army Major. A collection of question marks. Five improbable entities stuck together into a pit of darkness. No logic, no reason, no explanation. Just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows. In a moment, we’ll start collecting clues as to the whys, the whats, and the wheres. We will not end the nightmare, we’ll only explain it, because this is the Twilight Zone

UPDATE:

After searching for additional information about the episode online, I found that you can watch on your computer at CBS - (Click Here to Watch):

Not that I am going to watch online with my 15″ MacBookPro, I will reserve that pleasure once I can watch on my 52″ TV, when it airs on the SciFiHD channel. For those with with two SciFi channels on your tv, make sure you record the HD version of the SciFi

Philadelphians are getting treated to the sounds from an authentic bagpiper this week.

Rob Calder is a 32-year old bagpiper from Edinburgh. He is in the United States pounding the pavement with his bagpipes to raise money for charity. Calder calls himself the “Bagpipe Busker.”

Calder is raising money for ECAS. The charity provides practical help to the disabled. Calder hopes money raised during his six-week U.S. tour will provide swimming, sailing, and other lessons to the disabled.

Calder says so far, “people have been fantastic in Philadelphia.” The traveling bagpiper is relying on the kindness of locals and people of Scottish decent to host him.

via Scottish babpiper Rob Calder.

Someone once said the definition of a gentleman is a person who knows how to play the bagpipes — and doesn’t.

But don’t tell that to the scores of pipers who will be taking part in the 18th annual Canadian International Military Tattoo at Copps Coliseum tonight and tomorrow.

And don’t think of mentioning it to the thousands of enthusiastic military band fans who will come out and cheer for more at the event that will feature five pipe bands and six other military bands.

One of the pipers will be Chief Warrant Officer (retired) John Terence, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.

via TheSpec.com - Local - Bring on the bagpipes .

LEGENDARY piper Bill Millin yesterday returned to Normandy — and was reunited with the bagpipes he played to lift morale on D-Day.

Brave Bill, 86, piped stirring tunes as he landed on Sword Beach under heavy fire in 1944.

He had looked set to miss the commemoration when the Government refused to meet travel costs — but The Sun stepped in and paid for him.

Yesterday he was handed his old bagpipes, which are kept in a museum at Pegasus Bridge.

The widower, from Dawlish, Devon, also led a parade by a French bagpipe band — which struck up Scotland the Brave in his honour.

He was given a celebration dinner and bagpipe concert — and besieged for his autograph.

Modest Bill said: “I feel very honoured — the welcome has been wonderful. It’s good to see how many people still remember what we did.”

via Bagpipe legend Bill Millin returns to Normandy | The Sun |News|Campaigns|Our Boys.

Edmond Jackson’s passion for music is a family love affair spanning several generations and three countries. His father was an Irish musician stationed in Malta with the Royal Irish Fusiliers during Malta’s years as a British colony, while his grandmother was Scottish. When Edmond’s father fell in love with a Maltese woman – later to be Edmond’s mother – he did utmost to stay in Malta and eventually settled here.

He played several forms of bagpipes, and passed on his knowledge to Edmond, but he never learnt the Maltese bagpipe called the ‘zaqq’ (stomach). He used to tell Edmond of a man he knew while in the army who was the only person he’d met who knew how to play the zaqq. He used to help this musician out, supplying him with cane drone reeds which the man used for making instruments. Unfortunately, over the years, Edmond’s father lost track of him and in the end could not even remember his name.

Edmond was determined to find the bagpipe player in the hope of learning how to play the instrument himself. Despite the smallness of Malta, his search proved a massive challenge. Bad luck and wrong leads meant his search lasted over 25 years. Until one day, a friend of Edmond’s told him that he may have come across the person he was looking - a man nicknamed Il-Hammarun - living in Naxxar.

via Malta bagpipe player | Malta Inside Out.

“Is laughing at the young cute gay Bagpipe player on THE TODAY show with Kathi Lee..telling her not to SUCK…but Blow…I just peed my self on that comment..

via VIEWS FROM A BROAD: CUTE GAY BAGPIPE PLAYER tells Kathi LEE to Suck not blow.. ( video).”

“McBlare” is a robotic bagpipe player. It plays an ordinary set of bagpipes using an air compressor to provide air and electro-magnetic devices to power the “fingers” that open and close tone holes that determine the musical pitch. McBlare is controlled by a computer that has many traditional bagpipe tunes in its memory. McBlare can also add authentic sounding ornaments to simple melodies entered through a piano-like keyboard and play the result on the bagpipes.

McBlare was constructed by the Robotics Institute for its 25th Anniversary in 2004. The team that built McBlare includes Ben Brown, Garth Zeglin, and Roger Dannenberg.

via Tony Burkhart: McBlare: A Robotic Bagpipe Player.

The Black Bear is a popular tune and was recently requested by a piper through my website. It is a small two parted tune, yet some of the clarity and timing especially in the second part is not easily interpreted by some less experienced pipers. My video and audio files should help in this regard.

via The Black Bear, Bagpipe Lessons by PM Bill Robertson .

Rap Artist Eminem new album (2009) features a tune called “Bagpipes in Baghdad” - Very interesting use of pipes in Rap Music

Buy it on iTunes now -

- BETA VERSION -

This is a beta of a mobile optimized version of the Bagpipe Network. I have tested it with the Apple iPhone and and works well. Please send us your comments. Visit http://www.bagpipenetwork.com/mobile/ to test out the new site.

We have also added a few new tunes at Songs:

• Battle of Waterloo
• Arthur Bignold Of Lochrosque
• A Man’s a Man for a That
• Loch Lomond
• America the Beautiful

The Earl of Ross’s March was the piobaireachd which won Roddy MacLeod first place in that section of the Glenfiddich Piping Championship. The performance of this classic form of bagpiping is captured here in its 14-minute entirety.

Glenfiddich Piping Championship - Roddy MacLeod piobaireachd | Video | stv.tv.

Pipers from one of the country’s oldest regiments have recorded songs for their next hit album in 100 degree heat in Iraq where some of them are serving their country.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards’ second album is the follow-up to last year’s Spirit of the Glen CD which sold 300,000 copies, outstripping the likes of 50 Cent, Bon Jovi, Elton John and The Stereophonics.

The troops, who signed a £1 million record deal last year, had hoped to record the new album – called Spirit of the Glen: Journey – in the UK.

However the short amount of time allowed for serving troops in the UK meant that a team from Universal Music had to record nearly a third of the album’s tracks in a tent at the British army’s base in Basra.

Part of the album was even recorded on one of the runways at the airport during the summer.

Scottish pipers record album while serving in Iraq - Telegraph.

Frankfort resident John Ludwig is piping his way back onto the music scene with his newest release “Pipes for the People,” comprised by his alter-ego, Piper Johnny. Like Ludwig, Piper Johnny composes songs that he hopes listeners will connect too on a personal level as well as a musical one.

Pipes For The People: The Frankfort Station - Frankfort’s Local Newspaper

YouTube - Rubber Glove bagpipe.

YouTube - P/M Robert Mathieson - Calum Beag etc..

We are a launching a brand new bagpipe music and video website. This site will a social networking site for pipers, drummers, pipe bands and Celtic musicians.

Tags: website

Andrew and Margaret Watchorn
Northumbrian Smallpipes and Fiddle

Andrew and Margaret have over 20 years experience of performing together and have a reputation for playing with great sensitivity, enhancing the tunes with their own arrangements. From the mid 1970’s they were fortunate to learn many tunes from playing alongside older Northumbrian musicians, especially Joe Hutton. 

Their repertoire is extensive and includes tunes from Northumberland, Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia and North America.

Individually, Andrew and Margaret have both won competitions at traditional music festivals for solo playing and compositions. Together, they have won numerous duet competitions.

In addition to smallpipes and fiddle, they also play Swedish bagpipes, hummelchen, guitar and whistle.

Tracks on the BORROWED DAYS CD

1. Keelman ower the Land  
2. Flickorna Svensson   
3. Cold and Raw  / Scabbit Sheep 
4. Dunstan Carol   
5. Hesleyside Reel  / Miss Jean Milligan   
6. Wild Hills of Wannie   
7. Tweedside  / Little Fishie  / Dusty Miller 
8. Mrs Elizabeth Ann Dodd   
9. Schottis efter Linus Augustsson  / Saddle Rock   
10. Whittingham Fair   
11. Archie’s Fancy / Peacock’s March   
12. Linnen Hall   
13. Sandgate / Lamb Skinnet  / Seven Stars and the Moon   
14. Josefin’s Waltz 

Tags: cd

Two Djembe and a Bagpipe in Glasgow jamming together, the heavenly sound of bagpipe mixed with strong, black, ancient sound of african drums.