Departure lounge

Well I am almost packed. Mark brought around his camera, tripod and insulated smalls last night. After trying various combinations our load stayed resolutely at 46kg - 6kg over the limit. If we ditch the Kineflo lighting unit borrowed from my workplace (thanks Saci!), we are spot on. Last night we ditched, but this morning I phoned Aeroflot to check on the charge. It costs 12 pounds/kilo - so 66 pound charge in all for lighting. It's worth it, the lights have beeen re-packed.

The taxi picks us up tomorrow at 4.00am.

Thank you BBC World Service

I collected a treasure-trove of microphones, DAT recorder and associated paraphanalia this evening from Kevin at the BBC - thanks!

Maday Qara - an extract from the introduction to the translation by Ugo Marazzi

Ugo Marazzi MADAY QARA: AN ALTAY EPIC POEM. Translation from the Altay, Introduction and Notes. (Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici, 1986). The following is extracted from Ugo Marazzi's introduction.

In the rich epic literature of oral tradition of the Turkic South-Siberian area, the Altay epic holds a considerable position in all respects. The Altay epic tradition is outstanding for its archaic and shamanic character, which is shared on the Mongolian side with the Buriat epic. Mongolian influence, which was nonetheless exerted on the Altay epic at the time of the domination of South Siberia by the Oyrats, has not altered the essence of its character.

Exemplary of such an archaic character of the Altay epic tradition is the poem MADAY QARA, the longest and the most interesting of those known so far from the whole Turkic South- Siberian area. In it the heroic plot, having several common features with the different Turkic and Mongolian epics...

....In Turkic South-Siberian epic literature the prevailing figure is that of the solitary hero who is destined as a rule to avenge his father who has been offended or taken prisoner or killed. After facing numerous trials, which clearly reflect the initiation experience, and after fighting his enemies from this world and the underworld, in the end thanks to his magical skills the hero has the upper hand and affirms the superiority of the cultural order over the disruptive powers of the underworld. The magical skills of the hero are concretely expressed in the help ensured to him by his horse/winged double, by his companions/helping spirits. Substantially the hero's deeds are none other than the transposition on an epic level of the shaman's exploits. The story of the hero Koguday Margan (son of Maday Qara) develops precisely according to such an epic model, though enriched with archaic motifs, elements and original myths....

Live concert - Arsan reciting Madai Kara 3/4/5 April - free entry!

I thought it rather selfish to go to all the trouble of arranging a recital without an audience so I asked Evgenia what she could do. The result is that we have booked the village social club hall for a couple of days and ordered what ever passes for tea and biscuits in Altai to nourish our audience for what could be a rather long session. It looks like we can lodge with a couple of local families which is just what I had hoped for. When we talked last night Evgenia told me her Mum had said that the weather was pretty unstable - the snow is melting and freezing again making the roads treacherous, so I did not want to be driving up an down the M52 any more than necessary.

Incidentally, if you are in the area let me give you directions to the venue. Take the M52 from Gorno-Altysk towards Mongolia. After about 160 km turn left across the river into Karoka (spelling?) and head for the hall. If you get to Ongudai you've gone about 25 km too far.

Two weeks to go (21 items on my list)

My list has just shrunk by one, just talked to the good people at the BBC who are going to lend us recording equipment and - better still - probably use some of our recordings. They will tell me shortly where to ftp our material. I find it quite magical that I can send music across thousands of miles from one internet connected computer in Altai to another here in London.

Visas stamped, flights booked

Visas are stamped, flights are booked (leaving 31st March), articles commissioned, but I still need the loan of a couple of cameras and associated bits (see below). If you can persuade anybody to help I'd appreciate it.

I talked to Evgeniya last night, apparently the temperature has dropped down to the usual 25 degrees below after a very mild winter. A friend, Albert, sent me some satelite images of Siberia recently with great areas at temperatures near zero. He believes the melting Siberian permafrost next summer will release methane with the climate warming effect of the total emissions of the US. These positive feedbacks were only 'nightmare scenarios' when I attended the Kyoto climate conference ten years ago, now they seem only to real a prospect. The lady in this picture is not Evgeniya, and it was taken in summer.

Don't panic...

It's about this time in preparing for a film trip that the number of 'still to do items' starts to disturb my sleep. Where are the passports with the Russian visa's? How do we avoid customs taxing us for exporting / importing camera equipment? Where am I going to get camera's from? (at least the sound equipment is sorted - thanks Radek!)

I also have the small matter of editing the latest edition of Green World and trying to hold down a teaching job.

Don't panic, write a list, get on the phone again, there is always the credit card.