@Maryrrf

Hi Mary,

Mr Tradsinger seems to have quite a few unsolicited defenders on here, and maybe with reason. However, all I know of him is his self publicising post which (IMO) would have been better any maybe more effectively placed on "Gumtree" or similar, or actually e mailing clubs with links to his work etc.

My points (I believe) were justified, because when you see your culture constantly homogenised with another culture by the media, academics, joe public and Mr Tradsinger; those of us with a half decent level of literacy (as many don't) from that culture have an obligation to address it.

Lastly, believe it or not the Romani people do not need someone from outside their culture to come watzing in to "save" our musical heritage. We have plenty of our own people doing that, we just don't tend to regularly perform at folk clubs.

I personally think this is more about the cachet that some people think it affords them "What, you collected songs from the gypsies (sic)? Oh how wonderful!" We don't now, and never have, needed the white middle classes to come in and save us! Or our culture.

When people do things like this, it has always been about sating the voyeuristic curiosity of the gorger(non-Gypsy)people.

In that regard "The amount of time and work he has put into collecting songs, preserving them" is both unnecessary and on no higher moral ground than Firecracker Films who made BFGW.

It is possible to show respect to, and work with another culture in an appropriate way without that culture being further treated as a curiosity. For a good example of this just look at Robin Huw Bowen and his work with Eldra Jarman, and more recently (her daughter) Teleri Jarman.

ATB, Lavengro