Die Band ist ein musikalisches Kollektiv das seinen Ursprung 2017 im folgenreichen Zusammentreffen mit den ‚Etruschi from Lakota‘ (einer jungen Rockband in der südlicheren Toskana mit 3 veröffentlichten Alben und Auftritten in ganz Italien), einigen ‚Wilden Vagabunden‘ mit internationalen Erfahrungen die seit gut 10 Jahren in der gleichen Gegend leben, und wechselnden Gästen.
Die Mitglieder der Band verbindet die Passion für Musik, die Tatsache des Lebens und Arbeitens in einer eher verlassenen Gegend Italiens – den toskanischen metallreichen Hügeln – und das Interesse andere auf die weniger bekannten Schätze und Geschichten aufmerksam zu machen. Die Band tritt auf wo Live-Music gespielt wird, aber auch bei weniger ‚normalen‘ Gelegenheiten wie zum Beispiel bei wissenschaftlichen Konferenzen.
Die MHJB tritt mit verschiedensten Instrumenten auf die Bühne: Gesang, Gitarren, Banjo, Bouzuki, Percussion, Schlagzeug, Waschbrett, einsaitigem Zupfbass und Jug. Plus allem möglichen was Gäste mitzubringen haben. In der letzten Zeit waren das Violine und Percussion.
Um mehr über die MHJB zu erfahren gibt es diesen link.
Um die MHJB zu buchen ist diese Adresse hilfreich: info@pibinko.org
Nicht vollständige Zusammensetzung der MHJB am 31 Oktober 2017 in Monterotondo Marittimo: Wolfgang Scheibe, Andrea Giacomelli, Dario Canal, Simone Sandrucci, Pietro Marini
On Thursday, Sep. 27, 2018 we were invited at the Tana del Bianconiglio (White Rabbit Hole) recording studio in Montecchio, a tiny village not far from Pisa, for a recording session putting together three generations and moods from different latitudes. Let’s see who was there, and how they got to this spot.
The line-up
The headliners, and hosts, were the Etruschi from Lakota, young rockers from the Cecina Valley, a place which is known for Volterra, its main city, and for being at the centre of one of the largest geothermal sites in Italy (and in the world), but is also home to some cool music.
I first heard them in 2015, and they sounded to me like the missing link between Rino Gaetano and Led Zeppelin, with their own flair. They have just concluded a tour promoting their third album “Giù la testa” (hear it on Spotify), and they are at work on their fourth one. Meanwhile, they like to stay active on various collaborations.
From Köln, Germany, Klaus der Geiger. He looks like a mad fiddler, but in fact he is a violin virtuoso and is a well-known minstrel in his country (and partly IS a mad fiddler!).
From Piloni, Farma Valley, Tuscany…after many whereabouts in India, USA and Bali, Pietro aka Peter Crivelli, painter and folk musician.
From Tatti (Southern Tuscany) -and originally from Stuttgart, Germany- Wolfgang Scheibe, bass player, printer and organic bread expert, with a long street music track record…
…also from Tatti (but originally from Naples), Guglielmo Eboli, a professional percussionist, active mainly with the Maremma Strega Pizzica Band.
Somewhere, Jack o’Malley (no photo available).
How the band got here
The recording session was the next step in a series of meetups and gigs which were triggered at the end of 2016 with the Farma Valley Winter Fest.
A peculiarity of this story was that, in parallel to “proper” performances, the group also experimented bringing music in contexts where normally you can’t hear it, such as presentations in scientific conferences, or international webinars and other occasions. This was not done just as a form of entertainment, but also to promote issues on environment, land planning, and rural development.
The country session
However, the integration of culture, environment and open innovation in rural areas is a different chapter of the book. Let’s go back to the country session after some warm-up…
At some point the session got a little bit off-track, with something very close to James Brown, which is to country music like downhill ski is to the Netherlands…but jamming is jamming.
Nevertheless, the “country” direction was maintained during the day. As a result of the session we produced five tracks (Abramo, Il contadino magro, l’Uccisione di Babbo Natale, All You Fascists and Mr. Hitler), as well as a video for Mr. Hitler:
From the two-day meeting in a small Tuscan island, an invitation to think twice before you install your next lamp, to reduce its negative impacts and to make space for opportunities in tourism, especially in rural areas.
In the stunning setting of the island of Capraia, in the Tuscan archipelago, a symposium was held on September 13 and 14 2018 on the topic of protection and promotion of night sky. The event was organized by the National Research Council’s Institute of Biometeorology in collaboration with the University of Pisa, the BuioMetria Partecipativa project, and fondazione Clima e Sostenibilità, with patronage by Regione Toscana, Comune di Capraia Isola, the associazione Osservatori Meteorologici Storici Italiani and partial funding by the Stars4all European project.
The topics addressed covered technical aspects of night sky quality measurement, the development of innovative sensors, the impact of light pollution in ecology, outreach and citizen science initiatives, and case of integrated promotion of territories. While some of these topics may sound complex, the negative impact of excessive artificial light at night are gradually being acknowledged by a wider audience (in Italy see for example Repubblica 2016, Le Scienze 2017 or Prima dell’Alba, 2018).
The symposium hosted 32 presentations with authors from various Italian regions, as well as Hungary, Spain, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Canada, Malaysia, and South Korea. In fact, this was the first international meeting taking place in Italy on these topics since more than fifteen years.
During the two days an interesting array of expertise showcased its views. These included long-term experiences by well known authorities in the field of light pollution research, as well as groups that started just recently to address this topic, but have a relevant role in environmental field.
From the symposium website you may donwload the abstracts of the presentation, with author contact information to learn more about the topics discussed.
Next to the symposium, night-time activities were planned, with observations and measurements complementing the surveys conducted since 2017 by CNR IBIMET, University of Pisa and BuioMetria Partecipativa project.
Last but not least, on the evening of Friday, Sep. 14, an after-dark excursion led by guide of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park was proposed to symposium participants as well as tourists on the island, providing an interesting outreach moment linked to the symposium.
Nightscape of the island of Capraia. In addition to the starry sky and the Milky Way, the skyglow deriving from the village on the island and, on the right, from lights on the Tuscan coast, is clearly visible (Photo by Zoltan Kollath).
The possibility of hosting multiple experts from abroad helped us to see from a different perspective some of the critical issues related in Italy to the excess of lighting in many parts of its territory, as well as to acknowledge the opportunities deriving from night sky promotion for tourism and environmental education.
Our wish is that the symposium, in addition to helping to provide a view on the state of the art on promotion and protection of night skies may encourage public and private stakeholders related to lighting, so that they may keep in greater account in new installations the indications which are gradually being consolidated by scientists. Namely we should bear in mind the negative effects of the blue component in artificial lighting, and the containment of light to areas and hours of the day where it is really needed to insure our safety and the quality of urban environments.
[For a general presentation of the Festival see the Nov. 28 post]
Some visitors reached the valley already in the morning, enticed by the idea of getting to know this lesser know part of Tuscany.
Indoor activities started early PM, with a printing workshop by Wolgfang Scheibe from Tatti, who delivered t-shirts, cards and other souvenirs with his printing kit.
While the set was being prepared for the main act, Wolfgang, Guglielmo Eboli and Pietro Crivelli had a jam session, bringing the attendees to 6.44PM, when the Etruschi from Lakota started their performance. The band shaked the audience with a selection of their songs, mainly proposing their new album (Giù la testa), but also some older hits, with everybody dancing from Corn Flakes onwards.
The versatile Wolfgang (followed by Guglielmo Eboli) was then called on stage for some covers, such as “Everyday I have the Blues” e “Who do you love”.
A sidebar items to the music, the Farma Valley Community Map, which during the past months was updates with new place names in the north side of the Valley (Scalvaia and surroundings), and a measure for the buiometria partecipativa project, reading 21.13 mag/arsec2, at 12.45PM on Dec. 18, Certopiano, to close the long day.
Special thanks go to:Circolo ARCI di Torniella, Associazione Filarmonica Popolare Torniella, Emanuele Marcatili, Casa Bazar, pizzeria ristorante Il Boscaiolo, agriturismo Casa del Chiodo, Claudio e Fabiano Spinosi, Alessandro Gaido, Andrea Bartalucci, Antonella Pocci.
Q: How did your involvement in the topic of light pollution start?
A: Everything started in 2011 when I arrived at the Leibniz-Institute IGB of Berlin. In that occasion I met Dr. Franz Hölker, mind and hand of the project “Verlust Der Nacht”, Dr. Stefano Larsen, and Dr. Michael Monaghan that introduced me to this topic. Before that, I have to admit, as most of the people I was not aware of how light pollution can be such an important treat for ecosystems. In 2013 I applied for a Research Fellowship of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Program SMART, funded by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission. Together with funding also provided by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology, Germany (BMBF-033L038A) and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Germany (FKZ 3514821700). Everything was set to start my research study on Artificial Light at Night (ALAN).
R: This study shows that ALAN not only affect insect and spider behaviour but also changes the dynamics in ecosystems. The light attracts insects, in particularly aquatic insects, from a nearby ditch, and in turn changes the predatory communities of ground-dwelling invertebrates living in the grassland underneath the lights. Here, the activity of several nocturnal spiders and harvestmen increased under ALAN, likely indirectly attracted by the increased amount of “easy prey” in proximity of the lights. ALAN potentially can change cross-ecosystem fluxes at regional and global scales considering the number of street lights along streams and rivers and along the shores of lakes and wetlands. The presence of ALAN, as important ecological threat for natural ecosystems, should be carefully considered in landscape and urban planning as well as in restoration projects.
Q: Your plans for 2018?
Photo credits: Maja Grubisic
R: I am planning to publish more research conducted during my PhD related to how artificial light affect predator-prey interactions between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Since August 2017, I started a postdoc at the Umwelt Campus Birkenfeld, University of Trier in collaboration with the University of Duisburg-Essen where I actually work. In this new project I am focusing my research on fish communities and river restoration, planning to bring the ALAN topic also in this field where ALAN is still rarely considered in restoration actions. I will do my best.
Please note: not all the weekly newsletters issued in the past 23 weeks have been translated into English…you can still review most of the initiatives and events presented in the English version of the news.
An outlook for this was written in November 2016 with a short rhyme (in Italian).
Summing it all up, you can have an idea of the story in different forms. Before you choose one, please remember that, if you like this series, but still have not supported it, you are encouraged to do so (write to info@pibinko.org to learn more about the options).
1. A map
…where each symbol if the number of events at a location. The size of the symbol is proportional to the numbero of initiatives, with circles representing the pibinko.org/Attivarti.org activiies, and square representing other organizations with which we have collaborated as a minimum for their promotion.
2. A mosaic
…composed by snapshot of the images posted in our News section.
…from our team to all thos who contributed to make things work. This is too much a long list to be included here. In addition to subjects clearly identified in the events, I need to mention the Torniella and Piloni communities (and especially Mario Straccali, Claudio Spinosi, Andrea Bartalucci, Antonella Pocci, Giorgio Panerati) and Marian Pricop.
More in general, thanks to all those who followed with interest the activities which we developed, and who have been enticed by the situazion emerged from the “Valley that’s not there” in the past ten years.
October will be a quiet month, and we will be planning the next season in the meantime!
The event was managed by the Carabinieri Biodiversity Unit from Follonica in collaboration with Attivarti.org a full presentation of the event and an explanation for the choice of the site is given here.
The event was also the opportunity to re-open the visitor center of the reserve (called “Casa Nova”), which had been closed for about two years:
Lieutenant Colonel Giovanni Quilghini explains how the Reserve works, gived a historical perspective on State Forests since the late 19th century, and their public commons peculiarity. He also introduced the concept of “old stand forest”.
Luciano Massetti from the National Research Council’s Intistute of Biometeorology in Florence presented the activities of his institute and gave and overvie of artificial light at night and light pollution issues.
Halfway through the talks, some fresh air with the visit to the Belagaio castle and some quasi-close encounter with some of the rerserve’s residents:
On we go with the talks: the history of BuioMetria Partecipativa and other “protection and promotion” projects started in the Farma Valley since 2008
Towards the end of the dinner, and before the stargazing part of the event, Federico Giussani showcased some of his nightscape photography portfolio, explaining some of the techniques and how artificial light at night relates to his work.
Should you be visiting the Belagaio area and deciding to have a pic-nic, remember that, while the area is full of horses (due to the maremman horse breeding facility managed by the Carabinieri), systematically beaten by wild boar and various other two- and four-legged animals, if you leave unattended your slice of ham while fetching your slice of bread, don’t be surprised if various hungry cats appear after counting to three. These are Gaido’s cats: they like to be cuddled, but the also like your food!
New interesting additions to the Farma Valley Community Map, with new place names and other background information provided by Scalvaia residents.
Thanks again to Remo Ganozzi for setting up the event:
