We do not aim to follow in the tangled path of “the Evangelical-Lutheran town church pc. Jakob in Rothenburg whether that deaf ones” (via Transblawg)

Further news: an advisory panel is being formed. Apparently the next Archbishop of Canterbury is too busy, but there will be big names in there. And we are getting closer to determining budget and sources thereof.

QE1 once sent an organ avec grinder but sans monkey to Sultan Mehmet, but I don’t think anything good came of it–at any rate, there’s not much Orlando Gibbons being played in Istanbul these days.

Biciclown, the excellent Álvaro Neil, is in Istanbul at the moment. Here’s one of his promotional videos:

And here’s de heer Jerónimo at BikeTech in Gracia, Barcelona putting together his latest bike:

This raises a number of existential questions:

1. Do you want to make children happy and the world a better place?
   Alarm and disgust are my contribution to society.
2. Will your organ fit in a tent?
   The jury’s well out on that one. Maybe, maybe not, so room for manoeuvre required.
3. Can you live on €3 a day?
   Dammit man, that’s only two beers.
4. What are the implications for your revenue model?
   No free gigs, except in places like markets and bars where food and drink and plump ladies are available in abundance. In fact, I’d rather like to be barrel organist to the Sultan of Somewhere, playing Orlando Gibbons of course.
5. Anything else?
   Er, no, that’s all for the moment.

[Did you know that Nero distressed the bombers by playing the hydraulis, a water-regulated organ, rather than the fiddle as Rome burned? Roman firemen were string enthusiasts--Mantovani, that kind of stuff. What the whole world wants to know: did Byrne make it back OK?]