Good morning everybody. Here we are, very early on Tuesday 28th of January 2013, and it's hard to believe that Christmas is already more than a month ago. Time flies doesn't it.
The 12-track digital recorder.
Since Christmas I have been looking at things to buy with the money that I got as presents, and am happy to report the arrival of a 12-track digital recorder, which will be very useful to me, especially since it has 250 what are called "virtual tracks", which is fascinating. It's bloody big though that'd for sure, and has a little bit of noise to it, but that can be sorted with a useful tool called compression. Oh yeah, I know the technical terms. I've done a sound engineering course and everything... In analogue recording! yes, big big difference there for definite.
Back then there was no Old Library Recording Studios, but there was Bandwagon Studios. It was a great 24-track analogue recording studio, that was so much fun. I loved it. Took ages to do some things though, but still so much fun.
I've digressed there haven't I? Actually, what you wouldn't know otherwise is that I had written another two paragraphs to follow that which digressed even further. You don't need to know my recording history, because I've already told it to you!
All I need to say is that I am going to have some fun with it.
The Audio Interface that is on it's way to me.
One problem that I hadn't counted on though was the fact that even with that, I still need a flaming audio interface to connect it to the laptop! Why don't they have them built in for crying out loud? I mean at a push I could have just got an audio interface and connected my old four-track tape recorder in to do the same thing! I thought all the Audio Interface business would be unnecessary, but no, I still need one. Whatever! I will still have fun, and in some ways there is the possibility to take the recorder away to record multiple tracks without the laptop with me, and then transfer them across to the laptop. I'm worried about filling up the hard drive on the recorder you see.
I am really looking forward to actually using it in conjunction with the work I do on my music blog series. It will be good to be able to actually use my microphone for recording rather than the laptop's microphone. All these years of having that microphone, and I've only been able to use it with the four-track recorder, which I couldn't at the time connect to the laptop. The funny thing is, and I have just realised this, that once the audio interface arrives, I can now connect the four-track to the computer and put the recordings I have on tape onto the laptop. That might be interesting. It also means that I can go into old material and do stuff with it, which will be fun. Recording to me is fun, have you noticed?!?
Beaucoups of Blues album cover.
Actually that reminds me... I have actually finished the posts about Ringo Starr's Beaucoups of Blues album, which gave me a great feeling of satisfaction. Now I only two more albums to look at that were issued by ex-Beatles in 1970 (the year I was born). Those two are George's triple album opus All Things Must Pass and the John Lennon album Plastic Ono Band, both of which I am sort of looking forward to. The fact that there is so much material on George's album is incredibly daunting to me, and John's album is daunting because it is an incredibly emotional set of songs that includes some profanity in places.
Anyway, let us get onto some other subjects because I have just noticed that the previous blog mentions the digital recorder a lot!
I used Skype for the first time over the weekend. I know, I am late to the game aren't I! Well, I am there now. I had fun chatting with my aunty and uncle on there, and also with my brother in Japan. That is a great thing about working night shifts - Japan is nine hours ahead, so while I'm on a night shift I can talk to him while he is getting ready for work, on his way there using public transport, or between classes at the schools he teaches in. Being able to talk to him over the weekend while he was off was great. I've missed him like I do all of my family, but him more because he is another country altogether on a distant continent, with a culture far removed from our own.
During my time off I am hoping to get to chat to the manager of Morrison's near to us (for those who are foreign and don't know, Morrison's is a big group of supermarkets). I'm not going into great detail, but I've had qualms about the whole "salad bar"thing for a while, but lately even more so. I have felt the urge to see if something can be done about it, because there is far too much possibility of food hygiene problems occurring for my liking. It is a prime area where food contamination could arise, which I see as a problem for vegetarians, pescatarians, and people with allergies. Bits of other salad meals get dropped into other salad meals, and there are other aspects. but as I said I won't go into them... Needless to say I have an idea how to rectify it, and I am hoping to chat to Dan while I am off about it.
If you are a "friend" on Facebook, then you can look on my profile and find more information on the subject. I may have to extend into the realms of starting a petition and posting links on other sites that I am sure would add weight to the argument.
A sine wave
The wonders of technology hey (I bet you were wondering about the title weren't you). Firstly sound recording has been altered by the fact that digital trounced past analogue recording (although some still record using analogue set-ups), albeit a long time ago now, you can contact people across the world in the blink of an eye without obvious signs of trouble, and you can also get a point of view across whilst trying to change the way things are.
Technology is a double-edged sword, with good and bad. In some ways I am still tempted to keep hold of the four-track tape recorder, because some old fashioned things are still great, with analogue having a different sound and feel altogether - a warmth. Sometimes digital can be "too clean". I know that I was talking with someone about recording in stairwells and things like that and they said "why would someone want to do that when you have stairwell echo settings on effects processors and things, but in a way that misses some of the fun of creating.
Other than that, I had other ideas of what to write about in the blog, but I have plain forgotten it all in the two hours that I have been typing for now. So I'll sign out.
Thank you for reading, and please take care.
January 29 2013 (42 years, 2 months, and 3 days old).
Hey how are you? It's been a week already since the last post apparently in the Ramblings. I can hardly believe it. I don't really know why it doesn't feel so long! Perhaps because I've been off quite a bit lately with not many shifts on my rota. This week is different, although because Louise is out of the room for a little while doing stuff, I thought that I would grab a quick few minutes to write what I can of a blog.
Firstly there isn't much that has happened. The pedal came off the bike again on the way to work the other night, so the engineers on the site I was working put the pedal back on and used some special glue that is for keeping nuts in place - no, not those sort of nuts, although I'm absolutely certain that it would work on those as well. Apparently they apply the glue to the but itself (inside), then screw it on and leave it to dry. "If it comes off again, then we'll get the welding equipment out," they said. Well, there's dedication for you isn't there. I don't tend to say on here where I am working so much now, but I'll just say that Lauren's Patisserie on Brunel Drive estate have really nice engineers. Thanks guys. :-)
The view from the cabin at
work the other night
While I have been off it has been fun to share some time with Louise, because I didn't get very much time off over the Christmas and New Year period, well I didn't get any time off to be honest with you until January the third, which was one day where I obviously didn't see much of the day because I was bloody shattered from all those working hours. Well not working hours really because I don't really do that much work, short of doing patrols which I will always most definitely do and any other duties that are on occasional sites (each site is different in some way, some even have alarms to respond to). I can't for the life of me understand people who are so lazy that when they are doing security sites that require patrols they are not done. I mean, even if you don't do them as often as it states, at least doing them is only a small thing in reality. It isn't flipping rocket science people. Occasionally things happen, but most often on what are called "static sites", it is pretty much being sat around and waiting. I take the old laptop to keep me active, because another thing that I can't understand is the whole sleeping on site... You are being paid to watch over someone's site. If you go to sleep then you are not watching the site are you? If you go out somewhere, leave the kids with a babysitter, and then come out to find the babysitter sat down casually watching your telly whilst the children are no longer at home, would you go off "on one"? Abso-flipping-lutely you would.
As I said, you're being paid for a job. There I've said it out in the open, now for the criticism back at me. I know that a lot of security guards will be just like that, but whatever, I am not. Sometimes I may have nodded accidentally, but some go to work with the sole purpose of sleeping while they are there. I know one guard who once said that "firemen sleep on nights!" Yes, but that is something that is catered for, and they are available at a moment's notice to respond. They are not making sure that someone's livelihood is kept pristine. That is your only job as a security officer, and to do any other is to be not doing your job!
Louise's loaf (picture taken
on her own phone).
While I have been off Louise has been busy in the kitchen, and am I a flaming happy man or not? That is a rhetorical question (doesn't require an answer)! She has baked bread for the first time since she baked it at school, and she has made some of that lovely Broccoli and Stilton Soup of hers, as well as some other culinary delights. I am lucky beyond belief, and I know it for sure. That bread was delicious, especially the midnight snack of the bread toasted with blackcurrant jam on there - yummy! I am so looking forward to more of her new recipe attempts, because I am very much a fan of food.
Wow, I'm getting a lot written in here aren't I? I'll be adding pictures next, and what on earth is that all about? A quick blog that is actually relatively followable (wow, followable is a word).
Anyway, finally I am chuffed to bits that I have won an auction on eBay for something that I have been thinking about for a long while. For Christmas I got money from a variety of different people, which when put together added to quite a nice amount of cash. I've already bought some things with it (a couple of CD's and a DVD I think), before looking on "The E of BAY". First thing I got from there was a great T-Shirt that is very much like the sort of thing that Sheldon from the TV show Big Bang Theory would wear (a show that me and Louise have gotten to like, me more so because I am a sci-fi nerd and "get" the references.
My new T-Shirt is called Evolution.
Last night though I won a 12-track digital recorder, which on;y five years ago cost nearly £1200 according to a Sound-On-Sound review from that time. It isn't absolutely everything I wanted, as it doesn't feature a means to connect it to my laptop, so I am in the position of still looking for an Audio Interface that will work with the Windows Vista that is on my laptop. I have tried numerous times to change it to Windows 7, but it just craps out every time , and I am then in the unenviable position of having to download all that was on the laptop again, using only the out of the world crazily over priced mobile broadband that I have.
I am however happy enough to see past that to the fact that now I have a means to put quality recordings down at home if I want to, which I can think take to somewhere without having to re-record those parts again. Okay, maybe occasionally I might, but most of the time I think that I won't have to. If I can keep the signals pure, then all there would be is the case of using a studio's own effects on those "pure parts". It also has 250 of what are called "virtual tracks"... In a nutshell, some digital recording devices give so many of those for each "real track". On the one I am getting there are twelve faders for the twelve recording tracks, and some other faders for other operations (so it says in the Sound on Sound review). Each of those faders then has a specific amount of "virtual tracks" each, which are supposed to be to give you the ability to do multiple takes of the same thing. You can only make one of those "takes" audible at a time though. However, it does mean that there is the possibility of you recording something different, and then making those different things live at a different time. I could therefore copy each different part across to a computer at the studio say (or laptop when I have an Audio Interface), which is a long-winded way, but also a possibility.
Anyway, Louise is finished now, so I must go. Thank you for reading, and please take care. Let's see if I can get some pictures up then.
January 21 2013 (42 years, one month, and 26 days old).
Here we are again, another day and once more at a place of work. I know, I am very often at work, except for this week. It's a very short week for me, which is a blessing in disguise I suppose after the work I've done recently. The time off has been nice. I got the chance to Part Two of the blog on Ringo Starr's album Beaucoups of Blues, which was good to do, and I hope to be able to post Part Three very soon - I just have to learn the tunes first.
Here is a link to the welcome page for my music blog where you can find an index of what I have done so far - CLICK HERE.
I've not long finished reading a blog by my "friend" Drew Baxter. I put the word friend inside quotes because I have never actually met the chap, but I think of him as a friend, sort of. It's a strange thing this online friends business, but one that I seem to be getting used to. Drew's blog is always an interesting read, and also incredibly topical most of the time. Not that I watch the show, but Jim from Coronation Street would probably say, "he speaks his mind so he does!" I know, my impression of an Irish accent is pretty rubbish! I'm not very good at accents. My other half Louise though is good at a few accents.
My friend Tony doesn't seem to have done a blog for a while, but I would guess that he is incredibly busy doing other things, such as living possibly. People like me though have their lives governed by their work. Unfortunately for the most part I am one of those people who is a night worker. Occasionally I work during the day, but mainly nights. Because of this my body clock works that way, even on days off. I must say that I have actually been up early for me this week a couple of times. Well, I say a couple of times, maybe once. That morning I was up at about half past eight in the morning to get the place ready for the visit of a gas inspector who was going to come "some time during the afternoon." Oh how I hate it when these people say that sort of thing! It doesn't half irritate the hell out of me. Why can't they be a little more precise like, "I will be there between 2 and 3 in the afternoon, or something like that?" I remember a few occasions where people have shown up at the very end of the scale. In fact, the worst one ever was one who said they would show up during the day, and they appeared at some time around 8 'clock in the evening. How great was that? I took the day off work specially as well.
Back then I was working a job that was day work. I was working for a company that provided security for Morrison's Supermarkets, and I was an Area Relief Officer for the Midlands. A big area indeed, but also an interesting job looking back at it, because I got to meet so many people from all over the place who I would never have met otherwise. I even met the person who invented one type of security tag for alcohol bottles.
I met a lot of members of staff at stores that I really got on with. I suppose that in some people's eyes there should be some distance maintained between staff and security, but I am not someone who completely agrees with that. I like to think that because I try to create a rapport between myself and the staff on the site, that I can do a better job than if I was a boring sod that never said anything to anyone. I also found that in some cases they were willing to be more helpful to me in my line of work. Some of those people I maintain relations with through my social networking, but I must admit that I don't pay attention to people's pages as much as I should!
There are a number of reasons why I left that job for the one I have now, but I won't go into them. All that needs to be said is that the job I have now means that I have down time while I am at work, which is filled with the aforementioned social networking and with the occasional writing of my blogs. I would like to say that as a Security Guard I am doing these things to keep me active in case anything happens on site. I think that is true of a lot of us. I try not to get too engrossed in it, or I may miss things, but that is also one of the reasons why I read some people's blogs and listen to people's podcasts. I have the time available to me, so I use that time to do these things. If I was an office worker, factory worker, or even a construction worker, then I wouldn't be able to do those things. I am lucky in a sense, but in others not so. I am sure that the same can be said for so many people. It is these hurdles that we have that make us the people that we are. If life was perfect then we would all be automatons. I am happy to be an individual, and I am happy to be an individual who reads these fascinating blogs and listen to what I think are interesting podcasts.
Thank you for reading, please take care.
Friday January 18 2013 (42 years, 1 month, and 23 days old).
DAY ONE
Hello everyone. How are you? I know, me again doing the blogging thing.
How I should be by now!
Here I am at work again doing a night shift, and it is at a favourite site of those that they send me to. Unfortunately it is also a factory that makes food, which is available in the staff shop for value prices, and sometimes I find myself checking out what there is on sale. So occasionally I find myself looking at good value egg custards, éclairs, and that sort of thing.
It's something that I have to watch out for because it is really tempting. Cycling to work now is something that I am really enjoying at the moment, and I don't want to undo all of the good that that is doing for me.
DAY TWO
I was going to go somewhere else with this blog, but I've decided to delete the next two paragraphs after this that I had written. I didn't want to go down that route. I didn't want to go the way of moaning and groaning. I know that I could win a gold medal for that, but I don't want to.
It isn't available yet to read I know, but I have been doing some work on my other blog series about the post-Beatles careers of Messrs Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. I am hoping to make available the next part in that series very soon, and then the follow-up, which means that I will have worked through the Ringo Starr album Beaucoups of Blues. Who would have thought that it would take that long for me to do? I can only apologise to those who are interested in that blog, but it has been tough to get the chance to do any work on it.
I have said before many times that I wasn't intending on looking in detail at songs written by any non-Beatle, but with this specific release I had decided to change that. It does mean that I have gone against that decision in some ways, because I can see in the case of McCartney's career that the writings of Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch would be something worthwhile to look into. They will probably get a special single blog post each. Not much I know, but it is something. Who knows, by the time I get to their specials I may change my mind, but I doubt it. Jimmy wrote two songs that were released as Wings songs, and Denny wrote a couple more (I can't think off the top of my head how many). In the case of the latter though, Denny did co-write a lot of Wings songs.
DAY THREE
I've decided that I would be honest and show that this post has been written during different days. Sometimes I end up writing it that way, and the reason I am showing this is because I am worried that the blog may seem very disjointed and muddled. The truth is that I've come to this now on the third day (actually the fifth day, but I couldn't be bothered for days two and four I think it was to look at it).
I have just this moment altered the title of the post as well to make a pun on this fact.
I tried to do some more work on the music blog earlier by learning more of the Ringo Starr album Beaucoups of Blues, but my heart just wasn't in it. Admittedly I haven't been spending much time on learning the material, but today I just couldn't be bothered. I want to get the three part blog on that album completed so that I can move on to George Harrison's opus All Things Must Pass, which unfortunately for him was the benchmark for the rest of his career! He would never live up to that standard again, because it would be impossible for anyone to. But I'll probably go into that when I am doing the posts on the album's songs and all of that.
That album will no doubt take some time to work on, although I have the plus side that I have already actually looked at some of the songs, with some of my personal favourites of his being on there that include the title track, My Sweet Lord, Beware of Darkness, Isn't It A Pity (some out there chord changes in that one). I will admit a slight irritation at the production though... I should leave all that to the blog shouldn't I? That will most likely have a lot of people disagreeing with me - I just think that Phil Spector has sometimes given things too much of that famous "Wall of Sound", and I like to hear the song. I don't think that some of the material needed it! Is it just me? Some of the bare run through versions that were added to the anniversary edition really had what I am talking about. If you haven't heard them, then it is worth doing so because they are just so good. Anyway, I don't want to be doing this in here do I?
I'll tell you what - I'll finish this post right here and now so that tomorrow I can start a new post and just call this one a bit of a clunker. Yeah, I'll do that. Basically I think this blog demonstrates that sometimes you just can't get your head into things.
Thank you for reading and please take care.
January 12 2013 (42 years, 1 month, and 17 days old)
PS - Read through it at the end so to put images in... Well, I glanced through it. It could be worse.
Hello everybody. How are you today? Did you enjoy the change of style for the blog for my Review of 2012? I liked it, but it was a lot of work researching and all of that sort of thing. I know it's mainly from the internet, but it still takes time to wade through and pick out what to use and what not to. It's a slim line between the two, much like the slimmer video recorders that came into being after people got used to those enormous bulky things that it took about four people to carry! Perhaps not that big, but they were enormous weren't they!?! Those old ones didn't have any infra-red remote control either. If they had any remote control, then it was a remote that was actually plugged into the video recorder (CLICK HERE).
"Slimmer video recorder"
In a way though I really enjoyed the whole structured thing about the review, because it meant that there was reason behind the whole thing. I enjoyed the links as well, such as the little Easter Eggs that I threw in throughout them, such as things that accompanied the end sentiments of each part. I wonder how many people actually checked out all of the links that I had attached? It would be fascinating to find out who checked out what links.
"enormous bulky video"
I am therefore now in a thought process mode, where I am ruminating on whether I should change this blog and make it a more structured affair. I was averse to this in some ways because I already do a blog that however infrequent, is still a blog that has to stick rigidly to one single subject matter. The original plan for this blog though was to basically just ramble on about anything that comes to mind. Would having a structure and specific "points" veer away from that, or would it still be me rambling on, even though it would be on a single subject so to speak?
So, while I am doing the rumination, I will look at a couple things on my mind at the moment...
Firstly, I left off the fact that I don't do New Year's Resolutions as such, mainly because if you're going to do something, then you're going to do it. There's no use setting a specific date. That is sort of why when I gave up smoking all those years ago now I actually decided to stop a couple of weeks after New Year, because I didn't want that pressure or the reminder every year on the 1st of January that I had been stopped for however many years it is. Yes I am not completely sure how many years it has been. Louise will know because she is much better with dates and that than I am. Most women have that memory thing don't they!
Another thing I was thinking of while I was writing the Review blogs was about the fact that I have missed those friends that I used to catch at gigs and things before moving away from that. I know it's not all that far, but now that I don't have a car it is that much more tricky. Mainly because a journey that would take around 30 minutes in a car actually takes one hour and forty five minutes or so, and it is far too expensive to catch a bus nowadays as well. When someone told me the prices of the bus fares now I was absolutely shocked. I can't remember offhand what they are, but I can understand why the government is going to lose the idea of getting more people to not use their cars and use public transport instead - it's not going to happen. Essentially the government have raised the prices of public transport by putting up the price of fuel, so these bus and train companies have to charge ever more expensive fares to make up for that rise. It's pretty obvious to me, even if it isn't to them! Perhaps I'm not thinking about it properly like a politician that makes in a week what I make in a year? Yes, perhaps so!
Not such an early bird
The Worm!
Just in passing me and Louise were up late last night (mainly because I have trouble sleeping at night being a predominantly night shift worker) and we heard the birds singing to which I said "the early bird gets the worm." We then wondered why that saying came about, because it's obviously not true. I said "if I was a bird I'd just stay asleep and be like "yeah, whatever." You can just picture a smart bird saying, "hey, I've seen worms in the afternoon, so why bust a gut getting up early?" So yeah, what is all of this early bird and worm business then? I don't get it. It's just a phrase that someone has come up with for the purpose of just having a saying for that moment when you want people to get out of bed! Why not just do a sergeant major thing and say "GET OUT OF THAT BED!!!" That link there by the way - I haven't seen that film all of the way through!
Perhaps I have ruminated enough for today? I've been doing this for absolutely ages believe it or not!
I hope that you all take care, and I look forward to chatting with you again soon. Thank you for reading (and following the linkages).
January 5 2012 (42 years, one month, and 10 days old).
PS - Happy birthday to Robert Duvall (81) and Diane Keaton (66), who were both in the fantastic Godfather trilogy (if you need a link to know about those films, then that is just wrong). Vinnie Jones is 47 (I like Snatch and Lock Stock), and the amazing Clancy Brown.
Hi, how are you doing? Welcome back to my slight dalliance from the normality of my blog, while I continue with a look at what has happened over the year that was 2012. I started looking at the year thinking that it would be an interesting, rather full, but singular tome. I was mistaken. This time next year will I be doing a review of 2013? Yes probably, because I am bound to have forgotten what it took to do this one! My memory is so bad that I will have forgotten doing this a couple of weeks at the most!!! I just hope that you're not bored already (only follow that link if you don't mind slight violence).
Guitarist Big Jim Sullivan (RIP) with Tom Jones.
At the end of September I said farewell to my little Fiat Seicento. I am still unfortunately without a car.
We're about to look at October then aren't we? Yes I think so. I wonder if I will find anything science fiction related in this third and final part of my review? I think so. Two words, a franchise, and a game changer in popular culture... That will be Star Trek then! Okay I will probably mentioned that other franchise as well that had Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher involved, but the Trek came first and was an influence to Mr Lucas in the formative stages of Star Wars (which he explains in the documentary film Trek Nation by Eugene "Rod" Rodenberry). But I have already caught myself gabbing about something that I was meaning to chat about later, and probably will anyway. Apologies to non-science fiction fans in advance.
John Clive (RIP) with Sir Michael
Caine in The Italian Job (1969)
Anyway... October saw us saying farewell to session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan (who played on hits such as the wah-wah effected guitar on Dave Berry's The Crying Game, Gerry & The Pacemakers' Ferry Cross The Mersey, Itchycoo Park by The Small Faces, Chris Farlowe's Out Of Time, and New Seekers' I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing, among so many others - a hidden legend of the music business). We also said goodbye that month to the British actor John Clive (The Italian Job, A Clockwork Orange, Carry On Abroad), German composer Hans Werner Henze, animator Bill White (Ren & Stimpy, Inspector Gadget), and Brian Cobbey (British actor and voice for the speaking clock).
On October the 14th, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner became the first person to break the sound barrier without using any machinery to help him, which was as a result of diving from outer space and into the atmosphere. Why? What if he had burnt to death during re-entry for crying out loud? I just question the reason behind these world record attempts sometimes. I know, I'll see how long I can stay in a small body of water with five thousand crocodiles around me so I can go in the record books! I might be daft sometimes, but I'm not that bloody stupid!
I'll just have two minutes of silence (I could only find five minutes of silence, so stop after two minutes or give longer) to think of those who died as a result of Hurricane Sandy that devastated so much of the United States between October 24th and 30th... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
November saw us saying goodbye to British actor Clive Dunn (Dad's Army), Coronation Street actor Bill Tarmey, musician Martin Fay (fiddle and bones player in The Chieftains), American actor Larry Hagman (Dallas, I Dream of Jeannie, The Eagle Has Landed), and record producer and Manager of rock band The Who Chris Stamp, among others. It also saw Typhoon Bopha kill at least 1,067 people, with 838 people still missing between November the 25th and December the 9th.
Me on my 42nd birthday
with moustache for Movember
November the 26th also saw my 42nd birthday - 42 years old, bloody hell. Who would have thought it? Definitely not me. I certainly don't feel like it most days, or even act like it for that matter. I remember when I was much younger I used to think that people in their forties were so old, but now I know the truth. I celebrated my birthday by having booked tickets to go and see a ballet at the Palace Theatre in Newark (about a two minute walk from us). It was a ballet version of A Christmas Carol, performed by the Ballet Theatre UK, which is a great troupe I can tell you. We loved it! Both me and Louise are very fond of most interpretations of this great story by Charles Dickens (isn't he a knight?), and this was no exception. The only problem though was someone who went in that wasn't well. Within a couple of days, Louise was suffering from really bad flu symptoms. It's lucky that I didn't get the flu from her, because I didn't have the flu injection until a little while later because I just couldn't afford it to be honest with you.
I attended the ballet with a full on moustache, because I had grown a moustache for Movember, which is an annual event whereby men grow moustaches to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate and testicular cancer, and they raise money that goes into research on such things. My team raised £395 in total, and I am very proud that I was a part of that. Same again next year guys?
December was a difficult one, because a few people died who I had grown up with, in a manner of speaking. We lost the great Ravi Shankar (how amazing is that piece he plays in that video above, I can't not watch the whole thing), who was much more than the Indian composer, sitar-player that he is recognised for. There are very few times that I cry, but his death brought about a few tears. He was a man who brought Indian and World music to the foreground. His autobiography is a really fantastic and interesting read. It speaks of how he started as a dancer, travelling the world from an incredibly young age with a troupe that included family members, and eventually learning instruments (including the sitar that he is most known for), and throughout the decades, speaking of his relationship with George Harrison and other ex-Beatles, and other pop stars, his dislike of drugs in the industry, and so much more. Like I said, fascinating. A wonderful man of wisdom, modesty and generosity from what I have heard. The two most famous daughters of his live on, and continue to make great music in the form of Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones. Norah's music is incredibly well known, and Anoushka makes music that is breathtaking and continues to break down the barriers between Contemporary and World Music as it were. I don't see a distinction personally, because to me music is just music. I either like something or I don't, it is that simple. I do like what I have just read that both Norah and Anoushka are to collect a Grammy Award on behalf of their father next month.
Charles Durning (RIP) with Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie
We also lost jazz legend Dave Brubeck in December, as well as Sir Patrick Moore (British astronomer and broadcaster), American actor Charles Durning (The Sting, Dog Day Afternoon, Tootsie, and I remember him in the fantastic and underrated thriller Sharky's Machine), American singer Fontella Bass, and Herbert "Stormin' Norman" Schwarkopf (American army general).
Jack Klugman passed away on Christmas Eve. He was someone that I remember well from when I was a kid, because of the television series Quincy M.E., which was a medical drama where he some how or another was able to solve cases of homicide, even though he was a pathologist - can they actually investigate cases legally in the real world? It didn't and still doesn't matter in a way, because it was a great television show, and Klugman was fantastic as the titular doctor. It's a bit like Dick Van Dyke in Diagnosis Murder, only less Murder She Wrote-like and more Starsky And Hutch at the time. He was also known for The Odd Couple and a lot of other stuff, but to me he was Quincy.
Gerry Anderson (RIP) with ex-wife Sylvia,
the voice of Lady Penelope.
Gerry Anderson (creator of such television shows as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons, Space 1999, and so many more) died on boxing day (December 26) at the age of 83. He too was someone who I was very saddened to hear that we had lost. His work was incredible to me, because I had watched repeats of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, Joe 90, Space 1999, and the list is endless. My younger brother +James Dean watched the Gerry Anderson show Terrahawks, which I watched with him whenever I wasn't away at school. Yes, even as I grew up I never lost my love of classic children's television like that. Rest in peace Gerry Anderson, you leave behind an incredible body of work that you should be proud of.
Do you know what... I had skipped right past the fact that American physicist and astronaut Sally Ride had died in July, and that means that I missed putting in this link (Skid and Louise will love that link).
So there we have it then, a list of some things that made 2012 what is was. I'm not really going to go into much detail of my own things during 2012, because I can't remember that much to be honest, and it wasn't a fantastic year for a lot of reasons. I don't want to go into that because, frankly, I am looking forward to 2013, which will be much better in a lot of ways I am sure.
I haven't lost any friends, but I have made some in the real world and in the virtual world of social networks and the like. That virtual world hasn't been too bad to me throughout that time, and it will continue to do so. I have faced some truths over that time, and come out knowing more than I did before. That's what is known as learning, and I believe that I have learnt. We carry on each year throughout our lives learning and, to be honest, life is an incredible thing, especially when you have people that you can share that life with - friends, lovers, family, and that sort of thing.
And that is my incredibly long three-part review of 2012 over with. I finished what I started.
Thank you for reading, please take care.
January 2nd 2012 (42 years, 1 month, and 7 days old).
PS - I never did get back to talking about Star Trek and Star Wars did I? It doesn't really matter because it's been said by so many already. George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to the Disney, giving the latter the rights to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as Howard The Duck (go figure), Labyrinth, and Willow. The reported $4.05 billion dollars that he made from it he has donated straight to charities, mainly the educational charity Edutopia. It's nice that it's not all about the money in his bank account, so well done there Mr Lucas. A shame that Lucasfilm didn't own the rights to the little known but cult followed film THX-1138, because an updated version of that film might be interesting.
So, I had started writing a review of 2012 and realised that it was a bloody big job. Looking back I am wondering why I hadn't realised that in the first place! It is obvious really. Why did I decide to take on such a mammoth task? Because I somehow or another do, and I do it a lot!
We got to June of the year, as well as some great little nuggets of trivia from the year that my sweet beautiful ray of sunshine at home had offered towards this herculean task - a task that requires strength, wisdom, and a large amount of internet surfing! More the latter I feel, as well as copious amounts of tea and coffee, most of which are decaf lately.
Eric Sykes (RIP) sharing a joke with actor Sean Connery -
they were both in the western film Shalako together.
July saw us saying goodbye to people such as American actor Andy Griffith, British comedy actor/writer/director Eric Sykes, Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine (films include Marty, The Wild Bunch and The Dirty Dozen, and of course the television series Airwolf), actor Sage Stallone (son of Sylvester Stallone), British journalist and broadcaster Alistair Burnet, American Olympic hurdling silver medallist Jack Davis (ironically dying of complications from a fall), English actor Simon Ward, British antiques expert David Barby (Bargain Hunt and that sort of thing), American actor R. G. Armstrong (I always enjoyed seeing him on screen), British actor Geoffrey Hughes (Coronation Street, Keeping Up Appearances, and the voice of Paul McCartney in Yellow Submarine), and author Maeve Binchy. Motown studio bassist and "Funk Brother" Bob Babbit and Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord both died on July 17th, so two big losses to the music business there.
A teacher conducts a class during the 2012 blackout
in India which left 620,000,000 people without power!
From the 27th of July to the 12th of August, London was the home for the 2012 Summer Olympics, which the Brits did very well at apparently. I caught some bits of it. It was hard not to see any of it really, and I somehow seemed to get caught up in the whole thing for some reason or another. It's not like me at all really, because I normally don't care much for sport.
On July the 30th and 31st, India saw the worst power outage in the history of the world, which left six hundred and twenty million people without power!
In August we said goodbye to the brilliant composer Marvin Hamlisch (The Way We Were, A Chorus Line, etc), film director Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory), film director Tony Scott (Top Gun, True Romance, Enemy of the State, Unstoppable), legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong, and British variety performer Max Bygraves. August the 6th saw Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's Rover, successfully land on Mars.
Now, I was going to try and find out what the best selling songs of 2012 were in the UK, but after searching for an absolute age, I couldn't fins information anywhere. Some lazy beggar hasn't got off their behind to find out. I don't know... Perhaps they should send me all of the data and I'll sort it out for them and in that case receive their wage for a job well done!
Hal David (RIP), Petula Clark, and Burt Bacharach
September then saw us saying farewell to the lyricist Hal David, who was the songwriting partner to Burt Bacharach on songs such as Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, I'll Never Fall In Love Again, I Say A Little Prayer, and Walk On By. Others that died in September included actor Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile, Daredevil), author Sven Hassel (writer of several novels, mainly second world war based), television director/producer Winrich Kolbe (various Star Trek incarnations, Angel, Knight Rider), singer Andy Williams, and the fantastic Czech-born actor Herbert Lom (Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther series of films, I love them, as well as in other films such as The Ladykillers and Spartacus).
Flipping heck, I think I had better make this into a three part blog! What have I let myself in for here? This is an absolutely enormous undertaking I've got here.
I'll catch you again next time with what will be the third and very likely final part of this beast of a job, where I am pushing my usual blogging style aside, and talking about things that have happened during the year 2012.
Thank you for reading, please take care.
January 2nd 2012 (on which I am 42 years, 1 month, and 7 days old).
This blog is making me ask - how much longer will it take to finish this review?
