Review of 2012 - Part Two

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?