Two things happened half a century ago today
October 5th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
1) The Beatles released their first single “Love Me Do” and four lads from Liverpool changed the world – see more here.
2) As a 14 year old, i spent a day at school in Manchester where I did badly in a Physics test, did a bit better in a Latin test, and started on nitric acid in my Chemistry class (I know this because I’ve kept a daily diary for just over 50 years).
The Beatles – together with James Bond who arrived on screens the same year – coloured my adolescence. The Beatles music is still popular, the Bond movies are still being made, and I’m still going.
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
The position of culture in war and peace
October 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In any conflict situation – insurrection, civil war or international war – clearly the paramount concern is the lives and livelihoods of local citizens. But conflict often threatens the cultural artefacts and therefore the cultural identity of a nation or locality.
I did a posting recently about the destruction of the ancient souk in Aleppo last weekend. Today the National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina is to close as a consequence of the political settlement that ended the civil war in that part of former Yugoslavia. You can read more about this here.
I am particularly saddened by this because, during a visit to Sarajevo in 2007, my sister and I visited this museum especially to view the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illuminated 14th-century Jewish manuscript which has been valued at $700m. You can read an account of our trip here [the visit to the National Museum was on Day Two].
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Guess who’s been to the Classic BRIT awards?
October 3rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Thank you. DCMS Minister Ed Vaizey, for dropping out of attendance at last night’s Classic BRIT Awards ceremony, allowing me to pick up a vacant place. I was a guest of the BPI (the British Recorded Music Industry) and we had a great box giving us a pleasant meal before the ceremony and terrific views of the event.
In fact, there was not much classical music as such and what there was was short and familiar; the event was more about popular orchestral music which is still very enjoyable. Highlights for me were the London Chamber Orchestra playing a medley of film theme music written by John Williams (the 80 year old received a Lifetime Achievement award) and a rendition of “Sing” by the Military Wives conducted by Gareth Malone with Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Wives won the Single of the Year award).
You can see all the winners here.
Generally it was a very professional and impressive show but there were a few sound problems and poor Nicola Bendetti had to repeat her violin performance of the theme from “Schindler’s List”. That will be edited for the television broadcast which you can see on ITV1 this Sunday 7 October at 10.15 pm.
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Guess who’s going to the Classic BRIT Awards?
October 2nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This year’s Classic BRIT Awards ceremony will be held this evening in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. It is organised by the BPI (the British Recorded Music Industry) with which I am about to do some work – more of that another time – and I was contacted last night and advised that a Ministerial guest had pulled out at the last moment. Would I like to take up his place? You bet.
The ceremony will be hosted by Myleene Klass and the performers will be André Rieu, Gary Barlow, Gareth Malone and the Military Wives, Milos Karadaglić, Russell Watson, Amore, Nicola Benedetti, Andrea Bocelli and the cast of “The Phantom Of The Opera”. And, of course, there will be presentations of nine awards.
There’s only one problem. The affair is black tie/dinner jacket (tuxedo, for American readers) and of courses, as a member of the proletariat, I don’t own such an outfit. So I’m off now to rent one from Moss Bros …
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
The tragedy of Aleppo’s souk
October 1st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Vee and I were on holiday in Syria from 3-9 March 2011 and I have written a full account of our trip here. Although the months running up to our visit were dominated by the dramatic events of the Arab Spring in north Africa, the whole country of Syria was eerily quiet during all our time there.
But, just six days after we left, there was effectively the start of the Syrian revolution on 15 March 2011 with coordinated protests in a range of cities and towns. In the intervening year and a half, the death toll has risen and risen as the nation has slid into civil war. It is estimated that already some 30,000 have been killed with many more made homeless.
It has been hard to deal with the emotion of the daily reports of death and destruction, but sometimes an event has a special poignancy. One such incident occurred this weekend with the news that the historic souk (market) in Aleppo has been consumed by fire with some 1,500 shops destroyed.
I had a marvellous time in the souk doing a little shopping with two of my travelling companions Sam and Fiona Moorhead. You can see some pictures here. The silver lining to this black cloud is that any day now Fiona will give birth to their first child.
Posted in My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (1)
A review of the new sci-fi movie “Looper”
September 29th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Strange name for a new film that I saw this weekend – you can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
What’s the name of that tower?
September 29th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I’ve recently been a couple of times to visit the British Recorded Music Industry to discuss some work (more of that in the future). The central London offices of the organisation are located in the former County Hall overlooking the Houses of Parliament and our meeting room had a great view of the clock tower at Westminster. But what is the name of the tower?
Everyone calls it Big Ben but that is in fact the name of the largest bell and not of the tower at the top of which its sits. Originally called simply the Clock Tower, since Victorian times it has been called St Stephen’s Tower. But this month it has been renamed the Elizabeth Tower to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
I’m not sure that the name will catch on, but it does create a certain symmetry since, at the other end of the Palace of Westmintser, we have the Victoria Tower, named after another long-reigning female monarch.
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
London’s water from the Great Stink to the Tideway Tunnel
September 28th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I have now served for six months in my new appointment in the water sector as Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water. This is a new sector for me and a really complicated one, so I’ve been attending lots of briefings and meetings and doing lots of reading and research. This week, I chaired the third meeting of the Customer Challenge Group and I attended a lecture at the Institution of Engineering & Technology delivered by the Technical Director of British Water.
The lecture started with a brief history of the development of the water sector in this country and mentioned the Great Stink of 1858. In the discussion which followed, reference was made to the Tideway Tunnel which is to be built by Thames Water which provides my own sewage service. There is a six-minute film which links the Great Stink with the Tideway Tunnel and you can view it here.
Posted in Consumer matters, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Why is 2012 so important?
September 26th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
“2012 marks the end of a 26,000 year astrological period as recognized by the Mayans, Incas, Aztecs, Maoris and most of the ancient cultures. December 2012 is also the final end of the experiment of Atlantis. This took 10,000 years to set up, lasted for 240,000 years and is taking 10,000 years to tie up all the loose ends, so the 260,000 year experiment ends on 21.12.2012.
Then we start a double transformational shift as the planet and all on her, including humans, rapidly move towards ascension. This is the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth that there has ever been in the entire history of the planet and beings from all over the Universes are watching in awe at what is happening on Earth.”
This is an extract from a page of a web site recommended to me by a friend who is as lovely as she is wacky. This is a highly educated and articulate woman who believes that the Earth has chakra and we are about to experience The Ascension. Of course, all the predictions of Diana Cooper – the author of the web site – and others like her are so imprecise as to be incapable of genuine validation, so believers will have more ‘proof’ of their beliefs and sceptics – like me – will see nothing different.
Cooper’s web site explains:
“Her spiritual books are about angels, archangels, unicorns, all elementals including fairies and Ascended Masters. Her spirit guide is Kumeka, who has given her information about the Orbs, Atlantis, the Spiritual Laws, ascension and enlightenment.”
I am fascinated by why so many people believe things which most people find weird and lacking in supporting evidence and I have outlined a range of suggested explanations here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Web site visits back to 8,000 a day
September 25th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Visits to my web site always fall in the summer months and this was especially so this year with most of my visitors being located in Britain and the country hosting the Olympic Games.
But this week visits returned to over 8,000 a day. Almost half of those are to this blog which is overwhelmingly the most popular section of my site.
So thanks so much for your interest and support. Please spread the word to family and friends.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)