The deserving men: well done to the 2012 Olympians

I'll admit I was pretty cynical about how well the Olympics would go - the focus on not just medals (or to use the new and gross parlance "medalling") but the importance of GOLD medals above everything else was a turn off.  The level of media attention was pretty insane.  Some coped better than others, but a sense of perspective was always needed.  Well done to everyone who has taken part, whatever they managed to achieve.

Here are some of the performances we've enjoyed:

• Bradley Wiggins in cycling - it cannot get better than winning the Tour de France and then Olympic Gold within 2 weeks

• Sir Chris Hoy in cycling - adding further triumph to an astonishing career

• Alan Campbell in rowing - striving against the very best in the world to get an amazing medal

• The British male gymnast team - Daniel Purvis, Max Whitlock, Louis Smith, Kristian Thomas, Sam Oldham: first medal in 100 years

• Greg Rutherford in long jump - leaping beyond expectations

• Peter Wilson in double-trap shooting - modestly acknowledging that not many in Dorset may have been watching

• Mo Farah in 10,000 metres - dominating the final lap in a somewhat tetchy race, crossing the line ahead of his US training partner, Galen Rupp

• Ben Ainslie in sailing - managing the seas off the British coast

• Michael Jamieson in swimming - beaten into Silver only by a world record

• Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott - plus David Florence and Richard Hounslow (all Nottingham alumni) - in the canoe slalom ---- racing against the rapids

• Andy Murray getting the tennis gold medal against Federer - a small vengeance on Wimbledon, and the first win in over 100 Olympic years (there have been several of these this year)

And beyond the British team:

• Michael Phelps in swimming - just brilliant to watch: 22 medals in his Olympic career

• Chad le Clos in swimming - tears falling in triumph after the shock of beating his hero Phelps in the butterfly 200 metres, and not forgetting Bert le Clos, his dad

Well done to everyone again - and there is still a week to go!

Olympics 2012 - pleasures so far: let's hear it for the women

In no particular order, here have been some of my pleasures so far from the Olympics in 2012.  I know there have been others who have done everything they could --- cyclists, rowers, judo and more, whether on the podiums or not (I loved insomniac Lizzie Simmonds in the swimming) --- but these have been some of my favourite bits from watching the women Olympians.

• Gemma Gibbons in the judo - looking upwards an saying 'love you mum'

• Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in the rowing - and good luck to them both for their PhD studies!

• Heather Stanning and Helen Glover: the first British Gold medals of 2012

• Victoria Pendleton in the cycling - proving to everyone that she could it

• Rebecca Adlington - the most successful British swimmer in 100 years

• Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland in the rowing - against expectations

• Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon - who really only needed to get around the 800m track, but stormed home first anyway

Well done everyone, including Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who glowed throughout her own heptathlon success in breaking the British junior record points scored.  

And beyond the British women:

• Lee Wai Sze in cycling - the biggest smile imaginable

• Missy Franklin in swimming - a storming physique for the future: the USA's female Michael Phelps

• Ruta Meilutyte in swimming - Lithuanian, training in Britain, looking so astonished by her own success

• Katie Ledecky and Ye Shiwen also in swimming - phenomenal achievements by young swimmers

• Tirunesh Dibaba in the 10,000 metres - running a brilliant race to retain her title

Congratulations to all the women from all the nations taking part in the London 2012 Olympics.  Taking part, competing: it is all part of the journey to full status in society for women.

Bonkers - what an apt word for the London Olympics Opening Ceremony

Bloody hell Danny Boyle!  What dirt have you got on the Queen that she'd be prepared to spoof herself with James Bond for international humour?  What has she been doing with the corgis?!

We started the evening listening to Barenboim conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra doing Beethoven's 9th symphony - whacking up the volume as we approach the final part and the glorious choral excesses of the European Union anthem.  It was heart-soaring stuff.  It wasn't even the last appearance that Barenboim put in yesterday.

When we tuned into the TV coverage, there was the already surreal sight of Frank Turner, Eton scholarship boy turned rebellious protest singer, belting out folk-heroic rock 'n' roll to the masses from a recreation of the Glastonbury Tor.  This wasn't even the start of the event proper.  It would get more weird.

With Mark Rylance doing Richard III, we had the sight of Kenneth Branagh donning a tall hat and playing Isambard Kingdom Brunel saying the lines of Shakespeare's Caliban.  Heralding the end of twee greenery, wandering farm animals, scarecrows, cricket matches, songs from around the UK, the route of the Thames across England, a solo child sang up Blake's Jerusalem and the dark satanic mills were cue-d up, rising with fiery fearsomeness from the ground, uprooting the trees, pouring out worker bee human from the unlit caverns of the soil.  Heat and fire, welding and orange glow: the Olympic rings were forged from human toil.

Pandemonium indeed.

A potted history lesson ran through this early section, encompassing the Suffragettes and the arrival of the Windrush: heck, I half expected there to be a re-creation of last year's riots.  Instead there was a pause in the proceedings at one point to recall the low after the high of being awarded the Olympics - the murders of so many in the 7/7 bombings commemorated and remembered through silence, and then colour and dance as choreographed by Akram Khan to accompany Emili Sande singing "Abide with Me".  It was oddly moving.

There was humour throughout: some intentional, not all of the same degree.  Mr Bean with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the theme from 'Chariots of Fire'; the Queen exchanging lines with Daniel Craig as James Bond (and then her 'parachuting down' into the stadium).

Mostly, it was pretty funny that whenever the cameras hit a shot of Queenie during the ceremony that she looked decidedly unamused, picking her fingernails rather than watching Sir Chris Hoy: I'm standing by Boyle having evidence of Fifty Shades of Corgi to get QE2 to play ball on letting the crews film her and the palace, let alone stay up til 12:45am.  Looks like they had the required music license agreed since it matters less about annoying this part of London than Mayfair.

But across the ceremony there was weird and wonderful in bucketloads: a coming together of children's fiction (with JK Rowling no less) and the NHS complete with spectral Voldemort, child-catcher and Mary Poppins. The internet and music were celebrated with a hyperactive run-through of popular music from the Beatles, through Mud's Tiger Feet, po-go-ing puppet punks, Underworld, and into Dizzee Rascal's Bonkers.

Well, quite. A full list of the Olympics medley music is at the NME site.

After that, finding the Arctic Monkeys, complete with Beatles in Hamburg quiff, doing a barn-storming version of "I bet that she looks good on the dancefloor" followed by cycling winged monkeys doves accompanying a version of "Come Together", seemed positively obvious.

What was less obvious was having ginger-mopped Alex Trimble of Two Door Cinema Club doing a lovely specially commissioned song by Underworld called "Caliban's Dream" (sound only link, with percussion from a witchy and brilliant Dame Evelyn Glennie, Only Men Aloud, Dockhead Choir, and soprano Elizabeth Roberts).

We had a selection of interesting luminaries carrying in the Olympic flag - including Barenboim (God knows how he got from South Ken to the stadium in time). And there was a touching, if painful, moment of human frailty as the once powerful Muhammad Ali was assisted to hold the Olympic flag before it was taken to the flagpole.

The torch was taken along the River Thames by David Beckham (though I felt more for the lass at the front of the speedboat, hair horizontal from the speed) and he passed the torch on to Sir Steven Redgrave.  But it wasn't he who would light the eventual cauldron.  Instead, the torch flame was passed to young Olympic hopefuls for the future selected by the greats of the past, and with other greats there too watching the past hand over to the future.  The copper petals that each nation had carried in with them in the competitors arrival to the stadium formed a beautiful flower which was then lit by the seven flames and rose to become the Olympic cauldron flame.  Stunning.

There was inevitably an appearance by Macca - although hearing "The End" was nice, I did wonder if he may launch into the quirky and equally quick "Her Majesty" - and then there was (an initially sound-fluffed) version of "Hey Jude" complete with crowd sing-along.

Fireworks all the way of course.  You know what, it was kinda pretty good.  Barking mad. But rather good.

The copper petals come together beautifully to create the Olympic cauldron, lit not by past glories but a forthcoming generation of sporting hopefuls

A weird old week: life and death

What a strange week it has been: last weekend was singing on stage, partway through the week there were new arrivals for my boss (a granddaughter) and the lovely George and Sonia added a new son Max to the family to keep big brother Xavi company.

Then Thursday - in the midst of a temporary burst of summer - we had the long drive down past Abingdon to go to a friend's funeral: "the first of the gang to die" so to speak.  It was both wonderfully moving and utterly heartbreaking: seeing someone your own age being buried (albeit in one of the most bucolic and beautiful settings one could imagine) is a harsh reality check to our sense of immortality.

But as Andy would say: "hey ho".  Life goes on, so beautifully proved by new life arriving.

Surviving stage lights: BeVox at the Nottingham Variety Show

Well, it was an experience for sure.

Saturday was a frantic day: I was up relatively early for a weekend and in town by 10am.  The BeVox choir had to be at the Nottingham Arts Theatre by 10.45am to gather for a soundcheck at about 11.30am for the Nottingham Variety Show.

Packing around 60 people onto a small stage was no mean feat and I was glad I opted to trust my memory as I don't think there would have been room to have my music folder out as well! 

I met Helen and Neil for lunch at Edins and then we headed back to the theatre, and eventually I headed in to sit with other choir members at the back of the theatre (one way to pad out the audience!)

A variety show in this day and age is a tricky thing to do: should you go for nostalgia or for a mix of acts that all bring a contemporary feel to the proceedings?  How diverse should you go?

As BeVox were headlining and so were due at the end of the second half of the show, it was just the first half we could sit through - I'd have liked to see some of the acts that were in the second half (I heard good things about some of them), and inevitably the matinee and evening shows did host a slightly different bill.

Best act of the first half at the matinee: Josh Kemp by a country mile.  Erin Parker is clearly a professional performer as well, but there isn't that much variety in the style of 1940s songs (though it is always good to hear Minnie the Moocher).  Great voice and frock though.

Notes on performers:

• Know the words: I shouldn't know the words better than you
• Don't look at your feet
• This isn't reality TV: we shouldn't like your singing more just because of your biography (though that can be valuable once you're established)
• Know which is the best item to end on
• Don't overstay your welcome

Due to a variety of issues, we ended up not going on stage until about 5pm - cue my nerves!

Once we'd lined up on stage - and Neil had finished being stooge for the compere's jokes (and passing on jokes for the evening performance!), it was time for us.  Behind the curtains, we tried to place ourselves as best possible.  My word, stage lights are intense!  I was frying on there.

Our songs were:

• Take a chance on me (Abba)
• One Voice (Barry Manilow)
• Rosé (The Feeling)
• Amazing Grace
• Qonqgotwane [The Clicking Song]
• West Side Story medley - Jet Song, Maria, Tonight Quintet, Somewhere, America (Leonard Berstein)
• Animal Crackers - The Panther, The Canary, The Kangaroo (based on Ogden Nash's poems, set to music by Eric Whitacre)
• Total Praise (Richard Smallwood, Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir version)
• Do you know the way to Amarillo?! (a mash-up of 'Do you know the way to San Jose?' / 'Is this the way to Amarillo?)
• Lean on me (Bill Withers - the BeVox signature song)

A good experience anyway: here's to the next time!

Talk about belated - Cosmo Jarvis on BBC Radio 4

Jeez, BBC Radio 4: your 'fluff' culture slot at 8.20am is always a bit cringeworthy.  But apparantly today was for 'the latest thing' - Cosmo Jarvis.

Erm: didn't I post about Cosmo Jarvis back in January 2011?

My new tee-shirt: thank you tee-fury for 'The Physician Unknown'

Jerry Bennett designed this t-shirt for tee-fury's tee of the day a couple of weeks ago.  It arrived in the mail last week!  Whee!!!!!  I love this t-shirt so much - steampunk doctor!

Tomorrow - all being well - I will be singing

Ahoy BeVox: it's the Nottingham Variety Show at the Nottingham Arts Theatre.

I will be - all being well - singing with the choir.

Yikes!

(To show how good they can be see here: the promo video from BeVox at Magna)

2900 posts on this blog

Just realised that I've done 2900 posts on this blog.  Admittedly many were done in a very productive blogging period near the start, but it's still (just) going!

I'll definitely aim to get past 3000 before the year is out.  However, it's worth noting that even 'lazy' twitterers can manage more than 3000 tweets - I'm slow....

Claridge's and Bruce Springsteen

Since we were loitering in Mayfair yesterday, looking at the architecture and stuff, I suggested I would like a look at Claridge's.  What a yummy Art Deco building!

There was a small crowd of people outside, nothing too major, about 20 or so.  Eventually we plucked up to ask someone who they were expecting to see.

Bruce Springsteen.

Okay.  THAT is a person I can get why you would want to try and meet.  Is Bruce even going to want to come back after concert organisers switched off the power at his gig last night?  (It was emphatically NOT the Council of Westminster, though presumably a large fine would have had to be paid for the over-run).

Or maybe, since Paul Macca was on stage at the time, the organisers were solid Rolling Stones fans?

Virginia Woolf's service station commemorated

We ended our day in London with a meal at Olivelli - the lovely Pizza Paradiso of old.  Located on Store Street opposite what was reputed to be London's oldest petrol station, the Bloomsbury petrol station has been replaced with... well, some kinda office.  But at least they have a lovely artwork to commemorate Virginia Woolf topping up her car*.

* Woolf may not have done this: I'm just guessing :)

In praise of Elsa Schiaparelli and 1930s dresses

Oooh, I am a sucker for mid 20th century clothing.  1920s through to the 1940s (and shading into the 1950s) I am in my element design-wise.

So it was a real thrill to go to the V&A yesterday: not for the Ballgowns exhibition because that STARTS in the 1950s and I ain't so fussed about modern day ballgowns.  No, I was rather more interested in the new displays for the history of fashion, especially the early 20th century stuff.  Swoon. I feel glamorous just looking at such items.

Atkinson's Perfumier Old Bond Street

Opposite Tiffany's in London is the old Atkinson's perfumier shop: established in 1799 the building is memorialised for its carillion.  It was such a beautiful building, full of strange decorative details, that I couldn't resist taking several pictures!

London July 2012 - Mayfair and shopping in London's arcades (the art of NOT buying)

We found plenty of nifty arcades in London yesterday; all elegantly decorated and attracting those with wealth (and those like us just looking).

We initially saw the Arcade on Albermarle Street.

We then browsed the Burlington Arcade near the Royal Academy.

Finding Matthew Foster's there was the most wonderful - and awful - treat.  Wonderful because his art deco wares were just divine.

Awful because to have these things would break the bank (though aren't the banks already broken?  mmmm).  We've decided that if the number come up on the lottery that good, I'm just phoning Foster and buying the stock.  Everything.

There was a diamond and sapphire square ring priced at £11,500.  Well, THAT'S a sum of money everyone had down the back of their sofa...!*  The image below is of a similar ring that auctioned for around £1000 (a snip), but the Foster item has an unbroken square surround of sapphire with a square diamond in the centre.  Swoon...

*Note: if you have this sum down the back of your sofa, please send it on to me and I'll be buying a shiny ring with it. :)