My heart was in my mouth

I came across this video the other day.  Wonderful yes …but my heart was in my mouth the whole of the way through.

Seal meets girl. Seal falls in love with girl. The end. from Bob Dobalina on Vimeo.

I had visions of this going through my mind (photo of a leopard seal in Antarctica)

Source: guardian.co.uk via Nick on Pinterest

I think the girl in the video was very lucky, for more than one reason.

……………

Have you visited my Pinterest boards yet? I won’t keep banging on about this, I promise, but I’m learning so much about so much and I’m particularly chuffed with my ‘Photography’ board where I’ve collected together oodles of creative photographic ideas and inspirational images. …Just thought it worth mentioning for my photographer friends out there …

Whatever Next?

Have you ever seen TV footage of old folks homes where they are singing along, and sometimes dancing, to old favourites from their particular relevant era?  For a long, long time it seemed to me that here in the UK an awful lot of mileage was squeezed out of Flanagan & Allen’s ‘Underneath the Arches’.  Time moves on however and not to put too fine a point on it, people die, so that Messrs. Flanagan & Allen no longer had very much significance to the bulk of the new batch of retirees/elderly.  I recently saw a particular piece of film footage showing a retirement home where Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darren were now the artistes of choice.  It’s good to see that things have finally moved on but also kind of alarming to me that I too like these songs.  (I guess old age is closer than you think)!

I’ve often wondered, and it made me think again: What music would they play for me in my dotage?  To be honest, my music taste is so widespread, so eclectic and covers such a large time span that it could be anything from T Rex to Michael Jackson right up to a smattering of music from the present day. There is a lot of music that is relevant to me, some conjuring up interesting visions in the future of the old folks home with geriatrics gyrating and singing along.  Frankly, some songs might have to be banned on health and safety grounds – I can imagine the thumping, catchy beats causing a few slipped discs in over-enthusiastic pensioners (like me). 

Here’s the thing though, is it just me or do you find that, particularly in recent years, music has rapidly descended further into the gutter, an unhealthy proportion of it being hate-filled and full of misery?  So what will subsequent generations to me be singing and bopping along to?  50 Cent?  Ke$ha?  Now that’s something to really mess with your mind.  

Thinking about who I’d like to be listening to prompted me to put together this short Marc Bolan tribute – I think this is who I’ll be voting for as a regular fixture at my weekly tea dance.  Won’t you join me for a little turn around the dance floor?

Amazing

I saw Mike Tompkins on telly here in the UK the other night.  This is pretty incredible – all music produced by voice and mouth.  My favourite a capella track is probably MT’s version of Dynamite by Taio Cruz but alas it refuses to play on WordPress.  You can check it out on YouTube here. 

Sorry I haven’t been around much this week – I’ve been struck down by the dreaded lurgy and am currently feeling pretty hellish.  However, don’t let that stop you all from having a fabulous weekend. 

Something for the weekend?

That’ll do nicely!

As a bit of a rocks and gemstones nerd, this caught my eye whilst idly browsing at YouTube (as ye do) so I thought I’d share.  Besides which, the music’s pretty (it’s Moby).  ….AND!… it reminded me of a little story: There is a place in Ireland where amethysts are so common that I have seen large examples used as doorstops.  No, I’m not kidding and no, of course I’m not going to tell you where! 

Feeling like a wreckless teenager here…

I saw this place on telly last night in a programme called The 10 Worst Airports in the World.  This is Princess Juliana airport on the Dutch/French island of St Maarten in the Caribbean.  Just how low can they go without crashing or decapitating someone?! 

A surf bar on the beach just yards away is apparently a favourite spot to watch this spectacular sight and when planes like 747s take off some will ignore the signs and stand at the wire fence in the jet streams of the engines.  It’s bad to admit this I know, but this is one of those rare times in my life when my brain’s natural reaction is to bypass most of the safety implications and just joyously scream ‘How cool is that?!’

A Few Zzzzs

We’re at the last letter of the alphabet in Mrs Nesbitt’s ABC Meme - yay!  I’m falling back on the rather obvious ‘Z is for Zzzzs’ because it echoes how I’m feeling right now – plum tuckered.

This is a video collection of photos of our cats in various states of disarray and the music is a snippet of ”Dream A Little Dream” by Mama Cass (not that I really needed to tell you that, I’m sure)!

For more examples of how other bloggers interpret the letters of the alphabet, please visit the ABC project, hosted by Mrs Nesbitt

Dexter

Hands up anyone else who is watching and loving ’Dexter’ on TV.  For anyone who hasn’t yet come across this series, Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter expert working for the Miami police department.  He is also a serial killer and hard though it may be to believe, you actually find yourself liking Dexter - crazy but true.  

The writing and plotlines are wonderful but the opening titles are also a treat in themselves, cleverly filmed and put together to make even the simple act of getting ready for the day and preparing breakfast look menacing.  I wasn’t altogether surprised therefore to find this morning that they were awarded an Emmy in 2007.  

We here in the UK are only on season 2, which is great in a way, because I also found out this morning that we have a further three seasons to look forward to.  Goodee!

Crying At The Discotheque

I’m not sure whether this video will remain good to share because I’m not sure how things work over at YouTube, so I’m posting this now.  This fun song (from 2001) and its quirky video still make me feel ridiculously happy – I just love it.   Embedding has just been re-enabled…so here it is.  Enjoy the glorious weirdness of this great track and have a fun-filled Saturday.

Crying at the Discotheque, by Alcazar, 2001

Glittering Clouds

Whilst surfing around today I came across Imogen Heap’s beautiful song ‘Gilttering Clouds’ put together with clips of the ‘Twilight‘ movie.   Twilight, I think, was probably aimed at the girl/teen market but guess what?  I enjoyed it too!  Q.E.D. this video works for me on two levels…and I can’t ask for more than that!

Lena’s Satellite

Well, there’s a surprise – the UK completely bombed in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.  I’m not in the slightest bit surprised.  We don’t take this contest at all seriously and our nation, that continues to produce some of the greatest pop music in the world, is represented instead by complete unknowns and some very dull songwriting (sorry Pete Waterman, but this definitely wasn’t your finest hour). 

I’m actually pleased to say that having caught my first listen to our song entry yesterday, I made the conscious decision not to watch and therefore not to be embarrassed. 

Several people predicted that Germany would win… currently being the rich man of Europe and everything.  (We could all be heading to them, cap in hand, pretty soon so we needed to keep ‘em sweet).  That may be a little unfair, having listened this morning to singer Lena with ’Satellite’.  Her ‘mockney’ English accent is slightly dodgy (‘though to be fair she sings English better than I can sing in German), but she’s cute and the song is catchy, young and a bit of fun.  It’s the complete package really …and a far cry from our very poor offering.  

So, well done Lena and well done Germany.  At least you can actually afford to host this next year!

(Last year’s winner – Alexander Rybak, Norway)