(0840) Morning all … ultrableah out there, mustn’t grumble. (1237)
14. At TCW
It is clear, on both sides of the Atlantic, that regarding covid vaccination, we have now entered ‘who gives a damn?’ territory. The harbingers of doom regarding the devastation of the population by covid, the ‘everyone is at risk’ message and the purportedly protective effects of the covid vaccines have been proved to be false. That is not to mention the accumulating evidence of potential and actual harms associated with the covid vaccines.
However there is one group of people who have not lost their faith, and they are our old friends at Global Health Now (GHN), possibly the most reliable source of misinformation about all things covid, at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The GHN issue of 11 December linked an article from the equally unreliable NPR Goats and Soda which posed the question in its title: ‘I didn’t get the latest covid vaccine. Should I? And if so, when?’ Exploiting the forthcoming holiday season, it further asked: ‘When should I get it for maximum holiday protection when travelling and partying?’
I think you can guess the answer.
13. I’ve run out of superlatives for this chap’s shots
… composition, colour balance:
12. There are stories behind this duo
I first heard them on my trip to France with a French lady and liked the song on the cassette in those days … her name was Muriel LaPorte but she changed it to Moreno when she saw Niagara, the Monroe film … a very dark tale indeed. They called their duo a band and called it Niagara, pronounced differently … nee a GA ra … and they were hot stuff in France in the 80s, based primarily on her sexiness, which the bf played to the max, turning her almost lascivious, whilst he went in for the satanic thing:
Notice Notre Dame behind her. Most songs were either ultra silly in that playful French way or ultra-dark, anti-Church, which spilled over into anti-Christian due to him, not in the lyrics but in the video imagery … hence the song below, quite a nice song as just audio, which is the only way I’ll play it.
They lasted a fair while but gradually he sapped her soul, her general health took a battering, finally she lost her voice entirely … they separated both as a band and as a couple.
11. IYE at 907
Prince Andrew faces intense scrutiny over links to an alleged Chinese spy MI5 has banished from Britain.
The Far East agent was apparently so close to the Royal Family he was invited to the Duke of York’s birthday party. Yet he has now been banned from the UK ‘on security grounds’.
10. Angels We Have Heard On High
A grumble … yes, yet another, chaps and chapesses. It’s about this carol … 26 versions of it I had to listen to before settling on one for tomorrow and methinks many are not going to be happy with my eventual choice even then.
For a start … no major, serious singers had versions on youtube, except Bocelli … the English language version surrounded by super slick, coiffed stage entertainment, luvvy style, gushingly extolling Bocelli … I clicked out … it’s not about the singer, it’s about the song.
The American versions were all about mangling the words and music, turning it into each singer’s or choir’s personal vehicle … the English versions were straight choirs, singing it straight … good … but oh, the articulation … awful! King’s wouldn’t touch it, they did Realms, a poor substitute imho, Cambridge did tackle it and whoever the choirmaster was should have been shot …
… now, there is a test of this … listen to the early part, listen for the word “strains” and if the final “s” is clearly articulated, then he or she is a good singer. Every single choir or church service mangled it.
So. … individual singers were the way to go, yes? All right … every single woman singer, inc. the Celtic, just had to have their big moosh plastered all over … or else their womanly figures … Lindsey Stirling was even half naked, lifting her bared leg for our admiration. The men were just as narcissistic.
Was there anyone, anyone at all, who could articulate the word “strains” clearly, plus sing it as close to straight as possible, in an elevated manner, as befits Gloria? Even if she does have that accent and jazz style to herself, but thankfully not to the carol?
Yep … one … Ella Fitzgerald. So hers is the version tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen.
Whats the big deal about this Chinese spy? They lie and get caught out. Then they are added to a list. They were not on the list before so why would they be persona non grata when they visited Andrew and it such a big deal when he asked security to vet his list and they were the ones that approved them.