NOW! That's What I Call A Tune! 48

I said last week that there was lots of bubblegum pop to choose from in this week's album. And there was, but I went for this!:

Enjoy ;-p

Andrew

We Could Be Heroes - some already are...

My edition of Collins' Concise Dictionary and Thesaurus has this as the first definition of the word "Hero":

hero (ˈhɪərəʊ) n. 1. one greatly regarded for achievements or qualities

This summer Britain has gained a fair few of those - and a number have seen their heroic status enhanced. Mo Farah, Jason Kenny, Jessica Ennis, Katherine Grainger, Greg Rutherford, Ben Ainslie were all Heroes of Team GB (&NI) whose achievements will live long in the memory... 

Likewise, Nicola Adams, Adam Gemili, Luke Campbell, Jade Jones, Gemma Gibbons, Alan Campbell, Charlotte Dujardin - the list is long, I could go on and on... And that's before mentioning international athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Chad Le Clos, Kirani James and Sally Pearson.

The Paralympics have added many, many more names to the list at the (almost) halfway point. Here are just a few of the heroes for Paralympics GB so far, they may not all have won Gold but they do all meet the above definition:

David Weir

Ellie Simmonds

Lee Pearson

Mickey Bushell

Sarah Storey

Terry Bywater

Some great memories and still a week to go...

Andrew 

Sunday Sounds 52 - Harder Than You Think...

...otherwise known as the Channel 4 Paralympic coverage theme tune.

It's not, obviously, this blog's normal cup of tea (I much prefer a gentle Darjeeling) but it's got stuck in my head as it is played at each ad break - and there have been A LOT of them!

So, here are Public Enemy with Harder Than You Think.

Andrew

Sunday Sounds 51 - Hal David

The death of Hal David was announced yesterday. He was 91 and had suffered a stroke in March and died of subsequent complications.

Together with Burt Bacharach, he was responsible for a huge canon of great songs - sung by great singers. Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Perry Como, Gene Pitney, The Carpenters amongst many, many others all had hits with Bacharach and David songs. One of their biggest songs - Dionne Warwick's Walk On By - has featured on this blog previously here. 

For this post, I've chosen Deacon Blue with "I'll Never Fall in Love Again". This was the lead track on their "Four Bacharach and David Songs" EP (the other tracks being "The Look of Love", "Are You There(With Another Girl) and "Message to Michael"). This EP marked the point at which became aware of Bacharach and David as well as their songs.

Enjoy:

Andrew

Saturday Six 3

Welcome to the third Saturday Six selection of some of the best blogposts and articles I've read over the past week. As ever, it's not a "Top 6", exhaustive or definitive selection - just six that I've earmarked as interesting or notable.

 

First up, former Lib Dem President Baroness Ros Scott gains an insight into the workings of the TV and Film Production industry and provides an insight into the workings of Parliament and how members acquire knowledge of outside interests.

 

Nadine Dorries is not someone I would normally read - but this piece is entertaining in as far as she puts the boot into Louise Mensch.

 

How do you deal with not being selected to compete for your country? David Roberts does it with grace.

 

Amazingly, this report on Todd Akin is a spoof. It is worrying that I could begin that sentence with the word "amazingly" though.

 

To round off this half-dozen, two Paralympic related posts; The Independent reflects on the change in meaning and significance of the Games of London 2012 when compared with the Stoke Mandeville Games of 1948. Jeremy Browne reports on agreement with the hosts of future games to promote Human Rights - and on the Government's work more broadly in this area.

 

And that's it for another week...

 

Andrew