Oscar Peterson died on Christmas eve. What a man.
You still look good to me….
Weapon Of Choice – Fatboy Slim
I was just listening to the radio, humming away to myself for a few minutes whilst the phone stopped ringing for the first time today (!) and this tune came on… which reminded me to look at what I feel is the finest pop video in many, many years.
Four year old drummer to Sammy Davis Jr in about ten minutes
Lily and I do things a bit differently every Friday… we have a break from ‘story’ before bedtime, and it quite often involves surfing things on Youtube. To have all those amazing things from my childhood (and since) at my fingertips never ceases to amaze me; it won’t amaze Lily and her generation. For that, she’ll never be grateful – she never should be – this is what so much of the media should be – on demand entertainment, not pipe-fed scheduled programming, but a parent-supervised themed trip round amazing things.
We searched for a “drummer” – Lily’s quite set on getting some drums for Christmas …
First, we watched Igor, a four year old from Poland
… and from him, I was prompted to search for Buddy Rich’s epic battle with Animal fromt he Muppets
A natural progression, was to seek out another televised Buddy Rich drum battle, one that I’d heard talked about, but never seen (until Youtube!) – he and Gene Krupa going at it together on the Sammy Davis Jr show.
To calm down from the drums a bit, we finished off with a bit of Sammy Davis Jr himself, this time tap dancing to Singin in the Rain with some remarkable collars….
Friday night… a good night in.
Film of our Marrakech holiday… just four months late
Okay, it’s been a bit of a busy time…! I’ve only just got round to editing the fillum of our holiday in Marrakech, some four months ago. It was a happy old time, and is lovely looking back on it now. Crosby, Stiils and Nash were’nt actually there… it’s an over-dub.
On top of the economic food chain
This is somehow so credible….!
Americans Get Quized On World Affairs – Watch more free videos
Hammer Time
What amazes me about this film is how the man seems to have no bruises apparent from practising his art…
Phil and Anne’s house in Devon
Storms ravage the country, and once again we managed to keep Devon relatively dry for a long weekend. We should get paid for this.
A lovely time had by all – lots of Dartmoor running, plenty of drinking, not a disastrous amount of sleep loss, the Tour de France’s crucial stages on TV in the the background (and occasionally the foreground), excellent young-people-swimming trampolinic bouncing, a stone of cow rib to eat a youth bike ride, and Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. And a bit of sneezing.
Oh, and some extreme retrieving by Elvis.
Rachel and Katie, Wham! and the Carpenters.
Throw in some Cava and it’s an absolutely lethal mix.
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Young Angus
With some little boys, a life ahead full of Rock’n’Roll attitude seems inevitable. Like his namesake Angus Young, my nephew Angus seems destined for something like that. Recorded in Easter when we were playing with music on the computer together.
Barcelona Beach Hols 2007 – film
Managed to get this bit of editing out of the way in a very short space of time (as you can probably see).
We didn’t take the camera into town with us on our visits so this is all beach and campsite stuff.
Moonwalking bird
Okay, let’s not go into how I came to found a video called ‘Birds Moonwalking’, but this is just great. To see a bird strutting their Jacko stuff along those branches makes me feel like life’s beautiful. What’s next? Penguins dangling babies over balconies?
Matthew – a short film
I treated the manic videoing of Phil’s family trip to our house a bit differently this year and have decided to edit it into little chunks of film. Matthew’s a good age now for co-operation when it comes to things like this, and he makes a good subject (and a lovely nephew!). Music is “Aquarius” by Boards of Canada’s timeless album – released ten years ago, “Music Has the Right to Children“