Anyone who knows me knows how important music has been to me since I was knee-high to a record player. From embarrassing Cliff Richard impersonations as a five-year-old (apparently “Summer Holiday” was a family crowd-pleaser) to the eclectic cast of thousands on my iPod, music has been a constant thread throughout my life. So as I approached my 50th birthday last September, I figured why not “do a Nick Hornby” and pick out 50 songs that have meant the most to me over the past half a century. I finally got around to finishing it over Christmas.
Archive for December, 2007
30
Dec
07
Tracks of my years
Premier Dr. Ewart Brown has handed back responsibility for the Judiciary, Legislature and the Department of Public Prosecution that he alarmingly took from new Attorney General Kim Wilson after the election. According to a Cabinet office statement published in The Royal Gazette, he announced:
“The Attorney General has confirmed that those private matters which might have made the assumption of these ministerial responsibilities unduly burdensome have been resolved and I am happy to return those areas of responsibility to her. I certainly have enough to do.”
So what was all that about? Was this really a genuinely temporary arrangement or did someone tell the Prem that consolidating power this way was a no-no? As shadow AG John Barritt told the Gazette:
“There is no question that what was originally put out there was wrong, not only for appearances but because there should be a separation of the executive and judiciary and prosecution.”
29
Dec
07
Rangers’ Christmas cracker
Watford 2 QPR 4?! I don’t who is more in shock, high-flying Watford or me and every other Rs fan. Chelsea should be suitably worried for next week’s FA Cup tie, I reckon.
29
Dec
07
Clyde Best featured in Telegraph
Nice piece by Patrick Barclay (brother of my good friend, Bermuda-based journo Charles) about Bermuda soccer legend Clyde Best in this week’s Sunday Telegraph. It’s hard to explain the impact Best had at the time he played for West Ham (late 1960s) when soccer in the UK was predominantly white. He was a terrifically powerful centre forward and made such an impression on me as a kid that when I was applying for a job in Bermuda in 1982, the only things I knew about the Island were Bermuda shorts, the Bermuda Triangle and that it was where Clyde Best came from. In person he’s an absolute gentleman and a nicer guy you couldn’t wish to meet who still eats, sleeps and drinks football. Such was his impact in the UK that in 1997, more than 25 years after Best last played for the Hammers, when West Ham beat Scottish side Clyde on a pre-season tour, the Sunday Mirror headlined the match report: “Hammers are Clyde Best!”
28
Dec
07
Apple to rent movies on iTunes
Coming soon to iTunes: movies for rent. Apple and Fox have apparently reached an agreement that will see Fox movies available for limited time rental as they are released on DVD. The movies will be available for viewing on iPods and iPhones too. The move will heat up the growing online movie competition with Amazon and Netflix and likely give a boost to Apple’s neat but largely overlooked Apple TV device. Rumours are that movies would rent for about $2.99 for 30 days – although Bermuda users will likely be hamstrung by the usual international copyright rules if they try to download them. [Surely at some point in this digital instant gratification revolution, the whole international copyright law infrastructure is going to have to be completely overhauled, right?] Incidentally, one movie rental service worth checking out is Jaman which has a growing selection of excellent quality indie and international movies that play on Mac, PC or on your TV via Apple TV (and a little hack).
Ah, what would life be like without YouTube? Relive the best YouTube moments of 2007, courtesy of Wired’s Top 12 and Time’s Top 10 Viral Videos. Neither list, though, includes the Good Doctor Ewart’s election announcement - surely an historic internet first? My favourite is probably the inmates of a Filipino prison who do mass choreographed videos of 1980s Pop like Michael Jackson’s Thriller [see above]. Only those inmates in drag are permitted to not wear prison uniforms! For more of their bizarre moves, check out their blog.
28
Dec
07
Online’s hottest trades of 2007
The best guide to what’s hot in movies, music and popular culture these days is to track what people are sharing online. Wired magazine has just released it’s “Top of the Swaps” for 2007. Wired used LA-based BigChampagne Online Media Measurement to track media-consumption trends across all digital channels – legal and illegal. And the winners are …
Top Songs of 2007
1. Shop Boyz, “Party Like A Rock Star”
2. Akon, “I Wanna Luv U”
3. Sean Kingston, “Beautiful Girls”
4. Mims, “This Is Why I’m Hot”
5. Akon, “Don’t Matter”
6. T-Pain, “Bartender”
7. Soulja Boy, “Crank Dat Soulja Boy”
8. Justin Timberlake, “My Love”
9. DJ Unk, “Walk It Out”
10. Jim Jones, “We Fly High”
Top Movies of 2007
1. Resident Evil: Extinction
2. Pirates of The Caribbean: At World’s End
3. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
4. Ratatouille
5. Superbad
6. Beowulf
7. Transformers
8. American Gangster
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
10. Stardust
Top TV Shows of 2007
1. “Heroes”
2. “Prison Break”
3. “Top Gear”
4. “Smallville”
5. “Desperate Housewives”
6. “House, M.D.”
7. “Lost”
8. “Grey’s Anatomy”
9. “24″
10. “Dexter”
Continue reading ‘Online’s hottest trades of 2007′
24
Dec
07
Bah, humbug
So much for sitting down to watch It’s A Wonderful Life with a mega bar of Bourneville. Medical journal The Lancet has ruined Christmas by stating that dark chocolate isn’t as good for you as all those “85% pure organic cocoa”-hyped bars would have you believe.
“Dark chocolate rich in flavanols can have cardiovascular benefits compared with coca-free control chocolate, but can be unbalanced by fat levels, sugar, and calories,” says The Lancet. “But dark chocolate can be deceptive. When chocolate manufacturers make confectionery, the natural cocoa solids can be darkened and the flavanols, which are bitter, removed, so even a dark-looking chocolate can have no flavanol. Consumers are also kept in the dark about the flavanol content of chocolate because manufacturers rarely label their products with this information.”
Bah humbug, gimme that box of Quality Street … and the big purple ones are mine!
Merry Christmas one and all!
21
Dec
07
Miracle on Loftus Road
Next to being an England supporter and a second-class white expat in Bermuda right now, there is nothing more miserable than being a long-suffering QPR supporter, especially when your teamed is rooted to the foot of the Championship.
But lo and behold, miracles really do happen at Christmas: Rangers today announced that the richest man in Britain – steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal – has brought a 20% stake in the club!That means along with fellow shareholder Bernie (Formula One) Ecclestone, those two have a net worth of about $40 billion which officially makes us the richest club in West London by about $20 billion.
It will have no effect on the forthcoming FA Cup tie with Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea next month, of course – maybe they should dispense with the football and throw wallets at each other in the centre circle – but the New Year sure looks a whole lot brighter.
Premier League here we come … and maybe in my lifetime!
21
Dec
07
Disturbing power play
I agree with Vexed Bermoothes’ comments yesterday about the Cabinet shuffle. Very disturbing indeed. If Bermudians had any doubts about the direction Dr. Brown seems determined to be taking Bermuda, there can’t be any now. What was that old adage? Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?
In his interview with the BBC yesterday morning, Dr. Brown indicated that the allegation of corruption at the BHC “will disappear, it will evaporate, now that the election is over.”
Then, yesterday afternoon, he transferred responsibility for the judiciary and public prosecutions to his control at the Cabinet office. So, indeed, he’s probably correct.
Rather than reform, we are seeing a consolidation of power.
For further analysis of the election results, check out these maps of voting trends 2003-2007 by Kevin Mayall of AG Research.
