Sad Legacy of Fukushima

Photo from The Irish Times

It may not be in the news much now, but almost a year after the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear meltdown Japan is still struggling to recover. One problem is that hundreds of hastily abandoned pets are fighting to survive in the harsh winter in the exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear reactor. 


Of course the country has concentrated on containing the nuclear accident and protecting people from radiation,  but Yasunori Hoso, representative director of United Kennel Club Japan, has been trying to save as many dogs and cats from the no-go zone as possible.  He also keeps pets for those who are living in shelters where pets are not allowed. He runs a shelter for about 350 dogs and cats rescued from the 20-km evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear plant.  


He says, " ......when it comes to dogs, all of them, without exception, become really ecstatic when they get reunited with their owners. That is what keeps me going, what makes me determined that I have to push ahead until the last one goes back to its owner."

It's great that there are people like Hoso, working hard to reunite pets with their families.

Full article below.

Fukushima pets in no-go area face harsh winter

It really was a storm.... !

It really was a storm.... !,
originally uploaded by ツ Kj Photography ツ.

This was taken in Iceland last night, now that's what I call an aurora! We are in Iceland in two months, I hope we get a Northern Lights show like this!  Click on the photo to enlarge.

U22 Tracklist

U2.com has announced the track listing for U22, the gift for re-subscribers of U2.com.  For once it is actually an excellent gift, but not enough to make me shelve out $50!  Below is the announcement as it appears on U2.com.


After tens of thousands of votes, U2.com Subscribers have decided which tracks will appear on 'U22'.

We asked you to choose your top 22 live tracks after listening to 46 the band played on U2360°. Three months later, the result is the first crowd-sourced U2 live collection.

You didn't just cast your votes. You also engaged in impassioned argument on our boards about which tracks should appear, which should not - and why.

In the end the great divide was between those of you who wanted 'U22' to become  a collection of the band's 'greatest' live tracks and those who wanted it to capture songs the band rarely perform, tracks hardly ever released live.

The results are fascinating - spanning nine albums and thirty years, excluding some of the most familiar songs and featuring some total surprises.

'This is really going to be a special CD.' said Adam, when we caught up with him this week. 'I wasn't expecting some of these tunes, it's a really fresh collection and it's going to make very interesting listening.'

So here's the 22 tracks. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see what happens next. And then get into the comments to give us your reactions.

1. Bad  
2. Where The Streets Have No  Name
3. Magnificent 
4. One
5. Ultraviolet 
6. Even Better than The Real Thing
7. With or Without You 
8. Beautiful Day 
9. City of Blinding Lights 
10. The Unforgettable Fire 
11. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 
12. All I Want is You/Love Rescue Me   
13. Moment of Surrender  
14. Until The End of the World  
15. The Fly 
16. One Tree Hill  
17. Stay (Faraway, So Close) 
18. Walk On 
19. Zooropa 
20. Elevation
21. Out of Control
22. Mysterious Ways 

The tracks are now being mixed and sequenced while the editorial and design of the accompanying 24-page large format book (see above) is finalised. 

More details soon on when 'U22' will be arriving with you... if you've resubscribed to U2.com for 2012. 

Bono and Grace

At the moment Bono is on a seemingly unpublicised tour of Africa.  He recently visited the Mend project in Uganda - more information on this on their Facebook page here .

There's a nice little story about Bono meeting Grace, one of the workers there, and of course he just had to sing Amazing Grace to her!  On Facebook it says someone videoed this, if it turns up anywhere I'll put it on my blog.  But there's a lovely photo  of Bono with Grace (who has obviously been charmed by Bono judging by the big smile on her face) which I've added below.

Photo from Mend's Facebook page

'Stephen Lawrence' by Carol Ann Duffy

Wonderful poem by the poet laureate, sometimes less is more and says so much.  

'Stephen Lawrence' by Carol Ann Duffy

Written by the poet laureate after the conviction of two men for the teenager's murder in 1993

Cold pavement indeed
the night you died,
murdered;
but the airborne drop of blood
from your wound
was a seed
your mother sewed
into hard ground –
your life's length doubled,
unlived, stilled,
till one flower, thorned,
bloomed
in her hand, 
love's just blade.

Words To Take Note Of U2 .....

YES, YES, YES!  I agree with pretty much all of this article and I hope U2 read it and that it gives them food for thought.


From Rolling Stone:


Our 10 Greatest Hopes and Fears for 2012
2012 is going to be a big year for music.  We hope these people don't screw it up.


U2 Plot Their Future
Hope: U2's 2009 album No Line On The Horizon was an extremely ambitious record that sold millions of copies all over the world. Songs like "Moment of Surrender" and "Magnificent" rank with the band's best work, but the singles failed to connect with a mass audience and by U2's standards it was a disappointment. We hope that they realize that radio is unlikely to put any song they ever write into heavy rotation; instead, they should just focus on making another great record, and then hit the road on an arena tour that drops some of the old warhorses in favor of great songs from the past. How about "Acrobat," "Drowning Man" and "Numb"? "Pride (In The Name of Love)" is a great song, but enough's enough. 

Fear: U2 tends to end each decade with a commercial disappointment, and then begin the new decade with an album that's the exact opposite of their last work. The failure of Rattle and Hum gave the world Achtung Baby and the failure of the (criminally underrated) Pop led to the back-to-basics approach on All That You Can't Leave Behind. They have spent much of the last two years working with a rotating cast of producers, including Danger Mouse and RedOne. We fear their primary focus is competing with Lady Gaga on the radio. It's a fight they're going to lose. Hey Bono, don't overthink this next record. Just make it great. It'll serve you better in the long run. Remember that awful charity single "Stranded" you cut with Jay-Z and Rihanna? Never do anything like that again. 

Happy 2012!

Just a few words as 2011 is drifting away.  I hope that 2012 will be a great year for you, I hope it will be happy and healthy and that you will have lots of whatever makes you content.  I have trips to Stoke, Manchester, Iceland, Dublin and Nice lined up so I'm pretty happy with that as travelling is one of my big loves and I appreciate that I am lucky in that I am able to travel that much.

As I get older I appreciate my health more and more, without good health life can be pretty difficult no matter how blessed you are in other ways, and I hope for continued health for all in 2012.  My diet/gym has been sidelined these last few weeks but I am getting back onto the wagon from tomorrow, I am determined to keep the healthier lifestyle doing!  Hopefully I'll be a shadow of myself this time next year.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, I'm chuffed that I get so many people popping in to read my various musings and hope that you will continue to do so next year.  My very best wishes for 2012, and a couple of woofs from the longdog rascals below too!

Max and Pepsi

Earthflight

Looking forward to this new series starting on BBC One tonight.

Bono at Leopardstown Races 2011

Bono Pouring Champagne for the Photographers

Bono, Ali and their daughters went on their annual St Stephen's day out at the Leopardstown races yesterday. Bono was in a generous mood and handed out champagne to the waiting photographers.  Story and more photos here. Bono's daughters have grown into beautiful young women, but there is a big error in the article, the journalists have got Jordan and Eve mixed up in the photo captions. (PS they have now corrected the errors).

More photos here .

Update - Video of Bono Busking on Grafton Street

Lovely video of Silent Night from the busking on Grafton street earlier this evening.  Another song that was sung was Baby Please Come Home.

Bono Busking on Grafton Street - Again

Bono,  in what now seems be a Christmas Eve tradition, once more joined Glen Hansard, Mundy, Liam O'Maonlai,  Declan O'Rourke and others to busk on Grafton street this evening. The event was in aid of the Simon Community and Peter McVerry Trust, both charities working to help the homeless.  I've not heard what songs were sung but lots of other photos can be found here.

Siku the Polar Bear Cub - Major Cuteness!

If you want something to put a smile on your face watch the video below.  The cub is Siku (meaning ice in Greenlandic), just one month old, who lives at the Scandinavian Wildlife Park in Denmark.  He had to be taken away from his mother as she could not produce enough milk for him.  He is being cared for 24 hours a day by three keepers, what a wonderful job!  And what a sweetheart little Siku is.

U2 Christmas Party

U2 threw the Christmas party for their staff at Principle management on Wednesday 21st December at Harry's Cafe Bar on Hanover Quay.  As well as the staff, The Rubberbandits and Gavin Friday were there.  Apparently also attending were Gavin's dogs Ralph and Stan wearing Santa hats!  I'm sure a good time was had by all!

Photo:  Irish Independent     

The Jean Genie, David Bowie 1973

This performance by David Bowie of The Jean Genie was first broadcast on Top of the Pops in 1973 and has never been seen since, the tapes having been wiped by the BBC. The footage belongs to John Henshall a cameraman who worked on the programme who kept copies for himself.  He didn't know the BBC had not kept a copy and also was unaware of how important the footage was, and it was only when he mentioned it on Johnnie Walker's Radio 2 show that it all came to light.

Mark Cooper, executive producer of Top of the Pops 2 said: "Bowie singing The Jean Genie is electric and the kind of piece of archive that not only brings back how brilliant Top of the Pops could be, but also How a piece of archive can speak to us down the years."

I loved Bowie in the 70's, he was so pushing the boundaries, mixing theatre with music and he was so different to anything else at the time. He was androgynous, almost alien, sexy, charismatic, unique. This performance is him at his best, it is indeed  "electric," every now and then an artist will do something special and this is an prime example, lost for 38 years (yikes!) and thankfully found again.  As Mark Cooper said, some performances are so amazing they can still captivate people decades later.

Apparently Henshall has hundreds of other tapes, what other delights could he have for us?

Christmas Baking - Pfefferkuche

Been baking German Christmas biscuits - Pfefferkuche - for the first time today and they have turned out well.  There's a gorgeous smell of spices floating in the air! Thanks to Chris and Andy for sharing your "secret family recipe" and for sending the spices.

.

Candlelit Christmas Concert

My cousin Glen and I went to the Candlelit Concert in St Cuthbert's church tonight.  This is an annual event here, we don't go every year, but decided that we'd like to go again this year.  Rock music is usually my thing music-wise, but I have always liked some classical music.  Maybe that's because I grew up with a mother who loved, Strauss, Wagner, Verdi and Rossini. Classical music was part of my growing up, always being played on the record player.

We first had an Italian meal in Franco's, which didn't turn out as relaxing as we'd hoped.  Glen arrived twenty minutes late as she's forgotten the tickets and had to go back home to get them.  Then we had to wait a long time for our food (they were very busy.)  This meant we had to rush our main course (which was a shame as it was lovely) in order to get to the nearby church on time.

St Cuthberts dates from 1778 and is thought to be the fourth church on the site.  It's an Anglican church but set up more like a Methodist one, with an upper gallery around three sides.  The windows depict the life of St Cuthbert who was an important saint in the north of Britain. It was painted in white, turquoise and gold.

The altar of St Cuthberts

The musicians were The English Philharmonic Ensemble and the choir was The Beverley Singers.  During the concert the lighting was from two large candelabras hanging from the ceiling and four large candle stands, all filled with candles.  The only electric light was a few spots of light around the huge arch in front of the altar.

Some of the music I enjoyed some I didn't so much.  I did like Clark's Suite for Trumpet and Strings, sounded very of it's time late 15th/early 16th century.  Then there was Vivaldi's Winter was as dazzling as ever, amazing how someone can put winter into music, I could almost see the snowflakes falling!  Lovely.

In the interval we went out into the crisp, frosty night and walked the short distance to the Tithe Barn which is the church hall, where you could buy traditional Christmas Fayre of mulled wine and mince pies. I don't like either so I didn't buy any but i wanted to go into the building because it's such a historical place.  Dating from around 1480 it has had many uses over the many yea s of its existence as well as collecting tithes and by 1970 was quite derelicts.  But, thankfully, St Cuthbert's restored it and it is now regularly used by the church and other organisations.  It's a fantastic building with an impressive roof of oak beams and rafters, and you can "feel" the history of it.

Tithe Barn

A little Oriental girl came out to play Silent Night on the violin.  There were a few off notes but it was generally good and she was only five, she has some future ahead of her!  She looked cute in a scarlet dress with her hair in pigtails and was not fazed by performing in front of all those people.

I'm not a fan of hymns, but I do love the Christmas carols, they are uplifting and great tunes. The carols in this concert were Once in Royal David's City and O Come All Ye Faithful sung by the choir and audience, and made me feel all Christmassy.


The final performance was from Handel's Messiah.  It was brilliant, the "Hallelujah Chorus" made the hairs on my neck stand up, powerful stuff!  This was only a small orchestra and choir, seeing it on a bigger scale must be mind-blowing.  It was a great way to end an very enjoyable concert, I'm definitely in the Christmas spirit now!

(I wasn't having a good photography night, most of my photos didn't come out, but I've included the ones that did in the article.)

Bono in Surprise Appearance in Dublin

Bono made a surprise appearance on stage with Imelda May at the O2 in Dublin last night (16th December).  They performed Desire and Baby (Please Come Home) together, oh to have been in that audience! Bono looking and sounding good, great to see him spending some time back home.

Story and great photos here

Photo here taken from U2.com






Video of a very sexy Desire, sound is a bit dodgy, but it brings across the great atmosphere.

Strange Friendships

Wonderful video of a pretty special, but apparently regular, event in Ireland, a labrador and dolphin swimming together.  Amazing to see these two animals frolicking together like this, the much bigger dolphin careful not to hurt the dog. I know labs are water lovers but that one is a really strong swimmer!  A truly beautiful friendship between two of natures most special creatures.