rashbre central

Sunday, 10 December 2006

nitin

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The taxi driver had to drop us 'a hundred yards' from the Jazz Cafe because of a police roadblock. There had been a gas leak in an old house and the road was cordoned off. We started to find another route that was not along the blocked off road, but it was a looong way around and also quite chilly for the first time this year.

So Julie hailed another cab and we all piled in. The ride was a good ten minutes and we were finally dropped outside the bustling Jazz Cafe, where the man on the door was keeping everyone in order. "Strictly no Photography - hand in Cameras and recording devices" said the sign. Oh well.

The venue was already pretty full and we made our way to a table to enjoy both supper and the set from Nitin, which was to start at nine o'clock. Sure enough at nine fifteen, Nitin and his collection of very talented musicians came out and started to play a spellbinding acoustic set which then ran continuously through until eleven o'clock.

The entire venue was captivated by the music and Nitin's troupe received rapturous applause. At the end of the set, it changed a gear as the club shifted into its full night-time mood, for a packed and bangin' club scene.

Great night out.

Saturday, 9 December 2006

all you need is love

love
Love is the Beatles soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. There's some clever but generally fairly subtle re-mixes of well-known songs, with some interesting a capella pieces and some overdubs from mixed tracks. The remastering is generally strong with a crisp feel to the vocals, a pumped version of the McCartney bass and only the Starr drums a little 'rolled off' presumably becasue of the tape recording quality.

I enjoyed the re-ochestration of some with dashes of other tunes dropped in without really losing the feel of the original, and the sheen of the original Abbey Road record washes in for the tracks from that era. I didn't find it gimmicky and some casual listeners may think its a simple mapping of the original tunes into a blended mix. What is also striking is the simplicity of some of the tracks, with harmonies of voice and very gentle instrumentation.

But there are some classy reconstructions here. "Mr Kite" with "I want you" driving away in the background. "Strawberry Fields" morphing from a demo tape at the beginning into the full production by the end and then adding some extra pieces from "Piggies" and elsewhere on top. "Julia" and "I am the Walrus" juxtaposed and "Within You, Without You" with "Tomorrow Never Knows." Clever, not gimmicky.

Its made me want to listen to some of the originals again and its good enough to make me (a Beatles, not an Elvis person), nearly miss my road turning today whilst I was listening to it in the car. Thats what others say too.

Yup and semolina pilchards, climbing up the Eiffel tower is in there along with the weeping guitars and hand holding. And tomorrow I will be in Strawberry Fields.

eleanor rigby
strawberry fields

no cover up

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Well the Diana verdict is finally completed just nine years after the event. It was, allegedly, simply that Henri Paul was drunk and drove the car into a pillar and the new blood samples prove it. It was on the BBC last night.

Everything else must be pure consipracy speculation...

So after they returned from Sardinia, Diana and Dodi were being pursued by paparazzi in Paris, right from their arrival and earlier the same evening when they'd visited Sephora, the perfume shop. So they'd abandoned a plan to go to the Benoit bistro and returned to the Ritz.

Henri Paul - the Ritz security officer - had been to Harry's Bar (which is nearby) and then to pick up his black Mini Cooper from nearby another bar called Champmesle and drove to the Ritz. There are varied reports of him drinking pineapple juice or Pastis - which do look similar.

Diana and Dodi had dinner in the Ritz and during it decide to go to his apartment in Rue Arsene-Houssaye in Dodi's armoured Mercedes 600. Instead they use Ritz security offier Henri Paul as the driver in a different non-armoured Mercedes 280.

Henri Paul was an advanced driver and had special training from Mercedes in Germany. As the map shows, he didn't take the most direct route to Dodi's place. It is speculated that the normal route was blocked by a mystery car (perhaps broken down?) so he had to take the tunnel, which is a most inconvenient route.

Just before the Mercedes entered the tunnel, every police radio in Paris mysteriously died, preventing a quick emergency response in the event of any road accident.

Also the 17 traffic cameras located inside the Point d’Alma tunnel ALL suddenly stopped recording images because the electricity supply in the tunnel mysteriously failed. And never before or since.

Apparently, as the car approached the tunnel, Diana's bodyguard buckled his seatbelt. Unusual for a bodyguard, who normally wants to be free.

Apparently, the paparazzi motorcycles following the car were erratic. Some witnesses say there was a helicopter by the tunnel.

There are reports of a bright light in the tunnel, as well as the confusing story of the white Fiat Uno and a damaged motorcycle seen by some of the witnesses. After the accident, there are varied reports of two cars (including a White Mercedes) and a powerful motorcycle making a fast getaway.

There are also reports of people adjusting things in the crashed car.

Diana's condition is reported to have been 'non catastophic' by the Dr Mailliez, although she allegedly told the doctor she was six weeks pregnant, although this was later denied.

Diana's move to the waiting ambulance was slow, and instead of going to the nearby military hospital used by politicos and with a 24 hour trauma team, they drove slowly to another hospital - the Pitie Salpetriere. The seven minute 'blue light' ambulance journey took over an hour and the ambulance parked for ten minutes before completing the journey. This was so slowly that the hospital wondered if they had got lost.

After arrival at the hospital, the next stages are well documented leading to Diana's death.

The paparazzi had 20 rolls of film confiscated related to the evening which don't seem to be visible. The tunnel was cleaned with disinfectant and put back into service within 2 and a half hours. The Daimler-Mercedes accident investigators were not used. There was an unusual call from the Royal Household to enquire about Diana's jewellery.

And then a former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson's affidavit said amongst other things that there was a French MI6 undercover operative permanently in the Ritz Hotel, probably a security officer (Henri Paul?) and that there was a standing document produced by MI6 in an un-used plot to assasinate Serbian leader President Slobodan Milosevic. It described cars, a tunnel and high intensity strobe lighting.

Now all of this is irrelevant, because the tragic accident was simply the result of a driver over ther legal limit...

Friday, 8 December 2006

weekend

26th Lennon TributeA somewhat musical weekend ahead of me.

Its Friday evening and I'm at home watching the Guillemots playing on Jonathan Ross on television.

Tomorrow evening I'll be at the Jazz Cafe in Camden, London listening to Nitin Sawhney.

And then on Sunday evening I'm in 55th Street, New York for the 26th Lennon Tribute.

Thursday, 7 December 2006

Thursday Thirteen (V35)

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Hot news in this week's Thursday Thirteen! At least enough to ensure that any extracts published in the search engines don't tell the story without a click-through.

Friend Terry found this blog (not knowing I even published it) whilst he was looking for Christmas light bulb replacements, so I thought I would dedicate this week's Thursday Thirteen to the search engines.

1) So I suppose should feature somewhere and maybe
2) And probably something related to in and knowing how to always at
3) And anything about the new car that has been with the and the
4) I hear that especially and attracts
5) And anything to do with the new and the and the and the new
6) Its hard to believe that and wouldn't feature high on searches
7) I'm told that is a good search term as well as and
8) And for our German readers erscheint oft gesucht
9) At this time of year, would also seem to be important, particulaltly for , , and s
10 s, s, and are presumably frequently sought
11) I suppose plain old , , , and probably get some hits too
12) And inevitably , and from probably make it.
13) Not to mention replacement
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Wednesday, 6 December 2006

iPhone

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iFake, but would you buy one?

oh, here's the Apple patent. So a rashbre lab reconstruction would look more like this...
iphone 4
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OTA: Wordless Wednesday

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my floridian neighbours

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Tuesday, 5 December 2006

party in space

jlpparty
JLP's party is an event like no other. I had to borrow a friend's Stratus 400 to attend. Luckily it was an automatic, because I hate those manual shift re-entry space moments and I find reverse parking in a geo-stationary orbit so much easier with homing locks.

It was worth it though, the party rocked, I made plenty of new friends and I had a chance to try out a few new cocktails, some of which were out of this world. I decided to stay over to let the effects wear off, and I expect by tomorrow I will be down to earth again.
stratus400
not bad for borrowed transport!

more polonium

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Continuing the spy news story from a few days ago, I heard today that I'd been on one of the three planes that had been discovered to be involved in the recent Polonium-210 investigation.

And sure enough, I later received an email listing me as a passenger.

As it happens, my trip to Dusseldorf on the date specified had been cancelled, so fortunately there was no need for me to be concerned. And indeed, all three planes have now been given a clean bill of health, so hopefully that particular aspect of the recent alert is now over.
vanguard3 trident2
But Tony Blair is keeping nuclear weaponry in the public eye, planning to spend between £15bn and £20bn on new submarines to carry Trident missiles. These submarines are reported to take 17 years to develop and build, and would last until about 2050. Now I checked on the current Trident programme and guess what? its lifespan is 30-years due to end in 2024.

So, wait...if the programme started today, the new submarines will be ready one year before the end of the lifespan of the things they are supposed to carry. A great dyslexic move would be to keep the missiles until 2042 instead and maybe give them a makeover.
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As a small illustration, here's a 30 year old British car; if one could still be found, maybe it could be made into a fully 21st Century compliant vehicle.

Monday, 4 December 2006

iPhone


There is suddenly a lot of interest in the iPhone, which has been rumoured for many, many months. Here's my old post from June 2005.

Maybe its almost ready?

The rumour is that it is (a) Zoolander small but (b) has two batteries, one for music, another for the phone. Intriguing.



Apple won't be iLeaking though...

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Sunday, 3 December 2006

ex libris

library
The library at rashbre central is somewhat disorganised, with way too many books spread around in unintelligible patterns.

I'm hoping that LibraryThing will help bring some order to this. A reassuring number of book covers can still persist in virtual space but the individual titles can be safely hidden away.

Want to have a peek at my bookshelves? The first few are now open for general perusal and disapproval via my profile here.

Drop me a comment if you also use this and we can compare shelves!

steep gradient

mgrade.jpgThere's an old tradition in the UK Press known as juxtaposition, where a couple of apparently unrelated stories are co-located on purpose. Sometimes this when it is not possible to draw a direct link between them for various sometimes legal reasons.

So today's Sunday Times article about Michael Grade with what appears to be cloven feet seems particularly intriguing. Doesn't it seem strange that News Corporation (who own the Sunday Times, Sky television and have just taken a 17.9% shareholding in ITV) now print the page as my photo illustrates.

Grade was chairman of BBC until a few days ago and has now jumped to a great rewards package to a great challenge to re-invigorate the ITV.

In the ancient television days of a few years ago, when there were really still four receivable terrestrial channels and less than 200 satellite, there was still a reasonable, (some would say world leading) selection of television programes from the UK and it was moderately evenly balanced between the old ITV and BBC.

Then after reality and cheap television like Love Island, Viewer of the Year, I'm a celebrity (D-lister), get me out of here, Soapstar Superstar and so forth, it may take some effort to de-mush the ITV schedules. The new (still secret?) ITV show "Fortune" with ex convict Jeffrey Archer alongside sex-shop Ann Summer's founder Jacqueline Gold handing out money to make peoples' wishes come true seems to be from the same genre. ("Jim'll fix it" with a convict and a sex shop owner?)

In fairness, Corrie (not on my personal viewing list) does seem to have a sense of humour and a heart and there have been some strong dramas although a fair few are about flawed detectives. Of course, Grade knows the entire BBC plans for 2007 and beyond anyway, so this should help his turnaround of ITV's programming.

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