winter wonderland

Tonight's theme for the party was 'Winter Wonderland', with ice sculptures, icicles and other generally wintery decoration.

It was something of a co-incidence that I was around for this rather large event, and luckily Jennifer had realised I would be in town and invited me.

By the time we arrived, everything was in full swing, with a DJ playing, and plenty of dancing, drinking and chatter from the extensive array of guests.

As the evening progressed, the group I'd arrived with seemed to be about three times as many and very animated. But, as I've got an early start again tomorrow, I was good and left fairly early.

international moments

This continues to be an erratic week for blogging posts because of the way that I am on the road. I've been doing some things that have pretty much used all available hours and I'm still Mac free so my pictorial content will continue to be low.

Yet this evening was one of those sets of mad co-incidences. I finished my day job and was drinking a celebratory coffee in my hotel room when I was called by a New Yorker friend who I haven't seen for the best part of a year. He was in the area and we arranged to meet in a nearby bar in the next town. I grabbed a cab and when I arrived, he was with two other folk I knew from Australia. So a drink and a ceasar salad later we'd all caught up on what each other had been doing.

Then we piled into my friend's Mercedes to head back to my hotel, passing a somewhat dubious bar on the way. Lets say it was called Beamers.

Back at the hotel, I run into another friend from Germany, who was returning from a shopping expedition to 5th Avenue, so we all sit together in the bar. Half an hour later I spot an Irish friend who normally lives in Paris, sitting chatting to someone I don't know. So I say Hi. Then a Belgian and Italian friend arrive, rather sheepishly from the dubious bar I'd passed earlier. They'd been brought back in a rusty car driven by someone they had met outside the bar and we formed an ever increasing circle of conversations. And I'd planned an early night. But its almost one in the morning now and I'm surrendering.

nights on broadway

I may be a tourist in this city, but I do love New York. Just step out of the door and into the white light of the center of the city (see I even used American spelling). I've uploaded a selection of snaps now.

Click the picture above to go for a wander around my flickr stream.

New York New York, its a helluva' town, the Bronx is up and the Battery's down.

Lennon tribute

Checking into the W on Time Square is a fun experience; you enter a lobby at street level on Broadway and 47th where there is a kind of water projection making the whole area seem in permanent movement. Then you take an elevator to the seventh floor where there's a checkin, and in my case then another elevator to my room, which was on the 42nd floor.

As I was going to see Michelle Shocked at the 26th Lennon Tribute on 55th, it was a superbly convenient location, with a short stroll to the venue.

And the people in the Alvin Ailey Theatre were most friendly as it filled for an evening of dance, theatre and music, from various artists. Michelle Shocked and her small troupe played "all you need is love" as well as Michelle's "5am in Amsterdam" (a favourite of mine) complete with an edited version of the backstory about being poor in New York, picked up by police, spending time in an asylum and meeting Isobel the psychiatrist. "Isobel ringing in my ears" as the lyrics go.

No concert pictures, but many from Manhattan, but as I'm operating with a Thinkpad at the moment, I will wait until I have some Mac power to upload and edit the snaps.

nitin

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.

all you need is 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

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...

weekend

A 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 Thirteen (V35)

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 Britney Spears should feature somewhere and maybe Britney
2) And probably something related to gambling in casinos and knowing how to always win at poker
3) And anything about the new secret model Ford car that has been photographed with the new model BMW and the new model Mercedes
4) I hear that free software especially free Microsoft software and Vista attracts glamorous people
5) And anything to do with the new Apple Mac and the Mac Pro and the new iPod and the new IPhone
6) Its hard to believe that George Bush and Iraq wouldn't feature high on searches
7) I'm told that video is a good search term as well as mp3 and DivX
8) And for our German readers StudiVZ erscheint oft gesucht
9) At this time of year, Shopping would also seem to be important, particulaltly for wii, PS3, digital cameras and DVDs
10 Scandals, scams, sleaze and sex are presumably frequently sought
11) I suppose plain old You Tube, Google, Myspace, flickr and Yahoo probably get some hits too
12) And inevitably Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and celebrity from Hollywood probably make it.
13) Not to mention replacement Christmas tree lights

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Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday, 82ask

iPhone

iFake, but would you buy one?

oh, here's the Apple patent. So a rashbre lab reconstruction would look more like this...

Tag: rashbre, iPhone, iTalk, Apple, iPod phone, Mac

OTA: Wordless Wednesday

my floridian neighbours

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

party in space

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.

not bad for borrowed transport!