A week ago I was enjoying a later three course prix fixe meal at the Cafe Rouge Victoria Station food concourse. Today I settled for roast chicken and baked potatoes with a banana and later a small soup, a salad and grapes. I have just about caught up with myself and the work and revived to face a busy week.
For the greater part of the last two years I have abandoned listening to Gibraltar radio and AOL radio for the French station Deezer which enabled one to listen to the last albums of the likes of Duffy and Amy Winehouse as well as the catalogues of Dire Straits and Louis Armstrong. It was possible to do this because there was no downloading and the site performed as a request radio, Then the big boys stepped and while it was possible to continue listen to the latter, the former were blocked although you could download from i-Tunes, Suddenly MySpace has announced what is correctly described as a revolution in going beyond what Deezer achieved and combining the ability to listen as well as pay download through i-tunes. I am yet to explore or create a play list which can be added to my site.
I enjoyed watching once more the John Mills, Donald Sinden and John Gregson 1955 film Above us the Waves. The film is an accurate account of the development of the human torpedo and midget submarines. The dangerous and unlikely objective was to sink the German battleship Tirpitz at its base sixty miles along a Norwegian fjord where every defensive precaution was organised. The first attempt using the manned torpedoes called Chariots ended in failure with all the craft damaged or lost on the voyage over as they were towed across the North Sea on the underside of fishing vessel with false papers. The craft was scuttled and they then had a long trek over the mountains to get to neutral Sweden when instead of being interned for the duration of the war they were allowed to have a flight home arranged.
For the second attempt x class mini submarines were used towed by British submarines as close as possible to the coast with a temporary crew and then replaced by the trained teams for the action. In the film only two of the teams were successful in placing their craft filled explosives beneath the battleship with the third damaged and was blown up as the crew were attempting to escape. One of the craft narrowly missed disaster when it became caught up with sea mine. In the film the German navy behaved impeccably as the surviving crews were taken into custody.
In fact the battleship was not destroyed but rendered inactive for six months which helped to prevent even greater loses among the convoys bringing supplies to the UK from North America. In fact the raid was part of a combined operation-Operation Source in September 1943 in which six of the Midget submarines were used to attack three heavy battleships known to use the fjord as a base. They were towed by a group of submarines. It is not known what happened to the lead craft in which the operations commander served and the he and the crew were reported killed It is thought they were by hit by gun fire from the Battleship.
All the Crew of four of X6 received awards for gallantry including the VC, as did the commander of X where two of the crew were killed. X9 was lost in transit with all hands and X8 had to be scuttled with the crew recovered. It is heart warming story of courage which filled cinemas for close on two decades after World War II ended.
A very different kind of film is Flame of the Barbary Coast which is about San Francisco and not the North African coast. More precisely is about a small area of the growing city in the mid British Victorian era 1848 1858 gold rush which was the home of adventurers, criminals gamblers, drinkers and prostitutes. Howard Hawkes made a film called Barbary Coast but this 1945 released film was directed by John Kane and stars the great John Wayne in his stock role as a masculine adventurer who calls in on casino music Hall owner to reclaim money lost by his foreman. The owner is a cultured and politically ambitious criminal unlike with the others owners of similar corruptly run joints, supported by muscle men and hired killers. In order to attract the punters the owners compete to put on sexy floor shows and owner Tito Morrel has the Flame of the Ivory Coast, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship as she is a great flirt with almost all the city’s politicians and business men offering to marry her. It is during one spat she takes John Wayne -- in the film he has the name Duke Fergus, with Duke Wayne sticking for the rest of his career, or just the Duke-- on a winning run around the gambling houses using fixed dice and stopping others from fixing the results. He wins several hundred thousand dollars which is then won back from the drunk Wayne. Instead of learning from his mistake and going back to his ranch Wayne returns determined to get his own back and win the heart of the Flame. He studies gambling with the help of an expert and gains a substantial amount of money building his own establishment which is to be run honestly and which gains the support of many of the established community leaders who are looking to clean up the city. Just when he is about to achieve success the great earthquake occurs and his is one of the establishments severely damaged. The Flame is severely injured and may never walk again which leads to her abandonment by Tito and who only expresses interest when she is able to walk and sing again. However she has set her heart on the Duke who first has to stop Tito and his political supporters from fixing the Mayorial elections. It sounded as if the Flame wanted return to his Montana ranch and play happy families but the having stopped the election being fixed Wayne appears to decide to stay and become the leading citizen leader. Ah they do not make films like this any more.
Talking of films the new super Odeon will open at the Metro Centre on December 16th and in addition to 3D will have an Imax cinema.
I decide to watch the semi Finals of the Celebrity Dancing competition on Saturday which as with the X Factor the voting public can be perverse supporting personalities and entertainers rather than the best dancers, The judges, all five with the addition of Darcey Bussell, the former Ballerina clearly agreed on who the best two were with the third edging from a fourth interms of performances on the night. However the voters disagreed and placed the judges third choice second thus forcing a playoff between the best danger throughout the series and the fourth. The judges then had their way.
This is not possible with the final stages of the X Factor where the public vote governs. Three of judges have contestants in the last four with every one wanting to get one over Simon who has two. Everyone agrees that Joe from South Shields is the best and most consistent of the singers and should be in the final two but will the public agree? The discovery of Saturday night was to find that the Jewish lass from Essex has a younger sister who has the same personality. I am not sure she did enough to oust one of Simon’s remaining two singers from the tripartite final next weekend. At the weekend the BBC sporting personality of the year will be settled and this year there are a number of potential worthy winners for the main trophy, via the public vote.
Then it was time for the X factor results which took 50 mins of various reprise and guest appearances from the sister of Michael Jackson, someone with no distinctive talent which at least Michael had although while I understood his notoriety I never understood his popularity. There was one surprise in that Ollie who also has no distinctive qualities beat the other Simon contestant who is a better performer but did not endear himself to the general public Stacey and Joe made it which greatly pleased me and should create enthusiasm in the Town this week. Where will the party be held. I will invest in the Shield’s Gazette if I remember among all the things plan to do over the next couple of days. I watched the first part of a play this evening about West Indians in the UK before and after the war. The works special attention next weekend
I listened to Newcastle struggle for a two win at home and then Sunderland misfire for the first half in their away game at Fulham. They have performed badly away from home most of the season. I enjoyed the late recovery of Everton against Spurs in early evening as well as the highlights of Saturdays games later in the evening. I am continually impressed and a little envious of the many of those selected to appear on the Antiques Roadshow and who produce items of sentimental value which proved to be worth thousands, or were bought for coppers many moons ago.
I listened some records of Placido Domingo. Duffy‘s Album twice, and two full albums of Chris Barber and the Amy Winehouse Back to Black on My Space music. An initial search suggests that major performers are opting out or not yet in Bruce Springsteen being one.
Over the weekend I have completed the registration of 33 sets for the month and they a ready for photographing. I may be out of the large Blue lever arch files and coming to the end of my supply of the Wilkinson albums which take three sets in black for creative work and blue for events including Meeting Sophie Calle at the Whitechapel.
For the greater part of the last two years I have abandoned listening to Gibraltar radio and AOL radio for the French station Deezer which enabled one to listen to the last albums of the likes of Duffy and Amy Winehouse as well as the catalogues of Dire Straits and Louis Armstrong. It was possible to do this because there was no downloading and the site performed as a request radio, Then the big boys stepped and while it was possible to continue listen to the latter, the former were blocked although you could download from i-Tunes, Suddenly MySpace has announced what is correctly described as a revolution in going beyond what Deezer achieved and combining the ability to listen as well as pay download through i-tunes. I am yet to explore or create a play list which can be added to my site.
I enjoyed watching once more the John Mills, Donald Sinden and John Gregson 1955 film Above us the Waves. The film is an accurate account of the development of the human torpedo and midget submarines. The dangerous and unlikely objective was to sink the German battleship Tirpitz at its base sixty miles along a Norwegian fjord where every defensive precaution was organised. The first attempt using the manned torpedoes called Chariots ended in failure with all the craft damaged or lost on the voyage over as they were towed across the North Sea on the underside of fishing vessel with false papers. The craft was scuttled and they then had a long trek over the mountains to get to neutral Sweden when instead of being interned for the duration of the war they were allowed to have a flight home arranged.
For the second attempt x class mini submarines were used towed by British submarines as close as possible to the coast with a temporary crew and then replaced by the trained teams for the action. In the film only two of the teams were successful in placing their craft filled explosives beneath the battleship with the third damaged and was blown up as the crew were attempting to escape. One of the craft narrowly missed disaster when it became caught up with sea mine. In the film the German navy behaved impeccably as the surviving crews were taken into custody.
In fact the battleship was not destroyed but rendered inactive for six months which helped to prevent even greater loses among the convoys bringing supplies to the UK from North America. In fact the raid was part of a combined operation-Operation Source in September 1943 in which six of the Midget submarines were used to attack three heavy battleships known to use the fjord as a base. They were towed by a group of submarines. It is not known what happened to the lead craft in which the operations commander served and the he and the crew were reported killed It is thought they were by hit by gun fire from the Battleship.
All the Crew of four of X6 received awards for gallantry including the VC, as did the commander of X where two of the crew were killed. X9 was lost in transit with all hands and X8 had to be scuttled with the crew recovered. It is heart warming story of courage which filled cinemas for close on two decades after World War II ended.
A very different kind of film is Flame of the Barbary Coast which is about San Francisco and not the North African coast. More precisely is about a small area of the growing city in the mid British Victorian era 1848 1858 gold rush which was the home of adventurers, criminals gamblers, drinkers and prostitutes. Howard Hawkes made a film called Barbary Coast but this 1945 released film was directed by John Kane and stars the great John Wayne in his stock role as a masculine adventurer who calls in on casino music Hall owner to reclaim money lost by his foreman. The owner is a cultured and politically ambitious criminal unlike with the others owners of similar corruptly run joints, supported by muscle men and hired killers. In order to attract the punters the owners compete to put on sexy floor shows and owner Tito Morrel has the Flame of the Ivory Coast, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship as she is a great flirt with almost all the city’s politicians and business men offering to marry her. It is during one spat she takes John Wayne -- in the film he has the name Duke Fergus, with Duke Wayne sticking for the rest of his career, or just the Duke-- on a winning run around the gambling houses using fixed dice and stopping others from fixing the results. He wins several hundred thousand dollars which is then won back from the drunk Wayne. Instead of learning from his mistake and going back to his ranch Wayne returns determined to get his own back and win the heart of the Flame. He studies gambling with the help of an expert and gains a substantial amount of money building his own establishment which is to be run honestly and which gains the support of many of the established community leaders who are looking to clean up the city. Just when he is about to achieve success the great earthquake occurs and his is one of the establishments severely damaged. The Flame is severely injured and may never walk again which leads to her abandonment by Tito and who only expresses interest when she is able to walk and sing again. However she has set her heart on the Duke who first has to stop Tito and his political supporters from fixing the Mayorial elections. It sounded as if the Flame wanted return to his Montana ranch and play happy families but the having stopped the election being fixed Wayne appears to decide to stay and become the leading citizen leader. Ah they do not make films like this any more.
Talking of films the new super Odeon will open at the Metro Centre on December 16th and in addition to 3D will have an Imax cinema.
I decide to watch the semi Finals of the Celebrity Dancing competition on Saturday which as with the X Factor the voting public can be perverse supporting personalities and entertainers rather than the best dancers, The judges, all five with the addition of Darcey Bussell, the former Ballerina clearly agreed on who the best two were with the third edging from a fourth interms of performances on the night. However the voters disagreed and placed the judges third choice second thus forcing a playoff between the best danger throughout the series and the fourth. The judges then had their way.
This is not possible with the final stages of the X Factor where the public vote governs. Three of judges have contestants in the last four with every one wanting to get one over Simon who has two. Everyone agrees that Joe from South Shields is the best and most consistent of the singers and should be in the final two but will the public agree? The discovery of Saturday night was to find that the Jewish lass from Essex has a younger sister who has the same personality. I am not sure she did enough to oust one of Simon’s remaining two singers from the tripartite final next weekend. At the weekend the BBC sporting personality of the year will be settled and this year there are a number of potential worthy winners for the main trophy, via the public vote.
Then it was time for the X factor results which took 50 mins of various reprise and guest appearances from the sister of Michael Jackson, someone with no distinctive talent which at least Michael had although while I understood his notoriety I never understood his popularity. There was one surprise in that Ollie who also has no distinctive qualities beat the other Simon contestant who is a better performer but did not endear himself to the general public Stacey and Joe made it which greatly pleased me and should create enthusiasm in the Town this week. Where will the party be held. I will invest in the Shield’s Gazette if I remember among all the things plan to do over the next couple of days. I watched the first part of a play this evening about West Indians in the UK before and after the war. The works special attention next weekend
I listened to Newcastle struggle for a two win at home and then Sunderland misfire for the first half in their away game at Fulham. They have performed badly away from home most of the season. I enjoyed the late recovery of Everton against Spurs in early evening as well as the highlights of Saturdays games later in the evening. I am continually impressed and a little envious of the many of those selected to appear on the Antiques Roadshow and who produce items of sentimental value which proved to be worth thousands, or were bought for coppers many moons ago.
I listened some records of Placido Domingo. Duffy‘s Album twice, and two full albums of Chris Barber and the Amy Winehouse Back to Black on My Space music. An initial search suggests that major performers are opting out or not yet in Bruce Springsteen being one.
Over the weekend I have completed the registration of 33 sets for the month and they a ready for photographing. I may be out of the large Blue lever arch files and coming to the end of my supply of the Wilkinson albums which take three sets in black for creative work and blue for events including Meeting Sophie Calle at the Whitechapel.
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