I was rather surprised last year when people started asking what songs I’d been playing at my birthday party.
I’m pleased to say that I’m prepared this year and have already uploaded my playlist to iTunes. Enjoy.
Birthday Playlist
Tag Archives: people
Python Theme
[photopress:Picture_4_.jpg,thumb,alignleft]I don’t think my birthday last Thursday could have had more of a Monty Python theme if I’d tried. A few weeks ago B booked up tickets to see Spamalot, the West End musical based on the Monty Python film “Holy Grail.” She also hid away a copy of “The Very Best of Monty Python,” a small book with pictures and scripts from the Python series.
Quite independently, I got a text a few weeks ago asking what I thought of a DVD box-set where each Python talked about and showed their favourite sketches. I’d not heard of it at the time, but it sounded like an intriguing idea. And they are greate to watch — thanks Mum and Dad!
I took the day off work and was able to spend much of the time “revising” for the evening at the theatre. (That was my excuse anyway.) It’s amazing how good a lot of it still is. Some dates badly, but much is probably just as funny now as when it was first broadcast. I was reminded that a lot was first broadcast even before I was born!
Spamalot, the musical, didn’t disappoint. B wanted to go before January to make sure we saw the show with Tim Curry in the lead role. He was certainly worth seeing, having quite a stage presence and a great voice. Not to say that the rest of the cast had anything much to worry about. The lady of the lake warrants special mention, not just because she looked and sounded the part but because she got some of the best lines. Her song about “What ever happened to my part?” was a highlight. One of the songs — you’ll know which one if you go to see it — maybe works better on Broadway, but I thought they all hit their mark. The French insults still make me laugh, although, knowing all the lines from the movie, I don’t really know why!
Overall it was a neat mix of some of the “best of” Monty Python with some new material more suited to its new format. Very enjoyable — thanks B!
Margaret Coetzer
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The story behind this is that I found this classified ad on the Internet and on a whim decided to reply:
This is a bit weird, but my boyfriends’ 21st is in 3 weeks and Ive bought a nurse outfit to surprise him in…we thought it might also be a good idea if I could get some pics taken and put something together for good old memories’ sake…. No porn, just sexy, FHM kind of pics….
As the only person to show evidence that I could take photographs I got the “gig.”
Right Nation
I was amused when, while working in North Carolina in 2003, I visited some friends for Thanksgiving. All their neighbours introduced themselves and then, on finding I was English, apologised. “It’s not our fault, we didn’t vote for him!” Stood amongst those liberal, well travelled and smart people it was difficult to reconcile this with the fact that they lived in a country that had a president that was none of those things.
It’s bizarre. Virtually every American I’ve met has disliked Dubya, yet over the whole country, despite a number of obvious set-backs, his popularity has rarely been in question. Why such a contradiction? How did it get like that and how soon will the US be returning to normal?
I decided to read “Right Nation” by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge to find out.
It is split into four sections, starting with the history, then the anatomy (the various parts that make up the American Right), then prophecy (what comes next) and finally exception (what makes America different). It drills down into each area in detail, exploring their main ideas from any number of different angles.
For those that are looking for Dubya-bashing, this is not the book for them. In fact, if anything, he has gone up in my estimation after reading it. Not to say that he comes out smelling of roses. In fact the main villain of the piece turns out to be John Ashcroft, not necessarily because he did the worst things (although the PATRIOT Act takes some beating) but because, given the power, he ended up doing the exact opposite of what he professed to support.
I can’t say that I necessarily agreed with everything in the book, but I would say that was to its credit. The authors proudly claim that they have been accused of being sympathisers of both sides of the debate, which just goes to show how even handed they’ve been. The main criticism that I would level is that it was very dry and academic in tone. The langage is precise and functional, the structure shows detailed research and clear thinking. Maybe it’s just in the nature of a non-fiction tome like it and, while not entirely off-putting, didn’t make it a page-turner. I also found some US-centric terms not defined anywhere, or maybe they’re defined once but are just well hidden. For example, I thought you bought jeans at The GOP until I looked it up and realised my mistake.
But back to our original questions — why and how much longer do we have to put up with Bush and his cronies? Does the book answer those questions? For the most part, yes. You may not agree with (or like) the conclusion, but it does give some serious food for thought and is well worth a read.
Protect The Human
[photopress:Picture_2_.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Last night we went to the Royal Albert Hall to see the Secret Policeman’s Ball, a charity gala in aid of Amnesty International. Despite the great cast — everyone from The Mighty Boosh to Eddie Izzard — beforehand I was worried that the “charity” aspect would take too prominent a position compared with the comedy. Obviously there’s a need to make people remember what the show is all about but often these events become preachy and, ultimately, a little dull.
I need not have worried. There were a few “cut sequences” as they re-arranged the stage, but even they provided laughs. (I particularly liked the QVC-style advert for the AK-47.)
There were many memorable moments so it’s certainly worth watching when it comes on TV in a few weeks. Personally I liked the sign interpretation of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” and Eddie Izzard’s demolition of so-called Intelligent Design.
Why Top Employees Quit – by Dumb Little Man
I think, over the years I have left companies for most of the reasons listed in this article. Not that I’m claiming to have always been a “star” employee.
I left my first job mainly for money. My third wins the honour of collecting most of the reasons in the list, but would gain special commendation for management BS (as the article calls it).
It was no surprise that they assumed that more people would leave for money. Most people incorrectly assumed that I left my last job for a pay raise too. The part that rang most true for me was “too challenged”:
“You cannot ask someone to complete 20 tasks and then give them inferior tools and personnel. … The employee will either leave, OR , become so unmotivated that they lose their star status and become a normal employee and thus under perform.”
I certainly felt my productivity drop as my frustration with the available tools increased. (Pet peeves included monitors that were not able to display one of the main screens of their main application and having to use a Citrix server to use Microsoft Office.) Ironically I did not feel particularly challeneged by the work — “death by boredom” — just my ability to get it done efficiently.
Looking from a job-hunters perspective, the difficulty I have is learning from this. How do you discover what a company is going to be like to work for? Ultimately I think it comes down to the old adage: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. You’re never going to find out this stuff at an interview, you just have to know someone already there.