FRIDAY MUSIC: Pavarotti's granddaughters (not)

Much obliged to Wiggia for sending this first video which set me on a quest to unravel a mystery. The clip he sent me was entitled "Pavarotti's 11 year old grandaughter singing." It wasn't a YouTube clip and I wasn't sure how to transfer it. I went looking for it on YT and found it but with a different title (see below).

So why would it be labelled as Pavarotti's granddaughter? To attract more viewers seems to be the obvious answer but with the quality and the power of that voice she does appear to be 'channelling' the spirit of il Maetro!

Her name is Amira Willighagen and she is Dutch. And she does indeed have a wonderful voice (not helped here by the sickly mush of Andre Rieu and his 'orchestra')



Here is another young singer and, again, the claim is that she is the granddaughter of Pavarotti and that is written on screen throughout. She is called Mariam Urushadze and was eight years old at the time of this performance from the television show 'Nichieri' (Georgia's Got Talent) in November 2016. (The song is "Caruso" written by Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla in 1986. It is dedicated to Enrico Caruso.)



This next video cleverly puts together Pavarotti and Amira singing live and 'together' in montage. One of the comments states that Amira was aged nine when singing live on stage!



Yet another one claiming to be 'the granddaughter of......' (although to be fair it says daughter in the title) This fifteen year old is called Sislena Caparossa from the Dominican Republic and performs Nessun Dorma in this Spanish TV show.



Sislena Caparossa once more, this time singing in the Parliament of the Dominican Republic. I can see from the comments that she was born on Tenerife and it is her father who is from Republica Dominicana and her mother is Spanish. Her voice here is a bit wobbly but with a good voice coach she will become a very polished performer.



Finally a nine year old Lucia Garcia sings for Montserrat Caballé. The longer version of this encounter has captions on screen saying that Lucia had been singing since the age of six and it had been her dream to meet and sing for Montserrat Caballé.



The final video makes no claim that there is any connection with Luciano Pavarotti. So which one is his granddaughter? Well none of them actually. Pavarotti had one granddaughter and so far as anyone knows she doesn't sing!

FRIDAY MUSIC: Hank Marvin, by JD

Last week on BBC4 there was a programme celebrating sixty years of The Shadows, the backing band for Cliff Richard who went on to enjoy huge success in their own right.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hqn0/the-shadows-at-sixty

For an oldie such as myself who remembers the music from all those years ago it was an enjoyable journey down memory lane. I know everyone hates the BBC and would like to see it disappear but for all their faults they are consistently far better than any of the commercial channels. Without the Beeb I wouldn't bother having a TV.

Towards the end of the programme we were told that Hank Marvin was currently playing with a gypsy jazz band. That set me off searching through YouTube and..... look what I found!

Hank is still enjoying his music and is playing as well as ever. Old rockers never die......

A number of other pieces I wished to include have suddenly been taken off Youtube, perhaps because the BBC programme stimulated a run on them and provoked the copyright watchdogs to respond. So I found some alternatives including Petite Fleur which is not quite gypsy jazz but no matter, it is rather good.

I have looked at his 'Hank Marvin Topic' YouTube listings and this is on the page marked Playlists, under the heading Django's Castle there are 14 videos listed and they all play including those which have been supposedly deleted.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI9umn9y0BwixqV5wRLKbvw/playlists?disable_polymer=1

A Telegram From Mr William Boot

PRESS COLLECT BEAST LONDON

NOTHING MUCH HAS HAPPENED EXCEPT WHOLE COUNTRY UNDER CURFEW BECAUSE OF PANDEMIC PROFESSOR WHO RECOMMENDED IT RESIGNED BECAUSE HE BROKE IT WITH MARRIED LOVER BUT PRIME MINISTER ALL RIGHT AS MOVED HIS OWN MISTRESS INTO NUMBER TEN SHE HAS HAD BABY AND THEY ARE NOW ENGAGED FOLLOWING HIS DECREE ABSOLUTE HE NEARLY DIED FROM SHAKING HANDS WITH EVERYBODY UNPROTECTED BUT IS NOW OUT OF HOSPITAL

PERSONAL PROTECTION EQUIPMENT ORDERED FROM CHINA BUT IMPOUNDED ON ARRIVAL AS NOT GOOD ENOUGH DAILY MAIL ORGANISED ANOTHER LOT DIRECT WE ARE ALL SUPPOSED TO WEAR MASKS AND GLOVES BUT IF WE DO THE NHS WILL BE EVEN SHORTER OF THEM STILL WE CAN STAND OUTSIDE AND CLAP ON A THURSDAY TO ENCOURAGE THE HEALTH WORKERS

EVERYBODY HAS BEEN TOLD TO STAY HOME EXCEPT TO GO FOR SHOPPING MEDICINE EXERCISE NEWSAGENTS OFF LICENSE AND TAKEAWAY FOOD SO MY LEGS ARE GETTING TIRED LOVELY SPRING WEATHER WILL CABLE AGAIN IF THERE IS ANY NEWS YOURS BOOT

With apologies to Evelyn Waugh

Lockdown Music, by JD

I thought you might like these three musical 'house arrest' comments:







I have also noticed a new exercise fad - people, usually wearing makeshift masks, suddenly realise they are close to a human and will veer sideways or even jump sideways in horror to maintain their '(anti)social distancing.' It could be a new Olympic sport or even better, a new dance craze: "antisocial distancing dancing!"

I can also offer this link I found via a commenter at ConservativeWoman -

https://lockdownsceptics.org

You will have seenby now that 'Professor' Neil Ferguson has resigned; he obviously thought his own lockdown rules only applied to the little people (most of whom are ignoring them anyway in my experience and observations.) Here is Martin Armstrong's blog on the subject-
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/corruption/ferguson-resigns-after-getting-caught-secreting-sex-meetings-with-a-married-woman-while-he-has-destroyed-the-world-economy/

There was a trendy phrase a few years ago - 'omnishambles.' That is now standard practice everywhere and everywhen.

To quote Spike Milligan again "the best way to respond to official stupidity is with...... stupidity!!" so laughter is indeed the best medicine :)

Kashmiri separatism and Chinese imperialist expansionism

Birmingham MP Jess Phillips Facebooks her support for self-determination in Kashmir:

'I have long worked with the Kashmiri community to promote human rights and self determination for the people of Kashmir, and will be meeting with the leader of the Labour Party to discuss these issues next week.'

My response: 

There are risks in partitioning India.

Human rights, certainly. 

But have you considered that encouraging political separation may also encourage Chinese expansionism? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_Actual_Control

China already claims Aksai Chin as its own: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksai_Chin

And what human rights will the people of Jammu and Kashmir have then? Think of the Uighurs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-50511063
_________________________________________________________

Previous BOM posts on China's need and desire to expand southwards:

https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2008/03/chinas-need-to-expand-territory-latest.html

https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2008/04/and-after-tibet.html

https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2010/01/china-tibet-arunachal-pradesh-giant.html
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... Another MP pogo-sticking in a minefield.

Joe Brown and vertigo, by Wiggia

I have always suffered to a degree from vertigo. My earliest recollection of that stomach churning fear was as a child on a family outing visiting Beachy Head. As with all kids we rushed to the edge to see what all the fuss was about and on reaching that edge and looking over a strange feeling came over me, aided by a slight breeze that in my mind threatened to tip me over; I retreated post haste. That stayed with me all through my life.

I have if you like, a selective form of vertigo: planes, helicopters, gliders have absolutely no effect. It is the sheer drop that does it: a ladder can only be climbed so far, and glass floors on tall buildings are a no-no - a trip to Florence years back and the climb to the top of the Duomo was fine until I emerged on that small rotunda at the top and saw the roof falling away in front of me. Those are the areas that instil that stomach-churning.

Over the years I have improved. Restoration projects with houses have helped: ladders can now be climbed with a new-found confidence, scaffolding holds no terrors at two stories; but the rest remains. What triggered such a mental state I have no idea, perhaps it was that visit to Beachy Head, I can think of nothing else at that time of my life that would have induced that fear.

All the above brings me to someone who if the vertigo had not existed I probably would not have taken much interest in. The announcement of the death of Joe Brown the climber this week at the age of 89 was one of those ‘I had no idea he was still alive ‘ moments, so far removed from my life was his, yet in many ways my interest in this pioneer of rock climbing and later mountaineering was brought about by my vertigo. Pictures of “The Human Fly” as he was known gave me a sense of wonder that anyone could actually do what he did, he was the first besides the conquerors of Everest and almost the last to gain wider public acknowledgement for what was to most an obscure pastime.

Everest was of course much boosted in the public eye by the conquest being announced on the coronation of Elizabeth 11 and will always be associated with that event.

In many ways Joe Brown was, to quote a more modern phrase, an original working class hero, a Manchester boy raised by his mother a cleaner in a Manchester slum area after his father at sea with the Merchant Navy was injured and died of a gangrenous wound. He shared the house with six siblings. An adventurous child by nature who didn’t like team sports or school either, he walked in the Peak District and that is where the climbing started, ascending a sheer 60 foot slope with the aid of his mother's clothes line.

His climbs in the ‘50s were what brought him to prominence in the public eye. Many were first-time climbs and the craze started with him at the forefront of the movement outdoors.

Mountaineering was the preserve of the more wealthy and his invitation to join the team to climb Kanchenjunga was, as he said later, like winning the lottery. Although he could climb and be safe in the mountains his alpine side was very restricted, yet on May the 25th 1955 he and George Band made it for the first time to the top - he did not stand on the very top out of respect for the local elders, who said the Gods would be angry if they stood at the very top.

I remember well the televised climb in ‘67 of the Old Man of Hoy, a stack in the Orkneys; 15 million watched him climb. He made several other documentaries of his climbs. Asked by many to join other Himalayan expeditions, in 1956 he did climb the hitherto unconquered Muztagh Tower in the Karakorum; this was considered to be a remarkable feat ranking with Kanchenjunga, but he preferred a more varied life with climbing and did not follow up.

Never one to hog the limelight, he started a climbing school and eventually settled down to a climbing shop in Snowdonia. He genuinely loved his climbing for the climbing alone, he did not like the publicity of his OBE and wished it had been slipped to him in a brown paper envelope, and his climbing was summed up by his quote “I climb for the pleasure of climbing, You don’t need to plant a flag”.

https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/joe-brown-british-climbing-colossus-dead-at-89/

I know nothing of climbing other than my fascination as to how they could actually do what they do, but without my vertigo I would never have given it a second glance, so I do have something to thank it for.

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Moody Blues, by JD

In these troubled times of fear and pan[dem]ic it sometimes feels that the post war dream is over and "the only thing to look forward to is the past!" (That phrase borrowed from the theme song of the TV series 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads' https://www.flashlyrics.com/lyrics/highly-likely/whatever-happened-to-you-64)

And in my nostalgic look back to the days when life made more sense, I have rediscovered the Moody Blues, a very influential band from Birmingham. The original line up included singer/guitarist Denny Laine who featured on their only No.1 hit record 'Go Now.'

When Laine left the group in 1966 the others changed their musical direction with the addition of Justin Hayward and began to record their own material; not difficult when they now had five songwriters in the line up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moody_Blues

The first three videos here feature Denny Laine and thereafter it is MB mark 2 and features some of the songs for which they are best known. (I have deliberately excluded 'Nights in White Satin' as it is a bit too mawkish for my liking. No doubt others might disagree.)

I should add that in the late sixties I saw them in concert and they were excellent live performers.
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.“ - Plato