Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

You can always count on the Guardian to give the snowflakes what they like to read. Fred would suffer Ptsd if he couldn't cut and paste Rowson. I wonder how many respond to the begging letters to keep the rag alive?
XL I find Carlin to be as tasteless and insipid as the beer. Both are easily forgotten.
Now if you want to look at something really magical on YouTube view this.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Sx5lbVlQA
Now that is a man who will be remembered.

IT

Agreed about Pavarotti. What a phenominally good operatic tenor!

Madame and I had the pleasure of seeing him at the Sheffield Arena on two occasions. Apparently there had been a few complaints the first time and it was thought, that perhaps he had a bit of a cold or whatever, but we couldn't really detect anything wrong with his performance.

In discussions afterwards we thought if anything was a problem, it might have been the building's acoustics. Pavarotti must have agreed that he might not have been at his best and so everyone was given the opportunity to see (listen to?) him again for free.

So great! We got to see him twice. And to maximise the experiences - full evening dress and 'the works'. Loved it! Especially to hear him singing Nessum Dorma twice.

And I do agree Carlin is a bit too gutteral but his 'take' in that clip surely does get to disturb a few of the self righteous religious professionals.

You might be amazed as to what proportion of American citizens actually believe the world was created as litle as 6,000 years ago, and instead of geolological strata and scientific evidence, use The Bible to prove what they preach and believe. The number of these idiots is actually in the several 10s of per cent and there are around 300m people over there.

Stan
Your link is bad. As you can see there is a double http because you did not clear out the one in the dialogue.

Apart from that it is a very silly article.

Carlin is brilliant. I prefer his video on the death penalty.
https://youtu.be/qDO6HV6xTmI

Regarding Pavarotti, he was fantastic and in the tradition of Caruso, Gigli, De Stefano, Tito Schipa etc. He had a sweet voice but Placido Domingo was the better artist in terms of musicality. Pavarotti did not have the range of roles in opera and wasn't as successful in them. He became a popular singer where the public is less discriminating.

I saw Pavarotti several times. Once at Covent Garden, once at Excel in Docklands and sitting two rows behind Diana in Hyde Park.

Talking of opera singers, here is a story.

My father was in the war in Italy in the Intelligence Corps posing as an Italian and operating at times as a sort of spy looking for German saboteurs etc.

He was in Naples, Bari and Brindisi and went to the opera there several times a week. When in Brindisi he was told of a boy aged about 15 with a beautiful voice. He kept promising to come and sing. One evening he turned up and someone played the piano for him. He did have a beautiful voice.

He had won a Caruso scholarship to the Tito Schipa school of music in Lecce but couldn't get there. My father used to drive him there on his motorbike.

He became an opera singer and had his debut at the Met in NY. In the 1960s he was on Sunday Night at the London Palladium and my father contacted him staying at the Dorchester. My parents went to dinner with him and again when he was in Canada after they emigrated there.

His name was Jianni Jaia

This is him singing Non ti Scordar Di Me (don't forget me)

https://youtu.be/pRc7ZPzV3Yg

Interesting Hays. Sounds like a cushy number if he had time for the opera several times a week. Really became an italian. Meanwhile in the jungles of Burma.. Never mind, I'm sure he did as he was asked. Nice memories.
Non ti scordar di me actually means don't forget about me. Slightly different sense.
"Popular singer where the public is less discriminating" is a pompous load of crap. Music is to be enjoyed not sniffed at like a glass of wine. I believe Andrea Bocelli is a popular singer but I still enjoy his music. You remind me of a story a young scottish mining engineer told me about the time he was studying at Imperial College, London. He and his young wife were staying at the house of a snooty lot. I think his wife looked after the children in return for the boarding. The young engineer used to make his own wine and on one occasion substituted his wine for the pricey stuff the toffs used to drink. They didn't notice the difference.

The loony remainders march in London., wonder if Fred was marching ? Maybe not he can't even be bothered to vote out the nasty torys he hates so much.

It was a cushy number. He generally lived above restaurants. However, he had been in the 8th army in the desert for a few years before Italy.

A program which may interest some of you who are interested in prejudices.

Have to down load it from BBC

The Brain with David Eagleman
E5 of 6
ABOUT EPISODE GUIDE
Why Do I Need You?
Series 1 - Episode 5
Why Do I Need You?


Fascinating series.

I watched the David Rubenstein interview of Dr Francis Collins of the (US) National Institutes of Health on Bloomberg tonight. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences. Much of the program was about health, genes and the Human Genome Project but towards the end they discussed how he moved from being an atheist of conviction to a Christian despite all the usual arguments as mentioned by XL et al. His reply was interesting and I don't intend to go into in detail but it appears that his curiosity was stimulated by his experience of the human spirit through his medical work and later reading the works of C S Lewis. He felt as a scientist that he should study carefully both sides of the faith argument. He has since written a number of books which are available on Amazon giving his views on why science and belief are compatible.
Take it or leave it.

IT

I presume you particularly mean:

"The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief"
by Francis Collins

One reviewer says: "The only "evidence" presented for the existence of God was the observations that humans have an apparent tendency to be good rather than evil. Collins attributes this to a God-given inborn knowledge of God's moral law. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much but nevertheless, there were over three hundred pages and this was all that he could come up with as evidence! Not suitable reading for anyone with any critical faculties."

Another says: "Not so much a scientist explaining belief as one explaining belief through the eyes of a Christian."

And another: "I was expecting so much more from a world renowned Scientist. Basically he presents all the evidence for the big bang and fine tuning of the universe and then just expects the reader to take a 'leap of faith' and believe there MUST be a God! A very weak rebuttal to Dawkins."

Hmmm? I think I will leave it.

I remind myself of a 'mate' who discussed with me a couple of years ago:

"I've got cancer," Malcolm told me.

"Do you think it would be a bit late for me to start going to church? I mean, like, you just don't really know what will happen when you die, do you? It seems to me, like it might be a good bet. What do you think?"

The catholic priest made a very great deal of all this at Malcolm's funeral and about how Malcolm had 'found God'. For me, I was content to know that the RC priest had just overwhelmingly 'got to him', hadn't received much resistance, and that poor old Malcolm was merely just placing one of his last bets.

Desperate or what? (Murkels election?)


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/09/eu-immigration-offer-brexit-reversal-adonis

Similar remarks by Blair, Max. They just don't get it. They think it is all about immigration from the EU. Particularly ironic given that Blair and Brown were all for open borders. Bit late now to have a change of mind.
XL you can cherry pick your reviews as you like. Your choice. I have just looked at the reviews on good books and of 775 reviews, 90% liked. 3% gave 1 star. On Amazon, more than 70% gave it 4 or 5 stars.
There are actually a number of books by him, but no matter. Closed minds can't be convinced and I can't be bothered one way or the other. As I wrote, take it or leave it. But if you leave it, you could be destined for an eternity of hell swapping barbs with Fred and Stan. If that won't change your ways, nothing will.

Oooh Dil. You'll make me blush.

Need to be for the sheep hils , that's how they like it :-)

Last night of the Prom's., and the loony remainders trying to hi jack it.

Following 2016's referendum, anti-Brexit campaigners have distributed EU flags to the audience as they arrive.
A spokesman for EU Flags Proms Team told The Telegraph: "During the Age of Enlightenment, Mozart, Handel and Bach all lived and worked for part of their lives in London.
"Presumably under the Brexit dark ages, they would not be welcome."

I don't know much about classical music but I've seen Kathryn Jenkins a few times at the Millenium Stadium singing the national anthem.

Is Pavarotti the guy in the Go-compare adverts ?

No , that's Pavarnotti

I bought the Three Tenors CD for a fiver once.