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Jubilee Celebrations!

Here's just a few pictures I took at our local Jubilee celebrations. Apart from a brief shower it went quite well. The evening Fireworks were spectacular but sadly the climatic lighting of The Royal Beacon failed and wouldn't light. There was obviously some kind of technical fault.
But all in all it was a strangely fun packed and patriotic weekend.

Bottom two pictures via The Daily Mail online.

Jacob... The Jubilee Boy!

While out and about celebrating The Jubilee weekend celebrations on Hampstead Heath we came across an interesting Jazz outfit on The Bandstand Stage called Scaramouche. They're sound is described as a Parisian cafe come jazz folk group. And very pleasant they sound. So I thought I'd look them up on Youtube and sure enough some of their video performances show up HERE. And their official Homepage is HERE.

Of course that link lead me on to Scaramouche's multi talented double bass player 17 year old Jacob Collier who I managed to take a few pictures of during yesterday's performance.
And what amazed me was his own very clever videos, particularly the one below where by using some kind of multi-track recording system he's able to create some amazing harmonies on his version of Stevie Wonder's 'Isn't She Lovely.' And sung without too much emphasis on singing in an American accent as so many English singers sadly insist on.

Great harmony in modern contemporary music seems to be so rare these days so it's really refreshing to hear Jacob's harmonies. It almost reminds me of when the great Brian Wilson went solo  for the first time without using the backing voices of The Beach Boys. Instead he used some huge multi track recording machine creating a Phil Specter type of sound. In the chorus of the track 'Rio Grande' he creates what sounds like a wall of sound with some of the best harmonies ever. It was as though the Beach Boys never existed.
But I do envy the phenomenally talented Jacob. Currently studying music in College he also plays the piano, percussions, bass and ukulele. He's also done a bit of acting appearing as Tiny Tim in Hallmark's film of A Christmas Carol with Kelsey 'Frazier' Grammer in 2004.


SCARAMOUCHE

STEVE MULLIGAN...... SAX &  CLARINET
SUZIE COLLIER...... VIOLIN
JACOB COLLIER....... DOUBLE BASS
NICOLA HADLEY........ ACCORDIAN

To visit Jacob's Youtube Music page
CLICK HERE.

BELOW IN THE NEXT POST IS ANOTHER VIDEO BY JACOB
TITLED 'THE ARROW AND THE SONG.' 

Jacob's 'The Arrow and the Song'

And Long Did It Rain!

Queen Elizabeth II watches the Jubilee boat floatilla
(Press photo)


So yesterday's huge Jubilee Boat Floatilla went off without a hitch, well apart from the endless cold and rain. But then dont we always get the rain just when we dont need it. And although over a million people lined The Thames to watch a thousand boats take part in the kind of procession not seen in a long time, you can only imagine that many more might have turned up in better weather.

It seems that a lot of work went into building and creating The Royal Barge that took The Queen down along The Thames, but not once did our 86 year old monarch or The Duke Of Edinburgh take advantage of the specially made plush velvet lined chairs, prefering to stand for several hours. How does she do it. I think a lot of people must have been asking the same thing. It seems to be a kind of stubbornness The Queen has, never seeming to want to look frail.
Even our own temporary coalition PrimeMinister Cameron said earlier in the day that The Queen is an absolute workaholic. She'll often manage to squeeze in a late night meeting with him even after carrying out endless chores, meetings, greetings and Royal visits in a normal busy day.

Journalist Domonic Sandbrook recently said in the Daily Mail that 'The Queen's reign has seen the worst period of national decline in our history. Yet she will be judged one of our greatest monarchs.' More of that article can be found HERE. And I suppose many will agree with those sentiments.
Apart from one period, The Queen's reign has been flawless. And that period of course was just after the death of Princess Diana when The Queen misjudged the mood of the country, prefering to stay well away from the capital. It was the first time that I can remember The Queen suddenly becoming dare I say it, unpopular. Her P.R people had to work their socks off to get her out of that scrape.
While the country mourned the loss off Diana the Queen was nowhere to be seen. Everyone wanted her to return to The Palace in London and be seen to mourn the departure of Britain's most popular Princess. So the Royal party rushed back to London forcing The Queen to make a special television message, something we only have every Christmas Day.

But if there's one qualm I have with our monarch then I'd like to know why it is that she has never acknowledge the LGBT community. Not once in her reign has the very word gay come up. After President Obama's recent support of the LGBT community is it now time for our Queen to come out and say something in support.
Just this last week writing in The Guardian newspaper Peter Tatchell said that The Queen has turned her back on the gay community and that her silence sends a signal of exclusion and disrespect. That full article can be found HERE. Strangely enough Tatchell also mentions that royal blunder after the death of Princess Diana.

But is this patriotic period just about The Queen? Possibly not. It's proving to be an opportunity for everyone to celebrate our national pride in a country that year on year is being strangled by political correctness where flag waving has become taboo.


Oh well, later today they'll be having some local celebrations which we'll be going along to. It seems that the weather might be better for it but certainly not as warm as it should be for June.

Below is my Jubilee Party table in the flat, although my greedy guests have already eaten half of it.

HAPPY DIAMOND JUBILEE 

Fresh Faces... Brynn Eiffert

BRYNN EIFFERT
BOSS MODELS

BY B.CHARLES JOHNSON

MORE CAN BE SEEN HERE AT MALE MODEL SCENE

On Yer Bike!

So a year has passed and next Saturday (9th) sees London holding it's annual Naked Bike Ride. Below are just a few more pictures that I never got round to posting up last Summer.
For all the pictures previously posted up
CLICK HERE