Although we have had some spells of fine dry weather, suitable for sitting at a pavement café in Summertown, we have also had it grey and overcast, and today there has also been some quite heavy rain. When I wondered out loud when it was going to clear up and be sunny, I was told this was the UK and this is as good as it gets - or words to that effect.
I ventured into the City yesterday and got as far as buying a guide book. There are so many places of interest to see in Oxford, I have been looking at the history of some of the colleges, I really need to shake myself out of my lethargy and go out there. It will also give me something to write about on here.
Last night I had the television on in the living room while I was tidying up in the kitchen, not aware of the programme being shown. When I went in there my eyes came out like organ stops. There were all these naked men - I kid you not, they were stark naked, displaying everything they had, I've never seen so many penises. The point of the programme was that women were brought on, one at a time, to size the guys up and decide which one she was going to choose to go on a date with!!!! They embellished the procedure a bit but that was the bottom line. The programme was called 'Naked Attraction', I'd have thought 'Naked Revulsion' was more appropriate. I never saw anything like that on US television, I can't imagine any network showing it, not even in liberal California. It was very, very late at night, way past the 9 o'clock watershed.
I thought that Lord Reith* would be spinning, absolutely spinning, in his grave.
This evening I went to a concert at the church in aid of a school in Ghana which provides day school education for children and vocational training and employment for adults who have intellectual disability. It was WONDERFUL, and performed by a church member, George Francois, who is himself Ghanain. He started playing the piano when he was two, and has performed internationally as a soloist and collaborative pianist. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and at the Juilliard School in New York,
I was thinking of Rosalyn, and Bro Michael, I know you would both have loved it and wished you could have been there.
He played - Piano Sonata No 8 in C minor, Op. 13; Beethoven
Fantasiestucke, Robert Schumann
Ballade No 3 in A-Flat major, Op. 47; Chopin
Ballade No 4 in F minor, Op.52; Chopin
Barcarole in F sharp major, Op.60; Chopin
It was a bit unfortunate however that tonight was also the Last Night of the Proms (a series of Promenade concerts from July to September in London) and the Last Night is a major musical landmark in Britain. I got home in time for the partying bit at the end; the conductor being jocular, the waving of Union flags, Rule Britannia (this is the night to celebrate being British). I don't have a VCR but I think most people do and they had set it up.
We were offered a glass of red or white wine in our seats, then there was more wine and fried chicken afterwards, and it was all very pleasant.
*Lord Reith was the first Director General of the BBC, he was a dour Scot, a strict Presbyterian and held the belief that broadcasting should be a means of educating the masses - how patronising is that!! I remember when I was a child and a bit of classical music or ballet came on television - and somehow it was inserted into almost every programme - my parents would throw their hands up in exasperation, and justifiably so, they were watching television to be entertained not educated, they'd gone to school for that.
I ventured into the City yesterday and got as far as buying a guide book. There are so many places of interest to see in Oxford, I have been looking at the history of some of the colleges, I really need to shake myself out of my lethargy and go out there. It will also give me something to write about on here.
Last night I had the television on in the living room while I was tidying up in the kitchen, not aware of the programme being shown. When I went in there my eyes came out like organ stops. There were all these naked men - I kid you not, they were stark naked, displaying everything they had, I've never seen so many penises. The point of the programme was that women were brought on, one at a time, to size the guys up and decide which one she was going to choose to go on a date with!!!! They embellished the procedure a bit but that was the bottom line. The programme was called 'Naked Attraction', I'd have thought 'Naked Revulsion' was more appropriate. I never saw anything like that on US television, I can't imagine any network showing it, not even in liberal California. It was very, very late at night, way past the 9 o'clock watershed.
I thought that Lord Reith* would be spinning, absolutely spinning, in his grave.
This evening I went to a concert at the church in aid of a school in Ghana which provides day school education for children and vocational training and employment for adults who have intellectual disability. It was WONDERFUL, and performed by a church member, George Francois, who is himself Ghanain. He started playing the piano when he was two, and has performed internationally as a soloist and collaborative pianist. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and at the Juilliard School in New York,
I was thinking of Rosalyn, and Bro Michael, I know you would both have loved it and wished you could have been there.
He played - Piano Sonata No 8 in C minor, Op. 13; Beethoven
Fantasiestucke, Robert Schumann
Ballade No 3 in A-Flat major, Op. 47; Chopin
Ballade No 4 in F minor, Op.52; Chopin
Barcarole in F sharp major, Op.60; Chopin
It was a bit unfortunate however that tonight was also the Last Night of the Proms (a series of Promenade concerts from July to September in London) and the Last Night is a major musical landmark in Britain. I got home in time for the partying bit at the end; the conductor being jocular, the waving of Union flags, Rule Britannia (this is the night to celebrate being British). I don't have a VCR but I think most people do and they had set it up.
We were offered a glass of red or white wine in our seats, then there was more wine and fried chicken afterwards, and it was all very pleasant.
*Lord Reith was the first Director General of the BBC, he was a dour Scot, a strict Presbyterian and held the belief that broadcasting should be a means of educating the masses - how patronising is that!! I remember when I was a child and a bit of classical music or ballet came on television - and somehow it was inserted into almost every programme - my parents would throw their hands up in exasperation, and justifiably so, they were watching television to be entertained not educated, they'd gone to school for that.
Well, the Naked Attraction programme certainly lends a new dimension to the old saw, "what you see is what you get!" The concert sounds marvellous, so glad you could attend. There was a bit of tv coverage from Oxford a few days ago: a Brexit protest, as I recall. I thought perhaps you'd seen it.
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