Visit: lostorwhat.com-travel stories and photography
I enjoy this blog for its good photography and good stories. David, from Melbourne, has a wonderful self-deprecating sense of humour, and his trip reports make great reading. Prepare to spend a lot of time here, though!
This house was built for my great-great-grandfather in 1888. The name came from Cleveland Terrace – a row of shops with residences above – in Bath, England, where he lived as a child.
“Cleveland” is now on the market for around nine million dollars. In 1980 I was privileged to have a personal tour of the house just before it was auctioned for $202,000 - which seemed a huge amount in those days, but pales into insignificance compared to its present value.
Judging from the video, there have been major additions and much refurbishment since 1980, and I wonder how much of the house my grandfather, who was ten years old when the family moved there, would remember.
I have a photo of my grandfather and his twin brother standing next to the corner veranda post.
With a German title and Italian commentary, this video provokes questions… was it set up? Where is it?
It’s still funny, though!
Harrison Ford was at Sydney Opera House yesterday, attending a fan event promoting his new film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
While in Sydney, Ford took a shot at Donald Trump.
The New York Times reported last week that Trump had said that he enjoyed movies with heroic presidents — singling out Air Force One, the 1997 films in which Ford plays a president who has to fight off a group of Russian terrorists when they hijack the presidential plane.
“My favourite was Harrison Ford on the plane,” Trump said. “He stood up for America.”
When asked by Channel Ten’s Angela Bishop what he thought of Trump’s remarks, Ford replied: “It’s a movie.”
“Donald, it was a movie,” he continued, while looking into the camera and shaking his head. “It’s not like this in real life, but how would you know?”
Source: The Age
“Pete Seeger was a messenger of universal love and peace. He was my first inspiration to write songs and share music in my own way. God bless,” tweeted Neil Diamond on January 28.
The grand old man of the protest movement died in New York, aged 94, earlier this week. It seems like he had been around for ever, and that his influence in music and activism spread far and wide and inspired many people in all walks of life. He was a member of the Almanac Singers (1940s) and the Weavers (1950s), but also performed as a solo artist and with various friends and colleagues. He counted some of the most famous folk singers among his friends, including the great Woody Guthrie.
During his career Pete recorded prolifically and his discography includes fifty-two studio albums, twenty-three compilation albums, ten live albums, and five singles. Little Boxes, written by his friend Malvina Reynolds and recorded as a single was a hit for him in 1963.
His compositions include Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (with contributions from Joe Hickerson and the children at Camp Woodland), If I Had a Hammer (co-written with Lee Hays of The Weavers), Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (also with Lee Hays), and Turn! Turn! Turn! (lyrics adapted from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). His songs have been sung and recorded by some of the best-known names in the music world – among them Bruce Springsteen, The Byrds, Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio, Marlene Dietrich, Johnny Rivers, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Trini Lopez.
I discovered Pete Seeger in the early 1970s. If I remember correctly I was ambivalent about his political views and his social action agenda, but I fell in love with his music, and in 1971 I bought a CBS LP, Pete Seeger’s Greatest Hits. Pete himself wrote the cover notes. He began with, ‘These are my “hits”? CBS Records picked the title of this album, not me. Now read the truth: Some of them were hits by the Weavers. Some songs were made hits by Peter, Paul and Mary, The Byrds, the Kingston Trio, Marlene Dietrich, Trini Lopez, and others. But none of them by me. My own records were collectors’ items – no one but collectors ever bought them.’ I think he was being rather modest, because the first song on the album is Little Boxes, which really was a hit, whichever way you look at it. The rest were a mix of his own compositions, protest songs, songs adapted from folk songs from various traditions, and songs which started life as poetry. Pete Seeger’s Greatest Hits became one of my favourite albums. I still have the original vinyl LP, but now I also have it in MP3 format and it plays regularly on my computer. It’s still one of my favourites, and I long ago gave up that ambivalence.
Many tributes have been written since Pete Seeger’s death. I liked:
Pete Seeger, songwriter and champion of folk music, dies at 94 – New York Times.
Pete Seeger: 10 great songs – The Telegraph (UK).
Watch Bruce Springsteen’s Moving Birthday Tribute to Pete Seeger – Rolling Stone.
Pete Seeger at Wikipedia.