It's bizarre. As the headlines are full of the supposed "wonders" technology is bringing - deadly-sounding self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) software being used to fake interviews with tragically brain-injured sportsmen and to allow lazy-and-thick-as-shit students to have their theses written for them, "deepfake" videos and photography, and so on - the gnomes at Google can't even make Blogger run properly without breaking something-or-other!
Over the past few days, I have suddenly stopped receiving notifications via email that anyone has posted a new comment on either of my blogs. So apologies, dear reader, if there is an apparent time-lag in my replies; I have to manually go to the dashboard to find out of there's anything new to respond to... Sigh.
Onwards and upwards, eh?
In the optimistic hope that another icon doesn't pop their clogs today, it's time for a celebration of the living.
Yesterday [alongside fellow celebrants including Ella Fitzgerald, Björn Ulvaeus, Johan Cruyff, Oliver Cromwell, Renée Zellweger, Al Pacino, Walter de la Mare, Jerry Leiber and Andy Bell of Erasure], it was the 80th birthday of the simply faboo Tony Christie!
Despite having huge success with such classics as Avenues & Alleyways, I Did What I Did for Maria and (of course) Is This The Way to Amarillo, there is one song that to me surpasses them all! It remains an eternal favourite of mine, and the celebration of this milestone gives me another excuse to play it:
[Oh, how I sang that song at the top of my voice when I was being made redundant from my last job - "A halfwit in a leotard stands on my stage!", indeed.]
Today [together with the likes of the legendary Giorgio Moroder, Carol Burnett (who is 90), Ma Rainey, Duane Eddy, Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, Channing Tatum, Douglas Sirk, Susannah Harker, Jack Douglas and - erm - Melania Trump], it's the birthday of another house fave here at Dolores Delargo Towers - Miss Caro Emerald, who happens to have sung another of my personal anthems:
Felicitations!
Clearly we have been dancing to the beat of a different drummer.
ReplyDeleteI guessed that when you posted George Thorogood on your blog the other day. Jx
DeleteHow will we know if YOU have been replaced by AI?
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you.
DeleteIt's called Daisy, Daisy...
Jx
Thank you ,Hal. I don't think I need to hear it. (Exits stage left singing "we'd look sweet...")
DeleteThe 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.
DeleteI am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Jx
Why have I not heard 'Walk Like a Panther' before - genius - I love it! And the video is so British it hurts!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd Caro Emerald is one of my favs.
Sx
I went absolutely bonkers for that song when I first heard it - and never saw the video until years later. Totally British. Totally Sheffield Market! Jx
DeletePS We adore Caro Emerald, too.
Love 'Walk like a Panther' and Love the video. The dancing butchers are my fave.
ReplyDeleteThey're all "game for a laugh" in Sheffield Market, you know! Jx
Delete