I knew this was the song I wanted for today, but I didn’t know which version I wanted, so this morning I engaged in a bit of research. Things I didn’t know before include that this song is from a film, that it was written in 1949 and that it won the best song Oscar the following year. There’s a very charming version from 1951 featuring Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan, and there will always be a place in my heart for the Miss Piggy/Rudolf Nuryev cover, but because it’s the original and best, here are Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams in Neptune’s Daughter (I’d never heard of it either) with Baby It’s Cold Outside.
Category: Reasons to be cheerful
Advent song for December 13
What I like about this is that it’s an attempt to emulate the glitz and pomp of the glam rock Christmas classics from the 1970s, and it more or less succeeds. That the song hasn’t passed into Christmas legend isn’t its fault: it’s genuinely good. It stopped being fashionable to like The Darkness, but for a few months there they were, in their own way, very good indeed. And this video has everything, including a children’s choir and a Christmas message at the end. What more could you want? A penis reference, you say? It’s got that too. Enjoy.
Friday fun
courtesy of churchsigngenerator.com
Advent song for December 12
All David Bowie’s duets are odd, but this is the oddest. (Not including that one from Labyrinth which he sings with a monster.) What makes this, of course, is the bizarrely stilted run-up, which is reminiscent of nothing so much as the early scenes of a 1970s porn film.
Hi, I’m David Bowie, I live down the road
…
What sort of music do you play?
Oh, mostly…contemporary stuff – do you like modern music?
Oh, I think it’s marvellous.
Genius.
Advent song for December 11
No introduction needed for this one, I don’t think. Keep an eye out for the coats and the hairstyles; I can’t decide which are more surprising.
Worth waiting for…advent calendar FROM SPACE
Each day from now until Christmas, the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” feature (well worth checking out anyway) will publish a different photo taken by the Hubble space telescope. If the first two are anything to go by, it’s a page worth bookmarking.
Advent
I’ve been looking for a virtual advent calendar to link to (I’ve also been looking for an actual advent calendar without chocolates inside and Disney characters on the front, but that’s another story) but I haven’t found any good ones yet – although I did come across one which linked to a verse from the Bible each day. But I think it spoils the spirit of Christmas to make it all about Jesus. So as a secular celebration of the advent of advent, here’s a link to the King William’s college Christmas quiz for the year 2000. Even if you knew the answers once, you’ll have forgotten them by now.
Autumn boots, winter coat
I bought a winter coat from Zara today. It’s very pretty, but Zara’s website is just about the worst I’ve ever seen and in any case the coat isn’t on it and I can’t find a picture anywhere else, although googling “Zara coat” I did come across this picture of Zara Phillips, coincidentally wearing a coat which is quite similar, though also quite different.
So instead here are the boots I also bought, which are just as useful but less pretty:
Technically, I suppose, it’s only one boot. But you can infer the other.
High-speed cup stacking
Malcom Gladwell thinks that it takes 10,000 hours of practise to perfect a craft. These kids have almost certainly managed it in less:
Fireworks
The best thing about November 5th, though (and there were a few good things about it this year), is that once it’s over, the next thing to happen is Cliffmas!
Glad All Over 