Papa's Got A Brand New Bag.

It was sad to hear of the death of James Brown on Christmas Day and a bit of a shock even considering some of the problems he had had in the past with drugs and dangerous living.

I first became conscious of James Brown when I lived in the states, MTV had "Living In America" on heavy rotation for a lot of the time, but they never bothered to play his good stuff. This was in the days before MTV had discovered black music or rather that advertisers would still pay good money when they played R&B, rap and hip hop.

I didn't hear any more of James Brown until I got to University in 1989, "The Funky Drummer" had started to feature in almost every tune with a sample in it, even the indie ones. For lunch we used to go to Bar One in the Union, a lot, as it was comfy and cheap. The bar juke box would automatically play sixties soul, Motown and R&B if no one had fed it, we got to hear a lot of James Brown, Smokey Robinson and The Four Tops, as it was music that offended no one, it was rare of a lunchtime that anyone would pay money to listen to anything else. We all knew the words come the spring term, to all the songs. A sight I will always cherish will be of a willowy thin Punk lad who was about 6 foot 6 in his stockinged feet before he spiked up his mohichan, absently mindedly asking all in sundry if he could "take it to the bridge?" in time with James as he queued up for his pasty and chips.

Pinochet Dead

And all I can say is good, it's the end of an evil man. A dictator whose regime disappeared people and tortured and murdered with impunity.

Memento Mori

I heard today that a chap from work that I liked and respected, died on Friday night of a heart attack while on holiday in Spain. David wasn't that old about 50 max he was respected and almost universally liked by his colleagues as far as I can tell. It is such a shame and I feel for his poor partner who was on holiday with him, it must have been awful for her.

I was trying to describe David to young Ady in the office and all I could do was fall back on platitude and cliche it shouldn't be so hard to describe someone you like. David without being creepy or strange could compliment the "ladies" whilst treating us as rational, intelligent interesting people, he had a sense of fun and an interest in life that hadn't been diminished by the travails of life and work. I'm drifting back into cliche again I find it hard not too.

I would like to go to the funeral if possible but there is a chance I will miss it because I'm supposed to be going to Germany (it's work not fun, honest) tail end of next week.

Sometimes it does not seem fair.

kitty

I've just spoken to my mum She had just spoken to the vet. We had agreed earlier that if there was something that could be done for her that would work quickly and with the minimum of invasive intervention then we would go with that, however if there wasn't then the kindest thing for Kitty would be to put her to sleep. The vet thought she had congestive heart failure and that she hadn't long anyways, so as we agreed mum has asked the vet to put Kitty to sleep. It is honestly the kindest thing, the poor cat hated vet treatment so much that she has had to be given oxygen before when going to the vet for routine things. It would have been cruel to put her thru more when the outcome was so doubtful.

Edited for sense 23:09 10/9/06

Robin Cook

Channel 4 news have just announced that Robin Cook has died. He collasped while hill walking, not only a tragedy for his family but also a blow to the Labour party as they have so few talented people nowadays. Well that is the only explanation for Hazel Blears being a minister.


BBCi report

Luther Vandross Dies

I was flicking through some blogs on blog explosion when I came across this. Such a shame, I'm not a huge fan of R&B/ modern soul music but he had such a lovely mellow voice.

mai made this

Richard Whiteley

MediaGuardian.co.uk Media Whiteley, the cosy quizmaster, dies at 61

Such a shame, Richard Whitely was a very good quizmaster and TV presenter. I don't really remember him on Calender as I preferred Look North on BBC1.

The report, though, has a tone of intellectual snobbery as if being a quiz master was in someway below the dignity of a Cambridge man? Why for heavens sake?

Don't broad middle market entertainments deserve having the best brains available working on them as much as high brow, niche programming? Richard Whiteley greatly entertained many people without talking down to them or taking the route of the lowest common dominator. His jokes were awful but he created an easy bond between the contestants, the guests, Carol Vorderman of course and the audience at home. I often watched Countdown if I was about when it was on. I enjoyed it as much as the next person and I'm useless as word games.