Rude departure

I mentioned in yesterday's post that my brother hoped to attend a carnival today. Well, despite the damp weather, he did, and the carnival had a strong turnout. The parade traversed the town as per usual and then people went into the main recreation ground for the post-parade segment of the carnival. A history-related acting performance started sometime after the park opened.

Sadly, that part of the carnival was ruined. No, it wasn't the weather that ruined it nor was it the acting performance; rather it was the reaction of those in attendance that ruined it. My brother enjoyed the performance, but said that by the time it was over, more than 60% of the attendees had left; he watched people depart the park in droves as it went on...and the performance was only half an hour long. Worse yet, the sudden mass reduction in turnout then caused the carnival to end sooner than expected.

It annoys me when people do this! Unless the actors are being paid to perform at various across across Northamptonshire, it's most likely that they were all volunteers for the carnival; the hard work they put into their rehearsals was due to their care for the community rather than for monetary gain. The least people could have done was watch the performance, even if most of them had little interest in history or live acts; leaving the vicinity and causing the carnival to close early was deeply inconsiderate to both the actors and the remaining attendees.

My brother said that he otherwise enjoyed the carnival and that he deeply appreciated the performance. The act contained an anti-war message, as today is the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the start of World War I; because of this, I find it all the more despicable that people walked out.

"Spitfire" - LeAnn Rimes

I've been away for most of today and only have time for a short post. I wanted to link to "Spitfire" by LeAnn Rimes; it's a song she performed when I saw her at The O2 Arena and is a track from her new album, also named Spitfire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge_NiWX6tzg

"Spitfire" was among the songs in her set that I enjoyed the most.

The end of 2012

It's hard to believe that 2012 is in its final hours...it feels as though it was yesterday that I wrote about the closing of 2011! The time has flown by.

How has this year been for me? Well, it's certainly been a huge improvement on what I was anticipating: while I wrote last New Year's Eve that I was looking forward to 2012, I won't deny that I was expecting it be a long and stressful year. It's had its ups and its downs, but on the whole it's been okay!

The highlight of the year was going with Becca to see Carrie Underwood perform at the Royal Albert Hall. That concert was not something I saw coming, but I am delighted and grateful to have attended. At present I don't have any more concerts planned, but given how the Underwood event came out of the blue, that could quite easily change!

The plan for 2013? Keep on writing and proof-reading/copyediting. Meet more people and make new friends. I've made gains in these areas this year, but not to the extent that I had hoped; I'll endeavour to improve more strongly in 2013 and beyond.

Thank you again my readers, fellow bloggers and friends; I await stepping into 2013 with the rest of you. Happy New Year's Eve.

Carrie Underwood at the Royal Albert Hall

I had an amazing time during the afternoon and evening of this past Thursday. Some time ago my friend Becca, knowing that I am a Carrie Underwood fan, had been kind enough to invite me to attend Underwood's first-ever concert in the United Kingdom with her. While I was initially concerned about not being able to get transport to London, I was able to obtain train tickets and we made arrangements accordingly.

All of my pictures were taken with my phone, as I did not bring my main camera with me. Unfortunately, most of the images I took within the Royal Albert Hall's auditorium were blurred, which I was extremely disappointed with. A few did turn out well, and I also brought my Vado along and captured a few videos, making up for the image losses.

The trip began when I arrived at my local railroad station. I was slightly nervous, as it was my first time on board a train and I was not sure what to expect, but once I was on the train and on my way to London I relaxed. My train was slightly late to arrive at my local station, but early to make it to the St. Pancras (the station in London my train was bound for). There were a few bumps on the tracks, but I found the ride to be a fascinating new experience and I became fond of watching the countryside as it went past me.

Once I had arrived at St. Pancras I quickly met up with Becca there and we made our way to the London Underground (the subway system for the whole city and some areas outside Greater London). The Underground was the only part of the trip I was more nervous about than the initial train ride, as I was expecting a poorly-signed, complicated system; instead, I learnt that the Underground is surprisingly well-directed and easy to learn (well, the part I travelled in was, but I doubt it would change much outside Zones 1 and 2).

This is the inside of the London Underground train we rode on our way to the Royal Albert Hall. My first-ever ride on the Underground turned out to be the emptiest I have ever seen the place, for whenever I have seen pictures or videos it has always been packed with people. It was hot in parts, though, as the Underground is currently not air conditioned (made worse thanks to the recent rain).

After we exited the Underground at the Tube station for South Kensington, we made it to Exhibition Street, where I took this picture. Most of our time in London was spent in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, although St. Pancras and King's Cross (the station Becca travelled to) are both located in the London Borough of Camden.

We walked up Exhibition Road, turned a corner, and arrived at the Royal Albert Hall! It is deceptive, as it looks small from the outside (and at that particular distance), but inside the Hall is humongous. When I first set eyes upon the Royal Albert Hall I had one of those "wow, I'm really here!" moments.

Another shot of the Royal Albert Hall, taken at a different angle. Becca found it amusing at how "touristy" I was behaving...in my taking lots of pictures and looking around in a fascinated manner at my surroundings. She was correct...with this being my first visit to London in over sixteen years I was more than happy to walk around and take in as much as I could in the time we had before going into the Hall!

The Albert Memorial, located just across the street (Kensington Gore) from the Royal Albert Hall. While we were there, the sun was at just the right point in the sky to give the gold on the Memorial a bright shine. Apparently, some twenty years ago this structure was under wraps due to renovation.

The "What's On?", showing the line-up of events at the Royal Albert Hall for June 2012.

The posters advertising Underwood's performance at the Royal Albert Hall. When we went into the Hall we explored the building for a bit, as there was still an hour to go before the doors to the concert opened. The merchandise stand opened while we waited, which Becca and I quickly got in line for; I purchased a poster, a photo card, two keyrings, and a magnet.

A shot showing both how full the auditorium was that day and people still entering: the concert sold out within ninety minutes, so Becca was fortunate to rapidly obtain tickets for the performance. Those empty seats in the background? They were all filled before Underwood came onto the stage.

Becca and I had wondered what sort of fans would attend the concert, and what was delightful was that the demographics of the crowd were diverse: I was sat next to a man in his sixties and Becca was next to a couple in their forties; there were white people, black people, Asians, teenage girls, teenage boys, families, people on their own, and people with others. It was good to see that Underwood's United Kingdom fan base covers a broad array of people.

Now on to an image of Underwood herself! She is hard to make out, and sadly her face is not clear in any of the pictures I took (my phone camera is good, but it was not suited for this type of photography), but I can assure you that the bright person in this shot is Carrie Underwood. She started performing at 8:30pm.

Becca, myself, and the man next to me (and possibly several others) received an unexpected seat upgrade, so we went from paying for standing seats (worth £25) to getting regular seats (worth at least £50) at no extra cost. We were also not that far from Underwood herself, and much closer to her than we would have been in the seats we originally paid for.

Another shot of Underwood performing. I was amazed to see Underwood in person, although I did promise Becca that I would not embarrass her by shouting "I LOVE YOU CARRIE!" (someone else did that instead, and a group of teenagers did the same thing but substituted "I" for "WE"), running up onto the stage and doing something really stupid, or by being so overwhelmed at the sight of Underwood that I would faint and miss the performance! Nah, I wanted to see the show, not have us thrown out.

The set list for her performance is here. Underwood sang all the songs I hoped she would sing ("Last Name", "Before He Cheats", and "Blown Away"), plus several from her newest album, Blown Away. She sang "Before He Cheats" as the final song in the main group with "I Know You Won't" and "Blown Away" being her encore. She also performed a cover of Coldplay's "Fix You"; before she sang that particular song she explained how she wanted to sing something by a British artist out of respect for her British fans and talked about how careful she is when covering another musician's work.

Now for the videos:

This video helps make up for most of the blurred images I ended up taking of the auditorium: it shows how full the Hall was becoming.

This is Underwood performing "Last Name", from her Carnival Ride album. While I loved hearing all the songs she performed live, this was among the best.

This is of Underwood speaking to her audience. I wanted to capture at least one video of her addressing the crowd, so I kept my Vado on standby until an appropriate moment arose. This is a humorous part in this video.

The concert ended at roughly 10:15, giving Becca and I time to leave the Royal Albert Hall, ride the Underground back to our train stations, and say our goodbyes without having to rush (our respective trains departed London at 11:15). I made it to my train in time and even had to wait for a few minutes for the gates to open; unlike the travel to London, the train ride back had several stops on the way, and it was well past 12:30am when I arrived back home.

Carrie Underwood's concert at the Royal Albert Hall and London itself were far more impressive than I had ever thought they would be, and I hope the success of the performance will encourage Underwood to return to the United Kingdom. I thank Becca, again, for the chance to go and see Underwood live.

"Firework" - Katy Perry, a piano cover

I love this piano cover of Katy Perry's "Firework" by Youtube user Yew2533; in addition to being played well, it has a cheerful feel to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcuukA6A9D8

A great rendition!

"You're Beautiful" - James Blunt, a piano cover

Occasionally, I like going onto YouTube and looking at covers of pop songs, especially piano covers. One of my favourite covers so far is one of "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt; I love the original version of the song (one of the best songs of 2006 in the US), and this piano cover is a perfectly-made rendition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvJMEpBws5Q

The cover has a sadder, slower, and gentler sound to it than the original: it is those qualities, and the fact it has been expertly played, that make it a brilliant cover. It would be good if there were a singer with a voice to fit this version, but the tune holds up very well on its own. The name of the uploader is "Microrator": they have performed countless piano covers and uploaded them to YouTube, and while I think all the music I have listened to from them so far is good, this one is the best.

A "Your Song" duet

Last year, I heard "Your Song" by Ellie Goulding, and I thought was a nice, gentle song. At the time I did not realise it was an Elton John song until Dad overheard Ellie Goulding's cover one day and asked who was singing the remake. A few months later, I heard the original "Your Song" on Heart Cambridgeshire: at first I was unsure about it, being used to the Ellie Goulding version, but after a few listens I considered both songs to be equal in how much I liked them.

I then thought how great it would be if Ellie Goulding and Elton John performed a duet of "Your Song": both have impressive vocals in each of their own versions of the song, and if they did a duet I truly believe they would complement each other very well and be magnificent.

More thoughts on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"

On the 11th of August, my grandfather took my brother, one of my cousins, and myself to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I mentioned in my first post about this that I was completely satisfied with the film: it has been over a week since I thought that way about the movie and wrote it up here, and after some thinking, I still maintain that position, although I do have a couple of quibbles. If you have not seen the film yet and do not want to have it spoilt, I recommend stopping here for now until you have watched it!

The first was the deaths of Fred Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, and Remus Lupin: to me, these deaths, while they all happened in the book, felt like they were "dropped" into the film. One moment, these characters were all alive, and then suddenly they were all dead, with only a minor acknowledgement of their fates. Granted, there was no need to have a bloodbath, and it was good not to see one, but due to the importance of these characters in other films/books, I think they should have received a slightly better send-off that a brief scene of their corpses.

The second was near the end of the film when Harry had the Elder Wand in his possession. In the book he used the Elder Wand to repair his original wand (and thus has his only "official" usage of the wand), whereas in the movie he merely snapped the wand in two instead of using it to make the repair. I suspect that him repairing the old wand and then snapping the Elder Wand would have been too slow a scene for a movie, but even so, it would have been nice for that to have occurred.

Still, these are both minor points, and neither detracts from the overall satisfaction I received from watching the movie: I have far more praise than criticism. On the opposite end of the spectrum, easily the best scenes from the film were those involving Professor Snape regarding his true loyalty, his love for Lily Potter, and caringfor Harry: I felt that the Alan Rickman's performance in those parts, few though they were, was truly excellent, and I thought that the film's portrayal of those areas of the story was as strong as the description in the book, perhaps even more so.

With the very last scene in the film, originally I did have concerns about how the actors would look aged, but I was relieved to see their ageing looked natural, rather than badly done as is often the case. Too many times have I seen actors made-up to look aged, and the ageing makeup either causes them appear too old or fake, but I did not think that in this case.

As I said, I am completely satisfied, and a minor point or two does not negate that. I think all the Harry Potter books have been portrayed well in their respective movies, and I am glad the film series has come to a well-deserved close.

Media from Nottinghamshire versus Somerset

The following are videos and pictures taken at the Friends Life t20 Nottinghamshire Outlaws versus Somerset cricket game held at the Trent Bridge stadium on 7th August, 2011. One of my older cousins took my brother and I to the cricket match that day, as it was something he wanted to take us to, and we were happy to go along with him. It is the first time my brother and I have gone to see a major sports game.

The pictures were all taken by my brother, and he had no problem with me using some of his images for this post, but the videos were all done by me:

A dance by the cheerleaders just before the game started.

The scoreboard early on in the game.

These two images just show the stadium a little later on during the game.

This video shows a brief overview of the stadium prior to the game beginning.

The players walking onto the field for the game.

It did rain during the game, but fortuantely I had brought an umbrella! This video shows a cover being wheeled out to shelter the cricket pitch and the wicket from the rain.

It was a good day, and it was an interesting experience to see a sports game live (I am not a sports fan normally, but I do think seeing sports live is better than watching it elsewhere). Finally, Somerset was the winner of this game.

"Bells Across the Meadows"

I mentioned in an earlier post that the first CDs I ever owned were those from a classical musician named Albert Ketèlbey. The first song of his I remember hearing was "Bells Across the Meadows" on a classical music channel on TV, and I loved it almost immediately. Last night, I went onto YouTube to see if there were other renditions of the song, as I was curious, and I came across the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTSmtYWrXNA

It has a great sound to it, and all the vocals are good (this is first version I have heard of "Bells Across the Meadows" with any vocals to it): I admit I do not understand the lyrics, but that does not affect how wonderful they sound and complement the song. The original song is one of my favourites, and this rendition is a nice one: I am really glad that the Cantoria Sacra Famiglia performed it and I had the chance to see their performance, I really think they did a fine job.