"Pretty Baby" - Vanessa Carlton

For no reason other than I felt like hearing her again, I decided to listen to a few Vanessa Carlton tracks earlier today. It was months...possibly even years, since I last heard her music and her voice until a few hours ago.

When I started frequently listening to the radio at the end of 2004, Carlton was among the artists I heard first. The two songs of hers that were the most often played were "A Thousand Miles", her debut and signature song; and "Pretty Baby" (released in 2002 and 2003, respectively), from her album Be Not Nobody. While I was new to radio back then, those two tracks stood out from a lot of the music I was hearing at that time because of her soft voice and her piano playing.

Here is a link to "Pretty Baby"; although "A Thousand Miles" is her most successful song, I chose to link to "Pretty Baby" instead because of its lesser-known status:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDOcNN48cs8

Since her debut, Carlton has released three more albums, Harmonium, Heroes & Thieves, and Rabbits on the Run. I was disappointed to learn that Harmonium and Horses & Thieves were commercial flops in comparison to Be Not Nobody, and that even Rabbits on the Run has not reached anywhere near the level of success that her beginning release did in the early 2000s. Her first album peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 while the most recent only peaked at #62. It is a shame because she is talented and makes lovely, pleasant music.

To be fair, I have not exactly helped, either. While I like what I have heard so far of Carlton's music, currently I do not own any of her albums, not even Be Not Nobody. The most likely reason for that is because I heard her a lot less when Beat 93 was dissolved and I moved over to KIFS (107.5 Kiss FM); as a result, she was put to the side by artists with greater airplay. Now, after writing this post and hearing her a little earlier today I think I shall listen to her some more and bump her up my list of music I want to buy in the future.

Knowing your politicians

I was listening to the radio last night when the presenter re-played a clip from earlier on in the day. The clip contained somebody answering questions for a competition: the first question was about Katy Perry, which the person got right, but the second was "Who is the Prime Minister?". The contestant was stumped at the question, as it seemed they were not sure which prime minister the presenter was referring to, and when they realised that the question was about the British Prime Minister they were still unable to answer.

As hilarious as this seemed to be at first, I soon stopped laughing because it is actually disturbing that there are people out there who do not know who the leader of their country it (and I doubt that this person was trolling the questioner). At a minimum, I think people should know who the head of government/state and their local representatives are.

In the United Kingdom, there are at least three politicians everyone should be familiar with: the Prime Minister, their local Member of Parliament, and the Leader of the Opposition. In the United States, everyone should know who the president, their district's House Member, and the governor of their state all are. Obviously I think that people need to be able to name a greater number of politicians and their positions than the three I specified for each country, but they are sufficient as a minimum amount. The Queen (not a politician, but she is head of state), local councillors and federal/state senators would be next on my list.

To explain why I chose these positions, I think it is ridiculous to not know, at the very least, who the prime minister/president is: all the media surrounding their initial election win notwithstanding, they are in the news every day, and even if they were not, it takes about ten seconds to research them. It is important to know who your local MP/House Member is, as they represent your district in the government; in the UK, people should be familiar with the Leader of the Opposition, as they could become Prime Minister in the next general election; and in the US the governor is the highest ranking official in each state's government.

If that person did not know who the prime minister was before, hopefully they should do now. It is astounding that they managed to make it this long without knowing what his name is.

Gala pork pie

This is a gala pork pie:

The above pie was what we ate for dinner last night. A gala pork pie is the same as a Melton Mowbray pork pie except that it has eggs in the middle, as shown in the image, and there are some differences in the style of the pastries. Egg or not, pork pies are delicious!

Slumgullion

I recently discovered an interesting-sounding word: slumgullion. There are various definitions of a "slumgullion", but most often a slumgullion is a watery meat and vegetable stew. A slumgullion is not normally a high-quality meal, but also not necessarily an unhealthful one, either.

Ofter meanings include it being a term to describe a weak coffee or tea; a muddy, red-coloured substance found in the sluices of mines; and can be synonymous with the word "offal". It can also be used to describe any sort of slime, or in a derogatory manner against any sort of watery meal.

Even without the alternate terms, something called a "slumgullion" does not sound as though it would be an appetising meal!

Reductions in drought

It is good to learn that nineteen areas in England have moved out of drought status from all the rain the country has been having recently. This does not mean that the hosepipe bans have been lifted, rather, it just means that certain regions are no longer in any immediate danger of water shortages. In addition, if the entire summer is hot and dry that could push those areas back into drought status.

This April is now the wettest on record, and some areas, especially the north east and the south west of England, currently even have flood warnings from an excess of rain. Although nineteen flood warnings have been lifted, there are places still at risk.

Northamptonshire is not among the regions now out of drought status, even though we have had significant amounts of rain. I am not aware of any flood alerts around here, either.

Ashlee Simpson's aeroplane

On a first glance at this post's header it probably looks as though the topic would be about Ashlee Simpson's personal aircraft. That, however, is not what I am writing about, and I do not know if Simpson even has her own plane!

Instead, it is about her song "La La". In Simpson's singing I have always heard her use the pronunciation "aeroplane" over "airplane". At first I thought I was mishearing her so I listened more closely, but even with closer attention to the song I continued to hear "aeroplane". I also checked to ensure that she was not putting any emphasis after "air" by saying "air-uh-plane", and I found it still sounded exactly like "air-o-plane". Finally, I checked several lyrics websites and her exact words are as follows:

"You can meet me on an aeroplane
Or in the back of the bus"

I find this interesting because "aeroplane" is the British spelling and pronunciation of  "airplane", which is used in the United States, and Simpson is American. With the exception of someone educating others about differences in spelling and pronunciation, I have never heard any other American besides Simpson say "aeroplane". Evidently Simpson had her reasons for using the British variant (one that comes to mind for me is that it does sound clunkier to sing "airplane" instead, but then if I had heard the song that way to begin with it is what I would have become used to and would not have given it a second thought), but as curious as I am to know exactly what they were I doubt we will learn them; after all, the song was written several years ago, and it is only a minor thing to worry about. Regardless, it is one of those minor facts that I find fascinating.

Listen around the 0:48 - 0:53 marks of "La La" here. Even now I checked a few more times just to ensure she still said "aeroplane", and seven years after I first heard the song I continue to hear that pronunciation.

More cherry blossom

I took some more pictures of our cherry blossom and wanted to post another here:

Local election error

I stated in my first post about the recent local elections in the United Kingdom that Northamptonshire did not have any seats up this year, and as such I was unable to vote. It turns out I was in error about elections in this county, as the Daventry district had its entire council up for election in 2012.

This being said, I do not live in the Daventry district, so I still could not have voted and neither could the other parts of Northamptonshire outside Daventry.

The stargate

On our route from Northamptonshire to Coventry we take the M6, a motorway on the west side of England, for a part of the way there. A few months ago while travelling on this route, Dad noticed a "stargate" from the Stargate SG-1 series in a nearby field close to Coventry. I recently managed to photograph the stargate:

There is even a replica "dial-home device" from the show, too. The whole place looks as though it is staging area for dogs to play or perform, but it is difficult to tell from a distance. Whatever the purpose is, I think it is both fascinating to see a "real-life" stargate and creative that someone took the time to construct it...it is a type of object that is highly unusual to see anywhere!

Second Coventry trip

I went to Coventry again today, for the same reasons as the last time. I did not take as many pictures on this occasion, but I did get a one of a random spire in the city (I do not know what the building is called, I just wanted to take a picture of it). I will have another post about the trip tomorrow.

On the results of the 2012 local elections (again)

All the results from Thursday's elections are through, and there is little change from yesterday's post. As expected, Boris Johnson won against Ken Livingstone in London, albeit more narrowly than had been predicted (51.5% to 48.5% when factoring in all the first and second-place preference votes), Jenny Jones from the Green Party managed to pull off a third-place finish ahead of Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the London race; Labour won a slightly higher amount of council seats, and Leeds joined eight other cities in opposing a directly-elected mayor system.

That is the last post on British elections for now; the next major set of votes will be the 2013 locals, although a couple of parliamentary constituencies could have by-elections if there are any MP departures from now until then.

On the results of the 2012 local elections

Most of the results from yesterday's elections are through, and I would say they are close to what I was expecting. On current estimates, the Labour Party has won over 770 council seats and taken control of at least 30 councils, the Conservatives are down almost 400 seats, the Liberal Democrats losses have surpassed 300, Doncaster has decided to keep its directly-elected mayor system, and Boris Johnson is on course to win re-election as the Mayor of London.

The most surprising results to me have been the cities holding referendums on having their own directly-elected mayors: results in nine of the ten have come through, and so far only Bristol has voted in favour of a mayor, with the votes still being counted in Leeds. I had presumed that people in the larger cities would be interested in having their own versions of the London mayoral system, but it seems I was wrong. Sheffield appears to have cast the strongest "no" voice, with over 60% of the people taking part in the referendum rejecting a mayor. By contrast, Doncaster kept its mayor with 62% of people saying "yes".

Some other results include the United Kingdom Independence Party's best showing to date in a local election without a concurrent European Parliament vote, with them averaging 12%-14% wherever they fielded candidates, although they only gained six new councillors at the expense of losing five. The Green Party has currently had a net increase of 11 councillors and in the London mayoral election their candidate, Jenny Jones, is hoping for a third-place finish . The Respect Party won five councillors in Bradford and even defeated the Labour council leader there. Finally, the British National Party failed to both gain new councillors and to keep its existing ones.

I do not expect the data in this post to be significantly out of date once all the results are through, but I will be sure to write an updated post with any new information.

Local elections, 2012

Voting is well underway here in the United Kingdom for the 2012 local elections. Over 6,000 council seats are up nationwide, several cities are holding referendums to decide if their inhabitants want to start directly electing mayors, the city of Doncaster is voting whether or not to abolish their own directly-elected mayor system, and three mayors are up for election.

The race that has been in the news most frequently has been the London mayoral election, where the incumbent, Boris Johnson (Conservative Party), is up for re-election. His main opponent is Ken Livingstone (Labour), with lesser challengers from the Liberal Democrats, Greens, United Kingdom Independence Party, British National Party, and an independent. Polls seem to be showing Johnson winning, with Livingstone coming in second, and the other candidates having some significant percentages but nowhere near anything close to actually winning the mayoralty of London.

While Johnson looks as though he will win in London, the Conservatives themselves are expecting heavy losses in the council elections. They are the largest party in Parliament, and with them receiving rising public dissatisfaction from issues such as a potential fuel strike, hostile reaction to the recent budget, and the current issue of MP Jeremy Hunt's involvement with News Corporation's former bid to take over BSkyB, they are polling several percentage points behind Labour. Labour are expected to win significantly in the councils; the Liberal Democrats lost several hundred seats in the 2011 local elections, and since they are currently polling at 8% (behind 16% for "others") that could happen this time around. The smaller parties hope to increase their amount of seats, or at the very least maintain what they already have. (Polling source.)

This is the second major election that has taken place since I have been back in the United Kingdom (the previous being the 2011 locals/AV referendum). I do not yet have the experience to predict the way an election will go in this country (for example, I was surprised in 2010 when Labour lost in Parliament but were the only party in that election to gain councillors), but I think the final results will be similar to what the polls have been saying.

As for Northamptonshire, none of the seats in this county are up for this election; the next elections here are in 2013. While I am not able to vote in this year's elections, I will still be keenly observing their results, which will be released tomorrow.

The birds in the house

There are two bird houses in our back garden. One is the U.S. Mail house we found buried in the bushes, and the other is a a plain wooden house. At the latter during this afternoon, three Blue Tits were showing a keen interest in it: one appeared to be already in the house and making a home while the other two were either fighting with each other or both trying to move in with the Blue Tit inside.

The Blue Tit in the above image is one of the two fighting/attempting to move in after it had just scared the other off. Even though I took this from inside our house, I was still lucky to get it because the birds were moving rapidly, and they rarely took the time to pause in the position this Blue Tit is in.

One World Trade Center

It may not be complete yet, but the One World Trade Center in New York City has surpassed the height of the Empire State Building and is well on its way to overtaking the Willis Tower (originally Sears Tower) in Chicago through pinnacle height and thus, on to becoming the tallest building in the United States. At completion, the One World Trade Center will be 1776 feet in height, a nod to the year of American independence.

Obviously I know the tragic circumstances for why this building has come into existence, but even so I find the One World Trade Center to be an impressive structure. I am a fan of this "glass-like" skyscrapers and think that the skyline of New York City will be improved when this one has been fully constructed.

With completion estimated to be in the summer or fall of 2013, It is good that the tower is coming close to the end of its construction. I look forward to seeing real pictures of a completed One World Trade Center instead of computer generated renderings of it, but more importantly, it will be great to see the skyline of the city restored.