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gcreptile

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Posts posted by gcreptile

  3. Posted

     

     

     

     

    Is Queen still touring with a replacement for Freddie Mercury?

     

    The surviving members of Led Zeppelin would also qualify as legends, but Page and Plant are still quite active. So, John Paul Jones? I guess they did the next best thing by replacing John Bonham with his son that one time.

     

    Queen, personally I'm not convinced the current line up is owt but a touring cash machine. Though I'm fairly biased cos I always thought them something of a pantomime. Zep, fair point, nobody struggled to accept the one off reunion to promote the Mothership compilation and by common consent, they still had enough of the original magic to qualify as legends.

    That lead singer for Queen if I'm not mistaken is some creep (no relation) that came from American Idol I think, I don't even think he won. I pay these incarnations no heed.

     

    Ah! I had forgotten about Adam Lambert. I remember they once toured with ... no, I'm mistaken again! I thought they toured with the singer of one-hit wonder Stilskin, but no, that was Genesis! That said, before Adam Lambert, there was Paul Rodgers. Also George Michael for one concert.

     

     

    I saw Yes at the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago wherein four members of Yes over the years, three from the classic line ups plus Geoff (Buggles) Downes, who joined later on, were fronted by a fortysomething Jon Anderson clone. Great gig, really good sound, but I didn't even consider them for this classic discussion.

     

    Another similar case: Kraftwerk, who are still occasionally touring. In fact, they're more involved in retrospectives of their work than making new music, but then, this has been going on since 1985 or so. The current line up of the band only contains one original member, cycling nut Ralf Hütter. There are only two original members, him and Florian Schneider, but the classic albums from Autobahn to Computer World were created mostly by four people, Hütter, Schneider, Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür. There's no artistic reason why the band should still exist, the last new album came out in 2003, 18 years after the last one (and there was a remix album in 1991). I don't know why people still would want to watch the band, considering it's not really the band anymore.

  4. Posted

     

     

    Is Queen still touring with a replacement for Freddie Mercury?

     

    The surviving members of Led Zeppelin would also qualify as legends, but Page and Plant are still quite active. So, John Paul Jones? I guess they did the next best thing by replacing John Bonham with his son that one time.

     

    Queen, personally I'm not convinced the current line up is owt but a touring cash machine. Though I'm fairly biased cos I always thought them something of a pantomime. Zep, fair point, nobody struggled to accept the one off reunion to promote the Mothership compilation and by common consent, they still had enough of the original magic to qualify as legends.

    That lead singer for Queen if I'm not mistaken is some creep (no relation) that came from American Idol I think, I don't even think he won. I pay these incarnations no heed.

     

    Ah! I had forgotten about Adam Lambert. I remember they once toured with ... no, I'm mistaken again! I thought they toured with the singer of one-hit wonder Stilskin, but no, that was Genesis! That said, before Adam Lambert, there was Paul Rodgers. Also George Michael for one concert.

  5. Posted

    Is Queen still touring with a replacement for Freddie Mercury?

     

    The surviving members of Led Zeppelin would also qualify as legends, but Page and Plant are still quite active. So, John Paul Jones? I guess they did the next best thing by replacing John Bonham with his son that one time.

  8. Posted

    This result for the Tories is a bit like the Derek Bentley case. They pull the trigger their accomplice gets hanged.

    Happened in Germany as well in 2013. Our liberal party (the FDP) failed to clear the 5% threshhold and was kicked out of parliament while being the coalition partner of Merkel's CDU who gained massively. However the CDU missed the absolute seat majority and were forced into a major coalition with the social democrats who could actually form a government of their own with the Greens and the Socialists if only they really wanted it. Another parallel in ideological terms is that your UKIP is our AfD whose surge might have caused the drop of the FDP below the threshhold.

     

    In 2009, the SPD was also in a coalition with Merkel and lost heavily. Merkel has the unusual talent to spell death to her allies. Sometimes she gets called "a black widow" for that.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    Jon Huntsman Sr., big player in Utah politics and father of former Utah governor and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr., as well as being a huge philantropist and funder of cancer research, 'wants to give all his money away before he dies'. He has already beaten the prognosis of 'polymyalgia rheumatic' by a couple of years.

     

    http://fox13now.com/2015/05/07/philanthropy-politics-and-battling-cancer-the-legacy-of-jon-huntsman-senior/

     

    His obitability in Britain is not guaranteed though, I guess.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

     

     

    PAY-Georgia-Davis.jpg

     

     

    Another utterly uncalled for shot of a mountain of blubber. Georgia Davies, went to hospital last week after a fall, but only after a massive hole was knocked in the front wall of her house.

     

    Currently reckoned to tip the scales around 54 stone.

    The crane got her out, the crane will get her in:

     

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/georgia-davis-heavy-duty-crane-winch-5634293

     

    I actually wanted to post the original story last week. The girl has a sort-of claim to national fame as Britain's formerly fattest teenager, and she has already had health problems (not that surprising)

     

    Maybe Georgia Davies and Carl Thompson should do lunch. They could compare notes and share anecdotes, perhaps over a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

     

    They should have a contest of eating each other to death.

     

     

     

    So, I've refined my idea, a bit.

     

     

    Georgia Davies and Carl Thomas each sit at opposite ends of a gym, in which there is a large, lockable, box. A massive chinese carry out is brought in to stink the place out, placed in the box and locked away. Georgia and Carl know the key to open the box is taped to a wallbar, and is 15 feet up. Together, they can, just about, contrive to reach it. But neither one wants to share the grub.

     

    That's an hour of "reality" television gold right there!

     

    I think one of the Saw movies had a scene like that.

  18. Posted

    The trial of Oskar Groening, an accountant at Auschwitz begins:

     

    http://uk.businessinsider.com/ss-accountant-of-auschwitz-going-on-trial-in-germany-2015-4

     

    Aged 93, he is part of an 11th-hour effort to convict lower-ranked personnel for being "cogs in the machine". It's a legal consequence of the John Demanjuk trial who was convicted of his involvement in the Holocaust and appealed the verdict, only to die before it could be heard.

    Today's day in court was cancelled because of the "bad state of health" of Mr. Groening:

     

    http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/prozesstag-im-auschwitz-verfahren-vorzeitig-beendet-oskar-groening-in-schlechtem-gesundheitszustand/11737296.html(link in german, but I bet english articles will appear, since the trial has received a fair bit of attention abroad.)

  19. Posted

    Even more on Georgia Davis:

     

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3067016/She-s-just-young-girl-fighting-addiction-Mother-Britain-s-fattest-woman-tells-55st-daughter-s-torment-22-year-old-rescued-flat-crane.html

     

    She's on anti-deppresants, recently had a fall and a severe infection. This was really sad: She (her mother) insists Georgia is now eating salads and greens in a bid to lose weight, though she admits the occasional takeaway and plates of sausage and chips are also part of her daughter’s diet.

  20. Posted

     

    Well Ellen Albertini Dow has died at 101. I know a few people including myself have got her on their list.

     

    http://deadline.com/2015/05/ellen-albertini-dow-dead-wedding-singer-rapping-granny-1201420781/

    Oooh, my 4th theme team hit and my Joker...

     

    Congratulations! Funny how such a seemingly random idea has led to so much success. And you've still got BB King and René Angélil! Though, I have to confess, I'm cheering even more for the team of Ronnies.

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    PAY-Georgia-Davis.jpg

     

     

    Another utterly uncalled for shot of a mountain of blubber. Georgia Davies, went to hospital last week after a fall, but only after a massive hole was knocked in the front wall of her house.

     

    Currently reckoned to tip the scales around 54 stone.

    The crane got her out, the crane will get her in:

     

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/georgia-davis-heavy-duty-crane-winch-5634293

     

    I actually wanted to post the original story last week. The girl has a sort-of claim to national fame as Britain's formerly fattest teenager, and she has already had health problems (not that surprising)

     

    Maybe Georgia Davies and Carl Thompson should do lunch. They could compare notes and share anecdotes, perhaps over a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

     

    They should have a contest of eating each other to death.

  22. Posted

     

    Ryan McHenry, creator of the "Ryan Gosling won't eat his cereal" vine videos (yes, really!), has died of cancer at 27:

     

    http://www.pedestrian.tv/news/entertainment/ryan-mchenry-creator-of-ryan-gosling-wont-eat-his-/27b44139-cf35-4517-845f-783d6ac4a365.htm

     

    His fans are now asking Mr. Gosling to eat cereal as a tribute.

    Ryan Gosling eats his cereal

     

    Touching story. The guy even received a DDP-qualifying obit:

     

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ryan-gosling-wont-eat-cereal-5638085

     

    But then not every internet celebrity catches the attention of Ryan Gosling.

  24. Posted

    A president of my own alma mater, the Free University of Berlin, has died at 90: Eberhard Lämmert:

     

    http://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/zum-tod-des-germanisten-eberhard-laemmert-ein-diplomat-der-literatur/11730046.html

     

    The Free University was originally founded as an academic connection to the United States, as a counterweight to the Humboldt University which was situated in communist East Berlin. Things got a little complicated with the student protests of 1968 and their decidely anti-american sentiment after the Vietnam War. The Free University was a center of the student protests and experienced heavy ideological conflicts which continued for a couple of years as Germany went through the terror attacks of the Red Army Faction. Then there was the Yom Kippur War, the oil crisis and other things that made the 70s a difficult time... but with Mr. Lämmert's presidency (1976-1983) things calmed down. Mr. Lämmert, like the current president, was a german philogist, by the way.

    • Like 2

  25. Posted

    Only one unique hit in the entirety of the top 10 at the moment. Research skills finally rendering this a much harder thing to gain?

    Could be. The research might have lead to an increasing degree of matching picks among the top teams. In 2014, the top two teams (far ahead of the other teams) only had 2 common picks among their hits. But 2014 was a tricky year because lots of the supposedly sure hits were misses. In 2013, the top 2 teams had 5 matches. Nr. 1 and nr. 3 also had 5 matches, and nr. 2 and nr. 3 had 8 matches, in a record-breaking year. Currently, team nr. 1 and nr. 2 already have 7 common hits, before Martin Crowe and Kate Granger (I guess it's a certainty that one of these two people will definitely die in 2015). Teams nr. 1 and 3 also already have 7 hits.

    It's definitely harder to get to the top with left-field picks.

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