Mahler's 8th Symphony Reaction...Simply the Greatest.

Being a huge fan of Reaction Videos I was really surprised to discover GIDI'S Channel.

He of course is a huge Hip Hop fan. And so I was really amazed that he is an admirer

of big Classical music pieces.

And it's clear to see that he was blown away by this performance of Gustav Mahler's 8th

Symphony, although I have pushed the video forward so you can witness his reaction

to the big thundering climax at the end. And what a climax it is. Some say the greatest ending

of any symphony. It certainly is in my books.

Even the Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra looks emotionally shattered at the end,

with the audience prepared to stay silent until he is ready for the applause.

'THIS TOOK ME TO A BETTER PLACE. IT FELT

LIKE I WAS FLOATING IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE OCEAN. IT WAS GUIDING ME TO A BETTER PLACE.'

GIDI.

Many Classical music fans seem to prefer Mahler's 2nd Symphony, and Gidi even does a

reaction to that one as well. But I find the explosive ending a bit messy and all over the place.

And it just doesn't seem to know when to end, hence the famous quote by Mahler (above)

when he says 'When I have reached a summit I leave it with great reluctance........

More of GIDI'S Reactions HERE.

Preparing For More Clutter...But Not Too Much

I sometimes think that shelves in the home have only one purpose and that is to store clutter.

But I needed a shelf system badly earlier this week. And so just before the current heatwave set in

I set myself a challenge to create a six tier shelving unit made from three long lengths of timber,

and all put up in a matter of hours in which I surprised even myself.

But at least it allowed me to pick up piles of clutter on my floor and finally shelve it.

With the news that my longest and oldest friend may soon become a permanent resident at his

current Care Home, then it's going to be down to me to carry out the mammoth task of clearing

out his three bedroom house full of clutter, some of which is no doubt going to end up in my

place. But then the last thing I need now is more clutter. So I'll have to be very picky and

choosy in what I bring to my place.

Last week I did bring back home an impressive collection of leather bound books

titled The Harvard Classics featuring works by Chaucer, Whitman, Dante, Bacon,

Plato and others. And this is just half of the collection. But as for some other

 heavy oversized leather encyclopedias I wouldn't really want them and will eventually

donate them to Charity.

Yes, my friend was a bit of a hoarder and refused to cut back on all his clutter with

things like dvd's, CD's, Vinyl records, cassettes, many books, magazines and worst of 

all, thousands of that out of date format VHS Cassettes, something we always shared 

a joke about when I kept saying that they all belong in a big yellow skip as most of them

were just tv recordings.

"THE PRIMARY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A

HOARDER AND A COLLECTOR IS TASTE."

Phew!... A June Record is Broken.

S0 yesterday on Wednesday we saw weather records broken for the first time in June with

a temperature hitting 36.1c in Gosport in Hampshire. And perhaps there's more heat to come.

But will we reach the elusive 38 or 39c?

Sadly some parts of Europe are getting it much worse so we're all hoping that things

will cool down by the weekend.

This One Takes the Biscuit!

We've all heard of the term clickbait. It's often a digital weapon used by ambitious

youtubers to increase their views, not to mention their youtube income. But this News

article headline above really does take the biscuit. It's almost a new low, something you

normally expect from papers like the online Daily Express, but no, this misleading

headline was actually put out by GB News online, a tv News Channel that I would always

prioritize over the BBC. It was even recently voted the best News Channel for it's honesty

in tackling current issues that other channels steer away from. 

The popular tv show Gone Fishing features Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer as they

visit some of the most beautiful rivers and locations around the U.K. And throughout the

show while fishing, they reflect on life, mortality and discuss their various medical ailments.

So the misleading headline above lead me to believe that one of the show's hosts had passed

on, which was not true. It was in fact their little companion Ted the dog who passed

away in April. Yes, Ted was lovable but he was only a minor part of the show. And so

hopefully the show will continue without Ted.

Gone Fishing absolutely inspired me to make my Surrey River video

last Summer. First posted HERE.

Right now we're in the grip of an uncomfortable heatwave. Something that's unusual

for June. It's also affecting much of Europe, particularly in France and Spain.

But what fascinates me every time a heatwave arrives is that I find myself scanning

the U.K weather map only to observe each time that Lerwick (arrowed) in The Shetlands

seems to be immune from heatwaves. Are there savvy shrewd people out there that

dislike heatwaves so much that they jump on the train to Aberdeen and head for Lerwick

just to get away from the stifling heat?

You'll often notice on the weather maps that when it's around 30c in London then it will

often be half that at 15c in Lerwick. So should those Scottish Islands start marketing

themselves as an escape and bolt hole from these horrible heatwaves when they occur?

VISIT LERWICK SHETLAND

The Bike Riders Are Back!

Sunday the 14th of June saw in this year's London World Naked Bike Ride. An event

that first began back in June 2004. And it's purpose is to protest against car culture and

the dependency on oil as well as road bicycle safety. 

The event usually takes place on the first Saturday in June but this year the organizers

scheduled it in a week later on a Sunday.

Although being quite busy myself that Sunday, I just made it to Wellington Arch by Hyde

Park Corner just as all the riders gathered at the finishing point, while at the same

time there was a huge gathering of Ukrainians celebrating their annual Vyshyvanka

March (top image), but they swiftly moved on once the bike riders turned up.

As for this year's event I couldn't help noticing less women taking part. Either that or

most of them took off home once the bike ride ended rather than endure the endless requests

from hungry photographers on the Wellington Arch Green.

I think it is just the guys that seem to like posing at the end. In fact an extraordinary guy

from Taiwan (below)  with amazing long hair asked me to take several pictures of himself 

and to e-mail them to him, which I did, although probably not safe to post them up here. He

also mentioned to me that he will be at The Brighton Bike Ride coming up in early September.

The World Naked Bike Ride.