writing
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Afghanistan is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. But I am not going to address that here, there are plenty of news outlets where you can read all about that. I want to go more into the history, or at least the recent history, of Afghanistan. The name Afghanistan (Afghānistān, land of…
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In 1972, Italian singer-songwriter Adriano Celentano released a song that defied linguistic norms, confused listeners, and yet became an international sensation. The song, “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” is an energetic, rhythm-driven track that sounds like English but is, in fact, complete gibberish. This bizarre yet brilliant creation was Celentano’s experiment to showcase the barriers of communication and highlight…
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(Repost from January 10, 2018) I hang my head in shame. For decades I have been boasting about my knowledge of all things music, and especially rock music,when suddenly it hits me like a wet fish in the face, I KNOW NOTHING. Well that might be too harsh but the fact is I had never…
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If there would be a King of Blues it probably would be Robert Johnson. He was also one of the first of the ‘Club of 27’ musicians who all died age 27. I wonder if anyone born after 1990 knows of this musical legend. The blues is no doubt the foundation of Rock N Roll…
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Elvis Presley: The King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley, known as the “King of Rock and Roll,” was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. He was the only surviving child of Vernon and Gladys Presley, as his twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn. Growing up in a modest, working-class household, Elvis was…
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I absolutely love the BBC/Amazon Prime TV Drama “Ripper Street” and I think the last season was the best season so far. I only found out recently that the main character in the show was based on the actual inspector in the Jack the Ripper case, Edmund Reid. Detective Inspector Edmund John James Reid (21…
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It was a few weeks before Christmas 2011. We went to see “Arthur Christmas” in the cinema in 3D. Afterwards my family were saying how impressive the 3D had been, where I hadn’t noticed it at all. I had some problem with my eye though, but hadn’t thought anything of it. I thought it was…
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It thought it was time for me to do a Saxy blog(pardon the pun). Om June 28 1846, Adolphe Sax patented the instrument named after him, the Saxophone. However this nearly didn’t happen, not because he forgot to submit it but because he must have been either the luckiest or unluckiest man,depending on how you…
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Some people might recognize the title of this piece as the title of a Billy Joel song, and you would be right. It is a beautiful song which has a sad intonation, in a way it is a haunting piece of music, a story of something that is no longer there. Billy Joel’s grandfather Karl…
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As the saying goes “all is fair in love and war” In the autumn of 1944, an almost twenty-nine-year old English soldier named Jim fell head-over-heels for nineteen-year-old Emelia Sluys. Emelia was staying with relatives on Groesbeekseweg in the city of Nijmegen,the Netherlands, because her home had been destroyed during the Battle of Arnhem. To…
History of Sorts 