Things I Have Learned This Week

LOVELY, LOVELY PEOPLE

1. Scottish couple Colin and Chris Weir won £161m on the Euromillions lottery. People are already crowing that their plans to spend it are pretty modest, and therefore they are undeserving of such a huge win. I say leave them alone: they seem like lovely, lovely people, who I am sure will use the money to do a lot of good things . On a completely unrelated note, I desperately need a ...er..brain transplant which will cost around £780,000, which I don't have. Sure I'll think of something...


2. Tweet of the week: 

3. Driving on the motorway this week for the first time in a while, I got stuck in a jam for ages. I was really grateful to finally get moving again and see this sign up ahead >
Refreshingly honest branding too.





4. I was somewhat taken aback to see that I was being followed on Twitter by this guy from Slimmers Forum:

WHAT AN INTERESTING VARIETY OF SUBJECTS HE COVERS

Call me paranoid but I have visions of him going through users' profile photos and thinking "He looks a bit podgy: POTENTIAL CUSTOMER!". As a result I am editing my picture thus:

5. Amidst all the appalling publicity that the hacking scandal has brought upon News International, I can't help feeling that it has got a little harder to dislike Rupert Murdoch, as he seems a touch more cute and cuddly than I recall. It's been bugging me all week what the new look is that he is rocking, and it has just clicked:

.

Tweet

KILLER COVERS #003: Automatic Baby - (U2's) One

There are a lot of alternative versions of One out there, including a truly terrible rendition U2 themselves did with Mary J Blige (and I like The Bligester, as I believe she likes to be called).

This take actually features two members of U2, Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton, along with Mike Mills and Michael Stipe of REM. According to Wikipedia it was recorded live at an MTV concert for President Bill Clinton (I think in 1993). I didn't realise until today that a video existed for the performance - I only knew it from owning the 1996 Childline charity CD on which it featured. The name Automatic Baby is obviously an amalgam of their respective bands' biggest albums. You worked that one out yourself - didn't you?

The key here is the vocal performance of Stipe. Despite jumbling up the lyrics once or twice, the song sounds as though it could have been written for him. After hearing this version a few times I found it hard to imagine Bono's original in my head.

Give it a whirl, people. Hope you like it.

Tweet