Sunday Sounds 76 - The Stormy Weather edition

As I type, the outlying rain heralding the coming of Storm St. Jude is steadily drumming on the windows of my attic room...

...so here, is a musical tribute to The Great Storm of 2013, as Jude is bound to be known in future years*, is Ethel Waters with Stormy Weather from 1933. Enjoy:

Andrew

*obviously this assumes the Met Office hasn't over-egged the forecast.

Going, Going, Gone

Over the past couple of months, the former PwC offices in Bristol City Centre have been demolished. Or, at least the modern extension to the side and rear of the Georgian-fronted building in the North Eastern corner of Queen Square has gone.

Here are some pictures from various stages in the process: 

I've also found some pictures what is set to replace the demolished building. Whilst I can see what is being attempted (a design that attempts to marry the scale and classic style of the Georgian frontage with the older architecture of King Street which the rear gives onto), I remain to be convinced:

(c) Skanska

(c) Skanska

You can find more information about the development here.

Andrew

An e-mail arrives: Hey, dear friend!

A couple of weeks ago, Google rolled out the new GMail to me.

Unlike a lot of people, I rather like it. 

Sure, it'll take a bit of educating whilst I train it to put the e-mails I receive on a regular basis in the appropriate categories. True, it's frustrating that such instructions can only be made on the desktop version rather on the mobile or tablet apps. And I still have no idea what to put in the "Forums" section...

But I like it, and the fact that the "Primary" e-mail box gives me an update when new e-mails have been routed to the other boxes.

But somewhere along the line, something at Google broke and the following mail made it past their (normally reliable) spam filter:

I want to find a friend for serious relationship. You are the man I want to meet.
 It would be good to meet you in person. I am seriously interested in learning more about you. Dating is not just fun for me, I never play games. I hope that you are serious too. I am a lonely woman who wants to find someone who will love and understand me. Let me tell you more about me. I assume that I am a strong woman with goals, morals and ambitions.

 All the best!

A charming offer, and one I'd have been inclined to take up. Except, well, it was directed at me...

I ain't going to be the second choice of anyone!... 

Andrew

Dr Who? On a Lib Dem Blog? Whoever heard of such a thing?..

As most of my Lib Dem friends know, I am that rare thing: a Lib Dem who isn't into Doctor Who. Sharing a house with someone who is, though, means you learn a huge amount by osmosis - only to find your knowledge shot down in flames when you try and impress someone...

...an example: Doctor Who is the name of the programme, not the Doctor. Right? I thought so... but apparently in some series the character is actually credited as Doctor Who. Quite by accident, I found I had stumbled into the middle of one of (many) debates between fans within the DW universe. Ho-hum...

Anyway, my housemate has lately been engaged in an exercise to edit some of the longer, classic stories down so that they are in a format more similar to current stories - and reckons this is something the Beeb should do when they run out of classic episodes to release on DVD.

Here are his opening and closing titles to The Five Doctors, which was the 20th Anniversary Special, from 30 years ago:

Short Form Titles (Start & End) from Agent Purple on Vimeo.

And, here is the whole, hour long version:

Five Doctors Short Form - Full 1hr Version (Probably Final) from Agent Purple on Vimeo.

You can find more, including details of a 40 minute edit of the The Awakening, on Agent Purple's blog, here.

Andrew