Yesterday was the parade to celebrate the medals won by Team GB in China, and it was a great day for the athletes. For me, watching on TV, the highlight of the coverage was the speech of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. It was short, witty, upbeat, and emphasized the achievements of the athletes. Here are a couple of the better quotes:

About the achievements of the athletes:

There is no wrong time of the day or the week to commemorate the best cycling result by any team ever in the history of sport, or the incredible achievements of our rowers, British rowers, British swimmers, and sailors, who together have produced the most extraordinary British aquatic triumph since Horatio Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar itself.

About London 2012:

I know the sceptics will say or that we can’t match the Chinese or deliver a fantastic Olympics in a recession and I say to them that it is exactly because of that downturn that we must seize the chance to rejuvenate, regenerate part of East London, that has been neglected for decades, with all the potential that brings for jobs and growth … I think it’s going to knock China for six from that point of view, not necessarily just from the facilities.

For a complete script of the speech, see this page.

Okay, I signed up to help the Mango people with punting but because of the weather, we went ice skating. It was a lot of fun and was the first time that I had gone skating for about a decade! Luckily, I did not fall and was actually able to help some of the Mango students.

Click on the photo to go to the album of all the photos!

Jill and I may go back to the rink again sometime soon … it was a fun experience and was reasonably cheap going at ‘tea-time.’

If, for some reason (like being dead), you did not know that the Live 8 concerts occurred last night, they did and I watched them from the relative comfort of the TV room at the St Cross Annexe. I did not win a ticket to the concert in London and I think that watching it on BBC was a good as being there … but first, let me talk about the concert.

The two highlights for me were: Paul McCartney & U2 singing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band & Pink Floyd’s reunion

Macca and U2 were a great opening and, at how many concerts will you see two acts like that open … I would say none! Plus, as Sir Paul latter said, it was the first time that Sgt. Pepper\’s Lonely Hearts Club Band were ever played live by him … and, you could download it from iTunes within 45 minutes of the performance (gotta give Apple some congrats on that one)! So, if you did miss that song, go download it and support Live 8.

Okay, now to the real reason that I watch close to ELEVEN hours of BBC yesterday … the first time in my LIFE that Pink Floyd has played together. Let me just say that it was nothing short of amazing … you could tell that there was a little rust from not playing together for 24+ years … but that did not stop them from putting a great set together for a great cause. On top of that, I thought that they looked like they enjoyed being back together a lot and that could mean that they will be stay together. Being a fan of great music, being able to go to a Pink Floyd concert would be truly amazing!

Now to say something for BBC, they did a great job keeping the air full of music and message. With the few exceptions, especially the decision to interview Robbie Williams at one point, the BBC team was able to make the Live 8 and the Make Poverty History messages come across but not seem to be beat into the audience. I knew that public TV could be great TV, unlike it is in the States, and the BBC team proved it yesterday! The ability to watch a concert (or any TV show without commercials is a great feeling and yesterday, it will wonderful).

Okay, well, I hope that they come out with a DVD of the concert (or maybe even of all the concerts)!

The Independent Online Edition > Blues Feature

An interesting article about what place the blues has in today’s music scene. I think that it has some good points, especially talking about what was the real influence of blues on rock-n-roll … the emotion! For me, this has a real connection to several of the bands that I really enjoy, esp The Holmes Brothers, Hayseed-Dixie, and Southern Culture on the Skids. Both of them are about getting on stage (or in the studio) and letting it all out … having fun and not sticking to a single genre of music. Unfortunately, many people think that it is not commercially viable to be a reall musician like that, but there are a lot of people who support great musicians who are not bound by a single genre.

Get out there and listen to some real music today! For some great live music from a lot of musicians that put their emotions into the music, check out the Live Music Archive.