Thursday, December 13, 2012

Blake Shelton - Cheers, it's Christmas

 

Cheers, it's Christmas.

Blake Shelton's latest release, a CD of holiday music entitled "Cheers, it's Christmas," is one of the best holiday albums ever!

Blake sings these really well and the duets are pretty special, too. "Jingle Bell Rock" features Miranda Lambert singing her heart out with Blake and that music fits in perfectly with their vocals. Blake does a superb job on "Oklahoma Christmas" which also features Reba and he sings "White Christmas;" with genuine passion.

Other tunes include "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!;" the charming "There's A New Kid In Town" that has Blake singing with Kelly Clarkson; "Santa's Got A Choo Choo Train;" "Home" that has Blake Shelton performing with Michael Bublé; "Winter Wonderland;" Blake's awesome version of `The Christmas Song;" the excellent "Blue Christmas" featuring Pistol Annies; the poignant "I'll Be Home for Christmas" which is a very favourite holiday tune to many people; "Silver Bells," a duet done by Blake and Xenia; "Time For Me To Come Home" that Blake performs with mom Dorothy Shackleford and "The Very Best Time Of Year" which shows just how well Blake performs with Trypta-Phunk.

This is a must have for Blake's fans everywhere; and people who appreciate excellent holiday music will not be disappointed!

Track Listing:

01 Jingle Bell Rock (feat. Miranda Lambert)
02 White Christmas
03 Oklahoma Christmas (feat. Reba)
04 Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
05 There's a New Kid In Town (feat. Kelly Clarkson)
06 Santa's Got a Choo Choo Train
07 Home (feat. Michael Bublé)
08 Winter Wonderland
09 The Christmas Song
10 Blue Christmas (feat. Pistol Annies)
11 I'll Be Home for Christmas
12 Silver Bells (feat. Xenia)
13 Time for Me to Come Home (feat. Dorothy Shackleford)
14 The Very Best Time of Year (feat. Trypta-Phunk)

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 3

 

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Just in time for the holidays, Glee brings joy to the world with the release of Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 3. The Glee holiday cheer is spread with the cast’s own festive renditions of such Christmas staples as “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and “Silent Night”.

Track Listing

1. Shake Up Christmas
2. Mistletoe
3. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
4. White Christmas / Skinny Love
5. All I Have
6. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
7. Wonderful Christmastime
8. Snow
9. My Only Wish (This Year)
10. Christmas Lights
11. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
12. Magic
13. Silent Night

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Apology

 

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Due to some heavy work commitments, there will no blogging for the next few days except for a couple of scheduled items.

Thanks

Graham

Animal Mothers and Off-Springs

 

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Just For Fun 11 December

 

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Movie Review ... Taken 2

 

taken-2-movie-poster-2012Directed by the aptly named Olivier Megaton, ‘Taken 2’ provides a ton of explosive action.  This shouldn’t be any surprise to those knowing his work. Backed by producer Luc Besson – himself no stranger to huge films including ‘The Fifth Element’ – this sequel is just as spectacular as one hopes.  Its plot may feel familiar but it does the job in providing a roller-coaster ride towards an outlandish finale.

Retired intelligence agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a man never to be messed with which his latest adversaries discover to their peril.  Kidnapping his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) during a holiday in Istanbul, Bryan becomes hell-bent in seeking vengeance. With his knowledge and skills his most potent weapons, he takes aim at those standing in his way.

‘Taken 2’ finds everyone on auto-pilot.  Exerting the least amount of effort for the maximum amount of audience dollars this is very much a ‘file it and forget it’ adventure.  The action sequences are amazing with the Istanbul location used effectively.  It’s more the generic story which is told without much flair.  All go through their paces with the requisite amount of posturing and worried scowls no substitute for genuine characterisation.

Despite this lack of dazzle the script has few interesting things to say about the nature of vengeance.  How the consequences of Mills’ actions from the previous movie are played out is quite interesting as is his resourcefulness.  These elements make viewing passable during the mundane moments with the acting generally not amounting to much. 

Offering exactly what you’d expect ‘Taken 2’ is a silly yarn quickly fading from memory.  Neeson and Besson used to stand for high quality productions and hopefully they will again by avoiding this type of basic vanilla film-making slowly deflating their once glowing reputations.

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Movie Review Rating:  5 / 10

Movie Review by Patrick Moore

Agree with Patrick about his Movie Review? Then please use the comment box, titling your comments with Movie Review Taken 2

Patrick Moore's Movie Review is an alternative look at current movie releases in Australia.

Official HomePage click HERE

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Is That The Help Desk?

 

  • "Everything on my laptop is turning blue," user complains. Support rep hustles to the scene and finds user has attached the laptop to a video projector. The wall you're using as a projection screen is painted light blue, support rep patiently points out. "I know that!" user snaps. "I'm not stupid. Just fix the thing so it projects white!"
  • Layoffs are coming, so an insurance company ranked all employees for future termination. "To maintain secrecy, they shredded the printed spreadsheets with the ratings," says an employee. "Unfortunately, the spreadsheets were printed in landscape mode, so the shredder blades separated each employee and rating, by name, on his own strip of paper. After I came across them in the recycling bin, I knew each person's rating - all 126 of them."
  • An individual who plugged their power strip back into itself and for the life of them could not understand why their computer would not turn on.
  • A user's PC is flickering and rebooting. It checks out fine for support tech assistant so he tells the user, "Do what you normally do." She sits down and goes to work - and the system soon reboots. "The fourth time, I noticed she was tapping her foot to the music on the radio", tech says. "Her foot was hitting the power strip on/off switch just enough to cause the system to reboot."
  • Important HR reports must be shredded - they have confidential data, boss tells IT rep. Since most of these reports are just for reference, why not just save the printing and keep them on disk? rep suggests. "No, they must be shredded," boss insists. Well, why don't we hook the shredder to the back of the printer for the unnecessary reports? rep jokes. "Sounds great!" says the boss. "How much will it cost?"
  • A distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you need some help?" She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery in this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery for this?" "Hmmm, I don't know. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked. "No, just the remote 'thingy'" she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries as it's a long walk."
  • It's a tech's first day on the job as a quality control analyst in the operations centre. She boots up her workstation, and the splash screen proclaims the department's slogan: "Committed to Excellence." She points out the misspelling to her boss. "Yeah," boss says, "it's close enough. Everybody knows what they mean."
  • When this executive's PC stops working, support tech patiently explains that the executive really shouldn't have deleted critical Windows system files. But a week later, it happens again. And when tech asks why, executive explains, "Oh, I needed to make room for some big spreadsheets, and my files are much more important than those. Why doesn't the computer still work?"
  • This Army hospital commander likes voice-recognition software for dictating notes, so he assigns three IT staffers to get it working. "One was from India, one from the Far East and one, though born in the United States, had a strong Southern accent," reports support crew member. "They took turns reading the training paragraphs to the system. For some reason, it never worked right."
  • For two years, this company's purchasing agent has bought printer supplies from the same outfit: Tech rep says "the prices are high, a third of the refurbished toner cartridges are no good, and she never sends them in for credit." So tech finds a better, cheaper supplier and management declares to be the preferred provider. So why are invoices still coming in from the old outfit? Purchasing agent admits it's because she likes the candy the first supplier sends with each order. "For this invoice alone, that bag of candy cost us an additional $204."

Celtic Woman – Home for Christmas

 

home for christmas

Celtic Woman’s fourth holiday collection, which features the talents of Chloë Agnew, Lisa Lambe, Máiréad Nesbitt, and for the first time since 2007, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, arrives just a year after 2011′s German-exclusive Celtic Family Christmas.

Offering up the usual mix of amiable holiday pop (“I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “Winter Wonderland”) and triumphant, faith-based classics (“Joy to the World,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “We Three Kings”), Home for Christmas doesn’t deviate at all from the formula, which after selling over six-million records worldwide, shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

Track Listing:

1. I’ll Be Home For Christmas 4:12
2. Hark The Herald Angels Sing 5:01
3. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 4:13
4. Silent Night 3:35
5. We Three Kings 3:37
6. We Wish You A Merry Christmas 3:37
7. What Child Is This 4:31
8. Adeste Fideles 4:20
9. Winter Wonderland 2:51
10. Mary’s Boy Child 3:07
11. Auld Lang Syne 3:27
12. Joy To The World

Cool Images - Portraits - 11 December

 

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Madonna and Child

 

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Quinten Massys - The Virgin and Child with Saints Barbara and Catherine

Current Location: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London.

A Cesar Romero Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 11 December

 

  • A Bellini cocktail consists of peach puree and sparkling wine.
  • The Parthenon Temple stands on the Acropolis in Athens.
  • Russian Yuri Gagarin first orbited the earth in 1961 and tragically died in a jet trainer in 1968.
  • A ukase, in Imperial Russia, was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader (patriarch) that had the force of law. Adequate translations are "edict" or "decree" of Roman law.
  • Gait is a word that describes the style of a person’s walk.
  • In the Mobil logo the only letter that is red is the O.
  • The 1979 novel Puberty Blues was written by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette.
  • In cookery, agneau is French for lamb meat.
  • As a student at West Point military college, US President Ulysses Grant set and equestrian high jump record that stood for 25 years.
  • The first female governor of South Australia was Dame Roma Mitchell from 1991–1996. She also was the first female Governor appointed in Australia.

Mid-Morning Delights

 

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Quotables 11 December

 

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Monday, December 10, 2012

Grand Castles

 

 

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Just For Fun 10 December

 

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A Cary Grant Moment

 

Cary Grant, 1930s

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Helping You Through Any Bad Day

 

  • The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong.
  • Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.
  • The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
  • I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.
  • Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
  • I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't give a damn.
  • I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.
  • What am I? Flypaper for freaks?
  • I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.
  • I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.

From Mythology … Jupiter

 

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  • Jupiter was the chief god of the Roman pantheon, as well as a part of the Capitoline triad with Juno and Minerva.
  • As Jupiter Optimus Soter (“Jupiter best, greatest, saviour”) he was the protective god of the free empire.
  • As with his Greek equivalent, Zeus, he is symbolized by a lightning bolt and an eagle served as his messenger.
  • The rites and temples dedicated to Jupiter in and around Rome speak of his distinctly Roman character.

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Cool Images – Instruments 10 December

 

Dizzy Gillespie’s B-flat Trumpet, 1972

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