Morts Musings

Even embittered old news junkies like myself need a break from time to time, and over the holiday period I took a couple of weeks off without watching any news, &, I have to say, I feel so much better, not to mention less jaded by the world, for having done so. Still, with the new decade well and truly underway I figured I should, once again, start taking a cynical and curmudgeonly look at what’s going on in the world around me…

One of the things which I’m very glad hasn’t come to pass, was the descent into another global financial crisis, which, for a brief time, it looked like Dubai World’s financial problems might have sparked.

In the end it took a $10bn bail out from Abu Dhabi to save the troubled company, and in return the company showed it’s gratitude by naming it’s latest project, the Burj Tower, after Abu Dhabi’s ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan. The Burj Khalifa, as it’s now known, opened earlier this week, and is now officially the world’s tallest building, beating the previous holder of the title, the Taipei 101, by about 300 metres.

As part of the publicity surrounding the tower’s opening two intrepid base jumpers were granted permission to leap from it’s top in a death defying record attempt. I guess it was only going to be a matter of time before someone made such an attempt, with or without permission, so maybe the owners were just trying to harness the inevitable publicity which such a stunt is bound to generate. However, before would be daredevils start booking their flights to Dubai it’s worth pointing out that the event was strictly a one off, and neither the owners, nor the Dubai authorities are likely to take kindly to further, unauthorised, jumps.

I saw the clip featured below and thought that it was so awesome that it deserved to be shared! Don’t get me wrong it’s not Damien Walters awesome, but if you’ve not seen it then it might be worth a minute of your life to take a look.
The clip shows a couple of kite surfers taking advantage of the gales, which the UK experienced last weekend, to jump over Worthing Pier! No, really, I’m not kidding, apparently one of them managed to get 70 feet in the air!
Anyway, take a look for yourself:

The internet is of course full of lies, and I’ve seen a fair few comments claiming that this vid is a fake, however, judging by the fact that news sites, including the BBC, have reported the stunt, I’m inclined to think it’s real. Obviously you’ll have to decide for yourselves though.

I have to start this post by stating quite clearly that I am not a fan of Ms Tyler or her body of works, not that I hate it either, it just has a rather high reading on my meh-ometer.

In anycase, if you’re not familar with the concept of “literal video” it’s basically where somebody takes an artists music video and re-writes the lyrics to describe the action that’s taking place in the video itself; Given some of the drug, or ego, fuelled concepts which musicians have come up with for their videos over the years this really offers an abundance of potential comedy gold.

There are loads of these things floating around youtube and other video hosting sites, and to some extent the concept has suffered from the freedom which the ‘net gives just about anybody to have a go at being creative; Or, to put it less politely, some of the literal videos out there are utter crap!

Still, amongst all the chaff there are, if you look, some real gems; productions which you can tell somebody has put a lot of work into, in terms of watching the video and composing an alternate set of lyrics which describe the action, while still scanning, and following the pattern of the original artist’s lyrics. It may not be as impressive as coming up with a complete song from scratch, but it’s a form of artistic creativity which I respect none the less.

Anyway, I’ll stop waffling and let you get on with watching the video; This is definitely one of the best literal videos I’ve seen so far! So, without further ado, I give you the Literal Video version of Bonnie Tylers Total Eclipse of the Heart

Literal Video: Total Eclipse of the Heart

While surfing around over the weekend I came across the following vid of British Parkour athlete (loony?) Damien Walters. It’s not exactly a sport which I follow closely, so maybe this guy is pretty run of the mill (as Parkour goes) but, net surfing, couch potato that I am I have to say I’m bloody impressed with his athleticism! God knows how many years of dedicated training it must have taken to perfect his skills, or how many bruises & breaks he picked up in the process, but respect to the man for being quite so sickeningly talented!

Anyway, enough of my rambling, take a look for yourself; Some of the action is almost too fast to see what’s going on, like the point around the 1:00 minute mark where he manages to take his top and trousers off while flick-flacking down the mats.

Source: Damien Walters Showreel 2009