| Week ending | #1 Artist | #1 Song |
| 08/09/01 | Blue | Too Close |
| 15/09/01 | Bob the Builder | Mambo No. 5 |
| 22/09/01 | DJ Otzi | Hey Baby (Uhh, Ahh) |
History xls: the history of the world in a spreadsheet
Monday 31 May 2010
Pivot Charts: 11th September 2001
An occasional series on how major world events have not affected the UK Singles Charts.
History xls: the history of the world in a spreadsheet
History xls: the history of the world in a spreadsheet
Friday 28 May 2010
Restorations
Tomorrow we celebrate the 350th re-birthday of the English monarchy: Charles II restored to the throne by a nation which, after 11 years of puritan protectorate, was definitely in the mood to give Christmas Pudding another try. It's called Oak Apple Day, and apparently it's customary to whip children with a bunch of nettles if you catch them not wearing an oak leaf, or (if you're Royal) to inspect a Chelsea Pensioner. Here's Rufus Sewell, as Charles II, demonstrating the classic nettle-thrashing stance:
Also up for a biggie this year is Sri Potuluri Virabrahmendra Swamy, born in 1610, one of several mystics known as "The Nostradamus of India" (and I think they even mean that as a compliment). He was once given a job as a cow-herder, but was found skiving in a cave writing on leaves instead, having drawn a big circle around the cows and told them to stay within it. And, as you can read in his blog from beyond the grave, he knew how to handle a heckler sceptical about his own restorative powers.
Thursday 27 May 2010
Aloysius versus Winnie
Recording that A. A. Milne published "Winnie the Pooh" in the year of the General Strike (1926) has made me think of a couple of books that make use of a similar contrast between Eden-like tranquility, and large-scale strife. One is Brideshead Revisited (1945), in which Charles and some chums embark on a spot of blacklegging:
We were joined by a Belgian Futurist, who lived under the, I think, assumed name of Jean de Brissac la Motte, and claimed the right to bear arms in any battle anywhere against the lower classes.
The other is The Vermilion Box (1916), by E. V. Lucas. Lucas introduced Milne to the illustrator Ernest Shepard, who gave us the famous image of Winnie the Pooh that not even Disney dared to mess with much. Otherwise, Lucas was a veritable Vernon Coleman of his day, knocking out around 3 books per year on every subject under the sun (Swollen Headed William, If Dogs Could Write and The Hausfrau Rampant to name but 3). I read The Vermilion Box earlier this year for the simple reason that it contains the first known use in print of the phrase "Donkey's Years" (though it's actually "Donkey's Ears" there).
It's in the form of a collection of letters sent within several families who have members serving in the war, and I didn't actually realise it was fiction until 4 or 5 letters in. It's of little literary merit, and though it tries to embrace all walks of life it only succeeds from lower-middle class to upper-middle class. But it's interesting in being pitched knowingly, inoffensively and saleably in between the two views of WWI that we get today: the jingoism and the horror.
Although Disney were obliged to follow Shepard, I think I prefer the Soviet Russian bootleg, Vinni Puh.
We were joined by a Belgian Futurist, who lived under the, I think, assumed name of Jean de Brissac la Motte, and claimed the right to bear arms in any battle anywhere against the lower classes.
The other is The Vermilion Box (1916), by E. V. Lucas. Lucas introduced Milne to the illustrator Ernest Shepard, who gave us the famous image of Winnie the Pooh that not even Disney dared to mess with much. Otherwise, Lucas was a veritable Vernon Coleman of his day, knocking out around 3 books per year on every subject under the sun (Swollen Headed William, If Dogs Could Write and The Hausfrau Rampant to name but 3). I read The Vermilion Box earlier this year for the simple reason that it contains the first known use in print of the phrase "Donkey's Years" (though it's actually "Donkey's Ears" there).
It's in the form of a collection of letters sent within several families who have members serving in the war, and I didn't actually realise it was fiction until 4 or 5 letters in. It's of little literary merit, and though it tries to embrace all walks of life it only succeeds from lower-middle class to upper-middle class. But it's interesting in being pitched knowingly, inoffensively and saleably in between the two views of WWI that we get today: the jingoism and the horror.
Although Disney were obliged to follow Shepard, I think I prefer the Soviet Russian bootleg, Vinni Puh.
Wednesday 26 May 2010
Fox and the Rockinghamites
Have just added entries for UK Prime Ministers 1782-4. It's almost as if they didn't care about how easy the situation would be to summarise in 3 spreadsheet cells.
If that's how coalition governments work out, Parliament could be in for an interesting few years. Fortunately I don't think the Queen will get the chance to scupper a nationalisation bill and dismiss the government in a huff, like her great uncle George did in the good old days. So spare a thought for the 2nd Earl of Shelburne:
The whole thing has made him go quite pale.
If that's how coalition governments work out, Parliament could be in for an interesting few years. Fortunately I don't think the Queen will get the chance to scupper a nationalisation bill and dismiss the government in a huff, like her great uncle George did in the good old days. So spare a thought for the 2nd Earl of Shelburne:
Tuesday 25 May 2010
Monday 24 May 2010
History of the world
World history has never fitted in my head very well. I usually think of it as a travelling promotional roadshow, always happening somewhere, visiting some places more often than others, but never in more than one place at a time.
Let us consider the years up to and of World War I. In the early 1910s, History mainly happened to the Suffragettes in West London, before decamping to central Europe in time for the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. It spent the next few years in France and Belgium, with a citybreak in Dublin for Easter 1916 and a few months in Russia the following year, returning to London in 1918. There the Suffragettes, who had been patiently waiting for another go at History all this time, were rewarded by the 1918 Reform Act.
To widen my view of the world, I started this spreadsheet where events can nestle side by side, sometimes making excuses for each other (the first ever nuclear reactor and Mother Courage both created in 1941), sometimes shaking their heads in dismay (Byron enters the House of Lords as Napoleon enters Moscow), sometimes blissfully ignoring each other (the 1914 deaths of the aforementioned Archduke in Sarajevo, and Martha the last ever Passenger Pigeon in Cincinatti Zoo).
Let us consider the years up to and of World War I. In the early 1910s, History mainly happened to the Suffragettes in West London, before decamping to central Europe in time for the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. It spent the next few years in France and Belgium, with a citybreak in Dublin for Easter 1916 and a few months in Russia the following year, returning to London in 1918. There the Suffragettes, who had been patiently waiting for another go at History all this time, were rewarded by the 1918 Reform Act.
To widen my view of the world, I started this spreadsheet where events can nestle side by side, sometimes making excuses for each other (the first ever nuclear reactor and Mother Courage both created in 1941), sometimes shaking their heads in dismay (Byron enters the House of Lords as Napoleon enters Moscow), sometimes blissfully ignoring each other (the 1914 deaths of the aforementioned Archduke in Sarajevo, and Martha the last ever Passenger Pigeon in Cincinatti Zoo).
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