Rather amazing YouTube crop today

… and a bit of a reflection on that 65th Reunion of our Class of 1959

Sad news for the Class of 1959

Thanks, Clive Kessler, for letting us know in the Class of 1959 Reunion group email just now. The Dux of 1959! Well-known classmate Ted Oliver.

OLIVER Edward Howard aged 80

Loving husband of Louise

Beloved father and grandfather

Lover of trains and music.

A funeral service will be held at 11am on Monday 20th May 2024 in the Magnolia Chapel of Macquarie Park Cemetery, Cnr Delhi & Plassey Roads, North Ryde.

Their 65th will coincide with Sydney’s 300th!

Now

And in 2088?

The mind boggles! What kind of world will the Class of 2023 inhabit on their 65th Anniversary?

The shirtless pianist phenomenon

I am not complaining. I first observed it about a year ago, and the pianist involved was very talented indeed. His piano playing was also excellent.

Do take time to listen…

The next one popped up on my YouTube just yesterday. He hasn’t the same level of musical expertise as Peter Buka, who actually is a thoroughly trained pianist, but this improvisation session is not at all bad. Neither is he.

He has a long way to go before he matches Peter Buka’s 3 million subscribers though.

Michael Andreas Haringer — that descendant of Franz Liszt — dresses down also. But he also dresses up on other occasions. Here he is in classical mode.

Not at all like Liberace, any of them, eh!

Pianistically Peter Buka is probably better, as is Michael Andreas at his best. But my Grandma Ada loved Liberace….

I’ll keep looking into this shirtless pianist phenomenon. Sorry, listening…

Now two Russian vlog friends: Daniil and Roman

Daniil, why have you never got in trouble?

I use Edge these days, so usually use Bing…

…but it can be weird

Take the case of a search for one of my favourite blogs…

Every day I hang out for the latest post from Loon Pond and no sooner found than I share it to Facebook. For example in 2021: Ah people, so many horse droppings out there and it is only going to get worse… But when one searches for Loon Pond blog or Loon Pond Blogspot on Bing strange things can happen. Take this morning:

That is a first! Often however it will deliver an archive from maybe five years ago, but not the front page — easily fixed by clicking the blog’s header when that comes up. And then it will have a run of days or weeks when it delivers exactly what I was seeking: the Loon Pond Blog with all its trenchant and witty exposures of the right wing media.

But when I go to Google I get what I am after in this case every time. Google is the default search engine on my phone, and it works every time. On the laptop this morning I got:

So I have now happily shared the latest Loon Pond on Facebook. (I wonder how a FB ban on news will affect that? Or things like Ground News, to which I subscribe — the only news outlet I actually pay to use, because it is so cheap and also so good!

Now just maybe the fact that Google owns Blogspot may be relevant….

Which search engine do you use?

So a few hours later I gave the top choice from that a go. Funny notes on each site listed, but the top one took me straight to the latest Loon Pond! Quick too.

Daniil resurrects, but is he in Russia any more?

10th May: important update

Professor Gerdes was my first indication

Screenshot from Prof Gerdes’s post below.

So welcome to Daniil’s not-so-new vlog

In fact he started it one year ago with three live posts, of which this is the third:

Three days ago:

One day ago:

Hmmm…. That seems to me to be the same room in which he made the livestreams a year ago….

Meanwhile, what has happened to Denis in Vladivostok?

His vlog has been silent for some time. This morning Facebook brought up this memory:

Yes, I was in direct contact with him one year ago. Perhaps he is busy. He did talk of getting married. And he may be at sea a lot. Or he may simply have gone to ground of his own volition…. This is the last we saw of him:

Islamov DC 3 months ago: I am so old today 🙈 I have birthday today and I am already 24 years 😁🤪🥳