Blogging memories January 8th

Herba is looking back at her posts on January 8th over the past years and that’s fun! So, I decided to join in as well with my own trip down memory lane on this blog, starting six years ago.

2015: On January 8th I briefly wrote about the terrorist attack on a satirical French newspaper called Charlie Hebdo in Paris and the feared retaliation on all Muslims after that.

2016: No post on January 8th, but I did post on the 7th, trying to convince Richard Armitage that cats aren’t so bad. The tweet he had tweeted then is gone and I don’t remember what it said anymore and the video I had shared then is apparently also gone. I still stand by the love for cats, though!

Three days after that post, David Bowie died just two days after his 69th birthday. I went into full on mourning and writing Bowie tributes on blog. Today, January 8th 2021, would have been David Bowie’s 74th birthday, so I’m adding a little tribute here now as well, as shared by Ricky Gervais today. Totally worth a watch for a great David Bowie laugh!

Happy Birthday Mr Jones pic.twitter.com/y0abhj3pAD

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) January 8, 2021

Happy Birthday, David!

_Source

2017: I didn’t post on January 8th but did post on the 7th and on the 9th. The post on January 7th was about winning something in Guylty’s Christmas raffle, receiving an Armitage puzzle, and speculation about a new Richard project.
The post on January 9th had me dreading the Donald Trump inauguration and mourning the loss of the Obamas. Sadly, all my fears and worse were confirmed by the Trump presidency of the past four years.

2018: No post on January 8th, but closest date I posted on was January 7th when I was very ill with the flu and my cat comforted me.

2019: Again, no post on January 8th, but I did do one on January 7th, writing about the trip we had taken over New Year’s to Hamburg.

2020: January 8th had me discussing Richard Armitage goodies, i.e. interviews because Uncle Vanya was premiering in the theatre and something on the small role he did in the South Korean film Space Sweepers (coming out soon now on February 5th 2021 on Netflix, by the way!)

Thanks for the inspiration to do this, Herba. It also makes me realize how quickly time is flying by. I pretty much remember writing all those posts and some don’t feel like that long ago…

Merry Christmas

From me to all of you a little Richard Armitage and a Christmas wish…

Yes, I wish you all wonderful days for Christmas this year, despite celebrating it differently and probably more alone due to the corona virus that is still raging around us. I hope everyone who reads this is well and I hope you can all find some happiness and peace this holiday season, despite the difficult year we’ve just had. May the memories of the loved ones who can’t be with us be a comfort and may those of us who are going through difficult times right now find the strength to go on, may we all find some light in the darkness. May those of us living in freedom and peace, with food on the table and a roof over our heads, be thankful for all the privilege we do have and may we all have empathy for the less privileged and pay it forward, each in our own way and not just at Christmas.

Allow me to share some David Bowie and Bing Crosby from 1977 with you all, wishing for peace on earth. I was in an online group chat earlier this week with a refugee from Eritrea and it made me wish even more fervently than ever for there to be peace, near or far, within this world we live and love in.

Take care of yourselves and each other. Merry Christmas. 🎄

Pictures of the day

I was getting dressed in the morning and looked at my David Bowie 2020 calendar and figured that the December image is my fave image of the calendar. I had my phone with me and just had to take a picture.

Later in the day Mini-me had a nice 17th birthday celebration…

… while the cat was less amused…

… and Junior was in party animal mode during dinner, despite being tired from work….

December 19th, 2020 was a good day.

David Bowie in space again

What else is new, you might think? Ever since 1969’s Space Oddity…

… space and Bowie have always gone together. His early 1970s alter ego Ziggy Stardust was a Starman…

Bowie has wondered about Life on Mars…

And Major Tom’s journey (from Space Oddity) was continued in Ashes to Ashes…

1995’s Hallo Spaceboy continued the theme, here in the more famous Pet Shop Boys remix…

… but also electric as a rock version with the Foo Fighters…

Anyway, getting carried away here and that is all due to the little news blurb I read this morning about the Royal Mint in the UK making a David Bowie coin…

… and that coin has been sent on a little trip into space! The article (HERE) even features a little video of that. After all the disasters happening since Bowie passed away, almost 5 years ago now (what, that long already?!?), I always keep thinking of this Paul Bettany tweet from mid 2016 after the Brexit referendum…

Maybe a Bowie coin in space will bring equilibrium into the world? Superstition, I know, but with a no deal Brexit looming, a crazy man in the White House destroying what he can before he leaves office and a raging pandemic, maybe Bowie can help make things better from space.

What I don’t understand…

How can it even be that the race for US president is this close? As I type this, Biden is about 3.5 million up in the popular vote (71.6 million) but Trump has 68 million of the votes and I’m thinking: after four years of his disastrous presidency, how can 68 million people still think it’s OK to vote for this narcissistic man who is a proven liar and a racist?

My son was up with me until 4 am our time on election night, looking at first results come in, and was disappointed with me that this wasn’t turning into a clear landslide victory for Biden. Then yesterday evening my daughter came home from her side job and heard that Trump and his supporters were calling to stop the count in the states where they are still in the lead. Mini-me laughed out loud at how ridiculous that is. She said, “It’s like when I play football and my team scores and then immediately says, ‘OK, we’ve won, let’s leave now.'” Yes, it’s exactly like that! How come a 16 year old girl can see how ridiculous this is and 68 million grown up Americans can’t? One candidate respects the democratic process, the other candidate doesn’t (yet again) and still people support him?

Results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina have not been called yet as the race is so close (Biden only needs Nevada to win) but how is this election not a landslide for Biden? I can almost understand that someone is fooled by Trump and would vote for him the first time around but after his record these past four years, how can anyone who is not an extremist still vote for him (again)? It really baffles me. It’s as if someone you thought was your friend turns out to be a jerk after all and the disappointment is huge. I felt that disappointment after the UK voted for Brexit, thinking “but… I thought we were friends!” and I feel that disappointment again now, maybe even more acutely after the disappointment I felt when Hillary lost four years ago.

I thought America could learn from the Trump years and reject authoritarian almost-dictators, but I guess America is not as freedom loving and caring as I had hoped. 68 million Americans tell me that.

Two people in comments on either my blog or other blogs have mentioned the David Bowie song “This is not America” to me and for the past two days that song has been running through my head. “A little piece of you, a little piece in me will die,” he sings…

Things are looking favourable for Biden and I will be ecstatic if he wins, but this election leaves me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. America is not what I thought it was.