Tuesday 30 November 2010

Schadenfreude vol. 93

I'm almost as happy as I was when Spurs beat Arsenal last week. Old Big Head Mourinho and Young Big Head Ronaldo at Real Madrid have been thoroughly defeated and embarassed by Barcelona; 5 - 0. Spiffing! And by all accounts Real Madrid were completely outplayed, to such an extent that Mourinho just stayed in his dugout throughout the second half, sulking. Moreover, after a typical bit of childish petulance Ronaldo was booked for starting a battle of the handbags. It's off to bed with no supper for you lot!

Monday 29 November 2010

Harland Miller

I have just discovered Harland Miller, via this isn't happiness (a blog dedicated to 'Art Photography Design & Disappointment'. Note: some nudity and occasional strong language but nothing worse than what you might encounter at The Tate Gallery).
Harland Miller is a writer and artist who has been producing a series of paintings based on the covers of classic Penguin paperbacks. He has a nice blend of satire and dark humour along with admirable technique. I like this painting because it is often true that when one gets down in the dumps you can get used to it and get caught in a cycle of melancholy. Someone or something on a different plane to yourself can bring you out of it, often without even knowing it.
There are also some people who are continuously feeling sorry for themselves, moaning and groaning about everything going wrong and nothing ever works out; not happy unless they are unhappy about something or other.  But in fact their life isn't all that bad and many of their problems are of their own making and could probably be fixed. If you've ever tried getting such a person to buck up a bit and stop going on you'll know what I mean.
And the painting works on other levels too; as a satire on the cod latin phrase 'Nil illegitemi carborundum' popularised during the Second World War; and as a reaction to traditionalists who resist this kind of Art.
There's more Harland Miller stuff at White Cube. (Same Note.)

Saturday 27 November 2010

Blessed Bibliothecaries, Batman!

I'm still working my way through Chekhov's short stories. Rewarding, but sometimes he spends ages and ages dwelling on the depressing quandary being endured by the central protagonist. For Chekhov, a short story can be anywhere between three pages or a hundred.
Otherwise I been reading:
Further volumes of Spike Milligan's war memoirs, reaching the point where he is invalided out of combat duties because of battle fatigue: Rommel? Gunner Who?; Monty: His Part in My Victory; Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall. The next three volumes are on the shelf awaiting reading.
A couple of crime thrillers by Kate Atkinson:
Case Histories and Started Early, Took My Dog. Atkinson has the knack of keeping you hooked and her books are best enjoyed in one or two sittings. She weaves together a number of threads to get you guessing and then throws in a surprise. But things get sorted out in the end. I expect her books will be turned into a TV series - they feature an inept, down-at-heel but likeable investigator who 'does the right thing'. A good character on which to hang a TV show.
The Cyprus Conspiracy by Brendan O'Malley and Ian Craig, in which they set out in some detail the skullduggery of Henry Kissinger and the CIA (sometimes in conflict with one another); the duplicitous opportunism of the Turks; the pompous ineffectiveness of the British; and the corruption of the Greek Junta. All of which led to the invasion, occupation and partitioning of Cyprus in 1974. Basically, Kissinger is to blame. (Note: Funny old world part 237: Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 - he secretly negotiated the withdrawal of American troops from Viet Nam, but that's another story).

Friday 26 November 2010

Happiness is...

Well. I don't envy Sir Michael Scholar KCB and Stephen Penneck. These are the two government statisticians who have been charged by David Cameron with coming up with a measure of the nation's 'happiness' and 'well-being'. The project is being run by JIll Matheson, the UK's National Statistician. You can join in the debate via The Office for National Statistics' website. I guess we can look forward to household surveys and the like, but if you click on the links you can download the consultation questions and provide some bottom-up input for The Powers That Be. *
It is intriguing that Lord Snooty has chosen to take a statistical approach to a topic that has bothered philosophers from Socrates and Plato down to the present day. I had a general sense of well-being and pleasure last week when Spurs beat Arsenal 3-2 but that is, sadly, only temporary. At the root of the debate is, of course, the definition of terms. Plato talks about the virtue of the soul (which assumes the existence of an immortal soul) and about moral virtue, the use of reason, and acting according to knowledge, leading to a healthy soul. And this leads us to the organised discussion of ethics. But others might define happiness differently. Nietzsche thought happiness came through overcoming hardship and gaining power. Mind you he was generally a gloomy kind of soul. Hume posited that happiness consists in a balance of action, pleasure and indolence. For Epicurus, happiness would be a lucid state, free from worry or, more specifically, not being bothered about Gods because they (he/she/it) aren't concerned with us; avoiding politics; associating with trustworthy and affectionate friends and being virtuous, affectionate and trustworthy yourself.
Be that as it may, I expect  Lord Snooty is looking for a mechanistic rather than a metaphysical methodology. If he, or the statisticians, did Business Studies at GCSE level they will be familiar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (see diagram). Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who developed this model as a theory for understanding motivation - it has been adopted by business schools and management trainers as a way of encouraging employers to help their workers fulfil their potential. In Maslow's model, happiness or well-being equates with 'self-actualisation' - achieving personal fulfilment, personal growth and seeking 'peak experiences'. So it's kind of somewhere between what Plato and his ilk were on about and the more mundane aspects of human existence. Relative outcomes for individuals rather than philosophical absolutes.It remains to be seen to what extent Government policy and expenditure can or will be directed towards providing anything beyond the minimum physiological and safety needs. Maslow's theories don't fit well with present day globalised neo-liberalist economics where exploitation of capital and labour for profit is everything: 
"Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values." - Abraham Maslow
* You have until 15 April 2011 to submit your input to the Office for National Statistics.

Thursday 25 November 2010

There's Life In The Old Fart Yet

One old codger who has got to grips with new technology is David Hockney. The Pierre Berge/Yves Saint Laurent Foundation is hosting an exhibition of artwork created digitally by Mr Hockney on either an iPhone or iPad. The images are likewise displayed or projected digitally. Click on the link for info - there's a short video featuring Mr Hockney describing the works. Almost makes Paris worth a visit!
It will be interesting to see how these creations are bought and sold on the art market i.e. entirely digitally by download or including an iPad/projection system.

Sticky Fingers

One of the things that annoys me disproportionately is the way some people handle records. They grip the record carelessly, leaving their greasy fingerprints all over it - you should hold the record by the edge and the label, never touching the playing surface. Your greasy fingerprints will make the dust that inevitably floats around the atmosphere stick to the record, thereby causing it to crackle when played. So, despite her cute little mini-dress, this young lady would not be welcome in my house.

Car Park Chaos

The Welwyn & Hatfield Council runs the Howard Shopping Centre in Welwyn Garden City. It caters for yer average Marks & Spencer/John Lewis customer. The older, middle class demographic rather than yer younger chavvie Primark customer who spends half their life texting or on Facebook. So it was a bit of a mistake to install new-fangled payment machines in the multi-storey car park. Instead of the system where you take a ticket on entry and pay on exit, the new system relies entirely on digital cameras and the customer's ability to work a touch screen. When you drive in and park your car, The All-Seeing Eye of Welwyn & Hatfield takes a photo of your car and number plate. When you want to leave you have to go to The Machine and enter the last three characters of your registration number and The Machine will check its records for photos of cars bearing those characters. You then have to scroll through the photos to identify which is your car, touch the photo and The Machine works out how much you owe. Sounds like a bright idea as it does away with the need to produce tickets via a mechanical system - it's all digital. I expect The All Seeing Eye also takes a photo of your car leaving and can then match that up with its payment records. Presumably defaulters will get a letter in the post demanding money, or maybe there is a Death Ray mounted by the exit which blasts you and your car into nothingness.
But yesterday morning it was causing so much confusion amongst the shoppers that t'Council had to deploy humans to come and work The Machine for the doddery old customers. And even then, it wasn't always coming up with the right photos. So there were three queues of puzzled people, ten or twelve deep, around The Machines and the human operatives were having to just fix it so that everyone paid the minimum charge of £1. And I bet they got really fed up with having to explain things over and over again.

The Diet Starts On Monday

Wednesday 24 November 2010

I Can See Your House From Here

A photo of Cyprus taken from the International Space Station (ISS).
More fab photos from the ISS at Triggerpit

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Lord Snooty and His Pals

David Cameron was on doctrinally safe ground appointing Lord Young as an 'adviser'. A crony of Maragaret Thatcher and an alumni of the Centre for Policy Studies, the right-wing 'Think Tank' founded by Thatcher and Keith Joseph which set forth the dogma of 'economic liberalism', espousing the radical free-market theories of Hayek and Friedman. But Cameron was a little naive in not appreciating that such a character would inevitably be unsympathetic and insensitive to the feelings of the proletariat.  It was no surprise that he would point out that for some people the recession and financial crisis has had its benefits. But what Lord Young got wrong was trying to  claim that things weren't all that bad really for many of us. Cameron and his chums have spent the last six months telling us that things really are very bad indeed in order to justify their austerity programme and make drastic cuts in public expenditure. By claiming we've 'never had it so good' he was undermining the Government's cover story, so he had to go.

Funny Old world

Our esteemed Chancellor of the Exchequer has offered to lend the Irish Government upwards of £7 billion quid to help them get their banks out of their current financial fix. Nothing wrong with that in principle; most of us are related to someone Irish (e.g. my Grandmother) and one should help out friends and relatives in need (but get it in writing, just in case). Plus, of course, the UK and Irish economies are inextricably linked. What is troubling me is that this is another example of the money concerned not being being backed up by actual wealth but by confidence. And this confidence seems somewhat ephemeral.
The Irish financial crisis has been caused by the banks borrowing money on the financial markets which they have subsequently lent to property developers and the Government. The property market became saturated and collapsed, and the Government has been a tad profligate in its spending, so the banks' creditors are defaulting and thus the banks can't repay the financial markets. So the UK, as well as the IMF and the EU, are going to lend the Irish Government and the banks the money to keep them afloat. But the UK, IMF and EU will have to raise that money on the financial markets by borrowing it. So we're going to borrow money from the financial markets to lend to Irish banks and the Irish Government so that the financial markets don't lose confidence in the Irish banks' and the Irish Government's ability to repay the money they borrowed from the financial markets. The amount owed to the financial markets is thus doubled.
Errm...guess who eventually ends up having to pay back the loan(s)? Not the banks, anyway. It'll be the poor souls who fund the Government with money or actual wealth generated through their labour.

Monday 22 November 2010

Oo Err Cantona

Eric Cantona. A footballing genius. And now he has come up with a solution for putting right the financial woes and injustices inherent in globalised neo-liberalist capitalism. He suggests that a revolutionary and non-violent approach is needed to bring down the system rather than indisciplined protests such as students and workers in France (and now the UK) have used. He points out that the Powers That Be merely have to contain these protests and then carry on as before. What our Eric proposes is that we should all withdraw all our cash from the banks so that they do actually go bust and the financial system collapses, thereby taking the power away from the bankers. His suggestion has been taken up by some Belgians via Facebook and we are encouraged to withdraw all our cash on 7 December and precipitate a bank crash.
Eric has not set out any plans for what will replace the banks and how commercial activity will proceed thereafter. The line between genius and madness is a fine one.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Lookalikes

Sir,
Did you notice that when Claudia and Alice appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, they were never seen together? Is there something we should know?
Regards,
JULIAN WATSON
Selby
 (from Private Eye)
Addendum: Alice Cooper was the guest on BBC Desert Island Discs Sunday 21 November.

Thursday 18 November 2010

One More Time...

I have been a Beatles fan since late 1962 but there are limits. I bought their singles and EPs, their LPs in mono and then again in stereo. I bought their records again when they were reissued on CD and last year I bought some of them yet again when they were remastered. Now EMI want me to buy them all over again as mp3 downloads from iTunes. I don't think so. McCartney and Ringo and the two widows don't need the money so I would speculate that this is corporate greed on the part of EMI  wanting to milk it one more time before the recording copyright starts to run out in 2012.
EMI needs £217 million quid to sort out its pension fund. The so-called private equity group Terra Firma which owns EMI owes £3.2 billion smackers to Citigroup - not even The Fab Four can make that kind of moolah.

Tuesday 16 November 2010

The Flat That Isn't There...

When you have finished building your building you have to apply to t'Council for a 'Certificate of Completion', notwithstanding that the Cypriot understanding of the concept of finished is somewhat variable. However, both the builder and the architect reckon our building is finished so we've applied for The Certificate. Sadly, the bureacrat at t'Council does not consider the project to be finished according to his rules.
First, the builder and architectect have not submitted the correct form of the Journal of Works. The tatty photocopied pages Marinos gave us are not acceptable to the Powers That Be; apparently there is an agreed form of Journal published by the Cypriot Association of Builders and Architects (or somesuch edifice) which must be used. So after much back and forth, including a shouting match between the architect and Jobsworthopoulos at t'Council, we must now wait whilst the architect assembles the correct form of Journal.
Secondly, our planning permission was contingent on there being a parking space for one car - otherwise we would have to pay €5,000 to t'Council as a kind of parking tax even though the payment would not actually provide an actual parking space. We therfeore negotiated with El Prez's uncle to allow us access to the rear of the building so that we could nominate the yard at the back as a parking space. Much back and forth to the Land Registry and expenditure followed to get the respective Title Deeds amended accordingly. But Mr Jobsworthopoulos insists that a parking space must actually be built - this will involve making a small ramp, dismantling a fence and installing a gate. We said "Ho hum. We just haven't done it yet; we'll do it on our next visit. Isn't that enough?" Nope.  This guy is at the opposite extreme of the spectrum to the majority of Cypriots when it comes to the concept of finished. Everything's got to be just so. No Certificate of Completion!
Well, so what? The problem is that until we have the Certificate of completion we cannot amend the Title Deeds via the Land Registry to reflect the fact that there is now a one-bedroom flat and a roof on the building. This means that we cannot either sell the building or transfer ownership to anyone. Officially, the flat does not exist. So, is it finished or not finished?

Monday 15 November 2010

Nostalgia Ain't What It Used To Be

I usually listen to Pick of the Pops on BBC Radio 2 of a Saturday, or later on yer iPlayer doodad. The programme features records from the charts of the past and it serves to remind you of some good stuff you've forgotten or alternatively to remind you that there's nothing new about crap records being in the charts. For the past few years the DJ has been the estimable Dale Winton who, although a tad over-chirpy at times, used to confine himself to naming the record, artiste and chart position and the occasional bit of trivia. His strangely coloured skin is not much of a problem on radio. However, Mr Winton has been replaced by the execrable Tony Blackburn! Not only does this wazzock have an annoying voice but he also can't resist attempts at making jokes and, worst of all, he's one of those DJs who insist on making the programme about themselves. So he keeps chipping in with tales about his encounters with the artistes concerned and of his fabulous career in show biz. We're not interested Tony!

Ode to Grayson Perry

People say Perry the potter is potty
And his doings are decidedly dotty.
He admits he's a tranny
(looks like a mad granny)
But he can't jet-ski like Pavarotti.

Sunday 14 November 2010

MARTIN PARR!!!

He is a bit good. Shows what one can do with one A level.

Parr is obsessed with what people are obsessed with.
The main topic of conversation in England is the weather, as a nation we are obsessed with the weather. So he made a Photo Book called Bad Weather, series of images of Britain looking dull but rather interesting.


People are obsessed with political leaders. So he has spent many years collecting Margaret Thatcher memorabilia (he hates her by the way). He also collects watches with Saddam Hussein's face on them (he doesn't like him too much either).

Anywho... Mr Parr is an amazing photographer. None of his images are staged. He capture everything as he sees it and doesn't do alot of post processing. He manages to take photographs of people without them realising it, a very clever man.

Grayson Perry

T'other day, I tagged along on an art department trip to a seminar called The Creative Process. We heard from a calligrapher, a grapher designer Martin Parr photographer and Grayson Perry the potter.

He is a bit of a fruit cake. And surprisingly is married to a psychotherapist. He also has a bit of an unhealthy relationship with his teddy bear, Alan Measles. (Perry recently designed a brightly coloured motorcycle for Alan, a kind of popemobile, for his tour to Germany).



He makes his coil pots and copies pictures out of books on to them. Well a few. The pot is his blank canvas. Some of them are quite comical. For example, people think pots are boring and all the same, so what he did was to make a very simple pot, plain design, but for the person that actually gets close to it and examines it it says "@!?* off". Few people examine it so closely.

Quotes:
"Creativity is mistakes"
"Everybody likes gold. It's a bit of bling"
"Vote Alan Measles for god"
"Art is good for people with mental illnesses"

Salamis Bay

Described by Herodotus and Isocrates, founded by the son of Telemon fleeing from Troy. The scene of a sea battle between Greeks and Persians and ruled by Evagoras until conquered by Artaxerxes III. Later ruled by Menalaus, brother of Ptolemy; with another sea battle, between Ptolemy and Demetrius of Macedon. The Romans relocated the capital to Paphos but Trajan and Hadrian nevertheless built some fab buildings there. The Apostle Paul landed in Salamis and his protege Barnabas was eventually stoned to death there. Several earthquakes followed three centuries later, with renewal by Constantius II until eventually the harbour silted up.  The Romans being long-gone, Salamis was abandoned during the Arab invasions of the 7th century.
And now, after all that, just off the shoreline we see a Fat Floating Xorg approaching. Dundundundun....

Saturday 13 November 2010

Lost in Translation: Chapter 37

We have received a very nice 'flat-warming' present - a multi-purpose jug with a lid. Quite nice and very useful, about 1 litre capacity, country of origin unknown. The well-intentioned manufacturers have put a couple of mottos on the jug which are meant to cheer a fellow up but, as occasionally happens when translating from one language to another, the message is just a tad puzzling - but you kind of get the drift:
'Dream Friendship is packed in the bottle of wine, distribution of the deep feelings'; and
'Dream Wish bring distant friends, everything satisfactory, following joyfully'.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Wipe Out!


The Ventures-Wipeout-KILLER LIVE version
Uploaded by LostPirate77. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Coffee

And here is a cup of yer actual Turkish Coffee. Served with some coffee beans covered in dark chocolate and a pre-sealed plastic 'glass' of water. Stronger and darker than yer Greek version; this is a double. Katanga!

Peach Kebab?

Also available.
I'm guessing it's actually a Turkish version of the Greek Cypriot sheftalia except, of course, it would be made from beef  or lamb rather than pork mince.

Turkish Breakfast

After we'd been wandering around Famagusta for while we felt a tad peckish so we stopped off at a local eatery. This is what was described on the menu as a 'Turkish Breakfast'. Very tasty! They've gone to some trouble to make the fried egg square so that it fits on the flatbread underneath.
Served with their version of pitta bread.

Dubya's Memoirs

Most of us had figured George W Bush to be an ignorant buffoon who merely acted as a front for a conglomerate of corrupt American neo-conservatives. But I had hoped he would fade into obscurity after his usefulness had expired. Sadly, no. He's had the arrogance to publish his memoirs and seek to justify his actions. (I say publish rather than write because, frankly, I doubt he could successfully complete a sentence unaided.)
Any road up, this is the chap who stole the election from Al Gore. He launched a 'War on Terror' by creating terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan thereby destabilising further an already volatile region. He engendered and fostered Western fears of Islam and at the same time helped to radicalise disaffected Moslems,consequently increasing the danger of terror in not only the USA but also around the world. Moreover, Dubya lied to his own people about the justification for his wars. He unconstitutionally curtailed the civil rights of his own people. And now he says that 'waterboarding' is not really torture and in any case he thinks it's alright to do it. 
We can accept the reality that nasty things happen, but don't pretend that's a good thing, Dubya. We know you are a crook, a hypocrite and a war-mongering bastard.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

The Fez

              F13
That's what I am (O ne i olurum)
            D9/6 C#7#9
Please understand (lütfen anla)
        Cmaj7  C#maj7  Ebmaj7  C#maj7  Bmaj7
I wanna be your holy man (i senin kutsal adamın olmak için ister)
B7  E7 

Monday 8 November 2010

The Salamis Bay Hotel

Members of the Xorg collective and guests have just returned from a brief excursion into The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, where we stayed for a couple of nights at The Salamis Bay Hotel near Famagusta. This hotel claims to be 'Five Star' but I reckon it would be lucky to get two stars anywhere else in Europe. No tea/coffee making facilities in the room; no extractor fan in the bathroom; under floor heating that can't be turned off and beds as stiff as a board. But it's clean and at £115 for two nights half-board for a twin room it's not bad value. The food was reasonable but not 'Five Star' by any means; a good selection of fresh salads but the cooked food was only just slightly better than yer average works canteen. Meal times are a bit of a free-for-all; self service and the tables are set out in long rows, and there's dreadful piped music in an acoustically imperfect dining hall so it's somewhat noisy.
Included in yer half-board is free use of the sauna, indoor swimming pool and Turkish baths. All very welcome and relaxing provided you can peacefully co-exist with a herd of swarthy Turks with a loose interpretation of the concept of decorum.
The hotel has a selective view of Islam. No pork products at meal times but there's a casino within the hotel, and they serve alcohol. Turkey itself is, of course, a secular state.

Thursday 4 November 2010

Der Sofa!

The living room being more or less habitable we figured "Let's get some furniture!"
So off we trundle, inevitably, to a well-known Swedish emporium specialising in self-assembly doodads with funny names. We ended up with a sofa, which converts into a bed, going by the name of 'Manstad'. Sounds more like a town in East Germany but as IKEA names go it's not too weird; it could have been something like Kvrongik, or Norkglug or Brian. Assembly took a couple of hours and was slow at first until the pfennig dropped that I had a right-handed sofa but left-handed instructions. Thereafter, it was plain sailing as I merely had to conjure up a mirror image of the instructions in my bonce and there you have it.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

‘Self-service’ security checks to begin at UK airports

(From Newsbiscuit)

In a ‘big society’-style drive to eliminate unnecessary public spending on the security services, passengers flying out of UK airports are to be encouraged to perform security checks on themselves, instead of requiring the assistance of expensive airport police. Members of the public will be expected to pat themselves down, peer inside their own shoes and use a mirror to check if they are looking shifty, before going through a doorway and saying ‘bleep’ loudly if they are carrying any metal items. The move is expected to save millions of pounds a year, and hopes are high that airline passengers will be kept safe from all but the most dishonest hardline terrorists.

Internazionale Who?

Gareth Bale enhanced his credentials for The Papacy, if not immediate sainthood, against Internazionale yesterday evening. The usual requirement for canonisation is to perform two authenticated miracles after death but Mr Bale seems able to do this whilst still alive - he demolished Internazionale's defence, making their famous Brazilian defenders Lucio and Maicon look like clodhoppers. Beat that, Cardinal Fancypants Newman! Moreover, it was quite satisfying to see Rafael Benitez, Internazionale's manager, completely outwitted tactically by His Worship Harry Redknapp. Every Spurs player was brilliant - and sensible - so Harry's getting through to them. (Gormless Gomez remains a challenge, however. It's just as well he was suspended for this match.)

Tuesday 2 November 2010

What's the Greek for Health & Safety?

We have engaged the further services of Mr Panikos (see below) to put right some more of the mishmash of mess left by Mister Marinos the Mong. He's currently working on repairing the wall which adjoins the next door property of Mr Petros. This involves re-cementing, some plastering and painting (Note: there should have been three coats of paint on the exterior wall but Marinos has only applied one).
Any road up, Mr Panikos arrived with scaffolding purloined or retrieved from somewhere but, of course, he needed assistance to erect this for which task I was nominated. My role consisted of passing metal poles and wooden planks up to Mr Panikos, and finding bits of string and wire for him to fix it all together. We got there in the end despite my shortage of Greek and his minimal English, and the total lack of helmets and safety boots or a spanner. As you can see from the picture, the string is holding up well and is attached to next-door's fire escape for added stability. The cross-pieces on the scaffolding are secured from copper wire I stripped from some leftover mains cable. A masterpiece of engineering.

Monday 1 November 2010

JEFF BECK

Wednesday 27th October 2010. The Royal Albert Hall.

Drums - Narada Michael Walden
Bass - Rhonda Smith
Keys - Jason Rebello
Guitar - Jeff "guitar god" Beck
Guest violin - Sharon Corr
Guest vocals - Imelda May
AND the British Philharmonic Orchestra

It was a bit good. Blooming amazing. Fantastic. Jolly spiffing. Tear jerkingly brilliant. Goose bump making.

Can't remember all the songs... but some of them were these:

Hammerhead
People get ready
Mna Na Eireann (Sharon Corr doing violin)
Rollin' and tumblin' (with Rhonda Smith doing vocals)
Corpus Christie Carol
Angel Footsteps
Lilac Wine
Day In the Life (flippin awesome with the orchestra doing really awesome loud bit in the middle)
Higher
How High the Moon (Imelda May doing some SWEET vocals and Mr Jeff on his Les Paul)
Nessun Dorma (there were tears)

And then after all the clapping Mr Jeff came out again and did the National Anthem with the last bit sounding like the beginning of Wind Cries Mary. Crowd went MENTAL. Loved it.

Previously...