Westminster Abbey or The Triumph of Love

How can't you be thrilled by this video ? 

I did NOT want to talk about "The Wedding" in my blog. 

I had promised it to myself.

But as we often say "Only stupid people do not change their mind."
In this stormy period, it is good to watch such joyful events.

I won't comment, nor publish photos.

The media do it better than me (maybe too much) and most of all I do respect the newly-weds. 

Plus, I am a fervent defender of privacy and I didn't want this post be considered as a private intrusion /judgement or - worse - as an additional rubbish gossip. 

Everybody will say everything about all what happened today at Westminster Abbey. 

I keep Jerusalem's song in mind. 

I already loved it, but there...

I was amazed.

If there is one thing to keep in mind, it's that "LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED", as other famous British people used to sing a few decades ago.

The British people I was with were so proud to be British.

There are very few occasions to gather a whole nation.

Wherever you come from, whatever you think of royalty/republicanism/the British monarchy, whoever you are, you can only be very impressed by the cohesion of the crowd, their pride to be British and the royal-perfect-impressive-but-still-natural wedding.
"It is what Britain represents, is known for and does best." as I read somewhere. 

It was such a lovely day for discrete, generous, dignified and extra-ordinary lovers.

Today 2 Billions of people assisted to The Triumph of Love.

K. and W. love each other dearly.  

It is SO obvious. 

Eyes don't lie.

I wish them to have a happy and long life together.

(c) "The words of Jerusalem" from "Milton" by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

(c) Music : Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

Lyrics :

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land

God Save The Queen !

God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen !

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us,

God save the Queen !

***

 
Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!

British National Anthem

(c) "God Save The Queen" - British National Anthem

Lyrics :

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!

Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world over.

From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."

***

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. 
Think of it... ALWAYS."

***

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

***

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

***

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. 
It comes from an indomitable will."

Mahatma Gandhi

All those quotes are so important to me. 

They bring us back to what is essential in life and focus us on it.  

Love

Will

Action
Respect

Hope

I keep thinking of them, specially when I have to make difficult choices.

Lain

I am falling,

I am fading,

I have lost it all

Help me to breathe...

Lain Opening Song

Serial Experiment Lain

I thought of different Thurday Quotes. 

I could not made up my mind. 

 

New York, New York by Frank Sinatra ?

No, I am not in NYC and have not journey planned there.

Gimmie ! Gimmie ! Gimmie a man after midnight by ABBA ?

I did not like the videos I found on the web.

Then I thought about Lain, a Japanese cartoon, which my sisters used to watch when we were younger and of which I never understood anything...

"It is because you did not watch ALL the episodes in the right order..."

Or I may not be ready to watch that kind of psychological series. 

Anyway.

I have always liked the end of the opening music. 

So I posted it today.

As far as I recall, Lain is an allegory for the dangers of a not so new now parallel internet world. 

Its creators did not fear to deal  with difficult themes like schizophrenia, craziness, consequences of suicide for those who stay (there is no suicide scene...), non-communication in some families, loneliness of teenagers, dangers of living in a parallel virtual world...

I will eventually try to watch it again and I'll tell you...

(c) "Serial Experiment Lain" Opening

(c) 1998 Geneon Entertainment, Inc

Lyrics :

And you don't seem to understand,
A shame you seemed an honest man
And all the fears you hold so dear
Will turn to whisper in your ear.
And you know what they say might hurt you.
And you know that it means so much.
And you don't even feel a thing.

I am falling,
I am fading,
I have lost it all

***

I am falling,
I am fading,
I am drowning,
Help me to breathe

I am hurting,
I have lost it all,
I am losing
Help me to breathe...

Make the force be with you

"Make the force be with YOU"

Star Wars

Darth Vader

At least once in your life you would have loved to be that child...

(c) All-New 2012 Passat - Volkswagen

Agnes Obel

Sometimes Deezer is a good way to discover talentuous singers.

Here you have Agnes Obel's first album "Philharmonics".

Because, even if she's been living in Berlin for four years, in 2011 lullabies come from Denmark...

(c) "Riverside" by Agnes Obel

(c) "Brother Sparrow" by Agnes Obel

(c) "Just So" by Agnes Obel

" We want sex equality ! "

"Equal pay for women is right."

Rita O'Grady

(Sally Hawkins)

***

"You're the best man of my Cabinet."

Churchill to Babara Castle

***

"I have a first class Honors degree from one of the finest universities in the world, and my husband treats me like i'm a fool. Do not give up. "

 Lisa Hopkins

(Rosamund Pike)

 ***

" I am what is known as a fiery redhead. Now, I hate to make this a matter of appearance and go all womanly on you, but there you have it. And me standing up like this is in fact just that redheaded fieriness leaping to the fore. Credence? I will give credence to their cause. My god! Their cause already has credence. It is equal pay. Equal pay is common justice, and if you two weren't such a pair of egotistical, chauvinistic, bigoted dunderheads, you would realise that. Oh, my office is run by incompetents and I am sick of being patronised, spoken down to, and generally treated as if I was the May Queen.
Set up the meeting! "

Barbara Castle

(Miranda Richardson)

***

Official British Trailer :

(c) "Made in Dagenham" directed by Nigel Cole

(c) 2010 Sony Pictures Classics

2nd trailer with French subtitles :

(c) "We want sex equality" par Nigel Cole
(c) 2010 Sony Pictures Classics

''Cause you had a bad day"

"Cause you had a bad day.

...

Well you need a blue sky holiday."

Bad Day

Daniel Powter

Today is a "loose day" (a strange, bad one). 

From a modern daily French expression : 

"C'est la loose ! " 

(For a not-too-serious catastrophic situation, when you are convinced that you should have stayed in bed all day long.).

It all started at 1 a.m. (yesterday evening) when I just had enough time to see that my "Thursday Quote" had not directly been posted on my blog, before my internet connexion stopped...

This morning was supposed to be a new, fresh, happy day. 

It was only sunny.

"Life belongs to those who wake up early."

I was in adavance so I took my time... 

I eventually was late. 

I knocked my tea mug over downstairs.

My necklace caught hold of the handle of my bedside table drawer. 

Everything that was inside fell downstairs...

Amongst everything there was an open box full of thum-tacks (drawing-pins).

I was barefeet and already late.

I had forgotten to take a very strong treatment against allergies.

I stayed 25 additional minutes at home. 

Then ...

As i was waiting for the metro, a old man started to talk to me, then asked me more and more indiscrete questions.... 

I hate those kind of men and came into a wagon far from him.

A few minutes later, many students wearing pink & green fluorescent wetsuits came INTO "my" wagon at the same time and started to singing "Booh Paris, we are from (another famous school) and we are gonna defeat you at the student inter-school competition". 

At this point, I have to censore the other "songs" I heard.

I arrived at work 45 minutes later than I should have.

Nobody said anything to me.

My computer keyboard was blocked.

Then my screen was completely blue.

At lunch time, I went to the shop around the corner. 

A Chinese man was with his kid. 

Another guy started yelling : "there are too many Chinese people in France. They steal the jobs of French people". 

They started arguing. 

A 3rd one, from Arab origin, tried to intervene, but was treated as an "Arabe" (which is very VERY insulting in French). 

He yelled.

The Chinese replied "Leave me alone, I'm not Indian." 

And a 5th guy, from Indian origins, entered into the mess...

In the end, an old man said "Stop it, there are children there". 

They all looked to the little Asian boy.

So the Chinese guy went away with his son.

The Indian went on working.

The other ones paid their groceries. 

I picked up 2 pears and a carrot-coriander soup, paid and went back to work. 

Luckily spring is back to Paris.

Unfortunately pollens are back too.

I worked fast and went out early :-)

I phoned friends who had a train one hour later.

No answer :-(

By this time, two women came into the metro wagon, which I was sitted in.

The younger one had pushed the older.

They started yelling at each other.

They went on insulting each other louder and louder.

I said very slowly to the girl who was sitted next to me
"Oh, I'm fed up."

The older one turned to me and yelled :
"YOU, if you are not happy, you have to do as if you were dumb."

Everybody looked at me and slightly laughed at her.

Both stopped talking.

 

I finally arrived at the - overcrowded - train station. 

My friends were not there.

They were still in the metro, praying to catch their train.

I did not met them before they left Paris. 

I bought "Canelés" from Bordeaux. 

Canelés are delicious mini-cakes.

After that I had 3,27€ left in my wallet.

I decided to buy "daily" food... which cost me 3,57€. 

Not enough coins. 

God bless, the inventer of credit cards....

Now I'm back home.

I replied to a very important e-mail.

My computer went blank and the half-written e-mail was sent...

 I had to rewrite the whole thing, starting by apologizing.

I read newspapers.
Elizabeth Taylor and her purple eyes passed away two days ago.
The political situation is more and more complex in France.
There is a war in Libya and I fear that it will be long.
The 3rd reactor in Fukushima nuclear plant is damaged...

It is 8.08 p.m. now.
(8 is my favourite figure).

I listen to ABBA songs.
"Gimme ! Gimme ! Gimme a man after midnight !".
It always makes me sing feel happy.

And when I re-read all that happened to me... 

NEVERTHELESS...

I am in good health.

So are my family and friends.

We do not starve.

We have a confortable home.

I have enough money to buy food and have a home.

I have a job.

We have not experienced the earthquake + tsunami + nuclear disaster in Japan.

It was a strange day

BUT

It could have been FAR worse.

Talk to you soon and take care of you,

Frenchy Baguette

PS : Today the Euromillion lottery provides the winner with 130 millions of Euros... 

I won't gamble. 

I won't go out tonight. 

I dont think that even if I had gambled, I would have won anything today.

PS2 : Here is the video of "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter.
I really really liked the end with the drawing on the metro poster.

(c) "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter

(c) 2005 WMG

Lyrics :

Where is the moment when we need it the most

You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

They tell me your blue sky's faded to grey

They tell me your passion's gone away

And I don't need no carrying on

Stand in the line just ahead of the law

You're faking a smile with the coffee you go

You tell me your life's been way off line

You're falling to pieces every time

And I don't need no carrying on

Cause you had a bad day

You're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know

You tell me don't lie

You work at a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day

The camera don't lie

You're coming back down and you really don't mind

You had a bad day

You had a bad day

Well you need a blue sky holiday

The point is they laugh at what you say

And I don't need no carrying on

You had a bad day

You're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know

You tell me don't lie

You work at a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day

The camera don't lie

You're coming back down and you really don't mind

You had a bad day

You had a bad day

Sometimes the system goes on the blink and the whole thing it turns out

Wrong

You might not make it back and you know that you could be well oh that

Strong

Well I'm not wrong

So where is the passion when you need it the most

Oh you and I

You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

Cause you had a bad day

You're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know

You tell me don't lie

You work at a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day

You've seen what you like

And how does it feel for one more time

You had a bad day x3

Princess Mononoke

There is no need to remind you of what is currently happening in Japan.

All my thoughts and hopes are for Japanese people.

Today the Thursday Quote is a video. 

The end of "Princess Mononoke".

Why have I been obsessed by it for almost a week ?
All the more as I have not seen this movie for years...

Maybe because it shows that Nature will always be stronger than human beings.

Maybe because it shows how human activities or mistakes can destroy everything.

Maybe because allegories are better than words.

Maybe because Hayao Miyazaki is a genius and understood far before everybody what really matters.

Maybe because I needed hope and a happy ending.

The video is in French. I didn't find it in English (nor in Japanese with English subtitles).

(c) もののけ姫 by Hayao Miyazaki

(c) 1997 Ghibli Studios

(c) Music Joe Hisaishi

Mononoke Main Theme

(c) もののけ姫 by Hayao Miyazaki

(c) 1997 Ghibli Studios

(c) Music Joe Hisaishi

"Il en faut peu pour être heureux !"

"Il en faut peu pour être heureux

Vraiment très peu pour être heureux

Chassez de votre esprit

Tous vos soucis

Prenez la vie du bon côté

Riez, sautez, dansez, chantez

Et vous serez un ours très bien léché !"

Le Livre de la Jungle

(Disney)

(c) Chanson : "Il en faut peu pour être heureux" 
(c) Film : "Le Livre de la Jungle"
(c) 1967 Walt Disney Pictures

Paroles :

Il en faut peu pour être heureux
Vraiment très peu pour être heureux
Il faut se satisfaire
Du nécessaire
Un peu d'eau fraîche et de verdure
Que nous prodigue la nature
Quelques rayons de miel
Et de soleil.

Je dors d'ordinaire sous les frondaisons
Et toute la jungle est ma maison
Toutes les abeilles de la forêt
Butinent pour moi dans les bosquets
Et quand je retourne un gros caillou
Je sais trouver des fourmis dessous.
Essaye c'est bon, c'est doux, oh!

Il en faut vraiment peu,
Très peu pour être heureux !
Mais oui !
Pour être heureux.

Il en faut peu pour être heureux
Vraiment très peu pour être heureux
Chassez de votre esprit
Tous vos soucis
Prenez la vie du bon côté
Riez, sautez, dansez, chantez
Et vous serez un ours très bien léché !

Cueillir une banane, oui
Ça se fait sans astuce
Aïe !
Mais c'est tout un drame
Si c'est un cactus
Si vous chipez des fruits sans épines
Ce n'est pas la peine de faire attention
Mais si le fruit de vos rapines
Est tout plein d'épines
C'est beaucoup moins bon !
Alors petit, as-tu compris ?

Il en faut vraiment peu,
Très peu, pour être heureux !
Pour être heureux ?
Pour être heureux !

Et tu verras qu' tout est résolu
Lorsque l'on se passe
Des choses superflues
Alors tu ne t'en fais plus.
Il en faut vraiment peu, très peu, pour être heureux.

Il en faut peu pour être heureux
Vraiment très peu pour être heureux
Chassez de votre esprit
Tous vos soucis ... Youpi
Prenez la vie du bon côté
Riez, sautez, dansez, chantez
Et vous serez un ours très bien léché !
Waouh !
Et vous serez un ours très bien léché.
Youpi !