FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

A water spout moves south of the coast of Singapore. It is created by differential pressure between the surface of the sea and the atmosphere


A golf ball lodged in a tree trunk catches the eye of a squirrel on the seventh fairway during the Hogan Pro-Am golf tournament in Texas

A boat crosses the Suez Canal in Egypt as it journeys around the world in 60 days

Actors from the Sichuan opera perform during the opening ceremony of a new festival in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in southwest China

Toyota unveils the i-Unit, single seater car

As temperatures reached 28 degrees in Moscow, a brown bear in Moscow Zoo enjoys a refreshing water bath.


Competitors climb a giant bun tower in the annual Bun Festival at Cheung Chau island in Hong Kong

Take a pebble....

Yeah wow, just ordinary stones, rocks or pebbles, all fairly regular shapes and painted on! What an effect, these are great aren't they?

BIKERS WEDDING

I may have mentioned before but where I work is also host to the registry office where amongst the births and deaths are also weddings. Saturday saw one of many that we've seen over the years - A Bikers Wedding! The groom turned up on this Harley,
the best man on a Triumph Bonneville.
Wow! However I can't quite get my head around the white decorations on all the bikes. There were 27 bikes outside the building prior to the arrival of the bride, so what was she going to arrive in or on? What a let down in a way when a Lady Penelope type Limo arrived, wonderful colour though,
and deposited the bride in traditional wedding dress! Another let down really I was expecting maybe white leathers! However it has to be said after the ceremony the true colours of a bikers wedding came out. What do you think the bride was actually saying when this pic was being taken? **

Then to see the Limo being escorted by all the bikes leaving the square was amazing.

**"YOU NEVER THOUGHT THEY'D GET ME IN A FUCKIN' DRESS"

DOGGY PICS

Meet Rufus he is a chocolate Labrador and is brought to you courtesy of The Daily Puppy and he's kinda cute, ain't he?

MUSICAL MONDAY

THE WHO

At the age of 12 I was introduced to the music of The Who by my uncle. He worked for the NSPCC a charity that deals with cruelty towards children. A totally new concept had just been released - A Rock Opera.

He was using Tommy for training because of some of the nature of some of the tracks in it, all penned by Pete Townshend were specifically about abuse of children and some of the affects and causes. I loved it and quite basically have never looked back. Well to say that is a lie, yes of course I looked back to the times before Tommy to the High Numbers and others that spawned The Who to the heady years of 1964 and early performances at The Marquee in London and huge hits like Can't Explain and My Generation. Then the Tommy era and on to Quadraphenia via Who's Next - All three truly iconic albums and never off the turntables.

In everybody's collection at the time, The Who Live at Leeds even today one of the best live albums ever produced. As it was live that the Who really shone, they sold out everywhere very quickly and as the venues got bigger and bigger there was only the likes of The Who that could consistently sell them out and billed for many years as

" The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band."

I was fortunate enough to see them 4 times live, only once with Keith Moon as their drummer but each time it was the ultimate experience of my life - until the next time!

Did you like or maybe like me still like The Who? What did you think was so good or not about them?

TAKE 5

WELCOME TO 'TAKE 5'
LET ME EXPLAIN WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO HERE! IF I CAN! I AM GOING TO TAKE 5 PICTURES FROM THE ONE SPOT! NOT 360'S OR PANORAMIC JUST 5 PICTURES FROM THE SAME SPOT!
ZOOM OR ROTATE OR ANYTHING BUT ALTHOUGH TURNING AROUND IS ALLOWED IT HAS TO BE ON THE SAME SPOT.
YOU MIGHT LIKE TO TRY IT YOURSELF IT'S REALLY QUITE FUN. STICK THEM ON YOUR OWN SITE OR E MAIL THEM TO ME AND WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
FOR GENERAL INFORMATION I ALSO THOUGHT I WOULD SAY WHERE I AM SITED WHERE POSSIBLE!
TODAYS SHOTS ARE FROM LESS THAN 100 YARDS AWAY FROM WIRRAL MUSEUM, WHERE I WORK, JUST ON THE GRASS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CENOTAPH ON HAMILTON SQUARE, BIRKENHEAD, WIRRAL HERE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
IN FACT PICTURE 4 SHOWS THE VIEW LOOKING BACK AT WORK. STRANGELY THOUGH THE FEATURE WITHIN PICTURE 1 IS ACTUALLY LIVERPOOL AND NOT BIRKENHEAD!

DINNER TIME

Well it was one of those times doesn't happen that often and it's hardly iconic in any way but was I ever glad that I had my camera with me!
Spotted this dog walking along the road and I thought what is that in his mouth? It's only a tin of dog food isn't it? He wasn't far from the shop but there was no one with him.

So how cool is that?

RANDOM NEWS PICS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Two bears cool off in a German Zoo and abirds nest on a coffee sign in Connecticut!

Children create a human art sculpture of a gray whale on a beach in Los Angeles to send out an environmental message

Lightning strikes over a viaduct in Segovia, Spain as torrential rain sweeps the country, causing flooding

Lifeguards tend their patch at Kew, south west London, where they have planted 30 different plant species on a beach area

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Score :

AC MILAN  2    LIVERPOOL  1

 

Yah Boo Sucks!!!!!

Liverpool v Ac Milan in Athens tonight!!

Well later on tonight in Athens the football fans around the world will be cheering in support of either and probably Liverpool or AC. Milan! It's the champions league final and an exact replay of the 2005 final that Liverpool won.

Tonight across the UK there will be millions of fans of football, not just of Liverpool watching their tv's hoping upon hope that Liverpool can defeat the Italians to become the first team to win Euro glory 6 times!!

I'll bring you the result, a little later but meanwhile this is from Football Lens, follow the links and catch up on all that lead to tonights confrontation.

With due respect to Arsenal of last year, Porto and Monaco of 2004 and Liverpool of 2005, this is the first ‘real’ and ‘balanced’ Champions League final we have seen since the Milan - Jueventus final at Old Trafford in the 2002-2003 season.
And as balanced games go, this one is going to be hard, grinding and with few goals.

Liverpool Preview

Rafa Benitez, after a difficult start to the season, has recovered and led Liverpool to a second Champions League final in 3 years. For this alone the accusations of lucky Liverpool should fade away.
Liverpool may lack the consistency to do better than 3rd in the league but like Milan, once they were out of the title race around Christmas they battened down the hatches and focused on the Champions League while Chelsea and Manchester United were hampered by lean squads and the pressures of chasing the league, the FA Cup and the Champions League.
In other words, Liverpool have made their European adventures count, and for that alone they’ve done far better than Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester United (Chelsea have 3 semi-finals in 4 years but haven’t made them count).

AC Milan preview

A lot of talk about the final will surround the 2005 matchup, but this is very different. Milan are older and wiser, and with 3 weeks to prepare themeselves they will not allow their concentration levels to drop like that again. Liverpool are also a better side, so Milan wouldn’t be able to dominate them as easily as they did in the first half in Istanbul.
Without Shevchenko, Milan will most probably play the same team that played against Manchester United with Maldini coming in as long as he’s fit.
Milan will find the 2007 final to be much tougher than the 2005 final - Liverpool will be on their case and after seeing the effects of sitting back for United, they’ll be sure to mix things up with Milan.

Predictions

Can Milan avenge the 2005 loss? Yes.
Can Liverpool make it six times? Yes.
Will either team win their domestic league next season? Probably not.
It feels like a Milan win but it also felt like a United win on the 2nd so I’m not going with feelings the moment. The head says 1-1 at fulltime, winner in extra time.
Who?Kaka or Crouch. Your guess is as good as mine.

BIRKENHEAD, WIRRAL, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND. NOW YOU CAN GOOGLE EARTH IT!

THESE ARE JUST RANDOM PHOTOS LIKE SO MANY OF MY POSTS, ALL TAKEN WITHIN 3 MINUTES WALK FROM WHERE I WORK.

WEEKEND LUNCH TIME THINGS ON MY MIND AND CAMERA WITH ME.

A VARIED BUNCH EVEN FOR ME I'M SURE YOU'LL AGREE AND YES THAT IS A GERMAN U BOAT!! THIS IS JUST 4 OUT OF 115 TAKEN IN 55 MINUTES. GUESS YOU COULD CALL IT SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY.

WELL YOU ASKED FOR MORE OF MY OWN PHOTOS - SO YOU'VE GOT THEM.

MUSICAL MONDAY - ARENA ROCK

I thought that what we would do is feature a particular genre of music and more in particular of Rock music - this week featuring ARENA ROCK

Arena rock is a loosely defined style of rock music, often also called anthem rock or stadium rock, and the style of music is closely associated with "corporate rock" and album-oriented rock. Arena rock is usually medium hard rock, but lacks the edginess or rage often inherent in heavy metal. Hair metal is also included in arena rock, and many so-called "arena rock" stations in fact play mostly hair metal. Simple rhythms, acoustic/electric guitar interplay, and keyboards define the instrumental sound, and vocally the music is far closer to mainstream pop than most hard rock or metal.
In the 1960s, the tremendous popularity of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones led to the use of larger venues to accommodate audiences. The Beatles' 1965 appearance at New York City's Shea Stadium is often cited as the first "arena rock" concert. By the 1970s, the ability to perform for huge crowds in sports arenas and stadiums became a prerequisite for rock stardom.
While many groups performed in massive venues while on tour, the term "arena rock" usually refers to 1970s and 1980s hard rock groups that occupied a middle ground between the heavy metal sound and the softer adult oriented sounds of country rock and the singer-songwriters of the decade. Bands such as Cheap Trick,
Heart, Boston,
Foreigner, Journey, Kansas, Queen, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Survivor, and performers such as Meat Loaf, Eddie Money and Peter Frampton directed their appeal to a young white American audience who favored bombastic, anthemic rock.
The rise of MTV and new wave music adversely affected many of these groups, but some continued to be successful in the 1980s. Hair metal bands such as Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, in retrospect, are essentially a continuation of this style and sound.
Indeed, even some heavy metal acts were able to break into the fold, most notably Metallica whose drummer Lars Ulrich was recorded as saying that they desired to "...f**k with the concept of arena rock" during their extensive stadium tour in 1992. This marked a change from the band's initial desire to shun "mass market" practices, but showed that as the popularity of a group increases, so too must the venue at which it performs. However, "arena rock" retains much of its pejorative meaning, as some popular alternative rock groups of the 1990s such as Stone Temple Pilots were tagged with this label by dismissive critics. In the early 2000s, Creed was similarly labeled.

An update on last weeks list was promised and is found below
Alive – Pearl Jam
All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
Day Tripper - The Beatles
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Funk #49 – James Gang
Gimme Shelter – Rolling Stones
Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin
Iron Man - Black Sabbath
Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
No Sugar Tonight – The Guess Who
Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
Roundabout - Yes
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
You Really Got Me - The Kinks / Van Halen

Ancient and Modern

THE PRIORY BIRKENHEAD The Oldest Building on Merseyside has been featured before on Wilko News but it is so photogenic and rather old!!!

Have a great weekend everybody and don't forget

THE GUTTER PRESS

is open all weekend!