Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! (“The Jean Genie”) December 22, 2022
Posted by Richard Foote in Christmas, David Bowie, Richard's Blog, Richard's Musings, The Jean Genie.1 comment so far
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers who celebrate the festive season a very Merry Christmas and a most happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
2023 promises to be a big year for me, in that I’ll be officially retiring from work early in the year, after close to 40 years working in IT. I’ve had an absolute blast and met and worked with some truly amazing people, but it’s time to move on and enjoy other things that life has to offer.
But I’ll hopefully keep my hand in enough to perhaps attend the odd Oracle conference during the year and say my farewells and have a quiet drink with as many of my many Oracle-related friends and colleagues as I can. So you haven’t perhaps heard the last from me quite yet.
My Christmas gift this year is of course David Bowie related. 50 years ago, Bowie had a huge hit in the UK (and elsewhere) with the glam rock classic that is “The Jean Genie”. 50 years ago to the day, it was sitting in the UK 1972 Christmas charts at No. 16, but would reach as far as No. 2 in the coming weeks.
This is the official video, directed by the late, great Mick Rock. Enjoy !!
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Covid-Free New Year!! (“The Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth”) December 24, 2021
Posted by Richard Foote in Christmas, Oracle Indexes.add a comment
Well, 2021 was a bit of a struggle wasn’t it !! I’m hopeful that 2022 might just be a tad better (but I’m not overly confident to be honest).
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers and Oracle friends a very Merry Christmas and a most happy, peaceful, prosperous and Covid free New Year.
I’m going back to my traditional gift this year, the classic David Bowie and Bing Crosby Christmas duet as featured on the Bing Crosby Christmas Special in 1977, back when life was just that little bit less stressful…
Enjoy 🙂
Merry Christmas !! (Love Is Lost) December 23, 2013
Posted by Richard Foote in Christmas, Kaleidoscope, Richard's Musings.add a comment
It’s been a pretty good year all round really.
I had the most perfect holiday in Hawaii, the mighty Crystal Palace won promotion to the English Premier League, we’ve finally won back The Ashes from England and David Bowie released the most brilliant “The Next Day” album right out of the blue. Oh and the Oracle 12c Database was finally released as well 🙂
Next year promises to be just as exciting with the eagerly anticipated Oracle Database “In-Memory” Option due to be released sometime in 2014. I’m sure to have quite a bit to talk about on that subject when it finally gets released, considering the impact on database indexing strategies it will have 🙂
After a relatively quiet year on the conference front, I’m planning to get out a little more next year. As an example, I’m really looking forward in June to presenting at the excellent ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2014 conference in beautiful Seattle. I have a couple of papers accepted so I hope to catch up with many of you there, a city I loved when I visited previously. More details to come.
Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the very best of New Years. Stay safe and stay happy.
As a treat this year, a fantastic digital art video of one of the tracks from “The Next Day”, a re-mixed version of “Love Is Lost” by James Murphy.
Enjoy !!
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year !! (The Snowman) December 24, 2012
Posted by Richard Foote in Christmas.1 comment so far
I just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Index-Rebuild Free New Year !!
I have a feeling next year will very exciting one for Oracle Database professionals:)
My little “gift” this year is a lovely little animation called “The Snowman” that dates all the way back to 1982 when I arrived in Australia.
Introduced by the one and only David Bowie, it’s based on the famous children’s book by Raymond Biggs (who also did “When The Wind Blows” that Bowie also worked on).
Enjoy !!
Merry Christmas (plus long lost “The Jean Genie”) December 24, 2011
Posted by Richard Foote in Christmas.9 comments
I just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very happy, safe and successful New Year.
As always, thank you all so much for supporting the blog, with all your comments and nice feedback. Hopefully, you’ve found content here that has been of some use. Now that I’m back at Oracle Corporation, 2012 should hopefully be an exciting year with lots to talk and blog about.
Here’s my Christmas present …
Described as an early Christmas present for all David Bowie fans world-wide, footage of the great man performing his classic hit “The Jean Genie” on England’s “Top of the Pops” has recently re-surfaced. Thought long-lost (as the BBC had a tendency to simply delete their tapes), this was originally recorded way back at the time Bowie was working on the “Aladdin Sane” album, on 3rd January 1973 and broadcast the next day on 4th January 1973. It basically hasn’t been seen since until a cameraman on the show recently told the world he had a copy of the tapes in his shed !!
Now, nearly 40 years on, it’s still a great song, a great band and a great performance.
Enjoy 🙂
Merry Christmas and a Happy Bowie New Year !! December 24, 2010
Posted by Richard Foote in Christmas.5 comments
Well, it’s that time of the year again. Here in sunny Canberra, it’s beginning to finally to warm up a bit but I hear it’s a “little” snowy in many other parts of the world !!
A big thank-you to everyone that reads and comments on my blog, your support is very much appreciated. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas and a fantastic and exciting New Year.
As my little present this year, thought I’ll share a video of one of the very first times I saw David Bowie, way back in late 1979 on the classic, brilliant and truly hilarious Kenny Everett Video Show. This is David Bowie performing a new version of Space Oddity in a video that would highlight some of what was to come the following year in the Ashes to Ashes video (to my mind the best music video ever).
Enjoy !!
Merry Christmas (Peace On Earth) December 23, 2009
Posted by Richard Foote in Christmas, David Bowie, Richard's Musings.7 comments
Wow, yet another year almost behind us and what looks like being yet another busy year ahead. Can you believe that The Noughties are nearly all gone, I remember being all excited at the dawn of The Eighties !!
I must say I’m really looking forward to finally saying “Twenty Ten” rather than the more long-winded “Two Thousand and Nine” 🙂
I just want to wish everyone a very very Merry Christmas and a fantastic, fun-filled, index rebuild free, very very happy New Year in 2010.
Hopefully next year, Australia will win the Football World Cup, Crystal Palace will finally get promotion to the Premier League, England will be 4-0 down in The Ashes (again) with just one match to go, David Bowie will release a new album and the world will be just that little bit cooler and less polluted.
Here’s hoping anyways, as I’m sure are all the Polar Bears as well; certainly the Aussie, Crystal Palace supporting ones with good taste in music 😉
As is my custom, no Christmas would be complete without a bit of David Bowie and Bing Crosby to bring some good cheer. This year, a lovely fully restored version of their classic performance for your viewing pleasure:
“Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum” indeed 🙂
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