To celebrate his 90th. Happy Birthday Sir David
Bit late I know but Happy Birthday David Attenborough
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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To celebrate his 90th. Happy Birthday Sir David
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I fail to see the relevance, That puppet is clearly based on Steve Howe.
Much too good-looking to be Steve Howe, Moosey.
I’m told there’s a petition going around, asking him to change his name to Boaty McBoatface.
If Attenborough’s so great, how come all animals talk with Johnny Morris’ voice?
That’s unfair, Johnny Morris had two voices. There was the slow, lugubrious one far pachyderms and other large animals, and the high-pitched one with short breaths for the smaller creatures.
A genuinely great man, and if him out of Pulp is a “National Treasure”, then Attenborough is a global one. Good to celebrate him while he’s alive.
Dickie was a bit of a prickie, though.
He is a globally known treasure too. A household name here in Scandinavia definitely and many other countries too.
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/attenborough90?source=feed_text&story_id=1189655474401340
His Life of Birds really awoke my son’s interest and curiosity about biology in a way that no school course could ever do. And let’s not forget his command of the language. I was chatting to a young lad from Ethiopia at the weekend who was keen to improve his English. My advice? Watch Attenborough documentaries.
Wonderful man, and patron of this excellent organisation:
http://www.populationmatters.org/
A typical excellent speech: http://www.populationmatters.org/attenborough-talk/
He also kickstarted http://www.tardigradelivesmatters.org/
The Tardigrades on roofs, in ponds, garden lawns are perfectly safe. I have granted them Reservation status. Fuck with my drive, though…
Seriously though, Rob, you could carefully shovel up the moss and remove it to a more suitable location on your vast estate. Start a zen-stylee moss garden. You could make a little statue of a tardigrade holding up a “Tardigradeland© Welcomes Tardigrades!” sign.
Sadly, this option is not available. They’ve got foxholes in the tarmac ( I know – tarmac. Not my doing). I tried mantra and visualisation to no avail as well.
It’s a Dharmic Battle now.
Oft overlooked but as controller of BBC 2 in the 60s he commissioned ground breaking series like The Ascent of Man, The Forsyte Saga, Civilisation and Monty Python, all of which still regularly grace those lists of greatest programmes ever made for UK television.
Yes, a true renaissance man. Interesting that he was 53 years old at the beginning of what is generally considered to be his golden period – Life on Earth to the present. The trio of Attenborough, Gerald Durrell and Desmond Morris – all roughly the same age – had a big influence on me. Two of them are still going strong.
Much as I like DA’s nature work on telly I really dislike the beatification of him of late. National treasure my arse, he’s not my national treasure. He was very privileged and has done as well out of the institutionalised class system in this country as anyone I can think of.
As I say, and as far as we can know, a nice guy.
I’d rather see that boaty mcboatface boat named not after Attenborough but after a truly gifted talent who reached the pinnacle of his industry in spite of his upbringing not because of it.
Alexanda McQueen springs to mind. Vision, passion and talent.
But no, David Attenborough.
“Having carefully laid the bait, the hunter retreats into the undergrowth and waits, patiently. A fully grown male niscum is capable of lying still, without food or water, for up to 48 hours as it scans the horizon for signs of its prey…”
I shoot from the bum hipsters. If that catches me some prey, well so be it. But that’s just a bonus yeah.
The bait is sniffed at by the prey it sadly shakes its head and backs slowly away.
It always struck me that the real heroes of those documentaries are the cameramen. A documentary on how they made the documentaries confirmed as much. They work 24/7 in horrible environments to catch the millisecond in the year that a certain lizard mates or a killer whale captures its prey or an elephant crushes a lion or….. David then creeps along for a little holiday with his dulcet tones and perfectly constructed sentences and gets all the credit. To be fair, he admits as much himself. And, his sentences are perfect.
DA’s autobiography is a very entertaining read. Some great traveller’s tales from his early years.
One thing that always impresses me is what a natural he is in front of the camera. Despite what are doubtless rather uncomfortable circumstances, and have probably involved a lot of waiting around, he always manages to communicate his sense of wonder and joy in what he is observing.