The Steeple Times

Tag: Canada

  • Life on the wire

    Life on the wire

    Nik Wallenda crosses the Niagara Falls

     

    Yesterday, watched by over a billion people worldwide, Nik Wallenda became the first person to successfully walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oodNwQwW42c

    Watch Nick Walenda finish his Niagara Falls crossing

     

    This 7th generation tightrope walker was tethered to prevent nearly certain death if he had fallen and contended with wind, water, darkness and mist as he travelled 1,800 feet across the roaring falls. As he did, around 125,000 watched the daredevil stunt on the Canadian side whilst 4,000 gathered on the American side.

     

    Nik Wallenda crossing Niagara Falls

    A Guinness Book of Records world record holder, Wallenda hails from an Austrian-Hungarian family known as the Flying Wallendas. He began performing aged 2, dressed as a clown, first walked the wire at age 4 and gave his first professional wire performance aged just 13.

     

    Nik Wallenda

    Here is an acrobat with nerves of steel who also proposed to his future wife, Erendira, on bended knee on a wire 30ft high during a performance in front of 18,000 people in Montreal in 1999 and one who appeared with eight other family members in a pyramid on the high wire at Japan’s Kurashiki Tivoli Park in 2001.

     

    In another dramatic move in June 2011, Wallenda completed a 121ft high-wire crossing between the two towers of the 10 storey Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This recreated the one that killed a man he describes as his inspiration, his great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, in 1978.

     

    Yesterday, Wallenda crossed Niagara Falls on a steel wire weighing 7 tons that had a diameter of 2 inches. It was installed by helicopter and pulled across the gorge by machines and to cross it, Wallenda carried a 30ft balance pole weighing some 40 pounds. His achievement was spectacular to watch and in this age of austerity, it is fantastic to have witnessed something so positive.

     

    For more information about Nik Wallenda, go to: http://nikwallenda.com

     

    Follow Nik Wallenda on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/NikWallenda

  • Singing for a Diamond

    Singing for a Diamond

    Music fit for The Queen

     

    In recent days, Gary Barlow’s albumn Sing has topped the UK album charts with sales of 40,000 copies.

     

    Two hundred and ten musicians, including the African Children’s Choir and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Band, helped record this special tribute to The Queen. Produced by Barlow with the assistance of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gareth Malone, Sing also features Prince Harry on the tambourine, Hayley Westenra, Alfie Boe and the Military Wives choir. Sing will be performed this evening at a special concert at Buckingham Palace in the presence of Her Majesty.

     

    Another tribute I was alerted to came from a singer named Anton Lorien who contacted me via Twitter. He was approached in 2011 by the British Monarchist League who asked him to produce a song for a lady he describes as having: “Given her life selflessly to the people of Britain and the Commonwealth.”

    Mr Lorien’s song, Like A Diamond, is available to download on iTunes but I wholeheartedly recommend that you watch the video clip available above. It contains some wonderful footage of The Queen and the clip at 3:33 where our Monarch runs to watch her racehorse is especially worth seeing.

     

    Gary Barlow pictured with Prince Harry on the tambourine working on Sing

     

    Both Sing and Like A Diamond capture the feelings of our nation brilliantly. Be sure to sing along tonight.

     

    For more information about Anton Lorien’s Like A Diamond, go to: http://www.antonlorien.com

     

    For more information on Gary Barlow & The Commonwealth Band’s Sing, got to: http://www.jubileesing.com

  • Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the Commonwealth Realms

    Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the Commonwealth Realms

    Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II  governed as constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states and headed the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. Supported by her gaffe prone husband, “Brenda,” as Private Eye nicknamed her, served steadfast through good times and bad. She liked to drive a little quickly when given control of the wheel of a Range Rover and also found washing up relaxing. This monarch like no other will never be forgotten.

     

  • Bono (Paul David Hewson)

    Bono (Paul David Hewson)

    This Irishman is one of the world’s best-known philanthropic performers. Having invested £56 million in Facebook in 2009, he’s now the richest living musician. His shareholding of 2.3% in the company is now worth some £940 million. This “face of fusion philanthropy” is rarely seen in public without his trademark sunglasses and created his stage name in honour of a hearing aid shop.

  • Vidal Sassoon CBE (1928 – 2012)

    Vidal Sassoon CBE (1928 – 2012)

    He created the “wedge bob” hairstyle and liberated women from the “tyranny of the salon.” Four times married and a Sephardi Jew, Sassoon sold his brand in 1993 to concentrate on philanthropy. The Daily Telegraph once described him as an “anti-fascist warrior-hairdresser” and he will indeed be remembered as a man who led a revolution.

  • John Simpson CBE

    John Simpson CBE

    A Chelsea resident who travels the globe reporting from all manner of war zones. He’s avoided bullets in Tiananmen Square and was punched in the stomach by Harold Wilson on his first day working at the BBC. He freely admits to having had tried hallucinogenic drugs. One resulting hallucination consisted of a 6ft goldfish in dark glasses and a straw hat wrapping itself around his shoulders. At any party, he’s naturally the man guests flock to.

  • The Rt. Hon. The Lord Archer

    The Rt. Hon. The Lord Archer

    Jeffrey’s invented a lot of tales but is rightly renowned for spinning them brilliantly. This former politician wrote some brilliant diaries whilst in prison and now is mostly likely to be found doing charitable deeds. His shepherd’s pie and Krug parties are still the stuff of legends.

  • Sidney Frank (1919 – 2006)

    Sidney Frank (1919 – 2006)

    A self-made billionaire, Frank was the Hugh Heffner of the booze industry. He had major successes with both Jägermeister and Grey Goose vodka. A personal profit of $1.6 billion from the sale of the latter allowed him to become philanthropic and especially eccentric. In his final years he conducted most of his business deals from bed whilst smoking custom made Davdoff cigars. He died on his private plane in 2006 but will be remembered as the man who changed vodka.

  • Heather Mills (formerly known as Heather Mills-McCartney & Lady McCartney)

    This Geordie Vegan campaigner got some £24 million in her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney. She’s continued to cause trouble ever since.

  • Trenton Oldfield

    Trenton Oldfield

    He swam into the path of the Oxford vessel in the 2012 Xchanging Boat Race. Oldfield claimed to be protesting about “elitism” but it transpired that he was himself educated at a private school and the LSE. His hypocrisy knows no bounds and thankfully he ended up in the clink.