Heads-up! Good link for Whitney Houston

[Surya Gayatri]

funeral service--no commercials, no prattering pundits...

http://www.livestation.com/bbc-world

Hope it works for you...
SG
P.S. Outstanding music so far--very tasteful.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Blocked in the US...

God forbid we see anything without @#$%&* commercials!!!

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Sh*t! I didn't think it'd be blocked...

Sorry to all of you who may be shut out. I'm in France, so the site is obviously allowed here!

Cooley, you need one of those "hide my e-address" aps. There's one called "ExpatShield":

http://expatshield.com/

Give it a try!
SG

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Nice!! Thank you Surya!

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Happy to help--bring down all

barriers to a free internet, I say!
SG

[dipsydoodle]

4. Don't think its actually blocked

Just not working even in the UK. That's unless its an unauthorised BBC link in which case fuck 'm anyway - only whistling, skipping and spitting are free in this world.

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Working great here in France!

Go figure--it may be blocked in the UK, thus forcing the Brits to watch TeeVee and pay their Radio/TV license fees...

SG

[dipsydoodle]

9. Its not working in

the US, UK, Australia, Germany and Japan.

FYI - you'd need a licence here to watch it on a computer.

[Surya Gayatri]

13. Wow! The Beeb's raking it in

from all sides...huh?
But, how is it we can get it here in France?

SG

[dipsydoodle]

14. You obviously don't undertand

and it would take me too long to explain. Suffice it to say the Beeb is not raking anything in.

Television licensing in the United Kingdom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom

Basically - if not here then don't worry about it.

[Surya Gayatri]

16. Well, not being a UK resident, I 'obviously'

don't have first-hand, encyclopedic knowledge of the Beeb's fee-fixing policies. Sorry to have ruffled your feathers!

That being said, I'm really not overly "worried" about radio/TV fees cross-channel.

Was just gut-reacting to your revelation that UK subscribers have to pay for on-line access to the Beeb.

We over here "outre-manche" are just lucky, I guess!

Peace,
SG

[dipsydoodle]

18. Without our licence fees

you wouldn 't be watching it.

[Surya Gayatri]

19. Actually, I can watch the same thing on TV...

BBC World is part of the cable "bouquet" from my ISP (SFR). I pay a monthly flat rate for my cable package (internet, phone and TV).

So, you see, I do help out in my way!


SG

[dipsydoodle]

23. I only meant

no licence fee : no BBC at all. No Channel 4 either come to that.

[Surya Gayatri]

33. Many years ago, my cable package

included BBC 1 and 2 (back in the day, when cable was just getting started in Europe).

I still have some VHS videos I recorded at the time.

Didn't watch anything else--certainly not the French channels, which are a vast wasteland.

But, both BBCs were removed after about 6 months, never to be seen again. Now, I'm just happy to have BBC World.

You lucky Brits have the best radio and TV in the world--be happy to pay your license fees. You get more than your money's worth!

SG

[dipsydoodle]

34. The other issue you may come across

is that from outside the UK it is completely impossible to access our true home page. If you key in www.bbc.co.uk/news/ I bet it changes to something else. What you see isn't necessarily what we get.

[Surya Gayatri]

35. I suspected as much--I'll bet my Beeb homepage

is much more internationally slanted than the domestic one.

Same problem with CNN--try as I may, there's no way I can access the US homepage with my url.

Fortunately, I can listen to Radios 3, 4, and 5 Live via streaming. Before the internet, I did my best to listen on kHz 198, but the reception was maddening.

The only place you could listen static-free was on the Upper Normandy coast.

Long live the internet!!!

SG

[babylonsister]

7. I'm watching on m$nbc; Kevin Costner

just gave a beautiful eulogy. Alicia Keyes up next...

[Glimmer of Hope]

8. I just watched that too. His eulogy was very sweet..

[Surya Gayatri]

11. Very heartfelt and very classy...

He almost broke down at the end--you could hear the tears in his voice.

I kind of welled up myself!

And now Alicia Keyes is singing it to the rafters--with a catch in her throat.
SG

[Cooley Hurd]

20. Yes it was. I'm watching Clive Davis (I'm an hr behind) now and I can't but to help...

...Dude, you were her MENTOR! Weren't you watching her??? She was going to YOUR party in the very hotel she died in!!

I think of Whitney's death like Michael Jackson's. Both were essentially killed because their celebrity and wealth allowed them to bribe unscrupulous medical professionals to medicate them beyond what a human can endure.

How ya been?

[babylonsister]

22. You're back!!

I'm doin' okay, and you?

I don't know about Whitney and 'medication', I think she just couldn't shake some demons that were introduced to her.

[Surya Gayatri]

25. I tend to agree, babylon...

Genius is hazardous to one's health, both mental and physical.

The same spark that makes these people so special, renders them very vulnerable.
SG

[Cooley Hurd]

27. You're right. Speculation on my part.

I hope it wasn't a death by misadventure. Poor girl had to process so much and so young.

I'm very good - status quo, despite living under a tea party congresscritter.

[Surya Gayatri]

24. How true, Cooley... I was thinking back

to June 2009 and MJ's service in LA.

Both of them with such stupendous talent--it's almost as if their flames burned too brightly, and so flamed out too soon.

"Only the good..." as the saying goes.
SG

[undeterred]

28. That was awesome.

Little Baptist cowboy drinking all the grape juice. He delivered it just right.

[hlthe2b]

10. Unfortunately that link returns this message:

Sorry but BBC World News is currently not available in UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Germany and Japan. We are working closely with the BBC to resume this service as soon as possible. If you would like us to keep you informed, please register with Livestation.

Here is the AP stream--which for me is ok, but skips
http://www.ustream.tv/aplive

[Surya Gayatri]

12. Well, that solves the mystery, hlthe2b!

Here's an address-blocking ap that works:

http://expatshield.com/

SG

[hlthe2b]

15. what happened to Aretha? Where is she?

[Surya Gayatri]

17. Before the service started, they read an e-mail

from her explaining that her health (foot and leg problems) wouldn't permit her to be there, much to her sorrow.

She sent her undying love to her god-daughter.
SG

[Cooley Hurd]

21. Aw damn... I hate Diabetes...

My brother died from complications of it almost a year ago.

[Surya Gayatri]

31. Sincerest sympathy, Cooley...

My brother is serverely diabetic and has major leg and foot issues (something called the Charcot syndrome).

I worry about him. He's a doctor, but won't look after himself properly. He's had some alarming episodes (massive coronary, quadruple by-pass and a minor stroke).

Where're the major bucks to cure this scourge? Big pharma makes out better by "treating" it than curing it.

SG

[undeterred]

26. Past three hours now!

I forgot how long black peoples church services can last. Once when I lived in Chicago a friend and I went to a United Church of Christ on Christmas- it was actually the same one the Obamas used to go to - and the service was 3 and a half hours long.

I just can't sit still that long.

[Surya Gayatri]

29. That's why they jump up and shout "AMEN!"

so often. Not to mention occasionally rockin' in the aisles...

Some great gospel music goin' down here!

SG

[undeterred]

30. You have to get up and move!

Having Stevie Wonder and R Kelly is pretty awesome though.

I bet its a big deal for the music lovers in that church who loved Whitney.

[nanabugg]

32. The service could have ended after Tyler Perry spoke. nt

[Surya Gayatri]

36. For us, who're eavesdropping from afar, it does

seem to go on and on and on.

But, for those mourning there in person, the long process is part of the healing.

SG