Scotland: home to David Tennant, Susan Boyle, and the Jedi police force

[tzikeh]

How much do I love Scotland right now?

From The Daily Record: Eight Scots cops revealed to be Jedi.

Strathclyde were the only ones to confirm the existence of Jedi officers after Freedom of Information requests were sent to all police forces in the UK.

A spokesman said: "At the time of your request, eight police officers and two police staff had recorded their religion as Jedi."

In recent Susan Boyle news, she sang "Cry Me a River" in 1999 on a compilation CD recorded for charity.

The Millennium Celebration disc, which was partly funded by Whitburn Community Council, was the brainchild of local newspaper editor Eddie Anderson.

He launched a search for unsigned acts to take part. And as soon as he heard Susan at the auditions he knew he had found something special.

Only 1,000 copies were made. You can her sultry blues version of the song here. If you can't get it to play there, you can find it all over YouTube.

Holy crap, is that a voice. Granted, this is a produced, studio version of a song, but DAMN, woman. And I bet you that anyone who remembers buying that CD is frantically searching boxes in the basement and hoping they didn't throw it away after ripping it into iTunes. Someone's gonna make a LOT of money on ebay.

ETA: If you don't know who Susan Boyle is, this is Susan Boyle. In a nutshell, she was one of the people auditioning for Britain's Got Talent, and surprised the hell out of everyone. You can now find interviews everywhere you look. Major American network news want to interview a woman from a small town in Scotland who nobody had heard of until this past week when she appeared on a tv show we don't even get here.

about 35 million people have watched the YouTube clips of her audition so far.

Oprah wants to have her on her show. Oprah. OPRAH. I mean, you know--OPRAH. Like, Oprah, dudes. That's pretty fucking amazing for someone whose only claim to fame is that she sang a truncated version of a song from an 80's musical on a British talent show.

Comments

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, that Susan Boyle is unbelievable.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Blows my mind, man. I love watching her clip from BGT just to a) hear her, and b) watch SIMON FREAKIN' COWELL with his chin in his hands, puppy love in his eyes, sighing like a schoolboy. *heart*

If you add up the five or six main clips of that, about 35 MILLION people have seen her debut.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

his chin in his hands, puppy love in his eyes, sighing like a schoolboy

That is my favorite part of that clip, after her voice. :)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Totally. I mean, I love when his eyebrows are climbing into his hairline after her first line, and I love love love the empathic musical moment when Amanda's left index finger goes up from her clasped hands as Susan begins the progression on the word "shame," but it's Simon's "I'm in wuv" face that is the cherry on top of the sundae.

I have never seen American Idol, or America's Got Talent, or Pop Idol, or Britain's Got Talent, or any of those types of shows, but this Susan Boyle thing is unstoppable. And it got me to watch one other clip from the show (which was linked in the "related clips" or whatever in the sidebar) of a dance group called "Flawless." They're kind of a mix of hip-hop, the Nicholas Brothers, and some 70's funk thrown in. They are *awesome* to watch.

But they are not Susan Boyle.

[nomadicwriter]

If you've ever seen a Michael Flatley show, the Greek dancers are also hilariously worth watching.

The bad auditions on these shows set off my embarrassment squick big, but I do like to watch to try and catch the awesome people. I saw the Susan Boyle thing when it aired and I was crossing my fingers hoping she was going to fabulous. It's amazing how fast that clip's taken over the entire internet.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I can't watch those shows. I just can't. Thank God for YouTube.

[nomadicwriter]

To be honest, when I say I "watch", I actually mean I channel-hop in and out at the speed of light attempting to catch small fragments of the good auditions, and then come back to catch the whole thing on Youtube and/or repeats once I've confirmed what bits are safe to watch without cringing. ;)

[nomadicwriter]

Apparently 0.8% of the population of England and Wales registered as Jedi on the 2001 census. So it's technically the fourth largest religion in the country, ahead of Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism. It has its own official census code and everything.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Er, I'm going to guess that Anglicanism comes in first, no?

[nomadicwriter]

Yep, well, Christianity generally. We are apparently 72% Christian, 3.1% Muslim, 1.1% Hindu, and 0.8% Jedi.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Huh. Any ideas on the %s of Sikh, Jewish, and Buddhist?

[nomadicwriter]

Alas, the Wiki page on Jedi fails me, but there's probably official figures out there somewhere. I shall have a quick Google.

...Ah. This page says 0.6% Sikh, 0.5% Jewish and 0.3% Buddhist. (And also that despite that big figure declaring themselves nominally Christian 66% of all people have no connection with any church or religion, which is much more in line with my general impression than the bare census figures appeared.)

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

Everytime I hear her voice I just get chills.

[klia.livejournal.com]

It would be SO cool if Susan Boyle was on Oprah!

And now I'm imagining Clooney and Pitt watching her, getting all teary-eyed. <3

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

"Is that... are you... are you watching Oprah?"

[klia.livejournal.com]

*sniffle*

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's Oprah. If there is a modern success story where the little person makes good and in doing so somehow encapsulates the amazing nature of the human spirit (and also is able to make Oprah cry), Oprah will find them and give them free washer-dryer units.

Or, at the very least, send Gail to interview them.

(Note that I saw the Susan Boyle clip earlier this week, and was in tears.)