I’ve mentioned Mozart in the Jungle on here before. It’s a wonderful Amazon Prime comedy-drama about passion, professionalism and music. Inspired by Blair Tindall’s autobiography of the same name, the show follows both the appointment of a new conductor to the New York Symphony Orchestra and the travails of a young oboist trying to break into the orchestral big league.

It stars Gael García Bernal and Lola Kirke who both give performances of a lifetime alongside an all-star ensemble. It is creative and imaginative to the point of being a bit nuts sometimes. What other show would have Lang Lang on as a guest star and feature his piano performance with the sound replaced by Daft Punk? And yet, this made for one of the most memorable scenes in four seasons. And the third season featured the most beautiful cinematography of Venice I have ever seen. And, of course, the whole series features fantastic orchestration spanning all kinds of music.

Mozart in the Jungle is a completely brilliant show. And yet, Amazon has decided to cancel it. I really hope someone else picks it up.

I don’t often post videos on here these days, but this one I really enjoyed. First Officer Jeff Skiles of the flight that ended up in the Hudson, and healthcare safety expert Terry Fairbanks lecture on what healthcare can learn from airline safety.

I’m celebrating tonight, as this letter arrived today to inform me that I’ve passed my Part B exam, and so earned membership of the Faculty of Public Health.

This is both scary and exciting on a couple of fronts: firstly, I’ve passed all the exams I need to pass to become a consultant in public health; secondly, for the first time since I was nine years old (the current age of my oldest nephew), I’ve no exams planned in the next twelve months. Or at all, for that matter.

It surely won’t be long until I end up like this:

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/lisaclip.flv” ratio=”4:3″ /]

I tweeted about this video yesterday: it looks cool (yet simultaneously disgusting), but raises more questions than it answers. Why the freaky focus on a “human-free” environment? How is there an “autonomy of over 90 pizzas” from four buttons? Why no sauce in the middle of the pizza? Why the skimpy outfit? What’s with the killer heels? And, most puzzlingly: what’s going on with her hair?

Depressingly, this does already have a UK distributor… so look out for it, no doubt in a budget hotel near you soon…!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwrgAnx6Q8

I tweeted a link to this video yesterday… but I liked it so much that I thought I’d post it here too. I defy anyone to watch past 1:36 without cracking a smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UhYUVtDAWI

If you want to sponsor me and give some money to Marie Curie Cancer Care, you can do so at sjh.im/SimonSwim. Thanks for your support!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l_cZ3_bJGg

Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far! If you haven’t, and you’d like to donate something to Marie Curie and support my 10k swim, please do at http://sjh.im/SimonSwim. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bLaCWMYeg4

If you want to sponsor me and support Marie Curie, go to http://sjh.im/SimonSwim. Many thanks for your support.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVR486PwEFk

As you’ll see from the above video, I’ve agreed to swim 10k in just over two weeks for Marie Curie Cancer Care. Please sponsor me!

10k is a long way – for those of you in London, it’s roughly the same as swimming along the Thames from the London Eye to the Millennium Dome. It’s 400 lengths of my local pool.

So, please sponsor me! If you gave just 5p per length, that’d be £20, or enough to pay for an hour of nursing care for a terminally ill patient. Even £1 – 1p for every 10m – would pay for a patient information pack.

If you’re still not convinced, look at the video below which explains a small part of the work that Marie Curie nurses do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oykbix0C-E0

I’ll give you regular updates on my progress over the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for your support.