I Love, I Love (Travelling II)

Dar Williams from her first album The Honesty Room which, frighteningly, is twenty years old this month.

The Disappeared

We watched and soaked up the brilliance of The Disappeared on RTE 1 last Monday night. And upon its conclusion as we sat there silently within the sacred space that exists when something exceptional reaches its end we couldn’t help but wonder why the fuck they can't do this more often? Programmes which engross, illuminate and provoke like this. The talent and the wherewithal clearly exists, evidently it comes down to finding space in the schedule alongside Vogue Williams meeting the cast of Home and Away and Don’t Tell the Bride. Come to think of it, it’s a wonder it wasn’t on TG4 where they could be guaranteed nobody would be watching.

Brand New Statesman

Russell Brand on our dysfunctional political systems.

Cape Canaveral

Conor Oberst with a very cool version of Cape Canaveral for KCRW

Damo & Ivor

RTE probably field a lot of pitches for comedy shows some of which might, with a bit of development, become decent shows. But RTE don’t bother with any of that, instead they run with Damo and Ivor.

Because it’s an opportunity not to be missed to take two of the most tired characters in the history of the State and put them together in the one show. They couldn’t pass that chance up. Shite squared.

Don't Stop

There’s a reporter and camera at the scene of an incident or accident and the “crew” on site is inevitably said to be “working around the clock” at whatever restorative work is necessary. It’s always a crew and they’re never merely doing their best, doing all they can or working hard; they are always working around the clock. This is a strict rule.

Bookburning

A pamphlet all about kids’ safety came home from the school the other day. They’re all over the safety now.  They’ll do anything for safety except break the cartel that puts four stone of books into the back pack of every kid from first class upwards every year. Evidently it’s in the interests of the safety and well being of kids from the age of six to be hauling around a bag that an adult would struggle with. Character building, don’t you know.

The well being of the teachers would seemingly be unduly compromised by asking them to dispense with the books and spend a bit of time preparing their lessons like they do everywhere else.

Keep your teachers’ down time safe kids, throw that up on your back till next June. You’re young, you’re well able for it and they're so worth it.

Oh Yes He Would

Oh the laughs we used to have at the Americans , five or six of them standing pitchside in matching jackets with their massive mikes and massive headsets dissecting the defensive play of the Denver Broncos, looking like eejits. Paddy would never do that. Right Paddy?

Friend and Foe

Conor Pope, the consumer advocate and someone who I, for a long time now, believed was on our side said this the other day on the radio “Bank of Ireland are trying to migrate customers into the online sphere”. Trust no one in this war against bullshit.

The Next Step

Just in case you are not depressed enough I would encourage you to spend a few minutes going through the comments section at the bottom of any news story on thejournal.ie.

These people are amongst us, there are two dozen of them on this bus. We don’t need the troika anymore, we need the troika with Uzis. We’ve moved on.

Mandolin Midfield

Are you sure Charlie Adam has never been in The Pogues?

Judas

Last night I watched two hours of home movie footage. It wasn't of some gurgling baby, an under 10 football match or unbearable wedding ceremony. It was the home movies of Mickey Jones from Bob Dylan's 1966 World Tour. Mickey was the drummer in Dylan's band at the time and he carried an 8mm camera that he used to record pretty much everything, it seems. Mickey narrated all the shots filling us in on the locations, the context and the personnel. It was fucking brilliant. I would rather boil my head than look at two whole hours of someone's home movie footage, but not Mickey Jones's. Mickey can show me his anytime.

Which leads to the most famous heckle in history. I listened carefully to Mickey give his account of the "Judas" shout at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on that very same world tour and wondered where is the heckler now. What's he doing right now and has any documentary film maker, such as Joel Gilbert,  ever tried to track him down? He couldn't have known the impact his yell would have, that we would still be discussing it forty six years later. One shout which lasted a second all those years ago. I'd love to know what became of him, whether he still feels the same at this remove, has he ever warmed to Dylan's electric stuff in the intervening years? It would be a great, great programme. I think it would be right up the alley of the fella who produced Searching for Sugarman and Man on Wire.

I hereby call on him to get the ball rolling. Otherwise I'll have a crack myself.   

Katrina's Fair

A wee reminder of the greatness that was 10 000 Maniacs

Thatcher

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/russell-brand-margaret-thatcher

A quite brilliant piece from Russell Brand; Margaret Thatcher in two thousand words.

Public Service Broadcasting

So the sky fell in the other day out in RTE when the Pope resigned. It was decided that of all the big breaking news we have had recently this was the biggest and most deserving of the mobilization of the big breaking news machinery of Montrose.

So we had Ronan Collins cut short to allow Sean O’ Rourke on the News at One to do his thang for half an hour longer than usual. We had an emergency convening of the Prime Time team to knock out a suitably solemn analysis of the erstwhile pontiff and his possible successors. We had every religious affairs journalist this side of the Mississippi and their spiritual leader Patsy Mc Garry loitering in the halls of Montrose waiting for their chance, which inevitably came. We had theologians and academics of all shapes and sizes to decode the complex information for us, to make sense of this landmark moment. A landmark moment in the mind of some RTE executive.

A moment of utter insignificance to the rest of us.

We have had actual moments of significance recently, a couple of them. We have had tragic events which triggered the re emergence of abortion onto the national and international stage, we have had a debt deal done with the European Central Bank.

Ronan got to play his full hour of easy listening on those days and the sub standard midweek movies, The Break Up and Dinner with Schmucks went out as scheduled.

RTE; It's comfy behind the curve.

The Little Engine That Could

The largest Nu Luk (I know; gas) store in the world is in the Jervis Centre in Dublin. I heard this on the radio and as long as I live I will never forget the flood of pride that instantly assailed me. What a great day to be Irish I thought; the largest imposed per capita national debt AND Nu Luk store in the world.

There’s just no stopping Paddy right now.

Top Of The Sliabh

My ten year old came to me proudly the other night and proclaimed “Chuaigh Siobhán agus Seán go dtí an baile mór ag siopadóireacht”. “Great stuff” I said, “have a seat; there’s something you need to know.”

So I poured him a glass of Sprite, let him at the last handful of Quality Street and explained that that’s as good as it gets as far as the ‘aul Gaeilge is concerned. That the standard of his conversational capabilities will not improve one shred in the remaining seven years of his formal education.

That yes, he can contemplate having conversations in Irish when he leaves school but to make sure that they revolve around shopping excursions to the big town or if that is not appropriate he could perhaps look into the possibility of steering the dialogue in the direction of a description of a particularly appetising piece of sweet cake he has recently consumed. Meaningful conversation as Gaelige beyond these two core areas does not exist.

I told him he could relax, that it was one of our great traditions to reach the zenith of Irish at the age of ten. But I will be in the system for a long time yet he protested, surely I could learn more. Under no circumstances I replied. You can do no more; you have reached the Promised Land. Put your feet up, you’ve earned a rest.

“No slí” he says. “Slí” says I.

Irish Folk Furniture

A short film on furniture repair and recycling in rural Ireland.