Where for fart R U, Romero?

Went to see the Limerick version of Romeo and Juliet, the emphasis appeared to be very much on the disregarded comedy element. There were a couple of nice directorial moments, such as

question:what light through yonder windows breaks.

answer: a marlboro light, i suspect.

And the art of glove story at the end.

€8 was fine for such a show, and it was more entertainment that high art.

Only one thing though, I was quite unsure where to look for some of the bedroom action, I mean, who doesn't find a young lady in a short, pink, silk nightie enticing, but it was kinda short for the angle the audience were observing proceedings from and the actress in question was somewhat aware of the dangers too. There were a few moments when I reckoned I should look away now! The mystery of the theatre.

Weekend worriers

Friday, went into town and meet Sully and JcD in Nancy's, had 2 then up to Tom Collins for quieter drinks. In the door and who was sitting inside only N. McDo....l, and J 2me. Both are wage slaves of the cpu king but they seem to be enjoying it.

Saturday went to see My Pet Brick in the Sallyport. Was pleasantly surprised, not by competence of those involved (ducking from shoe from the direction of the foundation building) but rather by the material chosen. All good tunes, most of which I know or have de collection, Though the songs are somewhat more on art student side of rocking. I really enjoyed it. Seriously. And got a lift from Miss cc, we swung (avoiding the beeping people behind us) by donkey's which was closed! Shocking all together, Shocking!

Sunday went to Beal na Blath for the Michael Collins commenoration, thanks due to Eoin for the lift down and up again and shout out to Liam for being part of the crew. Odd enough, an old 'pal' of mine was there, God how we reminisced, it was powerful stuff altogether. What was odd was that he wasn't at the event in Dublin which would have made more sense.

Somewhat surprised today that someone was comparing Goldfrapp to Slade, when it's obviously a T-Rex influence we are looking at in 'Oh la la'. And they let such people play instruments!

And tonight was the last night of soccer! not enough people came forward and expressed an interest in keeping things going. Bummer. I'll have to join the effing gym now and do some sort of program. I'm down about 10lbs since March, when I started playing twice a week with some regularity, and I'm somewhat fitter than I was. Fitter only mind, I'm not claiming to be fit. Thanks again are due to Mr. Organiser and everyone that played. I enjoyed it .

Boxes of Music

Was looking yesterday at what I have on my machine to listen to and decided I was somewhat deficient in some departments, so I brought in two personal favourites of mine which are not that well known.

One is Thomas Dolby, better known as a producer, he played keyboards for David Bowie at Live Aid. Quite the musical ployglot, his album 'Aliens ate my buick' has a very strong swing feel, which as it is from 1988 makes it very much ahead of its time.

The other is ani difranco.

One thing that struck me again, as I accessed the CDs is the wonderful packaging of difranco's work. Given that she has her own label and isn't in the Britney stakes when it comes to shifting units it would make you wonder as to how if her small label can afford to do such good work on low unit basis why do the big labels cost so much when the packaging is so crapola?

And somehow a few Tori Amos albums made it in too. She of the itchy bottom piano performances. And the Barenaked Ladies. Oh jolly, jolly.

The west smoker

Only a week or two after my Romy and Michelle event, it appears that the sparking brunette in question is joining one of my favourites tv shows . Which is great news! I can just see herself and Donna not getting on already.

Not that it has anything to do with my reference to her, but if the Gods are smiling in this direction perhaps they could out Faith/Tru get some work and all will be right in the world.

My laundry bill is dirty

Amazing, some people will write about anything, or nothing or that useless stuff that you encounter in life that seems like something but is less than nothing at all. Then someone will offer them a gig or a stint or whatever people are calling it these days where someone asks you to do a thing and they clam up! How weird is that?

No real news with me.

Decided that it might worth archiving some work since you never know when machines will do the dirty on you, (would it be a good idea if you could do that with relationships? probably not), and then I found my DVD/CD writer wouldn't write. Lost about 1/2 a day fiddling about and rebooting, then came in this morning and Colm had sorted it. All hail Colm! Apparently, there was a bios update on the dell site for the drive.

See, told you it wasn't real news!

Oh, JcD is back in country this week. His wee fella, Declan, is getting christened next weekend. And B. Meade has also been around. JcD is quite the fan of Ayn Rand as I recall, and Brian, as he says himself was close enough to smell the tear gas in Genoa at the G8 protests. Oddly enough, we all still get on reasonably well. Apart from JcD knocking his pint and spilling half of over my leg. It might all have had something to do with his sister's impeding marriage and his concerns that somehow I was likely to crash the event. I didn't even know about. You go out with someone of all of a week, or was it less and they completely fail to keep you updated of their lovelife from then on. Shocking behaviour really. Mr Murphy was also with us. And he was pleased too, as his donkey went to the seaside or something. B Meade is wondering about any political plans I have, and yet he still refuses to let us know if he will txt us if the revolution is due...

Sham's Dog

Following on from earlier discussions, I will quickly sum up Sham's Dog and the Sham's Dog experiment. Sham's Dog operates on broadly similar principles to Schrödinger’s cat.

Place a smallish dog with a carton of Krank's chips and some ketchup sachets into a suitable cardboard box. Then with lid securely in place, cut the box in two with a machete. Until the box is parted, you will be unsure as to whether or not Sham's Dog has survived. Any red fluid that appears may just be from that Krank's ketchup. This is then Sham’s dilemma, does he open the box and find out what has happened to the dog, or open your throat with his Stanley? Answers welcome. Mullets are not welcome! I should point out I'm referring to mullets in the general sense. That one looks well enough, but it's always a risk.

Weekend found, one careful owner.

So, I managed to make it home from Limerick for just the last night of Puck. The fireworks were good. I wasn't too impressed by the band , though they were technically quite proficient they were lacking a certain something in the getting the crowd going division. Word of warning to the band, I typed Alanna into google and some escort in Toronto turned up before they did. Have to be careful about that sort of thing.

The weather was good on the night, it did rain a bit after the band stopped, but it was only for 10/15 minutes while we wandered about looking for somewhere to get a pint, first to the O'Shea's then round to Bunkers and finally back Francie's or Dodo's depending on your age. And all that without actually going in anyway or getting drink. We got some drink out of Francie's and had two before heading down town for the midnight fireworks.

Have to say, excellent matches on the weekend. Dublin Tyrone was the best of the summer, and I would think that Dublin will find themselve becoming hot favourties over the next week or so, which is never good for a team.

Clare were brave, but they did seem to be just hanging on in there in the last 10/15 minutes of the game. A pity for them. Looks like Cork v. Kilkenny again this year.

All the old faces, all the old tunes.

So, we reunioned on Saturday night. The Carnegie '85.

I got a lift down from Mike and Maurice on the Saturday. Oh, the joy that is spending 45 minutes outside Castleisland on a Saturday afternoon. The weather was quite miserable too. We had attempts to remember people from our respective classes 1 Red, 1 Yellow and 1 Blue.

To collect the tickets, the trio above had to meet up with Lisa and 'Linda (Belinda) the front of Francie's. A swift pint or two was had and some photos from the school trip to France were examined. Neither Maurice or myself went on that trip. It was very strange to see how young everyone looked. And the hair, dear God, the hair! Then it was back to the downstairs at the Manor. There were about 25 there when we arrived with most of the ladies standing/sitting around the bar on the right and most of the lads sitting down on the left. Some element of role reversal at play there I reckon. There was some "howya" and "Who ya?" for a while while we got settled in.

Then we adjourned upstairs where a person tried to take our photograph and got somewhat bossy in doing it. Suddenly, it was just like school only with the teachers out of the room. There were calls for 'no noise' and other phrases of the age. I was singled out as a troublemaker. Detention beckoned.

Apparently, the picture is in the Kingdom Tuesday, perhaps the Kerryman too. Have to be sure and get a copy. Another one for the archive. Someone was asking about had anyone been on the telly. (I've managed it about 5/6 times one, Today Tonight in '91/92 something to do with emigration, so they showed a clip of the UL graduation in '91, and there am I, occupying half the screen and quite recognisable. Then following year it was the Tokyo Paddy's Day parade in '93, me drinking in the street and being insulted by Colm Connelly. Then a long gap to Paddy's Day '04, the 6.1 news and the GAA, then Primetime in May '04, election posters, and Q&A audience twice. I have links and must get around to posting them. ) I said yes, but didn't elaborate...

At one point in the evening, I made a comment to someone, which without the necessary culture references, didn't come across as it should have. Sometimes, I forget how silly about pop culture I am. I mentioned that someone had a certain Debbie Gibson–ness. I really need to learn to pay people compliments which a bit better phrased.

Here is young Debbie Gibson: full of perky, youthful girliness

Somewhat more recent Debbie Gibson material, she is quite the attractive woman.

We had a bit of a Siege of Ennis later. Sadly, I got lost about a quarter into it and couldn't remember/work out where I was supposed to be going. That's what happens when you don't go to weddings for a while!

Another noteworthy point is that I appeared to be the only one with facial hair. I suspect this owes something to my continued inability to grow a real proper beard and hence my repeated attempts to do so, and partially due the fact that I needed, in my younger days, to remain unshaven for considerable periods or else not be granted admission to licensed premises due to a certain youthfulness on my part.

At the end of the night, Gerard O'Connor spoke for all of us in thanking the organisers and acknowledging those who are no longer be with us.

I hope everyone had as good a night as I did. We definitely shouldn't leave it so long next time.

Fantastic Four

The only, and I mean only, good thing in this movie was Jessica Alba . Avoid!

I am really looking forward to Serenity, and I've never even seen Firefly. For shame, they say, for shame.

Romy and Michelle's Intermediate School Killorglin reunion

Off to Killorglin today for a school reunion, the class I should have left with. Has it really been that long?

Sadly, I don't remember any witty, snarky, but cute wee brunettes like in this movie. Well, not in the class, there were one or two in other years. I'm sure that they would have hated me, but it's hardly likely they would have spared the time.

Of course, it could be much more likely to be this , I mean I did work for the Company, only mine was just Blue and Big, not Red, White and Blue. And we didn't kill for money.

I did have an epiphany in a desert once, as if that counts. Actually, those were just 10 year reunions.

Image is all!

This is really interesting.

Blogging etiquette....

if you post something and then remove it, is it rude? Especially, if some have seen it but not others... and even if you didn't take it down because you changed your mind about what you said but rather decided that it would be better if people didn't know you thought that.

Of course, on a blog rescinded entries don't scream out at their removal as do the torn pages of a diary.

Yesterday

upon the stairs, I saw a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today. I wonder if he's here to stay?

I remember fondly a time when...

As I lay much too wide awake I was drawn to thinking last night about Puck and football and how, in either 85 or 86 when Kerry played Monaghan in a semi-final, we were forced to listen to the match on someone's car radio cos we were working as Stewards. Selling, I mean giving out tickets for pars in the par cark.

Then it occured to me that in writing this in a blog entry or on any computing device but not bothering to simply highlight the above text and

Will the idea of imprecision die a little more because we can find the facts more easily? And is this painting us into a corner?

I did horse the facts into google and I got

"1985 - Semi-finals: (Replay) Kerry 2-9; Monaghan 0-10"

so, 1985 it was.

Oi, that hurt!

So, stifler is leaving us. On Saturday night he played host in the house to some of his friends and now ex-work colleagues. There were some people there who were variously described as game ball, up for it, or anyones. I'd gone to bed at this point which is probably just as well.


Monday afternoon, evening assisted mgb in the making of fire! For my punishment in so defying the Gods, mgb managed to burn my thumb with a plate. The plate which had been left next to the bbq had heated up on one side and it was that side which I was presented with my mgb.

You can see the resultant 'horrific' damage done above. Shocking really, of course, I'll probably be accused of being a 'woose' by some. I rather think I bravely soldiered on through the evening.

I found this today as a result of MGB's reference to Terry Pratchett allegedly having a go at JK Rowling. Truly an inspired piece of work.

This coming weekend is my school reunion, actually it's a reunion of the class I would have left school with except that I starting reading Lord of the Rings the week of the year end exams in 4th year. Finished Lord of the Rings in 8 days but also made a pig's ear of the exams. It will be a somewhat strange occasion.