Recommended Tune - Lindstrom

Last weekend was my mate, Aaron's Birthday, we started things in a very civilized manner, with a nice meal in Green Nineteen, tasty food, good service and very affordable. We did the cake thing, brought the bike out, we bought it for Aaron a few days earlier, everyone was having a fine celebration.

Then onto Sean MacD's in Harold's Cross for plenty of fun and frollix, where Greg and Aaron are running their night, Native Tongues. No mad clubbing, just a pub with good tunes and a decent smoking section. Anyway, about halfway through the night, there is Rubio, giving everything he's got on the decks and he plays this tune. I know it as well as can be, I've heard it being played a million times, it's just I've never known the name of it. 'I fucking love this track.' I said to myself, and with that my attention was dragged else where so I never got to ask Rubio what the name of it was.

About 5 hours later, we are all squeezed into Aaron & Rubio's cottage, I'm swaying left and right at this stage, there is Conor Dunne giving it as much of his all as Rubio was back in the place and what do you know, on comes this tune again. 'Fuckin Hell, that tune is savage.' I thought. I gander over and there is Damo, dancing with a look of sheer passion on his face to the tune. I look over, I clock his eye -

'What a fucking tune, bro!' I say

And he replies 'Fucking savage, man, spacey as fuck'

'Yeah, a real fuckin Blade Runner quality about it.' I say

And on we go about how deadly the tune is. I get the name of the track off Damo and by the time, I finish up at the session, back in mine, then bed, up the next day, I completely forget it. There I am texting Damo, Rubio and Conor Dunne like a mad yoke the next day, trying to get the name of this fucking track again. Damo is the first to get back to me and he has no recollection of even having a conversation with me at the party, Rubio sends me the names of 3 tunes that could not of been further from the tune and third time lucky, Conor Dunne texts - 'I think ur talkin about Lindstrom - I Feel Space' and he was right - Get this beast into you!

Movie Recommandation - Vicki Christina Barca

I have recently had the pleasure of experiencing Sky Movies for the last 2 weeks and, okay, 30 squid a month is a little affluant for my current income but let me tell you, it is worth it, it is amazing. I woke up the other night at about 4am, couldn't get back to sleep, I was pacing the gaf, on my second cup of tea, I knew I wasn't getting back to sleep, simple as that. I flicked the TV on, expecting the only thing on to be the Sky Sports News carosel but no, I forgot . . . . . . . for a few minutes I had completely forgotten about the Sky Movies, get the fuck in there, you little beauty. Firstly, I thought to myself, 'Ye know what, they will be showing nothing but bollix on at this time.' Oh my God, was I wrong. I watched Vicki Christina Barcalona, I thought it was fucking savage and I thought to myself, what a great way to start a day. So if anyone is looking for solid movie to watch over the coming weekend, checkout Woody Allen's best movie he has done in years - Vicki Christina Barcalona - PS For the rest of the day, I was fucking knackered.

Tune Recommendation - Number 1

Andy Durkan played this track for me there a few months ago, it was the wee hours of the morning, everyone needed a whopper tune that was going to lift the spirits of the party, to say the least, it worked. I thought it was kick ass, Check it out

Recommended Movie - Number 1

If you are looking for a sweet ass movie at any stage this week, check this out. Sean Penn's last movie, Into The Wild.

Video Project

Today, myself and my bro, Max, start our long talked about video project that is going to talk our lifetime to complete, we are finally getting the finger out and actually starting it. It is going to take a full life time to do, but I reckon it will be worth it, even if we don't get to see the finished product ourselves.

This also means that some of the people that I know and respect will not get to see it either. In fact, now that I think about it, the only people that are really going to give a bollix about it, is some wanky generation that is yet to be born. I will be there, on my death bed, dying of some horrible incurable disease that has yet to come along and it is really, really painful, some arty little shit will be in my face telling me how deadly the idea is. I will be unable to talk because this disease will probably effect the mouth, but I will be thinking very cynical thoughts at that moment.

Lets Go! Hope the little shit is out of bed

Oscar This

After a nice weekends sessioning that began with the Man Utd - Wigan game on Saturday afternoon in Coffeys gaf, myself and Shocko found ourselves 2 pubs and 3 gaffs later on my couch, surrounded by passed out mates and we were engaging in some seriously in-depth chatter about this year's films. There we were, feet up, chilling, after spending 45 euro on nine Cobra beers from that Indian in Portobello, awaiting the announcement of this years academy awards.


I didn't want this year to be the same as every other year, me sitting there, awake, scanning the internet for the Oscars live and failing miserably. I don't know, why is it I get so frantic about watching them, I have to see them and I have to see them live. I hate those edited hour long versions on RTE the next night, they always get someone who has had a lobotomy to edit the thing. The funny thing is on the rare occasion where I actually get to watch them live; I do nothing but roar obscenities at the TV or bitch to whoever it is I'm with, about how shallow and crass the whole fuckin thing is. I can’t explain it, I just want it, I don't want to miss it, I can’t do with out it. So what did I do, I ring up Sky

'Hello, Sky.'

'Eh, Hi . . . how much is it to get the movies.

'It is thirty one euro a month.'

' . . . . . . . . Do I have to take them for the whole month?'

'Minimum a month, sir.'

'Okay, fuck it, give them to me.'

31 euro, . . . . . am I insane? . . . . Ah, to hell with it, I'll have the movies for a month aswell as the Oscars, so not all bad. I’ll finally get to see the Human Centipede after all.



As always I tried to see as many of the films nominated as I possible before the faithful night and I didn't do too badly this year, everything bar True Grit & The Fighter. This year, the awards themselves looked to be bit obvious, very little surprises, Best Film & Best Director between Social Network & The Kings Speech, with the latter being the favourite and would end up taking it, weird because my money was on The Social Network.



First off, Tom Hooper has very little to his name if you ask me, The Damned United, one of the Prime Suspects and Eastenders and that’s about it. Not much to warrant a best director award, even if the Kings Speech is a quality movie. Remember this is the award that Kubrick, Hitchcock, Altman or Sergio never got, a disgrace. I believe the Best Director award is the only award that is given in the ceremony that past work kind of comes into play. It cant be flukey first movie, if it is to be your first movie, it better be pretty fuckin savage, and the Kings Speech certainly wasn’t that.



This brings me onto my second point, The Kings Speech is a quality movie, it is solid as a motherfucker, you can’t fault it. It's just a bit nice, but nice is good. It is also very lovely, but lovely is also good. It just didn't blow my bollix off if you know what I mean, but I do remember leaving the cinema with a spring in my step, thinking to myself - 'Yeah, that was worth the fiver (I know, a fiver, I love being a student). The film didn't give me that Best Film, Oscar buzz, the only Oscar buzz I got off it was Colin Firth which was a given, seeing that he gave the performance of his life in 'A Single Man' last year and missed to Jeff Bridges in, what I thought was an average performance in an average movie.



Another thing about The Kings Speech that made me doubt it, was that it wasn't The Social Network. To me, The Social Network had Oscar written all over it, it was the film of the year. Firstly, Fincher, it was to be Dave Fincher's time. Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Zodiac (I'm not going mention Benjamin Button, even though it's the only one he's been nominated for, coz I just thought it was muck) so that, if you look at it, is some back log of movies, and I'm afraid something tells me that Captain Nemo isn't gonna earn him another nod so this is gonna be the only nomination for a while.



Something else that had me waving The Social Network flag was the importance of the movie, the importance of Facebook in today’s society. Facebook, only over the last few weeks, had been the centre of communication for 3 Revolutions in Africa for fuck sake. Its existence has changed the world for the better and no one can deny that and something was telling me the Academy was going to give it some notoriety.



Also I believe the film was a better movie, and believe it or not, I couldn't stand it when I saw it first. It took the second viewing to realize, 'Holy Shit, this is a quality fucking movie.' The reason I hated the movie to begin with was the same reason I hated There Will Be Blood to begin with, I simply despised every character in the film. When I see a film for the first time, there is something in me, I don't know why, I have to, kind of, like the protagonist. Even if it is Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, for some reason, I kind of like him . . . . . . . . . eh, I think like is the wrong word . . . but you know what I mean. Just like Daniel in There Will Be Blood, I hated Mark Zukerberg, I hated Justin Timberlake and I fucking hated those twins. After the film, I didn't give a fuck about any of them, they were all so rich, they were all so talented, it angered me, I left fuming. For the next week, I'm waxing lyrical to everyone how I didn't like the movie and every where I turned, I was told to shut the fuck up and watch it again. I did, and guess what, I really liked it, in fact, I've watched it several times since including just before writing this blog and I love it. It is a quality ass movie and I was very disappointed it didn't take the the Oscars home in the end.



On the upside, as a massive West Wing fan, it was great to see Aaron Sorkin take the Screenplay award home, although I think he had that in the bag as Paddy Power had him at 1/20. Another award going to The Social Network was to the lead singer of a childhood band of mine, Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor for Original Score which a quality series of music, I downloaded the fuck out of it last week and it is kick ass.

Anyway, myself and Seamas skulled our extremely over-priced Cobra's, there was a hint of morning light through the window and as the ceremony came to a close so were our eye-lids, a fine way to end a 2 day bender if you ask me.

21 days in

Okay 21 days in is a bit of a lie, but since New Years I have only smoked and drank on one occasion. I was very proud of the fact that I lasted 14 days, 2 weeks with out touching a drop or sparking up . . . . . or even getting one into me. Then, of course, Kate Brennan's birthday slash going away party comes along, this was going to be impossible to get through.

I said to myself, Fuck it, I would reward myself for being so good up to now, 14 days, I was very impressed with myself, it is funny that even in my thirtieth year I still manage to impress myself. How would I reward myself? I would go on the fucking rip. But this was all on one condition, that I jumped back on the wagon as soon as Sunday hit. Kate's party was on the Friday so I waited until that clock hit twelve midnight, it was Saturday, officially, lets get stuck into it for the next day. 24 hours, 80 smokes, 30 beers, 8 little fellas, a 2CB and a bag of weed later I pass out in my own bed, in my own place would you believe. That was the fucking craic!


Me in the middle of having craic - 15th Jan '11

I wake up back on the wagon again. I go another week and here I am, at the forefoot of another weekend. I really don't want to do anything mad because I'm going to London next week and I will certainly be drinking there.

'Then just don't drink or smoke or give it the big boy shit this weekend' I hear you saying

Easier said than done, it's my mate Paddy Canada's going away thing in the Sugar Club on Saturday night, we're all checking out Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest and I have no doubt in my mind that by the end of Saturday, we will be throwing our hands up in the air and wavin them around like we just don't care. First weekend in February doesn't have anything . . . i think . . . does it?



I hope I can hold it together - wish me luck!

Documentary of the Year

As we enter into award season, I love checking out some of the potential nominees. I always start on the Best Documentary catagory, what docs are more than likely going to be in the short list for accolades over the coming months, the first I checked out has blown my mind. It's the documentary directed by Banksy, 'Exit Through The Gift Shop', fucking quality. You enter into it expecting a simple doc which explains and delves into the rise of Street Art but the film takes a completely turn. Just check it out - here is the link to check the whole film and a trailer to get you aroused.

http://watch-movies.ro/movie/exit_through_the_gift_shop_(2010)

I Have To Hit The Showers

I really don't want to get talking about this with anyone, but I have to, it is irritating me so much to even think about it, but I have to get it off my chest. I feel a painful strain on my shins and my back as I'm writing this but what the fuck else can I blog about after tonight. It is a series of things really.

I need to get the fuck out of dodge as soon as I finish this course, that's if this course isn't on the chopping block on the December 4th. I need to get out of this shit hole for a while, I'm getting cabin fever. As the weeks go by I feel less and less association with this country and the cunts that are within it. Everything about the place just annoys me and I feel like I'm on a completely different page than the whole lot of it. The place is just boring the fucking arse off me. There is nothing exciting going on here and it's only going to get worse over the coming 4 years. I bored, I'm bored, I'm bored, and trust me, I've tried to entertain myself.

It's not just all the political fuck up's. To be perfectly honest, I don't care about it that much anymore. I knew they we crooked cunts years ago and I'm not surprised they fucked all that shit up. It was going to happen to the greedy pricks at some stage, it was only a matter of time. You knew just on the look of them, the physical look of them that they were dodgy. Did the people of Ireland not realize all this after 'shirt-gate' with Charlie? All these guys were young fella's in the party when all that shit was going on. By the look of them, I knew it; they looked like baddies and I felt that every time we voted them in. They looked like the type of dodgy idiots that were capable of all this. They looked like the cast of Dick Tracey for fuck sake.





Whose Who?

I don't get the whole attitude in the country, Dublin especially. I just watched an episode of Prime Time, getting the news that the country is going down the swany and after the show, being advertised, watch Fade Street, next Thursday. Are you serious, The Irish Hills, are you for real. I can’t wait, I truly cannot wait to see how those upper-middle class idiots get on in their fake MCD internships, I really cannot wait. Will they be late again, I wonder? How will that one with the black hair get over the fact she is going blow one of those Peter Mark hairdoed band members. 'You've got to pump it up. You have to pump it up', she certainly is. For real, are you messing with me or shall I stab myself in the eyes with my own knob now or later. And you know what, lads, Irish Television, it's only gonna get worse. You think that Irish Television is bad now, wait until the next budget. RTE see you later - you’re gone.

The Arts as well, you thought it was hard to get arts council funding for your theatre company in this country last year, well, you ain't seen nothing yet. You must be fucking joking. There was really good campaign in motion there for a few minutes, to help promote the importance of the arts in every aspect of society. That is pretty much nil-in-void now if you ask me and it is back to the drawing board. I suppose the Abbey Theatre will actually have to stick to their brief now. They will have to actually use Irish actors & directors in the national theatre, we won’t have the cash for the likes of Alan Rickman and Co. for the next 4 years, they'll all have to head to the Gate next year.



I saw a great interview there with author & historian, Tim Pat Coogan, and it really hit home how morto this whole thing is. We are a young country, an extremely young fucking country. The Republic was proclaimed less than a hundred years ago, The free state, where we started actually making important decisions about the running of the country began in 1922, under ninety years ago and the republic itself, only officially came into recognition in 1937 so we have, as a Republic, only been going for just over 70 years. Less than the average life time expectancy for people in this country. What a banana republic we have created in such a short space of time.



I often wonder what motivates people like revolutionaries and historical figures in their own time, to lay down your life like that, to make the ultimate sacrifice. Did they really mean all of it or was it just the cool thing to do back then. They didn't have tabloids or fashion industries or TV3 or any of that shit back then to tell them what to do, so, maybe, dying for your country was the going on 'X-Factor' of their time. Was Wolfe Tone the Mary Byrne of 1798? Was Robert Emmet's public execution the equivalent to Westlife turning on the Christmas lights in 1803? And were the Pearce Brothers, the Jedward of 1916? Who knows? To fight in open war on your doorstep, it seems . . . . harder, less craic. Thank god, I don't have to do that. Does anyone want a dab?

When I look around today, I don't see how we are even remotely related to these men and women. Any nationalism or republicanism I see these days is so forced and fake and ignorant, i.e. that idiot wearing a Celtic jersey, brandishing a sign stating 'No Foreign Games' outside Corker that time. I see people who go on about it all the time as complete charlatans and I see through their visad. I would actually put myself and my peers into the shoes of these historical heroes and truly ask myself and my fellow Irishmen the questions. Would we do that? Would we have the passion? Would we have the patriotism? Would we have the balls to do anything even remotely like that? or would we just rather get stoned and watch Fade Street again. Would we just simply say, 'Ah fuck this, I'm off to Copper's to get hammered and wear some nurse home as a hat.' I am truly terrified of the answers I may hear, I really am.



Getting back to my initial point. I need to get out of here for a while; I've been here for too long. I go to Berlin & London and I feel like I'm in an actual city. That there is a real buzz there, people are not naf. I talk to people I know in these cities and they are loving it. They feel like there is something going on there, there is a completely different buzz in the places. They don't miss Dublin that is for sure. The more I think about it, the naffer Dublin seems

My eye is on New York, I'm gonna jump on that year visa you can get from USIT and see you later, I’m off. My mate, Russell, just got back there. He said it took him a few weeks to get into it and as soon as he felt like he was settling, he had to come home sadly. It just seems like a completely different world to this. I'm gonna finish this course and I'm off. January 2012, I reckon. I'm gone



One last message to anyone political out there, who I would say are reading this in their droves, are you listening - get your fucking shit together and stop being so fucking conservative, open your mind to new ideas that might save us, you are all so fucking scared to try anything different that might help the economy - here are a few ideas that might actually help morale & the economy - just consider these, talk about them, see what they might do for the economy - Extend Pub Licensing - Extend Off Licence Hours - Legalise Weed, seriously consider it - and please cut that 'Cheque Cashing' payment from the Public Sector before I go on a killing spree up there.

To end on a positive note, that Irish performance against the All Blacks on Saturday was the first feeling of Irish pride I've had in ages - Fair fucks to you, lads

That's it I'm going to bed - I'm tired and so is he, below

I'm Not A Celebrity, Giv Me Some Mo

Okay, it has taken a week in bed with the worst man flu ever and watching the first week of 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here' to get stuck into another blog, my first blog in the month of November. . . . and October. I have realized that this show is one of the greatest shows since 'The Grand Knockout Tournament' when comes to fucking up real celebrities.



Some how a group of producers have gotten a handful of quite well known celebrities this year, I will never know how. I know normally they are a group of nobodies and has-beens that I never know or never have much interest in but, this year, we have Linford Christie, Shaun Ryder, that politician, Lemptit, who rode a Cheeky Girl, that goofy bird from X Factor, Dom Joly and they just brought on that fat bird from Big Brother. You know, real celebrities. But the one who is standing out for me is that oul'one who sniffs through peoples shit for fibre on that sort of weight watchers show, Gillian whatser name.



Gillian is this frail, little vegan that keeps on getting picked for each task which, of course, involves eating all sorts of mad shit, swimming with baby crocodiles and eels & being bearded alive. This woman is about to have a nervous breakdown, it is amazing television. She has fainted twice, each time better than the last and I can’t wait for the next one. She keeps asking, 'Why do the public keep putting me up?' and I’m happy to give her an answer to that question.

You're being a cunt. Stop being a cunt and you'll see, the public will feel sympathy for you. You wont have to crawl through that pitch-dark tunnel of tarantulas, a task that can only end with you pissing yourself for my amusement. Trust me, they will give a tsk to Linford, he is starting act like a complete cunt so there is your way out. You don't have to even stop being a cunt, just stop talking and Linford will do the work for you.



How much are they paying these people? It must be a healthy amount because you would have to pay me a fortune to do any of that shit and then to put it on TV, fuck that. These people are elected politicians, professional comedians, live-broadcasters, decorated athletes, and music legends, you would think they would know better than a podgy twat from Dublin like me, who doesn't know his arse hole from his ear hole when it comes to making the right decision. They must be getting paid a fuck load.

The whole philosophy behind the show is amazing, it's phenomenal. We are no longer as a society putting celebrities on pedestals and looking up to them. We have turned them into clowns, dance, dance, dance, pig, dance. I used to always think this show was another self-indulgent show about celebrities, another wanky celebration of people who are famous, and how annoying they were. But no, this is different, this is amazing, this should be studied. This should be celebrated, I am so hooked, it unreal. Maybe it might have something to do with my man flu or the high doses of antibiotics & steroids I've been on for the last week but I'm going to watch this show every year now for the rest of time. 'Until the day comes where they have laid out in Marge's funeral home, and truck me off to Mount Almond.'