Shameless

I just found out that Fiona and Steve (Anne Marie Duff & James McAvoy) in Shameless are actually married in real life.

I'm as happy as Larry Gogan, It's like all the books I've ever read and all the movies I've ever watched might not be total fiction after all. Maybe Dorothy did get back to Kansas, Charlie really got to visit the chocolate factory and Tiny Tim had a happy Christmas after all.

The first two seasons of Shameless were totally brilliant, the helping with homework scene in series one and the steve and fiona stuff in series two were some of the best British TV ever made.

and now it might not all have been makey uppy.... i'm going to bed happy.

VW golf "changes" commercial

Advertising has always been one of my interests, in fact I studied it in college in 1987/88. This was my favourite commercial at that time and still is, the actress is Paula Hamilton (specially done up to look like princess Diana) and the music is by Alan Price...and VW are still doing innovative stuff as their new passat campaign has the funniest site at http://www.midlife-crisis-retreat.co.uk/

Closer.

Must be winter approaching, watching movies again and some of my favourites are popping up on the telly. Last week it was "Hitch" and last night "Closer"

What pops into a persons mind when they are watching a movie like "Closer". I have to admit the things which were flitting through my mind lst night were.

What's real and what's not?
Is winning important?
We all lose in the end anyway.

Actually having played a game on Saturday and lost, watched the rugby Saturday night, supported Cork in the All Ireland on Sunday and then watched Closer I went to bed with six million questions swirling in my head.

It's strange that the only certainty in our lives is that we'll die
If you play enough sport and continue to move up the levels it is inevitable that it will all end in defeat.
If you pursue happiness with enough vigour I've no doubt that it can only end in defeat too.

Happiness is a bit like time, you can't take it with you, you can't bank it, save it up or gaurantee it for the future.
All you can really do is enjoy it when it's there, like sport, time or love. The time to enjoy and appreciate sport is when you're in the middle of it. The only constant in the world is change, I woke up with a new determination to enjoy the day, to not waste what I've got, to enjoy those who are important to me and to appreciate what i've got.

Busy Busy Busy.

My football season is over, it ended as most football seasons end for most teams, in defeat. http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story.asp?j=33674&cat=sport and I have to admit it's strange looking forward to evenings with no training and weekends with no games.

I'm not sure exactly what is going to replace it for me, i really want to stay in decent shape this year so I'll play a little basketball and maybe even get to the gym and lift a few weights, something I've always wanted to do but never really got into.

Work is going really well, it was a busy week and next week is even busier, there are a lot of balls in the air so I am feeling really confident about the next 6 months.

Lining out for Roscommon on Saturday, that will be fun and apart from that it's a very quiet weekend ahead. I'll use it to find some quiet space, reflect and make some decisions.

Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues - 1977

I'll have this one too please. Tom Waits has been one of the constant things in my life for the last almost 30 years. This song is so beautiful.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

There are only two songs that i definately want played at my funeral service, this is one of them!

Plain White Ts - Hey There Delilah - Official (HQ)

I just love this new (well I just found it) facility on youtube that allows me to post my favourite music direct to my blog. This is far and away my favourite tune of the moment.

The Sopranos finale (unedited)

Even the most amazing things have to come to an end.... and I LOVED the Sopranos.. was really sad when it ended, but the fact that no ones ever knew what would happen next was just brilliant...i'm not sure whether i hope there a movie or maybe that's just it. Black screen.... as Tony says..."focus on the good times"

Roger Sanchez - Another chance - Original Mix (Music Video)

Hitch is on.... Right now

If you're a guy you gotta love this movie, it's where the loser gets the girl, as opposed to the girl getting the shining prince.

Can't stay to blog...gotta watch the movie, it's like dirty dancing for blokes.

UPDATE. Ok I watched the movie again and now it looks a little sloppy and soppy at the end, see it really is like dirty dancing for fellas, I just don't get this Eva Mendes thing, how did that girl make it in the movies? She is to acting what I am to ballet.

Two little girls.

I'm not sure how to react to the latest news in the Madeline McCann case. I should feel vindicated a bit as I have long felt that the media shockingly misreported this story, using it to create a culture of fear of the unknown that of course suited the suits in BSkyB.

There would of course have been little interest if Kate McCann had been a black single mother, but no... an affluent white educated married middle class woman would immediately be assumed to be incapable of involvement.

It's the constant insinuation that we need to be very afraid of the unknown that gets me... it's the KNOWN we need to be concerned about, something like 93% of all child abuse, murder and abduction is carried out by people well known to the victim, in fact two weeks ago I watched the news in horror as details were revealed of the terrible torture and killing of a four year old by her mother and boyfriend in Huddersfield

Have you heard of Leticia Aaliyah Wright?

No i bet you haven't....

Deadly buzz!

Brilliant weekend at my little brothers stag party in Edinburgh, really really enjoyed it, weather nice, lovely hotels (the Radisson is really lovely) fantastic company and one or two beers.

Arrived late friday night to Indigo Yard

where the champagne boys we're having one of those arguments to see who had the biggest credit card and thought "oh my god, what have i let myself in for here" but boy did it take off from there and I only saw one more bottle of champagne all weekend and that was my own fault.





We then proceeded to the very lovely Tigerlily,



where entertainment included the fabulous "VIP" room, which most of us we're allowed into but some had to pay a tenner, it was only when inside the "VIP" room that they discovered it was the smoking area, oh how we laughed, the night was rounded up at the nightclub with the worlds lowest ceiling, a strange place where Barry Manilow bought me a drink.... time for bed really.

An early start on Sat at 8.30, down town for breakfast and a recckie on auld reekie, I've been there many times before but I love the feel of Edinburgh, particularly during August when the festival is on, back to the hotel to meet my older brother Des (apparently I don't really know him) and then we wandered round for a while before a nap, there followed a brilliant afternoon at one of the scummiest pubs in the world, Biddy Mulligans in the Grassmarket, which was absolutely brilliant craic, I laughed so much i hurt myself and eventually had to go for another nap, followed by a fabulous meal in the beautiful maison Bleau



Back to Mulligans where we encountered class and sophistication beyond belief (not) and then on to my favourite pub in Edinburgh, the 3 sisters, it ain't classy but it's just the height of craic and I've never ever had a bad night in the place, the only word is mayhem, the floor was made of broken glass, lager and a sticky substance I really hope was red bull, the place was heaving, everyone was up for the craic, there were no slobberers and it was just mega

















A quick visit to espionage nearly ended the night, but when i got back to the hotel and decided to have a late drink I discovered the maddest white rapper in the world who entertained the residents bar until the (very) early hours and was just amazing....

Sunday was a bit of a blur after all that, the Celtic match was an easy stroll and after watching the second half of the hurling it was time to head for the airport, a few delays meant I got home at 2am and monday was a very busy very tiring day.

3 things made this weekend for me.

My brother Des was a bloody revelation, such craic, I really enjoyed his company and stories most of which I'd never heard before.

The crew that travelled, as sound a bunch of lads as you'd meet in a ten mile walk

Enda's Michael Muirhertaigh / Seamus Duke megamix of the 91 Connaught final.

Jaysus I can't wait for the wedding now.

Don't KNOCK it until you've tried it.

Got this email today from a friend (who shall remain nameless).
From a logical perspective it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time


"Never underestimate people’s preparedness to believe any oul shite. Massive coverage was given in the national press today to the Supreme Grand Wizard Sean Brady or whatever the fukk he calls himself who had a go at the Tarot card readers and Astrologers of the Country. And where did he do this? Knock of all places, Knock - where a group of hallucinating peasants said they saw the mother of god on the gable end of a church. You couldn’t make it up"


American papers please copy.

Change your mind!

Saw the news yesterday (an unusual enough event at this time of year) and they were doing a vox pop about the continuing American involvement in Iraq.

The reporter stopped this woman on the street and asked her if she supported the war in Iraq.

she said she did.

He asked why.

She said cos she voted Bush.

He asked why she voted Bush.

She said cos he supported the war on Iraq.

This is not a post about the war in Iraq, it's a post about how we think and how we rationalise decisions, we get caught in a loop, not always as obvious as this one... but we just do.

"So Michael will we sack John?
No
Why?
Cos I appointed him"

"So Phillip will you close your business?
No
Why?
Cos I started it"

I know i'm not getting this across very well and that my thinking is still fuzzy, but it appears to me that logic has less and less a role to play in our society.

By the way I really hope the Madeline McCann thing is not going in the direction the Portugese press thinks it should be going, I don't think our psyches would be able to handle the fact that people invested real sympathy and real tears in a lie.

If it turns out they did it, nobody will ever look beyond the parents in anything similar ever again, lets wait and see.

Bloody Football!

Why do I put myself through this?

Saturday, senior championship, was a sub, 1 point defeat after leading by 5 with 15 mins left

Sunday, intermediate championship, playing, 1 point defeat after leading by 5 with 15 mins left,

Monday, minor championship, manager, 4 point defeat after leading at half time and playing the 2nd half with the wind.

Tonight... training again

Insania.

We really do need to talk about kevin!

I don't normally read much fiction, but it being August and the weather being complete shite, I've robbed the shelves of a few novels lately, in fact I've read four in the last two weeks.

This is the stand out by a mile.

It's a great read which reminds me of the only time in my life I rang a radio show, it was Gerry Ryan about ten years ago and he was doing a piece on this English guy who was waiting to be executed on death row, and Gerry was doing his populist bit about what he'd like to see done to your man if it was Gerry's daughter he murdered.

He's all death penalty the bould Gerry, so i rang him up and asked him what he'd think if it was his son who did the killing, how would he feel then?

He gave me all this rubbish about how no son of his could ever do something like that. Funny enough I bet most parents of murderers would have felt the same

Anyway, that's what the book is about, it's from the mother of the perpetrator's perspective, and it's a damn good read, enjoy it (although enjoy is really the wrong word)

Rage, Rage, Rage.

I love my Apple powerbook, it's quick, easy to use and most of all looks drop dead gorgeous.... but sometimes even the things we love most have little faults that drive us round the feckin bend... and my G4 is no exception.

We've been together about 20 months and early in our relationship it could do no wrong, i was just thrilled to be seen along with it, and when someone was using one just like it in a movie or a tv show i would exclaim "what a smart person, look at the beautiful laptop they have"

It seemed our relationship put me right up there with Hollywood and I would never miss an opportunity to show her off.

And then one day she let me down...bad.

As often is the case it was only a little thing... her powercable broke, just when i was about to use her for an important presentation, and for a week i fumed at her, but i got a replacement cable, not a replacement laptop and things returned to normal, well not normal exactly, i noticed a difference in our relationship, i did not trust her so much anymore... and i was often found checking her cable and wondering would she let me down again.

Well she did... last week in fact... it's cost me a lot of grief and no little money, and i still don't have one..so she sits there, useless.

The guys in the computer store look at me now with a little sympathy, where once just to have her with me drew envious looks and great appreciation... this morning when i went (in vain) to collect her cable, they just looked a little sorry for me... did she let you down again they said...and i had to admit that yes..she had.

It's the same fault as before they said... she's flawed... and although we can patch her up for now... there's no guarantee she won't let you down again in future.

They never said it outloud... but i knew what they were thinking..

We have a beautiful one... a hollywood one... sans flaw... one you can take out with you and all you will draw are admiring glances... the old one will never do that again.. let her go... we'll take care of you.

But i can't... i still love her and want to give her every chance.. despite knowing that her cable may still let her down again... i'm going to give it one more chance.

There is a moral in this story... and it's this.

APPLE.... GET YOU'RE BLOODY FINGER OUT AND STOP MAKING BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTS WITH FATAL FLAWS..

I have macs... ipods.... and in the autumn i fully intend to have an iphone when they come out... but christ almighty why do you have to make it so hard to love you?

It's a bloody cable.... the most important part of beautiful design is that it does the shaggin job in the first place...

Rant over!

Some Days!

It's August, this month has frustrated me every year since I started the business, difficult to get work, difficult to get paid, difficult to contact people.

After my first August in this business I swore that I would create a situation where I could take the entire month off and enjoy myself, but it has not happened yet!

The problem is stuck in the middle, i'm neither at work or not at work right now, I have a lot of work lined up for September, but no one wants to see me for the next few weeks.

That sums me up right now.. stuck in the middle.

The only thing that gets me going when I feel like this is deliberately focussing on the good things, the things in my life that make it wonderful, family, friends, sport, fun, and the knowledge that this vacant somewhat gloomy phase will drift by, like it's always drifted by before... there's so much to appreciate and so much to look forward to.

Self awareness (self obsession)

It's mad really, that Socrates lad (or was it Aristotle) reckoned the unexamined life is not worth living, and yet these days the whole world is unhappy because everyone spends massive amounts of time staring at their navels and concluding that yes indeed they are too fat, poor, busy, neurotic, lazy, unhealthy, old, useless or some other bloody thing that can only be corrected by weightwatchers, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Garnier or Dr. Bobs mental agility training.

Maybe people should live a bit more and have a bit more craic instead of constantly looking for artificial holes that can only be filled by (expensive) miracle cures.

Them lads Aristotle and Socrates might have been better off having a few pints rather than starting off this obsession lark.

The wonder of google and youtube!

It's unbelievable, the sun is actually shining in Sligo, and we are told it may even shine tomorrow as well.

We threw a big outdoor party yesterday and had tons of friends round, it was great fun and i think everyone had a great time. The weird thing is that google has the potential to feck up that staple of all parties, the lively debate (we would never call them arguments.

Yesterday both Google and Youtube amazed a few people with thier capabilities, the conversation was about olympics when two of the lads had a difference over what race Dave Wottle won at the Munich Olympics in 1972.. there was no agreement so inside for the computer, a quick google and we had the Wikipedia entry for the bould Dave, which proved that TJ was right.. then he asked was there any pictures of Wootle on the net.. a quick youtube later and i was able to say..."i'll do better than that... would you like to see the race?" and so there were a load of people sitting on the patio watching the 1972 800 metres final.

the world is changing pretty rapid.