Tuesday, January 27, 2009

God bless America

It was hard not to be at least impressed by the new American President and by the entire nature of his Inauguration Day. However, I hate to rain on anyone's parade but all the references to God left me shaking my head.

The US is rightly proud to have finally elected their first black President but last week showed to me that a cross-dressing socialist would have a better chance of getting that job than an atheist.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

"You don't know...

... how beautiful you are."



So we have a new U2 song called 'Get On Your Boots' and it's good, quite good. It practically picks up where 'Vertigo' left off which is odd considering all the talk about how the new album, No Line On The Horizon, is as big a sonic change for the band as Achtung Baby. However, the first thing that struck me on first listening was, wow, that sounds different. And when the guys sing, "you don't know how beautiful you are", my heart lifts. But most surprising for a song of this nature is that it's a grower.

So a good single. I just hope the album lives up to the expectation. All U2 albums of late have been excellent but for me, personally, Zooropa was the last album that made me think "Greatest Band On Earth." I hope this one is as good, if not better.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Get On Your Boots

U2 have a new album coming, No Line On The Horizon, and by all accounts it's going to be as big a turn as Achtung Baby. The first single will be "Get On Your Boots" and as usual, Dave Fanning has it first. Unfortunately, for some reason, he's returning to 2FM to play it, next Monday morning apparently, on a show called (I'm not making this up) The Colm and Jim Jim Show. Jim Jim... what the hell? I haven't tuned into 2FM in a long time but... Jim Jim? I thought it was a typo until I checked out the 2FM website.

Anyway, according to www.atu2.com it's going to be on after the 8am news.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Short term memory loss

Last night, I went too close to the edge. I'll put it down to the new character I will start becoming on Tuesday.

Trollied is a new play, written and directed by Róisín Stack. It's about twenty minutes long and takes place as part of Múscailt 2009. Múscailt is an arts festival that runs annually in NUIG. All performances run in the Bank of Ireland Theatre and the festival is in the second week of February. I play the part of Cian, a man in his late twenties who comes across two sixteen year old girls drinking in a carpark of a Friday night. The girls try to impress him by pretending to be older than they are. He doesn't believe them but doesn't stop them either. As Róisín says, "the play takes a more honest look at the way younger people play at being grown-ups with sometimes traumatic consequences."

We start work on Tuesday and I am glad to be getting back up on stage.

A friend said to me this week that I look more at ease on stage than off -- doesn't say much for my everyday comings and goings, does it?

Friday, January 09, 2009

Sun is shining, sky is blue...

... and my New Year's resolution is to keep smoking.

2009 -- eight years on and still no sign of that damn monolith. Stanley, Arthur, what were they on about? What were they on?

Hello all and welcome!

What is this blog for? I have no idea. I need to get some stuff in order. I need to get my affairs in order. I need to start living.

Sun is shining, sky is blue. My idea ancient, my heart still new.