hotel california

I’ve watched more TV this past Christmas than I have in a long time. All thanks to BBC 4. Already a long time BBC Radio 4 junkie, it now seems that the TV version has me hooked as well. Well, maybe just for those nights when there’s nothing good on the internet. I’ve just finished watching a good documentary on California and the way folk/rock music based itself in LA in the mid 1960s. Something Jackson Brown said in the programme sticks in my mind. Talking about David Geffen and Asylum records, he referred to him as “the Medici of rock” (or words to that effect) It set me thinking about record labels and the way we all take heart today in their decline and the rise of sites like “myspace” where musicians can make direct contact with the public. I’ve always gone along with the conventional wisdom that this is good. But I wonder if artists need the power of the Medici behind them? And if so, who are the Medici of the web? Is Goggle it? Microsoft? Apple? None of them , not even Apple, seem to fit the bill. Is it time for a multi millionaire to set up a site and pick and choose who to promote on it? Do we need managers again, or editors? Do we need a virtual Asylum?

12 Good Things about 2007 , # 12

Leo Enright, as stand in presenter on RTE Radio's Drivetime programme. He's become one of those floating broadcasters, slotted in when the regular presenter is on holiday. I always thought he had a great radio voice, the right mixture of excitement and authority. He is of course forever associated in my mind with his commentaries on space travel on RTE going back to the days of the Apollo programme. Even today, when I hear his voice on radio there is part of me waiting , and wishing, for him to tell us about some great new milestone in space exploration.

I'm Spiderman (and 75% catwoman

Just took an online test to find out which superhero I must resemble! Here’s the result:

You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 85% Catwoman 75% Robin 70% The Flash 65% Superman 65% Hulk 65% Green Lantern 55% Supergirl 50% Batman 45% Wonder Woman 30% Iron Man 30% You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility. Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Christmas Day

The day is overcast, misty, very Irish Christmas day feel to it. Everywhere round here as quiet as a bell, apart from the actual Christchurch bells that rang out for mass a few hours ago. Listened to a few tracks from an album by a young singer songwriter called Fionn Regan. He has a great way with words. Full of that honest intensity that comes with youth. It can sometimes be misguided but it’s also sometimes full of shards of wisdom. As it is in this case. Spend last night watching a Fanny Craddock night on BBC 4! Old footage of her 1970s Christmas cookery shows and an interesting drama in which she was played by Julia Davis. I wallowed in its strangeness and campiness and thought about how far away the 1970s seem. The young Polish people who are renting the apartment next door had a Christmas Eve meal late into the night. In town yesterday I was struck by the variety of nationalities , Chinese, African, Indian, East European – all buying presents and wrapping paper. It was a wonderful sight. Below my window, I watched men walking home with Christmas wrapping paper sticking out of plastic bags. Something tender about it all.

moving hearts

Putting old records onto my ipod. Strange to listen to them again. Wasn’t sure I wanted “Moving Hearts”, as my own heart (or mind) would be far removed from it now. But as I listen to it , I’m transported back to the 1980s in Dublin. To youth, naivety and all of the longings of one’s twenties and thirties. (Though I never did agree with any of that "irish ways and irish laws" stuff even when I was young.) Still, safe in itunes now, some of the the music is still very moving.

Dublin Fog

A cold foggy day in Dublin. Took this picture with my phone. Didn’t really capture what I saw. The 2mp camera of my Sony 990 phone didn’t really capture enough low light detail. Still, it reminds me of those smoggy Dublin 1950s photos. Very Christmassy day in town, fog a good second best to snow.

Radio Times

I bought the Christmas edition of the Radio Times yesterday. I’ve been buying it for years along with the RTE Guide , though in recent years I’ve dropped the Guide realizing at last that I now make little use of either magazine. So I have an important question for you this dark wet morning. What’s the future for “bumper TV guides to your holiday viewing” in the age of utube? They sell in great numbers , but are they now more decoration than practical? Part of that dream that you will batten down the hatches while the snow falls outside and you settle down to watch a “feast of Christmas movies” Movies that you most probably own on DVD anyway. Still, it’s very hard not to pick up the Radio Times with its Christmas cover all aglow with promises. (there is by the way a web site showing all the Christmas covers going back to 1923! http://www.tvradiobits.co.uk/radiotimes/christmas.htm

Most TV Guides will probably survive for a good while yet , continuing along the route they have taken, becoming lifestyle magazines. It’s difficult though to see any long term future for the listing function unless they find some way to make it wider and more active, something that is hard to do on the printed page. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing printed web links and not being able to click on them. Anyway, for those of us who came of age in the 1970s and 80s, the glory days of “bumper TV”guides, we will I think continue to buy the Christmas Radio Times , if we haven’t gone abroad for the holiday. But it’s now probably more like a Christmas card from a relative who you feel is getting on a bit now , but who you hope will live for many years yet.

what came out of the fallout shelter

A very good piece by Bruce Sterling on Wired site about the Web, and the future. I've always been an optimist, and the older I get the more optimistic I get. Which is why I like pieces like this. I especially liked this sentence:
"The Internet, for instance, crawled out of a dank atomic fallout shelter to become the Mardi Gras parade of my generation. It was not a bolt of destructive lightning; it was the sun breaking through the clouds."

Alone this Christmas?

So here's an interesting news item from All HeadlineNews

Dutch Company To Bring Guests To Your Christmas Dinner With DVD

Joanna Wypior - All Headline News Staff

London, England (AHN) - For those that worry they might eat their Christmas dinner alone this year, they now have reason to fear no more. Courtesy of a Dutch art company, a new DVD will allow a lonesome dinner to become one full of holiday fun and good cheer with dinner companions eating, drinking, and engaging in conversation.

The DVD will feature actors reading out different scripts in other for people to pick out which type of people they would want best.

According to Ananova, the producers, the Tilburgs CowBoys and Theater NWE Vorst, said they hoped it would ease the loneliness of single people without families at Christmas.

Producer Chris Gribling says: "The client can watch the DVD while sitting and eating in front of the television."

"The actors can offer him or her a romantic evening or even a good discussion. We have a good variety in the choice of our table companions."

a book is not just for Christmas....

AA Gill’s ramblings and musings are usually the best bits of his Sunday Times restaurant reviews. Yesterday he was writing about the real reason we like to give books as Christmas presents.

“This is the time of year when, traditionally, we indulge in things bookly and literish. We fret the bookmonger’s groaning board like word-starved waifs confronted by a logoscrumptious buffet. And we give books nilly-willy. Books are papery gifts that say lots and lots — much of it stuff that the author never wrote. We give them to people we’re obliged to and secretly hate.

A book says: “I’m cleverer than you.” It says: “You need to read this because you have no conversation and your thoughts are wan, halt things. I’m giving it to you with the thin smile of pitying patronage. And it will be a personal and private recrimination for years to come, because I know you’re cancerous with guilt about all the unconsumed words left on your bedside table.” A book says: “I loved this when I was 13. Now you’re in your late forties, you might be able to appreciate it.” Never for one single, naive moment imagine that a book at Christmas is well meant. Read between the lines, dummy — it’s an ode to snobbery and loathing. " (more here)

Moon Base

Yesterday, it was reported that “The space agency Nasa unveiled plans to build a permanent base on the moon within 20 years that will allow humans to live there. The base will be used as a launching site for missions to Mars, as well as for analysis of the Earth from space.” That’s the most positive public statement I have heard so far this century. Make it so. On more mundane technological matters, my new Sony P990i is giving me a lot of grief, crashing and generally not doing what it should do. Its fine if I just use it for calls and text – but that’s not the point of it! I bought it for the extra functions. I’ll stick with it another few days before thinking of returning it. What kind of phones will they have on the first moon base in twenty years time?

New Phone

Not much got done today. Got my new phone, the Sony Ericsson P990i. Bleary eyed reading reviews about it for the past week, a lot of them negative. But it’s the only phone that has everything I need at the moment and doesn’t look like a brick. The problems people are having with it seem to be almost all to do with the software. SE are supposed to be releasing a new software upgrade soon – so I’m banking on that. The look and built of the phone is great and so far I have had no problems with it. Then again, I’ve only had a few hours! The new UiQ software looks very promising, very clean in an OSX sort of way.

that was then

As part of its ten year on air celebrations, TG4 is running a poll to get people to nominate favourite ads from the past decade. This one gets my vote. Strange to look at it now from this perspective knowing what happened to our Eircom shares. Still, for those of us still hanging in there, Vodafone might come through one of the days – if they ever come up with some forward looking 21^st century ideas. What a wonderful ad that was though, evocative meaningless and sexy.

a plea from afar.......

Most junk e-mail doesn’t linger in the mind. Cheap Viagra, magical penis enlargement and surprise lotto winnings are trashy hard sell that most spam filters pick up easily. Letters from distraught relatives of a former African princes or presidents is also pretty common but far more colourful. In broken English full of promises and desperation, some of them are like a snippet from some unknown Arabian or African night tale. Here’s one I got the other day:

Compliments of the day to you! : I am Alhaji abacha muhammed, son of the late General Sani Abacha, former Nigerian Military President who died on active Government service on june 8,1998. I got your contact from the Internet in my search to secure a partner unknown to me because of the nature and I do believe you can help me. I am contacting you due to the present situation as regards the Undemocratic manner the present Administration in my country (Nigeria) is taking all that belongs to us. You may be aware that this is the usual attitude of leaders especially in Africa when there is a change of Government. The present Government of General Olusegun Obasanjo is currently in a face off with my family in his bid to recover all our money because of Victimisation and Political Vendatta. They have brought up charges of corrupt enrichmemnt against us. The law they made is yet another smear campaign aimed mainly to frustrate, humiliate, dismember and widen the scope of hatred for my family. A personal vendetta by President Obasanjo who was jailed by my father's Regime for plotting a coup d 'etat against his Government in 1995. This highly calculated attempt by this administration plus some Western Banks through bi-lateral relationship has taken away from us a whopping amount in Switzerland and Bank accounts around the World. This rampaging of our Bank accounts abroad have yielded to the barbaric pressure and sometime ago we were squized out of family possessions and money running into multimillion of USDollar because the accounts bear our names. These assertions can be ascertained independently if you wish to confirm this from a leading newspaper in Nigeria (This Day Newspapers) from their website at www.thisdayonline.com from the archives section in the March 10, 2001, January 26, 2002 and March 18, 2002 editions. This pressure is taking a great toll on my family and all we ever own. Please i wish to solicit your cooperation as a foreigner to help me receive some Money Deposited with a Securities and finacial company in Europe which is my only hope / source of livelihood for now. This is a call for you to help receive this money and put the money into good investments since i am barred from leaving the Country for now. Please know that the money is US$52M in cash with a Security Finance Firm in Europe that i intend to put in your care by getting a trusted foreigner to handle money for the purpose of investment and safekeeping abroad. Please Note that you will be expected to deal directly with the security Finance Firm with the information and LEGAL POWER i shall give you to handle the entire transaction. Please know that the Cash Deposit of US$52M is deposited in Trunk Boxes and presently in Europe I use this opportunity to offer you 20% of this money($52M), if you can handle this transaction absolute well for me.This is however subject to our negotiation and agreement. You can contact me ONLY via my email: mualab2@aim.com for now and for security reason. Endeavor to keep this highly confidential. In your response include your private telephone / fax numbers for easy communications with me. My kind regards, Alhaji Abacha Muhammed.nt style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">

Golf

Never in my wildest dreams thought I’d write a single word about golf. The Ryder Cup was held in the K club in County Kildare over the past weekend and the hype made me look in. And I stayed to look a lot longer than I thought I would. I was struck by the artificial beauty of the K Club golf course. It kept reminding me of the set for the toddler TV show “Tellytubbies” that was popular some years ago. I’m not really into any sport much but at times over the weekend I could see the attraction of golf. Yes, there’s the county club thing, the strange gear they wear – even when it’s jazzed up it’s still so stridently heterosexual in a 1950s sort of way. And yet, there is something decent about it all. Something comforting and middle aged, even though a few of the players were only in their 20s. In town today I almost bought a book about the history of the Ryder Cup!

end of story?

A thoughtful, if depressing, interview with Michael Tolkin in today's New York Times. He thinks the best days of Hollywood (and American screen stories) are behind us. I hope he's wrong.

"I don’t think America’s had a good movie made since Abu Ghraib,” Mr. Tolkin said, before clarifying that he’s talking about big movies, not the minuscule ones that have met the industry’s quotas for unembarrassing award nominees. “I think it showed that a generation that had been raised on those heroic movies was torturing. National myths die, I don’t think they return. And our national myth is finished, except in a kind of belligerent way.”

Glenn Ford died yesterday. RIP.

the new Bewleys?

Upstairs in Easons O Connell Street Dublin is now a very comfortable place to have a cup of something and a read of the paper. Reminds me a bit of what we used Bewleys for all those years ago. On a corner wall there is a large LCD screen showing a silent SKY NEWS with the text button on. It’s strangely calming despite the alarming images it often shows.

Phones

I’ve been waiting patiently for Vodaphone Ireland to release the Nokia e70. It was due last June but was delayed because of problems “testing the software” Now, they finally say it will be released on contract by the end of August – or maybe September. I check out the Vodaphone UK site and see that the E70 is up there for a good while, you can even get it free with some of the higher tariffs. There’s been a lot of talk recently about the mobile operaters overcharging for calls, but less talk about how they are screwing us with their selection (and prices) of handsets. I’d love to know, for example, how Vodaphone UK could release the E70 without any “software problems” in the UK but failed to do this in Ireland. What exactly were the “software problems” that made it unsuitable for the Irish market but ok for the UK?

Page 69

In the “Guardian” today, John Sutherland gives advice on “how to read a novel” His most interesting tip is borrowed from Marshall McLuhan who recommended “ that the browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book.” According to Sutherland, this works. Must try it.

restlessness

Does anyone else feel a sense of restlessness in the air? I feel this in Dublin at the moment. People in transit. I wonder how many of the people who have arrived here in the past few years will settle and stay? So many of them talk about “home”, and that home isn’t here. Then again, we were the same in Britain and America, always talking and singing about home but staying where we sailed to. I hope the majority of our immigrants stay. We need their energy as much they need whatever “home” and shelter this land can offer. We are still at the start of an uncertain new century. Too often, lately, I think about the beginning of the last century . I used to read a lot about that strange period between 1900 and 1914. In my heart, I don’t really believe that history repeats itself. It’s just this sense of restlessness , leading .....someplace.