Hangin' with Tinkerbell

I LOVE Disney films. I hate the Corporation, but how can you argue with such classics as Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Aladdin, Mary Poppins - Dick Van Dyke was, and is, a total legend - and of course, The Jungle Book? Anyway, the point of all this is the QuizFarm.com :: Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? test over at QuizFarm Apparently Peter Pan is mine, but snapping at his feet was The Beast. Oh yeah! Check out this site, it's a wonderful waste of time and resources.

Who Am I??

Took a test today. Considering I'm in my early twenties, and nowt makes much sense, I broadly agree with the result, although the fact that I scored 50% on Fundamentalism was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Also, I'd consider myself more Sartre than Derrida. I think it was the lolling decadence of the Paris crew in the sixties that did it for me. Go Gaulois!



You scored as Postmodernist. Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis

The Passing of the Baton

Music fills a lot of voids for me. As Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) so eloquently put it in The Commitments, 'It grabs ya by the balls and lifts you above the shite.' For me, it just represents a very friendly home where I feel both welcome and honoured, and rarely am i as happy as when I'm toting any of my instruments.
While Irish music remains my staple aural diet, I love many types of music, particularly blues and jazz, and, after a few g &t's, nothing beats a good ri-rá's Friday Night funk-fest. But it matters not what type of tune does it for you. There are only two things to bear in mind
1. Music is subjective. There is no such thing as bad music. That doesn't mean I don't hate certain songs and bands - Keane spring immediately to mind for me - but it drives me nuts when certain hoods insist on enlightening me as to what constitutes good and bad music. Go and learn an instrument lads, and stop pontificating!
2. Music is egalitarian, and is all around us. Everyone can enjoy music in some shape or form, and its performance and appreciation should be nourished and encouraged in schools, towns, broken homes and lonely valleys.

Anyway, the point of all this is that a Musical Baton has been passed on to me by the irrepressible Stephen Brophy. So, here, for the first time ever is a not-brief-at-all synopsis of the songs and singers that rock my world...

Amount of Albums in My Collection: 322, or 17.4 Gb for all the nerds out there!

Last CD I Bought: Prés de Paris by Pierre Bensusan. This guy is amazing. Check out his website here. Never has a guitar sounded so finger-pickin good! (Incidentally, he was 17 when this album was made.)

Song Playing Right Now 'Sally Brown' by Planxty. Perhaps the best harmonies ever found in a folk song.

Ten Songs That Mean a Lot to Me:

1. 'The Blacksmith' by Planxty. Old Irish song meets bulgarian folk rythms to close out the most influential Irish album of all time. Planxty invented alternative Irish music. We have much to thank them for. The 5/4 piece at the end is otherworldly in its magnificence.
2. 'The Ballad of Little Musgrave' by Planxty. My all-time favourite band. This song is an epic. And the pipes, oh the pipes.
3. 'Lullaby of London' by the Pogues. My first favourite band. This song is a kick in the balls to anyone who considers Shane McGowan to be nothing but a talentless, rabble-rousing drunk. This song is nothing short of poetry, drenched in one of most sensitive, beautiful melodies ever written...'May the wind that blows from haunted graves never bring you misery, May they all sleep tight down in hell tonight of wherever they may be.
4. 'The Sun is Burning' by Luke Kelly. The greatest singer Ireland has ever, or probably will ever, produce. This is Kelly at his best; the protest singer, strong and impassioned. This song brings tears to my eyes. Famine and pestilence to George Murphy for disgracing the good man's memory.
5. 'Never Tire of the Road' by Andy Irvine. My greatest hero. This song is a tribute to Andy's idol, Woodie Guthrie. Some day I hope to be able to do something similar for the man who has taught me more musically than any book ever could.
6. 'As the Crow Flies' by Rory Gallagher. The master at his very best.
7. 'Bron-Y-Aur-Stomp' by Led Zeppelin. Folk and Rock collide in a raucous, playful orgy of foot-stomping brilliance.
8. 'The Reel in the Flickering Light' by Christy Moore. I think our entire understanding of the world around us is shaped by childhood, and we spend our lives trying to get back to that level of freedom and innocence. The child in me loves this song and the images in plants in my soul.
9. 'All These Things That I Have Done' by the Killers. Brilliant. Anthemic. Orchestral. If only Brandon Flowers wasn't such a tosser.
10. 'Femme Fatale' by The Velvet Underground. Nico was a femme fatale. She made Reed and Cale hate each other. What a Clown. But what a tune. Captured perfectly the essence of what the V.U. was all about; the dark side of life conveyed with haunting beauty and searing harmonies.

Just shy of the top ten are 'After All' by the Frank and Walters, 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' by Marvin Gaye and 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash. Oh and 'Just like Honey' by the Jesus and Mary Chain.

My Favourite Bands

1. Planxty
2. The Pogues
3. The Stunning
4. The Velvet Underground
5. Lunasa
6. Led Zeppelin
7. The Frames
8. Interpol
9. The Killers
10. Kila

My Favourite Solo Artists

1. Andy Irvine
2. Martin Hayes
3. Rory Gallagher
4. Tom Waits

I now pass this Musical Baton on to Shane, perhaps the greatest musical bigot in the world. Fear not, friends, i know he will take this as a compliment. Comments, as always, are invited

Asbos of Bother

Anti-Social behaviour. Hmmm. Problematic, catch-all term for dilemma thrown up by the inequalities of modern society which lead to 'youths' wearing hoodies and throwing bricks through windows while puking on their grannies.

Fine Gael. Mmmmm. Assortment of empty political vessels, drifting aimlessly accross the sea of legislative wilderness, both feeding and responding to the fears of people who rely FAR too much on the Evening Herald to tell them what is really going on.

Hmmmm.

People are afraid. They are terrified of 'evil' forces that they perceive to be all around them. The papers report 'killing sprees' and widespread criminality. The people buy security cameras. And guard dogs. And guns. Tills throughout the land sing with buoyancy.

The people who are afraid generally have the most to lose; Fine houses, fancy cars and beige sweaters. These people largely listen to classical music which, shock horror, retails at a far lower price than the angry rap/death metal music so enjoyed by those they are afraid of. I know this is a sweeping generalisation...but you know what I'm getting at.

The beige brigade are afraid. Of course they're afraid. Having monopolised everything worth monopolising, they have hidden behind their imposing gates and walls, venturing out only to further plunder a society that they have no time for, and, through their friends in the media and the halls of political discourse, they inform the rest of humanity that their lifestyle is to be sought after, even though they know that their own opulent standard of living is largely off limits to almost everyone but themselves and their offspring.

The dudes in hoodies are angry. Society tells them to take their hoods down. Society tells them in no uncertain terms that they are a shower of malevolent cunts who are ruining modern Ireland's feel-good buzz and diluting the smugness that has come with comfortable living. And while these angry, disaffected people are small in number now, these fantastically snot-nosed, POINTLESS anti-social behaviour orders - coming, incidentally, at a time when the crime rate in Ireland is FALLING - will only add to their number. Because by getting tough on people who have little choice but to reject the mores of a society that wishes they would all go away, you will only strengthen their resolve.

Let's cut to the chase. Crime will never cease. Cars will be stolen, as will phones, plasma tv's and even people. But the answer, Benito McMussoliniDowell, is not to level the size nines at the most disaffected members of our society. The answer is simple, but it will never happen. Stop, in the name of God, stop defining yourself by what you own, what you drive, how much designer make-up you can get on your fat, ugly face. Stop preserving a level of prosperity that doesn't even make you happy. Face up to the fact that you can never fully insulate yourself from this cruel cruel world...because the more you try to, the more likely it will be that the next brick thrown will come through your window.

P.S. Do you know what I think constitutes anti-social behaviour? J.P. McManus's new gaff, which was given massive coverage by Tony 'I made my money canning beans and now I'm a Philanthropist O'Reilly's Indocircus while one of his companies sacked 400 people. 50,000 square feet, roughly 25 times the size of a normal residence. Twenty million euro. For pity's sake, spend 2 million, build a smaller house, save the environment and give the rest to the homeless. That, at least, would be a start.

'Individuals have taken over common land by ruse or violence, declaring themselves its owners; they have established by law that it will always be theirs, and that the right to property will become the foundation of the social constitution; which is to say that it will come before and, if need be, absorb all human rights, even that to life, if it has the ill fortune to find itself in conflict with the privilege of a small number.'

August Blanqui, Who Makes The Soup Should Eat It

Transit - The Band (and the Van) of the Future!

You know a band is on the right road when it is difficult to pigeonhole their sound and say 'they're rippin off the killers/velvet underground/ etc etc etc. Transit have managed to avoid simply regurgitating the brilliance of the past by creating a sound that is as refreshing as it is unique. We here at Urban Ramblings urge you all to go see them support up-and-coming rockers T.K.O. on Friday 13th in Whelans. Admission is eight euro; considering a McFly CD will set you back almost three times that amount, to call this a steal would be an understatement. You will rock to the beat of 'City Shadows.' You will revel in the anthemic coolness of 'Call me Red.' So go along. Tell them I sent you. You won't be disappointed.