And the password is...

A couple of days ago, I had to ring Sky because I was having trouble with my reception. After waiting a while to get through to a customer service wallah, and having answered a number of preliminary questions, I was asked for my password. I couldn't remember it.

Some years ago, I had to ring Eircom Phonewatch because our monitored alarm system kept going off at around 4 in the morning. Every morning for like a week. The only respite I could get was to turn off the alarm entirely, which defeated the purpose of having the system on. In desperation, I rang Eircom asking was there anything that they could do to help me out. The representative was very helpful right up to the point at which I was asked for my password. I couldn't remember it.

Passwords are the bane of my life. I have one password which I use for most of the sites I visit. It's a six letter password - all lower case. Occasionally, I use variants of that password when I am required to mix letters and numbers, or where I am required to use a password with no less than eight characters. I also have a password where I am required to use letters (upper and lower case) and numbers. So far, so couch...

I have two main problems with passwords. The primary one is that there are some passwords which I only use on a very infrequent basis (Sky and Eircom Phonewatch would be two good examples of this). And because of that, I tend to forget them. Of course, I could just write the passwords down somewhere, but then the words "purpose" and "defeat" spring to mind.

My other main problem is where sites generate a password for you and don't give you the option to choose/amend a password to suit yourself. Almost invariably, the generated passwords will be a random character string, comprising upper/lower case letters and numbers. Occasionally one might come across a requirement for special characters. I can never remember these damn passwords, and because I can't trust my eyesight 100%, I tend to copy/paste the passwords from whatever e-mail the site sends when one initially registers with it. Which is all well and good, except that doing this removes the immediate necessity to memorise the damn password. And then you clear your cookies one fine day, re-visit the site and find that you can't remember your password. And you can't find the relevant e-mail so that you can repeat the copy/paste process.

One final comment on passwords:- some months ago, I was involved in an online collaborative project with an individual. Now, my idea of online collaboration is that you e-mail me your files, I'll do my bit on them and then e-mail them back to you. That's how people born in the 1960s do it. However, my collaborator seemed to be involved in the internet security business, so my chosen methodology was obviously not "comme il faut". This was going to be online collaboration in the true sense of the word - live and online. All of this required me to have a password. In our initial correspondence, a particular word was used which caught my collaborator's eye. He suggested I use that word as my password. Reluctantly, I agreed, but I requested that he would not generate a password which substituted number for letters in that word, 1f y0u s33 wh4t 1 m34n. So what did he go and do...? It was a bad start to our collaboration and some weeks later I withdrew from the project altogether.

Now, I'm not saying that the collaborator was wrong to do what he did. Since he seemed to work in the internet security industry, then I am sure that his actions were perfectly "natural" and in order for him, just as much as it would be for me to favour one hand over another when scratching my itchy bits. But I'm getting too old to remember passwords. Whatever steps can be taken to make the process easier for me are most welcome, whereas any steps taken which make the process more difficult for me are almost acts of provocation.

But that's just me being a curmudgeonly old 801106k5, I suppose...

Regards,


djp

Blogospherical odyssey

You may or may not know that I have a new album out. It's called RAW MESH, and if you want to stream it, you can do so here.

In the past, when I've been trying to promote an album, I used to burn up a number of CD-R copies and send them to various newspapers/magazines/radio stations/labels. This was very time-consuming for me, and, more often than not, was almost totally non-productive. I got very little response from the traditional media and the CDs most likely ended up in a wastebasket, unplayed.

Given that someone like me is most unlikely to get any kind of exposure in the traditional media, this time out I decided on a different approach. I chose to prepare an electronic press kit, comprising of the entire album in MP3 format, some jpegs and a "virtual" interview. I sent the traditional media an email with a link from which they could download a zip file containing the kit. As an alternative, I also sent them the streaming link above which you've undoubtedly already accessed. My thinking is that since the traditional media is going to ignore the album anyway, they might as well ignore it in a manner which is cost-effective to me.

But I went a step further - I found a blog from an Irish "rock" journalist and followed all the links from that blog, sending them the same email that I'd sent to the traditional media. But I went a step even further than that. Each of those links is itself a blog, so I'm now following each of the links in those blogs. To date I've sent close to 500 e-mails using this methodology, with perhaps as many again to follow. Even if I conservatively estimate the average cost of burning a CD-R. printing the packaging, buying jiffy bags for each CD and posting them at €5, I will potentially have saved myself around €5k...

...of course, the reason I say "potentially" is because I would never ordinarily have sent out 1000 promo packages to the traditional media. But I most certainly would have sent out 50 packages, so realistically I've saved myself €250. Not bad, eh?.

I think PR via blog is the way to go for me in the future. In spite of the amount of reportage the traditional media carries on downloading etc., they still insist in reviewing hard-copy albums. Since I can never raise enough sales to justify a large enough print run of CDs to justify sending a meaningful number of PR packages out, I would never have covered as much ground as I have done in the last few days alone. That's one thing I'll say in favour of the blogs. Almost invariably, they will insist that you don't send them hard-copy albums -sending them MP3s or links to download/stream MP3s is perfectly acceptable to them. And that's how I'll be able to send out around 1000 press kits to various locations around the globe by the end of this month. For as next to nowt as matters nowt. I may have to offer up the odd free MP3 here and there, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing (I never would have said that two years ago). I'm getting some small levels of feedback even at this early stage in proceedings, about as much as I normally get from the traditional media but for a fraction of the cost and time.

But one thing has struck me in my odyssey around the blogosphere - the desire to express oneself and to self-publish has never been greater, now that the means of doing so are almost readily available to anyone with cheap internet access. And everyone has something to say - not that I'd ever guessed otherwise, but when you see blog after blog expressing opinion after opinion, most of which are meaningless (and even incomprehensible) to me, it's all a bit overwhelming and unsettling. All those peoples' lives out there - it's a curious thing, but the more you see of their lives, the more you feel excluded from them - "Here's some pix of the party at Johnny's gaff last weekend - oh, sorry you weren't there - you weren't invited".

And I have never felt so old as I do now, looking at the lives of young people through their blog windows. Here's hoping I get to bed before the Ovaltine gets to my incontinence pants...

Only joking. For now...

Regards,


djp

Auto-suggestion

For the last while, I've been ploughing through a book called "Mellotron - The Machine and the Musicians that Revolutionised Rock". The book is written by a chap called Nick Awde.

If you want to know what the hell a Mellotron is, click here.

My principal reason for buying the book was because it contains an extensive interview with one of my musical heroes, Dave Gregory, the former XTC multi-instrumentalist. Apart from Dave's interview, and that given by Andy Mc.Cluskey (or Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark fame), the book is really of little interest (my personal view anyway) unless you like prog rock. And if you want to know what the hell that is, click here.

One point that is hammered home by the book is the fact that Mellotrons are heavy bastards. It is repeatedly pointed out that roadies hated touring with 'Trons. The risk of ruptured hernias and other physical injuries caused by lugging around these yokes, which seemed to weigh only marginally less than lead wardrobes, was rather high. No wonder roadies took loads of drugs - to ease the pain...

Anyway, the more I read the book, the more I noticed a throbbing feeling in my left foot. After much pondering on the matter, I have come to the conclusion that all these references to heavy 'Trons has awoken some forgotten "memory" of dropping some heavy weight on my poor foot. Possibly a piano (well, not "dropping" an entire piano - possibly tilting it over slightly to move it and then accidentally letting go of the piano), maybe a filing cabinet at work.

The thing is, I can't actually remember this happening to me, but the throbbing feeling is so real to me that it surely must've happened. Unless the whole thing has been caused by some form of auto-suggestion. Either way, it's an odd feeling. Not, perhaps, as odd as a phantom pregnancy would be, but still...

Regards,


djp

Obituary

Please read the Wikipedia obituary for Columb Farrelly.

I met him once. In fact I spent an afternoon in his company sometime around 1989/90, when I was trying to set myself up as a freelance MIDI programmer. I put an ad in the Hot Press or in one of the music shops in Dublin, offering my services. Columb saw the ad, rang me up and we agreed to meet at his house in Stoneybatter. Things didn't go terribly well, basically because I didn't have a clue what I was doing (still don't as it happens). He was very nice about it, though.

Next thing I heard about Columb was the fact that he'd written the original theme music for Fair City. After that, the Wikipedia obituary...

The only other significant thing I can think of was the fact that he'd discovered Sinéad O'Connor and put her in a group call Ton Ton Macoute. I was recording a demo in a studio in Dublin in 1988 and the studio proprietor stuck on a tape and said "Listen to this". It was a Ton Ton Macoute demo that he'd recorded in the studio. It was pretty damn good, as I recall.

That's it. My brief encounter with Columb Farrelly.

Regards,


djp

You know you're getting on in years when... (No. 1)

...you realise that you will never ever get through all the bottles of after-shave lotion in your bathroom cabinet...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/11/2008

1. (8) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
2. (-) - My Kind Of Soldier - Guided By Voices
3. (-) - A Time To Be So Small - Interpol
4. (-) - She's Alright - Phil Thornalley
5. (-) - Helicopter - Red House Painters
6. (-) - She Really Wants You (acoustic version) - Aimee Mann
7. (-) - Roger's Cheeks - The B12 Boys
8. (-) - Broken - Belly
9. (-) - What Do I Get? (Peel Session) - Buzzcocks
10. (-) - Light Of Your Love - Carlene Carter.

On a point of clarification, the reason why the A. Tent track figures so frequently in my Top 10 is because it's the very first track on my iPod, based on the artists' names alphabetically. It's not like I actually like it or anything, I mean, sheeesh...:-)

Regards,


djp

The world's a strange place, Brendan...

It certainly is...

1. The replacement for my old (now dead) iPod was delivered - twice. Mind you, the first time they sent me an 8Gb iPod Nano instead of the 120Gb iPod Classic. That had to be collected by the courier and then delivered to the lady in the Netherlands who was expecting it. Got the "proper" iPod yesterday, and it's grand. Normal service is resumed. Just expect that the Top 10 iPod tracks for this month will be, like, totally, different from last month's...
2. In renovating our new home, we had to cut off the electricity supply in order to facilitate all the building work. A few weeks ago, the builder suggested that we really needed to get the electricity supply reconnected. In the meantime, building work would be pretty much suspended on the house. We contacted the electricity company and were told that we had to submit a certificate from the electrical contractor to state that the electrical works had been carried out to a certain standard before the electricity company would consider reconnection. We checked with the builder, who told us that the cert had been submitted weeks ago. In the meantime, a van from the electricity company was seen outside the house. We checked with the electricity company later, and were told that since it had now been confirmed that the electricity meter had been moved as a result of the renovation works, this was no longer merely a reconnection - this effectively was a new installation and we would have to get a cert from the electrical contractor...not only that, but the cost of the installation would have to be paid upfront - we'd have to wait for an invoice, send a cheque and then wait for 10 working days after the cheque had cleared before the electricity company would come out to connect us to the mains. Subsequently, they relented and said that the existing cert from the electrical contractor would suffice. On Monday, I had intended to tell the builder that it was likely to take another three weeks before we'd have the lecky at the house, but pressure of work prevented me from making that call. When I got home that evening, Mrs. P told me that Younger Daughter had told her that another van from the electricity company had been seen outside the house. Later that evening, I went over to the house to see what the story was. I found the box for the electricity meter, opened it, and there it was, a brand spanking new electricity meter waiting to be connected to the mains. We still haven't received the invoice to start the process of reconnection, and yet the process is almost complete...
3. Today I got an e-mail from my ISP to say that the debit card which I use to pay my phone/internet bill had expired - 34 months ago... I was invited to update my card details online, but suspecting a possible phishing expedition, I rang my ISP to confirm the position. I was told that my card had indeed expired almost three years ago, but that the bank had kindly honoured the requests from the ISP to make deductions from my bank account. On an expired card. For three years...

What the hell is going on out there...???

Regards,


djp

Good news/bad news/good news?

Last night I went to see Munster play Glasgow Warriors at the newly-developed Thomond Park in Limerick. It was a great game - Munster won 25-17 in a tight match. The new stadium is good, although I was a little bit disappointed that the areas under the stands are just bare concrete. A lick of paint wouldn't have gone amiss.

But boy was it raining. It came down in buckets. And as a consequence, it seems as if my iPod has got waterlogged. I have it in the hot press ("airing cupboard" to my non-Irish readers) at the moment to see if it will dry out. If it doesn't (bad news), then the cash I have spent on buying a new 120 Gb iPod will not have been wasted (I was thinking of getting a bigger iPod anyway). If it does dry out (good news), then I might use the old iPod in the car.

It's not really a question of winning or losing - it's more a question of interpreting a defeat as a victory.

We'll see how things pan out...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/10/2008

1. (-) - Camera - Wilco
2. (-) - Bruckner - Symphony No. 7 - 1 - Allegro moderato - Chicago Symphony Orchestra
3. (-) - Sunsquashed - Yo La Tengo
4. (-) - The Frozen Lake - Mental Anguish
5. (-) - The Mystery Of Twilight Part 1 (live) - Jah Wobble's Solaris
6. (-) - Kluba Cupol - Cupol
7. (1) - Better Things - The Kinks
8. (2) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
9. (3) - From Me To You - The Beatles
10. (4) - The Ballad Of John & Yoko - The Beatles

Regards,


djp

Ssssh...it happens

Yesterday afternoon was wonderful for me, my friends, just one damn thing after another:-

1. So the weather finally stays good enough for long enough for me to decide to cut the lawns (front and back). It's been about a month since I cut them last, so things were starting to get a little bit out of hands, herb-wise. Having spent an hour or so pushing my decrepit old lawnmower around, I finished up and went to put the mower back in the garage...only to find that the garage door wouldn't close properly. The left and right sides of the door didn't seem to be on the same page of the script, to the effect that the left-side would go down half-way, but the right-side wouldn't budge, ergo the garage door was starting to twist. An hour spent pulling and dragging only lead to the roller on the left-side popping out of its track. Repeated belts of the roller with a lump hammer lead to the flattening of part of the track. I tried to cut and bend that part of the track, but to no avail. I even tried to unscrew the track from the wall - the top screw was seized tight. By the time I finally got the roller on the left-side sorted, the roller on the right popped out of its track. I then realised that the strut supporting the right-side of the door seemed to be seized. By this stage, my priority was to get some way of covering up the opening to the garage (not that there's anything worth stealing - it's the principle of the thing, y'know). But since the door was not budging and was also quite twisted - beyond repair, I should imagine - I took the decisive step of cutting the door away from its supporting struts and allowing it to stand freely at the opening, being "held in place" by reversing my new van into the opening (I knew I'd find a use for it). I'm guessing a replacement door is going to cost a few thousand euro, but what can I do? I have to have a garage door...
2. Then last night, having got a fill of home heating oil, I followed the standard procedure of bleeding the system at the pump. This involves loosening a nut at the base of the bump and running it, so that some of the oil spills out but clears any airlocks in the pipeline. Only there was no oil spillage - I'm guessing there is dirt somewhere at the outlet of the oil tank. And that's way beyond my ability as a DIY-er. Boiler Guy is due on Tuesday a.m.
   
3. And then to top it all, while mowing the lawn, I got stung by a nettle for the first time in about thirty years. It didn't hurt as much as it used to in the old days - I've obviously acquired a thick skin somewhere along the line, but it's the principle of the thing - guys my age shouldn't get stung by nettles, that's kids stuff

Who'd be me, eh...?:-)

Regards,


djp

Van gone, van got...

After over 8 years of ownership and some 10,000 (vaguely) fun-filled miles, I finally traded in my old 1993 VW Transporter. Although mechanically in pretty good nick, it has just failed its DOE roadworthiness test. Without its roadworthiness cert., I can't tax it and the cost of sorting it out would be more than the van itself is worth. So, somewhat regretfully, I've traded it in for...


...this 1998 Toyota Hiace. It won't win any concourse competitions, but it's just the thing for whatever the hell it is I need it for - whatever that is...:-)

N.B., note Korky getting in on the act. That damn cat.

Regards,


djp

Critter Cadaver No. 4 - dead pigeon

"Coo, e's big, innee?"

Some more of Panther's handiwork, I reckon.

This chap was so big that I couldn't pick him up with my garden grabber (a very useful item if, like me, you have to dispose of dead critters from the back garden), so I had to use a spade to pick him up and lob him into the ditch at the back of the house.

I'm surprised that the pigeons haven't been hit before. There are at least two pigeons which have been knocking around our place for the last few years, and I've often thought they'd be fair game (pun intended). Panther eventually came to the same conclusion - well I never said he was the sharpest chisel in the toolbox...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/09/2008

1. (-) - Better Things - The Kinks
2. (9) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
3. (-) - From Me To You - The Beatles
4. (-) - The Ballad Of John & Yoko - The Beatles
5. (1) - Easter Parade - The Blue Nile
6. (2) - Do It - Buzzcocks
7. (3) - I'm Afraid - The Cardboard Lung
8. (-) - The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver - Elbow
9. (4) - One Day Like This - Elbow
10. (-) - Michael - Franz Ferdinand

Regards,


djp

Technology be damned...

Had a devilish time this morning trying to program a MIDI file for eventual conversion to audio. My PC "doesn't like" Cubase very much (my new laptop fairly likewise), and it has a tendency to add a certain element of "latency" when trying to play MIDI on a keyboard, so I use a free program called MIDI Maestro which is great for programming (no latency) but is lousy for editing. I program using MIDI Maestro on the PC and then copy across to the laptop to edit in Cubase and THEN copy it back to the PC to "play" using MIDI Maestro. I record the resulting audio on my laptop using Cool Edit Pro. Left, right, left, right...

Well, that's the plan anyway...the new laptop has Windows Vista, which doesn't much like DVDs burnt on my PC using Nero Express. And vice versa - the PC can't seem to read DVDs burnt on the laptop under Vista. After about 30 minutes trying to transfer the files physically, I gave up and sent myself an e-mail from the laptop to the PC, attaching the edited MIDI file.

That worked fine, except that when I went to record the resulting audio, my laptop didn't like my audio interface, even though I'd used it a few weeks ago in Castleisland. After much cursing, swearing, plugging/unplugging the interface, starting up/shutting down Cool Edit and eventually re-booting the laptop, I ended up having to re-install the drivers for the interface. That worked in the end and I got all my work done.

The laptop was supposed to solve a number of my technical problems. Not so sure now that it's all going to be a happy relationship - however, I suspect that the real culprit here is Windows Vista rather than the laptop itself...

Regards,


djp

Well, Derrick, water you know?

Came back from a wee shopping trip up in Kildare today and found this little beauty in the space in front of the bungalow we are renovating...

We're installing a geothermal heating system and that involves drilling a deep hole - deep enough to encounter a source of warm, subterranean water. Here's hoping they drill deep enough to find oil, but not deep enough to find magma...:-)

Regards,


djp

Cat-egory

Korky's little secret is out - he, sir, is a "she", sir...:-)

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/08/2008

1. (5) - Easter Parade - The Blue Nile
2. (-) - Do It - Buzzcocks
3. (1) - I'm Afraid - The Cardboard Lung
4. (-) - One Day Like This - Elbow
5. (-) - The Greatest Show On Earth - JP Den Tex
6. (-) - Living On A Thin Line - The Kinks
7. (2) - Ben Kenobi's Theme - Patrick Gleeson
8. (3) - Lullaby - Pugwash & Friends
9. (-) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
10. (4) - Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi - Air

Regards,


djp

The best rock album in the world...ever

As of this moment, that accolade belongs to the 2 CD Deluxe Edition of "Live At Leeds" by the Who.

You can pick up the single CD version handily enough, and it's a brilliant album in its own right. There isn't a duff track on it and the standout track has to be the live version of "A Quick One". Truly awesome. Four artists, three musicians, a righteous racket.

But if you want to do yourself a favour, seek out the 2 CD version, which includes a complete live performance of "Tommy". It takes the album to a whole new dimension of brilliance. Really.

Regards,


djp

Quill legs

(N.B. - not "quail eggs"...)

Yesterday, I was down in Castleisland to visit my cousin Redmond Roche. We had a jam session and recorded some (very) rough pieces of music. It was great crack...

...but as I spent about seven hours either standing up playing the bass or crouching on the floor trying to sort out various issues of a sound engineering nature (as in "where does that lead go to?", "where's that buzzing sound coming from?" or "why is nothing working?"), I woke up this morning back in Nenagh, suffering from a bad case of quill legs.

Quill legs is a phenomenon which is not unique to Nenagh, but which is suffered by a significant number of people, mostly men, from the town. The Quill is a famous pub in Nenagh and has been the location for many memorable work booze-ups over the years. These usually involved five or six hours of drinking beer, talking shite and...standing. The following day, one would wake up with a thumping headache, caused in part by the volume of alcohol consumed the night before and also (in the "good old days") by active and passive smoking. And of course, one would suffer from very stiff legs and derriere from all the standing. Quill legs.

Regards,


djp

Pigeon defaecetive

We were up in Galway yesterday, helping Elder Daughter buy a gown for her grad dance (I was helping by doing the driving and getting the hell out of the way).

I spent a nice hour sitting on the ground by the banks of the Corrib with my iPod on. The weather was nice and the banks were crowded with lots of young people. Afterwards, I wandered the streets enjoying the summer throngs - people sitting out in the fine weather eating or drinking coffee (or pints of stout).

Eventually, I decided to contact the other members of the gown-buying party. I stepped out of the throng and stood in front of a shop window. I was just in the process of sending Elder Daughter a text when I felt something warm, soft and squishy hit my left hand. I looked down and saw a glob of slimy mucus oozing down the back of my hand. I looked up and saw a pigeon turning his backside to me. Yes folks, I'd gotten a little "billet doux" from the bastard. It was a pretty good shot, I have to say. If I'd been him I'd've been rather proud of my accuracy.

I spent the next five minutes pushing through the mob, trying to find a newsagents where I could buy a bottle of water to wash my poor handie. I had to be careful not to proffer my money using my left hand - God know what the shop assistant would have thought if she'd seen the pigeon poo...

Of course, we all had a good laugh about it afterwards, but some laughed more than others.

Regards,


djp

Lads, in the name of Jaysus will ye get a life?

Click here and marvel at the capacity of humans to argue about non-essential issues...:-)

Regards,


djp

What's new with me?

Oh, some stuff...

1. We were in the UK for a few days at the end of June. Quite enjoyable, although the weather wasn't great. Some pics of Chester and Liverpool. Chester is a beautiful place - very laid back - I could imagine that if I stayed more than a week I'd turn completely mellow. Liverpool, on the other hand, is a bit of a kip, apart from the Albert Docks area. Sorry, Liverpool fans...
2. Elder Daughter turned 18 a few weeks ago. I am not allowed to post any pics (actually, I haven't asked for permission, but I know what reaction I'd get...). We had a nice meal out in the Peppermill in Nenagh. Gettin' ould, boy...
3. Got two bad soakings a couple of weeks ago and finally succumbed to a bad head cold last week. Just in time for a wedding last Saturday. I don't enjoy weddings much, but this one would've been OK if I hadn't been wearing the internal balaclava. I'm just getting over the cold now. Took a lot out of me.
4. My laptop has finally bought it. Or to be more precise, the adaptor isn't working anymore. Or to be even more precise, it was working this morning, but it ain't now. And the laptop's battery has fully discharged and can't now be recharged. And I've got some valuable data on the laptop's hard drive that I can't extract. I could get a replacement charger, but since I was going to be replacing the laptop in a few months, I thought I'd go the whole hog and get a new laptop now. I'm just as unlikely to be able to afford it in the future as I am right now (possibly even more so...) so what the hey? We got a laptop for Elder Daughter's birthday, so I'm getting an identical one from the same source.
5. Oh, and say hello to the new arrival in the family - Korky

He's quite a handful, and Panther and Poppy are having a touch time dealing with his youthful energy and exuberance. But hey, life goes on, dunnit? I suspect that Korky might have had something to do with the death of the laptop's adaptor. He seems to like cables of all sorts...:-)

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/07/2008

1. (1) - I'm Afraid - The Cardboard Lung
2. (2) - Ben Kenobi's Theme - Patrick Gleeson
3. (-) - Lullaby - Pugwash & Friends
4. (5) - Le Soleil Est Pres de Moi - Air
5. (-) - Easter Parade - The Blue Nile
6. (-) - So Much Love - Dusty Springfield
7. (10) - Grounds For Divorce - Elbow
8. (-) - The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver - Elbow
9. (3) - Wrong Turnings - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
10. (-) - These Winds - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

Regards,


djp

New Year's Resolutions - UPDATE

Shur, why not?:-

1. To eat sushi for the first time - UPDATE - nearly managed it a few weeks ago when we were in Dublin for the Springsteen concert, only the sushi bar in the Dundrum Town Centre just seems to open for lunch
   
2. To get to see Arsenal play at least once this year - UPDATE - I'm booked to see the Gunners play Juventus as part of the Emirates Cup in early August (if I live that long...)
   
3. To visit a country I've never been to before (this one is looking good...) - UPDATE - sorted - the Czech Republic and Poland have been ticked off the list so far, and there is a slight possibility that Slovenia might be on the cards towards the end of the year.
   
4. To start cycling again as soon as the weather improves (this one is not looking good...) - UPDATE - I have gone cycling on a number of occasions in recent times, but not nearly as much as I should have. Still, it's some form of progress, innit?
   
5. To generally get the oul' bod a bit more together - UPDATE - see 4 above. And I have one or two other plans that might (or mightn't) work.
   
6. To move house - UPDATE - looking more like Christmas to be fair, but there has been a sudden surge in activity over the last few weeks. Who knows, eh?
   
7. To either change my car or keep it for longer - UPDATE - so far, it's looking like I'm keeping it, so, result...
   
8. To have a better year at work than I had last year (which wasn't bad, but had its "moments") - UPDATE - this year has been very good on the travel front and not so bad on other fronts, so I can't really complain too much
   
9. To see friends more - UPDATE - met Peter Fitz in Warsaw (how cool was that?) and my mate Jerry Kelliher the week before in Dublin. And I'm going to the Electric Picnic in September with my cousin Redmond, so I'm doing well here...
   
10. To stop wrecking me own head - UPDATE - well, 8 out of 10 ain't bad...

Regards,


djp

"I saw a saw sawing wood in Warsaw..."

Got back from Poland yesterday. Tired after a very busy, but very enjoyable, few days business.

Click here to see a few photos.

Warsaw looks rather like Prague in many ways. It certainly could do with a few bob being spent on it, but it is still rather attractive. One advantage Warsaw has over Prague is the fact that it is less afflicted by tourists, especially in the Stare Miesto area (Old Town to you (and me...)). However, there is a significant problem with poor service in restaurants and an unfortunate tendency to short-change tourists...

...oh, and for some bizarre reason, you can't buy postcards from the usual magazine/tobacco kiosks. Dunno why.

The best part of the trip was the fact that I met my old sparring partner Peter Fitzpatrick (he of the Pushing & Pulling blogsite) who was over from Dublin on business. I haven't met him in years. The occasion was so auspicious that it has been recorded for posterity (Peter's on the right...)

Would I go back to Warsaw. Certainly.

Regards,


djp

Well oiled...

Click here for a link to an RTE news report on the recent rise in oil prices.

The key sentence in the report is this:- "The weakening dollar boosts oil prices because it makes crude relatively cheaper for buyers using other currencies, analysts say".

The dollar has weakened significantly against the euro in recent months, and since oil is priced in dollars, you would then imagine that oil would be cheaper to purchase for those states which use the euro.

Nuh-uh.

Bear in mind that oil is a finite commodity and that the oil producers are purely motivated by the desire to make as much money as possible while the supply of oil lasts, then it is in their interest to address the issue of increased demand for oil (caused in part by the weakness of the dollar, which eats into the producers' profit margins) by increasing the price of oil.

So the sequence of events is not, as the man on the street might imagine:-

- weaker dollar vs. euro -> cheaper oil

but...

- weaker dollar vs. euro -> potentially reduced profits for producers -> more expensive oil.

On the face of it, and somewhat illogically, we in the eurozone would be potentially better off if the dollar was stronger against the euro, as this would mean that oil would be too expensive, therefore demand would fall, and consequently (in theory at least) the producers would have to reduce the price to stimulate demand. However, I doubt if that's the way the real world operates.

And even if there was a guaranteed unlimited supply of oil going on into infinity, I think the oil producers would find some way to ensure that the price of oil would always go up rather than down. You wouldn't want to give it away now, would you?

Oil is such a vitally important commodity to the global economy that the normal rules of the "punter" economy do not apply. Take avocado pears, for example. Hardly the most essential commodity in the world. And yet one might develop a taste for them and decide to buy them on a regular basis. However, if for some reason the price of avocado pears sky-rocketed, the normal punter might say "Naaah, too expensive..." and decide not to buy them so long as the price stayed high. It's the classic strategy for dealing with unacceptable prices. Am I happy with the price? No. Do I really need them? No. Will I continue to buy them? Not bloody likely.

The same simple scenario does not to apply to oil. Unless someone can come up with a truly viable alternative means of fuelling transport and the generation of energy (not to mention providing raw materials for plastics, fertiliser and the Devil knows what) then we will be compelled to buy oil at whatever price it is offered to us. We have no choice for now. The oil producers are in control. As my late mother might have delicately put it "The fuckers have us by the hasp of the arse".

Of course, one way of removing the oil producers from the equation completely is for us to use up all the world's supply of oil as quickly as possible. That way, the producers would soon run out of a commodity to control and could no longer hold us to ransom.

And I'm doing my bit to advance that strategy right now - I own a Lexus...

Regards,


djp

A busy couple of days ahead of me...

Off to Dublin tomorrow afternoon for meetings on Thursday and Friday. Back home Friday evening/night.

Off to Dublin Airport very early next Monday morning (as in 1 a.m.) to catch a flight to Warsaw in Poland for meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Back home Friday evening/night.

Sounds like a bit of a drag, perhaps. Still, it's good to be busy, innit?

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod Tracks - 01/06/2008

1. (-) - I'm Afraid - The Cardboard Lung
2. (-) - Ben Kenobi's Theme - Patrick Gleeson
3. (-) - Wrong Turnings - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
4. (-) - Do What You Wanna Do - Acid House Kings
5. (-) - Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi - Air
6. (-) - Hormone Love - Blowoff
7. (-) - Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen
8. (-) - Galvanize - The Chemical Brothers
9. (-) - The Certainty Of Chance - The Divine Comedy
10. (-) - Grounds For Divorce - Elbow

Regards,


djp

Plain ketchup

It's been a while since my last posting, but some interesting stuff has happened:-

1. Let's see - first, and perhaps most important - my elder daughter has graduated from second-level education (or "high school", if you prefer). She is about to face into her final exams (or "Leaving Cert", if you prefer) and is studying like mad. Last week, there was a "graduation" Mass said in her school. It was very pleasant and somewhat emotional - one does realise the passage of time when one's eldest offspring is finishing school and heading (hopefully) for university. Towards the end of the ceremony, the girls in her year sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" a la Jeff Buckley and it brought a tear to my eye - not just for the occasion that was in it, but for the stupendous loss to the world caused by the untimely death of Jeff Buckley. Hmmm... Of course, back in my time, there was no such thing as "graduation". You just "left school". How things have changed...
   
2. I finally got my Rickenbacker bass after almost two years waiting and a snafu with my order. When I opened the case, I was instantly transported back to 1974 when I bought Sparks' "Kimono My House", which featured Martin Gordon playing a Ric 4001 bass. I have lusted after a Ric bass for 34 years and finally got to fulfill my dreams when I opened the new Ric's guitar case and plugged it into my POD. That sound that at the age of 11 convinced me that I should learn to play the bass. 1974 - I mean Jesus!
3. Took Mrs. P to see Bruce Springsteen in Dublin last night. I am not a fan of The Boss, but "the boss" is, so when the tickets came up for sale, I had no hesitation in getting a brace of tickets. Whatever I might think about Springsteen, he puts on a great show with no fancy stagecraft involved. A most enjoyable night all told, but my feet and knees were aching when we got back to the hotel. Gettin' ould, boy...
4. So this morning, we skipped breakfast and went straight to the Dundrum Town Centre, where both Mrs. P and I went for cooked breakfast. Being the gentleman that I am, I paid for both of our breakfasts. The bill came to €13.50. Amazing! I asked the guy at the checkout had he possibly undercharged me. "No", he said, "I charged for everything. Great value, isn't it?" Who was I to disagree? And the fee for 2 hours' parking was only €2. Almost made me feel like moving back to the Big Shmoke. And then I bought 3 hoodies and a polo shirt in Penneys for €32. I know I'm supposed to be concerned about our poor brethren in the Far East who work in intolerable conditions in sweatshops to make such sinfully-cheap clothing. But €32? I mean come on...:-)

Regards,


djp

Ah, nostalgia...

So, I went up to Dublin to collect my iPod yesterday.

Of course, I completely forgot (big eejit that I am) that yesterday was the start of the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Everything was fine (more or less) until I got through that notorious traffic blackspot, Mountrath. On the Dublin side of town, there was a traffic tailback going some 3 or 4 km. I resolved that I was not going to be part of that...

Got to Dublin around 4.10 p.m., did the business (oo, er...) and started to head back to Nenagh around 4.45. It took me 75 minutes to get from the Jervis Street car park to the Red Cow "interchange" (it used to be a "roundabout", now it's an "interchange"...) - a distance, I'm guessing here, of about 6 or 7 km. I don't know if that's the usual length of time it takes to make that journey on a Friday evening, but it brought back memories of the almost-interminable journeys I used to make from Dublin to Kerry back in the 80s - before all the "road improvements" of recent years.

Once I got past Newland's Cross, it was plain sailing. But the thought of a tailback in Mountrath prompted me to consider an alternative route home. I toyed with the idea of turning off the M7 for Abbeyleix and heading toward Cork, turning off the N8 to go to Thurles and then home. But coming towards Mountrath, I realised that I really couldn't be arsed, so I continued on my normal route. The good news was that there wasn't so much of a tailback; more like a go-slow. I drove slowly, but relatively easily, through the town, only losing (according to "Hillary", my GPS guide) about 8 minutes. Got home a little before 8 o'clock. Not bad, really...

My thoughts went back to the earlier tailback going into Mountrath. Obviously, everybody thought they were being clever by leaving Dublin early to avoid the crowd. The fools! Haven't they learnt yet? You can never avoid the crowd...

...makes me glad I moved out of Dublin all those years ago.

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/05/2008

1. (-) - Love It When You Call - The Feeling
2. (-) - I Am Produced - Guided By Voices
3. (-) - We're Through - The Hollies
4. (-) - Snake Charmer (Live) - Jah Wobble & the Invaders of the Heart
5. (-) - Grace - Jeff Buckley
6. (-) - Mega Bottle Ride - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
7. (-) - Isaachar Dub - King Tubby
8. (-) - Wichita Lineman - Sammy Davis Jr.
9. (-) - Pain & Spectacles - Stereolab
10. (-) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent

OK, this is where I have a confession to make. This is actually the Top 10 for 21 April, since my iPod has been up in Dublin for the last week or so getting its plugs and points checked. On the assumption that the hard drive might be wiped in the process of maintenance, I backed up all the songs and took my Top 10 from the point of backup.

While the iPod has been in the A&E, I've been using my younger daughter's old iPod Shuffle to keep me musically mobile. For what it's worth (norra lo'...), here's the Top 10 tracks I've been listening to over the past week:-

1. - Get On With Your Short Life - Brian Kennedy
2. - Lady Double Dealer (Live) - Deep Purple
3. - EMI - Sex Pistols
4. - Luno - Bloc Party
5. - Paper - Brometer
6. - Burn (Live) - Deep Purple
7. - Wrong Turnings - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
8. - Face Like Summer - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
9. - Beginning Is the End - The Hungry I
10. - Friend, You've Got To Fall - Husker Du

I'm getting the iPod back tomorrow, so normal service will resume shortly.

Regards,


djp

A matter of principle (I suppose)

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that a number of items I've posted on forums and blogs other than this one have been deleted by the moderators/bloggers.

I have absolutely no problem with this. It's the prerogative of the bloggers or moderators to assess whether any posted items are worthy of publication and are not just the witterings of people (such as I) who occasionally have too many shandies down the Dog and Dinosaur and come home in the wee small hours to type total "ráiméis". The world doesn't need it, quite frankly...

I have this principle that I try to live by:- if it can't happen, it won't happen. This principle can be applied successfully to almost any element of modern, everyday life, not least the posting of idiotic tosh on blogs and such.

So in an effort to make less of a nuisance of myself, I now intend not to look at any blog or forum between today and 1 September next. Just as a trial period. If I can't look at a blog, then I won't post a comment. Seems like a simple proposition...

Regards,


djp

God, Ted, I'm an awful eejit...

I had a dentist's appointment today for 2 p.m., and I forgot it...

I was working "á l'ordinateur" all day today and was quite happily uploading some shite online when the thought crossed my mind that I was supposed to be going to the dentist today...

...checked my watch...

...3.30!

Bollocks...and I wouldn't mind, but I'd thought about the appointment sometime before noon, as in "Mustn't forget to brush, floss and gargle before my dental appointment. At 2.00 p.m."

Losing it bigtime...:-^)

Regards,


djp

Tech trouble

Looks like there could be some significant financial issues ahead...:-)

My 6-year old Dell laptop is due for retirement in the Autumn, but I'm not sure it's going to make it that far. It's a Dell Inspiron, but it's performance these days is dull and uninspiring. It's been very slow to start-up these last two days, at least 15 mins and a couple of "hard-reboots", but unless I really have to, I don't want to splash out on a new laptop in a hurry. I want to do a lot of research and get the best I can afford - when I can afford it...:-)

And then there's my iPod. I reckon the battery's on the fritz, so a trip to Mr. iPod Repair Guy in Dublin looks likely. As it happens, I'm going there next Monday to see Elbow live, so I might just take the iPod along with me to see what happens.

Of course, you'll well remember the little spot of bother I almost got myself into in relation to iPods on Ebay last year. I still wouldn't mind a larger iPod (even an old 60Gb model would do, I'm not terribly fussy). Maybe Mr. iPod Repair Guy might have a re-conditioned model for sale at the right price. Might be worth a try.

We'll see. Whatever happens with either the laptop or the iPod (or both), my credit card might be taking a bit of a hit...:-^)

Regards,


djp

Creative inertia

A few weeks ago, we had problems with leaks from our bathroom into our kitchen.

After much beard tweaking, cursing and swearing (OK, in reality, effin' and blindin'), we discovered that the source of the leaks was a disconnected downpipe in the bathroom w.h.b.

I called Mr. Builder Guy and he sorted out the problem. But it was still necessary to rectify the consequences of the leaks:- water stains on the kitchen ceiling (multiple coats of paint has remedied this) and a jamming kitchen door. Water had been leaking through a small little hole in the edge between the kitchen ceiling and the supporting wall where the door lives. As a result, water had dripped down through the door jamb and on to the door itself, causing it to swell and stick in the doorway.

It had been my intention to sand the area of the door that had swollen. In order to identify that area, I hit upon the delightful wheeze of rubbing pencil graphite on to the door jamb above the door. The graphite would mark the door where it was sticking. Tried it out and, sure enough, it worked - I could see exactly where the door was sticking.

The next step would be to get some sandpaper and, well, sand. However, for whatever reason, I didn't get around to that task. As days passed, the door seemed to be less inclined to stick. Today, I discovered that the door wasn't sticking at all. Obviously, it has dried out in recent days and the swelling has reduced.

So that was a job saved, then...

Sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all. As I say, creative inertia.

Regards,


djp

Wonders will never cease No. 1

I was in Limerick today to pick up some materials from a builders' providers.

Having paid for the materials, I was given a docket and then sent around to the warehouse to make the pickup. Parked the old VW van round the back and went inside to meet the guy with the forklift truck.

I was amazed to hear some familiar music over the speakers in the warehouse:- "Flamenco Sketches" from Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue" album.

I mean, Miles Davis. In a builders' providers' warehouse.

I blame the Celtic Tiger. Warehouse people won't put up with any old shite being played these days. Only the best.

Far from Miles Davis we were reared. An entire ocean and part of a continent away, in fact.

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tunes - 01/04/2008

1. (-) - Going Through The Motions - Aimee Mann
2. (-) - Once Upon A Time - Air
3. (-) - Drumnagarry Strathspey/Pirrie Wirrie/Big John's Reel - Altan
4. (-) - Mozart - Rondo Alla Turca - Andrei Gavrilov
5. (-) - If You Were There, Beware - Arctic Monkeys
6. (-) - Turtle - Artery
7. (-) - Penny Lane - The Beatles
8. (-) - No One Will Know - Bella
9. (-) - Stars - The Buzzcocks
10. (-) - T T T - The Buzzcocks

My iPod had one of its occasional total crap-outs (craps-out?) the other day and I had to re-format the damn thing. I also, for the first time, created my own "library" in iTunes. Up to know, the entire family had used the same library, but because of my...er...specialist taste in music, whenever I added anything to my iPod, I always deleted it afterwards from the library. Obviously, the material was either on a hard drive as a download or was on CD, so it was possible (though very painful) to track down all the material I'd had to delete. The whole process ran over three days..:-(

I also took the opportunity to drop some old material I'd been listening to for ages and introduce some new stuff. Plus I allowed myself to sample some of the stuff that my kids had on the main library - I know - taking my life in my hands and that.

Bottom line is - this month's chart bears absolutely no relation to that of last month. Sorry about that, chaps.

It strikes me that this type of thing was never an issue with vinyl - ah, me...

Regards,


djp

Prague Spring, 2008

Last week, I spent a few days in Prague on business. I got the opportunity to bring the family over as well, so I took it.

If you haven't been to Prague before, get ye there as quickly as possible. It's got wonderful architecture in the centre of the city - mindblowing, in fact. Mind you, where we were staying, everything was a bit Stalinist and run-down, working-class. But I got no sense of threat there.

The residents of Prague seem to be courteous, if not exactly friendly, but courteous is fine by me.

Herewith, some pics...

Regards,


djp

Read. Enjoy.

http://byneddiejingo.blogspot.com/2008/03/four-diamond-girl.html


Regards,


djp

Won me a competition...

... on David Cairns' wonderful movie blog, SHADOWPLAY.

Just me waxing a tad lyrical, as I am wont to do. Might even do something with it in the sweet by-and-by.

SHADOWPLAY is well worth checking out on an ongoing basis if you enjoy the world of cinema. Highly recommended!

Regards,


djp

Lotto-explaining-to-do

Last Saturday, the Irish National Lottery jackpot was heading for €10 million. That would buy a lot of Snickers ice cream, don't you think?

I don't play the Lotto terribly often. Usually only when there's a fairly decent jackpot roll-over. I seem to have no gambling gene at all - I'm just not interested. Quite the opposite, in fact - I almost have a pathological fear of being overcome with the gambling fever. So I limit my flutters to an occasional trip to the gee-gees and an (almost) annual bet on the Gunners every August. Not much more than that really.

And when I do the Lotto, more often than not I forget to check the results, so what's the point really? As I said, no gambling gene.

But you can't really ignore a €10 million jackpot, can you?

So on Saturday, I trekked over to Tesco and did my (for want of a better description, given the foregoing) "usual" play - four lines of Quick Pick and Lotto Plus. €8 stake. I walked away from the counter with the Lotto numbers and playslip in my left hand. Just as I was taking a sneaky peak at the front pages on the newspaper stand, I remembered that I needed to buy a ream of printing paper for my PC. I went to the appropriate aisle, found the paper and ventured towards the self-service checkout. Did the needful and emerged at the other side. At that stage I decided to check that I had my Lotto papers intact. To my horror, I discovered that while I had the playslip, I'd lost the actual Lotto numbers. I went back inside the store and re-traced my steps. No sign of the numbers. Obviously, some eagle-eyed passer-by had seen me drop the numbers and decided to help themselves to a free stake in the Lotto draw.

Cursing my stupidity, I went back to the counter and did another €8 play. €16 down - what a plonker...

As I went back to the car, I considered how terrible it would be if someone won the Lotto with my lost numbers, so I offered a silent prayer to the Guy in the Penthouse that no-one from Nenagh would win the jackpot, and guess what...

...there is a Guy in the Penthouse. The jackpot wasn't won at all, in Nenagh or anywhere else, and it rolls over to the next draw on Wednesday. Who knows how much that's going to be worth.

Of course, when I told my tale to Mrs. P, she concurred with my conclusion that I am, indeed, a plonker.

But the story doesn't end there - I decided to check my second set of numbers online and discovered that I'd "matched three" on the Lotto Plus 2 draw. And my prize? A free €1 scratch card. Big whoop - I'll probably forget to claim it or lose the numbers or summat.

As I said, no gambling gene...:-^)

Regards,


djp

Critter Cadaver No. 3 - Dead Mouse

Found at the side of the house yesterday. Panther's handiwork, I'd imagine...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/03/2008

1. (1) - Burst Me Stitches (PC Mix) - Daniel Prendiville
2. (2) - Hello? Is This Thing On? - !!!
3. (-) - Sedition's Wish - 31 Knots
4. (-) - Life On Earth - The Divine Comedy
5. (8) - Moanin' The Blues - Hank Williams
6. (3) - Sam's Town - The Killers
7. (4) - Moon (John Peel Session) - Microdisney
8. (-) - Clean Up For Christmas - Aimee Mann
9. (-) - Californie - Air
10. (-) - Everything That's You - Airliner

Regards,


djp

The wanderer returns...

Panther is back! About 15 minutes ago I heard his signature "thump" on the dining-room windowsill as he jumped down from the neighbours' wall. Once I'd opened the window he was straight into the utility room and ate solidly for about five minutes.

God knows where he's been (probably stuck in a shed or garage for a few days - he's lost a bit of weight) but that's not important now because he's back!

And a good thing too, because I was getting lonely looking at the photo...(sniff)

Regards,


djp

Aber, wo ist Panther?

I came back from a business trip in the UK on Saturday. The family (both human and feline) was intact and well.

Saturday, Younger Daughter put out both cats as per normal. Sunday morning, no sign of Panther, our magnificent black (neutered) male. No sign all day Sunday. No sign all day Monday. Or Tuesday. Or this morning.

He has been known to stray a bit in the past, and he does seem to have a rather wide territory. So maybe nothing is amiss. But maybe there is...:-( Hopefully he will turn up soon and all will be forgotten.

Anyway, here's the most recent photo I have of him.

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 02/02/2008

1. (-) - Burst Me Stitches (PC Mix) - Daniel Prendiville (honestly, no fix involved, much...)
2. (1) - Hello? Is This Thing On? - !!!
3. (-) - Sam's Town - The Killers
4. (-) - Moon (John Peel Session) - Microdisney
5. (7) - Mixed Bizness - Beck
6. (10) - Child In Time (Live) - Deep Purple
7. (2) - Not Behind The Fighter Jet - Guided By Voices
8. (3) - Moanin' The Blues - Hank Williams
9. (-) - Where White Boys Dance - The Killers
10. (-) - Who Brought The Tootskie? - MJB

Regards,


djp

Critter Cadaver No.2 - Dead Robin

Today's offering is a dead robin found across the road from Kelly's old shop on Gortlandroe.

Anyone familiar with my musical meanderings will recall that I have a particular affinity for robins. If you're not on first-name terms with my back catalogue, you can click on this here link here...

Regards,


djp

Critter Cadaver No. 1 update

As you can see, ol' Ratty Rat is more or less in the same position as when I encountered him first a week ago.

He's looking a little the worse for wear now. Obviously, some live critters have been nosing around the cadaver, like a bunch of four-legged amateur forensic pathologists. And yet no human has done the decent thing and chucked the poor bugger over the fence to moulder away in peace.

Me? Volunteer? How little you know me...:-)

Regards,


djp

Y'wha?

Tesco, for its sins, is regularly involved in product recalls.

Most of the recalls I've seen have been in relation to electrical products. Some items of clothing perhaps.

But the most recent recall caught my eye - it was for a line of navy blue mugs. And the problem that was identified was that the mugs were inclined to crack when filled with boiling water.

I think that bears repeating - the mugs were inclined to crack when filled with boiling water.

I've been using mugs for most of my 45 years now, and practically every mug I've ever used has been subjected to the trauma of being filled with boiling water. None, to the best of my recollection, has ever cracked when filled with boiling water. None.

What is the world coming to when you can't trust a mug not to show signs of ceramic fatigue when they are subjected to what one can safely describe as standard wear and tear? For mugs.

Society is crumbling around our ears, mes braves...:-)

Regards,


djp

Critter Cadaver No. 1 - Dead Rat

Encountered this chappie on my walk on the Nenagh Peripherique yesterday. He's some monster, isn't he? I've never been that up close and...er...personal with a rat that size before. On a walk this morning on the same route he was still there - no-one had made the effort to move it off the path.

I come across quite a number of critter cadavers on my reasonably-regular walks, so much so that I'm inclined to put together an occasional series of blog postings on the subject. Stay tuned, cadaver fans.

Oh, and apologies for the poor quality of the photograph. This was taken on my cheap-and-cheerful Motorola phone. Steps have been taken to improve matters in that regard, so watch this space.

Regards,


djp

Top Of The World

Sad to hear that Edmund Hillary died, at the age of 88. He had a surprisingly long life, considering that he peaked so early...

Regards,


djp

Break the mould

Got an e-mail from Bob Mould today. Just thought I'd say...

Regards,


djp

Cello-fain

Anyone who's been reading this blog with any degree of regularity will realise that, despite my natural sense of financial rectitude, I am occasionally prone to the odd outbreak of bizarre fiscal immoderacy (is that a word?). In other words, every now and then I spend a shitload of money on something that I cannot justify to those near and dear to me.

You might well remember, for example, my experience with Ebay and the iPods going back a few months.

It's not that I'm naturally extravagant. It's just that, from time to time, I get this urge to spend some money on something that I don't really need, but that, on the spur of the moment, I feel will enhance my life immeasurably. This doesn't happen too often, but when it does, it tends to upset the delicate balance of my life for a few days, after which things progress exactly as they had theretofore, except I've now got yet another item to clutter up my already cluttered-up existence.

Mc.Carneys is a shop in Nenagh which specialises in rather fine pieces of furniture and (occasionally) musical instruments. They have a reputation for sourcing good secondhand pianos, for instance. We've bought some nice pieces of furniture there over the years. And yes, that's where we bought our piano back in the dim-and-distant. I must admit, however, that I haven't gone into the shop for a few years.

Another feature of the shop is the fine window displays, which never fail to delight and to tempt one with beautiful items of furniture, crockery and the devil knows what.

Last week, I was passing the shop when my eye was caught by, of all things, a cello. A cello. For something like €250. I've no idea whether it was a full-size cello or a student model, or whether it was in good nick or riddled with woodworm. It didn't really mater - its very presence in Mc. Carneys' window was enough to send me off on a riff.

Being a bass player, there is a natural attraction for me to the cello. It's not as big, unwieldy and expensive as a double bass, but being a bowed, unfretted instrument it would present a serious challenge to my severely-limited musical abilities, but one which the eternal optimist in me would not be able to resist. Some day, if you buy me enough Bacardi and Coke, I'll tell you the sad and sorry tale of the time I bought a fretless Fender Jazz Bass (OK, it wasn't a bowed instrument but it was definitely fretless).

Knowing my pre-existing proclivity for buying musical instruments that I can't actually play (like a 12-string acoustic guitar, a lap steel guitar and a mandolin), I knew that if I didn't walk past that window very quickly, I'd have some explaining to do to the long-suffering Mrs. P. ("you bought a WHAT?"). Even my impending 45th. birthday would not justify buying a damn cello. And then I'd have to get it re-strung for a lefty. Is that possible? So many reasons not to buy.

That was last week...

...today, I was "working" at home when, for no reason I can fathom, I got the notion to head down to see if the cello was still in Mc. Carneys' window. And if it was there, shur maybe I'd have a good look at it. What harm could it do, for God's sake? And even if I did decide to buy, €250 would hardly breach the family's finances that much, would it?

So downtown I went. And having stopped off to drop a pair of trousers at the dry cleaners (I wasn't wearing them when I dropped them, so no sniggering at the back), I wandered over to Mc. Carneys. No sign of it in the window. Then I entered the shop and had a quick recce. No sign of it anywhere. A wave of relief washed over me - I wouldn't have to get the cello re-strung at God knows what cost. I wouldn't have to sneak it into the house away from the prying eyes of my bemused neighbours and then have to explain to Mrs. P and the young'uns why the hell a middle-aged man had gone and bought a cello (other than the fact that I am middle-aged and it is a cello - I mean come on...). And I would have had to be upfront about the purchase since I've now officially run out of hiding places to stash musical instruments that no-one knows I've bought. So, counting my blessings, I left Mc. Carneys - without a cello but with my bank balance intact.

And yet... I couldn't shake the thought of how cool it would have been to segue from "Anyone who's been reading this blog...cluttered-up existence" to "And so I bought a cello."

Regards,


djp

Some New Year's resolutions

1. To eat sushi for the first time
2. To get to see Arsenal play at least once this year
3. To visit a country I've never been to before (this one is looking good...)
4. To start cycling again as soon as the weather improves (this one is not looking good...)
5. To generally get the oul' bod a bit more together
6. To move house
7. To either change my car or keep it for longer
8. To have a better year at work than I had last year (which wasn't bad, but had its "moments")
9. To see friends more
10. To stop wrecking me own head

That'll do for starters...

Regards,

djp

My Top 10 iPod tunes - 01/01/2008

1. (1) - Hello? Is This Thing On? - !!!
2. (-) - Not Behind The Fighter Jet - Guided By Voices
3. (4) - Moanin' The Blues - Hank Williams
4. (-) - Le Printemps - Natacha Atlas
5. (-) - The Tourist - Radiohead
6. (2) - Teddy Picker - Arctic Monkeys
7. (3) - Mixed Bizness - Beck
8. (-) - Manchester (demo) - Brendan James
9. (-) - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais - The Clash
10. (-) - Child In Time (live) - Deep Purple

Regards (and Happy New Year...)

djp

Dead Pop Heroes No. 6

The one and only Ian Dury, if only for writing this...

Regards,


djp

Dead Pop Heroes No. 5

This just in on Joe Dolan. Scarily, Joe's Wikipedia entry was updated within hours of the ann0uncement.

Regards,


djp

Dead Pop Heroes No. 4

The incomparable Bernard Edwards...

Regards,


djp

Dead Pop Heroes No. 3

Let's hear it for John Entwistle. Who?

Regards,


djp

Dead Reggae Heroes

Augustus Pablo and King Tubby.

Regards,


djp

Dead Pop Heroes No. 2

And then there's Jeff Buckley.

Regards,


djp

Dead Pop Heroes No. 1

Aujourd'hui, voici Billy Mackenzie.

Regards,


djp

(B)eMusic

Being the cheapskate bastard that I am, I usually check out eMusic on a daily basis for their free daily download. I will generally download anything other than R&B/urban/hip-hop. A guy has to have some standards after all...

However, today I noticed that the free download track had already been made available for free some weeks ago. You'd think with all the music on the internet nowadays that it would be impossible for eMusic to repeat themselves. This is obviously not the case.

Yours (B)eMused,


djp

Shave and a haircut (without the shave)

I'd left my hair grow for over six months - just before going on holidays in June of this year - and today I finally decided to cut it myself. It had gone all lank and greasy, and while I'm not averse to washing my hair, it was getting to the stage where I'd have to wash it every day, which would be a nuisance. So I'm back to a nice tidy crew-cut, a bit longer than I used to have it.

I'd never grown my hair very long before, and this was longer than I'd ever had it. So I can count this as one of my "100 things to do before I die". Not that I've been keeping a strict count, don't you know...

Regards,


djp

Odd-shaped balls

I had a dream last night that I was picked for the Irish Rugby team (don't ask how that came to pass - I have no idea and neither do the IRFU).

Anyway, I found myself in the Irish dressing room on match day. The atmosphere wasn't great. There were all these rules that I was breaking out of total ignorance - "Don't talk too loud, Eddie hates it before a match"/"You can't sit there, that's Bod's spot"/Hey, mind Rog's bag!" That type of thing.

Naturally, with that type of vibe, coupled with the fact that I have never played rugby in my life (and against the All-Blacks, probably, no less...), I was feeling rather jittery and was not at all enjoying myself.

Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, I had a very strong need to find a tradesman to tarmac the drive. I had no idea who to contact. I asked around the dressing room. Most of the guys were deep in pre-match concentration and either totally ignored me or told me (quite rightly, I felt) to fuck off.

Only Paul O'Connell gave me the time of day. He said that Peter Stringer had loads of contacts in the building trade and he gives me Strings' mobile number (where Strings was, I have no idea - he was definitely picked for the match but was nowhere to be found).

I dialled the number and introduced myself. "Hi, Peter, you don't know me but I'm on the team for the match today..."

"Oh right", said Strings, sounding a bit distracted.

"Paul O'Connell tells me you might know a guy who's good at tarmac..."

"What?!" came the incredulous response. I have no doubt he was wondering who the hell was this clown at the other end of the line. But I had no choice but to repeat myself and press onwards - if I was going to be sharing the park with Strings, then I was going to have to act like a man.

"Ah", Strings said eventually, "right. I know a guy. He's not cheap, but he's good and I reckon he's available." He gave me the guy's name. It took a number of attempts as the line was very bad. I got it down eventually but I wouldn't vouch for the accuracy of the spelling.

"Have you a number for him", I asked. He had to think about this for a while. The line went quiet, so I asked him again. "Hould tough, pal, I'm thinking - right".

So he gave me a number. I had to ask him to repeat it a few times, as I couldn't hear all the numbers and I wasn't sure about the format.

"Look, I have to go", String said at last. "I've got to get to the match". "Right", sez I, "I'll see you later".

I gazed down at the piece of paper on which I had written the number. There was an obvious look of puzzlement and bewilderment on my face, as Paul O'Connell came over to me and asked was everything OK.

"This number - I'm not sure that it's a valid phone number", I said. "Here, let me have a look", said Paul. We both perused the paper for a moment, and then the penny dropped for us both simultaneously.

"It's not a phone number at all..." I said. "...it's a VAT number!" said Paul.

We looked at each other and shook our heads.

"Tcheh! That's Strings for you", Paul laughed.

Regards,


djp

A bit of an achievement

Last Friday, for the first time ever I reckon, I composed and recorded a song in a morning. The drums were supplied by my friend, Ian C Stewart, and I recorded bass, two guitar parts and vocals myself. I made up the vocals pretty much on the spot over a couple of takes. I haven't worked anything remotely like that fast in about 11 years, when I did a few songs on 4-track.

Keep an ear out for "Burst Me Stitches" in the coming months...:-)

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/12/2007

1. (-) - Hello? Is This Thing On? - !!!
2. (3) - Teddy Picker - Arctic Monkeys
3. (-) - Mixed Bizness - Beck
4. (-) - Moanin' The Blues - Hank Williams
5. (-) - Where White Boys Dance - The Killers
6. (-) - Sulk - Radiohead
7. (1) - Getting Involved - Scott Brookman
8. (2) - Suicide (live) - Thin Lizzy
9. (-) - Schubert - Excerpt from Adagio - Quintet in C - Barrington Pheloung
10. (-) - One Love - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Regards,

djp