Back in June of this year, in response to an item on the late lamented Blogorrah, I created this -



I caught the tail end of an interview on The Last Word this evening, and it would appear that a magazine along these lines is indeed about to be published.

What can I say?

Yesterday was an anniversary that I had in the back of my mind for a while as a potential post, and wouldn’t you know it, I forgot about it.

Twenty years ago, on Friday 27 November 1987, a little-known Canadian band called Cowboy Junkies set themselves up in a church in Toronto to record some tracks. Using just a single ambisonic microphone, Michael Timmins, along with his sister Margo and his brother Peter, family friend Alan Anton, and a few others committed to tape a very special recording.

The Trinity Session (named after the church in which the recording took place) is one of the most haunting, captivating and devastatingly beautiful collections of songs that you are likely to hear in your lifetime. A mixture of originals and covers, it veers from folk to country to blues to rock. They took country standards made famous by the likes of Hank Williams and Patsy Cline and completely reinterpreted them.

I discovered the album sometime around 1989, having read several rave reviews. Not being a great aficionado of country music at the time, I wasn’t really impressed with my first listen. But I found myself going back to it, until I was listening to it at least once a day. It is the only record I have ever owned that I have physically worn out. I played my vinyl copy so many times that it is now scratched and worn beyond redemption. I subsequently bought it again on CD.


Wait! There's More…

Fake Steve has been hacked - by his good friend Fake Bono

How To Dismantle An Atomic Blog

The Portlaoise cancer scandal just seems to be going from bad to worse.

The HSE announced today that a further 97 patients are to be recalled to have their cases reviewed. Mary Harney reiterated her apology to the Dáil. Her opposite number in Fine Gael called for her resignation.

That's another 97 women who will now have to go through a harrowing ordeal as their cases are reviewed. Ninety-seven mothers, wives, partners, sisters, daughters, friends…

We can call for resignations, but would it make any difference? If Mary Harney was to resign, someone else would have to take over as Minister for Health. No-one in their right mind would want to do the job, and even if anyone did, it's unlikely they would have the ability to sort out the mess that is the health service. Also, resignation would require the notions of principle and responsibility, both of which are completely lacking in this arrogant, self-interested bunch of wastrels we call our government.

Michael O'Leary of Ryanair was on The Last Word this evening and he pointed out that in effect, no-one is running the health service. And he's right. Mary Harney set up the HSE to replace the old health boards, but what she is doing now is to deflect any criticism of her handling of her portfolio onto the Executive itself. But the unions and the other vested interests go over the heads of the HSE to the Department, and when the shit hits the fan, Harney makes sure the fan is pointed in the direction of Professor Brendan Drumm & Co.

When I started blogging on 22 November 2004, things were quite different. We were living in Dublin and our daughter was a twinkle in my eye. My site was hosted on Blogger.

I remember starting out blogging - so many questions. Would anybody read it? If they read it would they comment? If they commented would they forcefully disagree with what I had to say? If they forcefully disagreed with what I had to say would I be able to come back with a witty retort?

I suppose the big question should have been - would I still be at it three years later. Well, here I am, still plugging away.

With England's defeat to Croatia at Wembley tonight, it means that there will be no representative team from These Islands™ in next year's European Championship. The Wee North had a slim hope of qualifying, but in the end they fell to a 1-0 defeat to Spain. Even if they had won, Sweden's 2-1 win over Latvia would have put qualification beyond them in any case.

Headline in The Sun (UK edition) tomorrow?

If you have been missing your regular dose of Raiméis, the good news is Maca's back after an eight-month hiatus.

Stephen Fry's blog is also a repository for his weekly Tech column in the Guardian. This is good news as it saves me from actually buying the paper, thus reducing my carbon footprint somewhat, which seem to be all they ever go on about in the Grauniad these days. (Also the fact that I can never find it on the Graun's website is a pain.) He has also just written a long piece about the perils of trying to have a full-throttle, no-holds-barred, fists-banging-the-table debate with Americans. It kind of reminded me of the criticism Carole Coleman came in for after her combative interview with President George W Bush a couple of years back.

(As an aside, I find it hard to forgive Fry for coming up with the awful neologism "Blessay.")

The Kindle… hmmm… I'm not so sure. Reading a book is more than just scanning the words on a page. There is the tactile experience of handling the book, turning the pages and so on, that I would miss if I were to go all electronic. There is also the $400 (or whatever the Euro equivalent will be when/if it ever makes it over here) I would miss too. Is it the iPod for books? John Gruber doesn't think so.

I was away in England from Friday to Monday and so only caught a glimpse of the tabloid headlines following the McElhill tragedy in Omagh. One paper ran with a front page headline along the lines "Sex perv Dad torched them all!" Now, whatever were the circumstances surrounding the deaths of these poor unfortunate people, some of the tabs were well out of order in their coverage of the story. These headlines were being printed as the family were still lying dead in the burnt-out ruins of their home. Their relatives, friends and neighbours would have still been trying to get some sort of grip on the awful events, so to run these lurid headlines even before the bodies were removed from the scene of the fire was insensitive in the extreme. The tabloid editors will no doubt defend their headlines by saying that they are only reporting the news that their readers want to read. But are the readers of Irish tabloids really that interested in such sensationalism? As I said, I was away last weekend. Was there any debate or discussion about the behaviour of the tabloids in the aftermath of this tragedy?

The Department of Revenue and Customs in the UK has managed to lose the details of every family that claims child benefit - all 7.25 million of them. I'm so glad that I'm not the poor sod that decided to call the courier.

Now that winter is upon us, it's time for my annual rant about drivers who haven't got a clue on how to use their headlights. They fall into several categories, ranging from those who underuse their lights, to those who overuse them:

Exhibit A: The motorist who drives around a lit-up area with just parking lights on, or worse, with no lights on at all. I don't see the point of parking lights. They are about as useful as tits on a bull, but plenty of drivers go around in towns after dark with just these lights on.

Exhibit B: The motorist who will never put any lights on before dark, even if it's foggy or lashing rain. It burns the bulbs out, don't yeh see?

Exhibit C: The boy racer in his skanger-banger with coloured headlights.

Exhibit D: The motorist who has to have their fog lights on at all times, even if there is no fog. This is a big problem in rural areas.

Exhibit E: The oncoming driver who waits till he's approached within 100 metres of you before dipping his beams.

Exhibit F: The driver that believes that you don't have to dip your beams if you are driving on a motorway. I see this on the M7 all the time.

No doubt I'll be ranting something similar here in twelve months time.

Just home from the Wilco gig at Vicar Street. What a gig! They were easily as good as the last time I saw them in 1999. Mind you, the only members of the band to have been there in 1999 and again tonight were Jeff Tweedy himself and bass player John Stirratt.

Jeff Tweedy has managed the evolution of his band very skillfully. Not only is he writing such brilliant material, but he has gathered around him a band of immense talent. To borrow a phrase from the world of sport, Nels Cline, Glen Kotche, John Stirratt, Mikael Jorgensen and Pat Sansone are all "wuuurrld class." If they were a football team they would be the sum of AC Milan and Barcelona. If they were a rugby team, they would be the All Blacks (and it would not be a World Cup year.)

Here's a bit of video I shot on my phone from tonight. "Walken" from Sly Blue Sky. (Please excuse the crappy picture quality. And the crappy sound quality too.) Still, if you're going along on Thursday, this will give you a flavour of what to expect.

Can't bleedin' wait. This is the first gig I will have been to in about two and a half years.

In the meantime, Impossible Germany from Sky Blue Sky:

Does anyone remember the months that followed the 2002 election? The sneaky tax hikes? The rise in prescription charges and in the cost of visiting a doctor? The school building projects that were cancelled due to lack of funds? The way everyone was talking the economy down?

Of course we don't because it was aeons ago. Well, it's all happening again, so I suggest that this time, the Irish electorate takes note of all that has happened in the six months since the election. Things like the shafting of Shannon; the recruitment freeze in the HSE; the cavalier attitude of Bertie Ahern to the Portlaoise cancer affair; the provisional licence debacle; etc.

Once again the government is talking down the economy. Lessening people's expectations means not having to do anything about tax reform for a couple of years, at least not till the next election looms over the horizon.

The chutzpah of Ahern and his cronies is absolutely unreal. Today, addressing the social partners at Farmleigh, he and Brian Cowen advised that wage demands should be kept to a minimum as tough times were ahead. Just after they helped themselves to a 14% pay hike, paid for by you and me, Citizen Taxpayer.

Last week, the Irish Times published a poll which showed a sharp drop in support for the coalition. I'd imagine that this news was greeted at Fianna Fáil HQ in the way that a teenager would react to being chastised by his parents. A roll of the eyes and a "Yeah, whateeeever!" They couldn't care less if support for the government was at zero right now, because the next election is four and a half years away. By which time, the economy will have miraculously recovered, and everything will be just fine and dandy.

And this is why we should take note of all that is happening now. So that when these trolls come out from under their bridges looking for our votes in 2012, we can remind them of the cuts, the hikes, the lies, the excuses and the hypocrisy.

Just installed a new theme called badNas from seydesign.

Changing themes is what I usually do when I have little to say.

Must get working on the new rugby site though, as the Heineken Cup starts this weekend.

A certain little lady got her first pair of shoes at the weekend, and boy is she proud as punch!



She got her first handbag from her auntie a little while back as well. So she's fourteen months old and already developing Carrie Bradshaw tendencies in footwear and accessories. As we say in my native Mayo "It isn't off the shtones she licked it."

Jim's playlist:

Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (CBS)
These New Puritans “Colours” (Angular)
Tiger Force “Beat This” (Marquis Cha Cha)
Tokyo Police Force “Citizens of Tomorrow” (Paper Bag)
Health “Triceratops” (Lovepump United)
Can “Moonshake” (Spoon)
!!! “Yadnus” (Warp)
Jape “Christopher & Anthony” (V2)
Les Savy Fav “The Lowest Bitter” (French Kiss)
Hooray For Humans “‘06 Forever” (Out On A Limb)
Blitzen Trapper “Devil’s A Go-Go” (Sub Pop)
Deerhunter “Strange Lights (Kranky)
Secret Machines “Better Bring Your Friends” (Reprise)
Carmel “More More More” (London)
Eight Minutes “Here’s Some Dances” (Numero)
The Supremes “My World Is Empty Without You” (Tamla Motown)
Voice Of The Seven Woods “Valley of the Rocks” (Twisted Nerve)
Adele “Hometown Glory” (Pacemaker)
Cat Power/Karen Elson “Je t’aime moi non plus” (Barclay)
Kraftwerk “The Model” (EMI)
Giorgio Moroder “The Apartment” (Polydor)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan/Eddie Vedder “The Face Of Love” (Columbia)
Mark Hollis “The Gift” (Polydor)
Vic Chesnutt “Wallace Stevens” (Constellation)
Michael Nyman “To The Edges of the Earth” (Virgin)
Roscoe Holcomb “Man Of Constant Sorrow” Smithsonian Folkways)
Fairport Convention “Farewell Farewell” (Island)
Coldcut “Autumn Leaves (Irresistible Force Remix)” (BMG)

My out-of-touchedness:

One point awards: Carmel, Giorgio Moroder, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan/Eddie Vedder, Vic Chesnutt, Michael Nyman, Fairport Convention

Five-point awards: The Supremes, Kraftwerk

Ten-point awards: None

Twenty-point awards: Bob Dylan

Total: 46.

What the fuck is all this about?