Pull yourselves together

I came in to work this morning and couldn't avoid all the coverage of Katy French's death in the Irish media. Obviously it's very tragic and her family must be going through hell but is it any more or less tragic than the death of Kevin Doyle in Waterford last week? He died in what appears to be similar circumstances and a friend of his is still fighting for his life in hospital but nobody seems too concerned about them.

Now, I'm not completely naive - I understand that she's a celebrity and the papers have an audience that demands celebrity news as opposed to grim news from Waterford. The papers behavior at time like this is one thing, but I really can't believe some of the comments that have been posted on the Independent's website under their main report.. Who on earth is writing this stuff? Katy French was an Irish model - I've no idea if she was a good one or not. I don't know how these things are decided. She got a lot of coverage in the Sunday Independent for most of the year and I've seen her on various tv shows but I don't know much more about her than that. A lot of the things that have been written here this morning are by people who didn't know much about her either. It hasn't stopped them though..

Here's some of the comments. I've lifted them directly from the site:

I can't believe the news....Katy was such and inspiration to many...

I didn't know this lady but a huge loss to Ireland...

She was our princess-we each owned a little bit of her. That beautiful smile and warm personality will be greatly missed and never forgotten...

Ireland has lost today,a very special person, a beautiful icon of such grace and charm...

R.I.P Katy, a light went out in Dublin last night..

The world is certainly a poorer place without her.

You will be greatly missed by the whole country..

The whole Irish nation is in mourning at the loss of this beautiful young girl. She touched us all deep in our hearts and even those who did not know her are in sadness today...

There is billion's of stars shining in the sky but there is one thats shining bright Katy and thats you...

Seriously, isn't there something wrong with us if we're talking about this girl's death as some kind of national tragedy? Where did this need to mourn come from? Did it all start with Princess Diana's death? Obviously the media need to take some responsibility for the way these things are reported but those comments have been posted by regular punters that are reading the same news reports that you and I are .. 'an inspiration to many... our princess... a beautiful icon...the brightest star in the sky...' What's wrong with these people? What possesses them to write this stuff?

Perhaps people feel this way because of the way she died. If she died suddenly I don't think people would have reacted that way they have. We had 5 full days of coverage with very little fresh news. As a result there's been lots of speculation and lots of people playing catch-up on who she is and what she's done. In my office on Monday very few people had heard of her or knew who she was. Four days later and it's like we've been following her life and exploits for years. Without being disrespectful, it's almost been like the ultimate celebrity reality show. Now that it's over, people feel the need to add their little summary. It was the same when George Best died. That story lived for so long in the news at the time that the momentum carried on after his death to the point that he practically had a state funeral.

Am I being a bit harsh? I don't mean to speak ill of the dead here. On the other hand, I do mean to speak ill of the living. How do these people deal with real problems close to home? How will they deal with a death in their own family? In the end I think that her family and friends must be in a terrible state this week. The same can be said for Kevin Doyle's. But the grief is theirs. Trying to make it ours as well is just distasteful..

It's Christmas!

Well it is, isn't it? Every year we all complain that the shops are stocking Christmas decorations too early, that it's too commercalised, that it's not like it used to be etc. etc. but now that we're into the first week in December is it ok for us to talk about it?

I was looking at RTE's Christmas schedule earlier. Or their Christmas Christmas schedule as they seem to be calling it. Anyway, I can't wait for it all to kick off. Christmas highlights include a Killinaskully Christmas special, Westlife on the Late Late Show, lots of cheapo sports 'end of year' type review shows, Podge and Rodge on New Year's Eve and best of all, the cast of Fair City in some kind of X Factor-style singing competition. It all sound terrible and it all sounds fantastic. I know that when we were kids there was always lots of excitement abut the big Christmas films on tv but RTE can't rely on that stuff anymore. We've all seen the films (this year's premieres include The Life Aquatic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Nemo and Sin City) on DVD already, so RTE have to come up with something else and this year it's Leo Dowling from Fair City singing 'Strangers in he Night' (probably). I've no problem with all this. Besides the good old days weren't really that good were they? Morecambe and Wise? Top of the Pops Christmas special? Bah! The past is gone, the future is Corrigan's Christmas Countdown! Bring it on..

And look at this.
For years, the same lights have gone up on Grafton Street and George's Street but this year, they've got a new man in to shake things up and it all looks fantastic. Better still, the lights are 75% more energy efficient than before. Hurrah!

Last night I went to the cinema to see Strength and Honour, an Irish film about travellers and boxing. It was full of cliches and awful acting. And terrible accents, of course. Lots of American actors with shiny teeth saying things like "C'mon Mikey, sure sometimes we need to go back to where we've been to know where we're going at all, at all. Bejaysus and begod, stick on a pint of the quare stuff" Actually that's a bit unfair - it's pretty bad but it's not that bad. I think there was good intentions behind it but I could have done without Vinny Jones doing his impression of Brad Pitt's impression of Irish travellers from Snatch. I couldn't understand a word he said! Anyway before the film they showed this ad. I know people talk about how Christmassy the Budweiser Clydesdales ad is but this Guinness ad (yes - another guinness ad. This is the last time) really puts me in the mood..



Happy Christmas!

The Domino effect

I saw the new Guinness ad on tv last night. I heard somewhere they've spen 5 million quid on it. Don't know if that's true or not but you have to admire it. Doesn't make me want to rush out for a jar of stout though..



Looking at it reminded me of this ad for vodafone which a friend of a friend worked on last year. A smaller scale perhaps but fewer cutaways. Apparently for weeks afterwards when he had a quiet moment he could still hear those coins turning over. I imagine he dreamt about it for months..

Preaching to the converted

I went along to the Ambassador to see the Manic Street Preachers on Friday night. I like the Manics. They're decent performers and they seem to have a genuine bond with their fans. Sure, their best days are probably behind them but they're still writing great songs and have hung in longer than most of their peers.. The first time I saw them live, about 5 years ago, they were touring their 'best of' record and it all seemed a bit flat. This time they were touring on the back of Send Away the Tigers, one of the best records of the year (to my ears at least), and they just seemed a lot more engaged with the material and, in turn, with the audience...

Or at least part of the audience.. There was a strange atmosphere at the gig. On one hand you had people crowdsurfing, no - really people were crowdsurfing, and large sections of the audience were singing, clapping and generally behaving as you'd expect an audience at a rock concert to behave. But at the same time you had lots of people who didn't seem to be paying much attention to anything at all.. 4 guys in front of me spent most of the gig talking to each other and playing some kind of a game that involved squeezing each other's back and then rubbing their noses. It was very odd and more than a little homoerotic. Which is fine, but why come to a Manics gig to do it. Occasionally, they'd look up, recognise something (most likely something from Everything Must Go) and punch their fists in the air.. Then they'd go back to pinching each other.. Perhaps they couldn't believe they were at a Manic Street Preacher's show. I had a similiar experience when I went to see Bryan McFadden in Whelans a couple of years ago.

But that's a different story..

Anyway, despite all that nonsense it was a decent show and, yes, they finished with A Design For Life. It's funny - not being a huge fan of the Manics, I often forget about Richie Edwards. I was never really interested in them until Steve educated me a few years ago and so, although I can remember the palaver when he disappeared, I never really think about it very much. So during Design for Life, when James Dean Bradfield moved his mike over to Richie's old position on the stage, I didn't realise for a moment what he was doing. As the band played on, he said goodnight and sang the chorus one last time from Richie's spot. No encores and no curtain calls (apart from Nicky Wire doing a spot of skipping!) It made for great theatre and was terribly moving. Things like that really warm me to bands. I can always forgive a bit of ploddiness and bad pacing if there's genuine affection and sentiment onstage. The Manics have it to spare. Long may they run..

An arm or a leg?

Saw a poster for Shane Ward's new album this morning.. Can anyone tell is that an arm or a leg over his shoulder? I think it's an arm.. It looks like that's a girl leaning over the back of him? What on earth is she doing? Looking for change? Checking the label on his shirt? It's very odd indeed..