The Price is Right

We're heading over to France in June for our Summer holiday. Other that a weekend in Paris about 10 years ago, I've never been to France so I'm rather excited at the thought of driving through beautiful countryside, eating lots of cheese and drinking fabulous wines. Of course I'm a little worried about the language difference but I'm fairly sure that shrugging indifferently and exclaiming haw-hee-haw-hee-hawww covers most things.. If that doesn't work, I expect there'll be lots of pointing and repeating myself at increased volume. Just like a typical day in the office, so..

So last night we booked our place on the ferry. Here's how it works: You go onto the Irish Ferries website and tell them where and when you want to sail. It tells you how much that sailing costs. Then you select a cabin. There's lots to choose from and they all have the price beside them. When you've got that done, you select a sailing to come home on. And a cabin. And then it gives you a total. Here's where it gets really exciting: Once it gives you the price for the sailing and the cabin, that's it. There's no fuel surcharge, there's no taxes and fees. There isn't even a charge for being really inconvenient and wanting to have luggage with you.. Now, in fairness there was a 4euro charge for paying with a credit card but get this, there was an option to pay 25% now and the balance in April. Sweet.

This is in contrast to booking a flight with, for instance aer lingus. The other day I was looking at flights to New York and the final price was 315euro more than the price listed beside the flights when I was selecting them. It's the fuel surcharge that kills me.. When did they start doing that? Is it legal to advertise a flight at one price and then charge on an extra 50 quid on top? Surely there's advertising laws about listing prices?

Anyway, for now that's not a problem. I've more important things to worry about now - like what's French for sausage egg and chips..

Train in Vain

This might be old news but it's too funny to let pass..

I can't imagine what he must have thought sitting on a train to Limerick on his own. I suppose if nothing else, there wouldn't have been much of a queue at the snack bar..

We can get them for you wholesale..

I had to drive out to Glasnevin yesterday morning before work and ended up spending about an hour stuck in traffic coming back in to the city. Sitting there, going nowhere fast with hundreds of other drivers, I reflected again on how happy I am to live relatively near to town. If I drive in to work I can get there in about 15 minutes from the house. If I walk (not in this weather, of course) it takes about 40 minutes. I don't know how other people deal with the traffic but for me, life's too short to spend hours sitting in a queue listening to morning radio..

Anyway, there I was, crawling along the side of an industrial estate, when I noticed this sign on my left. Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Transformation & Prayer City.

I'd love to know what's going on in there.. Miracles made to order perhaps?

Arts Lives

Another great episode of RTE's Arts Lives last night, this time featuring author John Banville. Having sat through Monday night's creepy and over-the-top Death Duties (State Pathologist Marie Cassidy describing her role, interrupted by lots of grisly reconstructions), it was refreshing, after last week's excellent Graham Linehan episode to see another quality and insightful documentary on RTE.

Banville is an author I've never learned to love. His work has often frustrated me and I'm afraid I have to admit that I never even finished his Booker winning The Sea. Perhaps I should go back to it. Lately I find I have less time to read but more desire to do so..

Anyway, the documentary was terrific. He was frank, funny, a little egotistic and apologetic where he felt he needed to be. His occasional pretensiousness seemed to genuinely embarrass him, which endeared him to the viewer. This viewer, at least. He displayed some remorse for a withering review he wrote of Ian McEwan's Saturday for the New Tork Times. In his defence he said that the review was more of a reaction to the other reviews he read at the time and not the book itself but still he said he was sorry for how he came across. And then he qualified it by saying he was a little bit sorry but not too much!

The documentary ended with Banville talking about death and how he had no fear of it but that he didn't ever want it to happen. He talked of how much joy he got from life (I believe he used the word exquisite to describe it), and as the documentary ended with shots of him walking around a rainy Dublin, it was hard not to agree with him.

Terrific stuff all round. And with features on Patrick McCabe and Ronnie Drew still to come in the series, it looks like it's going to be well worth setting the dvd recorder for Tuesday nights. If I knew how to set the dvd recorder..

Josh sticks

I've really tried but I can't stop listening to this song. Sometimes a song just gets in and there's nothing you can do to get it out again. Nick Hornby, writing in 31 Songs, describes first hearing Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird" and having to listen to it again and again until he 'solved' it. That's how I've been with Josh Ritter's 'Right Moves' for the last few days.

Recently I started going through a series of concerts that npr in the states has made available for downloading. There's a great archive of live shows there and I've been dipping in and out. Some are better than others but so far I've found real belters from Nick Lowe, Cat Power and Arcade Fire. And now, added to the lsit, is Josh Ritter. I bought Ritter's first album 'Golden Age of Radio' about 5 years ago. I think he's from the Amrerican mid-west but he was touring regularly over here and getting a bit of attention. It's a good album but it never made enough of an impression for me to stick with him. Since then, he's been over here dozens of time and released several records but apart from the odd thing on the radio I've not heard much of him at all. The radio broadcast from Washington is from last Autumn and features a decent cross section of work from his catalogue to date. He seems to be an engaging live performer who, as well as having a fantastic band, appears to have a strong bond with his audience and a nice line in self-depracating storytelling.

So in the middle of the show comes 'The Right Moves'. I'm not saying it's the best thing I've ever heard and I'm not saying I'll even remember it 6 months from now (actually, I suspect I will) but have a listen and tell me that it's not great. I know it's deeply unfashionable and certainly doesn't sit comfortably in any current music trends but as pop songs go I think it's a cracker. It's got horns! It's got a fantastic bass line (check out the bass player's moustache too)! It's got a chorus that could amost be a Dolly Parton song (and that's a good thing) Better still, it's got a band that actually seems to be enjoying the experience of playing it! No miserable self-concious shoe-gazers here..

And check out the lyrics.. So it seems that our hero has been dumped by a girl but she's come back to him for a second chance. He treats her suspiciously and asks her where she's been and what she's doing back in town. While he's dithering, she kisses him and he's right back to where he started. The last verse is where all his insecurities and fears revisit him..

I heard the night birds picking up the song
You threw your hair back and sang along
And I realized that I might lose you, you might lose me
Drift apart in the night and never know why and not know how
I said what if we are like the Northern sky?
What if there are things that come between us that we cant take back and we cant make right?
You said I don't know darling, but I'm here with you
and were coming to the chorus now!

I love the way, right at the end, when the listener is expecting an answer or a promise from the girl, Ritter steps away from the narration competely and directs us to the chorus. There's no easy solution or happy ending. Instead there's ambivalence and a little faith. And isn't that just the way that it works in real life too? Now, perhaps he just didn't know how to finish the song and copped out of ending it properly but I think it's fantastic. Perhaps I've just been drinking too much happy juice lately!

Again, it'll probably pass in time and I'll never want to listen to it again. That's ok. The thing is that this weekend it's brought me a lot of happiness and isn't that the point of music anyway?



Enjoy.

What kind of washery is this?

And so it begins..

This is a clip from last Friday night's RTE news. Barack Obama has very distant relatives in Moneygall, Co. Offaly so RTE sent Ray Colgan (kicking and screaming, one would hope) to Offaly to meet the locals and see how election fever has gripped that particular part of the country. I suppose you could say that it's all a bit of harmless news but it always annoys me to see Irish people setting themselves up for a bit of ridicule at the first sign of a tv camera.

"He's one of our own" said the woman holding the baby. No, love - he really isn't.

"Maybe Moneygall will be the Ballyporeen of the future" said Obama's distant relative. Well, we can all dream, can't we?

Of course the situation isn't helped by Obama himself. I was watching the news on ITV reporting from Iowa on Friday night. When the reporter approached Obama and told him he was from England, the candidate responded by saying that he had ancestors in Ireland and was looking forward to going over and having a pint someday..

It's only going to get worse. Incidentally I thought the Irish were supposed to be Clinton supporters. Seems to me like we're just backing the winning horse after it crosses the finish line. Far from being interested in US politics, we're just interested in whatever actors and rock stars tell us about US politics. As far as I can tell Irish people aren't even interested in politics here, never mind the US.

Anyway, sure isn't is all just a bit of craic..

It's all on youtube..

Christopher Walken is a a strange old fish, isn't he? He's been terrible in so many bad films yet, amongst most of my generation, he's considered to be a bit of a legend. I don't really know why though. Is it just because of that great cameo in Pulp Fiction and a Fatboy Slim video? Possibly. Anyway, I saw this on Satuday Zoo when it was on tv years ago but haven't seen it since. I was talking about it last night and I found it this morning on youtube.. Of course I did - isn't everything is on youtube?