Fattening Frogs For Snakes

Bolivia and Venezuela cut ties with the Israelis

2009-01-16T06:07:00.002Z

For the past 21 days, Israel has been attacking the Gaza strip, ostensibly targeting the Islamist group HAMAS, but in actuality mainly killing shitloads of civilians. 30% of the Palestinian dead are women and children. According to figures cited by Reuters around 20 minutes ago, 13 Israelis had been killed (10 of them soldiers) and over 1,055 Palestinians were killed, 670 of whom were civilians. (I hope you've heard about this conflict by now...)

Given the current set up of the world, there's not much that's going to be done about Israel's current attack on Gaza. Israel is just being Israel, and with the exception of the US, they're not going to be influenced by anybody to stop what they're doing. But nonetheless, it's refreshing to see some kind of concrete action by the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela against Israel. Both governments cut all diplomatic ties with the Israelis, with the Venezuelans expelling the Israeli ambassador and embassy staff, and the Bolivians calling on the International Criminal Court to bring human rights abuse charges against Israel.

Paul Auster

2008-09-20T17:51:00.018+01:00

I was in my friend's apartment in Syria the other day, browsing through his bookshelves, and I was delighted to find a copy of a book by Paul Auster, which I borrowed and read from cover to cover that very night (finally going to sleep at 0730). The book was Oracle Night. It's about a writer who has just recovered from a serious accident, about his relationship with his wife and about some of his writing. But like other Auster books, it's really about ideas.

One of the main themes of the book is about starting a new life. The main character, inspired by an anecdote in a Raymond Chandler novel*, tries to write a story about a man who is nearly killed in a freak accident, and who then spontaneously abandons his family life in New York in order to start from scratch in a new city. Leaving the house to post some letters, the main character of this story within a story ends up taking a plane to Kansas City to embark on a new and bizarre existence, working in an underground room filled with telephone directories.

Like other Auster books, Oracle Night zips along and is very easy to read, and raises plenty of existential philosophical questions in the reader's mind without ever really pinning anything down. For me, Auster's trademark is the juxtaposition of a set of complex themes about what it means to be human with a straightforwardly written narrative about the day to day activities of a central character. On one hand, his books are very entertaining and earthy, and on the other, it's never quite clear what exactly he is getting at. In the case of Oracle Night, Auster refers to "the power of the random, purely accidental forces that mold our destinies", and the motif of abandoning your life and starting again afresh is an attempt to embrace the randomness of life.

Paul Auster

Auster also writes about writing. Many or most of his protagonists are writers, and I noted one very nice passage in Oracle Night about the process of writing which may evoke feelings familiar to anyone who has searched in vain for inspiration:

"I put down the book and started pacing around the apartment, walking in and out of rooms, scanning the titles of the books on the shelves, parting the curtains and looking through the window at the wet street below, accomplishing nothing for several hours.

Now I'm off to do some reading about Auster online...

* PS: I just learned it's actually Dashiel Hammet rather than Chandler...

Orwellian reading

2008-09-04T09:41:00.008+01:00

I recently finished George Orwell's Coming Up For Air, which I bought on the street in Syria for about €0.70. Good to get back to some Orwell. He's one of my favourite writers, to the extent that I can say that he has had a formative effect on my thinking. I would recommend anyone to check out some of his essays, such as 'Politics and the English Language', which are available online. I love his simple, clear writing style. He seems to really hold to the belief that you shouldn't use a big word where a smaller word will do, and that sentences should be short. A big problem with a lot of writing - and particularly academic writing, I'd hazard - is that people like to use very complicated sentence structures. Clarity suffers as a result.

Eric Blair aka George McOrwell

Coming Up For Air is the story of 45-year-old George Bowling, a man who is pissed off with his lot. It is set in the run-up to World War II. Bowling has a wife and family and a job that is unexciting, and he goes back to his village of origin to try to capture something about himself. However, the trip is entirely disillusioning and deflating because his village has been swallowed up by the march of the urban.

The book has been referenced as a forerunner to 1984, and I can see the similarity, although the society depicted in Coming Up For Air is less extreme and the story less intense. Politics are to the forefront however, and the novel deals with a newly emerged middle class of sorts in inter-war England, evoking the misery and defeat of the capitulation to wage slavery. This is my take on it, at least. There isn't really much hopeful coming out of the narrative that I can recall. But maybe there's some hope in the protagonist's vague realisation (which is far from epiphany) that the human experience contains the potential for a more meaningful existence. So there is hope but not redemption methinks.

World War II looms large over the plot, and Bowling's memories of his service in World War I colour his pessimism and apathy.

Listening to Charles Mingus Fables of Faubus in my favourite cafe... Beautiful.

Books I read in 2006

2008-07-12T18:26:00.011+01:00

And now I present the long-awaited follow-up to 'Books I read in 2005'. Since 2005, I've been keeping a record of the books I've read each year. Unfortunately this habit kind of fell apart around the end of 2007, but I'm going to try to resurrect it as it's always good to catalogue these things, I find...

Introducing Critical Theory - Stuart Sims & Boris Van Loon

Generation of Swine - Hunter S Thompson
(The great Gonzo journalist's take on the 80s. Lots of stuff about Iran-Contra as I recall.)

Hunter S Thompson

The Plague - Albert Camus
(Supposedly a metaphor for the French resistance to the Nazi occupation, but for me it's more effective as a straight up story about the human condition. It's quite a straightforward narrative about a town that is hit by the plague. First the disease emerges, and then the town is quarantined, and we are treated to an account of life under quarantine and the constant threat of infection. I had high hopes for this book, as The Outsider is one of my favourite books of all time. I'm glad to say that Mr. Camus did not disappoint.)

Tar Baby - Toni Morrison (an audio book)
(This was an amazing book - one of the best I've come across. I've read a couple of Morrison's other books since then and they had nothing on this. But I wonder if that was because it was an audio book? Lynne Thigpen read the text and did a great job of it. But the content of the book was really great. It's centred around the interactions between six characters living in close proximity, along with flashes back and forward from this core setting. There's an elderly white rich guy; his seemingly shallow former beauty queen wife; two of his black servants, themselves a married couple; their niece, a fashion model; and an additional stowaway. The action is primarily set on an island where the elderly rich guy lives in colonial-style luxury. Each of these six characters is drawn in exquisite and believable detail, with all their motivations and inclinations immediately accessible to the reader (or listener). The story basically illustrates how the different filters through which our identity is formed - such as race, gender, age, and social class - shape our interactions with each other. The dynamic between all the characters and the little conflicts between them portray these tensions beautifully.)

Toni Morrison

Reading Lolita in Tehran
(Excellent, but hard not to notice that it's very one-sided politically.)

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
(This was a great account of a society's colonial transition.)

The Cherry Orchard - Anton Chekhov adapted by Tom Murphy
(I went to see this in The Gate. Irish playwright Tom Murphy had adapted this classic to bring in some Irish lingo, most memorably when one of the characters exclaims "Merciful Hour!!")

Roadkill - Kinky Friedman
(Didn't like this at all.)

Beloved - Toni Morrison

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress - Ross O'Carroll Kelly

Inside Track - John Francome

The Namesake

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
(This is an absolutely beautiful book about an Indian couple who emigrate to the USA, and about their son's travails as a man who is neither Indian nor North American. Really captures the immigrant experience (not that I've first hand experience of this, of course).)

Firestarter - Stephen King

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
(Another very worthwhile read.)

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - John McGregor
(A promising book throughout absolutely ruined by a crappy, saccharine, cop-out of an ending. Total rubbish.)

Dancer - Column McCann
(A novelisation of the life of Rudolf Nureyev. McCann is one of the best writers around, and one of the few novelists all of whose books I've read. This was very interesting but I prefer his other books. However, my Russio-Lithuanian friend Sasha assures me that he really captures what Russia is like.)

Nureyev

The LBJ Brigade - William Wilson
(An engaging account of the Vietnam conflict.)

Last Exit To Brooklyn
(Bleak and brilliant - touches what it means to be human.)

Ghostwritten - David Mitchell

Clockers - Richard Price
(A great book made into an even better film by the maestro, Spike Lee.)

Woody Allen - Interviews

From Hell - Alan Moore (a graphic novel)
(This is about Jack the Ripper and was made into a film I really like, directed by the Hughes Brothers, who made a pretty impressive transition from portraying the African American urban ghetto of the US in 'Menace II Society', to the Whitechapel district of 19th century London.)

V for Vendetta - Alan Moore

The Dublin Korean society

2008-07-11T23:29:00.005+01:00

To my eternal pride, I am now featured pictorially on the website of the Dublin Korean society, courtesy of my friend Donghyeok. The pictures look a lot better on the society's homepage if you really want to peer closely at pictures of me.

This privilege has inspired me to resurrect my long-defunct blog, which I hope will now blossom again to share my brain activity with the world. But we'll see...

Allen Iverson Highlight vs Kobe Bryant LA Lakers 04/05

2007-08-12T05:03:00.001+01:00

Iverson with three or four fantastic alley-oops and a great dunk. 15 assists for AI but 2 for 20 in the first 3 quarters, then 13 points (of 20) in the fourth. Great highlights.

Iverson vs Kobe (2001)

2007-08-12T04:37:00.001+01:00

This is a great video of the 2001 NBA Finals. Two of the best shooting guards in the game going up against each other. Iverson the MVP, versus Kobe Bryant who is just a little younger than me. Excellent footage of the battle.

Living a productive life & Capote's In Cold Blood

2007-08-05T17:41:00.001+01:00

What a day! It's around 6 in the afternoon, and I've been lounging in bed all day. I've done absolutely nothing since waking up except lie in my cot fooling around on the internet. I joined up to Bebo, and made up a 'how well do you know me' style quiz. I've been looking at various stuff on YouTube as well, such as clips from Apocalypse Now and some basketball. The only drawback is that I've had nothing to eat except a couple of yoghurts and a lump of bread. I'm just after getting dressed this minute, and now I think I'll go across to the shop and buy some ice-cream. I know, I know, I'm an inspiration to you all...

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote

Yesterday I added a book to my 2007 list of books: Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Earlier this summer I blogged up a list of all the books I read in 2005, with the 2006 list to follow at some point. I'll publish the 2007 list at some stage next year. It's one of those books I've been meaning to read for a long time. I wanted to read it before I saw that film about Capote that came out recently, so I must rent that out one of these days now that I'm finished. Anyway, the book is a novelised account of a real-life multiple murder that happened in 1959. The novel begins shortly before the murder and ends with the evetual death of the two perpetrators, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. It reminded me of Steinbeck a little, although I'm not sure if that was due to the setting or the writing. Probably a little of both.

Apparently Capote was fascinated by the crime, and he certainly brings the events he's relating to vivid life. He paints an evocative picture of US society and does a great job of getting right inside the skins of each of the characters, even those who are only present for a handful of pages of the book. He also manages to successfully tread a fine line between having some empathy with the killers (particularly Perry Smith), and also emphasising the sheer nastiness and pointlessness of the crime. He manages to draw the events in a way that draws attention to all the contradictions and contingencies of the human experience, so that, for example, it's possible to see Smith as representing all points along a spectrum from cold-hearted, brutal psychopathy to likeable, sympathetic vulnerability.

Killers Perry Smith (top) and Richard Hickock

I believe that Mr. Capote was gay. One thing that I wondered as I read the book was whether Smith and Hickock themselves had some manner of homosexual relationship. They seem to behave like a couple quite a bit, and Hickock has a tendency to call Smith 'honey' when he talks to him. But maybe that was just his way of talking. The book contained a reference to Smith being hassled by 'queers' in the armed forces, all right, but I don't think there were any other overt references to homosexuality. But I wondered if there was a latent current going on there. I'm not for a second suggesting that just because Capote was gay himself, this was all he was able to write about (or think about), or that he was projecting his own sexual identity onto these real-life characters. I just thought that this might have been an undercurrent in the book. I'll probably look into it myself on the interweb at some point.

You wouldn't think I've a thesis to write with all this blogging, novel-reading, internet-browsing, in bed-lying and quiz-making-upping, but I actually have to write 15-20,000 coherent words about International Relations by 6th September. It's a serious struggle. I do put a lot of time into it, and I've a reasonable amount of work done, but I've been finding it extremely slow going. I haven't yet been able to get into any kind of flow with my writing as yet. So far, I've only come up with around 2,000 usable words, and it was an ordeal to squeeze every single one of those out onto the page.

Nonetheless, I actually feel reasonably good about the whole thing. I have a couple of essays that I wrote during the year that I intend to plunder for more wordage, and I'm sticking with my mantra: there's plenty of time... Even though it's almost time to start counting down to the deadline in days instead of weeks... Aaaarghhh...

Plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time...

A great, close game of basketball

2007-07-28T23:26:00.001+01:00

I present Kobe v Iverson...

Some of the best news I've heard all year

2007-07-05T16:37:00.000+01:00

After 16 weeks in detention, the BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston has been released from detention by his kidnappers. The journalist was released as a result of negotiations between the Palestinian Hamas, who are in control of the Gaza Strip, and his captors, another Palestinian Islamist movement called 'the Army of Islam'.

Free at last

In my view, Hamas form the bulk of the legitimate government of Palestine (although there is no Palestinian state). They had a decisive victory in elections in January 2006. The EU declared these elections to be free and fair. Hamas went on to form a national unity government with Fatah in March 2007.

However, despite all of this, the so-called 'international community' has refused to deal with Hamas. The EU, the US, and Israel all favour Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who was the Palestinian President, and have marginalised Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who was the Palestinian Prime Minister. The political system in Palestine is semi-presidentialism, whereby power is divided between a president and a prime minister who is answerable to a parliamentary assembly. A friend and fellow blogger is writing his thesis on semi-presidentialism in Palestine.

In any case, this fragile set-up between Hamas and Fatah continued for a while despite the fact that many powerful external actors would only speak to Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, instead of dealing with the government as a whole. Indeed, Israel attempted to blow up Hamas members of government in the Gaza Strip at every opportunity. Eventually, relations between these partners in the Palestinian government have broken down.

Hamas politician Khalil al-Hayya
Israel bombed his home, killing his wife and six of his family

The current situation is that, following fighting between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas have now taken control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah are in control of the West Bank. As can be seen from the map, both territories are entirely separate (although the map does not show the extent to which Israel has encroached into the West Bank so that it has now shrunk significantly in size). Mahmoud Abbas has declared that Haniyeh is dismissed as Prime Minister, but Haniyeh and his Hamas colleagues have refused to accept this. But there is an evident consensus throughout much of the mainstream media and the major actors of the international political establishment that it is Fatah who are legitimate. Abbas is still recognised as the Palestinian President, whereas Haniyeh is described as a terrorist.

This is the background to Johnston's release. Having taken over Gaza, Hamas are probably hoping that they will gain some credit for freeing Johnston. But they surely realise that the situation is unlikely to change to any significant extent. The main external players with regard to the issue of Palestine are known as the quartet: the US, the EU, the UN and Russia. Although Russia has made some attempts to gain more recognition for the Hamas government, the other three legs of the quartet are steadfastly anti-Hamas. This amounts to backing up Israel's position.

As I said, for me Hamas are the legitimate representatives of the Palestinians. Despite the fact that I have plenty of problems with the group, I reckon that the only practical, rational course of action to any man, woman or child in the occupied Palestinian territories (particularly in Gaza) is to support Hamas. But I reckon that Hamas will continue to be isolated, despite a BBC report suggesting that there may be the potential for a change in attitudes to Hamas - but then, I tend to be pretty pessimistic about these things.

The Army of Islam group that had been holding Johnston is also one of the groups responsible for the kidnap of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006. It was following Shalit's kidnapping that Israel intensified its targeting of Hamas - an Israeli helicopter fired two rockets into the home of Ismail Haniyeh a week later. The fate of this young soldier is a key issue for Israel. It is awful to think of the 19 year old soldier - who was injured during the kidnapping - being held by kidnappers for over a year. However, at least he was a military target, whereas Alan Johnston is a civilian. Meanwhile, about 800 Palestinians are being held in Israeli 'administrative detention' - in other words, being held without being charged with any crime.

The young Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit

Certainly the Israel state considers itself at war with Hamas - in yet another of its frequent extrajudicial executions, Israel killed at least six Hamas members the night after Johnston's release. Yet one of its three stated reasons for refusing to deal with Hamas is that Hamas refuses to renounce violence. The mind boggles...

The importance of a good poker face

2007-07-01T17:54:00.001+01:00

A little lesson in poker.

The joys and risks of poker

2007-06-24T23:16:00.000+01:00

I had a few of my team-mates from the Division 4 team of St. Declan’s basketball club round for poker last Friday night. As well as the intrinsic joys of gambling, drinking, smoking cigars, and verbally abusing each other, the night was also a fundraiser for the club, with half of the money going to our permanently indebted treasury department.

I used to be involved in a regular poker game a while back, but we used to play 5 card draw. Friday night was No Limit Texas Hold-Em, which is an entirely different animal. It’s a lot more expensive to play each hand as there are more rounds of betting, and you can go ‘All-in’ at any time, pushing all of your chips into the pot. I decided it was a good idea to do this on the second hand of the night, with a full house. So I went ahead and lashed all €40 into the pot. Unfortunately, a certain team-mate who will never be forgiven had four 2s and called my bet in a hot second. So I was the first to crash out after 12 minutes of play.

Luckily there was an option to buy in a second time, so I had the opportunity to stay in the game and squander more money. I managed to outlast two people (out of 7 of us) before I went bust for good. Not much of an achievement, but I’ll get them next time...

I really enjoyed the game and I'm itching for another one. The following night I called over to a friend's gaff, and we called in on a neighbour of his and interrupted a poker session. There were about 8 lads sitting around a purpose built table, with little drink holders and chip holders and a green felt tabletop. It all looked very inviting, I must say.

I've set up an internet account, and I play a little online Hold 'Em every so often. I'd like to play a few more live games though. I have mixed results playing on the internet - I usually buy into a table for around €30, and I have often doubled my money. But my problem is that if I start losing, I compound it by keeping playing (and losing), instead of quitting and living to play another day. On Sunday night I stayed up till all hours, blowing €70 in the process.

I thoroughly enjoy the poker but it remains to be seen whether this little hobby is going to be in my own interest or not. It could so easily go horribly wrong... But fuck the begrudgers. I could become an expert and turn pro - and bid farewell to the Monday to Wednesday* grind...

By the way, a few times (usually with alcohol involved), I played a crazy variant of poker apparently called 'Indian poker'. It's mad stuff altogether. You whip a card quickly from the top of the deck, and hold it facing forwards atop your own forehead. You can see everyone else's card, but not your own. You then make bets on who has the highest card, basing your reaction on the expression on your opponent's face, I suppose. In my experience, it's generally difficult to judge their expression as s/he tends to be convulsed in laughter. It's good craic, but not one for the purists...

* the joys of worksharing... Heh, heh...

The CIA and Shannon airport

2007-06-16T16:32:00.000+01:00

My friend Ian has noted that it is disturbing how little media attention is on the current extraordinary rendition case being heard in Italy. Extraordinary rendition is the process whereby the CIA kidnaps people, and detains them extrajudicially. These people are often subject to torture. It really is that stark. The US is having people abducted from the streets of EU constitutional democracies without the knowledge of the domestic governments, and subsequently tortured.

I just want to note an Irish connection in this issue. Last summer, the Council of Europe rapporteur, Dick Marty, included Ireland's Shannon airport in a map of "secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers". The Irish government response is basically to say that they trust the Americans and everything will be grand. Irish Foreign Affairs minister Dermot Ahern accepted the assurances of Condoleeza Rice that Shannon was not used as a transit point for the CIA's abductees.

The US Air Force at Shannon

In February of this year, the European Parliament rejected Dermot Ahern's position and called for a Dáil inquiry into Ireland's role in instances of extraordinary rendition. In 2005, Amnesty International reported that 800 secret CIA flights had used European airspace, and noted evidence about specific flights in which Shannon airport was used as a stopover.

College night out

2007-06-15T18:32:00.000+01:00

I'm just about to head out on the town with my college colleagues. We're going out for a meal, and I've totally forgotten where the meal is. It's all right though, we're going to the pub first so I'll just follow the crowd.

Haven't seen any of them for a while now, as we've broken up for the summer, and are all supposedly working away on our respective theses (dreaded deadline: September). I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, though meeting up makes me feel like I should have done a lot more work on my thesis over the last while. Oh well... Maybe when I hear how much work everyone else has done I'll be motivated to slave night and day in order to catch up.

This is officially the most useless post ever on this intermittent blog of mine.

Books I read in 2005

2007-06-09T01:32:00.001+01:00

And now, partly inspired by the fact that Martin Scorsese keeps lists entitled ‘Films I have seen this year’, I present the list of books I read in 2005:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
(this book has been a huge influence on me, and I’ve read it three times now.)
Our Man in Havana – Graham Greene
The Third Man – Graham Greene
The Basement Room (filmed as The Fallen Idol) – Graham Greene
Hell’s Angels – Hunter S Thompson
(If I was forced to pick, HST is probably my favourite writer.)
All the President’s Men – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
The Gambler – Fyodor Dostoevsky
(I read this in a hostel in Toronto.)

The Last Season – Phil Jackson
(…and this on the plane on the way home. This is about the LA Lakers 2003-4 season, detailing the many feuds between the team's two talented stars, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. It’s written by their coach.)
Introducing Environmental Politics – Stephen Croall & William Rankin
Saints & Spinners – David McWilliams
(This is a kind of forerunner to The Pope’s Children – it’s different to the more well-known version – this one was written for marketers rather than for a general readership. It wasn’t what I expected but it’s very interesting. There’s a lot of pretty cynical stuff in there. It discusses Ireland’s future demographics, predicts how consumer tastes will change, and offers ways for marketers to get a piece of the action. I really like McWilliams’ analysis of Irish society and his honesty, but I don’t share his benign view of the market. I would have a more critical view of consumerism and put more emphasis on its inadequacies and its damaging effects. This book really shows the extent to which men in suits will put a huge amount of work into pigeonholing the general citizen as a very specific target market.)

David McWilliams

Chronicles, volume 1 – Bob Dylan
An Giall – Brendan Behan
(Delighted with myself to have read this in the original Irish from cover to cover. Behan was not a native Irish speaker, but while in jail, he learned Irish from his cellmate. This prisoner was from Ballyferriter in the Dingle peninsula. It was in Ballyferriter that I did a week-long civil service Irish course to resurrect the Irish language within me (in 2003, I think it was).)
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky

Me at the entrance to Dostoevsky's gaff in St. Petersburg

Collected Short Stories – Anton Chekhov
(I love the Russians)
Buddha: His Life and Thought – Karen Armstrong
(This writer has serious credibility when it comes to religion. She spent seven years as a Catholic nun, has received a Muslim Media Award, and has taught in some school for the study of Judaism. I’ve seen her speak, and she has a great take on religion and how it interacts with politics and society.)
Wilt – Tom Sharpe
Cape Clear Island: Its People and Landscape – Eamon Lankford
(This is about an Irish language-speaking island in Cork that I have often visited, and is one of my favourite places in the world. I think it’s the most southerly inhabited point in Ireland – the most southerly point of all is the nearby Fastnet lighthouse, which casts its light over the island at regular intervals.)
The Hard Life – Flann O’Brien
The Sandman Companion – Hy Bender
The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran

Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran

Smoke and Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
Vision and Transformation – Sangharakshita
(A book about the Buddhist eightfold path.)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson
(200 pages of drug fuelled insanity – very un-Buddhist.)
The Comedians – Graham Greene
Twelve Bar Blues – Patrick Neate
Justice Seeker: An Anthology in Tribute to Malcolm X – James B Gwynne (ed.)
Pork Pie Hat – Peter Straub
(an audio book.)
Down and Out in Paris and London – George Orwell
(one of my favourite books.)
Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
The Crucible – Arthur Miller

The great Arthur Miller

So that comes to an average of around two books a month. Obviously, now that I'm a student, reading has become pretty essential. But I’ve always been a big reader. I used to eat books when I was a child, and I never really take any length of a train or bus journey without a book to read. I fell out of the habit a couple of years ago, but got back into it with the help of a book group and have never looked back.

Much better than TV...

Miles underground

2007-04-29T20:34:00.000+01:00

A strange quote from the 1989 autobiography of the great jazz legend Miles Dewey Davis III:

I did some weird shit back in those days, too many weird things to describe. But I’ll tell you a couple. I remember one day when I was really paranoid from snorting [cocaine] and staying up all the time. I was driving my Ferrari up West End Avenue and I passed these police-men sitting in a patrol car. They knew me - all of them knew me in my neighbourhood - so they spoke to me. When I got about two blocks away from them, I became paranoid and thought that there was a conspiracy to get me, bust me for some drugs. I look down in the compartment on the door and see this white powder. I never took coke out of the house with me. It’s winter and snowing and some snow got inside the car. But I didn’t realise that; I thought it was some coke that someone had planted in the car just so I could get busted. I panicked, stopped the car in the middle of the street, ran into a building on West End Avenue, looked for the doorman, but he wasn’t there. I ran to the elevator and got on and went up to the seventh floor and hid in the trash room. I stayed up there for hours with my Ferrari parked in the middle of West End Avenue with the keys in it. After a while I came to my senses. The car was still sitting where I had left it.

I did that another time just like that and a woman was on the elevator. I thought that I was still in my Ferrari, so I told her, “Bitch, what are you doing in my goddamn car!” And then I slapped her and ran out of the building. That’s the kind of weird sick shit that a lot of drugs will make you do. She called the police and they arrested me and put me in the nut ward at Roosevelt Hospital for a few days before letting me out“.

From 1975 until 1980, Davis was a self-confessed hermit, living without any meaningful contact with the outside world. He spent his days drinking Heineken and brandy, and taking heroin, cocaine, or injecting speedballs into his legs. A speedball is the lethal combination of cocaine and heroin that killed John Belushi and River Phoenix. Davis also says he “fucked all the women I could get into my house” (p. 325). And through it all, he never once picked up his horn throughout more than four years.

Another one bites the dust

2007-04-13T19:15:00.000+01:00

Another essay falls before the might of my academic endeavours!! Just handed in my first assignment of the semester. The task was based around an imaginary scenario in North Africa. We had to imagine that there were upcoming negotiations on reform of the constitution, and each student had to give advice to one of the various delegations to the conference. I had to write a policy brief advising the nationalist and conservative party of Morocco, Istiqlal. The other participants included the EU, the socialists, the hardcore Islamists, the more moderate Islamists, and last but not least, the top dog and key holder of political power, the defender of the faith, and personal owner of 60% of all the shares on Morocco's stock exchange, ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for his majesty the king, Mohamed VI!!! (known as M6 to his buddies).

King Mohamed VI

It seems to me that the king would only agree to democratisation to the extent that it makes his rule look more legitimate. Although there is an elected parliament in Morocco, most of the power rests outside this system. The government's decision-making powers are constrained by the fact that many other members of parliament are indirectly appointed, and the key ministries are given to confidants of the king who may not even be a member of a political party. Indeed, the current prime minister, Driss Jettou, isn't in any party. So I reckon that M6 would like to throw in some superficial reforms to make it look like he is liberalising, without actually devolving meaningful power outside of the palace.

The increasing popularity of the Islamist movements are putting pressure on the more established political actors in Morocco, so I'm confident that my nationalist/conservative colleagues can do a deal with the king to gain some power and marginalise the Islamists.

Great to get one assignment out of the way. As usual, I was up all night last night putting on the finishing touches. I didn't get to bed till after 0600. And the next deadline is just three days away!! But it's all under control. I've done plenty of groundwork for this next one during the week. Roll on Monday...

Reem Kelani

2007-04-09T22:43:00.000+01:00

This is a review of a Reem Kelani gig I saw at a festival last August. Reem Kelani is a Palestinian singer who sings a mix of songs from Palestine and the Palestinian Diaspora. Her father comes from Jenin, and her mother from Nazareth. She has an incredible vocal range, and her vocal style incorporates Arabic chanting and ululations as well as conventional singing. I really enjoyed this music, which was a new kind of sound for me, as it’s not a style of music I’m familiar with. As well as loving the music in its own right, the concert was interesting because Kelani talked quite a bit about the origins and meanings of many of the songs.

There seemed to be a certain formlessness to some of the music, which left a lot of freedom for the different musicians to breathe within the structure of the songs. Kelani on vocals was backed by a bass clarinet, Egyptian violin, drums, and double bass (which was both plucked and played with a bow), but the first number was backed only with syncopated handclaps. This first song was a wedding song from Acre on the Mediterranean, and is about the bride taking the mickey out of her new husband’s family. Her family are saying that they will make their new son-in-law a shepherd or an Arabian king depending on how he treats their daughter. The song is in 6/4 time, which is a very old Palestinian rhythm, apparently.

Next was a song from Gallilee originating from the period of Ottoman rule. It is a slow, sad song, sung by the women when the men are going off to fight in a war. The music is based around a drone in E flat, I think it was – this was the tonic, and Kelani invited the audience to hum the tonic. The singing is in the tradition of the Greek orthodox church, and comes from the influence of Byzantine chanting.

The next song was about a group of women crossing the desert who are refused a lift by a convoy of caravans. They show their resilience by singing to the drivers. The tempo here was a bit faster, with the percussion more in the foreground, with Kelani playing a kind of bodhrán. She clearly still has a love and enthusiasm for this music. It was clear that she was enjoying herself on stage, dancing and communicating with her sidemen.

The next song was the highlight of the concert for me. It was called ‘Baker’s Dozen’ because of the time signature, which is a cycle of thirteen beats. Kelani described it as 12+1 beats, but to me it sounded like 3 measures of 3/4 time followed by a measure of 4/4 time. The song began with a double bass solo and then went into the 13 beat rhythm. This time signature comes from a folk tradition common to Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

In this tradition, even in the middle of a happy song like this one, there is a middle section where people sing of a longing for their homeland. In this way, even a wedding song can become a song of resistance (according to Kelani). This section takes the form of a dialogue between the vocalist and an instrumentalist (in this case, the bass clarinet). The singing is similar to the Spanish ‘deep singing’/canta chondo, apparently – this was an influence that the Arab influence introduced to Spain. (Kelani compared this to a scene in a Bollywood movie, where people can start singing and dancing in the middle of a battle scene, saying that this kind of mix of emotions was part of a similar tradition.)

Kelani was a mine of information, and the music itself was excellent. Very evocative. They finished up with a more conventional Western song, for which they were joined on stage by a guitar-slinging Christian minister dude named Garth Hewitt. He’s a campaigner for Palestinian human rights and so forth. This song, which I think is one of Hewitt’s, was called ‘The Death of Trees’, and is about the removal of a million olive trees since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. These trees were sold, destroyed, or replanted in illegal Israeli settlements, and in the song they symbolise the death of a culture. This is all very well, but the music wasn’t a patch on what had gone before. Kelani’s own music really stood out from anything else at the festival, and I bought her debut album, Sprinting Gazelle, on the strength of her performance. Kelani’s vocal range is very impressive, and the instrumentation was great as well. This is great stuff.

Cab Calloway chooses music over the Harlem Globetrotters

2007-03-05T00:07:00.001Z

This YouTube thing is addictive. Just found a very short clip of the great basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talking about music legend Cab Calloway. It seems that Calloway was actually a pro basketball player after playing bball in high school. In the 1920s, he was selected to play with the Harlem Globetrotters, but decided instead to tour with his band. He also played baseball against Dizzy Gillespie - the great jazz trumpeter.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won a national championship in college and then went on to win 6 NBA championships for two teams, and played professionally for 20 YEARS!!!
He also was one of the pilots in the film Airplane, and fought against Bruce Lee in Game of Death. He was born as Lew Alcindor, but changed his name because of his conversion to Islam. Advice from fellow students from Muslim countries led to his avoiding the US Black Muslim movement, the Nation of Islam, whose ranks had once included Malcolm X. In this interview, Abdul-Jabbar talks about what he calls the "totalitarian" version of Islam that underpinned the September the 11th attacks.
20-July-2007: I've just noticed that YouTube have removed this video due to an alleged violation of its terms of use. Not sure what that's about...

Independent news from African-American Los Angeles

2007-03-04T01:57:00.001Z

After covering a story down the street, a Hood News reporter shoots footage of the LAPD shooting at a homeless man who was running away from them. The police tried to stop Hood News from filming and argued with the reporter.

I came across this after watching a message from the stars of the NBA to the youth of the urban ghettos of the US. A few black basketball stars who had grown up in the hood had some words for these African-American communities. In this other Hood News video, the crew also try to interview the young star LeBron James and are snubbed. The crew dismiss James as 'Hollywood' when he refuses an interview. The reporter said that James was refusing to address a "community in poverty, and up and coming youth" as LeBron James stood behind him, and then called to James to give a shout out on Hood News, but was totally ignored as James got into his car. The reporter reckoned he was on a "solo mission" and it was "a disappointment to the black culture, and minorities". See also details of LeBron's dance-off defeat, below.

Shaquille O'Neal wins dance-off

2007-03-03T23:01:00.001Z

I've just signed up to YouTube, and I'm posting a video I came across on my brother's bebo page. It stars 7'1" Shaquille O'Neal, who plays professional basketball for the Miami Heat. At the annual NBA all-star weekend, Shaq took on two other players in a dance-off. It's hilarious...

His first opponent is the talented LeBron James, who came into the league a couple of years ago aged just 19.

Basketball glee

2007-02-27T23:55:00.000Z

We won a game last night. We were playing at home against a team called Ravens. The final score was close - closer than it should have been. We were ahead and in control, but Ravens narrowed the gap in the last quarter. It got quite scrappy at the end. A few of our players were missing, and so I played for most of the game. I got a couple of baskets and defended well in the first half. I was absolutely exhausted at the finish... It's a good feeling to be winning again though.

We have now won 6 and lost 6. Apart from the top two teams, every team has lost at least 6 games. This gives us an excellent chance of getting into the play offs - the top four teams in the league qualify - for the first time in my four-year basketball career. We've another game on Friday, against a team with only two wins - Trinity. I was in Russia when we beat them before Christmas, so I haven't played against them yet. That's the latest...

The Division 4 league table (I play for St. Declan's)

Previous basketball update

Ireland v England rugby

2007-02-24T19:32:00.000Z

I'm pretty much a one-sport guy, and that's basketball. I don't often watch other sports on television. Although I watch Irish soccer internationals, I am not a fan of soccer or rugby, and I seldom watch Gaelic football or hurling. But I've just watched Ireland play rugby against England in Croke Park. In England's first game in Croke Park, they lost to Ireland by their biggest margin ever. The final score was 43-13. Ireland played some very skilful rugby, including a GAA-like kick and catch for Ireland's third (I think) try. Ronan O'Gara didn't miss a kick at goal.

Stringer against France a few years ago

Before the game, there was a lot of focus on political issues surrounding Ireland's colonial history. In 1920, the British army killed 14 civilians in the very stadium where the game would be played (as al-Jazeera also reported). For decades, the Irish GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) have forbidden English sports (known as 'garrison games') from being played at Croke Park. This afternoon, as my friend Kealan noted on his blog, England's team and supporters sang God Save the Queen in Croker before the game, before going on to suffer a decisive defeat.

Croke Park

An interesting mix of sports, culture, and politics this afternoon at Croke Park, which I can actually see from the window of my house...

Randy Newman

2007-02-23T12:45:00.000Z

One all-time classic piece of music is the 1972 Randy Newman album, Sail Away. Newman is a songwriter who’s had big success with soundtracks to films such as Toy Story, but he started off as a guy with a piano, singing songs he had written. The music was beautiful, and the lyrics were acerbic.

The title track of Sail Away is about a slave trader recruiting in the African jungle, trying to convince the potential slaves how wonderful life would be in America:

Ain’t no lion or tiger, ain’t no mamba snake,
Just a sweet watermelon and a buckwheat cake
Everybody is as happy as a man can be
Climb aboard little wog, sail away with me

He similarly satirises a racist point of view on the song ‘Rednecks’, from his concept album Good Old Boys, by singing a song from the point of view of a white supremacist from the deep South:

We talk real funny down here,
We drink too much, we laugh too loud,
We’re too dumb to make it in no northern town –
We’re keeping the niggers down

Going back to Sail Away, there’s some great songs on there. The music is very melodic – sometimes it’s Randy and his piano, sometimes there’s a band, and sometimes there’s an orchestra in the background. Newman has been covered a lot, and included here is ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ (covered by Tom Jones) and ‘Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear’ (covered by the Muppets). As an atheist, one song I particularly like is the slow, mournful ‘God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)’, in which some of His distraught subjects appeal to God for answers. God replies:

I recoil in horror at the foulness of thee –
From the squalor and the filth and the misery,
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me,
That’s why I love mankind
…
I burn down your cities – how blind you must be,
I take from you your children and you say ‘how blessed are we’,
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me,
That’s why I love mankind

Basketball woes

2007-02-20T22:51:00.000Z

Three posts this year! I'm on a roll. Lightning blogging here...

We lost another basketball game tonight. That's four in a row since Christmas. Before Christmas we were having a great season - we won five and lost two. Similarly to the past few years, most of the teams in the league are around the same standard. Most teams are capable of beating any of the others. The strongest team is probably Rathmines, who have an extremely tall player who is high-scoring. At the end of the year, there are play-offs between the top four teams in the league. We still have a chance to make it that far in the season. Here's the league table.

I play Division 4 basketball with St. Declan's in Cabra. Tonight we were beaten by Ranelagh Fire. The game was quite close in the last quarter. Unfortunately, at that stage I was sitting on the bench. I scored one free throw in the first half. We were down a lot of points at half-time, but we made a comeback, and halfway through the last quarter, we were only losing by eight. By the end of the quarter, we had cut the lead to four points. But in the end, we just weren't able to catch them, as we ran out of time.

Alan's photos

2007-02-17T19:43:00.000Z

My brother Alan is in Australia at the moment - he'll be there until December. He's been travelling since last summer with his girlfriend Sheena, her sister, and her fella. They spent six months travelling around Asia up until the end of 2006, visiting Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, India, Thailand... you can read all about this on his own blog. Now they're going to be in different parts of Australia for the rest of 2007.

Alan likes his photography, and he was armed with some suitably impressive camera gear as he trekked around Asia. Below are some of the photos he took last year.

Angor, Cambodia

The view from Thavisouk guesthouse, Laos

Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur, India

Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia

Miles Davis

2007-02-15T00:00:00.000Z

I've just been listening to the first great Miles Davis Quintet. In the 1950s they recorded some classic jazz albums including the quartet Workin', Steamin', Relaxin', and Cookin'. On saxaphone was none other than John Coltrane, and the rhythm section was Miles' close friend 'Philly' Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass, and on piano, the great touch of Red Garland.

Here is an excellent online biography of Miles Davis.

Remember, folks - always do the right thing

2007-01-21T23:17:00.000Z

If there’s one film I know inside out, back to front, and upside down, it is Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. It’s a film I’ve watched many times. Spike Lee directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the film. It’s a film about a day in the life of a neighbourhood called Beford-Stuyvesant (known as Bed-Stuy) in Brooklyn, New York city. It’s a black neighbourhood, and race is a central theme of the film. The action is a montage of scenes in the life of the neighbourhood, all of which take place on an extremely hot summer’s day. With the oppressive heat as a backdrop, tension builds up within the community as the day unfolds, and the pressure leads to an explosion of action at the end of the film.

The film opens with footage of Rosie Perez doing some provocative, assertive dancing to the beat of Public Enemy’s Fight the Power, from their album Fear of a Black Planet. I used to love Public Enemy when I was a youngster – still do, I suppose. I’m a big fan of Spike Lee as well. I actually wrote my undergraduate dissertation on Spike Lee’s films. It wasn’t much of a dissertation to be honest – my supervisor called me an ‘underachiever’, which was pretty accurate.

A lot of the action in Do the Right Thing centres on an Italian-American business in the heart of the black community. Spike Lee’s himself plays the protagonist, Mookie, who delivers pizza’s for ‘Sal’s Famous Pizzeria’. Sal has a ‘Wall of Fame’ in the pizzeria made up of photographs of prominent Italian-Americans such as Al Pacino. One of the locals (called ‘Buggin’ Out’) takes exception to this, and demands some photos of African-Americans be put up on the wall. This leads to a series of confrontations that drive the action.

Giancarlo Esposito

Buggin’ Out is played by one of my own favourite actors, Giancarlo Esposito. He’s one of those guys who you’d recognise but probably couldn’t have identified if I hadn’t put a photo of him into this post. Off the top of my head, he’s also played Muhammed Ali’s dad in Ali (with Will Smith), and a cop in The Usual Suspects, but he’s been in loads of other stuff, usually playing character roles. He’s also been in a number of Spike Lee films. For my money, he’s one of the most versatile actors around these days. He’s played some hugely diverse roles in his career.

For me, the strength of Do the Right Thing is in its willingness to tackle identity politics head-on. I reckon it gives a very convincing picture of the complexity and diversity of racial issues, but I’m not going to try and capture that at the moment – to do justice to the film and the subject, I’d have to put a bit more time into it than I’ve got just now…

I will just say that the film partly represents a conflict between the philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, two prominent African-American leaders who were assassinated during the 1960s. Whereas Dr. King advocated non-violence, Malcolm X asserted the right of African-Americans in the US to rely on self-help to defend themselves against brutality. The film ends with a quote from each man, outlining his own take on whether the use of force is ever justified. Dr. King’s take on things was that violence is “immoral and impractical” as a solution, as it breeds hatred, and ensures that the cycle of violence will continue. The Malcolm X quote refers to who had the power in US society, bringing us back to the Public Enemy song that features so prominently in the film. Malcolm X believed that the problem of racism was so urgent and so systematic in the US that the black community should employ any means that were necessary to bring it to an end. Spike Lee juxtaposes these competing understandings, and challenges the viewer to reconcile them with the practical realities of Do the Right Thing.

I know exactly what side I’m on. I’ve read Malcolm X’s Autobiography three times and I find his take on things pretty compelling. I think this film is actually what brought me into contact with Malcolm X’s life and thought. I’m no pacifist, and I agree with Malcolm X that for black Americans, when the US government consistently failed to do enough to protect them, self-defence should not be described as ‘violence’ but as ‘intelligence’. Malcolm X spoke in the context of a US where white supremacist attacks on African-Americans went unpunished. This was a culture of impunity for the death of 4 black girls in the bombing of a Birmingham church, and for the assassination of Medgar Evers, an official of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). Evers was immortalised in Bob Dylan’s Only a Pawn in their Game, and his assassin was only convicted in 1994 because he boasted of the murder at a KKK rally.

Do the Right Thing also stars Ossie Davis, the man who gave the eulogy at Malcolm X’s funeral, and one thing he said strikes me as quite important at this stage. He draws attention to the fact that Malcolm X had never been personally involved in any violence or disturbance. It was only a case of articulating a policy of self-reliance for a community who were the constant victim of savage attack. It seems reasonable in this context that they would take action to protect themselves and their communities.

Anyway, I got a DVD copy of Do the Right Thing at Christmas, and I’ve just watched the first 40 minutes or so of it. I’ve interrupted my viewing because I promised myself I’d try and improve my blogging frequency in 2007. Anyway, it’s a beautifully shot film, which is given a reflective edge by a lot of long takes and a pleasant jazz score by Spike’s dad, Bill Lee. In other places it becomes much more confrontational, such as in a famous scene (reprised somewhat in Lee’s The 25th Hour). A number of characters take turns addressing the camera with a string of targeted racial abuse. In turn, Puerto Rican, Italian, black, Korean and other characters vent a string of racial invectives against different groups such as Jews or Asians, such as John Turtorro’s rant against blacks which begins: “You gold-teeth, gold-chain wearing, fried chicken and biscuit-eating, monkey-ape-baboon” etc.

It’s an ensemble piece, with a lot of small roles by actors who have since become pretty well known, such as Jon Savage, Samuel L Jackson and Martin Lawrence. A lot of people reckon that all of Spike Lee’s films are about race, which is refuted by films like Summer of Sam and recently, Inside Man. He's a gifted filmmaker and shouldn't be reduced to nothing but an idealogue. But Do the Right Thing certainly has race up front and centre, and gets my vote as one of the best cinematic reflections on racial politics ever made.

Billy Bragg gig, Vicar St. - June 3rd

2006-11-18T17:44:00.000Z

Earlier this year, on June 3rd, I went to see Mr. Billy Bragg in concert for the first time. I was first introduced to his music by my girlfriend, who has been a Billy Bragg fan for many moons. She bought me one of CDs a couple of years ago, and I was immediately hooked by the first few lines of Sexuality:

I’ve had relations
With girls of many nations
I’ve made passes
At women of all classes
But just because you’re gay
I won’t turn you away
If you stick around
I’m sure that we can find some common ground

The guy is a protest singer really. In the 1980s he was involved in the collective of popular musicians called Red Wedge, which tried to get the young people of Britain to engage with politics in general and the Labour Party in particular. Red Wedge was formally disbanded in 1990, but Bragg stayed political. He has a catalogue of songs about love, life, war, and this kind of stuff - these days he seems to be mostly targeting fascism through his music with the rise of the British National Front, as well as war, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.

The Diggers song is a good example of the kind of stuff that he sings about, and it’s particularly close to my heart, because it’s about a load of activists in the 1600s who tried to reclaim land for communal ownership. It resonates with me because I’m involved with a network in Dublin City who have set up a couple of community gardens where we grow food and link in to the local community. Here’s some Digger lyrics (the song’s actually called World Turned Upside Down):

'We come in peace' they said
'To dig and sow
We come to work the land in common
And to make the waste land grow
…
The sin of property
We do disdain
No one has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain’

…
From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers' claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on

Bragg’s music is guitar driven stuff. I think Bragg sees himself as a punk musician, and there’s certainly some spikiness in the guitar. But it’s pretty melodic - maybe power pop would be appropriate? Anyway, I’m not too hung up on categorisation of music. It’s too easy to get bogged down in that kind of stuff.

Bragg was joined on stage for some of the tracks on keyboards by Ian McLagan, formerly of the Small Faces and the Faces. They even had a Hammond Organ. The highlight of the night might just have been a rendition of the classic Booker T and the MGs track Green Onions. (To digress, two of the MGs were Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn and Steve Cropper, and these guys have serious credibility. They were part of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s touring Blues Brothers band, and can be seen in The Blues Brothers movie. They had previously been session men at Stax Studios - Booker T and the MGs were the house band , and played on some of the classic records that came out of there. Cropper was a co-writer of some incredible songs, including Sitting on the Dock of the Bay with Otis Redding, Sailing with Rod Stewart, and In the Midnight Hour with Wilson Pickett.) Bragg said that Green Onions, though instrumental, was a major political statement, being recorded in a studio in the racially segregated south by a racially integrated band.

Booker T & the MGs - revolutionaries!?

This might have been the most interesting thing he said, but Mr. Bragg talks a lot in concert. In fact, he could fairly be described as an incorrigible spoofer. He was heckled a number of times for talking too much. I don’t think he played two songs in a row throughout the whole show (except in the encore). And he wasn’t even rallying the crowd with any kind of political stuff - he was just yapping about funny stories and this kind of thing. It would have been far better if he had played a few batches of songs and chattered in between these. But he let loose in the encore, and lashed through some of his early hits.

I really enjoyed the show, but I was only familiar with a handful of the tunes. It was one of those gigs which seemed to be full of die-hard fans who knew each and every lyric “like it was written in their soul”, to paraphrase Mr. Zimmerman. Anyway, that’s enough about that.

Poker

2006-09-29T23:52:00.000+01:00

Last week, I hosted a poker session in my house. There is a group of us that play poker together every so often. We hadn't played for a while, and I wanted to have a game before going back to college, so I decided to host the evening. It's more suitable during this time of year anyway, when the evenings are darker and the weather's getting worse.

We basically all sit around a table and have a few beers, an occasional cigar, and play some cards. We have a pool of about ten players, but there's always one or two who can't make it, so we usually play with six or seven. On this night there were six of us. One of the missing regulars is my brother Alan, who is travelling at the moment (alanbaynes101.blogspot.com).

We play with chips rather than cash. The thinking is that people can't lose more than the amount of chips they buy in, so it means that everyone can keep track of their liabilities and nobody ends up betting more than they can afford. Basically, everybody buys in €30 of chips, and we play cards. But on this night, there seemed to be lots of people buying in extra chips, so there was a fair bit of money on the table - more than €250. (They aren't huge stakes, but most of us are lowly civil servants...)

I didn't manage a Royal Flush...

I think this probably was due to the fact that we played for half an hour or so with only five players, because one guy was late. With only five players it was difficult to get openers (if you don't know, google it), so the pot kept building and building. This cleaned a few people out quite quickly, as there was some lunatic betting on some huge pots in the early stages. This created quite an imbalance in the chip distribution. For a while, one corner of the table housed the 'superpowers', who had huge piles of chips from winning these big pots, and the other side of the table was populated by the bankrupt 'axis of evil'. (I was briefly one of these superpowers).

In the final analysis, I just about broke even (I finished with €23 in chips). I wasn't getting good hands throughout most of the dealing, so I didn't get much of a chance to bet. But the few good hands I did get I made quite good money out of, so I was happy enough with that. I got a four of a kind at one stage, which was the best
hand of the night. I also had the 'Dead Man's Hand' at one stage - two aces and two eights - which is supposedly the hand that Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was shot dead. That must have been a bad omen for me, as I lost a few bob on that hand.

Back in the Saddle Again

2006-08-13T18:29:00.000+01:00

I’m finally back cycling again.

After a long time without a bike, I bought myself a new one yesterday (this was written on the train over a week ago, on August 5th) in the UCD bike shop. I got very good service and I’d highly recommend the place. Thanks to Cathal for recommending the place to me. I called out there at about 0915 in the morning and picked out a nice looking new bike for €150.00 after taking it for a test drive. Then I went off for some breakfast while Rob the bicycle mechanic fitted a carrier for me.

This bike shop is in a beautiful setting. It has a courtyard bounded with old stone walls which are hung with foliage. Against one hedge are stacked a pile of scrap bikes, which will probably end up being dumped. I know a few people who run bike workshops, where they try to construct decent bikes out of discarded bits of frames and stuff. Rob said they’d be more than welcome to take these parts away if they liked.

I ended up having a good chat with Rob, because when I came back to collect the bike he was still attaching the carrier. He was an interesting guy with a good take on things, I reckon. I often think that it’d be nice to have a job that was quite physical. It’s good to be active, and I think that spending your days sitting in an office is pretty unhealthy and can make you quite lazy. In a funny way, I also think that physical work can be better for your mind – certainly better than a certain type of office work. I remember that Beatles song about the pleasures of fixing a hole to keep your mind from wandering…

I’ve been meaning to buy myself a bike for ages – it’s definitely the most convenient way to get around the city. But the spur that made me finally get around to it is the fact that I’m on my way to Clare for the weekend. My bike and I are currently on the train to Birdhill, and from there I’ll be cycling about 20km to Scariff, where the Irish Seed Savers Association are having an open day tomorrow (Sunday August 6th). Seed Savers is an organisation that tries to maintain Irish biodiversity, by maintaining stocks of plants that might otherwise die out – eg varieties of turnips, garlic, apple trees etc. I’m accompanied by a few fellow Dublin community gardeners, and we should be meeting up with more environmental types down there. Indeed, despite all the accommodation in East Clare (including campsites) being totally booked up due to two festivals going on in the area, we will be camping for free in Scariff’s very own community garden. Such are the joys of being part of an environmental network.

So that’s why I got myself a bike at last. But just half an hour after I bought it, as I was cycling down the canal, one of the pedals fell off!! Turns out the crank (?) hadn’t been tightened properly and the UCD bike shop had let me down… But I still stick by what I said about getting good service there – it didn’t turn out badly – I rang Rob and he told me to call into the nearby Rathmines bike shop, and a fellow he knew in there would fix it for me. And that’s how it happened. It’s a great feeling of freedom to have the bike again. It was as though the whole of Dublin was accessible to me, and felt like cycling off around the place. It’s such a handy way to get around Dublin. It’s also easy on the environment and my wallet. And I have my helmet to prevent severe head injury. What more could I want??

2006-08-13T18:27:00.000+01:00

After a long break, I’m back to the blog. Why no posts for so long? Basically, because of a general lack of organisation in my life over the last while, and a lack of satisfactory internet access. I have various excuses I could use, such as moving house and stuff like that, but the bottom line is that I didn’t get it together to blog regularly. The new gaff has broadband (it’s broadband that isn’t working, but at least it can be fixed – I hope), and I’m hereby promising to start posting regularly. Not that anybody reads this bloody thing…

The book group

2006-06-13T17:22:00.000+01:00

Three or four years ago, I set up a book group along with a few friends in the office where I worked. The premise was simple - each of us would read the same book over the course of about a month, and then we would get together to discuss this book over a few pints. Most of the sessions took place in O’Neill’s pub on Pearse St. We only read fiction: mostly novels, and one or two short stories. Each month, somebody would suggest a book, on the basis that it was reasonably short to keep things accessible. War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov would have quickly killed off the idea because of their length.

O'Neill's of Pearse St.

The book group was a great success. There was a hard core of people who read each book, and at one meeting there were about twelve people present. We even held a Kris Kindle of books at Christmas. It soon became apparent at the gatherings that the atmosphere was informal and social. I used to refer to it as ‘going for pints with a theme’, because that was really all we were doing. At each meeting we would go around the table, and each person would give his or her first impressions of the book to be discussed. This then developed into the usual pub discussion, but with a little more focus and energy. Everybody was familiar with the material being discussed, and had given it a little thought before the meeting, which made for a fascinating discussion. It never ceased to amaze me how somebody else’s perspective could open up a whole new way of looking at a book with which I thought I was pretty familiar.

We went through several books over the course of the group’s existence. Of course, as soon as I try to remember all of the books we read, my mind goes blank. But after some thought I have come up with a list of just some of the books we discussed:

H G Wells - The Country of the Blind - USA
Patrick Suskind - Perfume - Germany
Margaret Atwood - Surfacing - Canada
James Joyce - The Dead - Ireland
Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies - UK
Paulo Coehlo - The Alchemist - Brazil
Jann Martel - The Life of Pi - author born in Spain but has national links all over the place

As you can see, there was a range of authors of different nationalities, eras and styles. This book group was one of the most stimulating projects I have ever been involved in.

Booker prize-winner The Life of Pi

Around this time, there were also a couple of poetry nights organised by people in the office. At first, this may sound like a totally bizarre, pretentious and unappealing idea. But the concept worked incredibly well. The first poetry night took place in Maguire’s pub on Baggot St. There were a group of about 15 to 20 people in attendence, and we had a large alcove entirely to ourselves. We brought along little books of poetry, and poems printed out from the internet, and then sat drinking for an hour or so before the poetry began. A poet named Emer Davis, who had organised the event, stood up and read a couple of poems of her own, and then she was followed by other members of the crowd. In the end, everybody present had read out at least one poem, however reluctant they had been at the outset. I read a few verses from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. Blake was also in attendance:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

By the end of the night, a guitar had appeared, and the poems had turned into songs. In true democratic fashion, the guitar was passed around the room, and we heard musical poetry from Dylan and others, as well as a few originals. I heard a couple of really impressive Limericks as well (and one or two obscene ones).

There was a young lady from Bright
Who could travel faster than light
She went off one day
In a relative way
And arrived back the previous night.

A second poetry reading was held months later in honour of Anti-Racism week, which included Refugee Blues by W H Auden and a few protest songs by Phil Ochs. It might seem like an unusual idea, but it makes for a great fundraiser as well as a great night out.

A Tale of Two Cities

The reason I’m recalling these heady days of boozy literature appreciation is that the old book group is now in the process of being resurrected. We have yet to have a proper meeting, as it is difficult to drag together a critical mass of people now that the original group have been dispersed to different offices and locations. We met last week to discuss Pulitzer prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri’s work of genius, The Namesake, but the discussion of this book was postponed due to cancellations and failures of email (long story). We might revisit this book in the future, but at the next gathering of the book group, which will take place in July, Charles Dickens’ classic A Tale of Two Cities has been chosen. All are welcome to join the group, so if you’re interested just drop a comment after this post and I’ll get in touch or put you on the mailing list.

Fattening Frogs? What?

2006-06-02T15:46:00.000+01:00

The title Fattening Frogs for Snakes refers to a song by the great blues harmonica player, Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Sonny Boy Williamson II

Sonny Boy Williamson II was one of the key figures in the history of the blues. He was born Rice Miller, but stole the name Sonny Boy Williamson from another harp player of the time ('blues harp' or just plain 'harp'=blues slang term for harmonica). They are now known respectively as Sonny Boy Williamson I and II. It is a reasonably regular moniker, in a musical genre characterised by lots of strange names. Some of my favourite blues names off the top of my head include Pinetop Perkins, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin’ Slim and Taj Mahal (who I managed to see live with his Phantom Blues Band - brilliant stuff).

Like many other of the great blues icons, there is a certain amount of confusion about when Sonny Boy II was born. I have even heard that he lied about the year of his birth in order to get the drop on Sonny Boy I in his claim to the name. Sonny Boy II was from Mississippi, and was a virtuoso on the harp. It’s rumoured that he could play with no hands, by inserting the entire harmonica into his mouth or holding it between his top lip and his nose.

One thing that’s interesting about old-time blues lyrics is the way it seems to be the men that are persecuted rather than the women. Blues songs are populated by women who walk all over the long suffering bluesmen, going out late and not coming back home, spending all their man's money, and evicting them from their own homes in the freezing cold (see the Sonny Boy Williamson II track ‘Nine Below Zero’). A good example of this is Sonny Boy’s classic song, ‘Help Me’, which has become a harmonica standard, in which he pleads for help with the housework (seriously):

I may have to wash
I may have to sew
I may have to cook
I might mop the floor
But you help me babe
I can’t do it all by myself
You know if you don't help me darling
I'll find myself somebody else

I was in Bruxelles once when the Mary Stokes Band was playing, and I was very proud of myself when they agreed to play a request of ‘Help Me’. They had just rejected another couple of calls for requests, but I obviously fooled them into thinking I was a blues purist. Then they proceeded to blow me away with a great version of the song. They had the last laugh when I bought their CD.

The song title ‘Fattening Frogs for Snakes’ seemingly refers to an old American proverb about putting loads of energy into something and not reaping the benefits. If you spend ages fattening up a frog with lots of delicacies, and then a big snake slips into his cage and eats him, you’ve pretty much wasted loads of your time and effort. If I had a penny for every frog I lost this way...

My research on Google tells me that ‘Fattening Frogs For Snakes’ was used as the title of a book about the old blues musicians by a fellow called John Sinclair. He compares the years of musical craftsmanship of the Delta blues musicians to fattening frogs for snakes. According to his take on things, these (mostly African American) blues men and women spent years honing their craft, and then suddenly all these white musicians swooped in in the 60s and had huge success by appropriating blues music.

So, the fatted frog was eaten by the snake-like new wave of British musicians – people such as Eric Clapton, John Mayall, The Animals and The Rolling Stones. There’s no doubt that these guys are true fans of the blues, but they did make it big by ripping off the blues stylings of pioneers like Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Howlin’ Wolf. Lots of these guys died in misery and poverty (although there are plenty more like BB King who got plenty of recognition).

Anyway, that’s the source of my blog title - just in case it seemed a little esoteric…

More graffiti from indymedia

2006-06-02T15:32:00.000+01:00

Indymedia is an independent news website, run on the basis of 'open publishing', whereby any reader of the site can comment on any news story, and even publish stories themselves (once they're within the editorial guidelines).

Periodically, a contributor called 'Noise Hacker' posts up a series of photos of graffiti on the site. The pictures are incredibly colourful, and shows that there is some very impressive artistic stuff out there. For my first posts in June, I decided to upload a few of these pictures. I'm not for a second suggesting that I've any links to any graf 'scene' - I just think they're some pretty cool photos.

There's plenty more where these came from: to find them, just search for Noise Hacker on indymedia.ie, like this:
Search

Graffiti from indymedia

2006-06-02T15:06:00.000+01:00

Some graffiti images from www.indymedia.ie; hope you find them as groovy as I do:

I particularly like the last one as it's from Dolphin's Barn, where I got involved in a community gardening project.

Semesters 1 & 2 - in the bag

2006-05-25T16:55:00.000+01:00

I've just returned from the Guth Gafa documentary film festival in the Donegal Gaeltacht town of Gortahork (or Gort a' Choirce, for those of you who prefer original Irish placenames. It means 'field of corn', but I digress). From Thursday to Monday I was camping, sightseeing, documentary-film watching and generally winding down. It was just the break I needed. Apart from the fact that it is essential to get out of Dublin every so often, I was in dire need of some relaxation after an intensive few weeks in college.

The Donegal Gaeltacht - the view from Mt. Errigal

It is now just under two weeks since I handed in my last two essays, putting an end to Semester #2 of my MA in International Relations. I suppose I haven't really finished until I get my results, so I probably shouldn't count my chickens just yet. But in any case, it's a relief just to have everything handed in. I'm not back in college until September. Now it's time to enjoy my summer.

The final week of college was pretty tough going. I had 5,000 words to write on post-communist democracy in Hungary and Bulgaria for the Thursday, and another 3,000 words to write on neo-liberal economics in Jamaica for the Friday. I took the week off work and totally immersed myself in the material. It was pretty hard work, but I enjoyed it in a funny way. It's fascinating stuff. Even though my head was wrecked and I wasn't getting enough decent food, enough human contact, or enough sleep, I still found it pretty interesting to read and write about these issues.

But more than once, I asked myself why I was bothering. What was I thinking, signing up for this kind of effort? The weather was beautiful that week (it probably looked far nicer from inside the library, of course), and I could have been sitting in a beer garden somewhere. So why do we put ourselves through this ordeal?

College - why bother?

A lot of people ask me about that too. Usually the questions are about what I can do with my qualification at the end of the day – what kind of job I’ll get, and whether I’ll follow up on my course. Sometimes there seems to be a presumption that the point of doing the course is to improve your own prospects. I’d be lying if I said that I had never considered that side of things, but there has to be more to it than that.

I am reminded of a friend of mine who spent some time studying in a college in Colombia, in South America. I was struck by something he once said to me. He told me that out of all of the Colombian students that he knew, every one of them wanted to use what they learned in college to improve their country. Their goal was to find some way to contribute to their society by applying their academic knowledge. This is pretty different to the situation in Ireland, where people generally seem to have a less altruistic approach to the university experience.

One problem I can see with the modern Ireland is a very individualistic culture. People seem to be less involved in community organisations and voluntary activities. It’s all tied up with consumerism – people’s aspirations are tied up with wealth, and property and car ownership, rather than taking an interest in their own society. I think that television compounds this problem by sucking up a lot of people’s time.

Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy has meant a huge societal change, and Ireland is being held up as an example of successful development in the modern era. But not everybody agrees that it’s all good in 21st century Ireland. At the moment I’m reading a
critique of the Celtic Tiger by one of my lecturers in DCU, Peadar Kirby. He identifies some of the negative aspects to the new society.

Homelessness in Dublin

Of course, if I ever get carried away with criticising the negative side of modern Ireland, there are plenty of people who will bring me back down to earth. Of course we shouldn't forget the huge problems of the 1980s – long-term unemployment, emigration etc. – which were improved by the economic growth of the 1990s. But it is important not to take everything for granted, and to keep a critical eye on the nature of Irish development.

Anyway, this is a very long-winded way of saying that in my studies, I hope to try and look towards the wider problems of society. Andrew Linklater, who is one of the major International Relations theorists, has identified the three main themes of the discipline as Power, Order, and Emancipation. In my studies so far my definite focus has been, and will be, on the third of these. As far as I can see, the world is a pretty unfair place. In doing this Masters, my hope is to try to start understanding how and why it is so unfair, and if possible, to try to identify some ways to try and address the imbalance. A tall order?? Nah… No bother…

Tá an chéad post as Gaeilge... (why not!?)

2006-05-18T15:55:00.000+01:00

Tar éis a lán smaoineamh, tá socair agam tús a chur ar weblog. Bhí plean agam chun é a dhéanamh, ach táim an-gnóthach go minic, agus bhí mé i gconaí ag cur an smaoin ar an méar fada, mar a deirtear. Rud amháin eile atá i gceist ná an ‘embarrasment factor’ – is dócha nuair a tá tú ag déanamh aon rud poiblí, bíonn tú saghas faiteach faoi (is é ‘faiteach’ focal eile do ‘neirbhíseach’ – is focal nua é domsa: tá an foclóir in aice liom mar nílim i mo cainteoir dúchasach. (Ná bí ina dhiaidh orm maidir le aon botún, le do thoil!!). Bhí mé ag iarraidh an litriú ceart ar neirbhíseach, ach b’fhearr liom an focail faiteach.). Ar aon nós, bhí mé ag smaoineamh nach mbéadh mé chomh cotúil as Gaeilge, mar is iad a lán de mo chairde dall is aineolach don teanga féin… Heh, heh… Amadáin…!! Táim ach ag magadh… Sin an fáth atá mo chéad post as Gaeilge.

Ach freisin, ba mhaith liom postanna a cur suas as Gaeilge anois is arís. Déanaim iarracht caint as Gaeilge chomh minic agus is féidir liom. Mar a tharlaíonn, tá mé ag dul go dtí an Gaeltacht i Gort a’ Choirce, i dTír Chonall i gceann cúpla uair. Tá an Féile Scannáin Faisnéise ar siúl ann, darbh ainm Guth Gafa, so beidh mé ag campáil i nDún na nGall i rith an deireadh seachtaine.

www.guthgafa.com

So, déanaim mo dhícheall do mo theanga féin, mar bhí sé i dtrioblóid mór i rith n blianta. Sa lá atá inniú ann, b’fhéidir go bhfuil níos mó suim ann, le na Gaeilscoileanna is mar sin de, ach deireann daoine fós go bhfuil sé ag fáil báis. Is trua é nach bhfuil sé níos láidir coitianta. Sin an méid don céad post ar mo bhlog ar aon nós…