Friday, April 18, 2008
1 million Tiny Plays About dj’ing..... number 2.
Two girls approach the d.j box as everyone else is walking away after the last song. They have probably had a few drinks...
Go’on play ....
Can’t, I’m sorry it’s over.
Ah just one more tune ...
I adopt a jocular manner.
I was thinking that we should change the National Anthem to ‘One More Tune’ ‘cos it’s always the last thing I hear ...
Girl Number One attempts a disaproving look. I ignore it and give her the false broad smile. This throws her, she looks to her friend for support who pipes up...
Have you got MGMT?
Yes I played it earlier.
Go’on play it now.
I can’t the lights are on, the music has stopped and it’s time to go. The Gardai are very strict these days. And if I play tunes twice the other tunes get jealous, (I'm getting into my stride now, they have no chance interrupting me). I mean think of all the tunes that don’t get played at all and then to play one twice! Sure there’d be murder in the car on the way home, they’d be fighting their way out of the box.
She looks at me as if I’m a mentalist.
Ah go’on.
I can’t.
You can.
It’s over, if you want a song you should request it early on and we can try and get it in.
But I wasn’t here when you played it.
Well maybe you should come earlier and then you’d get your one more song, lots more songs, I’ve been here for over two hours....
They consult, I pack things away but they aren’t finished. The other friend comes back flashing big doe eyes,
Are you going to play it then?
No.
Well I’m not coming back again you know.
Ok.
What?
Ok. I put out my hand over the partition. She puts out hers, looking a little confused, I shake her hand, smiling.
It was good to meet you this once anyway, take care of yourself.
Oh charming, that’s bloody charming that is, oh you’re very funny.
She takes her friend by the arm,
Come on we’re off....
Fast forward to the next Friday ....
Hi remember me?
MGMT is it?
YES! you remembered
How could I forget? ... I’ve already played it .....
Get Thee Hence to the Ballet ...
This Sunday, An Grianan, two shows, 3pm and 8pm, there’s tickets left so no excuses, I’m taking my Megan to it to (ahem) celebrate her Holy Communion. Based on Charles Perrault’s fairy story, the ballet is about a beautiful Princess bound by a wicked fairy’s spell to sleep for a hundred years. She can only be woken by the kiss of a handsome prince. The ballet is full of wonderful characters including the Lilac Fairy, the Rose Adagio, the Bluebird as well as a cast of fairy-tale characters who gather for the sparkling final wedding celebration, under the direction of Stanislav Tchassov, former Principal dancer of The Bolshoi Ballet. I love a good ballet, me.
It’s Conal Time!
And on this Friday and Saturday nights in An Grianan is Conal Gallen, supreme gag teller of the old school. Sure everything is back to the old school these days. C’mere Murphy walks into a bar .... Show at 8pm, Tickets available on the door.
Finn Harps
I’m presuming last week’s performance was just so RTE would have enough comedy clips to play for rest of the season on the excellent Monday Night Soccer programme and hope they are back to normal this week away against Cork. ‘Mon the lads. May I suggest Higgsy gets the defence introduced to each other through speed dating? Aaron this is Malcolm, Malcolm this is Aaron. Pleased to meet you, and what do you do? Oh your a right back, funny I’m a centre half! What a small world, eh?
Regional Culture
The RCC in Letterkenny have Liam O’ Flynn and Paddy Glackin this Friday night. Master uillean piper Liam O'Flynn, the current TG4 ‘Traditional Musician of the Year’, and leading fiddle player Paddy Glackin are two of the greatest living Irish traditional musicians (it says here, my in laws would beg to differ about Paddy Glackin and his rewriting and retuning of Donegal fiddle history but we’ll gloss over that bit). O'Flynn’s career includes Planxty, the National Symphony Orchestra and ‘The Poet and the Piper’ with the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. Glackin’s recordings include his eponymous debut album and duet albums with uilleann piper Paddy Keenan, keyboard experimentalist Jolyn Jackson and Donal Lunny, who just performed in the Balor. Tickets on door.
Theresa’s in a play...
My mate, and occasional surfin’ buddy, Theresa is in a play. In the Balor.This group, comprised entirely of HSE employees, produce and perform a play every year with the proceeds going to a number of worthy causes including St. Mary's National School, the Patient Comfort Funds of St. Joseph's Hospital and the Sean O Hare Unit. This year's play is a Sam Cree crowd pleaser – Separate Beds. There's tipsy housekeepers, eccentric vicars, pretend wives and a very lazy painter. You know exactly what you're getting with a Sam Cree show - lots of belly laughs, double entendre and innuendo combining into one damn good night out. It’s from Sun Apr 20 to Wed Apr 23. Tickets are €10 and available from The Balor Box Office on 074 91 31840.
Two girls approach the d.j box as everyone else is walking away after the last song. They have probably had a few drinks...
Go’on play ....
Can’t, I’m sorry it’s over.
Ah just one more tune ...
I adopt a jocular manner.
I was thinking that we should change the National Anthem to ‘One More Tune’ ‘cos it’s always the last thing I hear ...
Girl Number One attempts a disaproving look. I ignore it and give her the false broad smile. This throws her, she looks to her friend for support who pipes up...
Have you got MGMT?
Yes I played it earlier.
Go’on play it now.
I can’t the lights are on, the music has stopped and it’s time to go. The Gardai are very strict these days. And if I play tunes twice the other tunes get jealous, (I'm getting into my stride now, they have no chance interrupting me). I mean think of all the tunes that don’t get played at all and then to play one twice! Sure there’d be murder in the car on the way home, they’d be fighting their way out of the box.
She looks at me as if I’m a mentalist.
Ah go’on.
I can’t.
You can.
It’s over, if you want a song you should request it early on and we can try and get it in.
But I wasn’t here when you played it.
Well maybe you should come earlier and then you’d get your one more song, lots more songs, I’ve been here for over two hours....
They consult, I pack things away but they aren’t finished. The other friend comes back flashing big doe eyes,
Are you going to play it then?
No.
Well I’m not coming back again you know.
Ok.
What?
Ok. I put out my hand over the partition. She puts out hers, looking a little confused, I shake her hand, smiling.
It was good to meet you this once anyway, take care of yourself.
Oh charming, that’s bloody charming that is, oh you’re very funny.
She takes her friend by the arm,
Come on we’re off....
Fast forward to the next Friday ....
Hi remember me?
MGMT is it?
YES! you remembered
How could I forget? ... I’ve already played it .....
Get Thee Hence to the Ballet ...
This Sunday, An Grianan, two shows, 3pm and 8pm, there’s tickets left so no excuses, I’m taking my Megan to it to (ahem) celebrate her Holy Communion. Based on Charles Perrault’s fairy story, the ballet is about a beautiful Princess bound by a wicked fairy’s spell to sleep for a hundred years. She can only be woken by the kiss of a handsome prince. The ballet is full of wonderful characters including the Lilac Fairy, the Rose Adagio, the Bluebird as well as a cast of fairy-tale characters who gather for the sparkling final wedding celebration, under the direction of Stanislav Tchassov, former Principal dancer of The Bolshoi Ballet. I love a good ballet, me.
It’s Conal Time!
And on this Friday and Saturday nights in An Grianan is Conal Gallen, supreme gag teller of the old school. Sure everything is back to the old school these days. C’mere Murphy walks into a bar .... Show at 8pm, Tickets available on the door.
Finn Harps
I’m presuming last week’s performance was just so RTE would have enough comedy clips to play for rest of the season on the excellent Monday Night Soccer programme and hope they are back to normal this week away against Cork. ‘Mon the lads. May I suggest Higgsy gets the defence introduced to each other through speed dating? Aaron this is Malcolm, Malcolm this is Aaron. Pleased to meet you, and what do you do? Oh your a right back, funny I’m a centre half! What a small world, eh?
Regional Culture
The RCC in Letterkenny have Liam O’ Flynn and Paddy Glackin this Friday night. Master uillean piper Liam O'Flynn, the current TG4 ‘Traditional Musician of the Year’, and leading fiddle player Paddy Glackin are two of the greatest living Irish traditional musicians (it says here, my in laws would beg to differ about Paddy Glackin and his rewriting and retuning of Donegal fiddle history but we’ll gloss over that bit). O'Flynn’s career includes Planxty, the National Symphony Orchestra and ‘The Poet and the Piper’ with the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. Glackin’s recordings include his eponymous debut album and duet albums with uilleann piper Paddy Keenan, keyboard experimentalist Jolyn Jackson and Donal Lunny, who just performed in the Balor. Tickets on door.
Theresa’s in a play...
My mate, and occasional surfin’ buddy, Theresa is in a play. In the Balor.This group, comprised entirely of HSE employees, produce and perform a play every year with the proceeds going to a number of worthy causes including St. Mary's National School, the Patient Comfort Funds of St. Joseph's Hospital and the Sean O Hare Unit. This year's play is a Sam Cree crowd pleaser – Separate Beds. There's tipsy housekeepers, eccentric vicars, pretend wives and a very lazy painter. You know exactly what you're getting with a Sam Cree show - lots of belly laughs, double entendre and innuendo combining into one damn good night out. It’s from Sun Apr 20 to Wed Apr 23. Tickets are €10 and available from The Balor Box Office on 074 91 31840.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
What time does the last train go?
When I was about 15 an American tourist asked a group of us young ones hanging around bored, which is the essential pastime of young ones, what time the last train went to Derry. 1953 was the witty, and correct, answer. Which begs the question how can we expect to become a city without a train station? It is a basic transport need, and indeed requirement for any forward thinking urban area. At the moment Letterkenny is choc a block with car traffic at peak times. The Neil T Blaney Road was apparently designed as a relief road but has added to the pressure by being the site for high traffic out of town retail units there. How will the Letterkenny roads, already jammed, cope with even more of a population? Sligo, a comparable size, has a train line to Dublin, an airport, and a fine town bus service. We dont even have a decent road to Lifford, the first step on our journey to Dublin.....! If Letterkenny really wants to move forward good access and transportation is essential. Maybe now that we no longer have a Dublin Taoiseach the rest of the country will get a lash at the billions of Euros earmarked for rail services in what is now a fine 21st Century capital city. Unfortunately we're still behind where we were mid 20th Century .....
Ocean Colour will be Seen...
The Grill has now reopened and thanks to the huge publicity is being talked about like never before! It's an ill wind and all that. And it is timely because I think this Sunday night could be the best gig they have had on yet as Ocean Colour Scene, who are known for their great live gigs, come to town. They have had two big albums in Moseley Shoals and Marchin' Together and first came to my attention when I realised that two of them were members of Paul Weller's regular backing band. Many of their influences are the same as Weller's, most notably the Small Faces I'd say (feel free to argue with me in person). They've also been close to Oasis, indeed they were a support act at the legendary Knebworth gig and have performed and toured with Oasis over the years. Still it's on their own merits they should be taken and the acoustic set up of this gig will suit classics such as The Day We Took The Train perfectly. Only 20 Euros in. Bargain. I'll be dragging myself away from Sunday evening telly for this one!
What's it all about, Beckett?
Samuel Beckett is one of those names that often gets bandied about by people who want to show their intellectual superiority so I never expected to like his stuff but as I work in the theatre I thought I better give it a go and was shocked to find out that it's really funny cracking entertainment, not quite sure what the story was about but I laughed all the way through. Now I couldn't tell you about the big themes that people go on about on T.V. when talking about him but I do know that there's now way he was po faced as he loves a giggle, and indeed toilet humour, they never tell you that on The View! There's a Beckett play on in An Grianan next Tuesday. 'First Love' focuses on a first love affair, and the primary loves that influenced Beckett's life and writing - his dead father, his delight in language, and his profound need for isolation. The 39 year old narrator looks back to when he was 25 and talks about the eviction from his childhood home, his life as a vagrant in Dublin and his meeting with his first love. It's performed by Conor Lovett who has made a fine career out of Backett's works. Why not come along and try it, don't worry too much about understanding everything, and if you feel like laughing do. It's what Beckett would have wanted.
Extra Show for Des Bishop
Told you it was flying. With the Sunday show sold out we've added an extra show for Des on Monday 29th April. Having spent the past twelve months of intense study and immersion in Connemara’s Gaeltact in an effort to speak as Gaeilge Des Bishop is back on the road again. Drawing from his experiences, the star of the RTE show ‘In the Name of the Fada’, comes to An Grianan with his live stand up show ‘Tongues’. ‘Tongues’ deals with Des’s most formidable challenge yet, taking the ultimate step towards Irishness. Already attracting rave reviews, ‘Tongues’ also explores the religious side of Des’s identity, from his early days as an overly theatrical altar boy to his experience with people who have the power to speak in tongues. Call the Box Office now on 074 91 20777.
Happy Birthday Rebellious Jukebox!
Next Friday 11th April, The Red Room, Sister Sarah’s, Letterkenny, wear your party hats for The Dangerfields, a three piece rock n roll band originally from Belfast, formed in 2000. Apparently their debut album Born To Rock swaggers like the Stones, swings like the Ramones and kicks the door in like Motorhead. Dublin band Moutpiece play garage rock, and have many of the best Dublin punk musicians of the last 20 years in the line up, in particular Conzo erstwhile leader of the God like Female Hercules, Tommy Trousers (who was one of the 48 guests at my wedding 10 years ago) and Derek Moulds and of course the ironically named 'safe' Gary. If you see only one band this year ..... and the line up will be completed by Elroy and another Letterkenny band who are spending too much time trying to come up with a name. Doors 9pm. Admission a meager €6. Presents optional.
Julie Fowlis
Also on Friday 11th April is a must see gig in a very different vein, she won loads of awards and had people make many ridiculous claims about her voice but the reality is that this Hebridean singer is fabulous. Go see her. You can thank me later. She's in the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny. Doors from 8pm. All my brother in laws are going (there's four) and if they are impressed anyone will be!
Oh Super Higgsy he used to be a mucker but he's alright now...
Bit of a setback against Bohs last week and another away game this Friday against Bray, hopefully a point or three there. Next home game is against St Pats on 11 April. Why is everything on that night? I'm going to be soooo busy.
Universal Books on the move
Universal Books has moved, lock stock and barrel to beside Bakersville on the Church Lane. Now stocking even more new, old, rare and hard to get books at fantastically small prices (and don't forget to haggle!). I love shops like this and now it's closer to me. Happy days. Tell David I sent you.
When I was about 15 an American tourist asked a group of us young ones hanging around bored, which is the essential pastime of young ones, what time the last train went to Derry. 1953 was the witty, and correct, answer. Which begs the question how can we expect to become a city without a train station? It is a basic transport need, and indeed requirement for any forward thinking urban area. At the moment Letterkenny is choc a block with car traffic at peak times. The Neil T Blaney Road was apparently designed as a relief road but has added to the pressure by being the site for high traffic out of town retail units there. How will the Letterkenny roads, already jammed, cope with even more of a population? Sligo, a comparable size, has a train line to Dublin, an airport, and a fine town bus service. We dont even have a decent road to Lifford, the first step on our journey to Dublin.....! If Letterkenny really wants to move forward good access and transportation is essential. Maybe now that we no longer have a Dublin Taoiseach the rest of the country will get a lash at the billions of Euros earmarked for rail services in what is now a fine 21st Century capital city. Unfortunately we're still behind where we were mid 20th Century .....
Ocean Colour will be Seen...
The Grill has now reopened and thanks to the huge publicity is being talked about like never before! It's an ill wind and all that. And it is timely because I think this Sunday night could be the best gig they have had on yet as Ocean Colour Scene, who are known for their great live gigs, come to town. They have had two big albums in Moseley Shoals and Marchin' Together and first came to my attention when I realised that two of them were members of Paul Weller's regular backing band. Many of their influences are the same as Weller's, most notably the Small Faces I'd say (feel free to argue with me in person). They've also been close to Oasis, indeed they were a support act at the legendary Knebworth gig and have performed and toured with Oasis over the years. Still it's on their own merits they should be taken and the acoustic set up of this gig will suit classics such as The Day We Took The Train perfectly. Only 20 Euros in. Bargain. I'll be dragging myself away from Sunday evening telly for this one!
What's it all about, Beckett?
Samuel Beckett is one of those names that often gets bandied about by people who want to show their intellectual superiority so I never expected to like his stuff but as I work in the theatre I thought I better give it a go and was shocked to find out that it's really funny cracking entertainment, not quite sure what the story was about but I laughed all the way through. Now I couldn't tell you about the big themes that people go on about on T.V. when talking about him but I do know that there's now way he was po faced as he loves a giggle, and indeed toilet humour, they never tell you that on The View! There's a Beckett play on in An Grianan next Tuesday. 'First Love' focuses on a first love affair, and the primary loves that influenced Beckett's life and writing - his dead father, his delight in language, and his profound need for isolation. The 39 year old narrator looks back to when he was 25 and talks about the eviction from his childhood home, his life as a vagrant in Dublin and his meeting with his first love. It's performed by Conor Lovett who has made a fine career out of Backett's works. Why not come along and try it, don't worry too much about understanding everything, and if you feel like laughing do. It's what Beckett would have wanted.
Extra Show for Des Bishop
Told you it was flying. With the Sunday show sold out we've added an extra show for Des on Monday 29th April. Having spent the past twelve months of intense study and immersion in Connemara’s Gaeltact in an effort to speak as Gaeilge Des Bishop is back on the road again. Drawing from his experiences, the star of the RTE show ‘In the Name of the Fada’, comes to An Grianan with his live stand up show ‘Tongues’. ‘Tongues’ deals with Des’s most formidable challenge yet, taking the ultimate step towards Irishness. Already attracting rave reviews, ‘Tongues’ also explores the religious side of Des’s identity, from his early days as an overly theatrical altar boy to his experience with people who have the power to speak in tongues. Call the Box Office now on 074 91 20777.
Happy Birthday Rebellious Jukebox!
Next Friday 11th April, The Red Room, Sister Sarah’s, Letterkenny, wear your party hats for The Dangerfields, a three piece rock n roll band originally from Belfast, formed in 2000. Apparently their debut album Born To Rock swaggers like the Stones, swings like the Ramones and kicks the door in like Motorhead. Dublin band Moutpiece play garage rock, and have many of the best Dublin punk musicians of the last 20 years in the line up, in particular Conzo erstwhile leader of the God like Female Hercules, Tommy Trousers (who was one of the 48 guests at my wedding 10 years ago) and Derek Moulds and of course the ironically named 'safe' Gary. If you see only one band this year ..... and the line up will be completed by Elroy and another Letterkenny band who are spending too much time trying to come up with a name. Doors 9pm. Admission a meager €6. Presents optional.
Julie Fowlis
Also on Friday 11th April is a must see gig in a very different vein, she won loads of awards and had people make many ridiculous claims about her voice but the reality is that this Hebridean singer is fabulous. Go see her. You can thank me later. She's in the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny. Doors from 8pm. All my brother in laws are going (there's four) and if they are impressed anyone will be!
Oh Super Higgsy he used to be a mucker but he's alright now...
Bit of a setback against Bohs last week and another away game this Friday against Bray, hopefully a point or three there. Next home game is against St Pats on 11 April. Why is everything on that night? I'm going to be soooo busy.
Universal Books on the move
Universal Books has moved, lock stock and barrel to beside Bakersville on the Church Lane. Now stocking even more new, old, rare and hard to get books at fantastically small prices (and don't forget to haggle!). I love shops like this and now it's closer to me. Happy days. Tell David I sent you.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
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