If you haven’t heard this song it’s quite funny and will probably appeal to many office workers. Two guys have taken James Blunt’s song ‘You’re Beautiful’ and reworked it into a song called ‘My Cubicle’. It was only a matter of time before somebody did this to the completely over played ‘You’re Beautiful’! The guys even made a video which is available on YouTube.

If you're afraid of loneliness, don't marry.

Anton Chekhov



*This week's quote was provided by DJ.

I normally listen to Ian Dempsey’s radio show in the morning because it’s generally pretty good and I can’t really tolerate Marty in the morning. What has happened to 2FM that they would put Marty Whelan on early in the morning? Surely one needs a good strong mug of coffee (possibly laced with Brandy) before being subjected to that. Anyway I’m getting off the point a bit so I’ll leave the Marty rant for now. I was listening to the radio yesterday morning in a sort of distracted way until Ian announced that Ray D’Arcy is going to have a baby with his lovely girlfriend and co-worker Jenny. Needless to say I was gobsmacked but unfortunately I haven’t heard anything about it since. I couldn’t listen to Ray’s show because pesky work got in the way. I had a nice run of getting into work at about half nine and having the pleasure of listening to half an hour of Ray on the way to work but unfortunately I’ve had to nip that in the bud. Does anyone have any further updates on the Ray/Jenny/Baby story? Has it been officially confirmed by the couple themselves? Oh the curiosity and the questions! At the end of the day it all boils down to the fact that there could soon be a mini Ray/Jenny running around the place. Just think of the cute baby stories that the listeners of the Ray D’Arcy show could be subjected to soon. :-)

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.

Jane Austen
English novelist (1775 - 1817)

This is my contribution to Half Nekkid Thursday...

I was in the cinema happily munching through a bag of popcorn waiting for the Pirates of the Caribbean to return to the silver screen when a trailer for the new bond film leapt onto the screen. I love the bond series – the gadgets, the tuxedos, the exotic locations – I mean how could you not love it? I’m looking forward to the latest bond film entitled Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig as the new James Bond. I’ve only seen Daniel Craig in one other film, Layer Cake, but I’m quietly confident that he will be able to pull off the role. By the way does anyone know when Casino Royale is due to be released?

I went through all of my time in college without getting a mobile phone. For some reason when they came out and were ‘all the rage’ I didn’t want one. I eventually got one when I was on a three month contract in Dublin because I was advised that I would never be able to arrange to meet friends without one (which is scary but true). That was four years ago and I still have the same phone. It’s a nokia and as far as I can tell it’s almost indestructible. Granted it has a few scratches, the nokia sticker is gone off the front of it and I have to charge it practically all the time but other than that it works perfectly. However I’m starting to feel under pressure from society to get a new one. There are the looks of horror when I take it out of my bag, the shrieks of disbelief that it can’t take photographs and let’s not get started on the fact that I don’t use predictive next. To be honest the predictive text thing has nothing to do with the phone being ancient – I’m just odd. So my dilemma is should I stick with the trusty (but slightly run down) phone or upgrade to a new shiny model that would allow me to leave the house for more than 12 hours without having to drag my phone charger with me? Is it wrong to want a simple phone that just does stuff like make phone calls, send texts and maybe has an alarm too.

Rosey played in Cyprus Avenue last Thursday night. Initially I thought that Anto’ would be playing support for Rosey at this gig because I had seen it advertised in the gigs section on his website. But unfortunately Anto’ did not play support, instead Brendan O’Shea filled this spot. Brendan is originally from Kerry but now lives in New York and was home on holidays. He has one album which he released in 2003 and he is currently hoping to release his second album in Ireland sometime before the end of the year. He played a nice selection of songs before Rosey and his band took to the stage. The band consisted of a guy on piano and a guy with a guitar. The piano player was excellent but I couldn’t get over the fact that he could have passed for a leprechaun (albeit slightly larger than your average leprechaun) any day of the week. His little bowler hat only added to the whole illusion of a larger than life leprechaun. The guitar player was also excellent and the atmosphere on stage between the three musicians was really good and relaxed. I’ve only seen Rosey play on one other occasion and he had a larger supporting band that time. The more pared down version of a band definitely worked. Rosey is a good entertainer and told us stories about the songs that he was about to sing. He also got the audience included in some of the songs which was great fun. I like the fact that Rosey doesn’t take any crap from the audience. He expects an audience to listen when he is playing/singing which to be fair is pretty reasonable. During the gig he made jokes about the ‘boys in chinos’ who had enjoyed the free bar earlier in the night, he also commented about the fact that when people are drinking beer it tends to be all about ‘me, me, me’. There were some talkative people at the gig but for the most part people were there to listen to the music.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness (1930)
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)

BellX1 have just announced the dates for their Irish tour in November/December 2006. The tour starts in Belfast on the 22nd of November and ends in Dublin on the 1st of December. BellX1 have been very busy this year after the success of their third album ‘Flock’ which they released in the latter half of last year. They have played a lot of gigs in the UK and have been fairly visible in Ireland too. Their most recent performance was at Oxegen on Sunday night. I’m really looking forward to seeing BellX1 play again as I haven’t seen them perform since their sold out gig in the RDS at the end of January this year. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9.00am from ticketmaster. Roll on the 29th of November!




The full list of dates and locations for the 2006 BellX1 Irish Tour are as follows:

November 22nd - Belfast, Mandela Hall
November 23rd - Derry, Nerve Centre
November 24th - Castlebar, Royal Theatre
November 25th - Waterford, Forum
November 27th - Galway, Leisureland
November 28th - Killarney, INEC
November 29th - Cork, Savoy
December 1st - Dublin, Point

The 2006 World Cup ended last night when France and Italy met in the final. The teams tied in a one all draw in extra time and had to take part in a penalty shoot out. France unfortunately lost the penalty shoot out with Italy turning in five excellent penalties. Zinedine Zidane was controversially sent-off for head butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest. It would be interesting to know what Materazzi said to Zidane to provoke such a response. It’s a shame that Zidane’s last game was marred by such an incident. Despite the fact that I was rooting for France, it’s nice to see the Italians so jubilant after winning the World Cup.

Two such as you with such a master speed cannot be parted nor be swept away from one another once you are agreed that life is only life forevermore together wing to wing and oar to oar.

Robert Frost
American Poet (1874 - 1963)


Note: This week's quote is dedicated to A&D even though neither of them will probably be reading this, still it's the thought that counts. :-)

We all know its coming – the day when fossil fuels run out. It makes sense to think about alternatives now given that the modern world is so dependent on oil and gas etc. Well fear not, apparently the Vietnamese have cracked it. Agifish, a catfish firm, are planning to use catfish fat, which is left over after fish processing, as a fuel for running diesel engines. Agifish Deputy Director, Nguyen Dinh Huan claims that the fuel is as good as diesel oil. Samples of the catfish fuel have been sent for testing to Ho Chi Minh City to ascertain quality and gain government approval. A kilogram of catfish fat can produce 1.13 litres of biofuel, not a bad by-product especially considering the current search for new biofuels. Although the downside is that your car might smell permanently fishy – air freshener anyone? Check out the New Scientist Blog for an interesting article on this subject complete with links from ‘catfish fat’ to ‘chocolate factory waste’!

Anto is a singer songwriter that hails from West Cork and plays fairly regularly in De Barra’s, Clonakilty. He has released a debut album entitled ‘Faster’ which can be purchased from his website. Anto doesn’t just write songs, sing and play guitar he also plays the drums with Lerner and as a guest for other musicians. As mentioned in a recent post he played the drums for Mick Flannery at his gig in the Spiegeltent. I have also seen him play drums for the lead singer of Juno Falls . If mellow music is your thing then Anto’ is your man.

Today Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan appointed John Malone as chairman of the Sheep Strategy Implementation Group. She is now seeking nominations for membership of the Sheep Strategy Implementation Group. I’m thinking of dusting off my CV because I’m a sheep with a passion for strategy and implementation.

The Frames played in the Marquee last Friday night and it was a great gig. The Immediate played the support slot and they weren’t bad but the sound was a bit on the deafening side. As the Frames took to the stage, those that had been enjoying a few drinks outside the Marquee quickly made their way inside. They played a good selection of songs including ‘Pavement Tune’ with the immortal line “I want my life to make more sense”, ‘Rent Day Blues’, ‘Santa Maria’ and ‘Star Star’. They also played ‘Fake’ which featured a brief but unmistakeable Elvis impression from Glen while singing the line “You’re always on my mind”. By the time they had played the first few bars of ‘Revelate’ the majority of people that were still sitting down promptly got to their feet and joined in. Glen was in flying form stating at the start of the concert that he was still on a high after seeing Roger Waters the previous night in the Marquee. The band played some new songs mixed in with plenty of old favourites. I would love to have heard ‘Friends and Foe’ or ‘Mighty Sword’ both from the For the Birds CD but alas this was not to be. Colm Mac Conlomaire has a solo violin piece in ‘Friends and Foe’ that is pretty special. During the encore the band did a class cover of Van Morrison’s ‘Queen of the Slipstream’. All in all the Frames gig was very enjoyable. The only thing that struck me as odd during the night were the number of people that were smoking inside in the marquee – did they not realise that they were in a big fricken tent?

England was knocked out of the World Cup last weekend by Portugal. As usual it was not a straight forward affair. Wayne Rooney was sent off for stamping a Portugese player (in front of the referee – smart move) leaving the English team playing with just ten men. To be fair they played well just not well enough and the game ended in penalties. I don’t know what it is about the English team and penalties but the two don’t seem to go together! Needless to say England lost the game as a result of the penalty shootout. Following on from this defeat David Beckham has resigned as captain of English team, stating that it was time for a new captain to start afresh with the new manager.

Mick Flannery played in the Spiegeltent last week as part of Cork’s Midsummer festival. I have seen him play a couple of times before and I really like the gravelly sound of his voice. His debut album ‘Evening Train’ is full of well written songs and great music that tell a story from start to finish. When he played in the Spiegeltent he explained the story behind each song in a very down to earth way and much to the amusement of the crowd. Mick Flannery played the piano and guitar as well as having a supporting band with a great violin player and Anto on drums. He also had a number of guest singers that added to the performance. One of my favourite songs is ‘Take it on the chin’ and this was performed with Andy Dunne, Ricky Lynch and another singer from the Lynch Mob. It’s a great song and the crowd loved the performance. Mick’s aunt and mother also sang on stage with him so it was a real family affair. At the end of the night he received a thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd before giving a great encore. Check out the 'In photos' Blog for some great pictures of the gig.