Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.

Brian Adams

I went to see Public Enemies a few weeks ago because the trailer had looked good and Johnny Depp is generally fairly decent in films. It is a reasonably long film but full of action so the time passes quickly. Lots of actors pop up in this film aside from the two main leads, Christian Bale and the aforementioned Johnny Depp. It was ages since I had seen Stephen Dorff in a film but he was good as Homer Van Meter. Billy Crudup plays a convincingly creepy J. Edgar Hoover. Stephen Graham (from Snatch) plays the psychotic Baby Face Nelson and Giovanna Ribisi (who will always be Phoebe’s brother to me) plays Alvin Karpis. Marion Cottilard plays a brilliant Billie Frechette. All in all Michael Mann definitely knows how to do a good action film.

There is a great line up for this year’s Cork X Southwest music festival in Skibereen. The one day music fest is on this Saturday and should hopefully be a really relaxed festival experience.

Main Tent
THE WATERBOYS
LISA HANNIGAN
JERRY FISH & THE MUDBUG CLUB
JOHN SPILLANE
FRED
IAN WHITTY & THE EXCHANGE

Eclectic Tent
DONNNACHA COSTELLO
JOHN DALY
WIGGLE
JOHN SPILLANE
THE CÉILÍ ALL STARS
I DRAW SLOW
RÚLA BULA DJS
LIZ CLARKE & TESSA PERRY
AN RÓN DALL

De Barra's Sitting Room
VILLAGERS
SI SCHROEDER
DAVID O DOHERTY
JOHN SPILLANE
GAVIN MOORE
THE GUGGENHEIM GROTTO
NELL BRYDEN
TÚCAN
CHUCKLEHEAD
LOW MOUNTAIN
TIM O'CONNOR 'THE HITCH-HIKING POET'

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.

Christopher Morley
US author & journalist (1890 - 1957)

You Are an Ice Cream Sandwich

You are well grounded, reliable, and very balanced. You love to work hard, but you also know how to take it easy. People might be surprised to know you have a very goofy side to you. You like to let loose and have fun. You just don't let yourself go too crazy!

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
US author & satirist (1842 - 1914)

I only saw one thing in the Spiegeltent during this year’s Midsummer Festival and that was ‘The Nina in Me’. I really enjoyed Karen Underwood telling her life story through the songs of Nina Simone. It was great hearing so many Nina Simone songs sung live. Karen Underwood has a wonderfully powerful voice which did the songs justice. She also did a good job of talking to the crowd and getting them involved when she wanted them to be involved, like when she got everyone in the Spiegeltent singing ‘he’s got the whole world in his hands’!

BellX1 played a gig in the Marquee in Cork on the 26th of June. It was great to see them play in Cork again. Villagers played support and got a half decent response from the crowd. BellX1 put on a superb performance and really got the crowd going. They played an energetic set and then came back on for an excellent encore. The set was so energetic that Paul managed to change the colour of his lovely fitted red shirt. When they played ‘I’ll see your heart and raise you mine’ they interspersed some of ‘Man in the Mirror at the end, much to the crowd’s delight. They didn’t mention anything about the fact that Michael Jackson had died the day before but it was a really nice tribute all the same. I think they also dropped two lines of another Michael Jackson song into the middle of their song ‘Next to You’. This was a really happy gig. When the band had left and the lights came back on the Marquee had ‘Billie Jean’ playing and a group of guys near us were doing some excellent dancing. A nice way to end the night. :-)

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.

Carl Jung
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961)

You Are Pretty Logical

You're a bit of a wizard when it comes to logic While you don't have perfect logic, you logic is pretty darn good Keep at it - you've got a lot of natural talent in this area!

If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.

Mary Pickford
US (Canadian-born) movie actress (1893 - 1979)

16 new acts just added to the impressive Electric Picnic line-up.

Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Dinosaur Jr
Neko Case
Dan Deacon Ensemble
Diplo
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
The Temper Trap
Buraka Som Sistema (live)
Major Lazer
The Acorn
First Aid Kit
Julie Feeney
One Day International
Fake Blood
Boy 8 Bit
The Lost Brothers