All posts by Steph

Thoughts

U2 360 countdown: post #1

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Only a week until I go to my local stadium in Drumcondra to see U2 on their 360 Tour. I’m starting to feel the goosebumps. I’m not a diehard U2 fan but I really love some of their albums & the last time (and first time) I saw them in Croke Park in 2005 I was blown away by their live show.

So for the next week I’m going to post some of my favourite U2 songs and give a little insight into why I chose each one. Apologies to non-fans or Bono-bashers, might want to tune out for a little while :)

The Fly: Live in Boston

This recording was part of the Elevation tour DVD shot in Boston in 2001. I remember seeing it on TV. I don’t know what I was doing at the time that I didn’t have time to sit down and watch it but I distinctly remember stopping in my tracks at hearing the beautiful opening bars of this song, set in a lower pitch than the original recording. Magic.

Events

Spare tickets for Science Gallery ‘Infections Laughter’ tonight

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So I accidentally bought tickets for the “INFECTIOUS LAUGHTER: Members’ Only closing party – with added George Hook!” event that takes place at the Science Gallery. Here’s the skinny from their website:

INFECTIOUS LAUGHTER: CLOSING EVENT and IS LAUGHTER CONTAGIOUS TALK?

LOL@the Gallery. Can you be infected by laughter? How does a joke spread? Join this members’ only event to mark the end of the INFECTIOUS exhibition at Science Gallery. The ticket price of €10 (with 10% discount for members) entitles you to entry to the event and a first come, first seated place at the IS LAUGHTER CONTAGIOUS talk. This lively discussion, chaired by Newstalk presenter and rugby pundit George Hook, will look at how laughter spreads, how it is being researched and how laughter has inspired works of art.
Speakers include INFECTIOUS curator Luke O’Neill, Sophie Scott – who will present her laughter research and also ask the audience to participate and artist Piero Steinle, who has presented his work “The Triumph of Laughter” around the world.

The INFECTIOUS LAUGHTER event continues with a talk by Professor Richard Wiseman – please note that you need to buy a separate ticket for this event. (And this where I went ‘oops’ & bought those tickets.)

Tickets are €9, I have a pair and I’m pretty sure it’s all good to attend once you’re  a member. I’ll be heading over there for 6ish, leave a comment, pop me an email to steph@iamsteph.com or a tweet @cloudsteph and I’ll put your name on them.

If you’re heading for the Science Gallery later, see you there :)

Random

The Waterboys: Glastonbury Song

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All the talk on Twitter about The Waterboys earlier brought this tune stomping back into my head & it refuses to leave. I had forgotten how much I love their music. Not sure if there’s some connection or something we don’t know about but down home these guys always seemed to feature frequently on local radio growing up, namely Galway Bay FM (Clare FM is out of range in parts of The Burren – random factoid!).

They’re one of those bands that there was consensus on when travelling in the car with mum or dad – the radio always got turned up :) Good memories, great tunes, should be a really great gig at the Galway Arts Festival at the end of the month.

Mike and Steve are both on Twitter, their rather nifty website is here and @darraghdoyle is meeting Mike later for an interview for culch.ie so keep an eye on that over the next few days for the results. Vive les Waterboys :)

Events

Toyota wants you in an IQ

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My ideal iQ
My ideal iQ

On Monday, Toyota Ireland announced on Twitter that they were seeking “4 Irish bloggers wanted to give happy homes to 4 Toyota iQ’s for 2009“.

If you get selected you will have a lovely little Toyota iQ to drive for the next 6 months & you’ll be tweeting & blogging your experience as you go.

Last night @toyotaireland tweeted that in under 12 hours of launching the new iQ promotion, they had received in excess of 100 applications and the toyota.ie website experienced an increase of 13% in traffic. Not bad going considering @toyotaireland is still a fledgling Tweeter yet to really embrace the interaction rather than the broadcast side of Twitter.

Interested? Well you’ve got until this coming Friday to apply, which you can do here at www.toyota.ie/about/promotions/iQ-Twitter

Here’s some of the obligatory terms & conditions of the gig, the entire list can be found here:

  • Each of the four participants will receive their Toyota iQ from week commencing July 20th until January 4th 2010. Usage of the iQ is non transferable and is limited to the island of Ireland.
  • Provision of the iQ will require each participant to blog and tweet about their real life experiences with their iQ at least once a week. You must include a photo or short video of you and your iQ at least once a month.
  • Tweets must include #toyotaiQ and the blog post must link to wwww.toyota.ie/promotions. Participants will be required to take part in some publicity which will also promote the participants blog.
  • All maintenance and insurance costs for the vehicle will be covered by Toyota Ireland. To be covered on Toyota’s insurance policy you must be over 25 and have a full clean drivers licence. If you are over 21 and can insure the iQ on your policy then you can also apply.

It’s a really cool offer & I can’t wait to see how it works out for both Toyota and the participants. I’m not usually a fan of the ‘super-mini’ class of motor but this thing seems to pack a lot of punch. It scores 5 stars in the Euro NCAP safety test and Top Gear described it as “…boring Toyota’s iPod moment…” – praise indeed :)

If the iQ ain’t for you, earlier they put out a tweet about their plans to produce some self-help videos on general car maintenance and are looking for suggestions on what topics to cover. You can send them your ideas via Twitter to @toyotaireland.

Random

Moving

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So I’m moving in just over 2 weeks time. Not very far but still, it means packing up my material world & then unpacking it into my new place. To say I hate moving would be a massive understatement. I loathe it.

Moving on up?
Moving on up?

The loathing is mainly caused by the amount of stuff I have. 7 years of renting in Dublin means I have accumulated quite a lot of gear. When I moved last summer it took my poor dad 4 trips with his big-ass Ford Scorpio & a lot of lifting. Since then I’ve been to Ikea twice & that’s enough said right there.  I want to do a serious clear-out this time around & need some advice on the hows and wheres of recycling my unwanted gear.

  • Clothes - I have lots I want rid of. Not torn or destroyed, just well-worn. Who should I give to/where/how?
  • Books - talking nerdy stuff here that’s probably out of date such as the Director MX 2004. Straight into the recycling bin or stow away in the attic to laugh at it in years to come?
  • Packing - considering using those vacuum bag things but haven’t used them before – are they any good? Any caveats/recommendations ?
  • Moving - (all going well) I’m moving to a house within the same little development I currently live in. It’s a 5 minute walk from my 3rd floor apartment down to the house around the corner. A shopping trolley would be ideal for moving but sadly, I don’t own one. Ideas for an alternative or have you got a trolley I can borrow?

Advice on any of the above would be superb, particularly the clothes side of things. Oh and of course, like I said last time, I’m never moving again :)