I’m heading home this weekend to relax, repair & shake off the weeks since I was last down there. It’s a strange place, but strange in a positive way. Peaceful, raw, beautiful, easy-going & calm while a vibrant, energetic creative current ripples quietly beneath. A place hard to put into words which is probably why it appears in art & music so often.
I’ve often taken it for granted as is easy to do when you grow up in a place & spend the best part of 17 years waking up to such scenery. I left the place 7 years ago this month & sure enough with every year that passes I enjoy getting back there more & more. Roll on Friday.
To me Michael Jackson has always stood out as one of the most amazing singers ever to grace the charts, particularly in his youth. A gorgeous, raw, spectacular talent the like of which only comes around once in a blue moon. Few voices have ever made hairs stand on end the way his voice does.
As Darragh wrote on Culch.ie earlier, his passing & how it spread like wildfire across the various online streams is remarkable in it’s own way. Radio shows have all been touching on the story throughout the day & from what I have read and heard the general mood of people seems to be one of sadness & sympathy that he led a life dogged & affected so negatively by media intrusion from such an early age.
The Telegraph online reports that a flashmob organised over Twitter, Facebook and other social media streams is being organised for 6pm on Liverpool St in London. People are gathering to do his trademark “moonwalk” before attending a party to celebrate his life. Richard Galbraith is apparently going to Qik it live here.
My sister Andrea (or Andy as she prefers) got her college results today and has bagged herself an honours 2.1 in HPSS (History, Politics & Social Studies) from UL.
She’s only the second in the family to make it through the education system & come out the other side. Our parents, like many others in their generation, didn’t get the opportunity to finish secondary school not to mind trying a hand at third-level education & have always been 110% behind each of us in our attempt to become learned in anything.
It hasn’t been any easy trek between the amount of academic work and the range of delightful summer jobs that were required to support getting through the academic yearm, from selling rocks to scrubbing loos & everything in between.
I’m super proud of her & can’t wait to toast her on graduation day. Nice one Andy!
My dad (who likes to play air guitar with a real guitar)
Anyone who knows me well knows I get on famously with my dad. We’re close, as in close as most Irish country born bred n buttered men in their 50s could ever be. None of that fuzzy daddy’s girl kisses n hugs stuff. I can’t remember the last time I ever (or indeed if I ever) hugged him or told him how awesome I think he is. That’s not a failure on my part or his – just not how we roll. It’s that kind of love & admiration that’s so big, so obvious it’s just understood, doesn’t need to be spoken.
However, sometimes in such relationships a little gesture every now and then is no harm. It’s Father’s Day this Sunday. Yes, another great day for the gang at Hallmark I hear you say but you know what I’m delighted to have an excuse to brighten his day just a little.
If you think your dad is the biz or just want to give him something to smile about, off you pop, get a card and get it in the post today. It’s the little things that mean the most.
Today is just one of those “not going my way” days thus far. Being on a downer is often contagious so I always try to contain the thing within the confines of my head by sticking the headphones on and keep human contact to a minimum until the worst of it has passed. You have to limit the spread of the thing or your downer will only multiply if it sees it has company. And the last thing you want is a bigger one.
Everyone has their own remedies for such days – chocolate, cigarettes, over-dosing on LOLcats, happy tunes on the iPod, a spot of unplanned retail therapy on your lunchbreak. My cure is a good chat in good company – so hallelujah for BTW later on! Best thing to get the cloud moving is get out and surround yourself with some good folk (& maybe even some beers), let the chat flow and all will be well again. See y’all at Howl later *sans* grumpy face
