Bopping with Niall JP O'Leary

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Tentacled Monstrosities...and that was just for Dessert!
2007-12-12 00:57:00
Yesterday after watching 'The Golden Compass', I went for an hour long sushi binge. Probably not the wisest decision given that I was on antibiotics and ended up drinking a little too. 5 a.m. I awoke knowing something wasn't right; a determination was growing in my belly to 'do an Alien'. By 7, the decision to erupt had been reached. As a result, I've spent my day deciding on which elaborate way I would use the toilet bowl next. Choices, choices. That and sleeping, and a little Chandler, and binge tv. One of those days you consign to the black abysses of Chthulu. And he can take his murderous stomach spawn too.
More About: Dessert , Monstro , Mons

Unnatural!
2007-12-10 11:09:00
I just finished 'The Natural'. Whoa! For those of you who have read it you will know that there was never a truer word spoken than when I held it up as an example of the difference between film and books. My jaw is still out of place. I cannot believe the audacity of either Malamud or Levinson; Malamud for what he did in his book, Levinson for what he did to Malamud's book. The irony is of course that I liked the movie. Shame on me! Shame on Hollywood! But strangely shame on Malamud too!

You Will Drink!
2007-12-10 01:00:00
By the way, Friday was the Christmas party in Floridita, a Cuban bar in the Irish Life Mall. After some good food and a healthy alcoholic start, I split my very drunken night between expounding philosophically on the pursuit of Science to the Student Helpdesk, and chatting up a champagne cocktail-drinking redhead at the bar. Very lovely lady. She put up with me for far too long. Thankfully I did not follow the hardier drinkers to the Viper Room at 3.30 or whatever it was, but stumbled home instead.
More About: Drink

A Homer?
2007-12-10 00:41:00
With the exception of Chandler, I've been finding it hard to get excited about books of late and have had the same five on the go for quite a while now. Chandler's Collected Short Fiction, Russell's Problems of Philosophy, The Essential Steven Soderbergh, Millhauser's 'The Barnum Museum', Nesbith's Ghost Stories, etc.. I just couldn't get enthusiastic. Happily, after a visit to Play.com, I bought Malamud's 'The Natural' during the week and was saving up until today to start reading it. I'm a little ashamed to say I love the movie, sentimental though it is (and I hate the closing shot), and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Bernard Malamud (though that's based on only a few short stories). I know he can write and have always wanted to read the book. So while going into town on the bus, I resisted starting it. In the coffee shop, I still resisted until a comfy seat became available. I wanted to savour it. Certainly after the opening, meeting Roy Hobbs aga...
More About: Homer

Back on the Beat
2007-12-04 10:44:00
I haven't exactly been burning the blog boards up of late. A little extra curricular activity has been taking up my time, so reading, viewing, etc. has gone a little by the wayside. Having said that...  I did read Chandler's 'The Curtain' featuring Carmady, probably the next most common detective in his oeuvres next to Marlowe. Although I only saw, not read, 'Farewell, My Lovely', both the Dick Powell and Robert Mitchum versions, and a long time ago, there are a lot of parallels; old rich man in huge house, missing (good) girl, and especially the garage scene. The next story, 'Try the Girl', has similarities too, at least in a 'Moose Malloy'-type called Skalla.  I've read a lot of Chandler's 'Collected Short Fiction' at this stage and am still only halfway through. Very readable stuff. The old story about Chandler not knowing who killed the driver in the movie version of 'The Big Sleep', makes perfect sense. You don't need to know what exactly i...
More About: Back , Beat

Facebook Owns YOU!
2007-12-01 22:10:00
Well me anyway. Okay, paranoia time again.Having logged into Facebook , I happened to look at its Terms of Reference and I have to confess I didn't quite like what I saw. Granted this probably has no relevance to most users, but the following set off some alarm bells:"By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing."They then go on to say something about, 'But we don't own your ...

AndThey say God is Dead
2007-11-29 09:13:00
On the day English schoolteacher, Gillian Gibbons, goes to court for naming a teddy bear after 'Mohommed' (what about boxers?), three kids have been sitting at the back of the bus telling religious themed jokes. Before some bishop or other wants to hunt these miscreants down, these 'witticisms' erred more on the side of theology than humour. One was something about God wanting to give Adam 'two test tickles', another concerned 'the mystery of the Blessed Trinity'. "What's that about?' asked one kid once the joke was told. 'No one knows, it's a mystery!' (Never a truer word spoken, my son.) That prompted some theological debate for some minutes. All this to the accompaniment of a gameboy.
More About: Dead

American Gangster
2007-11-26 19:49:00
Ridley Scott, the man behind 'Alien' and 'Blade Runner', gives us a new take on an old stalwart, the gangster movie, with 'American Gangster '. A true story, it deals with the rise and fall of a Harlem gangster, Frank Lucas, who dominated the heroin trade in 70s New York.  The word is already on the street; this is a very fine movie. It walks a very fine line on racial issues - black power politics are always bubbling under the surface - and just about gets away with it. Scripted by Steven Zaillian, a Hollywood heavyweight (Schindler's List), it's one of his best works to date. However, it can only work by making a cold-blooded killer like Frank Lucas into a hero.  Much has already been made of the professionalism and work ethic espoused by Lucas, and the case for his hero status is strengthened immeasurably by a cool performance by Denzel Washington. With many a close-up of Washington staring menacingly, and his constant lectures on the right way to conduc...
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Bobby
2007-11-25 19:46:00
Written for the screen, directed by and even featuring Emilio Estevez, 'Bobby ' is obviously a labour of love for the former Bratpacker. Telling several intertwined stories set in the Ambassador Hotel the night Bobby Kennedy was shot, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the 30's movie it references, 'Grand Hotel'. Unfortunately despite all the love lavished, the stories just aren't strong enough.  Looking well, featuring a truly stellar cast and littered with archive footage from the era, this is almost like a lost Oliver Stone movie, the missing installment of a trilogy also featuring 'JFK' and 'Nixon'. It's a far less angry movie than either of those though and there is a sickly hagiographic glow over the whole movie. I am no expert on the Kennedy Clan, but even I know Bobby was not without his faults. This movie tries to paint his death as the death of an idealism that might have made America great. This is a popular idea, but a pretty naive one. ...

Shoot 'Em Up
2007-11-25 18:31:00
Criticizing 'Shoot 'Em Up' for being ridiculous is a little like blaming sharks for eating meat. Plot, sense and any semblance of intelligence were abandoned before the project began. For what it's worth it's premise is simplicity itself: Man with No Name, well, Smith actually (Clive Owen), must protect a new born infant from an army of thugs, led by Paul Giamatti, intent on killing him. This he must do with a bewildering array of guns in a multitude of inventive ways. Guns are the raison d'etre of this movie. The play on the concept of 'hand gun' is used throughout, the gun being seen much the way the hand is treated in martial arts flicks. So we have bullets being used to push a merry-go-round, revolvers thrown like knives and hands being used to fire bullets. To push this to further heights of absurdity we have carrots, Smith's food of choice, being used as a surrogate for the trigger finger (as well as pretty lethal daggers). The cast is fine, though given the one note ...
More About: Shoot Em Up

From the Sublime...
2007-11-25 18:30:00
After 'Requiem for a Heavyweight', I somehow ended up watching 'Shoot 'Em Up'. If ever there was a case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous this was it.
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Requiem for a Heavyweight
2007-11-25 13:19:00
Made in 1962, 'Requiem for a Heavyweight ' tells the tale of aging heavyweight, Mountain Rivera (Anthony Quinn), who after an encounter with a young Cassius Clay, must give up the ring or risk losing his sight. While he tries to find work with the help of employment agent, Julie Harris, beloved, but flawed manager, Maish (Jackie Gleason), tries to save his life after getting in debt to mobster, Ma Greeny.  The movie opens with a disorienting subjective shot (recalling for me the opening of Mamoulian's 'Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde'), closing when Quinn looks in the mirror at his disfigured face. It's powerful stuff from the outset and builds inexorably to a heart-breaking finale. Rod Serling, the man behind 'The Twilight Zone', wrote the screenplay. While I disagree with the common view that Serling wrote the best 'Twilight Zone' episodes (Matheson and Beaumont did that), there's no doubt he could write powerful drama (watch 'Seven Days in May' for proof). This is ...
More About: Weigh

Day at the Movies
2007-11-25 12:47:00
Nursing a hangover, conceived the night before, I spent yesterday watching movies. Not the most profitable activity in the end but not without some interest. Starting with 'Requiem for a Heavyweight', I somehow watched 'Shoot 'Em Up', then 'Bobby'.
More About: Movies , At The Movies , The Movies

M.S. Explorer - The Little Red Ship
2007-11-24 13:10:00
A sad end to a wonderful ship. I had perhaps the greatest trip of my life on M.S. Explorer , and if there is one thing that will always stay with me, is the memory of standing on the top deck with frozen wind biting my face, petrels overhead, as we crashed into forty foot waves. Fantastic!More pictures of my Antarctic trip, and M.S. Explorer, with commentary can be found at:http://nialloleary.blogspot.com/2006_1 1_01_archive.html
More About: Ship , Xplorer

Yellow Ribbons
2007-11-22 09:39:00
My friends' mother was cremated yesterday. Everyone is 'well-liked' when it comes to their funeral, but it was abundantly clear that Betty was really well-liked. It made for a moving occasion and a lot of old friends who had left the department showed up (Betty's children are similarly well-liked). Francisco, for instance, met up with me in town, before heading out. We were too early, getting out to Ballymun 40 minutes before the funeral mass. Well, it gave us a chance to have tea in the Ballymun Plaza, the site, as Stephen told me, of his old flat.  Years back when I lived a little in Chicago, my grand-aunt, May, died and I missed the funeral. I regretted that; I really liked her. For some reason, in the back of my mind, this felt a little like my funeral for May.  After the mass we went on to Glasnevin Cemetary for the cremation. Any of you who have been to the crematorium there, know it's a small building. It was crowded, with latecomers very noticeabl...
More About: Yellow , Ribbons , Yello

Guess This World Needs Its Dreamers
2007-11-20 23:12:00
Elevators into space! Invisibility cloaks! Teleporters! Not science fiction, but fact, or as Michio Kaku assures us in 'Visions of the Future' on BBC4, 'in twenty years' it will be. Last week's programme was on advances in biotechnology, while this week Kaku concentrated on his specialty, physics. The show had the same strengths and weaknesses of the previous episode, though perhaps made more acute through enthusiasm. Showing one wonderful development after another, it made token mention of the ensuing moral questions before pushing on to the next toy. Kaku's eyes lit up like bonfires as he pushed around atoms or tested a flakey elevator. 'I feel like God,' he crowed as he manipulated some magnetised bacteria, and this of course gave us a scary insight into the real scientific mind. For all his pious talk of now being the time for debate, he showed no wish to deal with the questions he raised, passed everything off with an optimistic, 'I believe seeing the world fr...
More About: World , Guess , Dreamer , Needs

Messing Up Marquez
2007-11-19 18:26:00
I have just read that Mike Newell has made a dog's dinner of Gabriel Garcia Marquez 's 'Love in the Time of Cholera'. Marquez has been resisting Hollywood for years, but finally let them do the dirty deed and adapt it. Oh, dear! Newell, while competent, could never be regarded as top rank. Now a Spanish version by Julio Medem for instance, that might have been something. At least they left my favourite Marquez novel, 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', untouched.
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The Week in Bullets
2007-11-17 18:32:00
It's like summer at the moment, by which I mean it's raining. The week in bullets:  * Monday: I watched 'Photographing Fairies', taped from the night before. Always liked it, but had to admit the direction and editing were clunky, the script roughly finished. The story though; great stuff.  * Wednesday: I had a long phonechat with Sharepoint maestro and old college-time buddy, Stephen. He tried to persuade me to turn to the Dark Side.  * Thursday: The mother of my assistant and her brother, a good friend of mine, died suddenly. Not a happy afternoon.  * Thursday: Met up with Shane and Brian for a drink in the Long Hall. Brian had just gotten a new job in RTE. Too much, far too much, Guinness.  *Thursday/Friday: Argued with the bouncer in Abracastabra when what passes for food there was cleaned away too promptly. Should have commended him.  * Thursday/Friday: Asked the taxi driver to turn off the radio. He turned it down in...
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Small Mercies and Big Noises
2007-11-16 20:09:00
There is a Russian teenager blaring techno on the bus right now. The skinny head is bopping all over the place. Oh, for Mr. Spock! (Remember Star Trek 4?) Just be grateful this isn't an audio blog.
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Ancient Irish Proverb
2007-11-14 18:19:00
Look to the ground and you'll never see the stars. Keep watching the stars and you'll surely walk in shit.
More About: Irish , Ancient , Prove

Planet Terror
2007-11-11 18:28:00
The first half of Rodriguez and Tarantino's 'Grindhouse' double bill finally gets released in Ireland. 'Planet Terror ' has some messy storyline about biological weapons turning the population of a Texan town into pus-dripping zombies. Unsurprisingly a small band of survivors must try to escape, but this movie isn't about story. The scenario has been done a thousand times, and not long ago either (remember 'Black Sheep'?). What should justify another outing for the tale is to do something a little different (like sheep, for instance). Does Rodriguez succeed?  No.  It's not without some interest to the horror cineaste. Easy though it is to retell this familiar tale, Rodriquez knows the zombie subgenre well and one could namecheck the films of Carpenter, Romero, Fulci etc. referenced. But why bother? It adds nothing to the horror genre itself and says nothing of interest to its audience (unlike the critiques of society posed by Romero's movies, for insta...
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Mouthless Screaming
2007-11-11 14:59:00
We had a 'celebration' for the launch of the redesigned website last Friday. Lots of drink, some good food, but given some work upsets during the week, nobody was really in a party mood. Then again, it might have been just me.I won't go into the work troubles as they relate to a report that isn't public yet, but it's safe to say it didn't make me happy. The fears I have had for all those years have been realised. Yes, it may be internal stuff, but to paraphrase the title of a story by Harlan Ellison, though I have no mouth, I must scream. Let this be my quiet scream.Back to the evening though. Besides the crowd from work, it was good to see Barry and Francisco. They worked in my group while I was on my travels and so had worked on the site, richly deserving an invite.After the Porterhouse, Jules, Seb and I joined Francisco in heading into town for more revelry. We got refused from The Odeon, thought Tripod was too expensive (?15), and ended up (after an hour shepherdi...

Bertie in His Own Words
2007-11-10 22:16:00
I meant to post this link earlier in the week (thanks, Nigel):http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.p hp?t=28234It speaks for itself really.
More About: Words , Bertie , Berti

Sandals
2007-11-08 23:12:00
This entry came before the last.  I am in a feather stuffed jacket and am freezing. There is a guy beside me at this bus stop in sandals. And he is American.
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Well, Maybe Canadian
2007-11-08 23:09:00
It's cold out there!!
More About: Canadian , Well , Adia

Broken Telly?
2007-11-07 23:38:00
The offer came up of a flat screen telly. Perfect, I thought; my mother's been looking for one to hang on the wall for ages. It took a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, but today my youngest brother picked me up to brave the wilds of Leopardstown and collect us. While we stopped at a petrol station, I took the opportunity to ring, checking this was a hangable telly. Oh, no, afraid not, this is a cathode ray tube flat screen, not a plasma nor a LCD. Our adventure was over. Cathode ray tubes don't hang easily on the wall. Thankfully I wasn't the only potential customer to make the mistake and the seller was very obliging when I called to cancel.  On the plus side, it gave me an opportunity to talk to my youngest brother, and to visit his new house (his home cinema set-up is perfect). The middle brother came to visit (at my request it should be said) and we joined my dad for a drink or two in the local. Work has laid some sorry loads on my shoulders lately, so it was good t...
More About: Broken

Give My Head Peace
2007-11-06 23:18:00
I went out for a walk to clear the head (into town; 90 minutes usually) and play some music. I must have wrenched one of my earphones though as the right ear's music went in, out, in and out for good. Almost. I jiggled the cable and by wrapping it around my head, under my glasses and through my earhole, I managed to get some relatively stable sound. Until I crossed a road. I must have spent an hour playing with it before giving up. Like the plank I am, I took out the faulty earpiece and went on listening to just one. A minute later the battery died.
More About: Peace , Give , Head

The Ancient Marriner
2007-11-05 23:53:00
My dad's birthday isn't too far off, and so, at his suggestion, I got tickets for tonight's all Beethoven programme in the National Concert Hall. Sir Neville Marriner and the Orchestra of St Cecilia, were over as part of the NCH's International Guest Series and made a very tempting prospect.When faced with a choice between Beethoven's 6th symphony and his 7th, I have traditionally opted for the 6th, the Pastoral. However, after a blistering performance of the 7th tonight, and a 6th heard under the influence of tonnes of sushi, I think I have been converted to the later symphony. Really Marriner (who turned 83 this year) did something special with it tonight.The Pastoral took up the first half of the evening and was played refreshingly more classically than I am used to. This is often played with more than a touch of romanticism, and to be honest, I can't really see it any other way (the pictures fairly jump out of the music). Having said that though, Marriner's approach ...
More About: Ancient

Death at a Funeral
2007-11-04 19:20:00
Let's face it, Frank Oz can really only do comedy (though judging by the reactions to his 'The Stepford Wives' one might have doubted even this). Consider the lethargic 'The Score', a movie starring Norton, De Niro and Brando; how could you go wrong! Yet, he did. However, who can recall 'Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels' without a smile, or even 'Bowfinger'. 'Death at a Funeral ' is something of a return to form and a funny movie.  Set in England and with an almost entirely British cast, the movie plays like a more upbeat 'Festen'; a dysfunctional family get together for the funeral of the patriarch and comic situations, involving drugs, blackmail and sibling rivalry, ensue. It sounds like your average sitcom, and were it not for the production values and the high powered cast, this might well be more suitable for the small screen. Signalling every comic setup well in advance, it follows the conventions of British situational humour, but is none the worse for that. ...
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The Bus that Waits
2007-11-04 18:35:00
The 67A is timetabled to leave Pearse Street at 18.25. I ran. There it was, waiting. I arrived. It still waited. An Inspector was on board holding it for me. He was also keeping the driver company, down the back of the bus. No one's allowed on and that was 10 minutes ago (t'is now 18.35). Everyone's so considerate on Dublin Bus. Not sure what timetable they're using though.  A 25A arrived so I've just gotten that. And that my friends is why anyone who wants to get anywhere does not use buses.
More About: Wait