Bopping with Niall JP O'Leary

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I Want to be a Lion Tamer
2007-11-04 15:48:00
There is a big Flash ad about going to the top of the corporate ladder, working anywhere around the world, in any industry, having mountains of moolah and bikini-clad babes hanging out of your ears. It is for a very special job. It is for Chartered Accountants. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
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The Throes of Adolescence
2007-11-04 15:39:00
I am in the cinema awaiting 'Death at a Funeral' to start. Behind me a mother and teenage son sit, bickering. At least the son does. He is at that stage in life when every comment however bland or innocuous is a personal attack on all he holds dear. It would be a great personal relief to turn around and slap the little tike senseless, but hey, it's not like he's launching a personal attack on everything I hold dear or anything.  His mother just asked if he wants to take his shoes off. The floor is sticky, he replied. Thank God for small mercies!
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Questions
2007-11-04 15:15:00
I am fascinated by the relationship between mind and matter. It's a long, long time since I was ever an idealist, and even then I don't believe it was ever in the metaphysical sense. A psychosomatic pain though apparently shows the brain 'causing' something without the usual use of nerves, motor mechanisms, etc. Or does it? Is the effect glandular? If so, how? Is there any real physical justification for the pain at all or is it purely a mental sensation, ie. the body is actually unchanged, the pain being a 'phantom' sensation like that experienced by amputees? Is there any research on this and any findings one way or the other? Can we operate at the level of thing-in-itself or is it always thing as experienced?
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Noodles
2007-11-04 00:39:00
I am not happy with Russell's 'Problems of Philosophy'. I am only a few chapters in, but he dodges all the real 'problems' with a drunken 'Ah, sure ya couldn't really believe that!' All very sensible in a pub context, but hardly acceptable in a serious philosophical piece.  I have just come from Charlie's 2 (my gran's old shop. I eventually got the crispy pork belly soup noodles I asked for. Brought me right back to be eating slices of red chili, but we don't get anywhere near the quality here that we would in Asia. At the table beside me a small Chinese girl with a wonderfully broad Dublin accent explained to her boyfriend how she could understand her mother (particularly in family matters such as 'I hate you!), but couldn't speak Chinese herself. The idiot boyfriend came out with the immature, 'But that doesn't make sense!' Yes, it does you shite. Anyway I turned up my music and eventually ate my noodles.
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The Funny Bit
2007-11-03 23:29:00
All right, so you want the funny bit. Will is excessively proud of his new extension. It is a remarkable feat of new architecture and is actually quite nice. I arrived with a crate of Miller and sought out a seat. I found one in the room beside the kitchen and tried to bring it into the seating area. Unfortunately Will's son Brian was by the computer and Ian was well ensconsed on his seat, so I lifted the chair up to get it between them. Unfortunately in doing this I hit the archway between the rooms and marked the walls. Ah, I thought I will use my glasses cloth to wipe it off. Unfortunately (again) it made it worse. Will was getting angrier, I was sinking into the floor. As I left I apologised to Mary, Will's wife, but it was the first she heard of it. I ran.
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Cello-ed Out
2007-11-03 23:19:00
Why a Kabelevsky cello concerto played by Rostropovich should seem so good now, I don't know, but it does.  There is a thesis to be written on bus seating patterns at night.
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Fizzy
2007-11-03 23:15:00
As usual Will, who had been drinking since 8 this morning (thanks to Ian's Bucks Fizz) was very drunk early on and went to bed around 9.45. My playlist pleased the crowds except for music maestro Al, who took over to give us tolerable, but not energising, music for the last hour (apparently 'Golden Brown' cuts no ice these days and was a nig no no). Anyhow I had to go, not because I was drunk, but because I wasn't and wanted to be that way. Just passing the Botanic House now.
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Seagulls
2007-11-03 15:54:00
A woman maybe 50, probably a lot more, walked across Westmoreland Street wearing a belt. If that weren't disconcerting enough, she stopped three quarters of the way across to laugh up at the seagulls and try on a conversation with them. Beside me two kids probed down each other's throat like mother gulls regurgitating delicacies. And it looks like rain.
More About: Seagulls , Agul

Have a Heart
2007-11-03 15:53:00
Last night was a 'quiet one' - I left for, and succeeded in getting, the last bus - but I still managed to get out of my head. I watched it rolling, laughing, on the ground. Taking offence at a can-swigging kid on the way into town, I swear I got off the first bus aiming to track him down and kick his smarmy face in. Thankfully I got that last bus instead.  Last night it was the birthday of Stephen's partner, Joanne. Today it's Will's. Couple that with Ian's free pass for the weekend - wife and child are down the country - and we 'have' to meet up this afternoon. I no more feel like it than a cow wants a steak, but free will is an illusion invented to make millionaires feel good about themselves. I am on the 19A right this moment heading out Finglas way. (My request for a city centre venue ignored yet again.)  As a by-the-way, foul tempered, tired and with an uncomfortable feeling in my leg (something I get on and off), I got on the bus to be faced with...
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A Classical Education
2007-11-02 23:42:00
The reason contemporary music is meant to be so good is because it has assimilated all that has gone before, including classical, To an extent it has, but like pop, what has survived, and so what has the greatest influence, is that which has been most popular. What of that music that was out there then but rings true now, the stuff that wasn't necessarily the most popular when it first arrived. It's all forgotten. No! I say. There is worth in the past despite our feeling that we have moved on, more worth than the present, I would say, in some respects anyway. Yes, we have assimilated, but is it enough? Give Classical a chance.
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Signs
2007-11-02 23:18:00
Something I learnt tonight reaffirms my disillusionment with the human race (don't get me wrong, I love it and all). Apparently sign language, an invention of the last 150 years, is completely different depending on your country. Funnily enough I knew this already, but the full breadth of this monumental stupidity hit me tonight. Here you had a chance to create a language, a potentially universal language, for a relatively small section of the population, and what do we do? We subdivide it again, making each community even smaller than it already was. What a race!
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Goldfish Memory
2007-11-02 09:23:00
Apparently Fianna Fail have 'plunged' in the opinion polls. Will it really matter come that very far distant polling day? What more exactly do we know now that we didn't know the last election? Bertie is a sham, his party line their own pockets, they are inefficient and the public means nothing to them; what part of the above is new? We have very short memories anyway. Did someone say something about the Government?
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Rendition
2007-11-01 20:50:00
Hollywood deals with the War on Terror! Or their version of it. Several years too late - that is just late enough to have no real effect - chickenshit Hollywood, with films like 'The Kingdom', and the upcoming 'Lions for Lambs', finally capitalises on all that free publicity. 'Rendition ', is the current flavour of the Middle-East in our cinemas.  It is an enjoyable, if ultimately callow film, telling of an Egyptian, with an American family, spirited away by the CIA to a 'North African' torture chamber. They suspect him of aiding terrorists, rookie agent, Jake Gyllenhaal, has doubts, while wife, Reese Witherspoon, tries to get some answers about her husband's whereabouts. Coupled to this is a subplot about the chief torturer's daughter and her forbidden romance with a student who might not be all he appears to be.  This is a solidly told tale, even accepting a cheeky play with narrative linearity very late in proceedings. The cast too are solid and, this...

A New Report on Cancer Prevention Says...
2007-11-01 09:20:00
...that we should remain the weight we were when we were 21 to avoid a third of cancers. It also maintains that Atlantis will resurface next year to coincide with the Olympics.
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Firing the Imagination
2007-10-31 20:18:00
I got delayed coming home. Nasty CSS and javascript conspired to keep me chained to my desk. I beat them though. While fighting I heard Stephen mention how Ballymun knew how to keep Halloween if anyone could. As I stood at my bus stop I saw what he meant. An unceasing stream of fireworks of every hue and pattern was blazing into the Ballymun sky. Even from my distance it was impressive. Goodness knows what the bonfires were like, but it looked like a hell of a party. Stephen was right.
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The Candyman Can!
2007-10-31 00:53:00
So the law was changed just for Woods! Great when you (yes, YOU, Cowen, you bulbous bag of bullying 'bon homie') can change a country's laws to help out a buddy! And then of course, there's everyones' favourite, Bertie, with his ?38,000 pay hike. The under-the-floorboards stash must be running low. So what's that now? ?310,000! Let's hope he has a bank account set up now though, in case of any future misunderstandings.(And what of that under-the-mountain phantom army, the Greens? Have they deserted Middle Earth again?????????)You know, Bertie's troubles might all be because of the ghost, I mean THE ghost (C.J.H., don't say it too loud, or three times in succession!). Perhaps he's been possessed! It would explain the recent bouts of memory loss, the wild gurning at the Tribunal, the sudden changes of personality from honest friend of the people to... well, okay scrap that last part. But it could be possession, if not of a Griffith Avenue property, then Bertie's ...
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Cowen Boosts Ex-Minister's Pensions by up to ?500,000!
2007-10-30 18:05:00
I was going to rant, but why bother! This, my fine Fianna Fail friends, is what YOU voted for (and YOU know who YOU are). I suppose it's all just to cover inflation anyway (by the time Cowen's through we'll all need an extra half million).  Yes, this Halloween time, there is certainly a ghost in the air, a phantom stalking Europe. We thought the old bastard was dead and gone, but no; Haughey lives!

Garage
2007-10-30 10:04:00
From the makers of 'Adam and Paul' comes another portrait of Ireland's small folk. 'Garage ' swaps the junkies for garage attendants, but was that such a good idea?  Eschewing the drug-polluted towers of Ballymun for a rural petrol station, 'Garage', is a simple tale. Josie, a middle-aged garage attendant living a lonely existence in a small town, strikes up a friendship with his teenage assistant. Taking a little too much for granted, Josie, oversteps the mark. Throw in a VHS tape, some after work cans, and a horse that likes apples, and you know there's trouble on the way.  Pat Shortt as Josie, seems to be playing one of his Killinascuddy characters straight, but it is wholly appropriate. Josie, is an outsider, from his home/job in the garage on the fringes of town, to his inability to deal with, or even recognise, the scorn shown him by the town. Working for an old school friend, it is obvious that he is exploited, ridiculed and generally disregarded. ...

The Devil Rides Out...Again!
2007-10-29 20:46:00
I told you Facebook was the new spawn of Satan! Microsoft (yes, that Microsoft!) has forked out $240 million for a 1.6% share of the networking business (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/706 1398.stm for more info on the infernal doings of the community website). And after Google I don't even have a soul to sell them! How will I pay? How's about a spiritual mortgage? Hell, the banks have been doing them here for years!
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Eastern Promises
2007-10-28 17:38:00
David Cronenberg, the director behind such infamously disturbing flicks as 'Scanners', 'Rabid', 'Dead Ringers' and 'Videodrome', has switched genres lately. I suppose the cross-over from horror to thriller probably started with the psychological thriller, 'Spider', but with the graphic novel adaptation, 'A History of Violence', the change was explicit. Now with 'Eastern Promises ', a tale of the Russian Mafia in London, he continues his foray into crime and that most criminal of genres, the gangster movie.  Not that Cronenberg has toned down the disturbing imagery. In one notably humorous scene, Viggo Mortensen's Nikolai asks those around him to leave the room while he removes all identifying characteristics, eg. teeth and fingers, from a corpse. The audience are not given such an opportunity.  As the screenplay of Steven Knight, the writer behind Frears' 'Dirty Pretty Things', 'Eastern Promises ' shares a similar preoccupation with the exploitati...
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I Thought, Therefore I Was Right
2007-10-28 14:04:00
Many years ago when I studied philosophy in UCD, I made the argument that Descartes' 'Cogito ergo sum' ('I think, therefore I am') was not strictly true. Rather than prove that I exist, it only proved that (a) thought exists, as the commonly held notion of self encompassed a past and future that the Cogito could never substantiate. I even used this argument in an exam question and was disappointed with my result. If only I'd read Bertrand Russell's 'The Problems of Philosophy' then (something I am reading now). In only the second chapter, Russell brings up the same issue. So I wasn't alone in my whacked out notions after all. And given the religious bias of my examiners at the time, I doubt the false notion of plagiarism would have damaged my exam results; Russell wouldn't have been held in high esteem by any lecturer outside of my second year Anglo-American philosophy lecturer, Maria Baghramian. Nice one, Bertrand.
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Oh, Horror!
2007-10-28 00:48:00
It was only as I waited at the bus stop today that I remembered that the Horror thon, a weekend festival of horror movies every year at Halloween, should be due. Getting into Dublin City I discovered this to be true indeed, in fact it had been on since Thursday. And I had missed it! Normally I would have a festival ticket for the full weekend. Now, not only had I forgotten, but when I read the programme, interesting though it was, I didn't feel the obligatory urge to get any tickets. Instead I went to the barber (and no Sweeney Todd neither). Definitely I am getting old.

Dr Mabuse, the Gambler
2007-10-27 23:30:00
Earlier watched 'Dr Mabuse, the Gambler'. I noticed some of the stills on the cover were not on the box, while some storylines seemed garbled. Looking up Empire, I found that the 86 minute copy I have should be 246 minutes long! And the soundtrack was woefully inappropriate for the most part, Brahms chamber music sloppily added, with what I took to be the original score only coming in infrequently.  With it master of disguise arch-villain, obsessive police inspector, infatuated mistress, and sadistic killings, 'Dr Mabuse' takes all the elements that defined 'Fantomas' and revitalises them for a post-war age. Given that it came nearly ten years after the French film, I suppose it is hardly surprising that the German movie is infinitely more sophisticated. Modern though 'Fantomas' was in direction and style, 'Dr Mabuse' is as thrilling in execution as any of the other masterpieces that defined the work of Fritz Lang. Using animation, superimpositions, surreal se...
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Fantomas Revisited
2007-10-27 21:39:00
For the long weekend I borrowed two films I have long wanted to see: Fritz Lang's 'Dr Mabuse, the Gambler' and its sequel, 'The Testament of Dr Mabuse'. The first is silent, the second isn't (though in German). Naturally, given that they deal with ubercriminal, Dr Mabuse, a master of disguise, there are a lot of similarities with their French precursor, Fantomas.  I suddenly realised that I never followed up my comments on Fantomas. I finished watching all of Louis Feuillade's silent series some time ago, but they did make an impression. In contrast to a lot of silent product of the time, Fantomas is slick entertainment. Hampered by some truly ropey storylines, and an extreme facial hair fetish on the part not only of the criminal, but his nemesis, Inspector Juve, it does work remarkably well 90 years later. I can understand the many remakes made throughout the 20th Century and the claim that it influenced everything from James Bond to 'The Usual Suspects'. It...

Freaky!
2007-10-27 21:38:00
I'm nearly finished the cult favourite book, 'Freakonomics', by Levitt and Dubner. It uses the tools of economics to explain certain curious phenomena of society, such as why crack dealers live with their mothers. I'll no doubt write more on it soon, but one of the extract articles in this expanded edition is an extract from their blog dealing with a trip to Google. One employee asked them what they would do given the data Google owns. I would take issue with that ownership, but then we did knowingly sell Google our souls when we took their email. What struck me even before reading the article is what Levitt and Dubner, or for that matter anyone, might do with the data amassed through Facebook. Think of all those 'applications' building up all that profile data. I'm sure Levitt and Dubner would gladly give some royalties to get that. And then there are all those hungry companies.
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Midnight Caller
2007-10-26 23:39:00
Today I was told by a customer over the phone - quite unsolicited, I hasten to add - that I had a radio voice, so much so in fact that a phonecall to me was like a phone-in for them. I thanked dear Shelley profusely and reflected on the many who said something similar of my face. Ain't it great to have the perfect radio combination! 2FM giz a job!
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One Big Bang
2007-10-26 10:25:00
Four big noises from the university retired yesterday. Rather than four individual fireworks, the university saw fit to send all four off with one big bang. It was hardly that, although the academic who took the opportunity of her parting speech to complain about her access to the library being revoked, won my heart. I have a soft spot for several of those leaving, but in truth it was all just another opportunity for a couple of free glasses of wine. The thirst on us, Stephen, Will and I headed over to The Slipper to continue our supping. Just made the last bus home in the end. Such fine resolutions (to go easy on a school night) dissolve in a glass of red.
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Pleasantville
2007-10-26 02:07:00
Before 'Series Seven', I happened to switch on 'Pleasantville', and as usual I left it on until the end, a sure sign that it's a favourite flick. Despite a courtroom climax that doesn't support the weight of the movie that has preceded it, it is a wonderful, if optimistic, movie. With its masterful use of 'black and white' (with no black character in it), it operates on so many levels, even getting away with an obvious forbidden fruit scene. It is just short of a masterpiece, but an obvious labour of love for writer-director Gary Ross, and something I would be proud to have written. And in case you doubt me, let us recall J. T. Walsh's immortal words: ' We're safe now, thank God we're in a bowling alley, but if George doesn't get his dinner it could be any one of us next....'
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Contenders
2007-10-26 01:51:00
After wanting to see it for such a long time, I finally got to see 'Series Seven: The Contenders' the other night. While not as funny or as sophisticated as I hoped, it wasn't bad at all. Great how they made easy target right-winger, Connie, so abhorrent and reigning champion, Dawn, so sympathetic, even with that classic 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' 'art' video. We all know them! Fun.
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Question and Answer
2007-10-26 01:38:00
I was asked, 'What's Niall on?' I answered, 'It's a synthetic material used to make clothes.'
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