Bopping with Niall JP O'Leary

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

This is Living
2008-06-03 21:24:00
We started travelling from Castel Gandolfo at 10.30. It was raining hard and had been for quite some time. Our host not only drove us to the train station, he gave each room a bottle of wine only asking that we didn't drink it on the train. The ticket office was closed so we expected to pay our fares on the train but in the event we met no inspectors,, ticket sellers or problems and got to Rome for free. of course, the fare for Naples was far from free. The Express was initially delayed, but we kept our eyes open and, avoiding the baggage buggies and the hordes of disembaking passengers, we eventually made it to our carriage (a train would have helped to get us there). we had booked adjoining seats (there were five of us), but they weren't so adjoining when we found them. even then an irritable Italian couple tried to oust us from them, but brandishing our ticket we stood our ground. The Italian man went off to rob some guy's magazine.(As I write an American couple are ta...
More About: Living

Simon and Lorna get Hitched
2008-06-01 18:50:00
According to Al Mick Byrne Irish physio was on our bus to the church. He wasn't. it might have helped; the heat was crazy. The church was cool though. Founded by a knight who nearly got squished by a rolling rock and built on the spot, it was small but beautiful. So was the wedding. Great stuff!
More About: Simon

Bird with the Crystal Knockers
2008-06-01 01:44:00
I come back to a quintessentially Italian hotel after being snared by two strange English sisters to hear a baby suddenly cry out far too audibly at 1.30 in the morning. If that ain't Argento-esque there isn't a masked schizophrenic psychopath behind my curtain, and there is.
More About: Crystal , Bird , Knockers

Ryanair, Ryanground
2008-05-31 17:40:00
from my arrival at the airport indications were that there was an half hour delay. 12.30 had become 13.00. We took the time to occupy the bar, naturally. Friends of Simon's on his wife's side (presumably) joined us, but soon became numerous enough to set up their own bar colony and we were left to consume alcohol as God, and the bar, intended. Unexpectedly at 12.20 or so the call went up to go to the gate. Apparently we were leaving only slightly later than planned after all. We downed our drinks sadly, but happily boarded the plane. Of course then the bladder began to complain, but I determined to hang in there until we took flight (well, I didn't really have an alternative). Then they dropped the clincher. Eh, we made a mistake, there will be an half hour delay after all. To be fair this was a scheduling thing (or a rumoured air traffic controller strike), but all my determination suddenly vanished and panic set in. I put on my puppy dog eyes and asked, could...
More About: Ryanair

The Smell of Pasta in the Morning: Victory!
2008-05-31 11:00:00
Off to Simon's wedding in Castel Gandolfo today. A week in Italy! Needed, believe me.
More About: Victory , Pasta , Morning , Smell , In The Morning

Triage
2008-05-30 21:12:00
They're filming a new Colin Farrell-starrer on my doorstep. As I made my way home, I saw assembled before me gardai, technicians and lots of standing people (only some of them bystanders). Seeing a name on the director's chair I did a quick IMDB search. The movie was 'Triage ', by Serbian director Danis Tanovic. Interesting, but not that interesting. If there's one thing I know about filming it's that there's a lot of waiting involved, and I can't be a*sed (no dinner yet for one). One thing I did note, however, was a man with a laptop sitting right next to the director's chair, presumably watching the newly minted digital takes.

Prokofiev
2008-05-28 02:24:00
I so love Prokofiev. I know no one cares but just listen to the 'slow' movement of the second violin concerto knowing what he is capable of. This nice, accessible, almost romantic, stuff in the light of glorious madness. The man was a wonderfully insane genius, an iconoclast, a musician who understood music. Why can't anyone just listen? But remember it is all in the context of everything else. He understands what has gone before and still does what he does. That is the essence of structuralism and more pertinently post-structuralism; the knowledge of where you sit and the determination to do what you do anyway and use all else to achieve your aims.
More About: Music

Hellfire and Violinists
2008-05-25 23:56:00
Speaking of things demoniacal, I read a short story, 'The Bishop of Hell', by Majorie Bowen. Poor stuff, no doubt inspired by Byron, though the last image of the eponymous bishop anticipates the Ghost Rider iconography.(Just did a little search: how could a writer so dull come up with a novel called 'Black Magic: A Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist'?)Speaking of anticipation, one episode of the the fourth season of 'The Twilight Zone' (1963) (when the format went hour long), a story by Charles Beaumont called 'Valley of the Shadow', anticipates both the replicator and the transporter from Star Trek. A reporter gets lost and ends up in Peaceful Valley, a town with a secret so big they don't want him to leave. It also reuses his earlier 'The Howling Man' theme, wrapping it in pseudo-scientific garb and changing the ending for a less apocalyptic denouement.Only getting around to the fourth series now, I also watched 'He's Alive' and was startled to see a youn...
More About: Horror , Film

The Omen - eh, not the Movie
2008-05-25 23:38:00
I went viewing some apartments today, from a buying point of view (though I still believe prices have some way to go yet before they're even close to being acceptable). Before leaving, I took a brochure, a floorplan and a two-page price guide that I tucked carefully into the brochure. As I left the building, and I kid you not on this, the price guide somehow got blown into the air (remember it was tucked in the brochure), split into two, the two pages screaming separately away in laughter. (Okay, the laughter bit I made up.) I managed to reclaim one sheet, but the other page detailing the one-beds, the one I wanted, disappeared into the void, a.k.a. Dublin City.To my dying day I will hear that demoniacal laughter....
More About: Movie , The Movie

The Miracle of Brain Cell Sharing
2008-05-24 22:08:00
I flicked through the tv channels and caught a pirate band singing a pirate song to a 'Euro beat'. And we hung our collective heads in shame at the Turkey! That, my friends, is why the Eurovision is second only to Ebola as entertainment of choice in my world.
More About: Miracle , Cell , Brain , Sharing

Twinkletoes
2008-05-23 02:35:00
Holy Merde, Batman! I don't write for a week or so and suddenly I drop out of Google! What's a guy got to do to get listed these days? Maybe I should take up dancing.

The Book of Lists: Abridged
2008-05-23 02:13:00
Just watched 'Charlie Wilson's War'. Wellmade (as to be expected from Mike Nichol's with a high-powered cast), but very uncritical and not nearly as intelligent as it thinks.Boss retires next week so big party tomorrow night. Mental note: don't get too drunk! Well, that's stupid. Mental note revised: try to be nice drunk.Rental of this apartment nearly completed until the landlord decided to change the agreement we had agreed on. I have revised the revised agreement and await eviction.Feel like I've been on auto-pilot these last few weeks; not much to get excited about.Recently read Martin Amis 's 'The Rachel Papers'. Smart writer, but shallower than a stream in the Sahara. Of course, 'shallow' is part of the point of a book that has a truly obnoxious 19 year-old as the protagonist. That we read to the end is testament to Amis's smartness. Or maybe it's just the sex.Gave maths grinds last night to an aunt of mine. Without a steady diet of 'Texts and Tests', ...
More About: Books , Film , Book , Lists

Fix-up!
2008-05-20 20:07:00
Having apartment-sat for over four months, it now looks like I'll be taking over. Francisco, the Spaniard, who had occupied the place, is heading back to Barcelona, so I get a chance at taking over the rental. Of course the landlord also took a chance on boosting up the rent, considerably so. Initially justifying some of the hike by promising to renovate, he's now backed out on that, reducing the price slightly, but dodging the promised fix-up. And as to this rubbish report I read today about rents going down! All through the newspaper article there were sprinkled caveats; urban centres may be different, landlords may not have registered their properties. Get real! Most properties are not on any register and rents in urban centres, or more specifically Dublin, are definitely going up if primary source for the report, daft.ie, is anything to go by. Well, at least I have my space.

Wedding, Credit and Sim
2008-05-07 15:46:00
The sim card in my phone died on Sunday. In my grief, I huddled in my room, unwilling, well unable to make contact with the outside world. I don't know which is worse; that we depend on our phones so much, or that we think we do. As it happened, I had to conserve energy and resources for Monday anyhow. My old video producer (he's younger than me, so I hate to think what that makes me) was getting married on Bank Holiday Monday in Trim. I can't remember when or even if I was in Trim last, but the castle certainly makes an impression when you arrive. The church was right next door to the church too, which made things even more attractive. Anyhow Barry, the best man, if you're reading, you should have done stand-up; best best man speech I've ever heard. And that was the tenor of the whole day. With the setting, the incredible weather and the inevitable alcohol, it was good-humoured right through to that 5.30 stagger to bed. Only wish I got tall girl Deirdre's phone num...
More About: Credit , Wedding

Something's in the Air
2008-05-04 16:18:00
You can feel a warmth in the air that doesn't quite seem natural, welcome though it is. May starts and for once so does summer. Strange, for Ireland. I was in the Long Stone on Friday night - among other places - and Dan, the manager from our old drinking spot, Conway's, seems to be managing it now. I never really liked Conway's, but I was in the minority in our group, and it's the people you're with that matter in the end. I haven't been in the Long Stone in quite a while, but I hope Dan doesn't weave his magic on it. We didn't stay too long (the 'John Horgan's mouth' fireplace was breathing down our necks), going next door to McTurkel's instead. A seriously drunk Mongolian tried to make friends with us, but all I could make out was that he hated working in a kitchen and wanted to be a soldier. After his friend failed to get him to leave, the bouncers succeeded in the job. At that stage it was inevitable that we should have our own run-in with bouncers and wh...

Is All Publicity Good Publicity?
2008-04-29 21:01:00
As the 'legitmate' rival of 'illegitimate' Ryanair, I would not necessarily look with disdain on an Aer Lingus sale. However, I got a spam mail about special offers today and felt an immediate sense of recoil. Analysing my feeling I found the reason to be obvious enough; the recent fiasco with the so-called five euro seats was still fresh in my mind. Is it just me? I get the feeling Aer Lingus have done themselves a lot more harm than they realise with their behaviour over that stunt. I didn't go to their site.
More About: Publicity , Good

Feeding-time on Parnell Square
2008-04-22 18:54:00
A couple sit on a step. I see them from the bus. What had started as a chimpanzee-style grooming session has now progressed into a full-blown medical examination. She stares in his ear, tugs on his chin, has now pulled down his collar inspecting his neck, his chest. What is going on? It's about as gentle as a crocodile's mealtime and the guy does not look happy. Dublin on a sunny afternoon.
More About: Time , Feeding , Square

Girl
2008-04-18 23:26:00
Following on from that last mail, I thought I'd look up that other mysterious Beck song, 'Girl ', to find out what the line I always took for 'My Summer girl' actually was. One site said 'cyanide', another said 'sun-eyed'. I am not alone.

In the Age of Chimpanzees I Was a Monkey
2008-04-18 23:20:00
Has anyone ever listened to Beck's 'Loser' and wondered what the hell that line before 'I'm a loser, baby...' was. I always came up with the wild supposition that it was 'Sodium Penathol', but having just looked up the lyrics I discover it's "Soy un perdador", presumably Spanish for 'I'm a loser'. That's a bit unfair, isn' it?
More About: Monkey

Exercise
2008-04-18 23:09:00
"I have to exercise. I have to lose weight." "But sure you're using your chest muscles."
More About: Exercise

Pass it on
2008-04-18 23:06:00
A girl at the bus stop was coughing her guts up. Her friend advised, 'Have a score. Pass it on.' You have been warned.

Slip Up
2008-04-18 22:15:00
We're boozing in the Slip per and just had a platter of fried food. Sadly the barman just came in with a snackbox from the local chippie. Does he know something we don't know?

Digital Film Making
2008-04-18 01:16:00
Mike Figgis, the director of 'Leaving Las Vegas', 'Internal Affairs' and other movies, is also something of an artist, photographer, cinematographer, musician, scriptwriter, and actor. If that weren't enough to cause envy, he 's also married to Saffron Burrowes. With the short book, 'Digital Film Making', he adds 'teacher' to his long list of accomplishments (actually he was already a qualified music teacher). Whether you are a fan of his movies or not (and I have mixed feelings; 'Internal Affairs' was fine, 'Leaving Las Vegas' over-rated), there is no doubt that if you have an interest in low-budget film-making this is excellent stuff. Granted the ins and outs of of scene set-up are touched on rather than elucidated (presumably Film School or other books fill in that gap), but he has something to say about every aspect of the film-making process, as transformed by digital technology, and it all seems perfectly sensible. It's also very inspiring (I dug out my vi...

Mission of Gravity
2008-04-16 00:28:00
In the world of Sci-Fi, Hal Clement's 'Mission of Gravity' crops up a bit. In a couple of centuries, humanity loses some very expensive equipment (aimed at studying gravity) at the North Pole (or South Pole, I can't remember which) of a strangely shaped, but huge planet. The gravity is such (several hundred times that of Earth) that they must befriend and engage some of the native aliens to go forth, explore new lands and somehow get that data back.This is why I hate hard Sci-Fi. Effectively we are following a band of sea-faring lobsters as they have mild adventures encountering other lobsters. Whenever there is a problem, a little help from their can-do (American) human friends helps to sort things out. Captain Barlennan, a lobster, has some devious plans up his shelly sleeve, but ultimately there is nothing more threatening here than a lobster with a Christopher Columbus complex. Problem: the ship must get over a cliff. Problem: the ship must get out of a stream. Probl...
More About: Science Fiction

Ordinarily....
2008-04-14 22:05:00
Could they be Chinese troops? Or just belligerent monks showing their true colours?I got the above in an email from a good, solid activist friend of mine. Ordinarily I think twice before publishing possibly dodgy pics on my blog (hey, you've seen my Bertie photos!), but on this occasion it does kind of ring true. I believe the suggestion was that some Chinese soldiers were masquerading as Tibetan monks to cause mayhem and thus discredit the holy men. Now that couldn't possibly be true, could it???????? Anyway draw your own conclusions.

The Orphanage
2008-04-07 14:54:00
The Orphanage - From wikipedia.orgThe mother battling against the supernatural for her child has become something of a staple in modern horror cinema. 'Dark Water', 'Silent Hill', 'The Dark', 'The Others' and 'Ring' are all recent examples. 'The Orphanage', directed by J.A. Bayona, though 'presented' (produced) by Guillermo Del Toro (of 'Pan's Labyrinth' fame), is yet another entry in this mini-genre. In its tale of a woman who apparently loses her son to the ghostly children of an old orphanage and must endure the worst in an attempt to rescue him, its story might seem to be a little tired. But is it?Besides the aforementioned, the list of movie references here goes on and on. There's 'The Innocents' (adapted from Henry James' 'The Turn of the Screw') and Del Toro's own 'The Devil's Backbone' and 'Pan's Labyrinth'. Of recent films, it most closely resembles 'The Dark' with its seaside location and a lead who even resembles that earlier film's ...
More About: Horror , Film , Steven Spielberg , Richard Matheson , Guillermo del Toro

Charlton Heston Dies at 84
2008-04-06 14:21:00
We might get that rifle now.
More About: Charlton Heston , Dies

To Make It Clear
2008-04-03 11:50:00
Anyone who knows me will probably wonder why I have not made more of the Bold Bertie's departure. Well, joy is somewhat tempered by the fact that Cowen is looming so fearfully, though I suppose FF is made of characters each as bad as the other, so whoever's up next is scary. Anyhow I am happy at Bertie's resignation. Justice has finally been done. Well, some of it anyway. 'History will look kindly...' is the phrase a lot of the television pundits have been allowing to escape with their sighs of relief. While I know why, it goes against the grain to be celebrating a criminal. And for me one of the worst crimes imaginable is a politician's abuse of power. Not only do they break the law, they assault a population (whether they know it or not) and damage, perhaps irrevocably, the social Good. It is the social contract that is compromised and once done, society's value system becomes unstuck and ultimately anything goes. Think of the many social ills that follow on from ...
More About: Make , Clear

HOORAY!!!!!!!
2008-04-02 12:54:00
The Bold Bertie ResignsBERTIE RESIGNS! And about time too.And lest we forget, a few Bertie pics

Score!
2008-04-01 18:33:00
From www.scifi-universe.comI have to say it again, a great score by a great composer can raise a film to a whole new level. Just watched yet another Twilight Zone episode, "Nightmare as a Child" (there's 156 or so of them, so I still have a lot to get through). Right from the opening you notice the music, very reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's works. Just like Morricone (remember 'Once Upon a Time in the West' or 'Once Upon a Time in America'), it used a childhood style and theme to put the past into the present, very much in keeping with the story. And who was it? Jerry Goldsmith, of course! Though he wrote only a handful of scores for the series, you notice every one. Excellent!A day or two back too, I watched 'Little Girl Lost'. You know it's a classic when 'The Simpsons ' use it as the basis for an episode (like 'The Shelter' or 'To Serve Man'), and 'Little Girl Lost' serves as the basis for Homer's experience in the Third Dimension. It's also written b...
More About: Music , Film , Science Fiction , Score