Will Knott

Gentle reader,

I’ve just done something I’ve not tried to do since the last film festival.

With the Film Festival (the 2004 site doesn’t have listing yet, so I’m not linking to it), you have a schedule for the week, and you pick what you think you would like, or take pot luck.

This long weekend, I’m trying something similar with CorkGigs.com and the guide for the “day of welcomes”.

On Friday… I’ve mentioned Elephant before and their album launch is tonight, so I’m going to that in the Granary. And probably buying a copy of the album too.

On Saturday, the two guides overlap, in the form of the John Spillanne (2.10pm) and North Cregg (2.40) following the Cork Pops Orchestra kicking the welcome things off on Patrick Street. And to round off the afternoon, Snatch move from spending a morning in Fitzgerald Park to the dryer location of the Bogeda at 4pm (they are also there on Sunday).

I can’t make the Sunday venture as there are showcase gigs at 3pm on both Saturday and Sunday in An Crúiscín Lán. There is something about a mixed showcase that just smells of promise. That’s how I say the Waiting Room for the first time.

Back to the evenings, and the Lobby sees Niall Connolly, Paddy O’Herlihy & Billy Ramsell (who I thought was a poet, not a singer) play on Saturday. Sunday… well I’d love to see Therapy? in Cyprus Avenue, but I think it’s all sold out, I wonder if they have any tickets left in Cobh for the Four of Us?

I’m hoping to be busy…

take care,

Will

Are you looking for that special dress for that special bride?

The comments make it more fun than it should be.

take care,

Will

Gentle reader,

This weekend I returned to “the mothership”. I’m not much of a radio listener, in fact I only hear it first thing in the morning (clock-radio alarm) and when driving. She on the other hand loves listening to the thing.

She is also a RTE Radio One listener. But I do love one of her shows… Sunday Miscellany. If you have never heard it, Sunday Miscellany is a collection of short stories, around three or four minutes long, usually by an Irish writer or with some other Irish connection. Between the stories are pieces of music usually barely related to the topic of the story before it.

I wonder if RTE know what they have on their hands. I mean, the stories are ideal download length, and if you could pick and choose, or simply group them together by topic, you would have a great spoken word piece to give to someone. I don’t know the legal situation, but themed CD’s with classical music from the RTE orchestras and choirs would work brilliantly. I can see a Munster collection selling well!

On May 2nd (when all the stories are about working in some way), there is a Cork connection.

“Colette Olney looks at generations of Cork women who ran a family hotel business imprinting their own personalities on the establishment in the process. ”

Considering the celebrations involved with Cork Unplugged and the “day of welcomes” I suspect Sunday morning is not going to see much of me, but it would be… interesting.

You would be surprised at what Interesting will do to you!

take care,

Will

Gentle reader,

I’ve started getting bumph on the various Irish town and cities welcoming the new entrants in to the EU.

Direct link, which mat change.

The celebration on May Day (everyone loves a bank holiday), are nice!

Patrick Street looks like its going to be closed off for lots of gigs (and the Lord Mayor doing the official bits at the beginning), and the “Bizarre Bazaar” in Fitzgerald’s Park looks …

Well it looks plain weird; “a synergistic event fusing art, craft, performances and food”. That description sounds like a performance art food fight. Considering that the Snatch crew are going to be there, it might not be too far fetched a description.

The other odd looking thing is “Brown Thomas Window” (but there are lots of windows”) in which “will display pre-recorded footage of dance theatre, combined with live dance performance”. I see breakages on the horizon.

Something that I’ve been told to check out is.. Club One, Phoenix Street, Electric Rain. It sounds like the odd mix of music, poetry, performance and art (and what ever you’re having yourself) that used to take place in the Cruscin Lan.

Anyway, that’s next weekend.

This weekend I’ve got to see a man about a bike!

take care,

Will

I’m a beginer.

When offered the easy route, take it until I build up the stamina I need to handle the hard route.

Ouch,

Will

Gentle reader,

I remember a few years back that Fyffes has an advert where somebody “seriously mad about bananas” takes a bunch from the shop to his car, and put each banana in it’s own foam pocket in the boot of the car.

Well… something similar to this joke exists.

Spotted on Gizmodo is the BananaGuard.

It’s a “hard plastic, ventilated shell with a sturdy locking mechanism”…”designed to fit the vast majority of bananas”. It also looks like the kind of toy that Anne Summers would stock.

Can someone confirm that they moved in to Cork recently. Summers, I’m sure that BananaGuard is going to remain in the US with a price tag of $5 each.

take care,

Will

Gentle reader,

First off, Cyclefly are alive!

I thought that since the band got dropped and Jean’s playing in Juute that Cyclefly was no more. Well I was wrong!

Jean-Mi has indeed left, but there is someone else in his place; James Welch, and Decky has lost the hair. They are due to play An Cruiscin Lan on April 23. Turns out that they’ve been busy writing new material and training in the replacement.

In other “news”. Want to swear in fluent Irish? This site has a “handy” list of swearwords, (well really swear sayings) and their English translation…

How “bog” translates from Irish in to … that, is slightly beyond me.

take care,

Will

Gentle reader,

I’ve climbed that bloody mountain and crossed that stream. The run of “The Sound of Music” has finished in the Opera House.

A few images will remain in my head….

The stage crew enacting their version of “So long, farewell” while the kids were performing it on stage.

It sounds silly, but it keeps certain things going…

the “conversations at the party”, really a series of one liners trying to make someone burst out laughing in front of the audience…

McTwirl’s quote “but they were having straight sex!”, which is weird out of context, and even weirder in context.

So with the show over I have my evening back.

So I get to climb mountains.

I’m in a cycling “club” (note it is not a club for all you legal types out there. I walks like a club, it quacks like a club, but it’s not a club, since “club” means something in legal terms).

And as you can guess, a cycling club means climbing mountains.

The hard way.

take care,

Will

Gentle reader,

There is a new trend afoot… transparency.

Of course there are geeker noises of excitement. Clear Duct Tape. All the sticking power, with the ability to see the hole underneath!

(This product should not be used to repair torn underwear!)

Also of interest from an Irish perspective is the clarity being brought to the .ie internet domain.

After the battle between UCD and various parts of .ie Domain Registry (IEDR) Ltd, the government decided to hand control over to ComReg, Ireland’s communications regulator.

Hopefully this means that getting a .ie domain will clearer.

take care,

Will

Martin Kelly of the Washington Dispatch compares the Coalition forces in Iraq with that of the Northern Ireland situation for the British.

I’m choosing my words carefully here. I’ve spent most of this long weekend away from PCs, TVs, radio and newspapers (but not Playstations… to which the bags under my eyes can attest), but I know things got worse recently.

It’s amazing how little gets effected by a huge event somewhere else.

I would have expected shock and dismay, but I got chats about what people did over the weekend (and the complicated love triangles that McWhirler keeps bumping between, more on this much much later) and how much chocolate was eaten. And how people worked around the “no alcohol for sale on Good Friday” rule (the Opera House was packed for that half and hour).

But no “news” news, just gossip.

Well I suppose friends are more interesting that nameless faces, and faceless names on the screen.

take care,

Will