An excellent post from John at North Atlantic Skyline blog on the unexpectedly painless acceptance amongst Ireland's drinking public of our bright shiny new smoking ban.

Silly season in the U.S. south? Louisiana May Ban Low-Slung Pants.

Rampant rhino gets amorous with car.

Chinese enterprise on the web: ThreeDollarDVD.

Proof once again, that with every advance in technology, somebody will figure out a way of using it for sexual gratification.

Rip It Up And Start Again. Hopefully Simon Reynold's new book will be as good as the song.

Theta States - Bedroom Music For Bedroom People: Some excellent mix discs on mp3 here.

Bloody hell... I often park my car in Roche's carpark in town and I've never seen anything like this...!!!.!

The Ph.D. Game.

Anti-Barbie Wins Hearts in Beauty Pageant - or how an ordinary Russian teenager won the online competition to represent her country at the Miss Universe peageant in Ecuador.

A journey through the dead zone; an amazing photo essay of a motorcycle journey through the environs of Chernobyl.

For the record, Alphastates' gig last night in the Cellar was v.good. Thought you would like to know. Incidentally, on the way to the Cellar, I ran into Irish football legend Paul McGrath. He was on his own and seemed a tad drunk (some would say 'twisted drunk') - shouting away at nothing in particular. Quite sad really.

Talented international troubadour and Galway resident Obo Martin's website. He's a brave man to mix it like that with the swans in the Claddagh basin.

Mick Fealty of Northern Ireland politics blog www.sluggerotoole.com has contributed an interesting article to last Sunday's Observer.

The MOOG archives.

Sicilian Blazes Put Science to the Test.

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Worm Game.

Map Your Motivations To Clarify Career Goals. This is the kind of shite I hate, but unfortunately, being a worker drone in a multinational corporation means I need 'career goals'....

CRIMSON ROOM - A bloody difficult puzzle game.

Wow your friends with Erotic Origami.

Pretty impressive chat/collaboration environment: Collab.

St Patrick's day shenanigans - Ronnie Drew with a half naked woman; of course, BP Fallon had to be involved.

I'm back from France after an eventful and stressful journey accompanying an injured friend via an alternative route which included baggage mayhem at Gatwick and Ryanair selling the two extra seats our insurance company had reserved (and paid for) to accomodate my friend's broken leg. Never again will I fly with Ryanair. They can take their 'low fares' and shove then up their anzuzes.

I'm off skiing for the week so there'll be no posting here until the 22nd at earliest....See you folks!

Surprise, surprise: Ireland tops EU alcohol consumption table.

Margot Knight's extraordinarily strange images

A flash Sonic the Hedgehog game.

An interesting left brain/right brain challenge: The Colour Test

The Smile Shop: all about Brian Wilson's lost Beach Boys masterpiece 'Smile' which is finally due for release later this year.

Remember what Feb 29 means?

This morning in Galway, we're having the first right bit of snow so far this year. As usual, the country has come to a standstill. Most of the rural schools are closed (and some of the city ones) and as of the time of writing the majority of my colleagues who live outside town still haven't turned up for work. Its amazing the disruption a couple of inches of snow can cause.

The story of the computer modem.

Wise words: Lightweight living.

Music news: Cash family blocks haemorrhoid ad.

Would you spend €3000 on a new book about Muhammad Ali? And that's only the collectors edition. The 'Champs edition' is €7,500! Check out the promo website here.

Once again, I and a few compadres attempted the annual Galway Arts festival Rock n' Pop table quiz last night. Although I felt we did quite well in general (I think we finished 9th) we were nowhere near good enough to win the thing - Next year, I think we'll need someone who's familiar with the first 15 seconds of the intro to every song that made the charts in the last year (and who knows the difference between Mary J Blige and Missy Elliott).

Surprise, surprise - not everyone likes living in Galway.

Phew. I'm just back after a weekend in Barcelona - it's a great city; busier at 11:00 pm than at 11:00 am; a place where life's priorites seem to be in balance - Joy before Art before Work. And nice weather too!

How times have changed. 28 years after Johhny Rotten outraged the British TV watching public with his use of the F-word, he manages to do the same last night with the C-word. Don't expect to see 'Curb you Enthusiasm' reruns on UK daytime terrestrial TV anytime soon then.

Congratulations to Miller on the release of not only a new album by his band 'The Ruben James' but also the impending release of a solo album. It's nice to see he has included a song, '3 a.m Galway Bay', which I assume was inspired by his time spent in Galway last year. They're good songs too - something to be proud of Mr. Miller.

More muso stuff. Here's Alan W. Pollack's notes on the complete Beatles catalogue. Via Incoming Signals

'Money, Money, Money' was my favourite song for about a week when I was 10. Little did I know I was merely being manipulated by a cliched songwriting construct; The Truck Driver's Gear Change Hall Of Shame: A muso's introduction.

From The Guardian: Six year olds rate classic guitar anthems.

Send lawyers, guns and money there's plagiarism in the Blogosphere: Tequilamockingbird was a victim.

From the BDSM university: Stern's guide to Slave Training. (Includes some material NSFW). Some weird and kinky stuff here; I mean whats the big deal about keeping the mouth open? :- "While in your presence your slave should never close the fists, the legs or the lips, in private or in the vanilla world. Teach your slave to keep her lips from touching (the mouth doesn't have to be gaping open, of course), to think about the position of her hands (in public, she may not be able to place them palms-up, but they can be relaxed and loose) and, if she has to cross her legs, to do it at the ankles rather than the knees. (This is manageable, even in a skirt. Allow your slave to practice in front of you until she can do this without drawing attention to herself.)".

New adventures in music criticism? Pitchfork's Nick Slyvester reviews the Daft Punk re-mix album with the aid of some natty drawings.

Instant msg conversation I've just had...

Mick: What d'ya make of this...
Smoke: Bloody hell. What kind of leech would fancy a meal of silicone?
Mick: The two legged variety!

From the country that gave us Rasputin, we now have Natasha - a girl with X-Ray vision.

I appears that the Gardai got a bit carried away with themselves over the excitement of having real live EU 'dignitaries' in town last week. A local activist is alledging he was seriously assaulted by Gardai after his 'arrest' on Saturday morning. If true, this is highly disturbing and coming on top of a slew of bad of bad press for the boys in blue, can only add to calls to have the force reformed. Whatever you may think of the EU or globalisation or 'fortress Europe' or the war in Iraq etc. etc. it seem to me that that the biggest threat to our society, it's freedoms and liberties lies with corruption in the very organisations tasked with protecting them.

Microsoft idiocy #30043: It appears their lawyers are suing 17 year old Mike Rowe over ownership of his domain name MikeRoweSoft.com.

A cool music blog out of LA: Burned By The Sun.

Ex Husker Du and Sugar vocalist Bob Mould's blog. You know, "Makes No Sense at All" was one of my favourite songs of the Eighties.

Are you a single guy? Well, this pretty girl is looking for a boyfriend. (N.B. Link not safe for work - but not hardcore either).

The Decline of Fashion Photography - An argument in pictures. By Karen Lehrman.

New survey reveals truth about sex and the city. Interesting. Via Dave's Picks.

Here's a very impressive page from a guy who made a resolution last year to get himself into shape and, unlike most of us, stuck with it. Good for him; this year however, I'm going to spend the €500 I spent on gym membership last year on something I might actually use.

Via Fimoculous. A photographic tour of the Replacements hometown. Which reminds me; I must get that new Paul Westerberg album.

So what exactly does civet cat taste like?

On Monday, I received as a belated but awesome Christmas gift from my dearest friend, the new Johnny Cash Box Set. If you admired the music Johnny recorded for his four American Recordings' albums then 'Unearthed' is highly recommended. It's is beautifully packaged and includes 5 CDs, 4 of which contain unreleased work from sessions recorded over the last decade. Although I have yet to fully digest this monumental work, highlights from disc 3 alone, include duets with Nick Cave and Joe Strummer on 'Cindy' and 'Redemption Songs' respectively and a great version of a (to me unfamiliar) song called 'Singer of Songs' as well as a splintering take of old standard 'Salty Dog'. This set is a brilliant epitaph for one of the true giants of rock n'roll.

If you're interested in ancient mythologies and the like, then the Internet Sacred Text Archive is well worth checking out. It features an extensive collection of Celtic myths and tales translated into English, including the beautiful and popular story of the Children of Lir.

Roots music radio show host and recording engineer, George Graham's 2003 Year end essay. If you're into the folkier end of things then check out his site - most of the album reviews are taken from his radio show and are very handily posted as real audio files.

Hmm, this may well be the first gig I go to this year: Spiritualized play Galway next week, on Wednesday 14th.

So here we are on the other side. Happy new year loyal readers...

2003 has been a strange year music wise with no real stand-out albums, a point demonstrated by the lack of any consensus across all those best of year critics polls. (Although that intriguing nu-Prince hiphop crossover album by OutKast is prominent in many of them). For what it's worth, here's my list of seven albums that really impressed me this year.

- Cat Power - 'You are Free'
- M Ward - 'The Transfiguration of Vincent'
- Radiohead - 'Hail to the Thief'
- Calexico 'Feast of Wire'
- Kings of Leon 'Youth and Young Manhood'
- Evan Dando 'Baby I'm Bored'
- My Morning Jacket - 'It Still Moves'

So, if you don't hear from me before then have a great Christmas. See you in the new year...

Here's an interesting article about controversial photographer Jock Sturges and an exhibition of his prints of Connemara schoolchildren. The photographs may have been critically acclaimed but he's not welcome back in Galway.

Neil Warner of Warner Corporate Photography has some nice aerial shots of Galway available to send as e-cards. Check them out.

Wow...there's nearly a thousand Irish phone blogs already. Who would have thunk it?

Galway news story in today's Indo: "..The people of Salthill will soon have access to cutting edge entertainment on their doorstep without the inconvenience of having to travel into the city centre....". How altruistic of them....

Bid for Tidings of Comfort and Joy on eBay...

F.Y.I. Aer Lingus sale on today with flights to and from Ireland from €1.

There's two Irish acts in the top ten of Amazon.com's best albums of 2003 as selected by their editors. Unfortunately, although competent and enjoyable, both of those albums are seriously overrated. Oh, and the Chieftains are at no. 30 too...

I picked up the two new EP's from Ryan Adams over the weekend - Love is Hell parts 1 and 2. I'm happy to say that although their quality is inconsistent, both EPs feature several songs which can stand with his best work and which are far superior to anything on his current official new proper album 'Rock N' Roll'. Interestingly one of the better songs is 'English Girls Approximately' - a splendid number featuring Marianne Faithfull on backing vocals and which from the lyrics I can only assume is addressed to Beth Orton - whom he is rumoured to have had a brief fling with while helping her out on her album 'Daybreaker'. Here's the verse which clinches it:-

Tall drink of water, she's a Norfolk waterfall
Little daybreaker, she's a shootin' like a cannonball
Crazy like a rocket when you're coming through my radio
Kept me in your bed till the wintertime turned to fall
Fall time coming, and I guess my little bird can sing
Come on Elizabeth, a come on a Bethany
Come on further, I'm tired and I want to sleep
My little dove do, and I guess she was done with me
Said you didn't love me, it was right on time, I was just about to tell you that it'll be alright
Said you didn't love me, didn't want a thing, English girls can be so mean
But ohh, look at you now
Ohh, look at you now
Mmmm, best I've ever seen
Just a tall drink of water, just a-pourin' on down the sink.

The full lyrics are here. You can listen to the song in the discography section of Ryans official site - the complete albums are being streamed.

From Canadian TV archives: "Punk Rock is a term based on contempt...". Chat show interview with Iggy Pop from 1977.

Courtesy of the BBC: The ten most embarrassing political moments. Vote for your favourite. I think the classic Bush interview will take some beating.

From a couple of weeks backs. A short piece in The Guardian on blogs by music writers.

Here's a brilliant idea. Seamless City - a 30 mile long continuous portrait of San Francisco. Via Incoming Signals

I hadn't realised there is a separatist movement currently active within Galway and Mayo. Here's their website.

John Lydon to attempt to revitalise his career by appearing in 'I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here'?. Didn't he used to have some credibility...even a teenie weenie bit?

This Guy Falls Down: 35 Rules for Bands

It could only happen in Ireland: A mystery motorist could cost a leading bookie €10,000. He is believed to have heavily backed Waterford city as the first place a driver will be disqualified for clocking up 12 penalty points - in the full knowledge that he is soon to become that driver

And I thought the Atkins' diet was severe.

I thought I had a problem. Only last Saturday did I manage to finish reading the previous week's Sunday Times one day before it was replaced by this weeks edition. But Irving Tobin has a real problem; he's a full year and five months behind in his reading! Via ThePlasticCat - good to have you back Cormac.

Arts News : Barclaycard to sponsor a premiership 'chants laureate' to compose topical football chants 'observing key moments within the season'.

Smoke Kills.

Cajun & Zydeco Music for Kids!

Just in case your're wondering - I take no responsibility for the Google ads that appear on top of this page. I mean c'mon - Bon Jovi???

The Night of the Living Feelies. A page dedicated to one of my favourite bands of the 80's.

Government announces new 'turd tax'. Proof that earnest young anarchists have a sense of humour too.

There seems to have been quite a bit of UFO activity in Northern Ireland over the last few months. Intergalactic observers of the peace process perhaps?

Guinness is good for you. Us Irish have known this for years but now it's official.

Looks like everyone is getting in on this blog thing. Here is the blog of one of London's classier 'ladies of the night'. Although it contains no photographs, do not read if you are easily offended by frank discussion of the sexual arts: - Belle de Jour.

The complete scripts of The Young Ones. Via Incoming Signals.

TIME magazine's coolest inventions of 2003 and Popular Science's 'Best of Whats New in 2003'. Via Fimoculous.

Not true......

Pat Freestone surpasses himself once again. Through unusual cirumstances he has revealed the mathematical expression that explains everything we need to know about the universe.

Oxo Tower Brasserie London - Restaurant Review and Information. Read the review which starts "When my Boyfriend....."

Just how weird is Roger McGuinn's song 'Chestnut Mare'? The chorus goes :

"I'm going to catch that horse if I can
And when I do I'll give her my brand
And we'll be friends for life, she'll be just like a wife
I'm going to catch that horse if I can"

..wtf?

If you missed the Aurora over Ireland last Wednesday night and you don't want to ever miss it again, then this is the website you need to be keeping an eye on.

Take the 80's lyrics quiz. It's tough.