Mr. Cat says have a meery beery Christmas! 

Remember the subservient chicken? Here's a subservient bar girl. It's hard enough to get a drink off her though.

Oh look. Crane lifting stupidity makes no.2 on daypop. This happened a few months ago in Roundstone - a very picturesque village not too far from here. I guess we should be thankful nobody was hurt but I'm sure there were a lot of red faces around town that day.

I didn't realise they played Hurling in Turkey... I guess you learn something new every day.

In common with Brendan, I got the new Bob Dylan memoir late last week. It's a superb read indeed; surprising in the amount of detail he recounts - I suspect Dylan must have been an avid journal keeper all his life. He possess a very acute visual/verbal sense - which is also reflected in the lyrics of his best songs - his use of words, reconditioned cliches in many cases - to describe scenes and visions outside of any clear narrative.

The book is far better that I had expected. The chapter on 'Oh Mercy' alone is worth the cover price; his account of his search for new inspiration, the way he works to reveal the source of power within the songs, the realities of the recording process, the enthusiasm and reverence and taste he shows for music - it's a superb insight into the creative workings of a great artist. Plus, he comes across as an eminently likeable and sensitive individual. Who would have thought it?

Second Hand Songs - A cover songs database.

Somebody taking the piss here?

A massive gallery of David Lynch movie posters.

Online Encyclopedia NationMaster.com has a quite strange entry for Tuam.

Kerry for President, Mayo for Sam.

The big match is on Sunday. Tickets are as scarce as hens teeth. None have come my way so it looks like I'll watch the game in one of Castlebar's friendly drinkin' establishments. Up Mayo!

A tree. 

Quite entertaining. What would you do if you found someone's digital camera memory card? Post the photos on the web and write a blog around them of course...

The Rock & Roll Hall of Shame.

Into classic cameras? How about the Rolleiflex MiniDigi?

The UK National Trust has preserved a photo studio as it was 50 years ago.

Memory card survives explosion that destroys the camera - and records the moment of impact.

Can you name a guitar heroine?

I've been pretty much out of touch with what Mark E. Smith and the Fall have been doing since about 1989 so I went to their gig in the Roisin largely out of a sense of historical curiosity. But, bloody hell if it wasn't one of the very best concerts I've ever been at. Maybe they only played for little over an hour but the band had the crowd in such a frenzy from the word go that by the time they had sauntered off the stage the audience seemed too knackered to even attempt anything more than the most whimpering calls for an encore. But an encore did come, and while I was distracted by a face-off between a nutcase and a bowsie that was threatening to erupt into fullscale flailing, I could only wonder if The Fall were always this good and why had I written Mark E Smith and his merry crew off for a full decade and a half just because his songs used to give me a pain in the head. How can somebody that looks like a resident of a Salford doss house manage to summon a force that is more funk, more indie, more downright uncompromising rock n'roll than just about anything else being produced today? And while my tinnitus and I recover, here's the Fall Video Repository to amuse yourselves with (check out the videos from The Knitting Factory NY from April this year for a flavour of what was on show in Galway).

PS: Fans review the gig.

If you live near Galway, keep your eye's peeled for this chap. There's a cool $1 million reward on his head and he's already been spotted around here.

Perfect for the Irish summer: Guniness Stout Ice Cream.

German(?) flash game: Walk the drunk home.

Smarter than your average songwriter: An interview with Sufjan Stevens.

18th century English artist William Hogarth's 'The Analysis of Beauty'. Apparently, it's all to do with the serpentine line.

"A way beyond the itchcebob
and over the proofran sea
you'll find a place called Stoogeland
where very soon you'll be..."

-Track 119 of the fascinating Funhouse Sessions boxset.
Even the 30 second samples ROCK. Via the spiffing new layout Allmusic.com.

Womenfolk: The blog dedicated to women in music.

An American author's bad experiences of Galway.

Online stream of "The Golden Apples of the Sun": An Arthur Magazine compilation of the best new folk music as selected by Devendra Banhart.

Weird. The Warlords of Pez doing it for for the kids. (64k video via thumped.com)

Go on, get it off your chest: iWorkWithFools.com

Via Metafilter. Video of Sonic Youth studio performance. I got the new album last week and whilst it covers familiar ground, I think it's probably their best collection of tunes since 'Dirty'.

The Straight Dope has the answer to something we all need to know: -How large a file is a 128 kbps MP3 of John Cage's 4'33"?

Fang-Yu Lin

It was a pretty eventful weekend for me. I won't go into details but suffice to say the highlight was the Dylan concert in Pearse Stadium yesterday. The sound left a bit to be desired (especially at the back where the echo from the stands was horrendous; up front it was okay) but the gig itself was awesome. Dylan's band are one of the tightest outfits I've ever seen live. I reckon, the performance of 'Tangled up in Blue' bettered any version of that song I've heard before. And the guitar interplay during the 'Love and Theft' material, particularily during 'Summer days' was beautiful. 'Down on the Cove', 'Drifters Escape', 'The Man in Me', 'All along the Watchtower','Like a Rolling Stone'. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.

The truth about Layne.

The four word film review

The Illustrated Smiths - Illustrate Some Smiths Lyrics!

99 Rooms.

I'll make no apologies. Big Brother may be lowest denominator entertainment but this season it's shaping up to be the best series yet.

It appears that one of my favourite bloggers Plain Layne may be a work of fiction. Triggered by her latest hiatus, regular readers have trawled the net in somewhat frenzied search for evidence of deceit. Heavyweight sites Kottke.org and Metafilter are now in on the action.

Balkanisation in Ballyhaunis?

Carrot-tops arise and behold the Realm of Redheads!

THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht

oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist

and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you

can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not

raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Prtety fcuikng Amzanig

huh?

Slime mould DNA music.

A great collection of music videos.

This weekend we have the Guinness Castlebar Blues Festival. It's being going for 12 years now - which is some achievement. It's a fun little festival with more of a focus on the Guinness than on the Blues, but hey, who can argue when so much good music is free?

The wonders of the internet. I'm currently listening to an official bootleg of last nights Pixies gig in London. Incredible stuff - it's like they never went away.

Fowl play suspected in this mans death? :

Think you can park a trailer?

An excellent synopsis of 'Troy' - which is shite, in case you're wondering. For proper movie thrills may I recommend Kill Bill Vol. 2 - any single scene of which displays more imagination than Hollywood's latest overblown folly.

Design your own cereal box. Via Exclamation Mark.

Hey Kids! Learn how to fake UFO photos. Via The Presurfer.

A second installment of the World's worst album covers. Get a load of the 'Playmates'.

Kudos to Galway Mayo Institute of Technology student, Kevin Kelly for building a sophisticated Rubik's cube solver robot out of LEGO for his final year Engineering project. No doubt it was a complex and difficult task. However, one wonders if it was all original work or if he used the design published by LEGO Robotics supremo Johnathan Brown last year?

Is is a new musical genre - Alt Christian perhaps? Whatever, Sufjan Stevens' new album 'Seven Swan's is incredible; certainly one of the best things I've heard this year so far - beautiful and inspirational in equal measure. But then again I've a soft spot for left-field understated folk-rock so here's another review by a believer.

Are you up to speed with Britain's sex laws? Take this test to find out how little you know.

Gmail swap. If any of you want an invite to join up for a GMail account, let me know and I'll email you.

The Quantum Effects Devices Project. Heavy stuff.

The Infinite Cat Project. Via Incoming Signals.

Unleash the Orgasmatron.

Noise Pop Mix Tapes

I saw two great movies the other night. The Station Agent - a touching drama about solitude and friendship followed by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie which I can only describe as unmissable if you've ever loved and lost. It so good I think I go and see it again next week.

A mad looking modern monocycle.

I missed this article when it came out last month on Wired News:- How E-Voting Threatens Democracy. Topical in an Irish context given the controversial plan to introduce electronic voting nationally for the first time in the forthcoming European and Local elections on June 11th.

Disordered Affections: The Blog of one of the 'ex' writers of Judging Amy who with the rest of her colleagues has recently been fired. Via Gossiplist.

Speaking of UFO's. Here's a story about a suspected alien sighting in Boyle, Co. Roscommon recently which caused 'widespread shock and consternation' amongst the local community.

Never mind your EU ministers' meetings or your Presidental visits, Galway is hosting an international UFO conference in June. More details here.

Project Hipshot - John Brownlow's interesting experiment in street photography.

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...