I went along to see Christopher Nolan's new movie 'Insomnia' at the weekend. I liked it, the photography and performances are top notch and I thought the plot was clever and suspenseful. Definitely one of the best movies of the year. However this review of the screenplay (written prior to release of the film) suggests that it's vastly inferior to the Norwegian movie on which it is based. I'd love to know if the writer still maintained his opinion after watching the finished movie.

Something to look forward to. Jeff Tweedy, Glen Kotche and Jim O'Rourke's collaborative album 'Loose Fur' is scheduled for release next January. 'Insignificance' and 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' are two of the best albums of 2002 so far, so I've high expectations for this.

Thats it from me for the week. It was a quiet day on the blog front but I'll be back on Monday full of beans.

Paul Weller is previewing his new album in the back of a taxicab. Six of them actually.

Something for The Leptard: Bob Marley Footwear. I'm not sure which pair goes with "Stir it Up" though. Spotted on Koi.

A significant number, probably a majority, of Irish citizens support the constitutional position of neutrality. A much smaller number believe that our neutrality should be extended to preclude the stop-over of unarmed military aircraft at Shannon airport and the use of our airspace by those aircraft (most of which happen to be USAF). Of that number there is an increasingly organised group of people who without fail will turn up to publicly protest at the appearance of any USAF plane in Ireland. Yesterday, one of that number, registered his protest by spray painting a peace slogan on the fuselage of a USAF Hercules transport plane which had stopped over in Shannon. The protester is the main man behind the 'Refueling Peace campaign', and he has friends and supporters here and here. For the record, I no longer support neutrality, I believe it is a national cop-out, originating during the birth of our nation as part of the process of casting off the shackles of dependency on Britain.

Angelina, you're welcome to come over to my place and hang out anytime.

Sinead O'Connor is releasing an album of covers of traditional Irish songs next month. A strange prospect indeed. The Irish Voice has an interview with her in which she explains what she's about with this project.

A few weeks ago, the BBC released a list of the 100 greatest Britons of all time as voted by viewers. Unsurprisingly, the list is skewed towards show business and sporting personalities. It also includes a predictable smattering of royals plus the most evil tyrant Britain ever produced - Oliver Cromwell (A man whose legacy of genocide and persecution of Catholics is still being proclaimed by the Rev. Ian Paisley). Interestingly, five Irishmen are listed, Bono, Bob Geldof, Ernest Shackleton, The Duke of Wellington and most surprising of all, the founder of Irish socialism, James Connnolly. Obviously, I use 'Irish' in a broad sense here - Connolly was born in Scotland to Irish parents whereas that cheeky bugger The Duke of Wellington, upon being called Irish, once made the famous retort "Being born in a stable does not make one a horse." Furthermore, Boy George could also be classified as Irish under the same criteria as Connolly, as he too is the son of Irish emigrants. There's probably a few others that I am missing (Johnny Rotten maybe?). The list is the basis of a new series to be shown on BBC this Autumn and like other 'top ten' type shows I suppose it's not very meaningful but nevertheless makes for good conversation material.

Mick Fealty is a busy guy these days. Not only is he maintaining the excellent 'Letter to Slugger O'Toole', he is also a contributor to www.dailysummit.net - the high profile, on the spot weblog from the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

There are a couple of interesting bands playing gigs in Galway over the next week or so. Scottish outfit and Reindeer Section members Idlewild are playing Cuba on the 10th followed by the Colorado preacher-rock band 16 Horsepower in the Roisin Dubh on the 12th. I'm not too familiar with the music of either band although I've heard a few tracks from 16 Horsepower before and they definitely sound like they are worth checking out. As regards Idlewild, I remember hearing some of their first album and thought that it was pretty ordinary. However it appears that they've been garnering great reviews for their new one 'The Remote Part', and making respectable sales too, so this gig could be a good chance to catch them before they get too big to play here again.

Wow! No sooner than I had posted the last entry, I find this link on Fimoculous: "Twin Towers at Ground Zero™". It might yet be theme park theme day today on SmokeSignals.

The Titanic Super Slide - apparently it's the most exciting inflatable ride in the industry in the last 15 years. What's next? An inflatable WTC in which you jump out of the windows perhaps?

Is there something in the water in Scotland that imparts the natives with the power to turn out effortless pop? Whatever it is, Gary Lightbody of The Reindeer Section must be mainlining it. I procured their latest album "Son of Evil Reindeer" - great title - last week. It's a real nice listen, pleasant, melodic, totally unabrasive but utterly charming. One of those records that'll never set the World on fire but which is flawless in it's own unassuming way. The section are a strange collective - more than 20 contributors but all seem to be more or less marching to Lightbody's tune(s) and the set-up undoubtedly works. Also, it's good to see that one of those contributors is Eugene Kelly, of the Vaselines fame. He played a really fantastic set supporting Evan Dando in the Roisin a few months ago. Talent like his shouldn't be wasted.

Rex at Fimoculous has too many good links in his last two posts to link to individually - there's a Sonic Youth concert pictorial, the new Flaming Lips video, an American names database, an amazing number experiment and news that Godspeed You Black Emperor! are soundtracking Danny Boyles forthcoming flick.

A conversation with Scott Frank - screenwriter of Minority Report and Get Shorty. Apparently the Philip K. Dick short story that was the basis for Minority Report was originally optioned by the studio as a sequel for Total Recall.

The Sun reports that Shane MacGowan wheeled himself around Killarney on a pub crawl prior to his gig there on Sunday night. Check out the article for the very cool photo of the indefatigable Shane.

Probably the highlight of the night for me was the support act "The Hook". A four piece from Sligo fronted by two brothers, both of who unusually play guitar left handed. Their set consisted mostly of their own material which was extraordinarily good - melodic guitar driven music with tight vocal harmonies (the basic blueprint for most of the best rock n'roll). I heard shades of the Byrds, Big Star, The Clash (why isn't London Calling more influential?) and maybe even Todd Rundgren in the efficient but sophisticated songs that they delivered; all of which came in under three minutes. I'd love to predict great things but who can say? On the basis of their short set they could well be the Irish 'Teenage Fanclub'. The drummer informed me that they will be playing a set in Cuba sometime in the next few weeks. I'll be there to see them.

(This should follow on from the last post - blogger refuses to allow me to post the complete lot together)

But Shane and the Popes eventually did show. Sometime around 1:00, the bouncers cleared a path through the crowd for the procession of Popes to make their way onto the stage. They were followed by a man carrying an empty wheelchair...and after several minutes of jostling and shoving as impatient punters struggled to get a good vantage point, Shane appeared being carried by three of four bouncer types. After he was carefully lowered into the wheelchair, a pint glass of a clear liquid with a lemon slice was placed in his right hand. His left hand was busy working a cigarette. The mike was maneuvered into position and the show was on.

Unfortunately I didn't keep a set list - suffice to say that he played many of the Pogues most well known material plus understandably several songs from his recent albums. The highlight for me was his rendition of "The Oul Triangle" a beautiful song which now unfortunately always brings to mind the mental picture of three owls in a tree as rendered by a comedian in the comedy club a few years back. The wheelchair bound Shane was almost totally motionless throughout the set - almost like a dying man plugged into a life support machine that consisted of The Popes, a stage and a live audience. At least five or six stone heavier than he was in 1991, he is starting to resemble Brendan Behan or even Elvis. Every now and again he would mutter something like a "thank you" but that was about it for his interaction with the crowd. I heard later that he believed he was in Kilkenny.

I should also mention that the audience was the rowdiest crowd I've ever seen at a gig. This was accentuated by the layout of the Quays; the small area in front of the stage meant that everywhere near it became a moshpit. I can't remember the last time I had as much drink spilled on me. It was a bouncers nightmare, but much fun was had by all - particularly the drunk.

In a strange resonance with my post on Friday, while I was unabashedly making speculative conversation (i.e. chatting up) a girl at that gig, I was accused of being a negative person. I think I had just commented on how sad Shane looked...but it was hard to sound positive about him - maybe I should have said that it was great to see him still knocking out the tunes after all those years of drink and drugs...he's an example to us all.

I wasn't sure what to expect at the Shane MacGowan and the Popes gig on Friday night. I had heard he had sobered up and straightened out his life over the last while and that this was being extended to his live performances. I had last seen him in 1991 and at that time he was a disaster - stumbling on stage with a bottle of whiskey, incapable of delivering any song unaided. Neither I nor anyone else there that night would have expected that he would be still alive and performing 11 years later. Since the Pogues split, I haven't really kept up with his career but it seems to me that in that time Shane has ascended to a position that few others Irish musicians have ever attained in their lifetime - to the Irish of the generation that came of age in the Eighties he is a true Icon - a personification of a particular Irish spirit, a poetic romanticism born of the building sites, and drinking dens, loneliness, bedsits, emigration and persecution; a voice connecting directly with the spirit of Behan and numerous unknown working class Irish troubadours and barroom poets. And the drink, drugs, bad teeth and slurred speech are as much part of the MacGowan package as the music....tragic songs speaking to an audience that revels in a celebration of life and identity amidst the tragic; sang by a man prepared to chase down his own tragedy.

So the gig itself. Shane was preceded by two support acts - a lively folk duo (box and guitar) worked the crowd well before being followed by a splendid young rock four piece from Sligo (more about them in another post later). After that, we had a wait of what seemed like an hour during which we exchanged stories of shambolic concert appearances by Shane over the years. It was noted that the Quays management had refused to return the ticket stubs on entry, which we surmised was motivated by the very real risk of a no-show. ....