COMEDY - Lo-NRG Whimsy

A fine exponent of lo-energy whimsy of David O'Doherty-esque stature is Demetri Martin. He has now gone on to star in the latest Ang Lee film and been cast opposite Brad Pitt in a movie. Not bad for a man who self proclaimed that he has hair like 'a gay beatle.'

MUSIC - Jesus, This is good...

And to help clense the pallet here is Radiohead with a cover of 'Ceremony' by Curtis, Sumner, Hook & Morris. What a pleasant surprise courtesy of the internet. See also their cover of The Smith's Headmaster's Ritual for other greatness. This one does it for me though.

VARIOUS - Jesus, this is just wrong...

Is there anyway to watch this apart from slowly... with your mouth open... blinking... hoping it's not a dream... then blinking again and questioning much you thought about life, love and everything...

VARIOUS - Jesus, this is just awful...

Bosco, entertainment for irish kids through out the ages. But dear god isn't this all sorts of bollocks on a stick. Particularly when it goes into the old clock sound effect. Fuck my felt hat.

VARIOUS - Why no Robin?

Christopher Nolan has said that his new imagining of the Batman series will never include an appearance by the boy wonder... I wonder why?

MUSIC - Everly Athens

I have the audio of this from a rare R.E.M. album 'In the Attic' a collection of the IRS years oddities but what better way to relax than Michael Stipe and Mike Mills sharing harmonies like this.

MUSIC - Tilted

Was listening to 'Beaster' by Sugar last night for the first time in ages. Such quality and another great reason to take your hat off to Bob Mould.

only do these things to freak you out
I never wanted you to doubt me
I believe you/ do I believe you
I try to block you out to hear myself
I can’t believe I’m thinking to myself
Would I leave you/ in such suspense

I let it go and go and go
But what you’re thinking through the silence
I really wish you understood
A couple of words get so much mileage

I never felt an urge to say a word
I’d rather listen to the din of
Other people closing in one me/ I lay in bed
And think of words that you should hear
I fall asleep and then they disappear
A fall from grace/ from memory

I hear a voice inside the silence
Speak your peace and all’s forgotten
I hear the static on the line
Remember how this all got started

Remember/ remember/ it’s tilted

I turn away a minute disappears
I turn away in shame when I don’t hear
What you’re thinking/ tell me what you’re thinking
You take it out on me
You’re not flaking out on me, are you
Turn it tilted/ hey wait a minute

I never wanted you to be upset
But I can see you’re trying to forget
What was said/ what was said
Don’t try to hang me up again
Don’t try to hang up on me wait up

Turn it tilted/ I need help it’s

Remember/ remember/ it’s tilted

MOVIES - How Apt

Strange how this stunning scene from 1976's Network seems as frighteningly relevent over 30 years later. It's worrying when someone who is having a nervous breakdown makes a lot of sense.

VARIOUS - That Kooky Nut

"Jeremy spoke in... class today... that crazy kid."

POETRY - Time and Space.

I found this old poem of mine, written nearly nine years ago to this day.

TIME

Time has been rendered meaningless
with the loss of my watch.
Today is a misplaced collection
of moments not connected
Or connecting to anything,
And yet I know time is passing

I pass through it.
And it passes by.

SPACE

Sometimes I feel
I'm lost in the space between us
The lack of atmosphere
near suffocates
The gravity
Drags me in wrong directions
Floating occasionally,
With stars in my eyes,
Noting how I
May never be found.
In space you can drift for days
without even noticing your movement.

P.Davidson 27/04/2000

MUSIC - A Mighty Wind

I know it's from a spoof film but damn it it's such a catchy and sweet little number. Eugene Levy is all sorts of great, so please someone save him from straight to DVD American Pie sequels. HAve mercy and listen to this and you will join my plea.

MOVIES - Best Bit Of Great Film?

Vienna, young love and Kath Bloom. Is this the best bit of 'Before Sunrise?' (my most unapologetically favourite romantic film). Maybe this or the first kiss on the reissenrad ferris wheel.

Damn you TG4 for repeating this.

POETRY - Spot of McGough

What I wouldn't give for a nine to five.

Biscuits in the right hand drawer,

tea breaks, and typists to mentally undress.

The same faces, somewhere to hang

your hat and shake your umbrella.

Cosy. Everything in its place.

Upgraded every few years. Hobbies.

Glass of beer at lunchtime

Pension to look forward to.

Two kids. Home loving wife.

Bit on the side when the occasion arises

H.P. Nothing fancy. Neat semi.

What I wouldn't give for a nine to five.

Glass of beer int he right hand drawer

H.P. on everything at lunchtime.

The same 2 kids. Somewhere to hang

your wife and shake your bit on the side.

Tea breaks and a pension to mentally undress.

The same semi faces upgraded.

Hobbies every few years, neat typists

in wet macs when the umbrella arises.

What I wouldn't give for a cosy biscuit.

ART - Realism Squared.

Richard Estes is a photo realist painter from the same sort of school as Chuck Close. Here are a collection of some of his paintings. The above scene one entitled 'auto mat' is my favourite.

LYRICS - Philophobia

You just have to be sure you're doing the right thing.
I mean it's very easy to forget - she's just sitting there in the pub with her new friends and her new life and her new hair, and it's been five years but you'd know just to look at her.

I wasn't even sure it were her at first, I was ready to walk away but she smiled and called me over and we said hello for a bit. When we back to our tables we were trying not to look over at each other and told our firneds to stop staring. I didn't see her for the rest of the night, but by closing time the beer's kicked in so I go up and speak to her and we end up talking about our new homes, our new jobs and our new birds.

She says she's been going out with him now for about two and a half years, but they don't live together so he'd never find out. And you think about chasing her about school when you were wee and lying in your bed and listening to love songs and pretending they were about you. And the first time you asked her out she said no but one night you went to a wedding and when you came back to the pub she's changed her mind and you went out. You remember the way she swung her arms when she held your hand but you can't remember how she kissed and now you've got the chance to find out.

But you have to remember there's this other kiss. She's at home, wondering where you are and what you're doing. And you work hard on this kiss and you know it inside out, it's as much yours as it is hers,And it took a long time to get right, it took months of practice and months of embarassment but now you've got it perfected and you've been looking forward to that kiss all week.

You can see her breath in the air between your faces as you stand in the leaves and she just asks you straight out if you want to come and stay at her flat. But you make sure you get separate taxis and you go home and there might be a slight regret and you might wonder what you missed but you have to remember the kiss you worked so hard on - and you'll know you've done the right thing.

MUSIC - Jamaican Adams

Rare acoustic version of Ryan Adam's Rescue Blues as taken from the Gold album. For some reason it's in Jamaica and mixed with odd tourist style shots. Visit Jamaica, home of alt country.

VARIOUS - Strangely This Film Flopped.

Picture the pitch meeting...

"Okay it's a romance, rom com, feel good... it's got Matt McConnaughey in it, all the girls love Matt, and Kate Beckinsale... who doesn't love Kate? And it's a rom com and they have their differences and will they? won't they? and what have you... and Gary Oldman plays a midget..."

GARY OLDMAN PLAYS A MIDGET!!!!

Not as horribly wrong as the Wayan's brothers Little Man but still very far on the wrong side fo right.

VARIOUS - Anthropomorphic Larfs

Oh, look! dogs dressed as men and women! look, aw, cute... ooo... cutie... cutie... cute. WAIT!?! What's that dog doing!! NO!!! Eh?

MUSIC - Greatness Plus Plus

Elbow's Grounds For Divorce was easily one of the greatest songs of last year. Then someone got in a full orchestra and choir and made it even more epic. Clever people.

COMEDY - Babelfish

This is one of those days were you start to question it all. Not even the great guide can answer it but at least it illuminates some of the finer points of it all... before we all disappear in a puff of logic.

MUSIC - Kimya Dawson's Creek

I was always strong as long as we were a team
I crawled into some body's heart who meant the world to me
love made me strong enough to be alone and set me free
but with my friends friends to the end is where I wanna be
with my friends friends to the end is where I wanna be

I don't need to
but I want to
sing with you
'cause I miss you

I don't need to
but I want to
sing with you
'cause I miss you

LITERATURE - Why Gatsby is Great.

"If it wasnt for the mist we could see your home across the bay," said Gatsby. "You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock."

"Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occured to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had seperated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, alomost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one."

MUSIC - Compilation Niceties

I often make compilations (I sometimes make compilations in order to soundtrack the making of further compilations). One of my most recent ones, the special ones i make just for me and me alone, featured this song by The New Pornographers. It was a slow burner but damn it, it's got me.

COMEDY - Adam & Sausages

Adam Buxton likes sausages.

MUSIC - Lucky Day

R.E.M. & Radiohead singing Radiohead with lead vocals by R.E.M. What is there not to like about that? Well unless you don't like either R.E.M. or Radiohead because if so then this holds nothing for you. If you like either, yippee. If you like both then "sweet momma, that's some fine chitlun!"

VARIOUS - Rock Opera Subtlety

This is the trailer for a 1980 rock opera entitled 'The Apple.' I'm not sure if I fully get the metaphor for this one... hmmm... apple... fall of man... eve... evil corporations... the music industry... No, it's beyond me. It's just too damn subtle. All I know is that I'm glad I don't live in that future scape nightmare that is 1994. It's just so darned realistically dystopian.

POETRY - New Shore Line.

Memories like liquid paste
Sleuce slowly past
Gathering thoughts
And creating tides
Waves of rememberence
Dash against the ideal.
This vivid viscous tide
Stays and stains
Marks every grain.
History gives birth
To a new shore line.
When the sun rises above it
It is still a thing of beauty.

P. Davidson 17/04/09

ART - Kool for Katz

And now the gallery... Here are some works by pop artist Alex Katz. Nice, touching and fun. In that order. No other order will be accepted.

COMEDY - Stewmando Iannuclee

As Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle honks into the parking lot to be stored away as a million shitty '2 pints of lager' mobiles scoot carelessly past on the freeway. For those who enjoyed it there was also a series of extra interviews between Armando Iannucci and Stewart Lee on that there fancy digital bbc thing. Here is one of them. Enjoy.

VARIOUS - Oddness, Badness & Weirdness

I went to an all boy catholic school. To say that my sex education was a little skewed or misguided may be seen as a bit of an understatement. After watching this clip however I realise that it could have been a lot worse...

VARIOUS - Happy Birthday Ems!!

It's my sis' birthday today so I'm posting a number of things that she likes as a wee hello and howdy and happy birthday!

MOVIES - Duelling Pianos

Last night The View on RTE (not the crappy Scottish urchin din collective)broadcast a duel between Divine Comedy & Duke Special. Quality foppery that the national broadcaster should be proud of... though it couldn't help but make me think of this.

MUSIC - Exactly How To Do Now

This song goes out to Miss Julie McColgan. Had a drunken flash back to Saturday night when I remembered her mentioning this Lil sixties oddity. The Monks. Bless ya Mrs!

VARIOUS - Gibson Lickin Good

Mel Gibson was once the mightiest man in Hollywood but has recently been reduced to s sugar tit cop calling mentalist. Well at least when he does crazy he does crazy funny good... like this!

MUSIC - Bring Back "No Disco"

Cat Power's Chan Marshall. This was the first video and first time I ever heard of her back in the days when RTE used to show No Disco and then I'd rush to the nearest music shop. Quality song, great days, lots of goodness, drink more coffee, stay in school...

ART - Albers

And now for the gallery... and a little bit of Josef Albers. Again I don't know very much about the artist but the one called "skyscrapers" caught my attention and I liked it (it's the yellow one, you know, witht he sky scrapers on it). Then i was drawn to the Rothko like one and then... well, it was all over bar the shouting.

MOVIES - Pixar Vs Dreamworks

Saw this cartoon online about the differences between Pixar and Dreamworks animations. This one just nails it perfectly on the head.

MOVIES - Sign Of Good Things To Come...

The above is a webisode from Armando Iannucci's 'In The Loop.' It's his big screen take on the excellent 'The Thick Of It.' If this clip is anything to go buy then the rest of the film is going to be all types of brilliant.

"Shut it Love Actually!!"

MUSIC - Excellent.

The excellent Camera Obscura with the excellent Eighties Fan in excellent video form that I've excellently put in my blog using my excellent skills at cut and paste.

COMEDY - Rob Scneider IS...

Finally saw this after people talking about it for ages and a day (well, people... Ciaran. Mainly Ciaran. Actually just Ciaran). It sure dang is funny though.

That's right. I said dang.

VARIOUS - Mr & Mrs

Sometimes you wonder if you're living up to your life's potential, reaching all those goals you need to reach... and then sometimes you find yourself on photoshop doing this. Then it all makes sense.

POETRY - When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

WB Yeats.

VARIOUS - A first!

The following is a first for the Internet! It's zeitgeisty! Nostalgic! A mash up of pop culture references all based on a science fiction phenomenon!

I know it's all a first but if your mind doesn't explode you may find it's actually quite decent and funny.

MUSIC - Best Monkey Sings

Well here's a little live performance from the excellent Michael Nesmith. He forged an alt country career after the monkees and wrote a number of gems ; rio, joanne and this... Different Drum. Other pop facts are that he invented mtv, his mum invented tippex, he wore a hat and he's not micky dolenz.